Don’t say they weren’t warned. Honolulu Civil Beat reports: A former member of a secretive Hawaiʻi religious sect is warning members of Congress about the potential dangers of confirming Tulsi Gabbard as President-elect Donald Trump’s next director of national intelligence. Anita van Duyn says she spent 15 years inside the Science of Identity Foundation, a fringe offshoot of Hare Krishna that was formed in the 1970s and has been described by defectors as a cult. She has sent the letters only to Democrats so far, so I don’t know how effective that will be. And as the article acknowledges, Senators are loathe to criticize anyone for their religious beliefs(well, unless the person is a Democrat in which all bets are off.) Most DC types seem to think they should really go near this issue. But Gabbard hasn’t been nominated to be the head of Housing and Urban Development she’s been tapped to be the head of all the Intelligence Agencies and she’s a lifelong member of a cult!
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“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it.” There are many, many stupid things to read today. But that has to be the dumbest. Trump is promising not to automate America’s ports on behalf of the East Coast Longshoreman’s union. (The West Coast union already made a deal to accommodate it but I guess they don’t know what they’re doing.) I posted about this yesterday but it’s worth doing it again in light of his bragging about his vast knowledge of how the supply chain works: You know, the supply chain is still broken. It’s broken. You see it. You go out to the docks and you see all these containers. And I own property in California, in Palos Verdes. They’re very nice. And I passed the docks, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like it. You know, for 17 years, I saw containers and, you know, they’d come off and they’d be taken away—big areas, you know, you know, in that area, you know, where they have the big, the big ships coming in—big, the port.
Bobo the cat! (And a spry almost 99 year old Dick VanDyke) He was particularly worried about his cat. Luckily, he survived! Dick Van Dyke’s Beloved Cat Bobo Has Been Found After He And His Wife Were Forced To Leave Him Behind Amid Malibu Wildfire Evacuations Dick, 98, previously told concerned fans that Bobo the cat had escaped as he and his wife evacuated their Malibu home with their other pets on Tuesday evening. Among these residents was legendary actor Dick Van Dyke, 98, and his wife, Arlene Silver, who reassured fans on Tuesday that they’d safely escaped the danger zone. However, one beloved family member ended up being left behind: Dick and Arlene’s beloved cat, Bobo. Posting to his official Facebook page, Dick explained that they’d managed to leave with most of their pets, but Bobo had sadly escaped at the last moment. Commenting on the original Facebook post late on Wednesday evening, Dick confirmed that Bobo was dutifully waiting for his owners at home when they returned. Bobo doesn’t look too thrilled about all the attention. But he’s an Orangy. Waddya gonna do?
Guess what he’ll do there? Election rigging has been Republican SOP at least since their REDMAP project in 2010. The gerrymandered districts they drew in 2011 continue to pay dividends a decade and a half later. Republicans are now so brazen about their intentions to seek power above all else that they’ve said so into microphones in state after state. Thomas Mills of Politics NC that the latest comes from (you guessed it) North Carolina: On Wednesday, the state house overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill that strips power from the in-coming Democrats elected to executive branch offices. Out-going Speaker and Congressman-elect Tim Moore told Steve Bannon, “This action item today is going to be critical to making sure North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket.” Yes, you read that right. The bill was not about disaster relief. It was not about good government. It was not about the people of North Carolina. It was about consolidating power and rigging elections for Republicans.
“Drones the size of cars” Yes, that’s your next Commander in Chief. “And that’s how MAGAts started shooting down small private airplanes all over America,” a friend quips. Forbes: For weeks, citizens across New Jersey — as well as New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut — have reported seeing clusters of drone-like objects flying low in the sky at night, yet information remains scarce, even as state officials now say they’ve seen the drones firsthand, received mixed information from federal agencies and pushed the FBI for answers. Citizens report seeing “drones the size of cars” overhead. With those red and green lights, I suspect we’re simply seeing those giant flying cats The Weekly World News told us years ago were terrorizing New Jersey. The flying kitties are just showing off their Christmas spirit. Donald Trump has none. And he hates pets. Especially oversized flying ones.
You can’t really blame them. Most voters made it pretty clear that they don’t give a damn about female equality or even autonomy. So why pretend? The GOP knows which way the wind is blowing and it’s not into a future where female leadership is considered important or, frankly, even acceptable. We need to concentrate on coddling young men and reassuring white males that they still run the world. All this women stuff only hurts the ball team.
Many, many thanks to all of you who have contributed so far this year. I can’t tell you what it means to me, especially now when everything has been feeling a little bit bleak. It reminds me that none of us are alone in all this and gives me hope that we’ll be able to regroup and push back on what Trump and his henchmen have planned for us. Everybody with a blog or a substack is quoting Professor Timothy Snyder these days, especially his admonition not to “obey in advance.” Sadly, we’re watching so many do exactly that right now. Media figures, government officials, world leaders and CEOs are making the pilgrimage down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring (even, in some cases, holding their hands over their hearts to strains of the January 6th choir singing the national anthem!) Democrats are starting to signal that Trump is someone they can work with. It’s enough to make you crazy. It feels as if they’ve all completely given in to his noxious authoritarianism before he’s even started to implement his plans.
The NY Times is reporting that Trump is conducting most of his business at Mar-a-Lago these days after dark, often over dinner with whichever CEO or dignitary has traveled to offer fealty and tribute that day. Of the more than 80 personnel announcements Mr. Trump has made since Election Day, 45 have been announced in social media posts and emails that he has sent after 6 p.m. Many have come after 10 p.m., prompting a wave of social media chatter and television coverage that sometimes continues throughout the night and into the early morning hours. One of his veteran staff members said Mr. Trump was known to leave voice mail messages in the middle of the night saying: “This is your favorite president.” He sometimes follows up the next day, suggesting the person might want to share the audio with his friends and family. Trump’s lovely spokesman Stephen Cheung says that Trump’s working night and day which is obviously bullshit. But several people close to Mr. Trump — along with aides who have come to expect emails, texts and phone calls to arrive well after bedtime — say he is often just getting started around dinnertime. That is usually when Mr.
I’ve been wondering about the problem of young people growing up in a time when Donald Trump is ubiquitous and seen as a normal political leader. The youngest voters were only 6 years old the last time we had a presidential election in which he wasn’t the candidate. He might as well be FDR to them. It became particularly worrisome to me when I heard about all those text messages being sent to Black kids and girls right after the election saying they were going back to the plantation or “your body my choice” and processions in the halls of high schools waving Trump flags. It’s just so ugly. This piece by a high school senior says it all: After Trump’s victory, it became okay to be young and a Trump supporter and anti-woke. It became okay to make offensive jokes, which in many cases were not jokes but just crude and rude insults. It became okay to support the oppression of marginalized groups. I attend a school that fits well into Middle American Republicanism in the Northeast. I won’t repeat the many things I’ve heard in class and the halls that would be classified as hate.