Thieves in the Temple.

The last post.

I’ve given this matter a lot of thought, and I’ve decided this blog won’t publish anymore. In time, I’ll take it down in its entirety; there’s no point in having it up when I won’t be updating it anymore.

I’ve still got the fight, but now, for the first time, I’m not sure America is worth the fight. In 2004 and 2010 and 2014 and 2016 I could still believe most Americans were good, and simply had their attentions divided and diverted by unscrupulous Republicans and weak Democrats. No more. Democrats pushed the best President of my lifetime out of the race, but they actually ran a good campaign where they confronted kitchen-table issues head-on and won every argument; Republicans ran a shitshow with a whiny, traitorous asshole as their standard-bearer, and America, apparently, preferred that to having a Black woman President. There’s no way to spin this. There’s no “but look at all the people who didn’t vote,” because those folks should have had the sense to vote against the whiny, traitorous asshole. And there’s no “he didn’t get a majority,” because the whiny, traitorous asshole shouldn’t have gotten any votes. No, America has a lot more bad people than I wanted to think, and frankly, a lot more racist people than I wanted to think; I know about racist cops and racist bosses and racist diamond-mine heir billionaires better than most people, but after over 77 million Americans pushed their Original Sin in my face on Election night I still felt like I had much to learn about racism. The good news is that Trumpholes have started to answer for their evil, to the friends and family members who have ostracized them since the election, and I sincerely hope their loneliness is instructive, and that if they ever have another chance to do right at the ballot box, they think of literally anyone other than themselves for a split second even. (I also hope they learn to call their Congressfolk and communicate their will to them, but ha ha ha yeah sure.)

And yet I also must admit that, even though I think this is a damn good blog and I know people in both blue and red states who have appreciated it, obviously it hasn’t affected my country as much as I wanted it to. A big part of that’s my fault — I’d rather be catheterized than promote myself. But it’s not all my fault: thanks to social media’s mania for “engagement,” it’s very hard to get noticed unless you’re willing to be a complete asshole, which, for better and for worse, I’m not willing to be. But even I will admit, after long enough, when something’s not working, and reader, this ain’t working. So I’ll pass along action alerts and relatively short philosophical statements at Bluesky (amento), Mastodon (amento8), MeWe (@alecmento), and Friendica (amento8). You won’t find me on Facebook any more than you’ll find any of my books at Amazon, but if you want what I’ve got to offer, you’ll find it at the above locations, albeit in smaller doses.

So, in closing: good luck to you, and may God bless you.

Traitors’ Day.

Light posting will continue for the foreseeable future. But I still want to wish right-wingers a happy Traitors’ Day. As always, though, don’t celebrate too hard; I’m sure some of you have to work tomorrow.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light or nonexistent for the rest of the year, so I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season!

Where we are now.

So a man goes to the doctor and says, “doctor, recent events in American politics have left me feeling really depressed.”

The doctor says, “you should go read Thieves in the Temple; it’s a blog by this guy Alec Mento. It’s really incisive about politics, it’s funny, and he has this unlikely, irrepressible optimism about the American people no matter what happens! Go read it right now; you’ll feel better about everything!”

“But, doctor,” the man says, “I am Alec Mento.”

Light posting notice plus warning.

Hello, good peoples! Posting will be light or nonexistent this week, so be happy and safe out there. Also, read Greg Palast’s report describing how December 11 could be the new January 6. Better to know two months ahead!

UPDATE. However! A Fulton County, GA judge has ruled that Georgia’s election board must certify election results, writing that “(i)f election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so—because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud—refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced. Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen.” This ruling might throw a wrench into right-wing plans to keep state Governors from sending slates of electors to the National Archives (which would essentially throw the election to the House of Representatives, which would be bad). Of course, whiners will whine and drama hounds will drama, so I expect there’ll still be riots in swing state capitals in early December.

Light posting notice.

Thieves in the Temple will take the month of August off; we'll be back with the action alerts after Labor Day. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and thank you for all your good works!

Light posting notice.

Thieves in the Temple will not post this week; we’ll return with an “Around the Table” roundup on Sunday, July 7, and resume action alerts the following day. In the meantime, enjoy your holiday, and thank you for all your good works!

Light posting notice.

Hi all! Posting will be extremely light (if not nonexistent) for the rest of August, as I (once again) work on my next book. A real Dichotomy paradox, this project; it’s felt almost done since I put in 12-hour days on it that week in mid-April, and yet, it is still not done. Soon, perhaps. In the meantime, know that I appreciate the hard work you do for the country we all love.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light until early next week, so I wish all of you a happy and safe holiday.

Light posting notice.

Hi all! Posting will be light this week, while I work on my next book.

In the meantime, know that I appreciate all the hard work you do for the country we love.

Light posting notice of doom and death and horror and terror and probably fury also.

This'll be the last post of 2022; we'll be back in 2023 to build on our accomplishments and confront a Republican House majority that'll be nowhere near as dysfunctional as they want us to think.

In the meantime, have a safe and happy New Year. We're going to need you.

Light posting notice plus action.

Posting will be light over the next week-plus, so enjoy your holiday, and prepare yourself for the drama of a Republican House (albeit one with a rather slim majority).

For today, though, two items: the U.S. Senate may vote on H.R. 8404/S. 4556, the Respect for Marriage Act, as early as today, so you'll want to get on the horn with your Senators and tell them to vote for that bill. This bill might actually pass, and if it does, it will protect gay marriage and interracial marriage from whatever horror our Supreme Court is cooking up. I told my right-leaning Senator, who will be replaced by John Fetterman in January, not to listen to people who claim their "religious" "conscience" demands that our government prevent gay folks from marrying. If you don't want to gay-marry, I said, then just don't gay-marry. Shame that rage-filled right-wingers seem to have no idea how that works.

Also, Pennsylvania residents, take note: not long after I declared the Larry Krasner impeachment dead, the Pennsylvania state house up and impeached him, for something, I guess. Two-thirds of Pennsylvania's state Senators will have to vote to remove him from his office as Philadelphia District Attorney; Pennsylvania has 29 Republicans out of 50 state Senators, so they'd have to bully at least four Democrats into voting to remove him. Thus now's a good time to call your state Senator and tell them not to enable this right-wing sore loser drama Republicans want to inflict upon us. (Republicans rushed to impeach Mr. Krasner because, pending the results of two races in the Philly suburbs, they may have lost the Assembly.) Mr. Krasner has, frankly, enacted rather mild criminal justice reforms in his five years as DA, and any cop who says I CAN'TZ DOZ MYZ JOBZ ANYMOREZ!!!! simply because he can no longer indefinitely detain a guy for peeing against the wall of a bar at 3 AM is a whiner. And Jesus Mary and Joseph I hate whiners. I hate whiners with guns even more.

Anyway, enjoy time with family and friends this week, and thank you for all your good works.

Light posting notice.

You've noticed posting has been light the last couple of days? Not unprecedented, right? Sadly, this time it's going to stay that way for a few more days, at least, until I can resolve some computer-related issues.

In the meantime, thank you for reading, and thank you, also, for being the best citizens you can be.

Light posting notice plus bonus Manchin slam.

Posting will be light around here through the holidays, though I should note the death of the Build Back Better Act at the hands of West Virginia "moderate" "Democratic" Senator Joe Manchin.

Sen. Manchin said yesterday that he's a "no" vote on the Build Back Better Act, which in a Senate with exactly 50 Democrats means it won't pass. Naturally he adds, as he often does, that "(i)f I can't go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can't vote for it." Good! Now he can explain to the good citizens of West Virginia that he is the reason they can't get paid family medical leave, a cap on insulin prices, a cap on child care costs, higher taxes on the rich and on corporations, or an extension of the Child Tax Credit expansion that just delivered the last of the $250 and $300 monthly checks into working families' bank accounts on December 15. Of course all he'll talk about is inflation and COVID and the national debt, though all of the things I just listed would actually help battle inflation and COVID, and the Build Back Better Act would add less money to the national debt than his pet "bipartisan" "infrastructure" bill from earlier this year.

Naturally Joe Manchin couldn't stop there: he also said that the Build Back Better Act represents an attempt to "dramatically reshape our society." To which I say: that is to laugh! The Build Back Better Act is already a compromise of a compromise of a compromise of a compromise of a compromise, and I'm sure I left a few compromises out. And the fact is that all the Big Gummint spending programs I mentioned in the previous paragraph, all part of this effort to "dramatically reshape" America, actually promote freedom. Are you more free or less free when you're figuring out which bills you can pay this month and which ones you can get away with "forgetting" to pay? Are you more free or less free when you're paying one working parent's entire year's salary just for child care? Are you more free or less free when you can't afford insulin because big corporations charge whatever for it? Are you more free or less free when you can't take a day off to care for a sick child or a sick parent without losing pay or losing your job? Are you more free or less free when more of your taxpayer money goes right into the pockets of big pharma CEOs? Are you more free or less free when absurdly wealthy billionaires can just buy Congressfolk to change laws so they can make even more money without doing any more work or contributing to civilization in any conceivable way? I trust you know the answer to all of these questions, even if Joe Manchin doesn't.

Or, more likely, pretends not to. He's not stupid, and nor are any of his comrades in Congress, so I must reluctantly conclude that I was right, earlier, when I supposed that the Democrats set up this whole process to fail. So Democrats absolutely deserve to lose both Houses of Congress -- except that we don't deserve what'll happen to us if Republicans take Congress again, and anyway, why let the Democrats off easy? So we should still clog up their phone lines, and then make them pay for their greed and their venality and their folly -- preferably by making them lose their next elections to real liberals, but short of that, by making their names mud for as long as they're in office, the way Joe McCarthy's name was mud during his last term as Senator after he'd doubled down one time too many. I want people like Joe Manchin to be afraid to show their faces in public, and then I want them to lose their primaries and slink away. Because he doesn't have the power. We do. And we need to wield it until they all understand that.

Light posting notice still in effect.

Posting here will resume on Monday, as I try to crank out as much of another book as I can.

I've been following the Republicans' latest electoral drama, of course, but I have little of consequence to say about it. Congressional Republicans are a bunch of diaper-loaded brats! How much more of the elephant dung do we need to see?

Light posting notice of doom and death and horror and terror and probably fury also.

So, yeah, posting has been light and may be light for a bit yet until things shake out. At times like this I think of Bob Dylan in "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" singing "and I'll know my song well before I start singing." I expect I'll know that song at least a little better by the beginning of next week. In the meantime, deep breaths.

Light posting notice of death and doom and horror and terror and probably fury also.

So it looks like I won't post anything new until after the New Year, when we'll start (of course!) with the ever-longer list of good House-passed bills the Senate won't touch.

In the meantime, this blog does have a Facebook page (it's right here), and if I find any good memes over the next two weeks, I'll share them with you there.

We've done a lot of good work in 2019, but we've got a lot more to do in 2020, and I hope you will keep coming to this site and keep using the action alerts here to tell your Congressfolk (and state legislators, and corporate leaders, and maybe even our President) to do the right thing. Thank you for all your efforts -- even during the bleakest times, these efforts help us move forward, even if we don't see that right away.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light this week, which I suppose isn't a surprise, since it's a holiday week, but I've received fewer action alerts than normal these past few days, which, actually, is a surprise, to me, at least.

So perhaps we should take this opportunity to take a few deep breaths and gather up our strength, for though the finish line of 2019 may be in sight, 2020 is right behind it, promising an order of magnitude more drama than even the last three years -- or the last 15, or 20, or 40 -- have done.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light a bit longer, as I am thisclosereally to getting book number three to the printer.

I do have goals for the new year, though. I want 2019 to be the year we start kicking this President to the curb. The Special Counsel's report notwithstanding I don't particularly want him out of office, but I want good Americans to shun and shame him out of any serious discussion about America's traditions and America's future. I guess I really want him to become the proverbial Mayor of Deadwood, a man who aches to get in on the action only to get pushed out of the way. But I also want 2019 to be the year that America gets tired of drama. And by "drama" I don't just mean all of the right wing's manufactured outrages -- I mean a culture that can't stop showing folks acting obnoxious in public, a culture that follows celebrities around and calls it "news," a culture that winks with approval at corruption. Big dreams, I know, but America is the place for big dreams.

Light posting notice the second.

Thieves in the Temple will resume howling at venality and immorality and decadence full-time when the new year arrives. Thanks for reading!

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light around here for a few days, as I recover from an unexpected illness. In the meantime, check out the terrific blogs on my blogroll, now on the left-hand side of this page. And, as always, thanks for stopping by and doing something to make your country all it can be.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light today and tomorrow. In the meantime, I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday, and hope all of you have family and friends to share it with. We'll be back with two new posts on Friday.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light for a few days -- I hope to have a new post up on Friday, but if not Friday, then Monday. In the meantime, enjoy your holiday.

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light for a few days. Everyone have a safe and happy holiday!

Light posting notice.

Posting will be light around here for a few days. I wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Light posting notice.

I won't post again until Monday.

So Congress, no shenanigans in the meantime!

"Really? A light posting notice? I hadn't imagined!"

Not to belabor the obvious, but I won't have any new posts up until the New Year -- or until some politician does something so unconscionably stupid and evil that I won't be able to shut my yap about it, whichever comes first. These days, you never know.

There will be stuff to do at the year's outset, of course -- the FDA used the Christmas holiday to announce that it won't issue rules to stop rampant antibiotic abuse at factory farms, and the Republican House majority has already signaled that it will go after the EPA's new mercury/air toxin rules. So enjoy your break, because, as a citizen, you don't get very many of them, especially with the clowns we have in high office.

Light posting notice.

I've been rather ill these past few days -- and with so much happening, no less! -- so I haven't posted. As I recover, I expect I'll post more.

In the meantime, remember to act as if Republicans want to take the food out of your mouth, and Democrats want to help them without looking so much like they're helping them.

Light posting notice of terror and horror and doom and death and probably also fury.

We'll get back to the action alerts on Monday, January 3; until then, please patronize the excellent websites found on the left- and right-hand sides of this page, and have a happy, healthy and safe New Year.

All in one day (2010 midterm edition).

I'll get back to the action alerts tomorrow, by which time I should be done eating this giant barrel of crow about yesterday's election prediction. I clearly imposed my own moral sensibility on events yesterday -- I assumed that, since Republicans didn't deserve to win back all those seats after throwing a two-year-long tantrum, the voters wouldn't reward them. But I suppose voters had a different agenda -- punishing Democrats for not doing enough. I may question their wisdom, but I certainly don't question their impatience.

Regardless of the outcome, our task as citizens is the same -- communicate our will to our Reps and Senators until they do our will, as is their job. And I doubt our will has really changed all that much: we still want good government, and we don't want incompetent or evil government. And I maintain that this is not too much to ask.

Light posting notice et cetera.

Congress is off all this week -- please take a moment to jump for joy! -- and I have an appointment tomorrow morning, so I won't have anything new at least until Wednesday. Please patronize all the excellent links on the left- and right-hand sides of this page until then.

Light posting notice plus bonus teabagger slam.

I probably won't have another post up until Monday or Tuesday, so I thought I'd get this off my chest now:

I didn't get my way very often this past decade either, but I didn't break windows or threaten my Congressman or cut my Congressman's brother's gas line or whatever -- I just attended peaceful rallies and contacted my Congressfolk every day, and I encouraged those around me to do the same. So, right-wingers: stop acting like a bunch of whining little brats, and start being Americans again.

Everyone have a nice weekend, and please patronize all the excellent sites posted on either side of this page.

like I was saying, ah, what was I saying? Oh, that's right -- nothing.

A number of things have kept me away from my computer for the last few days, and will likely continue to do so for a few days more. I plan a New Years' Eve post of some philosophical import (though not of length), but other than that, I'll have little to say until Congress gets rolling again. So, again, please enjoy the excellent sites on the left- and right-hand sides of this page.

light posting notice destroyed by fire.

I'll be out of town for a few days, so posting should be light at least until Tuesday. Please visit the excellent sites on the left- and right-hand sides of this page in the meantime.

I should mention that H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act, passed the House yesterday. Also, I still think Bernie Sanders should have just let the Senate read out his entire bill yesterday. If the Senate produces the right bill, no one will regard the 16-plus hours spent reading it aloud as any big loss. As it is, the Senate will probably waste at least that much more time producing an ever-crappier bill that's three times as long.

the rare light posting notice that actually precedes an expected period of light posting.

Congress won't be very busy this week -- which is always a cause for celebration! -- so I don't expect to get many action alerts in the near future. Therefore posting should be light for a few days.

In the meantime, please patronize the excellent links on the left- and right-hand sides of this page.

today's version of "I got nothin'."

I've had an unusually high number of outside commitments this week, so I apologize for the light posting. I plan to post an action-alert-with-penny-rant-tacked-on-at-the-end tomorrow, but it'll go up later in the afternoon than usual.

In the meantime, please patronize any of the excellent links I have on either side of this page. All of them will enrich you.

yet another light posting notice that follows, rather than precedes, a period of light posting.

So, yeah. Congress is off this month (please take a moment to savor this boon), so I get fewer action alerts, so I post less. I'll put a few alerts up tomorrow, but in the meantime, check out this super-class act. She may well be the biggest winner out of all the idiots who've yelled nazihitleretcetera at health care townhalls. I'm so blessed to share a country with her.

the ever-popular tortured light posting notice effect.

I had a morning appointment, and deluded myself into thinking I could whip something together in the early afternoon, but, in a word, no.

Tomorrow's post may be even more ornery than usual -- even for those of you who like my brand of ornery.

light posting notice, qu'est-ce que c'est?

Because when I have nothin' to say, my lips are sealed. Say something once, why say it again?

I should be back Thursday. In the meantime, please patronize the excellent blogs on my blogroll.

almost not a new post.

I had a morning appointment, and I only have one action alert in my inbox (and it is a solid test of our devotion to the Constitution, I promise you), so I have little to say today.

Except this: I congratulate Sonya Sotomayor in becoming the first Hispanic-American ever nominated to the Supreme Court. I haven't yet read her opinions in very much detail, so I may still find her insufficiently liberal, but I do know that the "objections" I've heard so far are rubbish. Especially Greg Mankiw's (the second link). By Ford, she only had $30,000 in the bank at some points during the last four years! Yeah, that's going to resonate with a lot of people -- if I had $30,000 in the bank, I'd be halfway to Catholic sainthood. Plus, he thinks he's so much smarter than you -- his summary of his paper "The Savers/Spenders Theory of Fiscal Policy" makes me think a better title would have been "The Articulation of the Obvious Using Big Words as Weapons Against the Reader." I really hate that in a person.

the late light-posting notice.

Ah, yeah. I'm going to be away from my computer (and Philadelphia) for a few days, so please patronize the other excellent blogs on my blogroll and/or entertain yourself with the news that Newt Gingrich will consider running for President in 2012. Please remember to visit his campaign website at nochance2012.org.

another no-post post.

I've one alert in the inbox, no penny rants warm, and work later, so I won't have anything important to say today.

In the meantime, I've been meaning to share this and this, because they're damn funny. I don't know why I only seem to link to Manning Krull in the early winter months, because he's damn funny all year round.

I got nothin'.

Congress is off this week, I have no action alerts in my inbox, and the "liberal" media haven't offended me so deeply I've felt like spouting off about it, so I probably won't post again at least until Thursday. Of course, if the Executive branch tries some crap before then, I'll address it.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from calling your Congressfolk and demanding a 90% tax bracket for the top one-fifth of one percent of income earners, or an immediate end to the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, or a Constitutional amendment affirming that corporations are not people and don't deserve more rights than people.

hungry? well, have another light posting notice!

I'll be away for a couple of days, so I won't have a new post up until early next week. All the penny rants I thought to write might be spoiled by then, but then again they might not. In the meantime, thanks for visiting, and please visit the excellent links you see on the left- and right-hand sides of this page.

the ever-evolving light posting notice.

So, er, yeah, since I ain't said nothin' in a little over a week now, a light posting notice must be in effect. Please continue to patronize the excellent blogs in my blogroll in the meantime. Also, please continue to patronize the excellent blogs that are not in my blogroll. You probably know where they are.

However, I realize that my biennial public accounting of my political donations is long overdue, so here goes: I gave $100 each to Independent Presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Independent House candidate Cindy Sheehan (CA-8), and $200 to U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin (D-GA). (The latter figure should show up on some public database, but I haven't found it yet.) I didn't give to Mr. Martin because I don't like Saxby Chambliss -- I don't like Saxby Chambliss, but I believe that giving money to someone who just happens to oppose someone you don't like is, well, kinda like a hostage situation, and American citizens should never act like hostages. I gave Jim Martin money because I think he's damn terrific, and I'm damn sorry he lost.

light posting notice because it's Friday, pimps!

Ahem. I'm planning about six paragraphs this weekend, but none today. Continue to patronize the excellent blogs on my blogroll in the meantime.

light posting notice no. 87942.

This will likely be it for me for a few days, as appointments once again take up my mornings.

In the meantime, the News Dissector suggests, and I'm sure this will come as a tremendous surprise, that the worldwide financial crisis is just getting started.

another week, another light posting notice.

I'll be away until next Tuesday, so I doubt I'll post before then. So have a happy and safe Labor Day, everyone!

light posting notice v. 10.4.12.

As you've likely gathered, posting will be light around here this week. Even given that Congress doesn't reconvene for half a month, I'm receiving fewer action alerts than I normally do.

I also think John McCain will be our next President. I've been predicting Republican victory for months-if-not-years, though my analysis hasn't always been precise (I was sure Mr. Giuliani would face Mr. Edwards, for example). But the Democrats apparently have no clue that people admire candidates who appear to stand for things. That's true even if said people don't agree with said candidates, or aren't aware of all the inconsistencies of said candidates' stands. The appearance of forthrightness matters more. Yes, the "liberal" media helps some people appear more forthright than others, but as Phil Jackson said in 2001, you need to play above the referees. Easy for a guy with Shaq and Kobe on his roster to say that, you say? It should be easy for a party with Barack Obama on their roster, too, especially in a year folks are absolutely fed up with George W. Bush. But the Democrats will proclaim victory when they pick up five more Senate seats when they should have picked up ten or twelve.

technical difficulties.

My computer's hard drive appears to have crashed, so posting will be light for a while.  The miracle of "having occasional access to a computer at work" won't help much.

In the meantime, go spill a 40 for your dead homey, the 4th Amendment.