POKING AROUND WHILE THE SHIT CONTINUES TO FLOW

It’s day 206 of the attempted destruction of America by the fascist scum. There are 446 days left to turn this around.

Velveeta Voldemort (h/t to a poster on Charlie Sykes’ site) may be playing all his bullshit moves of his Greatest Hits in order to distract from the Epstein Files, but he is setting up the basis for civil war now:

President Dilbert Dumbass defiantly insisted Wednesday that he did not need Congress’s blessing to keep control of Washington, D.C.’s police indefinitely. He was asked if he was talking to Congress about extending his control of the Metropolitan Police beyond 30 days after he declared Monday he was federalizing the force to combat crime in the nation’s capital. “If it’s a national emergency, we can do it without Congress,” he claimed. “But we expect to be - to Congress - before Congress very quickly.” While he claimed he did not need Congress, he said he would be engaging Republicans to address crime. “We’re going to need a crime bill that we’re going to be putting in, and it’s going to pertain initially to DC.” He then went on to suggest he would indeed be asking for “long term extensions because you can’t have 30 days.” He also again suggested he could take action in other blue U.S. cities. “That’s going to serve as a beacon for New York Chicago, Los Angeles and other places all over the country.” He also blasted the idea of DC statehood as “ridiculous.”“We want to straighten this place out. Statehood is ridiculous. It’s unacceptable.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared in reponse to Dilbert that Democrats will not go along with a potential request by our National Traitor to extend federal control of the Washington, D.C., police department and deployment of the National Guard in the District. Dilbert can unilaterally control the department for up to 30 days, but any extension beyond that period is up to Congress, meaning it would require the support of Senate Democrats. Schumer made clear in an interview on Wednesday that wouldn’t happen. “No fucking way,” Schumer told host Aaron Parnas. “We’ll fight him tooth and nail. He needs to get Congress to approve it, and not only are we not going to approve it, but there are some Republicans who don’t like either. This is, again, just a distraction. He’s afraid of Epstein. He’s afraid of all that, and we are not going to give up on Epstein.”

Go fuck yourself in your face, Paxton, you dumb fucking Goat Roper: Yesterday, An Illinois judge declined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) request to hold Texas Democrats who fled there in contempt. Paxton reached across state lines to seek a ruling that would effectively force the blue state to comply with efforts to arrest the lawmakers and return them to Texas to end their quorum breaking that has blocked Republicans’ redistricting push. Judge Scott Larson wrote in a brief order posted on the case docket: “As the Petitioner has failed to present a legal basis for the court to obtain subject matter jurisdiction over this cause of action, this court is without jurisdiction to grant petitioner’s emergency motion to rule on pleadings. This court does not find that it has subject matter jurisdiction, this court does not consider the issues of personal jurisdiction, venue or the merits of the underlying petition for rule to show cause or the request to issue a rule to show cause upon the respondents.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Illinois and New York to press ahead with redistricting efforts as GOP lawmakers push to pick up five additional House seats in Texas on his “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast. “Right now forget the talking, it’s not about press. It’s time to move. You gotta move. I mean, enough,” Newsom said. “We’re all saying the right thing. Now we gotta do the right thing, which means we gotta fight fire with fire,” he told Beto O’Rouke, a former Texas state representative during the Tuesday episode of the podcast. Lawmakers in New York and Illinois have launched redistricting efforts in response to Texas. In New York, state Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris and Assembly member Micah Lasher introduced legislation to amend the state’s constitution permitting redistricting efforts outside of the traditional cycle this week. Lawmakers in Illinois are working on a similar measure.

What’s all that white stuff and why can’t we go out?

Velveeta Voldemort’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a giant picture of the Nazi battleship Bismarck - Adolf Hitler’s favorite battleship - in his office, and he isn’t afraid to show it. E.J. Antoni has come under fire for his comments about data collection (unneeded) and social security (it’s a Ponzi scheme!) after VV tapped him to lead the bureau tasked with gathering and disseminating crucial economic data, but his taste in art has turned heads. Antoni, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, has given multiple on-camera interviews in front of an image of the World War II Nazi battleship Bismarck. When asked about Antoni’s choice of backdrops, VV’s Blowjobber claimed that Antoni is simply a “history buff” and has an office full of “artifacts,” in a statement which misspelled one of Wold War II’s most famous U.S. Navy ships. “EJ is a history buff, as many Americans are, and has an appreciation for the significance of maritime history – his office is full of a variety of artifacts and artwork featuring US battleships and other famous vessels, including the USS New Jersey and the USS Misouri, that have been used throughout major wars.” Antoni’s choice of Nazi battleship art as an interview backdrop is the latest in a series of revelations about the BLS nominee. The 37-year-old economist - who is a whole five years out of grad school - shortened his name from Erwin John to E.J.; VV knows him as a vocal supporter on social media. He is among the contributors to Project 2025. That he would be a fan of a Nazi ship that never lived up to its potential and was sunk by the Royal Navy on its first Atlantic expedition, is a good example of how fucking stupid American wingerscum are. Dave Hebert from the conservative American Institute for Economic Research said of Antoni: “I’ve been on several programs with him at this point and have been impressed by two things: his inability to understand basic economics and the speed with which he’s gone MAGA.” Senator Patty Murray, shredded him as an “unqualified right-wing extremist who won’t think twice about manipulating BLS data and degrading the credibility of the agency to make Trump happy. Any Senator who votes to confirm this partisan hack is voting to shred the integrity of our nation’s best economic and jobs data, which underpin our entire economy.” As Paul Krugman reminds us, “one should never underestimate the audacity of hacks.” Oh, and it turns out Mr. Shitforbrains was one of the Jan. 6 seditionists, though Maladministration II is trying to BS us about that by calling him a “bystander.” Yeah, right... sure he was. Traitors are traitors. He appears in numerous videos of the crowd outside the capitol.

The Chair Farce has wanted to kill the A-10 since the day they were ordered to buy it 50 years ago. This is because the airplane is dedicated to the one thing that is Completely Illegal in the Chair Farce: being of use to the Army. It looks like FY 2026 will be the end date on the airplane’s tombstone. The Pentagon has brought forward plans to retire all A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft by the end of FY 2026. All 162 A-10 Warthogs currently in service will be retired two years earlier than planned. The proposal would allow the USAF to dedicate funds currently used to sustain the A-10 fleet for other priorities (buy more F-35s! There’s money to be made updating and repairing those useless turkeys, not to mention all those post-retirement corporate board seats). The new timeline is a direct response to an order from Pentagon leadership to identify cost-saving measures across the military branches, which has led the service to expedite the retirement of older, maintenance-intensive aircraft. Retiring the A-10 also allows the service to shut down the training pipeline for A-10 pilots and maintenance as those personnel transition to other aircraft. In addition to the A-10s, the Chair Farce also wants to retire 62 F-16Cs and Ds, 21 F-15Es, 13 F-15Cs and Ds, 14 C-130H Hercules cargo planes and three EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft. These will all be replaced by the Flying Swiss Army Knife, because.

Felony sandwich throwing! Who knew? A man was charged with a felony on Wednesday after allegedly throwing a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official amid the uptick in police presence as ordered by President Trump, according to court documents. Sean Charles Dunn, 37, shouted at a group of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Sunday before hurling a sandwich at one, according to police. “Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn reportedly yelled. He started pointing at the officers while calling them “fascist,” the complaint alleges. Onlookers videoed the incident and caught him throwing a sub sandwich at officers on camera. After hurling the food at the officers, Dunn attempted to run away but was chased by police. He was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees, according to a court filing. Jeaqnine Pirro, currently cosplaying as “U.S. Attorney for D.C.” crawled out of her Box O’ Wine long enough to blither: “He took a Subway sandwich about this big and took it and threw it at the officer. He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today because we charged him with a felony, assault on a police officer, and we’re going to back the police to the hilt. So there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else.” She then disappeared back into the wine box.

Noted anti-vaxxer currently cosplaying as “Ddirector of the National Institutes of Health” Jay Bhattacharya explained the reason behind the abrupt contract cancellations of mRNA vaccine research to noted Homeless Person Steve Bannon on his “War Room” last week and again in an op-ed recently published in The Washington Post. “As a vaccine intended for broad public use, especially during a public health emergency, the platform has failed a crucial test: earning public trust. (FACT CHECK: No, you worthless oxygen thief, people with brains - unlike you - trust it.). “No matter how elegant the science, a platform that lacks credibility among the people it seeks to protect cannot fulfill its public health mission.” It “lacks credibility” to the inbred lumps I hope DIE in the next pandemic and make America truly great again with the departure, as they raise the national IQ 40 points by doing so. Scott Hensley, a microbiology professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, told Stat News that these are also issues with vaccines that use live but weakened viruses like the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, which federal health agencies have deemed safe and effective. “This is why we complete human clinical studies before vaccines are widely used in humans. The mRNA and live attenuated vaccine platforms have both proven to be safe and effective in clinical trials.”

llinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker mentioned Edward Coristine—the teenager who was allegedly beaten during an attempted carjacking earlier this month—at a Democratic gathering in his home state. “Our federal workers don’t deserve to have some 19-year-old DOGE bro called ‘Big Balls’ destroy their careers,” said Pritzker.

On Monday, the InJustice Department basically copied and pasted a hysterical plea from Velveeta Voldemort’s Lies Anti-Social account, in which he claimed the country would experience another Great Depression if the U.S. Court of Appeals confirms and enforces a May decision from a Court of International Trade panel that found his tariffs were unconsitutional because the president doesnot have the legal power to create tariffs. Judges at the appeals court have already expressed skepticism about Maladministration II’s arguments. John Sauer went on: “These deals for trillions of dollars have been reached, and other countries have committed to pay massive sums of money. If the United States were forced to unwind these historic agreements, the President believes that a forced dissolution of the agreements could lead to a 1929-style result. In such a scenario, people would be forced from their homes, millions of jobs would be eliminated, hard-working Americans would lose their savings, and even Social Security and Medicare could be threatened.”

In a sign of massive insecurity and a cry for attention, VV announced Wednesday that he will serve as the host of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors. He went on to reveal how tight his nose is pressed to the glass dor of Respectability that will never open for th likes of him: “Since 1978, the Kennedy Center honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts. I wanted one. I was never able to get one. It’s true, I would have taken it if they would’ve called me. I waited and waited and waited, and I said to hell with it, I’ll become chairman, and I’ll give myself an honor. Next year we’ll honor Trump, OK?”

Canadians’ views of US leaders have cratered, according to Gallup. Only 15% of Canadians approve of leadership in Washington — a figure on par with lows seen during President VV’s first term, and closer to Russia’s approval rate among Canadians (9%) than China’s (23%). It’s the latest sign of Canadians’ dissatisfaction with Trump, who has slapped the country with tariffs and talked openly about trying to annex it as the 51st state. The spat has driven out some Canadians living in the US and wrecked the economies of US-Canada border towns, and Canadians are more pessimistic about the economy than ever.

Even Andrew Sullivan has seen the light and for that accomplishment, he gets today’s last word: “The data now produced by the federal government on the economy should henceforth be deemed false until proven otherwise. That’s what Trump just told us. Trump is the Truth. A national emergency need have no factual basis other than the subjective feelings of one man. That’s what Trump also just told us. Trump is the Constitution. Are your eyes and ears open? This cannot be repaired.”

Another great shot of winter in Oregon - as a photographer, I love the composition of this photo.

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