User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Perp Walk to Perdition
Attribution: Cuffed Liberty by Bill Day, FloridaPolitics.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
75 thoughts on “Perp Walk to Perdition”
FYI from Webster
Perdition began life as a word meaning “utter destruction”; that sense is now archaic, but it provides a clue about the origins of the word. “Perdition” was borrowed into English in the 14th century from Anglo-French perdiciun and ultimately derives from the Latin verb perdere, meaning “to destroy.”
Attribution: Troops deployed to US cities by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com
Oct 8, 2025
“They Think It’s Cool To Be Cruel” is a hard-hitting hip hop protest song that calls out the Trump administration, MAGA extremists, and the billionaires who profit from America’s pain. With razor-sharp lyrics and gospel undertones, this track exposes the cold-hearted policies of Trump, Stephen Miller, and Russell Vought—their attacks on immigrants, healthcare, women, and LGBTQ rights—and the moral decay behind the façade of power. It’s a bold anthem for listeners who refuse to stay silent while authoritarianism rises and cruelty gets glorified. Perfect for anyone who believes empathy, justice, and truth are the real measures of greatness.
“I’m loving the inflatable frog & unicorn costumes in Portland, and I hope karma catches up with the government goon who pepper sprayed the frog’s air hole.”
BiD, here’s more on the infallible, inflatable frog
Really American host Steve Harness breaks down a Portland man becomes an icon of ICE protests as his inflatable frog costume has made him a target and hero!
It’s long been obvious that Trump’s “Humor” was cruel or meanly insulting. Now that he has power, it has grown to sociopathic levels of inflicting pain just because he can.
It didn’t help that while the news was talking about firing people in “Democratic” jobs, I was reading about early fur traders clubbing sea otter mothers and pups for their pelts. Just a little too synchronistic for happy dreaming later.
Yep, cruelty and chaos is the point
Actual layoffs reported here. Still no official details.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg
@SherylNYT
FULL STORY HERE: Layoff emails began flooding dozens of CDC inboxes late Friday night. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those affected.
Democrats railed against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday after he cancelled yet another week of House votes amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Why it matters: The move comes just as the shutdown is ratcheting up in severity, with the Trump administration announcing layoffs and military service members set to miss their first paycheck on Oct. 15.
Johnson said earlier this week that there would be no standalone vote on paying the troops, saying the House has already done its work by passing a stopgap spending bill last month that includes troop pay.
“Hakeem Jeffries and the House Democrats … are clamoring to get back here and have another vote, because some of them want to get on record and say they’re for paying the troops. We already had that vote,” he said.
Driving the news: Johnson announced Friday in a notice to the House Clerk that votes planned between next Tuesday and Friday are being cancelled.
That means the House will not return to session until Oct. 20 at the earliest.
Johnson has said the House will only come back once the Senate passes House Republicans’ spending bill.
What they’re saying: “Republicans in the House have decided to remain on vacation,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Friday.
“They canceled votes last week, they canceled votes this week and now they’ve canceled votes next week. They’re not serious about reopening the government,” he said.
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) said in a statement” “Showing up for work and helping constituents is not for ‘show,’ as Mike Johnson likes to say.”
“The government is shutdown and Johnson wants his members on vacation. It’s disgraceful,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
“It would be one thing if they were talking to people back home,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told Axios. “But they said they’ll do town halls when hell freezes over. Who’s writing their talking points — Marie Antoinette?”
The latest: Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.) tried unsuccessfully during a brief pro forma session on Friday to pass House Democrats’ bill to ensure troop pay during the shutdown.
Elfreth sought to be recognized to pass the bill by unanimous consent, but Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) ignored her and gaveled the House out of session.
“I’m here, I know a number of my colleagues are here, ready and willing to take that up if we can’t reach a bipartisan deal on the budget. So that’s what I tried to do,” she told reporters afterwards.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), in a post on X, also proposed a change to House rules requiring the chamber to remain in session as long as there is a government shutdown.
Zoom in: Members of Congress from near Washington, D.C., who represent huge swaths of the federal workforce, are particularly perturbed.
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), in a letter to Johnson, wrote that she is “extremely concerned” he cancelled votes next week, citing “very real consequences for working families in my state of Delaware, your state of Louisiana, and across the country.”
“Speaker Johnson’s decision hurts the thousands of military servicemembers, contractors, and federal workers in my district who continue to show up to work while they aren’t paid,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.).
Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) said in a statement: “Servicemembers and federal employees face missed paychecks while families face skyrocketing health care premiums — and Speaker Johnson just canceled votes again … They should be ashamed.”
What to watch: Jeffries, on a virtual caucus call, told his members to return to Washington next week after largely letting them remain in their districts this past week, according to several sources on the call.
House Democrats are scheduled to have an in-person caucus meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday evening, the leader said, with events on Capitol Hill the following day.
Jeffries also highlighted polling that shows Republicans getting blamed for the shutdown, sources said — a sign that Democrats are nowhere near budging.
“Everyone knows Democrats are taking a principled stand here,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told Axios. “Johnson is afraid that his members will turn on him if they come back to town.”
Trump’s America: a TV journalist covering an ICE raid gets tackled and cuffed — without a single charge.
🎤 Watch the full clip plus our HOT MIC playlist →
“They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for Oct. 18 on the National Mall. It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the ANTIFA people. They’re all coming out. Some of the House Democrats are selling T-shirts for the event, and it’s being told to us that they won’t be able to open the government until after that rally because they can’t face their rabid base.”
Luigi Mangione’s lawyers asked a New York federal judge to dismiss some criminal charges, including the only count for which he could face the death penalty, from a federal indictment brought against him in the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.
In papers filed Saturday in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers said prosecutors should also be prevented from using at trial his statements to law enforcement officers and his backpack where a gun and ammunition were found.
They said Mangione was not read his rights before he was questioned by law enforcement officers, who arrested him after Brian Thompson was fatally shot as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Snopes report on a massively shared video of ICE Agents behaving badly. Final conclusion mixed true/false on several details. Well worth reading on why it pays to check the details. Even the big guys can get caught on videos making the rounds.
Agencies should then submit a Phase 2 ARRP to OMB and OPM for review and approval no later than April 14, 2025. Phase 2 plans shall outline a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations going forward. Phase 2 plans should be planned for implementation by September 30, 2025. The Phase 2 plan should include the following additional information:
1. The agency’s proposed future-state organizational chart with its functional areas. consolidated management hierarchy, and position titles and counts clearly depicted.
2. Confirmation that the ageney has reviewed all personnel data, including each employee’s official position description, four most recent performance ratings of record, retention service computation date, and veterans’ preference status.
Legislation that President Trump signed in January 2019, which ended a record 35-day government shutdown, guaranteed back pay to these employees once any shutdown ends.
A copy of the notice, shared with Federal News Network, states “an earlier memo circulated on furlough guidance incorrectly stated the nature of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, as it relates to compensation for non-pay and non-duty status.”
An IRS employee told Federal News Network that earlier guidance emailed to employees on Wednesday was automatically deleted from their inboxes by Thursday.
By Ayman Mohyeldin, MSNBC Columnist
Democrats’ latest wager seems to be paying off as they continue to hold firm in a government shutdown as a deliberate act of resistance.
So far, the sticking point for those leading the charge has been our ailing health care system, as Democrats push back against the Trump administration in an effort to maintain pre-existing condition protections, expand Medicare, lower drug costs and stop premiums from shooting up. But at its core, this is and always has been a bigger fight — a refusal to bankroll President Donald Trump’s abuse of power. … More on link
today’s meme…
meme #2…
HA!
MTG: GOP LOSING SHUTDOWN
Marjorie Taylor Greene says it out loud: the shutdown hurts Republicans — and ignoring the health insurance crisis could sink them in the midterms.
Dominion Voting Systems, one of the nation’s largest election technology companies, has been acquired by St. Louis-based Liberty Vote.
Liberty Vote was founded by Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican elections director for St. Louis. He also founded KNOWiNK, which describes itself as the largest provider of electronic poll book technology in the United States, used in dozens of states.
Liberty Vote signals a new chapter for American elections—one where trust is rebuilt from the ground up,” Leiendecker said. “Liberty Vote is committed to delivering election technology that prioritizes paper-based transparency, security, and simplicity so that voters can be assured that every ballot is filled-in accurately and fairly counted.”
The acquisition marks a significant development in the U.S. election technology industry, bringing together two major players that would provide key infrastructure for voting and voter verification systems across dozens of states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Dominion spent years fending off claims from President Trump and his allies, who alleged that the company’s machines were manipulated to favor Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
The fallout from those claims led to a series of high-profile defamation lawsuits. In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle Dominion’s suit, while Newsmax settled for $67 million.
Dominion also filed separate cases against Trump allies, including a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, which ended in September with an undisclosed settlement. Giuliani was a leading figure in the effort to overturn Mr. Trump’s defeat. The terms of the settlement were not made public.
A mapmaker hired by Texas Republicans to design a functionally racist gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts testified in federal court Wednesday on the role that Trump administration officials played in his assignment.
Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, testified over two days this week as part of a legal challenge on behalf of Texas voters by civil rights groups that allege the new maps are illegal because they blatantly dilute the power of nonwhite voters, particularly Black voters.
The Republican National Committee paid Kincaid $2,500 per month to work on the redistricting map. The payments started the day Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special session to take up redistricting, Kincaid testified.
***
The testimony from Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, included the following information:
Kincaid had numerous contacts with the White House and DOJ over the redistricting effort – including sending messages on Signal that were set to automatically delete.
Kincaid viewed a draft of a letter sent to Texas by DOJ officials, urging them to redistrict because of concerns about race-based districts in the state’s existing map.
Kincaid was hired by the RNC to draw the map.
Kincaid entirely ignored the input of ordinary Texans, provided at public hearings held over the summer
— instead taking input only from the White House and Texas’ GOP congressional delegation.
Jamie
That video clip was what happens when citizen journalist get in on the reporting. The event occurred and was real, the woman filming it got some of the basic facts wrong. But even more important is the ICE spokes person’s statement. The woman was not arrested because she was a targeted undocumented person but because she had done or said something that irritated the Ice agents.
We are seeing brazen examples of the worst kind of police officers in many of these ICE detentions. What is becoming obvious is that ICE has extremely low hiring standards and training. They are the bumbling wannabe, who couldn’t get hired by a real police department and if not for ICE would be working a low wage private security job. Although most private security has better standards.
These are the same little pricks that get jobs as small town night watchmen or rural county deputies. We used to tag them with the name “Deputy Dog” after a childrens cartoon
Jack
WA is one of the few states that uses vote by mail for all elections. this is how those votes are made and counted. Repeated investigations have found few attempts to defraud.
At PBR league events, bullfighters are branded with slick jerseys declaring the event “Protected by US Border Patrol.” Pickup men—mounted riders who corral the bull once it’s thrown its rider—sport Border Patrol ads on their shirts and leather chaps. At some events, the Border Patrol makes a dramatic entrance, rappelling from the rafters into the arena as the national anthem plays. Often, a recruiting booth is positioned outside the event, with pencils and drink koozies, ready to “target specific applicants who fit Border Patrol’s applicant profile,” according to a 2024 CBP hiring report.
“I think they target rodeos because they are looking for young men with a high probability of being masculine and patriotic,” one vender says.
*Lost and toxic are the job requirements. Lost and toxic.
With the first wave of firings to test Democratic resolve I’d like to crank up a chatroom discussion today on the shutdown. So far, Senate Democrats are holding firm (just takes 5 to cave). RR, your Jeanne Shaheen is one to watch — she’s in talks with GOP on a compromise. Premise: Democrats are winning the shutdown.
On top of $46.5 billion for border wall construction, the OBBB delivered $74.9 billion to ICE—double its entire budget under Joe Biden and more than the annual military spending of all but eight countries. Of that, $45 billion will go to establishing new detention centers, including 50 by year’s end, some of them tent camps in the style of the notorious Alligator Alcatraz. Nearly $30 billion will go to enforcement and deportation, which will enable ICE to go on an unprecedented hiring spree. And that, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) noted, “is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play.”
Not only has ICE’s budget skyrocketed past those of other federal law enforcement agencies, but the money is increasingly being handed out to contractors without first collecting competing bids.
When the Trump administration awarded a $1.26 billion contract this summer to build and operate a new tent city detention center in Texas, it made headlines, and not just because the facility, located at the Fort Bliss Army base, was expected to be the biggest of its kind in the country.
The company that won the job, Acquisition Logistics, was so small it operated out of a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. Almost nobody had heard of it. “A random house…just won $1.26 billion from ICE,” wrote the New Republic.
Stranger still was the fact that the Navy, rather than ICE, awarded the contract. “It’s weird,” says Charles Tiefer, a professor emeritus of government contracting at the University of Baltimore law school. The administration has already tapped the Pentagon in unusual ways, including sending troops to help immigration officers along the Mexico border. And Fort Bliss has held incarcerated people in the past—most notably Japanese Americans during World War II. But why was the Navy awarding a contract for a facility on an Army base? “It seems messy,” says Claire Trickler-McNulty, an ICE official in the Biden and first Trump administrations.
BiD
They call that a contracting vehicle, an existing contract that has funding attached to it. But yeah, it is rather odd/illegal to move funding from one department to a separate department.
In this case from DOD to DHS. Two different and entirely separate bureaucracies.
Jack
So is “messy” the new polite way to say “breaking the f*cking law”?
Jack
Gotta love it!!
This is the company that won a billion dollar contract referenced in BiD’s post above
Acquisition Logistics LLC, doing business as Acquisition Logistics Company, is a minority-owned, veteran-owned, and self-certified small disadvantaged business
odds are this is a one man shop taking advantage federal contracting DEI provisions to operate as what they call a “pass through”. He will take a small cut and the subcontractor will get all the work. He is basically selling his DEI status.
Acquisition Logistics LLC, doing business as Acquisition Logistics Company, is a minority-owned, veteran-owned, and self-certified small disadvantaged business
Here is more,
Acquisition Logistics LLC holds two primary federal contract indefinite delivery vehicles (IDVs): a Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract 2.0 (WEXMAC 2.0) with Naval Supply Systems Command and a Federal Supply Schedule contract with the Federal Acquisition Service. The WEXMAC 2.0 contract is a multiple award IDC with a total potential value of $450 million, designed to support humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, contingency operations, and global logistics requirements. The Federal Supply Schedule contract, valued at $17 million, enables the company to provide professional services and IT labor support across over 50 labor categories to federal civilian agencies through June 2026. These IDVs position Acquisition Logistics LLC to provide flexible, comprehensive support across defense and civilian government sectors
For serious search like this, I have been using duck duck go. It blocks tracking and gives reasonable privacy for your search. It probably won’t protect you from a DHS probe but what will. Also, it is what google used to be.
Jack
“The time is here, forget Amazon,” Young wrote. “It is easy to buy local. Support your community. Go to the local store. Don’t go back to the big corporations who have sold out America. We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering. They need you to buy from them. Don’t.”
Young remains among the most staunch critics of Donald Trump and his administration, particularly during Trump’s second term, coming to Bruce Springsteen’s defense amid the president’s feud with the rock star, playing a concert for Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy tour and releasing a new protest song aimed at Trump back in August.
“They shut down our government,” Young wrote this week, referring to the ongoing shutdown that began last week. “Your income. Your safety. Your family’s health security. Take America Back together, stop buying from the big corporations, support local business. Do the right thing. Show who you are.”
Yeah, I stopped using Google when they licked the boot & changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
To Neil Young
Hey, grandpa, there is no local music that involves you. At your level if you don’t stream you don’t exist. I’m sure Amazon won’t miss you, even if you really own your music.
Or is it all about the words.
Jack,
struggling to remember the last time he listened to Youngs high pitched whine try to sing. Like fingernails on a chalkboard.
BiD
Forget their politics, just the quality of their search. I still use the map function for trip planning but that is it.
Jack
I love that Neil is still the protest rocker he always was
Good for him, I appreciate it 🫡
Gooseberry was a workin’ man, he used to drive that Econoline
van
Hm, i thought “Epstein Shutdown” would catch on because not only is it accurate, it’s fair play with what Trumpco is using official government communication channels for
It’s like they say: you can lead an ideologically sympathetic liberal to an effective message, but you can’t make said liberal adopt the effective message
Or something like that, maybe there’s a horse involved, I don’t know
🎬 LIVE 3:30 PM ET — SHUTDOWN SCORECARD
💬 Join the live chat:
Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is colliding with real pink slips — and the firings have begun.
Who’s getting burned, who’s bluffing, and which five Democrats can actually stop it?
We’ll walk through the Scorecard, the spin, and the surprise ally no one saw coming.
📺 Watch on YouTube →
Friday night massacre was sfb deleting the DC branch of CDC, 1100 to 1500 personnel. There is a reason to keep worm brain around, his ineptitude covers for the venality of mangomoron. My guess is the Second Annual Prez Physical did not go well and sfb gets feeling better hurting a lot of people on a Friday afternoon.
WashPoo is now doing the lead work of 2025 for taking on the military and VA. Big article about the mess that is the VA disability system. It was written like all disabled vets do is game the system. As with anything there are some who will, just like in Congress, and the vast majority do not.
Not covered but soon will be is the closing of the commissaries, the grocery stores on base. There is a slight savings, enough to be worth shopping there for most items. It used to be a large savings, but the gop passed some legislation to keep it small so that military and families would shop in the community. Not every base, port or fort is near civilization, and some are in very high cost areas like D.C.
My son does the large supply shopping at the JBLM commissary and I do the day to day fill in incidentals. If JBLM shuts down that will be a major inconvenience for all of the military on base as well as the veterans who live here in Pierce county. Also an income decrease as many of the military spouses work at the stores, food & entertainment sites on the installation.
Roll Tide 🏈
Jamie – so true. But 2025 has not been stopped yet. For a few of us shopping on base is an important part of our lives. Due to things, PTSD is a part of it, being in a place where I trust the people around me lets me enjoy a few minutes shopping. There are others like me, various reasons, prefer shopping on base.
“It is easy to buy local. Support your community. Go to the local store. Don’t go back to the big corporations who have sold out America. We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering. They need you to buy from them. Don’t.”
Young wasn’t just talking about music streaming, he’s talking about starving the beast. It will be harder for some, since local for me is antique stores, farm supply, and WalMart (which I manage to avoid because we still have a small grocery store). As dollars get squeezed, I think boycotting Christmas (or gifting homemade foods and knitted things or acts of service) will be a necessity.
It’s the “Epstein Shutdown” and tRUMP’s War on Christmas.
😊
you are out of touch with families with school-aged children, BiD, and also not wrong
they are very drunk on late-stage capitalism, don’t want to be regarded as “bad parents”, but that phenomenon is possibly our economy’s greatest driver
may just be inherently unsalvageable 😒
like, you grew up without plumbing, kids these days haven’t grown up without an unrefrigerated drink at all times… I love how you’re thinking, but the messaging needs to be adapted
Paychecks for troops: Trump said today that “we have identified funds” to pay troops next week. It had seemed almost certain that military members wouldn’t get their next paychecks, which were scheduled to go out Wednesday.
*Welp, I made my calls shaming Republicans for the videos of troops in line at food pantries. Can’t be good for morale, especially if you intend to misuse them as your personal army. Also, shamed them for the shutdown (will call it the “Epstein Shutdown” on future calls) & for allowing a Qatari military base to be built on US soil…and told one to, “find your conscience, man.”
I’m totally on a list.
I have read a lot about the Philippines under the Marcos regime. You’d just as well fight back now; they may do their worst to you even if you don’t.
The No Kings protesters might copy our folks here in Tacoma. They are staging several family oriented activities while taking over a major park. It wouldn’t look good on film to bomb children.
here’s another example, just for conversation:
I was lucky to get an inexpensive baseball glove as a child and I am not complaining and I valued my baseball glove highly. I never owned a baseball bat and didn’t need to because the team had them.
When a young teenager gets involved in a sport like baseball now, it implies thousands upon thousands of dollars in equipment and travel expenses and training and time commitments. It’s fucking insane (kids can’t just enjoy sports anymore, It’s all about “resumé building”, which means you have to give your kid the edge, hooray unsustainable consumptive loop)
That’s just one example of the kind of consumption having kids in this society mandates
Participation trophies and toys in every “happy” meal really messed with kids, too.
You should see how much it costs for dance classes, costumes, and competitions. Friends and family have spent so much and it’s a lot of moms pushing for what they missed out on. It’s a racket that thrives on dysfunction.
Piqued my interest as two days of our summer SoDo-vacation was spent at the Crazy Horse monument.
This from the NYT article of particular note:
Days before the hike, the plight of the Lakota was in the news because of an announcement made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In a video post, Mr. Hegseth said that the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers who carried out the 1890 killings of more than 300 Native Americans, including unarmed women and children, near the Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation would not be revoked… In his Sept. 25 video, Mr. Hegseth said the soldiers “will keep their medals,” adding that they “deserved those medals.”
The “great whites way.” Never back down, never apologize.
Way to go, Kegster.
“Preliminary estimates from the CDC show that from Oct. 1, 2024, through June 7, 2025, there were between 270,000 and 440,000 hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the U.S. and between 32,000 and 51,000 deaths. The majority of adults hospitalized last year for COVID had not received the latest vaccine.” -AARP
*There must be some cognitive dissonance in MAGAtLand with dear leader getting jabbed yesterday vs all of the scaremongering from the him, RFKJ, and others on the far right.
Between vax, and tariffs killing crop exports, rising prices that were never brought down when he said only he could do it, allowing a Qatari AFB on US soil, bailing out Argentina instead of “America first,” cutting subsidies and services so billionaires can have permanent tax cuts…I mean, they should understand that they believed lies because they were fearful/hateful of others by now, right?
Gettin’ so anymore that most people’s bucket lists is simply trying to not kick the bucket.
Who’s actually winning the shutdown?
Craig, Jack & Jamie dig into how the politics, polling, and spin are playing out — and why Trump might be shooting his own foot.
🎥 Watch the replay + more in our SHUTDOWN WATCH series →
The music of our time was all made in the fifties. If someone was actually making music during the fifties then that someone is at the pinnacle, the apex….the zenith and acme of The Musics.
Next comes all those people who actually LISTENED to the music during the fifties and then went on in the sixties trying to replay what they’d heard in the fifties. All of them, from Dylan to the Beatles to all the rest of the players.
Rock and Roll was the fifties. Everyone else who didn’t begin making music until the sixties is but an imitator of an ideal. But it was much wider than just rock and roll, there was blues, Hank Liberace, “So Rare”
Lawrence Welk Spike Jones’s Desi Arnaz Patti Page Theresa Brewer
Suggested by an article in the January 13 , 1994 issue of The New England Journal of Half-Baked Ideas.
Republican Arizona lawmaker makes post calling for execution of Democratic congresswoman
An Arizona Republican state representative who has expressed support for January 6 insurrectionists on Wednesday called for a Democratic congresswoman to be executed, as a response to a video clip.
The comment on X by state representative John Gillette of Kingman, Arizona, first reported by the Arizona Mirror, was a reaction to a short clip drawn from a YouTube video in March by US representative Pramila Jayapal, a longtime Democratic congresswoman representing Washington state, entitled “The Resistance Lab.” In the video, Jayapal discusses preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.
“Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue,” he posted.
Nothing in either the clip or the longer video actually suggests Jayapal is advocating for the overthrow of the US government. The video carries explicit calls for non-violent protest and discussed with alarm a rise in political violence in the US.
*The demented haters are emboldened and un-American.
“ The music of our time was all made in the fifties”
yeah that’s why i try to stay open-minded for the new stuff, it’s rather post-rock
An employee of WGN-TV was released without charges after she was arrested by ICE agents on Friday in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Debbie Brockman apparently saw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining a man and somehow got involved.
ICE said Brockman threw objects at a Border Patrol car, so she was arrested for assaulting a federal law enforcement officer. Some witness accounts said she did nothing ahead of her arrest.
Several people recorded ICE agents arresting Brockman.
In a statement Friday evening, WGN-TV said Brockman had been released without charges.
“Out of respect for her privacy, we will have no further statements about this incident,” WGN said.
*She did nothing wrong. Folks recorded her violent takedown. ICE v Border Patrol?
I hope she sues. WGN has no comment because they are afraid and Brockman might be afraid that one of tRUMP’s government goons will come after her.
Trump said the new tariff would go into effect on Nov. 1, adding that his administration will also impose its own export controls on “any and all critical software,” effective the same date.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” Trump said in an Oct. 10 post on Truth Social.
The 100% tariff would add to 30% duties the United States is currently imposing on goods from China, meaning Chinese imports would have a total tariff rate of 130%.
*Somebody made out like a bandit by knowing he was going to do that.
Trump’s new 100% tariffs on China triggered an $18 billion crypto sell-off
Digital currencies bitcoin, ether and solana were among the most affected cryptocurrencies, bringing total liquidations to $18.28 billion as of 3:47 p.m. ET, according to data analysis platform CoinGlass. The losses for cryptocurrencies come amid a broad sell-off, as the Nasdaq and S&P 500 on Friday saw their steepest declines in six months.
In the past 24 hours, roughly $5 billion of bitcoin has been liquidated, along with about $4 billion of ether and about $2 billion of solana, according to CoinGlass.
It’s the “largest liquidation event in crypto history,” CoinGlass said in a post on X.
Bitcoin is down almost 10% in the last five days and was trading at $111.616.20 as of 3:45 p.m. ET, a jump from when it dropped to $103,000 at 5:15 p.m. ET on Friday.
On Friday, ether was priced at $4,365.63 and then sunk to $3,742.88 — a 14.2% decline.
Solana was priced at $223.10 on Friday and has fallen to $178.72, as of 3:45 p.m. ET — a nearly 20% plunge.
Crypto has made major gains since Trump took office this year, in large part because of the president’s turnaround from dismissing bitcoin as “based on thin air” to addressing crypto fans at conventions, launching his own meme coin and promising a strategic crypto reserve.
And so, there is risk in that sense, that you might put a lot of money into Bitcoin, and then the price goes down and you lose a considerable portion of your original investment.
But there are also risks in the crypto worlds that people are maybe not as used to from more traditional institutions, where you can actually lose all of your crypto assets, they can be stolen from you, or companies can go under and your assets may not be returned to you ever, or if they are returned, it can be much, much later or in a different form, and those risks, I think, are still fairly significant, even as companies try to present themselves as more legitimate versions of exchanges, like FTX.
What kind of influence is crypto having on the upcoming midterms?
Well, we saw an incredible degree of crypto spending in the 2024 elections, and I think we are poised to see that again in 2026. The cryptocurrency Super PACs have already raised a significant amount of money, rivaling what they raised in 2024, and they’re continuing to accumulate funds to spend in the midterms. There’s already been some spending happening in special elections and other races that have happened a little bit earlier, and I think we will continue to see that even more so into the midterms as the crypto industry continues to exert influence.
The strategy last time was essentially to show force against candidates who might be skeptical of cryptocurrency or even just unwilling to sign on to the crypto industry agenda and essentially threaten them and say, “We will spend you out of office. We will support your opponents, and we will make sure that they are elected rather than you, unless get on board with our agenda.” And so, some people decided to acquiesce, they embraced cryptocurrency. Others were indeed up against huge spending, where their opponents were backed by the crypto industry because the industry didn’t want to see a skeptic or someone who is more focused on consumer protection put into office. So I think we’re going to see that pattern again, where candidates are being strong armed into at least going along with the crypto industry’s agenda, if not outwardly embracing it, in hopes of earning potentially millions and millions of dollars in campaign support.
*RIP Diane Keaton.
Your take is dead-on, Sturge, and the influence of the Beatles is slightly overstated
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) hammered Republicans for not supporting the release of files related to late billionaire and child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Greene joined comedian Tim Dillon on his Tim Dillon Show podcast on Saturday where he denied being a “traitor” to the president by breaking with many other MAGA voices by demanding more Epstein documents be released.
Greene said she’s “really upset” with the direction of Congress, accusing Republicans of not addressing Epstein or the high “cost of living,” including home loans and health insurance.
“I was thinking about it this morning, I was like, you know, I’ve been in Washington all week, I’ve been at my office, and I’ve been at the Capitol, and there’s two things I couldn’t find this week,” she said. “I couldn’t find anywhere the Epstein Files, and I also couldn’t find the Republican plan to fix the absolutely destroyed health insurance industry that got wiped out in 2015 with Obamacare. Those are the two things I can’t find!”
Greene predicted at one point that much of the information related to Epstein has been “destroyed” behind the scenes.
*What’s really telling, and I’ve heard a couple of tRUMPstein’s victims say this as they tell their stories, mTg said she was not suicidal. The need to say that to try to deter someone from offing you or to make sure there’s an investigation if something happens to you just shows what a thug Orange Adolf is, as are those who surround him.
I also see that the imaging done on Orange Adolf yesterday for his physical included imaging that would be consistent with a follow-up for a stroke. We all saw his droopy mouth, and he was MIA for about a week in September, and Melania is now talking to Putin, apparently, and he looked like hell when he was talking to the Generals. It surprised me that he was cleared to take a flight to the Middle East, because a long flight with circulation issues is just asking for trouble. A acquaintance’s mom died from DVT on the way from India to the US.
Anyway, mTg is definitely gunning for the speakership IF they ever gavel in, again. She voted for the ACA cuts in the bill, right? So, taking what she says with a grain of salt because she’s also running for a Senate seat. However, she does understand the MAGAt mind, and she knows what Stephen Miller and the Heritage N&zis are doing is not going well. Only sadistic J6ers and the J6 adjacent are still on board. Oh, and the greedy billionaires.
@realDonaldTrump
THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT
Oct 12, 2025 at 12:38 AM
*Biden wasn’t POTUS on January 6th. Either Adolf’s brain is mush or this is a distraction from the Epstein files/Epstein shutdown…but both things could be true.
FYI from Webster
Attribution: Troops deployed to US cities by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com
Oct 8, 2025
“They Think It’s Cool To Be Cruel” is a hard-hitting hip hop protest song that calls out the Trump administration, MAGA extremists, and the billionaires who profit from America’s pain. With razor-sharp lyrics and gospel undertones, this track exposes the cold-hearted policies of Trump, Stephen Miller, and Russell Vought—their attacks on immigrants, healthcare, women, and LGBTQ rights—and the moral decay behind the façade of power. It’s a bold anthem for listeners who refuse to stay silent while authoritarianism rises and cruelty gets glorified. Perfect for anyone who believes empathy, justice, and truth are the real measures of greatness.
“I’m loving the inflatable frog & unicorn costumes in Portland, and I hope karma catches up with the government goon who pepper sprayed the frog’s air hole.”
BiD, here’s more on the infallible, inflatable frog
Really American host Steve Harness breaks down a Portland man becomes an icon of ICE protests as his inflatable frog costume has made him a target and hero!
It’s long been obvious that Trump’s “Humor” was cruel or meanly insulting. Now that he has power, it has grown to sociopathic levels of inflicting pain just because he can.
It didn’t help that while the news was talking about firing people in “Democratic” jobs, I was reading about early fur traders clubbing sea otter mothers and pups for their pelts. Just a little too synchronistic for happy dreaming later.
Yep, cruelty and chaos is the point
Actual layoffs reported here. Still no official details.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/us/politics/trump-administration-cdc-layoffs.html
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democrats-fume-as-mike-johnson-cancels-more-house-votes-they-should-be-ashamed/
Trump’s America: a TV journalist covering an ICE raid gets tackled and cuffed — without a single charge.
🎤 Watch the full clip plus our HOT MIC playlist →
This should help build a crowd next Saturday.
Speaker Johnson (to FOX News):
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/mangione-lawyers-seek-dismissal-unitedhealthcare-ceo-murder/
Luigi Mangione’s lawyers asked a New York federal judge to dismiss some criminal charges, including the only count for which he could face the death penalty, from a federal indictment brought against him in the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.
In papers filed Saturday in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers said prosecutors should also be prevented from using at trial his statements to law enforcement officers and his backpack where a gun and ammunition were found.
They said Mangione was not read his rights before he was questioned by law enforcement officers, who arrested him after Brian Thompson was fatally shot as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Snopes report on a massively shared video of ICE Agents behaving badly. Final conclusion mixed true/false on several details. Well worth reading on why it pays to check the details. Even the big guys can get caught on videos making the rounds.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/10/10/video-ice-parents-school-chicago/?utm_source=mail.snopes.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=haitian-male-prostitutes-shutdown-claim-plenary-authority-quote-vince-gill&_bhlid=93d6b418607c589d905715fbb28a0d8d748254a8
V. Phase 2 ARRPs
Agencies should then submit a Phase 2 ARRP to OMB and OPM for review and approval no later than April 14, 2025. Phase 2 plans shall outline a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations going forward. Phase 2 plans should be planned for implementation by September 30, 2025. The Phase 2 plan should include the following additional information:
1. The agency’s proposed future-state organizational chart with its functional areas. consolidated management hierarchy, and position titles and counts clearly depicted.
2. Confirmation that the ageney has reviewed all personnel data, including each employee’s official position description, four most recent performance ratings of record, retention service computation date, and veterans’ preference status.
Legislation that President Trump signed in January 2019, which ended a record 35-day government shutdown, guaranteed back pay to these employees once any shutdown ends.
A copy of the notice, shared with Federal News Network, states “an earlier memo circulated on furlough guidance incorrectly stated the nature of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, as it relates to compensation for non-pay and non-duty status.”
An IRS employee told Federal News Network that earlier guidance emailed to employees on Wednesday was automatically deleted from their inboxes by Thursday.
Right above the fire alerts
Democrats can’t risk losing this opportunity
Now that Democrats have gained some traction during the governmental shutdown, they must bring into sharp focus the true challenge of this moment.
By Ayman Mohyeldin, MSNBC Columnist
Democrats’ latest wager seems to be paying off as they continue to hold firm in a government shutdown as a deliberate act of resistance.
So far, the sticking point for those leading the charge has been our ailing health care system, as Democrats push back against the Trump administration in an effort to maintain pre-existing condition protections, expand Medicare, lower drug costs and stop premiums from shooting up. But at its core, this is and always has been a bigger fight — a refusal to bankroll President Donald Trump’s abuse of power. … More on link
today’s meme…
meme #2…
HA!
MTG: GOP LOSING SHUTDOWN
Marjorie Taylor Greene says it out loud: the shutdown hurts Republicans — and ignoring the health insurance crisis could sink them in the midterms.
▶ Watch the full Shutdown Watch playlist:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dominion-voting-systems-acquired-by-liberty-vote/
Dominion Voting Systems, one of the nation’s largest election technology companies, has been acquired by St. Louis-based Liberty Vote.
Liberty Vote was founded by Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican elections director for St. Louis. He also founded KNOWiNK, which describes itself as the largest provider of electronic poll book technology in the United States, used in dozens of states.
Liberty Vote signals a new chapter for American elections—one where trust is rebuilt from the ground up,” Leiendecker said. “Liberty Vote is committed to delivering election technology that prioritizes paper-based transparency, security, and simplicity so that voters can be assured that every ballot is filled-in accurately and fairly counted.”
The acquisition marks a significant development in the U.S. election technology industry, bringing together two major players that would provide key infrastructure for voting and voter verification systems across dozens of states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Dominion spent years fending off claims from President Trump and his allies, who alleged that the company’s machines were manipulated to favor Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
The fallout from those claims led to a series of high-profile defamation lawsuits. In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle Dominion’s suit, while Newsmax settled for $67 million.
Dominion also filed separate cases against Trump allies, including a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, which ended in September with an undisclosed settlement. Giuliani was a leading figure in the effort to overturn Mr. Trump’s defeat. The terms of the settlement were not made public.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/texas-redistricting-lawsuit-gerrymander-adam-kincaid-rcna236711
A mapmaker hired by Texas Republicans to design a functionally racist gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts testified in federal court Wednesday on the role that Trump administration officials played in his assignment.
Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, testified over two days this week as part of a legal challenge on behalf of Texas voters by civil rights groups that allege the new maps are illegal because they blatantly dilute the power of nonwhite voters, particularly Black voters.
The Republican National Committee paid Kincaid $2,500 per month to work on the redistricting map. The payments started the day Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special session to take up redistricting, Kincaid testified.
***
The testimony from Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, included the following information:
Kincaid had numerous contacts with the White House and DOJ over the redistricting effort – including sending messages on Signal that were set to automatically delete.
Kincaid viewed a draft of a letter sent to Texas by DOJ officials, urging them to redistrict because of concerns about race-based districts in the state’s existing map.
Kincaid was hired by the RNC to draw the map.
Kincaid entirely ignored the input of ordinary Texans, provided at public hearings held over the summer
— instead taking input only from the White House and Texas’ GOP congressional delegation.
Jamie
That video clip was what happens when citizen journalist get in on the reporting. The event occurred and was real, the woman filming it got some of the basic facts wrong. But even more important is the ICE spokes person’s statement. The woman was not arrested because she was a targeted undocumented person but because she had done or said something that irritated the Ice agents.
We are seeing brazen examples of the worst kind of police officers in many of these ICE detentions. What is becoming obvious is that ICE has extremely low hiring standards and training. They are the bumbling wannabe, who couldn’t get hired by a real police department and if not for ICE would be working a low wage private security job. Although most private security has better standards.
These are the same little pricks that get jobs as small town night watchmen or rural county deputies. We used to tag them with the name “Deputy Dog” after a childrens cartoon
Jack
WA is one of the few states that uses vote by mail for all elections. this is how those votes are made and counted. Repeated investigations have found few attempts to defraud.
https://wsac.org/election-security-how-votes-are-counted/
At PBR league events, bullfighters are branded with slick jerseys declaring the event “Protected by US Border Patrol.” Pickup men—mounted riders who corral the bull once it’s thrown its rider—sport Border Patrol ads on their shirts and leather chaps. At some events, the Border Patrol makes a dramatic entrance, rappelling from the rafters into the arena as the national anthem plays. Often, a recruiting booth is positioned outside the event, with pencils and drink koozies, ready to “target specific applicants who fit Border Patrol’s applicant profile,” according to a 2024 CBP hiring report.
“I think they target rodeos because they are looking for young men with a high probability of being masculine and patriotic,” one vender says.
*Lost and toxic are the job requirements. Lost and toxic.
With the first wave of firings to test Democratic resolve I’d like to crank up a chatroom discussion today on the shutdown. So far, Senate Democrats are holding firm (just takes 5 to cave). RR, your Jeanne Shaheen is one to watch — she’s in talks with GOP on a compromise. Premise: Democrats are winning the shutdown.
On top of $46.5 billion for border wall construction, the OBBB delivered $74.9 billion to ICE—double its entire budget under Joe Biden and more than the annual military spending of all but eight countries. Of that, $45 billion will go to establishing new detention centers, including 50 by year’s end, some of them tent camps in the style of the notorious Alligator Alcatraz. Nearly $30 billion will go to enforcement and deportation, which will enable ICE to go on an unprecedented hiring spree. And that, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) noted, “is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play.”
Not only has ICE’s budget skyrocketed past those of other federal law enforcement agencies, but the money is increasingly being handed out to contractors without first collecting competing bids.
When the Trump administration awarded a $1.26 billion contract this summer to build and operate a new tent city detention center in Texas, it made headlines, and not just because the facility, located at the Fort Bliss Army base, was expected to be the biggest of its kind in the country.
The company that won the job, Acquisition Logistics, was so small it operated out of a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. Almost nobody had heard of it. “A random house…just won $1.26 billion from ICE,” wrote the New Republic.
Stranger still was the fact that the Navy, rather than ICE, awarded the contract. “It’s weird,” says Charles Tiefer, a professor emeritus of government contracting at the University of Baltimore law school. The administration has already tapped the Pentagon in unusual ways, including sending troops to help immigration officers along the Mexico border. And Fort Bliss has held incarcerated people in the past—most notably Japanese Americans during World War II. But why was the Navy awarding a contract for a facility on an Army base? “It seems messy,” says Claire Trickler-McNulty, an ICE official in the Biden and first Trump administrations.
BiD
They call that a contracting vehicle, an existing contract that has funding attached to it. But yeah, it is rather odd/illegal to move funding from one department to a separate department.
In this case from DOD to DHS. Two different and entirely separate bureaucracies.
Jack
So is “messy” the new polite way to say “breaking the f*cking law”?
Jack
Gotta love it!!
This is the company that won a billion dollar contract referenced in BiD’s post above
odds are this is a one man shop taking advantage federal contracting DEI provisions to operate as what they call a “pass through”. He will take a small cut and the subcontractor will get all the work. He is basically selling his DEI status.
Jack
Jack – Wow, very interesting.
Link to
Here is more,
Some more info about Acquisition Logistics LLC.
For serious search like this, I have been using duck duck go. It blocks tracking and gives reasonable privacy for your search. It probably won’t protect you from a DHS probe but what will. Also, it is what google used to be.
Jack
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelpopok/p/trump-gets-cover-blown-as-indictment?r=59ruip&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Did Trump attack China to distract from Bolton indictment? Definite brewing scandal over classified documents potentially shared with China.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-news/neil-young-to-pull-music-from-amazon-1236397853/
“The time is here, forget Amazon,” Young wrote. “It is easy to buy local. Support your community. Go to the local store. Don’t go back to the big corporations who have sold out America. We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering. They need you to buy from them. Don’t.”
Young remains among the most staunch critics of Donald Trump and his administration, particularly during Trump’s second term, coming to Bruce Springsteen’s defense amid the president’s feud with the rock star, playing a concert for Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy tour and releasing a new protest song aimed at Trump back in August.
“They shut down our government,” Young wrote this week, referring to the ongoing shutdown that began last week. “Your income. Your safety. Your family’s health security. Take America Back together, stop buying from the big corporations, support local business. Do the right thing. Show who you are.”
Yeah, I stopped using Google when they licked the boot & changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
To Neil Young
Hey, grandpa, there is no local music that involves you. At your level if you don’t stream you don’t exist. I’m sure Amazon won’t miss you, even if you really own your music.
Or is it all about the words.
Jack,
struggling to remember the last time he listened to Youngs high pitched whine try to sing. Like fingernails on a chalkboard.
BiD
Forget their politics, just the quality of their search. I still use the map function for trip planning but that is it.
Jack
I love that Neil is still the protest rocker he always was
Good for him, I appreciate it 🫡
Gooseberry was a workin’ man, he used to drive that Econoline
van
Hm, i thought “Epstein Shutdown” would catch on because not only is it accurate, it’s fair play with what Trumpco is using official government communication channels for
It’s like they say: you can lead an ideologically sympathetic liberal to an effective message, but you can’t make said liberal adopt the effective message
Or something like that, maybe there’s a horse involved, I don’t know
🎬 LIVE 3:30 PM ET — SHUTDOWN SCORECARD
💬 Join the live chat:
Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is colliding with real pink slips — and the firings have begun.
Who’s getting burned, who’s bluffing, and which five Democrats can actually stop it?
We’ll walk through the Scorecard, the spin, and the surprise ally no one saw coming.
📺 Watch on YouTube →
Friday night massacre was sfb deleting the DC branch of CDC, 1100 to 1500 personnel. There is a reason to keep worm brain around, his ineptitude covers for the venality of mangomoron. My guess is the Second Annual Prez Physical did not go well and sfb gets feeling better hurting a lot of people on a Friday afternoon.
WashPoo is now doing the lead work of 2025 for taking on the military and VA. Big article about the mess that is the VA disability system. It was written like all disabled vets do is game the system. As with anything there are some who will, just like in Congress, and the vast majority do not.
Not covered but soon will be is the closing of the commissaries, the grocery stores on base. There is a slight savings, enough to be worth shopping there for most items. It used to be a large savings, but the gop passed some legislation to keep it small so that military and families would shop in the community. Not every base, port or fort is near civilization, and some are in very high cost areas like D.C.
Diane Keaton has died. Sigh.
Chatroom is open…
https://streamyard.com/jp2mwysyxk
My son does the large supply shopping at the JBLM commissary and I do the day to day fill in incidentals. If JBLM shuts down that will be a major inconvenience for all of the military on base as well as the veterans who live here in Pierce county. Also an income decrease as many of the military spouses work at the stores, food & entertainment sites on the installation.
Roll Tide 🏈
Jamie – so true. But 2025 has not been stopped yet. For a few of us shopping on base is an important part of our lives. Due to things, PTSD is a part of it, being in a place where I trust the people around me lets me enjoy a few minutes shopping. There are others like me, various reasons, prefer shopping on base.
“It is easy to buy local. Support your community. Go to the local store. Don’t go back to the big corporations who have sold out America. We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering. They need you to buy from them. Don’t.”
Young wasn’t just talking about music streaming, he’s talking about starving the beast. It will be harder for some, since local for me is antique stores, farm supply, and WalMart (which I manage to avoid because we still have a small grocery store). As dollars get squeezed, I think boycotting Christmas (or gifting homemade foods and knitted things or acts of service) will be a necessity.
It’s the “Epstein Shutdown” and tRUMP’s War on Christmas.
😊
you are out of touch with families with school-aged children, BiD, and also not wrong
they are very drunk on late-stage capitalism, don’t want to be regarded as “bad parents”, but that phenomenon is possibly our economy’s greatest driver
may just be inherently unsalvageable 😒
like, you grew up without plumbing, kids these days haven’t grown up without an unrefrigerated drink at all times… I love how you’re thinking, but the messaging needs to be adapted
All Hail the Sturnonymous One btw 🫡
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-government-shutdown-news-10-11-25
Paychecks for troops: Trump said today that “we have identified funds” to pay troops next week. It had seemed almost certain that military members wouldn’t get their next paychecks, which were scheduled to go out Wednesday.
*Welp, I made my calls shaming Republicans for the videos of troops in line at food pantries. Can’t be good for morale, especially if you intend to misuse them as your personal army. Also, shamed them for the shutdown (will call it the “Epstein Shutdown” on future calls) & for allowing a Qatari military base to be built on US soil…and told one to, “find your conscience, man.”
I’m totally on a list.
I have read a lot about the Philippines under the Marcos regime. You’d just as well fight back now; they may do their worst to you even if you don’t.
The No Kings protesters might copy our folks here in Tacoma. They are staging several family oriented activities while taking over a major park. It wouldn’t look good on film to bomb children.
here’s another example, just for conversation:
I was lucky to get an inexpensive baseball glove as a child and I am not complaining and I valued my baseball glove highly. I never owned a baseball bat and didn’t need to because the team had them.
When a young teenager gets involved in a sport like baseball now, it implies thousands upon thousands of dollars in equipment and travel expenses and training and time commitments. It’s fucking insane (kids can’t just enjoy sports anymore, It’s all about “resumé building”, which means you have to give your kid the edge, hooray unsustainable consumptive loop)
That’s just one example of the kind of consumption having kids in this society mandates
Participation trophies and toys in every “happy” meal really messed with kids, too.
You should see how much it costs for dance classes, costumes, and competitions. Friends and family have spent so much and it’s a lot of moms pushing for what they missed out on. It’s a racket that thrives on dysfunction.
Piqued my interest as two days of our summer SoDo-vacation was spent at the Crazy Horse monument.
This from the NYT article of particular note:
The “great whites way.” Never back down, never apologize.
Way to go, Kegster.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/style/a-hike-to-crazy-horse-stirs-patriotism-and-doubt.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/style/a-hike-to-crazy-horse-stirs-patriotism-and-doubt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sk8.QKWn.sBpZQefnMZLs&smid=url-share
“Preliminary estimates from the CDC show that from Oct. 1, 2024, through June 7, 2025, there were between 270,000 and 440,000 hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the U.S. and between 32,000 and 51,000 deaths. The majority of adults hospitalized last year for COVID had not received the latest vaccine.” -AARP
*There must be some cognitive dissonance in MAGAtLand with dear leader getting jabbed yesterday vs all of the scaremongering from the him, RFKJ, and others on the far right.
Between vax, and tariffs killing crop exports, rising prices that were never brought down when he said only he could do it, allowing a Qatari AFB on US soil, bailing out Argentina instead of “America first,” cutting subsidies and services so billionaires can have permanent tax cuts…I mean, they should understand that they believed lies because they were fearful/hateful of others by now, right?
Gettin’ so anymore that most people’s bucket lists is simply trying to not kick the bucket.
Who’s actually winning the shutdown?
Craig, Jack & Jamie dig into how the politics, polling, and spin are playing out — and why Trump might be shooting his own foot.
🎥 Watch the replay + more in our SHUTDOWN WATCH series →
The music of our time was all made in the fifties. If someone was actually making music during the fifties then that someone is at the pinnacle, the apex….the zenith and acme of The Musics.
Next comes all those people who actually LISTENED to the music during the fifties and then went on in the sixties trying to replay what they’d heard in the fifties. All of them, from Dylan to the Beatles to all the rest of the players.
Rock and Roll was the fifties. Everyone else who didn’t begin making music until the sixties is but an imitator of an ideal. But it was much wider than just rock and roll, there was blues, Hank Liberace, “So Rare”
Lawrence Welk Spike Jones’s Desi Arnaz Patti Page Theresa Brewer
Suggested by an article in the January 13 , 1994 issue of The New England Journal of Half-Baked Ideas.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/26/john-gillette-pramila-jayapal-execution-post
Republican Arizona lawmaker makes post calling for execution of Democratic congresswoman
An Arizona Republican state representative who has expressed support for January 6 insurrectionists on Wednesday called for a Democratic congresswoman to be executed, as a response to a video clip.
The comment on X by state representative John Gillette of Kingman, Arizona, first reported by the Arizona Mirror, was a reaction to a short clip drawn from a YouTube video in March by US representative Pramila Jayapal, a longtime Democratic congresswoman representing Washington state, entitled “The Resistance Lab.” In the video, Jayapal discusses preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.
“Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue,” he posted.
Nothing in either the clip or the longer video actually suggests Jayapal is advocating for the overthrow of the US government. The video carries explicit calls for non-violent protest and discussed with alarm a rise in political violence in the US.
*The demented haters are emboldened and un-American.
“ The music of our time was all made in the fifties”
yeah that’s why i try to stay open-minded for the new stuff, it’s rather post-rock
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/wgn-tv-employee-arrested-by-ice-agents-in-lincoln-square/
An employee of WGN-TV was released without charges after she was arrested by ICE agents on Friday in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Debbie Brockman apparently saw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining a man and somehow got involved.
ICE said Brockman threw objects at a Border Patrol car, so she was arrested for assaulting a federal law enforcement officer. Some witness accounts said she did nothing ahead of her arrest.
Several people recorded ICE agents arresting Brockman.
In a statement Friday evening, WGN-TV said Brockman had been released without charges.
“Out of respect for her privacy, we will have no further statements about this incident,” WGN said.
*She did nothing wrong. Folks recorded her violent takedown. ICE v Border Patrol?
I hope she sues. WGN has no comment because they are afraid and Brockman might be afraid that one of tRUMP’s government goons will come after her.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/10/trump-100-percent-tariffs-china-imports-trade-war/86631090007/
Trump said the new tariff would go into effect on Nov. 1, adding that his administration will also impose its own export controls on “any and all critical software,” effective the same date.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” Trump said in an Oct. 10 post on Truth Social.
The 100% tariff would add to 30% duties the United States is currently imposing on goods from China, meaning Chinese imports would have a total tariff rate of 130%.
*Somebody made out like a bandit by knowing he was going to do that.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/11/business/trump-tariffs-crypto-selloff
Trump’s new 100% tariffs on China triggered an $18 billion crypto sell-off
Digital currencies bitcoin, ether and solana were among the most affected cryptocurrencies, bringing total liquidations to $18.28 billion as of 3:47 p.m. ET, according to data analysis platform CoinGlass. The losses for cryptocurrencies come amid a broad sell-off, as the Nasdaq and S&P 500 on Friday saw their steepest declines in six months.
In the past 24 hours, roughly $5 billion of bitcoin has been liquidated, along with about $4 billion of ether and about $2 billion of solana, according to CoinGlass.
It’s the “largest liquidation event in crypto history,” CoinGlass said in a post on X.
Bitcoin is down almost 10% in the last five days and was trading at $111.616.20 as of 3:45 p.m. ET, a jump from when it dropped to $103,000 at 5:15 p.m. ET on Friday.
On Friday, ether was priced at $4,365.63 and then sunk to $3,742.88 — a 14.2% decline.
Solana was priced at $223.10 on Friday and has fallen to $178.72, as of 3:45 p.m. ET — a nearly 20% plunge.
Crypto has made major gains since Trump took office this year, in large part because of the president’s turnaround from dismissing bitcoin as “based on thin air” to addressing crypto fans at conventions, launching his own meme coin and promising a strategic crypto reserve.
So You Don’t Understand Crypto. Buckle Up.
And so, there is risk in that sense, that you might put a lot of money into Bitcoin, and then the price goes down and you lose a considerable portion of your original investment.
But there are also risks in the crypto worlds that people are maybe not as used to from more traditional institutions, where you can actually lose all of your crypto assets, they can be stolen from you, or companies can go under and your assets may not be returned to you ever, or if they are returned, it can be much, much later or in a different form, and those risks, I think, are still fairly significant, even as companies try to present themselves as more legitimate versions of exchanges, like FTX.
What kind of influence is crypto having on the upcoming midterms?
Well, we saw an incredible degree of crypto spending in the 2024 elections, and I think we are poised to see that again in 2026. The cryptocurrency Super PACs have already raised a significant amount of money, rivaling what they raised in 2024, and they’re continuing to accumulate funds to spend in the midterms. There’s already been some spending happening in special elections and other races that have happened a little bit earlier, and I think we will continue to see that even more so into the midterms as the crypto industry continues to exert influence.
The strategy last time was essentially to show force against candidates who might be skeptical of cryptocurrency or even just unwilling to sign on to the crypto industry agenda and essentially threaten them and say, “We will spend you out of office. We will support your opponents, and we will make sure that they are elected rather than you, unless get on board with our agenda.” And so, some people decided to acquiesce, they embraced cryptocurrency. Others were indeed up against huge spending, where their opponents were backed by the crypto industry because the industry didn’t want to see a skeptic or someone who is more focused on consumer protection put into office. So I think we’re going to see that pattern again, where candidates are being strong armed into at least going along with the crypto industry’s agenda, if not outwardly embracing it, in hopes of earning potentially millions and millions of dollars in campaign support.
*RIP Diane Keaton.
Your take is dead-on, Sturge, and the influence of the Beatles is slightly overstated
Amy & Tina on SNL
***
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) hammered Republicans for not supporting the release of files related to late billionaire and child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Greene joined comedian Tim Dillon on his Tim Dillon Show podcast on Saturday where he denied being a “traitor” to the president by breaking with many other MAGA voices by demanding more Epstein documents be released.
Greene said she’s “really upset” with the direction of Congress, accusing Republicans of not addressing Epstein or the high “cost of living,” including home loans and health insurance.
“I was thinking about it this morning, I was like, you know, I’ve been in Washington all week, I’ve been at my office, and I’ve been at the Capitol, and there’s two things I couldn’t find this week,” she said. “I couldn’t find anywhere the Epstein Files, and I also couldn’t find the Republican plan to fix the absolutely destroyed health insurance industry that got wiped out in 2015 with Obamacare. Those are the two things I can’t find!”
Greene predicted at one point that much of the information related to Epstein has been “destroyed” behind the scenes.
*What’s really telling, and I’ve heard a couple of tRUMPstein’s victims say this as they tell their stories, mTg said she was not suicidal. The need to say that to try to deter someone from offing you or to make sure there’s an investigation if something happens to you just shows what a thug Orange Adolf is, as are those who surround him.
I also see that the imaging done on Orange Adolf yesterday for his physical included imaging that would be consistent with a follow-up for a stroke. We all saw his droopy mouth, and he was MIA for about a week in September, and Melania is now talking to Putin, apparently, and he looked like hell when he was talking to the Generals. It surprised me that he was cleared to take a flight to the Middle East, because a long flight with circulation issues is just asking for trouble. A acquaintance’s mom died from DVT on the way from India to the US.
Anyway, mTg is definitely gunning for the speakership IF they ever gavel in, again. She voted for the ACA cuts in the bill, right? So, taking what she says with a grain of salt because she’s also running for a Senate seat. However, she does understand the MAGAt mind, and she knows what Stephen Miller and the Heritage N&zis are doing is not going well. Only sadistic J6ers and the J6 adjacent are still on board. Oh, and the greedy billionaires.
@realDonaldTrump
THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT
Oct 12, 2025 at 12:38 AM
*Biden wasn’t POTUS on January 6th. Either Adolf’s brain is mush or this is a distraction from the Epstein files/Epstein shutdown…but both things could be true.
NEW THREAD by our Trail friend Jack