The Future's So Dark, I Gotta Wear Shades

 

Look, I have to retire some time, eventually, and I'm in my 50's, so I'm not grave-dancing over here about what tomorrow is going to bring. The whole election, despite what people were saying about Trump being a felon and a sex-pest and a danger to democracy had also an undercurrent of "This is a whole damn pudding-brained sociopath who will set the country on fire for giggles," but you what? Bygones. Let's just say some people out there chalked all of that up to Trump Derangement Syndrome and didn't want to believe the motherfucker was crazy.

But here's the SOB now:

Trump: "I spoke to a lot of leaders -- European, Asian, from all over the world. They are dying to make a deal, but I said 'we're not gonna have deficits with your country' ... to me a deficit is a loss. We're gonna have surpluses or at worst we're gonna be breaking even." pic.twitter.com/xnW7jb0u3R

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2025

Is everyone starting to get it? 

The financial deficits he's talking about is just a trade deficit.  We have a trade deficit with Madagascar. They sell basically vanilla. We have bakeries and ice cream factories and whatnot. They have people who are too poor to buy US goods. That's a trade deficit. Botswana sells diamonds. Same deal--we have jewelers and people buy engagement rings and so forth. They don't have the kind of incomes to be buying a lot of US goods. 

It just is what it is. Not everyone is going to be giving us a trade surplus--to think it can be so is just crazy and what you get when you don't know geography, or how anything but particularly trade works--you trade for shit you can't make or get easily. If I'm a pumpkin farmer, I don't want someone else's pumpkins--I want something I don't have. How is this hard to get? 

Look at Jeremiad Dispenser Vance, Telling Stories

 

One of the things that allegedly happened today was that Jabbering Defendant Vance, noticing that his Munich speech and his sabotage of Zelenskyy in the Oval office and the entire pro-Russia side the current Administration has been taking was a "Bad PR THING", decided to tell stories about taking his three year old for a walk. (Do we walkies our toddlers now to help them toilet or WTF? Because this is what my Boomer parents do for their Boston Terrier. Me and my brother did our toddler doodies in the wee people pot. Like a very long time ago, so maybe I don't know how the millennial parents are managing baby shit right this minute. Maybe we walkies our toddlers to protests because it's never too late to rub your kid's face in your crapulence. I'm not a parent. I'm just saying--bet? No cap? How sway? Or whatever the kids say these days about these things.)

I do know how to manage insufferable political lying dipshits though, because while I never had babies, I have the craziest scruples about people who have Secret Service protection and whose street is closed to keep protesters AWAY who maintain they and their toddler child were so BESET! 

Video of the protest has emerged and it's pretty clear Vance is lying; the protest was at the bottom of Vance's street, which was closed by police.

It would have been impossible for the protesters to "follow" Vance and his family around as he claimed. pic.twitter.com/rTkCCNg6qi

— Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) March 9, 2025

See--it's a hard thing to think this actually happened, but if it did, it only could have if some father put his kid RIGHT THERE, but I charitably don't think he did that. I think he just crafted a story not thinking it would ever be fact-checked to the satisfaction of the audience he wanted to BELIEVE that "slava Ukrainie" protesters were "shit persons". 

The Elephant at the Protest

 

I am completely opposed to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, I genuinely think the Rafah operation will be a bloodbath and should be reconsidered, and I am highly skeptical that the eradication of Hamas is fully possible without what already are proving to be unacceptable human casualties. I want to believe that in a different political situation, Gazans might want something more like Fatah (which Hamas exterminated in that region) leading them in an autonomous state. I support the free speech rights of the protesters at various colleges, even to the extent that I am dubious of the effect of the protests and don't truly believe they are as well-informed as they need to be.

I do not want a recap of National Guard breaking heads at Berkeley, or Kent State. Reactionaries are looking for the opportunity to have hardhat riots and so on, and some people are openly fantasizing about the Democratic National Convention being another 1968. 

Given my feelings about all of the above, let me be that wet-blanket Gen X asshat who wants to tell the children, ever so delicately--the hell you are doing the same thing my parents' generation did. When pro-Palestinians all say "Genocide Joe", maybe they think they are just echoing their grandparents' asking LBJ how many kids he killed that day. But Joe isn't dropping the bombs, and Israel is getting incoming missiles all the time from Hamas, Hezbollah, and there is a threat of war from Iran.

Which leads me to point out that young man in the picture above with the Hezbollah flag--with a machine gun on it. Almost a gentle hippie, just repping something that is by no means a peace movement, but terrorism. 

When 1968 begat Nixon, he prolonged the Vietnam War. No, really. My dad's generation was drafted. He (Nixon) on the advice of Kissinger, prolonged the war. 

Clickbait, Context and Code Pink

 

The above picture is a screenshot of a 25 second video that got a lot of clicks--10M views! A lot of well-meaning people had a strong response to it and so did I--just, not the same one they did. See, in light of the comments that Nancy Pelosi made Sunday which I alluded to in my previous post, it's possible for some people to assume Pelosi had become unhinged or something--what is she even talking about?  Russian influence, now "go back to China"? You could forgive someone for assuming that protesters were trying to get commentary out of her just NOW over what she said in the interview. 

As for me, I thought it might be the case. but it's just a 25-second clip with no context. If someone showed up to protest me at my home, after it had been my spouse not so long ago attacked by a madman in my home, I'd be rude as hell to uninvited "guests". "Go back to China" sounded to me maybe like a way to suggest these guys were commies or something. 

But it's from an earlier protest and the protesters are Code Pink, who ARE funded by CCP money. And Pelosi is used to them haunting her lawn--they did it in 2007, and they do it today.  And my humble opinion is they are assholes. 

Living In Very Normal Times

 

Protesters in support of Palestine glued their hands to the street in the middle of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, temporarily halting the event. There were other instances of protests on the sidelines as well ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/D0TWKrsdov

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 23, 2023

Usually, the husband and I have steak because wow. Turkey. Very boring. But we did have turkey this time--turkey liver! This was his surprise for me, because he knows I like organs. So wait up, before I lose anyone:

A lot of Boomers in the US have bad experiences of offals because they were cooked up by well-meaning parents who learned to cook during the Depression and didn't have full access to all the spices and whatnot organ meats deserve. Also, there's a notion that organ meats are just "dirty" and need all kinds of soaking and preservation, and for things like chitterlings--yeah! Tripes--sure! But stuff like kidneys and livers? Eh? I just care they are seasoned a lot and cooked thoroughly. Throw in lemon while sautéing--it more quickly does what soaking is supposed to do. 

"If You Go Carrying Pictures of Chairman Mao...."

 

I get it, I think. There's a handful of them in every radical crowd. They're so hip, they're positively pelvic. If you're offended by their t-shirt, the problem is you, etc. And nonetheless, the young folks who have discovered Bin Laden's "Letter to America" are just so disappointing. I always hoped, somewhere out there, that, having grown up with the internet, some kind of extra media-savvy would rub off on them, and they would understand that there is propaganda, everywhere, and just because you've run into something "new to you" doesn't mean it's actually valid. That the youths would seek context.

This is called, me, being overly optimistic about human nature. Also, too, I know a bunch of elderly "leftists" who are likewise suckers for the same sort of thing. 

Bin Laden was a recruiter for terrorism against the US--he peddled horseshit pills for what ailed the world. Lots of bloody-minded assholes do that. It's not special. 

I'm not going to be the one who waves my fist and yells at the kids to get off my lawn or stop making human chains or whatever they do today, even if for the love of the revolution, please consider why you are getting dragged off of private property and whether blocking doors are a fire hazard. And also too, be aware cops will wreck your property and get physical at pretty much any leftist protest--it isn't personal. 

But for the love of fuck, please try not to make actual monsters your fucking mascots--is that TOO MUCH to ask? 

Finally--yes, movements can be discredited by malicious actors from within. There were bad actors embedded in Occupy and BLM, and they are already down in your pod.  Don't be hoodwinked and bamboozled babies. It's a jungle out there. 

Pride is a Riot

 

There have been some pieces of good news to report this month, like the court's rejection of the Tennessee drag ban, and the utter rebuke of the Florida denial of trans treatment. But this year has faced extraordinary challenges to the trans community, and often using the same tired tropes as have always been used against the gay community--recruitment because "they"* can't reproduce, focused on the youth, etc. The bigots still insist on their supposed right to bigotry to deny the actual rights of marginalized people to be and feel free in public. 

That's why Pride as a riot and a protest is still ongoing. Because contention over whether gay rights and human dignity can be publicly admitted results in scenes like this:

Anti-LGBT protestors attack Pro-LGBT demonstrators outside of a Glendale, CA schoolboard meeting.

The schoolboard is voting on recognizing June as Pride month. pic.twitter.com/T1zqZMTn7D

— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) June 7, 2023

It doesn't hurt anyone for kids to know LGBTQ people exist, that they have rights, that they are not, despite radical right-wing ideology, weirdo sex fiends but are just people. And it serves the dual purpose of ensuring that marginalized and targeted gay and trans children are understood and not victimized in their schools. We've been telling these kids since a dozen years ago "it gets better" and the trolling haters kept hating. The fight doesn't end. (And the LGB without the T jackasses in the sainted names of Marsha Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Brandon Teena can fuck off the planet. Or better yet, learn history.) 

Be allies not shall-I's.  Bonds, bunks, mutual aid and speaking up accepted everywhere anti-LGBTQ lies are being pushed,

* Right handed people give birth to left handed babies. I never understand the "LGBT people don't reproduce" thing. Of course, the bits work. The glowing and enormous pictures of transmen enjoying their pregnancies exist. IVF exists. How can this dumb trope still exist? And don't get me started on the "rounded up and put on a deserted island" thing. Um, everyone would be too busy looking for a way off Stunad Island to worry about making a new generation of coconut eaters, thanks...

Who is Paying for Dinner?

 

I think it's a gosh darn shame that the beer-loving scamp of the current SCOTUS line-up was forced to flee Morton's Steak House before dessert was served because of the outrage of nearby protesters, but as we all know, the word "restaurant" appears nowhere in the Constitution and after all, it's not like anyone has a right to privacy, right? Freedom of speech, check. Freedom to peaceably assemble--check. Freedom to eat a steak and not be reminded that you decided a case in a way that has doctors playing chicken with the reaper before being able to determine whether to render care to a miscarrying pregnant person in crisis because of the legal liability you helped impose on them? No. 

No. I don't see how Brett Kavanaugh has that right.  He has the privilege to make that kind of decision, and his nomination to the bench was financially backed by people who strongly expected that was exactly the kind of decision he would render, even if he did not say as much during his Senate hearing. All the same, he does not get to escape the world in which his decision has consequences. Any more than a pregnant 10 year old does. 

Now, a person who carried a grudge like a piece of shrapnel in their guts might wonder a lot of things about Kavanaugh--but I will just ask this blogpost's titular question: Who is paying for dinner? 

Would it Have Made A Difference?

 

When most people hear that Trump was thinking of firing missiles into Mexico to take out the cartels and then act as if maybe some other country did it, I'd like to think they would see all the many problems with the plan right off the bat. Like. leaving aside the moral or legal questions (which never would occur to Trump, anyway), we are firing over what border with what missiles, now? It wouldn't exactly take Sherlock Holmes to sort out what had taken place. Are we sure we could pin-point the location of cartels without so-called "collateral damage"? 

It's bad because it violated international law, sure, but it's also really fucking stupid. And yet, from the stable genius mind that wanted to make a moat next to the border wall and booby-trap it, is it so hard to believe? That's right--we heard crazy-ass shit from behind the scenes of the Trump Administration quite a few times. We already knew he wanted to shoot immigrants in the legs (they did get tear gassed). It's not, then, a shock to also know he wanted George Floyd protesters shot in the legs, as well. (They also got tear gassed. Apparently, Trump's bloodlust is mollified by having a little chemical warfare, as a treat.) 

Trump fans knew what he was when they picked him up. I don't think they would have been put off by those things at the time, any more than they were put off by the prospect of extortion of other world leaders or some light treason. Not when Trump could point to the wreckage and say "See? I was doing something."

That may sound incredibly pessimistic, and it is. We can criticize Esper for saving it for the book, but unlike with journalists whose principal duty should be getting these things out, I can appreciate what Esper saw his duty as being (swatting these sorts of things down--weekly!?) at the time. 

I just know that if there is a next time, Trump will find people less inclined to swat him down. He will have his own Lavrovs, Peskovs and Shoigus. 

I don't think we can say how things would be different for sure if Esper told the world then. It's like conservatives pointing out the violation of the Alito leak rather than looking at the scope of the argument. The real horror is that Trump is a mad idiot--but we knew that. The real horror is also that a large part of the population still likes their mad idiot. That's the bit to organize against. Everything else is theater criticism. 

Researching Your Ginormous Balls Off

 

Maybe it's wrong of me to doubt that Nicki's cousin's best friend's balls blew up (at 31 Flavors, so I guess it's pretty serious) but unless the vax came with a side of chlamydia, I'm guessing that the wedding was called off because friendo was raw-dogging karma and it bit back. I only snark here to make a point--she is saying "pray on it and make sure you're comfortable" and isn't saying she won't get the vaccine ever, just not now and appreciated that some people do have to get it for their job. That's not anti-vax, and it's definitely respectful to people who have reservations, but...

I'm so tired of the vaccine hesitancy because the worst case scenarios of the virus are just way worse than the anecdotal evidence out there about any problems the vaccine might have. I'm talking about parents passing it to their little kids and losing them so young. Or families with young children suddenly becoming orphans. Pediatric COVID-19 deaths in the US have remained in the few hundreds, so it's rare, but we don't know what the long-term effects on these kids could be. The US is 4th in the world for children orphaned by COVID-19, with well over 100,000 kids with lost parents. 

So I guess what I'm getting at is, doing research sounds smart--the rational thing to do, and all. But I think people who start to research what might be wrong with the vaccine start to forget to weigh it against what we definitely know is wrong with COVID-19, and it's a hell of a lot. 

Like, for one thing, it is definitely killing people. Contrary to what the hardcore hospital-protesting crazies want to say, which seems to be that somehow, health care workers are actually contriving COVID-19 deaths for their own nefarious ends. 

(I have never been a fan of turning rubber hoses on protestors, but you know...they pose a risk to public safety and welfare and are interfering with the care of all kinds of sick and injured people, so I see what they are doing as basically terrorism against patients and healthcare workers. But once we allowed anti-abortion protesters space to harass healthcare workers and patients at clinics, this is the creep you get.) 

It has also caused increased lost pregnancies and loss of maternal life or increased risk of serious illness for obstetric patients.  And while there's no evidence the vaccines cause reproductive sterility, there is a risk that COVID-19 can. 

Wanton Endangerment

When Louisville called for a curfew and started to prepare for protests, it was pretty clear that there was an understanding that the decision reached by the grand jury regarding indictment of one of the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor for charges not related directly to her slaying would be, to put it simply, inadequate.

The system in Louisville was ready to prepare for protests, but it is questionable whether the case was fully pursued in establishing how procedure so completely broke down that a young woman was shot dead in her own bed. Managing protests, and finding them more agreeable than performing the basic duty of the full pursuit of justice is a form of wanton endangerment because of the harm it does to the justice system itself by rendering it less credible and more broken with every failure and needless loss of life. And it harms the public by allowing such failures to continue.

Governor Beshear has called for AG Cameron to release an accounting of the evidence so that the public can know for themselves whether this seems just. I'm hung up on that--there are reasons we try people for indictment in grand jury courts, not in public, but knowing what Cameron's office had to work with and how they did it would be instructive, because it is quite possible that a certain minimal result was desired, and certainly a minimal result was obtained. There are valid reasons why prosecutors might take on no more case than they think they can try and win, but here, I just can't help but think there is something incredibly wrong with a result that has people beset upon in their home, possibly not even hearing or being cognizant of any announcement that these were law enforcement, and not being protected by the law.

I highly question the use of a no-knock warrant in the first place, because it seems to me that this would have been better handled in broad daylight. I question how clearly law enforcement announced themselves, and whether the barrage of bullets in response to a shot fired by her partner, Kenneth Walker, was even at that point a reasonable level of force. And I always wonder why, after this kind of force is applied by police, the call for medical assistance never comes quick enough.

I don't know everything, but I know that when people have been marching for justice on behalf of black lives for the past six months looking for some sign that it is understood that they do matter, this doesn't feel like it. And I deeply sympathize with people who feel that results like this mean they too, are just endangered by a system that isn't here to serve and protect them, but operates on the basis of political will and racial bias. Wantonly.

A wanton system is not law and order. A system that assumes people are innocent until proven guilty, and does not treat people as a suspect class because of biased reasoning is the fulfilment of our constitution, it's what all Americans should be entitled to, and it isn't exactly what we have right now. But we should aspire to that, because without it, we do not have peace. We have a breach of faith.

And no, the protesters did not start that. They protest because they want that faith restored, and because they believe justice is a thing that can be achieved. They want faith in a system that has not protected them, and they want it from a system where rubber bullets and tear gas can be fired at them. They love the America they want to believe in and see someday, and keep getting this bullshit. But they still want this American experiment to work.

(And the only price we'd all pay is we get accountable government, which actually is not a price so much as something we all should want anyway.)

They are better institutionalists and patriots than a lot of flag-kissing gun-toters out there could ever hope to be.