Tossing Chairs

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was in rehearsals for Hello, Dolly!, one afternoon, and a bunch of us were fooling around after practice.

I got involved in a playful chase around the cafetorium, with some other kids trying to catch me as I ran around, through rows of cafeteria tables and chairs, etc. Hell, I was having a fucking blast.

But some kids were catching up with me, so I did the only thing I could think of: I started pulling chairs out from under tables and tossing them into the path behind me to slow them down. This worked, but eventually, I ran out of chairs.

And that is what Donald Trump reminds me of: the Epstein Files get hot on his heels, and he tosses chairs into the path behind him. One chair is the Iran War. But the kids push through the Iran War chairs and are still chasing him, so he throws out the "a civilization will end" chair, but the kids tossed it aside, still coming for him. So, he kicks the "firing Pam Bondi" chair into the aisle, and the kids keep coming for him.

But, now, he has come full circle to his starting point in the cafetorium, kids still coming at him, and a trail of chairs blocking his path before him.

It is only a matter of time before all the chairs he tossed to slow his hunters end up blocking him into a corner. The only difference is, in high school, young me panted, catching his breath, and laughed with the others at the end of a fun chase.

Donald Trump has nothing to laugh about, and the kids aren't ending the chase. I had a chance to catch my breath; Don the Con will be pursued until he drops dead.

We can hope.

RIP State of the Union

Not that you asked, but I won't be watching the State of the Union address, tonight.

I do not expect it to reflect the actual state of the Union.

I do not need the aggravation of watching lie after demonstrable lie.

I do not feel compelled to participate in a state-sanctioned gas-lighting event.

I do not concede my mind and soul to the utterances of an evil man, supported and advanced by a party of evil men and women.

Moreover, and more practically, my time is better spent elsewhere. Laundry seems to be the first order of business.

This event is simply marketing and public relations/damage control, period.

I fully expect Trump to toss out a LOT of red meat for the loyalists, making policy proposals that will be both distracting from our core issues, and corrosively divisive. Nothing positive or beneficial to the nation will emerge from the speech.

And, all of MAGA expects the Democrats to buy into this, because the Democrats have ALWAYS bought into it, with "it" being culture war bullshit. And the Democrats buy into the culture war bullshit because their leadership has gladly placed their own balls into the hands of evil money men, in order to secure and protect their political power, and are now totally reliant on the money men for their survival, even if it means the inability to use their own balls freely. Men like Schumer and Jeffries are beholden to special interests whose interests are not in-line with those of the US, and they dare NOT bite the hand that feeds them (and keeps them healthy enough to ignore the needs of the people).

So, watching the SOTU would be an immense waste of time.

I will be glad to eat those words, if, perhaps, Trump drops dead in the middle of it, and will regret that particular life choice. 

Were I a progressive MoC, and chose not to attend, it would be only so I could picket outside with a placard demanding that the Pedo-in-Chief Resign, accompanied by Epstein victims, with signs naming the powerful men and women who victimized them.

Arrest for that would be entirely worth it.

But, for now, laundry.

And, tomorrow, reports of bullshittery and the ham-handed rebuttals thereto.

And after that, waiting for the smoke to clear so people can see their way, again, and we can maintain the opposition to Trump, MAGA, and the GOP, while the Democratic leadership spend PAC money on consultants, and progressives fight the good fight despite them.

Or, another day ending in "y."

Enlarge the House

I just recommended this website on Bluesky. It addresses the crux of our multi-generational political crisis, which is the fact that Congress has been at 435 members for a century, reducing, over time, the voice of the people.

Had it expanded, over time, as it had in the entire previous history of the nation, we would be at perhaps thousands of representatives, and ALL of them FAR more representative of the people.

Consider that, in the course of that time, this nation has been through WW2, Korean War, Red Scare, Jim Crow, Vietnam, Savings and Loan Crisis, ABSCAM, Iran-Contra, Nixon, Tuskegee Experiment, the growth of the military-industrial complex, the mass sell-off of American farmland to foreign and corporate owners, the rise in white nationalism.... Yada yada yada.

But, just consider all the laws, all the policy decisions, that have been made on OUR behalf, and on OUR dime, and in OUR name, while the power of our votes have been slowly chipped away, handed to corporate interests answerable to no one.

We desperately need an enlarged Congress. If only we could get it in time for our 250th birthday.

https://thirty-thousand.org/

Tik Tok Word Block

Tic Tok is very shrewdly discouraging talk of the Epstein files by censoring them, essentially shining a big, carbon arc spotlight on a stage display of sparklers spelling out, "Epstein," in the middle of a row of dancing girls holding placards that spell out, "D-O-N-'-T--L-O-O-K--A-T--T-H-I-S-!" with an AI Lou Rawls lowly crooning, "No no no no, don't look here at thissssss."

As we all would agree, telling the average American they can't have something always stops 'em dead in their tracks, so problem solved.

Sigh.

This is one reason I have some measure of hope: for the most part, the MAGA ecosystem, for all their plotting and conniving, couldn't pour piss out of a boot. Someone, somewhere, always gives the game away in the stupidest fucking way possible (see also: Miller, Stephen: "Plenary Powers of the Executive/Quiet Part Out Loud" and, Bovino, Greg: "I said rough 'em up, not kill them, jackass").

I, for one, am not on Tik Tok, so I don't really care, being an adult.

Stephen Miller

When I was in high school, maybe eleventh grade, we had a kid who, in retrospect, was kind of reminiscent of a young Stephen Miller. While he was never a hissing fascist slug, like Miller, he was similarly a bloviating asshole of unfortunate countenance, with a huge ego and an obvious lust for power.

Tonight I was reminded of him, and his Milleresque qualities. And it hit me: how could, essentially, the same personality, in two people, develop so differently over time? 

I googled that high school comrade several years back, and had a huge problem finding information. See, he had wanted to become a big time newscaster. I swear to Christ, he fucking idolized Bill Bonds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bonds). Worshipped him. Seemed to want to actually BE him. It was spooky-hilarious.

But, a big news anchor I did not find him having had become. In fact, I had a hell of a time finding much of anything, at all. I concluded things had not gone his way. Something must have happened to him, which didn't happen to Miller, and it knocked him from his power-lusting trajectory. He was also absolutely focused, like Miller, just not focused on sourcing many millions of body bags. He should have made SOME name for himself. Ego and determination can get a person places their natural talents could never get them, on their own.

Meanwhile, Miller, of whom there is enough old video to observe a true diabolical character arc over time, lands squarely on-target, emerging as the Nazi Nosferatu we all get the shivers from, today.

Ah, but then I recalled a core memory, and it seemed to describe a potential answer.

You see, to my knowledge Stephen Miller did not have what my big-nosed blunderbuss had: introverted, quiet me, driven batshit-insanely weary of this bloviating fathead, standing up at my desk, and telling him directly and loudly, that he was a "self-centered, egotistical megalomaniac."

I think maybe Stephen Miller needed someone to call him a fascist ghoul and a horror at a developmentally-plastic time of personal development. When things can have an impact.

Or, maybe he is just pissed about the fivehead.

Michigan ICE locations for protests

Protests need to block these facilities:

The primary Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Michigan is located at 333 Mt.  Elliott St, Detroit, MI 48207.  This office oversees immigration enforcement and deportation activities for both Michigan and Ohio.  It serves as the main contact point for ICE operations in the state. 

Other Key ICE Locations in Michigan

Grand Rapids Suboffice: A secondary ICE suboffice located in downtown Grand Rapids, handling regional enforcement matters.

North Lake Processing Center: A new 1,800-bed ICE detention facility in Baldwin, Lake County, opened in mid-June 2025.  It is operated by the GEO Group under a federal contract.

Immigration Court: The Detroit Immigration Court is located in the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit and handles all immigration hearings in the state. 

ISAP Offices: Two Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) offices operate in Detroit and Grand Rapids, managing alternatives to detention for individuals in deportation proceedings. 

Application Support Centers (ASCs): Two ASCs are located in Warren and Kentwood, where individuals provide biometrics (fingerprints, photos) for immigration applications. 

Detention Centers: Five designated ICE detention centers are located in Calhoun, Chippewa, Monroe, St.  Clair, and North Lake counties. 

Contact Information

Detroit Field Office: (313) 771-6601 | Contact via email

North Lake Processing Center Visits: (231) 876-4900

Detainee Locator: Use the ICE Detainee Locator or Vinelink for real-time updates.

We are on the very, very edge, and we all know what is coming.

Worried about a Civil War?

We are already there: the federal government has fired on and killed peaceful civilians exercising their rights under the Constitution that Trump daily drags across his anus.

The winners simply haven't started firing back.

Yet.

We are on the verge of active Civil War, but the war is already underway in planning and testing tactics.

This needs to end, but general protests on highly-visible public streets far from power won't do it.

We need to turn a gun on the economy of fascism.

There are more than enough citizens in this nation who are motivated and free to encircle ICE offices and prevent access.

There are more than enough citizens in this country who are motivated and free to encircle Enterprise and Hilton properties, making it impossible for ICE to make use of their services.

There are more than enough citizens EVEN AT CURRENT PROTESTS to simply encircle ICE and come down on them. Yes, it would be a life threatening thing for one to do with oneself, but the alternative is losing the nation.

If I had the clout, and the know-how, I would begin organizing such actions. But I am painfully ignorant, and by the time I figured it out, we'd be done anyhow.

I want liberal orgs to start organizing highly-specific blockages. Peacefully, unless ICE gets violent, then take each officer down with no additional thought. They knew what they were signing up for. Let them have it.

The way to bring ICE to a standstill is to block their offices, hotels, and car rental places.

Then, using that list of ICE officers, start blockading their homes, starting at the top of the organization. Make it impossible for the head of ICE to get home to eat with his family. Make it a pain for ICE to have to rent from small, local car rental places who will jack up the rates just for them, and cause thousands of hours of research into local rental outfits.

Do this and make the rest of corporate America rethink their devotion to MAGA.

If it doesn't work, a peaceful blockade of Wall Street: no traders in or out until Trump is gone.

There are millions of people in DC and NYC.

This is eminently doable. We just need leaders with a focus on real, tangible results, not leaders willing to accept flimsy negotiation promises as an answer. This admin has a demonstrable memory of two weeks, and will forget any promises they make, even if they meant them.

TL; DR: PEACEFULLY (until the other side gets violent) block ICE offices, the homes of ICE leadership, Wall Street, and the companies with which ICE does business.

But be prepared to get violent; bullies only answer to a boot to the head.