December 15, 2024
Here comes one of my far-too-long essays, I thought, and started by typing, America’s not going to survive Trump’s second term.
My intent was to follow that with reasons and evidence and the horrifying recitation of facts, but why bother? If you follow current events, you know it in your gut. It’s self-evident.
Trump’s second term begins in a month, and the America we’ve grown up in goes vrooming toward its end.
OUR FRIENDS, THE DEMOCRATS
Biden commutes sentence of former Pennsylvania judge involved in kids-for-cash scandal
What a kick in the victims’ teeth. Michael Conahan was a judge who took kickbacks to send thousands of kids to a for-profit juvenile prison, many for trivial crimes. Commuting his sentence is Trump-level corrupt, one of the more despicable things Biden has done.
Harris campaign made little effort to reach Black and Latino voters in Pennsylvania
Nancy Pelosi is ‘actively working to tank’ AOC’s bid for top committee role
Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of few left-wing Democrats, has played the required game, waiting her turn for a whiff of power in the House. She’s about to start her fourth term, but Dems want to keep her waiting until she dies.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF DYSTOPIA
Bankruptcy judge rejects The Onion’s bid to buy Alex Jones’ Infowars
Another kick in the victims’ teeth. The victims took The Onion‘s bid for less money, because The Onion would end Infowars‘ lies. The court says they should take a higher bid, from a pal of Jones’ who’ll continue the website’s propaganda for fools.
CEO of backpack company called NYPD tip line, when he recognized Luigi’s backpack
And in this follow-up article, the backpack CEO denies specifically snitching on Luigi, but says he would eagerly have done “whatever is possible” to finger the shooter if Luigi had bought their more recent product, which has trackable serial numbers.
350 homeless people died this year in Las Vegas. People with conscience say more support is needed.
Idaho argues pregnant women facing amputations from septic shock can’t get emergency abortions
Ohio Republicans pass legislation requiring hospitals to administer horse paste on request
Federal employees scramble to insulate themselves from Trump’s purge
‘Waging war on science’: Researchers worry about their jobs under Trump 2.0
Trump will OK anti-immigrant raids at churches, schools, hospitals, funerals
Kennedy’s lawyer has asked FDA to revoke approval of the polio vaccine
Elon Musk calls homelessness a ‘lie’ and ‘propaganda’ — and Trump is listening
Estimated net worth of key players in Trump administration [GRAPHIC]
MEDIA MALFEASANCE
All the major media have Luigi Mangione’s alleged ‘manifesto’, so why is Ken Klippenstein the only journalist who’s published it? [VIDEO]
Well, here’s Luigi’s ‘manifesto’ in its entirety. It’s only 261 words. I was once an editor. so I’ve taken the liberty of adding paragraph breaks. Other than that, it’s verbatim:
To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country.
To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there.
I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.
A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.
Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.
—Luigi Mangione
Billionaire owner of L.A. Times spikes editorial on Trump’s wingnut appointments
Weakened US public broadcasters will fight for their lives in 2025
NPR’s journalism is adequate, by the current awful standards of mainstream journalism — it’s no worse than my local paper, but also no better. Might be the best news coverage on the radio, though, and I’d oppose ending the whopping 1% of its budget NPR gets from the federal government, same as I’ll oppose everything Trump and his maniacs do.
Ken Paxton’s subpoena to 404 Media shows how MAGA world is already harassing journalists
GOOD NEWS
Here’s Senator Mitch McConnell, one of the most corrupt, cartoonishly awful people of our time, taking his first-ever political stand that’s not blatantly evil! He’s opposed to polio.
Montana Supreme Court upholds lower court ruling that allows gender-affirming care for minors
Florida county will expunge convictions for people who bought crack manufactured by police
Buncha musicians this old fart’s never heard of back Internet Archive in copyright fight
Sovereign citizens convicted of trying to kidnap coroner they accused of necromancy
Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths
North Carolina Gov and Gov-Elect take Republicans to court over power grab
Republicans invented this tactic (reduce the Governor’s power when a Democrat wins an election) in Wisconsin while I lived there. The Dems’ response then was to say tsk tsk, so this hint of backbone is good news.
EYE ON AI
AI company trolls San Francisco with billboards saying “stop hiring humans”
Apple’s “demonstrably half-baked” AI delivers false news headlines
Washington Post ingeniously leverages ‘AI’ to undermine history and make search less useful
AI slop is already invading Oregon’s local journalism
This poor schmuck sat through the first all-AI movies
MY BROWSER HISTORY, MINUS THE PORN
This is what city-making looks like when you get everything right
A Democratic media strategy to save journalism and the nation
by Cory Doctorow
This is a smart enough proposal, and I remember similar suggestions as far back as the 1980s. By golly yes, Democrats should build a better megaphone to get the message out — but it would also be helpful if Dems had a message worth hearing.
The decision to overturn The Onion’s purchase of Infowars is a massive mistake.
An interview with Penn Jillette
Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking
A brief history of brain-rot and moral panics
Edward Bernays — the architect of modern mass manipulation
Excerpt: … One of the numerous problems for America’s magnates was the consumption of the average citizen. Many only purchased what they really needed, a behavior which moguls wanted to change. The Wall Street banker Paul Mazur summarized this in a particularly straightforward manner: ‘We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture’, he wrote in 1927 in the Harvard Business Review. ‘People must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old have been entirely consumed.’
JUST FOR FUN
Sweaty Peter Thiel stumbles through incoherent answer about CEO slaying [VIDEO]
Texas bans sale of luggage to pregnant women
Sometimes labels don’t fit [VIDEO]
FROM MY LEMMY PAGE
- American police are out of control
- Ignoring the climate emergency
- The Lord works in mysterious ways
- Obituaries
12/15/2024
Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bleepity-Bleep, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce, Joey Jo Jo emeritus, Jeff Meyer, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.
Leave a Reply