Emoluments

Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm so there'd be no suggestion of self-dealing.
Article 1, section 9:

“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.”

Article 2, Section 1:

"The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them."

Here's a list of people have been reported at some Trump property or another, which means they've put money in Trump's pockets. And since these assholes don't operate on their own dimes, it means they've put my tax dollars in Trump's pockets:

Sen. Gardner 

Sen. Inhofe 

Rep. Jordan 

Rep. Meadows 

Sen. Alexander 

Sen. Crapo 

Rep. Scalise 

Sen. Paul 

Sen. Blunt 

Rep. Duffy 

Sen. Tillis 

Sen. Cotton 

Sen. T Scott
Rep. Rodgers 

Rep. Kinzinger 

Rep. Mooney 

Rep. Barr 

Rep. Biggs 

Rep. A Scott 

Sen. Cassidy 

Rep. B Johnson 

Rep. Posey 

Rep. Byrne 

Rep. Guthrie 

Rep. Babin 

Rep. Westerman 

Rep. C Collins 

Rep. LaHood 

Rep. McKinley 

Sen. Perdue 

Rep. Lamborn 

Rep. Hunter 

Rep. Lucas 

Rep. Upton
Rep. Pence 

Rep. Walden 

Rep. Bilirakis 

Rep. Bergman 

Rep. Walorski 

Rep. Fitzpatrick 

Rep. J Smith 

Rep. Banks 

Sen. Barrasso 

Sen. Boozman 

Rep. J Carter 

Sen. Kennedy 

Sen. Thune 

Rep. Calvert 

Rep. Marchant 

Rep. Brady 

Rep. McCarthy 

Rep. Zeldin 

Rep. Smucker
Rep. Gohmert 

Rep. Walker 

Rep. Burgess 

Rep. McCaul 

Rep. M Johnson 

Rep. M Kelly 

Sen. Rounds 

Rep. Turner 

Rep. B Carter 

Rep. P King 

Rep. Allen 

Rep. Crawford 

Rep. Aderholt 

Rep. Marshall 

Rep. Williams 

Rep. Estes
Sen. Daines 

Rep. S Graves 

Rep. Palazzo 

Rep. Yoho 

Rep. T Graves 

Rep. Reed 

Rep. T Rice 

Rep. Balderson 

Rep. Timmons 

Rep. D Collins 

Rep. Holding 

Rep. Bost

Today's Today

That was a bad one.

First Step

45* crows about moving on Criminal Justice Reform - signing the First Step Act, and parading Kim and Kanye through the White House to celebrate. But then, of course, he doesn't follow thru, making sure the thing is funded.

And at this point - of course again - we have to consider the probability that the funding is being withheld on purpose. He wanted the optics. He wanted nothing but the appearance of being the guy who helps all those unfortunates and blah blah blah.

It was just an episode on the little reality TV show that he runs in his head.

My suspicion is that the Prisons-For-Profit guys got in his ear, reminding him that their campaign contributions might have to diminish if the program ends up costing them money.

And it becomes nothing but another cheap paint job.

Today's Pix

click

☟

The Blogiversary

On this date way back in 2009, the mighty blog of eVilleMike was born.

Whoopty-fuckin-do.

I'm starting this post in February, thinking I'll be able to write up a nice long reflection-y piece on how everything has evolved in these past 10 years.

Doubt it.

But maybe.

I think I'm really just hoping the world will still be in more or less one piece.

As always - hopeful while not particularly optimistic.

Because

...a Twitter spat is just one of the bullshit things we have to put up with now, here in USAmerica Inc.

VICE:

President Donald Trump sparked a Twitter beef Sunday with celebrity couple John Legend and Chrissy Teigen. Such fights are pretty normal for Trump. But Teigen’s response was perhaps a bit more profane than he’s used to: she tweeted the president was “a pussy ass bitch.”

The whole thing began on Sunday, with an MSNBC special about criminal justice reform. Legend — who has an organization that aims to end mass incarceration — was a guest. Trump apparently tuned in and felt like he didn’t get enough credit for the First Step Act he signed in December, which reduced some federal drug sentences and looked to reduce recidivism.

I don't know if it's at all worth looking into - I'm going to leave it here in the large and growing pile of shit I wish I was making up.

Today's Tweet

The trend has become so strong, Ray Charles coulda seen this one coming.

More than two dozen current and former Liberty University officials describe a culture of fear and self-dealing at the largest Christian college in the world https://t.co/3G837I2wbQ

— POLITICO (@politico) September 9, 2019

Today's GIF

Mood swings

I Am Q

Bill Maher:

"Alternative Facts"

The Daddy State will change the meaning of words to suit their immediate needs.

They denounce Historical Fact as Political Correctness, while demanding that we accept their demagoguery as truth.

WaPo:

CHARLOTTESVILLE — A Monticello tour guide was explaining how enslaved people built, planted and tended a terrace of vegetables at Thomas Jefferson’s estate earlier this summer when a woman interrupted to share her annoyance.

“Why are you talking about that?” she demanded, according to Gary Sandling, vice president of Monticello’s visitor programs and services. “You should be talking about the plants."

At Monticello, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and other plantations across the South, an effort is underway to deal more honestly with the brutal institution that the Founding Fathers relied on to build their homes and their wealth: slavery.

Four hundred years after the first enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia, some sites are also connecting that ugly past to modern-day racism and inequality.

Here's the thing - nobody owes you a customized version of history. If you need it to be scrubbed clean so it fits with your narrow viewpoint, go to Disneyland. The rest of us know enough to prefer learning about real things in real ways.
Weirdly, if you spend enough time online, you'll encounter oddball web skulkers barking about some of the weirdest shit you ever heard, swearing to its authenticity, and proclaiming it as the truth that everybody is just too blind to see - specifically citing its wacky oddball-ness as proof of its veracity.  As if the more incredible something is, the more believable it has to be.