The lawsuits and prosecutions involving Donald Trump are piling up.
The ex-president — who has officially launched his 2024 presidential bid — now is indicted in two separate prosecutions, the first former White House occupant to ever be charged. In New York, he stands charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. And in Florida, the Justice Department brought 37 counts against him for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, making him the first president to face federal criminal charges.
Beyond that, Trump remains the subject of at least three major investigations relating to the election, the insurrection, and his finances.
A state prosecutor in Georgia is weighing if Trump broke laws in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. The Justice Department is also looking into the 2020 election.
Brewtown Gumshoe
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ John F. Kennedy
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
American Psycho
Friday, March 31, 2023
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Sunday, February 19, 2023
The Neverending Grift
How dare workers expect more than $7.25 per hour! Don't count on a decent retirement or health care plan from your employer either. Fix poisonous lead pipes? Gonna have to wait. Repair potholes and crumbling bridges? Not this decade. Strengthen Social Security and Medicare? Not a chance! Maybe we should phase them out.
More money for private, billionaires' sport stadiums? No problem. There's always hundreds of millions in public dollars for private playgrounds and speculation.
Milwaukee's Miller Park (now American Family Field) baseball stadium (for the Milwaukee Brewers) opened in 2001. Total cost to taxpayers was estimated over a billion dollars. Already, twenty years later, the Brewers need nearly $300 million more from taxpayers.
The same old myth is playing out in this greed and grift saga, wrapped in the contrived cloak of economic development and jobs. As the fairy tale goes, sports have a significant economic impact, spurring other developments, and creating jobs. And, as always, there's the threat of leaving. The Brewers may find a new host city if Milwaukee and Wisconsin don't fork over the cash.
Thought experiment: Can a business (sport team) claim to be infinitely successful and astoundingly economically impactful if, every twenty years or so, said entity must bribe and blackmail to be able to afford, supposedly, needed upgrades for their place of work (the sport arena)?
Or, sadly, is that just how this blackmail song-and-dance shakes out, each and every time, in city after city? [Spoiler - yes, this is how it plays out in city after city, year after year.]
The boondoggles march on.
For Further Reading:Site Selection Shenanigans
Saturday, January 7, 2023
Another American Revolution Needed
The United States has 13 of the world's top 20 billionaires.
Let's stop pretending welfare, social programs, minimum wage, retirement plans, etc. are the true American budgetary issues. Living wages, health care, and pension plans are NOT the problem.
It's the fact that we've allowed a privileged few to avoid paying their fair share whilst amassing grotesque fortunes.
It's time to start taxing these kings and queens and return the United States to a shared prosperity instead of the current plutocracy.
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Best Metal Music of 2022
Acephalix - Theothanatology
Acid Witch - Rot Among Us
Aenimus - Sacrificial
Aethereus - Leiden
Allegaeon - Damnum
Alunah - Strange Machine
Amon Amarth - The Great Heathen Army
Amorphis - Halo
An Abstract Illusion - Woe
AngelMaker - Sanctum
Animals As Leaders - Parrhesia
The Antichrist Imperium - Volume III: Satan In His Original Glory
Antropofagus - Origin
Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain
Author & Punisher - Krüller
Autophagy - Bacteriophage
Autopsy - Morbidity Triumphant
Baest - Justitia
Bastard Noise / Merzbow - Retribution By All Other Creatures
Bastions - Acres Of Love
Begrime Exemious - Rotting In The Aftermath
Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram
Bleed From Within - Shrine
Bleeding Through - Rage
Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero
Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun
Carrion Vael - Abhorrent Obsessions
Castrator - Defiled In Oblivion
Catalyst - A Different Painting For A New World
Cave In - Heavy Pendulum
Clutch - Sunrise On Slaughter Beach
Come To Grief - When The World Dies
Corpsessed - Succumb To Rot
De Profundis - The Corruption Of Virtue
Decapitated - Cancer Culture
Devil Master - Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night
Devin Townsend - Lightwork
Electric Callboy - Tekkno
Full Of Hell - Aurora Leaking From An Open Wound
Gaerea - Mirage
Ghost - Impera
Goatwhore - Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven
Hällas - Isle Of Wisdom
Hath - All That Was Promised
HEALTH - Disco 4: Part II
Horndal - Be Evil
Imperial Triumphant - Spirit Of Ecstasy
Ingested - Ashes Lie Still
Inhuman Condition - Fearsick
Jungle Rot - A Call To Arms
Lamentations - Passion Of Depression
Liturgy - As The Blood Of God Bursts The Veins Of Time
Lorna Shore - Pain Remains
Mass Worship - Portal Tombs
Massacre - Mythos
Meshuggah - Immutable
Midnight - Let There Be Witchery
Misery Index - Complete Control
Molder - Engrossed In Decay
The Monolith Deathcult - V4 - Verbittering
Nebula - Transmissions From Mothership Earth
Nekrogoblikon - The Fundamental Slimes and Humours
Oceans Of Slumber - Starlight And Ash
Origin - Chaosmos
The Otolith - Folium Limina
Primitive Man - Insurmountable
Primus - Conspiranoid
Psycroptic - Divine Council
Rammstein - Zeit
Revocation - Netherheaven
Ripped To Shreds - 劇變 (Jubian)
Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory
Savage Master - Those Who Hunt At Night
Septicflesh - Modern Primitive
Slugcrust - Ecocide
SOEN - Atlantis
Spirit Adrift - 20 Centuries Gone
Stray From The Path - Euthanasia
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
Sylvaine - Nova
Tómarúm - Ash In Realms Of Stone Icons
Tombs - Ex Oblivion
Trial - Feed The Fire
Tzompantli - Tlazcaltiliztli
Watain - The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain
Warforged - The Grove
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Midweek Reading
Thursday, October 27, 2022
How To Solve (Mostly) All Our Problems
TAX THE RICH!!!
And, by "rich", I mean millionaires. Which, for the U.S., is about 9% of the entire population. This isn't a call for increased taxation on low-income, working families, or the middle-class. It's a call to tax those that have clawed, cheated, and stolen the wealth and productivity gains of the past few decades. No, not all millionaires have clawed, cheated, and stolen. But those who have clawed, cheated and stolen, and who have bought politicians to get legislation and tax laws in their favor, need to be taxed more.
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Turn That Frown Upside Down
An overarching theme for Republicans, regarding the next election cycle, is this idea that things are an economic mess. Times are tough, everyone is struggling.
Yet, in many metrics, a reasonable, non-partisan observer would most likely conclude that times are, generally, good.
Unemployment
The current unemployment rate is under 4% (3.7% as of today for the U.S.; 3% for Wisconsin). And, despite an historically low unemployment rate, wages are rising.
Interest Rates
Historically speaking, interest rates are low. In the 1970s, rates were mid-7 percent. The 1980s saw rates rise to mid-9 percent. The 1990s started around 10 percent, and finished around 8 percent. From 2000 through the 2010s, rates fell from 8 percent to 3 percent. The 2020s have seen rates rise from high-3 percent to the current mid-5 percent.
Inflation Rate
The majority of noise in the inflation rate hangs on the energy sector. A better descriptor for this phenomenon is price-gouging. The energy sector doubled gasoline prices and laughed all the way to the bank as Republicans and their accomplices manufactured the price-gouging into a Joe Biden spending (inflation) problem. It's no coincidence that as the energy sector has gouged less (gas prices have come down), inflation has fallen.
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Friday, August 5, 2022
Little Economic Impact From Stadium Projects
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Sunday Reading
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Saturday, June 4, 2022
United States: Guns & Gun-Related Deaths
On gun violence, the United States is an outlier
Companies Keep Hiring
Monday, May 30, 2022
Corporate Profits and Inflation
Holiday Reading
Spineless, Selfish, Murderous Cowards: Republicans & The NRA
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Vote Democrat
General Election - Tuesday, November 8