Ann Telnaes has shone a light on the darkness of the Washington Post's corruption. I told you in a previous post that her editor had killed a piece that criticized the Post's billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos.
Telnaes resigned from the paper and published the reasons why. She allowed her quashed cartoon to be published by others and encouraged her colleagues to build upon it.
Political satire is not easy or safe, especially in an autocratic regime.
Editorial cartoonists are especially targeted because their art is so powerful. Telnaes has expressed concern for cartoonists in a couple recent columns in the form of visual essays. One she made a couple years ago, and republished recently, about editorial cartoonists being the canaries in Democracy's coal mine: "The Canaries are Not Doing Well." This week she revisited the 10th anniversary of the attack on Charlie Hedbo in France.
Satire is serious business. Lift their voices. (I do, in my meme dumps; one is below). If we work to not let them get quashed, we are helping Democracy.
I feel sad that this storied newspaper has wet itself. If you haven't cancelled The Washington Post, do it today.
GOOD NEWS: BUSY BIDEN
The President has been quite busy implementing last-minute protections.
This is good stuff. Two swaths of land in California, important to two tribes, were preserved this week.
Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park in SoCal and the Sáttítla National Monument in NorCal are the two new national monuments. Yay!
These 800,000+ acres are added to the 674 million acres and waters that Biden has protected over the last four years. What a legacy!
Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, which expanded Social Security benefits to groups of public servants who had been left out of social security benefits thanks to a couple of tax rules passed decades ago.
Biden moved to protect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by banning new offshore drilling. The incoming president has vowed to "unban" it, but it will take Congressional action to do so.
BAD NEWS
The avian flu has claimed its first human victim in Louisiana.
From the New York Times: “I still think the risk remains low,” said Dr. Diego Diel, a virologist at Cornell University. “However, it is important that people remain vigilant and avoid contact with sick animals, sick poultry, sick dairy cattle, and also avoid contact with wild birds,” he added.
Yeah, uh-huh, ok....
Stock up on masks and hand sanitizer, folks. The incoming administration is going to fuck this up.
He has been ordered to pay $146 million to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, the victims of his defamation. To do this, he had to liquidate everything.
Though he did turn over his watches, his 'Benz, and his NYC apartment, he failed to turn over the rest of the judgment. He was held in contempt on Monday, and by a 45-appointed judge no less.
He also big mad at the court artist. "Why did you make me look like my dog?!"
He was off the rails during his contempt hearing. Here's an interview with the courtroom sketch artist, Jane Rosenberg:
Friday morning, he appears in court again, for a separate case accusing him of continuing to make defamatory statements against the pair.
ANOTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM BITES THE DUST
Today Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta (home to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads) is doing away with fact checkers. Have at it, misinformationists!
Jon Stewart did a good job breaking down the media's treatment of the two events and how we try mightily to fit the facts into our preconceptions (or in the Right's case, make up the facts to fit the their preconceptions).
Do I have the energy to deal with his blathering? Sigh.
It was the usual weird shit that makes no sense and is stupid and maddening.
When asked, "Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of areas like Greenland or Panama you are not going to use military or economic coercion?" He answered, "No. I can't assure you. I'm not going to commit to that. It might be that you'll have to do something." What the fresh fuck.
To be fair, though, he may not know what coercion means.
He wants to re-name the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." Because of course.
He was mad about the drilling ban and other end-of-term actions Biden has been implementing. He complained about Biden making the transition "very difficult." Shut your pie-hole, you lying sack of shit.
STUPID ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE STUPID ASSWIPE JUDGE AILEEN CANNON
Judge Cannon, who dismissed the stolen classified documents case in its entirety, blocked the release of Jack Smith's final report on the matter. I despise Judge Loose Cannon. Can you tell?
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he will hold back the release of the report, chiefly because there are two co-defendants who are still charged and the case is still active.
Breaking this morning: The Felon asked his buddies at the Supreme Court to block his sentencing for his 24 felonies in the hush money/falsifying records case which is scheduled for Friday, January 10. The "sentencing" is to be in name only – no jail time, no fine, no probation – but he do what he do.
The Civil Fraud Case
The bond that he was supposed to post for the guilty judgment in the civil fraud case in New York was reduced from $464 million to $175 million. He hasn't posted a dollar yet. It's in appeals.
The Defamation Case
He did post $83.3 million bond for the two judgments in favor of E. Jean Carroll, which total more than $88 million. He lost his appeal to toss the $5 million judgement, and both cases are working their way through appeals.
The Georgia Election Interference Case
This case is stalled. Prosecutor Fani Willis was removed from the case because of conflict of interest concerns. It's a huge case with many co-defendants. Technically it is still active but nothing much is going on, and unclear if it will even continue with Willis out of the picture.
The Federal Election Subversion Case
Went away, thanks to the corrupt Supreme Court. As I mentioned above, we will at least see Jack Smith's report. I doubt it will have much more than we already know.
ONE MORE NOTE ABOUT JANUARY 6
Read Sgt. Gonell's whole piece in The Bulwark. It's a sobering read. We must never forget January 6!
JIMMY CARTER LAID TO REST
President Jimmy Carter will have his state funeral in Washington D.C. on Friday, January 10. His body is lying in state at the U. S. Capitol until then.
You may have noticed that LSR swears a shit-ton more than she ever fuckin' did. Sorry not sorry. These shitty times and the fuckfaces who inhabit this hellscape deserve it. Piss off.
Contact your governor and state representatives and tell them to deny assisting efforts in mass deportation. Tell them to disallow the use of local law enforcement to help implement their plan.
Use Resistbot or 5 Calls to help you. It's easy! They find your lawmakers for you and send your message. 5 Calls has a script for you to follow when you call. Resistbot lets you fax, email, or send a snail mail letter.
I watched the last bit of the electoral certification today, and it got me quite emotional watching Vice President and president of the Senate Kamala Harris stand there and receive the certificates from the 50 states and then announce that the Traitor and Felon will return to power on January 20.
Memories of four years ago washed over me. I was watching in real time that day, and I saw them scoot Vice President Pence out of the chambers to a secure location. I watched as more and more alarm crossed the faces of the Members of Congress. I saw the Members with their gas masks at the ready, cowering in the gallery area. I watched as they barred the doors with tables. I was watching as the cameras switched to outside the Capitol building to the rioting crowds. The images are seared in my mind, as they are for you.
We must never forget what occurred on that dark day of January 6, 2021. Do not let history be rewritten. Do not let the gaslighting happen.
And yet, Kamala Harris standing in front of both bodies of Congress: this is how it should be today. This is how it works.
Do not forget what this day means for our democracy.
No one is taking up arms today and beating police officers in the head in the hopes that Congress will agree to a coup and our losing candidate will rise to the office for which she lost the election. No one is smearing shit on the walls of the Capitol.
The peaceful transfer of power is respected today.
There are depths of feelings I can't express. James Earl Carter was the most decent man who ever walked the Earth.
People say he was a better former president than a president. Perhaps so, but if his term hadn't been marred by the impossible situation of the Iran hostage crisis, he may have been able to do more.
He was betrayed by Ronald Reagan who secretly made a deal with the Iranians to let the hostages out after the election. This may have been my first real entry into politics (actually, the Shirley Chisholm article in my third grade Weekly Reader was the first). The Iran Hostage Affair, as it was called then, was seemingly the only news during those 444 days. It colored my views during my formative high school years. I knew then, and I know more now why, President Carter got a raw deal.
Carter worked, both with his mind and his hands, tirelessly to make the world a better place once he left office. He worked for the betterment of our world on the global and the very personal scales. He worked for world peace and global health with his Carter Foundation; he worked for the needy, family by family, with his work with Habitat for Humanity.
I challenge you to name another president – or another person – who has worked harder to make the world better. What a beautiful soul.
His state funeral started yesterday with a procession through Plains and rural Georgia to Atlanta; he will have a funeral in Washington D.C. on Thursday, January 9; and flags will remain at half-staff throughout the land until January 29.
Oooh grab your popcorn cuz the 47th president is still more than two weeks from stepping into the Whitewash House and his world is already imploding.
The MAGAts in power are in conniptions over the immigration issue. It has to do with immigrants holding H1-B visas, which allow skilled tech employees. Many of these visa holders come from India.
They can't disguise their racism anymore. Some MAGAts want none of it, because, allowing immigrants with H1-B visas would make America “look like India."
Lisa Loomer, former or maybe current arm candy to the pussy-grabber, got in a fight with Elon Musk over the issue. She wrote, "We are substituting a third world migrant invasion for a third world tech invasion. ...‘High skilled immigrant’ doesn’t have running water or toilet paper."
The Muskrat and his tech bros want and need skilled tech immigrants in their chase for their dollar bills. Musk countered that a "permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," is the "fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley" which could be fixed by increasing the numbers of H1-B skilled-labor visas.
Musky went so far as to remove Loomer's blue check (the holy grail of Twitterdom), and the fight evolved into one about "freedom of speech" and totalitariansm.
It devolved quickly, with taunts being tossed back and forth: Elon called Loomer and Steve Bannon, "subtards," "the retarded right" and "unrepentant racists."
Bannon pushed back, and Elon so dignifiedly told anyone who disagrees with him to "fuck yourselves in the face."
Let them eat their own.
And while they are doing busy doing that, the Left could sneak in and work that wedge in the MAGAverse. Let's see if they can leverage this issue. I have my doubts, but it's possible they could make some inroads into these issues. At least for a moment they may look like the sane alternative, even to the MAGA voters. Read more from Tennessee Holler.
This Week in FAFO
Many MAGAts are regretting their ballot choice. They are waking up to the fact that the very issues he ran and won on are the very issues that they are concerned about becoming real life.
How about this story. Jaime Cachua, an undocumented Georgia man, came to the U.S. as a baby. Married into a white family, life in the U.S. is all he knows, and he is a productive member of our society. His friends and family in Georgia voted to deport him. They live in a fantasy world that somehow there will be an exception for their friend and loved one.
There are no exceptions. The Apricot Pol Pot and his buddies do not care who you voted for. They care that you are brown and you should leave.
I will let you read a bunch more regrets on Buzzfeed.
I don't know about you, but I can't feel schadenfreude for these people. They did not understand the issues; they weren't educated about the issues. They were lied to, and the end result is that they will be hurting. I don't want people to hurt, even when their votes did this.
Maybe, maybe they will join the rebellion. Maybe actual consequences will make them wake up.
President Musk, or Trumpomuskovia
Drumpf's bestie is going rogue and he don't like it. It's headed for the Clash of the Titan Egos.
Elmo has already influenced Congress by poo-pooing a budget bill. The Felon didn't even put thumb to phone before Musk shit over the bill and it was quashed.
The Muskrat's money will be a huge influence. For some reason, the MAGAts keep reverting to "he has so much money that you can trust him because you can't buy him." True, honey, but he can buy you. He can buy whatever he wants.
See here, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. Yeah, corruption is fine what's the big deal?
“Elon has billions in government contracts, you don’t see a conflict of interest there?” New Hampshire’s Gov. Chris Sununu: “Everyone has a conflict of interest on some level… he’s so rich it doesn’t matter to him.” 🤡 A full-throated endorsement and defense of corruption.
Luckily, Musk is shooting his shot early and people are wising up quick. If he had been more strategic and insidious, it may have been worse.
The more memes and jokes about it, the more it will get under the Traitor Tot's skin. And the better chance of him rejecting this rival and ridding us all of the dangerous man.
You know what not to do.
Department of Acquisitions
Rising sea levels and disappearing land seems to be the impetus behind DonOld wanting to buy Greenland. There may be new waterways opening up with climate change making sea levels rise.
High transit tolls that Musk and his other oligarch tech bros pay is making him want to take back the Panama Canal, or maybe it's his tax evasion in Panama.
As for Canada becoming the "51st state"? What worms are connecting in that empty skull to make that thought?
The leaders and people of Denmark, who owns Greenland, and those in Panama, and Canada are not happy about this talk. No one is happy about that talk, except for the oligarchs who need to move product around the world and want to do it so that they can line their pockets a bit more.
This Canadian Member of Parliament didn't mince words:
Posted by Li'l Eric unironically:
Read more about this weird freakin' shit from AP News.
Be aware that talk is out there but also be aware that it would take agreement of two-thirds of state legislatures to push through any changes to the constitution under this umbrella. The GOP controls only 28 of the 50 state legislatures, and even then, I doubt it would be an easy sell.
The World of Crime and Violence
Just like last time, violence and threats of violence have seen an uptick. It is the Right's way.
The NOLA attack
This horrible tragedy, where 14 people were killed and dozens others injured when a rented pickup truck drove through crowds on New Orleans's Bourbon Street, was perpetrated by an American citizen, an army veteran who grew up in Texas. He appears to have been radicalized by Isis ideology, but he was an American citizen, born and raised.
Immediately after the attack, IQ47 characterized the perpetrator as an illegal migrant. Why wait for facts when you can spin the tragedy to suit your narrative? Your minions will lap it up, won't question it, and will forever question the actual facts. There's no downside.
The Las Vegas Attack
Another Army veteran, this time an active duty Master Sgt. Green Beret, in another rented truck, this time pointedly a Tesla, seemed to send another sort of message with his violent act in blowing up the Tesla cybertruck in front of Las Vegas's Trump Hotel.
This one is not cut and dried as to his motive, given some medical and personal issues he was going through, but he was a supporter of the Mango Mussolini. He also had untreated head injuries from combat, PTSD, and relationship issues.
You probably were not aware, but he published a couple manifestos, with far-right, extremist, violent thoughts. It hasn't been reported widely. Talking Points Memo has the 411.
And one you maybe haven't heard of
This attack on a journalist was also tinged with racial hate. The attacker yelled, "This is Trump's America!" before attempting to choke a TV reporter. Expect more of this type of shit as we enter our new Hellscape.
The World of Justice
Judge Juan Merchan will Sentence The Felon
The judge refused to dismiss the conviction, and 45/47 and will be sentenced on January 10. It won't be much. It actually won't be anything. Judge Merchan wrote that he plans to issue a sentence of an "unconditional discharge." No jail time, no fine, no probation. I'm not sure that this is justice. It ensures that he will remain forever a convicted and sentenced felon, though.
The Felon will mount an appeal.
Jack Smith transferred the stolen documents case
Special prosecutor Jack Smith withdrew from the case and dismissed it without prejudice. He transferred the case to federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida so that the two co-defendants can be prosecuted.
My hope is that it will work slowly through the courts, simmer a bit, get a new judge, reverse the dismissal of charges against 45/47, and come back around in four years to catch The Felon again.
The Felon will is not off the hook for his judgement to pay E. Jean Carroll
He lost an appeal to dismiss the $5 million judgement to the woman he (not technically) raped (by the language in New York's law books). You can ask E. Jean if she was technically sexually assaulted or actually raped.
This ruling bodes well for the larger $83 million judgment. That is, if SCOTUS can keep their stinkin' dirty fingers off the case.
Judges Postpone Retirement
Several federal judges withdrew their plan to retire after the election. This threw Repugs like Mitch McConnell into a tizzy (how rich coming from this Class A denier of justice!), but good on the judges for making a difference.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Johnny. Whatever you say. No one believes you, you twit. Go home.
I do agree with one thing he wrote: "Violence, intimidation, and defiance directed at judges because of their work undermine our Republic, and are wholly unacceptable."
No one should threaten or do violence on anyone, judges included. But no one need trust you, Mr. Roberts. And defiance? Well, we'll see about that one.
Clarence Thomas continues to be without consequences
President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 death row prisoners, which is nearly all of them (three still remain on death row). Now, you and I know that commute is not the same as pardon. These murderers will remain in jail for life, but they won't be put to death. The Felon spun it, or ignoranced it, to sound like Biden pardoned all of these people convicted of horrible crimes. No.
The Toddler is big mad for the commutations. He wanted them to die. He probably would've relished pulling the lever himself. Psycho.
Other Stuff
Ann Telnaes, whose work you have often seen on these pages, has resigned from the Washington Post. You will not be surprised to learn that it was because of editorial interference in one of her pieces. She drew a cartoon with oligarchs bowing to the Supreme Leader. The group included her boss, billionaire owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos.
You can read what she wrote about the situation here. It's not good, folks.
As Dan Froomkin wrote in Columbia Journalism Review in 2022, the Washington Post has a Jeff Bezos problem. There are things that Jeff Bezos could do to restore confidence in the paper, including making it a non-profit.
Until then, we really can't trust the Washington Post.
The Kay Granger Affair
Oy.
This lady has been a Repug representative from Texas's 12th District for the last 28 years. She was absent from Congress, missing dozens of votes, for most of the last half of 2024. No one from her staff mentioned anything amiss. No one in her district, not even the media, had seemed to notice or care.
Finally, the Dallas Express started digging into Where is Kay Granger? There was no one answering her district or D.C. phones, and her Ft. Worth office was locked and dark. Other tenants in the building said the office had been vacated at Thanksgiving time.
It turns out she has been suffering from dementia and is living in a memory care unit in a local assisted living facility!
Nineteen people were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom this weekend. The list is below, and here is the statement from the White House.
Sen. Kennedy is an idiot
Did anyone else watch the chaotic press conference on New Year's Day after the attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans? Just one note about it, other than it was a mess of a presser and NOLA's officials were crazy defensive after they failed to protect people.
Senator John Kennedy, Repug from Louisiana, cemented his role as village idiot. He kept interrupting to lambast the press. My jaw dropped when he said this: "I will promise you this. I will when when it is appropriate and this investigation is complete you will find out what happened and who was responsible or I will raise fresh hell and I will chase those in uh in the federal government who are responsible for telling us what happened like they stole Christmas!"
uhhhh.... wut?
Here is the video cued to this weird moment. And weird how no one blinked an eye.
The states set about implementing restrictions to access to sites. Pornhub found it too difficult to comply, so they are ... ahem ... pulling out.
The Heritage Foundation, in its Project 2025 manifesto, wants to ban pornography altogether, saying, "Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. ... Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered." (Page 5)
Muskadoo has not liked what is being posted on his pet project, Twitter, so he is changing the rules and people (that is, the people who have stayed, who are lame-os anyway. All the cool kids are on Bluesky) are not happy about it.
So much freedom!
Is God trying to tell us something?
US Capitol struck by lightning 12/31/2024
Video: Stephanie Ricker/Twitter
Heritage Foundation, keep your mitts off my mountain!
Here's an article from The New Yorker about the National Lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It describes the lab's growth, its shift back to weapons, as well as slipping safety for the handling of nuclear materials.
In the article, Robert Peters, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, is quoted as saying this at a recent panel discussion: "Let's waive the environmental regulations, blow up the mountain, pave it over, build a highway that you need to get there, fire everyone who's not building warheads."
Over my dead body.
Your Moments of Beauty
Remember Christian Cooper? He is a birder, and one day a few years ago he was enjoying birdwatching in Central Park. He asked a woman to put her dog on a leash, and she responded by calling 911 to report that a Black man was threatening her life.
It became national news, and the horrible woman was fired from her job as an investment manager.
