Rights

In the information age we can see all the moving parts. In Israel the far right warring government has decreased women's rights (CNN). War is all about making women unsafe and need protection. In a safe world, women don't need men, and therefore the association would be their option, not a matter of survival. 

Rights are about freedom. The right to vote, to own property, to control over your body. Inequality is about trying to get more for me, by being in the in group. White men supposedly do well. I'm not doing the best, but actually I am quite lucky. It's not really luck, though is it? 

Malicious compliance

 

You want us to release all the file? Well here's all the people he hates. Not sure why he's against Clinton, since he's a centrist, practically a Republican. Just hated his wife, perhaps he's trying to hurt her. 

Trump could have the people who love him spontaneously name things for him, but he's not going to wait for that, he's putting his name on everything he can. He's thinking about his legacy, it's just these things aren't going to stick. Kennedy center is going back to it's old name after he's gone. He's going to die soon and his name is going to be erased because he's just not an American president we respect.

The leadership thing is that you lead by example, and Trump breaks all the laws, and somehow gets away with it, but his followers are surprised they are caught. Malicious noncompliance isn't great.

Enshitification

New example of enshitification. (Previous post on enshitification.)

People don't watch new shows that are good, they're canceled, then they watch them because the algorithm spits them up, and then there's not follow through and resolution because it was canceled because it wasn't popular when it first came out, but people like it as they're cycling through. 

I saw the other day you can pay to get the full Gemini experience, it's already got two tiered experiences.

I'm convinced that Apple takes away functionality with their updates. I used to be able to send links back and forth from computer to phone and phone to computer, but it's gone away. 

This is the great lesson of Trump. Capitalists wreck things and then demand money to make it work again. He's doing it with the government, thank, we don't need that. I feel like this isn't worth boycotting for, I mean it's everywhere and everything. It is making me less materialistic though, so that's good. 

That's just entertainment, but the cuts in government that kill people are worse. 

Images

 

Money in politics has befuddled Americans since the 70's, my who life, why not reverse that?

I think there's a lot of latitude within religions and politics, but to me stepping across the murder, war and other forms of killing is the line I draw. So with Trump's murdering an estimated 400k by his inaction with Covid, and the million he killed by administrative fiat by ending USAID, he's an administrative mass murderer, and to think that's OK is kind of giving up your human card. I see people are of value and just politically saying no to them is administrative murder. So I could never ever imagine it's just a political difference to think Trump is OK. Until we learn to treat all life as precious, we're not really worth anything as human beings. Stop genocides and famine, that to me is bottom line stuff.

Religions don't kill people, people allow themselves to be manipulated through religions to kill people, and that's another problem.

I'm just riffing off this post on Reddit, which honesetly I'm just riffing off the headline.

Is Trump a liar or just has dementia?

He’s freezing on stage

Look at his smile

Today's thoughts

Every unAmerican step takes Trump that much closer to impeachment after the blue wave of the midterms.

Two countries voted no to being against colonialism at the UN, Israel and USA. 

Trump zags when we usually zig, and while that could be good, it happens to not be. America has lost it's exceptionalism and maybe it never had it if it's so easy to throw it away like this. I don't mean to over index with recency bias, but wow. No neutral or good chaos, just bad chaos. 

Everyone thinks he's a big baby for getting the FIFA Peace Prize, a made up award, meanwhile he's murdering people in boats. He's the opposite of peace, and he's an absurd nihilist to push the narrative. He's sent troops into cities, and you're seeing police literally arresting ICE officers. 

His playbook is to create a crisis and to grift to stop it. He's not about leadership or government. And now he's calling affordability made up. He's going down. There's going to be a massive wave in the midterms and he's going to get voted out. What a horrible time and test for democracy. Then they can impeach a few Supreme Court justices. The corrupt legislature have often retired, and hopefully that rights the ship. 

I'm not so hot on Newsome any more. Kelly seems OK. Pritzker is an option. Other people will step forward. I'm impatient to see who is next, and I hope Vance isn't the puppet he's been so far. America are eager for crazy time to be over. 

Neo-Nazis in Arkansas Reddit.

The dark side

The fantasy, aside from massive heart attack and instant death, is that the oompa loompa will lose the midterms, and be impeached in a blue wave.

Things start to turn when Republicans are not challenged in their primaries, and there's no consequence for turning on the pedophile (Archive/Daily Beast).

The press seems to keep pounding on how Pete Hegseth needs to go.

Phil Klay: I suspect the question the administration cares about is not “is this legal,” “is this a war crime,” “is this murder” or even “is this good for America,” but rather, “isn’t this violence delightful?”

Jesse Watters and Megyn Kelly are monster on Fox, they delight in it. 

"An Associated Press investigation suggests that the men Ms. Kelly would like to watch slowly die are often poor laborers: a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver, a bus driver, living in cinder-block homes with spotty water and power service, making at least $500 per trip ferrying cocaine, a crime Americans normally judge worthy of a prison sentence rather than a torturous death." (op cit)

Thought of the day

The long term impact of planting fear in immigrants mind will last longer than Trump's reign of terror, his war on Americans. 

Heartbreaking stories of deportation (Bluesky). There's a certain kind of American that gets really angry at immigration. 

I am horrified by the videos every day I see of violent ICE arrests. They are illegal kidnappings. I'm not sure why they get to decide to suspend due process. The idea that non-citizens don't deserve due process is a false idea. I don't believe in a human being illegal. A flock of lawyers should descend on every case. 

The long term effects of inhumanity are felt by us all. It's a monster that says this doesn't affect me. I can see that there's a kind of mean spirited person that exists in the country, denies interconnectivity. 

Thought of the day

The hubris of thinking you know better, and hiding information that is negative, is among the traits of this second regime of the oompa loompa. I need to mock him, he's so obviously an emperor with no clothes, it screams at me. Standing there naked, nudity isn't sincerity or honesty, it's the absence of insight in his case. He doesn't seem to know what we know, and he doesn't care. Kirk saying empathy was wrong is another defining characteristic. It's not like he's making the best decisions, he's all about the break and grift model of government. Un-American if you ask me.

In the gish gallop of terrible news meant to beat down those with hearts, the not quiet piggy has the following headline: "Trump Cancels Release of Crucial Economic Report to Hide His Failures" (source). The information has snuck out anyway. You can't be such a mendacious leader in the information age.

I'll forever never forgive America for voting for this claptrap, this obvious destruction. Whoever comes after will never be as destructive as this jerk. Worst thing in my lifetime. The people who died of Covid because of his inactivity. The people who died worldwide because he stopped US. The horror of videos of violent ICE arrests, so many illegal. The loss of prestige on the world stage. Exceptionalism maybe wasn't even a good idea, but it's dead now. 

The goal is for me to lose faith in America, but I'm watching Ken Burn's documentaries, and even with all the mistakes and horror, I believe in a woke liberal America. 

Collecting knocks against future democrat candidates

I don't know how useful these projects of mine are, but I thought to begin to collect the wisdom of the internet, get the tone of the internet regarding people potentially running as democrat for president in 2028. I really don't want JD Vance or Marco Rubio. 

Mark Kelly: Military, astronaut, typical hero for our grandparents generation. Wife was shot, he's made sacrifices. He's been fighting Trump actively with a social media presence. He's a white man, Dems need to try that on for size to make sure this next election isn't fumbled. Hopefully the voters don't want to continue to blow the fucking world up. I'm sure he'd be better than any republican.

Knock: He's too pro-police (skeet) to get 90% of the black vote? After electing a white man because America didn't like the brown woman, not sure that's a tipping point problem.

Gavin Newsom: He's governor of California, a strong state, and has fought Trump in the social media quite well. People who hate him don't always articulate why, which proves much of our choices are unconscious. I'm sure he'd be better than any republican. 

Knock: Too centrist. He's got the hackles up for some, he makes people feel betrayed who have unrealistic expectations. "He is the epitome of what's wrong with CA. Slick talker full of bad ideas who thinks he's right." (skeet).

Kamala Harris: Just keep running till you win, that's every politicians strategy. That's what Biden did. Some think she's too establishment, some think she's too revolutionary. Must be a middle of the road person. Seems cool to me, likes jazz and lived in Madison for a year, where I grew up, but America doesn't get her. Did well despite the limitations of 107 day campaign. I'm sure she's be better than any republican. 

Knock: Most withdrawn of all the candidates, least charismatic. Their racism and misogyny is complicated. (skeet)

AOC is good and dynamic, but America doesn't want a woman or an ethnic woman at that. She's got solid fundraising ability with Bernie Sanders. She's a good talking head. I'm sure she'd be way better than any republican. 

Knock: Too left wing. There are lots of centrists who dislike ideology. 

Pete Buttigig is gay, and that's yet another reason not to vote for someone who's politics you hate, and we need to bring in the swing voters. I wish we were past homophobia, but it's obviously a persistent factor in the USA in 2025. My friend came out to me at 16, in a state where the average age of coming out was 22. I probably have a positive prejudice with the gays. America doesn't. He'd be better than any republican. 

Knock: Too centrist? He's a nuts and bolts policy wonk, I think he'd be a great president, but what Obama taught us was that if there's a huge resistance, in his case to his race, then it's just all uphill battles. He seems strong enough to weather the storms. We need a white hetrosexual man. Again, either you're too ideological or you're too centrist, there's no sweet spot. 

Pritzker is fighting Trump, for me the next president should have put in effort of resistance. He's a white hetrosexual man! But he's not attractive. We need a basic level of looks in superficial America. He'd be better than any republican. 

Knock: He's too rich to be a true revolutionary? He's not handsome enough? Same criticism bunch of not being enough left wing, or not centrist enough. The irrational fear is he will tax people more. 

Cory Booker. I'd love a vegan president. He'd be better than any republican. 

Knock: Not white enough. Too friendly with Wall Street. Too much into uniting. You need pundits to believe in your political lane. 

Jimmy Carter. Yea, I know he's dead, he's a placeholder for someone who seems to come out of nowhere. Like the guy from Maryland. The other candidates take all the shit flinging and then a new one steps forward without any shit on them. That's why I hoped Harris would win. Didn't work because she's not a white hetrosexual Christian male, which seems to be category needs for superficial America. 

MTG resigns

She was a hard right political hack who followed Trump's playbook, and then decided to pivot away from him, lost his endorsement, when she came upon her 5 year vesting of a pension. Like Liz Cheney, she was a quite horrible right wing shrew, and the left is so desperate for any crumbs, so when she turned on Trump, she became something she wasn't before, not quite as horrible enabling the monster, but hardly anyone worth cheering given her body of work. 

She's gotten a lot of threats, she says, and her timing with her pension vesting makes it seem like she has timed all of this. She's made a lot of money as a politician, so it's time to fade off into the sunset for her. 

Perhaps most famous for howling at Biden while he gave his state of the union address. 

There's a surprising amount of high profile republicans who hate Trump, but oddly enough it's not enough to oust him yet. 

NY Times: “Loyalty should be a two-way street, and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest,” Ms. Greene wrote in a long post. She said that if she had been cast aside by “MAGA Inc,” it was indicative that “many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well.”

“I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”

She comes from a red district, and I hope Johnson gives the replacement the Adelita Grijalva treatment and takes his time swearing her in, and deny the will of the people again. 

Mamdani and Trump

What I saw was Mamdani approached Trump with respect, and they found common ground. I could never find common ground with Trump, so I respect Mamdani for being the bigger man, and thinking about the voters and the city, while the current reign is in the office. He made peace with a deeply distributed, troubled, and horrible man. To me it seems commendable. Work within the circumstances for the greatest good. I'm too idealistic to deal with Trump, but I hope in Mamdani's shoes, I would have been able to raise to the occasion like he did. Mamdani displayed another amazing side to himself. He got lucky, they didn't treat him like they did Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He neutralized some of Trump's insane rhetoric. I don't really like the optics, but it's realpolitik: Realpolitik (from German, meaning "realistic politics") is a pragmatic approach to politics and diplomacy that prioritizes national interests and practical considerations over ideological, moral, or ethical concerns. It is a system of politics based on concrete, goal-oriented ways of dealing with other nations.

(Reddit, NY Times) Independent thinks he’s afraid of his popularity.

“What Zohran did was not extraordinary statesmanship or youthful rebellion but simply the oldest trick in our collective cultural book, the desi art of letting the elder talk while quietly keeping the steering wheel of our own intent,” Indian diarist Kedar Gadgil (CNN)

Socialism

Diego Rivera's Man, Controller of the Universe

People think it's all a waste of time, and silly nonsense but I'm deeply offended by the Senate banning socialism. (Reddit)

Here's what Google AI says: "The history of "banning" socialism in America involves periods of significant political repression and legislation aimed at suppressing radical movements, particularly during and after the World Wars and the Cold War, rather than an outright, continuous, and comprehensive ban on all socialist thought or political parties."

To me socialism is the roads being free, we all own the roads. Parks. Having the trash taken away. Fire departments, post office, libraries. These are all great things.

And a dog whistle for the right, who have such a boner for unchecked capitalism and oligarchy. 

I take offense as a New Yorker who elected a socialist in Mandani and for Seattle's new mayor. 

Hope

Australia has virtually solar power taking care of it's electricity needs. When the USA leaves this pedophile regime it will be such a relief to have a forward thinking president. There's no way Vance wins, the yin and yang of politics, and this cheating is that Democrats are gerrymandering to make sure this nonsense doesn't happen again. We could have staved it off, and they really need to look into creating protections so a felon can't even run. And replace the supreme court with actual judges, not ideological hacks that don't understand justice. It was a mistake to think the voters would be the last safety valve. What comes around, goes around, and now when I see a video of him speaking, I just say, "shut up, piggy."

Why are the people who don't like government howling about the expansion of ICE? Because they're not just against big government and government waster, and they're not against cruelty. And they're not for law and order because Trump is the biggest criminal as president in USA history. It's spite, a death cult. Kill all the people that annoy you. Get the "Christians" to go along with you.

 

The flag has touched the ground, the country has gone off the rails. You can accuse me of being a left wing hack, but MTG and Carson have abandoned the pedophile. The crack in the facade are getting deeper. 

Tuesday they're going to vote on releasing the Epstein files and for me, I already know Trump is a monster, but some people are going to take their blinders off. He's going to deflect, point to other people. Except he'll probably redact his name and other favorite loyalists. 

The reason why the umpa lumpa tin pot authoritarian got into a fight with Epstein, is they got into an argument about who raped the 13 year old tied up in the room first. 

Another friend has told me he wishes not to talk about politics. I suppose the purpose of this blog is to just ventilate my feelings about politics in a world that isn't interested.

For anyone who wishes all humans to be happy, to be well, this regime is a disaster, and in the full catastrophe living, you're fighting, mourning, withdrawing. 

Protests continue in Washington demanding the impeachment of the US President. There's a constant protest ongoing. 

Rorschach Test

 What do you see?

Mamdani wins

He actually got a majority of the votes in a 3 person race, with Sliwa's 7.1% being not enough for Cuomo to win even if those votes were given to him, with his 41.6%. Now all those people who promised to leave NYC if MaMdani won, can leave, and what's his face in Texas can insist on a 100% tariff on emigrants from NYC, and the guy from Barstool who legally resides in Florida, can move to Florida, where he supposedly resides. I just can't with all the idiotic posturing. 

I couldn't bring myself to vote for Adams or Sliwa in the last Mayoral election, and it will be good to see Adams go. 

The New York Times would not endorse Mamdani, suggesting Cuomo would do a good job. Luckily New Yorkers took a different view. 

I'm happy Trump didn't somehow rig the election, it actually gives me faith in democracy again. His mother is a filmmaker from India. His father is an academic from Uganda, with Indian heritage. His wife is an artist, born in Texas but of Syrian heritage, moved to Dubai Qatar at 9 with her software developer father and doctor mother. She wants to draw, she's an illustrator. Pretty cool to me. Reflects NYC's diversity and competence. 

The exuberance I felt with Obama elected was quickly replaced by the worry at watching so many people trying to block him, obstruct him, undermine him. 

The cockamamie attacks are painful. I'm going to pay attention to this administration. 

As progressive as NYC is, Long Island re-elected a Trump lover (NY Post). All the major elections went to Democrats. 

I believe there's a yin and yang in politics. The president comes in, and then gradually loses power, and all the elections flop to the other side, almost no matter which side. If Mamdani becomes president, there will be slew of Republican governors and mayors.

I live in an almost brown yellow place on the map. 

The sin of empathy

I'm not sure if Trump created the divide between empathy and selfishness in America, but he sure drove a wedge between it. 

I'm reading that people will not be able to heat their houses this year. Trump has cut the programs that allow poor people to get emergency heating in the winter (source).

Those who support what Trump is doing will say, they should work harder, make better choices, etc. Work two, three, four jobs, whatever it takes to heat the family. They should contort themselves, and not expect to depend on money from others.

And it's OK for Trump to give Argentina 40 million, to rebuild and do major renovations to the White House, even build a triumphal arch. The same "irresponsibility" of the poor family is OK with him because people should not be dependent on the government. The sin of empathy has been articulated by the right (source). 

Read Douglas Sharp's amazing essay defending empathy.

It's the difference between people who hate the government so much that they're willing to throw their own countrymen and women under the bus, not even for less taxes on them, only the super rich, but to burn it all down. They're so angry at immigrants, they're probably excited watching all the beatings on social media. Most people are disgusted, but enough aren't. I know a sweet immigrant mother, who when I asked her if she was going to vote, started ranting about lazy immigrants. They're brainwashed by Fox News and social media into a hatred stance. If it wasn't so diabolical, I'd be impressed, instead I'm disgusted by the effort to harm people. I know a sweet man who thinks Trump is being persecuted! I've never met such a collection of idiots that are coordinated and weaponized. Truly diabolical. 

Political Procedural TV shows

I'm watching The Diplomat and really enjoying it, and it reminds me of Madam Secretary and The West Wing.

Political essay

Conservatives don't like government, progressives see the potential. There are always mistakes and limitations to government, and conservatives a hyper focused on it, in their own way. 

My psychoanalytical explanation is that often overbearing parents create a desire to be left alone. Also really selfish people don't like taxes or free riders. They'd rather have children starve instead of one person getting it who doesn't need it. The right would rather detain 170 citizens and catch one "illegal", an offensive term to the left (source)

I'm progressive, and feel very strongly that capitalism creates exaggerated winners and losers, and government can smooth out the excesses of capitalism. 

Conservatives feel the greed motive really important in capitalism, they're afraid people won't be groveling or hungry enough to put up with asshole bosses if they get housing, food, education at discount prices. They have a real boner for unchecked capitalism and the inequalities they create. Trump is purposefully crashing the economy to exaggerate the winners and losers. The decreased power of the American currency will bring jobs back to the USA, he fantasizes. Like everything in politics, nobody is completely wrong or completely right. There's a Godel theorem of politics, because the perspectives of right and left can never be totally right, and personality is a sort of fixed aspect to people and there will always be these two perspectives. That's why the dialectic of democracy is so powerful, neither side decisively wins. Except when things become anti-democratic and one side cheats or changes the rules. Gerrymandering is cheating. Money for elections is cheating.

The examples are packing the supreme court by not giving Obama a seat, waiting till the Trump gets in. By not swearing in a duly elected representative to the people. By creating a secret force like the Gestapo and SS (source). We've never had authorities who had to cover their faces before. By sending in troops into cities, creating a war. Trump laughed about uniting the nation, he thrives of disunity. He just needs a few rich people to believe in him, the oligarchy.

Tyranny, fascism, nazism, authoritarianism, dictatorship is an autoimmune disorder. The body politic attacks itself. It's pathological. 

The inherent rape of the people in this regime, is fittingly carried out by a convicted felon rapist and pedophile. It wasn't that long ago that the right was fantasizing about imaginary pedophilia rings, and you'd be on the left if you noticed this concern went poof, and disappeared. In the endless conversation between left and right, they will never completely see eye to eye. Just as Roosevelt created frustrated conservatives, so too, the orange transactional man creates left wing pendulum momentum. Trump is giving 40 billion to Argentina because the criminals need somewhere to flee when they lose power. Trump has said he's not going to heaven. He knows.

Noem, Stephen Miller, and others. If you google "who are the most evil people in Trump's administration, Google, which has swerved right, says it's a subjective term. The rule of law has to be suspended to establish it. 

Fourteen million people are dying because Trump abolished USAID (source). Trump was happy to let 700k+ people die of Covid through his inaction (Right wing Forbes thinks 400k, it's political how you calculate it allegedly). It's a metaphysic to say they could have lived, because they're dead. It's a hazy vague administrative murder by lack of resources, something harder to grasp. 

When I first heard about Freud's death instinct I was young and felt very strongly the urge to live. As I'm older now I understand the dark undertow of the death instinct, and being bad and killing people is what Trump wants. It's a death cult. That's why he's changed it back to the war department, because he wants to war, and death.

You ever stand in line and judge someone, wish they didn't exist? That's the murder instinct. Anger turned into action. Meanwhile Trump is unifying America in anger. Against him. If you've ever played Civilization, democracy doesn't like war, you have to overthrow it to go to war. Trump wants to take some land somewhere like his friend Putin has done over and over. The people generally don't vote for murder. That's why we just had the largest protest in American history. 

This regime has the push it till we're taken out attitude. 

No Kings Day!

Historic protest about the tyrannical moves of the pedophile felon.

Here are links to photos and videos of protest as I see them on Bluesky and Reddit:

Early footage, I can't endlessly link up videos and photos:

Portland

South Korea, Shinjuku, Tokyo

London, London, Dublin

Lisboa, Portugal

Boston, Newtown, Sussex County, New Jersey, Mystic CT

NYC, NYC, NYC, NYC, NYC, NYC

US Embassy/Brandenburg Gate Germany

Miami, Orlando, Lake Worth, Small town Sarasota county

Charlotte, Kitty Hawk

Garland Texas, Santa Fe New Mexico

Last updated 5:45 PM 10/18/25

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