I guess because of posts like this one, I've been accused on social media of being "anti-immigrant." so, for the record: fuck no. that's flat-out wrong. we're a nation of immigrants, for fuck's sake, and I'll never be anti-immigrant
Agree, why didn't Joe shut down space nazis give contracts? Everyone is replaceable, space nazi isn't the only one in the world who can provide what he provides.
Yes!! Our defense, our satellites, space program are way too dependent on this one man who has way to close a relationship with both Putin & Xi. I think he is an enormous security threat.
Govt needs to start cutting ties with him & his companies.
He is absolutely a national security (and otherwise) threat, and he's about to be sworn in for all intents and purposes. I thought there would be a clash of gigantic egos and their desire for raw power and admiration between him and Trump because they are the biggest narcissists on the plant. I'm starting to think Trump is too far gone cognitively for that to happen but I truly hope I'm wrong.
He won't do it for a number of reasons, but Biden could nationalize SpaceX and Starlink for very legitimate national security reasons. I wish Biden had more time to do so, but he is an institutionalist at heart (to our detriment at this point) so I don't know if more time would even matter.
Other people could provide what the Space Nazi does (especially because it is his employees making it work, everything we've seen has shown that projects Elon is solely responsible for are complete shit: see, Cyberturck and he bought his way into Tesla, etc.), but those new ones or even gov agencies need time to get up and running. Since Reagan, we've outsourced so much US capacity to private companies to our own ruin (but at least the trickle down assholes got super rich! /s). This includes US space flight and the ability to provide WiFi easily across the globe.
Much better to nationalize them in the interest of national security because he is a legit threat. Too bad he is about to be sworn in, as far as anyone is concerned. Wealth inequality dooms all societies, and this is the perfect example.
Biden started out surprising me with some very progressive programs. But remember, if not for Russian asset Sinema & rescumlicon-like Manchin, the Build Back Better would have been a massive step forward. But President Biden thinks he can set a good example & all will end well. We need younger stronger progressives but they are blocked by DNC. Time for 2 revolutions. Massive non-compliance with the MAGA-Fascists and breaking up the Dem Party.
Then we break apart right wing ownership of media, and apply the damn law to trump & J6ers in Congress!!!
Surrealist art was invented a 100 years ago. Think Salvador Dali with melting watches. Now, With Trump and Musk and the other cavalcade of clowns, surrealism has made its way out of art museums and we live in a surreal world.
The trend that I find disturbing, and suspect will unleash violence, is that I see hardcore MAGAts calling their opposition "pedos." One guy tried to tell me that on of Rittenhouse's victims was a pedophile, a number of them bitching about Beyonce's halftime show called her a pedophile. If you disagree, they'll slap the label on you. (Fuck you, QAnon). It's demonizing in order to dehumanized, so you can brutalize with "justification." And some of the accusations are straight out of Inquisition: Jews steal children, they consume children's blood, they torture and abuse. And that same shit was making the rounds 90 years ago.
Only this time, the oil slick that is this propaganda is being spread far wider.
Yeah that "blood libel" shit started with the Catholic church spreading it to the illiterate peasants of their flock, if I recall correctly. As for the Pedophile accusation, given some Republicans, (and libertarians who seem to all want to lower the age of consent) projection it is worrisome.
Iʻve worried that the Trump cabal will use the security apparatus to plant "pedo" content on the computers of their "enemies" then conveniently find it to demonize their opposition.
They have been demonizing any who doesn’t bow down to their psychotic cult for years. Go back and read Newt G and Mitch the turtle-brain and tell me I’m wrong!
We are living through a second Gilded Age. Dali and his colleagues witnessed the first one. Satire, surrealism and fantastical metaphor are the only grounded sane media through which to attempt to mimic the reality of the greed crazed men and women who rise to the top during such shallow search for the Treasure of the Sierra Madre eras like ours.
Sadly, there are people on both sides who will manipulate comments. I was accused here of consenting to trump's dictatorship because I am against vigilantes executing insurance CEOs.
The loss of decency and common sense has unfortunately infiltrated many minds. WTF has happened even to liberals? Vigilante murder should never be condoned, no matter how big a piece of shit the victim is.
He was treated poorly by United Healthcare. His internal mechanisms failed to stop him from going beyond the legal, ethical, and moral boundaries we are supposed to abide by. It happens all the time, not only in a violent act like this one but also in many other ways. Witness the billionaires advocating for exploitation of foreign workers to line their own pockets. Too many sociopaths have caused us to be where we are now. Sad
So many people are in a state of emotional overload. I just reposted a Substack written by Stephen Fry - about a lost sock. He describes going into a rage so fierce that he shocked himself.
When we have so much painful emotion bottled up - especially over things we have no control over - it must be vent, or it will explode. If you have ever gone into a sudden, blinding rage, you know what I mean. You can only hope that a lost sock will be the trigger, and that no one else is nearby!
I read that United Healthcare wasn't even his insurance company. But after he'd been chewed up by the insurance industry he researched and found that United Healthcare was the worst for arbitrary denials.
What makes people conflicted is the sense that the deaths Brian Thompson was responsible for are a greater offense, but one which our "justice system" does not even treat as a crime. Oliver Wendell Holmes said a century ago that "When the legal system is useless, self-help is all that is left" meaning that the law needs to be seen as a valid alternative to private acts of vengeance, which unfortunately it no longer is.
Robert, I understand the dilemma here; however, common sense, IMO, dictates that we, as individuals, are not judge and jury alone. We can demand our government that the laws need to be rectified and/or changed... Gun laws are one of them!
I expect we will increasingly see disputes settled by private violence in the years to come. Demanding that our government change does not seem to have much effect. Gun laws are a great example: I remember impassioned pleas to change them in 1968 in the wake of the MLK and RFK murders, and after Reagan was shot even Republicans were onside for a brief interval but things have only regressed since.
The execution of private brutal violence against any in the way of profits has been exactly how the likes of Trump and Musk have created their financial and political powerbase. I think we shall see an increase in the mimicking of these mobster rules within the greater public though. The allowance of such high profile individuals to get away with heinous crimes for decades as a quid pro quo for greasy pole climbing by others was always going to corrode the societal suspension of disbelief in injustice that underpins on the ground local policing. Just recently in the UK an entire rail line was put out of order because a group stole £100,000 worth of electric cables. I see this act as the beginning of the thieving egotism of neo liberal ideology finally ‘trickling down’.
Here in Hawaii is a perfect example of why vigilante justice should not be undertaken. Without due process, tragic mistakes can happen. In 1931 a white wife of a Naval officer accused 5 non-white men of rape. There was no physical evidence tying the suspects to the alleged assault. Despite enormous racially motivated pressure from the Navy and white America, the trial ended in a hung jury. The husband of the accuser and accomplices, including his wife’s mother, abducted one of the accused and ended up shooting him and letting him bleed to death. They were caught attempting to dispose of his body. They were subsequently convicted of manslaughter but because they had killed a non-white and because of the perceived lack of “justice,” their sentence was commuted to one hour in the governor’s office. The surviving 4 accused were never re-tried. Pinkerton’s Detective Agency later investigated and concluded that the five could not have assaulted her due to timeline and location facts. In the early 2000s the American Bar Association had a retrial in Honolulu and also acquitted the five. This is known as the Massie case. It shook the societal foundations of Hawaii for years to come. There are several books on the case, the most recent being Honor Killing by David Stannard.
There’s more. Thomas Massie, his two Navy pals, and his mother-in-law Grace Fortescue decided they needed top notch lawyering done so Fortescue scraped up money from high society friends and hired Clarence Darrow. It was his last case and his only loss, I believe. This case was a lynching of an innocent native Hawaiian, much like the numerous African Americans who were lynched based on false accusations. Racism and white supremacy were so prevalent then. To see its resurgence now is sickening.
My husband's grandfather was lynched. Both sides of his family have traced their roots to the original slave holders. To us, it was never far removed .
We dealt our entire adult lives with racism and the police (for no reason), but didn't suffer for it. I often have trouble with my expectations of white folks.
Oh well, at least we shoot non-whites now. Yippee for our gun culture.
We’re all a bit tetchy. I was accused on another site for being an appeaser when I deftly took apart a MAGAt’s argument instead of calling him a Nazi. FFS, it was on a substack, not in the press.
I have left comment sections when they try to force you, or nag you, into not using a certain word or expressing myself in a way they don't approve of. I think you did the right thing for what it is worth.
That’s because reading comprehension and critical thinking are now considered too woke. That, and people enjoy their opportunities to virtue signal, clutch their pearls and collapse onto their fainting couches.
I never thought of you as an anti-immigrant. No way. Because we speak out, we are a target. So be it. Hitler Putin rule with scare tactics. Those who are quiet are cowards and safe until all the opposition is eliminated. I never thought I would see this in America 🇺🇸. I was born end of 45. I have seen and experienced a lot. Much due to having been born on the bottom of society. I just cry inside.
I understand. I had similar responses on social media. I think that immigrants are vital to the life of our country. I just hate how oligarchs and Trump treat them, and what they want to do with immigrants who don’t directly benefit their bottom line. I despise the oligarchs.
Be safe and I hope that your wife is continuing to recover.
That's because too many people have limited critical thinking skills, coupled with weak reading comprehension skills. When I read this, I took away that you are against rich white men importing immigrants on visas that make them indentured servants in order to not have to pay American workers what they are worth. Did I get that right?
even before that — Donny used undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit-Teller building, didn't give them any protective gear and stiffed them on pay.
Donnie Doorknob has lived a 'Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous' by finding groups to exploit. Stiffing contractors, abusing undocumented workers, importing H-2Bs (indentured servants). You don't think he is really a billionaire do you? He couldn't even raise bail money. He is illiquid because Daddy Vlad has a undisclosed first mortgage on all of Donnie's properties. So, he is reduced to hawking cheesy bibles and tRump Crypto in infomercials... At least Vlad and President Musk are pulling a string here and there. Well, at least he can jet around in Airforce-1 now, so he can ditch the private jet.
It won't be long before Bannon flips his opinion of the Musk Rat and decides that maybe being in the good graces of the billionaire poster boy for insecurity will be better for his bottom line. He will bend the knee.
Yes, Bannon's state trial on personally using $ donated to his "Build The Wall" fund delayed again till late Feb 2025. He & two other men were found guilty on federal charges. felon pardoned Bannon on fed charges in 2021. The other two men are still in prison.
Bannon always has a sugar daddy supporting him he had a local (crooked) lawyer help him financially, then he had the ex-Chinese national Guo Wengui, alias Miles Kwok on whose yacht the Postal {police arrested him for his part in "We build the wall" scam.
Mary, POTUS can only pardon federal convictions, not state charges. It's Alvin Bragg NY prosecutor, and/or Tish James, NYAG trying Bannon for "Build The Wall" fraud in NY state. Not sure how NY state has jurisdiction for this, but Bragg & James are excellent prosecutors.
Contrary to what Donny SAYS, however, he doesn't use the H1B visa holders--Donny has used the H2B visa program to underpay (and/or stiff) his gardeners, maintenance workers, housekeeping/cleaning staff and kitchen staff. The man is so confused and out-of-it that he doesn't even know which program he uses.
Since that's what he does, it makes you wonder who in the hell is going to work at Mar a Lardo or his other resorts after he starts his mass deportation effort? Many hard working folks would probably prefer to work in a fast food restaurant than for that cheap heartless asshole. Perhaps he has a plan in concept that only implements selective brown shirt roundups that goes after those who make it possible for us to put food on the table. When the crops are left to rot in the fields due a labor shortage and food prices are off charts, who will the MAGA morons end up blaming for this disaster?
If you had told me there’d be a day when I’d agree with even one word that came out of Steve Bannon’s mouth. I’d tell you that you needed to be committed. But that day has come, and I feel like I need to take a long, hot shower.
I'm still shaking my head that I find myself in any kind of agreement with Liz Cheney. If 2024 vorpal told 2016 vorpal that I'd laugh loud and long in his face.
In-house implosion is the soup du jour … think I’ll just have a salad to go. I don’t want to be in a room splattered with dripping ketchup and soup. For those wanting a table I’d recommend sitting under it. This restaurant has zero minus 10 stars.
“Night of the Dead Frogs” is great, yep! Poor Poopoo the Frog, I mean Pepe! The Night of the Short Tallywackers. With Nick Fuentes as Ernie Roem. It’s gratifying to watch them skid on the ice and collide with each other.
While there are all these White birtherists in the US and European White Supremacist countries, there are countries like India and China who top the charts with population. Of course they are going to go elsewhere too, and not just stay in their countries.
My friend tells me that when she and her husband came from Switzerland on H-1B visas they had to settle for shit pay, but now her husband, an aerospace engineer, is doing well in sunny cal, and she is back in Europe. He got a green card after his stint on the H1B visa and is doing really, really well. That is the trajectory of these visas. Now his daughter is American born and also has an aerospace engineering degree, but she is working on her PhD in Germany, where she will probably stay.
I would also like to point out that the UAE has about 87% immigrant population and they don't have a problem with it because they know they need immigrants to run their economy. Why is it that White Birther nations cannot feel the same way?
I went to Dubai on vacation a couple of years ago. I heard the same stats, that the overwhelming majority of citizens living there are not UAE citizens. They are imported workers. I also heard from our guide how lousy most of them are treated. Crammed 15 to an apartment and working for peanuts. One of the reasons that you don't see the homeless/mentally ill on the streets is that if you're not a UAE citizen, they deport you. Trump on steroids. Blatant sexism against women who live there. Great place to vacation, but I wouldn't hold them up as a role model for immigrant labor.
I don't understand why ANYBODY would go to a third-world country to vacation amidst profound poverty and dysfunction. Dubai may not be considered a third-world country structurally, but they are neanderthals philosophically and culturally.
Well, then why don't you TELL me where I should vacation according to your standards? I've been all over the world, and many of the countries I have visited were 3rd world and not known for their stellar treatment of their citizens. So I guess I should stick to Canada, UK and some of western Europe. So take our tourist dollars out of the 3rd world countries and what do you think happens to their economy? It worsens. The people that were employed to take care of us tourists now have no jobs. How many countries that fit your "never go to" have you been to? I found that traveling has enabled me to appreciate more what I have and to also see that no matter where you go, people are basically the same. They want their families safe, a decent job, a home/food. You're not hurting their lousy government when you stay home, you're hurting the people that need a job.
If you like to snorkel or dive, Bonaire is wonderful. It's a Dutch island in the Caribbean, & is very safe. Also, they don't allow the huge tourist ships to dock, so their reefs are still beautiful. Very friendly people.
Bonaire is great, because they limit the number of cruise ships, (I only cruise on smaller ships, those mega ships ruin the experience) so it is not overrun like most every other Caribbean Island. The locals are friendly and the tour we took was memorable.
Of course. And if you like to see animals in their natural surrounding go to Texas and see the MAGAs, would like to see pyramid....wait, Mexico onward are all third world countries. Snorkeling in Raja Ampat is a totally different experience than snorkeling in the Caribbean and I am too tired to argue this stupid point.
84% of the world population live in what are deemed “third world countries”. I find visiting (or at least studying) more about different countries and cultures to be helpful, hopeful and great fun. We need a special classification for the USA now, something to do with ill gotten gains might be nice.
I am not sure you are referring to all third world countries or just the Arab nations. Cambodia, Laos, India, Egypt, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Indonesia, and a boat load of incredible tourist destinations are all third world countries. People should only vacation in EU, Australia, Japan, and a handful of other countries?
I learned from an Arabic reporter that many of these immigrants are forced to hand over their passports to their "employers" who "promise" to return them once the immigrant has worked long enough to repay room and board. Of course, that day never comes and those immigrants are enslaved.
Immigrants in the Arab countries are treat like SH*T. It is a horror show. Only people who are desperately poor, trying to save their families from starvation, go to work in those countries. Please! That is NOT what needs to happen here -- or anywhere.
I understand that, but still, when 87% are immigrants, not all are treated like SH*T, just like not all are treated like SH*T here. Still, I have friends in the US who are high skill workers with PhDs and were treated like SH*T under the last Trump government.
I know people who were high skilled who lived in the UAE, and they were not treated like SH*T. In fact, one friend and her husband were able to retire in Spain in their early 50s because they made enough to live off of in UAE. Most of the low skilled workers are coming from Asia and MENA region are but not all from those regions are in low skill employment. The high skilled employment immigrants tend to be from Europe and North America.
So, just fact checking here. The fact that Trump's biggest plan is to round up low skill immigrants that our economy depends on and most Americans are not crying out like Musk and Ramaswamy against the bad treatment they are to face is a reality check on how wonderful things are for immigrants here.
I realize that I reacted to the "87% immigrants" in the UAE the way I did, because my husband was born penniless in Nepal. He personally knows people who want to Dubai and Qatar. Some were beaten and poorly fed; some were kept locked up so they couldn't leave; and some died. We have no respect for immigration as it is practiced in those countries. Sure, some well-educated Westerners can go for a few years, make a fortune, and retire rich and young. Nice for them. Unfortunately, that is probably less than 1% of the immigrants to whom I am referring.
If only the billionaires could spend some of their fortune for reproductive freedom, a lot of these problems would be reduced. Over population is the most important problem facing us now.
I couldn't agree with you more. It has been very interesting to me to watch my sisters- and brothers-in law from Nepal (now all in the U.S., UK, and Germany). They were from a family of 7. None of them have college degrees. All are extremely hard workers, some with more than one job. Among them, they have a total of 7 children -- all of whom now have college degrees, with a couple of them having Master's degrees. All of this second generation is doing so well in their new countries: productive, law-abiding, buying homes, healthy, happy, and postponing having children until they are fully financially secure. That is what everyone wants, the world over. The only thing preventing it is greed.
P.S. Just a slight edit. Of course billionaires "could". They won't. They don't care about anybody except themselves. That is how a billionaire is created. People who care about others could never become billionaires. We give away the money we don't need to people who do need it.
I have read articles about the exploitation, but I have read about slave camps in the USA over the years in the agricultural industry. Could not find out what percentage of UAE immigrants are high skill. However, I will assume in a modern economy enough are. My friend's skill was teaching English as a foreign Language, and I think her husband's is too. He is Scottish. It is nice for them, just like it is nice for high skill workers to come here on the H-1B visa and not so nice for those coming in on other visas such as temporary ones for labor.
I know that there is slavery in the Emirates, but I also know that there is slavery in the USA. Not saying theirs is good, just saying we have bad treatment of immigrants as well. These are not the stories we hear about American immigrants.
Not quite. The farm workers activism in the 1960s and continuing today, reduced some of the horrid conditions. They are still shit jobs for sure. The visas that allow unskilled workers for jobs anyone anywhere (like here) can be trained to do, are iffy. They can resemble slavery, in that passports are taken, pay not provided, etc.
Even the leopards are saying WTF at this latest debacle in Trumpistan! With Stinky Steve, Elon and Looney Laura going at it tooth and nail and Elon retaliating against anyone who doesn’t agree with him, it’s getting to be quite a show! And Diaper Don has no idea whose side he’s on! This one calls for popcorn and tequila, it’s so fun to watch MAGA tear itself apart
Haha, the MAGAts who cheered musk buying Twitter and turning it into fascist paradise are losing their paid-for blue checks or getting booted off. Be careful what you wish for!
Going to listen to the five old white maga guys holding court at a specific Starbucks. They are loud, fixed news & felon-loving devotees. I deleted this one Starbucks bc of them. Maybe stop into a former fav diner & listen to the maga crowd's convos.
In past years I never paid much attention to Musky; so imagine my surprise when this past year as I’ve been watching him, I’ve found it all seems to link back to control.
He doesn’t care that he lost eight hundred kajillion dollars of value when he bought Twitter, he gets to control the flow of communication between all of his peers, and that’s much, much more important.
I don’t think he cares much that he’s making all the other Nazi boys and girls upset on the playground. He’s having too much fun being a bully and manipulating his pal, Donnie Darko.
Realize that with Musky, it’s all about controlling other people. Just like Dumpf, when you don’t like the asshole you’ve become, you start trying to manipulate others. These are the clay feet conservatism is built on - making others as miserable as you are by taking stuff away from them. It’s a sad, empty existence that all the billions in the world won’t fix.
I think I need a brain scan. Within one mere week, I agreed with a post from Loomer (earlier in the week about Musk) and Bannon's post about Musk. "The enemy of your enemy is your friend" syndrome.
Donnie: "No one can afford bacon!" "Egg prices are too high!"
Donnie: "We must deport 15 million legal and illegal immigrants."
Connect the dots, Donnie. The hard working humans you are expelling are the people who work in the meat processing plants. They clean and pack the eggs. They pick the lettuce, grapes, apples, strawberries--everything in the produce department of every grocery store in the country. You remove these law abiding families and the supply of food drops. Demand for food isn't going down to keep balance. So prices must rise.
Donnie, you think the MAGAs were pissed at Biden over $5 eggs? Go ahead and arrest and imprison and deport the immigrants. And see what happens. More than price increases, the food will rot on the ground. Empty shelves in the stores. Think the MAGAs will run out to the farms and do those jobs?
How in the world did the good guys fail to do their duty and abide by their oath of office? Garland failed. Biden failed. The DNC failed. They are allowing a bad faith oligarch thief and a dumb shit conman take control of the government.
Joe still has the power to stop Musk and Trump. The Supremes gave him the green light. Will he do what's right or is he too far gone? Where are his advisors on this?
"My fellow Americans. Our domestic and international intelligence agencies have uncovered a conspiracy that imperils our nation. As your President and chief law enforcement officer I will take the necessary bold and forceful action, as defined by the Supreme Court, to protect this nation from enemies foreign and domestic.
We discovered that Elon Musk and his associates used their communications platforms and AI tech to deceive American voters in the recent election. Their lies and targeted Harris imposter efforts led 6 million voters to believe that the Democratic candidate stood for positions that were not true. Mr Musk also manipulated his X platform in support of Donald Trump. These were election law violations.
We have also discovered that the illegal manipulations were coordinated with Donald Trump and his campaign. And therefore the President elect is likely guilty of election fraud.
I have directed the Secret Service, the CIA and the US Marshalls Service to apprehend Mr Musk and Mr Trump and confine them to jail without bail. This investigation will continue through the scheduled January 6 election confirmation and the scheduled January 20 inauguration. Therefore these procedural events will be postponed until the conclusion of the investigation, trial and final rulings."
Schumer announced that the Democrats' key strategy against Trump's extremism will be to fight it out in the courts. Period. So it will be BIden's appointed judges versus the Aileen Cannons of the circuit courts.
Burke, excellent post. Mass deportation of meatpacking, produce & field workers will raise prices, as you said. Now smack a 25 percent tariff on billions of dollars in food, produce coming in from Mexico. Is there no one in convict's orbit drawing pictures of this impending food crisis for President Musk & convict? Maga's already mad over importing foreign workers. At what point do they turn on convict?
Dear "Uncle Jeff": Thank you for keeping us sane. I just love your sarcasm and I know i'm speaking for many of us here. My favorite line was regarding brainless Laura Loomer: "you do that, Laura. you bring it to the Senate. maybe handcuff yourself to their doors. we’d all love to see how that plays out." LMAO!!!!!
The level of hypocrisy with MAGAtville has always been stunning. Now they are having to face off with each other. First they say horrible racist, stupid, hate-filled things, then lie to everyone’s face that they never said it and then say the opposite and then circle back around to their original raging, ignorant bullshit. Not one of them can keep track of what they are saying and what the other one is saying and doing. 🎉🤪🎊😝
I guess because of posts like this one, I've been accused on social media of being "anti-immigrant." so, for the record: fuck no. that's flat-out wrong. we're a nation of immigrants, for fuck's sake, and I'll never be anti-immigrant
exhibit A: https://bsky.app/profile/eean.dev/post/3lef2j5ehb22f
You are anti- our first-ever Immigrant Who’s Not U.S.-Born President (Elon Musk)!
Like the rest of us here!
Bob 🎯🎯🎯 Jeff, you haven't written a single anti-immigrant word.
Why doesn’t Biden deport Muck for bc lying on his Visa application and working under a student Visa when he wasn’t even in school?
What is Biden afraid of? Do something, Joe! Shake up the MAGA world!
Agree, why didn't Joe shut down space nazis give contracts? Everyone is replaceable, space nazi isn't the only one in the world who can provide what he provides.
Yes!! Our defense, our satellites, space program are way too dependent on this one man who has way to close a relationship with both Putin & Xi. I think he is an enormous security threat.
Govt needs to start cutting ties with him & his companies.
He is absolutely a national security (and otherwise) threat, and he's about to be sworn in for all intents and purposes. I thought there would be a clash of gigantic egos and their desire for raw power and admiration between him and Trump because they are the biggest narcissists on the plant. I'm starting to think Trump is too far gone cognitively for that to happen but I truly hope I'm wrong.
He won't do it for a number of reasons, but Biden could nationalize SpaceX and Starlink for very legitimate national security reasons. I wish Biden had more time to do so, but he is an institutionalist at heart (to our detriment at this point) so I don't know if more time would even matter.
Other people could provide what the Space Nazi does (especially because it is his employees making it work, everything we've seen has shown that projects Elon is solely responsible for are complete shit: see, Cyberturck and he bought his way into Tesla, etc.), but those new ones or even gov agencies need time to get up and running. Since Reagan, we've outsourced so much US capacity to private companies to our own ruin (but at least the trickle down assholes got super rich! /s). This includes US space flight and the ability to provide WiFi easily across the globe.
Much better to nationalize them in the interest of national security because he is a legit threat. Too bad he is about to be sworn in, as far as anyone is concerned. Wealth inequality dooms all societies, and this is the perfect example.
Biden started out surprising me with some very progressive programs. But remember, if not for Russian asset Sinema & rescumlicon-like Manchin, the Build Back Better would have been a massive step forward. But President Biden thinks he can set a good example & all will end well. We need younger stronger progressives but they are blocked by DNC. Time for 2 revolutions. Massive non-compliance with the MAGA-Fascists and breaking up the Dem Party.
Then we break apart right wing ownership of media, and apply the damn law to trump & J6ers in Congress!!!
because Biden never does anything heroic , ever
Jeff you are not an anti-immigration. Opposition figures enjoy slapping negative labels on those who speak out.
Surrealist art was invented a 100 years ago. Think Salvador Dali with melting watches. Now, With Trump and Musk and the other cavalcade of clowns, surrealism has made its way out of art museums and we live in a surreal world.
The trend that I find disturbing, and suspect will unleash violence, is that I see hardcore MAGAts calling their opposition "pedos." One guy tried to tell me that on of Rittenhouse's victims was a pedophile, a number of them bitching about Beyonce's halftime show called her a pedophile. If you disagree, they'll slap the label on you. (Fuck you, QAnon). It's demonizing in order to dehumanized, so you can brutalize with "justification." And some of the accusations are straight out of Inquisition: Jews steal children, they consume children's blood, they torture and abuse. And that same shit was making the rounds 90 years ago.
Only this time, the oil slick that is this propaganda is being spread far wider.
Yeah that "blood libel" shit started with the Catholic church spreading it to the illiterate peasants of their flock, if I recall correctly. As for the Pedophile accusation, given some Republicans, (and libertarians who seem to all want to lower the age of consent) projection it is worrisome.
Iʻve worried that the Trump cabal will use the security apparatus to plant "pedo" content on the computers of their "enemies" then conveniently find it to demonize their opposition.
Absolutely
You're losing your shit, Calm down.
I hate that so much. You’re correct, they’ll call anyone & everyone a “pedo.”
Sometimes they’ll precede it with the word “commie.” It’s one of the main reasons I deactivated my Twitter account, it just got too ugly.
That paints their opponents as unredeemable criminals and will eventually be used as justification for murder.
They have been demonizing any who doesn’t bow down to their psychotic cult for years. Go back and read Newt G and Mitch the turtle-brain and tell me I’m wrong!
I felt that way during Reagan, and his whole "Greed is good" era, epitomized by Gordon Gecko in Wall Street. And W's hateful reign.
With you on that EF NAT trickle down never worked, I had three jobs in the 80's worked 8 days a week as the Beatles said.
Me too hon, and I still somehow found some time to party, I think I just didn’t sleep much!
I like your style Kathleen!!
We are living through a second Gilded Age. Dali and his colleagues witnessed the first one. Satire, surrealism and fantastical metaphor are the only grounded sane media through which to attempt to mimic the reality of the greed crazed men and women who rise to the top during such shallow search for the Treasure of the Sierra Madre eras like ours.
Sadly, there are people on both sides who will manipulate comments. I was accused here of consenting to trump's dictatorship because I am against vigilantes executing insurance CEOs.
The loss of decency and common sense has unfortunately infiltrated many minds. WTF has happened even to liberals? Vigilante murder should never be condoned, no matter how big a piece of shit the victim is.
I don’t condone it. But I do understand and commiserate with what drove him to it.
He was treated poorly by United Healthcare. His internal mechanisms failed to stop him from going beyond the legal, ethical, and moral boundaries we are supposed to abide by. It happens all the time, not only in a violent act like this one but also in many other ways. Witness the billionaires advocating for exploitation of foreign workers to line their own pockets. Too many sociopaths have caused us to be where we are now. Sad
So many people are in a state of emotional overload. I just reposted a Substack written by Stephen Fry - about a lost sock. He describes going into a rage so fierce that he shocked himself.
When we have so much painful emotion bottled up - especially over things we have no control over - it must be vent, or it will explode. If you have ever gone into a sudden, blinding rage, you know what I mean. You can only hope that a lost sock will be the trigger, and that no one else is nearby!
I read that United Healthcare wasn't even his insurance company. But after he'd been chewed up by the insurance industry he researched and found that United Healthcare was the worst for arbitrary denials.
As someone who listened to the phone calls of many co-workers to United Health Care, believe me, they are the worst.
Thanks. I believe you’re right
I agree with you about the vigilantes executing insurance CEOs. As the old saying goes: two wrongs will never make a right.
What makes people conflicted is the sense that the deaths Brian Thompson was responsible for are a greater offense, but one which our "justice system" does not even treat as a crime. Oliver Wendell Holmes said a century ago that "When the legal system is useless, self-help is all that is left" meaning that the law needs to be seen as a valid alternative to private acts of vengeance, which unfortunately it no longer is.
Robert, I understand the dilemma here; however, common sense, IMO, dictates that we, as individuals, are not judge and jury alone. We can demand our government that the laws need to be rectified and/or changed... Gun laws are one of them!
I expect we will increasingly see disputes settled by private violence in the years to come. Demanding that our government change does not seem to have much effect. Gun laws are a great example: I remember impassioned pleas to change them in 1968 in the wake of the MLK and RFK murders, and after Reagan was shot even Republicans were onside for a brief interval but things have only regressed since.
The execution of private brutal violence against any in the way of profits has been exactly how the likes of Trump and Musk have created their financial and political powerbase. I think we shall see an increase in the mimicking of these mobster rules within the greater public though. The allowance of such high profile individuals to get away with heinous crimes for decades as a quid pro quo for greasy pole climbing by others was always going to corrode the societal suspension of disbelief in injustice that underpins on the ground local policing. Just recently in the UK an entire rail line was put out of order because a group stole £100,000 worth of electric cables. I see this act as the beginning of the thieving egotism of neo liberal ideology finally ‘trickling down’.
Here in Hawaii is a perfect example of why vigilante justice should not be undertaken. Without due process, tragic mistakes can happen. In 1931 a white wife of a Naval officer accused 5 non-white men of rape. There was no physical evidence tying the suspects to the alleged assault. Despite enormous racially motivated pressure from the Navy and white America, the trial ended in a hung jury. The husband of the accuser and accomplices, including his wife’s mother, abducted one of the accused and ended up shooting him and letting him bleed to death. They were caught attempting to dispose of his body. They were subsequently convicted of manslaughter but because they had killed a non-white and because of the perceived lack of “justice,” their sentence was commuted to one hour in the governor’s office. The surviving 4 accused were never re-tried. Pinkerton’s Detective Agency later investigated and concluded that the five could not have assaulted her due to timeline and location facts. In the early 2000s the American Bar Association had a retrial in Honolulu and also acquitted the five. This is known as the Massie case. It shook the societal foundations of Hawaii for years to come. There are several books on the case, the most recent being Honor Killing by David Stannard.
WOW 😳
There’s more. Thomas Massie, his two Navy pals, and his mother-in-law Grace Fortescue decided they needed top notch lawyering done so Fortescue scraped up money from high society friends and hired Clarence Darrow. It was his last case and his only loss, I believe. This case was a lynching of an innocent native Hawaiian, much like the numerous African Americans who were lynched based on false accusations. Racism and white supremacy were so prevalent then. To see its resurgence now is sickening.
My husband's grandfather was lynched. Both sides of his family have traced their roots to the original slave holders. To us, it was never far removed .
We dealt our entire adult lives with racism and the police (for no reason), but didn't suffer for it. I often have trouble with my expectations of white folks.
Oh well, at least we shoot non-whites now. Yippee for our gun culture.
I am not racist, but I understand reality.
We’re all a bit tetchy. I was accused on another site for being an appeaser when I deftly took apart a MAGAt’s argument instead of calling him a Nazi. FFS, it was on a substack, not in the press.
I have left comment sections when they try to force you, or nag you, into not using a certain word or expressing myself in a way they don't approve of. I think you did the right thing for what it is worth.
That’s because reading comprehension and critical thinking are now considered too woke. That, and people enjoy their opportunities to virtue signal, clutch their pearls and collapse onto their fainting couches.
Yes, even people supposedly on our side will seize on the smallest, irrelevant detail and whine about it.
I love it when some stick up the ass type ignores the detailed rebuttal someone made to their horrible racist screed with "Wah, you used profanity!"
I never thought of you as an anti-immigrant. No way. Because we speak out, we are a target. So be it. Hitler Putin rule with scare tactics. Those who are quiet are cowards and safe until all the opposition is eliminated. I never thought I would see this in America 🇺🇸. I was born end of 45. I have seen and experienced a lot. Much due to having been born on the bottom of society. I just cry inside.
Jeff,
I understand. I had similar responses on social media. I think that immigrants are vital to the life of our country. I just hate how oligarchs and Trump treat them, and what they want to do with immigrants who don’t directly benefit their bottom line. I despise the oligarchs.
Be safe and I hope that your wife is continuing to recover.
Steve Dundas
They don't have very good reading comprehension, if they read you and get that, they are probably just shit-stirrers.
That's because too many people have limited critical thinking skills, coupled with weak reading comprehension skills. When I read this, I took away that you are against rich white men importing immigrants on visas that make them indentured servants in order to not have to pay American workers what they are worth. Did I get that right?
How did anyone ever come up with that dumbass idea? The rest of us get it.
The medias have to say something, as for the rest of us we get you and have your back.
The face eating leopard party is having a party! More popcorn, please!
The leopards are having many baby leopards at the moment and they're going to be very hungry.
Drumpf's been using illegals for years, like ever since he bought Mara-a-roachgo🙄💙✌🏻
even before that — Donny used undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit-Teller building, didn't give them any protective gear and stiffed them on pay.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-says-controversy-over-his-tower-was-trumped-n397821
And demolishing the Bonwit Teller building was a travesty beyond imagination...
Destroying that bas relief facade was an ART CRIME.
ART CRIME, sounds Orwellian, wait, could we? naa (why won't my tv turn off?)
Absolutely, but not a THOUGHT CRIME.
Donnie Doorknob has lived a 'Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous' by finding groups to exploit. Stiffing contractors, abusing undocumented workers, importing H-2Bs (indentured servants). You don't think he is really a billionaire do you? He couldn't even raise bail money. He is illiquid because Daddy Vlad has a undisclosed first mortgage on all of Donnie's properties. So, he is reduced to hawking cheesy bibles and tRump Crypto in infomercials... At least Vlad and President Musk are pulling a string here and there. Well, at least he can jet around in Airforce-1 now, so he can ditch the private jet.
Damn truth Stephan! Mogilivech and Putin have owned Trumps debt for years, quid pro quo’s are coming due soon!!
Didn't one Polish worker have a terrible fall, and the orange sadist refused to pay his medical bills?
Yes.
I would be surprised if it was only one.
Didn’t preserve one bit of the buildings beautiful panels either Jeff!!
Especially after PAB swore up and down that he would preserve the cherished facade of the BWT building and it wound up at the dump.
Former NYer here; had a front-row seat to his many shenanigans from the '70s on. He really is a piece of garbage.
I wonder what Dumpf had to say when Bannon called out Musk! That was brutally honest & brilliant.. even though I can’t stand him 🤣
It won't be long before Bannon flips his opinion of the Musk Rat and decides that maybe being in the good graces of the billionaire poster boy for insecurity will be better for his bottom line. He will bend the knee.
Of course he will. Does he have another court case pending?
Yes, Bannon's state trial on personally using $ donated to his "Build The Wall" fund delayed again till late Feb 2025. He & two other men were found guilty on federal charges. felon pardoned Bannon on fed charges in 2021. The other two men are still in prison.
Bannon always has a sugar daddy supporting him he had a local (crooked) lawyer help him financially, then he had the ex-Chinese national Guo Wengui, alias Miles Kwok on whose yacht the Postal {police arrested him for his part in "We build the wall" scam.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/who-chinese-mogul-who-owns-boat-steve-bannon-was-busted-n1237511
Nobody ever remembers the important details.
So much shit, so little time.
I just find it weird how he always sucks some rich guy into funding his nonsense.
Remember Bannon was arrested for his wall fraud on a Chinese business man's yacht.
Trump pardoned him.
Not for New York state.
Mary, POTUS can only pardon federal convictions, not state charges. It's Alvin Bragg NY prosecutor, and/or Tish James, NYAG trying Bannon for "Build The Wall" fraud in NY state. Not sure how NY state has jurisdiction for this, but Bragg & James are excellent prosecutors.
I know that, Teri. I was a NYS Supreme Court clerk for 10 I years. I don't know what possible jurisdiction NY has unless it involves money or bribes.
Only time I’ve ever agreed with anything he said Amy!!
Right? lol
Trump was drunk on burgers.
Chris 🤣🤣🤣🍔🍔🍔🍔
Contrary to what Donny SAYS, however, he doesn't use the H1B visa holders--Donny has used the H2B visa program to underpay (and/or stiff) his gardeners, maintenance workers, housekeeping/cleaning staff and kitchen staff. The man is so confused and out-of-it that he doesn't even know which program he uses.
OR....he's flat-out lying. Take your pick.
Even thought he's in the early stages of dementia I believe he is lying. Why do I believe that? Because he is always lying.
Yes, watch him. His lips move.
True dat T.L. The single biggest reason we face of economic collapse, is the immigration nonsense this execrable wastrel spouts!
As if Dementia Donny knows what he's using.
TL, convict's not a details guy. The H1B / H2B confusion in his demented mind is similar to his "asylum" confusion.
Illegals when used to describe a human being isn’t defined in the dictionary as being applicable to human beings.
It is by definition a pejorative when used in that way.
Yes it is piss-poor grammar, and It is used to dehumanize them.
That's what I like, a grammarian.
Since that's what he does, it makes you wonder who in the hell is going to work at Mar a Lardo or his other resorts after he starts his mass deportation effort? Many hard working folks would probably prefer to work in a fast food restaurant than for that cheap heartless asshole. Perhaps he has a plan in concept that only implements selective brown shirt roundups that goes after those who make it possible for us to put food on the table. When the crops are left to rot in the fields due a labor shortage and food prices are off charts, who will the MAGA morons end up blaming for this disaster?
Hilary, of course.
Or Joe.
Or Kamala, who of course has had absolute power these last four years
Biden. It's his turn.
He will still get the visas he is a big fan of and nothing will change.
DeSatan screwed up Florida with his immigrant ban.
Biden
He used it to buy 2 wives to give him anchor babies.
His buildings were built by immigrants, his allegiance to the Concrete Cartel is well documented Barbara!
And Polish construction workers!
President Jimmy Carter just passed. So sad 😞
Yes, saw that. One of the good ones.
RIP President Carter.
Very sad, but we know go into a month of mourning. Puts a kobash on Donny Dumbass's party.
If you had told me there’d be a day when I’d agree with even one word that came out of Steve Bannon’s mouth. I’d tell you that you needed to be committed. But that day has come, and I feel like I need to take a long, hot shower.
I'm still shaking my head that I find myself in any kind of agreement with Liz Cheney. If 2024 vorpal told 2016 vorpal that I'd laugh loud and long in his face.
In this brave new world, Liz Cheney is a hero of democracy.
Hell, I even DICK Cheney seems sane.
Uh.....no. That's going too far. Darth Cheney gets credit for nothing, other than being a war criminal.
Agree. Whenever some decent person dies I always think, “And Dick Fucking Cheney is still alive.”
Or Charles Koch, or Rupert Murdoch.
And Dumbass Donny.
Stephanie, no. Just no. Cheney is known as the devil himself for a reason.
In-house implosion is the soup du jour … think I’ll just have a salad to go. I don’t want to be in a room splattered with dripping ketchup and soup. For those wanting a table I’d recommend sitting under it. This restaurant has zero minus 10 stars.
Just don't get your salad from Trump Grill, the worst restaurant in America -- https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/trump-grill-review
Paywall, darn it!
I just read the article. To summarize: the food was awful.
＼(￣▽￣)／
You won the 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕥 today with this one, Tama!
🤣🤣🤣
Clever!
Love this Tama!!
It’s all about the visuals of chaos 😜
“Night of the Dead Frogs” is great, yep! Poor Poopoo the Frog, I mean Pepe! The Night of the Short Tallywackers. With Nick Fuentes as Ernie Roem. It’s gratifying to watch them skid on the ice and collide with each other.
Fun fact: Roy Cohn adored, and collected, FROGS. It only makes sense that MAGA uses the frog as a mascot.
I feel so dirty.
Didn’t know that Jayme, thanks!!
I remember that in the documentary! Ugh, imagine doing that leathery old serpent with all those horrid cutesy frogs watching you.
They stole the cartoon frog from a normal artist, who was so appalled he killed Pepe off.
How on earth do you have that in your head? Just curious.
Research. There are pictures of him with his collection. Kinda weird.
I don't have enough interest in these shitty people to go that far into the weeds.
While there are all these White birtherists in the US and European White Supremacist countries, there are countries like India and China who top the charts with population. Of course they are going to go elsewhere too, and not just stay in their countries.
My friend tells me that when she and her husband came from Switzerland on H-1B visas they had to settle for shit pay, but now her husband, an aerospace engineer, is doing well in sunny cal, and she is back in Europe. He got a green card after his stint on the H1B visa and is doing really, really well. That is the trajectory of these visas. Now his daughter is American born and also has an aerospace engineering degree, but she is working on her PhD in Germany, where she will probably stay.
I would also like to point out that the UAE has about 87% immigrant population and they don't have a problem with it because they know they need immigrants to run their economy. Why is it that White Birther nations cannot feel the same way?
I went to Dubai on vacation a couple of years ago. I heard the same stats, that the overwhelming majority of citizens living there are not UAE citizens. They are imported workers. I also heard from our guide how lousy most of them are treated. Crammed 15 to an apartment and working for peanuts. One of the reasons that you don't see the homeless/mentally ill on the streets is that if you're not a UAE citizen, they deport you. Trump on steroids. Blatant sexism against women who live there. Great place to vacation, but I wouldn't hold them up as a role model for immigrant labor.
I don't understand why ANYBODY would go to a third-world country to vacation amidst profound poverty and dysfunction. Dubai may not be considered a third-world country structurally, but they are neanderthals philosophically and culturally.
Not to mention their incomprehensibly misogynistic and cruel treatment of women. Stop supporting monsters.
D - indeed. I will never go to any if those countries bc any $$ spent there supports the ruthless & disgusting policies.
Have you een this story about the chess champion who refuses to play there? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/chess-grandmaster-refuses-to-play-in-saudi-arabia-and-will-lose-two-world-titles/ar-BB1knwJ2?ocid=winp2fp&apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1
Perhaps we should all leave USA?
Well, then why don't you TELL me where I should vacation according to your standards? I've been all over the world, and many of the countries I have visited were 3rd world and not known for their stellar treatment of their citizens. So I guess I should stick to Canada, UK and some of western Europe. So take our tourist dollars out of the 3rd world countries and what do you think happens to their economy? It worsens. The people that were employed to take care of us tourists now have no jobs. How many countries that fit your "never go to" have you been to? I found that traveling has enabled me to appreciate more what I have and to also see that no matter where you go, people are basically the same. They want their families safe, a decent job, a home/food. You're not hurting their lousy government when you stay home, you're hurting the people that need a job.
If you like to snorkel or dive, Bonaire is wonderful. It's a Dutch island in the Caribbean, & is very safe. Also, they don't allow the huge tourist ships to dock, so their reefs are still beautiful. Very friendly people.
Bonaire is great, because they limit the number of cruise ships, (I only cruise on smaller ships, those mega ships ruin the experience) so it is not overrun like most every other Caribbean Island. The locals are friendly and the tour we took was memorable.
Of course. And if you like to see animals in their natural surrounding go to Texas and see the MAGAs, would like to see pyramid....wait, Mexico onward are all third world countries. Snorkeling in Raja Ampat is a totally different experience than snorkeling in the Caribbean and I am too tired to argue this stupid point.
84% of the world population live in what are deemed “third world countries”. I find visiting (or at least studying) more about different countries and cultures to be helpful, hopeful and great fun. We need a special classification for the USA now, something to do with ill gotten gains might be nice.
Thank you. See my post above. Such thoughtless comments from people who seem to be oblivious about the big world.
Not meaning to hurt anyone, but I do believe that where you spend your vacation dollars matters. How much justice does your dollar purchase?
I love different cultures, languages, arts, and I pay attention to global news, but I will not support dictators, authoritarians, or assholes.
I am not sure you are referring to all third world countries or just the Arab nations. Cambodia, Laos, India, Egypt, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Indonesia, and a boat load of incredible tourist destinations are all third world countries. People should only vacation in EU, Australia, Japan, and a handful of other countries?
I would never go to any of those countries. It's just supporting misogyny and mistreatment.
I learned from an Arabic reporter that many of these immigrants are forced to hand over their passports to their "employers" who "promise" to return them once the immigrant has worked long enough to repay room and board. Of course, that day never comes and those immigrants are enslaved.
Why vacation in a place like that?
Immigrants in the Arab countries are treat like SH*T. It is a horror show. Only people who are desperately poor, trying to save their families from starvation, go to work in those countries. Please! That is NOT what needs to happen here -- or anywhere.
I understand that, but still, when 87% are immigrants, not all are treated like SH*T, just like not all are treated like SH*T here. Still, I have friends in the US who are high skill workers with PhDs and were treated like SH*T under the last Trump government.
I know people who were high skilled who lived in the UAE, and they were not treated like SH*T. In fact, one friend and her husband were able to retire in Spain in their early 50s because they made enough to live off of in UAE. Most of the low skilled workers are coming from Asia and MENA region are but not all from those regions are in low skill employment. The high skilled employment immigrants tend to be from Europe and North America.
So, just fact checking here. The fact that Trump's biggest plan is to round up low skill immigrants that our economy depends on and most Americans are not crying out like Musk and Ramaswamy against the bad treatment they are to face is a reality check on how wonderful things are for immigrants here.
I realize that I reacted to the "87% immigrants" in the UAE the way I did, because my husband was born penniless in Nepal. He personally knows people who want to Dubai and Qatar. Some were beaten and poorly fed; some were kept locked up so they couldn't leave; and some died. We have no respect for immigration as it is practiced in those countries. Sure, some well-educated Westerners can go for a few years, make a fortune, and retire rich and young. Nice for them. Unfortunately, that is probably less than 1% of the immigrants to whom I am referring.
If only the billionaires could spend some of their fortune for reproductive freedom, a lot of these problems would be reduced. Over population is the most important problem facing us now.
I couldn't agree with you more. It has been very interesting to me to watch my sisters- and brothers-in law from Nepal (now all in the U.S., UK, and Germany). They were from a family of 7. None of them have college degrees. All are extremely hard workers, some with more than one job. Among them, they have a total of 7 children -- all of whom now have college degrees, with a couple of them having Master's degrees. All of this second generation is doing so well in their new countries: productive, law-abiding, buying homes, healthy, happy, and postponing having children until they are fully financially secure. That is what everyone wants, the world over. The only thing preventing it is greed.
P.S. Just a slight edit. Of course billionaires "could". They won't. They don't care about anybody except themselves. That is how a billionaire is created. People who care about others could never become billionaires. We give away the money we don't need to people who do need it.
I have read articles about the exploitation, but I have read about slave camps in the USA over the years in the agricultural industry. Could not find out what percentage of UAE immigrants are high skill. However, I will assume in a modern economy enough are. My friend's skill was teaching English as a foreign Language, and I think her husband's is too. He is Scottish. It is nice for them, just like it is nice for high skill workers to come here on the H-1B visa and not so nice for those coming in on other visas such as temporary ones for labor.
I know that there is slavery in the Emirates, but I also know that there is slavery in the USA. Not saying theirs is good, just saying we have bad treatment of immigrants as well. These are not the stories we hear about American immigrants.
Yes, you're right. This new form of slavery in the U.S. is a well-kept secret from the public.
Not quite. The farm workers activism in the 1960s and continuing today, reduced some of the horrid conditions. They are still shit jobs for sure. The visas that allow unskilled workers for jobs anyone anywhere (like here) can be trained to do, are iffy. They can resemble slavery, in that passports are taken, pay not provided, etc.
It's a difference of scale. In the Emirates, the majority of the residents are in a condition of slavery.
Thanks for making that point.
https://thistleandmoss.com/p/elon-musk-pathological-fcking-liar-b2d
Muskrat is a fuggin idiot
Even the leopards are saying WTF at this latest debacle in Trumpistan! With Stinky Steve, Elon and Looney Laura going at it tooth and nail and Elon retaliating against anyone who doesn’t agree with him, it’s getting to be quite a show! And Diaper Don has no idea whose side he’s on! This one calls for popcorn and tequila, it’s so fun to watch MAGA tear itself apart
Haha, the MAGAts who cheered musk buying Twitter and turning it into fascist paradise are losing their paid-for blue checks or getting booted off. Be careful what you wish for!
Going to listen to the five old white maga guys holding court at a specific Starbucks. They are loud, fixed news & felon-loving devotees. I deleted this one Starbucks bc of them. Maybe stop into a former fav diner & listen to the maga crowd's convos.
You are very brave, Teri. Please report back. 😬
Teri, isn't there somewhere else to go?
Yes, but with leon, loomer, Bannon & maga at war, I want to hear if they've reached the FO stage! Schedenfrude!
And Linda McMahon referees it all!
Hey, Jeff, you probably saw this already but the NYT acknowledged your greatness today in a fun article called The Best Sentences of 2024. Seriously!
How cool!!!
In past years I never paid much attention to Musky; so imagine my surprise when this past year as I’ve been watching him, I’ve found it all seems to link back to control.
He doesn’t care that he lost eight hundred kajillion dollars of value when he bought Twitter, he gets to control the flow of communication between all of his peers, and that’s much, much more important.
I don’t think he cares much that he’s making all the other Nazi boys and girls upset on the playground. He’s having too much fun being a bully and manipulating his pal, Donnie Darko.
Realize that with Musky, it’s all about controlling other people. Just like Dumpf, when you don’t like the asshole you’ve become, you start trying to manipulate others. These are the clay feet conservatism is built on - making others as miserable as you are by taking stuff away from them. It’s a sad, empty existence that all the billions in the world won’t fix.
Your last paragraph reminded me of a bumper sticker I saw at Yellowstone -- "Annoy a Republican and help someone."
I think I need a brain scan. Within one mere week, I agreed with a post from Loomer (earlier in the week about Musk) and Bannon's post about Musk. "The enemy of your enemy is your friend" syndrome.
Along with loopy loomer and sloppysteve, add 🤢 Ann 🤢 Colter. Broken clock syndrome.
The blind leading the blind….the ignoramuses leading the ignoramuses…the weasels leading the weasels…ugh.
Donnie: "No one can afford bacon!" "Egg prices are too high!"
Donnie: "We must deport 15 million legal and illegal immigrants."
Connect the dots, Donnie. The hard working humans you are expelling are the people who work in the meat processing plants. They clean and pack the eggs. They pick the lettuce, grapes, apples, strawberries--everything in the produce department of every grocery store in the country. You remove these law abiding families and the supply of food drops. Demand for food isn't going down to keep balance. So prices must rise.
Donnie, you think the MAGAs were pissed at Biden over $5 eggs? Go ahead and arrest and imprison and deport the immigrants. And see what happens. More than price increases, the food will rot on the ground. Empty shelves in the stores. Think the MAGAs will run out to the farms and do those jobs?
Durpitude!
what ya wanna bet donnie boy still believes chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows?
he only has 2 food groups ... BULLSHIT & MICKEY D's!
NO butterfingers for YOU INFIDEL!
How in the world did the good guys fail to do their duty and abide by their oath of office? Garland failed. Biden failed. The DNC failed. They are allowing a bad faith oligarch thief and a dumb shit conman take control of the government.
Joe still has the power to stop Musk and Trump. The Supremes gave him the green light. Will he do what's right or is he too far gone? Where are his advisors on this?
"My fellow Americans. Our domestic and international intelligence agencies have uncovered a conspiracy that imperils our nation. As your President and chief law enforcement officer I will take the necessary bold and forceful action, as defined by the Supreme Court, to protect this nation from enemies foreign and domestic.
We discovered that Elon Musk and his associates used their communications platforms and AI tech to deceive American voters in the recent election. Their lies and targeted Harris imposter efforts led 6 million voters to believe that the Democratic candidate stood for positions that were not true. Mr Musk also manipulated his X platform in support of Donald Trump. These were election law violations.
We have also discovered that the illegal manipulations were coordinated with Donald Trump and his campaign. And therefore the President elect is likely guilty of election fraud.
I have directed the Secret Service, the CIA and the US Marshalls Service to apprehend Mr Musk and Mr Trump and confine them to jail without bail. This investigation will continue through the scheduled January 6 election confirmation and the scheduled January 20 inauguration. Therefore these procedural events will be postponed until the conclusion of the investigation, trial and final rulings."
Schumer announced that the Democrats' key strategy against Trump's extremism will be to fight it out in the courts. Period. So it will be BIden's appointed judges versus the Aileen Cannons of the circuit courts.
We can’t expect the SCOTUS to do the right thing. This will be an uphill battle at best: 24/7/365 after 1/20/2025!
Cannon is way out numbered.
The only way Magats will do those jobs is if they are on a chain gang.
Burke, excellent post. Mass deportation of meatpacking, produce & field workers will raise prices, as you said. Now smack a 25 percent tariff on billions of dollars in food, produce coming in from Mexico. Is there no one in convict's orbit drawing pictures of this impending food crisis for President Musk & convict? Maga's already mad over importing foreign workers. At what point do they turn on convict?
Dear "Uncle Jeff": Thank you for keeping us sane. I just love your sarcasm and I know i'm speaking for many of us here. My favorite line was regarding brainless Laura Loomer: "you do that, Laura. you bring it to the Senate. maybe handcuff yourself to their doors. we’d all love to see how that plays out." LMAO!!!!!
I don’t know what I would do without my daily dose of sarcasm from Jeff!!
HI Tess! You and me both! LOL!
The level of hypocrisy with MAGAtville has always been stunning. Now they are having to face off with each other. First they say horrible racist, stupid, hate-filled things, then lie to everyone’s face that they never said it and then say the opposite and then circle back around to their original raging, ignorant bullshit. Not one of them can keep track of what they are saying and what the other one is saying and doing. 🎉🤪🎊😝
Yes, it's just a circle jerk.
Hannah, may the circle jerk morph into a circular firing squad.