The Life in My Years

Paging James Comer. Paging Jim Jordan. Paging Byron Donalds. Paging all of the Republicans who spent four exhausting years and boxcars full of taxpayer dollars trying to prove that Joe Biden was the infamous “capo di tutti capi” (“boss of all bosses”).

James Comer. The name should sound familiar. Comer is the Republican Congressman and chairman of the powerful Oversight Committee who took a blowtorch to taxpayer money trying, fruitlessly one might add, to prove that the president who they characterized as a drooling idiot who couldn’t remember his wife’s name, was at the same time, the scheming evil mastermind behind a mob style criminal conspiracy. In June 2024 Comer referred to Biden as “the Big Guy,” as if he was Al Capone.

Investigation after investigation after investigation ended at a dead end. It was a four years long loop of slapstick comedy as each inquiry fizzled and Comer ended up with an embarrassing metaphorical pie in his face. All that was missing after each allegation collapsed like a foundationless house was the comedic trumpet – “waa-waa-waa-waa.”

Where’s Jim Jordan? Over the course of four years you couldn’t turn on the news without seeing the obnoxious weasel faced Congressman from Ohio wearing his trademark blue shirt and urine yellow tie; red faced, indignant and blustering nonsense.

If James or Jim or Byron would care to resurface and perhaps get in the win column there’s some juicy stuff going on in the White House. The time is now, because a first year law student, and a bad one at that, could indubitably make a corruption case against the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Paging Marjorie Taylor Greene. Not here? Oh, that’s right, she’s busy Photoshopping fake gang tattoos on a photo of a guy we wrongfully sent to a gulag in El Salvador.

Paging Nancy Mace. Oh, wait, she’s too busy bullying trans people and having personal meltdowns.

Where are those Republicans? They don’t want to miss this opportunity.

Check that. They do want to miss it and they’re being brazen in their dereliction of duty.

Where’s Attorney General Pam Bondi? Oh, wait, she’s busy with her Sharpie drawing strikethroughs on entire clauses of the Constitution.

FBI Director Kash Patel? Don’t look in his office. You’ll have better luck finding him at a sports event in Vegas with the nutty Mel Gibson.

And where is the mainstream media (or any media)? Shouldn’t they be grilling all of these now co conspirators over their silence?

What are all of these Republicans purposefully ignoring? Where to start?

Donald Trump and his family have been so brazenly corrupt that they should just plant a sign on the White House lawn; PRESIDENT FOR SALE – NO OFFER REFUSED. One wouldn’t be surprised to find Melania in a house dress, cigarette dangling from her mouth, selling the White House bric-a-brac off of folding tables in front of the White House portico. But all of that would be small potatoes.

The auctioning of a president.
Three days before his second inauguration, Trump launched the $TRUMP meme coin, a for profit side business. Because a president needs to have something to occupy his time when he’s not playing golf or posting canards on Truth Social . The New York Times explains,
“A business entity linked to Mr. Trump owns a large tranche of the coins, meaning the president personally profits every time the price increases, at least on paper. Mr. Trump and his business partners also collect fees when the coins are traded, a windfall that amounted to nearly $100 million in the weeks after the coin debuted in January.”[1]

For a time, the value of the coin was uninspiring. That all changed when an announcement appeared on the coin’s website offering investors the chance to attend a private reception with Trump at an exclusive country club. All one has to do is to be one of the top 220 investors. The tackiness of the announcement befits the scheme itself.

The announcement caused the value of the coin to increase by 50%. As of May 1st, Trump had made upwards of 350 million dollars off the sale of the coin and his pay for play grift. As if the whole notion of the auction isn’t brazen enough, the $TRUMP website has posted a leaderboard to add a little more incentive to buy, buy, buy, and be among the top purchasers. [2]

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Freight Technologies
As a sidebar to Trump’s meme coin grift, a small logistics company called Freight Technologies announced that it would purchase 20 million dollars worth of the Trump coin. Javier Selgas, the CEO of Freight Technologies explained the rationale behind making a purchase that exceeds the company’s cap value by five times as, “an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced and free trade between Mexico and the U.S.” In plain English, it’s a bribe.

“It’s just another day for Donald Trump that an international freight company is paying a $20 million tribute towards the Trump family fortune after openly wishing it will lead to administration tariff relief,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.us.

Ethics experts have warned that Trump’s coins would enable foreign and domestic interests who are seeking the president’s favor to funnel him cash without leaving a public trace. Indeed, thus far, Freight Technologies appears to be the only company or individual making a large dollar purchase of Trump coins to announce it publicly. Crypto transactions are difficult to trace, which has made them a favorite for money launderers and other criminals since their invention. [3]

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“The plane! The plane!” (credit to Hervé Villechaize)
It’s called the Palace in the Sky and Donald J. Trump wants it. Let’s start with the premise that anything that has the word “palace” in its name, should not be associated with an American President. That issue was settled back in the late 18th century – or so we thought.

The Palace in the Sky, a 747-8 aircraft that is outfitted to the nines, is a little token of appreciation from the Qatari royal family to Trump. A 400 million dollar memento for Trump to remember the royals by (which is most certainly what they expect). The scheme to allow Trump to acquire this winged douceur is for the U.S. Department of Defense to acquire it and then convert it to a temporary Air Force One. At the end of Trump’s term the aircraft would be donated to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation.

Exalted leader has been trying to sell the idea that the Palace in the Sky is a great bargain that we (read: he) should jump on (and ride in) immediately. Who turns down a free 747? The answer? Smart, ethical people, that’s who.

Trump wants Americans to believe that this is a steal. And he’s correct in that, but it’s not in the way he would like the goobers to believe. Acceptance of this glaring sop would be stealing money from the American taxpayer. For it to be converted into a functional Air Force One, the plane would have to be literally dismantled, inspected for any security breaches and then reassembled. It would then have to be retrofitted to accommodate inflight fueling and it would require the installation of all of the communications, security and human sustainability equipment to make it an airborne command center. Experts say that by the time the retrofitting is done, Trump’s term will have ended (that is if he intends to leave).

In addition, the cost of making the transfer to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation is to be borne by the U.S. Air Force. Finally, as if that’s not enough, there are two Air Force One aircraft currently being built by Boeing which the government would have to accept because, one, they are under contract and secondly because Trump will be taking the Palace in the Sky with him.

Trump and his boot lickers insist that the plane will be a museum piece once Trump is out of office but this requires us to believe that Trump doesn’t meddle with the truth. We’re expected to believe that on January 21, 2029, Donald Trump won’t hop on his Palace in the Sky with his billionaire friends and conveniently forget that the aircraft is supposed to bear a warning sign saying, DISPLAY ONLY – DO NOT FLY. Well, by that time it will have become a fait accompli and what are we going to do about it? Throw him in jail? That’s been tried – albeit feebly, by Mr. Merrick Garland.

This “bargain” is like being offered a free Bentley, but oh, by the way, you’re on the hook for the engine, the drive train and the on board computers. Is this an example of Trump’s so-called deal making acumen?

Trump’s sycophantic mouthpieces are insisting that everything is above board and transparent. Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi (who in a previous life, before being a Trump toady and a perjurer before the Senate, was a lobbyist for Qatar to the tune of $115,000 per month) has given it her stamp of legal approval.

Trump has apparently coveted the Palace in the Sky since he was given a tour of the plane in February. One can envision a Qatari royal dressed as a used car salesman telling Trump, “If you’re looking for a used plane, we just happen to have a nice little number parked on the lot.”

And while Trump wants a jumbo jet from Santa Qatari, he’s telling “eleven year old baby girls” (as Trump put it) that they can have two dolls and five pencils and feel damned lucky that they’re getting that.

The two faced administration
Aside from the obvious violations of the Emoluments Clause, there’s the prickly issue that the Qatari royals have been funding Hamas and Hezbollah. There is a hypocrisy going on here that is so audacious as to be absolutely indescribable. But I’ll give it a go.

For months, “Little” Marco Rubio has been working overtime suspending student visas, while our resident fascists Stephen Miller and Tom Homan along with Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem (our twin Eva Brauns), have been ordering ICE (our American Stasi) to round up and detain students and activists who are exercising their rights of free speech and free assembly. And on what charges? For supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and endangering American foreign policy and security! Meanwhile the sitting president and his family are cutting deals with the very funders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and members of the administration are discussing battle plans on a retail app and including reporters, a spouse and various camp followers in the conversations (Signalgate) .

The Trump crime family
The value of the Palace in the Sky is just walking around money compared to the freighter loads of cash being raked in by the Trump family. In a preamble to dear leader’s Middle Eastern junket, son’s Eric and Don Jr. journeyed to the self-same Middle East on a deal making spree.

After visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Eric Trump announced a deal for a Trump Tower in Dubai. It’s a modest project; 80 stories, 1,100 feet and featuring a members only rooftop swimming pool.

On April 30, the Trump Family consummated an agreement to build a golf resort in Qatar.

The Trump Family issued a press release announcing a Trump Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea coast. Compared to the Dubai skyscraper, the Jeddah tower will be a middling 47 stories, but, according to Eric Trump, “This is going to be by far the nicest building in Jeddah and really a building that we’re incredibly proud of as a family.”

More crypto
While in Dubai, Eric Trump attended a cryptocurrency conference where it was announced that Emirati, a state-backed firm, would use a “stablecoin” developed by World Liberty Financial (the Trump Family’s private crypto venture) to fund a $2 billion business deal.

The announcement was made by Zach Witkoff, the founder of WLF. Zach Witkoff just happens to be the son of Steve Witkoff, the dear leader’s Middle East envoy, who is by trade a real estate developer with no previous experience in international relations. But who cares about diplomacy when the true end games are, well, real estate and crypto. The deal is expected to earn the Trump Family hundreds of millions of dollars.

The New York Times reported that, “Virtually every detail of Mr. Witkoff’s announcement, made during a conference panel with Mr. Trump’s second-eldest son, contained a conflict of interest. MGX’s use of the World Liberty stablecoin, USD1, brings a Trump family company into business with a venture firm backed by a foreign government. The deal creates a formal link between World Liberty and Binance — a company that has been under U.S. government oversight since 2023, when it admitted to violating federal money-laundering laws. And the splashy announcement served as an advertisement to crypto investors worldwide about the potential for forming a partnership with a company tied to President Trump, who is listed as World Liberty’s chief crypto advocate . . . But it appears that, with one deal, World Liberty now has $2 billion in deposits to invest. Those funds alone could generate tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue for the Trump family and its partners at World Liberty.” [4]

“I know nothing. I see nothing”
That was the catch phrase repeated by Sergeant Hans Schultz every time he discovered some shenanigans perpetrated by the merry POWs in the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. “I know nothing. I see nothing,” should be made a Republican boilerplate.

“I really don’t know anything about it.” That’s what the exalted leader said when asked about the crypto deal. That’s what he always says when confronted with something that might smack of being a little shady. The man who claims he knows everything and everyone suddenly goes dumb when it becomes convenient. There’s a virtual legion of questionable characters who Trump has, over the years, claimed he didn’t know, and was later proven he did know.

And if he hasn’t heard about something or doesn’t know someone, whenever he’s asked about a particularly thorny issue, this man who has made a political career of convincing the voting public that he’s the best man for every job, suddenly passes the buck. When asked whether Kilmer Abrego-Garcia should be released per the order of the Supreme Court, Trump did the old mob boss routine – talk to my lawyers.

When asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution, Trump responded, “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.”

“Not my lane.”
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, Constitution of the United States : No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

When asked about the propriety of the exalted one receiving an airplane from a royal government, Mike Johnson put his tail firmly between his legs and deferred. “. . . it’s not my lane,” he said. His answer, in its entirety was, “I’m not following all the twists and turns of the Qatar jet. I’ve certainly heard about it. My understanding is it’s not a personal gift to the president. It’s a gift to the United States, and other nations give us gifts all the time,” Johnson said. “But I’m going to leave it to the administration. They know much more about the details of that, OK? I’m just — it’s not my lane.”

The level of evasion is astounding. In one breath, he’s claiming ignorance about the inconvenient details, and in the next, Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, claims he has enough details to brush off his duty to look into the possibility of a violation of the Constitution.

Out of the loop
The issue is over the most lavish gift by a foreign government to an American President and the same Republican Party that once claimed to know, chapter and verse, every minuscule tidbit about Hunter Biden is suddenly claiming to have been off the grid.

“I’m sorry to be so out of the loop on that.” Bill Cassidy of Louisiana

“zero issue,” Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who might hold the dubious distinction of being the stupidest senator in the entire history of the Senate said, “free is good. You know, we don’t have a lot of money right now to buy things like that.”
Yeah, well if the piggy bank is empty has anyone thought about taxing the rich?

Was Majority Leader John Thune stoned when he blathered, “I don’t know enough about it yet and I don’t know that it’s — I don’t know if there’s — any offer. I’m sure if and when we have more information, we’ll sort it out.”

Maybe the most ridiculous response came from John Kennedy (who should, out of decency, change his name) from Louisiana who said, “I think we ought to follow the law, whatever that is.” “Whatever that is?” The man has a law degree and he constantly pontificates about the Constitution. Now it’s, “whatever that is.”
Kennedy should have stopped there but he insisted on raising the absurdity bar when he continued, “Well, France gave us the Statue of Liberty.”
Seriously? Did President Grover Cleveland, who accepted that gift, plant it in his backyard? Try to fly it?

Has anyone seen James?
James Comer spent four long years trying to portray the Biden family as some kind of Gotti-esque crime syndicate. And, while Hunter Biden, grief stricken, addicted and misguided crossed lines, his transgressions pale in comparison to the plunder being perpetrated by the Trump family.

For four years, James Comer and Jim Jordan were regular fixtures in the news. They were on a crusade to expose the Bidens as America’s Borgias. And now, they’re stone silent while confronted with crystal clear evidence of a degree of profiteering and corruption that is unprecedented in American history.

If Diongenes could walk the halls of the White House his lamp would most certainly flicker out and leave him stranded and hopeless, in the darkened halls of dishonesty and the poor old boy would die of despair.

[1] Trump Offers Private Dinner to Top 220 Investors in His Memecoin

[2] Get Trump Memes

[3] Company Boasts Spending Up To $20 Million On Trump Crypto Coin To Buy Influence

[4] At a Dubai Conference, Trump’s Conflicts Take Center Stage