Feb 17, 2025
Today's Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary on Thursday received a rousing thumbs-up from some of his most prominent supporters, the National Alliance of Funeral Directors.
“For years, the funeral industry has suffered as a result of the Democratic Party’s unabashed anti-death agenda,” the group said in an official statement. “We are confident that Secretary Kennedy will make death great again.”
But the confirmation drew a less enthusiastic reaction from one of Kennedy’s detractors, the worm who spent several years feasting on his brain.
“As a worm, you’d expect me to be pro-death,” the worm said. “But this is insane.”
In a more muted comment, Dr. Mehmet Oz said, “Well, at least I won’t be the biggest quack in the government.”
The Gentlelady Has The Floor
Today's Quote
We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests. --FDR, 1941
Today's Nutzo
He has since deleted the post.
This is great -
he's declared
open season
on MAGA.
Lock-n-load, kids.
Feb 16, 2025
Depraved Indifference
Seems pretty obvious Stochastic Terrorism has to have had something to do with this.
When a political party's rhetoric becomes a constant drumbeat aimed at segregating and demonizing people, it's not going to be very long before some asshole goes off because he's certain he has permission to be a total jagoff.
Put five jagoffs together, and you've got a nice little echo chamber that only needs a victim and an opportunity to turn itself into a lynch mob.
Sometimes, you really suck, America.
Police in upstate New York say Sam Nordquist, 24, who was from Minnestoa, endured weeks of torture
Five people in New York have been charged with subjecting a transgender man from Minnesota to “repeated acts of violence and torture” before murdering him, according to police.
The allegations come after the discovery of human remains believed to be those of Sam Nordquist, 24, in a field near Canandaigua in upstate New York on 13 February.
Police on Friday identified Precious Arzuaga, 38; Jennifer Quijano, 30; Kyle Sage, 33; Patrick Goodwin, 30; and Emily Motyka, 19, as suspects in Nordquist’s slaying. They are all charged with second-degree murder with depraved indifference, police said.
“Our investigation has revealed a deeply disturbing pattern of abuse that ultimately resulted in Sam’s tragic death,” police captain Kelly Swift said during a press conference on Friday.
“Based on evidence and witness statements, we have determined that Sam endured prolonged physical and psychological abuse at the hands of multiple individuals.
“Our investigation has confirmed that from early December 2024 to February 2025 Sam was subjected to repeated acts of violence and torture in a manner that ultimately led to his death.”
Police had launched a missing person investigation on 9 February after Nordquist’s family asked them to carry out a welfare check.
Evidence that Nordquist was subjected to ongoing physical abuse was discovered after police searched several locations, including Patty’s Lodge, a roadside motel where he was last known to be staying.
They believe his body was taken to the field where the remains were discovered in an attempt to “conceal the crime” that killed Nordquist, Swift said.
A fundraiser has been launched on GoFundMe to help his family which as of Sunday had received more than $47,000 from about 1,300 donors.
Originally from Oakdale, Minnesota, Nordquist had travelled to New York in September to meet his “online girlfriend”, according to the fundraising page.
It states that he had purchased a round-trip plane ticket and was supposed to return home by mid-October.
Nordquist’s family had not heard from him since January – and the last time he was seen was in early February.
In an interview with Minnesota’s KARE television news station, Nordquist’s mother, Linda, recalled: “The last thing Sam said is, ‘I love you, and I’ll call you tomorrow.’ Tomorrow came, and I never heard a word.”
Linda Norquist said Sam “sounded sad, really sad”, during that conversation, which was on New Year’s Day.
“And Sam is an outgoing person,” Linda Norquist said. “He had a heart of gold and wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
All five suspects have been arraigned and remanded to the jail in Ontario county, which includes Canandaigua.
“We understand that the details of this case are deeply unsettling, and we want to assure the public that we are committed to seeking justice for Sam and his family,” Swift said.
She added: “In my 20-year law enforcement career this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated.”
An autopsy will be carried out by the medical examiner’s office in Monroe county, New York, to confirm Nordquist’s exact cause and manner of death, though authorities’ actions indicate he was the victim of a homicide.
The LGBTQ+ rights organization The New Pride Agenda said in a post on social media: “We are devastated and enraged by the horrific murder of Sam Nordquist … whose life was brutally taken in the Finger Lakes region after enduring weeks of torture.
The group based in New York added: “While arrests have been made, we know that this is not an isolated incident; it is a tragic consequence of the rising culture of hate in our society.”
Linda Norquist told KARE that Sam’s death was “devastating” to her family.
“Sam did not deserve this,” Linda Norquist said. Nobody deserves this type of torment that he had to endure.
“These people that did this to Sam are pure evil. They’re not even human. We will get justice for you, Sam. Even if it takes the last breath out of me – you will have justice.”
America's Twilight
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China’s rise in recent decades had already put the world’s rich democracies on the defensive. Now Donald Trump is swinging a wrecking ball at the alliances, values and institutions that underpin Western power. While it may be possible to salvage something, the omens are not good.
The West is less a geographical definition than a geopolitical force and a set of values. It has brought together not just the rich democracies of North America and Europe but also countries such as Japan in a set of overlapping pacts and treaties. Underpinning these have been mutual interests and ideas such as the rule of law, free trade, democracy, standing up to tyranny and working together to solve global problems such as climate change.
This ethos has dominated the world since World War Two - and, even more so, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even though its members have often not lived up to its values, it created the conditions for peace and economic growth in large parts of the world. But its geopolitical pre-eminence started to fray when the United States led an unwise invasion of Iraq in 2003, while its economic supremacy eroded after the global financial crisis in 2008.
Trump was always going to be a disruptive force. But the returning U.S. president has pummelled the international order with an unexpected vigour in the weeks since he moved back into the Oval Office. The former real estate developer had already hinted that he would use military force to annex Greenland, which is a member of the NATO defence alliance, and take over the Panama Canal. He has also threatened tariffs against the European Union and Canada, and pushed for the latter to become part of the United States. Most strikingly, he declared last week that the United States would take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, after its two million Palestinians inhabitants were permanently resettled elsewhere. Such a project could violate international law.
As if that’s not enough, Trump has ordered the United States to pull out of the World Health Organization, an international tax treaty and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement for a second time. He is imposing sanctions on people who work for the International Criminal Court. His administration plans to slash USAID, the humanitarian aid agency that has been a key component of U.S. attempts to woo developing countries since the 1960s, and has ordered a review, opens new tab of U.S. support for all international organisations.
The rest of the West is too weak to stand up to him. This is especially so in Europe, which desperately needs U.S. military support to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion. It is also true of Japan and South Korea, which cannot defend themselves against China and North Korea respectively without American help.
NOT DEAD YET
The West could yet survive this barrage. Trump’s bark may be worse than his bite. Last week he temporarily pulled back from imposing tariffs on Canada as well as Mexico in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement.
If the U.S. president is using threats to negotiate better deals for America, he may not carry out some of his more extravagant plans. But bullying allies and riding roughshod over international norms still weakens the West.
Trump could also confound doubters and stand by Kyiv. His latest idea is that Ukraine should supply the United States with rare earth minerals as payment for supporting its war effort.
What happens in Ukraine is critical. If Trump abandons it and Russia then bullies it into a miserable peace deal, that could be the final blow for the West. But if the president stands by Kyiv and helps force some reasonable solution, the West could limp on to fight another day.
Another hope is that the United States will go back to its allies and old values after the current president leaves office. But with right-wing nationalism on the rise throughout the West, Trumpism looks more like part of a trend than an aberration.
REST OF THE WEST
If the United States is no longer interested in the West and its values, the remaining countries could try to soldier on alone. The EU could build up its defences, as its leaders promised last week. The United Kingdom could form a stronger security pact with the EU, as it too pledged, opens new tab last week. The European countries could then cut economic and other deals with Japan, Canada, Australia and South Korea.
The rest of the West could reach out to middle powers such as India and Indonesia to negotiate trade and other pacts, as the EU has just done with the Mercosur countries of South America. It could eventually form more friendly relations with China.
Creating such a patchwork quilt would have to surmount a host of hurdles. For a start, Europe cannot do anything Trump would view as hostile, such as cosying up to China. There also should be no question of Europe forming more friendly relations with Beijing while it supports Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Even if the war reaches a reasonable end, it will be hard to stitch together a “mini-West” without the United States, whose economic output of $28 trillion, opens new tab in 2023 was almost as large as the rest of the West put together. The only realistic alternative pole around which countries could rally is the EU.
But the rise of right-wing nationalism in many of its member states may stymie initiatives to do more at an EU level - and a similar phenomenon in the UK may complicate efforts to bring Britain closer to Europe.
The rest of the West should try to protect whatever it can from Trump’s wrecking ball. But the chances of success do not look great.
By Their Own Reckoning
For decades, Republicans have publicly assumed "the left" is (eg) all in favor of bad guys breaking into everybody's houses and molesting their wives and babies, just because we'd like to see a little sanity in the nation's gun laws.
So yeehaw and away we go.
Being adamantly against USAID, Republicans are obviously Pro International Terrorism now.
But here's the difference:
Sensible gun laws save us all time and effort and money, while not hindering my ability to defend my castle.
But killing off USAID does encourage terrorists to blow us up.
Because when we turn our back on hungry dying children, we leave the door wide open for dark-hearted thugs to radicalize those kids' parents and siblings and others - turning at least some of them into suicide bombers.
And those terrorists will be going after American interests, which the corporations will cry about and insist we send in the US military to "protect" those precious capitalist endeavors - which will cost us a helluva lot more than the few billion that USAID is costing us now.
How the fuck does that make "good business sense"?
Feb 15, 2025
Mythic
Elmo is not a genius. He's not a visionary. He's not a mythic hero in any way.
He was born to privilege, riding to school in his daddy's Rolls Royce.
He's just another parasitic billionaire making money on other people's work.
And he's playing the rubes like a tin whistle.
- He didn't start Tesla. He bought it.
- He doesn't build rockets. Government engineers do that for him.
- He didn't create PayPal. He bought in, and when he tried (and failed) to take it over, he was forced out.
His fortune was created by contracts, subsidies, and tax loopholes, compliments of various levels of government.
Tesla is losing market share and the stock price is down 26% since mid-December.
Twitter has lost 80% of its value since Musk took it private.
Membership is down by millions of users
Hate speech is up by triple digits
Credibility is near-zero
SpaceX is a gauzy dream of billionaires who think they can fuck up the Earth any way they want, and then just migrate to the next Green Spot - in a galaxy far far away - to start the raping and pillaging all over again. While, at the same time, it's a way for Elmo to fleece the rubes and keep them distracted.
While real leaders innovate, and elevate, and motivate the people to excel, Musk markets himself by picking stupid fights, tweeting conspiracy fantasies to keep his devotees entertained, and consolidating his power so he can go on mooching off the taxpayers.
We have to break free of this kind of Gilded Age brain fog we're trapped in. We have to stop allowing these leeches to make themselves out to be our god-anointed rulers, worthy of unending fealty and bloodlust-invoking devotion.
We have to move on to the next Enlightenment.
We have to tax these assholes
into non-existence.
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