A Mayor with thin skin

KMOG: The Tea Party’s Echo Chamber

KMOG isn’t just a radio station — it’s the official megaphone of Payson’s Tea Party brigade. Whenever the Three Stooges on our town council need a little air time to spin their tales, KMOG rolls out the red carpet and cranks up the volume.

This week, Mayor Steve Otto went on the air to complain — loudly — about a cartoon of him that popped up online. Imagine that. The same man who had no issue lying about me on that very station now clutches his pearls over a silly caricature. He can dish out misinformation all day long, but the moment someone playfully sketches his royal highness? Suddenly it’s a crisis.

In our town’s game of pandering to the far-right, there’s a required dress code: cowboy hat on top, flag-themed fashion statement somewhere on the torso, and a sidearm at the ready — preferably hidden for that extra thrill of concealed patriotism. And Steve plays his part perfectly.

KMOG can keep broadcasting their outrage. The rest of us will stick to calling hypocrisy what it is.

Why can't the MAGAs spot Trump's mental illness

Trump’s Public Meltdowns Aren’t Just Embarrassing — They’re Dangerous

If you watched Trump’s recent address to military leaders, you witnessed something that should alarm every American — regardless of party. There he was, speaking to generals who had flown in from around the world. These are individuals trained in global strategy, nuclear command, and the complexities of modern warfare. What did Trump choose to lecture them about?

How to walk down a flight of stairs.
How he plans to upgrade appointment paperwork.

While the world faces real threats — Russia’s expansion, China’s rise, global terrorism — this man fixates on paper quality and stair techniques. It would be comical if it weren’t a terrifying demonstration of cognitive decay paired with absolute authority.

We’re not talking about normal aging. We are talking about a man increasingly detached from reality who openly demands power without limits. And the most disturbing part? The MAGA faithful cheer louder with each episode of unraveling sanity.

To them, Trump isn’t merely a leader — he’s become a cult figure, immune to criticism, immune to fact. They worship the tantrums, celebrate the delusions, and revel in the insults he hurls at America’s institutions. They look at behavior that, in anyone else, would trigger a medical intervention — and call it strength.

If their neighbor behaved like this, they’d call 911.
If their boss behaved like this, they’d quit.
If their dog behaved like this, they’d take it to a vet.

But when Trump does it? They kneel.

The rest of us? We must stay awake. We must keep calling out what is unfolding in plain sight: You don’t put a man who can’t manage stairs in charge of democracy. You don’t hand nuclear launch authority to someone whose mind clearly cannot be trusted.

We can no longer treat this like politics.
This is a national safety issue.

The future of a functioning America depends on recognizing a simple truth:

A leader who has lost his grip on reality cannot be allowed to hold onto power.

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Trump's Cognitive Collapse is Clear: Psychologist | The Daily Beast Podcast

Hopefully when we get back to Payson the pool bond will pass. However, the Tea Party Hoopleheads thrive on stupidity and backward thinking, so it is a toss up.  Watch this.

Top 10 Tips For Being a Conservative Christian

A rotten game by Otto and the Stooges

The Three Stooges’ Nefarious Plan

In Payson, the new ruling trio — Mayor Steve Otto and his loyal sidekicks Charlie Bell and Jim Farris — have cooked up a backroom scheme worthy of the Three Stooges title they’ve earned.

The previous Town Council, made up of responsible, forward-looking members, passed a 1% sales tax to fund long-term community improvements — a new pool, infrastructure repairs, and civic projects that would raise property values and make Payson a better place to live.

But Otto, Bell, and Farris rode into office whining about that very tax, pandering to the Tea Party crowd by railing against “big government spending.” They promised fiscal purity — and now, in true hypocritical fashion, they’re trying to hijack that same 1% tax revenue to bankroll their own pet projects.

If they were honest, they’d repeal the tax entirely — the same tax they used as a political weapon to get elected. That would mean they’d have to raise a new tax to pay for their agenda, and they don’t have the courage or integrity to do that.

As one of the few honest holdovers from the previous council pointed out, rescinding the tax would force transparency. Instead, the Stooges prefer smoke, mirrors, and political theater — while they quietly siphon funds meant to serve the people of Payson.

So the question for Payson voters is simple:
Do we let the Stooges steal the legacy of a responsible council — or do we call their bluff and demand they govern with the honesty they promised?

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Do you still support Trump

The Art of the Lie

It’s useful to know early in a conversation whether you’re talking to someone living in the Trump delusion. You can usually tell within a minute. The signs are familiar: denial of facts, hostility toward truth, and a strange loyalty to a man who treats democracy like a nuisance.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a rational person still supporting this dictator-in-waiting. Trump has managed to offend and degrade every moral, legal, and human standard this country once held dear. He insults veterans, mocks the disabled, cheats his workers, and uses religion as a marketing tool. If that’s your idea of leadership, then you and I live on different planets.

Ignorance is the virus Trump spreads—infecting reason, compassion, and civic responsibility. He thrives on resentment, manufactures enemies, and sells hate disguised as patriotism. His followers don’t see the manipulation because they’re too busy cheering the man who turned their anger into his business model.

Trump once bragged about writing The Art of the Deal, but history will record a truer title: The Art of the Lie. Every chapter is the same—deceive, distract, deny, and repeat. He turned the presidency into a scam, the truth into an inconvenience, and half the nation into customers for his con.

America can survive corruption, but not willful blindness. It’s time to inoculate ourselves against the Trump virus—with facts, courage, and a little old-fashioned decency.

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The Payson Stooges Try a Quick One

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The Payson Stooges and the Politics of Hypocrisy

In small towns across America, local politics often mirror the national stage — full of bluster, hypocrisy, and backroom maneuvering. Payson, Arizona, offers a textbook example.

The town’s self-styled reformers — Mayor Steve Otto and councilmen Charlie Bell and Jim Ferris — campaigned as champions of fiscal restraint. They rose to power by railing against a 1% sales tax increase passed by the previous council to fund essential community projects — including a long-overdue public swimming pool.

They thundered about waste, big government, and “tax tyranny.” They waved Tea Party banners and promised to roll back what they called “reckless spending.”

But now that they hold the reins of power, the tune has changed.

Instead of repealing the tax they so loudly condemned, the Three Stooges of Payson have decided to keep the 1% tax — not to build community assets, but to redirect the money toward their own pet projects. It’s the oldest political con in the book: condemn your predecessors, then pocket their work for your own agenda.

One of the town’s honest council members put it perfectly:

“If you want to use that money, repeal the tax and then pass your own — show the public who’s really raising their taxes.”

It was a clean, fair challenge — and a political trap the Stooges may find hard to escape. Do they expose themselves as hypocrites, or betray their Tea Party base?

Across America, from Washington to the smallest town hall, the same pattern repeats: politicians preaching purity until power tempts them. The lesson from Payson is clear — watch not what they say, but what they do with your money.

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