User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Veritas Unplugged
Attribution: Saving Democracy At Harvard by Bob Englehart, PoliticalCartoons.com
Author: patd
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
View all posts by patd
101 thoughts on “Veritas Unplugged”
Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing back against President Trump as he ignores his campaign promises and pursues a billionaire-friendly agenda. Stick around for two more segments with Sen. Elizabeth Warren!
more from the good senator lizzie
Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill that will compel the Senate to affirm or restrict the emergency powers President Trump is using to deport and imprison people without due process. Stick around for more with Sen. Warren! and
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren outlines what Democrats in Congress should be doing to push back against Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda, and argues they are not powerless despite being in the minority.
’tis me, patd, again being dubbed anonymous. word press continues playing with us again today.
and here ’tis Florida’s Andy Marlette’s most recent artistic contribution
Another day, another pile of outrages from krasnov. When will he be irritating the kremlin, American oligarchs, or magat congress? So far he has done everything perfectly for them. Cheer on cheeseburgers and fries.
PatD, how strange you can post a thread on your login but not a comment. I will get to the bottom of it but I am not sure where to start
PatD, can you type a name in when commenting, as I just did here. It’s in the box just below comment box, asks for Name and Email (Optional)
I have isolated the problem to our wpDiscuz commenting platform. If they don’t update their plugin soon to fix this, I’m going to have to find another. But this is the only one I have found that lets us put pictures and video in our comments, and edit our own comments. WordPress doesn’t offer that in its basic comments, so we have to use a third party plugin for those features. Off to search for something else now.
HOUSEKEEPING: Be Patient, I’m going full mad scientist today
Testing out new commenting systems. So bear with me while I click things, break things, and try to fix them again without lighting the server on fire.
Firstly, I am uninstalling the glitchy wpDiscuz commenting platform we’ve been using. While it’s uninstalled, coming in just a few moments — PatD, please try to comment using your login so that i can see whether this was causing your forced anonymous issue.
We are TEMPORARILY in the native WordPress commenting system right now, which means no images or video uploading, or comment editing. This is what commenting looks like without adding a third-party plugin to give us those enhancements. I have lined up three alternatives to test today. We WILL get those features back somehow, I just don’t know how until I find the right platform (and get my money back from the one we were using). This could take all day, so please be patient.
So now Dumbass wants to fire Jerome Powell. Sorry, but the Fed is an independent organization and while the members of the board are appointed by the President there is KO precedent I’m aware of for firing them.
Test
Test
Patd, try updating your profile. I just did
Getting a little nerdy here. I first heard the name John Henry Newman in the book and later film of 84 Charing Cross Road. It was one of those events that sends you down a white rabbit research rabbit hole to learn about the theologian, his life and writings, and the whole of idea of learning for the sake of knowledge.
“The University … has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture; here it may leave its scholars, and it has done its work when it has done as much as this. It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it. … the basis of a belief that education should aim at producing generalists rather than narrow specialists, and that non-vocational subjects—in arts or pure science—could train the mind in ways applicable to a wide range of jobs”
The whole idea of a university is to teach its students to think. It is not there to echo prejudices or to spout lock-step adherences. It is to set them out on a lifetime of learning.
You can read or download the nine lectures at Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24526/24526-pdf.pdf and a broad outline of Newman’s life at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newman.
You will agree and disagree with his stances on education, religion and life. In the end, you will think.
OK I just added the first custom feature, comment editing. Let’s see how this works. The image uploading feature is going to take some more work. Nothing I’ve found is updated to current WordPress settings, might have to build it myself.
Testing editor. It seems to work. There is a two-hour window to edit your comments, with a countdown clock. There is no option for unlimited editing time, or I would choose it.
Free at last! Free at last! thank god ahmighty free at last. Thanks Craig.
and thanks too, Pogo. the second update profile seemed to be the magical key.
What is frustrating with the reporting on what sfb is trying to force on all institutions is white supremacy, white nationalism. The whole anti-DEI thing is to make everything whites only. No talk about anything except whites in power. You could see and hear how he reacted to Black Lives Matter, especially the site on the street across from the WH. We are seeing how he, and S. Miller, are acting now that they are in power. Legal or not, he is going to make anyone who is not white male go back to being subservient.
Oh I am relieved PatD.
BlueBronc, you nailed the Big Picture right onto the wall. We are in the last gasp of White Supremacy in America. I always knew it would be fierce, but wow it’s way more intense — and effective — than I imagined. But it will pass, demographics makes it so.
We were great last evening, then it unplugged itself overnight? Weird.
My question is, why is any of us cooperating with the new segregation? Resist it!
OK I have rigged up a custom image attachment feature that might or might not work. I couldn’t find anything pre-made that didn’t have issues. I used the simplest code possible to get the job done without risking accidents.
The browse button and explanations are below the comment box. Trying it now. Here is what my eggs cost today. In the last week of Biden’s presidency I paid $2.39 for the same brand, same store.
Testing: Bunny trail
Looks good Ivy. Was that easy? Any suggestions? I’ve got my lab coat on today, feeling confident I can fix things.
A thought about Harvard and two billion dollars, a few phone calls to their graduates should take care of that in a day or so. They are not the same economic world as those I know who graduated from community college with an AA degree.
testing YouTube url conversion
Test of YouTube url conversion worked, but I did learn something: If you Edit a comment that included a YouTube link the video disappears after you save the edit, only the link remains. Weird.
by the way, i set the size limit for images to the highest our server allows — 100 MG. That should be plenty, even for those massive Apple file hogs
Testing anonymous login with custom name input
testing anonymous posting with no name input
Anonymous posting works, but does require Captcha fulfillment so that should keep out trolls and bots — but we can always toss them overboard if they do show
OK I am done fiddling for now. Let me know if there are any glitches or features you miss, things to do differently. But for now this is our new commenting platform, custom made by ME!
Trying a simple copy paste of one of my favorite paintings by Jack Vettriano: Cocktails and Broken Hearts. Didn’t work
Download and upload seems to have worked. Will know if it prints.
“ In the last week of Biden’s presidency I paid $2.39 for the same brand, same store.”
the Nazis don’t give a shit and never did
Craig,
Merely pasting the image link doesn’t work like it did before. Are there other steps required in the new configuration?
Now, Adolf is threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status. Would/could the IRS do that? Would/could he go after professors and benefactors? Why not take away tax exempt status from churches who actually preach the gospel of Jesus?
Columbia’s reputation is in ruins for bending the knee.
Now, Adolf is demanding the UK ditch LGBTQ+ protections (aka, make hate speech OK) to trade with us. Barclays has happily bent the knee and cut DEI. That won’t end well.
Canada is now selling more oil to China than it ever did to the US. American exceptionalism, eh?
Orange Adolf ruins everything he touches. He was allowed to touch this country a second time, and it’s so much worse.
His propagandists are now saying anyone who speaks up for DUE PROCESS can be deported. Basically, anyone who supports the US Constitution is now on Adolf’s enemies list. Does that include all nine SCOTUS justices?
“ We are in the last gasp of White Supremacy in America. I always knew it would be fierce, but wow it’s way more intense — and effective — than I imagined. But it will pass, demographics makes it so.”
-CC
it’s rather robust gasp, and that’s why they are attempting to physically change the demographics by force and intimidation
i don’t see much resistance
Patd
I had to use download to my computer and then upload as an “choose file” attached image.
if you think Generation Zoom is being instilled with a love for truth, freedom, and justice, i got news for you
goose is cooked
remember when the optimists said Texas would be blue by now? lol
Oklahoma man accused of murdering priest is ‘Trump fan who wants to make church great again’
Gary Hermesch, 66, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the fatal shooting of Father Arul Carasala, 57, found with gunshot wounds outside the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, Kansas, last week.
It has now emerged that years before the attack, Hermesch reportedly penned several letters to the editor of the Seneca-based newspaper The Courier-Tribune in praise of the president.
“Let’s not sweat the small stuff, though, maybe if we just follow Donald Trump’s example we’ll ‘make the Church great again,’” he wrote. “So why are things headed south like a runaway freight train? Simple. The faith is not being taught. Now is that equality and tolerance of other religions, or what?”
In another letter, published the day former President Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, Hermesch reportedly wrote: “So, now in this world of this strange new version of ‘Catholicism’, we get a capitulating weak puppy like Joe Biden.”
Other letters talk about a “strange new version” of Catholicism and that the Vatican is currently “fake” and that it has been infiltrated, according to KSNT.
Carasala became the church’s pastor in 2011, two months after obtaining U.S. citizenship. He was first ordained in 1994 for the Diocese of Cuddapah in southeast India.
Mike Lindell Says He’s Living Off $1000 a Week: ‘I’m in Ruins’
Lindell said that despite his company once having brought in $300 million a year in revenue he was now living off $1,000 a week due to “lawfare” against him, and doesn’t “have $5,000 or five cents.”
He asserted he has “nothing” except for two houses, which are currently being liquidated, and a truck.
*He put is head up Adolf’s backside and lost. But there are folks in this country trying to survive on SS checks for a month, what he spends in a week, and they own zero houses/vehicles…plus, I wonder if he has more tucked away somewhere.
NATO member Finland is “very closely” monitoring Russian military activity close to the alliance’s border, the deputy head of Helsinki’s armed forces has said.
Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen, the deputy chief of the Finnish armed forces, said that before 2022, Russia had roughly 20,000 soldiers and four standby brigades stationed close to Finnish territory. A brigade is typically between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers.
“Now we see that Russia is building new infrastructure and bringing more troops to this region as soon as they can,” Virtanen told German newspaper Die Welt. “They are reorganizing themselves.”
anon – The cities are purple and blue in TX, but the rural areas are bright RED, and there’s that pesky electoral college…and whatever “secret” Adolf said they had, and whatever app Elon said he had the knew the vote count before votes were counted.
As the saying goes, You can’t spell HATRED without RED HAT.
ps – The story in Newsweek that I posted yesterday, about TX Libertarians voting to impeach tRUMP, has disappeared from their website. ??? I don’t see anything on TX Tribune, either.
the link you posted still works
it’s a clickbait world, if it don’t drive views to ads, it gets pushed down
If Adolf manages to prohibit the right to protest, events like Bernie & AOC are holding may be the work-around. Folks can still gather, and video can still get out to the wider world to give them hope. I love that Bernie is passing the torch to AOC, intertwining the message. He may not be around to see the tree he planted so long ago bear fruit, but he’s still watering it.
Bernie Sanders Taps Neil Young, Maggie Rogers, Joan Baez For LA Rally, Then Introduces Clairo At Coachella
*This was just brilliant, and I can see artists doing this to allow folks a place to gather and protest the state.
Sick at heart this morning. The persecution is real and getting closer.
I can’t even talk about it. It’s that scary.
El Salvador doesn’t have much to lose, but in buddying up to Orange Adolf, it will. Aside from coffee, it manufactures textiles for export to the US. Will find a list to boycott.
you see a detainment, Ivy?
i’ve started turning my video camera on in case i need to record one happening in front of me
There seems to be down on the hawk nest, so that eggshell at the base of the tree was empty when the high winds blew it out.
Felt sorry for the tiny birds trying to nest behind the light sconce by the front door, so I picked up all of the twigs we’ve flicked away this week & built back better for them.
PatD, we have to use Browse button below comment box to upload images from your device. That paste and post option was an attractive feature of the other platform but then it turned you into anonymous somehow. Everything is a trade off.
“We are all afraid,” Murkowski said, taking a long pause. “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
My maternal grandfather “self deported” from Germany and none of the rest of his family ever came. So we always knew there were relatives not far removed who lived through Naziism. It was once inconceivable to me how my own family went through that. Now, sadly, I imagine what they felt. I’m feeling it.
today’s meme…
Fuck you, Mitch McConnell. This comes back to your dereliction of duty.
And take John Roberts with you.
Images working good but still need comment text, not a big deal, we get to editorialize.
“And so Trump has opened up a trapdoor beneath the American legal system. This trapdoor is wide enough to swallow the entire Constitution. So long as he can find at least one foreign strongman to cooperate, Trump can, if he wishes, imprison any dissident, judge, journalist, member of Congress, or candidate for office.”
Remember when German citizens got notices they would be deported by cattle car back to where their forbears came from?
Since Dodo does everything Jesus did but backwards, maybe he will not rise on Easter morning?
Greece! My forebears came from GREECE!!
Republicans are all afraid, yet Bernie & AOC & Chris Murphy & Cory Booker & Jasmine Crockett and others still do their jobs & go beyond. Saturday, April 19th, there will be protests in every state. It may be the last Adolf allows, so circumventing restrictions may be necessary.
Or Italy .
I’ll settle for Italy.
i was born here and i’ll die here
or in a U.S. taxpayer-funded for-profit prison in El Salvador
Boycott products from El Salvador, although they are making a lot on illegally imprisoning people. Waste & fraud of taxpayer dollars, and abuse of taxpayers.
Do what you can.
HA!
Where do the Heinz 57s go? To England, where I can at least speak the language, or to Denmark, the land of my most recent forebears (over 100 years ago)?
I had hoped to take a genealogy tour in a few years, but folks from the US may not be welcome anywhere else in the world, and (F)Elon may eat all of the funds.
“Trump and his allies say they have the authority to ban birthright citizenship because unauthorized immigrants are in the country without permanent legal status and, therefore, are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government. ”
Really? first, If they are not “subject to the jurisdiction (of the US)”, the US can’t arrest them for being here illegally. Anyone who is in the US, absent certain diplomats entitled to diplomatic immunity (and there may be others, but undocumented immigrants do not have such immunity) are subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government. Second, the 14th by its clear terms doesn’t exclude the children born here from the jurisdiction of the US. If they are here, they ARE subject to the jurisdiction of the US by virtue of their presence here. Third, “The Supreme Court addressed the meaning of this key provision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco to parents who were both Chinese citizens. At age 21, he took a trip to China to visit his parents. When he returned to the United States, he was denied entry on the grounds that he was not a U.S. citizen. In a 6-2 decision, the Court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark. Because he was born in the United States and his parents were not “employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China,” the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment automatically made him a U.S. citizen.”
Unless SCOTUS reverses that opinion, which has been precedent now for 127 years, DumbassCo loses on this issue.
does anything say fake-Christian like a diamond-encrusted crucifix?
i buy Café Bustelo coffee, will stop immediately
was seriously going to buy some tonight, won’t support El Salvador’s inhuman regime
The bigger the cross, the more grotesque the lie.
the Trump-courts showdown intensifies..
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit writes: "The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order."
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly planning to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status in what would be a probably illegal move amid Donald Trump’s concerted attack on the independence of US institutions of higher education.
It is illegal for the president to direct the IRS to conduct an investigation or audit.
“Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the president, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the president’s TRUTH,” he said, referring to the president’s social media post. – Harrison Fields/WH Spokesman
…
Who knew about this? This is what happens when you cut the whole semester of Dr. Carol Hoffecker’s course in Delaware history at U of D, thinking you could just show up at the end for the exam.
WAY BACK MACHINE: In 1833, the Eastern Shore almost became a part of Delaware. One vote! That’s all that prevented the union.
No one called our peninsula “Delmarva” back in 1833. But lots of people recognized it as a well-defined place unto itself, thanks to a mix of geography and deep-seated cultural qualities. Lots of folks also thought it was kinda strange, how history had left the peninsula broken up into three pieces, each belonging to a different state.
• In February of 1833 both houses of the Delaware state legislature in Dover passed a resolution: “The people of the Eastern Shore and of this state should be united under one government.”
• The Delaware Journal Newspaper pointed out that “the people of the Peninsula assimilate in character and habits, and would readily form one people.” The paper concluded: “Nature intended [the peninsula to be united], but men’s caprice has marred the design and spoiled one of the prettiest states of which our union could have boasted.”
• That movement got a little push back across the border in Maryland, but soon enough folks started coalescing around a logical conclusion: Why not let the people of the Eastern Shore counties decide?
• That March, the Maryland House of Delegates voted to call a “general convention” of Eastern Shoremen to get their opinion on the matter.
• The call for a “general convention” then went to the Maryland Senate, which first asked for input from a specially created subcommittee of three Eastern Shore members. They replied in the blink of an eye–within one short day, actually, all in favor.
• Most folks thought that if such a “general convention” came to pass, Eastern Shoremen would support it by a large margin, choosing to leave Maryland and become part of Delaware.
• But it never happened. When the measure came before a full committee in the Maryland Senate on March 21, 1833., it lost by a single vote, 5 to 4.
• The next year a Caroline County, Md. representative proposed allowing the Eastern Shore to secede by way of referendum, but this time the Maryland House of Delegates voted 60–5 to postpone the measure.
• From there, the proposal disappeared into legislative limbo.
There would be lots more attempts in the decades that followed to create a state of Delmarva, but never again would it get as close to reality as it did in 1833.
POSTSCRIPT #1: What about Virginia?
According to the historian Kirk Mariner in his book, “True Tales of the Eastern Shore,” the two Virginia counties were never an issue in 1833. It seems the folks down there preferred being a part of the Old Dominion and weren’t much interested in uniting with the rest of Delmarva.
Thought this might interest you, BID.
How to Call Congress—When the Phone Isn’t an Option
Proxy calling gives some disabled people a better way to flood Capitol Hill phone lines.
Economic Blackout 2.0 boycott to take place this weekend
An activist group that says it seeks to hold corporations accountable is organizing a three-day, nationwide “economic blackout” from Good Friday through Easter that calls on consumers to boycott “big box” retailers.
Instead, People’s Union USA is urging you to buy from local retailers.
There’s an ongoing “40-day fast” of Target, spearheaded by Black faith leaders, and consumers have also been taking part in a targeted weeklong boycott of Walmart, which concludes April 17, Gannett news outlets have reported.
The People’s Union, which has a list of companies that it is critical of, including Chevron, Nike, Starbucks, Google, Microsoft and Meta, formerly Facebook, said it also plans upcoming boycotts targeting General Mills, Amazon, Walmart, Target and McDonald’s.
Bald eagle out my window!
This is not my picture, mine was too fast to catch. They’re always exciting to see.
You have to fire the probies before the 90th day. After that, it has to be with cause. We have two days to get rid of him.
Trying out the image upload
Still have to enter a comment
Senator Chris Van Hollen
@ChrisVanHollen
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.
Yep, that comment requirement puzzles me. Can’t find the code causing that
U.S. Doctor Gets Email From Immigration Officials: ‘It Is Time For You To Leave’
Lisa Anderson, a U.S.-born physician from Connecticut, said she received an email from the Department of Homeland Security telling her to leave the country.
Anderson, who was born in Pennsylvania, said she has “no idea” how she ended up on the department’s radar.
The Senator also confirmed with the US Embassy that they had NOT been told to facilitate Mr. Garcia’s release by anyone in the tRUMP administration, although SCOTUS vote unanimously that they do so.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing back against President Trump as he ignores his campaign promises and pursues a billionaire-friendly agenda. Stick around for two more segments with Sen. Elizabeth Warren!
more from the good senator lizzie
Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill that will compel the Senate to affirm or restrict the emergency powers President Trump is using to deport and imprison people without due process. Stick around for more with Sen. Warren!
and
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren outlines what Democrats in Congress should be doing to push back against Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda, and argues they are not powerless despite being in the minority.
’tis me, patd, again being dubbed anonymous. word press continues playing with us again today.
and here ’tis Florida’s Andy Marlette’s most recent artistic contribution
https://cdn.creators.com/588/391867/391867_image.jpg
special thread kudos to both Harvard and the former Harvard law prof Sen. Warren.
her homies also chime in
Harvard faculty, Democrats praise school for rejecting Trump’s ‘dangerous’ demands
Another day, another pile of outrages from krasnov. When will he be irritating the kremlin, American oligarchs, or magat congress? So far he has done everything perfectly for them. Cheer on cheeseburgers and fries.
PatD, how strange you can post a thread on your login but not a comment. I will get to the bottom of it but I am not sure where to start
PatD, can you type a name in when commenting, as I just did here. It’s in the box just below comment box, asks for Name and Email (Optional)
I have isolated the problem to our wpDiscuz commenting platform. If they don’t update their plugin soon to fix this, I’m going to have to find another. But this is the only one I have found that lets us put pictures and video in our comments, and edit our own comments. WordPress doesn’t offer that in its basic comments, so we have to use a third party plugin for those features. Off to search for something else now.
HOUSEKEEPING: Be Patient, I’m going full mad scientist today
Testing out new commenting systems. So bear with me while I click things, break things, and try to fix them again without lighting the server on fire.
Firstly, I am uninstalling the glitchy wpDiscuz commenting platform we’ve been using. While it’s uninstalled, coming in just a few moments — PatD, please try to comment using your login so that i can see whether this was causing your forced anonymous issue.
We are TEMPORARILY in the native WordPress commenting system right now, which means no images or video uploading, or comment editing. This is what commenting looks like without adding a third-party plugin to give us those enhancements. I have lined up three alternatives to test today. We WILL get those features back somehow, I just don’t know how until I find the right platform (and get my money back from the one we were using). This could take all day, so please be patient.
So now Dumbass wants to fire Jerome Powell. Sorry, but the Fed is an independent organization and while the members of the board are appointed by the President there is KO precedent I’m aware of for firing them.
Test
Test
Patd, try updating your profile. I just did
Getting a little nerdy here. I first heard the name John Henry Newman in the book and later film of 84 Charing Cross Road. It was one of those events that sends you down a white rabbit research rabbit hole to learn about the theologian, his life and writings, and the whole of idea of learning for the sake of knowledge.
“The University … has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture; here it may leave its scholars, and it has done its work when it has done as much as this. It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it. … the basis of a belief that education should aim at producing generalists rather than narrow specialists, and that non-vocational subjects—in arts or pure science—could train the mind in ways applicable to a wide range of jobs”
The whole idea of a university is to teach its students to think. It is not there to echo prejudices or to spout lock-step adherences. It is to set them out on a lifetime of learning.
You can read or download the nine lectures at Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24526/24526-pdf.pdf and a broad outline of Newman’s life at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newman.
You will agree and disagree with his stances on education, religion and life. In the end, you will think.
OK I just added the first custom feature, comment editing. Let’s see how this works. The image uploading feature is going to take some more work. Nothing I’ve found is updated to current WordPress settings, might have to build it myself.
Testing editor. It seems to work. There is a two-hour window to edit your comments, with a countdown clock. There is no option for unlimited editing time, or I would choose it.
Free at last! Free at last! thank god ahmighty free at last. Thanks Craig.
and thanks too, Pogo. the second update profile seemed to be the magical key.
What is frustrating with the reporting on what sfb is trying to force on all institutions is white supremacy, white nationalism. The whole anti-DEI thing is to make everything whites only. No talk about anything except whites in power. You could see and hear how he reacted to Black Lives Matter, especially the site on the street across from the WH. We are seeing how he, and S. Miller, are acting now that they are in power. Legal or not, he is going to make anyone who is not white male go back to being subservient.
Oh I am relieved PatD.
BlueBronc, you nailed the Big Picture right onto the wall. We are in the last gasp of White Supremacy in America. I always knew it would be fierce, but wow it’s way more intense — and effective — than I imagined. But it will pass, demographics makes it so.
now to see if I can post images again
https://caglecartoons.com/cartoon/294928
Attribution: Harvard Stands Up to Trump Bullying by Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe, MA
We were great last evening, then it unplugged itself overnight? Weird.
My question is, why is any of us cooperating with the new segregation? Resist it!
OK I have rigged up a custom image attachment feature that might or might not work. I couldn’t find anything pre-made that didn’t have issues. I used the simplest code possible to get the job done without risking accidents.
The browse button and explanations are below the comment box. Trying it now. Here is what my eggs cost today. In the last week of Biden’s presidency I paid $2.39 for the same brand, same store.
Testing: Bunny trail
Looks good Ivy. Was that easy? Any suggestions? I’ve got my lab coat on today, feeling confident I can fix things.
A thought about Harvard and two billion dollars, a few phone calls to their graduates should take care of that in a day or so. They are not the same economic world as those I know who graduated from community college with an AA degree.
testing YouTube url conversion
Test of YouTube url conversion worked, but I did learn something: If you Edit a comment that included a YouTube link the video disappears after you save the edit, only the link remains. Weird.
by the way, i set the size limit for images to the highest our server allows — 100 MG. That should be plenty, even for those massive Apple file hogs
Testing anonymous login with custom name input
testing anonymous posting with no name input
Anonymous posting works, but does require Captcha fulfillment so that should keep out trolls and bots — but we can always toss them overboard if they do show
OK I am done fiddling for now. Let me know if there are any glitches or features you miss, things to do differently. But for now this is our new commenting platform, custom made by ME!
Trying a simple copy paste of one of my favorite paintings by Jack Vettriano: Cocktails and Broken Hearts. Didn’t work
Download and upload seems to have worked. Will know if it prints.
“ In the last week of Biden’s presidency I paid $2.39 for the same brand, same store.”
the Nazis don’t give a shit and never did
Craig,
Merely pasting the image link doesn’t work like it did before. Are there other steps required in the new configuration?
Now, Adolf is threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status. Would/could the IRS do that? Would/could he go after professors and benefactors? Why not take away tax exempt status from churches who actually preach the gospel of Jesus?
Columbia’s reputation is in ruins for bending the knee.
Now, Adolf is demanding the UK ditch LGBTQ+ protections (aka, make hate speech OK) to trade with us. Barclays has happily bent the knee and cut DEI. That won’t end well.
Canada is now selling more oil to China than it ever did to the US. American exceptionalism, eh?
Orange Adolf ruins everything he touches. He was allowed to touch this country a second time, and it’s so much worse.
His propagandists are now saying anyone who speaks up for DUE PROCESS can be deported. Basically, anyone who supports the US Constitution is now on Adolf’s enemies list. Does that include all nine SCOTUS justices?
“ We are in the last gasp of White Supremacy in America. I always knew it would be fierce, but wow it’s way more intense — and effective — than I imagined. But it will pass, demographics makes it so.”
-CC
it’s rather robust gasp, and that’s why they are attempting to physically change the demographics by force and intimidation
i don’t see much resistance
Patd
I had to use download to my computer and then upload as an “choose file” attached image.
if you think Generation Zoom is being instilled with a love for truth, freedom, and justice, i got news for you
goose is cooked
remember when the optimists said Texas would be blue by now? lol
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/kansas-priest-murder-gary-hermesch-trump-b2729522.html
Oklahoma man accused of murdering priest is ‘Trump fan who wants to make church great again’
Gary Hermesch, 66, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the fatal shooting of Father Arul Carasala, 57, found with gunshot wounds outside the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, Kansas, last week.
It has now emerged that years before the attack, Hermesch reportedly penned several letters to the editor of the Seneca-based newspaper The Courier-Tribune in praise of the president.
“Let’s not sweat the small stuff, though, maybe if we just follow Donald Trump’s example we’ll ‘make the Church great again,’” he wrote. “So why are things headed south like a runaway freight train? Simple. The faith is not being taught. Now is that equality and tolerance of other religions, or what?”
In another letter, published the day former President Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, Hermesch reportedly wrote: “So, now in this world of this strange new version of ‘Catholicism’, we get a capitulating weak puppy like Joe Biden.”
Other letters talk about a “strange new version” of Catholicism and that the Vatican is currently “fake” and that it has been infiltrated, according to KSNT.
Carasala became the church’s pastor in 2011, two months after obtaining U.S. citizenship. He was first ordained in 1994 for the Diocese of Cuddapah in southeast India.
IT’S A CULT!
https://www.newsweek.com/mike-lindell-living-off-1000-week-smartmatic-court-mypillow-2060927
Mike Lindell Says He’s Living Off $1000 a Week: ‘I’m in Ruins’
Lindell said that despite his company once having brought in $300 million a year in revenue he was now living off $1,000 a week due to “lawfare” against him, and doesn’t “have $5,000 or five cents.”
He asserted he has “nothing” except for two houses, which are currently being liquidated, and a truck.
*He put is head up Adolf’s backside and lost. But there are folks in this country trying to survive on SS checks for a month, what he spends in a week, and they own zero houses/vehicles…plus, I wonder if he has more tucked away somewhere.
https://www.newsweek.com/finland-russia-military-building-vesa-virtanen-nato-western-military-district-baltic-2060879
NATO member Finland is “very closely” monitoring Russian military activity close to the alliance’s border, the deputy head of Helsinki’s armed forces has said.
Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen, the deputy chief of the Finnish armed forces, said that before 2022, Russia had roughly 20,000 soldiers and four standby brigades stationed close to Finnish territory. A brigade is typically between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers.
“Now we see that Russia is building new infrastructure and bringing more troops to this region as soon as they can,” Virtanen told German newspaper Die Welt. “They are reorganizing themselves.”
anon – The cities are purple and blue in TX, but the rural areas are bright RED, and there’s that pesky electoral college…and whatever “secret” Adolf said they had, and whatever app Elon said he had the knew the vote count before votes were counted.
As the saying goes, You can’t spell HATRED without RED HAT.
ps – The story in Newsweek that I posted yesterday, about TX Libertarians voting to impeach tRUMP, has disappeared from their website. ??? I don’t see anything on TX Tribune, either.
the link you posted still works
it’s a clickbait world, if it don’t drive views to ads, it gets pushed down
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-impeachment-resolution-issued-texas-2060344
new Bernie vid? yes plz!
O Captain my Captain
If Adolf manages to prohibit the right to protest, events like Bernie & AOC are holding may be the work-around. Folks can still gather, and video can still get out to the wider world to give them hope. I love that Bernie is passing the torch to AOC, intertwining the message. He may not be around to see the tree he planted so long ago bear fruit, but he’s still watering it.
Bernie Sanders Taps Neil Young, Maggie Rogers, Joan Baez For LA Rally, Then Introduces Clairo At Coachella
*This was just brilliant, and I can see artists doing this to allow folks a place to gather and protest the state.
Sick at heart this morning. The persecution is real and getting closer.
I can’t even talk about it. It’s that scary.
El Salvador doesn’t have much to lose, but in buddying up to Orange Adolf, it will. Aside from coffee, it manufactures textiles for export to the US. Will find a list to boycott.
you see a detainment, Ivy?
i’ve started turning my video camera on in case i need to record one happening in front of me
There seems to be down on the hawk nest, so that eggshell at the base of the tree was empty when the high winds blew it out.
Felt sorry for the tiny birds trying to nest behind the light sconce by the front door, so I picked up all of the twigs we’ve flicked away this week & built back better for them.
PatD, we have to use Browse button below comment box to upload images from your device. That paste and post option was an attractive feature of the other platform but then it turned you into anonymous somehow. Everything is a trade off.
“We are all afraid,” Murkowski said, taking a long pause. “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
https://www.adn.com/politics/2025/04/14/we-are-all-afraid-speaking-to-alaska-nonprofit-leaders-murkowski-gets-candid-on-upheaval-in-federal-government/
My maternal grandfather “self deported” from Germany and none of the rest of his family ever came. So we always knew there were relatives not far removed who lived through Naziism. It was once inconceivable to me how my own family went through that. Now, sadly, I imagine what they felt. I’m feeling it.
today’s meme…
Fuck you, Mitch McConnell. This comes back to your dereliction of duty.
And take John Roberts with you.
Images working good but still need comment text, not a big deal, we get to editorialize.
“And so Trump has opened up a trapdoor beneath the American legal system. This trapdoor is wide enough to swallow the entire Constitution. So long as he can find at least one foreign strongman to cooperate, Trump can, if he wishes, imprison any dissident, judge, journalist, member of Congress, or candidate for office.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/trump-constitution-abrego-garcia/682487/
Remember when German citizens got notices they would be deported by cattle car back to where their forbears came from?
Since Dodo does everything Jesus did but backwards, maybe he will not rise on Easter morning?
Greece! My forebears came from GREECE!!
Republicans are all afraid, yet Bernie & AOC & Chris Murphy & Cory Booker & Jasmine Crockett and others still do their jobs & go beyond. Saturday, April 19th, there will be protests in every state. It may be the last Adolf allows, so circumventing restrictions may be necessary.
Or Italy .
I’ll settle for Italy.
i was born here and i’ll die here
or in a U.S. taxpayer-funded for-profit prison in El Salvador
Boycott products from El Salvador, although they are making a lot on illegally imprisoning people. Waste & fraud of taxpayer dollars, and abuse of taxpayers.
Do what you can.
HA!
Where do the Heinz 57s go? To England, where I can at least speak the language, or to Denmark, the land of my most recent forebears (over 100 years ago)?
I had hoped to take a genealogy tour in a few years, but folks from the US may not be welcome anywhere else in the world, and (F)Elon may eat all of the funds.
Harvard seems to have a nice group of graduates. Crimson reports big influx of donations. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/18/garber-trump-harvard-donors/
While I appreciate Senator Murkowski’s honesty about fear, I hope it’s not contagious. Remember, you can only be courageous if you feel fear.
Fear is for NON-SENATORS.
Afraid? Get another job.
Now hear this!
Now hear this!
All hands on deck!
Clean sweep down fore and aft.
Sweepers!
Man your brooms!
That is all.
meme #2…
Jesus H., the lawyering from DumbassCo is embarrassing. From WaPo: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/17/supreme-court-trump-birthright-citizenship-ban/)
“Trump and his allies say they have the authority to ban birthright citizenship because unauthorized immigrants are in the country without permanent legal status and, therefore, are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government. ”
Really? first, If they are not “subject to the jurisdiction (of the US)”, the US can’t arrest them for being here illegally. Anyone who is in the US, absent certain diplomats entitled to diplomatic immunity (and there may be others, but undocumented immigrants do not have such immunity) are subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government. Second, the 14th by its clear terms doesn’t exclude the children born here from the jurisdiction of the US. If they are here, they ARE subject to the jurisdiction of the US by virtue of their presence here. Third, “The Supreme Court addressed the meaning of this key provision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco to parents who were both Chinese citizens. At age 21, he took a trip to China to visit his parents. When he returned to the United States, he was denied entry on the grounds that he was not a U.S. citizen. In a 6-2 decision, the Court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark. Because he was born in the United States and his parents were not “employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China,” the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment automatically made him a U.S. citizen.”
https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/14.4-primary-source-united-states-v-wong-kim-ark-1898
Unless SCOTUS reverses that opinion, which has been precedent now for 127 years, DumbassCo loses on this issue.
does anything say fake-Christian like a diamond-encrusted crucifix?
i buy Café Bustelo coffee, will stop immediately
was seriously going to buy some tonight, won’t support El Salvador’s inhuman regime
The bigger the cross, the more grotesque the lie.
the Trump-courts showdown intensifies..
nice. Bluesky links embed just right
Two hours to rethink our positions. I will say, I did enjoy unlimited time to retract my statements.
My current reading material. He wasn’t half-bad compared to this new one.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/apr/17/harvard-tax-exempt-status-trump-irs
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly planning to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status in what would be a probably illegal move amid Donald Trump’s concerted attack on the independence of US institutions of higher education.
It is illegal for the president to direct the IRS to conduct an investigation or audit.
“Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the president, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the president’s TRUTH,” he said, referring to the president’s social media post. – Harrison Fields/WH Spokesman
…
Who knew about this? This is what happens when you cut the whole semester of Dr. Carol Hoffecker’s course in Delaware history at U of D, thinking you could just show up at the end for the exam.
WAY BACK MACHINE: In 1833, the Eastern Shore almost became a part of Delaware. One vote! That’s all that prevented the union.
No one called our peninsula “Delmarva” back in 1833. But lots of people recognized it as a well-defined place unto itself, thanks to a mix of geography and deep-seated cultural qualities. Lots of folks also thought it was kinda strange, how history had left the peninsula broken up into three pieces, each belonging to a different state.
• In February of 1833 both houses of the Delaware state legislature in Dover passed a resolution: “The people of the Eastern Shore and of this state should be united under one government.”
• The Delaware Journal Newspaper pointed out that “the people of the Peninsula assimilate in character and habits, and would readily form one people.” The paper concluded: “Nature intended [the peninsula to be united], but men’s caprice has marred the design and spoiled one of the prettiest states of which our union could have boasted.”
• That movement got a little push back across the border in Maryland, but soon enough folks started coalescing around a logical conclusion: Why not let the people of the Eastern Shore counties decide?
• That March, the Maryland House of Delegates voted to call a “general convention” of Eastern Shoremen to get their opinion on the matter.
• The call for a “general convention” then went to the Maryland Senate, which first asked for input from a specially created subcommittee of three Eastern Shore members. They replied in the blink of an eye–within one short day, actually, all in favor.
• Most folks thought that if such a “general convention” came to pass, Eastern Shoremen would support it by a large margin, choosing to leave Maryland and become part of Delaware.
• But it never happened. When the measure came before a full committee in the Maryland Senate on March 21, 1833., it lost by a single vote, 5 to 4.
• The next year a Caroline County, Md. representative proposed allowing the Eastern Shore to secede by way of referendum, but this time the Maryland House of Delegates voted 60–5 to postpone the measure.
• From there, the proposal disappeared into legislative limbo.
There would be lots more attempts in the decades that followed to create a state of Delmarva, but never again would it get as close to reality as it did in 1833.
POSTSCRIPT #1: What about Virginia?
According to the historian Kirk Mariner in his book, “True Tales of the Eastern Shore,” the two Virginia counties were never an issue in 1833. It seems the folks down there preferred being a part of the Old Dominion and weren’t much interested in uniting with the rest of Delmarva.
Thought this might interest you, BID.
How to Call Congress—When the Phone Isn’t an Option
Proxy calling gives some disabled people a better way to flood Capitol Hill phone lines.
IMG_2419
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/04/17/economic-blackout-2-0-boycott-peoples-union/83142985007/
Economic Blackout 2.0 boycott to take place this weekend
An activist group that says it seeks to hold corporations accountable is organizing a three-day, nationwide “economic blackout” from Good Friday through Easter that calls on consumers to boycott “big box” retailers.
Instead, People’s Union USA is urging you to buy from local retailers.
There’s an ongoing “40-day fast” of Target, spearheaded by Black faith leaders, and consumers have also been taking part in a targeted weeklong boycott of Walmart, which concludes April 17, Gannett news outlets have reported.
The People’s Union, which has a list of companies that it is critical of, including Chevron, Nike, Starbucks, Google, Microsoft and Meta, formerly Facebook, said it also plans upcoming boycotts targeting General Mills, Amazon, Walmart, Target and McDonald’s.
Bald eagle out my window!
This is not my picture, mine was too fast to catch. They’re always exciting to see.
You have to fire the probies before the 90th day. After that, it has to be with cause. We have two days to get rid of him.
Trying out the image upload
Still have to enter a comment
Senator Chris Van Hollen
@ChrisVanHollen
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.
Yep, that comment requirement puzzles me. Can’t find the code causing that
nice job Senator Van Hollen 🫡
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doctor-homeland-security-leave_n_6801125ee4b0f92ccce15217
U.S. Doctor Gets Email From Immigration Officials: ‘It Is Time For You To Leave’
Lisa Anderson, a U.S.-born physician from Connecticut, said she received an email from the Department of Homeland Security telling her to leave the country.
Anderson, who was born in Pennsylvania, said she has “no idea” how she ended up on the department’s radar.
The Senator also confirmed with the US Embassy that they had NOT been told to facilitate Mr. Garcia’s release by anyone in the tRUMP administration, although SCOTUS vote unanimously that they do so.
That’s leadership. More, please.
NEW THREAD