Memes etc.

My, my, my, Little Richard certainly was fine, wasn't he.

ICEholes

You know Alligator Alcatraz is still up and torturing don’t you?

It was ordered to close by a federal judge in August after a wave of criticism and a lawsuit by environmental groups. However, by October, the facility was operating again with hundreds of detainees after two Trump-appointed appellate court judges, one whose husband has close ties to DeSantis, blocked the closure ruling. (source) 

A new report out from Amnesty International speaks of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” with harrowing conditions.

Florida-based organizations have reported that, “food portions are extremely small, sometimes full of maggots, and detainees suffer from frequent hunger.” The individuals that Amnesty International spoke with also said that the water they were given to drink smelt bad. An asylum seeker said that once he opened up the jug of water that was in the cage he was in and there was a large insect inside. (source) 

They are in cages exposed to the elements. Toilets are located in the sleeping area. They’re out in the open – no privacy. They’re also regularly clogged and overflowing. I’m flashing back to The Rat in the ‘80s – a punk club in Kenmore Square, Boston. You did NOT want to use the can there, man. DO NOT. Joint was perma flooded. Imagine trying to sleep in that. Imagine being imprisoned in that.
 

Of those in ICE custody since October 1, 2025:

Nearly three in four (73 percent) had no criminal conviction.

Nearly half had no criminal conviction nor even any pending criminal charges.

Only 8 percent had a violent or property criminal conviction.

Only 5 percent had a violent criminal conviction.

A majority of criminal convicts had vice, immigration, or traffic convictions. (source) 

Tell me again how ICE is only going after the worst of the worst. This is about race.

Native Americans are regularly harassed by idiot ICEholes.  At the beginning of November these miscreants tried to abduct actress Elaine Miles (most famous for her role on the the show Northern Exposure) who’s a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon. The fucker who stopped her, said her tribal ID was fake. “Anyone can make that.” Eventually they let her go. 

This is hardly the first instance of Native Americans – people who have been on this land well before our pasty-ass white ancestors immigrated – being harassed and/or detained by these midget dicked, chicken shit, masked, brainless thugs.

A blonde, white woman in medical scrubs (a doctor? A nurse) was pulled over and dragged from her car in Key Largo, Florida as she screamed that she’s a U.S. citizen. Why’d they go after her – a blonde, white woman? I imagine her boyfriend is brown or maybe she has a vaguely Mexican sounding last name?

ICEholes sure do love to attack people they feel can’t or won’t fight back. They’re NOT going after the worst of the worst. They’re NOT going after drug dealers, rapists, murderers, gang bangers or other violent criminals. Why not? That’s dangerous work! They might get hurt! Also, their job is the ethnic cleansing of the U.S. They have fuck-all to do with crime prevention.

Bits and Pieces

I’m regaining some mobility after last weekend’s no fun hospital time but I’m still without a good, distracting book. You know what this means don’t you? Yes, I’ve been reading the news and jumping down too many rabbit holes.

Fer instance, did you know that, “when the settlers came to the new world they found very widespread child sacrifice.” This is according to Yale Law’s most embarrassing grad, VP J.D. Vance (or whatever name he’s going by this week). He said that ending the practice (amongst Indigenous peoples) was “one of the great accomplishments of Christian civilization.”

First, child sacrifice was NOT a widespread practice throughout his mislabeled “new world.” (thank you, the Americas had been around, occupied, and civilized just as long as Europe – nothing “new” about it, you dumb shit.)

Second:

The Spanish Christians may have ended the practice among the Aztec and the Mayans, but they did so with a genocidal brutality that far exceeded even the most egregious Christian concoctions of indigenous human sacrifice.

The murder, enslavement and cultural destruction of indigenous peoples committed by Christian colonizers worldwide must rank as one of the most brutal crimes against humanity in all of history.

Today’s Christian apologists spend an inordinate amount of time covering up the historical facts of their brutality, while simultaneously extolling the virtues of Christian culture through fabrications of their role in history. (source) 

Ending the practice by killing or enslaving everyone isn’t exactly a “great accomplishment” in my book but maybe Yale Law has different, MUCH lower, standards than me. 

I know this is small and really off topic BUT, our sleepy racist pedo Prez's recent tantrum about and threats to the Somali people of Minnesota made me think – my god, I’ve never had Somali food and I’ve heard it’s awesome! Closest Somali joint I can find is in my old neighborhood, near the MIT campus in East Cambridge. Tawakal Halal is too far for takeout but, when I’m healthier, I’d be up for a dine-in.

Somehow, this brought me down the path to cuisine from Ghana, which I’ve also never tried. There’s a restaurant closeby called RedRed Kitchen. Looks AMAZING.

I feel quite sure that future historians will refer to our current period in history as the Dunning-Kruger Era.

Dunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills. (source) 

Cornell University psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger wrote that “Those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.” This clearly describes the entire current administration and every single idiot who voted for it.

So, if you survive, you can tell your great grandchildren horror stories from the Dunning-Kruger years. 

Or maybe, instead of calling this the Trump Administration, it will be referred to in history books as the Dunning-Kruger Administration? Possibly with an asterisk to a one word footnote – Trump.

According to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a nonpartisan public policy research arm of the State University of New York (SUNY), only 55% of the vile monsters who do mass shootings/murders (outside of Pete Kegseth ordered hits) are white men (okay, I guess that would also include ol’ Plastered Pete too). The kill rate per capita for white guys is, shockingly, negligibly higher than in males of other races. Honestly, I’m stunned.

Gun happy mass killers can be of any age but they tend to fall into two clusters. School shooters are usually between 16 and 25 years of age. Those targeting other venues tend to be slightly older – the average falls in the mid-30s. 

Peak massacre time seems to be late morning. I guess this allows for a nice lie-in, a leisurely breakfast, a little Call of Duty, maybe a shower, and then they dash out the door to kill a bunch of humans. If they play it right, they can be home in time to have mom make a sammie or two before she goes to her book club or where ever the fuck she goes. Unless of course he's slayed her earlier on his way out the door.

Thursdays, closely followed by Mondays seem to be the most popular for mass murder. Really, any weekday is good. Killers seem to lay low on the weekend though. I get it. NO ONE wants to work on the weekend.

So, there ya go…that’s all my bits and pieces for today. You’re welcome…and shit.

Under the Bus (or sinking boat)

So, Prez Pedo and his drunk, Fox chat show, faux tough guy WAR chief are throwing Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley under the old bus. 

On one hand, the Pentagon's talking head said that Bradley was “operating under clear and long standing authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated” and Kegstand “stands behind Admiral Bradley, 100%.” Sounds like the Pentagon was saying Bradley was Nuremberging it – just following orders. All this means is that he wasn't the root of the murder, just the trigger.

Interestingly, only the day before, everyone’s favorite cross-wearing, lying sack of weasel excrement, Karoline Lievitt, said that “the Admiral directed the engagement.” That it was Bradley who ordered the murders of everyone on the boat and that it “was well within his authority to do so.”  These fuckers really should try to get their lies aligned.

Now then, Bradley’s a 1991 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He’s got a Master of Science degree in physics from the Naval Postgrad School in Monterey. He’s earned two bronze stars. From what I’ve read it sounds like he’s an intelligent man. He seems to be bright enough to know an illegal order when it's given to him or when he is the one issuing it. Right??

Over at PBS News, Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, weighed in on the legalities.

A second strike killing survivors would have been illegal under any circumstance, armed conflict or not, Schmitt said.

He said he doesn’t believe the U.S. is in a legitimate armed conflict with drug cartels, which he said would have to be committing a high level of violence against the country itself....

If the U.S. is not in an armed conflict, that means it violated international human rights law, which governs how countries treat individuals, including in extrajudicial killings, Schmitt said.

“You can only use lethal force in circumstances where there is an imminent threat — imminent like now — to life or really serious injury,” Schmitt said. “And that wasn’t the case.” 

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group and a former State Department lawyer, agreed that the U.S. is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels.

“The term for a premeditated killing outside of armed conflict is murder,” Finucane said, adding that U.S. military personnel could be prosecuted in American courts. (source) 

The Admiral’s smart enough to know all this, so, what gives? Did he really think the Lyingest Liar Who’s Ever Lied and his drunk, tiny dicked, I’M-A-REAL-HARD-GUY, pet Secretary of Murder wouldn’t stab him in the back the second they got caught out of line? Or did Bradley just have a big hard on to murder brown people? Was he power mad? Maybe afraid of the blowback he'd get for disobeying an obviously illegal and immoral order? Suffering from Spinal Flaccidity? 

Why isn’t Prez Pedo throwing war criminal Kegstand under the bus? Why's only the Admiral going down? Does Plastered Pete have dirt on Trump that’s worse than anything that’s already come out about the Pedo in Chief? Does Petey's rapey, out of control, bin-brained, druggy tendencies affectionately remind Trumpy of his own self? He’s mebbe got a soft spot for drunken fuck-ups? Does Pete’s hyper macho posturing give Pedo Prez a slight stiffie? No, don’t answer that.

Will the military take this betrayal and perversion of their oath lying down?  My Magic 8 Ball says Don't count on it .

I’m Home

That's the good news – I’m home. Home and alive. I did NOT come home in a jar. Cake was very happy to see me – as I was to see him. Of course. 

I only mention it but, the overall ambience of Mass General would be greatly improved by the addition of cats. Don’cha think? I mean, seems obvious. To be fair, to the canine inclined amongst us, there could be dog floors and cat floors. Think about it – Mass General is huge. 

Fer instance, there are five floors to the 14 story neurological building (one of nearly 30 buildings on MGH’s main campus) which house patients. Two floors could have cat attendants, two with dogs, and one for patients who for prefer to go furless (for whatever reason…we don’t judge). The addition of our furry friends would, doubtless, accelerate healing times which would accomplish the goal of reuniting patients with home and family faster. In turn, this would free up beds so the hospital can treat more sick people. People are better served and the hospital corporation profits increase. 💥 BOOM 💥 everyone wins!

Back to my news though…the not great new is that my ingrown toenail infection was SO heinous that Lucifer himself was horribly disgusted. Despite pouring gallons of antibiotics into my veins for two days, the infection was unmoved. At first the podiatrist thought she’d simply remove a part of the nail, add antibiotic goop plus oral antibiotics. Nope, on further inspection, the entire nail had to come off.

I am desperately unhappy about this. She was able to do it yesterday afternoon – it was quick and relatively painless but WICKED gross. The whole business brought too damn many images of the xenomorphs from Alien: Earth  to mind. I mean, totally, man! Yes, I know, I know, given how much time I spend in hospital, I really ought to be inured to all this blood and guts stuff by now. Honestly. I believe I’ve a tendency, a history of being more stoic, more scientific about innards and such when it’s someone else’s OR when it’s my own but seen on screen and in black and white (i.e., I absolutely love reviewing my MRIs with Doc Plotkin. I find them downright fascinating even.)

Anyway, this latest health crap sets back my recovery from my 512 bazillion surgeries even more. NOW I need to regrow a goddamn, motherfucking entire big toenail on the foot that I have less feeling, movement and strength in. Fucking joy. I really want to be a cyborg. I’ll start small with an implanted toenail, k? I can work my way up to new balance and audio systems. 

As Ten was driving us home through evening rush hour traffic last night I was thinking, “eh, I survived. This is another boulder in my recovery path BUT I’m not dead yet.  I’ve got Ten, Jen, and Oni taking brilliant care of me and there’s always Cake!”

I got to sleep in my own bed last night. The bathroom is right across the hall instead of two doors down and I can take myself there instead of waiting for a nurse. AND Ten just brought me blueberry/raspberry/spinach pancakes (!!!) in bed. 

I’m home.

OOF!

 I’m inpatient at Mass General (blogging from the glitchy telefonino) and have been since yesterday morning.

Jen took me to the Urgent Care facility in the next town over from us (to avoid having to drive into the city) and they were beyond useless. Basically, they said “yup, you’ve sure got an infection all right. Nothing we can do about it here so you’ll have to go into the emergency room.” Lovely. Had I known that Urgent Care places are the rough equivalent of a school nurse—able to diagnose a cold or an ouchie once you tell the nurse you have one or the other—I would have gone directly to the ER without the pointless extra step.

Anyway, MGH REALLY likes me. They kept me and have been pouring gallons of antibiotics into my veins while waiting for the results of blood tests to come back. Today there will be other tests, more waiting, doctors, and SPECIALISTS! All for what started as an ingrown toenail.

At this point, I’ve not been given any idea of when I might go home. The docs still don’t know why I’m not getting better.

I’m not thrilled about this. In fact, I feel a bit shocked. How did I get here?! How did a simple ingrown toenail turn into a mystery infection and a god-only-knows-how-many-days stay in the hospital?

Also, I only mention it but the rooms are much nicer over in the neurosurgery recovery building. bitch, bitch, bitch…HEY, I gotta go with my strengths here!

More Fun in Invalid Land

Well, I’m off to Urgent Care again. 

We went there this past Tuesday after it became clear that my little ingrown toenail issue was beyond the over-the-counter meds and warm soak’s ability to cure. Yeah, it was infected. The doc prescribed an antibiotic which, after five days, seems to have made only the most minor of dents in the pain, redness, and swelling. Shit's spreading. Joy.

I suppose the fact that it's not working on my problem should come as no surprise. I’m a complicated patient and I was diagnosed at one of those Urgent Care facilities versus my doctor's office. Granted, it's a joint associated with my hospital and doc’s office so they have access to my history and all my records. Still, the Urgent Care doc spent, at most, just five minutes, if that, with me and was clearly in a rush. Hopefully whoever's on duty this morning will be more focused, less harried.

Before we head in this morning I’ll make an organized list. 

• Symptoms – what are they, how long I’ve had them, how they’ve developed.
• Complicating factors that may effect diagnosis and/or presciption – vascular and neurological issues.
• Concerns – this has been going on for nearly three weeks now. What the fuck?! Why am I not getting better? WHEN will I start feeling better? WHEN can I comfortably wear socks and shoes again. I mean, this is New England and it’s practically winter fer fuck’s sake!

Okay, must calm down. I’m just SO sick of being sick.

Psycho Killers

I thought Cheney and Rumsfeld were psycho killers. They were pathological warmongering freaks. Hegseth’s more of an off-the-charts ruthless, unfathomably disturbed, egocentric, tiny dicked moron. With his "kill everybody” orders, he makes Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer look like amateur hour wannabes.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, following the first striking of a boat in the Caribbean in September, issued a verbal directive to U.S. service members to "kill everybody" with a second strike that would leave no survivors, according to a new report from the Washington Post.

The Post reported that the second strike was conducted at Hegseth’s discretion and carried out by the counterterror group SEAL Team 6 after two survivors of a vessel allegedly carrying narcotics were spotted. The vessel originally held 11 individuals before it was struck by a missile off the coast of Trinidad.

“The order was to kill everybody,” one of two people with direct knowledge of the operation told the Post. (source) 

This, mes amis, is a brill example of an illegal order. You know, the sort that Senator Mark Kelly mentioned in the video address that he and five members of congress, all veterans, made where they reminded service members of the oath they took to the Constitution.

Article 92 and Obeying Orders
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Article 92, service members must obey lawful orders. Failure to obey a lawful order can lead to serious punishment, including court-martial.

 But there is a key qualifier: the order must be lawful. If an order is manifestly illegal, service members not only may refuse it — they have a duty to do so. Obeying an illegal order can expose a service member to criminal liability.

When Is an Order “Manifestly Illegal”?
Not every questionable order counts. Courts have held that for an order to be manifestly illegal, its unlawfulness must be clear and obvious. Classic examples include:

• Orders to target civilians. 
• Orders to falsify official documents. 
• Orders to commit crimes such as theft or assault.  (source) 

You remember the senator from Arizona, don’t you? He’s the former navy combat pilot who flew 39 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. He was an astronaut. Piloted the space shuttle. He knows his stuff. 

OF COURSE Kegsbreath is huffing and puffing and threatening the elected, former military, leaders who made the vid. Mr. Secretary of “War” himself gave out the peak motherfucker of all illegal orders.

Why was it illegal? Because the civilians weren't armed combatants. They may have been up to no good, but they posed zero threat to US military forces. Killing them was nothing but stone cold, gratuitous, jack-off murder. 

Sec. Douchenozzle went full metal war crime with his kill them all order. He violated international humanitarian law according to the 1907 Hague Peace Conference and that shit’s on tape. 

How about Admiral Frank Bradley and Seal Team 6 who carried out his orders? Should they all be brought up on murder charges? Absolutely.

Psycho Killer – Talking Heads