Stop the Idiocracy: April 2023

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Climate change is creating longer and more intense pollen seasons

J. Conrad Williams/Newsday/Getty Images

Leading adults to develop seasonal allergies they did not grow up with. {NBC News 4/25}

Disney sues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his petty ‘targeted campaign of government retaliation’ waged against the company

John Raoux/AP

Either we believe individuals and corporations should be protected from punishment for their opinions and beliefs, or we do not. DeSantis clearly does not, and is making himself a national laughingstock as he continues to issue baseless threats against his state’s biggest employer and tourist draw. {AP 4/26}

Zelensky and Xi hold their first telephone call since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began

Reuters

At the end of the day, the Chinese government and Xi are never to be trusted. One can see, however, why Zelensky would be eager to drive a wedge between Putin and Putin’s most important benefactor. {BBC 4/26}

Poll: More than a quarter of Americans, and nearly sixty-five percent of Republicans, will back Trump in 2024, even if he is found guilty of a crime

The Economist

They’re a hopeless cult, and they vote in far greater numbers than you. Fix that. {Marist 4/25}

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Another example of how it is becoming increasingly dangerous to oppose nationalist populists in our communities

A citizen journalist documents how her small county in northern California has succumbed to the will of #Cult45 extremists, and receives death threats and constant harassment for doing so. {The Guardian 4/22}

President Biden announces his re-election bid

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Your choice, #Murica: Are you going to keep whining about this president - because he is ‘too old,’ or because one believes the phony allegations of election fraud in 2020 - or are you going to allow the orange jackass, who is an old man himself and created this entire mess, back into power? Considering that I have less-than-zero faith in the people of this country, at this moment I am betting on the latter. We narrowly dodged a bullet in 2020, when a slim plurality - not a majority - of Americans voted Donald Trump out of office. Millions just did not bother to vote, and I am predicting even millions more will opt out in 2024 as political fatigue is at an all-time high, on top of the fact that zealots are intimidating ordinary people into silence and compliance. The nationalist populists - a/k/a #Cult45, a/k/a neo-fascists - are simply more motivated than anyone else, and the majority are completely unwilling and/or unable to put up a fight. I pray that I am wrong and President Biden will be re-elected in a landslide; but I really do not think the bastards are not going to let it happen, nor will most lift a finger to oppose the bastards. Indeed, they have yet to do so in any meaningful way. {AP 4/25}

Fox News rids itself of a notorious propagandist for neo-fascism, but does anything actually change?

Jason Koerner/Getty Images

As everyone knows by now, Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. Nothing really to see here, as far as I am concerned: One costs their company nearly a billion dollars, of course they are going to lose their job. But, Fox will merely replace him with another propagandist pushing the same rotten, nation-killing agenda. Furthermore, all those in #Cult45 saying they are ‘done with Fox’ are LYING! Repeat, they are lying. Hell, they probably have Fox News on their televisions at the very moment they are posting that they are ‘done’ with it. Fox News is not in any trouble and will continue to be the top rated cable news channel. Not an endorsement, need I point out, but a reality check. Fox News is a drug, and the junkies will keep getting their fix, with or without F**ker Carlson. And the country will continue to rot, and our liberties will keep on eroding. {Read Umair Haque - ‘How hate figures like Tucker Carlson set fire to American democracy,’ and especially the part about how the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ruined everything. Medium 4/25}

Sunday, April 23, 2023

One of only two remaining survivors of the USS Arizona battleship sunk during the Pearl Harbor attacks has died

Keystone/Getty Images

Ken Potts was 102 years-old. {AP 4/22}

Apparent Twitter algorithm change benefits Russian, Iranian, and Chinese state media

Elon Musk goes out of his way to appease dictators, and to flood the platform with yet more truther conspiracy garbage and anti-American propaganda. {DFRLab 4/21}

Global supplies of rice at a twenty-year low

Getty Images

The severe effects of climate change in Asia, the war on Ukraine, and export restrictions enacted by the Indian government lead to higher prices for one of the world’s most consumed staples. {CNBC 4/19}

Saturday, April 22, 2023

NYT report: ‘Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira may have begun leaking classified documents less than 48 hours after Russia invaded Ukraine’

Lock him up, throw away the key. {Boston 25 4/22}

WSJ poll: GOP rank-and-file more concerned with fighting ‘woke’ ideology than with protecting Social Security

Forbes

Take nothing for granted when it comes to Social Security and Medicare, and nor where it comes to #Cult45: The millions who are proving they are willing to suffer if it means the people they hate suffer worse. The Republicans are hellbent on eliminating that which belongs to us, and at this rate they are going to fully succeed. {Axios 4/21}

The Russian military hopes to recruit up to 400,000 professional soldiers as volunteers, launches a propaganda campaign encouraging male citizens to be ‘real men’ and leave their home to fight in Ukraine

Anton Vaganov/Reuters

Real men do not maim women and children. Real men do not take what does not belong to them. With a small number of brave and noble exceptions, Russians are merely brutes and ogres. {Reuters 4/20}

‘Russia has admitted accidentally striking one of its own cities near Ukraine after a large explosion left two women injured and damaged buildings’

Ineptitude kills. Russians living in these border regions are in grave danger. {Sky News 4/21}

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, visits Ukraine to pledge continued support

Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Declares that Ukraine’s ‘rightful place’ is as a future member of NATO, while Denmark and the Netherlands provide more tanks. {AP 4/20}

Germany’s cabinet approves bill to phase out oil and gas heating, outlaw installations of new oil and gas heating systems

Wolfgang Staudt/Flickr

The tyranny of good intentions: Phasing out fossil fuels is going to take decades, and this will place a heavy burden upon older and lower-income residents. {Reuters 4/19}

Why is America still funding the Taliban?

World Atlas

OUTRAGE: ‘The US government’s Afghanistan watchdog told lawmakers Wednesday that he cannot say with certainty that US aid to the country is “not currently funding the Taliban.”’ - Simple solution here: Cut off all aid to Afghanistan, once and for all. Americans and many others gave their blood for those people over a twenty-year period, and this is the thanks they get in the end? Use those funds to help fund Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression. On that note, isn’t it amazing that Ukrainians are fighting like Hell and greatly appreciate every bit of aid they receive; yet, Americans are intent on seeing Ukrainians as to blame for their plight, and Putin as a strong, steady leader who is only defending his country. Furthermore, the threat of Islamic terrorism has completely faded from the minds of Americans, and the Taliban now appears to be a role model for these populists and Christian nationalists. In 2021, led on by our sleazy media and seditious lawmakers, the American people shamefully threw a giant hissy-fit over the ‘botched’ withdrawal from Afghanistan; they pointed the finger of blame at President Biden and the U.S. Armed Forces, but not the Taliban. No more money spent, no more blood given for Afghanistan, for they had their opportunity for liberty and decided they didn’t want it. Much the same as is happening now here in #Murica. {CNN 4/19}

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Selfishness and coldness: What #Murica is all about

A solemn day of remembrance in memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, eighty years-ago

AFP/Getty Images

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier connects the dots and calls out Putin as the modern-day Hitler while speaking at the ceremony marking the anniversary. The world must pay heed. #NeverAgain #StopPutin #StandUpForUkraine {BBC 4/19}

Body modification cult in the UK another sign that the End of Day must be - hopefully - near

If one is absolutely craving yet another reminder of what a sick world we are living in, and they have a strong stomach, go ahead and click on this article about a body modification cult in England. Otherwise, I recommend sparing yourselves the details. {Sky News 4/19}

Social media rudeness need not be tolerated

The rudeness that has been on display, especially of late, is completely unacceptable. To quote Mike Tyson: 'Social media made you all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.' Grown adults who resort to insults and hissy-fits because another person doesn't see things the way they do. Beyond pathetic. I do not come on any of your posts and insult you, I demand the same respect in return. I understand we are a nation of angry, hurtful, violent people, but I am no mood for anybody's bulls**t. Yeah, some folks out there are extremely lucky they don't have to face consequences for being an a**hole.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

New Hampshire’s GOP governor dishes out some needed common sense to his fellow Republicans

Gov Chris Sununu illustrating the problem with the nationalist populism his party has embraced. However, the problem here is that the modern GOP revels in exclusion and supremacism: ‘They’re talking in an echo chamber. What are you doing to grow the team?’ {Mediate 4/17}

False hope - the greatest evil of all

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

If there is anything I hate more than anything else in this world, it is false hope. So, I will never deny that we are f**ked and it is all over but the shouting, no matter how unpopular that makes me. We allowed the haters of humanity - a large number, perhaps the majority, of whom call themselves ‘Christians’ - to gain ultimate power on the rest of us; we gave it all away, not even considering what we were doing. Now it is too late. Fight back as long as one can, yes. I am, but I also know we are not going to win on this evil planet. But by fighting back, maybe our souls will ultimately be at peace beyond this world; while those who hid their evil, bigotry, and ignorance behind the Lord may not. At least I hope so. - A.N.

Rest in Peace, Dr. Charles Stanley

Jeffrey B. Rogers

One of the only television preachers who was actually serious or had any legitimacy whatsoever. Saddened by this news. {FOX 5 Atlanta 4/18}

Trump proposes Federal workers pass civil service test

AFP/Getty Images

Which ‘would include command of due proceess [sic] rights, equal protection, free speech, religious liberty and Fourth Amendment to the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure, which led him to mention the FBI searching his Mar-a-Lago estate in August for classified documents.’ I would be perfectly fine with this idea - more than fine, actually - were it not proposed by a tyrant representing a political party hellbent on conforming all Americans to their perverted will. Any such civics test administered by these people will become a loyalty test. Loyalty not to country, but to Donald Trump and #Cult45. {The Independent 4/17}

Mortality for young Americans increases at an alarming rate

Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker/Ashley Ahn/NPR

Says Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health: ‘Well, we found that death rates increased in that young adult and middle age group. But there was something disturbing in the new data for 2021. Yes, it showed this massive decrease in life expectancy, but it also showed an increase in death rates in children and teenagers. And an increase of that size has not been seen in my entire career.’ {PBS NewsHour 4/16}

DeSantis and Florida Republicans taking their petty hissy-fit against Disney to another level, threaten to move to strip the company of its land

Octavio Jones/Orlando Sentinel

The Governor suggests replacing it with a new state prison. {Miami Herald 4/17}

Upstate New York man charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting woman who turned into his driveway by mistake

Washington County Sheriff's Office

#Murica: Nobody is safe anywhere, in any situation, in such a violent, mean-spirited country. {NPR 4/18}

Free Evan Gershkovich

Pool photo

Russian court rejects Wall Street Journal reporter’s appeal against pre-trial detention on espionage charges. {Sky News 4/18}

Florida middle school teacher under investigation after showing students video portraying the Civil War of 1861-65 as the ‘War to Prevent Southern Independence’

Shutterstock

Confederate fever is spiking once more. {Raw Story 4/15}

'America, where it is a sin to be right too early'

Shutterstock

[‘America, where it is a sin to be right too early’ - Sarah Kendzior, pg. 153 of her book, ‘They Knew,’ 2017.] The violent, uncontrollable, unwanted premonitions I have been suffering for years are quite apparently coming to reality, and at a faster clip. Yesterday was a real doozy for me as far as these visions go; to some degree or another, I am in a state of panic. The inhumanity Americans are showing toward one another in 2023 is extreme, and the actual fighting has not even started in earnest (obviously, blood is being shed, and particularly wherever there are children.) Yes, I am extremely worried, especially as many bury their heads in the sand and insist we will be alright. No, we will not be alright. - A.N.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Putin critic receives 25-year prison sentence

#Cult45 seeks to do the same to anybody who even mildly opposes them. The torrent of hate is not a coincidence. Putin, more so than Trump, is their true leader, and sets a hateful tone. {Reuters 4/17}

2023 is almost making me miss 2020

Illustration: BBC

Sort of missing the pandemic. Not the people dying part, and not really the masks; but I do miss social distancing, and the renewed emphasis on hand-washing and covering one’s mouth when they sneeze or cough. Most of all, I enjoyed that - for once in our wretched lives - the pace of life was slowed down for a little while. We will never be allowed such a respite ever again, even if there is another pandemic of some sort. All of that said, people in general changed for the worse, and we are only at the beginning of the fall-out …

The people of the United States of America are losing their humanity. I’ve been feeling this coming for years - as in, actual panic attacks brought on by these premonitions - and even I am shocked at the anger and vitriol Americans have for each other now. At this rate, I expect a full-on civil war to break out by, at the very latest, November 2024. Quite possibly by the end of this year. At least when we were kept apart from each other, the likelihood of violent conflict was lessened. So, yes, bring back social distancing. For good! - A.N.

SpaceX: Another massive Elon Musk failure

Eric Gay/AP

SpaceX, the world's largest rocket ever built, fails to launch due to technical issue. {AP 4/17}

Democrats should say 'no' to mindless populism

Another indicator that the GOP has completely given itself over to mindless populist boorishness. A/K/A mob rule: The opposite of actual leadership, to say nothing of common sense or humanity. No, somebody has to be the grown-ups in D.C. - A.N.

Reflections on President Biden's trip to Ireland

Photo: By Milesoneill - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27775026

(Written on Friday, April 14) President Biden is in Ballina, Ireland, where I have an ancestral connection myself. Visited there as a toddler (1981), but my memories of it are about non-existent. Watching the live coverage on Sky News, as I have no interest in how the garbage U.S. media is covering it (if they're even bothering.) While I can only claim partial Irish ancestry (around 20% at the very most), my maternal grandmother was an Irish immigrant to America of Scottish and English ancestry. Born in 1910 in Galway (relocating to County Mayo during the first of two or three marriages), she left a daughter behind in Ireland around the time WWII started and then spent the next decade or so living somewhere in England (possibly Manchester.) Whoever my maternal grandfather was, he was apparently from somewhere in Germany (only making me more Germanic and Anglo-Saxon in blood than my paternal line already made me) …

My mother was given up for adoption around the age of four, and was raised by an older Yankee Protestant couple, and I am thankful for that as that woman was a complete wreck of a person (she died in 1992, which was the second of two unfortunate occasions when ‘Auntie Margaret’ - the aforementioned daughter left behind in Ireland - came to these shores for two extended visits; the woman took over my bedroom, and did nothing but bitterly complain about her distaste for America, and being in a Protestant home the whole time) …

As stated above, my memories of Ballina from 42 years-ago are extremely hazy - apart from one incident that will go unspoken except only to say it left a scar for life. I only vaguely recall it being damp, dreary, and rather poor. We did take a cross-country trip to visit the Dublin Zoo, which I am certain was the best part of the trip. In spite of having visited Ireland, my heart and soul is far more connected to England and Germany than any other lands where I have heritage. Many people I grew up around here in the Boston area were purely Irish, and Irish-Catholic at that. By no means do I have as much of a claim to that land as most Irish-Americans have, my spirit, body, and mind are forever WASP. No matter, though, I am still proud to share an ancestral homeland with President Biden, and I am proud that he is honorably representing a not-so-honorable country as ours abroad. Hells, maybe the president and I are distant cousins, and maybe that is why I relate to him. - A.N.

Killing Pepe

Illustration: stripe500 on Deviant Art

At the point where I’m preemptively blocking anyone on social media (predominately on Twitter) promoting Bitcoin, Pepe the Frog and the assorted neo-fascist weirdos and Jew-haters on the far-right, the self-proclaimed socialist authoritarians and ‘free Palestine’ Jew-haters on the hard-left, grifters of any sort (such as the douchebags making a living of telling others how to live), ‘stan’ accounts of inane pseudo-celebrities, the anime freaks, all the gutter trash porn that has zero sex appeal whatsoever, the appalling lack of respect for President Biden, the traditionalist types bemoaning everything about modern society as they play with their cell phones all day and night, the ‘s**tposters’: Need I go on? Who else am I missing? About 95% or more of social media - which still could have such great potential if used properly - is garbage. I am here for the handful who actually have something worthwhile to say, or something of interest to share; for those who are at least trying to work for solutions, instead of becoming the problem as these assorted sickos have. As much of a misanthrope as yours truly can be many times, I do not want to bear witness to genocide in my land and time …

Just about every society in history that has been an autocracy to one degree or another has failed, and these idiots are willing to repeat that tragic history in order to satiate their bloodlust, envy, and bitterness. To justify the vital lies they’ve been fed that their innate confirmation bias holds them slaves to; hence why Trump’s fervent supporters remain so pathetically fervent. Or why televangelist crooks will always get away with siphoning money from their desperate followers. All the while as too many of these people - left and right - are hailing Vladimir Putin, and the slaughter of the Ukrainian people, as well as calling for pogroms against unfavored groups here at home. Leave me out of that nation-killing, soul-destroying nonsense. At least 95% of everyone who uses social media can kiss my royal a**, for real. True colors have come through the past seven years, terminal cancer has set in, and Americans have nobody to blame but themselves.

Four confirmed dead, multiple others injured following shooting at a birthday party in an Alabama dance studio

Going to Hell in a handbasket, we are. {AP 4/16}

President Biden’s industrial policy begins to bear fruit

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

‘The US appears poised for a manufacturing boom as companies tap into Biden administration subsidies with pledges to spend tens of billions of dollars on new projects.’ {FT 4/17} - https://www.ft.com/content/b6cd46de-52d6-4641-860b-5f2c1b0c5622

Saturday, April 1, 2023

March 2023 in review

EITHER WE PUT A FULL STOP TO ALL THIS POPULIST AND EXTREMIST MADNESS THAT HAS INFECTED NEARLY ALL CORNERS OF SOCIETY - be it nationalistic, theocratic, far-left, far-right, pro-Russian, anarchist, paternalistic, misandrist, homophobic, pedophile, hedonistic, puritanical, crony capitalist, communist, fascist, white supremacist, black supremacist, whichever or whatever - or Orwell’s prophecy of the proverbial boot stomping our faces - forever - will be the reality from which we will never escape. At this point, it is the theocrats and the far-right nationalist populists (#Cult45) that have the upper hand and are most likely to successfully divide and conquer. All of them want complete and total control of society, and absolute subjection of every individual. Now, once they conquer, they will start eating each other alive - too many differing agendas lying beneath the surface - but the rest of us won’t have anything to do with that; seeing as we will either be dead or rotting in some concentration camp …

At some point in the next year or two, President Biden will be forced to invoke Martial Law, but I am not counting on that being enough to stop the bleeding and to set us back on the right course. Too many in law enforcement and the military are sympathetic to #Cult45, or are outright part and parcel of it. I hate saying that, and it only increases my appreciation for those officers and soldiers who do honorably uphold their oath to serve and protect. Truly, I wish to believe the honorable ones can successfully stem the tide once the blood begins flowing in earnest, and that our efforts now to push back against extremists will bear fruit; my gut says the future is extremely bleak for America. I seriously doubt I will be around to see what is on the other side of this nightmare - if my health doesn’t fail me, somebody is going to kill me - but for those who are creating this coming hell on earth ... even if they're not reading this, I say to them for when the moment arrives: Enjoy! They will have so earned it.

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The genie is not going back in the bottle: As with the nationalist populist crowd (#Cult45), I do not like the majority of the cultural and socioeconomic changes we have undergone in our lifetimes. Moreover, and this is a general statement, I do not like how people have changed. The 21st century itself has been one giant mistake, yes. America is unrecognizable from when I graduated high school in 1996. The problem I have with populists - beyond their simplistic worldview - is that their solutions to the issues facing us are always so wrong-headed and self-defeating. For all my many faults and errors in judgment, the populist masses embracing a long-proven con-man in Donald Trump was the moment I fully understood beyond doubt that the masses are always going to be stupid asses …

The millions of everyday populists among us can never be taken seriously ever again after making such a massive error in judgment, and then doubling down on their mistake time and again. Attempting to fix a reprobate society by putting the biggest reprobate of all in charge - and then worshiping the man almost as if he is Jesus Christ and demanding the rest of us follow along - is illogical to the extreme. Believing we are ever going to return to an (oftentimes imaginary) glorious past is a pipe dream. Embracing retrograde Christian nationalism, racism, sexism, and Fascism will not bring back the ‘good old days,’ it will only make this dying nation an even more terrible place to live. I do not proclaim to have all the answers to that which ails us, and frankly I am just waiting for the meteor to strike at this point. Just sick of most everyone on all sides; sick of extremists of all stripes imposing themselves on others; sick of the hypocrisy; sick of the inhumanity; sick of all of the damn bulls**t, period. My tolerance for the endless noise and nonsense has run out …

To quote C.S. Lewis: ‘(T)hose who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.’

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PUTIN’S WAR OF AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE

‘Russian President Vladimir Putin planned a “total cleansing” of Ukraine with “house-to-house terror” to subdue its people, leaked spy documents reportedly show’ - #Cult45 and its leader all obey Putin, and this is an example of why. For years, I have had premonitions of enraged Trump followers going door-to-door and demanding everyone’s loyalty; and I believe it will happen, to one extent or another. The willingness - ‘eagerness’ may be a more appropriate word - of #Cult45 to abuse, even kill, fellow Americans is only growing in its severity. When that day of reckoning is upon us, will we display even half the tenacity and character of the Ukrainian people in their fight against the Russian barbarians? Fact is, Ukrainians were prepared for at least eight years, or longer, to do battle. Most Americans are not going to fare well when the blood starts flowing in earnest here, probably myself included (my area of the country is not quite as likely to see mass violence, but that is also not an absolute given.) The time to stop this madness was about 25 years ago: We went down too many slippery slopes, and I really do not believe there is any coming back for America. For Ukraine, I have far greater faith. #StopPutin #StandUpForUkraine {NY Post 3/25}

Putin to call up another 147,000 conscripts between April 1 and July 15 - Welcome to Russia, where young men are nothing more than cannon fodder for a madman’s desperate and unlawful crusade to bring Ukraine to its knees. {Meduza 3/30}

Bakhmut: Civilians escape the approaching enemy on foot, using makeshift bridges, while Ukrainian troops may be about to ‘conduct a limited and controlled withdrawal from particularly difficult sections’ of the city. {AP 3/04}

‘Operations to defend the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut will go on, and are backed by senior generals, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.’ {BBC 3/06}

Putin to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, cites the U.S. having said weapons in several European countries as justification - Playing a very dangerous game, allowing a tinpot dictator such as Lukashenko access to nukes. {AP 3/25}

‘Morality shouldn’t get in the way’ - Russian state media’s propagandists are outright genocidal and psychopathic in their rhetoric, but also increasingly nervous and full of despair, as Putin’s forces continue to flounder in Ukraine. {Julia Davis 3/13}

‘The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.’ {AP 3/17}

‘Washington's top general said the crash of a U.S. surveillance drone after being intercepted by Russian jets showed Moscow's increasingly aggressive behaviour while Russia warned Washington that flying drones near Crimea risked escalation.’ {Reuters 3/15}

IAEA chief visits the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant following a meeting with Zelensky. {DW 3/29}

The nerve of this man - ‘Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September and a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.’ {AP 3/19}

Xi gets a warm welcome in Moscow - Delivers a twelve-step ‘peace plan’ that would call for a ceasefire, but would not include removing Russian troops from Ukraine’s territory. {BBC 3/20}

‘“Navalny,” a look at a Russian opposition leader following an attempt on his life, has won the Oscar for best documentary feature’ - Don’t care about the Oscars, but grateful they’re bringing attention to Alexei Navalny’s plight. Apparently, he is in really rough shape. Putin is a monster. {AP 3/13}

Reuters

GEOPOLITICS & WORLD NEWS

The Xi regime in China announces a seven percent military budget increase, warns of escalating threats at National People’s Congress. {BBC 3/05}

Deal brokered by China - ‘Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to re-establish relations after years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.’ {Reuters 3/10}

‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused his signature plan to overhaul Israel's judiciary after a day of nationwide turmoil when workers joined a general strike against the proposal and hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets.’ {Reuters 3/27}

‘Iranian authorities have arrested more than 100 people in connection with a recent wave of suspected poisonings of schoolgirls across the country, believed to have been an attempt to stop them from attending school.’ {Sky News 3/16}

Conspiracy theorist/survivalist family in Switzerland commits mass suicide - with just one member surviving - after a welfare visit from police. {BBC 3/21}

Humza Yousaf selected as the new Scottish minister, the first Muslim to lead a major British party. {BBC 3/27}

‘Britain has reasserted its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands after Argentina pulled out of a cooperation agreement and demanded new talks over the South Atlantic territory that sparked a 1982 war between the two countries.’ {AP 3/04}

Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call

NATIONAL NEWS

TRUMP BECOMES FIRST FORMER PRESIDENT TO BE CHARGED WITH A CRIME - #JustSaying: As thrilled as I am that the orange bastard will finally have to face justice, #Cult45 is about to explode, and the streets of this country will be flowing with blood tonight and in the days to come. Do NOT take the threat lightly, and do NOT underestimate how angry they are at fellow Americans for not standing beside them (among other reasons.) They honestly believe the rest of us are obligated to see the world as they do, and to live our lives as *they* see fit. Anybody who supported Trump from the get-go - remember, there has never been a more obvious conman - did so to spite the rest of us. These Trump supporters made a subconscious decision to no longer be rational actors, and it was 100% to spite society-at-large. It is a cult! Probably best stay away from the Trump supporters in your lives for a while. Even if they are not violent people, or otherwise good people apart from politics, they are going to be unpleasant to be around. The only thing I have to say to any Trump supporter, the #MAGA crowd, right now is this: ‘Cope harder, snowflakes.’ And mind your manners, respect the rule of law, take off the tin-foil hats, and respect your fellow Americans. {AP 3/30}

Trump prepares to turn himself into prosecutors in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday (April 4), while the NYPD prepares for #Cult45 big babies to throw a giant hissy-fit - Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson is quoted in the article as saying that it is ‘probably not the best time to give up your AR-15.’ Nobody tells me these people are not inciting violence; nobody tells me they are not Fascists. The evidence is overwhelming, staring us all right in the face. President Biden, the DOJ, the FBI, and all relevant authorities need to take drastic action and start cracking some heads; otherwise, it will be the rest of us getting our heads cracked. George Orwell never wrote truer words than these: ‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’ When Trump and the entire cabal around him tells the American people, ‘they’re coming for you,’ they are just projecting their own intentions onto their political enemies. Full stop. {NYT 3/31}

LOVING THIS LITTLE #MAGA FANTASY I AM SEEING ALL OVER TWITTER: That the rest of us are suddenly going to put aside years of disgust with Trump to rally to his side now. Hence all these predictions that indictment is actually going to help Trump in the 2024 election. Delusion, or a form of intimidation? Their brains are so far gone that they honestly believe they are doing God’s will, and anyone who stands in the way is Satanic. It is sick, and probably for naught anyway, as I do not believe it is likely we will have an election next year. #Cult45 is going to force President Biden’s hand to declare martial law if they do not get ahold of their senses soon. Meanwhile, the other side (or ‘our side,’ such as it is) is being absolutely too cavalier concerning the threat posed to them by their fellow Americans in #Cult45. We are not prepared for what is coming. These freaks *really* want all of us to either die, or join them; just look at their rants and read between the lines. Eager to make it happen. #MAGA is a hate movement against modern American society. I will take death before I ever submit to the true Satanists among us. ‘Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil,’ as it is written in Isaiah 5:20. What I really would wish to see happen is for all of these people to find their humanity and sense again, and to admit they all made a grievous error in judgment. But that is not going to happen.

Marco Bello/Reuters

(posted March 18) Trump says he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in connection with the Manhattan case, calls for #Cult45 to ‘PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!’ (re: violence) - FTA: ‘Law enforcement officials in New York have been making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted.’ Every law enforcement agency in every state, city, and town in this country better start preparing. Frankly, I am terrified, and I am not the only one who has been saying - for many years now - that all of this is going to end tragically. J6 was but a foretaste of the chaos to come, and it will only take but a fraction of #Cult45 to unleash carnage the likes of which we have never seen here. Do not underestimate their hatred for the rest of this country, nor their devotion to the one who gave them permission to openly hate again. Remember these people are armed to the teeth. Know that at least some law enforcement and military are going to betray their oaths in service to their favorite former president. Know that if and when they succeed in intimidating the rest of the general public and completely taking over the government, it will be open season on any American who did not board the ‘Trump Train,’ especially minorities, LGBTQ, etc. In the end, nobody is safe. Study what happened to the German people in Hitler’s wake. Not a single German citizen was left unscathed when it was all said and done. Damn you to Hell, Donald Trump, for what you have done to this country and its people. {AP 3/18}

‘Police in major US cities are on alert for potential unrest in case former President Donald Trump is arrested this week as part of a hush-money inquiry.’ {BBC 3/20}

Trump says there will be ‘death and destruction’ if/when he is charged in the Manhattan case - Not a prediction on his part, and not mere hyperbole, but an order to his lemmings. Going back to 2016, I’ve been saying this is all going to end in horror. How I wish I had been wrong. {WP 3/24}

#Cult45 comes through with another $1.5 million in campaign donations in the three days after Trump claimed he was going to be arrested. {Insider 3/23}

‘Prosecutors in the special counsel's office have presented compelling preliminary evidence that former President Donald Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials …’ {ABC News 3/21}

Toady Sean Hannity edits out part of a radio interview with Trump where the former (and perhaps future) president says he would be willing to negotiate a deal to hand over parts of Ukraine to Putin. {New York Magazine 3/09}

‘Pivot to being deferential' - Former Tucker Carlson producer confirms that Fox News is terrified of its #Cult45 viewership, therefore will not report accurately on conspiracy theories or anything unflattering to their orange master. {Mediate 3/13}

Trump-aligned super PAC files a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics, alleging that Ron DeSantis is illegally running a ‘shadow presidential campaign’ - While everyone knows Trump and the word ‘ethics’ do not belong in the same sentence, this particular activist group probably has a valid point. Stand out of the way, and allow these vultures to devour each other. {CNBC 3/15}

Ron DeSantis talks out of both sides of his mouth on a potential indictment of Trump, but ultimately declares he will not interfere - Far be it for me to defend DeSantis, but #Cult45 is enraged at the Florida governor today: What the hell do they expect him to do? Call out the National Guard to fight federal law enforcement? Nutbags. {CNN 3/20}

DeSantis says defending Ukraine is not a vital interest of the United States - Electing this clown president would not be in our national interest. Preventing nuclear armageddon and crippling an avowed enemy of this country are the single-most pertinent national security issues we have. Unfit to lead. {Reuters 3/13}

DeSantis appears to clarify previous comments on Ukraine, declares Putin a war criminal. {NBC News 3/22}

While #Cult45 embraces Vladimir Putin, President Biden calls him out as a war criminal. {Reuters 3/17}

‘Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will travel to Jerusalem next month and speak at a museum event as Israel faces a spiraling domestic crisis, giving the potential 2024 presidential candidate a stage to tout his foreign policy credentials.’ {AP 3/27}

Still their lord and master - Trump delights the crowd at CPAC; former Brazilian president Bolsonaro and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake show up to complain about their elections being ‘stolen.’ {Reuters 3/04}

Leading Republicans in denial over Trump’s chances in 2024 - Seventy-two percent of GOP voters without a college degree, according to an Emerson poll, are still standing behind Trump. The true number is probably higher. Pathetic to see the GOP establishment making the same mistake in reasoning they made in 2016: The rubes of America are loyal to Donald Trump, and he and they have this spineless party by the throat. {Axios 3/14}

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Why we’re still stuck in Trump’s world - ‘The Republican Party’s swing voters are in a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil mood.’ {WP 3/26}

Alex Jones predicts the ‘deep state’ will murder Trump if he is returned to high office in 2024. {Raw Story 3/26}

The late Jeffrey Epstein’s brother says the pedophile stopped hanging around Donald Trump ‘when he realized Trump was a crook.’ {Insider 3/11}

‘The Republican-led House failed on Thursday to override President Joe Biden's veto of a resolution that would have prevented retirement fund managers from accounting for certain social factors when making investment decisions.’ {ABC News 3/23}

Tennessee’s lieutenant governor ‘pauses’ social media after repeatedly lusting over a young gay model on Twitter - Says he sees ‘no contradiction’ between his support for the GOP’s social agenda, and his homosexuality and interest in pornography. {AP 3/13}

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) calls public libraries ‘liberal grooming centers’ and calls for them to be replaced with ‘church-owned alternatives’ - Any semblance of sanity these people once had has been obliterated. The future is bleak. {MSNBC 3/24}

Can’t make up this level of stupid - ‘A Florida charter school principal has been ousted after multiple parents complained that their sixth graders were made to view pornography—because they looked at Michelangelo’s iconic statue of David.’ {Reuters 3/23}

Mile-long lines at food banks in Appalachia as COVID-era SNAP benefits come to an end - Foreshadowing ‘a summer of misery as food prices continue to soar due to inflation.’ {WP 3/04}

The U.S. Armed Services are failing to meet recruitment goals; ‘(L)ess than a quarter of Americans ages 17 to 24 years old eligible to serve — and just 9 percent willing to do so.’ - At this rate, the return of conscription is going to be necessary. {WP 3/22}

House Republicans wasting taxpayer dollars on traveling ‘field hearings.’ {NYT 3/05}

Phil Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport who was the president’s nominee to head up the FAA, backs out after (mostly GOP) lawmakers raise questions about his qualifications. {Reuters 3/25}

‘A Massachusetts man and former Boston police officer was arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges, including assaulting a law enforcement officer and civil disorder, for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.’ {WCVB 3/30}

Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and January 6 rioter is sentenced to two years in federal prison - Judge refuses to grant leniency due to the defendant’s incendiary rhetoric on social media. {WP 3/17}

New Jersey Jew-hater arrested and charged with death threats against a Florida sheriff who announced a crackdown on antisemitic hate groups. {WINS 3/15}

‘Both conservative and liberal Americans share fake news because they don’t want to be ostracized from their social circles, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.’ {APA 3/09}

‘Three people are dead, four are missing and several others are injured after an explosion at a chocolate factory Friday in West Reading, Pennsylvania, police and city officials said.’ {ABC News 3/25}

Thieves stole an estimated 153,000 catalytic converters from cars in the United States in 2022. {Boston 25 3/16}

Just another day in #Murica, where the natives are at once horrified and yet loath to do anything to fix the problem - ‘A female shooter wielding two “assault-style” rifles and a pistol killed three students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.’ {AP 3/27}

Crazy woman holding ‘I support Trump’ sign pulls knife on a family with two children outside Manhattan Criminal Court - Lines right up with everything I have been warning about. {Politico 3/28}

Elon Musk announces another change to Twitter, only those with the blue check will have posts recommended to other users after April 15 - So transparent in his intentions to ensure Twitter is exclusively a right-wing echo chamber. Eventually, he is going to say ‘pay up’ just for the privilege of posting or even having an account. Actually, I would have been for such a thing, that is if Twitter was a trustworthy company run by trustworthy, non-partisan individuals. Elon is not trustworthy, and therefore only his fans - more or less, #Cult45 - will be willing to pay. If you are not a public figure and you have a blue tick beside your name now, then you are a dupe. {BBC 3/28}

Jason Beaubien/NPR

COVID-19 & OTHER HEALTH NEWS

One single animal may have begat the COVID-19 pandemic - People are still going to cling to their stupid created-in-a-lab theories, but it was reported by multiple sources right from the very beginning that this zoonotic plague likely originated at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China. Additional evidence of this has emerged. {NYT 3/16}

Former Surgeon General under Trump says he struggled to find work after leaving office - Jerome Adams made a total fool of himself at the height of the pandemic, and he knows it. #ETTD {Political Tribune 3/17}

East Palestine, OH - ‘Mobile health clinics and camera crews have begun to pack up and leave this town of 4,700, but … frightening questions remain: How could they know if they had been poisoned by the spill? Were toxins still lingering in the air, the water and the soil surrounding their houses? Would they develop lifelong health problems?’ {NYT 3/18}

Ohio AG announces state lawsuit against Norfolk Southern over train derailment. {CNN 3/14}

With an assist from Elon Musk’s Twitter, pro-Russian trolls successfully conducted a coordinated campaign to spread disinformation about the Norfolk Southern train derailment in northeast Ohio. {AP 3/18}

‘Minnesota agencies announced this week they are monitoring the cleanup of about 400,000 gallons of radioactive water that leaked from a nuclear generating plant near Minneapolis this past fall.’ {ABC News 3/17}

‘The portion of pediatric mental health hospitalizations involving suicidal or self-harming behavior rose to 64.2 percent in 2019, from 30.7 percent in 2009. As a proportion of overall pediatric hospitalizations, suicidal behavior rose to 12.7 percent in 2019 from 3.5 percent in 2009.’ {NYT 3/28}

Meat contaminated with E. coli is identified as a likely cause of hundreds of urinary tract infections in the U.S. on an annual basis. {NYT 3/27}

‘US health officials say that eyedrops may have killed one person and severely injured several others due to drug-resistant bacterial contamination.’ {BBC 3/16}

Rural Idaho hospital will no longer deliver babies, cites ‘legal and political climate’ as a major factor in their decision. {WP 3/21}

‘Is a paternalistic approach always right?’ Brookline, MA, has a law banning anyone born in the year 2000 and afterward from ever purchasing cigarettes in the town - The Nanny State strikes again. To the Town of Brookline, snootbag, overrated town you are: We have much bigger problems to worry about than if kids or anyone else are smoking cigarettes. I began smoking when I was around 13 (full-time around 16 or 17), and I turned out okay. Actually, no, I did not, but that did not have much or anything at all to do with cigarettes. Still enjoy them now in my mid-40s, and I am grateful I came of age when I did: In a time when kids and teens were not expected by society to be perfect little angels all the damn time, and we were given - to one degree or another - liberty to have some freedom and to make mistakes without the constant presence of ‘helicopter’ parents and other busybody adults regulating every last thing we do. That was before 9/11, before everything went just bonkers. Think I will go have myself a smoke now. {The Guardian 3/31}

CLIMATE CHANGE

Prayers for all affected by the deadly tornadoes across the South, particularly in Mississippi - The damage is horrific, and apparently more tornadoes are possible on Sunday in certain regions. Hoping none of my social media contacts down that way - and there are a few - were in harm’s way. {AP 3/25}

The Interior Department approves Alaskan oil project, known as Willow, upsetting environmental activists - Until alternative forms of energy become more practical, affordable and widely available, people are going to have to accept that we still need fossil fuels to live. {WP 3/13

Claude Paris/AP

MISC.

Extremely saddened to learn of Wayne Shorter’s passing - Some of my favorite songs ever written were performed by this man and the many amazing musicians he worked with: ‘Young and Fine,’ ‘Miracle of the Fishes,’ ‘Spanish Key,’ ‘Deluge,’ ‘Birdland,’ and that’s not even scratching the surface. A great musician and an even greater man. Rest in Peace, Wayne Shorter. {NPR 3/02}

The lessons of Wayne Shorter, engine of imagination. {NPR 3/07}

RIP, Gary Rossington - Nobody was ever more devoted to this band. Is there a Lynyrd Skynyrd without him? No, I don’t think so, time to finally put it to rest. But between 1973 and 1977, there never was a finer and more fiery Southern rock band. {SPIN 3/05}

Evening Standard/Getty Images

Happy 50th to Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, released on March 28, 1973. A stone-cold classic, not a single bad moment on it. It has always been impossible for me to rank Zeppelin's records, because they are nearly all of such high and consistent quality. Some people may get sick of hearing 'D'yer Maker' on the radio all the time (not yours truly, but I've seen that sentiment expressed many times over the years), 'The Crunge' is a bit of an oddity, and the cover art wouldn't pass muster today. But any recording containing as poignant and moving a ballad as 'The Rain Song,' or as haunting and ethereal a track as 'No Quarter,' and an all-time groovy 'banger' (as the kids say today) as 'Dancing Days' deserves its status as being among the greatest musical albums of both its time, and of all-time.

Pink Floyd

Fifty years of Dark Side of the Moon, and why it still resonates so strongly in spite of being ‘very much a product of its era’ - FTA: ‘The early 1970s were prog-rock’s heyday, particularly in Britain, where bands like Genesis, King Crimson and Yes were constructing suite-length songs and unveiling elaborate conceits. But the early 1970s were also a time when the utopian promises of the hippie era were fading, pushed back by entrenched interests and corporate co-optation. “Dark Side” captures naïve hopes falling away.

‘It was Pink Floyd’s eighth album, the continuation of a cult career that had been synonymous with psychedelia and progressive rock: with extended structures and open-ended jams, with verbal conundrums and with an oh-wow appreciation of reverberant textures and spatial effects.’ {NYT 3/03}

Vid.me

The infamous ‘Turner Doomsday’ video - Upon the founding of CNN in 1980, founder Ted Turner had a ‘sign-off’ video produced to be aired only in the event of the world ending. Setting up a military brass band outside of his Atlanta mansion, they produced this haunting rendition of ‘Nearer My God to Thee.’ Long believed to be a hoax, its existence was proven when it was leaked to the public in 2015.

The 700 year-old chair to be used for the upcoming coronation of King Charles III found to be covered in centuries-old graffiti. {Sky News 3/01}

Shohei Ohtani and Japan win the World Baseball Classic, defeating the United States in the championship game - An event for the ages, truly excellent. Meaningful baseball in March is a good thing. {ESPN 3/22}