Picking right up where book one left off, Kurt and Minter join up with the resistance and begin plotting how to take down Sycamore and Amos. The same pacing and editing issues that were present in book one remain here, especially how the story dragged toward the end.
I also thought many of the new characters were equally as flat as Kurt, and I thought how Kurt and some of them were related was the height of contrived.
I also wasn’t a fan of how no main characters were ever in danger, even when drones with missiles come after them. This really cheapened the ending, where everything wrapped up too neatly and few if anyone seemed to blame Kurt for the chaos his Seed caused.
There was also a massive plot hole: namely, the people who funded Sycamore and Amos were never brought to justice and are still out there plotting their next plan for world domination.
For these reasons, I give “Sycamore 2” 2.8 stars. A disappointing end to an interesting story.
An interesting idea marred by uneven pacing and flat passive characters.
In “Sycamore” Kurt Jacobs invents the Seed, a microchip implanted in people’s hand that allows them to connect to the Sycamore Corporation’s system via their VirualLenses. Soon the Sycamore Corporation, in collusion with the US government, forces everyone to be chipped and wear their VirtualLenses all the time.
There were several issues I had with this book and the others in the series. First, Kurt and the other character were flat and lacked any personality. He showed no concern for the increasingly fascist things Sycamore did until it affected him and his family.
Second, this book lacked proper editing. It’s supposed to be set in the US but used Britishisms like queue/queue up, meters instead of yards/feet, and jerry can instead of gas can. Moreover, the story dragged on to more than 60-plus chapters.
This wouldn’t have been an issue, if not for the pacing problems. Multiple chapters would go by with little to no plot progression, then event after event would happen, leading to whiplash. And as Kurt failed to react to most of these events, he came off as highly passively and little more than a plot device to experience the story.
But the biggest issue I had was we’re supposed to believe Kurt is a genius and hacker, yet he failed to foresee how his Seed could be misused and abused. This is especially glaring given later in the series we learn he frequented a conspiracy theory website. So, you mean to tell me he didn’t stop once to consider the privacy issues his Seed could cause?
I also took points off because it ended on a cliffhanger.
But the premise itself was interesting and seeing how society changed as Sycamore gained more power, becoming increasingly Orwellian, was like watching an extended episode of “Black Mirror.”
Because of the above, I give “Sycamore” 3.8 stars. If you can look past its faults, this is a decent story.
“Sycamore System Breaker” is a companion story to the main Sycamore story and follows Peter Laymen, a character readers meet in “Sycamore 1,” whom Kurt helped get to his pregnant giving birth at a local hospital.
I liked this story more than those in “Sycamore X” or “Sycamore XL” as it’s more a novella/novelette, and as it’s longer and only focuses on Peter, we get to know him deeply.
I honestly wish more of the short stories were like this one. Perhaps if Falconer decreased the number of short stories in X and XL, he could have focused more on developing the characters by making the remaining stories longer.
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, is a series of interconnected stories that span centuries, each containing characters who are the reincarnated people from the previous stories. I wasn’t a fan of all the stories that took place in the distance, nor was I fan of the racism therein. I also thought all the stories started blurring together in a bland sameness as the book progressed.
And most of the stories failed to pique my interest aside from Sonmi-451, which follows a clone who gains sentience. Initially I thought this was a clever story, until I realized the clone in Sonmi-451 was essential an android in all but name, making it a cliche story about a robot becoming sentient.
Overall, I just thought the book was average and give it 3 out of 5 stars. You might like this more than me if you’re into historical fiction, which most of these stories were.
Falls flat on both the romance and fairytale retelling.
Let me start by saying I wanted to like this book. A gay spin on Beauty and The Beast? Sign me up. Grumpy/sunshine, introvert/extrovert, nerd/jock? Triple check. However, this didn’t do it for me.
I will say from a technical standpoint Evie Drae is a competent writer as this book had few if any typos, grammatical errors, and was formatted well.
That said, this book failed to deliver on both the romance and fairytale aspect. Bo and Adam had no chemistry whatsoever and instantly wanted to hook up with each other. And aside from being gave and supposedly liking books, they had nothing in common.
I say supposedly because I don’t recall Adam ever picking up a book besides when he and Bo are studying to get their GED.
This combined with their lack of chemistry had me scratching my head as to why they’d be declaring their undying love for each other after only a few months of knowing the other, let alone why they’d be together at all. It felt to me like their whole relationship was surface level and based solely on looks/wanting to hook up.
As for the Beauty and The Beast aspect, it was nonexistent. You could have changed the names and it would have no effect on the story. There was no curse, no magic, no whimsy at all.
Additionally, the whole third act could have been resolved in a matter of paragraphs had they just talked and been honest with each other about what they wanted and were thinking/feeling.
As for the sex scenes, they lacked emotion and sensuality and towards the end I skipped them as they added nothing to the story.
This leads me to my next issue. Halfway through the second act, the story drags and by the last 60 or so pages I was tempted to DNF as nothing was happening. And by the end I was just glad to be done with this story.
This book just didn’t spark joy for me. Check it out and maybe you’ll have a different experience.
I give Beauregard and The Beast 2.0 out of 5 stars.
Claim Me, Love Me by Jaiyde Thomas is a BDSM m/m romance. It features Josiah, an out and proud frick boy who’s blind; and Caleb, his Uber driver, who’s closeted and suffers from anxiety and intimacy issues.
I wanted to like this book as I felt for Caleb and Josiah, but this book missed the mark in so many areas.
First, there was zero chemistry between Josiah and Caleb. They become obsessed with each other after exactly one meeting and then declare their undying love after only knowing each other a few months. I honestly don’t see what they saw in each other as they didn’t interact much, and when they did it was mostly to hook up (more on this later).
If this weren’t eye-roll-inducing enough, so much of the “conflict” in this story could have been easily solved had they just talked to each other. Also, they both needed a ton of therapy, but like in so many bad romances, Caleb’s and Josiah’s issues magically get better through the power of love (cue eye roll).
I don’t know much about BDSM, but I do know informed consent is a big part of it, and that was completely lacking with Josiah and Caleb. Josiah constantly sprang things on Caleb and expected him to be cool with it. And not to kink shame, but I found the whole Sub/Dom thing as depicted in this book to be abusive like crazy.
If someone isn’t comfortable doing something, as Caleb makes clear to Josiah several times throughout the book, then you should respect their boundaries. Yet, he kept pushing Caleb to do things he wasn’t ready for.
But the biggest offender in this book is the writing, especially the dialog. It’s just so bad. Like every time someone talks, they always say the other person’s name. Also, so much passive voice. And I lost count of how many times I cringed during Caleb and Josiah’s Sub/Dom conversations.
The common thread between them all being it didn’t ring true and felt forced.
I kept reading, hoping things would get better but they got worse, and I found myself skimming the pages, especially the mechanically sex scenes devoid of any emotion or sensuality.
And while I’m on the topic of sex scenes, there’s a scene where Josiah gets wasted and has unprotected sex with multiple people, then he later talks about how he doesn’t want to risk passing anything to Caleb so they should hold off on sex until he gets his test results. Yet they then have unprotected oral sex.
Make that make sense.
This book was just a hot mess, and I can’t give it more than 1 star. Skip it.
The second entry in LD Valentine’s QPOC-led fantasy series finds water witch Adam taking the reins as coven leader after a powerful psychic demon enthralls Xavier and kidnaps him.
It took me a minute to get into this book, but once I did, I loved it. It was nice seeing all the characters grow and respond to Xavier’s absence. I also liked the scenes between Adam and Serea and how they butted heads, and him having to deal with the politics involved with Zora.
But this book isn’t without its faults.
First, after Adam and Max got into a fight, I thought they were too easy to forgive each other given everything that transpired between them.
Second, the story dragged a bit towards the middle and got repetitive with all the scenes of them fighting Xavier only for him to best them and retreat.
Third, I felt how Adam survived a fetal encounter tipped into deus ex machina territory, as it’s something that no water witch has ever been able to do nor is it ever explained and only commented on twice.
Fourth, the ending came off rushed, anticlimactic, and things wrapped up too neatly.
That said, I liked this book overall and can’t wait for the next in the series to drop. If you liked the first book, go ahead and add this one to your TBR list now.
I give Storming (The Coven of Zora #2) 4 out of 5 stars.
Bernie Sanders and AOC held a rally in Colorado that drew over 30,000 people, AG Pam Bondi threatened Jasmine Crockett for exercising her constitutional right to criticize Elon Musk; people have set Tesla cars on fire at some dealerships have been vandalized, prompting Trump to beat his chest about classifying them as terrorists.
And speaking of Tesla, the backlash to CEO Musk’s supervillain antics has resulted in record returns of Tesla cars and the stock tanking. Trump also revealed he will be giving Musk access to his security briefings without his having any security clearance.
Transportation Secretary Shawn Duffy visited NYC and complained about the subway system while offering zero solutions to improve it or the US’s overall infrastructure. Neither did he addressed the continuing crisis with the FAA re: plans crashing and colliding.
Trump also signed an executive order abolishing the Department of Education, and when Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was asked how this would affect funding for special education students, she floundered before giving a noncommittal answer that the sates would decide the issue.
Trump also gained access to the IRS’s database and is using it to ramp up his efforts to deport undocumented people. And speaking of deportations, news broke this weekend that Trump has been sending legal green card holders to El Salvadoran prisons based on their having certain tattoos and without due process.
Footage of detainee conditions and treatment at these prisons leaked, raising questions about human rights violations and whether Trump will turn his sights next on to disappearing his political enemies.
Trump has also bullied Columbia University into accepting his demands re: DEI and woke subjects with promises of reversing his planned funding cuts. They are foolish to believe given Trump’s countless lies and his above noted executive order dissolving the department of Education.
In related news, Trump signed an executive order targeting law firm Paul, Weiss et al., which he then rescinded after they pledged $40 million in legal aid to him and his various projects. Tension between the US and other countries have risen, prompting Canada to issue a travel advisory that its citizens aren’t safe traveling to the US.
And following the recent elections in Germany, many Germans no longer see the US is a trustworthy partner, citing Trump’s policies re: Ukraine and NATO.
When Germany is side eyeing you, you’re down bad.
And while we’re on the subject of Germany, historians and other experts across the spectrum have been raising the alarm about how much the current state of things in the US mirror pre–Nazi Germany 1933. This leads me to this week’s theme.
Sunk Cost Fallacy and Full Steam Ahead Toward Fascism
While trump has suffered many legals losses, he and his cadre of loyalists continue their dismantling of government at every level, often in content of said legal ruling. Because no one seems to have the spine to jail his ass.
Instead, our democratic leadership sits on their hands, telling us to hold tight until the midterms. Then if we have enough seats, they can give Trump his comeuppance. And in the meantime, let the legal system handle him.
There are several issues with this approach, the biggest one being the assumption the US as we know it will still exist then. At the rate Trump et al are going and the rage people are feeling right now, the cold civil war that started on January 6, 2021 could turn hot. If so, this would give Trump the excuse he’s been waiting for to institute Martial Law and suspend the constitution.
Second, even if the courts can keep him in check, the damage he does to our government and the world in the meanwhile might not be fixable, and if it can it’ll take generations.
This is why we need to act now, not next year, because by then Trump might not even allow elections beyond the political theater his buddy Putin allows. We need to take inspiration from South Korea’s action against its dictator. They had him out of office in mere hours, while we’re 3 months and counting into Trump’s regime.
Our leaders are too invested in the current system to realize doing things the old ways aren’t going to cut it. They believe following the rules will save them despite proof otherwise. They continue acting as if we aren’t in the middle of an ongoing coup. They keep doing the same thing they’ve always done, hoping if they keep at it a bit longer everything will turn out okay.
This is the definition of sunk cost fallacy: continuing to do something because you believe you have more to lose than gain in spite of mounting losses.
But keeping their heads down and hoping things will get better if they give it enough time won’t work for the reasons I listed above. Once the Trump cabal gains total power it’s game over.
Screw business as usual and fuck the rules. Do whatever needs to be done. Remove Trump now.
Since last week there have been more plane crashes, more cases of measles and bird flu, ICE detained and tortured a legal green card holder, Chuck Schumer caved to republicans and convinced enough Dems in the senate to vote for Trump’s odious continuing resolution (CR). Among other things, the CR included massive cuts to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid, food stamps, and foreign aid.
Trump also defied a court order to have Venezuela-bound flights carrying undocumented immigrants return to the US, and as of Monday he declared all Biden’s pardons null and void. And he’s escalated things with Yemen by bombing it. Trump also steed up his campaign to purge the government of everything woke and dei, removing references to Black and women soldiers interned at Arlington National Cemetery.
Also, web pages detailing Black, Japanese, and women recipients of the Medal of Honor were removed. In the case of Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers, a Black Medal of Honor recipient, the url of his web page was changed to include “dei-medal.” Only after public outcry were some of the web pages restored but the pentagon defended its DEI/woke purge. For more information click here.
While Trump has been running roughshod, democratic leadership has been AWOL. This leads me to the topic of this week’s post.
Fuck Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Establishment
Week after week, I’ve been bemoaning the lack of democratic leadership, and nothing epitomizes this more than Chuck Schumer’s betrayal of the American people last week.
Over 200 Democratic senators voted no on the CR, but that doesn’t matter because 12 senate Dems voted for it, giving republicans enough votes for it to pass. Have they no shame?
And Schumer has the nerve to go on a book tour after he slit the throat of his constituents. Well, I say we give him all the time he wants by primarying his ass and every democrat that voted for the CR, and while we’re at it every dem who voted to censure Rep, Al Green of Texas.
Election after election, the democratic establishment has grown further out of touch as it drifted farther right. And every time they lose, they blame progressives for being too radical and themselves for not being centrist enough to appeal to independents and centrist. In reality the right has gone over the cliff and the center is no longer the center. So, what we’re left with is democrats who govern like wannabe Republicans.
Given a choice between these republican-lite candidates and the real deal, those on the right almost always choose the latter. Case in point, Kamala Harris tried appealing to conservatives by campaigning with Liz Cheney and touting her gun ownership, instead of running on a progressive populous platform. And the result is she lost by a thin margin.
Once again, progressives were blamed for voting third party or abstaining. Yet 90 million eligible voters stayed home. Had Harris won over a tenth of these voters she would have won in a landslide. Instead, she pandered to the right and was rewarded with an L.
I am sick and tired of us progressives being blamed for the incompetence of the democratic establishment. Everything we want (universal healthcare, universal college, a tax code where millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share, and a government that works for we the people and not corporations) are popular. Just ask Bernie Sanders who’s been packing townhalls because he stays pushing these issues.
But no.
According to Schumer and the democratic establishment we need to move to the right and play footsie with the fascists. Yeah, ‘cause appeasing the nazis worked so well the first time.
Well Chuck Schumer and the democratic establishment can go fuck themselves with a rabid possum. He, Pelosi, and everyone who’s been in their seat for decades need to go. They’ve gotten too comfortable and forgotten who they work for.
Every second Schumer remains senate minority leader is a disgrace to everyone who fought for our democracy. And until someone who will fight for progressive causes and the rule of law takes the reins, we should boycott all establishment democrats. No donations, no canvassing, nothing. Flood their emails, voicemail, and snail mail in such volumes they have no recourse but to respond.
There’s a popular adage that says the definition of insanity is doing something repeatedly and expecting a different result. Every time it’s the same story with the dems; they capitulate to the republicans in the naive hope this time the other side can be reasoned with, and the republicans stab them in the heart ad infinitum.
No more. This insanity must end. Either Schumer et al get out of the fucking way or progressives take control a la the Tea Party.
Till next week, stay safe, don’t obey in advance, and fuck the feculent fascist in chief.
Man in orange shorts and white and black nike shoes
Rundown
As expected, Trump enacted several tariffs last week, causing markets at home and abroad to tank as the trade wars with Canada etc. intensify.
Spineless Dem in chief John Fetterman voted in lockstep with republicans on the continuing resolution to avoid a government shut. Said CR contained massive cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, and the VA. It also ceded he power of the purse to Trump.
Another of Musk’s Space X rockets exploded, flooding the air with debris and forcing planes to divert their flight path. Musk’s DOGE boys gained access to the Veterans’ Administration’s systems, but they’ve yet to wreak havoc on it as it uses an old operating system they have no experience with.
Small miracles, right?
Measles continues to spread while our incompetent Head of HHS pushes bogus claims that Vitamin A can prevent the disease. Likewise, the Trump administration is playing catch up on Bird Flu after hastily firing and then rehiring experts on the virus.
The administration announced a five-point plan for dealing with the virus, claiming it would lower the cost of eggs. However, experts say this isn’t true.
Regarding the cost of eggs and groceries not coming down like Trump said they would if he were elected, Trump reposted an article by Charlie Kirk that said, “People should shut up about egg prices.”
Trump also gave the first State of Union Address of his second term, and it was a tsunami of lies.
Only Rep. Al Green of Alabama had the spine to call out Trump’s lies, until the sergeant-at-arms removed him.
And what did the rest of the spineless Dems do? They sat there saying nothing, timidly flashing little signs with “lie” on them. Be for fucking real.
If they had an ounce of courage, they would have left in mass in solidarity with Green. Cowards, the whole lot of them.
If this is the best the Democratic Party can muster in the face of Trump, in the face of fascism, we’re cooked.
Which leads me to this week’s topic.
I’m Done with Spineless Dems
Nancy Pelosi and the democratic establishment have made it clear they lack the will and spine to bring the fight to Trump and MAGA. And rather than step aside so folks like Jasmine Crockett, AOC, Stacy Abrams, Maxwell Frost, and Pete Buttigieg can take the reins, they’ve clung to power well past their expiration date. Nothing will change while the same old heads are in office, so from here on out I will only be supporting progressive candidates who have fight in them.
And if I’m being honest, I think we need to form a progressive third party since democratic leadership has been drifting rightward for years and now is republican-lite. So no more donating to any democratic candidate, PAC or organization unless they’re pushing progressive causes and bringing the fight to Trump.
And you should too.
Republicans are running scared, refusing to have town halls because their constitutes are ripping them new assholes for selling them out.
Meanwhile, the only time I hear from Dems is when they want money. It’s the only thing these pigs seem to care about, so let’s starve them. They have gotten too comfortable and have forgotten they work for us.
Do something substantial instead of performative bullshit, maybe I’ll kick in a few bucks. But maintaining the status quo isn’t going to cut it. We the people need Dems to grow spines and fight, damn it!
Till next week, stay safe and don’t let the tangerine tyrant grind ya down.
Since last week, Trump met with President Zelensky and tried to strong arm him into a deal granting the US mineral rights in Ukraine in exchange for continued financial and military support. At one point Trump and Vance reportedly got into a shouting match with Zelensky before he left.
In response, European leaders have stepped up to fill the gap and called a summit to address Trump’s actions.
Trump also announced more tariffs set to take effect this week and the stock market tanked.
Bird Flu continues to spread and a measles outbreak in Texas has exploded to over 140 cases as of this writing. This all while the media gag order on the CDC and other health authorities continues.
In what has been the democrats’ response to the above?
Hakeem Jeffries tweeted a ten-point plan to deal with Trump and posted it to social media. However aside from the first point, which is to have House and Senate Dems refuse to vote for any legislation including the upcoming debt ceiling vote; they don’t have any teeth.
Pointing out everything Trump et al are doing wrong is pointless unless it’s paired with a plan of action to stop them and how it will affect voters in concrete terms. People need to see the Dems are actively fighting for them. That they have some fire in their bellies.
Instead, Jeffries gave us a massive nothing burger.
It’s not enough to tell people what Trump et al. Are doing. There are a million places that already do that. If the Dems are to form a true opposition party, they need to move with swiftness and urgency. And they should start by showing people exactly what Trump’s policy will mean for them.
Show Don’t Tell
Writers are often told to show not tell. As this relates to democrats, they need to lay out in full details how Trump and his policies will directly affect people.
First up, Trump’s picking RFK Jr for head of Health and Human Services and rolling back Biden-era health policies will mean the return of people buying thousands a month for insulin, and their children dying from preventable diseases like measles, Tuberculosis, and polio. And should we have another pandemic, we know the Trump administration will botch it leading to needless deaths and price gouging as the supply chain breaks down.
This isn’t to mention the millions who will go bankrupt due to medical debt should he gut Medicaid and Medicare and repeal the ACA.
Second, his immigration policy will mean higher grocery costs as migrant workers aren’t willing to risk being deported and farmers aren’t willing to pay a living wage to American workers, so crops are rotting in the field. And as some Latino Trump voters have already discovered, it will result in their undocumented friends and family being deported.
Third, Trump’s tariffs will mean higher prices across the board for everyone, but they will also mean higher food costs as the US imports most of its produce from Mexico, whose President has said she will respond with tariffs if he imposes them on Mexico.
And you think home prices are high now, just wait until Canada, from whom we get a lot of our lumber, imposes them on us. Ditto China with steel and other materials the construction industry uses, among other industries.
If that weren’t bad enough, The US gets most of its wheat from Ukraine, and since Russia invaded them in 2022, they’ve drastically decreased exports resulting in higher bread prices. Trump serving up Ukraine to Putin will only make things worse as Putin will no doubt jack up grain prices if Russia conquers Ukraine.
Fourth, Trump’s fiscal policies will lead to empty bank accounts. His proposed tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will destroy what’s left of the middle class by siphoning billions to the one percent. You think roads are bad now, just wait until the tax cuts go through. Hell, forget any infrastructure project getting done that Trump and associates don’t get a kickback on.
Fifth, when it comes to education, Trump’s policies re: DEI, school funding, and vouchers will lead to a brain drain as foreign students no longer see the benefit of American university degrees. This anti-intellectualism will cause America to stagnant, resulting in lower job prospects for American citizens at home and abroad.
It’s not enough to just say, “Trump bad.” Dems must make their message personal and provide a clear plan how they will stand up to Trump and govern once they’re in control. Otherwise, they will continue losing.
Till next week, stay safe, mask up, and don’t let the copper tone conman grind ya down.
Grayscale photo of person covering his face with bandana holding a banner with words ” enough is enough” at protest
The Rundown
A month into the second Trump administration and all levels of the government are under assault from the manchild who would be king. More planes have crashed, yet Trump continues his slash and burn of the FAA and other federal employees, despite challenges in the courts. He’s also served Ukraine on a silver platter to Putin and signaled he would allow Russia to attack our European allies.
Thankfully judges and some federal employees are standing up to him, Musk, and DOGE.
However, democratic officials have been slow to respond. But some dems like Jamie Raskin, Corry Booker, and JB Pritzker are showing signs of having a spine. But I fear it’s too little too late as Trump purges the government of anyone who won’t bend the knee.
Meanwhile, due to Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies, inflation has skyrocketed along with gas and food prices. The latter has some in trump’s base reconsidering their vote. We tried to tell ya’ll.
And speaking of voting, there is growing concern Musk, or another actor accessed the central voting machine where all votes in a state are recorded and altered them, a possibility which Intelligence and national security expert Malcolm Nance says is a possibility.
But given democratic leadership’s failure to call for recounts when questions about voting irregularities first arose, I fear this will be 2000 2.0, only this time if we learn that Kamala Harris did win it won’t matter because Trump et al will have succeeded in dismantling our government and selling our country to the highest bidder.
Our only saving grace may be this administration’s incompetence. Because for the most part democratic leadership is still AWOL.
Which leads me to this week’s theme.
The emperor is Nude and Enough is Enough
In “The Emperor’s New Clothes” a tailor cons an emperor into believing he’s made new clothes for him out of a rare, expensive and invisible fabric. And as the emperor goes about town nude, his subjects pretend he’s wearing the most magnificent outfit ever, because they fear his wraith should they point out he’s naked. Finally, a child shouts, “The Emperor has no clothes,” breaking the charade.
Last week Trump referred to himself as a king and, as with the above emperor, people are afraid to point out his faults, especially the mainstream media.
When Trump first ran, they refused to call out his lies, instead abusing the thesaurus to use any words but lie and liar. And it was this dereliction of their journalistic duty that led to his first and second term in the oval office.
Time and time again the legacy media sane washed Trump, painting him in a positive light while holding the dems to ridiculously high standards. And those that dared say the emperor had no clothes, like Jim Acosta and the Associated Press, have been barred from the White Press Room.
On the other hand, with few exceptions, democratic officials have failed to respond to this administration’s rape and pillaging of our government and democracy. Week after week, they’ve said nothing, or worse expressed a willingness to work with republicans.
What the actual fuck.
Still worse are their social media posts filled with empty platitudes and milquetoast press conferences. The only time democrats seem energized is in the billions of fundraising emails and texts I get every day.
Sorry, but no!
Enough is enough. We need a concrete plan of action from democratic leadership, or they need to get the fuck outta there.
We can’t and won’t wait until the midterms. We need action NOW. Not two years from now. Not two weeks from now. Today.
Every second we wait is another second Trump et al has to destroy our country.
The emperor is nude and a demented fascist, and no amount of spin or sane washing will ever change that. Stand up or be stomped down.
Until next week, stay safe and don’t let Cheeto Benito grind ya down.
Since last week there have been more plane crashes, including the latest—as of this writing—this past Sunday morning in Georgia. Meanwhile Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been mum on the spat of crashes, save blaming the Biden administration, since Trump slashed the budget for the FAA.
Trump also gave a presser in which he sat like the empty suit he is, while Elon Musk blathered on for over thirty minutes. Musk’s son X Æ A-Xii even got in the act, reportedly telling Trump to shut up at one point.
In other news, VP JD Vance, who had been AWOL, went to Germany and met with the far right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which the magazine Der Spiegel reports has associations with far right and neo-Nazi extremist groups. Vance did so in lieu of meeting with German Chancelor Olaf Scholz.
The heads at Fox News and those at other corporate media outlets would have exploded if a democratic VP had gone to Gaza and met with Hamas. Yet not one peep from them on this. They’ll do anything to prop up Trump et al and keep their access to them.
As it stands world leaders are meeting to discuss how they will deal with Trump as he continues tilting at windmills and ramping up tariffs against them.
Meanwhile, more cases of bird flu (H5N1) have sprang up across the country, resulting in the culling of chickens, cattle, and other infected livestock. There are also growing concerns about mutual transmission of the virus between cats and humans.
The US is also experiencing outbreaks of measles and tuberculosis, and polio is making a comeback; all while Trump’s communications ban on the CDC and state and county health department remains in place. And to make matters worse, anti-vax and conspiracy theorist RFK Jr. was confirmed as Head of Health and Human Services.
But the cherry on the shit sundae was the Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard being confirmed by unanimous consent as the Director of National Intelligence as Putin watched and laughed at us. Not a single democrat objected to Gabbard’s nomination. And that, among other reasons, is why I’m no longer voting “blue no matter who.”
Why I’m Done Voting Blue No Matter Who
Since Trump retook the oval office, democratic voters have been screaming for our elected officials to do something, anything to stop Trump. And what has been their response? They wring their hands and say they can’t do nothing because they don’t have the votes, which is a lie since whenever republicans are in the minority they do everything in their power to obstruct the dems (see Clinton, Obama, and Biden).
And when Musk and his DOGE boys breached the US Treasure, and security officers blocked democratic officials from entering the USAID headquarters and other government building, they rolled over. At every step democratic leadership has failed to meet the challenge these times require. Instead, they do nothing or give piss poor pressers, when they aren’t sending out a billion texts and emails begging for money.
Nope.
The Democratic party won’t get one cent from me until there are major changes. First, it’s way past time Nancy Pelosi and the old guard of the House and Senate retire. They are too old and out of touch with their constituents and clearly not up to the fight before them. So, until people like AOC, Maxwell Frost, and Jasmine Crockett take the reins, I want nothing to do with the party.
And, if democratic leadership is set on continuing their drift rightward and villainizing the progressive element of the party, then I have no qualms leaving the party. Why stay where I’m not wanted, why stay when the leadership refuses to grow a spine and take the fight to Trump et al.
Why invest my time and money in a party that only pretends to care about progressive issues come election time, then governs like republican-lite once they get into office. If the party isn’t willing to push progressive policies, then why stay.
If things don’t change, I’ll switch my affiliation to independent and support candidates on a case-by-case basis and not blindly vote blue no matter who. And if ever a viable progressive third party comes along, I’ll support it. But until then, the DNC and democrats in the House and Senate are on notice.
Until next week, stay safe and don’t let the tangerine tyrant grind ya down.
More planes crashed/collided, Trump blew up the Gaza hostage deal by asserting he has control over the Gaza Strip and wants to expel all Palestinians and build luxury apartments there, and he signed executive orders to send immigrants convicted of crimes to Guantanamo and to sentence those guilty of capital offences to death.
J D Vance came out of hiding to lay the groundwork for eliminating the separation of church and state and establishing Christian Nationalism as the state religion.
Elon Musk and his cadre of zygote DOGE henchmen lost access to The Treasury database—for now.
And while Trump has seen several of his executive orders challenged in court and blocked, he and his administration have largely ignored these rulings. The truth is there is nothing to enforce these rulings since the DOJ’s policy not to prosecute a sitting president is still in effect. Worse, Trump’s appointees at the DOJ have begun leaning on prosecutors to drop cases against those who’ve kissed Trump’s greasy rump.
It’s becoming more apparent that we can’t depend on the systems of checks and balances and democratic leadership to save us. As I wrote last week, we must save ourselves. And while some protests have taken place across the country, with more planned, the larger issue is we can’t count on social media and the internet to organize the coming revolution needed to fight Trump et al.
The shenanigans TikTok puled by going dark in the US before the 2024 election results were in, then coming back and thanking Trump proves that it and other social media platforms aren’t reliable. This goes double for all Meta platforms as Zuckerberg was one of the first tech bros to bend the knee to Trump.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if ISPs and telecoms were the next to fall in line. And if so, the resistance will need to go old school if it’s to survive. Walkie-talkies, ham and CB radios, and community networks like the Underground Railroad will be key. And we will need to form militias, so if Trump declares Martial Law, we are able to defend ourselves.
This might sound crazy, but intelligence experts like Malcolm Nance have been warning we are heading toward a constitutional crisis that may lead to a second Civil War. So, we need to be prepared for the worst.
Get with your friends, family, or neighbors and pool your resources. Start a neighborhood watch if you don’t already have one, network with others in person, and stay aware while staying sane.
The takeaway here is we need to get offline and touch grass.
Cue the “Keep Calm and Carry On” meme.
If it’s any solace, this past weekend at The Super Bowl, fans booed Trump who was in attendance.
Till next week, stay safe and don’t let the tangerine tyrant grind ya down.
Over the last week a lot has happened. A plane collided with a Blackhawk helicopter over DC and trump blamed DEI for it after his administration fired hundreds of air traffic controllers and Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, former reality TV star Sean Duffy, floundered to explain how such a thing happened.
Trump’s pick for HHS, RFK, Jr., had his confirmation hearing and it went as well as you’d expect for a conspiracy-theory pushing antivaxxer. And in related health news, cases of Tuberculosis have sprung up in Illinois, along with more outbreaks of Bird Flu in humans.
And if that weren’t scary enough, Elon Musk and his oligarch friends gained access to the information of millions of Americans and took control of billions of dollars from the Treasury, all while democratic leadership did nothing.
Well, I shouldn’t say, “nothing.” Chuck Schumer and Jammie Raskin have given a few milquetoast pressers and posted strongly worded posts on social media. Shoutout to AOC, Jasmine Crockett, and the former social media manager for Wendy’s who have been giving masterclasses in messaging and taking the fight to MAGA.
The truth is we can’t depend on the DNC or democratic leadership to save us. They eat from the same trough as the republicans and have no incentive to fight back as their seats are safe thanks to gerrymandering, no term limits, and our defacto two-party system. Neither can we wait for some mythical Superman to swoop in and fix everything.
Right now, people are angry at our leadership for allowing this farce to continue, but the fact is we allowed this to happen by tuning out politics, by not holding our politicians’ feet to fire on things like term limits and enacting laws against using information gained from their positions to engage in what would be insider trading if a civilian did what they did.
We are at fault for allowing oligarchs to buy up the legacy media and for allowing history to repeat itself re: tech bros and social media. We are at fault for standing by, waiting for someone to do something, to lead us when we can act ourselves.
You don’t need permission from anyone to start a neighborhood food pantry or mutual aid group. You can build information networks and start local newspapers or zines to spread news to others without the propaganda of the legacy media. You can also get with friends and family to help with groceries and other costs by having a weekly potluck or pooling your money to pay for gasoline and bills.
If you have a skill or talent, share it with others and have them share theirs. And if you don’t have any skills, learn one. Libraries and Google are still free, and they can be great places to rally your community around a specific goal like learning to knit or crochet and making blankets to drive down heating costs.
You don’t need anyone to pick you. Step up and stop being a bystander. Because Superman ain’t coming, so save yourself.
This has been the longest week ever. The tangerine tyrant has wasted no time rolling back Obama- and Bidden-era policies. He removed the cap on prescription drug prices, so now people will go back to paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for the critical medications they need.
He also pulled the US out of the World Health Organization, froze federal spending for everything except defense and ICE, and barred health officials from communicating with the public. All as Bird Flu (H5N1) has spread to humans in the US.
What could possibly go wrong.
Don the con has also begun purging “woke” and DEI items from whitehouse.gov and other government sites. References to the Tuskegee Airmen were removed along with mentions of The Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), a group of civilian woman pilots who flew noncombatant flights during WW 2.
More is sure to follow in the next 100 days.
Given the scope of everything that Trump has done in just a week, it’s overwhelming. But it needn’t be.
I haven’t been doom scrolling but have kept informed by following Aaron Parnas, Joy Reid, and others on BlueSky and Substack. But I refuse to turn on the corporate news or my local news affiliates as they helped create this mess by normalizing Trump.
This reminds me of a lecture I watched as part of a series on the nature of evil from The Great Courses.
It was entitled, “The Banality of Evil” and focused on a Nazi official who continued sending trains of Jewish people to the death camps even after it was clear the war was lost. When asked why, he responded, “He was just doing his job.” Not in the sense of the Nuremberg defense, but that he was so desensitized to what he was doing it was his default.
Much like the above Nazi official, the legacy media has become numb to Trump’s corruption, and worse has attempted to gas light us into believing what he and his administration are doing is normal.
It’s not.
In the lead up to the 2024 election, there was a lot of talk about the frog in the pot analogy for fascism and how by incrementally raising the temperature, the frog won’t notice it’s boiling until it’s too late.
But the insidious part about the banality is evil is it won’t matter how much they raise the temperature once we’ve become desensitized to things.
Be it reporters Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski or tech bros going to Mar-A-Lago to kiss trump’s greasy ass, Target rolling back DEI initiatives, or Tik Tok pushing pro Trump propaganda, the rush to obey Trump in advance only shows signs of increasing. And more than ever we need to speak truth to power and call out the lies and utter bullshit of Trump et al.
The only way we’re going to get through the next four years is by not becoming numb to the daily chaos. So, stay informed, but don’t let it consume your life, find joy in the little things, and be there for those in need. Do what you can to make your corner of the world brighter.
To this end, I bought a crafting machine bundle that was on sale, and plan to make vinyl stickers and other goodies with it. First for myself and maybe later as a side hustle. I don’t know yet.
I also have a silkscreen T-shirt press that I bought years ago but never learned to use. Well, I plan to change that. I’ll let you know how that goes. What are you doing to stay sane?
Till next week, stay safe and don’t let the bastards grind you down.
Woman in blue jacket holding black and white printed board image by Egide Mbabazi via scopi.io
Long time no read.
Yeah, these last few months have been hell on me, with the cherry on the shit sundae being the election results. I’ve been doom scrolling, gaming, and binge-watching shows on Hulu. And as January 20th approached, my nerves mounted to the point I got little to no sleep most nights, crashing for a few hours whenever my body finally gave out from exhaustion.
But I have been using this extra time and energy to do much-needed cleaning.
As I’ve decluttered my house, I’ve found my mood and sleep improving. This time since the election results has also given me the opportunity to reflect on some things.
First, neglecting my mental and physical help will do me no good. So I’m going to be doing more of the things I like and less of those I don’t. This means tuning out the 24-hour news cycle and getting back to the basics, starting with hitting the gym and cutting way back on takeout, and cooking more at home.
Second, in the days and years going forward, the only way we’re going to get through these Trump years is by defining what resistance looks like for us and not becoming numb to the everyday malfeasance. For me resistance is using my words and other mediums to call the BS that coming and staying sane by creating things. So, that’s what the blog is going be: a chronicle of my attempts to get through this craziness.
What does this mean? The occasional rant re: Trump and his matryoshka doll of corruption, reviews of games and other media, bookish think pieces, and posts chronicling my misadventures in crafting and DIY.
If this isn’t your jam, the door’s that way.
See ya’ll next week. Till then, stay safe, and don’t let the tangerine tyrant steal your joy.
As I wrote last week, I recently turned forty and this has me re-evaluating things, like the meaning of life and the nature of good an evil. The Biblical god never made sense to sense to me as how can an omniscient being not foresee The Fall, or how can an omni-benevolent god send his creations to hell for finite crime, where they are tormented forever?
More importantly, how can this omnipotent being not snap its fingers and get rid of pain, illness, and evil?
The more I read the Bible, less sense it made to me, and I stopped believing altogether in my teens.
But now I’m thinking my conception of God may have been immature.
In college I was a physics major, and one of the things that crops up repeatedly is the concept of balance. Mass and energy are conserved in every chemical reaction or interaction. “What you start with is what you end with,” one of my chemistry professors told me. Thus, all chemical equations must be balanced. Also, the number of an atom’s protons and electrons must be equal, or they are unstable, i.e. radioactive. (Note: chemistry is physics on the atomic level).
Likewise, systems tend toward equilibrium, e.g. Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, maybe God and Satan, then, are equal and opposite forces. And the reason there are so many religions is because they’re all describing the same thing, but in different dimensions.
What I mean by this is to a 4-dimensional being, we’d look flat, just like a 2-dimensional object looks flat to us. So perhaps then each religion is describing a different aspect to God and Satan. So, God and Satan are just the positive and negative aspects of energy.
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity (e=mc^2) says energy and matter are equal to each other, and from thermodynamics we know energy can never be created or destroyed. So maybe this creative energy is God and maybe, just maybe as the Gnostic believed, God is inside us, and as the Buddhists believe we are all connected.
And maybe then Satan represents the negative destructive energy inside us all, the death drive as Freud called it, and maybe God and Satan are projections of the internal war we all fight between hope and despair, between our ego and shadow self, between love and hate. And religion then is a psychodrama humans created as a defense mechanism to reconcile these diametrically opposed urges in us.
Perhaps, then as Carl Jung posits, the way to find balance is by accepting the God and Satan inside us all.
Hey, long time no post. Ya’ll probably thought I abandoned this blog.
Nope.
Life just got in the way, as it tends to do. Between my day job and the tire fire that is our current timeline, I haven’t had the time or energy to do much of anything but eat, sleep, shit, work, repeat.
But last month, I turned forty and have come to some epiphanies.
First, I’m not a kid anymore, so I need to take better care of my physical and emotional health, especially after the lab results from my last doctor’s appointment. My blood sugar is high and if I don’t get it under control, it’ll tank my kidneys and other organs. So, beginning today, I’m eating healthier and will start hitting the gym too.
Second, I’m not as far along with my writing as I’d hoped I’d be, and if I’m being honest, it’s been weeks since I wrote a blog and months since I even thought about working on my WIP’s. So, I’ll write for at least 30 minutes every day. And I’ll set hard deadlines for completing my WIP’s. Third, I’ll resume therapy and work on my issues, because if I’m gonna be around for another forty years I want to be the best version of myself I can be.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to live this long; and now that I have, I don’t know what to do. Maybe therapy will help me figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ll probably always write, but as for my day job, I’m thinking about using my company’s tuition reimbursement program to get a degree in either communications or business management and apply for a better paying job.
But with the uncertainty of this year’s presidential election, I don’t know if I’ll even still be in the US come this time next year. It feels like we’re all waiting to exhale, wondering what will happen next, wondering if there’ll even be a USA after this election. It just feels like the whole world has gone insane and no one is doing anything about it because we’re all just trying to get by the best we can.
And I’m sick of it!
I don’t want to live another four years, let alone another forty, worrying if my rights as a person will be taken away, my existence politicized, based on which party is in power. This is no way to live: constantly on edge and stressed out, because no matter how much we turn out the vote, we’re always one election from the next Trump, always one election from it being the last election. All because America refuses to address its racist past and present.
I’ll still vote for Harris this November, but I’m not naïve enough to believe her election will fundamentally change anything (I learned my lesson with Obama).
The system is broken, and nothing will change until we fix it. So, yeah, vote blue no matter who, then once Trump and Trumpism is no longer a threat we need to do some self-reflecting as a nation.
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