Jan 8, 2026
And The Good News Is ...
... two days ago, when some of the Jan6 mob gathered again on the National Mall to celebrate having tried to totally fuck our democracy five years ago, they were outnumbered by the cops and counter-protesters.
We have to deal with asshole ICE "agents" (eg) who get caught up in their own daddy issues - or whatever drives their pathetic existence - but we should also keep in mind just how small the various factions are that make up the gang they think is huge and powerful and impossible to resist.
What's really at work is the large network of shit-slingers and bots that blast the nonsense that fuel these idiots' fantasies of dominance and conquest.
We should continue to believe them when they tell us what raving assholes they are, but we also have to see them for the scared little men we know them to be when they're out in the open, and exposed to the disinfectant properties of either literal or figurative sunshine.
when you turn on the kitchen light
you'll see the cockroaches scuttle back
to their safe space under the dishwasher
She Was A Mom
History will not be kind to the assholes perpetrating these horrors,
nor to the rest of us if all we do is watch and say nothing.
Renee Nicole Good
Murdered by her government
January 7, 2026
Jan 7, 2026
A Refresher
Don't ever forget what a smarmy fuckin' slug Trump is.
Since the 1970s, at least 28 women have accused Donald Trump of various acts of sexual misconduct, including rape, and kissing and groping without consent; looking under women's skirts; and walking in on naked teenage pageant contestants. Trump has denied all of the allegations. He has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to the media and on social media, and has made lewd comments about women, disparaged their physical appearance, and referred to them using derogatory epithets.
In October 2016, two days before the second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, a 2005 "hot mic" recording surfaced in which Trump was heard saying that "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab 'em by the pussy." The incident's widespread media exposure led to Trump's first public apology during the campaign,[7] and caused outrage across the political spectrum.
In 2025, Trump's past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein received significant media attention following his administration's refusal to release files relating to Epstein, despite Trump's 2024 election campaign promises to do so.
Overview
Donald Trump has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least 25 women since the 1970s.
In June 2019, writer E. Jean Carroll alleged in New York magazine that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996. Two friends of Carroll stated that Carroll had previously confided in them about the incident. In November 2019, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump. Trump called the allegation fiction and denied ever meeting Carroll, despite a photo showing them together at a party in 1987 being published by the magazine.
In November 2022, Carroll filed a suit against Trump for battery under the Adult Survivors Act. On May 9, 2023, a New York jury in a civil case found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll, but found him not liable for rape. They awarded Carroll US $5 million in damages. In July 2023, Judge Kaplan stated that the jury had found that Trump had raped Carroll according to the common definition of the word as they had ruled that Trump had forcibly and nonconsensually penetrated Carroll's vagina with his fingers. New York state's definition at the time defined rape as solely nonconsensual penetration of the vagina by a penis. A September 2023 partial summary judgment again found Trump liable for defaming Carroll. On January 26, 2024, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages.
Other litigation includes his then-wife Ivana's rape claim during their 1990 divorce (she later recanted); businesswoman Jill Harth's 1997 lawsuit alleging breach of contract and sexual harassment (she settled the former claim and forfeited the latter); and former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos's claim of sexual misconduct, followed by a 2017 defamation lawsuit after Trump accused her of lying (she withdrew her defamation case in 2021).
The allegations by Ivana Trump and Jill Harth became public before Trump's presidential candidacy with the rest going public after the 2005 Access Hollywood tape was leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign in which Trump was recorded bragging that a celebrity like himself "can do anything" to women, including "just start kissing them ... I don't even wait" and "grab 'em by the pussy". Trump denied behaving that way toward women and apologized for the crude language. Many of his accusers stated that Trump's denials provoked them into going public.
Several former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants accused Trump of entering the dressing rooms of beauty pageant contestants while contestants were in various stages of undress. Trump had already referred to this practice during a 2005 interview on The Howard Stern Show, saying he could "get away with things like that" because he owned the Miss Universe franchise. In October 2019, the book All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator[b] contained 43 additional allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.
Trump has denied all the allegations against him, saying he has been the victim of media bias, conspiracies, and a political smear campaign. In October 2016, Trump publicly vowed to sue all the women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against him, as well as The New York Times for publishing the allegations.
- more -
Ivana Trump (1989)
Jill Harth (1992)
Katie Johnson/Jane Doe (1994)
E. Jean Carroll (1996)
Summer Zervos (2007)
Alva Johnson (2016)
Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
Stacey Williams (1993)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Amy Dorris (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Karen Johnson (early 2000s)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Miss Teen USA contestants (1997)
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)
More Trump Fuckery
There was a "warrant" for Maduro, and there's a "warrant" for the Russian-flagged tanker.
The ship's seizure comes more than a week after it maneuvered through a U.S. Navy blockade of sanctioned tankers leaving port in Venezuela.
The United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, after chasing the vessel across the ocean as it headed toward Europe from Venezuela, one U.S. and one European official confirmed to POLITICO.
The seizure of the tanker Wednesday morning, originally known as the Bella-1, comes more than a week after it maneuvered through a U.S. Navy blockade of sanctioned tankers leaving port in Venezuela. The ship switched its registration to a Russian-flagged vessel during the chase, setting up a possible diplomatic row with Moscow.
American helicopters and a Coast Guard vessel were being used to board the tanker under law enforcement authority granted to the Coast Guard, while American and British submarine-hunting P-8 surveillance planes — and at least three smaller American surveillance aircraft — circled the area near British waters, according to plane tracking websites.
The U.S. sanctioned the Bella-1 in 2024 after American officials alleged it was carrying black market Iranian oil.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS, the Russian state media agency, that “for reasons unknown to us, the Russian vessel is getting excessive attention from the US and NATO militaries, clearly disproportionate to its peaceful status.”
The Trump administration continued to strike a defiant tone after the seizure on Wednesday. “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media just as U.S. European Command conducted the operation, which was coordinated with the Justice and Homeland Security departments.
Following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation last week, the seizure of the Bella is a clear sign that the administration plans to keep the pressure on Venezuela. The administration has been working to impose an embargo on sanctioned vessels as a central part of the pressure campaign since the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the Russian-flagged Skipper last month.
The seizure took place with President Donald Trump taking on a far more active role in South American diplomacy in recent months. The administration’s greatest show of force to date came on Saturday, when the U.S. military apprehended Maduro in his palace in Caracas to stand trial on narco-trafficking and corruption charges.
Trump has since suggested that Colombia could be next on his agenda for regime change. Cuba, too, is on the president’s mind, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long pushed for the overthrow of the Communist government in Havana.
The president’s interest in South American affairs comes despite only muted support from the American public, which overwhelmingly opposed military intervention against the country in a December Quinnipiac poll. Just one-third of Americans told a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday that they supported the operation to oust Maduro, with a majority concerned that the U.S. would become too entrenched in the affairs of the country in the aftermath of the attack.
So Trump just gives himself permission to do whatever the fuck he wants to do?
US seizes Venezuela-linked oil tanker
The ship's seizure comes more than a week after it maneuvered through a U.S. Navy blockade of sanctioned tankers leaving port in Venezuela.
The United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, after chasing the vessel across the ocean as it headed toward Europe from Venezuela, one U.S. and one European official confirmed to POLITICO.
The seizure of the tanker Wednesday morning, originally known as the Bella-1, comes more than a week after it maneuvered through a U.S. Navy blockade of sanctioned tankers leaving port in Venezuela. The ship switched its registration to a Russian-flagged vessel during the chase, setting up a possible diplomatic row with Moscow.
American helicopters and a Coast Guard vessel were being used to board the tanker under law enforcement authority granted to the Coast Guard, while American and British submarine-hunting P-8 surveillance planes — and at least three smaller American surveillance aircraft — circled the area near British waters, according to plane tracking websites.
The U.S. sanctioned the Bella-1 in 2024 after American officials alleged it was carrying black market Iranian oil.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS, the Russian state media agency, that “for reasons unknown to us, the Russian vessel is getting excessive attention from the US and NATO militaries, clearly disproportionate to its peaceful status.”
The Trump administration continued to strike a defiant tone after the seizure on Wednesday. “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media just as U.S. European Command conducted the operation, which was coordinated with the Justice and Homeland Security departments.
Following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation last week, the seizure of the Bella is a clear sign that the administration plans to keep the pressure on Venezuela. The administration has been working to impose an embargo on sanctioned vessels as a central part of the pressure campaign since the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the Russian-flagged Skipper last month.
The seizure took place with President Donald Trump taking on a far more active role in South American diplomacy in recent months. The administration’s greatest show of force to date came on Saturday, when the U.S. military apprehended Maduro in his palace in Caracas to stand trial on narco-trafficking and corruption charges.
Trump has since suggested that Colombia could be next on his agenda for regime change. Cuba, too, is on the president’s mind, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long pushed for the overthrow of the Communist government in Havana.
The president’s interest in South American affairs comes despite only muted support from the American public, which overwhelmingly opposed military intervention against the country in a December Quinnipiac poll. Just one-third of Americans told a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday that they supported the operation to oust Maduro, with a majority concerned that the U.S. would become too entrenched in the affairs of the country in the aftermath of the attack.
Dr HCR
Some peddlers of the conventional wisdom have been saying Trump's foray into Venezuela means trouble for Putin.
Heather Cox Richardson says otherwise, kinda.
This may be a good time to reiterate: Nobody knows - everybody guesses. And from what we've been seeing with this new cluster fuck in Venezuela, not even the people who know what's going on, know what's going on.
When we start to see some of the medium and longer term results, then we'll know more, but as always, it's very likely we'll never know the whole story.
So anyway, I've always found that Richardson sees things pretty clearly. Thank god for the history nerds.
A few facts:
- It costs about 7 million dollars every day to deploy a carrier group and 15,000 troops
- In the last 40 years, over $50 Trillion have moved from the bottom 90% of Americans up to the top 1%
- Republicans are again totally unconcerned with the skyrocketing deficit and debt
- Take away education and healthcare, and you can move all the way over from serving to ruling
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)