Vlakplaas, Patel, ICE and US

All dressed in uniforms so fine 
They drank and killed to pass the time 
Wearing the shame of all their crimes 
With measured steps, they walked in line
-Joy Division, Walked in Line 

I read an intriguing post on Threads last night by independent journalist Justine van der Leun. Here it is:

I reported on South Africa for years, focusing on the apartheid era. When I read about Kash Patel's FBI, with the chaos and the whiskey, it reminds me of these murder squad guys I once wrote about.

They were called Vlakplaas. In the 1980s, they were tasked with torturing and killing Black activists/guerillas. The govt denied the existence of the squad. But how did they get land, weapons, paychecks, orders?

When I asked an expert what the culture of Vlakplaas was, she answered: "Drinking." 

When I interviewed former members of Vlakplaas, they also recalled drinking, first and foremost: polisie-koffie, or police coffee, a mug of Coke-and-liquor. A brew called lion teeth, a mixture of leftover spirits, peppermint liquor and raw garlic cloves poured into a wine glass. Everyone who came to their secret farm headquarters had to down it. The vast majority vomited it up. Then they partied.

These guys loved apartheid. They really *believed* in executing Black freedom fighters and hiding their bodies. They were proud to go on mission, to be aligned with power, to kill. To fight for racial segregation and white supremacy, for the big men in government whom they served.

But by the time I tracked these ex-soldiers down in 2015, they were all -- each and every one -- destroyed to some degree. Physically, mentally, emotionally, financially.

 Doing such violence takes a toll.

I'm not saying they had changed the way they thought or gained great insight into anything. Some were quite nostalgic.

I'm just saying, these men committed atrocities. They had been rewarded for it, paid to do it, claimed to love it. But they'd also had to be absolutely hammered *all the time*, to the point of illness, even as they laughed and joked. And decades on, they were unwell. They couldn't sleep. Some could barely function. 

Even if the politics of the time were on their side, history was not. Apartheid fell. These guys, once "heroes," were largely shunned.

Due to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, they often escaped concrete consequences like prison. But when I talked to them, they nonetheless lived these internal consequences. The members of Vlakplaas had compromised their own humanity, and even if they never really admitted it, even if they never could see it clearly, there was a steep price to be paid.

I didn't feel sorry for them. I rarely think of them. But I did recently, when I read about Patel and the hypermasculine, allegedly alcohol-fueled, and utterly chaotic environment that runs through this administration.

It just reminded me of Vlakplaas, that old apartheid murder squad out on a farm in rural South Africa, full of violent white supremacists who believed they were righteous, but were always on the wrong side of history.

They destroyed so many lives - even, unknowingly, their own.

Here in the US it’s not just Piss Drunk Patel and his crew, of course. It’s Stephen-Nosferatu-Miller and, previously Killer Kristi now, the profoundly dimbulbed lap dog, ManyNames Mullin’s vicious and out of control ICEholes. It’s every cop who enables their crimes against humanity. It’s the, theoretically, dry drunk, emotionally stunted, murder happy War Crimes Secretary, Pete Kegseth. 

32 people died while in ICE custody in 2025. As of May first of this year, 18 people have died in ICE custody. This includes Geraldo Lunas Campos who was choked out by guards as he repeatedly said (until he couldn’t) "No puedo respirar." (I can't breathe)

Those 18 do not include Renee Good, Alex Pretti or Keith Porter Jr. 

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner come to my mind. 

How many ICEholes, like the Vlakplaas, are drugged and/or liquored up in order to perform their insanely barbarous, sadistically vile deeds? Maybe this shit just comes naturally to them though – no chemical enhancements or inebriants needed? Are any of the US versions of the Vlakplaas self-aware enough to know how despised they are? Do they understand on any fucking level that they are failed, disgusting, and barely sentient lifeforms?

They, and their lord and masters, should all be caged in airtight, windowless rooms right next to a large pack of boxers, beagles, golden retrievers and pugs, all of whom have just consumed a bounty of black beans, broccoli, cheesy cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and peas. Maybe some ice cream too. Oh hell, throw in a comfy chair and gas mask (for me), as well a half dozen orders of saag paneer and I'll join the the hounds. Since this is all organic, it's not against the Geneva Protocols, right? RIGHT?!!

Justine van der Leun’s article in The Guardian: The odd couple: why an apartheid activist joined forces with a murderer 

Corpulent Golden Calves

Here’s the short version of the original story, as I understand it. Mind you, I’m no Torah scholar:

After Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and that whole crossing of the Red Sea thing, they had to make a pit stop so’s Mo could get more info. Directions and some such.

The crew gets to Mount Sinai — which, looking at a map just now, seems to be smack dab in the middle of fucking nowhere. 

Moses needs to hike up the mountain to chat up G-d, leaving the recently freed slaves at the base, on their own, for 40 days and nights. Not a lot to do out there in Where-the-Fuck-Are-We for over a month. Folks got antsy. ‘Course they did! No cinemas. Zilcho dance clubs. No mini-golf or Dairy Queens. Not even a lame-ass traveling carnival passing by! What’s a huge mass of freshly freed people to do?

The Israelites had to make their own fun. Clearly there were a bunch of creative types in the crew because they managed to sculpt and cast a big-ass golden calf, which they then proceeded to glorify and worship. Weird, eh? MY first inclination, on being stuck in the middle of a desert with nothing to do, would not be to create an oversized sized gold effigy of old Bessie and then start up a religion around her. That’s just odd. I mean, seems a bit disturbed, no? Were there no therapists in the crowd?

Maybe this was their kink? Really, who am I to judge? Nevermind.

An aside — where did all the gold come from? These are ex-slaves, not billionaires fer fuck’s sake. I realize this is a fable, an allegory, not an historical accounting but PLOT HOLE!

In any case, Moses comes down with the Ten Commandments BUT he and G-d are MEGA pissed about this golden calf/new religion/worship business. I mean, C’MON, I thought we had a thing going on! Weren't we going steady?

Long story short, a LOT of people died (like thousands) and stone tablets of laws got broken because Mo had a big-ass hissy fit. He had to go back up Sinai for more tablets. Time was wasted.

Moral of the story? Don’t go building gold statues of dumb animals and then start worshipping them. Especially don’t do that just because you’re bored and impatient for some promised pie-in-the-sky afterlife with streets of gold, perfect weather, no 9-5 job with shitty bennies, and, in Heaven, you’re always a size eight (even after binging on Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia). You know who promises you shit like that? Grifters and time-share salesmen (I know, same/same).

Do Republicans and Christofascists (again, same/same) actually read and understand the bible they’re always thumping so fucking hard? FUCK NO! That’s how we get this timeline’s 15 foot tall golden heifer (20’ with pedestal).

Some god grifter evangelical pastor named Mark Burns, speaking at the unveiling/blessing ceremony, hilariously and without a trace of self-awareness stated ‘this is not a golden calf.’ 

OH but it most assuredly is, you weaselly little flimflam-man! You know, it pretty much gives away the whole entire con when you have to come out and say “nuh-huh, it’s totally NOT a false idol!!! REALLY!”

Here are some funny bits about the golden heifer from the artist hired to create the mess.

• The people commissioning the cow were crypto bros and a Republican strategist. Not exactly trustworthy, respectable members of society.
• They demanded that Pedo’s labia majora by way of turkey wattle neck be ixnayed.
• His considerable rontundatudedness needed to be slimmed down.
• Unsurprisingly, Pedo’s renfieldian golden heifer sourcers 'delayed' payment (trying to stiff the sculptor no doubt!) so long that Cottrill said he eventually had to hold the statue ransom to get his money.

“‘You were supposed to make these payments nearly a year ago. I can’t trust you to do that,'” Cottrill told his wealthy patrons, according to the Times. “So I held the statue. I put it in an undisclosed location and said it won’t be delivered until the final payments have been made.”

When asked if Cottrill would ever be willing to work with the Trump bunch again, he unleashed a response with plenty of expletives.

“Once somebody has shown that they can’t be trusted to do what they say,” he added, “you don’t work with them anymore.” (source) 

Can you tell that Pedo’s bored with Iran? It wasn’t the big easy win for him — he’s losing bigly. Until he finds his next windmill to tilt at, the next target for his misplaced venomous ire, he’s shifting back to hilariously self-aggrandizing, gaudy gold painted, self-tributes.

I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did. 
~ Frank O'Hara

Tart Slams and Witticisms

You're raising the volume of your voice, but not the logic in your argument.
~  Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the infamous February ’25 Oval Bordello meeting with Pedo and JDouche

I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
~  Mark Twain 

Your ability to be positive in the face of self-inflicted adversity is inspiring,
~  anonymous 

You are so mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence. 
~  from Terry Gilliam’s movie, Time Bandits

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
~  attributed to Oscar Wilde

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
~  Groucho Marx 

The acoustics in your head must be incredible.
~  anonymous

He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.
~  P.G. Wodehouse 

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
~  Charles Bukowski.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
~  Winston Churchill

I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.
~  Clarence Darrow

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.
~  Moses Hadas

If your brains were dynamite there wouldn't be enough to blow your hat off.
~  Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

I never saw anybody take so long to dress, and with such little result.
~  Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.
~  Samuel Johnson

He had delusions of adequacy.
~  Walter Kerr

My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either.
~  Christopher Hitchens 

Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. 
~  Charlotte Whitton

In Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Chiron and Demetrius ask Aaron what he did.

Aaron: Thou which thou canst not undo.
Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.

OUCH!!! 
A few witticisms from the brilliant Dorothy Parker:

•  You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think. 

•  If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to. 

•  This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.

Q: What's the difference between an enzyme and a hormone?

A: You can't hear an enzyme.

And a few more excellent slams from Willy the Shake:

Away, you three-inch fool!
~  The Taming of the Shrew

More of your conversation would infect my brain.
~  Coriolanus

Thine face is not worth sunburning.
~  Henry V

Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon.
~  Timon of Athens

Clown Shoes

Why did Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US Prez Pedo NOT meet in front of the press as planned yesterday? 

While Trump and his team are often late to their scheduled White House events, having the meeting behind closed doors after telling the press it would be open is significantly stranger. (source) 

Possibly ultra vain Pedo was looking more ill and haggard than usual? Makeup and hair rituals took longer than usual? Was there a last minute, emergency diaper change? Perhaps he was having a particularly bad dementia day? Ya know, he was having an unpresentable and not even vaguely coherent day?

OR maybe Lula just doesn’t want to be seen publicly glad-handing a fascist pedophile even though, for the financial benefit of his Brazil, he has to grit his teeth and play nice?
~~~
I only mention it BUT you should really get buy in from all your players before announcing you're putting on a big production of USA•USA•USA White Hat Heroes to the world.

A refusal by Saudi Arabia to allow the US to use its bases and airspace to provide a military escort for oil tankers passing through the strait of Hormuz lay behind Donald Trump’s decision to shelve the plan days after it had been launched.

Riyadh told the White House it would not allow its Prince Sultan airbase to be used to mount the operation billed as Project Freedom, which the US presented as the successor to the bombing campaign called Operation Epic Fury. (source) 

This nimrodian clownfuck of an administration is all about coming up with heroic Hollywood tough guy names and titles but can’t be arsed to come up with coherent, rational reasons (or believable lies) for actions, and you can forget about well thought out goals and plans. These yutz's are all so disastrously simpleminded, they just think “let’s blow shit up – everyone will immediately surrender and give us everything we want!”

Turns out Saudi Arabia’s not gonna let Pedo and his Secretary of War Crimes use their country as a stage. Huh. Go figure. Saudi Arabia joins the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, Spain, France, Italy and a host of other sensible nations.

‘lil Marco Clownshoes Rubio said this morning that:

If Nato allies refuse permission to use US bases to project force, ‘that’s a problem and has to be examined,’

Is this anything like Pedo having “concepts of a plan” or blah, blah, blah INFRASTRUCTURE – “we’re going to make an announcement in two weeks” or his “big decision on the Paris accord” that he’d have in that magical two weeks? That is, a completely, totally meaningless statement – words uttered and forgotten before they’ve even left his mouth.

~~~
Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog brought up Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals yesterday.

Rule #5:
Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

Abso-fucking-lutely!!!

Democrats should ridicule Patel mercilessly. They should ridicule Trump’s building and redecorating obsession. They should ridicule Pete Hegseth’s Kid Rock obsession. They shouldn’t leave all this to the late-night comics. They should revive “weird” and make voters see them as the normal ones. (And the funny ones -- people like someone who can make them laugh, and Democrats often struggle with likability.) Democrats can do this and talk about the affordability crisis. (source) 

Double plus abso-fucking-lutely!!! 

You can find the full list of rules (there are 13) here.
 
The complete book is downloadable, free, as a PDF, at this link.

Bad news presented with tart humor is a big reason why I follow Jeff Tiedrich. I like my daily dose of horror with a mondo side of snark. Mind you, I love Heather Cox Richardson – truly – but there are some days when I need a big spoonful of scathing wit to make the medicine go down.

once again, everything in the news is so unbelievably stupid that I don’t even know where to begin. so today, I’m just going to spin the Big Wheel of Moron™ and see where it lands. ready? here we go. (source) 

Watching this government in action is like going to a fourth rate Texas carnival with a mob of sugar bombed 10-year-olds and letting them loose on the bumper cars. It'd be weirdly entertaining (if you like freak shows and movies showcasing out of control kids) BUT these bumper cars are all IEDs, the 10-year-olds are being raised by hate-mongering, meth addicted MAGAts, and the ride is located on the collapsing roof of a maternity hospital. 

This is the USA now. Grab your popcorn and clown shoes. Enjoy the show.

Science Tidbit Thursday

Metamorphosis. A caterpillar encases itself in a cocoon. Its entire structure liquifies, breaks down to molecules which then reform into either a moth or a butterfly which retains the memories of its existence as a caterpillar.

I want to do this. I want to be a caterpillar. It seems rather Old Man’s War-like. Okay, I want to already be at the cool moth/butterfly stage.

•  Sometimes orcas will just start wearing dead salmon as hats, for fun. Then after a while they stop. Then a few years later they’re like “Should we do the dead salmon hat thing again?” And they do. Orcas are fun and whimsical. Also intimidating as fuck.

•  The Appalachian mountains are older than Saturn's rings, and way back when the continents were connected, they extended into what is now Scotland.

•  Pfizer and Valneva are developing a preventative, seasonal shot for Lyme disease. It creates antibodies inside a person that, when ingested by the tick, block the bacteria from leaving the tick.

So, the disease is offed inside the tick’s body, before it even enters yours. How fucking cool is that?! The vaccine is currently in Phase 3 trials. If test results continue successfully, I'm betting on Bobby Brain Worms to block its release.

•  There are sharks, I’m specifically talking about the Greenland sharks, that live as long as 272 and 512 years. Think about it. Some poor shark’s been around since 1514. I believe that makes them older than Willie Nelson and Keith Richards combined! Also too, you know what this means? ‘course ya do. There’s some erudite sharky out there RIGHT NOW who saw the original performance of Willy the Shake’s The Taming of the Shrew.

•  Sharks are older than trees. Sharks have been around for 400 million years. Ever consider that maybe, just maybe, Adam and Eve were sharks? 

•  The Easter Island heads have bodies. Are they in any way related to the standing stones found in the British Isles?

•  In between Earth and our moon there’s enough space to fit all the planets with about 2,000 kilometers left over.  

Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space".
~ Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

•  From Physics Fun:

When supermassive black holes spiral together in binary systems, they create ripples in the fabric of spacetime itself—gravitational waves that propagate across the universe at light speed, literally shaking every galaxy, star, planet, and atom they pass through. These aren't metaphorical ripples but actual compressions and expansions of space itself, stretching and squeezing everything infinitesimally as they pass. When LIGO detected gravitational waves from merging black holes 1.3 billion light-years away in 2015, those waves briefly changed the distance between Earth and the Sun by less than the width of an atom.

Black holes colliding over a billion years ago created waves that traveled through expanding space, crossed the cosmos, and physically stretched the space between Earth and Sun when they arrived.

So, we were all momentarily taller and shorter because of merging black holes. Neat!

•  Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (AKA broken-heart syndrome) is a temporary heart condition – a weakening of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber.

The condition is usually the result of severe emotional or physical stress, such as a sudden illness, the loss of a loved one, a serious accident, or a natural disaster such as an earthquake. That's why the condition is also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or broken-heart syndrome. (source) 

•  No person who was born blind has ever been diagnosed with schizophrenia. People who were born deaf, however, can be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Huh.

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects less than one percent of the U.S. population. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, trouble with thinking and lack of motivation. (source)  

•  The "immortal jellyfish," Turritopsis dohrnii, is a tiny, translucent jellyfish that, when hurt or experiencing physical stress, like starvation, can revert to its juvenile polyp stage. Instead of dying it shrinks in on itself, restarting its life cycle. – like a caterpillar metamorphosing into a moth or butterfly.

ICE and the City

ICE lies. DUH! They’re about as credible as Pedo or Story-teller Vance – that is, not at all.

ICEholes dragged Chidozie Wilson Okeke out of his car in Brooklyn. Supposedly he had "previous arrests for assault and criminal drug possession.” They say he overstayed his visa. Could any of this be true? There may be some thread of truth in there but I strongly suspect it’s been heavily embellished.

"During his arrest, Okeke refused to comply with officers' lawful commands to exit the vehicle and weaponized his vehicle to attempt to hit ICE officers. Okeke became physically combative, attempting to punch and elbow ICE officers. Our officers followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to make the arrest," the ICE spokesperson said, adding that Okeke requested medical assistance. (source) 

Do Republicans all go to the same school to learn how to lie – how to warp reality like your favorite record album left in the back seat of the car on an August afternoon?

Is this like when Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed that “this individual (Renee Good) was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to federal law enforcement.” You know, this is the same Ms. Good who was shot three times by ICEhole Jonathan Ross as she was pulling away from him – remember? Ms. McLaughlin also hilariously claims that ICEholes are trained to use minimal force to resolve dangerous situations. Sure and I’m a Balanchine trained principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Absolutely. 🙄

And the Lord of Lies said that Good “ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.” NOTHING they say can be believed.

Back to Brooklyn though…

Somehow Okeke was injured while being abducted by ICE (I know, you’re shocked 🙄), so much so that they actually took him to an emergency room instead of just toting him off to some holding cell before zooming him off to some Southern state concentration camp. 

A protest quickly formed outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and the NYPD were called (undoubtedly by ICE.)

“Upon arrival, officers observed numerous individuals acting in a disorderly manner, obstructing vehicular traffic, and blocking emergency entrances and exits at Wyckoff Heights medical center,” the police said. 
   ~~~
The NYPD said it was not involved in the federal immigration operation and only responded to the scene after receiving 911 calls about the crowd, saying they received initial reports that there were about 200 protesters. (source)  

Did the NYPD help ICE? They say they weren’t assisting BUT this is the NYPD. I mean, C’MON, the NYC boys in blue don’t exactly have a stellar rep especially if you happen to be Black.

Mayor Mamdani said the NYPD did not coordinate with ICE.

Our laws leave nothing, no room for interpretation, about the fact that our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement, and I’ve also been very clear about my views on ICE raids as a whole. I think that they are cruel, I think that they are inhumane and I think that they do not serve any interests of public safety. (source) 

So, were the NYPD just doing a crowd-control type operation and NOT violating the city’s sanctuary laws? LOVE Mamdani but I have serious doubts about what the NYPD were up to. 

I am in support of abolishing ICE, and I'll tell you why: Because what we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist

We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some sort of immigration law, but instead, what it is doing is terrorizing people no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, and no matter the facts of the case.

And I'm tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being dragged out of a car, dragged out of their home and dragged out of their life. What we need to see is humanity. (source) 

Mr. Mayor, I wholeheartedly agree!

Without Meaning

The word, the concept, the declaration of a ceasefire is now apparently completely meaningless in this age of Trump, Putin and Netanyahu.

In Ukraine:

At least five people have been killed in Russian air strikes on Ukrainian state-run gas facilities in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions, officials said, a day after Kyiv and Moscow announced unilateral ceasefires to take effect later this week. 

Three employees and two rescue workers were killed and 37 people were wounded in the overnight missile and drone barrage, Serhiy Koretskyi, the CEO of Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz said on Tuesday. (source) 

In Gaza:

Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least three Palestinians and wounded 10 others on Thursday and Friday in Israel’s latest violations of the ceasefire. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha said he was “heartbroken” after Israel shot his 30-year-old aunt in the chest while she was sitting with her three young children in a school shelter in the Jabaliya refugee camp. (source) 

In the Strait of Hormuz:

Iran has accused the United States of killing five civilians in the Strait of Hormuz, saying its forces attacked passenger vessels in the waterway rather than boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as claimed.

The claim on Tuesday contradicted a statement by US Admiral Brad Cooper, who said Central Command (CENTCOM) forces had sunk six IRGC vessels that had attempted to interfere with a US mission to escort stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz. (source) 

Now, you might be thinking of the US/Iran business, ‘isn’t this a he said/she said? Who can we believe?' After all, both sides are known to lie. This is true, but keep in mind the absolute, flat-out, monster sized whoppers the Pedo administration told in order to justify the U.S. military strikes (AKA extrajudicial killings, AKA murders of fisherman) and the illegal invasion of a country that posed no fucking threat at all to the US. The attacks and invasion, the abduction of Maduro had fuck-all to do with drug cartels or democracy for Venezuelan citizens or whatever lies were spewed. It was always about Pedo nailing Venezuela's oil reserves.

Precisely nothing from this crew of swindlers, frauds, and billionaire bullshit artists can be trusted. They’re all out to line their offshore bank accounts with obscene amounts of moolah – more than they could spend in 100 lifetimes.

Word for the day:

Avarice
     noun
: excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or profit: greediness, cupidity

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
~  Socrates

Christopher Weyant

For soulless, greedheaded, power-mad assholes like Trump and his ilk, there is never enough. They are black holes of authoritarianism and avarice.

Our totally not right-the-head, felonious, pedophile, temper tantruming, pants shitting, toddler president said yesterday that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if it attacks US ships while they violate the ceasefire agreement. Pedo really isn’t accustomed to having consequences for his actions.

I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible… except by getting off his back.
~  Leo Tolstoy, What Then Must We Do?

Come to the Caberet

I needed a lightweight read. OF FUCKING COURSE I DID (and do)! Don’t we all? I mean, fer fuck’s sake, the US is being stripped for parts by a crew of vulture capitalists and their installed kakistocratic puppet government.

So, what am I reading? Liza Minnelli’s memoir Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! I’m only 35% of the way in so this post isn’t a book review so much as a reaction to things I’ve come across so far.

First off, I’m at war with myself about how relatively easy it was for her to succeed in her family’s business – show business. WHY am I conflicted? Did I not know from the get-go that Minnelli was the daughter of ultra famous, successful-in-their-respective-crafts parents? Did I not take the damn book out of the library in part because I wanted to read about glittering celebrity lives? Why…yes, yes I did!

So then…what the fuck, madam?

I’ve always resented people who’ve been given opportunities handed to them like gifts they’re owed. Especially folks whose parents don’t just have money, they have connections too. They know the right people, can put in a good word for you, get you an audition, a review of your portfolio, a foot in the door. And if they don’t get the starring role right off, do they have to work the breakfast shift at the local diner until their big break? Nope, they can crash, rent-free, on their agent’s couch until something comes up.

Yeah, this is jealousy. I didn’t have the big financial cushion or familial connections within the art world AND, to be completely fair and honest, I was no Jean-Michel Basquiat either. Andy Warhol wasn’t about to discover me and put me on the cover of Interview. So, I’ll quit kvetching. Also, Minnelli is quick to volunteer that “I was the original nepo baby.” She’s well aware of the privilege she had. Still, if she wasn’t dynamite, she wouldn’t have become so popular. 

Imagine Paris Hilton (media personality, businesswoman, socialite, “actress”), the great-granddaughter of billionaire Conrad Hilton, taking on any, honestly ANY of Meryl Streep’s roles and doing anything beyond embarrassing the shit out of herself. Connections and money alone won’t ever do the trick – you have to have actual talent.

Okay, second – mein Gott, Judy Garland, a profound prescription drug addict and alcoholic, was on so many levels an awful, horrific, horror show mother. Minnelli writes that at age 13:

“I was my mother's caretaker—a nurse, doctor, pharmacologist and psychiatrist rolled into one.”

There are other stories from when Liza was a bit older and starting to make it as a performer on her own. Garland seemed to be torn between being a supportive mother and fellow artist and being an insecure, imperious, resentful, competitive bitch.

And yet Liza writes of her great love for Judy. It seems to exist at a far greater level than any bitterness over being, at bare fucking minimum, denied a significant part of her childhood. Has she embraced and worked through all of her anger and sadness about her mother’s negligence, abuse, and the insane home life she created for Liza and her siblings? Is she numb, in some kind of denial, or clinging through all the bad memories to those few wisps of goodness? Is she trying to find, within memories of Judy, the kind of love she needed and deserved as a child?

If so, why? 

I guess I’m going to need to keep reading to see if there are any answers to that question.