#IndictBugsBunny

Stolen from Facebook.

In regards to this.

I'm no lawyer, but personally I don't think this'll stick. At best, the meaning of "86" is ambiguous enough they're going to have a really hard time proving any evil intent.

I'd sure like to be able to read the date on this newspaper, but it's just too blurry.

The cartoon itself is from 1943, so some wishful thinking here.

Petulance, thy Name is Trump

President Trump and members of his cabinet were vaguely shot at yesterday.

I don't condone violence of any sort, let it be clear.

I don't condone hypocritical petulance, either.

Trump has said this wouldn't have happened if he'd had his White House ballroom.

School shootings, workplace shootings, and all the like wouldn't have happened had they had ballrooms either, per that logic.

But since Sen. Lindsey Graham sees fit to introduce legislation to let President Petulant get tax money to pay for his ballroom but nobody seems willing to lift a finger to do to much of anything to lessen the impact of school and workplace shootings, I say fie to it all.

We have a very hypocritical government. They get free health care, pensions -- and in some instances, jobs -- for life. And we pay for it all. But that kind of thing just isn't done for the masses. We have wars to fight, Trump says. So that means we can't pay for health care, or child care, or Social Security, or any of the other social safety net programs that actually show benefits outside the pocketbooks of arms contractors.

The sooner we elect someone besides this twink and his enablers, the better.

That's the Way it Was, with the Old Man

Back in 1976, when we were celebrating the bicentennial of the United States, we got stuff like this. Good ol' Darren McGavin, the Old Man himself, delivering real news, not that politic slop.

We also got crap like this, so it wasn't all good:

We're in a much, shall we say, stranger era today. We're post-irony, post-cynicism, and in places where we'd have "woke" spokespeople on one side of the 250th arguing with the non-woke on the other.

I don't know that we're any more polarized than we were in the 1970s, but we're certainly a lot louder about it.

The Pie-Industrial Complex

 

I am part of the Pie-Industrial Complex.

My full-time job as a technical writer supports cleanup of waste mostly left over from the Manhattan Project.

While I'm grateful for the work, this commercial from 1971 certainly packs a message. Where do we want our money going?

President Trump is telling us we need money to fight wars, and that money for health care or daycare or whatever it is at home that we need is secondary to that fight. Nevermind it's wars that idiot started himself because War is Cool or something, according to the Beavi and Butt-Heads he's got surrounding him in Washington and elsewhere (I'm looking at you, Israel).

Where Were You When World War Three Started, Grandpa?

So yeah, these, our modern times, suck.

And so do a lot of people living in our modern times. But I try not to pay attention to that.

A few things I do pay attention to:

-- Those looking at Revelation in the New Testament as a clear play-by-play of how the "end times" are going to come about should really, really be careful in separating those who ask us to humble ourselves and repent and try as hard as we can to get along from those who look at Armageddon and think, "How can I actively make that come to pass?"

What was it he said that got everyone so upset?

Be kind to each other.

Oh yeah. That'll do it.

We seemed to have stepped back from the brink this week. But only just, and our Dear Leaders are still dancing on the edge of the precipice. Kinda like this:

Grab a fence post, hold it tight,

Whomp your partner will all your might.

Hit him in the chin, hit him in the head,

Hit him again that critter ain't dead.

Whomp him low and whomp him high,

Stick your finger in his eye.

Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound,

Bang your heads against the ground.

So where was I? I was at home, washing my tights.

Because talking to our representatives does nothing. They're so deep inside the machine now they don't really listen to us unless we're echoing what they're already thinking. I wish that was cynicism talking, but it's reality.

Beware the Bot Exhaustion

So, I think we're mostly aware that fake news - and fake news purveyors - are a real thing. And while the Venn diagram of such may occasionally include legitimate news outlets, the biggest problem by far are the Joe Six-Packs and Betty Housecoats we encounter on social media.

Only less dangerous than these are the actual real people who believe what the propaganda farm bots post and spread around.

That probably includes me. And you. Nobody is immune.

So we really, really need as individuals to be very careful in believing what we see online. As Benn Jordan says at the conclusion of this video:

"At this point in time, you should always be asking yourself if social media users or features are separating you from your own instincts or logical conclusions because this isn't political; the goal is not to make you support a particular party or candidate. The goal is to make you constantly question your own convictions by filling your entire world with conspiracy theories. The goal is to make educating yourself about your surroundings and questioning what's real or not so exhausting that you're too worn down to care that there's lead in your childrens' drinking water. You're too worn down to care that the American life expectancy has dropped below the average of some developing countries. What politically-oriented problems are bigger than those things?"

Media literacy has entered a new era, and we've got to be really vigilant lest we fail.

A Weasley Way to Meet Constituents

Mike Simpson, a word:

Got one of your robocalls tonight announcing RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW you're doing a telephone town hall and that I should stay on the line to be connected to participate.

This kind of call is a fancy way to say "Hey, I *tried* to meet with my constituents, but, yanno, they didn't stay on the line to participate, so it's on them."

No, sir, it's on you.

You caught me at an inconvenient time. I was just heading into a Scout meeting and could not attend your telephone town hall, as much as I might want to do that.

If you're sincere in wanting to meet with your constituents - and of that I have my doubts - you'd schedule your telephone town halls enough in advance that your constituents could plan for them, not have to drop everything they're doing RIGHT NOW in the hopes of having the blessed opportunity of maybe possibly asking you a question as long as it's not too inconvenient to answer.

Representative Russ Fulcher schedules his telephone town halls and gives his constituents ample notice of them. You should learn from that example.

Do better, congressman. Do better.

NOTE: I sent him this in Facebook Messenger, and posted it on my wall. Will update if I get any response. Which I also doubt will happen.

[Scam Likely]

I've been thinking about my Dad a lot lately.

He was born in the Netherlands. Saw the ugliness of World War II as a young teenager. Saw the futility of colonialism while serving in the Dutch army in Indonesia after the war.

He, his brother, and parents immigrated to the United States in 1950. They worked hard to form a new life here and, legally, to become citizens of the United States.

As much as he loved living here, he didn't have on any blinders. He told me on more than one occasion that the United States is a wonderful place to live unless you're poor, then it becomes one of the worst places on the planet because of how little we care for those in need.

Dad died in 2000. And as I've watched what's gone on in our country over the past year plus, I'm kind of glad he didn't live to see such times.

He learned English but maintained a Dutch accent. He worked as a bricklayer out in the weather, so his skin was tanned and reddened by a lot of exposure to sun and wind.

I'm convinced those facts alone would have made him a target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement had they been in Idaho in any strength and pestered construction sites like I've seen them do in the news.

He, a legal citizen of the United States, would very likely have been harassed and bothered, maybe arrested.

I know many people like this. People who've come into the country "the right way," who'd automatically be suspect. And possibly exposed to jail, violence, and worse if they -- or we who know them -- would try to tell The Man otherwise.

So tonight I got a call. Two, actually. Both from a cell number that were flagged as "Scam Likely:"

The first call I ignored, because scam likely. But when they called back, I figured "What the hell."

The call was an invitation to attend a virtual town hall going on RIGHT NOW during COMMUTE TIME, as you can see by the timestamp on my screenshot from Mike Simpson, our representative in the House.

So I jumped on it. I wanted to see what would happen. And I figured since there'd been no heads up about the town hall -- I am subscribed to his newsletter and saw nothing about it in the letter I got over the weekend.

The *3*3 you can see are two attempts -- the last one successful -- I made to indicate I had a question I wanted to ask. I had little faith that I'd actually be invited to ask a question, but I was. I told them it was to ask Rep. Simpson whether he supported an independent investigation into ICE activities, particularly in Minnesota, as our Senator Mike Crapo and Sen. John Curtis of Utah indicated they were in favor of, just today.

They fielded five or six questions before pulling the plug, with only the last caller asking a question that was contrary to the line Simpson has already shown he's been toeing.

Yeah. They filtered the questions they wanted to answer and pretty much answered only the questions that already fir their preconceived narrative, and now they can report that they "held a town hall" and "heard a lot from constituents" who think everything is A-OK in Washington, DC.

When we lived in Rexburg, a member of our ward ran for and won a seat in the state legislature. As I recall, he served one term and came back with his idealism for participatory government, learned from a father who had also served on the state level, kind of squashed because even back then in the 1900s it was hard to get anything done that wasn't already neato and popular with the cool kids in Boise.

So what I saw was this, writ large, controlled and moderated to make it seem like everything's OK at home for Representative Simpson, who can feel good that he held a town hall and only heard from one malcontent.

Yes, it seems that government continues to seem, and that's about it.

Minding My Own Business

Just sitting here.

Minding my own business.

Oh yeah: *Totally* not mentioning the war.

The Lies they Spread

 

Imagine being so broken that you not only think like Stephen Miller but agree with him.

Does everyone who comes to the United States behave like angels? No. But neither do those who've been here for generations.

All I know is that my Dad and his brother and parents came to the United States in 1950, leaving the Netherlands, devastated by World War II and subsequent catastrophic floods, and that's *exactly* what they reproduced here.*

Immigrants come to this country filled with hope. Many of those fall in places where at worst, society is wary, but at best, where society is welcoming. I'm blessed that my Dad came to a place where the latter occurred.

Individuals may cultivate cruelty in their hearts, but I firmly believe those who come to the United States -- or those who move from one country and culture to another -- will for the vast majority reflect their reception. If they're received with kindness, they reciprocate kindness. Those who are received with hostility on a consistent basis are more prone -- and bless those who return hostility with kindness -- to return that hostility.

Hearing our leaders spew bile like Mr. Miller makes me weep for the nation.

*Maybe in your racist heart you're thinking, "Well, they were Christians. They were (whispered) white. So they fit in better." If you're thinking that gives my family a bye, you're part of the problem.

It's Only Bad when *THEY* Do It

Gerrymandering when "they" do it:

A loathsome practice that disenfranchises voters, empowers the enemy and is generally an underhanded practice that we can all generally agree shouldn't be done.

Gerrymandering when "we" do it:

We have to gerrymander because when we do it everyone has butterflies and rainbows coming out their navel and it's at best a noble practice meant to prevent the enemy from gaining ground and at worst a necessary evil we have to stoop to because *they* are doing it.

Someone make it make sense.

"Risking National Bankruptcy to Buy A Desert"

From Stephen E. Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," which focuses on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, offered as a balm in this, the stupidest timeline:

When [John] Adams wrote that the [Louisiana] Purchase "gave a new face to politics," he meant that it signified the end of the Federalist Party, which was so shortsighted and partisan that many of its representatives criticized the act. Alexander Hamilton was wise to content himself with remakring that Jefferson had just been lucky. The Purchase, he said, resulted from "the kind interpositions of an overruling Providence." But a Boston Federalist newspaper did not like the dea at all: it called Louisiana "a great waste, a wilderness unpeopled with any beings except wolves and wandering Indians. We are to give money of which was have too little for land of which we already have too much." Jefferson was risking national bankruptcy to buy a desert.

Angry partisanship was the order of the day. Senator John Quincy Adams complained in his diary, "The country is so totally given up to the spirit of party, that not to follow blindfold the one or the other is an inexpiable offence." But the New England Federalists were putting themselves on the wrong side of history to poopse the Purchase. One denounced it as "a great curse," and another feared that the Purchase "threatens, at no very distant day, the subversion of our Union."

Of course we're seeing the same kind of crap today. The "other side" can do nothing right, wile "our side" can do no wrong.

And sometimes I participate in it. I need to stop.

Continued Gaslighting

Representative Simpson,

So I note this in your letter:

"I stand with FCC Chairman Carr on ensuring accuracy and respect when reporting on such sensitive topics from all American media outlets."

That's a funny way to say you stand for an arm of the federal government violating the right to free speech, which you should know is protected by the First Amendment.

Note the First Amendment doesn't qualify what free speech is, which you attempt to do in your reply. The amendment doesn't say we have a right to free speech that the government sanctions, or that doesn't hurt someone's feelings. We have a right to free speech, full stop. And that right ought to be protected by the government, not infringed.

Sincerely yours,

An increasingly dissatisfied constituent,

Brian Davidson

Dad, Where Were You When the Constitution Was Stomped On?

So here's a fun thing.

President Donald Trump said the following at his inaugural address earlier this year:

After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I also will sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.

Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen.  It will not happen again.

Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.

Of course it's clear now there should have been some provios attached to his statements.

We're seeing today the government teetering on the edge of major violations of the First Amendment. ABC and Disney share some of the blame in this spineless game, of course. There aren't any good guys anymore.

I took a screenshot of this portion of his speech, in case it's memory holed later, which I fully expect it will be.

One of my representatives -- Mike Simpson -- is on social media celebrating the potential erosion of our First Amendment freedoms. I sent him a polite missive I expect will be ignored. Meanwhile his "newsletter" is full of polls asking leading questions that expect the sheep to agree with Trump's policies. No thank you, sir. No thank you.

We really do live in the stupidest timeline.

On the Subject of . . . Wossname.

What we ought to do is this:

Remain horrified that it was done by an "other" that we knew already was *bad* and remain smug that it was not one of *us* and point fingers of blame everywhere but the root causes we *could* be doing something about.

That attitude has served us well since the last time something like this happened.

And the time before.

And the time before that.

And the time before that . . .

Simon Bar Sinister, Controlling the Weather Since 1965

Simon Bar Sinister, of course, way back in 1965, becomes the one to not only control the weather but also control it from the Moon so he doesn't become hoist by his own soggy petard.

Frankly, we could use this kind of flood-purge in the capital (and the Capitol) today. Bad guys, it seems, are never around when you really need them.

Idaho Is Scared of Posters, I Guess

A news item.

And this is the poster in question, which should be plastered everywhere:

Back in March, the West Ada School District near Boise forced a teacher to take this poster down from a wall in her classroom. She rightly refused, left the district, and found a job elsewhere.

Now the Idaho Attorney General's Office has ruled that any school in the state wanting to display this poster is breaking the law.

It's odd to see people scared of inclusion; of offering a token to show students they're welcome.

Big scary, scary posters frightening big men who ought to know a lot better than that. Becuase I guarantee if someone of their ilk wanted to display a poster or sign in a classroom and others were against it, they'd have their knickers in a twist.

Obviously, a copy of the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, for example, could be said to express an opinion or a political point of view. Should they be banned from display in Idaho schools?

I'm sure the AG's office could write an opinion that would dance a tango around such a prohibition. But banning speech is banning speech.

"Cute" Musk

I saw the following posted on a propaganda satire page on Facebook:

A lot of the commenters are tittering at the idea of Musk being controlled in this way, but I see something really, really toxic here.

Sure, it's cute to imagine him getting patted on the head like this. We love the idea of the hated "genius" being revealed as a controlled moron.

But as this kind of behavior continues, the controllers are eventually replaced by fellow travelers who accommodate the genius not so they can avoid damage to the company but because they believe the golden boy improves everything he touches. The insulation erodes and becomes replaced with something worse than Yes-men.

DOGE is an excellent example of this. A lot of people are cherring that Musk and Trump had a falling out and that Musk has left DOGE behind. But he left DOGE behind, churning away at the guts of the government, run by those people who believe their man can do no wrong. But since Musk is gone, the hysteria around DOGE has crumbled markedly, even though it's still there doing it's "job."

A few see it:

Moronie Deported to Sweden, Says He's Not From There

News item: This is real.

I had no idea we were living in an Amy Heckerling movie.

The closing scene of the newspaper is the only joke here. We've seen presidents as of late not be so nice on immigrants, legal or not, and that kinda stinks.

Thanks, Trump

Ordinarily I wouldn't blame one person for a serious tanking of the stock market. But this is fallout from Trump slapping tariffs on just about every island and nation on earth, including some populated solely or mostly by penguins.

He's golfing today while my retirement finds have dropped . . .at least $10,000 in one day. And one account hasn't updated for today's massacre.

And Starbursts that I used to be able to get for about $2.70 a bag are now more than $4.

I'm not impressed.

But I am learning still. This video might be the best explanation of the tariff situation that I've listened to. Yes, he makes fun of putting tariffs on penguin-oriented territories, but I think gives a balanced view on the discussion.