Friday, January 09, 2026

🧊🧊, 👶

Questions the Feds don’t want you to ask. They want you to be afraid, because it’s thugs from the Oval down to the street. One under appreciated problem here is that ICE destroyed the crime scene. They hustled the shooter into a van and, rather than tape off the scene for an investigation, cleared it. Forensic evidence is gone. There’s enough of a struggle prosecuting a federal agent for a state crime. The Feds are doing everything they can to make a prosecution impossible.
the best antidote to blackpilling is remembering that every video you see of an ICE thug abusing their power was recorded by an American who volunteered to put themselves in harm's way for the sake of people they've likely never met and never will
The French philosopher Emmanuel Levins started his work after witnessing a man dash into traffic to save a toddler who had wandered into the street. The man and the toddler were strangers, yet he acted without hesitation or concern for his own safety. What prompted such behavior?, Levinas wondered.

Whatever the source, it is very human.
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Trump Has NO IDEA What Being POTUS Means

QED.
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The Lovely Wife…

 …gave me a t-shirt for Xmas emblazoned with the legend: “I Survived The Sixties. Twice.”

I was too young to protest or march in the Sixties, but not too young to listen. The reaction to the civil rights movement and then the anti-war movement was not dissimilar to this:

We’ve always found our constitutional rights conveniently inconvenient, depending on who’s exercising them.
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How Long Will It Take To Unload Nothing?

There could be something of value to an old tanker, but it wasn’t oil:
Despite not carrying any oil, the 300-metre-long ship is clearly of value. Theories for why range from speculation that high-value Russian weapons are hidden in the hull, to the ship’s potential to become a symbolic trophy in a transatlantic power struggle between Washington and Moscow.
Trump simply can’t think straight:
The aging, rusting tanker, originally called the Bella 1, was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for operating within a “shadow fleet” of tankers transporting illicit Iranian oil.

Last month the US Coast Guard attempted to seize the vessel while it was heading to Venezuela to pick up oil, then operating under the flag of Guyana. But the ship’s crew refused to be boarded and made an abrupt turn into the Atlantic.
...
The vessel was not carrying any oil when it was seized, according to analytics firm Kpler.

That’s in contrast with the Skipper and the Centuries, the other two tankers successfully intercepted by the Coast Guard in recent weeks as part of Washington’s pressure campaign on Venezuela. The US piloted both to Texas and is planning to seize their oil cargoes.
The Marinera was captured in the North Atlantic, roughly south of Iceland. It couldn’t possibly be in a U.S. port unloading oil by the next day, if it had oil to unload.

Trump is an unreliable narrator. He has no grasp of reality whatsoever.
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You Must Remember This

 


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Thursday, January 08, 2026

NOTHING This Administration Says Can Be Trusted

Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/business/venezuela-turning-over-oil-trump
Not just because they are liars. They’re ignorant, too.

I’d also say there’s no way Venezuela has produced 30 million barrels (it’s still the unit of measure) since Trump demanded it. Venezuela’s 2024 production was 0.9 mbd, or 900 barrels a day. At that rate, it would take 33,334 days to produce 30 million barrels.

Has it been that long?

The “senior administration official” is telling Trump what he wants to hear. What, he’s gonna ask to see the barrels? Or even the tankers?
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They Said, They Said

Who you gonna believe? Vance? Or your lyin’ eyes?

Turns out, you can’t believe anything this Administration says. Including the professional history of the agent who murdered Ms. Goode. Journalists got the name; but DHS supplied the information about him.  If anyone from this administration came in from outdoors soaking wet and saying it was raining, I’d look outside for myself.
Is the FBI gonna report that?
Yeah, probably not. But rest assured, the FBI investigation will be as reliable as Trump’s word. I know this becomes dangerously repetitious, but YOU CANNOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THIS ADMINISTRATION SAYS.  Like this: Nothing this Administration says can be taken at face value.
Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.

Both have always taken their cases to trial.

After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:

-Seek a plea deal
-Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence
-Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)

In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.

They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.

Their main sticking point were:

-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”

-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”

-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
Any questions about why the US Attorney decided this case is exclusive jurisdiction of the Feds? Because he never wants it to get to trial. Fair trials for them, not for us.

Nixon was a Sunday School teacher, compared to this.
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Another Person In D.C.

... who wasn’t in Minneapolis, and is telling lies.

Why is this Administration so anxious to tell lies?
More important question: can Yale get that degree back? Vance is obviously not using it. His district is in the Houston area. Local TV news just ran a story about the “Ding Dong Ditch” shooting, that also occurred in the Houston area. I suppose Nehls would recommend kids not ring doorbells and run, because they could get shot, too. And Vance always mskes it worse:

The worthlessness of these people….
Is it a constitutional crisis yet? Vance sets himself above the Supreme Court. Huh. Who’da thunk it?

Never mind. Vance is small beer:
How do you like your blue-eyed boy now, Mr. Chief Justice? (I’m discounting the rest of the Sinister Six, whom I regard as toadies, except for Alito. I’m convinced Alito has just descended into pure nihilism.)
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Truth Or Consequences

The FBI has more important things to do.
"Just talked a little bit ago to the FBI," Solomon told MAGA influencer Steve Bannon on Thursday. "I got a statement directly from Kash Patel, the FBI director."

"He said and confirmed this morning that the organizers and funders of the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis are under criminal investigation for impeding lawful law enforcement activities and endangering public safety," he continued. "This is the most strong statement that anyone in the administration is given that not only are the people that ICE is rounding up, doing unlawful activities, but these left-wing anarchist protesters are also potentially going to face criminal sanctions soon."
Truth or consequences:
According to my sources, the FBI was initially open to a concurrent investigation with the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (the state agency that would do this investigation).

Trumpy U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen heard about this and intervened, barring the FBI from cooperating with local police.

Minnesota AG Keith Ellison said yesterday that state officials had already opened their own investigation.

But he said this after the FBI agreed to cooperate with BCA, and before Rosen intevened.

According to my sources, BCA has now pulled out of the investigation.

Practically, unless something changes, Rosen's intervention means there will be no independent police agency investigating the shooting.

It will be left entirely to Kash Patel's FBI. Any chance of state charges will be entirely reliant on the FBI investigation and what evidence it decides to share.
The only excuse for this is a coverup. Utter bullshit.
Walz: It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome. And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment from the President to the VP to Kristi Noem, have stood and told you things that are verifiably false. They have determined the character of a 37-year-old mom that they didn't even know.
Walz: We believe in states’ rights. We believe the federal government needs to stay out of this. We believe that the situation has gotten worse and less safe because of their presence.

I saw an individual at the scene identify themselves as medical personnel, and asked to provide aid. And an ICE agent said, I do not care.

After this incident happened and after the tensions rose, IICE agents entered a Minnesota school, causing disruptions at that school.

To our elected representatives, Democrats and Republicans, I beg you, I implore you to tell them to stay out of our schools. This tragedy will be magnified 100 fold if this fight moves into the hallways of our public schools, amongst our youth, and they're watching us, they're watching us now, how we respond.
Why they are doing this: "We don’ need no steenken’ investigation!”

Case closed. 

(“Absolute immunity?” There is no such thing as. And Vance knows it.)
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Bullies Are Also Cowards

Cowards who never take responsibility for anything.

 NYT:

But details were in dispute. State and local officials described federal accounts of the shooting with terms like “propaganda” and “garbage.”

Mr. Trump stuck to his position even as we pointed out the inconsistencies and the lack of clarity in videos circulating in social media. We asked if, in his mind, firing into a vehicle like that is acceptable.

“She behaved horribly,” Mr. Trump said. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” We told the president the videos on social media were unclear.

“I’ll play the tape for you right now,” Mr. Trump said. Trump Administration: Live Updates

Mr. Trump’s aide Natalie Harp brought a laptop over to the Resolute Desk to show us what he said would be evidence of the woman’s wrongdoing.

Before the video began, Mr. Trump acknowledged the tragic nature of the shooting. “With all of it being said, no, I don’t like that happening,” he said, before pivoting to his common refrain of criticizing illegal immigration.

As a slow-motion surveillance video of the shooting played on the laptop, we told him that this angle did not appear to show an ICE officer had been run over.

“Well,” Mr. Trump said. “I — the way I look at it … ”

“It’s a terrible scene,” Mr. Trump said at the end of the video. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.” But did this fatal shooting mean his ICE operation had gone too far? Mr. Trump sidestepped the question, instead blaming his predecessor's immigration policies.

Mr. Trump’s willingness to make a near-immediate conclusion about the deadly shooting appeared to be at odds with one of his senior advisers. Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar, told CBS News that he would not make a judgment call on video circulating on social media of the shooting.

“Let the investigation play out,” Mr. Homan said, “and hold people accountable based on the investigation.”
Tom Homan is still right. The problem is the government insisting there’s nothing to see here, and that they know who is guilty.
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Eyewitness News

 You want to get really pissed off? 😡 Listen to people who were there, not lying propagandists.

They seemed like children," Heller said. "They seem like untrained people. And so that agent was obviously spooked because he had just killed someone, and it was very obvious to everyone who had witnessed it all that she would not make it."

Heller added that agents "gathered around" the officer who shot Good, got him into an SUV, and fled the scene.

She also said that agents did not quickly administer medical aid to Good. Instead, they prevented a doctor who was on-scene from providing care and waited about 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

When the ambulance arrived, the flurry of abandoned ICE vehicles prevented it from getting close to the scene. That forced paramedics to carry Good's "limp body away by her limbs" until they could get to a stretcher.

"My life is forever changed from having witnessed this, and I just can't let this narrative that it was self-defense go any further because it's absolutely not what it was," Heller said.
Calling them “thugs” gives ICE too much credit. “Unsupervised children” is more appropriate. Children with deadly weapons.
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“A Lawless Regime With No Guardrails”

And yet, even Tom Tillis won’t credit blame Trump. And who is doing this despicable thing? Miller, Tillis clarified, speaks for himself or the President. But Miller alone is responsible for what Tillis is complaining about. Because, well, who else would be? Senator Tillis dare not say.

OTOH, try to imagine how long a state or local government would enjoy the trust of its citizens if state or local law enforcement was behaving like ICE is.

Amateur hour would definitely be over.
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Wednesday, January 07, 2026

Melting Ice 🫠 🧊

That didn’t take long. So, rule of law doesn’t apply to government agents? Khanna didn’t call for a conviction, only for a trial. It’s Trump and Noem who have already judged and convicted the dead woman in this matter. “Because if ICE kills them, they weren’t innocent.”— The President of the United States and the Secretary of Homeland Security. The underlings are backing away slowly….
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When Bad Things Happen To Good People….

It would be just like this:
Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.

An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.

He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.

The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.

This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.

This is an evolving situation, and we will give the public more information as soon as it becomes available.
Very Trumpian the way DHS disavows any responsibility, and quickly blames “society.”

Speaking of “very Trumpian”:
...Stephen Miller blames the Democrats.

Sen Tillis is very upset with Miller:
Oh, not about defending ICE gunning down U.S. citizens. That’s apparently Miller’s “lane.” Venezuela is in Miller’s “lanes.” But wanting to make Greenland Puerto Rico North, is not. 🤔  Baselessly calling American citizens “domestic terrorists” who apparently deserve to be shot down in the street (without due process or equal protection because…terrorists! Right?). Yeah; no comment on that.

Venezuela is full of brown people, so Sen. Tillis is fine with taking it over by Presidential fiat. But Greenlanders are white! I mean, after all….

…unless we can call them “rioters.” Or maybe “terrorists….” 🤔 
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🦑

Wesley Hunt wants to be the next GOP Senator from Texas. He’s going full police state to do so. 

Not sure how that distinguishes him from Paxton.
Which is a capital offense? And ICE agents are trained to step IN FRONT of moving cars? Wait until the state criminal investigation starts. Lie. Prevaricate. Bear false witness. Obfuscate. Squirt squid ink and run away.
Even if you grant that the driver here was going right at the ICE officer. there are clear problems with these statements.

1. The officer was out of the way by the time the driver passed, hence why he shot the SIDE window.
2. Noem claimed the woman was attacking "them" (multiple). That's not true, per video.
3. Noem said the driver was attempting to run "them" over (multiple)
4. Noem says the officers had gotten stuck in the snow (they hadn't, at least per video)
5. McGlaughlin said “The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.” (which officer in this video is hurt?)

Beyond that, why not just say: there was a tragic incident. we're looking into it. we mourn any loss of life? Unless, of course, you don't mind escalating the tension.
Lie. Going to be a very interesting investigation. Soros must have their bank account numbers and just transferred money to them immediately. Or is this antifa? Maybe Cartel de Los Soles?

Also, too: For those of us who are not government employees with duties/authorities in this matter, simple, human decency is the best response. Don’t let the squid ink confuse you, too.
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“This Is An Agency That Must Be Reined In”

Is she thinking she can prosecute a dead woman? Or is she shouting “Conspiracy!” and make a federal case out if it? Does she want to include her driver’s ed teacher in the conspiracy? DHS:  "weaponized her vehicle.”

The Speaker of the House:
He got the talking points, and they didn’t say: “Wait until there has been a proper investigation.” Let's start with ICE officers. Trump is an unreliable narrator. I’ve heard of the Great Fire of Chicago. I missed news of the great fire of Minneapolis. There is a record of ICE ramming cars and blaming the victims for the crime.
AOC: ICE has less accountability than virtually any law enforcement agency in the U.S., yet they are some of the most well-funded, operating with impunity—and we just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood in the street.

Despite whatever lies the president wants to tell, you can see what happened for yourself.

I hope this is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This is an agency that must be reined in.
And then he does: If it wasn’t for that Soros check, I wouldn’t be typing this right now.  Asshole. Why you just quit now? You’re a blight on the House; and in this House, that’s saying a lot.
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All Of A Piece

Trump: I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital…
Trump is an unreliable narrator. I won’t soon get tired of saying that. Trump is also a rancid son of a bitch. Trickle-down incompetence.
Walz: We do not need any further help from the federal government to Donald Trump and Kristi Noem. You've done enough. I've issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard… these National Guard troops are our National Guard troops. Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight.
Exactly why I tend to ignore these things. This is how it’s done. Trump, of course, prefers to decide what happened all by himself. The courtroom defense is going to be very interesting.
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Euphemism Watch

Wolf Blitzer does the honors:
You know, they're paid when they have brand new, beautiful printed signs by like the highest quality printer, and you have a woman [sighing] 'Free Maduro,' and the sign is before we even did the attack, you know, 'free Maduro,'" Trump said, mocking a protester he saw on television.

"Why do you want him freed? 'I don't know, but he should be free.' Oh, she reads a sign. What does that say? It says free. Well, that's what I believe, and, you know, you see the sign? It's like, Lisa, we should all have quality signage like that. The one thing I want, I want their sign maker. The guy is great. He does beautiful signage."

"You know, the old days was better when they used to write out their own sign, wasn't it?" the president added. "They'd make a sign in the basement. They'd have an old broken board holding up a sign, and it's made with a magic marker, sloppy as hell, and it meant something. But today, when you have that yellow and black, they should use different colors a little bit. But the yellow is a beautiful shade of yellow. Now I want to find out who that is. I want him to work for the work for the Republican campaign. He's much better than our guy, whoever the guy is."

The president continued on for several more minutes in that manner, weaving in and out of digressions to occasional laughter from his audience, until "The Situation Room" cut away.

"He's going all over the place, speaking on a wide range of issues," Blitzer told viewers.
The euphemism for “babbling like a brook” is “speaking on a wide range of issues.”
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Nothing To See Here

 Stephen Miller is not the “tough guy:”

Marco Rubio's job is to make people feel better, to make other nations feel like we're not trying to take over the world, make Republican senators feel like, hey, we're not just going to do crazy things, and it's Stephen Miller's job as kind of the the mob boss of the White House," VandeHei added. "The guy is the tough guy, he's the guy who got them to go even harder line than Trump himself wanted to go on immigration. He understands power now. He understands the power void. He knows if he pushes as hard as he is, like he did in that CNN interview, he can move the balance of power closer to his worldview, and don't underestimate his power internally. He's by far and away the most powerful staffer in this administration – not close."
Miller is the white supremacist who thinks he’s got to make the world safe for white people, who are the superior people of the earth.
Not long after World War II the West dissolved its empires and colonies and began sending colossal sums of taxpayer-funded aid to these former territories (despite have already made them far wealthier and more successful). The West opened its borders, a kind of reverse colonization, providing welfare and thus remittances, while extending to these newcomers and their families not only the full franchise but preferential legal and financial treatment over the native citizenry. The neoliberal experiment, at its core, has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world.
(Miller reposted that one on his Twitter feed. He's not hiding this stuff.) By...? Three guesses; the first two don’t count. See? But remain calm, all is well. The NYT is here to reassure us that Stephen Miller is just “offer[ing] a strong man’s view of the world.” Nothing to see here.
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For The Time Being




Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience,
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
And craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.


--W.H. Auden

I close Christmas with this final section from Auden’s Christmas oratorio. I feel like someday I should provide an analysis of it. But not this year. Thus year I still owe you an explanation of why I raised the ghost of “Burnt Norton” at the beginning of Advent.

And never mentioned it again. It’s still standing at my elbow, urging me to get on with it.

So I will.

Certainly before Candlemas….
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Tuesday, January 06, 2026

Yee-Hah 🤠

There is a major hospital complex less than a mile from my house. I’ve had surgeries there. I have visited family members there. There are three buildings attached to it, filled with doctors’ offices, and two more buildings attached by parking lots and skyways, also medical facilities. Doctors tend to aggregate, and patients like it that way.

What kind of idiot is this guy? “Competition”? In healthcare? That is actually antithetical to medical ethics.
Isn’t it? Grinding slowly but exceeding fine.
I only add this because I’ve tried repeatedly to embed the tweet, and been told repeatedly that the embed for this tweet (and only this tweet) “can’t be found.”

Somebody doesn’t want it bandied about.
“Porn site” is a pretty good description of what Grok hath wrought. I have no problem with making it into an albatross.

Speaking of AI, in the Texas Monthly 2026 Bum Steer Awards (if you know, you know. I never read TM except when I see this issue at the grocery checkout. It’s hit or miss every year. But I digress…), a note that: 

According to the San Antonio Water System in 2023 and 2024 data centers in the metropolitan area used at least 463 million gallons of water—even as local residents were often limited to watering their lawns once a week.
What TM assumes its Texas readership knows is that just about the entire state west of I-35 relies on the Edwards Aquifer for its water supply. An aquifer about the size of half the state; but it recharges slowly. Very slowly. Cities, homeowners, and agriculture all depend on that aquifer. And now: “data centers.”

Yee-hah.
I didn’t find this soon enough to include it in the previous post where it clearly belongs. But what’s the topic here, anyway?

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