October, 2025 archive
A Tune for the Times 0
Mr. Newberger salutes the Squeaker of the House.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, one of those “responsible gun owners” exposes a portable phallus to children,
Investigators say a 1-year-old child found the gun and accidentally fired it.
The 1-year-old child was hit and a second child was shot when the bullet fragmented, detectives said.
We are a society of stupid.
That Was the Week That Was 0
Mary Trump looks back at last week’s Trumpling.
From the Youtube page:
This week Mary unpacks the GOP’s Gaslight Playbook — the upside-down rhetoric that flips truth into lies. From Speaker Mike Johnson and Karoline Leavitt to Fox State TV, we show how Republican doublespeak fuels chaos. Plus, a look at Donald’s East Wing demolition at the White House, the perfect symbol of broken institutions and twisted narratives.. It’s Trump Trolls Trump Week 39.
Republican Family Values . . . 0
. . . can be summed up in the immortal words of Marie Antionette: Let them eat cake.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Psychopaths? Not according to Justin Gregg, who argues that AI is amoral (which could be worse). A snippet:
AIs, on the other hand, lack all of these capacities. The concept of “harm” means nothing to them. As Nerantz points out, “to understand what it means to harm someone, one must have experiential knowledge of pain. AIs, thus…are a priori excluded from the possession of moral emotions, whereas psychopaths, as sentient humans, can, in principle, experience moral emotions, but they, pathologically, do not.” Psychopaths can intellectually and consciously understand the nature of their deficit, can make new analogies involving the capacities that they do possess, and can thus alter their behavior in deference to that awareness.
AIs cannot.
The ICEmen Cometh 0
At ProPublica, J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam make a case that the Trump maladministration is attempting to turn ICE into their own secret police. Here’s a tiny bit from their article:
A Pillow of the Community 0
David posits that Mike Lindel, aka Mike Pillow, personifies the MAGA business model.
The Rule of Lawless 0
SFgate’s Drew Magary is somewhat distressed at the realization that we are now living in a (my words, not his) klepto-idiocracy.
Going Rogue State, Reprise 0
At the Idaho State Journal, Jim Jones, who served as Idaho Attorney-General and then on the state Supreme Court, looks at the Trump maladministration’s practice of blowing up boats because (to cut through the crapola) their crews are brown. Here’s a tiny bit from his article:
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
True to their word? Psychotherapist Paula Fontenelle expresses skepticism, as she reports that
A Tune for the Times 0
From the Youtube page:
US President Donald Trump wants to build a triumphal arch across from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, the latest in his efforts to make over the capital city in his style. The so-called Arc de Trump would commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary next year and is reportedly being privately funded by Trump’s supporters. His other second-term developments include a gilded makeover for the White House, paving over the Rose Garden and constructing a $250m ballroom, as well as the clearing of homeless encampments throughout the capital.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Via The Sacramento Bee, Jackie Calmes hears a rhyme:
Follow the link for a parsing of the poesy.
___________________
*Mark Twain.
**Whoopsies! But I arill think Calmes makes valid points.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Mary Trump discusses how Donald Trump’s behavior has given permission to racists, bigots, and haters to act out in public.