Jan 082026
 

Yesterday, as I am pretty sure everyone knows, an ICE agent shot a woman in the back of the head three times while she was in her car, attempting to get away/out of the way. She died instantly. The car continued to move (Malcolm Nance described this as “Dead Woman Driving”) and crashed into some other vehicles. The air bag inflated and was covered with blood. I can now confirm she was a US citizen. The Root shared her name and a link to a very moving obituary, as well as a slow-motion video with labels of what happened when. Nameless saw this before I did, and posted a comment with three NSFW headlines quoting the mayor of Minneapolis on yesterday’s OT to which I responded with everything I knew at the time. Tim Walz has now given a statement on public safety, together with the Director of Public Safety and the Colonel of the Minnesota National Guard.

This from The 19th reminded me that fairly recently I saw that someone (I assume a male MAGA) was complaining that anyone who says “toxic masculinity” is really saying that all masculinity is toxic. I thought “Yeah, right – just like saying “counterfeit money” is saying that all money is counterfeit.” I suppose that not even all male ICE agents enjoy toxic masculinity, but there surely seem to be a lot of them.

From Common Dreams. The nerve of Stephen Miller saying that we have to act like thugs in order to support “the free world.” The U.S. can’t support the free world in any way when we aren’t even a part of it any more.

 

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Oct 012025
 

Yesterday, I did sleep late, although not as late as I dreamed I did (I dreamed I slept until today.) I saw several emails in my inbox leading to reviews of the Hogsbreath debacle, but Wonkette gave it the respect it deserved. Today is apparently the first day of a government shutdown. Expect pain – but what form it will take, I don’t know.

This does not by any means redeem the New York Times. (For one thing, I find it difficult to believe that the people who need to read or hear this the most actually read well enough to be bothered to read the Magazine section.)

Anyone who reads The Guardian is already aware of this. If you don’t read The Guardian, Wonkette will bring you up to speed. Not that it should be any surprise to anyone, of course. There’s a saying that people under 40 have the face they were born with, while people over 40 have the face they deserve. Miller just turned 40 this year, but I think he’s had the face he deserves for a very long time.

I’m not familiar with Futurism, so I looked it up at Media Bias/Fact Check, which says it is pro-science and mostly factual in reporting (not that I don’t also take that with a grain of salt.) I’m aware most people, including journalists, think this is Stephen Miller’s job, and I’m sure that it is, to an extent. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be others. And they may be working together, or in competition, or just separately.

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Oct 122023
 

Yesterday, a little-known conversation from many years ago (which was recently quoted by Steve Schmidt) popped up in my mind to haunt me. I can’t say it any better then Steve did, so I’ll quote him: “There is an extraordinary account of a late night meeting that took place between FDR and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in the White House from Nigel Hamilton’s “FDR at War“ trilogy. The two leaders talked late into the night. King returned to his room and wrote down the details of the conversation. FDR outlined to King his vision for what would come after victory in World War II. He said something chilling from the perspective of 2023. He said that nothing lasts forever, and that included his vision for the future. He told King that he hoped it would endure for as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. The youngest of those people are 77 years old today.” Well, I am 78, and I’m still here. So is Mitch, whio is a bit older. The rest of us who think here are younger (as was TC). I wish all of us long lives free of world war. Also yesterday, Steve Scalise defeated Jim Jordan to be the nominee for speaker. We shall see whether Republicans can come together on this or any nominee. Oh, and The New Yorker had an article on dizziness/vertigo in their daily newsletter. I haven’t had any symptoms for months, but I “printed” it anyway (to my C drive for now – I’ll copy to a portable hard drive eventually.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – ‘Violence-Ready’ Militia Group Says Jan. 6’ers are Idiots
Quote – A male-only movement in the U.S. dressed up as a sports club catering to white men is taking over the right-wing social scene—and promising some dangerous results…. The clubs advertise as sporting groups designated for white-only men, but their real objective, Ritzmann tells The New Abnormal, “is to essentially train a white supremacist militia.”… [Ritzmann] says “Day X” could look similar to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but adds of the rioters, “they have [been] discussed as being a bunch of idiots who don’t know how to storm a building properly. And they discuss this in a, let’s say, indirect way, because they don’t want law enforcement to focus on them.”
Click through for details. The podcast the article references is also on the page,. and I listened to the whole thing so you wouldn’t have to. The part which expands on the artile starts at approximately 18:40 and ends at 36:35. I also encourage anyone who has not seen Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra” to look it up (and everyone who has seen it to refresh their memory.) It was not easy then to bring America together to oppose fascism, and it won’t be easy now. When I said we needed Joe Biden to be another FDR this was not what I had in mind. But apparently, it comes with the territory.

Jeff Tiedrich – holy shit, Donald Trump gave classified Israeli intel to Putin — probably more than once
Quote – let’s take a closer look at a thing I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post. Donald Trump fucking loves to collude with Russia. Trump desperately wants to be Vladimir’s bestie. he does everything he can to stay in Putin’s good graces. why? is it because Donny dreams of opening a Trump Tower in Moscow? is it something more insidious, like kompromat? in the end, it doesn’t matter. what matters is that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.
Click through for article. Yes, Jeff has a pottymouth, but he tends to be accurate in both facts and interpretation.

Food For Thought

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