Blog Update

Hey folks.

Life taking precedence at the moment. Nothing personally horrible, just busy. And the shitshow from the White House is more of the same wearing, demoralizing, garbage fire. That's not going anywhere.

Talk at you soon.

Happy Veteran's Day

I can't speak of the 19th century Presidents, but there hasn't been one in my lifetime who held those who serve/served their country in the American military in such open disdain.

The Trump administration said Monday that it expects the Department of Veterans Affairs to lose nearly 30,000 employees by October due to a mix of resignations, early retirements and attrition amid a hiring freeze.

The agency said the mass exodus would “eliminat[e] the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force,” or RIF, which was expected to cut the agency’s headcount by as much as 80,000. The administration appears to have recognized that the prospect of a RIF has alarmed many veterans who rely on the VA for their care and raised concerns even among Republican lawmakers.  Link

Lovely. But at least billionaires got a tax cut, right?

Implausible Deniability

This is seriously fucked up

Who had "tear down parts of the historic White House, in violation of the law" on their Trump bingo card?

Stupid bastard.

Maf is hard

Dr. Oz, in the Oval Office, talking about a hypothetical discount drug plan.

“you’ll notice, these are discounted from $242 to $10. I don’t know what the math is on that. we can’t even calculate it. it’s a lot. it’s too high to calculate without a more studied approach.”

MAGA are the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet.

We are the dumbest country on the planet

The US is investigating yet another stupid conspiracy theory.

Academics cite Wallace’s story as one of the catalysts behind a fringe concept that has spread among adherents to the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement and is gaining traction at the highest levels of the federal government. Its treatment as a serious issue underscores that under President Donald Trump, unscientific ideas have unusual power to take hold and shape public health policy.

...

HHS is expected to appoint a special government employee to investigate climate and weather control, according to Gray Delany, former head of the agency’s MAHA agenda, who said he drafted the memo. The agency has interviewed applicants to lead a “chemtrails” task force, said Jim Lee, a blogger focused on weather and climate who Delany said helped edit the memo, which Lee confirmed.

Of course, "chemtrails" are just water vapor from jet engines at high altitude. They've been around since the invention of jet engines and are NOT harmful or intentional. Their existence is just physics. (Vapor trails often gave away the position of our bombers in WWII. If the military could have gotten rid of them, they would have, and they certainly wouldn't have deliberately sprayed something from the engines to make our planes more visible.)

It should be noted that these same people WANT to continue using gasoline car engines, which *actually* spew a whole bunch of toxic chemicals into our atmosphere at ground level and have known harmful health effects. 

Also, if "chemtrails" are under the control of the Federal government, why didn't Trump stop them during his first term or since? 

MAHA/MAGA would rather pander to their base and the most stupid folk in America than follow the actual science and help people.

Flunky of the House

The Speaker of the House Is Abetting Authoritarianism

Every Trump needs his Johnson: a flunky who will rationalize his crimes.

MIKE JOHNSON, THE REPUBLICAN SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, worries that the United States could become a dictatorship. At a press conference on Wednesday, he warned that “a Marxist ideology [is] taking over the Democrat party” and could soon be “turning us into a Communist country.” On Thursday, as he fielded calls on C-SPAN, Johnson invoked the language of The Communist Manifesto: “What if the socialists take over the Senate, and Democrat socialists are in charge, and they want to grow government and take over the means of production?”

Johnson isn’t wrong to fear dictatorship in this country. He’s just wrong about where that threat is coming from. It’s coming from his own party. And he’s paving the way.

To bring a democracy under authoritarian control, you need more than a strongman. You need politicians who will assure the public, as we slide toward one-man rule, that nothing odd is happening. That’s the role Johnson is playing in Donald Trump’s takeover of America.  From Will Saletan at The Bulwark

Soooo disingenuous. Soooo stupid. Somehow the Democrats are moving us towards a dictatorship when, last time I checked, the Democrats controlled no part of the federal government. That's some gaslighting, right there.

Of course, the current shutdown is all about the Epstein files. If the House comes back into session, Johnson will have to swear in the new Representative from Arizona and the House will have enough votes to release the Epstein files. If that happens, apparently Trump and many others are cooked. So Johnson would rather keep the government closed than allow that.

And he'll continue to lie to the rubes about a leftist dictatorship.

A prediction from Ipecac!

Long a dream of people looking for clean, safe energy, nuclear fusion could provide limitless power while eliminating the need for all fossil fuels and their terrible cost. 

My prediction: as soon as scientists finally perfect a viable fusion reactor, MAGA will declare it woke and fight it with everything in their arsenal of stupid.

The Shutdown

I hope to post about my experiences as a federal worker during this administration, but for now, I want to express my support for the current government shutdown.

The Trump Administration has been an absolute nightmare for civil rights, healthcare, foreign relations, and all Americans (even if some don't know it yet). Congressional Democrats holding the line to protect the healthcare of millions of Americans is the right thing to do. It's long overdue, but they're finally standing up to the would-be dictator and his genuflecting toadies in Congress.

This federal worker supports the shutdown until Trump and MAGA restore the Obamacare subsidies.

Also, release the Epstein files.

Cowards and Ignoramuses Speaking to Professionals

After the ridiculous spectacle of two morons, Trump and Hegseth, lecturing America's military leadership this week, Paul Krugman has it right again.

War still requires extraordinary courage from the men and women engaged in combat — courage that, according to officers I’ve spoken with, is rooted in a sense of honor, not swaggering machismo. Combatants also have to be physically fit enough to endure incredible hardship.

But they don’t have to look like bodybuilders — and anyway, only a small fraction of a modern army engages directly in combat. These days, war is conducted largely with machines and ranged weapons, and most of an army’s personnel are employed, one way or another, keeping those machines and weapons in action and providing the intelligence that makes them effective. These noncombatants are every bit as essential to victory as front-line troops.

Actually, this has been true for a long time, at least since World War II. I very much doubt that Hegseth would consider the team led by Alan Turing, which broke Germany’s Enigma code, or the group led by Joseph Rochefort, which broke Japan’s naval code, warriors — even leaving aside the fact that Turing was gay. Yet they contributed as much to victory as any front-line soldier.

And the “warrior ethos” Hegseth touts is even less sufficient, on its own, to win wars today.

We don’t have to speculate about what a 21st century war would look like, because there’s ferocious, dare I say lethal, combat happening in Ukraine as you read this.

Seriously, how arrogant and stupid do you have to be to think you could lecture these guys on military ethics and readiness? And Trump gave his standard stump speech, which is completely inappropriate. 

It's a tribute to their discipline that the assembled Generals and Admirals didn't jump up and arrest these clowns right then and there.

Rapture!

Have you heard?

Tomorrow, September 23, 2025, is the Rapture!

Huzzah! All good christians are going to ascend into heaven, leaving the Earth to us, the ungodly, as well as those who were born into a culture that stupidly believes in the wrong god. In other words, Morons. Sorry, meant to type Mormons.

Seems to me that this can only make things better for those of us "left behind" as it should clear out everyone slowing down all human progress. We'll be free to fight climate change, protect the environment, dismantle the military state, enact diversity and equality, stop supporting genocide, and a host of other things that will make this planet so much better for everyone. (I realize much of the world is already working on this, just not Americans).

So long, jerks!

Ha! Just kidding. If any of this were real, no MAGAs would be Raptured, because they're terrible people and, as I understand, Raptured christians are supposed to be the love thy neighbor types, which MAGAs definitely are not.

Oh well, I guess it'll just be another Tuesday in this, the worst timeline.

If you're interested in learning more about the decidedly non-Biblical origins of the Rapture, click here.

Don't whitewash horrible people because they're dead

CHARLIE KIRK SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MURDERED

Just want to make that clear.

I also want to make clear that Charlie Kirk was a horrible human being. It's been excruciating today to watch the media, some elected Democrats, and MAGA act like the hatemonger was a saint. Seriously, some folks said some seriously stupid shit.

Trump wants to give Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congress is talking about putting a statue of him in the Capitol. Other MAGA are comparing Charlie to the victims of 09/11. 

Even worse, the guy who is most effectively calling Trump on his bullshit, California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote:

“The best way to honor Charlie's memory is to continue his work: engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse.”

FUCK THAT. Absolutely infuriating. The best way to honor Charlie's memory is to forget he even existed. Spirited discourse? You mean, this?

In Kirk’s eyes, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, was an “unqualified” nominee and the “recipient of affirmative action.”

Following flooding in Texas in July, Kirk said the “death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn't for DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion].”

Kirk repeatedly pushed anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, with a specific focus on opposing transgender existence.

During a discussion of gay rights in 2024, Kirk referenced the Bible and noted that passages indicating “lay with another man and be stoned to death” were “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”

Check out the entire article:  The whitewashing of Charlie Kirk’s toxic legacy is underway

In case it wasn't clear:

CHARLIE KIRK SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MURDERED

But let's not forget that he was a hateful, piece of shit person who made millions of lives worse through his influence and rhetoric.

Not the solution

If you're reading about the Charlie Kirk murder, you're also reading that many Democrats/Liberals are expressing condolences to his family and that this is another reason we need to work together to stop gun violence. Some are expressing the irony of today's violence, as Charlie Kirk once said this:

You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am, I, I — I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.

I doubt Charlie had enough time to realize that he was the latest person paying the cost.

For what I've seen, MAGA are expressing condolences for Kirk that they didn't share for Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, when they were assassinated in their home three months ago by a Trump supporter. Or for Nancy Pelosi's husband when he was attacked with a hammer in his home by a Trump supporter (Trump actually made fun of Paul Pelosi). Not shockingly, MAGA are also occupied calling for violence against Democrats and Liberals, while lying about the political affiliation of the two Trump would-be assassins, both of whom were Trump supporters.

In other words, Democrats are expressing condolences and trying to calm things down, while MAGA is setting this up as an excuse to kill their enemies. Welcome to Wednesday.

Charlie Kirk was a terrible human being, racist and misogynist, who left this world a far more hateful place than when he came into it. He's more responsible than most for our current fascist country. I'm not one to "not speak ill of the dead" when the dead person was a blight on humanity. In fact, he died at the very moment he was blowing racist and transphobic dog whistles to the crowd. But I do feel empathy for his children.

No matter how terrible Charlie was, political violence isn't the answer and now two things will definitely happen. 

This act will solidify MAGA behind Trump, dropping the continuing Epstein scandal out of the news cycle and out of their goldfish-like memories. 

This act will also precipitate violence against the rest of us. It may go so far as to inspire some Third Reich solutions.

Looks like MAGA just found their very own Horst Wessel. Apparently Ashli Babbitt wasn't doing the job.

Sacrifices on the Altar

For believers and cynical, manipulative creeps, "thoughts and prayers" has become the stock answer to any tragedy befalling Americans, especially school shootings. They don't want to discuss any actual solutions, but apparently think that thinking and praying will help avoid more children being slaughtered than the obvious answer, "let's do something about the guns."

Now, like any sensible person, I don't believe in any gods. But my non-faith was seriously tested this week when a deranged person attacked a group of schoolchildren at church, WHILE THEY WERE PRAYING. I was thinking that maybe there is a deity because this seems like some god-level trolling.

Shouldn't the "that hurricane was sent by god to punish the gays" crowd get the obvious message? Prayer doesn't prevent kids from being murdered at school or church. You really couldn't get a more on-the-nose example of how prayer DOESN'T work. But of course these people use the "thoughts and prayers" disingenuously and are completely unable to get the message. They'll continue to let kids get murdered because it owns the libs or something.

I'd appreciate the irony of the situation if it didn't involve horrors and death being inflicted on children.

They only have hammers

I had a talk with someone I know the other day, and she spoke in favor of the deployment of the National Guard in DC. She's qualified to have an opinion because she lives and works in DC and is often harassed by homeless people in the street. She thinks that the deployment of troops, and we can, as of today, add West Virginia National Guards into the mix, will help against crime. It seems like common sense.

Here's why she's wrong.

You wouldn't hire a plumber to rewire your fuse box.

You wouldn't hire a barber to remove your appendix.

You wouldn't hire an unqualified anti-vaxxer to be your head of Health and Human Services (unless you're an addled moron controlled by fascists).

It should be obvious why you wouldn't do those things - training and expertise. Unfortunately, people often conflate police and the military because they tend to be big, strong men and women trained to shoot people.

But here's the thing. Police receive training in community engagement. They operate in civilian populations every day. Plus, they receive training in the laws and regulations of their community, their state, and the nation. (Putting aside the fact that many, many police in America are terrible, violent, and a blight on their communities).

Soldiers are NOT trained in any of that.

There may be a big, strong National Guardsman on your street corner, but you can't trust that he'll be an effective crime deterrent or law enforcer, because that's not what he's trained to do. He's more likely to stand there ineffectually or cause problems himself. Given that trained police often don't understand civil rights or due process, why would you expect soldiers to?

The bottom line is that soldiers are not trained law enforcement officers and expecting them to be is unfair to them, and unfair to the citizenry that are obviously expected to obey them. (Ask the Iraqis how that worked out.)

As Commander William Adama said: 

"There's a reason we separate military and the police: one fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

It is illegal to deploy American troops on American soil for that very reason. And this invasion of our own troops is going to quickly expand to other cities, also not guilty of the hellscape designation that MAGA have given them. These troops are not there to fight crime. They are there to quell dissent, attack and arrest protest and resistance, and end American democracy in favor of a king. A really petty, stupid, king.

Don't support this.

Deploying the Gestapo

Trump, citing crime as a pathetic justification, continued the fascist takeover of American cities today by assuming control of the DC Metro Police, deploying untrained FBI agents into the streets, and calling up the National Guard. First it was Los Angeles, now DC, and he's already projected future invasions of New York, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, all of which are run by Black Democrats. What a weird coincidence, huh?

And if you ever wonder about the allegiance of police to their city, rather than the Rightwing, the DC Police Union issued a statement supporting the takeover.

So just to get this straight. This wasn't enough to call out the National Guard:

But this is enough to send the jackboots through our nation's Capitol.

WASHINGTON - Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and announced by United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves. A breakdown of the data is available here. Link

Makes perfect sense.

I will say that I believe that TRUMP believes the bullshit about these cities being hellscapes, because his demented brain is stuck on an image of 80's movie dystopia, reinforced by a lifetime of stupidity and racism. The rest of his administration may know the truth, but are very happy to take advantage of his profound delusion to effect the fascist oligarchy of their dreams.

Style

In keeping with his Administration's Nazi aesthetic, Trump has embraced the all-stone and concrete method of decorating.

For comparison, here are some oldie-but-goodies from the 1930-40's.

Nazi rally ground at Nuremberg



Temple of Honor (memorial) for Beerhall Putsch

And here's what used to be the beautiful, historic, Rose Garden behind the White House, followed by Trump's "upgrade," just finished this week.

Just lovely, huh?

In the grand scheme of the destruction of American democracy, this is a small thing. But we can't just focus on the large things. We need to pay attention to everything. 

Are we fucking great yet?

One of the key tactics of an authoritarian government is to eliminate or control every source of media that might oppose you. If it's something that advocates for multi-culturism, education and compassion, all the better.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday that it will wind down its operations due to the successful Republican effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the country.

Like everything MAGA does, this helps NO ONE and hurts MANY. Thin-skinned, intolerant, ignorant, fascist motherfuckers.

It's Happening Again

From Robert Reich's substack, a haunting article about the latest genocide. 

A betrayal of the victims of the Holocaust

The world’s leading hunger monitor, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said Gaza is in a famine that has “worsened dramatically” in the last few months. The number of Palestinians killed has officially surpassed 60,000. A new Gallup poll shows 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

...

Occasionally I come across an article in the foreign press that strikes me as so important that I want to share it with you. The following was originally published on July 27 in Haaretz, the longest-running newspaper currently in print in Israel. It was published in Hebrew.

Silence in the Face of Gaza’s Starvation is Absolute Betrayal of Holocaust Victims

By Orit Kamir 

...

But in 2025, the Israeli army, on orders from the political echelon, is destroying Gaza and exterminating its population. Neighborhood after neighborhood and city after city in the Strip are destroyed to the foundations, and people are expelled with nothing and pushed to crowd into increasingly smaller areas. Like then. After we destroyed all infrastructure, including hospitals, the mortality is relentless. Families constantly shrink and thousands have already been erased from the face of the earth. Others leave behind hopeless orphans, abandoned to their fate. Like then.

Since Israel broke the ceasefire in March, Gaza's besieged population has also been deliberately and systematically starved. Israel allows only very little food to enter the Strip, and what little is allowed in is brought in a way that cannot reach all residents. Children, the sick, the elderly, people weakened by hunger - cannot reach the four food distribution stations Israel created, instead of the 400 stations that operated before. We have decreed their fate to languish until they die of hunger, weakness, and disease. Relatively strong young people who do reach the distribution stations to get some relief are shot to death daily by Israeli soldiers.

...

Those who rejoice in Gaza's destruction and annihilation, those who justify or rationalize the horror with talk of revenge for the terrible massacre of October 7 - have lost their souls. But those who can still feel human emotion must wake from the paralyzing slumber and shake off this unforgivable betrayal.

What's happening in Gaza is a crime against humanity, and whether you quibble over the definition or not, a genocide of a people. Over 60,000 Palestinians are dead and more die every day, their deaths celebrated by people who should know better. 

America destroyed itself by its reaction to 9/11. I am horrified to see Israel follow in our bloodstained footprints.

"Never again" is supposed to mean something.

Spoiled Chicken

Tomorrow is the deadline for a bunch of new tariffs the U.S. is supposed to impose on (mostly) our allies.

Get ready for a TACO Don sighting!

Superman

Loved it. Lots of fun. Timely and relevant. Happy that it makes the anti-woke brigade sad.

Seriously, how stupid do you have to be to get upset because Superman is compassionate and (gasp!) an immigrant.

Another day in the United States of Fascism

Here are a couple of good, rage-inducing, articles for your Sunday evening.

CBS can pretty much fuck all the way off by Jeff Tiedrich

ICE Gets Access To Medicaid Records So It Can Deport People For ER Visits by Doktor Zoom

Nothing to add, just sadness that this is where we are, and rage, to fight this madness.

Elio

We saw Pixar's Elio a couple weekends ago and I had a fun time. It's a shame that it isn't doing better in theaters.

I understand that there's some controversy from Disney/Pixar interfering in the original director's story, and I can't speak to that other than to say I hate it when LGBTQ+ themes are eliminated because they might offend some dumbasses. But the story I saw was fun, entertaining, moving, and would have really resonated with me when I was a kid.

Elio may not be great Pixar, but it was definitely good Pixar, and that's more than enough for an entertaining time at the movies.

Supercrazed

Most people understand that MAGA is a cult. But rather than being led by a mastermind, evilly manipulating events and his followers, their moronic, narcissistic savior apparently buys into the nonsense.

This was an actual post from the official White House account:

Let's see . . .

Truth 

30,000+ confirmed lies during his first administration. Thousands more since then.

Justice 

Violently arresting people without cause and deporting them without due process.

The American Way 

Started an insurrection to overthrow the government and trying very hard to make himself a dictator.

The ironic thing is that the character of Superman could easily make himself a dictator, as he has that power. But he doesn't, because of the above three things.

These people are fucking delusional idiots.

Worst Country Ever

In a development that should surprise no one who's paying attention, MAGA just passed a bill to gut food and medical care for millions of Americans in order to enact the largest wealth transfer in history from the poor and middle class to those who need it the least, billionaires. It will devastate the country, MAGA voters most of all, but at least they owned the libs.

Of course, soon the average MAGA rube will discover that their local hospital has closed due to Medicaid cuts, or that their SNAP benefits have run out weeks earlier than before, leaving their kids hungry. Millions of them will still believe that Trump is working for them, even as their communities crumble. These people are so deep into the Cult of Trump that there are multiple news stories of people supporting Trump EVEN AFTER their spouse was grabbed by ICE and deported.

MAGA Congressfolk did that thing where a bunch of them pretend that they won't support the Bill, but in the end, THEY ALWAYS DO. This time all it took for some of them to sell out their country and their constituents was a bunch of MAGA swag and a personal meet and greet with Trump last night.

And, they arranged it so that this monstrous Bill will be signed into law on July 4th.

Chef's Kiss!