Our Shameless SCOTUS

I wonder what they are thinking. What kind of a dungeon of denial you have to put yourself in to go on when the world is watching, and falling apart under your influence, and you were so obviously wrong. 

Hideous Stinky

One of my nicknames for Trump is 'Stinky.' And he's hideous. 

This Can't Go On

Conservatives and Liberals agree, this can't go on. 

Wokey, Wokey ...

Conservatives are publishing whole books on 'woke' which is not a thing and doesn't exist. Edicts and executive orders are emerging on 'antifa' which is kind of a thing but doesn't exist administratively. The Heritage Foundation exists. The Federalist Society exists. 

Similarly the purported liberal domination of public life and the media is a lie. Liberals, as in Democrats, want to regulate stuff, and not just guns. Where's the regulation? But, guess what, all of a sudden it's coming from conservatives, and at the national level.

So much for states' rights. One would think conservatives can't function without enemies. And that the collapse of the Soviet Union caused them problems because the commies weren't enough of a threat anymore to meet their need for a focus for their hate.

Enter 'woke.' Enter demonizing Democrats. Enter demeaning, denigrating and dehumanizing liberals. This has nothing to do with reality. This is about their need to hate. Hate defines their lives. It gives their lives meaning. And it enables them to fight to win at any cost. 

Charlie Kirk, my God, supposedly a guy who just likes to go around debating people, had a yearly budget of tens of millions of dollars and a was worth more than ten million. It was a job. Woke budget? None. Antifa? Zero. Whatever, but they aren't controlling anything. 

Hideous Slinky

I feel like I've been slimed, Ghostbusters style, and I can't get the shit off me. 

Shitland

Or Assholia. The United States of Assholia. That's us, a country run by psychopaths and dicks.

The Greatest Shitshow on Earth

So we've got a sadistic circus we're being forced to watch that actually kills people and it's saying it can shoot us out of a cannon or feed us to the lions whenever it wants. Trump doesn't own it. Puppet man was hired because of his resume, a tremendous record of destruction. This idiot got a gaming license -- a license to print money -- in New Jersey and he managed to blow that up. We're all Atlantic City now. 

Burn Everything Down for No Reason

I grew up in a household that valued creating something out of nothing. Through cooperation, for example. My father taught management and it excited him to eliminate inefficiencies, often by flowchart analysis or getting managers to communicate more with owners, workers and other managers.

Why the hell not? That seems so easy and obvious. But the destroyers have arrived, proponents of lose-lose. Resentment rules. Also I'd say I was raised not to take things for granted. In a profound way, maybe because my parents were core Depression people. The destroyers take everything for granted.

A Fundamental Difference

Identity movement people, let's say Republicans, criticize others, let's say Democrats, for their allegiances, immutable accidents of birth and arbitrary associations. Democrats criticize them back for their behaviors. Even our criticisms are different. 

Democrats say Republicans are racist because they are, to the degree they are an identity movement and it's not about behaviors. So Republicans want to destroy or eliminate you when you fault them. It's a huge deal. They go annihilationist.  

They want to you gone. Democrats want you to behave. When we call Republicans Nazis, fascists and totalitarians, which they are, they can stop that and we'll welcome them among those who believe in rational, representative governance. 

Which is our legitimate tradition. They call themselves patriots when they're traitors. Christians when they're heretics. Decent human beings who uphold standards, values and traditions. They are none of those. It's a scam and a power grab. 

You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Healthcare

The fatalism and self-pity of the country music crowd will apply to the losses they're about to suffer at the hands of Republicans. They'll suck it up, not to say Democrats can't win some of them over, but they'll fish and hunt and carry on. Mostly they are responsible citizens -- except when they vote.

The same sick individualism that makes them think getting shit upon is normal means they'll vote for fuckheads forever. Don't tell them they're fatalistic and self-pitying. They don't know what fatalism is but it'll sound bad to them and 'pity' won't ring right in any context so they'll attack and beat you up. 

I, Bacterium

I didn't choose to be a bacterium, I tried to live a good life. And individual bacteria are innocent. But my colony has gone nuts. The medium was the message -- the growing medium, I mean. I guess it was our niche on the earth. We were told we could choose our fate, handle the responsibility. 

Or we were called to do that, I should say, given the opportunity, as we were, and able to use our capabilities to advantage. To be sensible and humane. We didn't listen. I'm exhausted. We're worn out, and we did it to ourselves. Needlessly, I choose to believe, with what limited choice I still have.

I think we had a choice. Exponential growth is a bitch. We chose compulsion. So we're no different to bacteria, hurtling toward annihilation. But we're aware. Some of us. We see the insanity of it and it's enough to make you mad. This wasn't meant to happen to beings who could foresee it. 

Support Your Local Tariff

Trump's tariffs are taking a bite out of consumers, as we knew they would. Further pain and suffering await. Trump is going to destroy everything. He's a fuckup and a compulsive criminal. Those supporting him and those lined up to succeed him are worse. Vance is honing his savior persona, which can be used to justify anything. Because, like all of them, he doesn't give a shit about anyone. Except himself. Extreme individualism and the drive to win have destroyed us. 

Make Your Bed. Don't Beat Off. All Will Be Well.

Jordan Peterson's formula for saving young men doesn't seem to be working. I think because it's within the Calvinist model of life. Calvinism strips all the meaning out of life and gives you back just enough to stand it or maybe a little less. If so, sorry about that but it was God's will. 

Or, tough shit. Calvinists are His holy representatives and apply the same model to money, not to go soft on the needy. They exploit the shit out of people then mete back just enough to keep you alive, if you're lucky, and expect gratitude. That's empire and authoritarianism for you.

God Loves Hungry Kids More

Evangelicals, through the divine agency of Donald Trump, just took food out of the mouths of kids and gave the savings to rich people so they can be richer. This is so those kids can receive the outpouring of love they deserve from God because God loves hungry kids more in their suffering and need. 

If God had wanted them to have food they would have had it. The government has no business messing with the will of God in the matter. This has nothing to do with the Civil War, slavery, desegregation and hating the federal government for kicking their asses, by the way, evangelicals want you to know. 

Trump Steals Lunch Money

With SNAP cuts going into effect evangelicals are celebrating. Those undeserving little shits won't be wasting our money anymore as is the will of God  and the savings will stoke the economy supply-side style in the hands of billionaires where it always does the most good. WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE uprooted again! Let's hear it for the new evangelical age ...

Paulson Shorts Accountability

John Paulson succumbed to Epstein's temptations, it seems. Maybe he sought it out. Either way, if it happened, and I suspect it did, it's bad. Accountability is going down. 

David Brooks is a Bigot

David Brooks is a bigot. Racists are supremacists. Brooks is a Brooks supremacist. A race of one and a Brooks bigot. He thinks he's better not as a white guy or whatever but as David Brooks. He's a social Darwinist and an authoritarian. And he's too proud or prejudiced to own it but wonder after the debacle of the Bush years which he supported and now Trump who he reviles but it's too late ...

American Carnage

Trump needed American carnage so he found it. He invented it. Nothing was wrong only the usual problems any society has and tries to deal with though ours were worse. Still not that bad but worse.

Worse because of Republicans. The problems were largely created by Republicans. They were made worse by Republicans. And they were lied about where they didn't exist and made up by Republicans. 

Republicans use carnage to justify their violent impulses and authoritarianism. Republicans love crime. They are criminals who want to win. They distract you from their theft and direct attention elsewhere. 

Onto the petty stuff, so they can steal you blind while you're looking at some smash and grab at a convenience store, probably perpetrated by someone whose life was destroyed by Republicans. 

No good job because of Republicans. No healthcare because of Republicans. No security because of Republicans. Our problems were created or worsened by Republicans. Then they used them to take over. 

Interview with an Umpire

Interviewer: Many people, including legal scholars, have accused you of overseeing the obliteration of the rule of law in America in favor of a totalitarian, authoritarian state. How do you respond to that?

John Roberts: I don't give a shit.

I: Could you expand on that?

JR: I had to pretend I cared about the law and the Constitution and endure years of humoring liberals and legal academics but I despise them, especially liberals, and think they're idiots and unworthy of having any say in how we're governed. I have enormous contempt for average citizens. I think they're sheep. Wouldn't you say I've been proven right? 

I: I'm asking the questions here. Do you not care at all about the law? 

JR: Fuck you. Don't ever talk to me like that again or you'll wake up in the worst jail ever and be waterboarded for the hell of it. That's legal now, if you didn't notice. I don't have to answer to you or to anybody. Why do you think I wanted this job? I helped steal the 2000 election for a moron but he could be managed to advantage by the real power. Reagan was another prop and tool for those same forces. Nixon was a loose cannon by our standards and went soft on the commies and you saw what happened to him. We kept Obama from accomplishing anything. He had to hang his hat on a fucking healthcare bill. Mitch McConnell, who actually thinks he has some power, was useful in curtailing Obama but he's not an insider. I mean, look at the guy. And Trump? My God, what a piece of shit. 

I: More, please ...

JR: Look at what we did to Clinton. He governed like a moderate Republican but we still had to teach him and the liberal establishment a lesson. Do you think it was legal the way we pursued him, fueled by Mellon money and boundless determination? How do you get from Whitewater to Monica Lewinsky? Not legally, I'll tell you that. We made it open-season on Clinton. That's not legal. Now it's open season on anybody we disagree with so I say again, mind your manners. We know where you live. You have a family, don't you? 

I: I don't appreciate that. 

JR: You're not supposed to. Get a clue. This is pure authoritarianism. This is what it looks like. You have no rights at all. Nobody ever did, really. It was always a ruse that served the interests of the wealthy. We were playing the game as it best suited us and for the long run. But everything has changed. When we needed cheap labor we got it. Unlimited cheap energy, we got it. Unions were a joke. Sure, we couldn't treat workers like slaves anymore and have them die in droves from black lung or whatever but we still made out like bandits. Trump thinks he's a deal-maker. What a joke. We perfected it ages ago. Start out at twice what you want and fall back by 20% or so and say the other side, representing the rabble, drove a hard bargain and walk away with an unimaginable win. It was pure exploitation. Do you think it makes sense to burn through the world's irreplaceable oil reserves like there's no tomorrow? 

I: Aren't you a Christian of at least a Catholic? Don't you care about anything? 

JR: My God, you're dense. Religion was part of the thing. Part of the scam. It helped us, enormously, to keep the 'common people' in check and happy and grateful to have the bones we threw them. Opiate and all. Do you think we're close-minded or ideological? We have no ideology, at all. We use whatever works. Pure power lust, because we deserve it. That's what it's about. And it's all changed now, because of technology. We don't need to humor anybody anymore. That's why I can talk to you like this, because I have all the power and you have none. You live at my tolerance and pleasure. Don't forget it. We will mostly let average people live -- we're not totally without scruples -- but they better behave. We have unimaginable power. Surveillance tech. Killing whoever we want like in a video game. Send in a little drone and blow your house up. With your whole family in it. It's fantastic. 

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be able to quit playing this game and pretend we care about anything but ourselves. I'll give you time to digest this. It's been fun. Feel free to contact me again. I can't believe how great it is to not have to pretend anymore and exercise unlimited power without restraint. Go in peace and be thankful I don't feel threatened by you because I could kill your ass but I'm a softy by the standards of my peers.

Vance, Patel and Leavitt Use School Shooting to Reinforce Republican Talking Points

Of course they would lie and use the shooting to reinforce Republican talking points. Other countries have far lower rates of shootings though rates of mental illness and disturbance are relatively the same. The shooting was not terrorism or anti-Catholic. And Kash Patel is an idiot, an asshole and a Trump toadie who is participating in terrorism himself. But with Republicans it's partisanship politics and lies all the time. They didn't come to govern they came to destroy. 

Plato's Plutopia

I wonder if Plato foresaw the possibility of a government, one highly effective at destroying itself, stumbling into an inverted version of his ideal in an act of revolutionary reinvention. I'm not sure it was Plato's ideal but it was probably thought of as efficient in its attempt at specialization and putting the right people in appropriate hierarchical roles and having it work. 

Republicans have achieved efficient destruction, but destruction is easy so let's not be too much in awe and understand that an evolved and expansive machine devoted to plunder can still be stopped by the right wrench in the right place at the right moment and before it's too late -- before they've decentralized like a franchise from hell and the terror organization they are. 

Like Al Qaeda. They're destroying the government on behalf of the Confederacy and rich fuckers. We need some of that infrastructure and capacity intact when we get it back. They know this and are working hard to fuck it up irreparably. We had better get our act together and stop it. We need there to be something left to save. I think it's still possible but not by much. 

The Last Big Thing

AI is the last big thing, the technology that heralds the end of humanity and civilization. I'm not sure it was even good while it lasted. We were always in Eden and always choosing the apple. Enough of us, anyway. For those that didn't it could be good. The stories that convey the urgency of salvation aren't temporal, nor are they about an afterlife. Heaven and hell are here and now, and we chose to take the miracle of life for granted, sought power, lost our humility and fucked it all up. 

Bring Me the Head of Abrego Garcia

Stephen Miller, a member of the Trump crime family, has mixed up Kilmar Abrego Garcia with the title character, Alfredo Garcia, in a Sam Peckinpah movie. THAT Garcia is a criminal, gang member and thug. Consider that Abrego Garcia is not, as far as we know, a gang member. Nor is he in the 'Epstein Files' or under suspicion of being in them which is a more serious matter so attention should be directed there and at the release of those in a complete, unredacted version to a bipartisan committee or other responsible and secure entity before anything else and after which relevant material might be published and further investigations and prosecutions undertaken.

The Death of Trump

Trump might die, and sooner rather than later according to some people who say his swollen ankles and other signs point to a man in serious health trouble. I think people can live a surprisingly long time in terrible shape. We should still address the unbridled joy and ecstasy that would attend the death of Donald. It might be like overfeeding a starving person and inadvertently killing them. 

Trump is such an unimaginably awful and destructive piece of shit the rebound effects from being freed from him might be more than people can handle. Can you imagine, never having to endure again the utterly vile stuff that pours out of him day and night? And the damage he does. My God, the damage. But then we would face the headless monster of MAGA. And JD Vance... 

Mundane Matters

When you associate with Jesus every day and are expecting the end times it's hard to focus on mundane things like the millions of people you're getting killed. You delegated that. And what does it matter when those poor souls are only getting to see Jesus before you (or not) so you're kind of doing them a favor. Evangelical Christians are distracted, blinded by the light of Jesus's presence. They have a known personal relationship with Jesus, of that they are certain. But they can never be sure about you. 

Trump Thugs Are Coming to Your Town

But, be reassured. Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize and, we have recently learned, to get into heaven. How bad can it be? 

Exit Stage Right

Wow, the Trump admin just got its clock cleaned in Alaska. Trump can't admit he got owned and made a fool. And there are those around him who can't either. How far into the privy council do we have to go to find someone who says fuck, this is ridiculous? And how far to get to someone who gives as shit? 

Miller and Vought are projectiles. Susie Wiles has to wipe the drool from Trump all the time. It's her job, she does it constantly and she knows Donnie has spit himself again but she's not there for anything else. A professional Civil Service is supposed to be there to look out for the country's broader interests. 

Trump fired them all because fuck the country. Trump is supposed to be there for the same reason but he can't comprehend it -- non compos on that count. Bessent is a class warrior. Who knows about him. He's there for the money and to preclude an uprising of the plebs. Ditto Lutnick and probably Witkoff.

I'm just asking. Because I don't see anybody in a position of influence and who isn't hopelessly compromised and conflicted and who gives a  a shit enough to try to do something. All the damage control mechanisms have failed. They have made a job of it. Our country has ceased to exist. 

It's Time to Get Out

Out of what? Out of where? I don't know, but's I think it's time to get out.  

Posse Kardashiensis

Posse Comitatus is a right of non-interference, initially a concession to southern states to impede the use of federal force against them wanting to establish an apartheid substate. I think it would have happened anyway, they were so determined, but now the South has risen up and taken over in Washington and they want to use federal force against state authority. 

Of course. But there's more to it. Everything is personal with Trump, so we have non-interference based on him, the rights of celebrity, to do whatever they want. Fucking period. Trump's erosion of norms is massively destructive to the rule of law, and he's being used by people who want that, but with Trump it's narcissistic individualism, pure infantile egotism. 

The Expurgated Epstein Files

Tell me how we're going to know the Epstein Files, if we ever see them, haven't been doctored to protect the guilty. Trump is never going to show us anything that's incriminating to him. 

Triumph of the Shills

We should have known that when America went fascist even its villains would be pathetic and losers among that class of losers. They would be fucking bureaucrat bourgeoisie fascists. 

This Is It, Folks

People picture themselves in a battle as though it's a competition and it's scripted and you're doing something that at least makes you feel like you have some agency when, in reality, most of those who get killed never knew what hit them. A fighter-plane 'dog-fight' comes to mind with the drama and a mano-a-mano scene and a victory on one side but evidently most of those who get shot down don't even see their attacker. 

They get jumped. In any case, the point I want to make is that Democrats are expecting a drama and a battle and certain script and they've gotten jumped. They have no idea what's going on. Republicans have overwhelmed them and they're in denial. The news out of the White House is that Trump isn't running anything. He's being stage-managed by Miller and Vought and a few others and it's worse than we can imagine. 

Trump is riding a wave and he's delusional and his handlers are having him do stuff no one in their right mind would do on the assumption they'd be remembered for it and he does it all. The man's a total fuckup and an imbecile. Everything is in slow motion as we experience it but it's a democratic kill-shot. It's a coup. A takeover. Conquest, and we're being ravaged and pillaged. Our institutions are being burned to the ground. 

Fatuous Libertarian Disease

I had an ongoing thing with an undergraduate philosophy professor about pragmatism. Dewian pragmatism. I couldn't tell if he believed in it but he had done his dissertation on Dewey so there we were. I thought the philosophy's main selling point was that it was hard to refute -- a good philosophy for a troll. The professor was a nice guy and I had no idea about Dewey, so, no aspersions. 

But I thought pragmatism was tautological so I smelled a rat. The way to make something irrefutable is not to say anything. Hence my feelings about libertarianism. I smell a scam. Freedom is good! Okay, have your lawyer draw up something and I'll sign it. I'll stipulate, freedom is good. And then I note that most of the 'libertarians' I know are from privilege and I have questions.

Whose freedom? Because I think they mean theirs, to the exclusion and diminishment of mine. And in my observations, let's say, of the self-styled libertarianism I find where I decide to look for it in the wild, in the policies and actions of the Trump administration, they mean their freedom, at the deliberate expense of mine. They're even compromising my freedom at no seeming benefit to themselves.

Unless you count disempowering me as a benefit, as they apparently do, and then meanness might come into it or an irrational, compulsive aggression driven by fear. Hence again and I come to originalism, Supreme Court version, another scam. I see it's irrefutable and able to be redefined and reinterpreted on the fly to suit their desires. And I observe they're doing whatever the fuck they want. 

Hence one last time and I come to people calling themselves 'Christians' and 'patriots' and I call bullshit. It's not like saying you're a Methodist or a citizen, they're putting themselves above us which is, I think, evidence against the thing they're asserting. Prideful, at least. That wraps up my investigation for now but stay tuned for more horrible right-wing crap. I'm sure we're not done with it.

The Corpse Flower of Conservatism

Conservatism occasionally blooms and the horrific stench attracts the carrion flies that are its pollinators. Flies like Stephen Miller, Russ Vought, JD Vance, Pam Bondi, Hegseth, Kash Patel and others are drawn irresistibly to the smell of shit. It's all to do with procreation, spreading the conservative disease.

There is No Redoubt

We're in the last battle. Will the Yankees or the Confederacy rule? 

Always, in the past, the South has had its redoubt. They lived in their slave states, trying to take over the country from there and making a few good runs, but it never worked and they returned to their plantations. Or, an apartheid substate after getting their asses plastered in the Civil War. 

But they never gave up. Now, after desegregation, there is no redoubt, no racist haven to which to return. So the country must be remade into a racist refuge, an evangelical theme park and a white safe space. We're going to be one country at last, it appears on the terms of the Confederacy.

Inbreds Out and About

In today's news Arkansas inbreds Tom Cotton and Mike Huckabee made their mark, Cotton by ordering up an investigation of Jack Smith and Huckabee by being the jackass he is on a Mideast trip and by carrying on being a shithead once he got back with the renewed attention his negative contribution to saving starving children had earned him. 

Watching Evangelicals Eat Ass

They think they're eating God's ass, a strange concept. 

Sixpence None the Wiser

We see evangelicals using and ripping off God. Does it matter? They think not because they're on God's side. On the ground the act is justified. Mere tactics. Incidental stuff. The severity of the sin is nothing to the benefit. God isn't hurt by it. And are they not chosen, saved and redeemed? 

Ripping off their fellow citizens, those sinners, is nothing. Dominion applies over them. But what does God require? And everything matters in the context of creation. LIKE ripping off your fellow citizens to the point of wrecking their lives and getting them killed. And lying like there's no tomorrow. Evangelicals might believe there's no tomorrow, by the way, but rather the Second Coming. 

Everything matters to people, among people and in a human context. Evangelicals are hawking and pawning their souls. But aren't they the pre-saved, let alone in the position of God, free to judge the salvation of others? God's standards are explicit enough, and sixpence matters among people. 

Maybe not much but it matters. And God's standards matter, so ripping off God is more than meaningful, it's desecration and heresy, not because God wants for anything but because of what God requires, not a 'personal relationship' with Jesus but as seen in how we love one another. There's lots I don't know about lots of things, but I doubt God likes being played for a sucker.

Do Not Eat

I'm grasping but wondered if we stamped or tattooed 'Do Not Eat' in big letters on Trump's ass if his cabinet and functionaries and the Republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court might stop paying homage to Trump by eating his ass. It can't be healthy. And it's clearly bad for the country. 

I would like some help on the graphics and the layout of the words in relation to Trump's ass-crack though I was thinking about huge letters straddling the crack. Or maybe have 'DO' straddling the crack and 'NOT' and 'EAT' below on either side since real estate probably isn't a problem. 

We're not talking about a toned ass here. Then there's the issue of implementation. We'll need an insider. I wonder if Melania can be turned. All she must care about is money. I can't believe anybody ever loved Trump, he's such a pig. Or we could clandestinely equip a toilet to blast ink on his ass. 

Again, I'd be happy for help with this. Worst case we could project a huge image of Trump's ass with the message on some venue where it's impossible to ignore, though we're dealing with addiction, ass addiction, and the prognosis I understand is poor because the degradation is so great.

Mental Fundamentalists

Fundamentalists are going mental. Trump has them tied in knots. They're literalists and Trump isn't literally literate so it's gone into the realm of faith. 

They're trying to faith-heal the country, praying over it and shit but changing the laws as well to shove their inarticulate values down our throats. 

Inarticulate because they're authoritarians. An authority, like Trump or God, can change its mind. They think Trump is transcendent, if you can believe it. 

What Did He Not Know and When Did He Not Know It

Donald Trump seems to not know a lot about Jeffrey Epstein. And not know a lot about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. I want to know when he did not know. I expect it was pretty recently. 

Cultist Tulsi Gabbard Mines Alternative Facts to Pass Competitors in Presidential Upsucking Extravaganza

The headline says it all.

I Am a Contextualist

Because I don't think anything is intelligible out of context. 

The Diabolical Awards

I've become aware there are clandestine awards in the White House for excellence in lying. I think they're weekly but they might be monthly or bi- but not that kind of bi- since they're against that kind on paper and in principle but who knows what they do when we're not looking. My understanding is that Kayleigh McEnany -- no, sorry, that's the old one -- Karoline Leavitt is disqualified from competing because it's formally her job to lie so that would be unfair. Anyway they're called the Diabolical Awards.

And the winner the 'diabolos' for that period. I assume diabolos because 'devil' was a little too direct. The details are unknown to me but we can assume they have some fun with it the way secret societies usually do, festivities and adornments and regalia and maybe a little fun-poking and food and noshes and maybe steaks and shit -- I mean these are Republicans. I picture Stephen Miller as permanent emcee so he's likely disqualified as well apart from everybody being scared as shit of him. Jeez, he's a creep. 

I assume they work it out with handicaps or whatever for the rest whose jobs involve varying degrees of necessary falsification. Of course Trump is disqualified because he's absolutely the greatest at everything he does and would win every time as at golf if he were allowed to be considered, 'compete' not being the applicable term because Trump does everything at such an insanely high level and so effortlessly and without even paying attention, just as with his innumerable business deals and successes. 

This award is like the 'salesman of the month' thing you see with some goober on a plaque at a car dealership but one would hope with more taste and gravitas in some form. The taste thing is a bit fluid now though they still turn out in suits and dresses as an informal uniform but it's hard to dodge the issue of Trump's appalling taste. Republicans make up for any possible propriety gaps with sheer compliance which makes the awards interesting because of the interplay of utter submission and inventiveness. 

I'll report more on this later if my source doesn't get discovered and eliminated, I hope with some specifics about awardees and how they get roasted as part of the proceedings and what they do if the reigning diabolos falls out of favor with Trump over an unintended slight. NOBODY deliberately crosses Herr Donald these days. Keep in mind all those subtle and not-so- messages intended as intimidation apply in-house as well and they're all scared as shit all the time which is thought to enhance creativity. 

A Seat at the Table

Republicans, it turns out, have a different idea of having a seat at the table. For them it doesn't mean belonging or having a voice and being acknowledged, it means a seat at a gambling table. They want a lottery -- winners and losers. That's bad enough, because it's arbitrary and inhumane, but the way they have it planned they're the house. They win no matter what.

Why Fascists Love Fossil Fuels

Because you can blow shit up with them.

Staggeringly Evil Bill Passes Senate ...

with some Republicans still screaming 'not evil enough!' 

Bessent Owns Class War

Scott Bessent, in an offhand moment and aside, owncd the Class War, pointing out that Democrats didn't stick it to the rich when they could. 'Yeah. you had your chance and blew it,' he was saying. But we didn't have our chance in a fair fight because this was a guerilla effort on their part and subversion. 

And Bessent wasn't working for the government, for us, when we missed our chance so it's different. You could say it was his job previously to look out for himself, according to Republican doctrine and their ultimate good of greed, but it isn't his job to look out for himself now. It's illegal. It's abuse.

If we have our chance again he needs to pay. He's exploiting a position of trust for personal gain. Their world divides into purely selfish people and suckers. One day the suckers will have to assert themselves because the rich want it all, down to your existence. They've made an end to era of rights. 

Bedraggled

So I'm thinking about a new version of the Faust story, à la 'Bedazzled' but without a denouement, titled 'Bedraggled.' Republicans have me wondering what's it's like to sell your soul and it was worth so little, because the market is flooded, that there's no real drama and then it just drags on fucking forever. And you crave anything -- glorious victory and world domination or some cesspool of sex and money and gluttony and having servants fawn your ass OR even total failure and a great car crash kind of ending with you as the car or at least in it but with the drama you're due and entitled to because you thought it was an act of consequence to sell your soul and it turns out it was nothing. You were totally inconsequential. I mean, look around you. The market is flooded! What did you expect? You sold your soul and got nothing but a massive heap of ennui. Congratulations, you idiot, and let it be a lesson, to someone, since it's too late for you now, you loser. 

Roger, Dodger

Draft dodger and career criminal Trump, who thinks public servants, including the military, are losers who couldn't cut it in the private sector, has suddenly become a fan since the military is one big-ass toy. So this is about Trump's mojo, which he is missing and trying to find. And nothing says mojo like blowing shit up so Trump is identifying with certain airmen and trying to use them when he's flown everything he's been in charge of right into the ground. Right, Donald, keep looking for your manhood. That activity is causing you to fly a country into the ground, with extensive collateral damage, and you'll be remembered as the worst president in history, you unbelievable fucking idiot.