It’s genocide

We can stop arguing about the term (as we should have done long ago): Israel is committing genocide, with the enthusiastic aid of the United States.

Donald Trump has suggested large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip, after ordering the US military to restart shipments of 2,000lb bombs to Israel.

“Cleaning out” a whole people, driving them from their homes, and moving them into camps in another country is genocide. It’s that simple.

Couple that to the fact that he’s not sending a fleet of moving vans and a lot of prefab homes and trailers to their destination, but is instead sending 2000 pound bombs, is a huge hint that we’re not talking about a peaceful, voluntary relocation. It’s hard to get 2.3 million people to all give up their homes, much easier if we whittle the numbers down a bit. A lot.

Combine this with his hatred of DEI, his denial that trans people exist, and his inability to recognize women’s autonomy, I think it’s clear that we have a psychopath in the White House, one who has no sense of empathy and is unable to recognize the rights of other people to exist.

The price of eggs is too damn high!

Time to fire the president.

A dozen large, Grade A eggs cost an average of $4.15 in the U.S. last month – a nearly 37% increase from the year before – according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a much larger jump than the 2.5% increase of overall food prices.

The last time that average price was above $4 was two years ago, when the cost for a dozen eggs spiked to a record $4.82.

I mean, Trump’s the guy who goes from store to store and sets prices, right? Or are we now ready to dismiss that simplistic, direct connection out of hand?

In this case, there may be an indirect connection — the price is partly the result of the bird flu.

The egg industry has been impacted by a surge of bird flu cases in recent weeks. More than 13 million egg-laying hens died in December due to the virus – the most of any month last year – according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And another 3.3 million died in early January.

The losses are a big factor in higher egg prices, said Jada Thompson, a poultry economist at the University of Arkansas who researches how diseases impact markets.

“One of the hard parts is there’s this regional concentration of production,” Thompson said. “And so when a disease is going through and hitting farms in that area, it’s gonna affect multiple farms, and that’s gonna affect the supply of eggs – and that supply then will affect our prices.”

Everything is connected. Do you think censoring the NIH and putting science deniers in charge of our health might have consequences?

Just you wait until the next lockdown. They have a model plan to stop the virus in its tracks.

The virus has an extremely high fatality rate in birds, Sato said. Many birds die within a day or two — so when bird flu is confirmed on a farm, it affects the entire flock.

“Essentially, all of the birds that’s on that site will be depopulated, meaning they’ll all be put down, in order to control the virus and to make sure it’s contained in one area to not spread to other premises,” Sato said.

Tearing stuff down is easier than building them up

Man, it sure is easy to walk into the office and shred all past agreements, burn down policies that have been in place for a generation, and not bother to replace them with anything. Trump is firing people left and right and sweeping away useful programs.

U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s administration moved Tuesday to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.

The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly “merit-based” hiring.

The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by U.S. president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients.

Sure, let’s tear down all the progress made since the 1960s. Dismantle the Great Society programs, since we’re now a small, mean, nasty society. Also, don’t you dare try to preserve them by renaming them.

Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and end any related contracts, and federal workers are being asked to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect any DEI-related program has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.”

I’m at a state university, so this doesn’t affect us yet, but I know people involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at the University of Minnesota; I’ve taken DEI training on several occasions. They’re good people and it’s useful information. How can you have “merit-based” hiring if you don’t recognize the existence of policies and attitudes and social pressures that work against merit? I think that’s the problem — they don’t recognize the existence of bigotry and bias while they practice them to the maximum degree.

While they’re taking a wrecking ball to our institutions, here’s another one: the US is pulling out of the World Health Organization.

The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization. WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go. The United States was a founding member of WHO in 1948 and has participated in shaping and governing WHO’s work ever since, alongside 193 other Member States, including through its active participation in the World Health Assembly and Executive Board. For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication. American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership in WHO. With the participation of the United States and other Member States, WHO has over the past 7 years implemented the largest set of reforms in its history, to transform our accountability, cost- effectiveness, and impact in countries. This work continues. We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well- being of millions of people around the globe.

The Trump administration is listening to RFK jr, a notorious crank and quack. We’re slowly emerging from a pandemic (one could argue that it’s not at all over), one that first emerged in Asia, and here we are, tearing down connections to the rest of the world and blinding ourselves to diseases outside of our little country. It’s stupid and short-sighted.

What happens in four years (we hope)? Do we just go crawling back to these international societies, hat in hand, and beg to be let back in? These betrayals are going to permanently damage our relationship with the rest of the world; they know we can’t be trusted, so every international relationship is going to be organized with the understanding that the USA is an unreliable partner.

Either it was a Nazi salute, or he is very very stupid

I like James O’Brien’s take on the recent contretemps.

I would also argue that if you’re claiming it was not a Nazi salute, then you are either a Nazi-sympathizer or so stupid you don’t recognize the significance of what you’ve done.

One interesting thing about it all, though, is that Musk has managed to steal all the attention from Trump. That’s the greatest sin anyone can commit.

That wasn’t an accidental Hitlergruß

A scene from the inauguration:


Some elections are important, some are not. But this one, this one really mattered and I just want to say thank you for making it happen…

then a bold unmistakeable Nazi salute.

Don’t try to tell me that was a slip of the entire goddamn right arm. That was a massive call out to the American fascist community. He knew what he was doing.

I have got to turn off the news now

I have learned that the Asshole-in-chief has lined up a series of executive orders — he loves EOs, they allow him to bypass the pretense of democracy — to militarize the border. There will be more coming, no doubt to begin rounding up and throwing into cages anyone with brown skin and an accent.

Donald Trump will sign 11 border-related executive orders, including one authorizing the deployment of US troops to the border, Fox News reports.

The outlet reports that in one order, Trump will immediately direct the federal government to resume construction of the border wall, end Biden-era parole policies including the CBP One app, and bring back the so-called Remain in Mexico policy, under which asylum seekers were forced to wait in dangerous border cities while their applications were processed.

Another second order will order American troops to be deployed to the border under US Northern Command and “instruct the military to prioritize our own borders and territorial integrity in strategic planning for its operations,” according to Fox.

A third order will designate international cartels and organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT), which will allow for targeted action against members, including financial penalties.

The main thing he’s about, though, is grifting. They announced a new memecoin, named after Melania, to steal more money from American citizens. Jesus. It’s just a naked cash grab out there.

OK, I’m going to get my shoes on and dress up in many warm layers — it’s really, really cold out there — and shuffle over to the lab and spend the morning with my spiders, who have been refusing to lay any eggs for me. Even the spiders are refusing to bring more children into this awful damned world.

Oh, wait. There’s more.

Direct the military to prioritize the US border and territorial integrity

End the “catch and release” policy

Move to end birthright citizenship

End asylum and close the border to immigrants entering illegally

Reinstate “remain in Mexico” policy and building the border wall

10 executive orders on the border to be issued on Monday

Sign an executive order declaring a national energy emergency

Sign a memorandum on inflation which envisions an ‘all of government response’ to inflation

Sign an executive order saying that US policy will recognize two sexes: male and female

Will ensure official government documents, such as passports and visas, reflect sex accurately

Establish Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)

Restore death penalty in public safety

Has no specific target for the oil price

Sign an executive order ending federal government DEI programs

Will suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months

Will put an end to the electric vehicle mandate

Designate criminal cartels as global terrorists

Close the border, end DEI, the death penalty, ignore climate change, and declare by government fiat that there are only two sexes.

OK, now I’m closing my browser and getting the hell out of the house.

It’s inauguration day

We are so totally screwed.

If you’re curious to know what the future holds for us, here’s a demonstration by Candace Owens.

She babbles about how the moon landing and dinosaurs were all conspiracies by satanists to destroy our faith in a god, based entirely on disconnected factoids floating like rotten little raisins in the pudding of her brain. I fear that this kind of thing is what the world sees when they look at Americans.

Have any of you foreigners popping in here got any good American jokes? We’ll probably affirm them all for you.

Crime is legal now

Those Purge movies got it wrong. This is capitalism. We’re not going to legalize murder, but felonies, like theft and grift, are the crimes that will be indulged in, and it won’t help you to hide in a bunker. Your salaries, your retirement funds, your bank accounts are going to be pilfered and emptied into the pockets of the rich.

Trump has already started. It’s the day before his inauguration, and do you think he’s working on a high-minded speech and getting ready to take action to Make America Great Again? Ha. He’s launching a memecoin.

Man, there’s a lot of jargon in that video. I’m not and never have been into crypto, so a lot of it went over my head, but I can recognize the general thrust of what’s going on: Trump is going to use the authority of his position as head of the federal government to sell worthless trash to his followers. I won’t be buying it. Unfortunately, I’m still going to be sad for all the people he’s robbing, and I know this is going to do harm to the communities I’m part of.

Surprise! We have a 28th amendment?

As Joe Biden was getting his coat and leaving the White House, he has announced that he has ratified the equal rights amendment! Just like that! He can do that? What took him so long?

But legal experts contend it isn’t that simple: Ratification deadlines lapsed and five states have rescinded their approval, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, prompting questions about the president’s authority to ratify the amendment more than 50 years after it first passed.

Biden is leaning on the American Bar Association’s opinion, the senior official said, which “stresses that no time limit was included in the text of the Equal Rights Amendment” and “stresses that the Constitution’s framers wisely avoided the chaos that would have resulted if states were able to take back the ratifying votes at any time.”

This is an interesting bomb to throw back over his shoulder. Will Trump fight it? Is this another issue that will tear the Republican party apart? Will Zombie Phyllis Schlafly rise from her grave to haunt the halls of Congress?

I approve of the core principles of the amendment, but I also approve of any effort to sow chaos in the Trump administration.