#I did not see DeSantis dropping out

[vivaciousoceans]

If Nikki Haley can get elected as president and Hilary Clinton couldn’t-

[writingoneout]

Untilted Katamari Reflections

Preamble:

Content considerations for the following include:

Parental abuse

Bigotry

Worldly anxiety

You're welcome back another day if that's too much right now.

I.

It’s fall of 2015.

You and your virgin college friends drink shitty cocktails called the “Slutty Will Rodgers.” They’re just Pepsi rawdogged with indeterminate amounts of grenadine and Captain Morgan. When you bought the mixers a Wal-Mart stocker yodeled “OOOOoOoooOH, maKIN sOMe DRINKS?!?!” and you knew it was time to leave.

We Love Katamari is on the Telly. It’s a sweet, trippy game you first bought to cope with high school. On Dark Fridays at 1am, when your inbox was barren and your balls were full, you’d drive to the empty gym downtown and sprint six miles. Then you’d come home and replay the firefly level until you fell asleep with your pug.

Your college friends are bad at the game, so they pass the controller. You’re playing the underwater stage. A spaceman falls in the pond of people gunk and stacked crabs. It’s going really well if you’re honest. You point to the screen and say “this’ll be Florida if Trump wins.” See Fig. 1.

Figure 1: Rick Desantis has big plans for Disney.

Your friends don’t reply because they soon won’t be virgins and their tongues battle each other’s. It’s a different game they play, one with fuzzier rules, but greater industry respect. You wish the campus gym was open 24/7.

. . .

Your skills as the prince are not inherent. You first meet him in 2005, when your dyspraxic hands can barely tie a shoe. Your parents catch you lose shit for the Toonami review of Me and My Katamari. They buy it for Christmas, hoping to steady your nerves while your father’s in therapy.

Dr. Flam is a Neo-Freudian hitched to your mom’s guy, Dr. Flim. She’s deep in your dad’s dream journal and makes him watch movies like Cool Hand Luke to really reign in his ego. He gets the DVDs from the Netflix site, then through the mail. As a family you watch your dad’s therapy films and reruns of Inyuasha.

In the waiting room you barely navigate the sticky ball through Namco Bandai’s Satoshi Kon parade. See Fig. 2. You’ve only seen adults express anger verbally, so when you mess up you grunt a lot and let out those Leopold Butters Stotch swears like “crap,” “shoot,” and “gosh darn.” You’re not particularly self-aware, so you probably just say “god fucking damn it” a few times and don’t remember. Years later you realize there was probably a secretary behind the glass watching you do all this.

Figure 2: Bwahbwahwabhbawahbwaaaaah.

Sometimes there’s a girl in the room with you, just around your age. She’s stuck while Dr. Flim teaches her mom about what dream snakes mean for her fear of male puberty. That's what he did for your mom, anyway.

You think the waiting-room stranger is cute, but you won’t admit you like girls yet, especially not to yourself. To cope with the cognitive dissonance, you do your weird shit louder while refusing to make eye contact with her. If you get real stressed you crank up the main menu track and yell “ahhhhh that’s so relaxing” while the “nah nah nah nahs” play through your headphones.

At one point the girl stands against a wall and stares at you with her arms crossed. You bet she thinks you’re cool, but she’s probably just annoyed and hopes you’ll notice, or maybe just ask if she’s OK. It’s probably good you don’t talk with her. You might ask something stupid, like if she's seen the roach corpse in the stairwell. It’s been there for a year straight, isn’t that crazy?

For better and worse, you power through your little game alone. Every time you lose the King of All Cosmos beats, shoots, and belittles you. See Fig. 3. It reminds you of when your own dad shattered your Harry Potter wand over the kitchen counter because you dropped a mini pizza.

Figure 3: The King of All Cosmos offers little constructive advice, all things considered.

You fail quite frequently. Eventually you drop the game because it’s getting stressful and you have the power to relieve yourself of the situation—not the Freudian lobby, just your fake dad.

II.

It’s 2012. PlayStation Network uploads The Prince’s primeval outing: Katamari Damacy. Within, Padre Cosmotic flaps his gums over too much hooch then slams his dump truck ass through the better part of our solar system. He dislodges every recognized constellation and even the moon itself.

Cosmos sends Prince to Earth—the last brick left in the shitstorm—to make slop of our planet and bodies. With the slop space itself will be made anew. The Good Son does as he's told, and every living entity experiences euphoric ego death within the bulbous heaven of the Katamari.

As a Real Gamer Teen you lose a lot less in this one. You really go in and fix Fake Dad’s mistakes, no problem at all. This is why a year ago you hailed “gaming journalism” as your calling. You write clean and play tight; should keep the lights on. It’s the most concrete idea you’ve had since 7th grade when you outlined a YA novel called Tooth Pocket. Even you didn’t think Scholastic would buy that one, though. It was just too hot for the book fair.

One day you’re cranking through FFVI and your real dad swings by, mad you're young. He grills your ass and says “I bet you can’t even tell me the biggest thing happening right now.” It’s some real “What’s a gallon of milk cost?” shit, he could mean anything.

 Surprisingly, you can’t think of a good answer. You and your friends are actually pretty informed because John Stewart is still at the desk and y’all chime in every day. See Fig. 4. You also spend hours each week tearing through MSN slideshows in your Graphic Design class because the Photoshop takes five minutes. You’ve seen a staggering amount of the Syrian civil war.

Figure 4: Sometimes in Snapchat you draw glasses on your cat to make him look like Mitch McConnel. You wouldn't do that without this guy.

Still, you’re a little stumped. It’s the middle of a phenomenon native to moralist presidencies known as "a slow news week.” You actually ran out of war shit the other day and clicked through some slides about Pakistani wrestlers. The seniors who offered you Jack Daniels in the Whataburger lot saw it and laughed. They thought you were peeping dong in class. You really weren’t, but they didn’t believe you. They graduate certain you were bricked up in the Dell Lab over big guys in spandex.

“I don’t know,” you tell your dad.

He throws his hands behind his head, hard, like an orangutan chucking logs at a poacher.

“It’s the fucking carbon tax,” he yells. This comes as a surprise, you think, because that shit is last month’s news. It really didn’t go anywhere.

“Do you not pay attention because you don’t give a shit, or are you just a nihilist and think you can’t do anything?” You can tell in his eyes he thinks there’s a real answer. “Seriously, which is it?

You don’t remember what you said. You probably just stammered until he walked off.

A month later he picks you up from marching band. Your phone is dead, so he had to wait twenty minutes longer than anticipated while you found his car. He punches the rearview mirror until the windshield cracks then screams of how your birth kept him from New England.

III.

It’s 2016. A rockin’ MILF in the Psych department gets you really into Hamilton. See Fig. 5. Every day you wake up on the grind and blast “You Aaron Burr, sir?” through your shitty 7-11 cans. While cramming foreign language Quizlets and McGraw Hill Online you do this thing called “Hafilton.” It’s where rock up to “Nonstop” and quit listening just before Hamilton decides what he will stop is being a good husband.

Figure 5: Like Kojima, you know "MILF" is a mindset, not a factual inquiry.

It’s 2018. Your grades are notably better and you’ve snuck into the honors program. Like Hamilton himself, you really flourished at 19 and thought about running for office. You immediately abandoned this idea after remembering your allergy to recordings of your image or voice.

You cohabit with the Psych MILF, and she offers some advice: she’s really had her boots on the ground with this whole “clinical psych thing” and honestly, respectfully, she loves you, but dear God it might not be your scene. It’s taken a real toll on her and the friends, and she can’t imagine you going through that shit.

At 1am in your living room you boot up DOOM (2016) and listen through some Hamilton. Angelica is thirsty on main when you remember that you, yourself, could be a lawyer. You don’t have to run for Congress to fight the establishment. There’s just the common law, and it’s right there. You can just get your grubby little hands in that shit and work your magic.

. . .

It’s the last semester of undergrad. Your Western Thought professor says Hamilton wasn’t really a huge deal and really James Madison shat out the big parts of our faction-proof empire. Yes, there was, in fact, a civil war, but the caplock rifle worked it out. After the Federalist papers he has you read the Bill of Rights but no Supreme Court cases. There’s a lot of talk on negative liberties.

Just before finals, the learned doctor says your generation only has two things to worry about: the climate and the poverty. Yeah they’re big, he says, but they’re just two things. You’re crafty kids, smart as the framers, even.

. . .

The state decides law school is your jam and lets you come inside.

There’s the negative liberties but you actually read Supreme Court opinions when the big boys aren’t shaking fists for Valley Forge. They have you listen to Hamilton for context. You feel dirty. An LRW professor puts on the “I’m Just a Bill” video and your sectionmate with Ivy degrees gets really, really mad.

. . .

The Federalist Society has a comfy presence at your law school. Along with Big Oil they sling out free pizza to every Little Scalia with a rumbly tum tum.

On your way to class you hear what the pizza boys feel. They hate Europeans, those social democrats with the rotten armories and clumpy cash. The Euros, they think, give too much wiggle room for the mentally ill, and by that they mean they mean gay people and probably just women overall.

There are more than two things to fix, you think.

. . .

The pandemic hits. You and some pals start a Google Doc to stay afloat. It barely works. In the Zoom review for the property final your professor catches multiple people crying. "You don't have to be here," he tells them, “there are other jobs.”

. . .

A year passes. You’re in a niche public interest class you do all right with. The professor looks you and thirty-five others dead in the eye and says how sorry he is that law school is traumatic. You shed a single tear in your little window. You're pretty in the shit and haven’t worn pants to class in months.

Then public interest prof takes a big, big drag from his long, fat spliff. He spins his desk chair and baseball cap at the same time, never letting go of the joint.

“Hey,” he says. “It’s not your fault, really, but the world is fucked. It’s time to fix what your parents did.”

The next week he gives a practice exam where the best solution is to sell an old lady’s house to Nestlé.

IV.

It’s 2022. After throwing your whole gooch at it, you fail the bar exam.

You fall back hard into exercise. When you’re not slamming Barbri you’re at the gym binging curls and cranking the Chainsaw Man soundtrack. One night on the way to squats you finally hear “Black Parade.” Just like you, Mr. Gerry Wayland is stuck between global disrepair and the desire to write Funny Little Books.

You just started an FLB yourself, actually. It’s spin on a Story Break episode you love. In your version there’s a fucked up civil war horse that moves like a spider and is covered in bugs. Rich people kill the planet then the horse gets lost in space. It’s compelling, you promise. There’s body horror and pirates dressed like Gorton’s Fisherman. See Fig. 6 It’s about the horrors of the contemporary world state. It’ll be fun.

Figure 6: An untapped horror icon. Imagine blood contrasting that yellow.

Big problem, though: you remember rich people love hiking. There’s no grass on Mars, not that good shit anyway. Would they really fuck all of it?

You edit. In the last few years, the real breathless ones, the oligarchs cash their tab. A cartel, they think, could really muscle those stragglers, the tragically common. There’s one city left with both breathable air and refugees. They level it. The few survivors are spread amongst the stars, so their loves and languages may die.

. . .

It’s the middle of Bar Prep Round 2. You and the patient MILF see Hadestown in the Big City.

There’s a juke joint on stage flanked by devil trombones. A sad little guy slinks in from the janitor’s closet. His name is Orpheus and, just like you, he’s a sad, short writer who likes a lady so much it comes out weird. He has a vision, he says, for a little ditty. It’s compelling, he promises, and shit’s gonna change. His love is functional and realized, worth the investment of a hardened woman displaced by capital’s torture. She believes him.

You cry because you know where this goes.

It’s just a single tear.

Don’t worry.

Nobody sees.

. . .

There’s this game you like, by some corporate anarchists who hate themselves. They’re Scandinavian, from the spot in Tallin where you stopped for a cruise. Every gift shop there had swastikas and gas masks leftover from the bloody years.

In the game is a liberal yacht MILF. She thinks you’re stupid but someone’s helping with your gun, so you’ve got that on her. And yet, she pins you, re your whole writing thing. See Fig. 7.

Figure 7: She sucked, but it still hurt when she left.

Your favorite Supreme Court podcast says the ocean’s last hope is other countries. But those countries’ people cry to the Disco game, and their ministers also bought The End of History. You meet them on the subreddit. You're all geeked out, waiting for the tide.

. . .

It’s the era of desert cradles. God thinks you’re disgusting, so he sends his better kids with a memo: the flood was too much work on his end, it’s time for something different.

“Just keep walking,” he says.

Your skin bares his figure. So do the corpses. You little birds among billions, gassed out and screaming, move to clean.

V.

It’s 2023.

We Love Katamari is up on the PlayStation store. You sit with the cats and mow down some crabs. You don’t need it so much these days, but it’s nice.

There’s a Bar card in your wallet, just below your gym tag. There are two interviews in your Google Calendar. Good stuff might happen, hopefully soon. You crawl into bed and wrap an arm around your wife’s rib cage.

Everything matters and nothing is safe.

You are loved enough to sleep.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Capitalism: trickling down bootstraps since the Industrial Revolution.

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 6, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 7, 2023

In the Washington Post today, Marianne LeVine, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Josh Dawsey reported that the Trump camp is eager to get people to stop focusing on Trump’s authoritarian talk, noting that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says the presidential candidate was just joking when he said he would be a dictator on the first day of a return to the White House. While the Republican base appears to like Trump’s threats against the people they have come to hate, two Trump advisers told the reporters that “recent stories about his plans for a second term are not viewed as helpful for the general election.”

Republicans have also moved quickly to cut ties with Florida Republican Party chair Christian Ziegler, who is under police investigation for rape. Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, co-founded Moms for Liberty, an organization that has focused on removing from schools books that they find objectionable, generally books by or about racial or ethnic minorities or LGBTQ+ people. Often Moms for Liberty members have implied, or even claimed, that those trying to protect school libraries are sexual predators or “groomers.” Ziegler herself has been active in shaping anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the state.

But the police and court documents about the case revealed that the Zieglers and the woman Ziegler allegedly raped had participated in a three-way sexual relationship in the past. The rape allegedly occurred after they had set up another encounter that Bridget could not make. The woman then canceled, telling Ziegler “I was mainly in it for her.” He went to her home anyway.

The story of a key anti-LGBTQ+ activist engaging in same-sex activity as part of a threesome sent Moms for Liberty hurrying to say that Bridget Ziegler was no longer on their board (although both Zieglers were still on their advisory board) and purge her name from their website. And though no charges have yet been filed, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has called on Christian Ziegler to resign from his position at the head of the state Republican Party. 

The Zieglers helped to tie the Republican Party to Moms for Liberty shortly after the organization formed in January 2021, and DeSantis was very much on board, apparently seeing their message of taking the war against “woke” to the schools as a political winner. But, as Amanda Marcotte pointed out in Salon, the 2022 midterms revealed that most voters did not like the extremism of that group and that it was a political liability. 

The fact that DeSantis is dropping his former ally Ziegler so fast suggests that DeSantis is eager to divorce himself from both the story and from the extremism of Moms for Liberty. 

The Trump Republicans took another hit today as well, when a grand jury in the state of Nevada charged six people who falsely posed as electors in 2020 in order to file fake electoral votes for Trump to replace the state’s real votes for now-President Joe Biden. The six Republicans charged with filing false documents include the chair and the vice chair of the Nevada Republican Party. If convicted, they face up to nine years in prison and $15,000 in fines. 

Nevada is the third state to charge the fake electors with crimes. Georgia and Michigan have also done so. 

Ten fake electors in Wisconsin today settled a civil lawsuit over their own participation in Trump’s false-elector scheme. The settlement involved correcting the historical record. The ten agreed to withdraw their paperwork with the false information, explain in writing to the federal offices that the filings had been “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results,” and acknowledge that Biden won the 2020 election. Going forward, they agreed never again to serve as presidential electors in an election in which Trump is running. 

But while there are signs that even leading Republicans recognize that the extremism of the Trump Republicans is unpopular in the country, Trump Republicans are tightening their hold on Congress. Today former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that he will resign from Congress at the end of this month. Far-right MAGA Republicans ousted McCarthy from the speaker’s chair in October.

Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), a McCarthy ally who took over as acting House speaker after McCarthy’s removal, announced yesterday that he had changed his plans from earlier this year and will not run for reelection.    

While hardly moderates—both refused to work with Democrats either to pass legislation or to elect a speaker—they appear to be ceding ground to the MAGA Republicans. 

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone reported today that one of those MAGA Republicans, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), spoke freely Tuesday night at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., at a celebration for the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. Although the address was being livestreamed, Johnson apparently believed he was speaking privately. He told the audience that the Lord called him to be “a new Moses.”

Johnson, an evangelical Christian, told the audience that the U.S. is “engaged in a battle between worldviews” and “a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” He said he believed far-right Christians would prevail. 

The influence of Trump is also evident in the Senate, where there is broad, bipartisan support for supplemental funding for Ukraine, but where Republicans are refusing to pass such a measure without attaching to it an immigration package that overrides current law, replacing it with Trump’s immigration plans. Such plans could not pass on their own, as Democrats would stop them in the Senate. But by attaching them to a bill that is imperative for national security, Republicans hope to force Biden into it.

Democrats have repeatedly called for new immigration legislation, but their refusal to remake immigration policy as the hard-right wants has made Republicans balk. Now Democrats are still offering to negotiate a reasonable package, but as Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said earlier this week: “I think there’s a misunderstanding on the part of Senator Schumer and some of our Democratic friends…. This is not a traditional negotiation, where we expect to come up with a bipartisan compromise on the border. This is a price that has to be paid in order to get the supplemental.”

In a speech this afternoon—just a day after Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) finally permitted the Senate to fill 425 senior positions in the U.S. military and while he is still preventing 11 top-level positions from being filled—President Biden called it “stunning that we’ve gotten to this point…. Republicans in Congress…are willing to give [Russian president Vladimir] Putin the greatest gift he could hope for and abandon our global leadership not just to Ukraine, but beyond that.” 

“If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” Biden warned. “It’s important to see the long run here. He’s going to keep going. He’s made that pretty clear. If Putin attacks a NATO Ally—if he keeps going and then he attacks a NATO Ally—well, we’ve committed as a NATO member that we’d defend every inch of NATO territory. Then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops—American troops fighting Russian troops if he moves into other parts of NATO. 

“Make no mistake: Today’s vote is going to be long remembered. And history is going to judge harshly those who turn their back on freedom’s cause.”

“Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine’s funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies,” he said. 

Biden reiterated that he and the Democrats are eager to pass new immigration legislation, but “Republicans think they can get everything they want without any bipartisan compromise.  That’s not the answer.... And now they’re willing to literally kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security in the process.” He begged Republicans to get past partisan divisions and step up to “our responsibilities as a leading nation in the world.” 

Hours later, Senate Republicans voted against the supplemental aid package.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 8/8/2023

Fifth Place: Frank Luntz

"This is not the party that I that I joined 40 years ago," said Republican pollster Frank Luntz on the topic of Donald Trump, specifically in reference to his strong support of Russia. Of course, Luntz seems to want us to forget that he got his start in politics working for the campaign of the nationalist and self-described neo-isolationist Pat Buchanan back in 1992, who has also been a stern defended of Putin throughout his life.

Fourth Place: Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis is not going to be President, I am certain of that--and I knew it from day one. The people who want somebody with his policies want Donald Trump and the people who want somebody who isn't Donald Trump don't like how similar he is to Trump, it's the same issue Warren had back in 2020 (anybody to her left went to Sanders and anybody to her right went to Biden).

This was confirmed once again today through a Mediaite article which documents that DeSantis has now fallen behind Vivek Ramaswamy in terms of betting odds! Ramaswamy, of course, also has no shot at the Republican nomination, let alone the Presidency as the polls have constantly made it clear that the only person who can win the primary is Donald Trump. Still, this is yet another piece of bad news for DeSantis, and nothing about his campaign has shown he has any chance at getting the nomination short of Donald Trump dropping out--and even then, that wouldn't be guaranteed.

Third Place: Tommy Tuberville

Did you know that a sitting United States Senator isn't a politician? Because that's what Tommy Tuberville said on Laura Ingraham's show last night! I don't even have a joke for this one, it's just really dumb.

Second Place: Matt Walsh

Media Matters caught this line from Matt's show today where he proves he is, quite literally, panphobic:

This is just creepy. I gotta say. It's made up, obviously. That's the main thing. Pansexual is not a thing. It's not real. It's also creepy. I'm able to be attracted to anyone, he says. Ew. Like, calm down. That -- I can walk into a room and just be attracted -- just the way he phrases it, to me, makes it creepier. I am able to be attracted to anyone. Like, this is some sort of superpower that he has. I can walk into a room and be attracted to anyone or anything. Okay? Just watch me. You don't think I can? Not something to be proud of, man. That's -- the fact that you're in a constant state of arousal is not something you want to brag about in the news. It's not open minded. It's just weird.

Matt goes on like this for awhile, not getting that being attracted to people regardless of their gender identity--which is what pansexuality actually is--is not the same as literally being attracted to all human beings everywhere. Matt, it seems, does not understand that if a pansexual says they're "attracted to anybody" they're speaking metaphorically.

First Place: Jack Goldsmith

Another New York Times opinion piece, this time by a member of the George W. Bush Administration who is warning against prosecuting Donald Trump, most likely because that means they might also go after the Republican Administration he worked for.

You see, according to the article, if Donald Trump is convicted of a crime--that means Republicans won't trust the same justice system they stopped trusting when it refused to allow Donald Trump to remain President despite losing the 2020 Presidential Election.

Jack Goldsmith, you've said the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[cosmicanger]

❍

❍ It’s still white supremacy if the c*ps were Black

❍ “Black people: don’t kill us

America: but the snuff film ratings are incredible”

❍ “The fact that the officers in Memphis were Black is further evidence of systemic racism not counter evidence to it. If you don't understand this statement please take a sociology class.”

❍ “Why do we have to keep fucking dying for people to listen , if only temporarily”

❍ “I don't understand how you can, almost 11 years after Trayvon Martin, still be the sort of person calling for more p*lice-reform efforts like body-cameras. These guys did this to Tyre Nichols with all the cameras rolling.”

❍ “Why are people even watching the the video... it's literally snuff”

❍ “If you think the Memphis p*lice officers had to be white in order to exhibit anti-Blackness, you need to take that AP African American Studies course Ron DeSantis just banned.”

❍ “Seems like the real solution to all this is: more training for p*lice; more body cameras; more community policing programs; more black officers who are blacker than the black officers who preceded them; more thoughts and prayers; more "peaceful" protest; and more consent decrees.” We should also consider: More black p*lice chiefs; more black prosecutors; more black city council members; more black mayors; more white allies; more op-ed pieces about "The Talk"; ... and a few more black people dying on camera for people to really get the scale of the problem”

❍ “I can’t believe folks are still talking about modifying p*lice weaponry as a solution when cops murdered George Floyd & Tyre Nichols with their bare hands.”

❍ “In an interview, I was asked about the #TyreNichols situation. I said it was a result of white supremacy. The host's response was "But the c*ps are Black". I replied, "guardians of the white power structure come in all shades". No complexion is required for oppression.”

❍ “Any Black person who has ever encountered Black c*ps could have told you that the representation angle was nonsense to begin with”

❍ “Can irl otg organisers just get off Twitter then like why are you here if you’re so busy off doing the important things than us chronically online people, does punching down just give you stress relief from working with those poor people all day or”

❍ “You don’t have to be white to uphold systems of white supremacism. You don’t have to be white to be be anti-Black. You don’t have to be a white male to practice p*lice terrorism in the United States.”

❍ “not watching no more black death rolled out like a new album drop. not watching 1619 project. not watching no more black panther films. all serve the same function. there is no wakanda, there’s only africa. it’s hostage state is why we keep getting casted in this same role”

❍ “N*gga could work at the post office, sanitation department, water department, desk job downtown, etc. But choose to be c*ps.”

❍ In response to this (“I remember the Rodney King assault. I remember how many of us thought the footage would change everything, Finally there was “proof”. Now there’s footage everyday of p*lice brutalizing us. This footage is in HD & often comes from the p*lice. Nothing changes.“) — “Things change. They’ve changed for the worse. We watched that grainy footage of Rodney King being beaten. We’re watching c*ps beat, taser, choke, shoot, and take a knee on folks throats until they are DEAD. We are seeing police with bigger budgets, and bigger military grade guns.”

❍ “I don’t have to see “it” to feel it. That’s one of the results of being terrorized by the p*lice. The reins of terror are tattooed into our memories. We can simply say names and rewind time and re-live lynchings at the hands, feet, knees, fist, guns, and tasers of the p*lic*.”

❍ “"The city of Birmingham has been under siege from OUTSIDE AGITATORS led by Martin Luther King.”–Bull Connor (1963)

“We have never had a problem in the South except in a few very isolated instances and these have been the result of OUTSIDE AGITATORS.”–George Wallace (1964)

2023: “@NYCMayor warns against "outside agitators" coming into the city to disrupt protests, citing intel from across the country and sensitive "classified" information he declined to go into further detail on.”

❍ “all of the reforms failed at the same damn time - black c*ps, body cameras, multiple c*ps on the scene, tasers instead of guns- so how is more reform the answer? #Blacker c*ps? Even non-deadlier non deadly weapons? ten c*ps instead of five? HD body cameras? harder convictions?”

❍ “P*lic* will really brutalize and kill people. Then get mad when others are upset at what they did. So they attack the people who are upset and then politicians give them even more money and weaponry to keep doing it. What a world.”

❍ “body cameras might be the biggest scam c*ps ever pulled off”

❍ “i don't know who needs to hear this but c*ps were brutalizing and killing black people before they had qualified immunity. why do you think King said, ""We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality" in 1963?”

[90363462]

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OPINION: Kanye let his antisemitism DESTROY his net worth

OPINION2 WEEKS AGO

OPINION: Kanye let his antisemitism DESTROY his net worth

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Started: “I can say anti-Semitic s—- and Adidas cannot drop me,” said Ye (his legal name now) on the Drink Champs podcast earlier this month. Ye had worked with Adidas since 2013 on his Yeezy line of super expensive, super popular sneakers, and thought he was untouchable like most overpaid, over-indulged “artists.”

OW-Advertisement

Going, as of Tuesday:

“Immediately” in adidas-speak translates to “a couple of weeks of silence after we originally said we’d review our relationship with Kanye because we had a whole lot of money numbers to crunch.” Karma comes in various guises, and she often travels with her equally stealthy pal, schadenfreude. What you put out there WILL come back to you, even if it does take adidas a full nineteen days to make it happen.

It’s been reported that adidas got an estimated 4% to 8% of its sales from Yeezy products, according to investment bank Cowen. For Ye, it was an even bigger deal, accounting for $1.5 billion of his net worth. But I mean, what’s a Jewish life worth to a sneaker company founded by anti-Semites?

Sponsored Links

Sponsored Links

We’d been seeing accountability for Kanye’s hate speech from plenty of others before adidas finally made its announcement Tuesday morning. Gap, Balenciaga, and Vogue Magazine all announced they were cutting ties with Ye. And now Forbes joins them by dropping him from their Billionaires’ List.

Sponsored Links

Hopefully, more artists and sportsball people will end their own relationships with adidas. They only did right by themselves, and the last time I checked, there are other companies that make sneakers and track pants. BYE, YE!

Tara Dublin is a woefully underappreciated and unrepresented writer currently shopping a super cool novel that has nothing to do with politics while also fighting fascism on the daily.

Follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks.

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.

TARA DUBLIN

TARA DUBLIN IS A WOEFULLY UNREPRESENTED WRITER WHO THINKS MORE PEOPLE WOULD READ HER COOL ROCK & ROLL LOVE STORY INSPIRED BY DAVE GROHL THAN ANY GHOSTWRITTEN GOP CRAPBOOK, AGENTS & PUBLISHERS. FOLLOW TARA ON TWITTER @TARADUBLINROCKS

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Politics

OPINIONOPINION: Kanye let his antisemitism DESTROY his net worthOctober 25, 2022

Kanye West lost his adidas contract and his spot on the Forbes 400 on the same day due to his very public bigotry.

NEWS ANALYSIS

TRUMP HOPELESS: House Select Committee interviews Hope Hicks

October 25, 2022

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DINE 'N DASH: Guess who Ivanka Trump just had a three-hour dinner with?

October 25, 2022

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INSUFFRAGEABLE: The unlikeliest woman was just named to co-chair major women's voting group

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The president didn't want his claims that everyone has all the equipment they need to be contradicted by a medical professional.

Despite a gall bladder infection, the indefatigable Supreme Court justice asked tough questions while fighting for women's rights.

Reporter Gabriel Sherman's latest article shows how insider political considerations, and Jared Kushner, put the country in the condition it's in today.

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April 22, 2020

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LAST UPDATE: 25 October, 2022

3' 

NEWS ANALYSIS

TRUMP HOPELESS: House Select Committee interviews Hope Hicks

TARA DUBLINOCTOBER 25, 2022

Former Ralph Lauren model Hope Hicks, who served as Donald Trump’s communications director, was meeting with the January 6th House Select Committee, CNN reported Tuesday morning. NBC also confirmed the meeting, although the panel hasn’t yet released a statement regarding her cooperation.

Hicks, who was one of Trump’s closest confidantes in his White House, previously refused to answer questions about working for Trump when she testified before lawmakers behind closed doors in 2019.

New: Hope Hicks, a former top Trump White House aide, is scheduled to sit for a transcribed interview with the House Jan. 6 committee today, per person familiar — Luke Broadwater☀️ (@lukebroadwater) October 25, 2022

Hicks, a personal favorite of Trump’s, served in multiple senior roles in Trump’s White House for most of his lone term but left the White House six days after the January 6th insurrection. She had previously served as White House communications director as well as director of strategic communications. Prior to her roles at the White House, Hicks worked for Trump’s presidential campaign, the Trump Organization, and Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand.

Trump blamed the military and law enforcement for giving Hope Hicks covid pic.twitter.com/LxPkRZskQA — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 2, 2020

Throughout its investigation, the January 6th Committee conducted interviews with numerous key Trump officials and cronies such as former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Chief of Staff aide Cassidy Hutchinson, and Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The Justice Department, which is in the middle of its own January 6th investigation, has also sought the cooperation of Trump aide Kash Patel and Trump’s former “Diet Coke” valet, Walt Nauta.

If you missed it, I wrote a short Thread about Walt Nauta the Diet Coke Man of Trump and Kash Patel. What is this 'news' about them being squeezed? That story is obvious SPIN. Do not fall for spin. We have seen this movie too many times… https://t.co/eRldHaxnTe — Tomi T Ahonen Standing With Ukraine (@tomiahonen) October 25, 2022

Trump and his legal team have yet to announce whether he will cooperate with the January 6th Committee’s subpoena, with the Dhillon Law Group set to mediate his interactions with the committee. Meanwhile, the panel has cited precedents to argue it has the authority to subpoena Trump, and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has already said the Committee is prepared if Trump refuses to comply.

.@CheriJacobus .@glennkirschner2.@B52Malmet .@JudyPete.@BadBradRSR .@jennycohn1 When asked if she thought Trump would honor the 1/6 Committee subpoena, Nancy Pelosi's response, 'He's not man enough." pic.twitter.com/5FXMY4zn8x — ChattJazz 🇺🇦 ☮️ 🌻 (@ChattJazz) October 24, 2022

Other witnesses such as Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro who have defied committee subpoena demands have faced contempt of Congress charges.

#HopeHicks “shaking hands” with Chester the Molester. #TawdryTraitorspic.twitter.com/CfPVO7RbOR — Dave • 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇵🇱🇩🇪🇬🇧Veterans for Joe (@dave911rsr) October 25, 2022

[This is a developing story, please check back for updates on Hope Hicks and her testimony in the days ahead]

Follow Tara Dublin on Twitter @taradublinrocks.

donald trump

Hope Hicks

January 6th House Select Committee

January 6th insurrection

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LAST UPDATE: 25 October, 2022

[treadmilltreats]

Florida is heading back to the 50s

So recently the governor of our state of Florida, Deathsantisis, decided that Florida wasn't fucked up enough. So let's really take it back to the 50's and so he did with these new laws he had passed.

And if the other laws weren't bad enough, no…now he is really pushing his back to the 50’s campaign. Some of the previous laws started taking us back there.

He has signed laws that restrict voting by mail and at drop boxes and deter eligible voters with criminal convictions from casting ballots.

He passed several bills restricting LGBTQ rights, including by expanding the “Don’t Say Gay” law, banning gender-affirming care, barring trans people from using public facilities of their choosing, and restricting drag performances.

He passed a bill letting residents carry a concealed loaded weapon without a permit.

And now according to Florida.gov, less than a year after signing a law that led to the removal of hundreds of books from public school shelves, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that amends the state’s law to limit the number of books and classroom materials that can be challenged in school districts.

The bill, which goes into effect on July 1, states that Florida residents without children in a school district “may not object to more than one material per month” and instructs the state’s Board of Education to adopt changes to implement the decision.

Another new law bans colleges from using state or federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a consistent target of DeSantis.

That law included students like my daughter who took black history as part of her major and now found out that that class no longer counted and that she would have to take and pay for another class. Seriously?? Bad enough you want to ban schools for telling what we did to Native Americans, Black's and Jewish people but now if you did learn about it, it doesn't count. Can you say class action lawsuit?

And as if that isn't bad enough, it gets worse. Can that even be possible? Yes, with this Police Oversight.

Separately, DeSantis signed a bill Friday that would ban local policy advisory commissions from initiating disciplinary actions against officers, instead limiting the citizens boards to making recommendations on policy.

So that means no one is policing the police in Florida.

As if Florida couldn't get any worse, welcome to the wild, wild west. Great people running around without gun permits and with the stand your ground law and now the police won't be policed.

Yes, I know the trolls will say “Well if you don't like Florida just leave” and believe me I would be gone if my daughters weren't finishing their school here. In the meantime I am stuck in this backwards state.

So today my friends, we need to take a stand, we need to vote, we need to speak out, we need more people who want justice for all to run for office. We need change because if no one speaks out, it's just a matter of time when they will come for you.

We need to stop Florida from going back to the 50's when books were banned, where gays were in the closets, women had no rights and Black people needed to sit on the back of the bus. We all need to be the change we want to see.

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[the-firebird69]

Governor DeSantis, Florida House Speaker call for changes to U.S. Constitution

They already are term limits for the Senate and Congress so we don't know what he's talking about and a line item veto is an extraordinary leap and power and should be frowned upon so this idiot thinks he's going to become president still and he dropped out of the race and he is not a smart person he's constantly messing with our son and thus our daughter and us and we want him out he's spent along with Trump his people are morons and they need to go. There's some other things that he wants as amendments that don't make sense term limits make sense but they already have them and a couple other things he wanted to put in there are nonsensical crap and we need to stop him he looks like a buffoon and he is one and he's out he needs out and is messing with Stan we need him out now oh there's two morons I don't know what he needed to 1% for you to wake up and f****** shut up this idiot. My son is talking about Trump and others who refuse to do any normal acts and are asking for it and soon they won't be there they'll be gone. There are a few things wrong with what's happening here they elected a president to eight people in New York and he was known for doing it and that's what they were saying and that was the Max and for him to take the brunt it didn't work out that way and Trump ratted on them and they're screwed totally the race is being devastated and right now their numbers are dwindling faster than they were yesterday

#the battles that are ensuing the one in the New England and it's over the Firebird and evidence of David audette being huge and there are several people who have evidence and they're fighting for their lives like Timmy Doyle pretty soon he'll be out because the next party will come and get what the first party got and so on and he can't withstand what he was causing to happen to the clans and he'll pay for it. And people are coming down on her son like he's going to do their job for them when he's using it against people all the time cuz we are. But seriously Timmy Doyle is going to be gone within a week his mouth and his attitude don't match what he has at all Trump is going to be gone within a week and Jason and others bja continues on for a while and really he gets destroyed he is a filthy piece of crap and people want him dead anyways but today the numbers are plummeting already they were at 30% of the population last week today they are 22% and dropping most of it is Mac morlock so the minority Bullock are up and think it's time and it probably is and they're going after them taking their stuff and getting into fights there's a huge announcement coming and it has not happened yet it is coming and it will be announced probably today around noon by the morlock and mostly Mac morlock know all of them and it is the declaration of war upon the pseudo empire and we have more announcements but more shortly

Thor Freya Harley-Davidson the idea is working out and we need to do it a lot more trouble is trying to pick up the motor I did make it and he's not succeeding he can't get it out the door and he can't sell it to his own people and he won't leave us alone but okay and they say one day we'll shut it down and it says if they don't really care and they actually don't really care that much cuz your guys have to do something they say and they're trying to reclaim the bikes from our factory and a lot of times it sees imbeciles who buy them and they got information and they are going after them 50% of the Harley-Davidson sales pretty soon right now it's 25% so this idea works and he wants to carry it through. This won't be hot for our this one will be hot for our lieutenants and so lieutenant level supercar and we have a lot of infinity think it's q30 and we have them in rolling chassis as well as cars and storage most of them are intact and most of them have decent sized motors they're about 300 horsepower and there's others that are 350 horsepower and one model with 400 horsepower most of them are 300 horsepower but with this body on it and tires and rims in a new it goes about 500 miles an hour and the others go 600 and then 800 respectively it's ridiculous how fast it is if you put the top end kit in the dot exhaust and add about 150 mph to each except the biggest motor it'll go 1200 miles an hour and we're thinking of making the kit out of carbon fiber to not attract tons of attention. And we'll sell it to the idiots so they can run around saying stuff we're going to go ahead and do that and any other ideas people have and yeah they want to start up the dagger from the trans star company and we think that's the highway star from the song we're going to head now and we're going to start this company

That was Thor and Freya and we're proceeding now

Olympus

[angel0news]

Big Win For Donald Trump In Presidential Run-Up, Setback For Nikki Haley

Donald Trump won the key New Hampshire primary Tuesday, moving him ever closer to locking in the Republican presidential nomination and securing an extraordinary White House rematch with Joe Biden.

With vote counting ongoing, it was unclear if Trump had secured the knockout victory to put his sole remaining challenger Nikki Haley out of the contest.

In a speech following the vote, the former UN ambassador during Trump's frequently chaotic presidency said the race was "far from over" and told supporters that Democrats "want" to run against her former boss.

They know Trump is the only Republican in the country who Joe Biden can defeat," Haley, 52, warned.

With strong turnout in the northeastern state, Haley had hoped for a major upset. But US broadcasters quickly projected her defeat as first tallies came in.

Donald Trump was already the runaway leader in national Republican polling, despite two impeachments as president, and four criminal trials hanging over him since leaving office.

While Haley repeatedly questioned the 77-year-old's mental fitness and warned another Trump presidency would bring "chaos," polls indicate her efforts in New Hampshire created little more than a speed bump.

"I think it's a two-person race now between Trump and Biden," Keith Nahigian, a veteran of six presidential campaigns and former member of Trump's transition team, told AFP.

New Hampshire was markedly more Haley-friendly than states she will subsequently face, should she stay in the race, and continuing into February will be a tough sell without a win or at least a narrow loss.

Her next must-win stop will be her home state South Carolina.

Trump won a crushing victory in the first Republican contest in Iowa last week, with Haley a distant third.

What was once a crowded field of 14 candidates narrowed to a one-on-one match-up on Sunday after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out, following his second-place Iowa finish.

No Republican has ever won both opening contests and not ultimately secured the party's nomination.

Donald Trump did little actual campaigning in New Hampshire. However, his message -- a mixture of personal grievance and right-wing culture war firing his base -- has delivered seemingly insurmountable polling leads.

One of Trump's complaints has been his false claim that Democrats are allowed to vote in the Republican contest in New Hampshire.

However, independents are allowed to vote and Haley had hoped they would revolt against Trump, seeing her as the moderate alternative.

She spent the week hammering the message, backed by polling, that most Americans do not want to see a Trump-Biden rematch.

"Nikki Haley's supporters will surely feel that Tuesday night in New Hampshire was a reasonably good night. But once the relative shine of the Granite State result wears off… all but the most ardent Haley supporters will be looking through a glass darkly," said Aron Solomon, a political analyst for legal marketing agency Amplify.

New Hampshire Democrats also voted for their standard-bearer Tuesday, defying a national party order to hold the primary later.

Biden did not file candidate paperwork after a row between national and state party officials.

Broadcasters projected that Biden won as a "write-in" candidate, even though it was not an official Democratic Party primary following the row.

Biden marked the day by campaigning alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in Virginia at a rally for abortion rights.

With Trump touting his role in the ending of the constitutional right to abortion, Biden told an enthusiastic crowd that the Republican was "hell-bent" on further restrictions.

After the New Hampshire result came through, the Biden campaign said Trump had "all but locked up" the nomination.

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Monday, January 8, 2024

More time on the phone lining up doctor appointments. Jeez.

Note: Tomorrow morning Trump's lawyers are going to attempt to make the case that the Boss is immune from any wrongdoing. He doesn't have to be there but will show up to rant. It's great for his fund-raising. More talk of witch hunt and that sort of thing...

He adds that he hopes the economy crashes.

A Black man near Columbus Circle shouting, over and over, "Fuck everybody!!"

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Trump shows up for trial. No camera in the courtroom. His lawyer, a Mr. Sauer (this name new to me) has a raspy voice. Says Trump should be granted presidential immunity. Even if, he is asked, Trump directed that a political opponent be assassinated? The answer: a qualified yes. We remember Trump's saying General Milley should be executed. We remember Nixon's saying (in that interview with David Frost): if the president does it, it's not illegal.

Bus to East Side. Appointment with Dr. Harmon. I have been going to Dr. Harmon for many years and this is only the second time I have seen someone in the waiting room I recognize. A while back I saw (the late) Philip Roth. This time I see a music colleague, Lowell. Trumpet legend. He's the guy I wrote about some time ago who played the entire run of "Phantom of the Opera." We talk for a while. He too is semi-retired. He tells me he played forty Broadway shows. (No need to be hesitant about such things but...did I really need to know this?) My tests at Dr. Harmon's go well and I am told to come back in six months.

In a celebratory mood, I treat myself to take-out sushi.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Early a m...Hunter Biden shows up in D C. Much excitement and shouting. Nancy Mace of S. Carolina says he "has no balls." He is ready to testify but the Republicans want it to be behind closed doors, for fact-spinning purposes. Hunter wants to testify publicly. More shouting and, as Marjorie Taylor Greene is getting her two cents in (that voice!) Hunter and entourage get up and leave.

I take the train downtown. Go see the nephrologist. Dr. Moses, an Indian chap, very nice. An explosion of black curly hair atop his head. He runs some tests and prods me. I tell I him I remember when a kidney stone was found. (Cluched tight by internal tendrils making it unpassable.) After further prodding he tells me I have two (!) kidney stones. Well, damn. He says he will contact me in a few days. Oy, all of this doctor stuff.

He said: hydrate. He said drink two liters of water a day. I can't imagine such a thing.

Walk out in a bracing wind. Dry leaves scuttling end over end along the pavement. More stops and then home.

Evening. Christie drops out of the race. DeSantis and Haley trade barbs.

[phillipcole]

Post-AGT Appearance 1268: Real Time with Bill Maher September 29

The writer's strike would have started the same day it really did. The actors' strike would have started the same day it really did. A week later I would have quit the Screen Actors Guild. A handful of others would have followed my example. We would have hastened the process of post-production for my next movie and started signing contracts to make 3 movies in Canada.

Diane Feinstein would have started at 63rd, fallen back as far as 81st in 2016, peaked at 42nd earlier this year and dropped to 43rd in the last update before her death.

Trump would be ahead in all national polls but no more than 32% higher than the second place Republican: Desantis or Haley in varying polls.

When Bill Maher decided he was going to start his show whether the strikes ended or not he would have asked me to be the first guest. When he hesitated I would have chided him. When it resumed I would have been his first guest, recorded earlier for safety.

Maher: Our first guest tonight is a man who was on the show previously, namely comedian, songwriter, actor, producer and general entertainer Phil Cole. You may recall I acted in his first movie: The World's most disgusting Comedian. Here's a clip.

(Tape begins, Maher giving a eulogy.)

Maher: Our dear departed brother was fully committed to free speech and twice committed to mental hospitals. He gave his all for comedy even when it hurt. All comedians occasionally die on stage, and he literally died on stage.

(Tape ends.)

Maher: Phil is afraid someone will kill him if he shows himself too publicly so we recorded the interview earlier today in an undisclosed location.

(Tape begins.)

Maher: Phil, how are you?

PBC: Pretty sick. I am still in the aftermath of heat prostration and I can't breathe well because of the smoke from the California wildfires from a few years ago.

Maher: I'm fine. Thank you for asking. What about the rest of your team?

PBC: Well you know the ranting 109-Year-Old man passed away last month.

Maher: Yes I do. Phil, you are a one man team. Why did you kill a character you created?

PBC: Not many men live to 109 and few tell jokes on stage.

Maher: Yes, but when you started he was the ranting 99-Year-Old Man.

PBC: Why should he age more slowly than the rest of us?

Maher: Because he doesn't exist, that's why. By that reasoning Batman would be 115.

PBC: And I would have killed him off at least 15 years ago.

Maher: Was there a reason for the timing?

PBC: A couple years ago we...

Maher: You mean you.

PBC: Yes, giving an honest vote for every member of the team...

Maher: Except him!

PBC: No, he voted too, and lost.

Maher: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

PBC: We decided to connect his death to a very old real celebrity of his choosing: Bob Barker.

Maher: I see. So how is Phillip doing.

PBC: He's here. Ask him.

Maher: How are you feeling, Phillip ha ha.

Phillip: With a little difficulty I can stand up.

PBC: I have stated publicly that Phillip can not survive long if you know who wins the New Hampshire primary.

Maher: Yes, I need to ask you about that. First though let's talk about your active projects. Your latest movie: Demon Dress, is doing very well at the box office.

PBC: It should. It's the best movie out there.

Maher: You're not a fan of Barbie.

PBC: I never was and I can't imagine what the plot would be. Does she fight terrorists or something?

Maher: Not quite. What's coming next?

PBC: Not next, currently. I collaborated with Lizzo on her new hit, a remake of Man of my Dreams. A song called Canadian Wildfires is on the charts and raising a lot of money for the victims and trying to finish the blaze.

Maher: Gotta help those Canadians.

PBC: An album with the best routines the ranting 109-Year-Old Man told will be out November 15. Then, I can announce tonight the date of my next movie.

Maher: What's it called?

PBC: Toad woman of Tennessee.

Maher: Another horror movie?

PBC: Science fiction, but mostly it's about how a singer copes with a changing career path.

Maher: By turning into a toad ha ha ha.

PBC: That's a by-product. If you watch it to see a big toad you'll have to wait through about 80 minutes of plot development. Anyway it will hit theaters January 12.

Maher: Great, now about Phillip's health...I don't know if you heard it but California Senator Diane Feinstein passed away suddenly this morning.

PBC: No, really?

Maher: Yes, and we are all wondering if she might be the last name on Phillip's famous sick list.

PBC: You know I can't tell you that, but I'm going to be on that other show Tuesday, LORD willing, and give an announcement.

Maher: It was worth a try. Now the writers strike is over. How did it affect you?

PBC: First we decided to release Toad woman of Tennessee much sooner. Next I decided to prepare for my next 3 films in Canada, not Hollywood. Most of all I quit the Screen Actors Guild.

Maher: And why is that?

PBC: It's against my religion to participate in the strike.

Maher: What religion is that?

PBC: Christianity.

Maher: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, that's a rare one indeed.

PBC: I'm one of about 5 of us in the business. In the 3rd chapter of Luke John the Baptist said...

Maher: john the Baptist, not Jesus?

PBC: No, no one asked Jesus. Anyway he said, "Be content with your wages."

Maher: But this strike isn't just about wages.

PBC: That's why I waited a week. Anyway they never did anything for me.

Maher: You write your own scripts.

PBC: Not only that I tried out for 19 parts on film ant tv and lost every time. Anyway, I'm done with the guild.

Maher: Now about the upcoming primaries...Ron Desantis is my next guest. What would you say to him if you were with him now?

PBC: Ron, you're young. Drop out of the race and put your full strength behind one of the best Republicans in the race. Then finish your time as Governor, then take over a non-profit organization that meshes with your social agenda. In 8 or 12 years you'll be the right age with the right credentials.

Maher: Phil, it's been great, all the best to you and your team.

PBC: Thank you.

[angelvyxen]

Happy Thursday! News break🚨🗞️

-Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, has died. She was 88. Praying it was very painful cause of what they did to Emmett her ass should have felt the same pain as she got sucked into hell idc. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1651618788205314049?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Senator Ed Markey calls on Clarence Thomas to resign. Markey’s the first Senator to do so. Thomas “cannot judge right from wrong, so why should he be judging the countries most important cases on the highest court.” https://twitter.com/funder/status/1650879732408352770?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Chief Justice John Roberts has notified Sen. Dick Durbin that he won’t testify at an upcoming hearing on Supreme Court ethics following Clarence Thomas reports https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1650996235652694020?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-The judge Tyrese called "racist" before his child custody hearing ordered the actor to pay nearly $250K to his ex-wife, and almost $400K to her attorney https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1651000271705604097?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-This Black Republican candidate for Governor says it’s Black Americans that owe REPARATIONS to this country for our “freedom.” That’s a new take. https://twitter.com/nikkibarnesfl/status/1650252653107064835?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-President Joe Biden officially announces his run for re-election in 2024. https://twitter.com/popcrave/status/1650803028017164290?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Marketing chiefs of studios are hoping the threat of a US ban on TikTok never materializes, as the platform has become crucial to launching films. They’d also like Elon Musk-owned Twitter to get itself together, since it’s a key platform for Hollywood. https://twitter.com/filmupdates/status/1650616917961367552?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

- this interview that Don Lemon conducted last week with Vivek Ramaswamy played a role in his firing. Note co-host Poppy Harlow sitting silently while Lemon goes after Vivek. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1650563196795641871?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Fox: Tucker Carlson is out at the network. https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1650523507795566592?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-The cop responsible for firing the bullet that killed Breonna Taylor in a Kentucky police raid now works at a sheriff’s department an hour away. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1650280891195830273?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Following years of losses and an unsuccessful recovery strategy, Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. https://twitter.com/mefeater/status/1650123799440891907?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Authorities are investigating the mysterious deaths of six cattle found with tongues missing across three Texas counties, There was no evidence of a struggle, footprints or tire tracks where they were found & the grass around the carcasses was undisturbed. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1649925299440857088?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Woman sentenced to 21 years for trying to kill another woman who looked like her with a poisoned cheesecake so she could steal her identity. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1649417203463208960?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Jerry Springer, Host of TV's Most Controversial Show, Dies at 79 https://apple.news/As6RTHVQ_Te2SsIR9FetPBw

-Disney sues Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, alleges political effort to hurt its business https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/26/disney-sues-florida-gov-ron-desantis-alleges-political-effort-to-hurt-its-business.html

That’s all for now!

Everyone! Gather around! Our weekly news just dropped. 👩🏽‍💼Thank you as always to our lovely corespondent, News Anon.

- I hope Emmett was waiting for her right at the crossroads and beat her ass all the way to the gates of hell.

- Period, Mr. Markey! Call it as you SEE IT!

- So much drama is happening with the courts. I love to see it.

- He should’ve just shut the fuck up and ate his food. Because the Judge really gave him a reason to call them racist now.

- Right Wing black people are a different type of mentally ill. They don’t even view themselves as people, the coon-ery is so ingrained they’d drop down and lick dirt off the ground for a white person.

- I knew Joe would run again lmao. I’m going to be covering the 2024 election on here ladies. I’m doing my research this year and letting everyone know who they should vote for so we can get our rights back 🥰.

- Banning TikTok instead of guns was a stupid idea from the start. Twitter will never be the same as long as that unsalted stick of butter, Elon, is in control.

- I still haven’t watched the video of Don Lemon going in on that man, but whatever he said.. it was right. Idc!

- You know what’s so fucking funny about these people like Tucker? They don’t believe half the shit they spew, they do it for a check.

- I saw this as well, the fact that any of those officers can even get another job period is insane. Again, we need to start treating white people they way they treat us. Somebody needs to put a bullet between that man’s eyes. 😁

- The Bed, Bath, and Beyond sale is about to go crazyyyyy. Just when I needed more towels and wash clothes too. 🤭 Might fuck around and redecorate my entire bathroom.

- It’s a cult. The tongues were missing? Yea, definitely a cult.

- JESUS LMFAOOO

- Rest In Peace to Jerry man. We’re losing gems left and right.

- I am praying for the downfall of Ron. Harder than I’ve ever prayed for anything in my life.

[briankeene]

2024 Is 1992

Author Stephen Kozeniewski likes to tell people that I correctly predicted that Donald Trump would not only win the Republican nomination during his first primary, but that he would go on to win the Presidential election, as well. And I did. And this was at a point in our history when nobody was yet taking Trump seriously. His primary campaign was greeted by the media with the same bemusement they’d give to a Presidential run from Kanye West, the kid who bags your groceries, or Flo from the Progressive commercials.

Last night, as expected, Donald Trump announced his bid for another run at the ticket. This morning, before the rest of the media chimes in with their takes, and the three cable news outlets fill up with talking heads and pundits yammering over top of each other, I’m going to offer my prediction.

I’m doing this pre-caffeination.

There are a lot of Americans who still support Donald Trump, despite everything he has shown us about himself. This includes friends and non-immediate family members of mine. I don’t pretend to understand it. I thought for sure January 6th would lift the veil for them. When we serve in the military, we swear an oath to protect this country from enemies both foreign and domestic. January 6th was a failed attempt orchestrated by that latter group, plain and simple. That there are people in my life who support those efforts and then go on to wish me a “Happy Veteran’s Day” brings me sadness. But I’m not going to change minds or win back hearts. Donald Trump has shown us who he is, over and over and over again. And those who still blindly and enthusiastically support him are showing us who they are.

And there are still a lot of them.

I don’t, however, think there are enough of them for him to win the Republican Presidential primary.

I know a lot of Republican and Conservative friends and extended family members who have what might be considered Buyer’s Remorse when it comes to Trump. They voted for him the first time around. They voted for him the second time, but with less enthusiasm — more a repudiation of Biden than an endorsement of Trump. But they will not vote for him a third time. Instead, many of them are looking toward DeSantis, and a handful — the more moderate — are looking beyond him at the rest of the field.

I predict that — should Donald Trump not go to jail — the forthcoming Republican primary is going to be one of the ugliest, most vicious spectacles in modern American political history, of a kind not seen since the 1800s. I predict that eventually, a candidate other than Trump will get the nomination, at which point his ego will not allow him to drop out, and he will instead run as an Independent Third Party candidate.

At that point, it’s the Democrats’ election to lose. I don’t think they can win it with Biden. They definitely can’t win it with Harris. They’re not going to win it with the extremists in their own party. A Bernie or AOC candidacy will result in Independents and moderates staying home on election day. But if they run one of their own moderates — Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar, for example — then the Republican votes get split between the party faithful voting for DeSantis (or whoever wins the primary) and the MAGA people voting for Trump, and the Independents and moderates join with the Democrat party faithful in voting for that candidate.

As I said, with things standing as they are right now, it really is their race to lose, even this early out from it. Of course, a lot could happen between now and then that makes this prediction invalid. Trump could go to jail or have a heart attack or something (I don’t think he would ever voluntarily drop out). We could be in the second year of World War Three by then, eating stockpiles of Marshmallow Peeps and other emergency survival foods, and be unable to get to the polls before they close.

But, barring any of that, let’s see how I do this time, Kozeniewski.

Again, my prediction is a three-way race, like we had back in the Nineties, with Donald Trump playing the roll of Ross Perot to whomever the Republicans and the Democrats ultimately put up against him.

Okay, I’m off to have some coffee. Everybody have a good day.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

13 Keys to the White House: 2024 prediction (as of August 15, 2021)

Midterm gains: false, the Republicans are going to sweep the House

No primary challenge: probably true, no Democrat with a future would dare to challenge Biden or Harris

Incumbent seeking re-election: probably true, Biden has indicated he's going to run again even though he'll be 82 at the time

No third party: too soon to tell, we won't know how the Libertarians/Greens fare until 2023 at the earliest

Strong short-term economy: too soon to tell, who knows if we'll be in recession in 2024?

Strong long/term economy: probably false, inflation is rising and Republicans are threatening to let us default on our national debt, so things are looking bad going forward

Major policy change: false, Biden hasn't done shit, and if he doesn't do shit NOW he won't be able to do shit after the Republican dominated midterms

No social unrest: too soon to tell, it will depend on how bad things get between now and 2024

No scandal: too soon to tell, all eyes are on Biden, but there's no telling what he'll do

No foreign/military failure: FALSE, Afghanistan is going down in flames, tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians are going to die when the Taliban takes over, it'll be the worst humanitarian crisis in the planet

Foreign/military success: probably false, withdrawing from Afghanistan was supposed to be a huge success, but the last 20 years have been pointless.

Charismatic incumbent: false, Biden wasn't charismatic in 2020, he's not gonna magically gain 20 or 30 percent more approval going into 2024

Uncharismatic challenger: true, none of the Republican challengers resonate with anyone outside their base, Trump or DeSantis or Cruz or Cotton or anyone else

Democrats need 8 true to hold power

Republicans need 6 false to retake power

1 is definitely true

2 are probably true

4 are too soon to tell

2 are probably false

4 are definitely false

Republicans are almost certainly going to win in 2024 unless Biden pulls a rabbit out of his ass and magically reverses course in the next 15 months; things are in flux now, but come November 2022 they will be set in stone.

Key 1 is a lost cause because of partisan gerrymandering; the Republicans will take the House by force, though they'll likely lose the nationwide popular vote

Key 2 is probably safe because it would require a challenger to get 33% of the vote, and I just don't see that happening against a sitting president

Key 3 is true as of right now, but could easily flip false for any number of reasons. Biden ran on the unspoken promise that he was a transitional president and would step down in 2024, but Kamala Harris isn't more popular than he is (in fact, she's less popular), so the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner; either it's an old old old man or Hillary Clinton 2.0

Key 4 is beyond Biden's control; over the last century, third party candidates have gained traction about every 10 years, once every 2 or 3 election cycles. They did well in 1968, 1980, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2016, so 2024 is up in the air.

Key 5 could go either way, I don't know enough about economics to make any informed predictions

Key 6 is more nuanced; the creator of the 13 Keys defines it as "real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms." The economy grew under Obama's second term, and tanked under Trump's first, so the average of the last two terms is either zero net growth or very slight shrinkage. If Biden can grow the economy at all, even a little, this key could flip in his favor. If he continues to do nothing, he's as good as gone.

Key 7 is a nonstarter; W turned the US into a police state, Obama slightly improved healthcare, Trump changed taxes from the ground up (and dismantled liberal democracy through a rigged judiciary and disintegration of federal authority over the states), but Biden and the Democrats have pretty much wasted the last 8 months, accomplishing zero of their campaign promises. They passed a neutered stimulus package, and might pass a neutered infrastructure deal, both of which gave major concessions to the Republicans even though they supported neither. Biden is Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush rolled into one.

Key 8 could very well lead us into another 2020 situation; not only have zero communities defunded the police, many of them have actually INCREASED funding. Republicans continue to dismantle our democracy by passing voter suppression laws, and are going to gerrymander their House into an unbreakable conservative majority despite only making up about 40-45% of the population. I expect to see major protests against Republican legislatures across the country, which will be quelled by both state and federal forces because Democrats never support active protests, only passive peaceful ones (ones that fail, but look polite on TV)

Key 9 could be real or invented; no matter what Biden does, whether he's squeaky clean or rotten to the core, the Republicans are going to impeach him in 2023. Hell, they'll almost certainly run in 2022 on the platform of "we will impeach Biden if we win." He'll be acquitted of course, but Republicans will control the narrative and gain popular support going into 2024. They might wait to impeach him until the election starts, or impeach him and hold a long protracted trial throughout the primaries and well past the national conventions. If they win the House, they'll almost certainly win the Senate too, which means they have all the power, even if they can't remove him.

Key 10 is a lost cause; there's no coming back from this, Afghanistan is an absolute failure, full stop.

Key 11 is very closely tied to key 10, so I don't see it flipping true because Biden doesn't really have any other major foreign policy objectives within his grasp.

Key 12 is a doubly lost cause because both Biden and his chosen successor are terrible candidates. Biden was picked by the establishment as a milquetoast "civility" candidate in opposition to Trump's extremism, and Harris is so unpopular she dropped out of the presidential race due to lack of enthusiasm before a single vote was cast. Biden was the lesser of two evils, and Harris is a lying centrist cop pretending to be a progressive. As I said in Key 3, the Democrats painted themselves into a corner; Biden/Harris is Carter/Mondale all over again.

Key 13 is safe now and forever because no candidate will ever have national appeal again. The creator of the 13 Keys gave examples like Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and Kennedy, as well as controversial picks like Reagan and Obama in 2008 (though not in 2012). Love them or hate them, these candidates resonated with the entire country in their day, but America has become too polarized for a member of one party to gain support from the other.

This is a disaster waiting to happen. It's unfolding before our eyes in slow motion, and we're unable to stop it. I feel trapped all the time, trapped in the world, trapped in the system, no agency,m, no control, no hope. I don't know what to do, because the powers that be are FUCKING EVERYTHING UP ROYALLY! This party is a laughingstock, and the alternatives are either pure evil or insignificant; I'd be a Green if they stood a snowball's chance in hell, but they don't, not even in a single district, neither federal nor state.

The system has to collapse in my lifetime, it's not tenable as is.

[keywestlou]

MORNING STEW #48

I have not done a Morning stew since early December. My aching body has caused me to miss a day or two. This blog is catch up time. I am going to spell out items in the order they appear in my notes.

Enjoy.

The IRS will begin forwarding the $1,400 stimulus checks this weekend. Some already have arrived. Direct deposit will be first to receive.

Question: If culture wars are over, why is Dr. Seuss all over FOX News.

Most Republican Congressional persons are complaining the stimulus is too big. They forget the crisis is big too!

I have had one vaccine shot. My second the 27th. Vaccine distribution has been a problem in Florida. In addition to availability overall.

Spoke with a person yesterday who said he was in a chain drug store locally to pick up a few things. An employee asked him if he would like a vaccine shot saying that the vaccine would “spoil” if not used. The man got his shot. In fact, he has already had both.

Interestingly, he is not close yet to qualifying off an eligibility list. Including age limits.

I was unaware the vaccine could spoil. Did a little home work. They can.

Pfizer advises its vaccine has a life of 120 hours (5 days). If vaccine is older, Pfizer recommends the manufacturer be called for guidance.

The CDC maintains a COVID-19 Expiration Date Tracking Pool to follow the age of the vaccine at different levels.

What continues to bother me is that we have insufficient vaccine supply in various parts of Florida. Never the less, vaccine is apparently getting old/stale and may have to be disposed of without use. A disgrace.

The entire vaccine situation is in disarray. Not just in Florida. All over the U.S.

Harry Truman loved Key West and Key west loves Harry Truman.

Truman arrived in Key West on 3/12/1950 for a one month vacation.

Biden has ordered the deployment of 4,000 active duty military to help reach vaccine targets. Biden is handling the problem well. It is a war!

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reveals a “near obsession” with abortion in its opposition to the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Spring Breakers are arriving. Key West beaches filling up. Many more expected.

The largest influx of college students is expected to hit Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Many believe a significant number will be unhappy with those two cities and move down to Key West.

Miami and Fort Lauderdale still have restrictions in place. The kids will not be happy.

For example, Miami has a midnight to 6 am curfew. Alcohol is prohibited on beaches.

Key West has been touted as an “open town.” Hordes will arrive.

Key West police are ready. Even horseback police officers will be involved.

St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner. The problem will be the same.

The virus will be around longer than it should because many deviate from the restrictions. Merchants as well as college guests and other visitors.

It is proper to disrespect someone who does not perform properly. Even those who lack the capacity to do good.

I speak of Florida’s Governor DeSantis. A horses ass no mater how you view him. You can’t make good out of bad.

This past week DeSantis issued an order for fines persons and businesses have paid or might have to pay for charges already made be withdrawn. Included are mask violations.

Query: How are safety rules to be enforced during Spring Break?

The “ass” is considered Pesidential timber for 2024. Amazing!

Note this is the same individual who “arranged” for vaccine to be provided to  two affluent communities in Florida because they represented some of his heavy financial supporters.

Trump has said many times that DeSantis is the best governor in the U.S. Understandable. Trump was DeSantis’ Pied Piper. He did everything Trump wanted. Bad guys. Sinful under the skin.

While everyone has suspected Trump’s financial problems n New York City would bring him down, it now appears Georgia may do it first. He is being examined down to his underwear for issues involving ballot counting durnig the Presidential election.

If such occurs, and I suspect it will, Donald’s own recorded words will do him in.

A new restaurant in Key West. The Southernmost Fish Company Restaurant. Recently opened where Michael’s did business for many years. I wish Southernmost good luck! Can’t wait for my quarantine time to be over so I can try it.

Syracuse, my Syracuse! What a lousy basketball season!

One week ago, Syracuse was off the bubble. Then Syracuse beat North Carolina State 89-68. Back on the bubble!

Two days later, Syracuse played Virginia. A better team. The game was tied. Virginia dropped in a 3 pointer at the buzzer.

Syracuse now off the bubble? Maybe not. Virginia a much better team and yet Syracuse almost defeated them. The word now is that Syracuse is an if.”

If Syracuse makes it, it is anticipated it will be as #68, the last team invited to play in the big tournament.

We will know tomorrow when the tournament choices and rankings are announced.

Merrick Garland was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee this past week for the post of Attorney General. The Senate will confirm him, if it has not already done so.

Garland has been touted as “best” for the job for two reasons.

First, he headed the Oklahoma investigation 25 years ago. Second, he has been a respected federal judge for more than 20 years.

Both experiences qualifying on their face. However, I question such.

Twenty five years is a long time ago. No one can tell whether he is as good investigatory wise today as he was then. A good judge does not necessarily make a good prosecutor. Especially after 20 years as a judge. The mind changes. In some instances, the drive also.

I hope Garland does well and I wish him well. However, he causes me concern.

What does Joe Manchin really want? I think he wants his ass kissed. He wants to be considered a big guy in Washington circles. He  fortuitously has been placed in that position.

It bothers me.

Biden has a tremendous opportunity to accomplish much. The stimulus bill evidence of the ability he has. To move on, Biden needs Manchin’s support. More succinctly, his Senate vote.

He is the fly in the ointment.

The vaccine. Demand exceeds supply in many parts of the country. Florida, especially.

DeSantis this past week dropped the eligibility age from 65 to 60. He could drop it to 40. Would make no difference. There is not enough vaccine for the people already eligible.

Proof of the pudding are Miami, Florida City and Tampa. Lines long waiting for shots. Get to the head of the line and told there is no more vaccine. All out!

Many of these people waited hours.

“Promises made, promises kept” was a joke when it came to Trump. The only “promise” he ever kept was the tax cut for the wealthy which kept millions of dollars in their pockets.

DeSantis no better. Makes a promise. Cannot deliver. Not because he is devious. Rather he does not check facts out before he speaks.

Anyone recall Katherine Houghton? She was the lovely young daughter who planned to marry Sidney Poitier in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn played her parents.

A terrific movie. I can’t see it enough.

Katherine is now 75 years old. Hard to believe!

An interesting fact which many may not be aware. Katherine Hepburn was Katherine Houghton’s aunt. Hepburn was instrumental in helping Houghton launch her career.

Done!

Enjoy your day!

MORNING STEW #48 was originally published on Key West Lou