#487
February 20, 2025
Every stroke of Donald Trump’s sharpie makes things a little or a lot worse, and unless you’re rich, Trump’s sharpie is coming for you.
It’s coming for everything you’ve thought of as ‘normal. It’s coming for the baseline assumptions we’ve built our lives on — civil rights, the rule of law, the First Amendment and eventually the Second, and all the other illusions that fool most of us into thinking we share this society with the rich.
We don’t. For people who aren’t rich, rights and freedoms are temporary, only as allowed by the rich, with fingers crossed behind their backs.
The feudal era never ended. It was gussied up with fancy talk of civil rights and god and country, but any rights, any comfort can be yanked away on a wealthy person’s say-so. You’re free to do what you’d like, so long as someone rich doesn’t notice and isn’t offended. I’m free to write this, so long as it doesn’t anger the wrong employee of the rich.
There’s no citizenship, not really, and no constitution. There aren’t even nations. There’s only money. The few people who have it matter, and most of us don’t. We can live and breath and have our puny ‘rights’ and possessions and lives, so long as it doesn’t inconvenience the kings.
As Donald Trump sharpies away the careers, comforts, and even the existence of selected non-wealthy people, remember that it’s bigger than Trump. He’s only a man, and if he died tonight, the sharpie onslaught would continue. The power isn’t in the pen, or the man signing executive orders. The power, and the enemy, is the wealth that stands behind that man. The wealth does everything Trump thinks he’s doing.
Even the specific targets are only details — women, minorities, gay lesbian and trans people, Palestine and Ukraine, civil servants and immigrants and Social Security and foreign aid. My apologies to any victims unmentioned, but we’re all on the list — all of us who aren’t rich, or useful to the rich.
We are trees in the forest, and this is clear-cutting. They’re coming for everything, and everyone who isn’t a billionaire, or useful to the billionaires. They’re coming for all of us.
‘Uber for Armed Guards’ rushes to market after the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO
Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies, testing a once-fringe legal theory
Trump orders Justice Department to fire all US attorneys appointed by Biden
Trump signs executive order targeting ‘benefits for illegal aliens’
Native American activist Leonard Peltier is released from prison after nearly 50 years
I almost didn’t include this, because it’s old news, right? It’s been a month since then-President Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence — so why has it taken a month to walk him to the prison gates and say “Buh-bye”?
ICE prosecutor in Dallas runs white supremacist Xitter account
Kyiv’s White House wooing implodes as Zelenskyy tells the truth about Trump
If Ukraine needs American support, they lost the war when Trump was elected.
11-year-old Texas girl bullied over family’s immigration status takes her own life
RFK Jr’s HHS issues new definitions of terms like ‘sex,’ ‘man’ and ‘woman’, that ignore science
RFK Jr, one-time environmentalist, kills NIH climate change programs
Kristi Noem orders lie detector tests to snuff out DHS leaks
Judge orders Mississippi newspaper to delete editorial criticizing public officials
‘DOGE’ has “God mode” access to view and manipulate information at many federal agencies
Billionaire Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia joins Musk’s wrecking crew at ‘DOGE’
Imagine the mindset of a man, a billionaire of course, who sees what Musk and Trump are doing with ‘DOGE’, and volunteers to join in.
Top federal prosecutor in D.C. probes Democrats over mildly anti-Musk statements
“I’ve never seen anything like these letters from a U.S. attorney,” said Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and University of Michigan law professor. Prosecutors typically leave it to agents to investigate cases so they do not themselves become witnesses, and department policy is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations to protect the reputations of uncharged subjects as well as to avoid tipping them off, she said.
“It seems like a fair inference that these letters are designed more to chill free speech than to seek clarification, as they purport to do,” McQuade said.
Kentucky Fried Chicken I’d moving to Texas to join Pizza Hut at global HQ
Montana seeks to ban mRNA shots as vaccine hesitancy soars
GOOD NEWS, BUT THERE’S NOT MUCH
Judge torches Trump lawyers over ban on trans service members and pronouns: ‘Frankly ridiculous’
Excerpt: Reyes called the assertion “frankly ridiculous” and even said she would entertain testimony from an officer of the U.S. military to testify in the government’s defense, if they could find one.
“If you can get me an officer of the United States military to get on the stand and say that because of pronoun usage we are less prepared, I will be the first to buy you a box of cigars,” she said.
Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe calls MAGA ‘a Nazi movement’ in protest that led to his arrest
Never heard of this guy, but he’s a vivid example of the platform that comes with a little fame. Unlike elected Democrats,Mr Kluwe knows how to parlay his fame into sympathetic attention for a stand against fascism. Click through for a pretty good video, btw.
THE LOCAL STORY
Long-time local Democrat criticizes Musk, then says:
“I strongly support the idea of making government more efficient and more effective. Meaningful reform is needed, and Mr. Musk certainly has the background and experience to help accomplish these goals.”
Just another example of another useless Democrat.
You’re not stupid so it doesn’t need to be said, but of course, no, Mr Musk lacks any background, experience, or ethics that might make government more efficient or effective.
EYE ON AI
Lawyers caught citing AI-hallucinated cases say it’s a ‘cautionary tale’ for all law firms
AI overwhelmingly prefers white and male job candidates in new test of resume-screening bias
AND ALSO
Paul Giamatti to star as Art Bell in upcoming feature film
My recollection of Art Bell is that he was fun & weird, but that — unlike modern conspiracy freaks — he was never about hate. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I listened often, and if he’d been spewing hate I think I would’ve clicked the radio off. So this movie might be fun, and like the guy in the article says, Giamatti is the right guy to channel him.
MY BROWSER HISTORY, MINUS THE PORN
Blogging is not always about traffic
2/20/2025
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, 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