Homeless Thoughts - The War Crimes Edition

I’ve got a little to say about a lot of topics, so we’re going with the Homeless Thoughts theme this week.

Nobody’s Safe

The Ilhan Omar “investigation” and raid should be scaring people more than it is. The Government (meaning the president) decided that someone shouldn’t be a citizen, despite the complete lack of improper immigration procedure or commission of a crime. She’s foreign-born and a critic, so he wants her gone. So they raid her house and confiscate her phone and who knows what else, and can now claim they found any number of things and leak them to Fox “News”.

It’s not like a lack of actual proof has ever stopped modern Republicans from leveling public charges at their enemies. (OR, verifiable evidence in hand ever stopped these guys from claiming innocence. Epstein.)

And with complete control of ICE and the entire immigration apparatus, he can just say she’s not here legally and ship her off. Sure there may be lawsuits and appeals, but in the meantime, she’s gone, and probably not dropped off back where her parents came from. Why wouldn’t he send one of his harshest critics to one of those crooked prisons-for-hire, to be tortured and abused until she dies or the country comes to its senses again? The Supreme Court already approved deportations to countries the subject has never been to. This administration wanted that power for a reason.

Starlink Hijinks

Reuters confirmed that the order to kill/slow down Starlink in Ukraine came from inside the White House. The president, of course, said he didn't know anything about it, but I read another account (of which I cannot verify the veracity) that the document pertaining to the issue was clearly visible in an Oval Office photograph, on his desk in plain sight.

All that did was allow Russia to target Ukrainian cities while curtailing their defense systems, resulting in the deaths of many civilian men, women, and children.

Between this, the Russian diesel purchase, waiving the congressionally ordered Russian war sanctions, and his general lapdog stoogery when it comes to Putin, is there any other conclusion but that the president is a Russian asset? I can’t think of a single foreign policy decision he’s made that doesn’t benefit Russia.

Closer to home, if he can have his frenemy Elon turn off the internet in another country to serve his financial and political ends, he can have it done here too, to hinder opponents from gathering in protest, or transmitting pictures and video of his storm troopers shocking, shooting, or shitting on people exercising their First Amendment rights. Just look how Zuck killed the No Kings account on Meta during last weekend's No Kings events.

In the meantime, he’s assisting an invading country to kill innocent people, those for whom he is supposed to be an ally. They can’t get this guy to The Hague soon enough.

Foyled Again

I’m not too concerned about our being without an Ambassador to Greece for the short term. I’m sure that just as they roll out one connected dumbass using a patronage job to enrich herself, they’ll roll in another. It amuses me that the Inner Circle are nervous about what she’s going to say about them. Given her time with Don Jr., I’m sure she’s got some damaging inside scoop. But don’t expect to actually hear any of it… I’m betting all her threats are merely a way to grab one last payday before fading from the headlines and into the Society Page. They’ll give her a big check*; she’ll eff off and go away.

* I don’t mean that literally. But wouldn’t it be funny if they actually gave her a giant check, like she won Publisher’s Clearinghouse? It probably won’t be an actual, traceable check. Probably cash, or some nice gold bars. Or maybe stock in Truth Social.

Leaf Them Alone!

This administration certainly has it out for trees. They whacked all the weeping willows outside the Kennedy Center, and now they cut down a buttload of old-growth trees to make way for a bigger golf course, the latter happening in conflict with a judge’s direct order. Weren’t there also some cherry trees destroyed earlier, which had been given to us by Japan?

Republicans have zero respect for nature other than what they can harvest from it in the form of natural resources. I’m sure they didn’t give the destruction of these trees a second thought. They literally do not care. If they did, they wouldn’t be selling off giant parcels of National Park lands to industries seeking to tear up the land. Eventually they’d sell it all off, if a bunch of them didn’t still need a place to shoot guns and kill stuff.

The Old College Try

Since the football season started, I’ve been seeing a lot of political commercials during the games, all Republican-sponsored. To describe these ads without use of the term “bullshit” is challenging. It’s all the same fictional stuff, attacking Democrats either in particular or in general. You know, Communist, hates America, wants to have open borders and take your guns.

It’s sad because that’s all they have. If they could point to a single accomplishment that helped the TV viewers, they would. But they have nothing other than a big tax cut that WE didn’t get. The best they can do is to steal credit for the construction projects authorized under Biden’s infrastructure bill, which they unanimously voted against. But there they are at the Grand Opening.

I watch a lot of Ohio State football, so I noticed that even on these national telecasts, there are always a bunch of ads regarding the Ohio Senate and Governor’s races. They’re targeting the locals, but I’m sure they hope that, in their minds, the sentiment of the ads will transfer to the viewers’ local races.

Why aren’t the Democrats running ads during football games? Liberals watch sports too! It would be nice to see the other side represented, to break up the constant drumbeat of “Democrats are the Enemy.” There’s a whole laundry list of pertinent topics Dems could mine. Tying the president and his policies around all Republican necks should be job one. Republicans could have stopped most of this if they only had the balls to stand up to Trump. They are as culpable as he is.

Or, they could do more positive ads that refute the falsehoods from the rival ads.

If I could do an ad, one would be along the lines of, “If you want to know what a Liberal really thinks, ask one; don’t just take Fox’s word for it.” You could do a whole series, debunking the lies that Conservative media spread about what Liberals think. (See the last line of the first paragraph on this topic)

Poll Taxing

There’s a big reason why the Administration keeps claiming that all the polls showing Republicans heading for disaster in the midterms are wrong. They have to because if they want to claim the election results are rigged, they can’t have the polls predicting the eventual outcome all along. I mean, they will, but it’s one more thing that can be used to refute their claims in court.

Facebook Follies

I follow a group on the topic of 70s, 80s, and 90s music. Last night they ran a group picture of about a half-dozen women with the Republican Look. You know, big makeup, raccoon eyeliner, dyed blonde, lips like life rafts… The post said, “Name this music group.”

I don’t usually respond to stuff like this, but I thought of something I couldn’t keep to myself. I submitted: The Mar-a-Lago-gos.

Fuckers removed my post! They said it was against their rules to post political material. I was like, “How is the original post not political?” All the replies I had seen before I left mine were similarly themed, all riffing on how they looked like Trump/Mar-a-Lago women. (When I went to screenshot the picture today, the whole post had been taken down.)

I don’t get it. Luckily, I didn’t lose any sleep over it. It was too good a joke to waste, but I knew I had another outlet. You’re welcome.

Today in Biased News Coverage

Let’s see how the old Baltimore Sun has been skewing its news coverage lately, shall we?

Director's DVD Commentary: The full article is only there to show my work. You needn't read the whole thing, although you can if you wish. 

The Sun used to be a relatively liberal newspaper until they were bought by the owner of the conservative media empire, Sinclair Broadcasting. Since then, they never miss an opportunity to skew their main news coverage (not just the op/ed page) to support Republican positions.

What they’re spending the most time on lately is the proposed amendment to alter the state constitution to allow a partisan gerrymander, one that the electorate has already approved in prior elections (but was invalidated for various technical reasons).

This is from several weeks ago:

The headline screams “41%...Opposed.” Wouldn’t another perfectly logical way to say that is “59% don’t oppose?” Shouldn’t the majority view carry the headline? Not anymore. What the paper wants you to think is what matters to them. Maybe they’re just reeeally into supporting the unheard minority.

Then cut to last week, when they found a new poll whose numbers they like better:

So it’s not that they want to highlight the minority; they want to highlight the Republican viewpoint.

They pulled the same trick with this NYC poll:

“Almost half of New Yorkers don’t support…” Wouldn’t the traditional headline read “Most New Yorkers support…” Of course it would, but the Sun ownership has a huge stake in keeping things status quo as far as the business environment goes. The last thing they want is to give up tax cuts to pay for social programs that make lives better. So here, people who just scan the headlines come away with the impression that (what they call) Socialism is unpopular.

Also note the tone of this headline:

The Dems are surging, so the outlook now “darkens.” Ooh, scary. They could have just as accurately said, “races toward Dems as… their chances look rosy.” But no. Dems bring darkness and gloom. They don’t actually say that, but the wording implies it. There’s intention behind how news media uses language. On the surface, words are words, but they can always be shaded. Like in one line from the article, “To seize control of the Senate, Democrats must…”

“Seize control.” They could have said “Assume control,” which is neutral, but they didn’t. Seizing sounds violent and chaotic… kinda like January 6^th, when MAGA idiots tried to “seize control” of Congress to prevent the legal transfer of power. They knew what they were doing.

This next article isn’t about the headline, but the way they employ euphemisms to describe things they really don’t want to examine. (This is an AP article, so it’s more representative of play-it-safe mainstream media than local political bias.)

This story appalls me, so it’s not just the language that’s drawn my concern. Putting weapons like these into the hands of sadistic, amped up, blockheads is one more step toward permanent martial law. Have you ever seen those videos of ICEholes shooting pepper spray into the faces of protesters? People are sitting down and holding signs, and these thugs reach around the signs and blast them in the face from a foot away. 

Do you trust THESE guys with portable torture devices that don’t leave marks? The likelihood of abuse is overwhelming. These gloves will be a primary method of crowd control and dispersal. These guys will be tagging people just for fun and then bragging and laughing about it back at HQ.

So, in the article, we find language like this: “The shocks had a profound impact…”

Translation: “They hurt like living hell.”

Victims were left with… “Fatigue, soreness and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again.”

To continue: “After experiencing the effects of the GLOVE… participants stated just seeing the GLOVE was enough to make them want to comply.”

Translation: The shocks were so painful they made the recipients spin around three times and then shit themselves. When prompted to respond with “Thank you, sir, may I have another, they emphatically declined.”

When discussing my childhood, I often say, “I received 2 spankings in my life. The reason I got two, because I did not want three.”

That’s what they want with these shock gloves: instant compliance. And that might be fine during hand-to-hand combat during a war, or breaking up a prison riot. But they plan on using these things on lawful American people, exercising their right to assemble. We are not supposed to be a country where the police torture civilians without verifiable cause. Holding signs and yelling does not qualify, nor does driving away from a confrontation.

When the film surfaces of ICE using these things capriciously, I’m going to come back to this post. It will happen. They won’t keep their new toys in the box for long; they’re itching to take them out and play.

The 2026 Beta Test

Despite the serious intonations of wizened media types, I remain unshaken in my belief that there will be a massive attempt to steal the midterm elections, and it will probably succeed. I agree with Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman:

The plain truth is that all the main players in this administration know that without control of Congress, their options for remaking this country into the Fifth Reich will be limited to Executive Orders, which can be easily reversed by a subsequent administration.

They also know that a Democratic Congress means investigations out the wazoo, and in this round, the prosecutors will have things like “evidence” and “proof.” Democrats may not be able to get the Orange Cretin out of the office, because the Senate will be unlikely to convict (short of a Democratic sweep this November), but they can get some of these fake-patriot clowns to make a public vote in support of the most unpopular president in history.

So, the Felonious Guy might not care about maintaining a Republican Congress in a general sense, but he understands that things will be tougher on him without one. He’ll be motivated to do whatever it takes to claim victory in the fall elections. A Republican Congress will also make things easier for him to create a third term as president. Having guys “on the inside” always does.

Yes, I know that many of the ploys the MAGA types intend to use are illegal; it’s just that it won’t matter. Take, for example, the idea of sending ICE into urban voting centers. They could quite possibly prevent Latin Americans from voting, as well as any other brown person with an accent. No one is going to risk their life and livelihood just to cast a vote in a midterm election.

Is that illegal? Sure it is. But once it’s done, it can’t be undone. Votes will be prevented, courts will say it was illegal, but there won’t be any recourse. Do you seriously think the current court system will allow an additional voting day to remedy the problem? Hell no. The Justice Department won’t even pursue the charges.

That’s their ace in the hole. Republicans own Justice, and the highest court will back them up. The only illegal actions are those that these conservative toadies SAY are illegal, Constitution be damned. There’s always a way to cherry-pick a decision so it only counts in a particular case. And the Court has already shown that they will play either side of a principle, depending on which way favors Republicans. They are not interested in consistency; they’re interested in acquiring and maintaining power, specifically power of rich, white, pseudo-Christian men over women, immigrants, non-Christians, and people of color.

It’s a similar situation if he can gum up voting by mail. If his minions at the Post Office can just delay ballot mailings to (or from) key zip codes, that’s all it will take. Again, the damage will be done with no chance for remedy. They won’t allow more time; hell, they fight the current grace period as it is (to count votes mailed by the deadline but not yet delivered).

Also note that some say curtailing mail-in voting will hurt Republicans too. I disagree because they have an easy workaround, as I side-swiped in the previous paragraph. They don’t have to kill ALL ballots. It’s certainly within their capability to curtail ballots going to and from key zip codes or precincts. Detroit can expect a trickle of ballots, but I bet Kansas will find clear sailing.

This Administration is going to fight against fair elections in every way they can imagine, and dare anyone to challenge them. Again, to whom are you going to complain? They run the power structure.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to combat this, other than calling it all out as often as possible. I suppose state or local government could call out the National Guard or police to run interference at the polls, but I just can’t see that happening. I think it’s more likely that the Guard and the cops will side with ICE, if only for a chance to use their cool new electrocution gloves.

This fall will be a trial run for 2028. If the Republicans can pull off a coup here and avoid seating a Democratic majority, a third Trump term will be a done deal. The 2026 midterms are the beta test. The president will do everything in his power to avoid losing the protections of the office because he knows that he, his family, and his inner circle are likely to go to jail. He has zero incentive to respect the rules of our democracy and every motivation to burrow into the White House like a tick.

I would love to be wrong about all this; I really would. We’ll know for sure in a couple of months.

 

In Other News: RIP

Wow, it’s been a real bumper crop of celebrity deaths in the last weeks.

Frank Beard, drummer for ZZ Top. I’ve been listening to ZZ Top for almost as long as they’ve been around, over 50 years, at least. I always loved his drum fill right as the main riff for La Grange kicks in. Ironically, so many of his obits list his credits on Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man, and Legs, because they’re all from the album where they used a drum machine in the studio.

Hayden Panettiere, actress best known (to me) as the indestructible cheerleader on Heroes. It’s such a shame when someone so young passes. I haven’t seen an official cause of death but I’m guessing it’s a delayed reaction from being crushed under the weight of her giant, heavyweight boxing champion ex-husband.

Dolly Parton, singer, saint. Geez, who doesn’t love Dolly? I look at Dolly the way I look at Taylor Swift. She didn’t make my kind of music, but I admired the hell out of the person she was. She did more good work in a morning than most politicians do in their whole careers.

Tim Curry, actor, singer. Are they really sure he’s dead? They thought Pennywise was dead too, but he always comes back.

Jaye P Morgan, singer, game show panelist. I had a big crush on Jaye P during my early teen years, from her appearances on The Gong Show, because she was sexy, witty, and bawdy. Might have been my first “MILF,” had I even known what that was in the late 70s. I imagine her carrying on right now, with Gene Gene the Dancing Machine.

Nothing is Sacred

I apologize for not posting yesterday; we were in the midst of snowstorm recovery. I figure we got at least 8” at the old Chateau Bluz. Shoveling out was a 2-day operation. The second day, there was a solid 2” layer of compacted ice and snow that we had to pry up in frozen planks.

This was after about an hour of wintery mix, which compacted the snow on our patio table by at least an inch.

Now to the business at hand.

There’s nothing really to talk about except the latest heinous ICE murder of an innocent protester. You’ve all seen the footage by now. A VA nurse goes to the aid of a woman ICE had just pushed down, they tackle him, take him to the ground, begin beating the shit out of him, then they find a gun in his back holster. They remove the gun and then unload their weapons into his back. He was hit with 9-10 shots. (I’ve seen differing reports.)

I had a lot to say about all of this, but in the days since the murder, most of it has appeared as memes in my FB feed.

We hadn’t even wrapped the previous ICE killing before this new one. MAGA and the Administration were still referring to Renee Good as a paid protester/terrorist.

Before Alex Pretti’s body was even cold, the Trump Administration’s talking heads were lying about what happened, calling the victim out as someone who was attacking the ICEholes. Again, they had the lies locked and loaded for immediate use.

The most common theme from the Administration, and then from the obedient MAGA masses, was that the victim deserved his death because he brought a gun to a protest. This line of defense essentially negates 50 years of Republican Second Amendment activism.

With one incident, MAGA has invalidated both the First and Second Amendments.

As is their way, Republicans are ready, willing, and able to pivot from any position they’ve taken and support the exact opposite if it serves their immediate needs. This party literally stands for nothing but their own continued power.

As the number of protesters increased exponentially after the Pretti murder, the Administration added another angle of defense for future use: Don’t hurt the ICEholes’ delicate feelings:

My local paper, newly turned conservative mouthpiece, the Baltimore Sun, covered TFG’s inevitable backpedal from the controversy, to blame his staff for following his own orders.

If you think ICE Barbie or the ghoul Steven Miller used talking points that TFG hadn’t supported, you’re not paying attention. But at the first sign of trouble, he hung them out to dry. After all, priority one is that nothing is ever, EVER, Trump’s fault. That’s what underlings are for: convenient receptacles for blame.

Also note the underlined portion of the article for the incredible soft-pedaling of what could be a major flip by Republicans turning on the Teflon President, by saying the Administration’s “accounting of events may face bipartisan scrutiny.” That’s more evidence of a partisan news outlet shilling for the party they back.

The biggest but least acknowledged portion of all this is where AG Bondi announced that they would pull ICE out of Minnesota if the state turned over its voter rolls.

And there it is. This has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with rigging elections. There is no legitimate purpose for the Federal Government to parse state voter registrations, especially this lot. This whole thing is a revenge operation to punish a Blue State and attempt to turn it Red.

They underestimated how severe the backlash among Minnesotans would be. I’m proud of them and deeply awed by their dedication to not buckle under pressure from the federal overlords. These are people who are putting their own asses on the line for freedom.

I just hope the rest of us do the same when ICE eventually comes to our towns.

Impeachment Now

I’ve seen some stories about how various unnamed Republicans have stated that invading Greenland would be their bridge too far and cause them to support impeachment. That strikes me as closing the door after the horse left the barn. By the time troops are involved, it’ll be too late. We will have damaged our status with Europe, NATO, and the world to a level that may be beyond repair. I hope there are aides or cabinet members on whom Russia does not have Kompromat, so that there may be someone left in the building who can talk him out of such a disastrous move. Every day, the Current Occupant is demonstrating his inability to do the job through nationally destructive, self-promoting, and self-rewarding activities.

Parking Venezuela's oil money in a Qatar account that he alone controls? Charging a billion dollars per nation to join his little self-glorification panel and demanding enrollment? Letting his personal army loose on blue states (this month, Minnesota) to cause chaos and destruction on immigrants and citizens alike? Leaking Ukrainian spy intel directly to Russia? Blowing foreign boats out of the water because they might be up to something, even though they are not equipped to reach US soil? And, of course, demanding the right to buy Greenland or take it by force? It’s all madness.

Congress should be looking at impeachment right now. And by Congress, I mean Republicans. They used to at least have a veneer of respectability while they were fleecing the taxpayers to reward the rich. Today, the grift is right out in the open. He needs to go now because we cannot count on fair elections this fall. His actions are NOT those of a man who expects to have his power diminished in the midterm elections or leave office peacefully in 2028.

We all know that legally, he does not technically have the power to stop elections. But he sure as hell has the power to alter the results to his liking. There are several ways he can accomplish this.

Regarding the midterms, he may try to conjure up an emergency that gives him the cover to declare the elections are postponed (until such a time when the heat dies down and he expects to win fairly, OR just indefinitely!) Yes, it’s illegal, but who is going to enforce that? He still has SCOTUS in his pocket (until they prove otherwise), and it’s not like the Justice Department or military will do anything to defy him. They’re all loyalists now. So just because he gives an illegal order that’s beyond the scope of his power doesn’t mean it won’t happen. All the guardrails are gone.

Update: Apparently, there are still some grown-ups in the room from the US military.

Further, he can influence Red State governors to postpone their states’ elections and use that to claim that it wouldn’t be fair to only allow Blue State electees to the new Congress. Again, it doesn’t make sense, but who’s going to hold him to the law? He's got Fox "News" and the rest of the Right Wing Media bubble to make the case for him.

He can also count on the GOP owners of voting machine companies (like the new owners of Dominion) to convert some blue votes to red. And there’s Elon Musk, who he may convince to repeat whatever he did in 2024 to deliver the presidency (but surprisingly few Senate seats) to the Republicans.

Probably the easiest (and most likely) way to sway the Midterms has already begun. With the new rules regarding the Post Office delaying the date-stamping of mailings, plus banning mail-in voting via executive order (again, beyond the scope of presidential powers), it creates more reliance on in-person voting, which he can then suppress by physical means. Then all he has to do is send his ICEholes to the Bluest precincts’ voting stations, especially in Latin-heavy areas, where their mere presence will suppress turnout. I’m sure they can determine with precision which places will provide the most bang for their buck in sandbagging Democratic candidates. And again, to whom can the Democrats appeal? Trump loyalists are at every enforcement point. Checkmate.

Then, with two MORE years to insulate himself, it won’t be much of a reach to create a way to give himself a third term, despite it being 100% unconstitutional. He’ll find a way, and his flunkies will rubber-stamp it.

That’s why Congress needs to start the impeachment ball rolling now. The GOP needs to grow a pair and a spine to go with them, and call out the Emperor with no Clothes. They can start with a public Congressional investigation of the Epstein files. Screw what Justice is withholding; there are tons of evidence that’s already public, or under someone else’s control. Start taking public testimony from the victims about how, in addition to chasing little girls, they were also buggering little boys and killing people who became inconvenient. Maybe that might jar a couple of Republican consciences enough to seek better leadership.

And they need to go after Vance and the rest of the Cabinet, too, who are likely to continue in the direction TFG is waddling. This administration has turned a great nation into a joke. The whole world is laughing at us, a once-great nation and player on the world stage, reduced to a self-destructive, self-absorbed, and self-fellating bunch of crooks.

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.

Character Witnesses

It’s about time we got someone with some strategic chops to run things on the progressive side. Last week, a leader emerged; someone with creativity and style to go with the Xs and Os of political maneuvering. Of course, I mean:

Congrats to Mr. Todd, who, if the above statement is true, is responsible for bringing the sublime to the ridiculous. Someone needs to get this guy on the DNC’s payroll at once and put him to work. This guy understands that if there’s one thing an authoritarian hates, this administration in particular, it's ridicule. Getting laughed at really chafes their undercarriages, hence their repeated attacks on comedians.

The sign on the right says: “Frogs Together Strong.” Brilliant.

It’s the perfect foil. The fascist regime is trying to set the stage for a larger takeover of Blue cities, claiming the crime is out of control and creating a hotbed of insurrection (the magic word), which requires federal help to tamp down. (And purely coincidentally, perhaps indefinitely postponing the next elections.)

However, the prevailing images of this “insurrection” are those of people marching around in giant inflatable costumes, which are impossible to take seriously or as a threat to anything.

So if Fox "News" and the conservative-media bubble can run a continuous loop of Portland fires from years ago, or uprisings in Colombia, and pass them off as current events, then we should plaster the media with images like this:

It’s the least we can do, considering we’re long past the onset of a fascist takeover of the government. There is a paramilitary force roaming targeted cities, heavily armed, disguised, answerable to seemingly no one, abducting people off the streets without due process, based on nothing but their skin color, accent, occupation, car decals, or decorative flags. We’re knee deep into the “Show me ze papers” phase of this 1930s documentary.

And now, people who dare to object are officially considered terrorist enemies of the state and subject to arrest as well. The First Amendment is dead and buried, thanks to the Commandant-in-Chief and his diminutive Attack Weasel, Steven Miller. The lights may be out upstairs at Trump Towers, but Miller is wide awake and running things, clearing the path for domination by the white male businessman.

So now, when the administration inevitably tries to activate the Insurrection Act, even with a biased SCOTUS, there will be a large hill to climb to claim that a bunch of puffy Barneys are a threat to the nation worthy of suspension of our voting and civil rights. I’m not saying it won’t work, but the whole affair will look ridiculous. They might as well wrap it up in a giant bow that says, CHARADE.

You know and I know that the upcoming “No Kings” Day protests are going to be a big deal. I think this administration knows that it’s their best opportunity to cast the protesters as violent guns for hire. So how does he make this case against a group that will be determined not to give him what he wants?

False flag operation. I guarantee that there will be a couple of real mercenaries sent there to stir things up while under cover as suburban protesters. They won’t let an opportunity like this go to waste, with so many opponents gathered together. It will only take one incel with a Molotov cocktail to trigger the SS to come in to knock heads and round people up.

Bondi. Pam Bondi.

I want to add one short note about the disastrous Congressional testimony given by AG Pam Bondi. During her session, she evaded questions with a maniacal dedication, mixing in personal insults aimed at her questioners, delivered for the benefit of her boss.

I don’t aim to give her any breaks; her deposition was an insult to the rule of law. But if you think about it, she literally had no other choice.

If she answered those questions truthfully, her boss would not only fire her, but command her replacement to gin up some charges against her.

If she lied, that would be the same crime on which she’s chasing targeted Democrats: lying to Congress. Granted, on this day, no one would pursue charges. But then, when she eventually does cross TFG (everyone does, at some point), she’ll be sure to get the same treatment. So as a result, we witnessed that performance piece, engineered to eat up time, retain her status and power, and entertain an audience of one.

The country deserves better.

Well, at least the part of the country that didn't vote this clown show into office.

We're There

 I don’t see how anyone with eyes can miss that we have arrived at a fully Fascist state of federal government. All the pieces keep piling up, and the conditions are getting checked off one by one.

Authoritarian rule. We see this in every aspect of TFG’s actions, from the obligatory adulation required of his cabinet meeting attendees, to the massive banners with his face on them, to placing toadies in leadership positions in the military, Justice Department, and even the Supreme Court, whose only required qualification is loyalty to him, to assuming control of even the entertainment venues like the Kennedy Center so none of his critics have a platform in town, and much more.

Extreme nationalism. We see the blatant “Christian” nationalism all over his immigration policies, namely, conducting large sweeps to round up all the brown people who speak with an accent and send them to foreign black sites for the kind of systematic torture we once used only on known terrorists. And while they SAID they were going after criminals, their actions have shown that breaking the law is a secondary concern compared to getting rid of foreigners. This also includes foreigners from allied countries who are here to spend money training Americans to work in the factory they are building. That project is now like those foreigners: gone. This administration revels in cutting off its nose to spite its face if it means they get to make their projected numbers of deportations.

Suppression of dissent. They just showed their hand in the last two weeks, didn’t they, with the demanded firing of Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. Additionally, there are lawsuits against the New York Times and other outlets that publish content displeasing to the Orange King. Now they’re coming for the comedians. There’s nothing fascists like less than being mocked. The mockers are still out there (for the time being). We’ll see how long it is before they start picking up the individuals rather than merely stealing their microphones. The death of Charlie Kirk thrust into the spotlight the raging double standard between when one of their guys kills someone and they mock the deceased, versus when one of their guys gets killed and they demand blind tribute. It’s truly staggering lack of self-awareness when they celebrate the hateful words of one of their heroes, but then, when an adversary merely quotes what their hero said, they get fired.

Also note that when what appears as “dissension” bubbles up from within, in the form of research studies that conclude something that makes them look bad, they don’t fix their actions; they change or bury the report.

This works with economic news as well as investigations into the world’s largest pedophile ring.

Glorification of violence. TFG has his own loyal army now, each soldier with no identity, no official orders, and no oversight. All they have to do is be loyal, instill fear, and kidnap some people from public streets, schools, churches, courthouses, and Home Depot parking lots, for delivery to dungeonesque holding sites. The private army is how he gets around the Posse Comitatus Act (wherein the US Military is forbidden to be used on American soil against its people). Meanwhile, on-air personnel for the favored State-Run Broadcasting company espouse the random execution of homeless people, which causes zero “official” backlash. The terror and violence are the point. It allows them to make even bolder moves with impunity. Many of us are against such Fascism. Not as many are willing to take a bullet to the head over it.

Scapegoating. This has always been a main part of the Republican Playbook. Whatever happens, they blame someone else. It’s Black people, or Muslims, Latinos, or gang-bangers, liberal professors, gay people, trans people, and most of all, Democrats. It’s never the fault of the white, male, conservative, even when the most damning of evidence is clear to see. A guy in a MAGA hat with a Trump sticker on his AR-15 and a “Fuck their Feelings” bumper sticker on his Ford F-350, with Fox News blasting from external speakers, could shoot up a parking lot filled with nuns, and Republicans would blame a gay classmate he had 15 years ago. That’s the Republican Way. Nothing is their fault; everything is their opponent’s fault. Repeat indefinitely.

There are also some hallmarks we’ve passed that weren’t on the first graphic, like:

Openly grifting. It’s "hands out" for everyone on the team. Just like with the Mob, bring in any scam you can think of, as long as the Boss gets a taste.

And then the hand-picked lackey running Justice has no other priority than to do the president’s bidding, which is prosecuting anyone who ever made him look bad. It doesn’t matter if there’s ever been a crime committed or if there’s any evidence. What matters is getting the case in front of the public, preferably before a Trump-associated judge who will give the prosecution every advantage. Making life tough for one’s enemies makes others think twice before becoming one of them.

But only they get to receive such largesse.

They’re happy to dismiss a resolved suit when military veterans were due to receive compensation from the credit union that screwed them out of millions. Big corporations and their executives are the only ones allowed to receive such a windfall. The rest of us are merely here to be used as natural resources.

Secrecy

It’s ironic that their use of non-secure public chat applications is what keeps their evil machinations secret from the public.

Presidential administrations are required to keep records of all conversations, emails, and texts for the permanent historical record. That’s the last thing they want, so they use “disappearing” text apps so their words only appear temporarily, and there’s no record that can be used later to jam them up in court. And the only reason we even know about it is that they’re too stupid to use it properly. Remember when someone from the DoD (sorry, I mean the DoW) accidentally sent their battle plans to a reporter? That was a firestorm for about ten minutes. I’m sure they’re back to doing the same thing now, only someone probably had their teenage son set up a distribution list for them.

The Department of War has also just instituted a required oath from beat reporters that they swear they won’t report anything that’s not cleared by the brass for release, which means nothing useful whatsoever. Just the company line. That’s not how Freedom of the Press works. But they don’t care about the First Amendment outside of how they wave it overhead to cover their own calls to violence, and disregard it when a comedian gets under their skin.

So, to sum up:

Whatever you wish the Germans did in 1933, it’s time to do that here, now.

 

Completely Unrelated Note

Lastly, to pull out of this dive-bomb of a bummer post, let me wish a Happy 67^th Birthday to my forever Queen of Rock' n Roll, Joan Jett. I got to meet her several times, and she was always a real joy and super kind to her fans, even if she didn’t know what to do with the birthday card I handed her, moments before she took the stage in Cleveland.

Kirk Out

 I first saw the news on Facebook that Charlie Kirk was shot while I was at my first baseball game of the year. My first thought was, "If this were one of ours, there's going to be hell to pay." And that thought was confirmed within minutes as the threats and promises of retaliation against Democrats, Liberals, and Trans people (aka "them/they") came flooding out. It was almost as if they already had this stuff in the chamber, ready for the first provocation. 

Now, for the obligatory disclaimer, I'm neither celebrating nor calling for anyone to be killed. No Democrats are, really, outside of the delusions of the Right Wing bubble. Although I'll admit that many will not be too broken up if a certain orange charlatan takes one too many bites of well-done steak, a chunk of cholesterol breaks off and lodges in a cardiac artery. But no one is actually condoning violence, except the usual suspects, including the recently deceased. 

South Park really had this guy down in their second episode of the season. One of the subplots involved Cartman fighting with another student, whom he accused of "stealing my schtick" of being aggressively anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-trans, pro-gun, etc. They showed Cartman going to campuses and "debating" college students, where he would basically dismiss everything they said, change the subject to one where he could spout off one of his familiar talking points (one for which the student was neither prepared nor interested), and then claim victory over another stupid college student. I understand the network has since pulled the episode from streaming. I'm sure it was the network. Matt and Trey never would have considered it.

I'm not celebrating, I'm just saying that the world is better off without a guy who says stuff like that. Every single point up there is abhorrent. But for the outrage and vitriol spewed forth online, you'd think someone dropped a log on Rush Limbaugh's grave.

I saw a lot of posts hurling accusations at "Them," like, "They killed Charlie Kirk, wait until we start killing them." Remember that at that time, no one knew who the killer was. All the death threats and impending violence were predicated on an assumption, and you know what happens when you make an assumption... "You make an ass out of you, and umption." (Per Samuel L Jackson in The Long Kiss Goodnight.) In fact, every MAGA post from the time of the shooting to the time they identified the suspect was WRONG. Wrong in facts, wrong in tone, and wrong in morality. It was as if they were all just waiting for the right cover to start taking people out, rolling out the military, and declaring martial law.

The Democrats I know and saw were saying things like, "Let's see what happens, let's wait until we have a suspect, let's not jump to conclusions." But things like "waiting" and "facts" aren't really in the MAGA arsenal.

Let's get this straight. This is a brief record of violence coming from the Right. 

Just try to think of a notorious violent act perpetrated by someone on the Left, for political reasons. And I mean real things, not like the usual Fox "News" allegations that the Clintons had people murdered and unsubstantiated garbage like that. I can't think of a single one. Modern political violence is solely the province of the radical Right and the MAGAs.

So, then we had a couple of days of FBI announcements that proved to be untrue, from having a suspect in custody (they didn't) to claims of anti-trans messaging on the shell casings (it wasn't). Law enforcement went from withholding all available information to eventually pleading for help from the locals. It wasn't until a nearby resident and his minister convinced his son to turn himself in that federal and local law enforcement had any degree of success. 

It turned out that this killer was just like so many of his predecessors: Male, white, straight, Christian, Conservative, gun enthusiasts. How very cliche. 

It turned out that this guy was a follower of Nick Fuentes (whose devotees are known as "groypers"), as evidenced by the groyper catch-phrases etched on some of the bullet casings. Groypers apparently had beef with Kirk followers after Kirk called for the Epstein files to be released. One can only conclude that this whole episode is inter-family MAGA on MAGA violence.

Many people thought this would calm the Right Wing fury raging through the nation, as evidenced by these memes:.. 

But that would be wrong... Because the Right never admits when they're wrong, nor do they accept blame for anything, ever, they began looking for angles to keep the blame on the Left. 

One angle was that by alleging that the killer's trans-female roommate, for some reason, radicalized him. The even funnier angle was blaming his one semester at a Utah state university, several years ago, for brainwashing him into a Radical Left activist. That's right... one semester, at a Utah university. Totally a hotbed of liberalism. It was either that or the trade school he's been attending since then. 

This is what it's come to: relying on their own cloistered echo-chamber to drum up believable lies for their followers to latch onto. This is one of the reasons why they spend so much time denigrating higher education: it makes a great instant scapegoat and requires no nuance or detail. Just blame college.

I think this, too, will eventually die down, and we'll go back to watching in horror as the current occupant destroys another sector of the country, the way his ICE-holes just did down in Georgia, costing them a multi-billion dollar factory. You have to hand it to him: he fucks with his own people just as badly as his opponents. 

He set up an apparatus where it only took one "concerned citizen" to report that there were a bunch of foreigners hanging around this building. No one bothered to research what was going on there, or they might have found that a team of South Koreans (our allies) was there to train Americans on battery production for a fabulous new business. But no, they just sent in the Gestapo to round up the ferners and treat them like war criminals. They were bound, bent over, humiliated, deprived of daylight, let alone liberty, all without due (or any) process. And then the asshole wants to be surprised when they refuse to come back.

Jesus H. Christ, these people are idiots. I'm starting to think that the best thing that can happen is that the government does get shut down at the end of the month. At least that might limit the damage they're doing to the country.