Finally Friday Reads: Is it Over yet?

“Crappy New Year!” John Buss,
@johnbuss.bsky.social

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

It’s only 3 days into 2025.  It feels a lot longer.  I’m exhausted. It’s difficult to wake up one day and be asked by the FaceBook AI to mark yourself safe from the Attack on New Orleans. It was good that I hadn’t sipped that hot tea yet because buying a new computer was way out of my budget. Yesterday, my news feed was flooded with notifications from friends and neighbors marking themselves safe. It was surreal. All I see everywhere is Attack on Bourbon. We even have one of those newsroom theme songs.

The 2025 chaos has already started. They held the Sugar Bowl at a heavily fortified Super Dome. Bourbon Street reopened with several of the city’s preachers leading a second line.  People went back to work because even if you do work you’re desperate from the affordable housing shortage plaguing the entire country. We’re still stunned and tired.

People got to see our lousy governor and our very drunk Senator while the New Orleans leader contingent paid second and third fiddles and was blamed for not doing what they’ve been doing for decades superbly.  The presser included a drunk Senator John Neely Kennedy spitting tobacco into a red plastic cup while looking like he’d been drinking still.  He shoved the FBI Special Agent–a black woman–away from the microphone where she was answering a reporter’s question.  Social Media is not treating him kindly and righteously so.

Our local news tagged him right.  This is from Tommy Tucker at WWL. “Tommy Tucker calls out Sen. John Kennedy’s display following the Bourbon Street attack: You’re a U.S. Senator—act like it.”

That said, during times of crisis, it’s our local, state, and national leaders who are expected to act with prudence and do their best to avoid placing personal grievances and their egos above what’s best for the citizens who elected them to serve.

That’s not what we saw from Louisiana Senator John Kennedy yesterday.

The press conference, where the bodies of the victims were still lying on Bourbon Street, was not the time to make cheap political points by taking shots at the director of Homeland Security or the media.

Senator, I know you. I know you’re better than that. You’re smarter than that. Act better than that because it embarrasses our state and our city.

Again, I know you. And that comedic rooster act yesterday isn’t who you are.

You’re a U.S. senator, for the love of God. Act like it because calling for unity while making cheap political points at a press conference is nothing other than contradictory.

If you disagree, call in, please, because I’d love to talk to you about it. As I understand it, we tried to get you on yesterday, but you refused. You didn’t have time to come on WWL—the official emergency management station of New Orleans—but did have time to go on Fox and spread misinformation, like claiming the federal government doesn’t have, or will care to provide, the necessary resources to investigate and deal with this horrific attack.

Senator, do yourself and the state of favor: resign your damn seat and let another Republican take over—someone who won’t do a Foghorn Leghorn impersonation and make a mockery of themself during one of the darkest moments in their state’s history.

Just so you can see that Kennedy’s Schtick isn’t real, these clips compiled by Ron FilipKowski will show the difference between the Senator when he was the State Treasurer and now. He’s really not that stupid. Kennedy graduated from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia School of Law before attending Oxford University. He just plays stupid for the state’s swamp billies and KKK remenents.

I made this montage of clips of LA Sen John Kennedy. The old clips are when Kennedy was a Democrat and was Treasurer for LA. The new clips are after he switched parties to Republican. Check the difference.

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-01-03T15:09:40.593Z

I’m always left with the big question of why it is that suicidal cis men can’t commit suicide without taking a contingent of innocents and law enforcement folks with them. They must be deluded into thinking they have the last word.  It’s the ultimate Act of ManSplaining.

The entire MAGA contingent and their propaganda media whores are still suggesting that this American who served in the U.S. Army and was the Son of Americans was somehow a border-crossing invader instead of a man who just couldn’t deal with the challenges of modern life in American and found purpose in radicalizing his religion to the detriment of the world.

Then, we got the Tesla bomber.  A Green Beret on leave making some kind of statement while wiring a Tesla to burn in front of a Trump Property. At least he shot himself, and no one else got killed in whatever statement he was trying to make on the way out the earthly door. The more we learn about him, the more I want to stay indoors and away from people I haven’t known for a long time. This is from the Daily Beast. “Suspected Las Vegas Cybertruck Bomber Was a ‘Big’ Trump Supporter: Source. Sources say, Matthew Livelsberger, a Green Beret who enlisted in the U.S. Army as a teenager, was a fan of the president-elect.”  I’m waiting for a J6 “rally” and a Charlottesville march with very “decent people on both sides” now. It’s deja vu all over again.

The man suspected of being behind Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas was a “big” supporter of Donald Trump and voted for him in November, a senior law enforcement official tells the Daily Beast.

That revelation came from an interview between Matthew Livelsberger’s loved ones and investigators, the source said. His family added that they believed the 37-year-old Green Beret, who died in Wednesday’s blast outside Trump International Hotel, had Republican leanings.

The revelation tracks with old Facebook comments and what Livelsberger’s uncle, Dean, told The Independent about his nephew’s politics on Thursday.

“He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American,” Dean said. “It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years.”

Records in El Paso County, Colo., indicate that he registered in 2020 with the No Labels party, which supports centrist “commonsense” candidates, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The same email Livelsberger used to sign up for LinkedIn was listed in a data breach last year that revealed he had an account on the far-right news website The Post Millennial.

Much remains unknown about what allegedly drove Livelsberger to rent a Cybertruck in his hometown of Colorado Springs and drive it to Trump’s Las Vegas property.

The truck was filled with explosives and, perhaps miraculously, only injured seven when it burst into flames just steps from the hotel’s front lobby. Livelsberger was the only fatality in the blast.

These two stories completely ran this one off of the news for days. This is from People Magazine. “10 People Injured After Multiple Males Fired Over 30 Shots in N.Y.C. Nightclub Shooting. “Let me start by saying that there’s zero tolerance for these senseless shootings,” NYPD Chief Philip Rivera said at a press conference.”  Notice a trend here?

Police say the venue was at capacity with 90 people inside at the time of the incident, therefore a line of about 15 people formed outside. The venue is named Amazura, according to ABC7, The Guardian and FOX5.

“Three to four males then opened fire over 30 times in the direction of the group standing outside the event space, striking multiple victims,” Rivera said.

The suspects fled the scene and were seen getting into a Sedan with out-of-state license plates, according to authorities.

Police noted that out of the 10 victims, six were females and four were male.

All victims were taken to nearby hospitals and “are expected to recover with non-life-threatening injuries,” per the NYPD.

Rivera encouraged people to speak up if they have any information about the crime, saying, “The public has been very instrumental in the recent weeks to help us capture dangerous individuals like these four men.”

Police are investigating the cause of the crime, though Rivera said it was “not a terrorist attack.”

ABC7 reports that the gathering was to celebrate the birthday of Tae’arion Mungo, a 16-year-old who was fatally shot in Brooklyn in October 2024.

The Republican House Speaker Brawl is headed to new lows this month.  President Eject Incontinentia’s buttocks are lobbying Republicans to support Moses on the Bayou.  John Thune is now the Senate Majority Leader.  It will be an interesting few years with these razor-thin Republican majorities and a fairly united Democratic Party. This is from AXIOS and the analysis is by Andrew Solendar. “House GOP tensions erupt ahead of speaker vote.”

House Republicans’ chronic infighting is resurfacing in spectacular fashion in the run-up to Friday’s vote to elect a speaker of the House.

Why it matters: Right-wing hardliners and allies of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are at each others’ throats in a likely preview of what is to come in the next two years.

• Johnson is struggling to secure the support he needs to retain his gavel, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) digging in in opposition and claiming to reporters several of his colleagues will join him in voting no.
• With a 219-215 majority and Democrats firmly behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Johnson will likely not be able to afford multiple GOP defections.
• A number of House Republicans, mostly members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, still refuse to commit to voting for Johnson.

Driving the news: Johnson’s skeptics are circulating an unsigned memo, a copy of which was obtained by Axios, outlining his “4 ‘successes’ and 26 ‘fails’ for House Republicans” since taking office in November 2023.

• The document homes in on the government spending bill Johnson shepherded through Congress last month along bipartisan lines.
• It also takes aim at Johnson for not pushing harder for spending cuts, passing aid to Ukraine and reauthorizing FISA.
• “The House must be organized to deliver on the historic mandate granted to President Trump and Republicans. It currently is not,” the memo says.

The other side: Johnson allies are growing increasingly frustrated with their right-wing colleagues.

• “Anybody who’s voting against the speaker to try to get personal favors or to try to get publicity needs to rethink why they’re in Congress,” fumed Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.).
• Another House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Axios there is “a very small group within our party who are trying to extract something, not for the country … but for themselves.”

At least Matt Gaetz is gone.  Punchbowl News has information on what’s going on today as the House changes hands. “Johnson’s jam: It’s a new Congress but the same problems.*

Legislative business starts today at 11 a.m. with the closing of the 118th Congress. The new Congress begins at noon with the quorum call and the vote to elect a speaker.

And the 119th Congress will kick off with drama. Speaker Mike Johnson is facing an alarming revolt from conservative hardliners. Does this sound familiar? President-elect Donald Trump has been lobbying Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Johnson’s behalf, as we scooped for you on Thursday. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a frequent Johnson critic, is backing him. But this may not be enough.

Johnson has a tenuous single-digit majority, while a dozen hardliners have publicly questioned whether he deserves to remain speaker.

Let’s be clear: It’s entirely possible that Johnson could lose the speakership today or this weekend, or that the balloting goes more than one round.

The latest. Johnson spent Thursday making phone calls and holding meetings in his Capitol office in a bid to shore up his vote count. Johnson met with members of the House Freedom Caucus, including Roy and GOP Reps. Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.), both of whom are still publicly undecided on whether they’ll back the Louisiana Republican again.

During the meeting, hardliners aired various grievances about Johnson while laying out a number of process reforms they want enacted. These include assurances on spending cuts, pay-fors and the use of the so-called suspension calendar, among other things. Johnson told reporters he’s “open” to some of these ideas.

Yet the most controversial topic discussed by far was whether Johnson should appoint Roy as chair of the Rules Committee. This has been one of the asks from some of the Freedom Caucus holdouts, we’re told by multiple sources. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) even raised it publicly in an interview on OANN. We wrote about the Roy-for-Rules-Committee-chair push Thursday morning.

But GOP leadership sources insist Johnson isn’t considering making Roy the Rules chair.

Roy has been a huge problem for Johnson and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy since he was added to the Rules panel, which controls what legislation gets on the floor and how it’s considered. Making Roy the chair would be an incredibly risky move for Johnson. It would give Roy gigantic sway over what gets to the floor and spur a backlash from moderates.

Roy was tight-lipped leaving the speaker’s office Thursday, as were other holdouts. The conservatives said they expect to speak with Johnson again before the roll-call vote today. Johnson, however, insisted on multiple occasions Thursday he’d win on the first ballot.

Remember this — for every inch Johnson yields to conservatives, he risks losing trust with the middle of the conference.

The team of reporters outlines three possible outcomes from today’s mess.  One includes Sleazy Steve Scalise, which always makes me gag.  This is the horse race analysis from The Washington Post team.  I chose my favorite part.

What might a delay in choosing a speaker mean for Trump’s agenda?

If there’s no speaker by Jan. 6, the House not only risks delaying the certification of the 2024 election — which is scheduled to happen on that day — but also delaying the implementation of Trump’s agenda. The incoming administration wants the GOP-led Congress to quickly pass policies addressing border security and energy-related reforms before working on reauthorizing Trump’s 2017 tax law.

I’m exhausted and plan to use my last few days without student obligations, being lazy.  I hope everything is going well for you and yours!

I’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

Welcome to the return of this century’s lunatic.  We need a recut of this with a new slide show. This one shows Reagan, Saddam, and a bunch of the end of last century’s lunatics.

#JohnbussBskySocialJohnBuss #AssWipersForIncontinentiaButtocks #AyatollahMikeJohnson #JohnNeelyKennedyWeirdo #SenatorFoghornLeghorn #SpeakerOfTheHouseBrawl #TeslaBomber #TheAttackOnNewOrleans #TheDarkSideOfTheMoon #TheLunaticIsOnTheGrass

Mostly Monday Reads: Extra! Extra! Read All About it! Gaetz did the Deed!

You’ve heard of Elf on a Shelf… spotted at Mars-a-Lago.
@johnbuss.bsky.social

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

Nothing like starting up the traditional Crassmass Season with the release of the Matt Gaetz Ethics Report. That ought to Deck your Halls!  Here’s the CNN Headline. “House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs, including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017.”  Nothing like being a Perv with a Special Purpose.  It also looks pretty pathetic.

The House Ethics Committee found evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs on at least 20 occasions, including paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to the panel’s report on the Florida Republican released Monday.

The committee concluded in its bombshell document that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including the state’s statutory rape law, as the GOP-led panel chose to take the rare step of releasing a report about a former member who resigned from Congress.

“The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” panel investigators wrote.

The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress, according to the report. Investigators also focused on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas – which they said “violated the House gift rule” – during which he “engaged in sexual activity” with multiple women, including one who described the trip itself as “the payment” for sex on the trip. On the same trip, he also took ecstasy, one woman on the trip told the committee.

Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release its report after initially voting against doing so. The vote to put out the report – which was opposed by panel Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican – was the culmination of a years-long probe into allegations surrounding Gaetz. He was President-elect Donald Trump’s first pick to be attorney general but dropped out amid opposition from GOP senators and after CNN reported key details of this same ethics report.

And it’s a political jolt that could have reverberations for years to come, as the Capitol Hill panel takes aim at a long-time Trump loyalist and now conservative anchor at One America Network.

Gaetz filed a civil complaint in federal court Monday morning unsuccessfully seeking to halt the release of the report, claiming he was not notified of the panel’s plans to release the report nor was he provided copies of the materials.

Nothing says Family Values Republican like a police report for out-of-wedlock perviness!  You may read the Committee Statement here.

President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences for about 40 Federal Inmates today.  This is from the AP. “Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates before Trump can resume executions.”

President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.

The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.

It means just three federal inmates continue to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.

“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”

Reaction to the president’s end-of-year act of clemency was strong, particularly among those who were victimized by Roof.

Michael Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was killed by Roof, wants him to die for his crimes and was thankful Biden kept him on death row. He said Roof’s lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the U.S. means he is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for.

“This was a crime against a race of people who were doing something all Americans do on a Wednesday night – go to Bible study,” Graham said. “It didn’t matter who was there, only that they were Black.”

So, the Soap Opera Drama “Daze of President-Eject Incontinentia Buttocks” continues to find the front page of the nation’s legacy media. This is from NBC News. “GOP congressman says it feels like Elon Musk is ‘our prime minister.’ Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told CBS News on Sunday that he spoke to the tech billionaire multiple times during negotiations for the funding package. Does this mean we’re going to have a queen?  Gonzales was on Meet the Press.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, on Sunday compared tech mogul Elon Musk to a “prime minister,” praising Musk for speaking out against an early version of a stopgap funding bill last week.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Gonzales said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker. It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.”

Gonzales added that he spoke with Musk “a couple of times” during a chaotic week for House Republicans as GOP leadership scrambled to pull together a package to fund the government that would garner support from a majority of the House GOP caucus.

Gonzales voted against the final version of a continuing resolution that passed the House late Friday night and was later signed Saturday by President Joe Biden. The package funds the government at current levels through March 14 and includes a one-year farm bill and $100 billion in disaster aid.

Gonzales continued to praise Musk’s influence on the funding process, even as moderator Margaret Brennan pointed out that Musk has not been elected to any formal position in the U.S. government.

“Well, unelected, but, I mean, he has a voice, and I think a lot of —large part of that voice is a reflection of the voice of the people,” Gonzales said.

I have no idea how many people think Elon Musk reflects their lives, feelings, or voices. He’s a billionaire Buffon from a rich South African family of Apartheid enthusiasts. CNN reports that All he ever hears is Musk did that! Musk! Musk! Musk! And he’s getting close to not taking it anymore! “Trump bristles at Musk’s rocketing profile as Democrats play on the president-elect’s vanity.”

“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told conservative activists at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. The president-elect insisted he liked having smart people around and accused his opponents of launching “a new kick” after he suggested they tried to delegitimize his first term over “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Trump added: “No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I’m safe, you know why? He can’t be — he wasn’t born in this country.”

Trump’s comments suggested at the very least that the constant coverage of Musk’s role has caught his eye and that he resents the idea that his new best friend is the power behind the throne. They will also stoke fresh speculation over how long the president-elect, who doesn’t normally like to share any spotlight, will tolerate Musk’s soaring profile — even if both men have huge incentives to continue a friendship that has seen the tech pioneer almost constantly at Trump’s side at Mar-a-Lago since the election.

The article continues with the new legacy media talking-point that “He’s seen as a hero to many Americans.”  I guess I run in the wrong circles. Again, the consensus in my circle of friends and family is that he’s a buffoon and wouldn’t be anywhere if he hadn’t inherited money.  The man only has a BA in Engineering. You can’t even get paid to build a model rocket with those credentials.  He obviously just buys his brains in the labor market like the rest of them.

Texas shows us once again that young women should find the next plane out of their ASAP. This is from Talking Points Memo. “Anti-Abortion Officials Continue Deputizing Angry Men To Turn Over Their Partners In New Legal Foray.”

A 20-year-old woman in Collin County, Texas arrives at the emergency room to address severe bleeding. A health care provider tells the man she’s with that the woman had been nine weeks pregnant.

“The biological father of the unborn child, upon learning this information, concluded that the biological mother of the unborn child had intentionally withheld information from him regarding her pregnancy, and he further suspected that the biological mother had in fact done something to contribute to the miscarriage or abortion of the unborn child,” a lawsuit, filed earlier this month by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), reads. “The biological father, upon returning to the residence in Collin County, discovered the two above-referenced medications from Carpenter.”

The man, according to the suit, searched a house — the suit does not specify whether the woman or man or both live there — to find evidence that the woman, who had not told him about her pregnancy, had taken mifepristone and misoprostol. From there, and the suit does not detail how, Paxton’s office learned about this situation — the test case he’s been searching for to challenge blue-state abortion shield laws.

The Texan woman was prescribed the medication, the suit alleges, by New York Dr. Maggie Carpenter via telehealth. The state is now suing Carpenter for practicing medicine in Texas without a license.

Experts have been predicting these interjurisdictional clashes for years, ever since Dobbs fell. Many red states immediately enforced anti-abortion regimes, while blue states spun up shield laws to protect their resident patients and providers from those red states’ punishments. Many shield states, including New York, specifically protect abortion providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions.

Anti-abortion crusaders like Paxton have been itching for a test case like this one, to probe the murky legal questions around these state-on-state clashes. But he had to wait for a case to fall in his lap — in this case, like many other abortion ones in Texas specifically, by way of a vengeful man eager to turn over his female partner.

“This case was not brought by a woman who said she was harmed, it was brought by a man who supposedly had sex with her and is trying to control what she does,” David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline law school, told TPM.

So, yeah, some guy I've never seen before who is sitting at a table across from us in a coffee shop just took it upon himself to (incorrectly) correct my daughter's pronunciation of a word. 2025 is going to be fun.

— Joyce White Vance (@joycewhitevance.bsky.social) 2024-12-23T16:16:45.366Z

Has anyone done a study on these cis men who think they rule women’s lives and minds yet?  Another privileged white guy is testing the theory about who exactly can get away with murder. This is from NBC News.  “Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to N.Y. state charges in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO. The Ivy League-educated suspect is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian  Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk.”

Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty Monday to New York state charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as his defense complained about police parading him in “perp walks” that are “perfectly choreographed, utterly political.”

Mangione wore a white shirt under a maroon sweater and light colored pants in his arraignment before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro.

Manhattan prosecutors last week unsealed an 11-count indictment against Mangione, charging him with a host of crimes connected to the Dec. 4 slaying.

The allegations include first-degree murder, an act of terrorism, criminal possession of a weapon and forgery for using a fake ID in the days before the murder.

Mangione pleaded not guilty to all charges during the short hearing, in which he conferred with defense lawyer Karen Agnifilo and prison consultant Craig Rothfeld, who works with defendants on confinement issues.

Mangione appeared to be fully engaged with his defense team on Monday as they signed various papers pertaining to the defendant’s current federal incarceration at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Carro ordered Mangione to remain in custody, in lieu of $1 bail.

That $1 bail set by Carro was a perfunctory act, since Mangione is being held in federal custody without bail, and has no realistic chance of freedom until trial.

I have questions about the ‘terrorism’ charges.  How does killing one guy equate to something like the Mother Emmanuel shooting? Is it just because white CEO men all over the country feel they are targeted now for being in the persecuted minority group of assholes?  I don’t get it. This is from PBS.

At a news conference announcing the state charges last Tuesday, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said the application of the terrorism law reflected the severity of a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.”

“In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror,” he added. “And we’ve seen that reaction.”

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an attorney for Mangione, has accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting legal theories. In federal court last week, she called their approach “very confusing” and “highly unusual.”

So, I start my winter break tomorrow and will enjoy having nothing on my schedule except my time. It’s cold here with temperatures we usually don’t see except for a few weeks in January, so I called my sister and asked her to ship any warm sweats, flannel pjs, and long-sleeve shirts she’s broken in and doesn’t use anymore.  I hope it’s not like last year when we didn’t get snow, but it felt like it could hit us any moment for a few months.  I’m also preparing for my debut as a member of the Crazy Cat Ladies of Bywater in the Krewe de Fou. It’s a new krewe, and we parade on January 31st.  I’ll have to get my craft on.  If the resident paw owners agree, I’m considering making Plaster of Paris Cat paw imprint necklaces. I’ll paint, glitter, and bead them up!

I hope this week goes well for you if you celebrate the normal holidays or not.  The days after Winter Solstice are always good for peace, staying home, and reflection.  I also like the eating part of the holiday season and spending time with the people I love. But my mind will be on Twelfth Night and King Cake by January 5th. That’s when the party gets started here, and the costuming is fun!  So, you take care of yourselves, whatever plans you’ve made!

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

#AssWipersForIncontinentiaButtocks #BidenCommutesDeathSentences #EloniaMusk #PervMattGaetz #PresidentEjectIncontinentiaButtocks #weirdoMattGaetz

Finally Friday Reads: Another Fine Mess by the Butt-Wipers of Incontinentia Buttocks

“Updated version of an oldie. Probably will be doing a lot of that since it’s like deja vu all over again.” John Buss

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

I still have this dreadful sinus infection.  Last night, the temperature dropped to what usually doesn’t appear until the end of January here. The last two years have been insane, climate-wise.  We’ve got many active candidates for the next probable pandemic.  We’ve got an economy that’s currently the envy of the world.  The number of ongoing hot wars is frightening, with one being labeled a genocide by the well-respected Amnesty International.  “Polycrisis” is the term now used by folks who form the intellectual community of Strategic Advisors.   That would imply “military, geopolitical, economic, political, climate, and other crises.”

The convergence of all these crises creates a situation where we need to work globally more than ever.  So, the country, usually seen as the leader on the global stage, has a voting populace that just sent a clown car. Tom Nichols has this analysis written in The Atlantic.  “Trump Voters Got What They Wanted. Those who expect Donald Trump will hurt others, and not them, are likely to be unpleasantly surprised.”  The pathology of Trump voters is clearly stated in the clip below from The Bulwark Podcast. “The American people made their choice, and the fight to preserve the global democratic coalition against the global authoritarian movement continues. But maybe letting those voters see unadulterated Trumpism in the White House, without the baby bumpers—at least for a little while—is how we save America. Plus, the price of eggs v fascism, and Trump is going to inherit a great economy and claim responsibility for it.”

What do we do now that the lemmings are plunging over the cliff while chanting, “We really owned the libs”?

I think we can sum it up with a simple quote by George Carlin. “Think of how stupid the average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

So, given that we’re firmly in a state of Polycrisis, what can be made of Trump’s ill-suited cabinet choices? For one, we know they’re there to throw out every specialist in each Federal Department to cripple that department and to lessen the number of folks that carry out the mandates (i.e., laws) established by Congress over the years over a few centuries. Are we really going to be stuck with Patel of the Crazy Eyes and crazier thoughts? RFK jr, who is responsible for killing children in Samoa with his bizarre, unschooled thoughts on vaccines?  Will he really yank all the passports of his so-called enemies, and how long will that list eventually be? The entire west wing will be filled with sociopaths, narcissists, and conspiracy nuts at this rate.

So here’s Pete again.  Is Trump still trying to inflict him on our military?  You know, the ones that President-Reject Incontinentia Buttocks called ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’? Here are some thoughts by writer Cathy Young. “In Pete Hegseth’s Totalitarian Vision, Opponents of Christian Nationalism Are Commies and Political Enemies. Trump’s defense pick will help him pave the way to an authoritarian America.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is in trouble. While initial reactions to his nomination focused on the absurdity of this former Fox News anchor being elevated to second in command of the military, the main obstacles to Hegseth’s confirmation remain his various problems with women: a sexual assault allegation from 2017, disparaging comments about women in the military, and a newly surfaced 2018 email from his mother berating him for habitual mistreatment of the opposite sex.

But even more alarmingly: Hegseth is an ideological extremist who views political opponents as “the enemy” and political differences as war by another name. Worse, he’s a Christian nationalist of the stridently militaristic kind, which raises disturbing questions about his potential willingness to misuse the U.S. military for political purposes. This is not a characterization pieced together from the odd soundbite or two—Hegseth himself tells us who he is in his books. The image of Hegseth that emerges from The War on Warriors (2024), Battle for the American Mind (2022), and American Crusade (2020), is of a militant Christian extremist who is obsessed with the Crusades and whose highest aspiration is redesigning the U.S. military into his ideological mold.

The central idea of American Crusade is that the survival of the United States as a free country requires a “holy war” to achieve “a single paramount objective: the categorical defeat of the Left.” Hegseth accuses the left—by which he doesn’t just mean an extremist fringe but the Democratic Party and its supporters in general—of seeking the “utter annihilation” of true patriots. “We are two Americas; a house divided,” he declares, and the other half is full of people whose “ignorance and ideologies threaten America’s very survival.” Hegseth writes: “Only the categorical defeat of the Left will secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. We must reelect Donald Trump in 2020 and continue the cultural counterattack until Leftists are no longer electorally viable.” The implication is clear: liberty requires one-party rule. This is far from an unrepresentative line. In The War on Warriors, complaining that “the Left has never fought fair,” Hegseth lists “electing Obama” among its dirty tricks, despite the fact that Obama won a greater share of both the popular and the electoral vote in 2008 and 2012 than Trump did in 2016 and 2024.

Amanda Marcotte also writes about his love affair with White Christian Nationalism, a truly perverse twist on the New Testament, at Salon.

The central idea of American Crusade is that the survival of the United States as a free country requires a “holy war” to achieve “a single paramount objective: the categorical defeat of the Left.” Hegseth accuses the left—by which he doesn’t just mean an extremist fringe but the Democratic Party and its supporters in general—of seeking the “utter annihilation” of true patriots. “We are two Americas; a house divided,” he declares, and the other half is full of people whose “ignorance and ideologies threaten America’s very survival.” Hegseth writes: “Only the categorical defeat of the Left will secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. We must reelect Donald Trump in 2020 and continue the cultural counterattack until Leftists are no longer electorally viable.” The implication is clear: liberty requires one-party rule. This is far from an unrepresentative line. In The War on Warriors, complaining that “the Left has never fought fair,” Hegseth lists “electing Obama” among its dirty tricks, despite the fact that Obama won a greater share of both the popular and the electoral vote in 2008 and 2012 than Trump did in 2016 and 2024.

In addition to treating a broadly defined “Left” as the enemy, American Crusade also heaps scorn on ostensibly patriotic but overly complacent “fifty-fifty Americans.” The term comes from Theodore Roosevelt, who is quoted in the epigraph to the first part of the book: “There is not room in the country for any fifty-fifty American, nor can there be but one loyalty—to the Stars and Stripes.” The quote appears to be a garbled amalgam of several passages in Roosevelt’s speeches and writings, all of them from a very specific context: divided loyalties among some German-Americans during World War I. Hegseth’s “fifty-fifty American,” by contrast, refers to a well-meaning non-combatant in the culture war: a “squish” who disapproves of the perceived excesses of the progressive left but shrugs them off in the hope that “common sense will prevail,” or who doesn’t want to be “overly political,” or who thinks his or her local public school is great. For all his talk of reverence for America’s founding ideals, Hegseth’s version of Americanism sounds at times more like proto-totalitarian French Jacobinism, whose ideologues asserted that not only “traitors” but the “indifferent” and the “passive” must be punished.

After reading these analyses and their supporting citations, you can only be left with the idea that this man will have no problem turning the military on Americans out of step with his bizarre beliefs. I focus on this because Incontinentia Buttocks’ most recent picks have to do with ICE and his planned massive deportations and establishment of Concentration Camps.  This is from Politico‘s Myah Ward.  “Trump names ICE chief and makes another round of immigration announcements. The president-elect is planning an ambitious immigration agenda during his first 100 days.”

Trump said he was nominating Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Scott served for almost three decades in the Border Patrol, and as the chief of the agency during the last year of the Trump administration and beginning of the Biden administration. He helped implement Trump’s Remain in Mexico Policy, Title 42 and Safe Third Country agreements.

Trump also announced he was tapping Caleb Vitello, who’s currently the assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to serve as acting director of ICE.

And the president-elect picked Tony Salisbury, who serves as the special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Miami, to serve as the deputy homeland security adviser on the White House Homeland Security Council. Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents more than 17,000 Border Patrol Agents and support staff, was also announced as Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Chile.

Immigration was Trump’s top priority on the campaign trail, and in his first 100 days he plans to begin the process of deporting hundreds of thousands of people and to roll back President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Outside allies expect the administration’s immigration policy, similar to Trump’s first term, to be run out of the White House by incoming Border Czar Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser.

So, what happens with those Concentration Camps once he starts outloading Hispanic Americans?  Also, will we ever rid ourselves of Biggest Dickus? More about his funding of the Trump campaign is coming out, and it’s horrifying!  This is from NBC. “Elon Musk spent a quarter-billion dollars electing Trump, including financing mysterious ‘RBG PAC’. The super PAC, which defended Trump on abortion, got its more than $20 million from the “Elon Musk Revocable Trust.”  This guy’s the Make American Apartheid South Africa freak!

Billionaire Elon Musk poured more than $20 million into a mysterious super PAC at the end of the 2024 campaign, part of more than $250 million he spent overall to boost President-elect Donald Trump, new campaign finance reports show.

Musk financed RBG PAC, according to the report the group filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission. The super PAC, which did not disclose its donors before the election, launched ads contending that Trump did not support a federal abortion ban.

All of the money the group pulled in — $20.5 million — came from a single donation from the Elon Musk Revocable Trust in Austin, Texas. RBG PAC spent almost all of its money on digital ads, mailers and text messages, according to the campaign finance report, which covered Oct. 17 through Nov. 25.

Robert Reich believes that Trump might just bring on a Civil War.  That’s a frightening thought that was discussed during his first term. But that was before he figured out how to blow things up. “How Trump could bring on a second civil war. “With his plans to use the military to root out undocumented immigrants and to use the Justice Department and FBI to punish his political enemies.”

Trump may force a second civil war on America with his plan to use the military to round up at least 11 million undocumented people inside the United States — even if it means breaking up families — send them to detention camps, and then deport them.

As well as his plan to target his political enemies for prosecution — including Democrats, journalists, and other critics.

What happens when we, especially those of us in blue states and cities, resist these authoritarian moves — as we must, as we have a moral duty to?

What happens when we try to protect hardworking members of our communities who have been our neighbors and friends for years, from Trump’s federal troops?

What happens when we refuse to allow Trump’s lackeys to wreak revenge on his political enemies who live within our states and communities?

Will our resistance give Trump an excuse to use force against us?

This is not far-fetched. We need to answer these questions for ourselves. We should prepare.

Trump has said he’ll use the Insurrection Act — which grants a president the power to “take such measures as he considers necessary” to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

He’s also said he’ll use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to end sanctuary cities. Such cities now limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Trump told Fox News’s Harris Faulkner that “we can do things in terms of moving people out.”

Those are all very good questions.  Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal are trying to get some changes made to the Insurrection Act right now.  The Brennan Center has this analysis. “The Insurrection Act: A Presidential Power That Threatens Democracy. Congress must reform the outdated law, which is ripe for abuse.”

When former President Trump says he would conduct mass deportations of millions of people if elected again, some of his advisers talk about deploying the states’ National Guard to help carry out the task, even in states that oppose this extreme immigration policy.

But would he have the legal authority to do that? The answer is yes, it is legally possible under the Insurrection Act, an outdated law that is in urgent need of reform to prevent abuses of power and adapt  to modern times.

The Insurrection Act is among the most powerful emergency powers at the disposal of a president, who can use it to deploy the U.S. armed forces and the militia to suppress insurrections, quell civil unrest or domestic violence, and enforce the law when it is being obstructed.

There are few constraints to this presidential power — neither Congress nor the courts play a role in deciding what constitutes an obstruction or rebellion — and the law does not limit what actions military forces may take once deployed.

The law, which was last amended in the 1870s, has been rarely invoked. But it has been both used and misused in the past. Past uses include enforcing civil rights laws, helping companies break strikes, and suppressing so-called “race riots.”

Currently, there are calls for President Biden to invoke it to gain control of the Texas National Guard and order it to stand down in the city of Eagle Pass, where National Guard soldiers have occupied a park along the southern border to militarize the border and deny federal border protection agents access.

And let’s not forget Trump’s supporters urged him to use it to impede the transition of power after the 2020 presidential election.

Although there is no question that Biden could turn to the Insurrection Act to respond to a deliberate obstruction that prevents the federal government from performing immigration duties, he should refrain from doing so and instead seek to assert federal authority through the courts. The act should be a tool of last resort, and any power of this magnitude requires robust checks and balances that it currently lacks.

That’s why the Brennan Center has proposed comprehensive reforms that would narrow the criteria for deployment, specify what actions are and are not authorized when the act is invoked, and give Congress and the courts approval and review authority to serve as checks against abuse or overreach.

The current changes asked for by Warren and Blumenthal are outlined here by the Washington Insider. “Democratic Senators Urge Biden to Restrict Military Deployment, Citing Concerns Over Trump’s Plans.” Stacy M. Brown reports the details.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have called on President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to issue a directive limiting the use of military personnel for domestic purposes, warning against potential misuse by President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office on Jan. 20.

The senators stressed the importance of clear guidelines to prevent the military from being deployed against American citizens without explicit constitutional or congressional authorization.

The request is rooted in the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using federal troops in domestic law enforcement unless authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

While the Insurrection Act provides a narrow exception in cases of insurrection, rebellion, or extreme unrest, Warren and Blumenthal called for further restrictions to prevent abuse.

“Any deployment of federal forces must occur only when state or local authorities are overwhelmed and unable to ensure public safety,” the senators wrote.

They also emphasized the importance of consulting Congress before deploying troops and ensuring service members understand their obligations to reject unlawful orders.

The senators’ letter notes growing concerns over Trump’s rhetoric and past actions.

During his first term, Trump considered invoking the Insurrection Act to respond to Black Lives Matter protests, and some allies urged him to declare martial law after his 2020 election defeat. More recently, Trump has suggested using the military to deport immigrants without permanent legal status and relocating troops from overseas to the southern border.

Trump has picked a deputy for Kristy Noem at Homeland Security. This is reported by South Florida’s Channel 6 News. “Trump picks Miami HSI special agent in charge for deputy homeland security advisor. Anthony Salisbury is currently a Miami Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge.”

In his current role, Anthony W. Salisbury “manages all of HSI’s complex Federal Law Enforcement investigative programs related to National Security and smuggling violations, including counter-proliferation, financial crimes, commercial fraud, human trafficking, human smuggling, narcotics smuggling, transnational,” the former president shared in a post on Truth Social.

He has previously served as the acting deputy executive associate director of HSI in Miami, and supervised the activities of HSI offices throughout the Republic of Mexico as the deputy attaché.

In his post, Trump wrote: “Tony will bring his vast Law Enforcement, counter-narcotics, and counter-cartel experience to the White House where he will serve under Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor.”

Miller is Trump’s pick for deputy chief of policy, longtime adviser and an immigration hard-liner, AP News reports.

The more deeply these picks get embedded and embed The True Believers, the more difficult it will be to find and remove them as needed.  Again, I see most of the action needed to stop this lies within the courts and Congress.  Fortunately and unfortunately, the House and Senate are quite close even though they will be controlled by Republicans.  Are there enough sane people to stand up to these MAGA terrorists? The courts will likely follow the law until we hit  SCOTUS.  There are obviously embedded MAGA nuts there who continue to rewrite the Constitution and precedent.

We’ve got less than a month to develop a strategy that lets them know that We, the People, are not interested in becoming MAGA-compliant serfs. This won’t be pretty, but I’m not gonna quietly take it.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

S0, this is for all of you butt-wipers for Incontinentia Buttocks …

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