The Books of Bokonon

There's a YouTube host I periodically watch whose beat is urban areas, CityNerd. If you're cool with someone who is as fluent in sarcasm as he is in English, you've come to the right place. It's impossible to discuss cities and transportation without involving politics, and Project 2025 certainly would do some considerable damage if implemented. This particular video is useful for understanding just how Trump's less sophisticated and even more unhinged Agenda 47 is related to specific sections of Project 2025. Bottom line: it's bad for Americans. See for yourself. Trump is very fixated on coal, a mid-20th century view of suburban living, and an even more primitive approach to handling the problem of the unhoused (Tent cities and asylums? Are you kidding?). Trump is also fixated on the usual divide-and-conquer tactic of blaming immigrants on homelessness. It's his standard playbook, and of course those who've drunk the kool-aid will never acknowledge how

Yesterday Tina Peters, the former County Clerk for Mesa County, Colorado was sentenced to nine years in prison . What did she do? She was convicted of tampering with the voting machines in her county , including giving someone with no clearance access to voting machines in her county. She bought into Trump's Big Lie and acted unlawfully, using her elected position as a platform to spread lies about electoral integrity in the process. Her actions cost her county an enormous amount of money and reputational damage. As far as she is concerned, she did nothing wrong. Maybe she really believes that. Maybe she is just defiant in the face of being caught and being held accountable. I will provide a couple videos. One is of Tina Peters addressing the judge at her sentencing hearing. If you can get through all 40 minutes, you'll realize she really is a piece of work. The second video will be the judge's ruling, which is a master class in how to deal with an unrepentant defendant who

First, A Closer Look: Colbert weighs in:

Professor Allan Lichtman and his son, Sam, did a live stream this evening, focused mostly on Jack Smith's court filing yesterday. If you have an hour, it's worth your while to listen. As he sees it, what Judge Chutkan responds will be potentially huge, especially if she orders hearings. That's a distinct possibility.  If you want a sort of big picture analysis that places all of this in context, check it out.

This is the court filing that Donald Trump did not want made public. I've only had some time to check out the coverage of Jack Smith's filing earlier today, but what I've heard and read makes clear that there is damning evidence that Donald Trump bears responsibility for the January 6th insurrection that could have resulted in a coup, reinstalling Trump by fiat in the process. The reason we are even dealing with this is that Jack Smith, in his capacity as Special Prosecutor, had to demonstrate that the charges against Donald Trump were due to his actions as a candidate running for re-election, rather than in his official capacity as President. Today's filing is especially noteworthy given last night's VP debate, in which Trump's running mate, JD Vance, refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election. Vance got to try his hand at gaslighting his audience last night ahead of a healthy reminder that Trump not only lost but that Trump tried to illegally ove