Reflections from the Heart of the Empire: Bonfires of Horror and Absurdity

Plus a deer on ice

• UPI reports that Palestinian prisoners released by Israel show signs of torture, and even released unedited photographs. UPI? Israel, another bell just tolled for thee.

  

• Donald Trump is using a methodology similar to that of Franklin Roosevelt in 1933—he’s throwing all the shit he can against the wall to see what sticks. The fact that his goals are different is irrelevant to my point.

• The only difference is that Trump is using executive orders instead of legislation, but the principle obstacle remains the same—the Federal courts.

• The wailing of Trump’s critics about the End of the Republic and the Rise of a Tyrant must sound very familiar to FDR. I’m sure he’s having a good chuckle.

  

• Given the amount of wailing over the prospect of Trump abolishing the US Agency for Imperial Domination(USAID-the very acronym is doublethink), he must have succeeded in cutting off the flow of grift to many who never saw it coming.

• Imagine their shock at the new Emperor refusing to obey the generations-old directive that the grift must flow their way. A traditional Padishah Emperor Trump is not.

• It’s not that Trump has anything against grift in principle; he just wants to take it away from the same people who have been trying to imprison or, even more stupidly, martyr him for the last 9 years.

  

• Speaking of both grifters and the unexpected, Elon Musk recently said,

American weapons programs need to be completely redone. The current strategy is to build a small number of weapons at a high price to fight yesterday’s war. Unless there are immediate and dramatic changes made, America will lose the next war very badly.

• The sociopathic South African born with a blood-red emerald spoon in his mouth is right about that. The US Navy’s surface fleet, for example, stands as much of a chance against Iranian and Chinese shore-to-surface missiles as wooden sailing ships did against ironclads. (Below: CSS Virginia sinking USS Congress, 1862)

• I really do wish Musk would give up his spasmodic Dr. Strangelove salute, though. I keep expecting some Russian to let slip that he’s unintentionally activated some new doomsday weapon.

  

• Even more hilariously, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to a softball question to say Democrats were inciting violence by bleating things like “We’re at war” to defend USAID(Ilhan Omar) and “We have to fight this in the streets.” (Chris Van Hollen)

• So when someone says “We have to fight this in the streets” he’s engaging in hate speech and committing a crime. This is why I don’t think hate speech should exist as a legal thing.

  • It’s like Greg Brady in that Brady Bunch episode where he runs around trying to hold others to their exact words.

    

  • You said X, therefore you think X. Thinking X is a crime because we say it is. It doesn’t matter whether you act on it or not; it doesn’t matter if you were being metaphorical or satirical or not; all that matters is you thought a criminal thought according to us.

  • In addition to being fundamentally stupid, the concept of hate speech leads inevitably to more doublethink, more self-policing, and therefore more social control. Besides, hate speech laws are only used to suppress political speech, and are therefore in violation of the First Amendment, IMO. Please note there is no H.

  • Plus they are unnecessary. It was illegal to directly incite acts of violence long before some postmodernist asshole came up with the idea of hate speech.

• It seems Donald Trump and the Adelsons have inspired Genocide Ben Netanyahu to flights of fancy. He recently said,

The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there.

• Of course, the Saudis categorically rejected this idea, as have the Jordanians and Egyptians as to their land.

• Trump thinks he can pressure Arab countries into accepting millions of Palestinian refugees. He is as badly mistaken as his Zionist advisors.

• The Belgian Parliament passed a resolution, 101-0-39, to sanction Israel when it annexes the West Bank.

• Anyone who says they want to balance the Federal budget without calling for deep cuts to the Defense Department and black ops budget cannot be taken seriously.

• Donald Trump suspended all American aid to South Africa over a local eminent domain law. What magnificent imperial arrogance. It is no business of ours how South Africa chooses to use its land.

  • Even worse, Trump offered resettlement in the United States to white South Africans. What happened to the anti-immigration President? And why white South Africans, FFS? They don’t even open up good restaurants like the Mexicans do.

• The EU did an audit of NATO’s transportation capabilities and discovered the imperial war machine is incapable of “moving military staff, equipment, and supplies swiftly and seamlessly” across the Continent, and especially into Ukraine. The grift apparently flows elsewhere.

  

• A Federal judge blocked Elon Musk and his DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department payment system. Apparently there are confidentiality laws protecting information like Social Security numbers. Who knew?

• Finally, firefighters in British Columbia rescued a deer which couldn’t find traction on ice by means of pulling it to land with ropes. Jolly good show, eh?

  

Thank you for reading, good day or night, and good luck to the Philadelphia Eagles. They’ll need it, and at least they’re not the Chiefs.

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