Better late than never

For three months it has irked me greatly that the mainstream press in this country has treated the continual policy of Felon47 and his cabinet of criminal cruelty to extrajudicially murder Venezuelans (and others?) on the open seas as just another curiosity in the vast mozaic of chaos this alleged president has wrought. Now, after almost 90 people have been murdered by the United States for the offense of being on a boat out of (we think) Venezuela, it's finally getting some traction, but it took ancillary stories to get the media to care.

It took six congressional Democrats distributing a video reminding military personnel that it is their duty, as codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to refuse illegal orders; it took Felon47’s outraged reaction to that video in which he essentially admitted that he wants to issue illegal orders and have them followed; that apparently led to someone telling the Washington Post that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a war crime in the first of these murderous strikes on Venezuelan boats. That what it took to generate any real outrage.

That in itself is maddening, but hey, at least the outrage is starting to spread. Sadly, the outrage is still focused on one egregious element of one incident, the "double-tap" second missile fired to kill two survivors of an initial strike on a boat in September. Because that action is explicitly described by military codes of conduct as a blatantly illegal order that should not be followed—killing the shipwrecked—it's the focus right now. OK, at least it's an entry point to the greater issue. But talking about the killing of the two survivors of a first missile as if it is fundamentally different from the rest of the policy is yet another failure of the American press.

There is no legality—none—to any of the boat strikes. They are all crimes. They are all murders. Getting wrapped up in the nuances of the double-tap strike and Hegseth's alleged order to "kill everybody" as the reason for doing that threatens to justify by implication the rest of the killings. Hegseth and Felon47 insist that they are perfectly  within their rights to conduct these strikes because they are abiding by "the rules of war" in an "armed conflict" with "narco-terrorists" in league with the Venezuelan government. Except those reasons are all bullshit. 

a) The United States is not at war with Venezuela or any other nation. b) There is no armed conflict with these boats—none of the boats took offensive action against US personnel or property. c) The phrase "narco-terrorists" is just a made-up term to stoke propaganda, it makes no sense—the goal of a drug trafficker is to sell drugs, to make money, and instilling terror on their prospective markets is counter to that interest. d) There has been no evidence proffered—zero—as to who or what was even aboard those boats; were they really carrying narcotics? Were they really Venzuelan gang members? Were they affiliated in any way with the Venezuelan government? One thing that is relatively certain is that they were not heading for the United States; none of the boats had that kind of range, particularly if they were laden with a heavy cargo of narcotics. e) Felon47 doesn't give a tinker's damn about drug trafficking—if he did, he wouldn't be pardoning drug kingpins, as he has done repeatedly including just this week—so the entire motivation for the murders is suspect.

Further, drug trafficking, while a serious matter, is not a capital offense. Further still, even if it was a capital offense, it has to be proven in the judicial system before sentence can be carried out. Because, again, it's not a war.

The latest incident that we know about came just yesterday. Hegseth announced on social media that the US "just sunk another narco boat," this time in the eastern Pacific. An official announcement confirmed the strike and noted four deaths, bringing the tally of known  extrajudicial killings—murders—in these operations to 87.

Felon47 and his utterly lawless regime has killed and will kill untold numbers of people, both in the US and around the world; these Venezuelan boats account for only a tiny fraction. Reversals of international aid policies, destruction of public health infrastructure, rollbacks of environmental regulations and incentivizing fossil fuel pollutants, economic oppressions, and poverty-by-intent legislation will be far more deadly in the end. But the in-your-face audacity of just targeting a boat and blowing it up on the open sea because you want to feel like a tough guy is so emblematic of this tyrant and this regime that it should get covered more intently. And with that context: This is outrageous and easy to understand in the moment, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. MAGA is a death cult, even if the members don't know it.

More folks are calling for Pete Hegseth to resign, which is great, but it's insufficient. Pete Hegseth, along with everyone who carried out his illegal orders, should be prosecuted. So, frankly, should the tyrant-in-chief, but John Roberts and his corrupt majority of the Supreme Court decided presidents are above the law. Still, I'd like to see it anyway, bring charges against him and make the Court defend its ruling.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, Pete Hegseth, Republicans, Posted on December 5, 2025 at 11:58PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Dear Democrats

Feckless leader

An open letter to Senate Democrats. Seven specific ones, really, plus independent Angus King. And to one other, alleged minority leader Chuck Schumer.

To Senators Kaine, Durbin, Shaheen, Hassan, Rosen, Masto, Fetterman, and King, along with "leader" Schumer:

Today you voted to advance a Republican measure to reopen the government. (All of you except Sen. Schumer, but we'll get to you in a minute, Chuck.) You must have had your reasons for doing this. They might even make sense to you in some weird way. But that being the case, I have to ask one rather fundamental question of you all:

What the fuck is wrong with you?!

The Federal government has been shut down now for 40 days—insert Noah's Ark joke here—with Democrats holding firm on one comparatively minor demand, one that is politically beneficial for all parties, for agreement on ending the shutdown: Restore subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that Republicans eliminated in their Big Bloodbath of a Bill earlier this year. That's it, that's the one thing Democrats were demanding, and for a while it appeared that you all would stand together and force the issue.

Then came today.

Today, when the eight of you capitulated to the Republican terrorists who have been "negotiating" in bad faith and governing illegally for nearly ten months and counting. You voted to advance the GOP measure rather than use the leverage you had to actually get what you allegedly wanted and allegedly deemed important for the American people. Why?

Senator Shaheen said she voted for it because "this was the only deal on the table." Oh? So next time when the Republicans put up a measure that jails half of all Americans with Spanish surnames instead of all of them, you'll vote for it because it's the only deal on the table?

Last Tuesday the off-year elections showed us that the American people writ large do not support today's Republicans or their policies. Republicans got their clocks cleaned. We're approaching major holiday travel season, with air travel being disrupted in significant ways that are untenable. GOP officials are refusing to do their jobs in the House, taking literal wrecking balls to the White House, and committing crimes at a pace one can't even keep current with. They are exceedingly vulnerable.

They are behaving like authoritarians, and you had a significant piece of leverage to use against them. Until today, when you eight pissed it away.

For what? Let's look at the so-called "deal" you made with the Republicans. This measure does the following:

• Officially funds the government through January 30, 2026. I say "officially" because the Felon47 regime has demonstrated repeatedly that whey do not respect Congressional appropriations and have simply chosen not to spend money they're legally obligated to spend. So what did you get here? Things will be funded, but only at the whim of the regime.
• Guarantees retroactive pay for furloughed workers and those working without pay during the shutdown. Congratulations, you got a promise to OBEY THE EXISTING LAW. Well done.
• Likewise, SNAP benefits will resume being paid. Likewise, the courts were forcing that to happen anyway because the Republicans were withholding that money illegally.
• Rehires employees that were fired during the shutdown and prohibits new firings through January 30. OK, but what's to keep them from being fired again on January 31? Anything? No? Good job.
• Funds the VA and the USDA through fiscal 2026. Really? You believe that? You think the regime won't just decide not to pay those bills like they've refused so many others thus far? Suckers.
• Requires a Senate vote on ACA subsidies by the middle of December. Great, you got a promise for a symbolic vote. In one chamber of Congress. That won't pass. And even if it did, that the Speaker of the House has already said he won't put it up for a vote in his chamber. Utterly worthless.

That's it. Am I missing anything? No?

To paraphrase the late great Gene Wilder, "You got nothing. Good day and get bent."

If one were cynical, one might think you eight were more concerned with your own travel plans being disturbed than in advocating for your constituents. Yes, disrupted air travel is an inconvenience. Potentially a severe one. An untenable one. You know what else it was? Leverage.

Democrats have, once again, bailed out the Republicans. Rather than force them to face the consequences of their disastrous, painful, massively unpopular policy agenda, the eight of you have rewarded them by removing at least some of those consequences. Every time the Republicans enact some policy or other that will, by design, inflict great pain on the American people, they know Democrats will mitigate the damage. They're arsonists that count on the fire brigade to check some of the blazes while they continue to light other infernos with impunity.

I get that you don't want people to go without their paychecks and you don't want travel disrupted. But you were also supposed to be looking out for people's health care. What you have done is communicate to Republicans that terrorism works. That threats of starvation by illegally withholding SNAP funds is a viable tactic. That all it takes to get you to capitulate to their plan to make health insurance unaffordable for many and less affordable for all is to throw empty assurances at you and promise that this time, for real, you'll be allowed to kick the football.

And you, Chuck Schumer:

You didn't vote for this, so good on you for that, but you're supposed to be the leader here. You hold that title. How is it, then, that these defections were allowed to happen? You couldn't communicate the basic facts of the matter here, that this measure gets your party bupkis? That this is not only bad for the country but bad politics? That giving in tells people that there was a 40+ day government shutdown for what in the end was no reason whatsoever? You couldn't keep your caucus in line to prevent doubling and tripling health insurance premiums because flights were being delayed??!

This should have been a gimme issue for you, Chuck, and you blew it. Are you truly that feckless as party leader? Apparently you are. I implore you to recognize that you have failed and resign as leader. Right now. You clearly suck at this now.

May all eight of you—no, all nine of you, this goes for you too, Chuck—may you all lose in primaries the next time you're up for election. And for those of you that have already declared your retirements, may you reap the karmic consequences of your cowardice and spinelessness in whatever post-Senate ventures you undertake.

Assholes.

The only positive that might—might—come out of this is that once the final bill gets out of the Senate the House will have to vote on it, which means the House will have to be in session, which means Speaker Johnson will have to convene the House and swear in Representative-elect Grijalva, which will force a vote to release the Epstein files and bring that scandal back to the forefront. Johnson might invent some new reason not to, though. He's nothing if not craven, he's proven he'll stop at nothing to protect the pedophile in chief.

We'll see if the House Democrats will use their leverage or if they, too, will capitulate to the GOP terrorists.

Tagged Politics, Republicans, Democrats, Posted on November 10, 2025 at 1:34AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

A tale of two eras

On the drive down here to greater Palm Springs, I played a number of CDs in the car, various album collections on the randomizer. Occasionally a tune would pop up that was written/recorded in 2002 or so that directly or obliquely referenced 9/11. Stuff like Melissa Etheridge's "Tuesday Morning," Springsteen's "Into the Fire," that kind of thing.

Those songs are a manifestation of the collective outrage of both the public and the government over a terrorist attack that was deadly and horrific, yes, but also blunt and spectacular and shocking (we'll leave aside the questions about whether or not GWB and company should have been shocked or not; the point is, the public was). Not for the first time, I was struck by the massive difference in the American reaction to 9/11 from the American reaction to President Convicted Felon's regime of terror and incompetence.

Bin Laden and his minions killed 3,000 Americans with a stunt designed to get everyone's attention and scare us. The reaction was, probably as intended by bin Landen, outsized and detrimental to the American public, but it was swift and massive in the name of defending the United States and our free democratic republic.

Felon47, when he was merely Fraudster45, presided over three million deaths from a pandemic he so grossly mismanaged and, in fact, abetted. As Felon47, his regime has already killed untold millions around the world with the destruction of USAID. He's outright murdered 57 people and counting on the open seas. He's created a secret police force to terrorize Americans and non-citizen residents of his own nation, disappearing people to secret gulags and tear-gassing residential neighborhoods. His Department of Homeland Security thugs—an agency misguidedly and foolishly created in the overreaction to 9/11—are nothing more than mob enforcers abusing people for the sole purpose of making people scared. You know, terrorism.

This country is under a threat so much greater today, from the alleged President and his evil henchmen—and I do not exaggerate when I call them that—an existential crisis brought on by, yes, terrorists with the stated intention of destroying the U.S. Constitutional order and replacing it with a dictatorial regime of oligarchical rule. In the early 2000s, Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were such a threat that the American public collectively lost its mind, elected officials were so frantic in their attempts to protect the country that they basically ran around screaming and bouncing off the walls while passing poorly-considered rush legislation to prevent further damage. Here in the 2010s and 2020s, the entire Republican party has thrown in with the terrorists and the American public is either shrugging its shoulders or cowering in fear.

At least, it seems that way. It feels that way.

The No Kings protests gave me some hope that the majority of us really are trying to resist and push back against the terrorists. But this threat has been here now for ten years, the consequences of it continue to escalate and continue to metastasize with such tepid defiance that I find myself just aghast at the contrast.

9/11: An attack in spectacular fashion from elsewhere that killed thousands, resulting in near-instant panic and fervent defense of America as a concept as well as a territory. Trump: An attack in slow-moving idiotic fashion from within, aided by Russians under cover of night, that killed millions and counting, resulting in the complete abdication of the Congressional majority and the corrupt majority of the Supreme Court as a despotic regime takes over the nation and plunges us into a dark age while the public just sits and looks at Instagram.

Wake the fuck up, people.

 

 

Tagged Politics, Republicans, Posted on October 29, 2025 at 4:34PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

This aggression will not stand, man

It felt good to be out among the protesters at today's No Kings rally. On the one hand, it felt slightly impotent, like it was the literal least one could do; but on the other, seeing—and being among—the throng of folks out there proudly displaying their displeasure and even contempt for the authoritarian American regime circa 2025 was like a balm. Like, there's practical evidence that there are more of us—believers in the ideals of democratic governance and the US Constitution—then there are of them. Them being the Trumpers, the Nazis, the despotic enablers of tyranny that make up the modern party calling itself "Republican."

I've not seen any news today, just a few posts like this one documenting the protests themselves and sharing creative signage. I do know the turnout nationwide was massive, eclipsing June's No Kings events, and doubtless that fact annoys/angers/frightens the regime.

That might mean things get worse before they get better—you just know Stephen Miller is planning something heinous and brutal as revenge—but it reinforces my optimism that sooner or later the reign of terror will end. Just a matter of how much damage is left in its wake by the time sanity returns to the US government.

I took a lot of photos of the signs folks brought out today. I didn't have one of my own, I just wasn't with it enough to make one ahead of time. It would have felt better out there if I'd had one. But others were more on the ball and I will share some favorites. A lot of the photos were from a distance and are thus slightly out of focus; there's only so much Photoshop can help with.

Helps to be in the Mariners know for this one



These two as well









I wish this one had turned out better; Kermit's word balloon says "Release the Epstein Files"






And then these were from the bigger protest downtown, culled from a couple of friends' social media feeds...

I hope you all had similarly good experiences at your local events.

 

Tagged Politics, Republicans, President VonClownstick, Posted on October 19, 2025 at 12:15AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

The future sure ain't what it used to be

Tomorrow the latest nationwide No Kings protest is scheduled to take place and I plan to participate. Just by showing up, not by doing anything elaborate. I'll put in some time at the smaller neighborhood protest near my place rather than go down to the waterfront/Seattle Center for the big crowd. I have faith in my fellow Seattleites that we'll have impressive turnout at the various marches/protests around the area.

I mean, we have to, right? It feels like there's so little we can do in the face of this tyrannical, lawless wannabe despot's continuing reign of terror that taking to the streets and holding signs and displaying some honest-to-goodness patriotism will at least feel somewhat cathartic.

The tyrant-in-chief today showed yet again that he is the pro-crime president, commuting the sentence of his fellow serial liar and fraudster George Santos because, I kid you not, he voted Republican. That's why, he said so on his stupid social media platform:

If you're a kindred spirit sort of criminal, in Mango Mussolini's world the law doesn't apply to you. Laws are for other people. Hell, for other people why even bother with laws? Just round ’em up and disappear them.

Of course, letting fraudsters get away with crime is only a secondary purpose here, the primary function of this is to, of course, give us something to talk about that isn't related to the Epstein files and the fact that the entire Republican party, with very few exceptions, doesn't want the public to know that their "dear leader" is a vile, sleazy raper of children just like his dead bestie was. Anyone who's been paying attention would already believe this to be true regardless, but suppressing evidence is Speaker Mike Johnson's first commandment. "Thou shalt not allow the truth about how disgusting and predatory POTUS47 is to see the light of day." It's right above "thou shalt not provide health care to the sick and injured" and "thou shalt bear false witness to everything at every opportunity."

I hope you all will also put in an appearance at a No Kings event near you. For inspiration, I give you Michael McDermott's new song "The Future." Enjoy and maybe play it at your event. For this I'd even say turn the volume up to 11.

 

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, No Kings, Posted on October 17, 2025 at 11:59PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Civil War II: The Wrath of Steve

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller

This isn't quite how I though this would go. I figured that our nation's second civil war (it's canon, Captain Pike said so) would start as a slow burn initially fought by essentially guerilla forces, terrorist attacks by the same kind of cultists that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, rubes that follow the tyrant-in-chief's mob-boss-like instruction; those attacks would then escalate to conflicts with authorities that escalate to conflicts between authorities that escalate to federal crackdowns.

Instead, the regime is skipping all those preliminary steps and just diving in with federal oppression. Why warm up?

The assault by ICE agents in Chicago, along with other factors of note—POTUS47's unexplained absence from view for several days at a time; the illegal murders of Venezuelans on the open sea; multiple claims by the tyrant that Portland, Oregon, is "burning to the ground" and "war-torn" when the real circumstance involves a small protest outside an ICE building by a guy in a chicken suit and a preacher (who was shot by an ICE agent with a non-lethal round after he told the agents they could still repent their sins); and myriad other actions taken under the auspices of DHS—lend considerable credence to the theory that Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is really in charge of the regime, at least so far as non-economic policy goes.

We all know that the alleged president is too stupid to orchestrate anything himself—not effectively, anyway; when he tries we get tariffs that cripple the whole economy. He is instead manipulated by his puppeteers to authorize what they want to do and then they do it without interference. Miller is the chief puppeteer, the architect of the most Nazi-esque policies of the regime, and he isn't subtle. He's a blunt instrument. His only warmup moves for his remake of DHS into a fascist secret police force were building/expanding DHS detention facilities and putting out the call that ICE would hire anyone who could pass a sort of inverse background check. Do you have a history of antisocial behavior? Violent outbursts? Have you ever been fired from a job for your racist attitudes? Are you well-versed in a variety of slurs and hate speech? Did you beat up smaller kids in elementary school? If so, you are the ideal candidate for a career in the new ICE Thug Force. With his secret police all staffed up, he can just exploit the boss' ignorance to get authorization for terror campaigns in cities across the country.

It's possible that Miller is so tunnel-visioned in his racism that he doesn't realize that commando raids on minority-majority neighborhoods will have blowback, but I think it more likely that it's part of the plan. He wants the blowback, he wants the escalation, he wants to rain hellfire on anyone that reminds him of people he hated as a child.

Once again, I note that a person like this would never be allowed near the halls of power if the majority in Congress respected their oaths of office. I mean, no one in this regime would be, it's entirely staffed by authoritarians and idiots. But Miller seems a special case. He has no redeemable quality. If there is a fictional metaphor for Miller, an actual Jewish Nazi, it's Armus, the "skin of evil" from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Armus was the sludge making up all of the hatred, animus, and cruelty of an alien race, expunged from them and abandoned on a barren unpopulated world.

The tyrant-in-chief is the most dangerous person in the world because he wields power, but he's stupid and, I would bet, demented and dying. Miller is nearly as dangerous because he pulls the strings and wants to cement his place in power before the alleged president kicks the bucket.

Ruled by a skin of evil.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, Star Trek, Posted on October 9, 2025 at 6:01PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

More reasons to impeach

Though I've been preoccupied by baseball playoffs this week, the rest of the world kept on turning and the regime at the White House and their collaborators engaged in yet more fascistic malevolence.

There's too much of it to list, so I'm just going to vent about the incident at Quantico, which was another thing to add to the ever-increasing list of actions President Convicted Felon and his entire regime of gangsters would be impeached and removed for if we had a Congressional majority that respected their oaths of office.

This week the United States Secretary of Defense (that's still the name, no matter what the dude says) Pete Hegseth summoned all of the US military's flag officers to listen to him project his insecurities and cosplay as a tough guy. The SecDef essentially told these generals and admirals to go forth and commit war crimes.

It was a speech that former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele described as "a cross between a political rally and an old Friars Club roast." Hegseth not only disrupted the commands of all of these officers by demanding they give him an in-person audience to hear this inanity, he then fat-shamed them, criticized their grooming habits, encouraged the abuse of new recruits, and implied a blind eye would be turned to future sexual assaults on military bases. He called having to refrain from abuses "walking on eggshells" which shouldn't be anyone's concern. He paid lip service to racially motivated violence and sexual assault "remaining" illegal, but emphasized he wanted "no more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations," which given his own history and predilections can easily be inferred to mean soldiers can do what they want and we won't listen to anyone who is victimized, even if they're fellow soldiers. He said outright that drill sergeants should be allowed to hit their troops. He also implied that officers or enlisted personnel who had been held accountable for various abuses in the past would be essentially pardoned: "At my direction, we're making changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity," he said.

He decried restrictions on military behavior in the field as well, blasting policies and agreements like the Geneva Convention as "stupid" and declaring that the US military should be ruthless. "We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters."

There was a fair amount of, I will say, honest explanation of why he and President Convicted Felon want to rebrand the Defense Department as the "War Department," all of it chilling. "We have to be prepared for war, not for defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not to defend." He might as well call it the "Department of Conquering" or the "Department of Global Bullies."

This cabinet secretary with multiple white supremacist tattoos on his body declared that he wanted the military to be white and male and heterosexual, barely coding his language at all. Referring to ethnic and gender diversity in the services, social justice, environmental concerns, and women in combat roles as "toxic ideological garbage," he declared that "we are done with that shit."  He called the new fitness requirement he wants to implement across the military to be "a gender-neutral age normed male standard," code for "no girls or sissies." He called on anyone in that room that wasn't on board with the fascist administration to resign their commissions. 

Hegseth's pro-abuse and pro-bigotry address was followed by a rambling, oft-incoherent speech by the tyrant-in-chief, who was very disturbed by the lack of adulation the flag officers were showing him. The tyrant told the generals and admirals that some of them would have a "major part" in his plan to essentially incite civil war, that he wanted to turn American cities into "training grounds" for the military, a force that would "straighten out" cities he didn't approve of. "That's a war too," he said, "a war from within."

Interestingly, Hegseth made multiple references to oaths taken to the Constitution and how they should be taken seriously, not once showing the slightest recognition that he and his boss violate such oaths on a daily if not hourly basis.

I've no doubt that there were some in that audience who were fully on board with what they heard, but I hold out some hope that some of them—most of them?—recognized that they were witness to leaders who seek to subvert the nation they swore to protect. I hope that enough of them convene among themselves in the aftermath of this and strategize for how to refuse illegal orders, protect each other from illegal firings, how to exert any influence they might have to promote an impeachment or two or twenty without overstepping their apolitical protocols.

We should fully expect President Convicted Felon to try to lay siege to major American cities in an effort to destroy his political opposition. I wish I could fully expect the military to tell him to fuck off when he does.

Tagged President VonClownstick, Republicans, Politics, Posted on October 3, 2025 at 4:54PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Mad enough to chew neutronium

What the fuck are you doing, Hakeem?!

Hakeem Jeffrries, along with 94 other Democrats in the House, voted Yes on "a resolution to honor the life of Charles Kirk."

Why?

I can think of no good reason. I can think of bad ones. Capitulation is what the bad ones all redound to. 

Charlie Kirk—whose middle name I've learned was "James," which bugs me to no end—was, yes, the victim of a horrible crime and that crime was detestable and unconscionable and a black mark on humanity. But is that sufficient to warrant this Congressional resolution? If so, then where are the resolutions honoring the countless other victims of our absurd gun culture? Charlie Kirk gets honored but the woman gunned down in a camp of unhoused folks in Minneapolis this week doesn't? Charlie Kirk gets honored but the guy shot and killed while playing basketball in the Bronx last month doesn't? Charlie Kirk gets honored but Melissa Hortman doesn't? Charlie Kirk gets honored but the 1,400+ minors shot and killed just last year in this country don't?

Charlie Kirk gets honored because his murder is being used by the so-called Republican party to fuel propaganda and as a rallying cry for stochastic terrorism.

The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives shouldn't be voting in favor of that.

I wrote to my senators and congresswoman again today. Not about Jeffries and the resolution honoring a misogynistic bigot that called for the previous president to be killed; I only mentioned that in passing. My focus was, once again, on the duty of every member of Congress to remove the fascist regime currently occupying power in the White House. By not doing so they are betraying their own oaths of office as this regime continues to piss all over the Constitution as they declare the First Amendment dead, as they continue to murder people on the open sea—three more killed today—as they continue to use a de facto secret police force to abduct and disappear people they don't think are "American" enough.

I'm sick of Chuck Schumer insisting that he needs bipartisan support for even the smallest things. We need him—or his replacement as minority leader if he gets out of the way—to insist on bipartisan support for defending and upholding the Constitution. We need Democratic leadership to be demanding the so-called Republicans either respect their oaths of office and end this fascist regime or resign immediately because they are betraying their country. They need to be called out for their rejection of the bill of rights, the very rule of law, every principle this country was founded on. (Well, except racism; if we're honest, that too was part of the country's founding and they're staying true to that.)

Congress could end this nightmare tomorrow.

But they won't.

Because the majority party is too corrupt, too cowed, too myopic, too greedy, and too comfortable with fascism.

That's got to change.

Tagged Politics, Republicans, Hakeem Jeffries, President VonClownstick, Posted on September 20, 2025 at 3:17AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Supremely Corrupt

The Legion of Doom. Impeach them all.

The latest travesty from the corrupt anti-American fascist-enablers that make up the majority of our Supreme Court attempts to make the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution null and void. And it's merely the next link the lengthening chain of indefensible rulings from John Roberts and his Gang of Supervillains.

In the ruling favoring the government's position in Noem v. Vazquez Perdomo—unsigned, a product of the so-called "shadow docket" but with a concurrence written by Brett "I like beer" Kavanaugh—suspends the ruling of a lower court that declared actions taken in California by the Department of Homeland Security ran afoul of the public's Constitutional rights. Basically, it says that Constitutional protections from unreasonable searches and seizures are optional, that law enforcement may decide what's reasonable and what isn't and courts and judges can go fly a kite.

In his concurrence, Kavanaugh cites language from The Immigration and Nationality Act that says anyone may be detained and questioned given “a reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts,” then goes on to describe DHS actions interrogating/snatching people "based on the following factors or combination of factors: (i) presence at particular locations such as bus stops, car washes, day laborer pickup sites, agricultural sites, and the like; (ii) the type of work one does; (iii) speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; and (iv) apparent race or ethnicity"—the basis for the lower courts injunction—as perfectly fine.

"In my view," Kavanaugh writes,  "the Government has made a sufficient showing to obtain a stay pending appeal," contending that "the Government has demonstrated a fair prospect of reversal of the District Court’s injunction." How, you ask? By claiming those suing Kristi Noem and DHS have no standing. Those people have already been hassled by DHS, and they want injunctive relief against future harassment? Ridiculous, says Kavanaugh. "Plaintiffs have no good basis to believe that law enforcement will unlawfully stop them [specifically] in the future based on the prohibited factors—and certainly no good basis for believing that any stop of the plaintiffs is imminent." This is another example of the Roberts Court's claim that courts cannot protect the public at large, they can only protect the specific individuals who bring lawsuits and only in very narrow contexts.

Plus, I'd contend that the plaintiffs here have pretty firm basis that they are at risk. Their circumstances, i.e. existing while brown and Spanish-speaking, haven't changed since they were originally harassed so their continues to be equal risk.

Justice I Like Beer goes on to claim that DHS uses "their experience" and "a variety of factors" in deciding who to stop/question/harass/abduct, therefore the court cannot claim said decisions are "unreasonable." He continues, "Whether an officer has reasonable suspicion depends on the totality of the circumstances," then describes ethnic profiling and the supposition that undocumented immigrants often work certain jobs, "and that many of those illegally in the Los Angeles area come from Mexico or Central America and do not speak much English" as valid reasons for DHS to do their thing. In other words, yeah, bigotry is fine.

And pay no attention to the fact that this entire justification is the inverse of the standing argument: Courts may only protect the specific individuals bringing suit for their specific individual claim and cannot paint with any broader brush than that, but DHS and law enforcement can paint with as broad a brush as they damn well want to. Double-standards are the way of the Roberts Court, after all.

It's a blatantly unconstitutional opinion. The Fourth Amendment doesn't allow for the kind of wiggle room or double standards Kavanaugh wants to employ. It says, in its entirety, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Then, as a cherry on top, Kavanaugh shows his absolute ignorance/willful blindness to reality with this gem: "Importantly, reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status. If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter." Really, Brett? Ask Kilmar Abrego about that. Ask any number of people here legally but still being held in immigration detention centers or the Florida concentration camp if they were "free to go" following a "brief encounter" with DHS.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the dissent, yet another blistering rebuke of the majority's abuse of their position. Noting that it used to be near-unheard of for SCOTUS to stay a district court's ruling without prompting, Sotomayor wrote that this ruling "is yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job."

Sotomayor goes on to detail the abuses of DHS in this matter and their terroristic tactics, reiterates the veracity of the plaintiff's case, cites the thoroughness of the District Court's decision that Kavanaugh rejects, and for good measure gives a primer on THE FOURTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION, since the majority of this court wants to pretend it doesn't exist. Kavanaugh's championing of profiling holds no water; the majority opinion's justifications "in no way reflect the kind of individualized inquiry the Fourth Amendment demands," writes Sotomayor, and she is 100% correct, citing numerous case precedents to back her up (including one that Kavanaugh attempted to twist into support for his concurrence). She also eviscerates Kavanaugh's lack-of-standing argument as well as points out what should be obvious to anyone taking this seriously, let alone, oh I don't know, A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, that the government's case rests on its claim that the District Court's injunction against detaining/harassing people based on Kavanaugh-approved ethnic profiling “chills [its] enforcement efforts” and “deters officers from stopping suspects even when they have reasonable suspicion on other grounds.” If they have other grounds, then they are not violating the injunction. They're fighting the injunction because they want the freedom use these unconstitutional grounds.

Unwilling to let Kavanaugh's willful ignorance of reality skate by, Sotomayor also writes, "Immigration agents are not conducting 'brief stops for questioning,' as the concurrence would like to believe. They are seizing people using firearms, physical violence, and warehouse detentions. Nor are undocumented immigrants the only ones harmed by the Government’s conduct. United States citizens are also being seized, taken from their jobs, and prevented from working to support themselves and their families. The concurrence relegates the interests of U.S. citizens and individuals with legal status to a single sentence, positing that the Government will free these individuals as soon as they show they are legally in the United States. That blinks reality."

She concludes: "Because this [ruling] is unconscionably irreconcilable with our Nation’s constitutional guarantees, I dissent."

The whole dissent is suitably righteous and damning. Sotomayor serves to remind us what the Supreme Court of the United States is supposed to be, how the Constitution is supposed to be the Court's foundation, and maybe provides the slimmest bit of hope that when this reign of autocratic terror finally comes to an end that sanity will return to America.

 

Tagged SCOTUS, Politics, Posted on September 9, 2025 at 8:57PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

The pro-death party

The news has been awful lately.

I know, that seems like an evergreen statement in the year 2025. It kind of is. Every day there's more nightmare fuel.

Since I last posted anything we've had another school shooting, more decimation at the CDC, concrete orders from RFK Jr.'s HHS to stop vaccinating people, the U.S. regime assassinated 11 Venezuelans in the Caribbean on suspicion of drug-running (prior administrations would have impounded and searched the boat, these guys just blew it up), the Russian regime assassinated a Ukrainian official in the midst of continued Russian attacks in their war, and our wannabe despot added Baltimore to the list of cities he wants to deploy troops to in violation of posse comitatus. And that's just off the top of my head.

Remember when Republicans branded themselves the "pro-life party"? Yes, yes, we knew it was bullshit then too, but even Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, the GOP's propaganda masters and spiritual disciples of Joseph Goebbels, would have a hard time spinning today's Republicans as "pro-life" when they are so clearly, actively, and zealously pro-death.

Pro-gun massacres. Pro-disease. Pro-pandemics. Pro-war, so long as it's the tyrant's pals Vlad and Bibi doing the warring and/or it's a convenient excuse to shoot at Spanish-speaking brown folks.

The modern Republican party is the Death Party.

The latest school shooting will not move a single Republican lawmaker to support any curtailment of the availability of assault weapons to the general public. They have accepted—with enthusiasm!—that the occasional massacre of children is an acceptable price to pay for the gun lobby's political support.

The illegal deployment of military to American cities to combat "crime" is, of course, an attempt to intimidate political opposition and an to incite violence; the longer it goes on, the more likely there will be people killed on the streets by government thugs.

We're not three years past a global pandemic that was only (mostly) overcome because of the herculean feat of creating and mass-distributing vaccines, so naturally the guy who mismanaged the start of the COVID-19 fiasco put a guy in charge of public health that opposes not just vaccines but public health measures in general. Because of this moronic regime's first go-round, COVID-19 is still a thing, and now you can't get the vaccine unless you're over 65 or have compounding risk factors. And we have to worry about diseases we thought were behind us again. Measles, anyone? HPV? Tetanus? Fucking polio, perhaps?

And if you do get sick, well, your health insurance is going to get worse and more expensive next year thanks to the one and only piece of legislation this traitorous excuse for a Congressional majority passed so far. Medicaid is basically going away, Medicare is next on the chopping block. For most of us this would be a problem, but Republicans, in the words of Senator Joni Ernst, think "we're all going to die [anyway]" so why fight it when we could instead give more money to rich people?

And this doesn't even touch on the destruction of USAID and the environmental damage being done by deregulation and callous incentives to polluters.

Death Party would be consistent with, you know, how words work. Which is antithetical to how this group handles things like names and labels. This year's HR1 was literally named the "Big Beautiful Bill" when it was the ugliest legislation to see a vote in ages. Back in the George W. Bush Administration there was legislation the Republicans named the "Clear Skies Act"; Al Franken rightly noted that the only way that would be an accurate label is if you added a couple of words and made the the "Clear the Skies of Birds Act." Atwater and Rove pioneered this for Republicans—call the worst things you can think of something positive and you can fool enough suckers into supporting it.

Even the name of their party.

Republican: Supporting a form of government known as a Republic, a governing body made up of Representatives of the Public. Modern Republican officeholders do not represent the public in any way, shape, or form.

The GOP: The "Grand Old Party" is not grand—at its outset it was a regional party, continued to be so in the aftermath of the Civil War, and despite some spans of electoral domination has never been comprised of a majority of the electorate by registration or identification—nor is it old in comparison to the Democratic party, which had already existed for 25 years when the Republican party was formed. If they want to maintain the monicker "GOP," perhaps it should stand for, oh, "Greedy Obnoxious Pedophiles" or "Getting Oligarchs Paid" or "Grotesquely Onerous Policies."

So call them the Death Party. Death by gunfire. Death by disease. Death by environmental cataclysm. Death by starvation. Death by negligence.

Death by a feckless Congressional caucus of neo-Nazi toadies. Death by tyrannical narcissism in the White House. Death by Republicans.

Tagged Politics, Republicans, President VonClownstick, Posted on September 3, 2025 at 12:00AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

What he said

You've probably heard about this already if you're tuned into the news at all, but Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker refused to bow to tyranny and told President Convicted Felon to keep his armed thugs the fuck out of his state (paraphrasing).

Rather than expound about Pritzker's awesome speech, I will instead direct you to what Erik said about it, which I endorse 100%. Erik's a morning person, he beat me to it.

 

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, Posted on August 26, 2025 at 4:57PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Trickle-down bitterness

The other night I had an umpiring shift that included something I'm not accustomed to these days—hostility directed at me from a player.

You'd think I'd have been in a better mindset to recognize/deal with such a thing; before the shift began, I and my fellow ump Laz, who was working the other field, had been comparing notes on difficult teams and conflict with players since Laz had some issues the previous day. But no, none of that stayed in my upper consciousness once I got going with the game, so when I had a close play at second base in the early innings and called the runner out, his irritated backtalk didn't really phase me and I just moved on. Then every subsequent time that player was involved in a play, offensively or defensively, he had something to say about me. Not directly to me, he had things to say to his fellows in the dugout—just making sure he was loud enough that I'd hear him.

After the third such remark I got it that he wasn't somehow trying to be funny, that he meant things literally, and it started to bug me; it also confused me, though, because I've gotten a little full of myself in this gig. I'm used to being everyone's favorite umpire. (Not everyone's, obviously; I mean, Laz has fans despite his newness to the league, which he should since he's good.)

Most players that have been around for a while know me by name and are glad to have me working their games. It's an unusual shift if no one asks me as they're getting ready to leave if I'll be doing their next games or not and if not asking me if I can't switch things around so I will. Once I was running behind schedule and texted Laz that I was going to be 10 minutes late or so to the park and would he please tell my teams to hang in there; Laz's reply was that they were "willing to wait without making trouble, but only because it's you coming." Banter even before I was there in person. Even in cases when a player argues with me about a call, most often after the game ends that player wants to make sure I knew it was just a heat of the moment reaction and s/he gets that it's a tough gig and close calls are part of the deal, no hard feelings. And if I blow a call and know it, I always own up to it even though most times it can't be undone; nine times out of ten, that goes over well and buys good will.

The guy the other night would have been the tenth out of ten had I actually got something wrong and knew it and said so. Makes me wonder what his life must be like elsewhere, can't be much fun.

Anyway, after that game was over I went up to this fellow and asked him what was up. "You've been badmouthing me the whole game, it can't just be from that close call at second, so let's have it. What's going on?" It was an attempt at conflict resolution, but either my tone was off or he just wasn't interested in coming to any understandings (maybe both). He then reminded me of the last time I had his team, about three or four weeks prior, when I also called him out on a close play at second base. Once he mentioned it, I recalled it was an almost identical play, including him sliding in and kicking up so much dust as to make the view of the tag questionable. He was still pissed off about that, had been holding a grudge about it. I told him that close plays were part of the game, they're bound to happen, and they always inevitably go against someone. He just doubled down on his hostility, offered me $100 to never umpire again, told me I sucked at it, and wanted me to know he was better than me in every way. OK, goodbye, then, conversation over. I turned away to get prepped for the next game and heard him continuing to badmouth me to others (but not as loudly this time). One of the players waiting for the next game, having heard some the exchange, came up to me and let me know that he and his team would have my back if necessary, which I appreciated but also dismissed—this guy wasn't looking for a physical fight and I wouldn't let him have one if he was. Too much machismo was the whole problem, after all, no need to add to it.

It's a nothing incident. A comment from another witness player reminded me of something else that happened after that game weeks ago that the hostile was holding a grudge from, when after the dustup someone asked me from the bleachers how often grown men yell at me about a rec-league game with no stakes at all. "More often than anyone would think appropriate," or something like that, was my reply.

Shit like that happens. Like Laz and I were saying before the shift, sometimes some people are asshats and the worst part of the gig is finding the line where competitive macho asshattery crosses into unacceptable abuse asshattery that ruins things for the rest of the participants and requires ejections or other means of reminding people who has authority.

Being me, of course, it took me a good hour or so to process the experience out of my head to the point that I was clearheaded for the rest of my shift. I always replay things in my head, puzzle over what I said, think of better things I could have said, wonder if my ego is so needy that this should bother me, then eventually just conclude that sometimes some people are asshats.

Fortunately, the rest of the night was filled entirely with players of good cheer and fun attitudes that didn't take things seriously even though their games were (a) a tight one that came down to the last batter of the game and (b) a lopsided trouncing that resulted in a 36-0 shutout.

Since then I've alternatively completely forgotten about this incident and pondered the why of sometimes some people are asshats. In this particular time in the world, I think people have shorter fuses, have more frayed nerves than ever, and are quicker to explode than what had been normal. Me included. There's so much threatening us on a daily basis from our alleged leaders that it's hard to remember we're supposed to be civilized. Or, for those on the other side, there's a new and intoxicating permission structure to lash out, to take responsibility for nothing, to make anything and everything into a grievance that personally offends and demands retribution.

It's like the GOP has finally found a scenario where the "trickle-down" theory works: Supply-side spite, anxiety, and antagonism.

Tagged Umping, Politics, Softball, Posted on August 20, 2025 at 8:00PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet