One of the arguments - if you can call it that - against the sort of social democracy I was raised in, is that "tax money goes to the undeserving". Like, for example, broke-ass cartoonists who can't afford the heart surgery that'll keep 'em alive.
But see, we social democrats WANT our money to go to the "undeserving". Because it turns out,
Healthy people cost less.
Educated people contribute more.
Housed people are more stable.
And whadda you know, if you maintain a basic level of social services, then there ARE no "undeserving" to complain about. Just people.
There are no tent cities of homeless vagrants in a healthy society, because those people didn't have to go bankrupt, go untreated, or whatever situation that tosses people out onto the street in US society.
By a modest investment in preventative care, we avoid the insanely expensive ER visits by people made sick by sleeping in the cold, by not getting treatment for their ailments until they're literally spasming & bleeding in the street. Saves billions in the long run!
Oh, and how about your car isn't getting broken into on the regular, because there are no mobs of starving vagrants who don't care if they're caught stealing, 'cause there's food and showers in jail?

Some billionaires, and particularly wannabe billionaires, seem to think that sucking all the money into their cash-boxes, leaving people literally starving in the streets, is the only sensible way to run a society. Adam Smith's Vile Maxim made manifest, "Everything for us, nothing for anybody else".
That's just plain wrong, a delusion. The lives of the rich would not be deprived of anything, if the poor were more or less taken care of, social democrat style. In fact, their lives would be richer and safer - they wouldn't have to be hiding behind high walls, in fear of another Luigi Mangione.
So I don't understand why the rich campaign so relentlessly against any social/health insurance. Again, they lose nothing - in fact, they GAIN, by having a healthier, more prosperous society to live in, with a well-educated workforce to draw upon. It's like they have some sort of religion that demands human sacrifice to Mammon. Or do they just not feel properly rich if they can't look down from the balconies of their mansions to see poor people starving in the gutter?

Seriously. Abandoning the current preference for evil and turning to the good, would SAVE us money in the long run. Not to mention a shitload of human lives. Check the research - I'm not making this up. So....why not?

As I get more comments, the comment counter goes DOWN. I have no idea what algorithm it's following. As far as practical utility goes, I guess my FA page doesn't have a comment counter anymore? Ah well, at least the page is still here. Publishing one's work on paper may have had considerably less circulation than posting one's work on what is indeed the world-wide Web. But at least paper books are permanent - nobody can erase them by tapping a few buttons in a server room.
You can argue about whether my bloviations are worth preserving for the future at all. But if you post on the web, the choice is not yours. Your opus can be wiped out at any time, on the whim of a tech bro.

Another clue as to why the red-hat cult still clings to the wrinkly buttocks of a sundowning sex criminal con man as he runs the country into the ground:
https://observervoice.com/why-docto.....-lives-196356/

A quote: "According to studies from Harvard University, the Semmelweis reflex operates through several mechanisms. There’s ego protection—accepting contradicting evidence requires admitting previous beliefs were wrong. There’s social conformity—going against established consensus risks reputation and relationships. And there’s cognitive dissonance—holding contradictory beliefs creates psychological discomfort that people avoid by rejecting new evidence rather than revising old beliefs.

Research from MIT demonstrates that the Semmelweis reflex is particularly strong when: (1) the new evidence threatens professional identity or expertise, (2) accepting it would require admitting past mistakes that caused harm, (3) it contradicts beliefs that are central to someone’s worldview, and (4) accepting it would require costly changes to established practices or systems."

I'm not immune to this. Going back over my assorted rants, I see several instances where I stepped on my dick. No wonder it's so big.

What else? Time crunch is getting bad. Worse? Gotta get my web page up, my 'zines published, a dozen different things at once. Any tricks my readers might know for getting more work out of the average day? And no, I can't go without sleep.

I got notice this morning that my old friend, M. Mitchell Marmel, had died. He had a page here:
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/marmelmm/
Dammit. I got this....heavy feeling....of being a soldier slogging forward with my company under enemy fire.
There go your parents!
They got McMoo!
Ian Curtis just bit the dust!
They killed Shep!
Beiro just caught one in the gut! He's not gonna make it!
Ed Zolna's down!
Three-M's gone!
You hear the bodies falling into the mud to the right and to the left of you, and you know, with absolute dreadful certainty, that soon it will be your turn. But what else can you do but slog on?
Best I can hope for is that when I buy it, someone younger and stronger will pick up my rifle and carry on.

Make good use of your time, my friends, fans and fly-bys. You have less of it than you might believe.

I was reading this article about one of ICE's concentration camps for children:
https://www.propublica.org/article/.....illey-children
The bit where medical care for the prisoners is lethally inadequate struck me as familiar. Dilley is run by private prison company (PTUI!!) CoreCivic.
A couple of good friends of mine were also in the clutches of private prison companies. The deliberate neglect of their medical needs ended up killing them both. And.....THIS IS NOT NEWS.
This neglect has been investigated over and over. The private prison companies have been fined, placed under consent decrees, judicial watch, you name it - but nothing changes. Why is that?
My guess is that when the prison profiteers were setting things up, a cold-blooded reptile in a loose-fitting human suit ran the numbers - and concluded it would be cheaper to pay the fines for killing a percentage of their captives with neglect
( https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/.....tarved-in-jail ), than it would be to provide adequate medical care to them.
As long as neglecting the prisoners, even unto death, is cheaper than providing them with proper care, nothing will change. The amount of the fines would have to be raised by an order of magnitude, to become a real threat to profits, before the private prison psychopaths will even think about reforming their hellholes.

So if you have a serious health condition, held at bay by costly medical treatments, keep your nose squeaky clean, because you won't survive jail. So if the Gestapo comes for you anyway, despite you not having committed any crime? Well....then you have nothing to lose, yes? A man without hope is a man without fear. Do as thou wilt.

So I posted an editorial recently where I claimed that explaining even the simplest of facts to the red-hat cult-members was pointless:
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/11303676/
Mere words were never going to extract their heads from their colons - their adoration of Prump would be completely unaffected, even if you showed them video of him raping and eating toddlers.
But why was this so? What magic made these creeps so loyal to the biggest disaster ever to afflict the White House? Turns out the answer is painfully simple. Mr. Brunelle ( https://www.mrbrunelle.com ) explained to me that

"To smart people like us, Trump's decisions seem incredibly stupid....but to stupid people, they seem smart.
They think he's a genius, because he's making the same decisions they'd make if they were in his position.
Thus, morons are happy because, after many years of being told what to do by smart people, Trump gave THEM the chance to finally run things."

SO obvious after some clever bastard finally lays it out. We're a representative republic, and at last the mean-spirited morons of the USA are represented by one of their own tribe. It's a disaster for everyone else - actually, no, it's a disaster for everyone, them included, they're just too dumb to see it. Ho boy, it's gonna be a hard two-and-a-half years.

To wrap up, some words we might find useful in this era:
COCKWOMBLE: A person so stupid, they don't realize they're dumb. On the contrary, they think themselves smarter than everyone else, and are not dissuaded by reality's refusal to go along with this delusion.
DUNDERWHELP: A malevolent moron. The opposite of the fool with a heart of gold, the dunderwhelp's desire to harm his fellow-citizens is only limited by the fact that he is profoundly stupid.
KNIPPERDOLLIN: A fanatical idiot. Named after Bernard Knipperdollin, fanatical leader of the Munster Anabaptists from 1533 to 1535. His fanaticism makes the Knipperdollin extremely dangerous. He'll commit any atrocity he believes Glorious Leader wants.
If you can't simply shoot him, deflect him from yourself by sending him off on a wild-goose chase, preferably of the suicide-mission sort. Don't worry if the story you spin him is ridiculous. Remember you're dealing with an idiot, so reason and logic are worse than useless.
MATTOID: A semi-insane person. Someone just sane enough to function in society, but revealed as a lunatic by any closer inspection.

I love English. It's big, fat and shameless, the Pro Wrestler of languages.

I don't normally answer posts on FaceHook, but I just saw one so funny, I couldn't resist. A fella was insisting he wasn't in a cult just because he was a red-hatter. No, no, he adored Prump because
"He's real. Not rehearsed. Most politicians are polished and presidential — and it sounds nice — but it's usually fake. Trump is raw, blunt, and imperfect. But 𝗜 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀. He doesn't read from a script written by donors and PR teams. In a world full of performance politicians, that honesty is refreshing....
𝗛𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗵𝗲'𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼. This is why millions still support him. Most candidates campaign on big promises, then magically can't deliver once in office. Trump follows through more consistently than any president I've seen in my lifetime.
He puts America first. You can hate his style — but the results speak. He fights for our borders, our economy, our energy, our sovereignty, our safety. He doesn't bend to global pressure. He doesn't apologize for America.
I don't support Trump because I think he's perfect. I support him because I agree with his mission: 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀, 𝗲𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸, 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁.

Once I'd picked myself up from rolling on the floor laughing over someone voting for Prump because of his HONESTY, I said something like this:
"So....ski-masked thugs gunning down American citizens in the streets (and getting away with it)....the relentless grifting....starting a bloody war with Iran to distract from the Epstein files....those were the outcomes you WANTED? Really? So Prump raping underage girls is OK, not because your cult leader can do no wrong, but because you're fine with child rape generally? God, I hope you don't have children!"

But that brought up a point that concerns all of us: The Iran war. Predictably, Iran has blocked the Straits of Hormuz. Not with ships, no. Every major maritime insurer on earth has cancelled war risk coverage for the entire Persian Gulf. The strait wasn't shut down by Iran's navy. It was shut down by insurance companies going "Nope, we're not covering that." One withdrawal of a piece of paper and 20% of the world's oil supply stopped moving overnight. Iran has openly announced it will not stop until oil is $200 a barrel.

And what does that mean to you? Well, I just tanked up my truck at $4.06 a gallon, and it hurt a bit. Wanna guess how much it will hurt at $10.00 a gallon? Not to mention EVERYTHING being more expensive because shipping it, be it by air, train or truck, will cost more. Maybe a lot more.
Will this finally test the limits of the Red-Hat's love for Prump? I don't know. if they're OK with him raping children, why should they object to him starving them? Even their own children?

Oh, and if the oil-producing nations drop the petrodollar, the downgrade of our standard of living will be permanent. And why shouldn't they? The middle-eastern sovereign wealth funds are already pulling out of American investments. Every sensible nation is edging away from the flailing imbecile in the White House before he drags 'em down with him. China's making out like a bandit, as the nations that used to be our partners look around for a safer haven for their investments.

So once Prump is finally out of office and/or dead, chances are good he'll have a nation-wide sound we can all remember him by: growling stomachs.

I'm sure everyone has heard of Prump's latest distraction from the Epstein files, "Operation Because I Felt Like It - What are You gonna do about it, LOSERS?!". Nobody misses Kahmeinei, or whatever that mass-murdering scumbag's name was. But there's also a bunch of innocent people getting killed, as happens in most wars. That's not so good.

So wouldn't it be great if we had some sort of legislative body that could debate whether going to war was a good idea or not, and then vote to either declare war or abstain? And have the authority to make that decision stick? That way, some adult thought might temper the rush to war. Wouldn't that be nice? I sure wish we had something like that.

Let's wrap up with a joke, just to avoid ending on a bitter note:
"What's the difference between a prostitute and a congressman?
- The Congressman gets paid more."
But I think that's fair. The Congressperson screws a lot more people!

PS: Does anyone think it's weird that our Health and Human Services secretary is pooh-pooing vaccines and thus encouraging new epidemics of diseases we thought we'd gotten rid of through those same vaccination programs? I mean, how many US kids have died of measles, so far? How can he possibly get away with such blatant dereliction of duty?
Because it's not dereliction. He's doing his job. He's just not working for US. You see, the billionaires in their rarefied little bubble look down on us poor people, and opine that there are way too many of us. But they're JUST bright enough to understand that if they went around randomly "reducing" the population with machine-guns, there just might be unpleasant repercussions for themselves.
But if they talk us moronic masses into rendering ourselves vulnerable to deadly diseases, then the resulting deaths aren't THEIR fault, are they? A beautifully self-regulating scheme, where only the dumbest volunteer for death by disease. Or are volunteered by their idiot parents. No force is applied, no camps are built - the morons Darwin themselves out of the gene pool. From the billionaires' point of view, it's beautiful. And so cheap!

Well-meaning friends have advised me that I shouldn't be making all these political journals - I could get banned from FA for good, if the wrong snowflake gets triggered. Why not just keep my head down, and occasionally talk about my dog or a visit to a furry con? This is a furry fandom site, after all.
Well....keeping one's head down is only a good idea if you have the option of raising it up when you feel the need to. If not, you're just saving the thug holding your head down the toilet some effort, and why would you want that?
Check this out: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AcfoC4LqG/
As anyone who has access to news, even the bowlderized corporate sort, should know, we're in the formative phase of an authoritarian government. The press is being bullied into line, the law is being ignored, and masked, unaccountable goons flood the streets.
And as any history buff can tell you, there's only about two ways fascist regimes are defeated: One, stop them before they consolidate power - while there's still a free press, independent judiciary, the actual, functional pillars of a democratic republic, not just the hollowed-out zombie facades of them.
Two, wait for the dictator and his enablers to die of old age. Oh, and sometimes they flee to Argentina when the wars they started go against them.

I'm not young enough for method two to be a viable alternative. And let's not forget: Third-world type authoritarianism is very often followed by a third-world type economy. Remember the massive tax cuts every Republican administration has handed their corporate owners, the last few decades? Those tax cuts add up, yes they do. In fact, the vast majority of the US tax burden has been shifted onto the middle class. Unfortunately, the middle class has been all but wiped out by the looting spree of the billionaires. Ooops, bad timing!
So we've funded the US military and social programs largely by borrowing. We've borrowed so much, it's now becoming uncertain if we can even afford the interest on the national debt. If we're to avoid a devastatingly painful financial crash, we'll have to be very careful, thrifty, diplomatic.
Now look at the current occupant of the White House. Do any of those three words apply to him? Hmmm?

So when the Crash comes, what am I going to do? I'm basically an entertainer - a luxury. If your kids are going hungry, will you be spending any of your money on the silly funny-animal comics I currently make for a living? I don't believe so.
If the US economy goes down in flames, and I end up unable to make an honest living......Well, the option of fleeing to Iceland is open to me, I suppose. But I've made a very pleasant life here in Tucson with Traci, and I don't want to give it up if I don't have to. And let's not forget that most US po'folks do not have the option of fleeing overseas. What will they do? Starve quietly? Maybe not.

So that's why I'm begging anyone who will listen to check their voter registration well in advance, so the effects of the Repub's desperate voter-suppression programs will be blunted - hopefully enough so the "Blue Wave" will actually happen - that the demented Nazi-wannabes we're currently suffering under will be replaced by good old, all-American, sleazy political whores.
So yeah, the Midterms coming up might actually matter. Will Prump's terms in the White House be remembered as some absurd dinosaur-thrashings that ultimately came to nothing, or the start of the long national nightmare that destroyed our status in the world and left us impoverished for generations? It can go either way from here. So choose carefully, eh?

A select few of you may have noticed I was exiled from FA for a week, mainly for opening my big mouth a bit too far to suit the mods. Whoops! It seems my sense of humor is not to everyone's taste. Who could have seen that coming?
What I recon I'll do, going forward, is put any "controversial" opinions on my personal website, that a couple of fans are currently assembling for me - then just post a link to the rant on here. That should work?
So what will I fill the rest of this space with? Something harmless and uncontroversial, of course. Let's see....oh! Clowns! What could be more harmless that some capering harlequins?

When my overseas correspondents ask me WTF is going on in the good ol' USA, it's not easy for me to answer. It's not just the horror of watching a gaggle of clowns push the USA's world status, economy and domestic peace over a cliff....but the burning embarrassment of how easily they got into a position to do this to us.
Look at the current administration as soberly as you can. Who do they resemble more?
Lex Luthor and his badass League of Evil (Lex actually was the US President for awhile in the Superman comics!)?
Or Cracked Cockwomble and his Cabinet of Cretins?

So yes, having your polity taken over and ravaged by evil geniuses is terrible. I was ravaged once, and it really sucked.
But being ravaged by stumbling assclowns is terrible AND humiliating! Are we truly such easy marks?

I'm not saying it's all 100% bad - for one thing, when the EU saw Prump spastically flopping about in one of his tantrums, they realized that entrusting their safety to someone like this was a bad gamble. So Europe is finally pulling their collective finger out, and starting to provide for their own security. As readers of my pro-prepper and 2A journals may have guessed, I'm in favor of providing one's own defense, not entrusting it to strangers who may or may not show up when needed.

But alas, such positive sides to the current chaos are few and far between. The standard answer to the complaint of "I'm surrounded by idiots!!" is "If a bunch of idiots have managed to surround you, how smart does that make you?"
And that's the situation we're in. A mess of our own making! The embarrassment is agonizing.

# Mentioning preppers reminded me: Back in the 1990's, there was a militia movement, where guys were preparing to violently resist when a fascist government would send out masked goons to kidnap and kill patriotic Americans. But now that it's actually happening......where ARE all these brave patriots who talked so big back then? *sound of crickets*
.....of course, I've got the same question about the Democratic party, but that's another rant.

Aren't the Epstein files interesting? They're still holding back half of them, presumably because that half mentions Prump so often, it's not feasible to redact it all. But what we do see paints a pretty ugly picture:
Rich elites spent the last decade engineering a #metoo backlash, to make sure they'd never again be held accountable for their actions. Accountability is like garlic to vampires to them - they just can't stand it. You remember those drag queens and other trans people we were supposed to be so afraid of? That little moral panic was largely engineered by Epstein and his associates, as a distraction from what they were up to.
Almost the whole "anti-woke" movement was engineered to protect pedophiles and sexual abusers. Yes, MAGAs - you've been licking the boots of a pedophile self-protection cabal this whole time. How's it taste?

That's why Prump's been threatening to send ICE goons to take over polling places for elections: Because if everyone who is qualified to vote is allowed to vote, then the Republicans will be held accountable for their appalling behavior by the electorate: They'll be wiped out, and they know it. Massive voter suppression got Prump into office in 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_XdtAQXnGE
And all they can think of to do, is to double down, to stop even more people from voting in the midterms. They remind me of the Battle of Athens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battl....._Athens_(1946)
But after the veterans had beaten this cartoonishly corrupt sheriff & his thugs, there were non-corrupt authorities they could turn him over to.
But now it's the President of the US (and his idiot toadies) who are proposing to end free elections. Even if the American people somehow find the guts to stand up to him (Prump's remaining True Believers are now a teensy, tiny minority), what do you do with such scumbags afterwards? Who do you turn 'em in to?

Who's left in the American political landscape who still stands for the rule of law?

I've caught some of my more rational readers trying to gently argue red-hat cultists back to reality. This is a complete waste of time. You cannot reason a person out of a stance they did not reason themselves into. And no reasonable person would believe that a sociopathic, cretinous sex criminal con man is going to save them from whatever boogieman the con-job has been dangling on a string in front of them. Sociopaths only and ever care about themselves.
But pointing out this painfully obvious fact does no good. Carl Sagan tells us:

"If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back"

And that's just the suckers who were dumb and/or desperate enough to swallow Prump's line of bullshit. A much darker faction are the folks who are perfectly aware that Prump is full of shit - and they LIKE the taste. Prump gives them license to be the hateful creeps they are in their not-so-secret hearts. It is necessary for them to pretend to believe in Prump's vicious lies, for those lies justify the murder and mayhem they wish to see inflicted on pretty much everyone who's not a fellow cult member.

So when you're trying to deprogram a red-hat cultist, you're most likely talking to a pea-brained sucker, an evil fascist wannabe, or an evil pea-brain. Did you think that patiently pointing out to them where they are demonstrably wrong, will cause them to slap their foreheads and go "DUH! Of course! You're right! How could I have been so stupid? Forgive me!"

Nope. They'll just keep repeating the latest Faux News propaganda like a parrot. Argument can only change the mind of a person who has a mind, and is capable of changing it. How many of the original Nazis admitted they might have been a little bit wrong after Germany was defeated and the death camps were exposed? G'wan, guess!

So when you finally give up in disgust, they'll crow that they "owned the libs". You can "debate" them if you have the time to waste, but be aware that passing the time is the only result you will ever reap from the effort.

Recently, a friend of mine texted me a meme where it is claimed that
"HOW CONSERVATIVES DENY PEOPLE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE:
Require ID
Must be alive
Must not vote more than once
Require citizenship"

That is what you call a BIG FAT LIE. This is how Republicans (who have less and less to do with classic conservatism) deny people their right to vote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_XdtAQXnGE

Largely paraphrased from Greg Palast's article on the subject:
Did you hear about the FBI's raid on the Fulton County elections office in Georgia? This is NOT, as the media seems to think, about Trump’s attempt to prove he won the 2020 race, as if he’s some political Captain Ahab was trying to chase the Moby Dick of 2020 revenge.
No, this is all about 2026 and 2028. Look at a map. Fulton County is the heart of “Blacklanta.” And Atlanta is the electoral heart of Georgia. And Georgia is the swingiest of swing states. If Republicans don’t cut down the Black vote in Atlanta, they lose the crucial seat now held by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. And in 2028, the GOP, if they don’t suppress the vote in Fulton, they lose the White House. Fulton was the fulcrum of Trump’s loss in 2020 and could spell doomsday for Republicans in 2028.
So, how exactly do you stop Fulton County Black folk (and the LGBTQ community and other non-MAGAs) from voting? The answer is: DROP-BOX.

First, let me explain to my White readers a fact about African-Americans: In the majority, they vote early, having suffered the cruel absurdity of six-hour lines on Election Day. (And remember, it’s a FELONY crime in Georgia to give an elderly voter standing in line thirsty, a bottle of water*). From long, sad experience, Black voters have learned to use early voting opportunities, especially mail-in ballots that can be placed in a drop-box.
For example, in the election run-off following the 2020 vote, which put two Georgia Democrats into the US Senate, over a million mail-in ballots (1,084,021) were cast, mainly in drop-boxes, mostly in Fulton/Atlanta.
Republicans took note. So, in a bill signed by GOP Governor Brian Kemp, the infamous SB202, the state declared all-out war on early voting, especially early votes placed in secure drop-boxes.
First, the state slashed the number of drop-boxes allowed in Atlanta and Savannah the two big cities with the urban Black population, by 77%.
Early voting days, when you can use the drop box, were cut from 60 to just seven (!). And drop boxes — meant to serve voters who can only vote when they get off work at night — were sealed up at night in state office buildings.
The result, not reported by a single US outlet (except Thom Hartmann) was that the number of mail-in ballots cast dropped by 83% — 83%! — from over a million to 0.2 million (191,286) by the run-off of 2022.

Why? It goes back to what Donald Trump calls, correctly, one of the most influential documentaries of all time: 2000 Mules. The film, premiered by Trump at Mar-a-Lago, accused 2000 Black men of taking $10 from George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Stacey Abrams to stuff drop-boxes with tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots, especially in Fulton County. It was the perfect Sturm for the right, a stimulating concoction of racism and anti-Semitism.
There wasn’t a bit of evidence, of course, but it looked convincing to MAGA-nauts. Every single drop-box in Georgia has a video camera over it to prevent fraud, and the videos are public. So, the Trump front called True the Vote, showed videos of Black men “stuffing” the drop boxes with extra ballots.
Except it wasn’t true. The “star” criminal was a Black man accused of “running from the scene of crime like OJ Simpson.” In fact, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is Republican controlled, ran all over the state to arrest each Black alleged ballot stuffer (a felony crime) — but found that every one, EVERY ONE, was a legal voter. The man accused of thievery was Mark Andrews, who is a Verizon executive who legally dropped his family’s ballots in the drop box. But, as LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter says, “He was seen guilty of a crime because he was Black.” That, literally, was the only “evidence” of the crime.

Early voting, mail-in voting and casting an early vote in a drop were the keys to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, key to a huge surge in minority and student votes nationwide.

And massive suppression of early, mail-in and drop-box votes were key to Trump’s triumphant return.

Following the 2020 election, over 20 Red States passed laws eliminating or restricting drop-boxes. And in every single case, legislators cited the bullshit “evidence” of 2000 Mules. Fact check: The state of Georgia recounted and reviewed every single Fulton County drop-box and mail in ballot and didn’t find one single forged ballot. Every vote had an identified, verified voter. Not ONE ballot.
White Democrats don’t seem to understand how important early drop-off votes mean to Black and student communities. But the Republicans understand it completely. In fact, GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that, had he not gone to court and stopped Houston from mailing out absentee ballots to all voters, “Donald Trump would have lost Texas.” Texas! (Note: Houston has the largest number of Black voters of any city in America.)
By seeking every envelope from drop-box and absentee voters, Attorney General Pam Blondi is saving her job by saving the GOP from the voters’ wrath. The game is to force a state (i.e. Republican) takeover of Fulton County voting (possible under SB 202). And you can’t separate the invasion of Atlanta voting offices from the Purge’n General Blondi’s demand that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls.
The underlying purpose of Blondi’s seizure of Minnesota’s voter files is the restoration of two other racially poisonous vote suppression tricks. One is the return of the “Interstate Crosscheck” purge program and its sister, the purge of “aliens” from the rolls. Interstate Crosscheck cost nearly one million voters their registrations in 2016, key to Trump’s first election. Crosscheck was ruled illegal through a grassroots campaign led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Bernie Sanders and litigation brought by PUSH, the NAACP and the ACLU based, I’m proud to say, on the evidence presented to the courts by the Palast Investigative Fund. But. now, Crosscheck is BAAAACK!

Get it? The Republican's cry of "VOTER FRAUD!" is a crime that virtually never happens - When Florida used the ICE lists to purge 187,000 (!) voters from the rolls, mostly Hispanics, it turns out only ONE was an illegal alien: A Republican from Austria.

But it is the excuse they invoke for the real attack on election integrity: Voter suppression. It took gobs of it to get Prump back into office, because everyone who wanted to know, already knew from his first term that he was a scumbag. Totally unfit for high office.
And now that he's hurt and/or pissed off everyone in the country, aside from a tiny, shrinking hard-core of red-hat cultists, the Republicans rightly fear they'll be wiped out in the next elections. They can't suppress enough votes to stay in power.

But you know they'll try, so check your registration EARLY! Don't let them steal your vote yet again.

•It's true! Google it: https://georgiarecorder.com/2025/12.....er-new-ruling/

The latest defense of the indefensible by the red-hat cult is the claim they copy-paste from the right-wing websites:
"weird that ICE are operating in dozens of states, but it only gets violent in Minnesota".
Do these cultists actually understand what they're saying? "Real Americans reflexively bend the knee to any ski-masked thug who barks orders at 'em! How dare Minnesotans stand up for themselves and/or their neighbors? That's unamerican! That's why all the murders are happening there! Serves 'em right!"

I guess since the red-hats tend to be hateful cowards at heart, they just don't understand bravery, compassion, people who would put themselves out for others. Putting yourself at risk, just for basic human decency, is incomprehensible to them.

Me, I'm downright grateful to the people of Minnesota. They've restored a modicum of my faith in the American experiment, in the human spirit, even. We are not all assholes, all the time. Decency may be under attack, but it is still abundant among our fellow-citizens. There's light on the horizon, and the more of us who get our shit together, the brighter it gets. Lock arms!

A much better written musing on this subject:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2.....om-ice/685769/

So Patreon just announced that they're gonna give in to Apple's demand that all subscriptions be per-month, after all. AAARGH! They're gonna switch all per-post subscriptions over to per-month on February 1st, and fuck what we artists want. So I can only beg of my fans, please, PLEASE do NOT sign up for my page through any Apple app. They take a HUGE percentage of the pledges - thirty per cent - so a third of your money would go to Apple, not me. Apple is already filthy rich, while I'm scrambling to cover my bills. I need your much appreciated contributions a LOT more than they do!
You can go here: https://www.Patreon.com/Karno/overview and sign up directly on the Patreon page itself. Please, please do not use any Apple-affiliated intermediary, as they will steal your money. Yes, it's legal, but from my perspective, a billionaire corporation is stealing the food from artists' mouths.

Speaking of changes, have you leftists (you'd be center-right in Europe, but let us not pick nits) noticed that the red-hats have abandoned the 2nd amendment in the wake of the Alex Pretti murder? They already gave up the first, fourth and fourteenth constitutional amendments in their breathless worship of a crude orange con-man, now in obvious mental, physical and political decline. And now they're saying that having a licensed, legal self-defense firearm on your person is reason enough to execute you in the street. The 2nd Amendment must be discarded so the Trumpstapo can feel safe!
This is an opportunity to be exploited! The US Left's insistence that "The peasants must be disarmed!" has cost 'em a lot of votes over the years. Armed folks who otherwise agree with most of their agenda (back when the Dems had more to say than "We're not Trump!"), still voted the other way, because they wanted no risk of getting the Waco treatment. A sweaty creep with a smarmy grin, hands extended like grasping claws, hissing "I'm disarming you for your own good!" is just an inherently untrustworthy image. If you just want to help someone, why is it vital to disarm them first?
But I sure could use me some universal healthcare, just for starters. So if the Dems announce that "Hey, did you see the Trumpers execute that guy, just for having a gun? Us Dems would never do that! So if you want your rights respected, vote Democratic!" they'd pick up a big chunk of the gun-voters who until now were the exclusive reserve of the Repubs.
But the window of opportunity is closing fast. Jump on it quick!

Climate change is also hitting hard, this winter. So you folks who don't believe there is such a thing, go out in the ice storm wearing shorts and a t-shirt. That'll show those gullible Libs that "climate change" isn't real. Go on! The gene pool will be improved, at the very least.

Yup, lots of changes, coming on faster and faster. But I'm flexible, I can deal. "Future Shock" hasn't got me yet. How are you doing?

Seems ICE did another murder - this time, is was ICU nurse Alex Pretti, in an impressive display of rank cowardice and/or incompetence. Check out the video:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/25/us/v.....nalysis-digvid
Six goons swarm him and pummel him into the dirt. Then one of the goons discovers his LEGALLY CARRIED CCW in his belt, grabs it, and scuttles off with it. Then, once Pretti is disarmed, and there's zero chance of him shooting back, the remaining 5 goons pump ten bullets into him.
That's how you do safe murder - first make sure your victim is immobilized and defenseless, then mag-dump him or her.
"If a gun-thug in a ski mask MIGHT be working for the government, then you must let him do anything he wants, up to and including killing you" would seem a hard proposition to defend to a sane person. But I have no doubt our local red-hats will step up: "How dare you call our brave brownshirts cowards?! They can do no wrong! Sieg HEIL!"

Since I'm a CCW holder myself, this murder hits closer to home than that of Renee Good. And brings up a point: If you're not willing to use your self-defense firearm for self-defense, what's the point of carrying it? Yes, six to one is bad odds. But sending two or three of your assassins ahead of you to announce your arrival, means you can face your ancestors without shame when you arrive in Valhalla. Too bad Alex didn't believe these creeps were actually going to kill him, and least not in time.
Not defending yourself from attack doesn't make you a pacifist: It makes you dead. And your killers are thereby encouraged to go on to further depredations: "I'm bored! Let's go out and knock off a couple citizens, huh? Don't worry, it's safe! They're too pussified to lift a hand to defend themselves!"
But if you shoot back, the thugs will piss themselves and scatter. They're cowards, remember? This will result in fewer killings in the long run. And fewer murders is what we all want, yes?

But speaking of our red-hats of FA, can you explain why your goon-love seems so conditional? Where was "You must OBEY any possibly government-affiliated goons, even unto death!" during the Biden administration? Biden was a liar, a grifter, and all-around scumbag, so why didn't he get any respect? Maybe he just wasn't a big enough scumbag? It seems the assorted scumbags of America are picky about who gets to represent the worst of humanity in the White House. I guess they found their man in Prump?

But just for a change-up from depressing, unpunished murders, let's check out Kristi Noem, who wasted no time declaring Alex a "domestic terrorist" who got what he deserved. You may wonder why a grown woman is telling such obvious lies, in front of TV cameras, yet. Has she no shame? Anyone with eyes can tell from the videos that she's spouting bullshit.
But that doesn't matter: What she's doing is loyalty-signaling: "I'm a cringing toady of Don Trump, and I'll lap up public humiliation, if that's what he wants!" She's signaling to the M-cult base, and if everyone else thinks she's a moron making a public fool of herself, too bad.
Of course, this loyalty is strictly one-way: Prump has zero loyalty to his toadies, and will throw them under the bus just to keep his throwing arm limber.
And how long do you think any of these idiot toadies will last after Prump is out of power? Hitching yourself to a fireworks rocket might get you up higher than you could ever get under your own power: But once the firework pops, it's a long fall to the ground.

Me and my good wife are off for another funeral - this time it's her little brother who finally lost his fight with cancer. Ohhhh, how I wish Cancer was a person, so I could feel the immensely satisfying sensation of my thumbnails scraping the back of his eye-sockets.

And speaking of gruesome, undeserved deaths - you MAGAs who are crowing over the death of Renee Good, I have a question for you: Since I have the exact same authority to order US citizens around that ICE has*....If I were to bark an order at you, and you didn't obey it fast enough to suit me, then I'm allowed to shoot you in the face, right? Right? Don't be hypocrites, now!
And FYI, not being held to account for the crimes you commit is NOT the same as being innocent of 'em. Did you know that Trump cannot pardon any of his goons that are held on local or State charges? He only has authoritah over the federal judiciary. And don't forget, Trump's not going to be around forever. Ever heard of a charming little town called Nüremberg?

My heart doctor retired, and the doctor I was passed off to followed in his wake before he even saw me once. Now I gotta find a new heart doc, and sooner would be better than later, if such a person even is available in Tucson. America has the most expensive health care in all the industrialized nations - with the worst results. Because none of the others have a parasitic middleman squatting between the patients and doctors, with a direct financial incentive to charge the patients as much as can be drained from 'em, in return for as little medical care as they can legally get away with. The US medical insurance industry is making a killing in the financial and literal sense both.
Hmmmm. I have dual citizenship. Even with the price of airline tickets, now-adays, it might be cheaper to go back to Iceland for my checkups. I'll have to crunch the numbers.

*None whatsoever.

We took Traci's car to the mechanic to get the repairs started, this morning. Where we discovered the rear "backing up" camera in the car is busted, from when the idiot thieves were trying (and failing) to lever open the trunk. I appreciate they were too stupid to be able to make off with Traci's car - that would really have sucked - but did they HAVE to do so much damage while mindlessly flailing about?

And for those who feel this epistle is too short and sour, here's an article of both interest and importance:
https://www.gregpalast.com/kings-or-slaves-2/

Check out  hachikun 's photo of his Teeka doll: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63.....#cid:189773169
I'm biased, of course, but isn't that lovely?

Not so lovely: I was recently forwarded an article by an old friend, where someone claiming to be a veteran, claims the veterans of America will soon be forming a Freikorps ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freikorps ) and wiping out the "libtards".
So US veterans will be exterminating the jews, jesuits, negroes, reporters, homosexuals, comedians, Epstein Island survivors, and whoever else Orange Baby Hitler doesn't like? SIEG HEIL!
I find this very hard to believe. For one thing, I know a good many vets, and none of them are that dumb and/or nasty. Also, lots of them belong to the groups being targeted. What are they gonna do, beat themselves up? Which is why I found this posting so weird. My ol' pal is mixed race, black and native. He's a vet, sure, but WHY would he wish for a Freikorps? He'd be one of their targets!
Anyone else experienced this? Someone of your acquaintance who you'd think would be the last person on Earth to go MAGA, and yet, there they are, screaming abuse at you for not worshiping Glorious Führer Trump enough? How does that happen??

My birthdays are low key these days, but this morning, I found a present I'd like: A new Mustek 11x17 scanner. My old one is hiccuping, and since I make my living off posting comix now, I can't afford to be without a scanner. Anyone know where I can score a good deal on one?

So everyone's heard about the brutal murder of Renee Good by ICE goon Jonathan Ross. And before the MAGAS start wailing about how it wasn't REALLY a murder, despite the video evidence being indisputable - "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying ol' eyes?", let's establish some facts:
Tanya Knapp:
"ICE agents ARE NOT police officers, deputy sheriffs, or troopers.
They are NOT local/state law enforcement.
They are NOT federal criminal law enforcement.
They have an INCREDIBLY limited scope of authority, and that scope of authority exists in detaining and arresting with probable cause and/or SIGNED WARRANTS those investigated and suspected of being in the US illegally.
They cannot just pull anyone over for a traffic violation or because their car is in a place they don't want it.
They have NO authority to pull people over for ANYTHING other than immigration enforcement- and even then that involves probable cause, such as a known vehicle of someone they have been tracking, or a warrant.
On very rare occasions they have the legal authority to pull someone over if they are threatening the lives of others, but that was not happening in this case.
They do not have the training nor the authority to pull ANYONE else over.
They cannot arrest legal citizens.
They cannot detain legal citizens without probable cause to believe they might not be legal.
They have ZERO authority to be attempting to force entry into a vehicle- without even identifying themselves, without a warrant, without exigent circumstances such as a life being directly threatened- that is trying to drive down the street without probable cause in relation to IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT.
The situation in Minnesota was outside of the scope of legal authority from the get go. None of it was done within the scope of authority of ICE. Every single behavior those agents made was procedurally incorrect, done without proper authority, and was based off of intimidation and the assumption that people do not understand the law and their rights in regards to interactions with ICE.
On no planet should an officer, agent, or any human being ever step in front of a car in 'drive' that is actively trying to leave and use their body as a shield to prevent a person from LEGALLY LEAVING a situation in which they are not legally being detained. It takes maybe a week of any kind of actual law enforcement training to understand that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES do you ever place yourself in front of a vehicle in 'drive.
That agent had every single opportunity to simply take two steps to the right and not be standing directly in front of a vehicle attempting to conduct their legal right to drive away.
You can see the wheels are turned, Renee backed up and turned them to the right, moved forward a bit to leave, couldn't because an agent was standing in front of her, and continued to try to leave by TURNING HER WHEELS TO THE RIGHT and moving forward.
He continually chose to stand there and not allow her to legally leave as she had every single right to do.
The officer pulling on her door and banging on her window and swearing at her had ZERO authority to order her out of her vehicle or attempt to make entry into her vehicle. NONE."

Got that? Renee was trying to get away from screaming gun-thugs who had no more "authority" to accost her than any other gang-banger off the street. Ross committed straight-up murder. And if you celebrate that, please crawl back into your sewer where you can fuck yourself in privacy.

A lot of partisans of whichever issue are blind to the downsides of their position. Pro-gunners, for example, tend to downplay the downside of widespread gun ownership - the ease with which nutters can get ahold of deadly weapons and wield them against the innocent. If I had a way to disarm the nuts while leaving decent folk alone, you bet I'd be shouting it from the rooftops.
As for the anti-gun crowd.....They don't like to contemplate the direct consequence of citizen disarmament: The concentration of a country's firepower into the hands of government enforcers. Who sometimes turn out to not be angels. So, a straight question for gun control enthusiasts: Do you HONESTLY believe this country would be safer if Joe Ross and his fellow goons were the only ones with access to firearms?

Today was all the big trip to Sells, to pick up Traci's purse where she'd forgotten it in her classroom. The trip out was smooth enough. After Traci had grabbed her purse, we attended a basketball game between junior girls' teams.
Alas, the local kids were fairly short - one of 'em seemed a couple inches away from being a legal dwarf. But she was gonna be a basketball player, anyway! Heh! Go, girl! Anatomy is not destiny!
.....But of course, the tall white girls of the other team steamrolled 'em. Final score was something like 4 to 32. Still a fun game!

Then we had a snack from the concession stand for lunch, and started off home. Got to the Archer Center parking lot where Traci's car was without misadventure. Where Traci first discovered someone had stolen her gas tank cap. And then that the handle had been torn off the drivers' side door. Strangely, nothing was missing from inside the car. Sheer, mindless vandalism?

Maybe not. The cop who came by to give us a police report number for the insurance company told us that teenage punks like to break into Hyundais, because their locks are weak, and they can "hotwire" the ignition with a screwdriver.
But they were too stupid and/or illiterate to realize Traci's Hyundai was a hybrid, with no externally reachable ignition to break open and hotwire. You start the car by pressing a button, which is activated by a signal from Traci's car key fob.
So they failed to steal the car, and took the gas cap just to steal something, most likely. Dickheads.

...as in, little scraps, swirling about. Confetti:

*sigh* Seems the US is at war for oil, again. But maybe not just the oil, but the currency stabilization that hopefully comes with it?: https://www.tiktok.com/@unlearn16/v.....9393010224402?
I did predict that as climate change worsened, there would be vicious wars over resources. At least Venezuela's closer to home than Iraq - less shipping costs?

I wondered aloud to the good wife why I wasn't more angry about having my truck broken into, and my jack and jump-pack stolen. Instead, I just went "Aww dammit! Murphy strikes again. What a pain in the ass!" and got on with having the smashed window replaced. Is it maturity? Fatalism? Or are my anger glands just drying up as I age?
I figure I can afford a new 4-ton jack this month, and a new jump-pack next month. Any advice on what brands are - or are NOT - worth the money?

Speaking of anger (or lack thereof), the other day I got a text from who I think is a friend of a friend....I've met the guy a handful of times at the mutual friends' place, but only know him enough to say "hello". So I was somewhat surprised to read this:
"Because you do stupid and selfish shit constantly and it infuriates me because you need to pull your fucking retarded head out of your ass"
I responded with: "I don't recall doing anything to you, let alone "stupid and selfish shit". Can you name me some examples of what's got you so angry?"
I got no response to this, for the obvious reason he has no examples to recount. But that's OK, because I know all too well what's going on. He thinks he's found a soft target, someone he can spit on without fear of the punch in the teeth that normally follows such insults.
I had to deal with such people constantly when I was a kid. It got really bad for awhile. But then I got a growth spurt, and ended up a head taller than my tormentors. Able to kick them in the balls hard enough to lift 'em off the ground. That took all the fun out of bullying me, so my life quickly got a lot better. That's the lone trait of bullies that I like: Their cowardice.

Was doing the laundry yesterday, when I realized I was a househusband: My spouse goes out to earn the main income of the household, while I stay home & do the dishes, laundry and etc. But I work from home, so it just makes the most sense to do it like that. It's a pattern that's worked for millions of couples over thousands of years, so you could say it's a time-tested arrangement?

So there's this "Voice in the Wilderness" who claims Fascism is already here, and asks how we're going to deal with it:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20.....ess-rate-is-0?
But this is not as simple as Germany and/or Italy in the 1930's:
"The pattern is so consistent it's almost funny if it weren't so terrifying. Every single time it goes like this: Conservatives panic about socialism or progressives or whatever. They ally with fascists as the "lesser evil." Fascists take power. Fascists immediately purge the conservatives who helped them. Then it's 30-50 years of dictatorship. This happened in Germany, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Romania, and Hungary.
Want to know how many times conservatives successfully "controlled" the fascists they allied with? Zero. Want to know how many times fascists purged the conservatives after taking power? All of them. Every single time.

And here's the part that breaks your heart. Violence works. For them. Fascists use violence while claiming to be victims. They create chaos that "requires" their authoritarian solution. Then they purge anyone who opposes them. Meanwhile, democrats keep insisting on following rules that fascists completely ignore. They file lawsuits. They write editorials. They vote on resolutions. And fascists just laugh and keep consolidating power.

The statistics are brutal. Fascist takeovers prevented after winning power democratically: zero. Average length of fascist rule once established: 31 years. Fascist regimes removed by voting: zero. Fascist regimes removed by asking nicely: zero. Most were removed by war or military coups, and tens of millions died in the process.
....Based on the historical record, there are exactly three ways this goes. Option one: Stop them before they take power. Option two: War. Option three: Wait for them to die of old age.

But here's the thing: we already missed our chance. The window isn't closing; it's closed."

....But then he goes on to say how a nuclear-armed country going fascist, whose economic engines are all in progressive states, is unprecedented: We're unique in history, and don't have to re-enact the tired old tragedy that always follows fascist takeovers.
Whether this is a good or bad thing, I suspect, is entirely up to us. Hope you're feeling brave, for the Interesting Times are ramping up.

Being a sentimental old softie, I thought I'd wish all my readers, even the ugly ones, a Merry Yule and a Happy New Year. If you associate the midwinter solstice with religious rites, I'm fine with that. All, some, one or no gods, I don't care. AS long as y'all keep the "malice to none", and "goodwill to all" bits.

Look around you, cosmonauts. We really, REALLY need a season of goodwill 'round here. However justified you believe your rage and hate are, how about you let go of it for a week or so, and be of good cheer? It will do you and your immediate circle a world of good. Aahh, feel those knots in your neck soften?
And fear not, your hatreds will be waiting for you, burning hot as ever, after you doff the Santa hat.

But in the meanwhile, isn't this a nice break? Merriment is good for the soul as well as the body.

One or two of you might have noticed my journal, "*Deep sigh* Bondi Beach" was removed. I naturally asked the Gods, I mean Mods, why this was done, if only so I could avoid "stepping on this landmine" in future. I was told that disparaging remarks about, well, pretty much anyone, were Verboten.
They had me on that one - I strongly disapprove of mass murder, regardless of whether these murders are committed by properly uniformed government-funded death squads, or by gibbering freelance maniacs. Murder is BAD, and I will not be changing my opinion on that subject. My references to the ....persons... committing murder - and their gleeful enablers - will therefore pretty much always be "disparaging".

So what am I gonna do on FA, going forward? Not mention the horrors multiplyin' in the world around me? Or at least, say nothing about the folks responsible for 'em, as if these disasters were happening by themselves, with no human agency involved?

Dammit. Who knew being a grumpy old man would involve thinking and watching what I say?

So yeah, my wish list for Yule: A 4-ton hydraulic jack, a DeWalt Portable Power jump pack, and "Adolf Hitler - my part in his downfall" and "Goodbye Soldier", novels by Spike Milligan. And a webcam compatible with a Mac Mini.
That's about it. What are YOU dreaming of this season, my droogs?