AN ATTEMPT AT DICTATORSHIP HAS BEEN MADE
The next step is martial law and at this rate, we could be there by the end of the week. What the fuck am I talking about? An executive order signed late yesterday titled ‘Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.‘ When I first read it last night, my initial reaction was, “Huh?” On its surface, the order appears to be laying out a chain of accountability for government agencies. That would be redundant, however, given that accountability for all branches of government is outlined in the Constitution. So, I asked for help. It took a while, which is why this post is running so late. After reading it, I didn’t think this should wait until morning.
When we brush past the legal speak, here’s what this order actually does:
- All federal agencies, including independent regulatory commissions, are now subject to direct White House control.
- Regulations cannot be issued without presidential approval.
- The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) can now withhold funding from independent agencies if they don’t align with White House priorities.
- All federal employees must follow the President’s and Attorney General’s interpretation of the law, eliminating legal independence.
- A White House Liaison is to be installed in every independent regulatory agency to enforce direct presidential control.
This is a massive power grab on the part of the White House. It effectively seeks to either bypass or override the authorities of both the Congress and the Supreme Court. Just a refresher for those of you who skipped Civics class, the Constitution requires Congress to control the nation’s purse strings. There is zero allowance for the OMB or the President to preempt Congress’ funding decisions in any way. The Constitution also demonstrably states that it is the Supreme Court that interprets the law for the entire country, including all portions of government. There is zero allowance for the President or the Attorney General to even get involved with that discussion.
Several agencies that are meant to operate independently of political considerations include the SEC, FTC, FCC, FEC, FDA, EPA, and all consumer protection-oriented agencies. They will now have a ‘White House Liason,’ essentially an enforcement officer, that occupies space in every department and oversees their actions to ensure that they align with the plans of the White House. There is no more independence anywhere. Even the stock market can now be controlled by the President.
Think: insider trading is on the table. Enforcement of antitrust laws now depends in part on who is in favor with the President. Political opponents can be directly targeted through regulatory agencies. Entire states could, in theory, be stripped of all federal funds simply because their governors stood up to the President.
Scientific research and new drug approval must now have the approval of the White House before it can be released. If the President chooses to not believe in Climate Change, and we already know he doesn’t, then he can kill the publication of any research that warns of impending disaster and remove environmental protections where they exist.
How does the President shut down the Department of Education without Congress? This gives him the power to defund any federal department for any reason, or no reason at all. How does the President gain the power to run for a third term? This gives him complete power to control elections, who can be in them, and whether they happen at all.
Remember how we warned against Project 2025? The recently confirmed head of OMB is Russel Vought, one of the primary authors of Project 2025. This order now gives him sufficient power to implement every aspect of that horrendous document without any oversight. Congress can’t stop him. SCOTUS won’t stop him.
The Attorney General’s opinions override those of the Justice Department. The Justice Department, which includes the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, and all federal courts, is completely sidelined to interpret and enforce laws that might run against the wishes of the President.
THE PRESIDENT HAS COMPLETE AND TOTAL CONTROL.
Sure, Congress and SCOTUS still exist, but only for the feel-good purpose of rubber stamping what the President wants. If that sounds familiar, it is exactly the type of government found in both Russia and China.
Ladies and Gentlemen, democracy died with this executive order.
For now, the Second Amendment is still in play. I strongly recommend using it. Any hope for keeping this country even relatively free depends on our use of that Amendment to take back the government.
I’ll talk more about it in the morning.
The Pot Simmers
Let’s start this morning by everyone waving at the Chinese bots that routinely check every new post except for Sundays. Why bots need to take Sunday off, I don’t know, but they do. Smile and say “Xi is a criminal” as you wave. We don’t want them to get the mistaken assumption that we’re going to be friendly with them just because we’re pissed about our own government.
There’s a lot of fake news running around and, sadly, much of it is coming from the White House. Here’s some of the top bullshit.
- Felonious Punk claims that Ukraine started the war with Russia. The truth is that the current conflict in Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 when Russian military forces entered the country from Belarus, Russia, and Crimea.
- Felonious Punk claims that Ukraine’s President Zelensky has an approval rating of only 4%. Swing and a miss. Zelensky’s approval rating sits at 57%, considerably higher than that of the American dictator.
- No matter what you hear, or what the source, Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks. I’ve talked about this before but the extreme right keeps bringing it back up. Among other reasons the claim is wrong is that funeral directors typically submit form SSA-271 to the Social Security Administration when someone dies. This isn’t new. Stop being stupid.
- Late breaking last night is the charge that Brazil’s former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, approved a plan to poison the current president. What does the Punk do? He has his media company sue the judge, the one in Brazil. The claim is that a judge’s order in Brazil violates the First Amendment in the US. I’m not sure exactly when our Idiot-In-Chief decided that Brazil has to honor our Constitution, but he’s clearly and painfully wrong.
There is so much that is bothering me this morning. Were you aware that DOGE Reportedly Cuts FDA Employees Investigating Neuralink? This is the company that wants to implant chips in people’s heads. The FDA previously found Musk’s company was engaging in “objectionable conditions or practices.”
Gaby De Vale has an interesting take on the DEI purge. She’s of the opinion that all the DEI talk is a smokescreen for a war on the Civil Rights Movement itself using WWI-era eugenics principles. After reading her article this morning, I’m not seeing any major problems with her claim. This should be alarming on an incalculable scale.
This just happened: French President Emmanuel Macron called a second emergency meeting of European allies on Wednesday to devise a united response to President Punk’s remarks embracing Vladimir Putin’s narrative that Ukraine is to blame for the war. All of Europe is now of the opinion that Felonious Punk is in Putin’s pocket and they’re adjusting policies accordingly.
Threats of a 25% tariff on cars, drugs, and chips are causing a lot of people to begin stockpiling items they fear might be affected. Even Walmart is affected, though don’t worry, the Walton family is still making obscene amounts of money.
I’m bothered that the West Texas measles outbreak isn’t getting more attention. The count is now up to 58 cases and includes vaccinated people for the first time. This is not something that anyone needs to ignore. Outbreaks like this can explode exponentially in just a few days’ time.
All of this is overwhelming and that’s exactly what the administration wants. Fighting on multiple fronts is exhausting and most of us have neither the time nor the energy to fully engage in any of it. Sure, people are upset. Yesterday, a Southern Indiana man was arrested for making threats online against the Muskrat. The dude happens to own an AR-15, so he’s being held without bail. That’s where we’re at.
But then, one can argue that the whole of society is in the shitter. One local school is being charged with claims that it cultivates an ‘atmosphere of violence.‘ This is the same school from which Kat graduated. It hasn’t been a great school ever, but when bloodshed becomes an everyday occurrence then we have to question not only what is wrong with government, but what is wrong with us.
This is not the life we wanted. If we want it to change, we have to start acting in uncharacteristically aggressive methods. I’m over anyone telling me to ‘let it go’ or that ‘love will find a way.’ That might work in your personal relationship, but it’s not going to cause the world’s three strongest dictators, Punk, Putin, and Xi, to back off their atrocious plans.
Can I get real for a second? Canada was already making plans for war with the US over the whole statehood question. Now, all of Europe is banding together to prepare to take on the Axis powers of the US, Russia, and China. We are no longer the good guys.
Inevitably, this leads us to the question: What are you willing to do to get our country back?
I encourage you to think outside your comfort zone. Being comfortable will get you killed.
We are at war.
Between The Cracks
How would you feel if I started adding small updates during the day? There are times when I feel that by the time morning comes around, stories such as the Delta plane that flipped over on a Toronto runway are old news. Yes, we’re glad that none of the 80 passengers on board were killed, but when we look at the number of airplane accidents in the past three weeks, we kinda have to worry about our air space. I know that, personally, I’m not going anywhere. But then, I never do, so there’s that.
As I’m typing (6:52 AM EST), the Russia/US talks in Saudi Arabia are on a lunch break. The fact that neither Ukraine nor any representative of the EU is included, has both groups feeling like they’ve been placed at the kids’ table. In yesterday’s meeting in Paris, EU leaders worried that they’re going to be caught picking up the bill, or worse having to do the cleanup. The US is acting more like an adversary than an ally toward Europe and decades of defense spending cuts put the continent in a vulnerable position. What’s not helping: Russian propaganda undercutting support for Ukraine. As right-wing groups grow, misinformation is as much a problem across Europe as it is in the US.
Did you know that the US has drones flying secret missions over Mexico? I guess it’s not too much of a secret if the NYTimes is carrying the news that the CIA is expanding the program. Supposedly, the flights are searching for fentanyl labs. Fentanyl has been a problem in the US for a few years now and there’s no sign that law enforcement is getting any closer to having a handle on the issue. Most of the supply comes from outside the US, making it as much of a border issue as immigration.
Speaking of immigration, hundreds of immigrants are stuck in Panama. The White House has asked the Panamanian government to hold them there because they can’t easily be sent back to their home countries. Of course, with this many upset people from various countries crowded into the same place, the chances that it will blow up in our faces are significant. The mass deportation policy remains one of questionable legality, but no one is stopping it and this administration has no issue with breaking the law. Human rights are in tatters.
This one from the “Florida Man” file has me rolling my eyes hard this morning. A Jewish man mistook two Israeli tourists for Palestinians and opened fire on them in Miami. The AP version of this story leaves the fact that this was a Jew-on-Jew crime (how rare is that?) out of its headline. There’s all kinds of subtext to be read here, namely that the war that has now surpassed 500 days is one of the most ridiculous to ever be fought. Religious mythology leads people to do stupid things, though, especially in Florida. I swear there’s something in the water down there besides radioactive crocodiles.
Tom Homan, the White House’s ‘border czar’ (they really need to stop using the word czar) verbally attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over her many activities letting immigrants in her district know what to do in case ICE shows up. The information is completely legal and helps calm nerves in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations. You know AOC didn’t take Homan’s criticism lightly. “This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble,” she wrote. “Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights. He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.” Yet more proof that this administration is hell-bent on ignoring the Constitution.
Politico’s Europe office is raising an uncomfortable question: Are LGBTQIA+ individuals safe anywhere? As right-wing organizations have made LGBTQIA+ rights a frequent target, violence has increased and many protections previously in place have been removed. This isn’t just a US thing, it’s a global problem. As this issue hits especially close to home, I’m not afraid to tell you that we’re more than mildly concerned. Just know that we will find a way to protect those living in our home. I’m pricing shotguns.
Apparently, a 2.4 magnitude earthquake just hit Portugal. The headline just hit, so I apologize for not having more information.
A British couple who were detained in Iran while on a round-the-world motorcycle trip have been charged with espionage, according to the Iranian judiciary news agency. This comes as tensions between Iran and Israel continue to intensify. So yeah, this is totally a political move on Iran’s part. They’re looking for leverage against whatever Netanyahu might try to through at them. Maybe this isn’t a particularly good time to do any globe-trotting.
Are we setting up a death watch for the Pope? That’s how it feels with the latest announcement that the religious leader has a ‘complex’ respiratory infection. The Pope is 88. The risks of any infection at his age are high. Given the way the universe has been treating the world this year, nothing is going to surprise me here.
It’s not 8:00 EST yet, which means the president likely isn’t awake. There are a number of known issues on the horizon today, including whether DOGE gets access to IRS data. The talks in Saudi Arabia have now concluded. I guess they all needed a nap after lunch.
I’m not going to promise any updates later because the past two days my body has not allowed me much time to be awake. But I have a bad feeling about what’s coming this week, and I’m not talking about the weather.
Stay warm, friends.
Visual Edition
There are days when being up early has its disadvantages. For example, the windchill was -3 degrees this morning when I took the dogs out. I’m not sure today’s high of 20 degrees will feel much warmer, but I deeply dislike going outside when the air makes my face hurt. We’re in for a cold week for most of the Eastern US with more snow and ice coming in on top of what fell over the weekend. My mood this morning has me wanting to join the dogs, who are snoring away on the bed as if nothing in the world is wrong.
On Monday holidays like this one (Presidents’ Day in the US), there’s also a shortage of up-to-date news this early. There may be some updates later in the day, but most of what I’m seeing is a rehash of Friday and Saturday’s news. Sure, there’s stuff about the BAFTAs and last night’s SNL 50th Anniversary special. If one is looking for a distraction, those are your best bets. There’s a shortage of actual news this morning, though. Maybe we should be thankful for that.
Of course, there are the protests planned for today in every state capitol. These might have been big were the weather not such a chilling factor across much of the eastern half of the US. I know my immunity-deprived ass won’t be getting out. I think more people have been motivated to participate after Friday’s round of imbecilic actions, so I’m hopeful that my participation will not be missed.
There are some matters on video that might help this morning. Let’s start with today’s emergency EU summit on Ukraine.
Netanyahu threatening to broaden the war by ‘finishing the job’ against Iran is a bit disturbing.
A BBC newscast asks the question whether Felonious Punk and Putin together mark the start of a new world order (27 minutes, so settle in).
But news personality Marvin Kelb fears that the meeting between the two world leaders could be a disaster.
You can see where the emphasis and concern lie this morning. With all federal offices shut down and Punk on his way to Saudi Arabia to meet with Putin, I’m hopeful that this remains a quiet news day. Of course, there’s always editorial cartoons.
I think that’ll do for today. I’m sure we’ll have more about the whole Ukraine/Russia deal tomorrow. And who knows what kind of stupidity the folks in DC might attempt while they think no one is watching.
Personally, a nap is sounding better and better by the minute.
Everyone Wants To Be Emperor
There are times when news spreads especially fast across all social media platforms. One of those times came yesterday when Felonious Punk tweeted, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Responses came fast, the most damning comparing the statement to those of similar intent made by past dictators, including both Napoleon and Hitler. The linked NYTimes article gives plenty of context as to just how deep the shit runs in that statement, which is now pinned at the top of Punk’s Truth Social account. I’ll let you read that separately.
I hadn’t gotten past Friday’s statement by RFK, Jr. that said, “The government would assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, [and] mood stabilizers.” Kennedy said he planned to dedicate money generated from a sales tax on cannabis products to “creating wellness farms—drug rehabilitation farms, in rural areas all over this country.” He added, “I’m going to create these wellness farms where they can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need—three or four years if they need it—to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities.” The farm residents would grow their own organic food because, he suggested, many of their underlying problems could be “food-related.”
This is exactly why 15,000 doctors signed a letter against Kennedy’s confirmation.
Rain turned into snow overnight. That’s not the non-sequitur one might think. Bear with me. It was raining hard enough last night that the dogs refused to go outside for their last potty run. They both went to the door and backed up as if the rain might damage their fur. That meant there was no delaying taking them out this morning. Coffee was still brewing when I coated up and took them out into the white stuff. The wind was strong enough that facing North hurt my face. The neighborhood looks other-worldly in this environment. To a limited extent, it looks like something out of a Star Wars movie that Lucas/Spielberg have yet to make.
There’s just one big plot hole: there’s no emperor pulling strings in the background. Felonious Punk may want to be that emperor, but he doesn’t have the backbone to stand up against his Darth Vader (Musk), much less anyone with fierce determination. Neither does Putin nor Xi; both derive their power from shadowed puppet masters in their individual regimes. Remove any one of them or all of them, and another version pops up in their place. The only way to get rid of them is to completely destroy the empire. Sounds scary, doesn’t it?
Unofficially, European heads of state are meeting in Paris tomorrow to discuss a response to all the chaos. UK Prime Minister Starmer has confirmed he’s attending, but no one in Paris is confirming that the meeting’s actually happening. European countries will not create one united army, says Poland’s Sikorski, but Finland’s leaders still insist that the EU needs a seat at the table for any discussion of a Russia/Ukraine solution. Everyone has an agenda and unless they can all get on one page, there’s not much chance they’ll be a viable rebel alliance.
The following image popped up in my BluSky feed this morning. There was no originating attribution so I can’t make any claim as to its accuracy. Still…
11.7 million divided by 50 states gives us 2.34 million people protesting in each state. It’s winter. That’s not going to happen. Alaska wouldn’t be able to produce that many protestors even in good weather. Does that mean we’re screwed?
Not necessarily. Protest comes in many forms. What’s important is that we not give the administration any sense that they might have stable footing. Share the memes. Block right-wing posters on every platform. Block ads (all of them). Defy stupid laws (you’re just ‘saving the country,’ right?) Challenge Republican authority on every level. If you have hacking skills, use ’em. Bring back the rebellious anti-establishment music of the 60s, or write new stuff. Use any platform you can find, not just for one day, but over and over and over and over and over again until the sounds of the protest are so loud, the vibrations are so strong, that we knock this wanna-be empire off its feet.
And yeah, I’m still holding the door open to using violence. If they build ‘wellness farms,” we have an obligation to break people out of them and destroy the farms. I’m of the opinion that we should already be disrupting those flights taking immigrants to Cuba or Venezuela. We have to be willing to kill the stormtroopers that stand in our way. Don’t think for a second that we can do this without getting messy.
I know, that’s big talk from a guy who doesn’t drive and can’t walk without a cane. I don’t have a light saber and I can’t float or evaporate into thin air. Lame, isn’t it?
I have faith in you, though. You can do what I can’t. Be strong and of good courage. History is on the side of justice and freedom.
Thank you for your service.
There Is No Weekend
How is today different from any other? It isn’t. The insanity and illegal takeover of our country continues. Felonious Punk may go golfing, but that doesn’t stop him from signing ridiculous executive orders such as barring federal funding from schools with COVID-19 vaccination mandates. We’re in territory now where it takes someone well-versed in the detection of fake imagery (NOT me) to help us determine what’s real and factual. The fact that we’re already here, less than 30 days after the inauguration, is a disturbing statement on how evil this administration is.
Hitting especially close to the heart was the news that 850 employees of the Indian Health Service were among those laid off yesterday. Why is that important? Not only does it mean that health service to Native Americans is diminished, but it shows that this administration is willing to break long-standing treaties that the tribes fought hard to obtain. Here’s why:
The United States fulfills its trust and treaty obligations through both the direct delivery of Tribal programs and services and through provision of federal funding to Tribal Nations and Tribal organizations serving Tribal Nations. Essential services provided by Federal employees include healthcare services through IHS, law enforcement and public safety through the BIA, and educational services through the BIE—not to mention countless other essential and legally mandated services. These programs are not discretionary; they are legal obligations rooted in treaties, trust obligations, the U.S. Constitution, and long-standing federal statutes.
I support a complete takeover of the US by Indigenous tribes. I always have. This is their land and this 400-year-long European invasion is but a blip in the history of tribal occupation of what is currently known as North America. The historical and scientific record shows that tribes dominated this continent some 40,000-50,000 years ago. That’s long before your Adam & Eve story, or your Moses, or your Mohammed, or your Buddha. We were here. This land is ours. We need to take it all back through any means necessary.
Meanwhile, the West Texas measles outbreak is up to 48 confirmed cases. This is what’s coming. People in West Texas were already stupid enough to not vaccinate their children. The rest of the US could see even larger outbreaks of childhood disease if RFK, Jr. isn’t prevented from implementing his demented ideology. What’s interesting is that West Texas also felt a nice 5.0 magnitude earthquake this week. Religious mythologies might interpret that as the deities demonstrating their anger toward human stupidity.
A few hundred folks in Boston protested the administration’s actions yesterday, but, as I’ve said before, smaller protests have little effect on anything beyond tying up traffic. We need to re-think our tactics, include more people, and disrupt the people who are tearing apart our government. Think barricades blocking entrance into federal buildings. Think 100,000 people storming the White House. Think in terms of physically expelling those doing the damage.
Some selective beheadings might not be a bad idea, either.
Utah’s Governor, Spencer Cox, showed how little simple protesting affects the outcome. Yesterday, this fucking idiot signed the nation’s most restrictive labor ban, prohibiting collective bargaining on the part of teachers, firefighters, police officers, transit workers, and other public employees. Sure, the unions protested loud and strong. Yes, those same unions have the power to kick the governor out on his ass in the next election. But none of that stopped a fool from being a fool. Stronger methods are required.
Our Vice President (emphasis on the vice part) is being rebuked by Germany’s defense minister after Vance accused them of “censoring free speech” in their approach to nazism. Ukraine’s President Zelinsky also said that his country would not recognize any ‘deal’ made behind their backs. We’re not making any friends across Europe and Felonious Punk is too stupid to realize how dangerous that is.
Israel and Hamas Finished the 6th Exchange of Hostages for Prisoners early this morning, so that likely means that Punk will roll out some other means of broadening the war in the Middle East. Unsubstantiated rumors are rolling around on social media claiming that ‘it’ is going to hit on Tuesday of next week, the 18th. No one seems to be able to define ‘it,’ though, which is a significant problem. IF there is any truth to the rumors, I’m sure that the element of surprise is intentional. Catching us off guard diminishes our ability to respond effectively.
In a featured piece in this morning’s NYTimes, Democratic Senator Reuben Gallego charges that Democrats are “always afraid.” He’s not wrong. There was every chance to stop this chaos before it started and no one in our nation’s capitol had the guts to stand up and do something. All we get are angry speeches full of meaningless words.
If anyone is going to stop this nonsense, it has to be us. You and me. We have to topple the oligarchy in ways that make sure it doesn’t come back. Ever. We have to be strong. We have to be fearless. We have to be willing to defy all the bullshit coming from the White House.
There is no weekend break. We have to keep fighting.
Valentine Edition
Some consideration was given to posting a romantic picture of a couple kissing. If you know me, you know I have those pictures in my archives… somewhere. I couldn’t do it, though. The disaster taking place in the US is far too overwhelming to ignore and, honestly, if we’re serious about loving our country then we’ve got to start lowering our heads and showing Felonious Punk and his minions that we’re not going to stand for the decimation they’re inflicting on our country.
Yes, I did take care of Kat and the kids, though I didn’t know in time that G has decided to cut sweets from his diet. Oops, sorry about that. Politics have entered their lives as well, though. Each day, I’m hearing of assaults on their dignity and intelligence. The kids have no problem standing strong for what they believe, and, trust me on this, you do not want to cross Kat, especially while sitting in her salon chair. No one in our family is milquetoast and letting anyone trample our rights is not in our DNA.
One thing certain today is that we’re getting no love from the White House. All probationary workers, primarily new hires replacing people who retired at the end of last year, were all summarily dismissed yesterday. One notice in particular caused my heart to sink:
Please understand that NPS employees are critical to maintaining the safety of the parks. Among other things, these are the folks who warn visitors when bears, moose, and bison have been spotted at popular places in the park. They let you know where the weather has made certain places unsafe. They come and get your ass when you fail to return on time or have an emergency. The NPS was already understaffed and this inevitably makes the parks a more dangerous place to visit.
Your food’s not getting any safer, either. Now that the nutjob from hell has been confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), your food is not safe, your ability to get vaccines is not safe, and research into emerging diseases could disappear. WE ARE ALL AT RISK. When the Secretary said that he’s “planning a purge of the health department,” he was talking about cuts to every program under the department’s purview. How does that play out?
Dr. Ralph Abraham, Louisiana’s surgeon general, wrote that the state would no longer use media campaigns or health fairs to promote vaccinations. Since so much of the state is rural and under-educated, those campaigns are critical to making sure children are vaccinated before starting school. Should other states respond similarly, the health of the country could be in danger.
Not that we already aren’t treading on uncertain ground. Some people didn’t know they had a bird flu infection, a study of veterinarians suggests. You would think that, since they’re the ones working most directly with animals that might be infected, vets would be on top of their own risk factors. That’s tough to do when one is unaware of having any symptoms at all. Not only does that put the vets at risk, it means they are more likely to transmit the disease themselves.
What made me sick about yesterday’s confirmation vote is that after Sen. McConnell joined Democrats in voting against the confirmation, Felonious Punk not only insulted the senior senator from Kentucky but questioned the senator’s childhood bout with polio. WTF!? Does the presidork even understand what polio is? There’s no playing around with that disease! Thousands of children died annually before there was a vaccine. I’m not a fan of Sen. McConnell’s politics and he’s done some horrible things in the past, but damnit, this shows the petty vindictiveness of the idiot sitting in the White House.
There are some other issues you shouldn’t ignore this morning.
- NATO is in disarray after the US announced that its security priorities lie elsewhere. Blame the VP for this one. Comments he made yesterday told NATO that the US “might not always be there” to help Europe in times of conflict. Read into that what you want. The US might not help fund European defense. The US might disappear entirely. There are multiple threats sitting between the lines.
- Punk signed a plan for reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners, ushering in economic uncertainty. If you thought the three percent increase in inflation last month was bad, it’s about to get a lot worse. Do you realize how many of your favorite food products are imported? Chances are high that imported foods take up more than half of your grocery basket.
- Federal funding freeze disrupts rural organizations supporting foster youth and job growth. Rural counties are especially dependent on government grants for a number of programs. Without those programs, more small towns are likely to see a frightening rise in drug use, disease, and a loss of population. Never mind that people in these areas largely voted for Punk. He doesn’t care who or what he hurts. He doesn’t care at all.
- Hamas says it will free 3 more hostages. That could resolve its ceasefire dispute with Israel. So, the threat of starting Armageddon tomorrow is at least temporarily on the back burner. Don’t ignore the situation, though. Punk is anxiously waiting for any excuse to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, potentially triggering WWIII. This situation places the entire world at risk.
- FEMA Quietly Eases Rules Meant to Protect Buildings in Flood Zones. Check your homeowner’s insurance. A lot of people don’t realize that they live in flood zones until disaster hits. FEMA’s rules provided strict limitations on where, when, and how buildings could be built within flood zones. Without those rules, the cost of damage in future floods is likely to skyrocket.
- After Abortion Bans, Infant Mortality and Births Increased, Research Finds. The article is a couple of days old. I put off posting it because, by and large, an old man like me doesn’t have any business sounding off on the topic of abortion. However, as state legislatures scurry to limit women’s access to healthcare and force doctors and hospitals to second-guess their procedures, people die.
There’s more, but I’m already over 1,000 words, and it’s the time of morning when things start happening faster than I can type. The news alerts won’t leave me alone. Here’s the eternal question: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Sitting at a keyboard complaining doesn’t change much of anything. I’m currently of the opinion that protests don’t matter unless they are large enough to completely consume a government building. There’s an economic blackout scheduled for February 28, and that movement seems to be gathering some steam, but don’t think for a second that anyone in the White House is going to care. Bringing about economic collapse is playing into their hands.
We need to stand up and get in people’s faces. That’s going to mean breaking protocol and possibly a few laws. Politicians ignore what isn’t directly and immediately affecting their lives. Therefore, we have to give them something that is impossible to ignore. Fill the hallways. Fill their offices. Block access to their vehicles. Give them no rest or measure of privacy until they turn this shit around.
Congress goes into recess later today. In theory, they are supposed to spend next week in their local offices meeting with constituents. Many of them won’t do that; they’ll jet off to a place that isn’t nine freakin’ degrees in the morning. Those politicians should be met at the airport by angry crowds because they are not representing the people who elected them. Politicians who are in their offices next week need to find their buildings overflowing with angry constituents demanding that the unprecedented takeover of our government be stopped, by any means necessary.
And if that doesn’t work…
Grab your guns by the Second Amendment and use them in the manner the founding fathers intended. Take the country back.
Just remember, we’re dealing with someone who went on a rant about how magnets don’t work. Don’t expect anything sane or reasonable from the White House. It’s not coming.
Start Killing The Nazis
Memory is a funny thing. I can’t remember what I did five minutes ago, but I still clearly remember playing with plastic army men on the front ‘porch’ of our home in Towanda, KS. I am liberally calling it a porch; it was a 4’x4′ raised concrete slab that faced the West. Raised about two feet off the ground, my mother was blown off that porch more than once by fierce winds from the North. On one occasion, she held my baby brother in her arms as they flew through the air. Yet, it was still one of the safest places for me to play.
When playing with those plastic army men, they were always divided between two sides: the blue vs. the green. I hadn’t seen many real military members and television in those days was still black and white. Still, I knew that US military field uniforms were, at the time, green (as opposed to the various digital camo designs used today). So, for my purposes, the blue soldiers were the Nazis and the green soldiers were the Americans. Hint: the blue soldiers always lost.
Mind you, by the time I was born, WWII had been over for 25 years. Yet, there was still no question in my mind, based on overheard conversations between adults, that Nazis were the bad guys and that Russia was a threat to American freedoms. No one questioned that perspective throughout most of my childhood. I was an adult by the time the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union broke apart, and we started pretending to play nice with Russia.
So, when I heard that Felonious Punk had a 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin yesterday, I was concerned. By all accounts, and I’ve read multiple now, the call was far too cordial and accommodating. There’s little question that the two leaders like each other, which raises the question as to where Felonious Punk’s loyalties truly lie. Then came the news that US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, told NATO that it is “unreasonable” to think that Ukraine might return to its traditional, pre-2014 borders. Why? because it wouldn’t be ‘fair’ to Russia.
So, we’re siding with the bad guys now.
Oh, but then we embraced Nazism at home. You see, Hitler laid out a plan for destroying what had once been a democratic country. He did a lot more than just kill three million Jews. He absolutely decimated the German government. So, when Elon Musk calls for the US government to ‘delete entire agencies,’ the first thing that pops into my mind is, “That’s a Nazi move.” When the dismissed EEOC commissioner warns that Trump plans to ‘erase the existence of trans people’, there can be no alternative other than “That’s a Nazi move.” And when the FCC opens a probe into NBC-parent Comcast over the promotion of DEI programs, that, too, is a Nazi move.
Flashback again to my childhood. This time, I’m a little older, sitting in my bedroom in Coffeyville, KS, reading Marvel and DC comics. One of my favorites was Captain America, whose most persistent enemy was a nazi terror known as The Red Skull. While the stories themselves were fictional, they represented a specific perspective of how WWII had gone. Nazis were vile, evil people who craved power at any cost. Captain America championed the power of Democracy and outsmarted Red Skull at every turn. Captain America would never have thought of partnering with Red Skull. At least, not in the issues that I was reading.
The message held in my mind was clear: We kill nazis. No questions asked. You see one, you kill it. Period.
So, when Elon Musk, who runs a fictional office, plans to replace humans with AI, what’s my response? Kill the Nazi. When I’m told that the US government plans to spend $400 million on (checking notes) ‘armored Teslas,’ (WTF?) how can I not respond with “Kill the Nazi.” When I read that Felonious Punk instructed Middle Eastern leaders to come up with a plan for repatriating Palestinians from Gaza, we simply must say, “Kill the fucking Nazi.”
Do I need to say it louder?
KILL THE FUCKING NAZIS!
Those in the German government tried working with Hitler, tried holding him accountable to existing laws, and tried to reign in the unbelievable tyranny that befell the country. Do you know what happened to those people? They were all killed by Hitler’s henchmen. There is no placating Nazis. There is no ‘reasonable response’ to Nazis. There is no waiting for the next election with Nazis. There’s only one solution:
KILL THE FUCKING NAZIS!
Don’t just kill the ones at the federal level, either. Kill the Nazis at the state level. Kill the Nazis at the county level. Kill Nazis at the city level if you see them. They ALL have to go if we are going to remain true to our Constitution and protect human rights.
Yeah, I know this all sounds absurd. None of us ever thought that we’d have to deal with Nazis here. Yet, the reality is staring us right in the face and if we delay in responding appropriately we’ll end up exactly where Germany was 90 years ago.
So, someone grab some guns and ammo and pick me up. No Captain America is coming to our rescue. We have to do this on our own.
It’s time to kill some Nazis.
Letting Pictures Talk
Do you ever read through the news and get the feeling that you’re missing something, that somehow all the context isn’t there? That’s where I’m at this morning. The new stories feel incomplete and, since I’m not sitting in every newsroom worldwide, I can’t easily push for more info. I’m frustrated. There’s too much going on that’s fundamentally important while we’re simultaneously being bombarded with bullshit such as the Gulf of MEXICO.
Where I do find some clarity is in the different images and editorial cartoons that cross my path. I can’t share some of them because I can’t validate their core premise. But for those that I can confirm, let me give you a taste of what I’m seeing.
Last one:
I did have a long and interesting conversation with G yesterday afternoon. I know it’s easy to think that the kids aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in politics, and some don’t, but here are some of the topics our 16-year-old raised:
- The relationship between advanced math and critical thinking skills.
- The importance of the Department of Education
- The need for colleges (all of ’em) to provide vocational education in addition to traditional courses of study
- The basic illegality of DOGE and everything it does
- How ads that are more entertaining than informative hold your attention longer
- The reality of teachers being unable to police mistreatment of non-cis students
They see what we’re doing to their country. More than once he mentioned that it is his generation that has to deal with the fallout from the stupidity of my generation. He’s not wrong. We’re leaving the kids a world that is inherently fucked up and not letting them have the resources to fix it.
He’s convinced that by the time he’s 30, the US as we know it will not exist.
The kids are paying attention and know more than you think.
Save The Date
We may finally have a start date for Armageddon: Saturday, February 15, 12:00 PM EST. What that means is that if you love someone, even if you just like them a lot, you might as well go ahead and tell them on Friday. Buy the chocolate. Eat the fancy dinner. Go to that concert you can’t afford. Indulge. This could be your last chance.
Am I fear-mongering a bit? Yes, intentionally to make a point. In the past three and a half weeks, we’ve already become so accustomed to one alarming headline after another that we’re starting to ignore the ones that don’t appear to directly affect us. As a result, developments that could genuinely bring about the beginning of the end go ignored because they’re not sitting in your back door, don’t have an immediate effect on your pocketbook, and may not disturb your spring break plans. As stressful as it is, though, we need to pay more attention.
Here’s what’s happened in the past twenty-four hours:
- Hamas says it’s putting additional hostage releases ‘on pause.’ This immediately puts the entire ceasefire truce in danger.
- Israel fatally shot a pregnant Palestinian woman in the West Bank. Tensions were already high in the region and this incident, accident or not, put residents more on edge.
- Felonious Punk warns ‘all hell is going to break out’ if Gaza hostages are not returned by Hamas. He arbitrarily set a deadline for noon on Saturday, about the time the Punk finishes his first Big Mac.
- Hamas brushes off Punk and insists all parties must be committed to a ceasefire. Someone is playing into the other’s hand, but I’m not sure which side is likely to win. I do know that both are equally heartless and stupid.
- Punk Says He May Cut Aid if Jordan and Egypt Don’t Take Displaced Gazans. The danger here isn’t necessarily a lack of aid to the two countries, but with whom they will ally in its absence. Don’t expect it to be anyone who likes us.
King Abdullah II of Jordan is scheduled to meet with Punk in Washington later this morning. Expect the toughest possible diplomatic language to be thrown about. Jordan’s laws prohibit taking refugees. Since Punk has no respect for anyone’s laws, including our own, he’s taking a ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude. Plans for an upcoming visit by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt appear to have been scrapped, according to Arab media. El-Sisi isn’t inclined to play games with the US presidork and will turn to Iran and Russia in a heartbeat.
Are you beginning to see how this all could blow up in our faces? The more Punk pushes, the more Middle East and adjacent countries are balking. The decades of diplomacy necessary to keep a shaky level of peace in the region are coming undone just to placate the ego of a maniac.
Worst case scenario: noon passes on Saturday, which is about sundown in Israel (which is important), and Israel decides the abandon the ceasefire and bomb ‘the hell’ out of Gaza. Iran retaliates and brings both Egypt and Jordan into the fight, possibly along with Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Turkey’s involvement would put pressure on European NATO countries to be involved. Putin hates NATO, so if they become involved then so will Russia, initially sending weapons and ammo, but troops if the conflict grows. Should Russia become directly involved, it’s doubtful that the Punk-In-Chief is going to sit on the sidelines. This would be the excuse for war that he’s been wanting. Once the US is directly involved, it’s WWIII and all bets are off the table.
But we have the superior armed forces, right? Uhm, about that…
Ebola cases in Uganda have risen to 9, while 265 others are being monitored under quarantine. This is the level at which it begins to spread to other countries, including the US.
Scientists warn Punk’s medical research cuts endanger patients as judge blocks the move for now. Remember how quickly a vaccine was found for the last pandemic? Punk would remove funding for the agencies that can prevent millions of people from dying. So much for healthy troops.
Fifteen cases of measles were reported in a small West Texas county with a high rate of vaccine exemptions. Do stupid things, get stupid results. However, 15 cases in one county are alarming and are almost certainly going to spread to adjacent counties.
AND THEN, A new strain of bird flu is detected in a Nevada dairy worker. Because, you know, the two strains that we already had going weren’t enough, apparently.
Now put all that together, let all those bacterium mix and mingle around in the human body. Anyone is sufficiently deadly on its own. In any combination, the lethality is something no health organization in the world is ready to fight. Troop strength, across the board, plummets quickly as everyone is at risk.
Now there’s some fear-mongering for you. This is all hyperbole. There is a decent chance that absolutely nothing will happen. Saturday will come and go as we rant and rail about more irrelevant and idiotic executive orders being handed down. The sun might even shine.
So, why write about it at all? Because in the flood of nonsense coming out of Washington, we easily lose our ability to think critically and strategically. One tends to not worry about the rain when being swept away by the water. We look to secure our personal security first and when that appears to be at such high risk, we become ignorant of larger, more dangerous monsters sneaking up on our backside. While worst-case scenarios are highly speculative, we still have to acknowledge the possibilities and, at least in the back of our minds, have an adequate response waiting.
The Internet is full of comparisons between this administration and the rise of Nazism in Germany. Too many of them are accurate. It has gotten so bad that yesterday, the American Bar Association felt that it needed to release a statement supporting the Rule of Law. One would think that attorneys supporting the Rule of Law would be a given, but the situation in DC has gotten so out of hand that they need to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Today, we’ll likely see how the administration responds to a federal judge saying that the White House ignored his ruling on aid spending. There’s that whole Rule of Law issue, again. There’s so much going on that no one seems to be standing up to the ‘pause’ in federal law prohibiting foreign bribes. A new survey of global corruption shows the US slipping from a score of 69 to 65, putting us in 28th place. Who’s the least corrupt? Denmark, Finland, Singapore, and New Zealand, in that order, to no one’s surprise.
I was out with the dogs last night, trying to get Hamilton to tire out a bit before settling down for the night. We were roughhousing and playing when I took a hard faceplant. My first thought was to call out for help, but I didn’t. Everyone had a tough day. No one needed to add me to their list of problems. Nothing was injured beyond my pride. As both dogs came running to make sure I was okay, I picked myself up, brushed off the mud, came inside, and changed out of my clothes.
This morning, I’m in pain. I’m hoping meds and a hot shower will help. Perhaps this is a metaphor for where we are as a country. We’ve fallen, but the safeguards that would normally help us up are missing. We’ve endured so much that we’re in pain, hoping that we can fix everything that’s wrong by taking a hot shower and hoping that the Rule of Law makes everything better.
I’m not sure which is worse: too little fear or too much. Both are dangerous. Good luck finding the balance point.
But Seriously…
Something tells me there will be serious changes to the KC Chiefs’ O-line during the offseason. Too bad we can’t trade politicians the same way. Or, stay with me now, an annual draft where we get to choose from the best of people based on how they scored at a political combine. We need a president who can run a 4-40, right? Something obvious needs to change because even two years is too long to hold on to the disastrous team we have on the field right now.
It’s still early, so I’m not going to comment a lot this morning. The warm-up headlines aren’t looking good, though. I’m expecting yet another poor performance from the demented QB who keeps calling the wrong plays. His backfield stinks as well. Here’s what I’m seeing this morning:
- Felonious Punk says he’ll levy a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports regardless of their point of origin. Most of those imports come from allies. Not cool.
- The Clown-in-chief says he is serious about Canada becoming the 51st state in a Super Bowl interview. This son of a bitch doesn’t seem to realize that Canada is geographically larger than the US. It’s a distraction, though. Don’t fall for it.
- Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump’s agenda faces legal pushback. They don’t understand the whole division of power thing. More proof that the inmates are running the asylum.
- Five Former Treasury Secretaries: It Is Time to Sound the Alarm. That is, if anyone actually has the guts to do something forceful.
There are some signs of pushback. These three are worth noting:
- Turkey’s Erdogan again rejects US proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza. Our joke of a president isn’t the negotiator Ike was. I don’t expect anyone but Israel to go along with his plan.
- ‘No thanks’: White South Africans turn down Punk’s immigration offer. This might be funny if it weren’t so humiliating.
- Punk Killed a Major Report on Nature. They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway. This is critical information as the planet continues to get warmer. How far away are we from truly deadly summers and withering crops? It would be nice to know.
Then, there was this ad last night:
In fact, there were DEI messages all through last night’s ads. One of the best came from the NFL itself, a 60-second ad of players leading children in the ‘I Am Somebody’ affirmations. Unfortunately, they won’t let me share that with you here. You’ll have to look it up on your own. In fact, I can’t share anything posted by the NFL, money-hungry bastards. The pre-game music featuring Ledisi, Trombone Shorty, and Jon Baptiste was on point as well.
I don’t expect today to go well. Until someone actually denies entry to DOGE workers and raises a complete stink about the whole thing, this administration will continue to think they’re infallible. Personally, I think that if someone were to start shooting DOGE workers like one might do to Nazi soldiers, conversations in DC would change quickly. I’m not supposed to say things like that, though, am I?
Yeah, right. We have infants in charge of the government. They need to be changed.
Fatal Flaws & Bad Religion
For more than two years I purposely ingested poison every day to prevent myself from dying. That cancer is a complete bitch is not new news for anyone. Practically everyone knows of someone who died from the disease. When someone tells us that they have cancer, our first response is to anticipate the worst and hope we’re wrong. We inherently understand that left untreated, cancer kills. We’ve seen many survive treatment and go on to live productive lives. We’ve also seen those for whom treatment was insufficient and shed tears watching their lives fade away. Few question the science. Cancer is bad.
So why, then, do we not respond the same to a severe outbreak of the flu? Almost everyone blows it off until they get it and, much to their surprise, it nearly kills them. We are fortunate to have plenty of medications that treat the flu, depending on the variety. Yet, as I’m typing, 4-year-old Ruby Swain is on the verge of dying from a case of Flu A. We hope that she’ll recover, but there are no guarantees. There never have been. The flu is pretty fucking dangerous.
Among this morning’s headlines, Avian flu is suspected in up to 15 bird deaths at New York City zoos. A dairy worker in Nevada has tested positive for H5N1 bird flu, the first human case identified in the state. Both strains are different from the bird flu, which has kept egg prices increasing across the country. As we mentioned yesterday, this is the worst flu outbreak in 15 years. The odds of one form or another developing into a full-scale pandemic are too high to ignore.
So, naturally, Felonious Punk, the questionably-elected leader of our tattered country, decides this would be a good time to start removing critical health information from government websites. Specifically, information related to the particular health issues of women and people of color has gone missing. Funding for medical research has been frozen or abolished. The Centers For Disease Control is bracing for layoffs.
Sit back, I’m gonna make this personal.
In the Spring of 1974, I got the flu. The timing sucked. I was supposed to play Pomp & Circumstance for Jr. High graduation. There were finals to take at school. Things were not going well at the church Poppa pastored and he was actively looking at his options. For a while, we ignored the fever and other symptoms and I kept on plugging away. I could barely see the music as I played for the graduation. I couldn’t concentrate enough to take tests. Because Mother was a trusted teacher, she was allowed to administer my tests at home, but that didn’t help. I grew increasingly sick.
Finally, when my fever hit 105, my parents decided to break down and take me to the doctor. The problem there, and the reason for their hesitancy, was that our local small-town doctor was on vacation. He had made arrangements with another physician in the next town over to see any emergency cases. My parents weren’t sure they wanted to trust this unknown doctor, but when my fever wouldn’t come down, they decided they had to call. At 9:00 at night.
Remember, this was the 70s in rural Oklahoma. There were no urgent care centers. Hospitals largely shut down after 6:00 PM. Going to the ER was out of the question. When Mother called the first time, the doctor was audibly perturbed at the lateness of the call. He told her to give me aspirin (Tylenol wasn’t a big thing yet) and make an appointment for the next morning.
I took the aspirin. My fever continued to rise. At 11:30, Mother called the doctor again. I was in desperate need of help. I was having trouble breathing. The doctor balked, insisting that we would have to wait for normal office hours the next day. Then, Poppa got on the phone. I have no idea what he said to the doctor, but the next thing I knew I was bundled in a blanket and on my way to the doctor’s office.
After seeing my condition, the doctor apologized for the delay. He had not imagined that my condition could possibly be this bad. I remember getting two shots in my butt. Mother would later tell me that I was four. By morning, my fever had gone down to 102, but it stubbornly stayed there for the next four weeks. We would end up moving to Tahlequah before I was completely well. I never saw any of my classmates or friends again.
Only years later would Mother admit that they had erred by not taking me to the doctor sooner. They had relied on faith. Praying like crazy that God would heal me and make me better. Surely, if they waited long enough, this flu would just go away for me like it did for everyone else. It didn’t. If science hadn’t prevailed, I would have died.
Not since then have I had a case of the flu that laid me out as badly as that one. We learned from the experience. At the first sign of a fever, we were off to the doctor. There would be other years when the flu would hit the household pretty hard, but never again was it as life-threatening. The lesson I came away with was two-fold: Don’t take health matters lightly, and don’t expect God to intervene.
So, when Felonious Punk announced this week that he was creating a White House Faith Office and putting Paula White-Cain at its head, a knot started growing in the pit of my stomach. When he signed an executive order alleging to protect against anti-Christian bias, that knot started bouncing around, causing me to feel ill. I fear that these are precursors to a change in government that puts everyone at risk and blatantly defies the Constitution.
The problem is that Paula White-Cain is a fraud. That’s not surprising, given the company she keeps. Newspapers have labeled her as a ‘prosperity gospel’ proponent, one who thinks that there’s a connection between salvation and how much one gives to the church. While that’s true, there’s an even darker side to her beliefs. White-Cain is part of a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which is a Christian Nationalist movement bent on putting like-minded religious fruit cakes in all government offices. They’re willing to completely ignore the whole of the First Amendment. Women’s rights? Nah. They need to stay home. Religious freedom? Nope. If you’re not their brand of Christian your faith is invalid. Science over myth? Not even close. They look at things such as science, math, and rational thinking as damaging to one’s faith and are therefore sinful. These are the people who label empathy as sinful. They bend and contort scripture so far out of context that Jesus Christ himself wouldn’t recognize the bullshit they’re preaching.
The movement is far from new, though it hasn’t always had this name. It has seen a resurgence over the last fifteen years, though. There are books both supporting and debunking the philosophy at almost any bookstore. The tenets of the movement are at the crux of any debate between conservative and progressive churches.
Worse yet, they’re getting what they want. At the start of the new legislative session, a group of North Dakota legislators put forward a blatantly unconstitutional resolution that would have the state “acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus Christ.”
“Whereas, the founding fathers of this great state begin the constitution with the words, ‘We’, the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God … We desire there shall be a recognition of Almighty God as the source of authority; of the Lord Jesus Christ as the rightful ruler of nations…” the text for House Concurrent Resolution 3020 reads.
Should this resolution pass, and should courts ultimately uphold it, the entirety of the First Amendment would become null and void. Other states, such as Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, and Arkansas, would almost immediately follow suit. As more states bend to the idiocy of this movement, the entire Constitution fractures as Amendments are as misinterpreted as are Bible scriptures. The United States as we know it would cease to exist.
I wish I knew what I could do to convince all people that every religion, any of them, is mythological at its base. Their concepts of deity are based on a gross Neanderthal ignorance of the universe. Nothing in any of their holy books holds truth, though they do occasionally give some decent advice about being kind, forgiving, and accepting; you know all the things this administration ignores. Adhering to religious faith above a growing knowledge of the universe, earth, its elements, and its dangers, is the type of foolishness that results in the end of humankind.
Have you ever wondered why humans are the only creatures on the planet who believe in a deity? A 2016 study showed that bonobos not only have more gray matter in the amygdala and insula, regions involved in perceiving emotions in self and others, but they also have a larger pathway linking the amygdala with the anterior cingulate cortex, which is implicated in top-down control of aggressive impulses. Moreover, a study released this past week shows that when bonobos realize they know something human partners don’t, they attempt to communicate and ‘teach’ the human. Great apes don’t rely on mythology, they rely on proven information.
Given that information, who is the lesser species here? Why are we taking governmental instructions from people who not only believe in myths but completely distort them in an effort to extort power?
I grew up thinking that people have a right to believe whatever the fuck they want. I’m no longer of that mind. If what you believe puts other people’s lives in danger, your beliefs are wrong. If what you believe denies established facts, you are wrong. If what you believe diminishes the humanity of others based on gender, sexuality, or perceived race, you are wrong. Period. No excuses.
We can no longer afford to tolerate such ignorance and stupidity, especially in our country’s highest offices. Gay rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights. All people, everywhere, have a right to the best medical care available. No one should be dying from the flu!
Fuck Christianity. Fuck all religions. I’d just as soon see every last one of their churches, synagogues, and temples burn to the ground. You are a danger to humanity and to this country. I’m done being tolerant of ignorance. Burn it all to the ground.
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Saturday, February 8, 2025
February 8, 2025
Off With Their Heads!
Coffee may not be enough to keep me going this morning. I had wanted to sleep late but Jack Jack, our mane coon mix, decided to not only wake me up at 5:45 AM, but both dogs as well. The dogs woke up and realized they were hungry and needed to poop. Going back to sleep wasn’t an option. My head feels as though it is about to implode. Today shows no sign of being as relaxing as I want.
I’m picking up on a couple of items that may have flown under everyone’s radar in the past 24 hours. Let’s start by acknowledging that Flu season in the US is the most intense it’s been in at least 15 years. This isn’t political so if you go trying to blame one side or the other I’m going to slap you. This year’s flu is bad to the bone, literally. While one can speculate on the effects of climate change being responsible, the bottom line is that flu strains have been growing in strength for a while. If you’re as old as I am, get the damn flu shot. The rest of you, be honest with yourself about how you’re feeling. If you’re showing any signs of the flu, stay the fuck home.
I’m also aware that claims about USAID funding are spreading online. Many are not based on facts. What bothers me most about this situation is that much of the misinformation I’m seeing isn’t coming from this insane federal administration. Instead, it’s the idiots sitting next to us who are spouting lies amidst gleeful vitriol over “burning this hellhole of a country to the ground.” They’ve yet to realize the effect that all the cuts and canceling of services are going to have. By the time the pain starts hitting home, it may be too late to do anything about it.
Sure, there was some rejoicing when a judge blocked Punk from placing thousands of USAID workers on leave and giving them a 30-day deadline. A different Federal judge blocked Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing sensitive US Treasury Department material. However, a US judge declined to block DOGE from Labor Department systems. And late yesterday afternoon, Punk said he’s firing the Kennedy Center board of trustees members and naming himself chairman. No, he does not have the power to do that, but he’s certainly making it an issue.
Both MSNBC and CNN have reported about a defiant letter from someone within the FBI. Here’s the full text of the letter. Please, read it carefully.
Uncommon Sense was a Common Vice
Those with knowledge of the United States Marine Corps will recognize the irony of this title. I wish its words were not true, but as I write this, I believe they are.
Currently, there is an effort to cull a significant number of career Special Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is an unthinkable action that will gravely undermine the security of the nation well beyond what many of our citizens are aware. For those seeking to raise their awareness, I offer this vignette, free of political bias or moral judgment. It is not about any one person, but an amalgamation of multiple FBI Special Agents.
I am the coach of your child’s soccer team. I sit next to you on occasion in religious devotion. I am a member of the PTA. With friends, you celebrated my birthday. I collected your mail and took out your trash while you were away from home. I played a round of golf with you. I am a veteran. I am the average neighbor in your community. This is who you see and know. However, there is a part of my life that is a mystery to you, and prompts a natural curiosity about my profession.
This is the quiet side of me that you do not know: I orchestrated a clandestine operation to secure the release of an allied soldier held captive by the Taliban. I prevented an ISIS terrorist from boarding a commercial aircraft. I spent 3 months listening to phone intercepts in real time to gather evidence needed to dismantle a violent drug gang. I recruited a source to provide critical intelligence on Russian military activities in Africa. I rescued a citizen being tortured to near death by members of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. I interceded and stopped a juvenile planning to conduct a school shooting. I spent multiple years monitoring the activities of deep-cover foreign intelligence officers, leading to their arrest and deportation. I endured extensive hardship to infiltrate a global child trafficking organization. I have been shot in the line of duty.
Something else about me, I was assigned to investigate a potential crime. Like all previous cases I have investigated, this one met every legal standard of predication and procedure. Without bias, I upheld my oath to this country and the Constitution and collected the facts. I collected the facts in a manner to neither prove innocence nor guilt, but to arrive at resolution.
I am now sitting in my home, listening to my children play and laugh in the backyard, oblivious to the prospect that their father may be fired in a few days. Fired for conducting a legally authorized investigation. Fired for doing the job that he was hired to do. I have to wonder, when I am gone, who will do the quiet work that is behind the facade of your average neighbor?
How long are we willing to let this mess continue? Why are we ‘waiting to see how it all plays out’ when by the time it all plays out hundreds of thousands of people could be in foreign jails without any access to justice? Why are we content with temporary blocks on illegal power grabs? When Democratic members of Congress were denied access to the Department of Education, why did no one knock down the damn door? Where’s the real anger and outrage?
The entire world is in trouble. Right-wing extremism is growing everywhere and I’m not seeing anyone, anywhere, who has a legitimate chance of stopping it. We’re too content with making phone calls, sending letters, and threatening to vote against people who may not let us vote at all.
This is a call to arms. This is the moment when we have to decide whether we are going to defend our country and our freedoms against fascism and tyranny. That critical moment is here.
THIS is what real resistance looks like:
Prepare the barricades and let’s see who joins in the fight.
More Bark, Toothless Bites.
A chill was back in the air this morning as I took the dogs out for their morning poop. A stiff wind out of the North hints at chances of freezing rain over the weekend. Our dogs can be aggressive and of late, that aggressiveness has increased some, mostly from Belvedere, the English Hound. He doesn’t like cars—any of them. He’ll stand in the yard when we’re out in the afternoon and voice his displeasure. He’s quiet when we’re out in the morning, though. He seems to understand that no one wants to hear his voice when it’s still dark. The dog understands more about getting along with neighbors than some people do.
ABC News seems to be the only major news outlet addressing a memo from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday warning that cameras made in China could be ‘spying’ on the US. I laughed. From the moment they were invented, cameras have been used by almost every nation to spy on others, including their own people. We didn’t need digital cameras for that, nor did we need internet-connected cameras. As far back as WWII, miniaturized cameras were used to convey troop movements and other aspects of war. Nothing is going on that hasn’t been happening for decades.
What the memo specifically warns about are cameras that are ‘internet-connected.’ Again, I laughed. Cameras don’t just connect to the nearest Internet signal on their own. They have to be manually connected to a specific and the camera has to be turned on. This has been a feature on digital cameras for a couple of decades now. I never use it because it’s a pain in the ass to set up and the benefits are negligible if one isn’t close to a connected laptop or other computer. No photographer just walks around with the camera turned on, either, because a) it kills battery life, and b) most cameras automatically turn off if they’ve not been used for more than a minute or two.
There’s also the fact that few legitimate US photographers use Chinese gear. Canon, Sony, and Nikon still dominate the US market. I couldn’t even think of a Chinese brand. When I dug around a bit, I found this list of the ten most popular cameras made in China. I’ve not heard of nor encountered any of them. These are the brands I might expect to find on the bottom shelf of a ‘discount’ electronics store. They’re made largely of plastic and the quality of the glass is questionable at best. It would be a really lousy spy or a really shitty photographer who would use one of these brands.
This begs the question: why release such a useless memo? Only ABC News took the bait. Everyone else ignored it because it was meaningless. Granted, over the past three weeks, we’ve seen dozens of meaningless memos from various government agencies. Most are performative, at best, and some read as though they were written by children, which, in this administration, is quite possible. Many have been rescinded within twenty-four hours of being released.
What this memo has the potential to do, however, is make life difficult for legitimate photographers, especially photojournalists. I remember how it felt in the days immediately following 9/11, especially in New York. Simply taking my camera out of its bag on a street corner was enough to cause people to not only stare but contact the nearest beat cop. I frequently had to explain myself, though only once did it ever cause any problem (another story for another time). Now, everyone’s cell phone has a camera stronger than I had back then, and cell phones are connected to networks by default but no one bats an eye. Photojournalists, however, rarely rely on their cell phones to get the best shots. A good camera with a 200mm to 500mm zoom stands out and tends to indicate that the person holding the device knows what they’re doing (not always the case). From my perspective, the only purpose I can see in this memo is to make photojournalists targets. Yes, it’s insane, but then, so are most of the memos and edicts we’ve seen handed down the past three weeks. Sanity is not this administration’s strong suit.
There are also signs of a pushback against the illegal aspects of the administration’s overreach. A Judge temporarily blocked the Punk’s plan offering incentives for federal workers to resign. 13 states sued over DOGE access to government payment systems containing personal data. The US border czar blames leaks for hindering immigration raids in Colorado suburbs. Egypt lobbies against Punk’s plan to empty Gaza of Palestinians. Iran’s supreme leader says US talks ‘not intelligent, wise or honorable,’ Members of the U.S. House Progressive Caucus held a news conference on Thursday vowing to fire Elon Musk. There is finally some action from Democrats, but there’s still plenty of room for them to step up and do something. Anything. Just don’t expect it to happen this weekend.
Yeah, I’m aware of the hilarious (sort of) order to fight ‘anti-Christian bias.’ I’m fairly sure the only thing that order will achieve is increasing the anti-Christian bias that the church itself has created through its neverending hypocrisy. This is the Punk’s attempt to keep a dwindling evangelical movement at his side. There will ultimately be a First Amendment clash over this.
We’re going into a weekend where more people would rather complain about the dominance of the Eagles and Chiefs rather than the government. There will be tons of expensive chicken wings devoured and more than a little beer spilled. Ads will most likely be disappointing (from what I’ve seen so far). Monday could be designated as ‘National Hangover Day.’
This is a good time to be kind to yourself. Go ahead and take that nap. Indulge in your favorite comfort foods if you can. Read a good book. For all the danger we’re in, even the nut jobs in DC have trouble competing with the Super Bowl. Relax for a minute. We’ll have plenty to address next week.
Enjoy the coffee.
WE ARE DONE (for now)!
NO MORE CHEMO! Yesterday was officially my last dose. While I still have a table full of other meds I’ll still have to take, the daily poisoning that I’ve endured for the past two-plus years is over! I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Kat and everyone else who has endured and put up with me over this less-than-fun journey. This is a trip that I do not care to repeat, ever, though that is, in reality, highly unlikely. Still, my oncology team is convinced that my numbers have been good enough for long enough that we can consider my leukemia to be in remission! PARTY TIME!
Well, okay, maybe hold up on that party thing a little bit. The doctor was careful to explain that being in remission doesn’t mean I immediately stop showing symptoms. Doing daily chemo for over two years means I have a lot of the drug in my body. The poison isn’t going to suddenly go away just because I stop adding to it. Recovery from the drug could take just as long as the chemo did, and there are some symptoms, such as chronic fatigue, that may never go completely away.
One of the things the doctor warned about was symptoms seeming to disappear for a while and then suddenly returning without any warning. While nausea and night sweats are the symptoms most likely to reappear, he warned that I should always keep my cane handy because there’s no way of knowing when my muscles might decide to shut down and stop working. He said the symptoms can also mimic a cold or the flu. Should such symptoms reappear, he requested that I call the cancer center before calling my GP to consider whether what I’m experiencing might be a leftover from the chemo.
What does ‘being in remission’ mean if I’m still going to be just as sick? Let’s start here:
The doctor emphasized that there is no way to be absolutely sure that CLL is in complete remission. There is a test that can be done with a bone marrow sample, but it is still considered highly experimental as no one is quite sure what to do with the results. As a result, he recommended against the rather painful procedure. Instead, I’ll do quarterly check-ins with the nurse practitioner, and as long as those pesky numbers don’t start to climb again, we’ll assume that the remission is holding.
There’s also no way to accurately predict how long the remission might hold. Five years is pretty much the max for most people, but there’s always the chance it could be as little as six months. His recommendation was pretty standard: get plenty of rest, eat well, exercise when I can, and avoid any serious stress. Apparently, the doctor hasn’t been reading a lot of news lately.
In the meantime, I have a fine needle biopsy of a nodule on my left thyroid this morning. My anxiety wishes that Kat could be there with me, but she has other things to do and, by any means of accounting, this is a rather low-risk procedure. I just have to stay completely still.
HAVE YOU MET ME?
I don’t think I’ve ever stayed completely still for anything! A local anesthetic will be used, and then they carefully poke a needle into my neck. I can’t imagine anything going wrong there, can you? I’m told the whole thing shouldn’t take more than two hours, and then I can come back home and sleep off the anesthetic.
Having a nodule is not necessarily indicative of yet more cancer. Should the biopsy come back positive, thyroid cancer is typically handled by an endocrinologist, not an oncologist. Same building, different floor, different doctor. The nodule has sat there untreated for the past two years, though, so chances lean more toward it being benign.
Where do I go from here? Assuming the whole thyroid thing is a nonissue, I have an appointment with the neurologist that may be rather involved. There could be a surgery or two involved there. I’ll need to see a urologist again, and there could be a surgery involved there as well. I still need to be in an assisted living facility, but as Medicare/Medicaid budgets get tossed around, who knows when that might happen?
A part of me wants to get back to work taking pictures again. I would have to make a lot of adjustments, though. I need to be able to sit down more often than standing. Indoors is better than outdoors. No extreme weather in any direction. No chasing breaking news stories. For that matter, probably no chasing static news stories. Still, I feel like the photo ideas have just been piling up for the past three years. I want a camera in my hand again.
For now, we’ll just worry about this whole FNA thing, get through it, then chill for the weekend. I’m sure next week will bring a whole new set of problems. There’s never any shortage.
So, who’s down to party?
Life In The Stupid Lane.
The shock on the faces of White House Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let everyone know: Felonious Punk did not discuss the takeover of Gaza before opening his mouth. Everyone in the room was shocked. Allies and adversaries both quickly rejected the idea like they did the first time Punk made the suggestion. For Palestinian people, however, his statement has a horrible sense of deja vu. It was a mass expulsion in 1948 that created the Jewish-dominated country of Israel. The move was wrong then, and it’s just as wrong now. But then, right and wrong don’t seem to matter to this administration.
In a move that surprises no one, the administration pulled almost all USAID workers off the job worldwide. Aid for Palestinian refugees was completely eliminated. Funding for the mission attempting to reign in Haiti’s gangs has been zeroed out. The net effect is likely to be a higher level of global chaos as competing anti-government groups worldwide ramp up acts of terror in an attempt to gain control. The solution that Felonious Punk is likely to propose is that the US simply take over all the problem areas.
All of them. Forcefully if necessary. The international community is worried. Some say such moves violate international law, and they’re probably correct. But then, many of the administration’s domestic moves are illegal as well but that’s not stopping them. We are being governed by a group of self-serving billionaire thugs. Nothing is going to get better until we find an effective way to fight back.
One of the most stupid moves made in the past twenty-four hours was essentially firing almost everyone in the CIA. Technically, the entire staff was offered contract buyouts. Either way, the results are the same: we lose our eyes and ears around the world. Assets that have prevented untold disasters will be gone. There will be no one protecting US interests, nor the rule of law, anywhere in the world. Who benefits? Terrorists. Without the CIA on the ground, there’s damn near no one left to stop them. We are likely to be attacked both at home and abroad. We are inherently weaker now than we were yesterday.
Don’t think all this isn’t going to affect folks at home as well. Several Head Start preschools may need to close temporarily because they’ve been locked out of their federal funding. Good luck finding someone to watch the kids while you go to work, parents! And those of you who regularly shop Temu and/or Shein will want to know that the US Postal Service suspended inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong. It doesn’t matter that you’ve already paid for the goods. They’re now stuck for an unknown period of time, perhaps permanently. The same is likely to apply for some purchases made on Amazon if the origin point is either China or Hong Kong. Fast fashion, laptops and toys are likely to cost more due to US tariffs on Chinese imports. These are the things that are going to hit your pocketbook now.
What are we going to do? Yeah, I know protests are planned for today in all 50 states. They are occurring in every state’s capitol at noon, local times. I had planned on attending the one here, but I’ll be sitting in my oncologist’s office instead. Freezing rain forecast for much of the Midwest is likely to dampen attendence numbers as well. Protests are nice and all, but when faced with a person who brazenly defies laws, are protests enough? We’ve seen politicians stand in front of microphones, but none of them are having any success actually stopping any of Punk’s actions. We need a forceful plan that hits back at the administration with all the fear and furry they’ve put on us the past two weeks.
I have my moments of doubt. As G was getting ready for school this morning, I had him double check to make sure he had his house key with him. While I should be back from the doctor before he gets home, there are no guarantees even for the simple things anymore. G and I had an interesting conversation about the advantages of attending both trade school and college, given the uncertainty of the future. He’s thinking in the right direction, but part of me wonders if there’s any amount of education in any field that is going to adequately prepapre our kids for the future being dumped on them. Both will, presumably, graduate high school before the next presidential election. I don’t know how to advise them anymore. I can’t promise them anything will be left. I can’t guarantee that options available today will still be available when they graduate. Nothing is certain.
As much as I’d love to have grandchildren, I’d hate to encourage anyone to bring a child into this mess. A dear friend recently had a beautiful baby girl and I know that she’ll do everything within her power to protect that child and raise her well, but what options will she have? Will education still exist in the forms with which we are accustomed? Will appropriate pediatric medical care be available and affordable during her formative years? Could food and clothing be a challenge? This isn’t a first-time mom. She has resources. She knows what she’s doing. Still, raising this child could be dramatically different from her older siblings.
With all the different rumors and arguments I’m seeing and hearing, I have little hope for anyone forming a ‘well regulated militia’ capable of fighting back against the government with any real force. In fact, that line in the Second Amendment is practically useless in our current situation.
No matter what, we must resist.
Brace For Impact
I was notified via text late yesterday morning that today’s oncology appointment had been moved to tomorrow. I double-checked with my inside person at the cancer center, and she confirmed the change but said no reason was listed, which is unusual. I’m concerned. This should be the visit that tells me I can stop taking chemo pills. My oncologist is Indian. His nurse practitioner is female. The hematology staff is all female and primarily Black. Community Health Network, of which the cancer center is a part, has long had a progressive DEI stance. However, in the past two weeks, we’ve seen multiple federal agencies, including the CDC, drop and eliminate DEI initiatives. Companies that refuse to drop DEI programs have come under fire from Republicans.
I’m concerned.
Meanwhile, Kat has been working to help address the winter needs of homeless people living near the salon. She passes three homeless encampments on her way into town. She’s been working diligently with others to provide hats, scarves, gloves, and blankets. As aid for displaced people has become increasingly nonexistent, she knows that many of these people would not survive without a little bit of help.
The America in which we’re living right now is insane. I think the most disturbing headline I’ve seen this morning is Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept deportees from the US of any nationality, including Americans. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador confirmed the unusual and possibly illegal arrangement, saying El Salvador has “offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.” He said his country would accept only “convicted criminals” and would charge a fee that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
Yeah, you read that correctly. The Secretary of State has entered the US into an agreement for deporting American citizens to Salvadoran prisons in a country where civil rights are routinely ignored. If you thought this was just about immigration, you were wrong.
There is some pushback. The AFL-CIO and other pro-labor organizations have filed suit against the Treasury Department for allowing Musk’s stooges to have access to sensitive personal information. That lawsuit, like anything going through the court system, is going to take time, though. In the interim, these are the nutjobs that have access to your information:
I’ve said this before; I’ll say it again: Elon Musk is an Apartheid-loving traitor who came to the US illegally because the South African government wouldn’t let his white ass get away with the crimes he’s committing here. The Felonious Punk attack on South Africa exposes divisions over race and land and is fueled wholly by Musk’s hatred for his home country, the people who were holding him accountable for his racist actions.
I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to type a lot this morning. I’ve been trying to pull a video clip from Sen. Schumer’s remarks yesterday, but it’s taking too damn long. I’m pretty sure they’re posted all over social media anyway.
If you can’t see where all this is headed, you’ll likely become one of its first victims. There are protests schedule in all 50 state capitals for noon tomorrow. I’ll be at the cancer center at that time, but if you can, please go.
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Monday, February 03, 2025
February 3, 2025
You’re Going To Feel A Little Pinch
Another Monday is here and, to be totally honest, there’s so much in my news feeds this morning that I’m tempted just to throw up my hands and walk away. I’m not, because talking about all this shit is probably the only thing keeping me marginally sane. I know a lot of people have stopped reading/watching the news, but I can’t do that. If I’m going to be mowed down by an out-of-control government, I want to see it coming. I may not be able to stop the inevitable, but I’m not going to close my eyes and pretend it isn’t happening.
At the same time, I have to pay attention to what’s going on right around me. Kat was almost in a car accident over the weekend and when I say ‘almost’ I mean that her instinctive reflexes were the only thing that prevented her from being involved. She was on I-465N, in the middle lane, with a Jeep to her left, and a semi to her right. Traffic on that part of I-465 typically runs around 65 mph but apparently, that just wasn’t fast enough for a blue car that came up from behind the Jeep and hit it, knocking the Jeep into the semi. Kat had smelled burning rubber from the approaching car and slowed down. Had she been the slightest bit more forward, the Jeep would have hit her and knocked her into the semi. Physically, she was unharmed, but she spent the rest of the weekend fighting the emotions from the near miss.
Against that backdrop, I’m fighting against my own anger in an attempt to find words that are coherent and meaningful. I spent much of yesterday in bed with the phone and computer off. When I did come up for air (and food), I was disgusted by most of what I saw. I’m increasingly seeing less and less of an option for survival that doesn’t involve killing people. I don’t like those options, but in a me vs. them situation, I’m choosing me and my family. I’m afraid that’s going to force me into some decisions that I don’t want to make, but we can’t repeat the mistakes Germans made as the Nazis took over their country. If we do that, none of us survive.
Among the most disturbing of headlines this morning:
- USAID staffers were told to stay out of Washington headquarters after Musk said Felonious Punk agreed to close it. 600 workers reported being locked out overnight. This is highly illegal, but no one in law enforcement has the guts to do anything about it.
- Punk wants to undo diversity programs. Some agencies react by scrubbing US history and culture. What this means in the long term is that parents have to teach history and culture at home. Start buying the books now because they may not be available within a few months.
- Global shares slip as worries grow about Punk’s tariffs. The markets haven’t opened in the US, but they have in other places around the world and it’s not looking good. Expect a severe sell-off when the US markets open. Yes, your 401K is going to take a hit. You might want to consider other options.
- Punk plans to invoke obscure 18th-century wartime law in a bid for mass deportations. The law would allow for mass deportations without the benefit of a court hearing. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, intended to be used only in times of war, allows for the deportation of anyone involved in an “invasion or predatory incursion.”
- In Panama, Marco Rubio Escalates Confrontation Over Canal. Shoring up the US’s position as a global bully, the Secretary of State threatened to “intervene” if Panama doesn’t make it more difficult for Chinese ships to pass through the locks.
The headline infuriating me the most, however, is Punk says Americans could feel ‘some pain’ from tariffs as he threatens more import taxes. We could feel some pain? This isn’t like we’re sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for an injection of some kind. In fact, I have to say that as often as I get stuck by a needle, nurses have become amazingly good at minimizing the pain of a needle going into one’s arm. I find it absolutely insulting that he expects the American people to endure ‘some pain’ while he and his billionaire buddies sit back and reap the profits. Too many American people have been hurting for too long, going all the way back to Punk’s first administration. This is a level of egotistical bullshit that no one should tolerate.
Oh, but there’s still more. A bill to eliminate OSHA has been Introduced in the House of Representatives. Say goodbye to those nasty regulations that require things such as handrails on staircases, fire escapes in multi-story buildings, fire suppression systems, and all the other things that keep one from dying while they’re at work. I would like to think that there’s no chance of this bill making it out of committee, but remember that we’re dealing with gang warfare here. Republicans that don’t support bills backed by the administration are threatened with being challenged in the primaries next year. To a one, they’re fallingn in line, goose-stepping all the way to hell.
THEN, Rep. Thomas Massie Reintroduces H.R. 899 to Abolish the Federal Department of Education. We saw this one coming. It was part of Punk’s stump speech in the runup to the election. People voted for him anyway. If you thought there was any way it wouldn’t happen, think again. Education is under attack on every government level. Fewer children will have access to quality education and fewer schools will teach anything beyond the basic skills necessary to make them worker slaves in the coming regime.
You know it’s a bad day when even the Assistant Director of the FBI’s New York field office tells agents there that they are ‘at war.’ This explains why they’re not doing anything to stop the onslaught of crimes against the country; they’re too busy having to save their jobs! Don’t think for a moment that this wasn’t part of the plan coming into this administration. By taking law enforcement out of the picture, there’s no one left to stop them.
Over on r/AskHistorians subreddit, someone asked the question, “How long did it take for (1) it to be hard to leave the country and (2) most people to start starving in Nazi-controlled Europe after Hitler took over?” The primary answer is worth sharing.
That answer depends entirely on who you were.
The Nazis were keenly aware that widespread hunger in the population led to the defeat in 1918, so they did everything they could to prevent the German population from starving too much. Poor Germans were chronically undernourished, the rest did okay-ish, all luxuries were more and more cut off. Germans did better than other Europeans by starving other countries to death.
1944/45 was a hunger winter, but in general the worst starvation for Germans was the hunger winter of 1946. ’46 had polar vortex conditions in a bombed out country with no shelter and no heating materials. People died of exposure and hunger.
It took a few years post-war to stabilize the food in Germany and elsewhere. For example: The UK didn’t come off rations until 1954, partially, because they were also feeding the German population in the British zone.
If you were French, Dutch, rations were stricter than in Germany since the beginning of their respective invasions. Aryanness had its perks and a non-aryan couldn’t do better than them. Hunger was definitely a weapon and the Dutch almost starved to death in ’43, but due to a confluence of factors continued starving post-Market Garden ’44. Food stabilized in ’45. So, it really is different from country to country.
If you were slavic, you fell under Generalplan Ost which stated that you will be starved to death and the food used to feed Germans. Except for the Polish and Czech, who would be starved, but kept alive enough for slave labor.
In general food was a problem for the middle and working class throughout the war.
If you were Jewish, your mobility was slowly curtailed. Part of the problem was that money and assets were frozen by Eichmann around the Austrian occupation and other countries don’t like destitute migrants. So while people still left, it was mostly people with means.
After the pogrom in November 1938 it was kind of your final chance to get out, but it involved money and luck and it wasn’t easy. As of the invasion of Poland, it was game over. All exits were closed for Jews. ETA: Pardon, 1941, when the Holocaust was decided was game over. That order halting migration came in October and the conference was in January 1942. However, between ’39 to ’41 it was extremely difficult to leave.
If you were of a nationality which was not slated for death-through-starvation, annihilation, or slave labor, you could move through Europe as long as those nations let you through.
There are also many people in the public, embassies and even in the highest Nazi admin offices who helped forge passports for Jews, who transported Jewish kids on trains to safety, who saved the Jews of Denmark by leaking the plans and then sabotaging harbor patrol, by nannies hiding kids, and in the case of Schindler, saved a list of workers in Auschwitz.
Historians now believe that the resistance of the public by refusing to come apathetic and the small time admin and clerks refusing or sabotaging lists, would have prevented a lot of deaths. We know nothing happened to police officers who refused to shoot Jews in Eastern Europe as part of the Holocaust, for example.
Some sources: Aly Götz for how Nazis bought the compliance of Germans with stolen goods; the cohort around Tim Snyder on Generalplan Ost (Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire), ushmm on Denmark https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/denmark, Hannah Arendt on Eichmann and how the small time administrator did the most evil, Browning on policebattalion 101.
We have to resist. Even small actions make a difference. In last Friday’s post I have a link to a booklet from WWII that was used to sabotage the Germans. I find it largely appropriate now and strongly encourage everyone to read it. Many of the methods require very little effort, which is, sadly, what most people are willing to give. Don’t give in to the fear. Be angry. Be decisive. Be protective. We can still prevent the worst from happening.
Just don’t forget the coffee.
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Sunday, February 2, 2025
February 2, 2025
I Dissent
Actor Ben Stein was formerly, in real life, a conservative lawyer and economist. So, when doing this now-famous classroom scene for the movie Farris Bueller’s Day Off, he made sure that the facts being presented in his famous, dry, deadpan style, were accurate. Here’s a reminder of what he said:
What he’s talking about is the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1932. The Republican-held Congress thought they could help alleviate the Great Depression by creating an environment more conducive to domestic production. They were wrong in every way possible. So much so that when the 1934 elections came around, the majority of those Republicans, including Hawley and Smoot, were not re-elected. Tariffs have never helped long-term economics, which is why most intelligent lawmakers avoid them.
Notice the expressions on the faces of the students in the class, though. That’s the exact same expression one gets from the MAGA crowd today when trying to explain why Felonious Punk’s tariff move is bad for the country. They’re just as bored, disinterested, and dumbfounded as adults as they were as teens in the 80s.
When Punk’s tariffs hit yesterday afternoon, no one was surprised when both Mexico and Canada immediately announced retaliatory tariffs of their own. China is taking a slightly different stance, invoking the regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Should the WTO find that the tariffs are indeed illegal, the entire world could levy additional fines and tariffs on the US. Given the anti-US sentiment that seems pervasive across much of the globe, don’t be surprised when the WTO follows China’s lead on this one.
Sadly, the net result of all this action is most likely to result in a global depression. This would be the kind of economic disaster that pushes countries more heavily toward war as they struggle to provide goods and services for their own people. While one might speculate whether this is exactly the type of chaos Punk wants, we can be quite sure he’s unprepared for the reality of yet a third world war, especially one where China, Russia, and quite possibly India, all three of which are nuclear powers, could unite against us.
Meanwhile, the US Airways are not safe. As of this writing, 7:52 AM EST, the “Notice to Air Mission” or NOTAM system, is down. The NOTAM system provides pilots, flight crews, and other users of U.S. airspace with critical safety notices. It could include items like taxiway lights being out at an airport, nearby parachute activity, or a specific runway being closed for construction. At the moment, no major airlines are reporting any delays or problems because of the outage. However, this comes at the end of a week where multiple deadly accidents have frequent flyers questioning how safe the skies are. What doesn’t help is knowing that Air traffic controllers were initially offered buyouts and told to consider leaving the government.
We also have to deal with the fact that Elon Musk has access to your Social Security number. All of them. The NYTimes broke the news yesterday that DOGE had gained access to the US Treasury’s payment system. Remember that DOGE is not a government-authorized entity; it’s just something Punk made up to take the power of the purse away from Congress. This means that anyone who gets any form of government payment, from Social Security and Medicaid to any company contracted by the US for things such as road improvements, healthcare, and thousands of other things, could see an illegal disruption. Again, this pushes the US closer to the brink of complete economic collapse.
The next shoe to drop is likely to come when the stock markets open in the morning. The markets were already nervous, anticipating a tech sell-off and possibly negative employment numbers. The tariffs could cause prices to plummet across the board, however. Companies are bracing for impact. Yet, even here, this could play right into Punk’s hands. A market crash would allow his billionaire buddies to scoop up valuable stocks for pennies on the dollar, putting even more wealth in the hands of those who already have too much.
I had to pause to take the dogs outside. While we were out, an incredibly large murder of crows, easily over 100 birds in size, flew over the house making so much noise that the dogs felt obligated to bark back at them.
Shortly after I started typing this morning, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, handlers say, predicting 6 more weeks of wintry weather.
Atmospheric river conditions could bring multiple feet of snow to the Sierra Nevadas and as much as 15 inches of rain to other parts of Northern California.
The warning signs of impending doom are not lost on me. Superstitions aside, I have no expectation that headlines are going to get any better. In fact, I’m seeing plenty of ways in which our lives and our government could get a lot worse. I’m thinking federal control over local police and the potential deputization of right-right groups such as the Patriot Front, who have already been seen out marching around in smaller cities. The SEC has already positioned itself to take tighter control over the stock market. The FCC is bullying news networks. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is all but dead.
Put all this together and I have to question whether staying alive is worth the effort. I’m not considering suicide, understand. I’m just wondering if I really want to keep taking this pile of medicine sitting in front of me. I have visits with my oncology team on Tuesday and then a thyroid biopsy on Thursday. Should either of those come out negative, I’ll have to seriously consider just how hard I want to fight. We already know healthcare isn’t going to get any better. Is it worth pushing through the pain to continue living in a country that already considers people like me to be worthless?
Maybe I just need another biscuit.
And more coffee.
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Saturday, February 1, 2025
February 1, 2025
Rodentia
Rats. You remember them, don’t you? We’ve seen them train turtles to be ninjas, drag large pieces of pizza upstairs, and… oh yeah, they were partially responsible for the black plague that devastated most of Europe. Over the ensuing years, cities and health agencies have made a huge push to rid cities of the large rodents, and overall they’ve been successful. However, thanks to the specter of climate change, they’re set to return in larger numbers than ever.
While the fact that Washington has been singled out as one of the cities where an explosive rat population is most dangerous is somewhat humorous, the realities are frightening. “When rodent populations are high, people get sick, motor vehicles become disabled, mental health declines, fires are started and foods fouled,” said Houston rat expert Michael Parsons, who wasn’t part of the study. People are rightly bothered by rats because of “an innate fear caused by an organism that can make us sick.”
This comes at a time when government health information is disappearing from websites. Exercising extremely questionable authority, Musk aides have locked out a number of federal employees from critical computer systems. And then, there’s that whole mess with RFK, Jr. wanting to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Que sounds of ominous music as Morgan Freeman says, “They were not safe. No one was safe.”
Oh, and that’s not the only terrifying health news this morning. Mosquitos. Yeah, we’ve not seen them in North America for a couple of months thanks to the cold. They’re coming back, though, and we’re finding that high-altitude winds help them spread diseases far and wide. So, what may start in some remote village deep in Central Africa could easily spread around the world carried by the high winds of the jet stream. Isn’t that fun news?
On top of everything else, we woke this morning to news of yet another plane crash, this time in Philadelphia, killing at least six. There’s still a severe lack of information regarding this flight and multiple fires have delayed determining whether anyone on the ground was killed. The plane crashed less than a minute after takeoff but explanations for why are still nothing more than speculation.
Both AOC and Mark Cuban are asking people to keep a lid on cynical and insulting rhetoric. I understand their position, trying to go high when everyone else is going low. I will, again, pose the same question I’m asking everyone, though: How many people have to die before we’re willing to get aggressive about stopping the insanity? Would another global plague do the trick? Are concentration camps in Colorado and Guantanamo not already enough?
WHAT THE FUCK IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET ASSES OUT OF CHAIRS AND INTO THE STREETS?
The most logical thing to do would have been to hit back hard on Day One of this administration. Every time Felonious Punk issues a new edict, the American people should forcefully fling it back in his face with all the power we can muster. That would have made sense and possibly at least slowed down the barrage of criminality we’ve seen from the White House.
Instead, we’re waiting to see exactly what tariffs get imposed on Canada and Mexico later today. Business leaders could be calling the members of Congress they have in their pockets, but they’re not. Everyone’s just clutching pearls and buying avocados.
This was posted yesterday:
How much of your life are you willing to sacrifice to the goons in DC? What is it going to take before you stand up for yourself?
We have no military support. We’re losing legal support. Even local police are increasingly helpless. No one else is coming to help us.
What’s it going to take?
Ending The Stupidity
Yesterday was exhausting on too many levels. Not only did we wake to the news of 67 dead in an air collision in DC, but then former figure skating champion and long-time skating announcer Dick Button passed at 95. Felonious Punk falsely blamed DEI hires when his own firing of FAA officials is more likely to have contributed to the crash. I watched the live news updates. I watched as former figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan tearfully paid tribute to the lives lost. I watched as the names of the victims were released, including one woman from the Indy area. Our nation mourns collectively when tragedies like this happen and the weight of that emotion was palpable most of the day.
And then, things got worse.
When RFK Jr. was presented with the science on vaccines he said needed to see, he dismissed it. If he is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the lives of every American are in danger. As bad as our healthcare system is, it will get worse, more people will die, and diseases will spread. There’s no debate on the matter.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Punk’s interest in Greenland and Panama Canal is legit and driven by China concerns. There is no reasoning that justifies forcefully taking over the property of another country. None. Denmark has repeatedly said they will not go down without a fight. Panama is equally defensive. The EU adamantly supports Denmark’s defense. The entire situation is bad for the world.
More states, like Tennesee, are passing bills stripping away the rights of towns and cities to provide sanctuary for immigrants. LGBTQAI+ rights, particularly trans rights, are under attack as well. Constitution be damned, individuals are being stripped of their rights faster than reporters have a chance to write about them. The well-coordination onslaught of treachory between state and federal agencies is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. We’ve been caught offguard.
Not that there isn’t any resistance. The most-downloaded document on the Internet at the moment is the Simple Sabotage Field Manual by United States Office of Strategic Services, This WWII document, declassified in 2008, contains the instructions given to those involved in the resistance on how to interfere with and confuse government agencies, including law enforcement entitites such as the Gestapo and SS. Reading through it, there isn’t much that doesn’t apply. Never mind that the document is almost 100 years old. The dangers and remedies are both frighteningly applicable to the situation we find ourselves in today. If one has any lingering question whether we are dealing with a fascist government, this document removes it. I strongly suggest getting your own copy now. It’s free.
We are dealing with a level of unprecedented stupidity. Not that everyone is individually stupid, but that too many people are involved in stupid activities, stupid conspiracy theories, and stupid ‘spiritual’ remedies that aren’t going to save anyone. Writing in the NYTimes opinion pages, David Brooks outlines The Six Principles of Stupidity. It’s a good read on the whole, but let me summarize for those of you who feel you’re too busy.
- Ideology produces disagreement, but stupidity produces befuddlement.
- Stupidity often inheres in organizations, not individuals.
- People who behave stupidly are more dangerous than people who behave maliciously.
- People who behave stupidly are unaware of the stupidity of their actions.
- Stupidity is nearly impossible to oppose.
- The opposite of stupidity is not intelligence, it’s rationality.
Brooks is well-researched and dead-on accurate in his assessment. We are dealing with an incomprehesible wave of stupidity that can only be countered with an equally large wave of rationality.
Here’s my question for you this morning: How long will you wait before physically and verbally standing up against this government? How many innocent people have to be sentenced to concentration camps in Colorado and Guantanamo? How many of your neighbors have to die? How many of your friends have to disappear?
We’re not going to wake up at any point and find that all the stupidity of this administration has magically gone away and been replaced by sudden competency. This isn’t a two-year or four-year endurance race that we simply have to wait out. We have to forcefully take the country back. All of it. Every city, every state, and every agency. We can’t ask politely, we can’t litigate our way back into reason. We have to be aggressive, loud, and more forceful than anyone ever expected.
There’s a lot going on this weekend. WWE’s Royal Rumble is in town. Sunday afternoon is the largely meaningless Pro Bowl. Music’s biggest night, The Grammy’s are Sunday evening with a guaranteed appearance by Taylor Swift. There are plenty of things to keep us distracted, and make no mistake about it, the oligarchy running this country loves that we are so easily distracted.
No one thinks that we’re going to rise up in masse and revolt.
We have an obligation to prove them wrong.
Take it ALL back.
Watch Out For That Rabbit Hole!
One of the worst things to do to my brain is to feed it a headline without context. Within seconds, my mind creates its own context, then proceeds to take that context out of context and head off down rabbit holes from which there is no return. The first partial headline I saw this morning, just at a glance as I was getting dressed, read, “Are we all aliens?” As I snapped the last button on my shirt, my brain began singing Petra’s 1983 song, “We are aliens. We are strangers. We are not of this world.” The song is based loosely on I Peter 2:11, which uses a similar phrasing but is in conflict with Ephesians 2:19 which specifically says that we are not strangers and aliens, both of which have issues with I Chronicles 29:15, which claims that our ancestors were “aliens and pilgrims before you.” This was one of those times when having all that Bible stuck in my head could be a problem.
Oh, but then my brain jumps completely out of context while I’m outside with the dogs and somehow, “We are aliens” becomes “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from the musical Gypsy, but specifically the version sung by the late Ethel Merman. Why? Because I’m just that old. As my brain is singing, “You’ll be swell, you’ll be great, Gonna have the whole world on a plate!” Belvedere walks around the side of the house with a large paper plate in his mouth. I asked him if he had the whole world on that plate. He put the plate down and looked up at me as if to say, “I ate that part. Can we have breakfast now?”
Hound dogs; they’re always hungry.
The story on everyone’s mind this morning is the collision of an American Airlines regional jet with a military helicopter at Ronald Reagan Airport just before 9:00 last night. I saw the alert come across as I was getting ready for bed last night, but the event was too new for there to be any detail. What we know this morning is that the plane, which originated in Wichita, KS, was carrying members of the US Figure Skating team, their families, friends, and coaches. Officials are warning that the precise number of victims is unclear as rescue crews hunt for survivors. One headline I saw claimed there were at least 19 fatalities, but crews are still searching the Potmomac and no names have been officially released.
This is the first major aircraft collision in the US in almost 16 years. There are going to be a lot of questions over the next several days stretching into months and possibly years. Did the president’s firing of the head of TSA last week have any impact? Was there a shortage of aircraft controllers in the Ronald Reagan Tower? Who was given permission to enter the airspace first?
A 2023 article in the NYTimes claimed that near misses between commercial aircraft happen more often than people realize. FAA Data Reveals 1100 Runway Near Misses in 2024. This raises the inevitable question of who the fuck’s in charge? Expect a lot of finger-pointing as no one wants that responsibility laid at their feet.
Last May, we had an older couple park on our lawn for the 500. He was a retired aircraft controller who had been in that job since Ronald Reagan (yeah, the same guy for whom the airport is named) fired all the nation’s controllers for attempting to go on strike. I asked him if all the horror stories I’d heard were true. He confirmed them and more. Burnout among controllers is high. They are overworked, undertrained, and under constant pressure to work longer hours. They are inherently aware that they hold the lives of thousands of people in their hands as they guide aircraft across tarmacs. While English is the default language, many pilots don’t understand it that well and miscommunications are common. Equipment frequently breaks down, especially at night when there are no maintenance people available. While flying has always been considered one of the safest modes of transportation, he explained that it is a mixture of miracles and hard work that has prevented more accidents from occurring.
I know that for many people, last night’s collision is a tragic break from the neverending political horrors being shoved down our throats. Ten days in, we’re tired of the nonsense from this administration already. One can safely assume at this point that every decision made in the White House is unconstitutional and is going to have a significant legal fight ahead of it.
As I’m typing, an alert just came through my phone saying that 27 bodies have been recovered and all are feared dead.
You know, if the base DNA material that allowed life to develop on this planet is foreign, that could explain why this planet is always trying to kill us; it sees humans as a disease that needs to be eradicated. That would so easily justify the high number of biological elements that conflict with our health and well-being. We get cancer and are susceptible to plagues because our DNA was never designed for this planet.
But if we came from stardust, then it may well be that we leave the same way. Another headline well below the fold this morning warns that a newly spotted asteroid has a tiny chance of hitting Earth in 2032. This news isn’t as ‘new’ as one might think. Astronomers have been watching this thing for a while, concerned that its potential path might bring it close enough to Earth’s orbit that a collision would be inevitable. The chances for severe damage currently sit at about 1%. They could drop to zero in the next few weeks. Still, it’s interesting to ponder the possibility that the same type of event that allowed us to form on this planet could be what takes us all out.
Rabbit holes. Damnit. Kronk, aka Pinball, just crawled up in my lap, put his head in my hand, and closed his eyes. I think that means I’m done typing for the morning. We have naps to take and more rabbit holes to explore.
And coffee. Must drink the coffee.
Tik, Tik, Boom.
As easy as it is to blame governments for all our problems, the glaring truth is that much of the responsibility for what we currently experience is our own fault. I know, that doesn’t sound like a friendly way of starting the morning, but the truth is that what I’m seeing between the various ugly and disgusting headlines is a clear message that we could have stopped a lot of this but chose to go ahead anyway. We choose who runs for office. We choose how we spend our money. We choose how we spend our time. When we do not make responsible choices, we pay the consequences and, to a large extent, that is what is happening right now.
A shocking tuberculosis outbreak in the Kansas City, Kansas area is frightening, but it can be easy to stop if people in the area make the right choices. Washing your hands, covering your mouth when you cough, and staying home when you’re sick are all things that keep TB at a minimum. TB is one of the world’s biggest killers, though, and winter is a great time for it to spread. Make wise choices.
Reading skills among US children are diminishing, and their math scores are horrible. Blame the schools all you want, but it’s mom and dad who are responsible for setting up a child’s brain to read. We ‘read’ to infants with picture books because it helps develop an association in their brains between symbols and words. As they get older, their brains develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between letters, numbers, and the world around them. All five of my kids were reading at some level before they started kindergarten (sometimes creating difficulty in an unprepared classroom). Parents set their kids up for success or failure on this front and we have to accept the responsibility for the outcome.
Then, we discover that the ‘Doomsday Clock’ broke a two-year stagnation and moved a second closer to human annihilation. One of the primary reasons for the move is rhetoric, the spreading of misinformation regarding who is going to do what to whom. How we perceive someone else’s willingness to engage in nuclear battle is based largely on the talk that is perpetuated through social media. The spread of disease and our lack of cooperation in global medicine also increase the chances of a pandemic wiping out large numbers of people. These are all things that we control and can adjust.
No, I’m not dismissing the fact that the current US administration is pure evil and that Republican governors are making the situation worse by forcing local law enforcement to cooperate with federal thugs. We need to be up in arms about the signing of the Laken Riley Act as it allows people to be detained and deported without a trial, in violation of the Constitution. Action needs to be taken to stop the use of military bases in Colorado as detention camps. And don’t even get me started on the dismantling of DEI protections. We need to be willing to go to war over that one.
I’m also concerned that the top headline from Reuters this morning was ‘Alibaba releases AI model it says surpasses DeepSeek‘ and right under that was ‘Dutch chip firm ASML sees flood of orders amid AI boom‘. Despite all the billions of dollars in investment, the US is losing the race on AI, which means that not only are our kids less intelligent but so are our computers. DeepSeek’s new AI chatbot and ChatGPT answer sensitive questions about China differently, among other factors. AI developers have the ability to rewrite what we know about history, skewing our view of the entire world.
Today, we can ill afford to put our heads in the sand and ignore everything going on around us. We are responsible. We are also response able. We are not helpless. We are not without voices. We are not without agency.
Together, let’s fix this.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2025
January 28, 2025
Immigrants or Refugees?
One day in the future, after we’re long gone and our names are forgotten, the remaining remnants of humanity will look back on this time in history and ask, “What the fuck did they think they were doing?” The horrors of this present reality give us a myopic view of our situation. We can’t conceive of everything going on, much less fight against it, because our vision is obstructed by the crimes being committed in front of our eyes. Our brains have difficulty processing a fraction of the news, which is exactly how Felonious Punk wants it.
Each morning for the past week, I’ve awakened to a list of headlines and have to ask myself the question, “Where do I start?” I’m spending more time reading the news now than I think I have since I was on the debate team in high school. Kronk, aka Pinball, curls up in my arms and we rock back and forth as I quietly repeat the mantra, “We’re going to be okay,” over and over. Eventually, even the cat doesn’t believe what I’m saying and leaps down to find a less disturbing place to nap.
Taking the dogs outside each morning gives me a unique perspective on our neighborhood. I see where the lights are on as people get ready to leave for work. I notice how many cars are in the driveways. I observe changes in the population with a certain amount of curiosity and concern. In this neighborhood, people rarely leave because their lives have suddenly gotten better. When people move, it tends to be because their lives have been turned upside down. Loss of employment, divorce, and the ill health of a relative are among the top reasons for turnover.
Now, we can add fear to that list. On Sunday, I mentioned a nearby multigenerational family. The elder generation has owned their home for over 30 years. They’re all US citizens, but they’re afraid. So afraid, that over the weekend, the adult children and grandchildren packed everything up and moved. The yard that was once full of cars is now empty. Only Dad’s old work van sits in the drive. The chickens are gone. The toys are gone. I’m not even sure that the elder women are still there. I’ve not seen them, just Dad. I don’t know where they’ve gone, but I know they were all scared.
Two doors down in the other direction sits a rental house that, until last week, was occupied by four young Latino men. Now, that number is down to two. I have some rapport with them, so I asked where they’d gone. The answer was predictable. “They’re like everyone else, man, scared of ICE. They’ve got their papers but no one feels like that’s enough, you know?”
Yesterday afternoon, Jenn sent me a text, “If you haven’t already seen, look up Buu Nygran’s statement to/for the Navajo Nation. There have been reports of native people being harassed by ICE.” That one hadn’t popped up in my alerts yet (it would later), so I took to searching. Sure enough, there it was: Navajo Nation leaders raise alarm over reports of Indigenous people being questioned and detained during immigration sweeps. In the past week, at least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have been stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement, and asked to produce proof of citizenship. In at least one case, a woman says she was eventually permitted to use her cell phone and text family members, who sent her a photo of her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB). Only then was she allowed to leave.
Is this racist? Oh hell, yeah! Legally, any of the following qualifies as proof of citizenship:
- Birth certificate: Issued by the state, county, or city of birth, this document should include the applicant’s name, date of birth, place of birth, and the names of their parents. It should also have the registrar’s signature, the date it was filed, and the seal or stamp of the issuing authority.
- Naturalization certificate: Issued to people who became U.S. citizens after age 18 through naturalization.
- U.S. passport: A valid or expired U.S. passport is proof of citizenship.
- Certificate of citizenship: Issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to people who became U.S. citizens through birth, naturalization, or other means.
- Enhanced REAL-ID license: This license can also be used as proof of U.S. citizenship.
- U.S. passport card: A wallet-sized, plastic card that serves as proof of citizenship and identity.
Do you see any mention of a CDIB? No. Does every Indigenous person have a CDIB? No, and there’s a damn good reason why. A CDIB requires that someone in one’s ancestral lineage have a Dawes roll number. The Dawes Act of 1887 was the redistribution of Tribal lands that eventually led to the mass removal of Indigenous people from their native place of residence, a horrible experience we know as the Trail of Tears. As many as 4,000 Indigenous people died on that trip to Oklahoma.
I don’t have a CDIB or a Dawes roll number. No one in our family does or ever has. My mother was very clear as to why. The initial ‘accounting’ of tribal members was what allowed them to be rounded up by government troops under the authority of President Andrew Jackson. After settling in what is now Southeastern Oklahoma, my mother’s great-grandparents decided that there was no way in hell they were going to let themselves be moved like that again. They refused to sign the rolls, and at times even refused to identify as Cherokee to avoid the overt racism and oppression that came with the label.
Even now, the Cherokee are learning that they are better off taking care of themselves rather than participating too strongly in the federal government. Just this past week, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskins, Jr. proposed the construction and creation of a new Cherokee Nation Justice Center based in Tahlequah, OK. This would allow tribe members to receive a level of justice that respects their culture without treating them like foreigners on their own land. This is a massive step forward for all Indigenous peoples. I can’t help but believe that the Spirit of the late Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller smiles approvingly on this proposal. She would be quite happy to see the tribe extending its independence in such a manner.
The problem is that not all the tribes are as organized and self-governing as the Cherokee, the Dakota, and Diné/Navajo. Some tribes, such as the once great Sac and Fox, are all but gone. The Pottowatamie and Miami people that once dominated what is now Indiana are scattered and unorganized. Even the great Choctaw nation lacks the same level of tribal governance as their Cherokee neighbors. That leaves their members at the mercy of a racist federal organization that looks first at skin color and reacts based on a split-second judgment rather than actual evidence.
It’s not that this immigration crackdown is without resistance. Quakers sued the federal government yesterday over whether immigration officians can enter a house of worship to detain and remove immigrants. Quakers strongly believe that they are required to accept and protect anyone who comes to them. While I’m not immediately aware of any Latinx or Indigenous Quaker groups, the point still stands that places of worship have always been able to provide sanctuary to anyone who needs it, regardless of the country or its laws.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials in Hamilton County, IN, just to the North of Indy, announced yesterday that they are forming an Immigration Commission for the express purpose of working with ICE and other immigration officials. They’re claiming that this is a ‘public safety’ issue, but everyone who is familiar with the county that’s home to such restrictive enclaves as Carmel, Fishers, and Noblesville know damn good and well that this is pure racism. This has been the case as long as I’ve lived up here (20 years in April). Driving through Carmel for the first time, I couldn’t help asking the question, “Where are all the non-white people?” The truth is, many people of color stay away from Hamilton County for fear of being profiled, stopped, and arrested on imaginary charges. I can’t begin to count the number of people I know who refuse to work in the county for fear that they’ll be stopped either going to or coming from their place of employment. Here, ‘Immigration Crackdown’ is nothing more than a cover for the severe racism that has made the county infamous.
At the same time, the idiotic piece of trash that serves as Oklahoma’s Education Secretary proposed an ordinance yesterday that would require parents to prove citizenship when enrolling their children in school. Oklahoma City Public Schools, one of the state’s largest districts with a hispanic student population of 57%, promptly announced that under no circumstances would they enforce the measure, even if it makes its way through the state legislature. The Constitution guarantees that all children recieve a public education. There are no caveats to that law, anywhere, ever.
This morning, newly-installed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took part in an immigration enforcement operation in New York City. Are we surprised? Not really. One might even consider it an improvement over Dr. Phil being imbedded with ICE raids in Chicago. Yeah, that really happened. That whole ‘nice guy’ thing on Dr. Phil’s TV show was just an act. He’s as racist as the rest of them.
Yes, I’m throwing the word racist around quite a bit. Reality check: What is now known as the United States was initially settled by a group of religious extremists who, from the moment they set foot off the Mayflower, saw the Indigenous people here as ‘savages’. They had no moral problem with stealing their land and murdering them by the thousands. They even passed laws to justify their racism. The United States has always been racist. There has never been a moment in its history where they weren’t racist. Immigration is simply the latest excuse for people of purely European decent to attempt justification for their imperialistic motives.
It was a little before 6:00 last evening when Kat messaged me, “G is trying to get home.” He had fallen asleep on the bus and missed his stop by about three miles. When he did get off the bus and tried catching one coming back this direction, it promptly broke down, as IndyGo buses often do. He decided he’d walk the bus route in an attempt to get home.
I panicked. It was dark and cold. I don’t have a vehicle. I can’t drive (I bump into things). I don’t have enough cash in my bank account to send him an Uber or Lift. There was nothing I could do to keep him safe. Kat and Tipper were having some mother/daughter time downtown. They quickly pulled their things together and took off to try and find G.
G’s phone died. He has a mobile power bank, but even that takes some time to charge the phone once it’s dead. When he finally could, he called his mom and told her where he was. He was going to wrong direction! He was already another mile further from home than when he started! Kat sent him some money and told him to wait at a nearby Starbucks until she could get to him.
Was he ever in any danger? He had walked across the 38th street bridge that crosses I-465. Even in daylight, that’s a frightening experience. Add the fact that it was dark and he wears a large black coat with the hood up and his headphones on, and I think most parents can appreciate my concern. Now, toss in the current atmosphere where people get stopped without reason. I was deeply relieved when he finally came crashing through the back door.
This whole ‘immigration crackdown’ thing is nothing more than yet another attempt on the part of the federal government to justify the racism that has been systemic from the very beginning. It’s not only illegal, but immoral in every way thinkable. That any member of the government, let alone the president, would support such a policy is a reflective of the European imperialistic mindset that destroys every vibrant and colorful culture it encounters.
WE ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS. Our ancestors lived on this land some 60,000 years before the first European ever knew that the land existed! The federal government has neither warrant nor reason to detain, question, remove, or oppress Indigenous peoples from any part of North America. That many South American cultures are extensions of the same people that settled North America pulls them into the same population for whom this land is a birthright.
Europeans are the migrants. If they don’t like us being here, they are more than welcome to go back where they came from. I’m sure the Air Force still has plenty of handcuffs for the ride back.
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Thursday, February 20, 2025
Disaster Status
Much of the US is waking up to a fresh layer of snow on the ground and colder temperatures in the air. In fact, in many places, it is colder in Greenland than in the US. As I’m typing, the outdoor temperature is a whopping three degrees Fahrenheit. We’re keeping the kids home because their bus has been running late all week and they don’t need to be breathing such cold air. If only keeping them home would also protect them from what some are calling the most stupid empire collapse in history.
Yes, some people are standing up to Felonious Punk and his cronies, but you have to look outside national media to find them. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who just happens to be Jewish, was delivering his State of the State address yesterday when he said, “After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities — once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends — after that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next?” he asked.
“All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history, then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it,” Pritzker said. “It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.”
Someone asked me last night where Bernie is in all this mayhem. I found him, but the source is Pravda, of all places. The Ukrainian-based paper quotes Senator Sanders as saying, “Yesterday, we witnessed an extremely sad moment in American history. We saw the president of the United States aligning himself with the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to undermine the independence of Ukraine and its democracy. Let’s be clear: Trump is showing us that he sees one of the world’s most brutal dictators as his friend, and our long-time democratic allies in Europe as his enemies. He wants a world that is safe for authoritarians and oligarchs but extremely dangerous for democracies. It will not surprise you when I tell you that Trump is lying – as he so often does.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett has been an outspoken opponent as well. Speaking on MSNBC, she said, “It’s just that they’re idiots. These are the same guys as it relates to our nuclear stockpile, they’re like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, we needed those guys? Can we get them back? Oh, we don’t know how to.’ I don’t know how anyone can look at this administration & feel a semblance of confidence.”
And while President Shitforbrains incorrectly states the popularity of Ukraine’s Zelensky, his own popularity at home continues to shrink. Sure, the numbers are not dropping by huge amounts yet, but as the administration’s cuts continue to affect people in poorer Southern (and heavily Republican) states, his approval rating will continue to shrink and it will take more than a one-time $5K check to get it back.
Yet, guess what the banner headline is on the Moscow Times this morning. Kremlin Says It ‘Absolutely Agrees’ With Donald Trump on Ukraine. WTF? I can’t remember the last time the US and Russia were in lockstep like this! If one of the world’s most cruel and murderous governments agrees with the direction we’re taking, there’s no question that we’re going the wrong way!
Oh, and then there was this moment yesterday.
The White House even posted that picture on their own social media pages! Are we supposed to see this as some kind of joke? Hardly. We can see where he’s going and it doesn’t look good for democracy. The backlash has been relatively severe, but the move shows us his true intent.
Some are asking why none of the former presidents have spoken up. The answer lies in the fact that anything a former president says is instantly politicized. The Punk has already eliminated their morning briefings and some Secret Service details, so we know he’s afraid of them, but if/when they do stand up, they’ll need to be ready to take on the mantle of leading the revolution, something neither Clinton nor Bush is physically up to doing.
What may be upsetting me the most this morning is seeing multiple social media posts from parents asking whether it is worth continuing to live, and more frightening, whether their children should continue to live as well. I understand their concern and appreciate the resulting depression. Our situation as a country is bad and it’s not going to get any better as long as the status quo is allowed to endure. However, do we dare go so far as to completely give up any hope?
I’m deeply concerned that people are so quickly past any determination to fight and going straight to complete surrender. How do we stop the world from crumbling if our own inaction is contributing to the decay of our democracy? I understand that not everyone is as willing to put a gun to the head of every GOP politician as I am, but if we are at the point of providing no resistance at all, we not only doom ourselves but the entire world! This is not a matter of which our own desires are at stake.
I choose to believe that the resistance is growing. Perhaps it’s not moving as quickly as I might like, but as more people lose their jobs, as prices continue to rise, and the cost of living continues to soar, we must realize that, unlike natural disasters that happen no matter what we do, this is one disaster that we can stop. We need a leader to step up and unify the resistance, someone who can lead the charge, and then we need the will to fight as though our lives depend on it because they do.
No fun and games exist here. We’re dealing with a dictator and the only way to do so is to depose him and everyone in his administration.
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