A Confederacy of Rapists

Tuesday morning I woke at 1:30 and could NOT get back to sleep. This meant that I got fuckall done yesterday. It was pretty warm and sunny out. Good day for a walk—nope, too tired. I finished my last book (Monster by A. Lee Martinez—good, funny escapism) and could have started my new find (Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson) but nope. I couldn’t gin up the brain focus. What did I do? Doomscroll.

Yes, I’m fully aware—THIS WAS A BAD IDEA. DUH! What did I learn? Humans—we’re just leaky, barely sentient stacks of smelly, highly unpredictable thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Except for those of us who are highly predictable. Take Mango Mussolini (PLEASE!) and his similarly narcissistic, fellow Russian asset, the drug addled pet piggy bank, Leon (possibly his replacement for MIA J.D. Couchfuck?). For what it’s worth, the entire Fascist Party is ridiculously predictable.

Fer instance, all their accusations about gays, drag queens, and trans people sexually abusing women and children? Yeah, meet some of their NOT-a-drag-queen child rapists:

Pedo Zachary Radcliff? There are a minimum of 10 victims, aged 12 to 17. He's a Michigan youth pastor and a MAGAt.

Marvin Scales was a youth pastor in Waxahachie, Texas where he raped and impregnated a 14 year old child. This was NOT his only victim either—just, as far as is known, the only one he knocked up. 

• An aside: it’s Texas—the victim carried her rapist’s parting "gift" to term. She was 14!

Elsewhere in Texas, Luke Cunningham, youth pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church in Lubbock, was canned after being informed by news media that he’d sexually assaulted children while pedo pastor at the big box Turning Point Community Church.

Turning Point’s head pastor even gave Luke a positive job performance recommendation. Was the executive preacher unaware of pedo Luke's crimes? Was his job rec part of a scheme to get rid of Luke before lawsuits and bad press poured in? Did the exec, like Gym Jordan, know what was going on and not give a good goddamn?

Not a youth pastor but a child raping pastor nonetheless—James Edwin Cowan of Little River Community Church in Arkansas won’t be out of the clink to rape more kids anytime soon.

For a real horror show, google youth pastors abusing children and you’ll see page after page of these “christian” predators. These aren’t adherents of JC's teachings. Nope, they’re pedo-christofascists. My advice to parents—do NOT take your kids to church. IF you simply must, do NOT leave them alone with pastors of any stripe EVER!

The most dangerous people are the ones who claim they’re doing god’s work.

This brings me back to Mango Musellini’s picks.

Matt Gaetz for Attorney General? Pete Hegseth defense secretary? And Trump is the Rapist in Chief. Color me utterly unsurprised.

“There is a moral dimension; you are talking about horrific behavior. Behavior that many people who voted for Donald Trump would never tolerate in their community in their family, in any context whatsoever. And yet Donald Trump...one appointment after another, it's almost as if this is now a requirement on your resume you have to have a sexual abuse or allegation against you.”
~ Charlie Sykes

You can bet they’re all guilty of every accusation they’ve hurled at others. AND, I really hate to admit this BUT, I agree with Marge Greene on something (which is unlikely to ever happen again)

“For my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate, If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see,” Taylor Greene wrote on X
~~~
She concluded with what appeared to be a veiled threat: “I’ll make sure we do.” (source) 

DO IT, MADGE!

Monday in Pictureland

Today's a good day to read funny sci fi/fantasy novels, walk along the seawall, and artscroll versus doomscroll. Also, snarfing a cocnut covered, dark chocolate bon bon or two might be a smart idea.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
~ Buddha

If you want to write a song about the moon
Walk along the craters of the afternoon
When the shadows are deep and the light is alien
And gravity leaps like a knife off the pavement
~ Paul Simon, Song About the Moon

Cian McLoughlin 
Shouting Man (Orange), 2020, chalk on paper

Cody Cobb
CC23.1937, 2023, C-type print facemounted to acrylic

Carole Hodgson  
Trees in the Wind, 2024, Ink, acrylic, crayon, graphite

Adam Zyglis

Pics and Such

Breakfast of Champions!

Michael de Adder

You remember the Bobbitts don't you? Seems relevant, no?

Mike Luckovich

Mt. Hood as seen from Ten's son, Jaxon's back porch.

Copium

How are we going to survive the next four years? Once trump and his disastrous party institute the Project 2025 playbook, how will we weather the monstro shit storm?

I only mention it but, given the Facist Party’s (AKA Republican Party) precedent of rolling over like an ultra submissive dog whenever their orange leader opens his anus mouth, there’s a solid chance it’ll be more than four years. He’s already hinting around about a third term.

Speaking before the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, the 78-year-old soon-to-be forty-seventh president openly joked about running for a third term, telling the crowd that they could “figure something else out.”

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s so good we got to figure something else out,” Trump said while laughing, according to the Associated Press’s Farnoush Amiri. (source)

Pres-elect Assface wants to kill the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. He’s promised to leave Social Security and Medicare alone BUT anyone with half a brain knows that his “promises” are worth less than one of his shit filled diapers.

How will those of us who lack bodaciously stellar health (*cough* ME!), major moolah (*cough, cough* MOI!), who need secure affordable housing, help with buying groceries, legal assistance, job training, healthcare assistance, etc. make it?

After the fascists cut taxes for the wealthy, the government agencies will all be hopelessly crippled if they still exist at all. What can we do once he puts the wheels of our demise in motion? WHERE can we find help?

In a quick search I found the website Findhelp

At Findhelp, our mission is to connect all people and the programs that serve them, with dignity and ease.

You type in your zip code and voilà, up comes organizations in your area which may be able to assist. Categories include food, housing, goods, transportation, health, education, work, legal and more. Under “health” I found a page for prescription assistance. This could save my life. I take a dozen pills each morning—one stops my seizures (I take two of those per day), one to forestall tumor growth, two different pills for blood pressure, one for a wonky thyroid, another for my essential tremors, etc., etc., ad nauseam. Without Medicare subsidizing my prescriptions, without other assistance, I'm toast.

Star Jelly

Options—Findhelp provides options. I’m figuring, the more “successful” the fascists are in destroying all but the rich, white and compassion-free, the more these organizations will become overwhelmed. Until then, we have a chance.

Maybe the big box christians could help?(ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Geez, I crack myself up.) 

Joel Osteen's net worth is estimated to be between $40 and $100 million. As of 2024, Kenneth Copeland's net worth is estimated at $300 million. In 2018, Rick Warren had a net worth of $25 million. These people have bucks to burn. Surely they could cough up a few shekels to feed the poor, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and pay for a brain surgery and meds.

Will they? I wouldn’t bet a nickel on it.

Hello Darkness

 The mistake I made was thinking more Americans were good than bad. In my rare moment of optimism and hope, I was wrong.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
~ H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

Not just a moron—a poisonously hateful, desperately insecure, preening, zero self-awareness moron. We elected the Dunning-Kruger effect made flesh and he’ll have the nuclear codes. 

Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.
~ Vladimir Lenin 

Liberty and freedom are for wealthy white men—the rest of us are fucked. I wonder how long it’ll take for Roy and Rita Redneck to realize they’ve been had. How will they cope after the incoming moron administration kills the ACA and Medicare? Will they snap out of their delusions when their kids die of measles, mumps, polio, flu, COVID, etc.? Health insurance will be financially out of reach for them too. They’ll die, just like me. The difference is that they voted to do this to themselves.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
~ Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World

And this, mes amis, is Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, J.D. Couchfucker, Elise Stefanik, Tom Cotton and so many others. They all managed to attend elite universities and should absolutely know better but they spout the stupidest, motherfucking nonsense. Why? They’re pandering to those less intelligent who hold their prejudices, insecurities, and bigotries tight, like protective shields. Why? It’s an easy path to riches. Gull the rubes and you don’t have to work hard for fame and wealth, vacays in Cancun, and big houses in fancy neighborhoods.

People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.
~ Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.
~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.
~ Naomi Shulman

How can I be a part of the resistance? I’m a late-deafened woman who needs a walker to get around. I’m still unable to walk more than three eighths of a mile at a time. How can I protect myself and my loved ones from the incoming administrations mondo greed, intellectual incontinence, and extreme criminality? I WILL find a way.

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Sound of Silence—Paul Simon

Changes

This is Walter (at right). He’s Oni’s brother Kevin’s boy. They’ve both come to live with us here in Valhalla. This is good. Walter is still a bit shy but Jen and I feel that, with the application of treats (and more of them), we can coax him out of his shell.

So far, Skitter (at left), who’s MOST def not a people person, is fine with her new roomies.
~~~
Maybe this is just me but, whenever I visit Facebook, I rarely see posts from actual friends or acquaintances. What do I see? Random recommended pages, ads, suggestions of people to follow, and the like. I see posts from half a dozen friends but that’s about it. My first thought was that all these pals left the site or no longer regularly check in and post. I checked the home pages of a few—yes, they’re still posting but, no, they don’t appear in my feed. They haven’t “unfriended” me (or should that be “defriended”) so where have their their posts gone?

This is why I’m not on Facebook as often anymore. It's the annoying surfeit of ads and recommended pages—I spend more time blocking bullshit than interacting with actual friends.
~~~
My current read?
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live. (source)

I believe we could use a few of the school’s graduates about now.

Ermmm, I’ll say no more.
~~~
In May Space Karen said there would be people living in a city on Mars within 30 years. So, 2054 at the latest, eh? But in 2020 he said humans would land on mars by 2026. It’s close to the end of 2024 and he still hasn’t landed so much as an unmanned rocket on the red planet.

Somehow, I don’t think he’s gonna make either of his predictions—not 2026 OR 2054.

Like his daddy figure, trump, he promises greatness and delivers cheap-ass broken toys...IF he delivers at all.
~~~
In my head this morning.
~~~
More insane trump picks:

• Sex trafficker Matt Gaetz for attorney general

• Putin cheerleader Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence

• Anti-vaxxer and roadkill gourmand RFK Jr. to head up the Department of Health and Human Services

• Fox & Friends Weekend couch sitting talking head Pete Hegseth as defense secretary

What’s next? Sloppy drunk-on-the-job Jeanine Pirro for the Supreme Court? Three time GED failure Boebert for education secretary? Soulless Oligarch Bezos will head up the Small Business Administration?

As Jeff Tiedrich notes:

for the second day in a row, America was introduced to a whole new cast of toadies, lackies, dipshits, ass-kissers, incompetents, ideologues, and low-wattage empty suits whose current jobs are to look good on Fox News. (source)

Elect a clown, you get a circus.

We're Riding in a Clown Car of Crazies

Kristi Noem will be Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security? RILLY? WTF?!?!?! This is the puppy murderer, right? She shot Cricket and left him in a gravel pit. She shot her family’s pet goat too. Bast only knows how many other family pets she’s offed.

She’s lied about meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Noem claimed she’d “stared him down.” When caught out she said that she, like totally, could have intimidated the fuck outta the murderous, nuclear-armed dictator. Howzat? Because she used to look after “little tyrants” as a children’s pastor. (BTW, “christian” children’s pastors are rather well known for abusing their charges—google it. Pedophilia isn’t just for Catholics—it never was.)

Noem claimed to have canceled a meeting with French President Emanuel Macron. She didn’t. She never HAD an appointment with him nor had she been invited for so much as a cup of tea.

“While in Paris, I was slated to meet with French president Emmanuel Macron,” Noem wrote. “However, the day before we were to meet, he made what I considered a very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press. So I decided to cancel.” (source)

Nope, this was just another product of her fevered imagination. Also, WHY would the president of France want to meet with the governor of a state whose entire population is less than half the size of his capital city? I mean, fer fuck’s sake, she’s a nobody, a nonentity even in her own state. ALL nine of South Dakota’s Native American tribes have banned her. Instead of apologizing for her lies about them she doubled down, claiming tribal leaders were profiting off of Mexican drug cartels.

Girl went OFF about the “war zone at the border.” What borders South Dakota? North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Not Mexico, not Canada.

She’s a power-mad, ridiculously incompetent doofus. A pathetic clown.

I only mention it BUT her promise to deport US born children of undocumented parents violates the 14th Amendment.

AMENDMENT XIV
Section 1.
 All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (source)

I read that the Orange idiot has chosen Jesus humper Mike Huckabee to be the ambassador to Israel. Brilliant choice, eh? Who better to bring about Armageddon than an inept christofascist pillock? FYI guys, the rapture’s a fairy tale. You can try to force your god’s hand but I think you’ll be disappointed. Also, probably dead.

I’m guessing that all the Palestine protest voters will be pleased with themselves when they see Donnie Dipshit and Bibi finish off the Gaza Strip. 

Marco Rubio, who’s usually busy tweeting absurd bible verses, is expected to be the next Secretary of State. Looks like Trump/Rubio will be giving Putin Ukraine as an Xmas gift.

Prick Scott, best known for monstro Medicare fraud, is hoping to be the next Senate Republican Leader

Rick Scott was in New York yesterday skipping votes, kissing up to Trump, and reminding everyone that he oversaw the the largest Medicare fraud in history.

Mike Luckovich

Scott mistakenly thought no one would remember how he “took responsibility” for his company defrauding Medicare recipients and military families out of millions. (source)

Extreme toady, Elise Stefanik, will be the ambassador to the United Nations.

Stefanik’s sole contribution to foreign affairs recently has been her extremely vocal defense of Israel as it continues its onslaught against Gaza. Beyond that, her diplomatic skills might be a little atrophied. (source)

"her diplomatic skills might be a little atrophied?" Yeah, that’s putting it mildly to say the very least. Hand-job Barbie and Marge Greene are the only choices that would have been worse.

Unsurprisingly I now have R.E.M.’s song, It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine), stuck in my head.

Words, Gods, Cookies, and Sharks

Wazzock
     noun
A stupid or annoying chump.

Originally meant "bull's penis" (originally described to me as "bull's prick"). See also "wazz" …used for human urination in the West and North of England (source)

The Adderall snorting, illiterate, burnt orange prez-elect is a complete wazzock.

Chump
     Noun
A person who is easily tricked : a stupid or foolish person

Etymology: 1703, "short, thick lump of wood," of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of chunk (n.) or a nasalized variant of chub (compare chuck/chunk and Old Norse kumbr for kubbr "block of wood"). Meaning "blockhead" is first attested 1883. (source)

Trump is a chump. All it takes to dupe this dope is flattery. He’s so needy and stupid he actually believes every word.

Pillock
     noun
A stupid or annoying person : a simpleton : fool

Etymology: The origin of pillock is believed to go back to the 16th century meaning penis. From the Norwegian word pillicock, presumably akin to the slang Dickhead meaning inept fool. (source)

Trump = pillock on industrial strength steroids.
~~~
Jen, Oni, his brother Kevin and I have just started watching Kaos.

Kaos is a darkly funny riff on Greek mythology. Zeus, Hera, Prometheus, Dionysus, Cassandra, Orpheus and Eurydice are all alive in current day Crete.

• Zeus (played by snackalicious Jeff Goldblum) is paranoid, vain, and neurotic.
• Hera’s got spies everywhere and is keeping a close watch.
• Prometheus is plotting.
• Dionysus wants to be given more, real responsibility but Dad and Mom (Zeus and Hera) don’t seem to think the party boy’s up to it.
• Eurydice’s no longer in love with rock star Orpheus but leaving is hard.
• And no one pays attention to Cassandra...of course.

I can’t wait for the next episode!
~~~
Are macarons just French (by way of Italy and Catherine De Medici) Oreos? I love Oreos but macarons? C'est magnifique! 

~~~
A good response to the dickheads repeating that deranged, psycho Fuentes’s your body, my choice tweet? Dead men don’t rape—said while staring the fuckfaced dipshit straight in the eye with a fierce mien. Finish with a frightening, condescending laugh.
~~~
Did you know?

Orcas are hunting sharks in the Gulf of California, targeting large species including bull sharks and blacktips, scientists reveal. (source)

Apparently, this is normal. Orcas eat sharks—also yachts. Okay, they just attack, not consume, the rich fuck’s boats. They also aren’t so much into making meals of people. Why not? Undoubtedly the yacht set are full of nasty chemicals (Botox) and inedible plastics. ISH!

They've been around so long that sharks are older than a whole bunch of things we think of as having always been there. The exact date of the emergence of sharks is a matter of ongoing research but it's generally accepted that they showed up in the world's oceans between 450 and 400 million years ago. (source)

Humans, on the other hand, have only been around for 300,000 years. Fucking newbies.

Sharks are older than the rings of Saturn which formed 10 and 100 million years ago.

Trees? Younger than sharks. They’ve only been here for 390 million years.

The North Star (AKA Polaris) is somewhere between 45 and 67 million years old.

Once again, sharks for the win at 450 to 400 million years in existence. MAYBE sharks came here from Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d—planets which, due to their low density, may be largely composed of water.

Water wasn't directly detected at Kepler-138 c and d, but by comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, astronomers conclude that a significant fraction of their volume – up to half of it – should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium (which constitute the bulk of gas giant planets like Jupiter). The most common of these candidate materials is water. (source) 

So, sharks might have been the first visitors to planet Earth. I wonder what their spaceships looked like. Did they run out of rocket fuel and get stuck here?