Each time I try to lower my blood pressure a bit and calm down about the abhorrent political situation we’re living through in this country, something else pops and causes it to spike again. This time it’s the Democrats in the Senate.
It’s bad enough that we have to deal with the shit that’s continually dumped on us from the Trump regime, but when the Democrats have a chance to at least show up and threaten a fight they seem to forget that showing up is more than half the battle.
Both branches of Congress decided to split out DHS funding from the recently passed appropriations bills, leading to what most presume is a ridiculous two week timeline to debate changes for that appropriation. Call me skeptical, but I see that as another Lucy and the football moment just waiting to play out.
But it gets worse. The Democrats, according to this report from Politico, decided to strip from their demands a requirement banning ICE agents from polling sites.
If it seems feckless, that’s because it is.
At the very least include the requirement as a demand and make the GOP work to negotiate it away. Given words coming out of the White House about nationalizing voting and the pot stirring of its allies, you’d think they’d at least pay lip service to the threat. From a pure political standpoint I don’t understand the rationalization for this move given what we’ve seen with our own eyes and the words we’re hearing.
If Pete Seeger was alive today I’m sure he’d still be singing.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
I’m in a dark place. We are in a dark place. Living with our eyes wide open in a darkness. No light needed to know what we plainly see. ICE thugs. Minneapolis. Journalists arrested. Public corruption. Wars. Corporate capitulation to evil. And “The Epstein Files.”
I have not written much about that entire depraved episode. I will today.
In what seems like a backhanded, boomeranging, and backfiring way to distract from all of the other despicable things this administration has been doing to distract us from the Epstein files, the Justice Department released about three million of those files today. Apparently there are millions more. But in some ways we’ve probably seen enough.
Or at least to my mind we probably have. At least enough to pass judgment. Some of the files, either mistakenly or on purpose, were leaked. They include descriptions of what horrible men did to young girls. I won’t post or describe the specifics, beyond saying how utterly depraved they are.
They’d get an XXX rating if those acts were included in a movie. If you want specifics you won’t find them in the government release of the files because the DOJ actually deleted the links to some of the worst, which do indeed finger the president of the United States as a participant. But I’m sure you can find them all over the Internet.
Let me say this. The fact that there are going to be people trying to brush past and brush over what we’ve long suspected but now seen makes those horrible acts of perversion almost pale in comparison. You have to be some sort of sick to try and rationalize it as anything other than evil. But I’m sure there will be too many willing to throw their souls under the bus they continue to ride on.
When and where I grew up, it was a small rural community, populated with many who had some of the same political and social leanings of those we call MAGA today. I don’t care how much of an exalted office anyone held, how much money they made, or what pulpit they preached from. If they were accused of the things mentioned in those files they would have been quietly disappeared from the earth, never to be heard from, and mostly not spoken of again.
If this crowd of criminals and pedophiles and their supporters keep talking about Making America Great Again, I assume they are referring to that period of time when I was growing up. There’s a large part of me that thinks in despicable cases like these that perhaps we should. If only to mete out punishment the way it was done then.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
The world prepares to begin a new year and wakes up to an entirely new world. Or does it?
You go to bed on a Friday night with the holiday season inching to a close and wake up on Saturday morning and your country is running Venezuela after invading it and kidnapping its president and his wife. Or so the narrative on Sunday morning goes. I’m sure it will change by the time we get to midweek. Yeah, it was that kind of weekend and that will be reflected in this week’s Sunday Morning Reading along with a host of other topics.
I’ll lead off with a few in the moment takes on what happened in Venezuela yesterday. Note that in the moment takes often fade once the moment has its moment.
First up, David Frum says that Trump’s Critics Are Falling Into An Obvious Trap. Frankly, whether you’re a critic or a MAGA hat wearing supporter we’ve all fallen for so many obvious traps, what’s one more?
In the wake of the news, Carole Cadwalladr sees “a mass propaganda event” about to engulf the US in her piece, The Threat From America. She’s correct.
Written before the events of this weekend, Mathew Walther’sThe Strange Death of Make America Great Again may seem out of place and time as it focuses on the MAGA culture wars within itself. I would venture that it is not, so stay tuned.
Turning to more local concerns that resonate alongside the global news, the folks at Block Club Chicago including Francia Garcia Hernádez and Madison Savedra have an excellent look at How Operation Midway Blitz Changed Our City in Chicago Under Siege.
As if not to be left out of the making bad news moment, Elon Musk’s back in the swing of things with his AI tool Grok allowing users to essentially turn X into a porn machine using photos of real folks to wreak havoc. Just note that X is still the social media platform of choice for far too many. Matteo Wong has the story in Elon Musk’s Pornography Machine.
And to close out the week when holiday close out sales come to an end, Jake Lundberg takes a look at The Cult of Costco. Great piece whether you shop there or not.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
U.S Invades Venezuela and kidnaps president and his wife
Invading another country and kidnapping its president and his wife is certainly one way to distract from all of the many reasons the Trump regime needs to distract us from. Given that today, January 3rd is the statutory deadline to release the Epstein files, and we now have available the long transcript and video of Jack Smith’s deposition stating that the special prosecutor had irrefutable evidence that Trump was guilty it’s enough to spur suspicions in a stone. It’s also not a great way to bring the holidays to an easy end. But then nothing about beginnings and endings have been easy for far too long.
If you haven’t heard the news about the U.S. invasion of Venezuela be grateful for summaries. I won’t regurgitate beyond the opening paragraph of this blog post. I will say that the one piece of news in what passed for a press conference, the President of the United States says we’re now going to be running Venezuela. Watching a team that can’t run its own country say it’s going to run another strikes me as ironic, but then irony rusts in revolt at the doings of this bunch of dolts.
We’ve been on a wild ride for almost a year with the Trump regime and this will undoubtedly make it even wilder in the days ahead. I don’t believe anyone, including those in the administration, knows what it all means going forward. But we’re about to find out. Like it or not. I’m guessing we won’t like it.
The only silver lining I can possibly see is that taking these actions might possibly lead to the beginning of the end of this corrupt regime run by a child molester and convicted rapist. America historically has never been good at foreign conquest and overthrowing other governments, even when taking down corrupt evil regimes. Those past attempts have at least been undertaken with reasonably intelligent adults doing the planning and the work. That’s certainly not the case with this cast of characters acting in this Made for TV tragi-comedy.
If you listened, take anything you heard from the press conference with a grain of salt. Just like most things with this group it’s all poorly supported improv. Already the vice president of Venezuela who the Trump regime says we’re going to be working with and was gracious in her conversations is already demanding the U.S return Maduro.
Good luck to us all.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Phillip Bump, a thinker and writer I greatly admire has an intriguing, yet troubling piece titled There Are Limits To The Hitler-Trump Comparison. Just Ask These Historians. I say troubling, not because I disagree with his points, but because I think it misses the larger one everyone is too afraid to acknowledge.
It is intriguing on an intellectual level, and nuanced on several levels. But I hasten to say that we’re living in a moment without much room for nuance, and as for the intellectual part? I’m afraid we’re suffering losses there as well.
Looking to explore further whether or not the Trump administration’s use of anti-immigrant rhetoric could be compared to the Nazi movement, Bump reached out to several historians who “generally agree that while the comparison was imperfect, it was not completely unfair.” I urge you to read Bump’s column before continuing here.
I won’t argue with the callbacks to the history of America’s own xenophobia. Let’s remember where the Nazis claimed to get some of their ideas from. As a species we seem to be entirely incapable of finding news ways to diminish and dehumanize those we don’t like or want to scapegoat on the path to power. Nor will I argue that it depends on what part of the Nazi timeline you drop into when making comparisons.
I will say this.
While no one knows how any of this will turn out, the fact that we’re living through any resemblance, no matter how clumsy or incoherent it may be in comparison to past political movements here or abroad, should be more than enough to call us up short and put a stop to it.
Bump states:
So Trump’s allies have a point: Comparisons to Nazism, particularly the late-stage Nazism with which we are all familiar, are imperfect. The president’s administration mirrors that party’s ascent a century ago in other ways — its bullying, the collapse of opposition from the existing establishment — that sharpen the criticism. If it is on the same path forward, though, there is still a long way to go, and a lot of time to change direction.
The comparisons may indeed be imperfect. However, every time civilization has beaten back these ill winds it has had to do so imperfectly as well, having to stoop below many of the values we rallied to save in the name of those values.
There may indeed still be time for a change in direction. That said, I would argue that the longer the weak-kneed and cowardly capitulators let this go on, not only does that window of time close, but it makes it harder to pry back open even after all of the glass has been broken.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Can dangerous actions continue to outstrip broken politics?
Just a few quick thoughts.
Without question I have to say I’m very pleased with the Democratic election victories across the country last night. Both the winners and the size of the margins in the headline races for governors, NYC mayor, and redistricting in California. I’m even more pleased to see some of the down ballot races yield Democratic victories as well.
Especially in my home state of Virginia where the Democrats took enough seats to have quite a majority in the House of Delegates. Here’s hoping that yields very positive results for the newly elected Democratic governor.
Obviously everyone is going to parse all of these election results and find ways to celebrate, castigate, and even dismiss what’s obvious. People are pissed off. They need to remain so.
Today also sets a record for the longest government shutdown in American history. Real people are being affected by this and that will only continue and get worse as long as the shutdown does. Of course when you have one house of Congress refusing to gavel into session and also refusing to swear in an elected member, who knows how long things will last.
In so many ways, the GOP and Trump’s tactics have been the biggest act of self-mutilation and self-humiliation by a political party I think the world has ever seen.
They will never acknowledge that.
Voters sure did.
Meanwhile the evil continues in Chicago and other places as ICE keeps ramping up its horror campaign. That’s not going to abate soon. I heard this morning that yesterday they were checking people’s IDs at the entrance to my local grocery store’s parking lot.
Perhaps those digging these holes that they will someday bury themselves in will keep ratcheting up their insidious actions to a point where events continue to outstrip the usual to and fro of politics. That’s a weird and painful thing to hope for, but it might just be our best hope at the moment.
And on we go.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
The birthday greeting has been in circulation awhile, but there was nothing approaching proof that it was real. Trump of course is already continuing to deny it. Even so, it’s probably going to turn into yet another nothing.
But it doesn’t have to.
My suggestion is that everyone print it out and mail to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Better yet, I’d hope someone with some organizing clout would kickstart such a campaign. Don’t stop with Trump, mail a copy to Republican Congress critters. Has to be better than phone calls and emails. Not saying those don’t work, but the campaign itself, organized properly could attract enough attention itself to raise the blood pressure.
Hell, if nothing else it could give the postal service a little revenue boost.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
This isn’t the first time Chicago has seen troops in the streets
Chicago is on edge as it prepares for what may (or may not) be Federal troops being sent in by the convicted felon and child rapist Donald Trump. Chicago and Illinois politicians are standing up and speaking strong against what most see as just the next move in his racist retribution reaction. I say next move, because it won’t stop in Chicago. This is what was promised and there’s no reason for Trump to back down or slow down now.
We tend to think of the military as a monolithic entity comprised of troops always taking orders and doing what they’re told. For the most part that’s true. But every military unit is no different than any unit of any other organization of individuals. You’ve got soldiers, sailors and airmen who do the right thing and you’ve got trouble makers. One of the problems is that some of the trouble makers have itchy trigger fingers, as do some of the officers.
This country is split down the middle with folks in and out of uniform who have a thirst for harming others and those who abhor violence. That’s not just common American history, that’s common human history. Those war movie clichés didn’t get created out of whole cloth.
Use that for the base of recipe that’s stirred up with demagoguery and it’s a dangerous brew ready to boil over.
I’m reasonably sure troops are going to show up in Chicago. Perhaps soon. Perhaps later. I’m also sure that if there is trouble it will come from the trouble makers, both in the ranks, and those ranking up and down the ladder of command, including the supposed tough guy at the top.
We’re already seeing reports that National Guard troops in L.A. and D.C. are having morale issues as they tire of being paraded around as B-roll fodder. (By the way, it’s lousy B-roll if the purpose is to show toughness.) We’ll see more of that as tensions increase all around the spectrum of this tough-guy wannabe spectacle.
I think this is just getting started.
As I said, go and read, Steinberg’s piece. It’s well worth your time.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
For the moment at least it looks like Democratic governors are going to be leading the way rhetorically as we attempt to find our way out of the dictatorship we find ourselves in.
Yes, you read that correctly. We’re already in a dictatorship. That’s my view. Most, including the dictator himself do not want to openly acknowledge it, because as I said in this post, once he claims it all, he cuts off the spigot of easy money from campaign donations. A grifter never cuts bait while there’s still a pond to fish.
But that’s not what this post is about.
Governors are indeed standing up and making some noise. We’re getting different styles and approaches and that’s a good thing. Tossing different kinds of rhetorical punches from different directions makes it tougher to defend against, certainly when your opponent has a tough time completing thoughts and sentences.
If you’re paying attention at all, you already know that Gavin Newsom is playing hardball in his mimicking of Trump’s bombastic style, albeit more in the style of the Savannah Bananas. Juvenile as it may be, on that level it’s working, and has gotten under Trump’s skin more than whatever disease is causing all of that skin discoloration and makeup experimentation on those small hands.
Wes Moore of Maryland has invited Trump to take a walk with him on the streets of Baltimore. If you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk. Moore even offered a golf cart.
Taking a different approach, Minnesota Governor and former VP candidate, Tim Walz isn’t being shy about expressing his thoughts either. It feels very midwestern stern even as he did take a jocular swipe at Trump’s cankles.
Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson also issued some strong words about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s threats to prosecute government officials over immigration policies. Ferguson is strong willed, lawyerly, and reminded Trump of his legal defeats at his hands in Trump’s first turn at the wheel.
And rounding out the current pushback, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker addressed the Trump threat to send National Guard troops into Chicago by telling the Trump administration to stay out of Chicago. You have to admire this quote:
If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.
You can find the full text of Pritzker’s statement here and watch it below.
In discussing Pritzker’s remarks on social media today I responded to a friend who wondered what could be done to actually stop Trump from sending in troops. I answered that there was probably nothing. But once they get in, they’ll have the devil of a time getting out if it comes to that. That’s The Chicago Way.
It’s good to see these governors taking stands, at least on a strong rhetorical level. That’s the first step and is long overdue. Multiple approaches on multiple fronts addressing the multitude of threats is a positive.
Cynically you can argue that they each may be positioning themselves for higher office. I don’t think that matters, because this is when and where the fight is. More governors need to do the same because obviously the politicians in Washington (if they ever return from hiding) don’t have any knees left to bend.
But tough words are going to need to be matched with tough actions in the days ahead.
Buckle up.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Drip, drip, drip. The daily dilly dallying on the margins that the Trump administration keeps doling out continues. Horror after horror is revealed on this fascist march into demolishing the world’s oldest democracy. But the money keeps rolling in.
The ongoing debate as to whether or not these despicable actions are distractions is in and of itself a meaningless distraction. We’re essentially living under a dictatorship already, and yet the putzes with power can’t really go there. Doing so would cut their mother’s milk off at the teat.
There’s a reason for the pace of things. There’s a reason why Trump hasn’t just declared a full national emergency and implemented martial law and shut the place down. That reason is political fundraising. That’s where the money is. That’s where the suckers are.
Without elections the con men and women can’t shake down the public, corporations, and foreign countries for political donations. Cut off that cash flow and you cut the power, quicker than flipping a switch. It’s not just money for candidates and causes. It’s money for consultants, think tanks, and the advertising dependent media. Declare martial law and the spinning wheel stops.
In order to keep the money flowing there needs to be an opposition. Without one it would be all about selling meme coins, fake gold phones, and silly shoes. The shake downs would still continue, just on a different levels. Gifts, grifts and gunpoint.
Of course the silver lining is all of those fundraising emails would stop.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
I have not written much about that entire depraved episode. I will today.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 