Patti Smith will perform her debut album Horses in
full on tour to celebrate the LP's 50 anniversary. The tour will
feature feature guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, both
of whom played on the original 1975 recording.
The
anniversary trek will kick off on Oct. 6 at Dublin's 3Arena, with dates
in Madrid, Bergamo, Brussels, Oslo, London, and Paris. Smith will head
to the U.S. the following month, with shows beginning Nov. 10 at
Seattle's Paramount Theatre. The U.S. segment will also stop in Oakland,
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington D.C.,
and Philadelphia.
Smith's
band will include Kaye and Daugherty, as well as keyboardist/bassist
Tony Shanahan, who has toured with her for thirty years, and guitarist
Jackson Smith. A press release notes, "Please join us to help celebrate
the final ride of our irreverent thoroughbred."
The upcoming tour marks 20 years since Smith performed Horses live
in its entirety for the first time. She initially revisited the album
in 2005 for its 30th anniversary during Meltdown Festival in London,
which she was invited to curate that year.
Trevor
e-mailed last week about Patti Smith. He wondered why I don't giver
Patti "her due." Well I have praised TWELVE. I passed on
BANGA. Those are the only two studio albums she's released while I've
been doing reviews online.
So
I kind of feel like I'm giving her "her due." I won't argue or deny that
HORSES is a landmark album. The best song she ever wrote was "People
Have The Power."
And that's generally where I start to lose
enthusiasm. Don't care that she fell off the stage at a concert I was
photographing. Helped me make money. Do care that she showed up too
drunk for a photo session I would have been paid for by a magazine.
Patti's problematic.
She
engaged in a serious (and one-sided) rivalry with Debbie Harry that was
disgusting. It was there from the start of Patti's career but got
especially bad after Blondie notched their first of four number one
hits. Patti didn't really have hits. "Because The Night" (written with
Bruce Springsteen) made it to number 13 -- the only song she had that
hit. Along with her rude remarks about Debbie Harry (a genuinely nice
person), she also pissed people off -- including Rev Jesse Jackson --
with b.s. like her song "Rock and Roll N-" and there's the fact that she
made herself a joke. Gilda Radner ended up taking that joke and
turning it into Candy Splice on SNL. And instead of being a good sport,
Patti griped and whined about that too.
Then
she got married to a man who was known for abusing women. She went
away. She came back and tried to do so as though they were Yoko and
John. Her husband was just creepy.
He finally died and she came back and was actually a stronger artist and made better work, work that compared to HORSES.
But if you go over the above, I think you'll understand why so many found her problematic.
And I think you have to agree that she made her own problems.
To
this day, Debbie Harry has never uttered an unkind word about Patti.
But those of us who are Debbie Harry fans are not so silent. If Patti
could have dropped the n-word from her songs, she might have had a
better career. She refused to do so. That's why we all know Blondie's
many hit songs -- eight went top forty -- not counting the hit "Maria"
on the adult pop chart and the dance charts -- but the average rock fan
would be hard pressed to sing along to any track on HORSES other than
the one that includes Van Morrison's "Gloria" (and there they'd only be
singing along to Van's part of the song).
Tori Amos will bring the magic of her debut children's book, Tori and the Muses, to five cities on her forthcoming book tour.
The
musician and author will host reading events in New York; Baltimore;
Naperville, IL; Corte Madera, California; and Los Angeles in March. The
book is set for release on March 4 via Penguin Workshop/Penguin Young
Readers. Tickets are on sale now.
Way
to go. You haven't had a hit album since 2002's SCARLET'S WALK.
You've since released nine flop studio albums in a row -- including one
that only sold 20,000 copies. You've pissed off your fans with one
release after another. Instead of trying to do something for your fans,
you're boring them yet again.
When she's on some GOFUNDME project 20 years from now, remember that she destroyed her own career.
Tuesday, February 112, 2025. As the country appears to be headed
towards a Constitutional crisis, James Zogby and others show up -- after
the election -- to insist it's not their fault -- that they tanked the
election to prevent the highly qualified Black woman (yes, it really was
about race and gender) from being president.
Let's start with Rachel Maddow.
That's
the frightening world we live in right now -- where court orders are
being ignored, where Donald Chump is refusing to follow the rule of law,
the checks and balances put into our system from the start to ensure
democracy. It appears that we may be headed into a Constitutional
crisis.
Rachel
spoke with Senator Elizabeth Warren about this issue but MSNBC hasn't
posted that yet. Jen Psaki also covered this issue last night and spoke
with former Judge Nancy Gertner (former US district judge of the US
District Court for the District of Massachusetts).
If the theme of the first week of the Elon Musk and Donald
Trump autocoup was “Why isn’t anyone doing anything to stop this?” then
the theme of this past week was “Go lawyers.”
The Trump administration has been hit with over 40 lawsuits challenging
everything from DOGE’s takeover of the Treasury to the “Fork in the
Road” fake buyout scheme for federal employees. And the scoreboard is,
thus far, tilting in favor of the rule of law. Trump has lost on his
efforts to rescind birthright citizenship, on his attempt to freeze
government spending, on efforts to shutter the U.S. Agency for
International Development, and on an attempted purge of the FBI. Vice
President J.D. Vance and Elon Musk, in response, have now floated the
idea of just ignoring judicial orders they dislike, but thus far we
haven’t seen much of that. With the caveat that the courts have no army,
at least at this moment the red line manned by the judiciary seems to
be holding. On this week’s Amicus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick spoke with former Judge Nancy Gertner, who is on the board of State Democracy Defenders Action,
one of the many groups filing lawsuits to protect government employees
and public data from Musk’s efforts to move fast and break things. Judge
Gertner is a former United States district judge of the U.S. District
Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is a senior lecturer on law
at Harvard Law School. Their conversation has been lightly edited and
condensed for clarity.
Some reactions on BLUESKY.
That is a major problem and there are so many problems that the convicted felon is creating for our country. At THE MARY SUE, Rachel Ulatowski notes South African born Alien Musk:
Elon Musk has given a
23-year-old DOGE employee access to the Energy Department’s IT systems
despite alleged pushback from the department, which oversees the
country’s nuclear weapon arsenal.
Since
Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk has relentlessly pushed himself and
his so-called DOGE into every corner of the government. He forced his
way into sensitive government information from USAID, putting the agency’s security chiefs on leave to do so. Additionally, he gained access to federal pay systems in the Treasury and student loan systems in the Department of Education,
including the personal information of millions of Americans and
students. It’s highly unusual for someone who is not part of an official
government agency and who has not been elected to a cabinet position to
gain the level of access to sensitive information that Musk has seized.
Even more concerning is that Musk’s 19 – 26 year-old DOGE employees are
accessing this information, too.
Musk has been suspiciously secretive about his DOGE employees, refusing
to release many of their names and qualifications for their positions.
There are concerns about how, or even if, he’s vetting these candidates.
Given that one DOGE employee has already resigned after promoting racism and eugenics, Americans have reason to be concerned with who
exactly Musk is giving access to classified government information,
especially since they could potentially access information relating to
nuclear weapons.
Musk is a security threat -- as are his employees. No one elected Alien Musk to any office.
This is where we are. And people need to take accountaility.
Instead,
there's a strong desire on the elements of the left that tanked
Kamala's campaign to continue to insist that it is not their fault. It
is not their fault!
It is your fault and you better damn well own it.
And
don't give me any number count. It was always about optics and feeding
the lie that Democrats didn't support Kamala. DSA' useless 80,000
members couldn't tank her campaign by withholding their own votes. The
point was for them to to establish a false narrative that their friends
could amplify
I should have known the ridiculous James Zogby would show up eventually to try to lie his way out of it.
James
Zogby -- as Mike noted last night in "Idiot of the week James Zogby" -- is attempting to rewrite history.
In order to do that, he has to lie. That includes lying about who he
is: A Socialist. James, let me be clear, we -- actual Democrats --
don't want you in leadership and we have already begun working to limit
your influence on the party. For all I do up here calling out the
liars, I spent twice as much time face to face and on the phone ensuring
that those of you who chose to risk our democracy are never, ever in
the same positions of power. Never.
In
furtherance of the protest vote, the DSA called supporters to “make
calls, text voters, knock doors and organize.” While Biden easily won
the primary with over 81 percent of the vote, over 13 percent of voters,
some 101,000 people, selected “Uncommitted.” About 43,000 people voted
for Democratic primary candidates other than Biden.
Despite
attempts by media efforts to present this protest vote as an expression
of Biden’s collapsing support only among Muslim and Arab-American
populations in Dearborn and other areas around Detroit, “Uncommitted”
garnered at least an 8 percent vote in all 83 counties in Michigan. In
total, 73 out of 83 counties in the state recorded at least a 10 percent
vote for “Uncommitted.”
The
Democrats, and the ruling class as a whole, are terrified that this
mounting opposition to “Genocide Joe” will lead to a break with the
Democratic Party and capitalist politics entirely.
Many
of those voting “Uncommitted” have no intention of voting for Biden in
November. However, as one of the organizers of the effort, former Rep.
Levin, made clear before the vote, and afterwards in an interview with
Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, the
purpose of the campaign was to “send a message” to Biden: “We are your
base, we want to win in November, and in order to win we want peace
now.”
In
the same program, James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab
American Institute and director of the influential political research
group Zogby Research Services, reiterated, “As the congressman said, as
the organizers of this movement have been very clear, this is not the ‘Abandon Biden’ movement. This is the ‘for god’s sake, shape up or you might lose in November’ Biden movement.”
In the same vein, Branko Marcetic, writing in Jacobin, the
house organ of the DSA, went out of his way to stress in a February 28
article titled “Michigan’s Primary Shows Biden Is Courting Political
Suicide” that the “Uncommitted” campaign was seeking to save Biden’s
presidency, not challenge it.
We've
told you before that red diaper baby Amy Goodman rigged her coverage to
tank Kamala's campaign. And she was there at the start of the lie
about this so-called 'movement.' As was James. It was a Socialist
movement. As Rebecca noted, we have not called it an Arab movement or a
Muslim movement because, in fact, it was Norman Solomon's movement. It
started out as and that failed. For those who don't remember, it was
2022 and the 'movement' was called "Don't Run Joe" and it was started by
Norman Solomon. The dilettante quickly learned that no one
cared. But when October 7, 2023 took place, Norman realized he could
harness his campaign using Gaza and using a Palestinian-American as a
front to hide behind. He then got cocky. In his October 14th column, Norman Solomon declared,
"I have no intention of voting for Harris" After the fall out --
Norman can't work a real job and has always been dependent upon
donations to make a living -- he backtracked in his October 22nd column and also offered a different take in his October 28th column.
What happened? Norman's never earned an honest buck in his life. The
dilettante has always been dependent upon donations to make a living.
He burns his bridges (see Sean Penn). And it was made clear to him just
how much money his various foundations and fronts could lose. So he
walked that back.
But are
you getting yet how you were conned and deceived? If you were an
actual Democrat, they targeted you as their mark. And that's not going
to happen again. DSA is a tiny group and they're a group that's going
to be outed every day for the next four years. And Democrats are going
to know what they did and hold them accountable.
James
Zogby, you were never that important to begin with. Have you not
noticed that you've been sidelined of late? That's only going to get
worse. Those of us who fund the party are making clear with every
donation given and every donation denied that you cannot be trusted and
must be held accountable for your actions and your lies. We are a
united front against you.
This
shouldn't be surprising -- even a microcosm fights for survival. And
those of who are actually Democrats are appalled at you non-Democrats
who tanked our candidate. And, honestly, at this point, I would just
shrug. I would shrug and continue on with my life. I wouldn't be
hiring private investigators, as I am now, to ferret out every piece of
dirt I can. What's the difference?
This
was not a normal presidential election. We didn't see Mitt Romney
ushered into the White House -- someone we disagreed with but knew would
follow the laws.
This was Kamala Harris or Donald Chump.
And
we all knew from his previous four years, from his leading an
insurrection against our government, from his use of racism to garner
support, just how dangerous Donald Chump back in the White House would
be. We all knew it.
Immigrants
are devastated right now. They are scared for their safety and their
lives. And that's not on them. They didn't vote because they couldn't
vote.
Those of you who
could vote and didn't vote for Kamala have doomed them. You have doomed
so many in this country and you may very well have helped destroy
democracy.
Grasp that I'm
not ruled by fear. I called out THE NATION here with their stupidity of
insisting something was "the torture election" and that we either
rejected it or lost our country. That was hyperbole and then some.
(Especially when you consider the candidates that they were pimping
really weren't against torture.) I don't believe that fear is a good
way to win elections.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger did not back Kamala out of fear. They showed real bravery and real loyalty to their country.
And
let me step aside from my main point for one moment here -- James
Zogby, your ridiculous defense of Arabs and Muslims who voted for Chump
or Jill Stein or just didn't vote is insane and reinforces stereotypes.
How dare you offer 'their people' and think you're helping them. They
are American citizens -- that's why they could vote in a US election to
begin with -- so their people? That would be the American people.
And as a 'trusted voice' who elected to speak at events and to speak
for them to the press, you should have made that very clear to them.
It's
amazing how you rush to minimize your responsibility when, just weeks
ago -- before idiots grasped what a very real threat Chump was, you were
boating about these numbers:
The national results show Green Party candidate Dr.
Jill Stein received 53% of the Muslim vote, followed by President-elect
Donald Trump with 21% and Vice President Kamala Harris with 20%.
CAIR also released Michigan-specific responses from 502 registered
Muslim voters, revealing that Dr. Stein received 59% support, with
Trump at 22% and Harris at 14%.
Now that the country is suffering you want to backtrack. No, Zogby, you own this. And we will make sure that you pay for it.
Back
to the main point I was making is this was not a normal election, we
knew how bad it would be under Chump. We are now living under him.
Every
morning, I get up hating the fact that I have to do a snapshot.
Because I'm sick of being online? I was there back when FRINGE started,
remember? That's when I was supposed to shut this down and planned
to. But Ava and I were reviewing the new show FRINGE and had a problem
with one aspect and were speaking with two friends who were producers on
the show about it and were told that the issue we had would be
addressed. So, in writing our review, we noted that and said we'd look
at in a few months. And we weren't thinking and that meant there was no
stopping at the end of 2008. That might be why I loathe Leslie Cagan
and the others who were UFPJ so much. They were an alleged organization
dedicated to ending the Iraq War and yet they got to close shop in
November of 2008 while I was stuck continuing. And it's been a six
month renewal since then. I loathe being online. I would love my old
life back. That's not new to today.
What
is new is how the administration attempts to overpower and overwhelm us
with their crimes and threats. And I hate that. Fortunately, I'm not
new to this. I know I can't focus on everything. I grab what I can
cover and will note other issues and news via excerpts and reposts. But
I am very, very lucky and I don't pretend otherwise. So many people
are not. And if I am feeling overwhelmed, I can't imagine how they
feel. Imagine being trans right now? "It gets better." We said that
in the past. Can we honestly say it now? If Chump destroys our
democracy and our country, no, it doesn't get better. It gets much
worse for trans persons. They get scapegoated more and people stop
objecting to violence or do you not get how that works in history?
Immigrants? "It gets better." How? If they're tossed back to a
country that they had to leave to stay alive, how and when does it get
better for them?
These
idiots f**ked with a lot of lives. James Zogby can try to pretend that
we're coming after Muslims and/or Arabs all he wants. We're not.
Because most Muslims and Arabs in this country were not stupid enough to
be misled by Norman Solomon and Rashida Tlaib. But, yes, in her area,
they were. And, in her area, they are deeply homophobic as evidenced by
the war Dearborn and Hamtramck have declared on LGBTQ+ people. That
started four years ago and it is outrageous that Zogby and others have
silenced that with the threat of calling someone anti-Arab or
anti-Muslim.
I don't care
what you call me, I'll speak the truth. In addition, unlike most of you
leftist dilettantes, I didn't drop Iraq when the US media pulled out
(at the end of 2008 -- with few exceptions). I covered it on through
2024. Look hard through all that years of daily coverage for when I
offered anti-Arab sentiment. You won't find it. I also covered Gaza.
You won't find anti-Arab coverage there either.
I
will call out the Socialists in the US who misled and outright lied
(SEP didn't, DSA-ers did -- that's why we don't highlight Kyle Kulinski
anymore -- like Kyle and if he ever comes out about being a Socialist
-- as opposed to creating another cover group like "Justice Democrats" I
will happily note his commentaries again -- I think he makes many
strong points but I can't hold just some political closet cases
accountable). I will call out the homophobes in the US regardless of
their religion or ethnicity or race.
Again,
these are very depressing times. And I'm someone who has the least
reason to be depressed. MAGA can't hurt me. Chump can't hurt me. So
if this is frightening and depressing for me, I know it's so much more
for those who are in the frontline of being targeted and scapegoated.
Jose Luis had stopped to pump gas on his way to work in southern Texas when his family’s whole life changed.
ICE
agents pulled up out of nowhere and demanded to know his immigration
status. The father of five, who came to the United States from Mexico in
2010 when he was 19, was quickly placed in handcuffs and taken away.
Now, he is facing deportation and permanent separation from his wife and kids — and the family’s sole income is gone.
“His
little girls ask every day ‘Where’s Dad? What time is he coming home?’”
his wife, Rosa, who doesn’t want to break her children’s heart by
revealing the truth just yet, tells The Independent. “I have to tell them he’s out working.”
“I’m really stressed right now, like really, really stressed. I don’t know what’s next,” she says.
Jose
Luis is one of some 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. —
many of whom have lived, worked, paid taxes and raised families in the
country for years — who are being targeted by
authorities in what Donald Trump’s administration has promised to be the
largest “mass deportation operation” in American history.
Some
did vote for this. Latinos for Trump voted for this. Idiots who
listened to Socialist Rashida Tlaib voted for this. Jose and Rosa didn't
vote for this. They are immigrants, non-citizens, so they didn't
vote. But some of those Latinos for Trump? They insisted that people
like Jose would not be impacted. They insisted that Chump was only
going to go for the 'criminals.' Did they not listen or are they just
extremely stupid?
Chump
said he was going to rid of the criminals. Did they not realize that
Chump had called all immigrants who were undocumented "criminals"? How
did they miss that? Because they wanted to.
Jose
and Rosa didn't hurt anyone, didn't break any laws. Now they and their
children -- who are American citizens because they were born in this
country -- are all getting kicked out.
So,
forgive me, James Zogby, if I don't give a damn about whatever lie or
justification you're serving up today. That family is suffering and
they're suffering because of you and all the other idiots who couldn't
listen and wouldn't hear. That's on you. Maybe shut the hell up, sit
your tired ass down, think a moment and don't open your mouth again
until you're ready to apologize and beg for forgiveness. Beg. Beg.
You
idiots and fools put us where we are now. You've left us with the hope
that maybe in two years we can grab a house of Congress or both.
At
which point, you better believe impeachment proceedings will begin.
But even that may be too late. As Chump goes around firing everyone and
forcing them to arrive, who's going to help Congress remove him from
office?
Or are you so damn stupid that you don't realize there is no police force that the Supreme Court controls? Are you that stupid?
You have condemned this country to suffering.
There
is no do over. We don't get perfection at the polls. I wanted Katie
Porter as my US senator. I voted for her in the primary. Adam won the
primary. I didn't sit out the general election or vote for his
opponent. I voted for Adam and he's standing up and I'm glad. But he
was not my first choice. And most of us don't get our choices. We get
two choices for president -- sometimes three -- and that's it. We have
to support the best choice. Not voting was not the best choice. Voting
for Jill Stein was not the best choice. Voting for Chump was not the
best choice. But that's what 'uncommitted' urged. And now they have to
live with it.
We have to live with the threats resulting from their stupidity so, yes, they have to live what they did.
Judd Apatow has shared a striking warning for the Hollywood stars who voted for Donald Trump.
The writer and director, whose credits include Knocked Up and Funny People,
was hosting the Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards in Los Angeles
on Saturday (8 February) when he addressed the newly elected US
president.
Addressing the elephant in the room, Apatow acknowledged that there were probably stars in the room who voted for Trump.
He
told the audience: “There’s a good chance that some of you in this room
voted for Trump. I won’t judge you, I won’t judge you. But God will.”
Good for Judd.
The
losers who backed Donald Chump include: Zachary Levi, Alicia
Silverstone (remember that Karen and don't forget her -- she slammed
Stacy Dash for supporting Mitt Romney), Jon Voight (the closet case),
Mel Gibson (the disgusting), Dennis Quaid (closet case), Sylvester (perv
-- read YOU'LL NEVER MAKE LOVE IN THIS TOWN AGAIN) and Justine
Bateman. I'd say we should ensure that their careers are over but
that's already happened.
Film star Richard Gere slammed President Donald Trump and warned of the rise of authoritarianism globally during an awards show in Spain over the weekend.
“I’m
coming from a place now that we’re in a very dark place in America,
where we have a bully and a thug who is the president of the United
States,” Gere, 75, said as he accepted a lifetime achievement trophy at
Spain’s Goya Awards on Saturday.
The crowd cheered.
But Gere -- who last year announced he was moving to Spain, where his wife, Alejandra Silva, is from ― said the problem isn’t confined to his homeland.
“It’s everywhere,” he said. “Everywhere.”
He said he read a “moving letter” in the New York Times from a writer in Hungary who warned of the “slippery slope.”
“Authoritarianism
takes us all over,” he said. “We have to be vigilant. We have to be
alert. We have to be energetic. We have to be brave. We have to be
courageous. And everyone who’s watching this -- in the Spanish-speaking
world and elsewhere ― we have to be willing to stand up, tell the truth,
be honest. And there’s a place in all of our lives for basic kindness,
for basic love and understanding.”
Good for Richard Gere. In fact, let me note my top ten favorite Richard Gere films.
1) RUNAWAY BRIDE -- my favorite
2) RED CORNER
3) PRETTY WOMAN
4) AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (Richard never matched the chemistry he had with Debra Winger, not even with Julia Roberts)
5) DAYS OF HEAVEN
6) YANKS
7) INTERNAL AFFAIRS
8) DR. T & THE WOMEN
9)
LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (Richard is one of Diane Keaton's pick ups and
the one who stands out the most -- he has a scene with a knife where he
dances/lunges around in a jock strap)
10) UNFAITHFUL
Please note that I enjoy other of his films including AMERICAN GIGOLO, SHALL WE DANCE, THE DOUBLE, CHICAGO, POWER, etc.
The only one of his films I loathe is BREATHLESS -- and that film lost me at the beginning with the tossing of a music cassette.
Monday, February 10, 2025. South African born Alien Musk continues to
control the US government as he tries to destroy it, JD Vance joins
Alien in attacking the judiciary, the political closet cases who
destroyed the turnout for Kamala and their enablers mistakenly think we
can all be friends now, Susan ("Medea") Benjamin applauds Alien Musk
online, and much more.
We're starting with Billy Joel.
Dreamt
of his "It's A Matter of Trust" and Prince's "Trust" -- the latter of
which is a little too upbeat and fast paced for me trying to ease into a
Monday morning with blood sugars so bad right now I'm dizzy. So we'll
just go with Billy.
It is a matter of trust.
If
you go to BLUESKY of late, you'll find some well meaning people and
some flat out liars regarding how we move forward this year and the
next.
The well meaning people are enablers and idiots. The
liars are just liars. They both insist, that we need to come together
on the left and work together.
Here's an example of a well meaning person.
Here's my reply.
Now? After the election? Reminds me of DEATH BECOMES HER.
No, the time to come together was before the election when it mattered.
Uncommitted
-- a Socialist movement led by Socialists like Rashida Tlaib, her
sister and Norman Solomon -- took the position that they would destroy
Kamala Harris' run. That's what they set out to do. And, as sister
Layla insists, as the election approached, if they had backed down, the
Democratic Party would never take them seriously again.
Again?
Layla, when do you think those of us in the Democratic Party took you seriously?
You
lived in a political closet. You and your crowd posed as Democrats.
Do you really think we would ever take seriously grown adults who were
Socialists but tried to lie to the larger public and pretend that they
were Democrats.
You're fakes and frauds. The
SEP members (another US Socialist party) do not feel the need to hide in
political closets. We take them seriously.
But
little liars like yourselves who do nothing but run rat f**k games as
you try to destroy us? No, we don't take you seriously.
And that was our mistake.
There is no "now" for a coming together.
The
time to come together and work together was when we had a chance to
keep Donald Trump out of the White House. And while Democrats, swing
voters, independents and Republicans were working to make that happen,
you were working to destroy Kamala.
Now? Now we're going to work together.
Why in the world would we work with people we don't trust.
Did you miss this Socialist?
Look, there's Susan Benjamin -- stage name Medea -- yet again coming to Donald Chump's rescue.
We don't need you Socialists.
No, we don't.
What's
going to happen over the next four years is what happened with Ralph
Nader after 2000. We are going to do the verbal and written equivalent
of smashing your head against a brick wall or through a plate glass
window over and over again.
Now, I didn't take part in that in 2000 (or after the 2000 election). But I did understand it.
And
what you and the other traitors to this country will understand is that
you're not trusted, you're not wanted and you're not leading a damn
thing.
The political closet cases hail from
DSA. It is not a Democratic Party organization. It's a small number of
Socialists (approximately 80,000 members in this country). And they
rat f**ked the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris' election.
They
got away with it because they and their enablers pretended there were
no Socialists in this country. Which is how, for three months leading
up to the election, Amy Goodman could present the lie over and over that
Democrats weren't crazy about Kamala. The point of the lie was to
suppress turnout. To show how much damage Socialists could do the
Democratic Party. So Amy brought on all these Socialists -- and one
Communist -- to pose as Democrats and degrade and insult Kamala.
They pulled that off.
And now they're going to pay for it.
In "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism,"
Ava and I take on Eoin Higgins' new book. It's garbage, it's trash.
And if someone is recommending it to you in these tough economic times
-- recommending you spend your money on it -- they're either someone
afraid to do a true critical appraisal or they're part of the hidden,
political closet cases.
Eoin himself is a
political closet case. As Ava and I note, the book is filled with
Republicans, MAGA, Tea Party members and Libertarians. Otherwise? The
"left." Never explored never defined. We're all just Democrats
apparently. This even though Eoin is citing one Socialist after another
that he worked with over the years.
It's lying. It's lying from a political closet case.
We
point to an AP poll right before the election, right before. Showing
that the Democratic Party was split on Gaza. And that's truth that
Socialists worked overtime to hide. Because that reality undercut their
"KAMALA IS SO EVIL AND WON'T LISTEN TO US!" She did listen to you, she
did meet with you (including Layla) she just wouldn't give you
everything you wanted. And when four out of 10 Democrats did not agree
with your goals and aims, she would have been stupid to have done so.
But that reality got hidden from the people.
So, no. We can't all get along now.
These
people destroyed the country and their actions may bring about the
destruction of the Democratic Party. If you think -- and maybe you
don't, a lot of these people are ignorant and stupid -- this goes away,
you better learn your history.
The Green Party
ran Nader in 2000. They not only refused to run him again (he ran on
the Reform Party ticket in 2004), the Green Party did a safe-state
strategy where they asked people to only vote for them if the voters was
in a safe state -- meaning one that would go Democrat.
We
are all, in this country, already suffering because of you rat f**kers
who posed as Democrats and used that lie to pimp that Kamala was a good
candidate.
Socialists want the destruction of
the United States system. That is DSA's ultimate goal and what they're
working towards. Had voters watching DEMOCRACY NOW! or reading THE
NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, COMMOND DREAMS, et al had that knowledge, they
wouldn't have thought there was no difference between Kamala and the
Convicted Felon.
However, you've worked this
out in your head, you need to replay it because this doesn't end well
for you. By tanking our nominee, real Democrats are not going to put up
with you, we're not going to tolerate your lies, your games and your
bulls**t. You declared war on us.
Sad for you, there are about seventy million of us. And there's only 80,000 of you.
Or
there were only 80,000 of you. As the reality continues to sink in on
how you harmed our country, you're going to find people walking away
from you.
Oh, sure, Kyle and Cenk will get
together again (or their equivalents in four more years) and come up
with some cute little name like "Justice Democrats" for Socialists to
hide behind. But we'll be blasting that wall down, the one you're
hiding behind.
So for those who think it's time
to give rat f**kers? Step aside or get caught in the crossfire because
collectively the Democratic Party is going to protect ourselves. And
for those of you who think you can trick us, you can't. You've lied
forever and a day. And we looked the other way and indulged you until
you put Chump back in the White House. We're done pretending you're not
Socialists and we're done pretending like we don't know that you're
Socialists.
You attacked the Democratic Party at a time when we needed to rally. That will not be forgotten and it will not be forgiven.
DSA
turned on a US House Rep over Gaza. They're also currently struggling
with AOC. The smartest thing in the world politically for AOC to do if
she wants to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2028 is
to let the current break with DSA become a permanent break. They can't
help her. At this point, the only thing that they can do is hurt her.
I need to pull in Trina before I forget again. Friday, Trina's "A pig boy named Colin King"
went up. It speaks for itself but I will first off applaud Trina for
calling the bully out. Secondly, DSA is standing on quick sand. They
pose as Democrats, yes. And they fool people. And those people then
attack Trina, myself or anyone who points out the truth that Rashida is a
Socialist. When Trina or I bring up the proof? They vanish. Just
like their support for Rashida. You tricked your own supporters.
They're not happy about that. And that's why you should never have gone
into a political closet to begin with.
Your supporters find out you lied to them. How do you think that makes them feel?
Tricked.
You
are standing on quick stand and you are no position to threaten the
Democratic Party now or in the next elections. You're getting exposed
for what you are.
We've covered this here
repeatedly. But for those just walking into the room, I'll note this
that Ava and I attached to the end of the book review:
Every
day, a few more people learn the truth about what went happened and a
few more people get inoculated against DSA. There is no coming together
with people you can't trust and, again, you're the new Nader and you're
going to live with the same fall out.
These
people did their part to put Chump back in the White House. Instead of
falling to their knees and apologizing to the American people, you find
them online cheering on Alien Musk and his DOGE efforts -- as with the
already noted Susan Benjamin. No, there is no forgiveness, there is no
healing, we're not going to work together. Ben Makuch (GUARDIAN) reports:
Now
in 2025, as a “special government employee” heading up the “department
of government efficiency” (Doge), Musk is going to war with those kinds
of government diversity and inclusion programs and slashing whatever he
sees as a “waste” of public coffers.
Laurence Tribe, one of the nation’s leading and
preeminent constitutional scholars and a professor emeritus at Harvard
Law School, has already argued that much of Trump’s blitzkrieg of
executive orders on the day of his inauguration disregards the US constitution. He told the Guardian he saw Musk’s actions as furthering that culture.
On
whether or not Doge and Musk can legally have this much power over an
array of government departments, Tribe was emphatic: “NO.”
Tribe
said the lack of guardrails being placed on Doge’s maverick
initiatives, raises “both” questions of illegality and ethical
wrongdoing that can be challenged in court. As for Musk’s status as a
federal contractor (such as his StarLink work with the Pentagon) and now a government employee, Tribe sees it as “absolutely” a legal conflict of interest.
But
Susan Benjamin supports DOGE!!! As we have argued since 2009, when
Susan Benjamin was saying that US troops didn't to remain in Afghanistan
(and she was getting called out by ANTIWAR.Com for doing so), it's past
time CODESTINK broke ranks with her and forcibly retired her. Tara Suter (THE HILL) reports the latest on Alien Musk:
Tech billionaire Elon Musk called for the annual firing of judges following an early Saturday decision from
a judge stating that the Treasury Department should bar access to its
payment systems to anyone besides “civil servants with a need for access
to perform their job duties.”
“I’d like to propose that the worst 1% of appointed
judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year. This will
weed out the most corrupt and least competent,” the tech mogul said in a post on his social platform X.
The order halts special government employees and those detailed from
outside the department from getting into the systems, which includes
Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Foreign
born Alien Musk of South Africa is currently serving at least two
masters -- the governments of the US and China. And considering the
rivalry between the two, people need to be questioning how effective
this foreign born person is to the US?
Alien Musk is not
the only boyfriend of Donald Chump's that is attacking the court
currently. The Convicted Felon's little buddy JD Vance is also
attacking the courts and insisting that the administration doesn't need
to follow the law. Yasmeen Hamadeh (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:
Vice President JD Vance
was mocked Sunday for seemingly lacking a fundamental understanding of
democracy after he suggested that judges shouldn’t be allowed to
“control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Despite graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Vance questioned the authority of judgeships in an X post Sunday,
writing: “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military
operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the
attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s
also illegal.
[. . .]
While some, including Musk,
applauded Vance’s comments, others were quick to criticize the vice
president’s post for its seeming disdain toward the government’s system
of checks and balances.
New York Rep. Daniel Goldman replied
to Vance: “It’s called the ‘rule of law’ @jdvance. Our constitution
created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and
balances on each other (‘separation of powers’).
“The judiciary makes sure that the executive follows the law. If you do, then you won’t have problems,” he continued.
J.D. Vanceraised the eyebrows of legal experts
on Sunday by suggesting Donald Trump's administration might refuse to
comply with a lawful court order. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court probably also noticed, according to a political analyst Sunday.
"I think the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Chief Justice John Roberts,
is also paying attention to this particular tweet from J.D. Vance,"
Coley said. "And I'm not saying that he is normally following the tweets
of a Vice President of the United States, but he saw this coming, the
chief justice did."
He continued, noting that, "Back in December,
he issued his end of year report, where he warned people of all parties
of the necessity of holding themselves to the rulings of courts, even
when people disagree with them."
Friday, Senator Elizabeth Warren's office issued the following:
“The millions of families who
rely on ED to help them achieve the American Dream deserve answers
about reports that an unelected billionaire and his team now have access
to some of their most sensitive personal information.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led 16 of
their colleagues in sending a letter to Acting Secretary of the
Department of Education, Denise Carter, launching a probe into recent
reports that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has
infiltrated the Department of Education (ED) and that “DOGE staffers
have gained access to federal student loan data, which includes personal
information for millions of borrowers.”
The letter was joined by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Richard
Durbin (D-Ill.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley
(D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy
Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris
Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.),
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
There are over 40 million federal student loan borrowers in the
United States. ED’s student loan database contains millions of
borrowers’ highly sensitive information, including Social Security
numbers, marital status, and income data.
“This deeply troubling report raises questions about potential
exposures of Americans’ private data, the abuse of this data by the
Trump Administration, and whether officials who have access to the data
may have violated the law or the federal government’s procedures for
handling sensitive information,” wrote the senators.
According to public reporting, “a handful of 19-to-24-year-old
engineers linked to Musk’s companies, with unclear titles, could be
bypassing regular security protocols” during DOGE’s infiltration of
federal agencies. The senators also raised concerns that the access
provided to DOGE-affiliated staff by the Department may violate the
Privacy Act, which generally prohibits the disclosure of such
information.
“We are especially troubled by this reporting given President
Trump’s stated pledge to abolish the Department,” concluded the
lawmakers.
“The millions of families who rely on ED to help them achieve the
American Dream deserve answers about reports that an unelected
billionaire and his team now have access to some of their most sensitive
personal information.”
Additional reporting suggests
that DOGE has “fed sensitive data from across the Education Department
into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency’s programs and
spending.” The 18 senators requested answers from Acting Secretary
Carter about DOGE’s access to federal student loan data and any other
sensitive databases by February 13, 2025.
###
Let's note this post LGBTQ NATION has done on BLUESKY this morning:
Immigrants
(and those who appear to be) and LGBTQ+ people (especially transgender
persons) are the most attacked right now under Convicted Felon Donald
Chump and his underlings JD and Alien. And yet Susan Benjamin shows up
to declare her support for DOGE?
Are you
getting now why we can't afford these non-Democrats posing and
pretending to be one of us? Why we can't 'all get along' now? This is
about people's lives and even after they tanked the election, these
people not only can't apologize, but they're still working to harm
immigrants and LGBTQ+ members. They are not our friends. They are not
our allies. They are not deserving of our support. We have real people
in real jeopardy that we need to be supporting and working with right
now. The fake-ass political closet cases are on their own.
