Author's archive
A Rhyme for the Times 0
Warning: Some language.
Republican Thought Police 0
The EFF argues that (emphasis added)
(snip)
The right to speak anonymously is essential. It preserves privacy and shields critics from government retaliation. In the past year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued grand jury subpoenas to social media companies for their users’ personal data. This is frequently done for improper purposes and without really showing that social media users have committed any crime. These subpoenas have the effect of intimidating and chilling critics, as immigration authorities have engaged in invasive, unconstitutional, and sometimes violent conduct.
Russian Impulses 0
From the Youtube page:
The Trump administration is reportedly considering lifting sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, an organization the U.S. Treasury previously described as widely considered a slush fund for Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Russian diesel is headed to American ports aboard tankers that reportedly include sanctioned vessels, and Donald Trump Jr. spent time hunting in Mongolia with Putin-connected Russian boxing executive Umar Kremlev and a businessman linked to another sanctioned Russian fund. With questions mounting about sanctions relief, the Trump family’s Russian relationships, and taxpayer-funded security expenses, even some Republican lawmakers are demanding answers. Ring of Fire’s Josh G. explains.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Where there’s smoke, there’s politeness.
Clark then pulled a gun from his waistband, CCSO said. This prompted the driver of the pickup truck to draw his firearm out of fear. The driver of the pickup truck then fired at the front tire of Clark’s vehicle in order to disable it so he could get away and call law enforcement.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.
Stray Thought 0
One of the, if not the, most poisonous notions in our polity is that politics is a spectator sport that somehow exists apart from day-to-day lives, not to be participated in by, say, for example, exercising one’s right duty to vote.
Petty Cheesey 0
David marvels at Donald Trump’s meltdown in response to a casual remark by President Obama.
Republican Thought Police 0
Yet another Trump acolyte attempts to exercise the freedom of repress (and is now being sued over it).
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another portable phallus that performed on its ownsome.
We are a society of stupid willfully poisoning ourselves with lead because so many persons seem to need their portable phalluses to feel like real big men.
Stray Thought, Devolution Dept. 0
In another sign of the ultimate rot in our civilization that, after weeks of searching, I have been unable to find a shaving brush in any of our regular stores and ended up having order one to be shipped.
And not from anything Amazon, by the way.
The Rule of Lawless 0
One more time, we seem to live in retaliation nation.
In the Trump maladministion, “mal” not only stands for bad, it stands for “with malice aforethought.”
The View from Afar 0
Via the Las Vegas Sun, Jackie Calmes reports that she recently had occasion to go abroad. From the perspective of distance and away from 24-hour relentless cycle of headlines, she found a renewed perspective on the Trump maladministration. Here’s her list of things that stood out; follow the link for a detailed exploration of each one.
- His embarrassing and willfully provocative obsession with branding things, buildings (even adding his name to a memorial of a slain president!), bodies of water and now states.
- His antidemocratic refusal, despite his oath, to be president of all Americans.
- His pathological narcissism and companion sense of monarchical entitlement.
- His anti-constitutional undermining of a free press.
- The top-down model of incompetence and corruption in Trump’s administration.
- Trump’s traitorous bear-hug of Russia and betrayal of Ukraine, U.S. allies and the 80-year-old world order that is among the proudest legacies of the United States.
Arc Angles 0
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Thom argues that the arc of American conservatism is wrong, for it bends towards fascism, spurred on by America’s original sin of chattel slaver.
Watch the video for his reasoning.