kaffy_r | Entries tagged with politics

Your Occasional Reminder ...

That we're living where Huey, Benito, Uncle Joe (not the good one), Idi, That Man, and others have slithered and prowled.

Watch on YouTube

(The original music video is equally good, but this ... *chef's kiss* Also? The 80s and 90s didn't all suck.)

Current Mood: grim
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: In Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"

Mr. Booker Goes to Washington

There are a bunch of small irritations in my life currently - still no laptop, for instance. There are things so bad in this country - people, companies, law firms, newspapers, FFS, obeying in advance - that we're working on getting the hell out of Dodge.. Things are so bad around the world that ... I'm not even going to complete that sentence.

But sometimes ... sometimes ... something good happens. Right now, Democratic Senator Cory Booker is holding out on the Senate floor. He is doing a filibuster the old-fashioned way. He hopes to go through the night and into tomorrow. He's doing it, he says, to disrupt business as usual, because "our country is in crisis." I can't do a proper link, but it's on C-Span.

Go watch it. Here's a really long link to C-Span's website. https://www.c-span.org/clip/us-senate/sen-cory-booker-d-nj-starts-speaking-in-senate-for-as-long-as-i-am-physically-able/5158775. I don't know if you'll be able to watch it, but go hunt it down on news sites.

In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart's Smith filibustered for the purposes of good. It was just a movie. Cory Booker isn't in a movie.

God bless him.

Current Mood: impressed

Liberal Party Leadership Convention

Mark Carney won. He's a bit corporatist, a bit centrist - but then again, he's Canadian, which means here in the U.S. he'd be a leftist. And he's ready to fight. I'm so proud of my country, and I'm not even a Liberal voter. (I'd be an NDP voter if I was back home.)

Elbows Up!!

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: CBC Liberal Party leadership convention

Remind Me Again About the Land of the Free.

I mean, I knew it was coming as soon as the Senate approved Hegseth's nomination. Still, one always - foolishly - hopes.

Tulsi Gabbard is now Director of National Intelligence. I hope we can extract Zelenskyy from Ukraine before Gabbard sends Putin information on where to fiind him.

I'm not even going to contemplate Bear Cub McBrainworm's pending ascension to Health and Human Services.

I spent part of the day at a local journalism training session, came home and shoveled sidewalks. Bob's asleep. One thing I will contemplate is whether to start on applesauce, prep for an apple pie instead, or focus on a celery soup.

I have to get up to the post office tomorrow to get some postcard stamps, and then I have to write 100 postcards for potential voters in Wisconsin (state supreme court election, among others.) Not that I think it will matter.

Current Mood: distressed
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Wow"

Temperature: 17F, Feels Like 2F

But Weather Underground promises that we'll be up to the balmy 20s tomorrow - what's that you say? Well, sure, we'll have wind chills in the single digits. But the 20s! I'm going to focus on that.

I don't have a lot to talk about right now, and I need to respond to comments in my last post, but I did want to note that Biden's final good deed (at least until he - I hope - gives blanket pardons to the folks That Man plans to go after in the first 5 minutes after he takes the oath of office) was finally helping negotiate a large-scale cease fire in Gaza. He should have done it months and months ago, but I hope he's outmaneuvered Bibi this one time.

Biden ... one of the better presidents we've had in recent decades, and one of the better presidents who occasionally fucked up big-time (Merrick Garland, I'm looking at you.) I'll miss him, though. I'm a former centrist who can still understand why people make the mistake of being centrist today, and Joe's one of them.

I'm thinking of deactivating my Xitter account on the 20th. I sure as hell won't be watching That Man slime his way into The Oval Office.

wrt to the move, I'm going to fill out an application for Tideways, the senior living co-op that my Nana lived in before her death, since my brother sent it to me. When he did so, he mentioned that Mum had an application in, and was given several opportunities to get a unit there, "but she chose another path." I know why: Tideways forbids pets, and Mum had her beloved Toy and Liam that she would never have given away. It's a shame, but we're like Mum; we're not abandoning Carter.

One of my condo building neighbors is going to try to get me in touch with a friend of his, who described the friend as "a brilliant realtor." Once I've gotten a couple of larger home improvements done, I hope I get this gentleman and perhaps one or two other real estate agents to do a walk-through of our place, to give us a range of potential sale prices.

Still listening to SKZ, and I've begun to listen to at least one more male K-Pop group, Ateez. They're good, even if they don't have quite the creative control the Kids have. I also need to go back and relisten to Black Pink, and start listening to New Jeans on the distaff side.

And that's all for now.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Phobia"

A Couple of Things Make a List

1) It's snowing outside and, after I've had my first cup of coffee, dried my hair (just got out of the shower), and completed this post - whatever it may turn out to be - I have to gird my loins and wield my shovel at the snowflake horde. There are currently only two or three unit owners who undertake the job and I unwisely volunteered to be one of them. Ah well; it's a tad easier than wrestling with the lawn mower.

EDIT, as of Sunday evening; I went out and shoveled our courtyard and part of the sidewalk on one side of the building. I couldn't do as much as I wanted to, and later in the day the temperature rose just enough to melt the remaining ice and snow from the areas I'd tackled. But it doesn't erase the necessity of shoveling. And another unit owner came out and did some shoveling as well. I was reminded that we have one of our quarterly unit owners' meetings tomorrow night. Not something I'm looking forward to, but again, something that needs to be done. Sigh. I guess I'd better read the minutes from the last meeting. Sigh, again.

( Read more... )

Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "My Side"

Early Election Returns

Make me feel like ...

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: MSNBC

I Still Dream About The Future

I've been running silent over the past week or so, as I struggled through completing my latest for-money story, and saw BB through that awful rite of passage we seniors have to go through - colonoscopies suck, y'all, but we both got through it. Today I completed the story, or the first draft of it, and with any luck it'll pass muster with my editor.

Up next? Vacuuming. Damp mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors. Completing a LoC for my friend's last two 'zine editions. Thinking about another potential story plot. Thinking about trying to resume my long-ignored poetry efforts. Finishing off the kimchi and rice chicken dish I put together yesterday, and edited a bit today to calm the kimchi down a tad.

Oh, and hoping. And dreaming about the future. Hoping and dreaming about a future in these United States where we have a chance to pick up the pieces of our messy and incomplete democracy, and somehow glue them at least partly back together.

( More scattered political thoughts below )

Go vote tomorrow, if you're American and haven't already done so. Help maintain our unsteady and incomplete democracy.

See you on the other side.

* It should go without saying that there are religious believers with good hearts. Y'all know who I'm talking about here.
** I still can't vote in the U.S. so I suppose I shouldn't consider this my country. But it is.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "DLC"

Hi - I'm Not Quite as Stressed as I Was Friday Night

That might be because I finally got my for-money interview transcribed today. It takes me about 2.5 hours to transcribe a 59 minute interview; but I can now put the story together. I'm so glad that, as my manual dexterity and ability to write up interviews has declined, my ability to record interviews and then transcribe them has increased. I think back to my years of blithely telling people that I'd always prefer written notes "because then I can see the pattern of the interview, which makes it easier to write my story."

I was a bit of an idiot back then.

Speaking of recordings, I was very glad to watch last night's Kamala rally in Houston, thanks to MSNBC's "The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell" being on my "record" list. The network ran the whole rally. It was amazing, and upped my hope quotient. I hope I'll be able to see the rally where Michelle Obama spoke in the same fashion.

Lawrence was in the middle of reading a joint statement from Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward about the WaPo decision, when they cut to the rally, so I haven't had a chance to hear what he might have said about the whole disreputable situation. And, oh yeah, after sleeping on it, I cancelled my subscription, and began putting $60 a year toward The Guardian. I'm also considering whether or not to cancel my Amazon Prime account, which some folks have suggested would hit Bezos harder.

I saw a conversation on FaceBook (I still occasionally peek in there, although I then usually run away, screaming internally) where one of my fairly disabled acquaintances made the point that folks like them can be incredibly dependent on Amazon for everything from grocery delivery to medical supply delivery - and for contact with the outer world. I understand that. If one needs Amazon in that fashion, then hang on to it, and don't let anyone guilt you (not that this person would be guilted easily, but they were very angry at someone saying that everyone needed to do that.)

I've been watching episodes of a Korean survival show, Kingdom: Legendary War, from 2020, featuring six KPop bands vying to win the contest. Yes, SKZ was on, but I'm getting a chance to hear several other bands I've heard about, but never heard. It's cool.

I don't have much else to say, but I wish all of you a good night, and a good morning. Hope to see you here again.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Stray Kids "The Tortoise and the Hare"

But Music Generally Makes It Better. Mostly. More or Less.

It's been a fairly boring 8 days since my last post. Which is probably good, given my low-grade political stress. Oh, hell, let's not pretend it's low-grade. It's off the damn charts. Eleven days. Dear sweet baby pickles, 11 days. To be followed, undoubtedly, by a couple of weeks of unknowing. As so many people in the online commentariat now remind us, it's no longer Election Day.

TFG is outright wanting his generals to "be like Hitler's generals" (hey, Agent Orange, do you mean the ones that died by suicide in the days immediately before or after Adolph taking that route in the bunker? Or the generals who tried to kill him more than once, but who wreeee stymied by satanic good luck on his part, or possibly through their incompetence? Those generals? What a complete ignoramus.)

What's worse are decisions by the LA Times and the Washington Post's owners to avoid endorsing for the presidential race. As Jeff Tiedrich calls them, the worthless scribblers of the corporate press, or at least WaPo's, tried to cloak this in high-minded bullshit. I already avoid the NY Times. I don't want to cancel my subscription to WaPo, but JFC .... More to come, since I haven't quite made up my mind. If I do, I can start paying for my Guardian news, which would be good.

And tonight, deep in the wee smalls over in the Middle East, Bibi Netanyahu decided to up the "how much further can I drive military craziness around me" ante by bombing military sites in and around Tehran. In response, of course, to Tehran throwing missiles at Israel. In response to Israel killing various Hamas and Hezbollah military leaders. In response to, in response to, in response to, in fucking response to--

Meanwhile, more kids are dying in Gaza, the West Bank and now in Lebanon.

Remind me again why humans are worth keeping around?

But there is music, I suppose.

And art of all kindsl stained glass windows, deathless books and poetry from all corners of the Earth, from all centuries that we can investigate.

And people who rush into danger to save other people. And folks who pack their SUVs with stuff folks in hurricane-ravaged southern U.S. states desperately need. And other folks who fight to get food to Gazans. And people who try to help Ukraine. And folks who try to save Hoolock Gibbons in Assam state, India. And people who report wrongdoings big and small, regardless of the danger to themselves. There's Jack Smith. There's people who still fight for justice.

I guess we're worth saving. By the skin of the universe's teeth, but I suppose I need to take the win.

Time to put on more music. Loud.

(We did manage to get a new light and fan combo installed in the bedroom, replacing the light-fan combo that died about a month ago. Oh, and I've been approved for my miniscule Canadian pension. Oh, and I managed to put more chapters of Gleaning Musutachi up over on

originalkaffy_r So there's all that on my tiny personal stage. Back to playing music very loud ....)

Current Mood: depressed
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Another Day"/"Phobia"

When Are Stamps Not Stamps?

( The answer under here! )

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Charmer"

Update Time

After my frayed fly nerves, I appear to have numbed myself to the little monsters. Or perhaps it's just that the dangling fly papers hanging from four windows have begun to collect six-legged corpses. I did see one very determined fly extricate itself from a glancing collision with one, but it appears to be the only one to escape its doom. And with any luck - mine, not its - it will run headlong into another strip.

Bob and I also managed to put up the kitchen cupboard shelf that collapsed on me yesterday. It gave me the chance to reorder two shelves, and to get rid of some items that really needed getting rid of. So; lemonade out of lemons. I was able to a pot of tonjiro; I didn't have sliced pork belly, but I did have some good quality thick-cut bacon. With an adjustment to account for the bacon's higher salt content, it turned out well.
I've also finally gotten the last bits of information from a feature interviewee that I need to write the feature that's been hanging fire.

And I can finally tackle my Stray Kids piece for my friend. That's going to be a lot more fun.

Oh, and I'm also reading Jack Smith's latest filing.

Huh; there was one other thing I was going to talk about, but it's flown from my brain. I'll take that as my cue to head to bed.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: heading to bed
Current Music: Stray Kids: Runners

Oh, FFS

Well, just great. More gunfire, maybe. More MAGA rage-activity in 3-2-1 ....

Fuck.

Current Mood: infuriated
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: MSNBC

A Few Things Make a ~~Post~~ Rant

I'm on what I hope is the downward slope of a back spasm event. It wasn't made easier by a freak accident while I was cleaning the tub; a spasm made me lose my balance, and I managed to slam my ribs down onto the lip of the bathtub. I didn't think much of the problem beyond being embarrassed at losing balance while I was on my knees, but the next morning it hurt like hell. Off we went to the urgent care place, where I got an xray. It fortunately showed no rib cracks, but remained painful for a couple of days, and I'm pretty sure it lengthened the spasm event.

It certainly forced me into doing something I would never have done had I not been in pain; heading to bed with painkillers and half an edible gummy each night in the past week, before I had the chance to hear the DNC speeches I wanted to hear live. I was able to hear the speeches the next day, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, but as a political junkie, I felt as if I hadn't been doing my job.

Actually, the folks who let the side down were the TPTB at the DNC. They refused to allow a Palestinian activist time to present a five-minute speech that would highlight the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza and its genocidal effect on non-combatants there. I've read the speech that the activist, a state representative from Georgia, hoped to present; it's as close to anodyne as it could be, respectful about the horror of Oct. 7 and simply asking for an end to Netanyahu's war effort without mentioning Netanyahu, calling for the release of Israeli and Palestinian hostages and speaking with hope of being part of the Democratic party's broad coalition.

Yes, the DNC held a panel about the Palestinian situation during the convention and I think that was extremely important. But denying the speech, not allowing the Gaza situation to be centered for all convention delegates, was, in my opinion, close to unforgiveable, especially considering they rightly gave time to agonized hostage relatives who were arguing for the same war cessation and hostage releases that were a large part of Ruwa Romman's speech.

Bob and I have talked about it, and I think part of the reason was coldly political; TPTB probably envisioned the GQP - especially The Former Guy's presidential campaign - framing that as Democrats being soft on Hamas. Intellectually, I can understand if that was one of the reasons to deny the speech a place on stage.

I think it was still wrong to do that.

Huh. This turned into a political rant. Well, so be it. Perhap something less ranty later.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Carter, purring in my face

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming

It was great to listen to President Biden today, as he announced, in a speech at the LBJ Library, a three-part plan for fixing the Supreme Court corruption and anti-democratic mess: a constitutional amendment that would erase the presidential immunity with which the Roberts Court gifted TFG, a proposed 18-year term limit for Supreme Court justices, and an enforceable, binding code of ethics governing SCOTUS. Yet another reason for us to keep the White House, keep the Senate, and win back the House.

The more I hear about and read snippets from Project 2025, the more my gorge rises. Jesus Harold Christ ....

As far as VP Harris's search for her own VP choice, I'm rooting for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. I'd liked Josh Shapiro, but learned that he is pretty strongly against pro-Palestinian activists. That's disappointing, and cuts him out of my consideration. And if Mehdi Hasan likes Walz, that's a point in his favor.

I got up this morning, and got right on the phone to my bank, in an effort to clear whateever tech glitch was preventing the Canadian government verifying my identity by checking with my Canadian bank account. And exactly what I feared would happen happened. On Friday, the nice tech people at Government of Canada told me the problem was on the bank side; today, the nice tech people at the bank told me it was the government. I'll take another whack at it tomorrow.

I've gotten at least a start on checking other music acts that I could watch and listen to, other than Stray Kids. One that takes place on that stage immediately prior to SKZ is a singer named Laufey, singing her songs, backed by the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. I'd never heard of her, but listened to a couple of her songs, and read a bit about her (an Icelandic artist of Icelandic-Chinese background, who sings, plays cello, and occasionally has her twin sister play violin with her.) She sounds very interesting. I'll have to look at some more acts tomorrow...

...but not before I complete my police shooting range story. I finally transcribed my notes from the interview; that's become more and more important, as my written notes deteriorate.

I baked an orange cake; I'm relatively pleased with the outcome.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: MSNBC

Politics, Who, Stray Kids

( Politics )

( Dr. Who )

I'll end with Stray Kids: I'm nine days out from watching them at Lollapalooza. I'm nervous, and excited. ATE, the EP they just dropped, is really impressive, especially the first two songs. I'll link to the EP, but I have to include their "Chk Chk Boom" music video here, because it's not just a fantastic music video in and of itself, but because it shows what happens, when two MCU actors happen to be big fans - REALLY big fans - of a K-Pop idol group. It's funny as hell.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: MSNBC

Joe, You Done Good

President Joseph Robinette Biden made the difficult decision to end his campaign for a second term, and endorsed his vice-president, Kamala Harris. He chose country over personal power. While he's made some terrible decisions, this one was patriotic in the extreme, statesmanlike in the extreme. Thank you, Joe.

I am exhausted beyond telling after another bout of lawn (or in this case parkway) mowing this morning. That means that I can't speak at length about this. And,although I've lived in the United States for more than four decades and love the country deeply and dearly, I'm not a citizen, and thus can't vote this November, so I suppose that when I finally have the energy to speak about it, folks reading what I say will keep that in the back of their minds.

But I believe the GQP is absolutely terrified tonight. And that is a good thing. It's going to be, as the Reverend Al Sharpton said on television this afternoon, "The Prosecutor vs. The Felon."

Good.

And with that, it's time for me to slouch off to bed.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: MSNBC

Jesus Harold Christ

Donald Trump is a narcissistic fascist with dreams of kingship, and no interest in helping anyone but himself. He is a vile human being.

But no one - NO ONE - should be the target of an assassination attempt. Much as I've joked in the past about how I'd be happy to hear that he's shuffled off this mortal coil, there's no room now for joking around. Tonight, someone tried to take out the former president of the United States, while he was on the campaign trail.

He wasn't killed. He was apparently only slightly injured. But one of his followers died. Two others are in critical condition. All because they came to one of Trump's hate-filled rallies. I have no idea what type of people they are, or were, like. None of them deserved to be killed or injured.

I heard one MAGA attendee as she was interviewed by NBC reporter Dasha Burns. She said with great sincerity, that this should never happen, that there isn't room in the country for this kind of hatred, and "we need to come together as a country" against the hate. I wanted to cry because this woman, who seemed, as I said, very sincere, didn't realize that it was her chosen candidate and his MAGA cult that has done the most to encourage the hatred and the violence she deplored.

The would-be assassin is dead.

The right-wing rage machine has revved up.

Joe Biden is now in more danger than he's ever been.

Jesus wept.

(As an aside, kudos to the BBC reporter who spoke to a man outside the rally who said he and others near him had watched the would-be assassin crawl up on the roof from which he fired; that they had repeatedly tried to alert nearby law enforcement to the guy. And the young man said he couldn't understand why there hadn't been law enforcement on that roof. Agreed.)

Current Mood: distressed
Current Location: the living room

So Very Close, but Definitely No Cigar

I was fairly certain I could complete my crossover story today, but - as is too often my wont - I misjudged how difficult it would be to get from Endpoint A to Endpoint B. Pacing, kaffy_r; if you actually put outlines together, perhaps you wouldn't be ambushed by your own writing so often. *grump*

It's been extremely rainy here, so one of our upstairs neighbors has had to bring the party she'd planned for her two young sons in from our patio to the building. Wow; very party, much decibel. Ah well. It's supposed to end around 8 p.m.; I'll believe that when the last bass chord dissipates.

I was happy to hear that French citizens generally decided that fascism was not their cup of tea. I also got a kick out of the whining done by the head of Le Pen's party. Outrageous! Unfair! How dare all these not-us parties figure out strategic voting to beat us!

*snrk*

Looks like fascists whine in every language.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: some anodyne ambient shit

Saturday, and the Sun is Shining

I'm temporarily camped in my livingroom, because the chair I have in the office seems apt to bother my back. (I have to figure out how to make it a pain free sit-down, because Bob mentioned last night that he misses me being there. He said that I should stay where I'm most comfortable, but I don't want him to be lonely, and I miss him. But I digress.)

Being out here, with a temporary office set up on the livingroom table allows me to see the building's courtyard, which one of our residents has turned into a flower-filled vision, with some help from a couple of the other residents. It's really gorgeous, plus I can see some of the cats in other units as they observe the world outside their windows.

*** *** ***

( Quite a bit more under here. )

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: Stray Kids, "Lonely Street"

Or At Least Something Like It

When I got up this morning, I was going to write a post about Canada Day. I wanted to talk about my love for the country of my birth, despite its faults and failures.

I also thought about a post concerning my struggles to cut grass with a manual mower for the first time in my life. That left me almost incapable of thought, covered in sweat, and determined to finish the job on the morrow.

I also thought about a short, gleeful post, with a picture of my Lollapalooza wristband, which I bought and received on Sunday.

But all I can think of right now is the 6-3 decision by a Supreme Court whose "conservative" justices (that's in snicker quotes, because they sure as hell weren't paying attention to American conservative philosophy) decided, for all intents and purposes, to reintroduce us to the reality of American kingship.

Maybe I can talk about it more intelligently tomorrow. I know I rather expected this.

Right now, though, all I can think is that those six are traitors.

Of course I understand that they aren't, not in the manner described by American consitutional jurisprudence.

In a deeper sense, however, they are. They deliberately turned their back on American democracy.

They are treasonous quislings. Were I ever to meet them, I would spit on their shoes.

*takes deep breath, and understands that the struggle has to continue*

Current Mood: distressed
Current Location: the living room

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

Trump was found guilty of every single charge. Every. Single. One.

Current Mood: giddy
Current Location: the home office

I Aten't Dead

As the subject line says ... I still live. (Well, that's not what the subject line says. But it is what the subject line suggests. So, yeah.)

I have little to say right now, but I'll be damned if I let April go by without a single post. And I am determined to check in on other people as well.

Quickly: still working on an original thing that might turn into an original novel. Still obsessing about Stray Kids (I had to hold myself back from putting a $170 Lollapalooza one night ticket on my credit card to be able to see them live. I may still give in ....) Still working as a stringer (and I need to get working tomorrow on two things for which I've done interviews), still dealing with back and neck problems - hurrah! I have a herniated disk in my neck! So much fun! But I am doing some good PT for it, so there's that. Also, I'm going to be getting an epidural shot in my neck in about two weeks, and that should help a bit as well.

I'm also rereading the first three novels of Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series, to prepare for the final book coming out later this year. God, she's amazing..

Oh, and I'm watching/listening to the first criminal trial of The Former Guy. I only put lemurs as my icon because I can't, technically, use my "Guilty, guilty, guilty!" one, but I can be happily amused.

Hope y'all are doing well.

Oh, wait - Bob and I saw the total eclipse of the sun back on April 8. I'll post about that, I promise. It was an amazing day.

Current Mood: dorky
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids, "Get Lit"

While I'm Considering Other Posts to Write

I've been binging on American politics, being distraught and disgusted with the fact that an administration I largely admire doesn't have the stones to stop the Gaza genocide, worrying that The Former Guy may get to Nov. 4 without at least one criminal conviction ... you know, The New Normal In Maybe-We're-Still-A-Democracy.

I continue to hope that Biden will wake up tomorrow and realize he can tell Bibi to Shut The Fuck Up, I. Am. Talking. No more weapons. End it, or you never get anything from us again. I'm really glad that the "uncommitted" primary votes in Michigan and Minnesota are significant, because it means that Biden's people can't ignore them. Yes, I'm hoping those votes come back to Biden in the general election, but if they don't, I will probably understand. I just hope that they realize that the alternative is far, far, far worse for Gaza.

I did cheer large parts of Biden's State of the Union speech, with its hints of Dark Brandon pretty obviously making GQP members squirm. The Faux news hosts had to pivot from "He's senescently drooling in the White House basement!" to "Man, he must be jacked up on drugs!" so fast that I'm sure they sprained more than a few cognitive muscles of their own.

Then, for my sins, I watched the official GQP response to the SOTU, given by rising party star (*snrk*) Katie Britt, the junior senator from Alabama.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ... Half-way through, I turned to Bob and asked if I was the only one thinking she was auditioning for a community theater play. It turns out I wasn't. It was a cringe-inducing piece of performative shit that apparently had even party insiders thinking it was a worse disaster than Dry-Mouth Marco Rubio a few years ago. I might almost feel sorry for the woman, who is (or was) apparently liked and respected by people on both sides of the aisle as someone who is well versed in policy issues.

Almost. Because there's this. She lied by omission, by making it seem as if this had happened on the American side of the border, during Biden's term. She did it, as far as I can tell, deliberately, in an attempt to fear-monger about "illegals" (what a horrendous term.) Doing so showed, to me at least, that she viewed this woman and her story as simply political tools.

So no, no sympathy for the woman whose party operatives suggested she should be considered "America's Mom." (You can't make these things up.)

In truth, her entire so-called response was nothing but fear-mongering. There were no specific policy suggestions as rebuttals, just "People are having hard times! Biden! We're not strong anymore! Biden! Biden's bad! Biden! Augh!"

She didn't have to wipe her own spittle off her chin, I'll give her that.

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: the furnace

Just Another Goddamn Day in U.S. Jurisprudence*

Those six motherfuckers. Those six goddamn SCOTUS Trump bootlickers.

Elie Mystal was right. Merrick Garland was too fucking slow.

Also? McConnell ... I wish for him an endless bout of shingles, to punish him for keeping Garland off the Supreme Court, and for refusing to indict Trump.

I guess it's up to us, and the ballot box.

I guess I have to get my citizenship.

*I'd apologize for my language, but ... nah. This situation deserves it.

Current Mood: enraged
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: MSNBC

Profile

kaffy_r

April 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Style: Green Summer for Modular by branchandroot
Resources: p r o l o g u e

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Wednesday, 23 April 2025 12:17 pm

Grasping at Grace (and Growth)

Transformation is Inescapable

Entries tagged with politics

Dept. of Dangerous Music

Dept. of briefly surfacing

Dept. of True North Strong and Free

Dept. of Everything's Fine. Just Fine.

Dept. of cold air, cold mind

Dept. of Sunday Snow

Dept. of Politics

Dept. of Democracy

Dept. of It's Not All Bad, Is It?

Dept. of Life Is A Slog

Dept. of Only Me, Maynard

Dept. of A Bit of Control

Dept. of JFC

Dept. of Back on the Bicycle

Dept. of Monday

Deot, of This and That

Dept. of History in the Making

Dept. of JFC

Dept. of Zeno's Paradox

Dept. of the Weekend

Dept. of Despair

Dept. of w00t!!1!

Dept. of Surfacing

Dept. of Democrazy

Dept. of Injustice