Stop the Idiocracy: Judicial Matters

Showing posts with label Judicial Matters. Show all posts

Monday, August 31, 2026

The web tightens

A dark, symbolic illustration depicts a cavernous surveillance chamber dominated by a circular table bearing an intricate silver spider’s web and an array of chess pieces. Glowing monitors cover the surrounding walls with abstract data patterns, while fine strings descend from crossed beams overhead, suggesting manipulation and concealed control. An open steel vault emits an eerie green-white light as loose documents escape into the room, while an hourglass on the table evokes secrecy, power and time running out.

image generated via ChatGPT

‘Penetrate the elite’: documents reveal international criminal Andrew Tate urged the lowlifes taking his online courses to engage in espionage against the rich and powerful; also instructed them on ‘building a bottom b**ch’. {Straight Arrow News 28 August}

https://san.com/cc/manosphere-influencer-andrew-tate-faces-sexual-misconduct-charges-a-data-leak-is-exposing-his-secrets/

FTA: A leak of sensitive information from “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate’s online empire reveals that his “War Room” program teaches men to accumulate wealth, attract and control women and “penetrate” the elite, including by exploiting the sexual misbehavior of wealthy acquaintances.

The data provide new insight into the business operations of Andrew Tate, a British-American citizen who has reportedly cultivated relationships with Donald Trump Jr., Barron Trump and other figures on the American right even as he and his brother, Tristan, have defended themselves against accusations of sexual assault in two countries.

Material included in the leak shows that the “Penetrating the Elite” class in Tate’s War Room program — little known outside the organization — offers “espionage” training for subscribers aimed at digging up secrets on wealthy individuals for leverage in business deals. Another class teaches participants to categorize women into “exploitable types” who can be manipulated — and, if they don’t follow rules, disciplined.

A security researcher provided the data to Straight Arrow and to the leak-archiving organization DDoSecrets. The researcher detected the leak as the Tate brothers — Andrew is 39; Tristan, 38 — are being held in a federal detention center in Miami while they fight extradition to the United Kingdom to face charges involving at least four alleged victims. In a hearing this week, a federal prosecutor said Andrew Tate is accused in the U.K. of choking and holding victims and raping them, and his brother is accused of human trafficking, money laundering and violence against minors.

“They promote incredible violence against women consistent with the allegations against them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie Waxman told the judge.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Sunday, August 30, 2026

The papers still fly

A richly painterly illustration depicts a brunette woman seated barefoot upon a cluttered wooden desk in a shadowy academic office at night. She wears an oversized cream shirt loosely draped from one shoulder, with one knee raised as she gazes calmly towards the viewer. Warm lamplight illuminates her figure, an open notebook, scattered papers, spectacles, cameras and coffee mugs, contrasting with the deep blue moonlight beyond tall open windows. Loose sheets appear to flutter through the room on a nocturnal breeze. Outside, beneath a luminous full moon, the Gothic towers of a university campus rise among dark trees, their glowing windows reinforcing the scholarly setting and atmosphere of hard-won intellectual freedom.

image generated via ChatGPT

Federal judge rules the Trump regime cannot deport foreign-born students for being critical of Israel. {AP 29 August}

https://apnews.com/article/israel-protests-deportations-ideological-d3694ba08ab714eb9441ca51a83fa57f

FTA: Judge Noël Wise, in a ruling Friday, delivered a victory for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which has said some international students were afraid to speak out because of the deportation threat.

“Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only ‘free’ to express complementary views about the government and its leaders,” the judge wrote.

The decision largely piggybacks on findings from nearly a year ago by a U.S. district judge in Boston, who ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted people who are not citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel.

Wise wrote that the freedoms of speech and the press are “foundational to America’s enduring democracy.” The judge cited free-speech and vagueness flaws that violate the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment as she struck down portions of the provisions that the federal government follows regarding deportations.

Wise cited retaliation in March 2025 by U.S. immigration authorities against people who engaged in speech supporting the Palestinians and against Israel’s actions — which a growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said amount to genocide. The judge also cited retaliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk after the Turning Point USA co-founder was assassinated last September.

“Tomorrow, or perhaps even today, targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like,” the judge in San Jose said.

“This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely,” she added. “Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it. Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country’s powerful lack of fear.”

The Justice Department did not respond Saturday to a message seeking comment on the decision.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Trump’s appointment of his personal lawyer as Attorney General is an old trick drawn from the timeworn playbook of tyrants

A lavish allegorical illustration depicts Lady Liberty amid the theatrical collapse of American civic institutions. Crowned with Liberty’s spikes and dressed in an ornate ivory corseted gown with translucent robes, she stands before a monumental empty throne, holding a small illuminated torch. Scores of women crowd the grand chamber, applauding, carrying towering stacks of documents, dismantling marble balustrades or handling heavy golden chains. Broken masonry, scales of justice and papers surround Liberty, while dark red liquid courses through cracks in the floor. Patriotic bunting and opulent architecture heighten the unsettling contrast between ceremonial grandeur and institutional disintegration.

image generated via ChatGPT

Ruth Ben-Ghiat — Todd Blanche, the latest tool: how autocrats use personal lawyers. {Lucid 11 August}

https://lucid.substack.com/p/todd-blanche-the-latest-tool-how

It required millions of enablers, distributed across nearly every sector of society, and an unprecedented mass brainwashing campaign, to make it happen: the now-former United States of America hath come to revolve entirely around the ego and ambitions of a single individual. Somehow, all of this hath been largely normalised, such that any earnest endeavour to correct course shall be met with violent resistance from a terrifyingly substantial — and heavily armed — segment of the general populace.

FTA: The appointment of President Donald Trump’s personal criminal lawyer, Todd Blanche, as Attorney General, is the latest sign that America is experiencing a form of personalist rule. This is a form of autocracy which organizes governance around the self-preservation of a leader whose private interests prevail over national ones in shaping domestic and foreign policy.

While it is more common in established regimes, personalist rule can emerge in degraded democracies, such as Italy under Silvio Berlusconi, and in countries in transition from democracy to autocracy, which is the case with today’s America.

Personalist leaders have no interest in public welfare or serving the people. Holding public office is a vehicle of private enrichment for them, their families, and their allies, and a means of finally solving their abundant legal, financial, and other problems once and for all.

Having the right custodian of justice, who real job is freeing the autocrat from the obligations and burden of obeying the law, is key to success.

‘Personalist rule’. Now, remember fellow #Muricans, you are deranged (afflicted with ‘TDS’), a Communist, and hate Jesus Himself if you perceive anything whatsoever amiss with the USA becoming Trumpistan. God bless President Trump — we would be unable to wipe our own asses absent his divine guidance and providential wisdom. Sarcasm aside, there hath not been a single day in the past ten years — including throughout the four years of his exile, during which we remained subjected to him in the media cycle around the clock nonetheless — upon which I have not shaken my head in disbelief and disgust. Revulsion partially towards Donald Trump himself, and even greater anger at all the people around us who have forced us to undergo this ordeal. And disbelief, always — for this extreme state of affairs is absurd to the nth degree, and all efforts to normalise it must be vehemently rejected.

Yet, it is only getting worse. Trump himself grows worse; the #MAGA rank-and-file grow worse; and the country is in the throes of a dystopian nightmare. Whilst an exceedingly modest number of his followers and enablers have latterly turned away — in certain of these instances, precisely because Trump hath not gone as far (yet) in the direction of totalitarianism as they would like, or because he is too cosy with Israel for their Jew-hating sensibilities — the vast majority are standing by their man, and the GOP is goosestepping in unison. We are not waking up from this nightmare anytime soon; and do not count on it being over by 20 January 2029, for the groundwork is being laid, quite unmistakably, to establish him as President-for-life.

What y’all voted for, #Murica. And I know, ‘y’all’ remain thoroughly pleased with yourselves. In due course, however, karma will come for thee.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

The deficit of a dying empire

$A lavish allegorical illustration depicts Lady Liberty as a weary blonde woman seated amid the ruins of American civic and financial institutions. Wearing a fractured crown and flowing ivory and pale-blue robes, she holds a diminished torch while monumental buildings crumble behind her. Enormous golden chains coil around shattered architecture, towers and stairways. Mountains of coins and abandoned wheelchairs lie among papers cascading from government buildings, while dark red liquid stains the steps below. An elaborate celestial mechanism looms overhead, reinforcing themes of debt, institutional decay and a nation constrained by its own obligations.$

image generated via ChatGPT

US budget deficit soars to its highest level since March 2021; tariff refunds accounting for a fair portion of the increase. {CNBC 12 August}

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/12/us-budget-deficit-surged-in-july-to-highest-level-since-march-2021.html

FTA: The July shortfall totaled $432.3 billion, up some 48% from the same period a year ago and the largest monthly deficit since March 2021.

Medicare expenses for the month totaled $174 billion, up from $103 billion in June and now at $955 billion for the full year. It was the single largest expenditure in July, well ahead of the $141 billion spent on Social Security and $104 billion in net interest on the national debt.

Tariff refunds also hit the budget, costing $33 billion as the administration continues to provide rebates for levies that the Supreme Court ruled illegal. Additionally, the budget took a $99 billion hit because the first of the month was a nonbusiness day, accelerating various benefits outlays as well as Supplemental Security Income and Medicare payments.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Blind justice, black gold

$A monochromatic editorial illustration depicts a grand neoclassical courthouse whose marble façade has split dramatically from roof to steps, symbolising a profound institutional fracture. Nine ornate judicial chairs line the shattered roof, several tilted precariously and one overturned, while heavy chains coil around towering Corinthian columns. Unbalanced scales of justice hang above a large hourglass standing in the darkened entrance. Thick black liquid seeps from cracks in the stone and pools at the foot of the broken staircase, where gnarled roots creep through fractured masonry. Storm clouds gather overhead, pierced by a single shaft of sunlight, with a distant oil derrick visible on the far horizon.$

image generated via ChatGPT

Reportedly holding millions in oil/gas assets, Alito declines recusal from case that could shield US firms from foreign litigation. {The Guardian 11 August}

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/11/samuel-alito-oil-gas-assets-supreme-court-analysis

Constitutional reform of the high court: yet another vitally important matter that the dominant white working-class electorate — the #MAGA hordes and the legions of Christian Nationalists, none too fond of democracy by nature, foremost among them — and their Republican overlords shall never permit to be addressed. For my own part, there is considerable doubt that expansion of the court is the proper remedy; I am, however, wholeheartedly in favour of abolishing lifetime appointments, instituting strict term limits, and putting an end to the practice of judicial infallibility — for if we dug hard enough into the conduct of all nine sitting Justices, we would almost certainly uncover behaviour warranting removal from office in more than one instance. At present, we possess virtually no workable mechanism by which Justices may be held to account; what constitutional mechanisms that do exist are all but impossible to invoke. It is an absurd system in which far too many persons maintain a vested interest, and therefore will never permit its reform.

Little doubt I harbour that had the majority — or indeed the entirety — of the so-called ‘Founding Fathers’ of this American empire been able to foresee the eventual consequences of their structuring of the judiciary, they would have reconsidered entirely. Perhaps they might never have rebelled against the Crown to begin with, had they been afforded (or cursed with) a glimpse of twenty-first-century #Murica; and had they beheld figures such as Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas (though their eighteenth-century sensibilities would absolutely not have approved of a black man serving on the high court — a fact Justice Thomas appears to be wilfully indifferent to — they would nonetheless be legitimately appalled by the conduct in question). Who is to say with any certainty? All that I can assert with confidence is this: the great American experiment hath gone catastrophically awry, and it is time to end it.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, August 7, 2026

The architecture of ruin

$A richly detailed fantasy illustration shows two elegantly dressed women seated closely together upon luxurious velvet cushions amid the shattered interior of a vast classical hall. One wears an emerald-green gown embroidered with intricate gold motifs, while the other is dressed in a flowing champagne-gold gown adorned with sparkling jewels and translucent veils. Smiling warmly, they embrace as the ruined East Wing of the White House rises behind them beneath a fractured roof open to a swirling, star-filled sky. Scattered architectural plans, debris, scaffolding, suspended chains, and a tilted construction crane surround the pair, blending political satire with surreal grandeur.$

image generated via Meta

Trump throws a fit after the courts block his proposed WH ballroom, again insisting it is indispensable to national security. {The Mirror 7 August}

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/breaking-furious-trump-posts-500-1973368

Upwards of ninety-nine per cent of Americans would never be allowed entry — should it ever be built — and yet this jackass hath the temerity to describe his proposed ballroom as ‘a Gift from President Trump and Great Patriots of the United States of America’ (sic) and to portray it as a matter of national security. Also note that he continues to lie about the ballroom being privately financed, notwithstanding reporting by the Washington Post and other outlets confirming that taxpayers are footing at least part of the bill. FTA:

The project is estimated to use around $350 million in taxpayer funds, though construction at the site has been temporarily halted due to another ruling prior to the one announced by Trump on Friday.

“This is taxpayer-free," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office back in March. "We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents."

In fact, summaries provided by Virginia-based company Clark Construction to the White House show that the work was projected to rely heavily on taxpayer money from the moment it was announced, the Washington Post reported.

The Trump administration has repeatedly sidestepped litigation by arguing that the ballroom is vital to "national security" and instead, presenting it as a Military Center rather than a recreational space.

Trump reiterated the claim in his frantic post, detailing the security measures, writing, "The single, integrated project includes Bomb Shelters, State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Facilities, Structures and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass."

Trump is not even really denying that the bloody ballroom is just a cover to build himself a secure bunker; he is extremely devoted to the false maxim ‘L'État, c'est moi’ (‘the state, it is me’, famously attributed to Louis XIV). In his sick head, he is the father figure of the nation and its very embodiment made flesh; any threat directed against his person are construed as a threat to America itself, and this delusion he embraces with something approaching religious conviction. Somehow, he persuaded a vast swathe of the country to believe likewise, and that is precisely why we find ourselves mired in this horrible mess.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Oath Keepers escape liability at the Trump regime’s demand: a licence for terror and the preparation for the next insurrection

Reuters

Banana Republic: US judge reluctantly grants DOJ motion to dismiss J6 convictions against several Oath Keepers terrorists. {The Guardian 4 August}

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/04/jan-6-oath-keepers-cases-dismissed

A government now, in effect, in the business of aiding and abetting right-wing terrorism. Another major act of political violence — deadlier than the events of 6 January 2021 — may well lie somewhere on the horizon (sooner rather than later). When it comes, terrorist groups such as the Oath Keepers will play a prominent role in a broader campaign of intimidation directed against Americans who refuse to support this regime. The trajectory of the past decade, and especially since Trump’s return to office, can only result, ultimately, in bloodshed.

I have felt such a moment coming since before Trump's first presidency even commenced: the gradual normalisation of political violence, culminating in demands for personal loyalty to one man rather than to the Constitution or the Republic itself. Many times over and always in a cold sweat and my heart pounding, I have frequently imagined motorcycle gangs, rogue police officers, military personnel willing to ignore their oaths (more than many would care to believe), evangelical zealots, and other assorted malevolents in the #MAGA coalition being encouraged — formally or otherwise — to harass, threaten, and terrorise anybody who does not submit to their will.

If we cannot at least recognise that the groundwork for both the horrors we have already endured and the greater horrors yet to come hath been deliberately laid — brick by brick and day by day since 2016 — then we have learned nothing from the past ten years. Trump's rhetoric and behaviour are more extreme than ever, and he is an ageing and decrepit man with little left to lose after successfully insulating himself from meaningful legal accountability. Should he conclude that greater chaos serves his interests, nothing in his conduct or character suggests restraint. His most fervent followers — acolytes — have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to excuse anything done by him or in his name. They are complicit motherf**kers, millions upon millions of them.

Terrorism directed against fellow Americans, economic suicide, more wars abroad, disease spreading, civil liberties steadily eroding, infrastructure collapsing, and disorder on every front. What y'all voted for, #Murica.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, July 31, 2026

An innocent man, a guilty government

A luminous fantasy portrayal of Lady Liberty as a radiant young woman wading barefoot through calm, reflective water beneath towering storm clouds parted by shafts of golden light. She wears flowing ivory robes adorned with sparkling crystal ornaments, while a brilliant crystal crown and a blazing torch illuminate the scene with silvery-white fire. Fine golden fissures spread across the water’s surface like glowing veins, leading towards distant classical buildings softened by mist on the horizon. The composition conveys hope and steadfast resolve emerging from uncertainty, presenting liberty as an enduring light amid gathering darkness.

image generated via ChatGPT

A small victory for sanity: DOJ drops case against former Olympian over Reflecting Pool, admitting renovation effort was flawed. {CNN 31 July}

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/politics/doj-admits-reflecting-pool-renovation-flawed-drops-case-david-hearn

One may, somehow, still believe that calling Trump a dictator and his government a dictatorship is gross hyperbole, but this regime was prepared to imprison an obviously innocent man — an Olympian, no less — and destroy his reputation to cover for President Trump's disastrous Reflecting Pool scheme. (And why cannot this man leave well enough alone, ever?) A president willing to destroy the lives of people he doth not even know merely to conceal his own gross incompetence.

What y’all voted for, #Murica. I hope David Hearn sues the living s**t out of this White House and Donald Trump personally. As for the ever-zealous Jeanine Pirro, she should be disbarred immediately, and then ought to go crying back to Fox News. A bloody disgrace all around.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Freedom does not come with a reimbursement form

A striking glamour-style illustration shows a confident red-haired woman seated atop a large American flag spread beneath her. She wears a fitted burgundy corset, a glossy black high-waisted mini skirt, sheer black thigh-high stockings and black leather ankle boots with stiletto heels. Looking directly towards the viewer with a cool, defiant expression, she raises her middle finger while resting her other hand on her hip. Her pose is poised and self-assured, conveying open contempt and unapologetic resolve. Warm, dramatic studio lighting highlights the lustre of the satin, leather and fabric, while a dark, unobtrusive background keeps the focus firmly on the figure and the folds of the stars and stripes beneath her, creating a bold editorial-style composition.

generated via ChatGPT

J6 insurrectionists have cost the former United States of America $2.7 billion, and now they want more. {Citizens for Ethics 22 July}

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/january-6ers-cost-taxpayers-2-7-billion-now-theyre-seeking-secret-payouts/

Now they are out to fleece American taxpayers once again. And guess whose side the President and his Department of Justice are on? Certainly not yours — assuming, of course, that one is not a J6 insurrectionist. If any J6 insurrectionists are reading this, kindly remove yourselves from the gene pool, motherf**king thugs.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

The long night of a Justice

A highly detailed illustration depicts a frightened blonde woman sitting curled up on a leather sofa in a warmly lit living room. Wearing a black dress with a white Peter Pan collar, she clutches a blanket and presses a thumb nervously to her lips while tears run down her face. Red-and-blue police lights flash through the window behind her, casting an ominous glow into the room. Family photographs, bookshelves, and soft lamplight create a domestic atmosphere that contrasts sharply with her visible fear. A bulletproof vest rests on a nearby armchair, suggesting concerns about personal safety. The composition conveys anxiety, vulnerability, and the intrusion of public threats into private family life.

generated via ChatGPT

Justice Amy Coney Barrett reveals bulletproof vest and swatting threats, as US Supreme Court seeks increased security funding. {The Guardian 14 July}

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/14/supreme-court-justices-security-budget

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, June 27, 2026

Speaker Johnson essentially admits the GOP is a Trump protection racket; voters poised to back own impoverishment again

A stylised political illustration of a tense meeting in a richly panelled conference room of deep red and brown tones. Centre standeth a stern, troubled man in a dark suit and red tie, leaning forward with both hands upon the shoulders of two seated colleagues. About a large table cluttered with documents, folders, notebooks, and cups, a group of men in business attire exchange anxious glances. Several stare downward at papers; others look toward the central figure as though awaiting direction in crisis. Warm overhead lighting casteth dramatic shadows across faces and furnishings—pressure, uncertainty, intrigue. Hierarchy, authority, and collective unease suggest high-stakes deliberations behind closed doors.

generated via Grok

US House Speaker Johnson, in a get-out-the-vote pitch before one of the 12,000 Christian nationalist lobbying groups in #Murica, warns in stark terms: 'I run the (Trump and co.) protection program. I’ll take care of you’. {The Independent 26 June}

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-johnson-trump-republicans-investigation-b3004011.html

The GOP hath unabashedly become a mafia dedicated to shielding Trump from prison; there are no more pretences.

And if such is patently obvious to many of us, and hath been for far too many years, this reality is somehow still going over the heads of the American public at large. Either they have not figured it out, do not care, or are in full agreement with the agenda.

With the Democrats bitterly divided between moderates and the left-wing flamethrowers who are never going to receive majority support in this very right-wing country, I predict that the Republicans will retain control of Congress this fall. And then we are going to see some truly dreadful legislation coming down the pike.

Johnson hath been making noises of late about wanting to gut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other ‘entitlement’ programmes in 2027, and one better believe millions of horribly stupid people are poised to (yet again) vote for their own impoverishment. Never again can one be surprised when folks vote against their own interests, because that is the case more often than not.

If this were a mature country, the people would be coming to terms with the fact that one of its two state-sanctioned political parties is not interested in governing, only in telling people what they want to hear whilst robbing them blind (and worse), and perhaps doing something about it.

A centrist third party would be a great help, but the establishment and citizenry alike will simply never allow it.

Alas, this is no longer a mature nation, so abandon all hope.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Fear of the Golden Elephant

A dramatic, painterly illustration of a red-haired woman standing before a massive weathered wooden cross inside a vast Gothic church. Her arms are extended along the horizontal beam, echoing the cross without restraint. She weareth a flowing cream dress that billoweth in the light—motion and intensity. Her head is tilted upward, eyes closed, expression uplifted—determination, sacrifice, spiritual yearning. Warm shafts of sunlight stream through tall arched windows, illuminating auburn hair, ancient timber grain, and floating dust. Deep shadows fill the nave. Religious symbolism, dramatic chiaroscuro, and a mood of contemplation, resilience, and transcendence.

generated via ChatGPT

Evangelical propagandist Todd Starnes: Christians must support the GOP in spite of ‘how bad the Republicans have betrayed you’. {Right Wing Watch 23 June}

https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/todd-starnes-says-voters-must-support-gop-regardless-how-bad-republicans-have

generated via ChatGPT

And so we see a prime example of how and why the GOP maintains such a powerful hold over large swathes of this country and its people. Regardless of one's views of the Republican Party, Todd Starnes is articulating a sentiment that hath become increasingly common among most professed Christians in the former United States: support the party no matter what, even when it disappoints thee. Loyalty to the cause, and to Donald Trump, supersedes dissatisfaction with the party. Consider Starnes’ own words, putting it all very starkly:

"I've been telling people, 'I don't care how bad the Republicans have betrayed you or have not done what [they] said they would do,' … It's not about them. It's about protecting President Trump at the end of the day. And it's about protecting the Supreme Court."

Not much nuance or room for interpretation there. It is plainly stated: loyalty to Trump and keeping hold of the high court are tantamount to any and all other considerations. It explains why the GOP is so difficult to hold electorally accountable. Voters who would otherwise punish a party for perceived and real failures instead view the alternative as the literal spawn of Satan. Rightly or wrongly, the Democratic Party is the most hated institution of any kind throughout middle America, particularly in the South, where Democrats once enjoyed overwhelming dominance. For these white, working-class types, opposition to Democrats is not merely political; it is cultural, religious, and deeply personal.

A rich fantasy illustration of six women gathered beneath a vast cosmic sky dominated by Saturn. Centre, a red-haired woman in a flowing ivory gown raiseth her arms toward heaven, her face uplifted in anguish, longing, and supplication. Tears glisten on her cheeks; windblown hair catcheth the celestial light. Five companions in translucent dresses cluster close—some resting, others bowing in grief or exhaustion. Their expressions speak of sorrow, vulnerability, and shared burden. Behind, luminous nebulae, distant stars, and swirling clouds fill the heavens; Saturn’s immense rings arc dramatically. Warm golds, deep blues, and earth tones create a dreamlike atmosphere. Collective suffering, consolation, resilience, and the search for meaning amid an overwhelming and indifferent cosmos.

generated via ChatGPT

The Democratic Party did itself no favours in 2024 when it cast President Biden aside in favour of a candidate who proved incapable of winning the confidence of enough voters to prevent the return of a convicted felon to the White House. Indeed, the woman was unelectable from the very start; including for reasons that should not be, of course, but they are. Furthermore, she has not acquitted herself well at any point in her political career; it was not the time for a grand political experiment, not when it was so obvious and apparent how far rightward the winds were blowing in 2023, 2024, and continuing onward to the present moment.

Fair or not, the election reinforced existing perceptions of Democratic weakness and disorganisation. And I do not see tangible moves being made to at least attempt to alter these perceptions. So long as the white working-class remains the most powerful voting bloc, the Democrats have to win at least some portion of them. And it is as though they do not even try, or the attempts they do make are clumsy and not well thought out (see nominating Tim Walz as the running mate in ‘24, or what hath become of Sen. John Fetterman).

Yet Republican strength cannot be explained solely by Democratic mistakes. Right-wing media ecosystems, partisan identity, religious affiliation, geographical sorting, nationalistic and anti-globalist sentiment, and decades of heated cultural conflict over a range of issues from abortion to zoning have all contributed to an environment in which voters increasingly define themselves by what they oppose even more so than by what they support. In this atmosphere, criticism of Republican leaders simply fails to translate into electoral consequences for the GOP. How else can we explain Trump being restored to power by the voters in 2024 after the myriad failures, embarrassments, and abuses of power previously, to say nothing of being a convicted felon?

Rightly or wrongly, the Democratic brand is toxic: if they hope to regain durable political power, they may need not merely new candidates, but a broader reconfiguration of how they present themselves to the electorate. Perhaps they retire the ‘Democratic Party’ brand name altogether, in the manner of how major corporations will rebrand when they have become toxic in the public eye (think Philip Morris becoming Altria, perhaps; or Lord Elon changing Twitter to ‘X’, though everyone still calls it ‘Twitter’, but I digress). Revivals rarely begin in Washington, though; they begin in town halls, state legislatures, school committees, and local communities. And in these places is where the Democrats have lost the most ground in recent decades.

On the current trajectory, Republicans will enjoy significant institutional advantages for years to come. Gerrymandering; favourable electoral geography; peer pressure upon individuals from family, society, and church; and the structure of American government all provide benefits that make Democratic victories more difficult than raw national vote totals suggest. It is not enough for Republicans to perform poorly in office if voters remain entirely unwilling to embrace the alternative. Especially, if only one alternative is ever allowed or considered. I suppose, going back to the 1790s, Americans have always demanded their politics be us against them, a team sport, and have never been keen on nuance. George Washington warned us about this in his farewell address, even as ‘the spirit of party’ was already overtaking the nation’s populace.

Whether a temporary realignment or the beginning of something more permanent remains an open question, though I am heavily leaning toward the latter. American history is filled with moments when observers believed one party had achieved lasting dominance, only for political circumstances to change... but that was then. Concerns about democratic erosion are never without foundation in the best of times, but today we are at red alert. To put it mildly. What ‘y’all’ voted for.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

The price of vigilantism

A bleak cinematic illustration of six young women confined within a grim, overcrowded prison cell. Wearing worn orange uniforms stained by dirt, they sit or stand beneath harsh light from a small barred window. Metal shackles encircle wrists and ankles; thick chains link them to one another and to steel bunks. Exhaustion, resignation, sorrow, and strain mark their faces. One sitteth alone on a lower bunk, head bowed; another croucheth on the floor in quiet despair. At right, two prisoners embrace for comfort—solidarity amid harshness. Rusted walls, bare steel, and a metal toilet reinforce oppression. Muted colours, dramatic shadows, weathered textures—confinement, punishment, endurance, and the fragile human need for companionship under extreme adversity.

generated via ChatGPT

“A group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prison Tuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.” {The Guardian 23 June}

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/23/prairieland-ice-protesters-texas-sentenced

Four sentences of fifty years, another of seventy, and one of a full one hundred years. These were not mere protesters, as several of them committed extreme acts of vandalism at a detention centre in Alvarado, Texas, and an officer was targeted with an AR-15.

These are not heroes, and vigilantism is not to be celebrated or encouraged. Thus, while I do not wish to condone the heavy-handed actions of the Trump regime and ICE in their treatment of human beings, I cannot shed any tears for these individuals, though I am not entirely convinced that the sentences fit the crimes.

The left-wing militant groups of the 1960s and 1970s were, so far as I can tell, far more organised and did employ violence, yet many of their members ultimately received relatively light punishments, if any at all, and some later found positions in academia. Bill Ayers, for instance, who perhaps should have spent a lifetime in prison, but the world did not spin off its axis because he was released. Patty Hearst, to use another example, would never see the light of day again if that sordid affair went down today.

The testimony in this case revealed that these were largely unorganised, or at best loosely organised, rabble-rousers. These lengthy sentences are thin cover for the regime and its cult followers in the general population to eventually label all dissent under the almost entirely mythical banner of ‘Antifa’, and therefore criminal.

What people need to realise, but are not getting at all, is that there is an absolute chilling effect created by the far right’s ceaseless bemoaning of ‘woke’ bogeymen. Why is it that these right-wing populist types are forever championing freedom of speech, yet spend so much of their time attempting to silence others? Very simply, they care about their freedoms, and not yours or mine.

At some point during the past decade, I do remember, a handful of left-wing radicals did begin calling themselves ‘Antifa’, and a few of those same types used ‘woke’ as a descriptor. A very small number of ideologues, largely concentrated in academia and similar circles, and yet the other side hath successfully used those labels to demonise mainstream liberals, Democrats, anyone to their left, and anyone who criticises their god-king Trump.

It is the ‘you are either with us or against us’ mentality of a movement centred upon a sick man who demands complete loyalty from the citizenry and all around him, and who will go to greater and greater lengths to secure that loyalty as his desperation grows. With millions of dangerous people — cult followers — all too eager to back him up, and most of the general public too tired and cowed to offer any resistance.

And when the #MAGA militias start slaughtering ordinary people left and right, we shall partially have these morons from the far left to blame for helping make it possible.

These are not heroes being sentenced today. They are not to be celebrated, and they are too foolish to realise that they are playing directly into the hands of those who would enslave humanity for their own enrichment (in which they are largely succeeding). Useful idiots for a corrupt government held hostage by international criminals.

Violent thugs are violent thugs, whatever it may be that drives them. The flip side of the same coin as the thugs who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021. Congratulations. Enjoy thy prison stays.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Daughters of Persia, exiled far from home

Delicate watercolour-style illustration depicting two young women embracing in a barren, dreamlike landscape. One woman wears a patterned headscarf in muted green and blue tones, while the other has long flowing brown hair that trails softly in the wind. Their eyes are closed and their foreheads touch, conveying intimacy, comfort, and mutual support. Both are dressed in flowing cream-coloured robes accented with subtle floral and geometric motifs, the fabric drifting gracefully around them. The background is rendered in pale washes of beige, blue, and grey, suggesting distant cities, bridges, winding roads, and mountains without sharply defined detail. The subdued palette and gentle brushwork create an atmosphere of melancholy, tenderness, displacement, and resilience. The composition centres upon human connection, presenting the two figures as companions drawing strength from one another amid uncertainty and separation from familiar surroundings.

generated via Gemini

Trump regime to deport non-dangerous Iranian, Afghan, and Syrian migrants to the Central African Republic despite court orders. {NYT 11 June; image generated via Gemini}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/world/africa/deportations-central-african-republic-migrants-iran-women.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pVA.KYvI.IK_4ZmFy7KYT&smid=url-share

Add to this regime’s list of crimes the forcing of already vulnerable migrants (mostly women) into a completely unfamiliar place in deepest, darkest Africa: one of the world’s poorest and most fragile states, where humanitarian organisations have spent years documenting violence, displacement, weak institutions, chronic insecurity, and persistent human-rights concerns.

These folks have already fled upheaval, war, persecution, economic collapse, or some combination thereof. They will have crossed borders, navigated bureaucracies, endured uncertainty, and invested what little hope remained in the belief that they had finally reached a place of relative safety.

Imagine believing that the years of instability were finally behind you.

Imagine believing that, after all the turmoil, a measure of permanence had at last been secured.

Then imagine discovering that everything is once again thrown into doubt, to put this particular situation extremely mildly.

From a position of relative comfort and security, it is difficult fully to comprehend the anxiety such circumstances produce. The uncertainty alone must be exhausting. Every conversation, every official notice, every news report becomes a potential source of dread. One’s future ceases to be a plan and instead becomes a question mark.

A civilised society should at least be capable of recognising the profound human consequences attached to such decisions. Policies may be debated. Governments may change course. Laws may be rewritten.

Fear, however, is experienced one person at a time.

Many of these migrants may well die in their new ‘home’. I do not believe it would be outlandish to argue that the government of the former United States of America, under its orange-hued and lawless leader, bears responsibility for the foreseeable human consequences of these actions. Put plainly: committing genocide. Would not be the first time, of course, but we thought ourselves beyond such cruelty in the America I grew up in. No longer the case.

What ‘y’all’ voted for, #Murica.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, November 24, 2025

The ongoing murder of a republic: federal judge temporarily forestalls the persecution of two of Trump’s more prominent enemies

A digitally illustrated image in the style of American comic-book art, portraying a tense and vividly coloured scene suggestive of media coercion. At the centre stands a blonde woman—depicted with the polished glamour typical of political broadcasting—clutching her earpiece as sweat beads along her temple, her expression one of alarm and disbelief. Behind her looms a television camera, its operator partially visible, capturing her as she prepares to speak. In a bold yellow speech bubble emblazoned with black block letters, the phrase ‘TRUMP… OR ELSE!’ bursts forth, framed by radiating lines of blue that evoke both urgency and menace. The exaggerated chiaroscuro, sharp outlines, and pop-art palette evoke mid-century pulp illustration, here repurposed to satirise the convergence of propaganda, intimidation, and spectacle in the modern political arena.

image generated via Google Gemini

A federal judge has dismissed the Department of Justice’s cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, after the prosecutor in question was declared to have been unlawfully appointed {NPR 24 November}.

Thus collapses yet another fragment of what passes for law and order under the Trump regime—an inept gaggle of tinpot despots, draped in counterfeit piety and patriotic bluster, yet commanding the unwavering devotion of millions.

For all their corruption, cruelty, and chaos, they have achieved what tyrants throughout history have most craved: the unwavering loyalty of a vast and credulous multitude. Their iron grip endures upon the hearts and minds of white working-class Americans, most professed Christians, most gun owners, most in the ranks of law enforcement, and, not least, much of the corporate aristocracy that feeds upon the same trough of grievance and greed. The opposition, meanwhile, remains enfeebled and timorous—its own moral vanity a shackle—shouting platitudes about equality and inclusion while offering neither courage nor coherent policy.

One court ruling, however just, signifies little in the grander theatre of this nation’s decay. Trump 2.0’s only true objective is to terrorise, to intimidate, and to annihilate dissent—and the American people, by their own hand in the election of the previous year, have ensured that he and his acolytes shall do so with unrestrained efficiency. They voted not for deliverance, but for domination; not for liberty, but for spectacle and vengeance.

And so, I shall go on reminding all who will listen of who bears the ultimate responsibility for this criminal cabal’s resurrection and for the murder of their own republic: the American people themselves. Not merely those who voted for the orange demagogue, but also the pious moralists and hollow progressives who, in their feckless vanity, busied themselves policing pronouns and debating lavatory access while the foundations of democracy crumbled beneath them.

Soon enough, Trump will again attempt to place James Comey, Letitia James, and any who dared oppose him behind bars, while sycophants like Lindsey Halligan—pictured above in illustrated form, her actual face also lacquered beneath a pound of paint—will glide effortlessly through the corridors of the new orange-stained America, radiant in her complicity.

What was once the republic is now but a stage for farce and fanaticism, ruled not by principle but by spectacle. And the audience, clamouring in rapture, mistakes its own degradation for deliverance.

Friday, October 31, 2025

No depravity too great: Donald Trump, the American people, and the caprice of human adulation

A man wearing a tan baseball cap, dark sunglasses, and a sleeveless black shirt is speaking outdoors before an American flag backdrop. Text above him lists several numbered allegations, each involving names, ages, years, and reported financial settlements, referencing locations such as Trump Tower in New York City and Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. The on-screen TikTok interface identifies the user as “David Boomer,” with engagement metrics showing tens of thousands of likes and comments. The composition combines the man’s video frame with overlaid text formatted like a bulleted list, conveying a provocative political message.

A caveat is in order: the above image derives from a Facebook screenshot, and not every utterance cast in meme form can be presumed accurate. The dates and figures may well be awry—I know not. Yet what hath been rendered unmistakable is this: Trump will recoil from no species of moral abomination in his relentless endeavour to escape both justice and judgement. Moreover, it ought by now to be recognised as a self-evident truth that if an individual is endowed with charm, charisma, and the insidious gift to enthral, others will forgive them anything they would condemn in any other. Were the pop singer Michael Jackson—though long since gone to dust—merely an eccentric black man afflicted with a peculiar dermatological malady and an unseemly fascination with children, rather than an entertainer idolised the world over, he would, in all likelihood, have been cast into a prison or institution ere the age of thirty. Such is the caprice, the whimsical tyranny, of human adulation.

These abominations—these ‘alleged’ vile depredations upon the innocent—might be captured in full upon film and displayed before the entire world, and still the greater part of the #MAGA cult would persist in their denials. Some, indeed, would strain to contrive a justification; this is already occurring to a considerable extent, amongst those deluded souls who maintain that Trump was some covert operative pursuing Jeffrey Epstein—good grief, the mind fairly reels.

No power is stirring to stop him; the time for that came and went. Our solitary hope resides in his age and failing health; and perhaps, when at last he shuffles off this mortal coil, a few of the dullards inhabiting this benighted nation may descend from their fevered delusions and, with any luck, abandon politics altogether. —Arthur Newhook 31 October 2025.

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Compassion is no repeal of law: DOJ orders Facebook to remove a group tracking ICE agents in Chicago

image generated via ChatGPT

{NYT 15 October} “Meta on Tuesday removed a Facebook group that was used to share information about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago after the Department of Justice requested that it be taken down.”

One may rightly condemn the excesses of ICE, and insist that non-violent migrants deserve dignity rather than degradation—and I would concur. Yet compassion, however noble, does not erase law. To obstruct officers acting within their legal remit remains an offence, regardless of intent, and regardless of how unjust the methods ICE is employing these days may be. And, furthermore, if one must broadcast the movements of federal agents, then at least choose a medium less porous than the echo-chambers of social media. #JustSaying —Arthur Newhook, 15 October 2025.

An omen, perhaps: the aircraft bearing ‘Secretary of War’ Hegseth home from the NATO summit in Brussels makes an unplanned descent in Britain—its windshield fractured, as if by prophecy itself. {BBC 15 October}

“Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.” Once the world’s most powerful passport, the US now ranks 12th—its holders welcomed visa-free to fewer shores than a decade past. {WP 15 October}

Trump confers a posthumous Medal of Freedom upon a man whose life’s work advanced Christian nationalism—curtailing freedoms for undesirables, and all who refuse the yoke of Dominionist rule. {The Guardian 14 October}

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Cruelty enthroned as creed: the Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones’ appeal, but the permission to be vile is sacrosanct in Trump’s #Murica and he will never be compelled to pay a single penny to the Sandy Hook families

A grave, allegorical image depicting the death of the United States of America. At its centre stands a weathered tombstone inscribed “United States of America, 1776–2012, R.I.P.”—its surface cracked, its dignity eroded. Draped across the stone is a torn, fading American flag, its edges frayed by wind and neglect. Atop the monument perches an eagle, wings folded, a symbol of vigilance turned to mourning. Around the grave lie the ruins of civic life: a rusted ballot box chained shut, a copy of the Constitution half-buried in dust, and a forgotten football—tokens of a republic that once prized freedom, reason, and unity. Beyond the graveyard, a ruined city smoulders under a pallid sun, skyscrapers collapsing into silhouette. The air is thick with desolation. This is not metaphor but epitaph—a requiem for a nation that, having exhausted its virtue, buried itself beneath the weight of its own decline.

image generated via Google Gemini

{USA Today 14 October} ‘Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones' appeal of $1.4 billion Sandy Hook judgment’

The Supreme Court of the former United States hath declined to hear broadcaster Alex Jones’s final appeal, thereby upholding the $1.4 billion judgement against him for his monstrous defamation of the Sandy Hook families. One might have hoped this would mark the end of his grotesque spectacle—but Alex Jones holds no intention of paying a penny to those he so cruelly tormented for profit, attention, and the hollow currency of infamy. Bankruptcy merely another pageant upon his stage.

And mark me: Trump will wade in—perhaps on the orders of the puppetmaster in Moscow—to absolve Jones of culpability. A pardon, a reprieve, some grotesque political gesture—nothing should astonish us. We are dealing with a cabal that hath proclaimed open war upon Reality herself, hellbent on turning Americans against one another, and therein they have triumphed beyond their wildest fantasy. These individuals do not merely distort the world; they unmake it, and demand applause for the wreck.

Long hath Jones sheltered behind the corruption of ‘free speech’, wielding the First Amendment as both shield and cudgel, whilst his retainers bleat about liberty even as they crush its very heart beneath their heels. If they cannot pardon him, they shall canonise him; if not canonise, they shall martyr him, à la Charlie Kirk, demanding again that homage be rendered at football games and flags be flown at half-staff in mock mourning. One way or the other, the next phase of the farce shall be redemption, not remorse. Millions will once more dutifully follow along, for this country—God deliver it—long since bartered sanity and decency for spectacle.

Indeed, a renewed campaign to ‘redeem’ Alex Jones is already underway this afternoon—a grotesque rehabilitation in the name of populist grievance. Observe how brazen in general the right-wing sphere hath waxed since Trump’s return to power; their confidence is absolute, their scorn unveiled. They know the nation’s fracture runs too deep to mend, that the peasants are itching to begin slaughtering each other en masse, and they lick their lips thereat. These be heady, halcyon days for American Fascists, theocrats, white supremacists, and the like.

The tragedy lieth not only in what was wrought upon the Sandy Hook families—hunted, exposed, and driven from their homes in Newtown—but in the cold indifference of the nation that beheld it. Who rose in their defence, in earnest? None. Barack Obama then sat upon the presidential throne, conjuring up a rather infamous tear, and the trembling voice, and the familiar elegy of ‘thoughts and prayers’—a pantomime of pity so practised it might have been writ in advance (and probably further encouraging malevolent fools in their conspiracism). Yet when the curtain fell, nothing changed.

I remember that dreadful day with nauseating clarity: even whilst the bodies of children lay cooling in their classrooms, the national conversation was already pivoting—not to grief, nor justice, but toward the largely phantasmal tyranny of gun control. In this land, the right to bear arms hath been elevated to a sacrament, sanctified above human life itself. School shootings are now so routine they scarcely interrupt the afternoon news cycle, each massacre met with the same weary shrug and constitutional catechism: ‘necessary evil, price of freedom’.

That any soul could gaze upon those parents, those tiny coffins, and pronounce them deserving of their woe is thought enough to curdle the spirit. Yet here we are, a republic whose moral arteries have calcified beyond cure—a nation that hath mistaken cruelty for conviction and named it liberty.

We stand upon the brink of that which, in my youth in the late 20th century, had been unspeakable: civil war, and a rot of conscience so absolute that compassion itself is spent. Would that I could summon hope—for the families of Sandy Hook, for the country—but the abyss hath already opened. What awaits is no mere politics, but total civil collapse: cruelty enthroned as creed. And Alex Jones shall yet be laughing all the way to the bank. —Arthur Newhook, 14 October 2025.

Monday, October 6, 2025

Damned near futile to care any longer, but no matter...

Rick Wilson poses the million-dollar question—and I rather think we all know where the smart money rests with that wretched lot.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

US Supreme Court appears keen to restrict online porn. Foolish theocratic crusaders dominate, and civilisation's future is grim

{Vox 15 January} The Supreme Court seems eager to curb First Amendment protections for porn

To one degree or another, the individual jurists on the theocratic US Supreme Court appear keen to restrict adults’ access to online pornography—a right mess brought about by tiresome moral busybodies on the left pushing their social agenda rather too vigorously, which has rather predictably catalysed a reactionary movement culminating in millions embracing the sort of far right, antisemitic rot that those of my age rather naively thought had been permanently vanquished with the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Now, the moral crusaders of the right—who vastly outnumber their ‘progressive’ counterparts, are dreadfully well-embedded in the local/state governments and among military and law enforcement, and whose capacity for armed force is demonstrably superior—are pursuing an absolutist agenda. All vestiges of measured discourse and temperance appear irretrievably forfeit for at least the next quarter-century. The mechanism by which future generations might recover these essential qualities—to put this particular Humpty Dumpty back together again— is a total mystery to me. My gut says future generations will dwell in caves like savages, having quite forgotten how to work a can opener, let alone possessing the knowledge and wherewithall to rebuild anything resembling civilisation. - Arthur Newhook, 15 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.