Pics, Memes, etc.

This is the view from our hotel room when Jen and I were last in SW Iceland (about five years ago).
Click on the link to see what it looks like now.

My new surgeon once Trump and Brainworm Boy kill Medicare.

Click to embiggen. I've got access to the best healthcare in the country as long as I can afford it.

Although studies and information on clergy sexual abuse are limited, available statistics state that its global prevalence rate is around 18 percent for girls and 7.6 percent for boys. (source)

SAC and FUPs

Colorado House rep and theater lover Lauren Boebert has told Congress she’s worried about space aliens operating underwater “bases.” No, really!

Boebert asked: “Are there any accounts of UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomenon) emerging from or submerging into our waters which could indicate a base or presence between the ocean’s surface?” (source)

Boebert went to town asking the panel about “rumors that have come up the hill”—the sources of which she did not cite—of “a secretive project within the Department of Defense involving the manipulation of human genetics with what is described as non-human genetic material for the enhancement of human capabilities, hybrids.” (source)

Mike Luckovich

WHY has Trump not appointed her to head up NASA?! I mean, this “secret project” sounds like a hot topic that would totally lock her into his brill brain trust.  Oh wait, there’s no rape involved. I suppose that rules her right out. Oh, but wait, Jayson Boebert, Booboo’s ex-husband, was busted for showing off his wang to two underage women in a bowling alley. He was 24 at the time. Booboo was 17 and there with him (cheering him on?). Is that close enough for the incoming Sexual Assault Cabinet (SAC)?

Fer instance, not only is Health and Human Services nominee, RFK Jr., a pro-disease, anti-science, anti-vaxxer, a dog eating, bear cub abusing, whale corpse beheading, worm eaten brain owner, he’s also a sexual assault perv.

RFK Jr’s former family babysitter says the 14 year heroin addict sexually assaulted her in 1999. OHHHH but 16 years later, after he began his campaign for prez and his boorish peccadilloes surfaced, he texted an apology to her. What a standup guy, eh?

Mike Peters

Rapist and weekend talking head on Fox Not-Really-News Pete Hegseth is Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. His relevant experience? He was in the National Guard, on and off, for four whole years. Gee, golly, wow!

Russia's girlfriend, Tulsi Gabbard, isn’t a sex offender (that we know of right now) BUT she’s in Putin's pocket. Just think, as director of national intelligence, she could screw the entire country AND our allies. Close enough, eh?

Trump’s education secretary pick, Linda McMahon, was named in a recent WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) child sex abuse lawsuit.

The suit claims McMahon, her husband Vince and others at the WWE were aware of misconduct by Melvin Phillips — and negligent in failing to prevent it. The lawsuit alleges Phillips for years hired — and later assaulted — "ring boys" as young as 13. (source)

How very Gym Jordan of her.

And then there’s Matt Gaetz. He says he won’t return to the House but he did NOT rule out out a run for the Senate. With Rubio as the elderly Tangerine Twat’s pick for secretary of state, I’ve not doubt Gaetz will run for the open seat AND win. I mean, it’s Florida—they’ve just re-elected Prick Scott, the king of Medicare fraud. Of course they’ll elect a perv who’s sex trafficked underage girls.

Basically, Republicans should change their name for the sake of accuracy. They’re the Fascist Unqualified Pervs Party. The FUP.

Pedro X. Molina

Robots and Cats

In the book I’m reading now (Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson), robots take over the world and attempt to kill all humans.

I’m rooting for the robots. Of course I am—have you seen what humans have done lately?

In the last book, an interdimensional being was trying to turn all humans into cats—domesticated cats not lions, tigers, jaguars and the like.

Can you guess whose team I was on? Yes, Team Naps, Nibbles, and Treats. I would be fine, totally down, with being turned into a lovely little feline. My only question is, will I get catnip daily. Also, tuna.

How much change can a person absorb before everything loses meaning. Living for its own sake isn't life. People need meaning as much as they need air.
~ Daniel H. Wilson, Robopocalypse 

Being a good person is more than just not being a bad person.
~ A. Lee Martinez, Monster

More Resources and Helpful Hints

At The Citizen’s Handbook site there’s a post entitled How to Get Rid of a Dictator.

Both dictatorships and democracies have adopted methods for accommodating marches and protests, and view them as a handy way to let people blow off steam with little or no disruption to the business of the state. (source)

What follows is a listing of 207 methods of nonviolent action and persuasion. These strategies (198 of them anyway) are from Gene Sharp’s book The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two, The Methods of Nonviolent Action.

Marches are nice but I don't see them, on their own, as being especially effective at bringing about change. They feel more like morale boosters for those of us without power or big bucks. In conjunction with other relentless actions though, maybe they're the cherry on top of the resistance sundae?

Check out this informative, helpful post up at Wired—The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance.

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are some steps you can take to evade it.
     ~~~
Ahead of that impending new reality, WIRED asked security and privacy experts for their advice for hardening personal privacy protections and resisting surveillance.

Here are just a few of the their recommendations (which include clear explanations and illumination):

Tulip Sundaes, Wayne Thiebaud

Encrypted Communications
Securing your data starts with securing your communications, and securing your communications means using end-to-end encryption.
     ~~~
Encrypted Devices
Just as important as encrypting your conversations is strongly encrypting your devices themselves.
     ~~~
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage has huge advantages—you never run out of hard drive space, and your data won’t be lost forever when an ill-fated Diet Coke spills on your laptop. The trade-off, though, is that storing data in the cloud adds a third party to the mix….

Cloud companies that hold and manage your data can almost always access it, which means they can be compelled to hand it over to governments. US law enforcement gathered evidence about now-convicted former Trump campaign chair Paul Manaforte in part by accessing unencrypted iCloud backups of his WhatsApp chat histories. And in 2020, the FBI got access to a protester’s iCloud account from Apple —including photos, videos, and screenshots—over accusations that he lit police cars on fire in Seattle.

Assata Shakur

There’s more, including a few paragraphs about burner phones and how they can become not so safe and untraceable. 

Go read the whole article. It’s enlightening.

With Trump’s announcements of that ridiculous fraud, Dr. Oz, to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and fellow bag’o’nuts Brainworm Boy to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services, I can easily see that we’re royally fucked. By “we” I mean, all US citizens but especially those of us who aren’t blessed with flawlessly running bods (*cough* ME! *cough*)

Luckily, I live in Massachusetts so I might not be hopelessly, thoroughly, and irremediably screwed. MAYBE, during this administration of idiot asshats and their reign of terror and inevitable obscene errors, I won’t die or go broke.

I’m not really counting on it though.

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.