Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Elmo Is Not Worried…

A/K/A The Mouth of Sauron:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that President Donald Trump "absolutely" wants to revoke the citizenship of Somali-Americans who are convicted of fraudulently running daycare facilities in Minnesota

"It's something the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State is currently looking at right now," Leavitt told Fox News on Wednesday. "It's something this administration has already done. And we know that there are liberal activist judges across the country who will try to block and tackle this administration from pursuing justice at every turn."

"But that's not going to stop the president and his entire cabinet by acting on behalf of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens in the state of Minnesota and in states across the country who have been ripped off by people who abused our immigration system, came to our country, do not love our country or respect our values, and now have been ripping off and stealing money from law-abiding Americans," she continued. "This administration is not going to tolerate it."
Because Elmo is a WHITE African immigrant.

(And then they went to court on the fraud charges (need a predicate for a denaturalization action), and the stories all fell apart (probably won’t make it out of the grand jury and get to court), (because they’re falling apart now, duh!) and that ended the naturalization proceedings before they started. This can be understood as the same reason the FCC never tries to revoke a broadcast license. You need more to go to court on than “The POTUS is pissed.” You’d think Trump would have learned that in the last months of 2000. And then you reflect that Trump has never learned anything, ever, that he didn’t want to learn.)
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New Year's Eve 2025



Time is told by death, who doubts it? But time is always halved--for all we know, it is halved--by the eye-blink, the synapse, the immeasurable moment of the present. Time is only the past and maybe the future; the present moment, dividing and connecting them, is eternal. The time of the past is there, somewhat, but only somewhat, to be remembered and examined. We believe that the future is there too, for it keeps arriving, though we know nothing about it. But try to stop the present for your patient scrutiny, or to measure its length with your most advanced chronometer. It exists, so far as I can tell, only as a leak in time, through which, if we are quiet enough, eternity falls upon us and makes its claim. And here I am, an old man, traveling as a child among the dead.

We measure time by its deaths, yes, and by its births. For time is told also by life. As some depart, others come. The hand opened in farewell remains open in welcome. I, who once had grandparents and parents, now have children and grandchildren. Like the flowing river that is yet always present, time that is always going is always coming. And time that is told by death and birth is held and redeemed by love, which is always present. Time, then, is told by love's losses, and by the coming of love, and by love continuing in gratitude for what is lost. It is folded and enfolded and unfolded forever and ever, the love by which the dead are alive and the unborn welcomed into the womb. The great question for the old and the dying, I think, is not if they have loved and been loved enough, but if they have been grateful enough for love received and given, however much. No one who has gratitude is the onliest one. Let us pray to be grateful to the last.
--Wendell Berry, Andy Catlett: Early Travels
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Will That Investigation Start…

...with the fraud perpetrated by Nick Shirley? And promoted by the GOP? Because Trump hates black people? Does Comer really want to draw more attention to that? Or that? Or even that? Or to the xenophobia and racism that are fueling ICE and DHS, and making Trump even more unpopular? Well, okay... 🍿

Not that the feeds aren’t operating the biggest backhoe available:
Reality is catching up with them faster than they can run to get ahead of it.

🍿
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Now We REALLY Know Why Trump Appointed RFK, Jr

Birds Ghouls of a feather…. No. I don’t think Trump has changed. He’s just become ever so much more so. Old age sometimes is when that happens. It’s not mental illness. It’s Trump being Trump.

(By contrast, Joe Biden was an ass when he was younger. Some of us remember Anita Hill. Biden improved with age, and atoned for his public sins. So old age doesn’t cause you to be a monster. Trump is just becoming more clearly himself as the sands run out of the hourglass. ⌛️)
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What’s Interesting…

...is local news calling "bullshit”… ...and Reuters proving what a straight-up guy this previously unknown clown is.

All things considered, that really didn’t take that long.
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Every Minute

Okay, so that’s the fraud?

The “Y” I attend has a daycare room right off the lobby,  for parents to leave their children while the adults use the facilities. I stay away from the door just to not worry anyone. I wouldn’t THINK of wandering in for a look around, much less for an impromptu census. Nor would I want anyone else doing so if I had a child in there.

There really is a sucker dumbass born every minute.
I had to have a criminal check before I could be a substitute teacher in the local school district. The Lovely Wife had to have one just to work in the Administration building.

Who are these goobers?
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Sixth Day of Christmas 2025: The Burning Babe


 

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
      So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”
      With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
      And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

--Robert Southwell
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Sixth Day of Christmas 2025: Triumphal March

I. TRIUMPHAL MARCH

Stone, bronze, stone, steel, stone, oakleaves, horses' heels
Over the paving.
And the flags. And the trumpets. And so many eagles.
How many? Count them. And such a press of people.
We hardly knew ourselves that day, or knew the City.
This is the way to the temple, and we so many crowding the way.
So many waiting, how many waiting? what did it matter, on such a day?
Are they coming? No, not yet. You can see some eagles.
And hear the trumpets.
Here they come. Is he coming?
The natural wakeful life of our Ego is a perceiving.
We can wait with our stools and our sausages.
What comes first? Can you see? Tell us.
It is

5,800,000 rifles and carbines,
102,000 machine guns,
28,000 trench mortars,
53,000 field and heavy guns,
I cannot tell how many projectiles, mines and fuses,
13,000 aeroplanes,
24,000 aeroplane engines,
50,000 ammunition waggons,
now 55,000 army waggons,
11,000 field kitchens,
1,150 field bakeries.
What a time that took. Will it be he now?
No,
Those are the golf club Captains, these the Scouts,
And now the societe gymnastique de Poissy
And now come the Mayor and the Liverymen.
Look
There he is now, look:
There is no interrogation in his eyes
Or in the hands, quiet over the horse's neck,
And the eyes watchful, waiting,
perceiving, indifferent.
O hidden under the dove's wing, hidden in the turtle's breast,
Under the palmtree at noon, under the running water
At the still point of the turning world.
O hidden.

Now they go up to the temple. Then the sacrifice.
Now come the virgins bearing urns, urns containing
Dust
Dust
Dust of dust, and now
Stone, bronze, stone, steel, stone, oakleaves, horses' heels
Over the paving.

That is all we could see. But how many eagles! and how many trumpets!
(And Easter Day, we didn't get to the country,
So we took young Cyril to church. And they rang a bell
And he said right out loud, crumpets .)
Don't throw away that sausage,
It'll come in handy. He's artful. Please, will you
Give us a light?
Light
Light
Et les soldats faisaient la haie? ILS LA FAISAIENT.

—T.S. Eliot 
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Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Occam’s Conspiratorial Policy Razor

Um, no:
The thing to remember is that destroying the Kennedy Center is the point of all of this. Shut down arts, shut down science, shut down academia so that radical Christianity can take over.
Shrink the conspiracy:
Trumpers have a howling void of angry insecurity where a soul should be. Unchecked power tastes like ashes in their mouth because they thought when they got it everyone would be forced to like and admire them even though they’re irredeemable assholes. But people still treat them like assholes.
Until there isn’t one:
This is the key. You can win some elections, but you can't force people to like or respect you; ironically, Trump's people want that respect from people they claim to care nothing about. They don't hate the "elites" - they envy that club, and they're mad because money and power can't buy them in.
If “The West Wing” and Trump’s Administration have taught us anything, it’s that public policy is almost always the product of personality disorders.

The Kennedy Center U.S. the elite’ elite gathering place, honoring the most admired scion of the most admired* family in America, with its own program of “honors” and rewards. How can Trump not want a piece of that doxa?
Follow the social media post.
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Where It Came From

It starts there... Meanders here... These things are all connected. Wait for it... Wait for it... There. Tied up with a bow. 🙇‍♂️ Or bow. Whatever. Worth it. Right? Can’t stop, won’t stop. That opens another can of worms I don’t want to get into here. But it’s part of the connecting thread. I mean, why not, really? Like the people who voted for Trump, thinking “criminals” were “bad people,” only to find out Trump meant “all non-white people are criminals.” These people never listen to what they are saying; only to what (they think) they mean.

None of this is exactly wheels within wheels:
Basically:
We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota.

You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade.

Today we have taken three actions against the blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country:

1. I have activated our defend the spend system for all ACF payments. Starting today, all ACF payments across America will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.

2. Alex Adams and I have identified the individuals in @nickshirleyy 's excellent work. I have demanded from @GovTimWalz a comprehensive audit of these centers. This includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations, and inspections.

3. We have launched a dedicated fraud-reporting hotline and email address at https://childcare.gov Whether you are a parent, provider, or member of the general public, we want to hear from you.

We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud. @ACFHHS

@HHSGov
They’re swatting a fly with a neutron bomb. For political purposes.
BREAKING: @MPRnews reports that Minnesota House GOP leader Lisa Demuth acknowledged the Repubican Party’s involvement in @nickshirleyy viral daycare video, saying, “We worked with Nick Shirley on this.” That matters, because the video has been widely framed as independent citizen journalism. Minnesota officials have said fraud investigations were already underway long before the video, and inspections have not backed up many of the claims made about the specific daycare centers shown.

Still, the video fueled widespread outrage and targeted scrutiny of Somali-owned childcare providers. With a top Republican now on record confirming coordination, this reframes the entire narrative. This wasn’t just a lone YouTuber uncovering something new. A political party acknowledges involvement in producing or shaping media that went viral (not organically) and helped drive public backlash.
Surprising absolutely no one. But now I know where the “fraud” is supposed to be. I also know where it came from.
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But Everything Will Be Better In Two Weeks!

Or the first quarter! Or the second! 

Or affordability is just a hoax. 🤷🏻‍♂️ 
The Emperor is never wrong. Nor responsible.  But he can do whatever his temper tantrums demand. Pretty sure there are some cranks on my NextDoor feed who will believe this.
Trump had four years to come up with a new plan and didn’t. The Republican led Congress has had 3 years and didn’t. It’s the day before millions of Americans see their healthcare skyrocket and many lose their coverage and they are going on TV saying they have been working on a plan. They are lying. The plan has always been to cut it off. The plan has always been to privatize as much as possible and let people suffer. This is the plan.
It’s certainly the plan they voted for in July.
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Also Fifth Day Of Christmas 2025: In Transit

 “[Jesus] was born in transit.”

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Fifth Day of Christmas 2025: John the Apostle, John the Mystic, and the Poet


It was John who taught us all Greek: "En archain hain ho logos: In the beginning, was the Word." Not the language, but the concept: the idea of Christ as word, as Logos, as organizing principle of creation. He meant it, in his gospel, to be a shattering of order, the presence of this ordering principle. But it was another John who led us, through words, to a shattering vision of the Nativity:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven 8eads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she hrought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12.

Not something often connected with the Nativity; but it is as natal as the first words of the gospel of John. The poet Ted Hughes used it to great effect for his "Minstrel's Song."


I've just had an astonishing dream as I lay in the straw.
I dreamed a star fell on to the straw beside me
And lay blazing. Then when I looked up
I saw a bull come flying through a sky of fire
And on its shoulders a huge silver woman
Holding the moon. And afterwards there came
A donkey flying through that same burning heaven
And on its shoulders a colossal man
Holding the sun. Suddenly I awoke
And saw a bull and a donkey kneeling in the straw,
and the great moving shadows of a man and a woman---
I say they were a man and a woman but
I dare not say what I think they were. I did not dare to look.
I ran out here into the freezing world
Because I dared not look. Inside that shed.

A star is coming this way along the road.
If I were not standing upright, this would be a dream.
A star the shape of a sword of fire, point-downward,
Is floating along the road. And now it rises.
It is shaking fire on to the roofs and the gardens.
And now it rises above the animal shed
Where I slept till the dream woke me. And now
The star is standing over the animal shed.

--Ted Hughes
 
A reminder that the 12 days of Christmas, for Christians, is about shattering change and the establishment of a new order; not one to come, as many seem to believe, but one that has already come, a kingdom that is already here. We do not hasten this vision by exerting our power over human life. We hasten away from this vision, when we fail to recognize it describes what has already happened.
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The End Of The (First) Year Of Magical Thinking

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When I Was A Child….

When my bachelor’s degree was barely a few months old, I was teaching Freshman English on the strength of my freshly certified knowledge, and having embarked on a course of graduate study in the same field. And I had an epiphany, which I shared with my students.

In those days of broadcast TeeVee there were things called “PSA’s” meant to justify the private use of the public airwaves. A prominent one used the tagline: “To Get A Good Job, Get A Good Education.” I had an epiphany midway through a semester (my first as a teacher, I think. This was just three years shy of 50 years ago now.), and basically told my students that advice was bullshit.

Not literally, of course. Although I did literally tell them that if they were there for a guarantee of a good job, they should save their parents the money, leave now, and get jobs they could learn to do until retirement. No one took my advice, of course. What did I know? I was a superannuated senior talking to freshman, after all. What did I know?

My father was never rich, but he was a licensed professional. He couldn’t have done that without a college degree. But he was the first person in his family, ever, to go to college. His parents lived in a house his uncle built for them. I mean literally. Built it as a carpenter, with hand tool; not power tools. With a plumber for the plumbing, an electrician for the lighting, and probably an ad hic crew if laborers for things a single carpenter couldn’t do alone. My grandfather was a used car salesman. I still remember the sign from his car lot, hanging in their garage.

My mother’s father was a farmer. He moved his family around, wound up in Dallas working municipal construction for the city, in the days when the city did those jobs themselves. He ran a ditch-digging machine, a sort of pre-backhoe. My mother did not go to college.

The other side of this is my college tuition (for a state school) was the smallest portion of my costs for 7 years (four in undergrad, three in graduate school). I regularly paid more for books, and the biggest expense was always housing. Student loans were for the destitute, who deserved the education, too. Now you do have to be rich not to rely on loans.

Add that to the message of the picture above. The rich will always find ways to perpetuate generational wealth, even when “rich” just means they can afford a bit more than you can.

So my point has two prongs. I should note that all my friends went to college. We all turned out fine. But it’s a close call that college did that. I will argue (to the death, if necessary) that it worked better when college was “affordable.” That is, compared to what it costs now. You need to be very rich , going in or going out, for a college degree to mean something now. M.D.’s are facing trouble if Trump decides to call in all student loans. Today even doctors work years to pay for their education. This drives them into low risk careers, and away from careers as OB/GYN’s, among other things. We’ve accepted that doctors are rich (mostly due to third party payers, I.e., insurance companies. Ironies abound.). But if they can’t afford college until they are near retirement age by the time they do, what hope is there for the rest of us?

My point is, that picture above is the 21st century version of that PSA I heard so many times I can’t forget it now. But it wasn’t true then, and it isn’t true now. The world needs carpenters. And plumbers. And lots of people for whom a college degree is an expensive piece of paper. 

When I taught English, I taught people who couldn’t understand why they needed any liberal arts in their education. I knew why; but they wanted gilt-edged technical degrees, because that’s what we had sold them. My high school friend and college roommate studied business, because he was going to run his father’s machine shop. But he was a gifted mechanic. Not enough to be an engineer, but is “business” really a college degree? He learned enough to do a good job running the business, I heard. Did he need four years for that? Nowadays his BBA is considered useless. Now you get an MBA, or don’t even start. My brother graduated three years after I did, and got a Masters of Environmental Design so he could be an architect. The seeds of degree inflation were sown even then. I was odd only graduate program. My MA was supposed to be transitive, barely a train station stop on the way to a Ph.D. Those were for college professors. Now you can’t get a a faculty position in a community college without one.

Oh, don’t get me started on another topic. Let’s stick with this one, it’s bad enough on its own.

College degrees are now gilt-edged technical degrees. How could they not be?  You’re going to college to get rich, remember? Not to get a good education, but to get a good job. And good luck with that, because a good education doesn’t guarantee you a good job. I mentioned my educated friends. Education opened doors for them; but it didn’t make them rich, set them up in good jobs that reflected the worlds of Updike or Cheever, or made life as easy for them as Millennials and Gen Z all imagine it was for Boomers. I don’t really know anybody in my generation who reached cruising altitude after college and stayed there into retirement. That was the other myth we were sold on, and why the “generations” since think we sucked dry and didn’t leave anything for them except the rinds and peels. They were sold on it, too.

College is not the gateway into the comfortable life and the comfortable suburbs. It was never meant to be; and that’s part of the problem. That problem led to this problem: that middle class life requires a college diploma. More and more, that’s a cruel joke. We owe it to ourselves to do better.

If a liberal arts education was more widespread and more basic to a college education, we might well have thought more critically about this over the years, and thought more lucidly; about many things.

(Another irony: in late season 3 of “The West Wing,” a conspiracy theorist comes forward to demand access to Fort Knox, because the gold that’s supposed to be there…isn’t there. And he wants to prove it. Well, on behalf of two U.S.Senators. Ironies abound.)
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Monday, December 29, 2025

Ending The Year With So Much Winning!

On Christmas Day, Donald Trump amplified multiple foreign-based accounts on X that were pushing MAGA political content. With X’s new "about this account" feature, it is possible to see that many of the accounts that Trump likes to share are operating outside the United States, even though they often present themselves as based here.
Remember all those Twitter accounts that were revealed to be foreign based? Trump doesn’t. He only cares about content, not context.
One begins to see a pattern….
Reporter: China has been doing naval exercises basically to test encircling Taiwan. Can you explain to us what your knowledge is of that?

Trump: Well, I have a great relationship with XI and he hasn't told me anything about it.

Reporter: You said where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So, if you’re doing naval exercises..

Trump: They’re been doing naval exercises for 20 years
Trump don’t need no intelligence. Also, too, as well: I am not making the following up:
"Biden reappointed him, and it's too bad," the president said. "But he's an absolute fool who's building a new Federal Reserve, or he's doing a renovation of a building. Maybe he's up to $4.1 billion to do a renovation of a few very small buildings. It's the highest price in the history of construction."

We're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence," he noted. "These are small buildings. He said four billion more, it's going to end up costing more than four billion dollars. Four billion. It's the highest price of construction."

"So we're thinking about bringing a gross incompetence, what's called gross incompetence lawsuit. It's gross incompetence against Powell," he added. "And it was his baby. And the guy's just incompetent. There's nothing you can do about it. He's just a very incompetent man. But we're going to probably bring a lawsuit against him."
From what (little) I know about the Fed, I don’t see how Trump even has standing to sue. Nor how there is even the option of a lawsuit. And it would be against the office of the Chairman (if at all), not against Jerome Powell personally. My niece’s 9 year old son understands how the world works better than Trump does. These vague and glittering allegations ("Maybe he’s up to $4.1 billion…”) won’t move the needle with the Supremes, who’ve already warned him off messing with the Fed. Firing Powell for alleged gross incompetence will just create grounds for a lawsuit challenging the firing. Grounds that will actually favor Powell’s position better than opposing “I am the unitary executive” alone would.
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🤦‍♀️

Waut for it...
Reporter: Are you worried that the alleged strike on Putin’s residence would scuttle the—

Trump: I don’t like it. You know who told me about it? President Putin. That’s no good. I stopped the tomahawks. I didn’t want that.

It's one thing to be offensive because they're offensive. It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that. I was very angry about it.
So Putin can bomb Kyiv with impunity, but…? (And Trump “stopped the Tomahawks”  a long, long time ago….)
Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump's team. We keep working together to bring peace closer.

This alleged "residence strike" story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war. Typical Russian lies. Furthermore, the Russians have already targeted Kyiv in the past, including the Cabinet of Ministers building.

Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy. To the contrary, Russia always takes such steps. This is one of many differences between us.

It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.
Trump trusts Putin, not his intelligence agencies. Then again, he put Tulsi Gabbard over them.
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Let Republicans Be…Democrats?

 In other words:

“I saw a stat the other day, median household income went up ten times since 1970 but health care costs have gone up 42 times, so this is a major issue that the Republicans need to address," he added. "If they do [address it], that is just one other issue people want, affordable health care, and that can bring the Republican base and independents to our side for those elections.”

Health care costs for millions of Americans are set to more than double on Thursday with the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Democratic lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to extend amid the recent government shutdown before caving to Republicans’ demands. An estimated 4 million Americans are also expected to lose health insurance with the expiration of the subsidies.

Rather than extending the subsidies, some Republicans have instead backed a plan proposed by President Donald Trump to send Americans $2,000 checks so that they can purchase health insurance on the private market, though no serious legislative effort has been mounted to put Trump’s plan into action.

Other Republicans have backed the idea of establishing and funding health savings accounts for Americans, a proposal not dissimilar from Trump’s, which would allow Americans to purchase health insurance on the private market. Backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), the proposal, however, lacks the support it needs to advance in Congress.

And yet, despite Republicans having no clear plan to prevent a health care cost hike for millions of Americans, Eberle appeared to remain optimistic that his party could still deliver on lowering health care costs for Americans.

“If we have these results on the budget, on health care, on other items, we can do alright,” he said.
Let's see: healthcare premiums start rising in 4 days. $2000 checks won’t go out until God knows when. HSA’s take years to accumulate. And they won’t pay for ER visits, or surgeries. So, sure, those will change minds. The same way Biden’s Anti-Inflation Act made everyone forget about inflation. I’ve been binging “The West Wing” on Netflix. The season I’m on is full of discussions about health insurance, and how many Americans are uninsured. 44 million is the number tossed about. Oddly enough, that’s the number tossed about now, 23 years later. The number who stand to lose insurance. That’s a lot of “poor.” Maybe we should rethink the genius of the American economic system. Or we could be like Crenshaw, and just implicitly blame the people. “Well, we gave ‘em money! What’d they do with it?”

This really is the GOP plan. And they can’t figure out why voters won’t go for it. And wonder why tax cuts for billionaires is not popular, rather than just the rich serving their self-interests (something that taints government actions when non-billionaires are the beneficiaries).
Wish in one hand, piss in the other; see which fills up faster.  Case in point:
Bannon then told anti-immigration activist Rosemary Jenks that Trump should implement "a 10-year moratorium on immigration."

"No immigration!" he insisted. "Not just getting rid of the H-1B visas, but moratoriums across the board on no immigration for a decade until we get this mess sorted out."

"I think most Americans would say, yeah, okay, what's wrong with that?" Jenks replied. "Nothing at all."

"We're done. It's over. We're not doing this anymore. We are not paying taxes so that you can throw our money away. We need a moratorium," she added. "It would go probably longer, for 10 years actually."

"You got to get rid of H-1Bs today and ship them all home and give those jobs for American citizens," Bannon agreed. "And then a 10-year moratorium on every other program."

"That's how long it's going to take to take this thing back to the basics and reconstruct it."
Steve Bannon is a political genius the way Trump is. Bannon thinks Trump just has to say it, and it’s written in stone. A 10 year ban on immigration? Even if the Sinister Six let Trump declare it on his own authority (and Trump would never nix H1B visas), the Congress would override it by, oh, January 2027. Or the next President would rescind the EO in January 20, 2029. Ten years? Don’t be absurd!
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Fourth Day Of Christmas 2025

Christ speaks both in us and for us when, in one of the psalms, he says to the Father:  I will be satisfied when your glory is revealed.  For he and the Father are one, and whoever sees him sees the Father also...He will transform us and show us his face, and we shall be saved; all our longing will be fulfilled, all our desires will be satisfied.

But this has not yet been accomplished...So while all this remains in the future, and we still walk by faith, absten from the Lord, while we still hunger and thirst for justice and with inexpressible longing yearn for God's beauty, let us reverently celebrate the day he was born into our own servile condition.

Since we can as yet form no conception of his generation by the Father before the daystar, let us keep the festival of his birth of a virgin in the hours of the night.  Since it is still beyond our understanding that his name endures for ever and existed before the sun, let us at least recognize his dwelling that he has placed beneath the sun.  We cannot yet hold him as the only Son, abiding for ever in his Father, so let us recall his coming forth like a bridegroom from his chamber.  We are not yet ready for the banquet of our Father, so let us contemplate the manger of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Augustine, Fifth Century

{A Prayer of David.} Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

2Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

3Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

4Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

5Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

6I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

7Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

8Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

9From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

10They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

11They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

12Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

13Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

14From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

15As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. 

Psalm 17

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Sunday, December 28, 2025

The Windmills Of His Mind

Putin sent missiles into Kyiv just yesterday. They were specifically targeted against electricity generation; in the winter; in Ukraine.

I don’t think Trump even knows that.
Trump: "I saw a very interesting President Putin today. I mean, he wants to see it happen. He wants to see it. He told me very strongly. I believe him. Don't forget, we went through the Russia Russia Russia hoax together and he'd call me, I'd call him, I'd say 'Can you believe the stuff they're making up?' It turned out we were right. They made it all up."
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… and Stupidity

I’m thinking of this in terms of this response: Because I don’t read this as a “general claim,” I read it as a categorical one. AAG Dhillon does not say the applicable statute of limitations doesn’t run on January 6, 2026. She’s saying any such statute will be ignored in the name of retribution. What AAG Dhillon is publicly declaring is that malicious prosecutions will happen despite the barriers of the law. She is declaring that the law will not get in the way of criminal and civil investigations, that the DOJ is acting as a vigilante, not seeking justice, but seeking vengeance.

There is a deadline for bringing criminal prosecutions. That’s the law. That’s not the sum total of the law. But the statement: “No statute of limitations will hinder DOJ's efforts to bring justice to those who weaponized persecution of American citizens,” is a categorical statement that law doesn’t apply, only the power of government does. Which, in normal times, would see her cleaning out her desk before tomorrow morning.

This not the way you run a railroad.
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Venality And Ignorance …

... are both impervious to education.

The Letitia James indictment was tossed, and then she was no-billed twice. 

The Comey indictment was tossed, and isn’t likely to be reinstated. (Even Alito says the statute doesn’t allow Trump to circumvent the appointments clause.)

The DOJ is investigating the mortgage fraud investigation of  Senator Adam Schiff. A grand jury is involved.

And Trump wants to indict Obama? On the “evidence” Trump couldn’t produce in 2020 in 60+ cases? Evidence he now says he has, but nobody’s seen? Sorta like the evidence he “found” in Hawaii that Obama’s birth certificate was a fake? Nobody ever saw that “evidence,” either.

And, of course, there’s the question of presidential immunity to be litigated….

(I have no opinion on how that would apply. The answer depends entirely on the facts alleged (there aren’t any right now), and on the court answers. Roberts set the immunity question up to be endlessly litigated and basically make the prosecution of any President a legal quagmire. It’s meant to bounce around in the lower courts until the sitting Supremes are all dead. Which works for Obama, and because Roberts feared a vindictive prosecution of a President. Turns out he had a point. Reality is ironic that way.)


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The King Is A Fink!

Sure he is.
Due to a missile attack, parts of Kyiv and the surrounding region are plunged into darkness. Ukrainians say: 'We won’t see light in our homes today, but the light in our hearts will never go out! Children warm themselves by bonfires because there is no heating at home. We are huddling together with neighbors, facing another difficult winter together!'

The whole scene looks like something out of an apocalyptic movie where the world has descended into darkness... just like in those films. But this isn't a movie, and these people aren't actors-they are ordinary residents of my country's capital. No matter how much I admire the people of Kyiv, this video creates an atmosphere of despair. Winter has only just begun, yet we are already facing such circumstances because of the russians-who claim to want 'peace' but they do everything possible to make sure that in response we send them to hell!
Meanwhile, Trump is also right that the economy is booming, inflation is non-existent, drug prices are down 1500% ( at least!), Trump’s approval ratings are higher than anyone’s in history, and he’s won every election he was ever in by a landslide.

The King is a fink. The President is an idiot.
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Unlike Sen.Scott of Florida

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Die, Menswear!

😈
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I’m Old Enough To Remember…

... when Elmo tried this.

In another state, in another race. Still, this is not the silver bullet/crucifix combination the edgelords imagine it is.

I know it works for Trump, but Republicans are wimps. I doubt that “strategy” translates to a Democratic primary against an incumbent.

It didn’t work for Elmo.
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A Reminder…

There is really no reason to be forced to put up with this:
"Corporate bankruptcies soared to a 15-year high in 2025 as companies struggled to cope with Trump’s trade wars, among other factors, according to a new report.

No fewer than 717 companies filed for Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 bankruptcy between January and November. This marks a 14 percent increase from the same period in 2024 and the highest rate since 2010, when the country was recovering from the Great Recession.

Firms that went bust pointed to inflation, interest rates and Trump’s trade policies — which have hampered supply chains and increased costs — as drivers of their financial troubles."

---

Pending the SCOTUS decision, Congress should put #PrinciplesFirst on affordability, repeal Trump's tariffs immediately, and revoke any presidential authority to unilaterally increase them in the future.
Congress could fix this, even save the GOP some trouble in November. But what are they doing? Resigning in…well, resignation. They’ve given up. They could try. They could easily succeed. The law releasing the Epstein files proves that. Trump is a lame duck, about as threatening as a toothless old man.  But still they fear him.

Which is going to become more and more evident as the new year passes. The GOP has no one to blame but themselves. The real problem is the amount of damage their incompetence and fecklessness will do.
This isn’t rocket science.

GOP RIP. 🪦 
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“Democrat Inspired Hoax”

Bernie Sanders: "I think we need to be thinking seriously about a moratorium on these data centers. Frankly, I think you gotta slow this process down. It's not good enough for the oligarchs to tell us, 'It's coming, you adapt.' What are they talking about? Are they gonna guarantee healthcare to all people? What are they gonna do when people have no jobs? Make housing free?"
Even the black guy is spouting racist nonsense. “Affordable housing” depends on cheap labor (capitalism has to exploit somebody. That’s how Columbus did it, that’s how we’ve been doing it ever since). Obama’s policies curtailed access to immigrant labor, and housing prices rose on the consequent shortage. Biden continued those policies, Trump made it worse each time he was in office.

You get what you pay for, and we are paying for a shortage of cheap labor we built our expectations on. I have friends who once lived in a very old house that was very small, by modern standards. It once housed three generations of family at once, in four rooms, including a kitchen. I live in a house half again the size of the one I grew up in. With my daughter, we had three people here. She considers it “small,” and now has a house half again the size of ours. With only her and her husband. The house I grew up in held four people quite comfortably. 

There is a “mansion” in Austin, an historic structure. It was built for a large family, includes a library and rooms devoted to social functions. Ironically, the family moved out shortly after the children moved out. It was too big and empty. I’ve toured it. It was a “mansion” in its day. I’ve been in larger modern houses, and no one considers them “mansions,” except derisively.

We are doing this to ourselves. No one is taking anything from us. We are sitting down in the empty theatre, declaring ourselves the owner of the empty seats, and complaining about how few seats we have. And our government is turning that into racism and xenophobia, to make us feel less selfish and childish.
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Incompetence And Venality Go Hand In Hand

Also true: And the beats go on:
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