A Brand New Crisis from 1868

In catching a rare break from the Supreme Court, we can see the blatant racism that governs the MAGA movement. When SCOTUS found that the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution was constitutional (duh), the speed with which the MAGAts moved to capitalize on the moment was eye-opening.

Almost immediately, the talking points were obvious, with multiple talking heads and inside sources postulating fantastical stories about citizenship mills and birth tourism, all designed to replace white people in this country. They must have had this stuff already locked and loaded before the decision, with versions for either outcome. Steven “the Ghoul” Miller’s fingerprints are all over this.

Late last week, there was a letter to the editor in the formerly reputable Baltimore Sun, in which the letter writer decried this new “can of worms,” just opened to destroy America. In fact, many of the blurbs put out on social media employ this raging fallacy.

What makes it a fallacy is this: If the decision lets the 14^th Amendment stand, which has been in place for over 158 years, how in the bloody hell is this opening a “can of worms” if it's already been open for longer than anyone has been alive? There is exactly nothing new being put forth, just the clearly written law of the land, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Where is the wiggle room? Where is the “interpretation?”

There is no “interpretation” without making up a bunch of far-fetched crappola drawn out of thin air.

They talk about what they think the writers intended. I say if there were any caveats, they would have been written in, but they weren’t. It just says, in plain English, if you’re born here, you’re an American. Case closed.

Remember, these are the people who cling to a literal reading of (part of) the 2^nd Amendment, insisting that the rules made to cover single-shot, hand-loaded rifles were designed to expand to include guns that fire hundreds of rounds per minute, so no further interpretation is permitted. “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed,” that’s what they repeat and contend that it covers everything. (Of course, they always ignore the “well-regulated militia” part.) They are only constitutional “originalists” when it serves their purpose. Otherwise, like when it comes to brown foreigners entering the country, they’ll twist any explicitly written statute until it says the opposite of what was intended at creation.

All of these new doomsday predictions, in the wake of the decision, were just as possible two weeks ago, yet no one was talking about them. Apparently, it just wasn’t that important. But now, when the headlines go against the Administration’s stated goals of whitening America, they want to rally support for new legislation. After picking through the dissent of the three fascist-supporting judges, I’m sure they will find an angle that would be upheld under constitutional scrutiny. That’s what these guys do, even when a Republican measure fails; they leave breadcrumbs for the next time.

And there will be a next time. Republicans don’t have anything to offer in the way of economic or environmental relief, just tax cuts and support for the rich. So they need to produce something to draw votes, and racism, sexism, and homophobia are consistent winners. And best of all, it doesn’t cost rich people anything.

“Wait,” you say, “Won’t it cost business owners by removing all the people who work cheap?”

Yes, it would, except they’re already getting replacements lined up, namely, people like us. Look at the massive cuts to state and federal jobs. Look at AI and robotics taking over jobs done by humans. Look at brick-and-mortar stores that have disappeared in favor of E-tail. Suddenly, there is a glut of people looking for work. Do you think they’re all going to train to be coders? With the prices rising like they are, people who normally wouldn’t lift a shovel will be fighting to work on road crews and farms, just to keep the lights on.

It’s a theory, anyway. And I wouldn’t put it past these bastards to see it through. After all, Project 2025 sounded pretty far-fetched at one time. Now its contents are found in the daily news.

Don't Believe the Hype

I think the state of Maryland is a shining example of how elections should be conducted. They have ample time for early voting, sufficient voting machines, and automatic mail-in ballots to all who request them. They provide ballot tracking back to the voter, to ensure confidence that one’s vote is counted.

That said, they really stepped in it this time around.

When they mailed out the ballots for the upcoming midterm primary elections, they provided the wrong party’s ballot to some voters. That necessitated a complete scrap of the mailed ballots and a remailing to all voters who chose mail-in ballots. They said there was an error on the part of the third-party vendor who physically mailed the ballots.

You can guess how that went over in the media:

Top story, front page.

Right out of the gate, the Republicans are on the warpath, declaring a fraud in process. The local conservative-shilling newspaper was right there to put up front-page headlines. Together, they’re acting like it was the Governor himself, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps, with a nefarious giggle. And they completely ignore what’s being done to correct the error.

They’ve already sent out emails and mailings (both of which I have received) with instructions to disregard the first ballot and only return the second. And if, like me, one has already turned in his ballot, instructions are to vote again with the new ballot because none of the old ones will be counted. (Inevitable Fox “News” headline: “Governor tells Marylanders to vote twice!”) The new ballots will have clear watermarked language on them, saying that these are the only ballots to be counted.

Also, keep in mind that this is a primary, so Democrats aren’t competing with Republicans. If cheating was the goal, why do it now during intra-party elections?

So, all the old ballots they receive will not be counted. If they have any sense, they’ll destroy them all. And it should be evident among the ballots received that they don’t get counted unless they have the watermark. Simple process.

I don’t see what else they can do to rectify the situation. I believe the votes will be counted fairly and accurately. I’m just pissed that they gave Republicans a lever to yank on, to claim foul when Maryland goes even Bluer than usual. And I especially dread when the Feds want the State to turn over all the ballots for review. I’m uneasy with the party known for cheating the system being handed the very material they can most easily use to cheat. The mistake may not be fatal, but it makes the job that much harder. It’s all a giant unforced error.

Or was it? Maybe there’s an operative or two within this vendor that were planted for the purpose of sowing suspicion about election integrity. It wouldn’t be that hard to arrange. There are enough Congressmen being paid off by moneyed interests, why not some putz in a mailroom? If you ask me, they should have picked some other state that doesn’t vote so predictably Blue.

So, when you inevitably see national news of the Maryland primaries being called into question, take it from a Marylander: They’re conning you. The error is being mitigated and will have no impact on the final vote tally. But they don’t want you to think about that, only the hysterical charges and hyperbole with which they describe all their opponents’ actions.

It's More Than a Naked Emperor

There’s a persistent myth being pedaled by Republican outlets that all Democrats have to run on is not being Trump. While “not being Trump” is a tremendous selling point to people whose EEGs show activity, it’s hardly the only nail in the toolbox. Last weekend, this editorial cartoon appeared in recently turned Republican mouthpiece, the Baltimore Sun:

Clearly, they’re seeking to persuade low-information chumps that the Dems have no substance other than hating their leader, which is truly ironic, given the ethos that currently holds Republicans together. Seriously, you’d really have to have your head in the sand to not see the legitimate concerns that Democrats can use to wrest power from the craven minions of the rich. Or watch Fox “News.”

Merely getting rid of the current president does little to fix what his team has done to the country. Republicans need to be voted out en masse. If they weren’t directly in on it, they were still sucking up to the perpetrators and allowing such gross negligence to prosper.

Democrats have an entire playbook to run on, and that’s Project 2025. None of it is contingent solely on the current occupant of the White House. It was written by Republicans and designed to be used by any Republicans in office. Last election, Republicans, to a man, denied having anything to do with this playbook, yet once they swept into power, they began enacting its directives immediately.

If I were a presidential (or congressional) candidate, that would become my Bible. I’d read from it on the campaign trail and highlight the damages done by the current Administration following its instructions. And none of it has to do with Trump. It’s all about consolidating power among rich Republicans and changing enough laws to ensure they stay in power.

It’s all right there…

·         Bouncing immigrants out of the country,

·         Declaring their political opponents to be “terrorists,” to facilitate rounding them up at a later date,

·         Setting up ICE as a personal military organization, loyal only to the Administration, to get around Posse Comitatus as a tool to intimidate and neutralize political opponents,

·         Buying and allowing the consolidation of national media to present a Conservative-friendly viewpoint

·         Altering census methodology to undercount city residents and foreigners,

·         Making it harder for lower and middle class citizens to vote, gerrymandering Red States to make a changing of the guard damn-near impossible,

·         Making women jump through hoops that few men do, eliminating reproductive rights to keep women under the thumb of paternalism,

·         Railing against “DEI” to cover removing people of color from the military and government, and removing initiatives that helped them get there,

·         Packing the courts, Supreme and otherwise, with their own Federalist Society shills by any means necessary,

·         Abandoning renewable energy options and relying solely on the fossil fuel industry for power, which goes hand in hand with general climate-change denial, and much more.

Any of these items could be a marquee part of a political campaign. Yet the Baltimore Sun (and apparently the Chicago Tribune, from whence the cartoon originated) wants everyone to think that all Liberals want to do is persecute some poor half-senile public servant. No such luck. The Dems need to run the races of their lives to overturn this headlong rush into an American Dystopia, where the rich live like kings, and the rest of us rob, cheat, and kill each other just to get by. That will only happen by putting a spotlight on what is happening right now and how it’s affecting average Americans.

Republicans don’t have many legitimate positions that help the working class, so they have to create boogiemen to scare the votes out of them.

All we can do is cling to the truth and call out the BS when we see it. Eventually, more people will realize that the Emperor and his minions have been streaking this whole time.

But note that we can’t count on the national media to help… It’s all they can do to get a paper printed without typos or incorrect grammar-induced misconceptions. Like this headline from this morning:

What they’re telling me is a great relief! Looks like even after I’m dead and gone, it’s not too late to choose what happens to my carcass. I wonder if I still have to fill out forms, or if I just float off to the nearest psychic?

Jokes about the headline aside, the article presents an interesting option that I’d never heard of before.

Talk about "soiling oneself..." I can see the appeal of literally returning to the earth after passing, but then using the soil as fertilizer to grow your own stuff? I don’t know about that.  I’d have to think long and hard about eating the fruits of my labor that had been literally nourished by a departed loved one.

I can just see the eventual harvest…

“Hey, that tomato looks like Grandpa!”

I wouldn’t even want to consider growing an ear of corn…

Déjà Vu

Here we are again, days after another “attempt” on the president’s life. At least that’s what’s being uncritically reported in the mass media. Now, before we get to this weekend’s event at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, let me state this clearly.

The Butler “shooting” was staged. I believe that down to my toes. While there is no smoking gun, there is strong circumstantial evidence. And I bet there would BE a smoking gun if there had been a proper investigation. This one seems to have stopped with, “The shooter is dead.” Here is some of the most compelling evidence:

You could also add that the blood pattern didn’t match the promoted scenario. There would have been blood flowing back from the presidential ear (which would have a piece missing, given the weapon used), not coming from the mouth, where a blood capsule was likely popped. The president used to attend and participate in professional wrestling events, remember?

And to add to the item about the guided photo op and moving the flag into the background, given the general incompetence of this Administration, I find it impossible to believe that those things happened on the fly, as opposed to being mapped out from the onset. There were way too many moving parts for that to have happened so quickly in the middle of an active-shooter emergency, without advanced planning. These guys can’t even clear a small area in a park for the president to hold up a bible without stepping on their own dicks.

Perhaps, one day, when there is new leadership at the Justice Department, a proper investigation will be done, and we will learn that this thing was 100%:

So, with the Butler event already in the books, you’d wouldn’t think they’d tempt fate and try again, but here we are. It could be that they used the first incident as a learning opportunity for the second. This time, they used a guy whose social media indicated that he was no fan of the president, so they could more easily blame Democrats. OK, the guy was an Independent, but it’s the same difference to MAGA. Either you’re with them, or you’re the enemy.

They also made sure to shoot someone wearing a bulletproof vest, to avert murder charges once the charade eventually unravels (with the next Administration).

There were several “tells” that indicate this was another staged incident.

·         The Vice President was cleared out first.

·         The president and his entourage remained close by the site. The protocol would be to move them to the White House or other fortified location.

·         The President and his minions maintained a happy and jovial demeanor following the attack, as if it were nothing but a waiter dropping a tray of dishes.

·         Security was laughably lax, considering what’s going on in the world. Hotel or not, that place should have been buttoned down, and all guests checked out. An organization like the Secret Service routinely closes down whole blocks if the president is passing through. There’s no way some schmo gets through with knives and disassembled rifles by accident.

·         The president spoke from prepared and polished notes within an hour of the shooting and followed the notes without going off the cuff, as he customarily does. Presidential remarks don’t just tumble out in acceptable form in minutes. There’s no way these notes were made without advance warning.

·         Within minutes, all the MAGA players were tweeting the same talking point, that this proved the need for TFG’s new ballroom.

All of these people on the MAGA grapevine had this item in the chamber, ready to go.

So, maybe all this was just the Administration “falling up a hill” again and landing on their feet. But there’s never been any official incident, activity, or effort that indicates these people should be given the benefit of the doubt. Just about every worst-case scenario proposed by us liberal alarmists has come to pass, or is on the brink of doing so. They, more than anyone, need to offer proof. The “word” of this administration is not sufficient to convince me that gravity is real, let alone that this doofus has survived three actual assassination attempts.

The thing I’d really like to know is where they would get the faux-assailants? Is there some kind of personals ad section in the back of Soldier of Fortune where one can hook up with some clown who wants to be famous and doesn’t mind getting shot in the process?

I bet the Russians would be a big help in staging ruses like these. They know how to play the long game. They’d provide advice on how to keep an asset in place for years, building up their backstory, before finally initiating the big plan.

Sadly, we will never know, because this Justice Department is uninterested in anything but filing charges against the president’s perceived enemies. It’ll take a change of regime before we learn anything of use. Just like they will never EVER use the Epstein files to prosecute anyone associated with Republican politics, we will never get to the truth behind these so-called attacks until those in charge now are gone.

Again, I don’t have any smoking guns; this is just one dude’s opinion. I’m just sayin’ what I’m seein’.

Update:

Paying Them to Mislead Us

I just got my bill for my daily newspaper, and it seems they removed the discount for which I bargained with them last fall. They did say that it was a six-month deal, but I was hoping they’d forget. They charge $215 a month now for home delivery, which I find to be insane. When I started with the paper, it was about $35. I’ve got to call into the circulation department tomorrow and get my “haggle” on.

I swear, if it wasn’t for the comics and puzzles, I’d chuck it all. I get my significant news online, so I don’t really need that. The paper does keep me up on what’s going on locally, though, and lets me keep track on how the rich are attacking city and state government (both of which are run by the Dems). And due to a press time of around 6-7 PM, most important stories are a day late. Forget about sports game coverage, it’s always from two days prior. Their hockey coverage is abysmal. Last week, they used the previous day’s game results grid, so even two days later, there was still no information.

The problems started when the paper, the Baltimore Sun, was bought by the owner of the conservative news outlet, Sinclair Broadcasting. Now, instead of a reliable stable of in-house reporters, most news articles are farmed out to Sinclair national desks, and often run transcripts of what their Fox “News” affiliates ran on-air.

The old paper definitely had a liberal leaning, reflecting the prevailing views of Marylanders, but they kept it to the Op-Ed pages. The current version splashes its bias across every page, and it is especially obvious if you know how to spot it. Here’s one from last Friday:

With all the ways TFG, his family, and minions have been skimming money from the Federal till, they’re still carrying on about Hunter freakin’ Biden. They rarely even mention all the ways the president is raking in illegal dollars from overseas governments and influencers, let alone outright theft from other countries.

Also note that it comes down to “the whistleblowers say they’ve been vindicated.” Right. Trump said he was vindicated by the Mueller Report, too, remember? (Obviously, TFG doesn’t really remember it that way or he’d have provided a more gracious condolence than he did.) Nowhere else in the article does it say that anyone in authority has “vindicated” anyone. This is a nothing-burger article, meant to reflect negative attention onto Democrats at a time when the president is swimming in bad news and controversy.

They’ve been working hard at that, as evidenced by this article:

My take is that they got some bad polling news, showing that people were unhappy with Republicans on the war, the Epstein Files, the price of gas and groceries, the tanking stock market, etc. But the Sinclair National Desk couldn’t just run the story; they had to drag the Dems along, too. So the article is more about the classic “Dems in disarray” story than about how people are souring on Republicans. And notice how at the end, they talk about “threats against lawmakers and their families,” but they don’t mention where 99% of those threats come from.

Here’s another assassination by headline regarding the funding of the DHS:

They make it plain that those Commie Democrats are holding up funding for the DHS, but never mention that they’ve introduced seven (as of now) bills to pay the TSA agents and all department workers except for ICE, which they will pay if they agree to obey the same laws that local police do. Republicans voted no and killed the bill every time. They’d rather continue the illegal war on brown people than pay workers whose job actions are perfectly above board and not in question, essentially holding them hostage until ICE gets to keep free rein to kidnap anyone with an accent and send them off to detention camps unknown. Also note that female minors in custody are coming up pregnant, which they were not before entering custody. Perhaps this is another reason Republicans are fighting birthright citizenship.

None of that is in the article, just the skewed look at Dems holding up the works and Republicans excoriating them for it, taken from interviews that ran on Hannity.

Adding to their penchant for guiding readers to conclusions while omitting essential facts, we have this one from last month:

Yes, those stupid, socialist, Democrat, commie, liberals want ID from people just to shovel snow! Haw haw haw, they’re so dum!

But one simple line nullifies the whole perception.

The snow shoveling was a paying job with the city. Therefore, if people want to be paid, they must provide documentation! Do you remember all the documentation Republicans insist we provide to prospective employers, to show we’re not illegal aliens? That’s what they’re ridiculing. In actuality, the whole snow shoveling thing worked like a charm. The sidewalks and streets were cleared in a day, and people got paid for doing it. Running an article like this goes against every journalistic principle. It does, though, fit right in with being a shill.

And speaking of unforgivable newspaper sins, wouldn’t you think the paper might have kept an editor or two? JFC, how incompetent does one have to be to include a typo in a headline? Doesn’t anyone over there read?

Lastly, and this has nothing to do with the fast-fading newspaper industry, have you seen the design for the new 250-Year Anniversary coin, bearing the stern visage of our malevolent president?

Anyone alive and going to the movies in the early 80s remembers this famous pose. I think somebody owes Steve McCroskey a percentage.

Looks like he picked the wrong week to quit smokin’.

 

The SAVE Act is a Threat to Democracy

Thankfully, word is that the heinous, disenfranchising, election-rigging SAVE Act is unlikely to pass the Senate. Not for lack of trying, though. Not only has TFG been furiously jumping up and down on levers of power, trying to move Congress to nuke the filibuster to get this thing passed, but the PR game has been ramped up. I’ve seen several memes hitting Facebook via my conservative friends and their Conservative Media Bubble talking points, claiming that A) it’s just a voter ID, and B) it’s no big deal to obtain the required documents. Funny how it’s always “no big deal” for someone ELSE to jump through hoops.

Naturally, they omit the vast problems with this bill, like the time and cost involved in the not-so-simple task of tracking down and obtaining long-lost documents or replacing ones that are no longer acceptable.

The part about how a married woman’s birth certificate is no longer acceptable is particularly insidious. That’s a huge swath of Americans who immediately become disenfranchised for doing absolutely nothing wrong, other than taking their husband’s name (which is something Republicans tend to want women to do).

Consider how the GOP created this standard, on purpose. Why do you think that is? Tell me how it can be anything but the continued devaluation of women because of their perceived bias toward voting Democratic. (Which is a self-created problem due to their pursuit of limiting reproductive rights. Maybe if they weren’t trying to limit women to being incubators, they might have a better image in their eyes.)

So it’s not like it’s an oversight or something. In fact, they’ve had more than enough opportunities to remove that onerous requirement, but they’ve actively resisted doing so.

No, this is how they want it. They want fewer women to vote.

They could also create a Voter ID plan that would garner public support if they created a simple means of obtaining a valid document. But they won’t do that either.

They’re even willing to disenfranchise their own base. Look at how the SAVE Act affects red states:

Their stated basis for all of these new requirements is supposed to be about preventing voter fraud. That’s what they keep returning to in every argument: tall tales about illegal aliens affecting elections. This is the hollowest argument of all. There is no individual voter fraud in any statistically relevant case.

The only voter fraud found has been at the institutional level: doctoring voting machines, “losing” or pre-filling ballots, and providing incorrect details on where and when to vote. And this is in addition to the “soft” voter-prevention techniques of limiting early voting, voting by mail or drop-off, closing voting precincts, limiting hours, and threatening to have ICE teams monitoring urban voting locations. On the latter point, they’ll SAY that ICE is only looking for undocumented immigrants, but we have already seen through that. They’re rounding up anyone who fits the visual or linguistic description. If I were a legal immigrant, I wouldn’t go anywhere near a voting booth, because I wouldn’t want to risk my freedom. And that’s exactly what they want.

And ALL of these voter suppression actions were taken by Republicans. NONE of these things would be prevented by individual voter ID requirements.

Despite there being practically zero voter fraud, Republicans are insisting that a significant portion of our population wade through months of red tape to acquire new documents, counting on the fact that many won’t have the time or inclination.

This is what a political party does when they know their message is not landing. And this group has entrenched itself in positions of power, with no intentions of ever giving them up. Because they know that if they do, many of them are going to jail, from the standard minions to the top of the org chart.

There’s literally nothing they won’t do to prevent that from happening. Just look around.

Source

Truth is Another Casualty of War

This may be the first war in my lifetime where we can’t find out what’s happening on the evening TV news. This administration has a throttle on war news and will never release information that doesn’t glorify their mission.

Recall in previous wars, bombings, or raids, there was plenty of film being shown on TV: missiles hitting their marks, airfields blown up, mobile anti-missile guns wiped out, etc. We all remember that famous footage from the Iraq War of one of our missiles going through the window of some fortified bunker. It was an impressive display of American war skills. We’re getting a little of that, but not much. And we’re certainly not seeing what Iran is doing in their own defense.

Remember a few months back when the Defense Department made all journalists who covered the “war” beat swear an oath that they’d only report what the Pentagon gave them? Remember how the honest journalists quit and were replaced with friendly flaks who were only too eager to push propaganda? Well, that’s why we’re not going to get an honest take on Iran War activity.

Also note that recent events have created a whole new web of Administration-friendly national news outlets. Besides Fox “News” (and the minor cloned conservative outlets), CBS has succumbed to MAGA fever, and now CNN is heading there as well (after CBS/Paramount’s successful bid to take over the Warner Brothers universe). Add the Sinclair chain of stations, and you have a massive broadcasting voice that is willing to repeat whatever the Administration wants. And they’re certainly not going to air anything that runs counter to the claims of excellence and victory.

I’ve been seeing some alternate viewpoints on Facebook, but I don’t really trust them. There was a time when I could rely almost 100% that the liberal assertions were true, but that’s becoming increasingly unreliable.

This is the most truthful thing I’ve ever seen from a Republican.

I’ve read several outrageous claims I initially believed (because they were completely in character with other known MAGA outrages) that turned out later to be false. Either Liberals are now participating on Conservatives’ reality-distorting playing field, or the Russians/Iranians/Chinese are trying to make it look that way. Then, people don’t know what to believe, which is right where they want us.

One claim was that there was an order that went out from military commanders to all their soldiers that they were to think of the Iran attack as a holy war to bring about Armageddon. That tracks with the new Whisky Pete’s new Christian Nationalist military, but Snopes later debunked it as unproven.

But the main issue here is with the other claim I saw, that Iran has completely blown up at least 30 of our air bases in the Middle East; blown up as in completely wiped out. Billions of dollars blown to dust and operational surveillance up in smoke. Many details added depth and realism to the claim.

My take is that there have been some bombs or drones that have landed (see: our seven known casualties to date), even some key radar installations included, but we’re still operational.

But I totally believe that if such a thing DID happen, we’d have to find out from foreign news sources who are not beholden to the US government. Word would eventually leak out as the bodies came home (or disappeared en masse), but it would take a while. In the meantime, just like these guys want, I’m sitting here not knowing what to believe.

The problem is that in some of these FB newsgroups, anyone can post, which means the quality and veracity of the message varies. Usually, a commenter will call the hinky stuff into question, but, of course, you have to look. I hope these groups will begin to police themselves. I think anyone who posts misinformation should have their posting rights removed or just dropped from the group. The one advantage we’ve enjoyed for so many years is that the points put across by Dems and Liberals have generally been factually correct (compared to those of Republicans and Conservatives, the expert purveyors of logical fallacies, especially in TFG’s era). If we lose that edge, we fall even further behind in the fight for hearts and minds in the coming elections, which will be tough enough to win. And it will be even tougher to have that win count for anything, with a giant orange thumb on the scale. 

Fargin' ICEholes

Well, they did it. No one’s talking about the Epstein files anymore. In addition to the invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, the administration has engineered a civilian killing at the hands of ICE and threatened Greenland with an armed invasion. He is literally producing more criminal outrages than we can deal with at a given time.

The execution of Renee Good was especially chilling. This wasn’t someone who was throwing Molotov cocktails or waving signs; she was dropping off her child at school. The worst you can say about her is that she stopped to give her two cents to the ICE Brigade and momentarily blocked the road. One bull clawed at her door, then told her to move along. Meanwhile, after she offered pleasantries, the other one yelled to stop, put himself in front of her car, then executed her in “self-defense,” once he took a step to the right to get out of her way, like he was doing the Time Warp. You can clearly see the front wheels turning away from him as she tried to leave the scene.

Almost immediately, ICE Barbie Noem declared the victim was a terrorist/paid protester trying to run her guy down, despite video evidence aired almost immediately that offered proof to the contrary. These were charges that would take time to establish, but they levied them before the body even went cold.

That’s how we know the fix was in. They had that story locked and loaded for when this incident occurred. I suspect there may have been a direct order to create such a shooting, all the better to sow fear and demand public compliance. I wonder if anyone is investigating such communications, either directly to the executioner, Jonathan Ross, or to his superiors for relaying down to the boots on the ground. Someone get ahold of that editor for The Atlantic. Knowing these Bozos, he was probably on the thread too.

Here’s another reason this shooting could have been premeditated:

This guy knew he was going to shoot. He put himself in front of the car he knew was fleeing, to secure the “personal danger” excuse, put the phone in his left hand, to grab his gun with his shootin’ hand, and shot an American citizen in the face, while recording the whole scene. I mean, what’s the point of killing some uppity liberal if you can’t show the action to the boys back at the base?

As commanded, Republican Congress people, assorted political hacks, Fox “News,” and MAGA idiots publicly backed the shooting. They’re always fine with shootings, as long as it’s not one of theirs getting shot. They demanded reverence and half-staff flags for Charlie Kirk. They made dyke jokes about Renee Good.

And as is their MO, the Republicans are asking people to believe what they’re telling them, rather than their own eyes. They claim she was trying to kill the ICE men, that she was a terrorist, and that she was a paid protester. None of that was remotely true. But the main point is that even if all of that were true, none of those charges carry the death penalty, let alone the Getting Shot in the Face in Front of Your Neighbors, For Trying to Go Home penalty.

I hope there are repercussions from this, I really do. I doubt it, but I hope it. Already, they’ve announced they’re sending more ICE holes to Minnesota. They want more confrontations, not less. All the better to drive home the point that they’re in charge and resistance is futile.

The only hope for justice for Ms. Good will have to be from state charges. The fix is already in as far as the Justice Department goes. His innocence is already signed, sealed, and delivered at the federal level. That’s where they truly have us in a vise. To whom can we complain to seek justice? All the apparatuses of justice are rigged in their favor, with loyalists at every key position, all the way up to the rigged Supreme Court.

I was going to mention the Greenland fiasco-in-the-making, but I figure it will be the top story next week after the invasion, so I might as well wait until then.

Oil Be There

Some shitstorm they stirred up last weekend, huh? He actually had to go and invade another country, kidnap their president and his wife, and bring them back here for trial. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Maduro, there are so many things that don’t pass the smell test for a nation with integrity. Nothing makes sense in any benign way; only in the most corrupt readings.

AG Bondi says she’s charging them with breaking arms laws. American arms laws. Jesus H Christ, since when do American laws apply to citizens of other countries, who are located in other countries? So can the Philippine government kidnap US citizens and cane them for spitting gum on the sidewalk or spraying graffiti? National laws start and stop at their own borders. WTF is wrong with these idiots?

TFG justifies the invasion by saying, “They took our oil.”  How in the actual fuck is oil buried deep under Venezuela the property of the United States? How totally presumptuous. And I know there were oil deals made and broken, but they’ve already been long resolved:

This thing is 50% about stealing oil for the big fossil fuel industry donors to Republicans, and 50% about distracting from the Epstein file mess, for which the explanation for excessive redactions was due yesterday. We are literally living through the great movie Wag the Dog; war as distraction from problems at home.

TFG says we’re “going to run Venezuela,” and Little Marco had this to say in defense of the indefensible:

The US creates “court orders,” so the US has grounds to topple a foreign government. It’s basically the Fox “News” practice of bringing up various charges lobbed at Democrats and then later broadcasting: “Many people are talking about these charges about Democratic Democrat politicians…” And again, since when does a US court order have any sway in another country?

I wonder why they took the wife, though. As leverage to make him do what they want? Or maybe she has too many Venezuelan parking tickets, or owns an exotic animal that’s illegal in Alabama. Or maybe they just don’t want Maduro to get lonely.

Deep down, there is no rational rationale; there are only piles of shit to throw at the wall to see what sticks. Ultimately, they don’t care if they can’t defend these actions because the system is set up to allow them to do as they please. Thank you, Supreme Court, for creating an 800-pound monster with a Sultan’s desires and a toddler’s impulse control.

The BS about defending the nation against drugs rings hollow when he just pardoned another South American president/drug lord who had been convicted here. It’s key to remember that Republicans don’t have many core beliefs; they believe strongly in whatever they need at that moment, and are ready to do a full 180 should that need disappear. State’s rights, bodily autonomy, it’s all negotiable depending on what they want to do today.

Republicans are lining up to support whatever he does, because I’m sure they realize that if he can disappear a foreign president, he can do the same to a US Congressman. Or worse, he might call them mean names.

When I heard the news on Saturday morning, the first thing I thought was that if this is the new normal, maybe we could work out a little quid pro quo with another country like Canada or Denmark. But by midday, that notion was all over the place. Thus is the drawback of doing a weekly blog.

There’s been more talk that this was prearranged with Russia years ago, where we would allow them to take Ukraine, and they would allow us to take Venezuela. I believe it, because TFG doesn’t do anything on the international stage that doesn’t benefit Putin. I’m sure they’re in lockstep on this.

So, here we are, in another foreign war brought on by oil. Republicans kill any movement on increasing development or renewable energy sources, so the money continues to flow to oil companies/donors. And now, they’re replenishing the fossil fuel troughs with more oil, to keep those big donations coming. Palatial ballrooms don’t build themselves, you know.

There's nothing like starting a new year with a giant kick in the face.

Always Question the Source

As we sit on the precipice of 2026, we need to keep in mind that many of the sources from which we get our news are hand-forming the information to fit the mold they want (or are told) to present. We can see the obvious ones, like the mess that has become CBS, killing a damning report on ICE deportations to torture prisons. But many others are much more subtle and are only revealed through questioning.

Take this article from yesterday’s Baltimore Sun:

Right off the bat, they use a Fox “News” ask/answer setup in the headline. Also note that the byline is from someone at the Sinclair National Desk. The primary owner of the conservative Sinclair media network bought The Sun last year and has given it an obvious Republican bent.

Rather than addressing the legality of these strikes, they’re playing up the recruitment potential. Doesn’t that say a lot about those recruits for whom this is enticing? Yay, they get to make things go “boom,” just like in their video games.

From the article: “Some experts say the missions showcase a clear purpose, limited scope, and decisive action-qualities that they believe resonate with young Americans considering military service.” “Some experts?” Who, I wonder. They answer in the next line:

“According to Dan Green, research fellow at the Heritage Institute…” Say no more. They get a hack from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, backer/creator of Republican policies and talking points, to shill for the Administration.

Later, they refer to unclear stats to bolster the claim. “(all branches) have reported meeting or exceeding their recruiting goals.” What were the goals? Where was the bend in recruiting numbers? And more importantly, might the goals have been lowered? That’s the easiest way to make your numbers in a tough environment… lower the bar. They want you to assume a level playing field, but when has this Administration ever used a deck they hadn‘t stacked? Without the numbers, their claim of bolstered recruitment due to these war games is meaningless.

And if it was effective, look who they’re getting… dudes who want to sit in a basement and blow shit up from afar. I think they’d better lower their physical and mental standards if they want any of these schmucks to make it out of basic training.

The Heritage “expert” goes on to rattle off a list of Republican talking points as reasons prior recruitment was low: mandatory COVID vaccines, DEI initiatives, and the botched (Trump-designed) withdrawal from Afghanistan. All of these “issues” are highly debatable as to being a drag on recruitment, but they’re listed as unchallenged proof in the article.

If this is what mainstream media now offers for basic news coverage, we will need to be especially vigilant in how we interpret what we read.

I’m fortunate that in college, I learned a great deal about the business of media and how to spot the biases within. Future generations may not have that opportunity, and conservatives are working to make it that way, with their ongoing war on education:

The list doesn’t even mention the constant denigration of colleges, students, and professors, and the use of withholding funds as a lever to bend the apparatus of higher learning to their will. All of these factors are undeniably true; they’re part of public Republican statements and actions. And they only make sense when grouped under the banner of lowering the number of people with the tools to call “bullshit” on the verbal tricks and fallacies rife in conservative rhetoric. A less educated populace makes a more pliant pool of workers, and that’s all they really want. They consider us a resource for harvesting, both our labor and our money, rather than the people a government is obligated to serve.

Corporations aren’t bankrolling political campaigns for the public’s benefit, only their own. We need to stay vigilant for this grift and demand government serve its original master: its citizens.

 

Here’s to having a Happy New Year, with hopes for a better 2026. Who knows, maybe You Know Who will choke on a steak and be toes-up in the Capitol atrium by 2027. Although I wouldn’t put it past Vance, Miller, and the rest of the posse of imbeciles to pull a Weekend at Trump’s, using AI to keep up the public illusion that their orange idol still has a pulse. But even that would be an improvement.

They Need a Better Hoax

I swear, they must think we’re idiots. Have you heard the latest misdirection coming from the White House, that “affordability” is a Democratic hoax? Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, they act like the word is some kind of mystical rune. Just because it’s only come into vogue lately doesn’t mean it’s not solid.

In fact, Republicans like TFG should be one hundred percent up on it because, get this: They ran their last campaign on it, only it was called The Price of Eggs! Or the High Cost of Groceries. They thought it was pretty clear then… Now, it’s just packed into a single word. Maybe it’s because the dodder-in-chief is uncomfortable reading any words longer than three syllables because his lips get tired.

But now, we have the usual Conservative shills out there on Fox “News” pretending that a flatly observable fact is somehow an illusion manufactured by their enemies. Bartiromo, who used to be a respected financial news journalist but sold her soul years ago to the Murdochs and bank CEOs, was pushing this crap last weekend.

Once again, they’re trotting out the old cheater’s maxim, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” Or in this case, “your lyin’ wallet.” It’s sad when one side of a political disagreement has nothing to fall back on but trying to deceive their own supporters into thinking up is down, and east is west. Fortunately for them, their efforts to dumb down the education system have left them with easily manipulated automatons, who sally forth with the daily talking points, as if they were carved in stone and handed to Moses. And you can’t even present a case to these people when they’re in denial of basic facts. It’s like trying to argue about what color is with someone wearing red-tinted glasses.

Another ridiculous idea recently floated is the prospect of analyzing five years of social media of anyone applying for a visitor’s visa. And it’s being suggested at the onset of preparations for the US hosting the next World Cup.

Talk about shooting oneself in the foot… The host cities NEED foreign visitors to turn a profit on the event. They need full hotels and restaurants. Do they think Americans are going to fill the place for Trinidad vs Ghana? No, they need to roll out the red carpet for international fans. But what does this administration serve up? Another wall. Another tariff. Another barrier between white people and the rest of the non-white world.

There was some discussion on The View about whether such a program is possible. The consensus was that it would necessitate the use of AI; otherwise, it would take a person far too long to evaluate that long a social media timeline.

And that makes me wonder what the guidelines would be. If AI is used, there would have to be a written guide to what constitutes a demerit or “point off.” Would it count less if the offending post was older? Do forwards or likes count as much as original posts? Right before they leave, could someone write, “I just saw the light! Trump really IS the greatest. MAGA!” Would that counteract previous offenses?

Obviously, the whole thing is an offense to what America is supposed to be. The racists are in charge now, and they’re not even hiding it. It’s right there on the billboards now, for the world to see. Hell, they just banished the only “colored” coin, the penny. All the light-colored coins still remain.

Maybe the FIFA guy can come up with some more awards for the rest of the MAGA team, so that his biggest tournament in the world might become a success rather than a monument to empty stadiums.

Winging It

This week’s Big Distraction from Releasing the Epstein Files is brought to you by the Destruction of the East Wing of the White House. (Sponsored by Meta, Google, and many, many more.)

It appears that the “designated excuse” that was issued to supporters is that “other presidents have also made updates to the White House, especially Obama, (who they breathlessly can’t wait to point out that he installed a basketball court, as if it were a watermelon garden.)

Every argument I’ve seen supporting this demolition has been rife with lies. They equate one renovation with another, like tearing down an entire wing with putting some lines on a basketball court, or spending “millions” to "replace a few pipes," when in reality, an entire rewiring was needed and authorized, for safety reasons.

Yes, other presidents have made alterations. I’ve seen the list. You can knock off about half of them (pre-Roosevelt) because they go all the way back to George Washington. The White House wasn’t exactly a historical landmark yet; it was just the place they had just built for the president to live.

And yes, Roosevelt made major renovations. But he also obtained the necessary approvals.

As have other presidents who followed. A law was passed in 1961 that established the approvals needed. At this point, the White House is a historical landmark/museum, so there is a process in place to go through before altering it. All preceding renovations have followed the established process. There are at least five different reviews required, including environmental impact, preservation of important relics/materials, and Congressional approval.

TFG has done none of that. He lied about his intentions and sent in the bulldozers. At first, the East Wing wasn’t going to be touched. That changed to they might take a little off the end, but do no major harm. And by now, we can see that that was 100% bullshit, because the East Wing is gone. Just, gone.

I also understand that this wing was built when asbestos was the standard in fireproofing. Tearing it down might well unleash a torrent of cancer and serious breathing problems, because there has been no mitigation of airborne particles at all. The whole building should have been netted off before destruction, but TFG doesn’t believe in environmental safety (just as long as it’s someone else who’s suffering for it.)

One angle I haven’t seen yet is the fact that the First Lady’s staff operated out of the East Wing. I know the current First Lady wants nothing to do with the role, but this action affects every subsequent First Lady and their staff. They will literally have no office from which to work. Granted, that may suit future MAGA administrations just fine, as they prefer the little wives to stay busy creating and tending to more babies rather than to worry their pretty little heads about doing any work from an office.

His apologists try to bring up the fact that it’s being paid for by the private sector. That does not relieve my suspicions at all. That just means that the Grift House is open for business. If you’ve seen the list of “donors,” you can see that just about everyone has had or will have business before the administration. “You want your project approved by my government, you have to pay.”

They might as well call it the Olde Quid Pro Quo Room.

Now, when all this started to bubble up, my first thought was, “Why would he care so much about a mere ballroom? The White House has been hosting fancy dinners for foreign dignitaries for decades. Why not just put up a couple of giant portraits of the would-be king, himself, slap some gold shit around the edges, and call it a day?”

No, there had to be more. Since he was having it all rebuilt from scratch, I figured there would have to be some secret “special rooms,” something he’d need to be off the books. Something like a protective bunker, something built with today’s best tech, where he could hide out indefinitely, all the while being able to surveil his domain and keep track of what’s being shown on TV. Maybe even have a studio in there from where he could get himself onto Fox and Friends. He could install a special safe to hold the Epstein files that only he could access. And, of course, his own McDonald's.

Then over the weekend, posts began to appear on social media describing that very thing. What I didn’t know was that the East Wing was already home to the existing emergency bunker, from which he hid out during various riots and uprisings.

Now it all made sense. He knows he’s about to screw with the next elections (if not postpone them indefinitely) and that it would be too unpopular, even with Republicans. He’d need a place to ride out the storm, but in the style with which he is accustomed. (“Bring in some more gold shit! And let’s set up that hotline to McDonald's!”) He’ll also need it to be impenetrable, so that neither angry mobs nor his own disgruntled troops could easily drag him out of it.

I hope the next non-MAGA president, whenever that will come to pass, will make it his mission on Day One to knock that fucking thing down and build something proper. Something fun and useful. Something everyone can get behind. Like… the People’s Taco Bar! Step right up and have a taco. Unlimited toppings, too! Whether a tourist, local resident, or homeless veteran, free tacos for everyone. Maybe some soft-serve for dessert, too.

At least, it will serve a worthy purpose rather than appease a spoiled child’s ego.