Just as the chilly spring we’re already calling Maycember fades out, the summer heat arrives. The current forecast is for upper 80s/low90s through the weekend and into next week. Joy! Sweat! Smelly bras!
Now that the obligatory Midwestern small talk about the weather is out of the way, let’s get to the news, eh? Looks like we’re going to war with Iran, too. It won’t be a bad war, like Iraq. No, it’ll be a Grenada-type war, where we roar in with a bunch of air power, drop bombs pew-pew-pew, then roar out and land with erections already at half-mast. Also, some ICE agents arrested a mayoral candidate in New York City, for trying to escort a migrant the agents were trying to arrest. And then :::touches earpiece::: we learn that Kristi Noem was taken, by ambulance, to a DC hospital. Just moments ago, as I write this?
“Some lip filler got dislodged and traveled to her brain,” I said.
“Stephen Miller threw a telephone book at her,” Alan said.
And this is where we are in the United States of America, c. 2025. I give up.
It just occurred to me there are no telephone books anymore. So what did Stephen throw at Kristi? A remaindered hardcover of “The Art of the Deal,” perhaps. Or a Remington bronze. You never know.
So I was reading about how the shooter in Minneapolis — excuse me, alleged shooter — found details about his intended victims via data brokers. These are the businesses that, when you idly Google a person you made out with at a high school party, offers their Facebook or LinkedIn page, but adds they can give you phone numbers, home addresses, criminal records, etc., for a fee. Much of this information is public, to be sure, but has in the past required a little more skill to find than just opening an online account. There have been efforts to rein these companies in, but alas — they haven’t gone anywhere. And once again, I marvel at how our miraculous technology has come to enslave us, because we prioritize the needs of business over people.
My sister went to Europe in the ’90s, when cell phones were becoming ubiquitous everywhere. She watched, on trains, as Europeans blah-blah’d through tunnels without a care. Another friend talked about being on a ferry somewhere in Greece, so far from land you couldn’t see it in any direction, and talking to her mother in the States as though they were standing next to one another. At the same time, Verizon was basing their entire ad campaign on shitty coverage — remember “Can you hear me now?” Why? Because in these MARXIST, COMMUNIST HELLHOLES, government set the cell standards and sometimes picked the companies that could provide the service. Here, we let the Invisible Hand do that, and consequently, I spent half an hour on the phone with AT&T trying to get a data charge reversed, because Kate had downloaded an album at her friend’s house, and her friend lived on the edge of a weird cell here that, miles from Canada, always switched to Rogers, the Canadian company.
Now, of course, no one dares answer a call from any unfamiliar number.
I’ve gone off on a tangent, haven’t I? Here’s a picture of the lake this morning, for the first week of outdoor swimming. One of my favorite dawns — when you have to look for the line between the water and the sky:
What will tomorrow bring? Something crazy, for sure.
Brandon said on June 17, 2025 at 8:53 pm
Madonna and the Pope are distant relatives.
The Pope, through a Canadian ancestor, is also related to Angelina Jolie, Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Justin Bieber, and Hillary Clinton.
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Sherri said on June 17, 2025 at 9:25 pm
The ACLU pays for subscriptions to DeleteMe for any staff members and board members who want it. DeleteMe is one of the data removal services that contacts data brokers and removes your information. Since we don’t have reasonable privacy regulations in this country, all our data is for sale and we have to pay to slow down the process of nutcases tracking us down.
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Little Bird said on June 17, 2025 at 9:52 pm
Apparently Kristi Noem was taken to the hospital for a possible allergic reaction. My guess, there was something in the room that she is legitimately allergic to (but she was nowhere near it) and they took advantage of the opportunity. If she had been in any real danger the GOP would be screaming about thoughts and prayers, and random accusations about trying to poison her. But what did this distract us from?
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alex said on June 18, 2025 at 7:49 am
On our way to Canada for the remainder of the week. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the U.S. won’t let us come back.
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tajalli said on June 18, 2025 at 10:29 am
Life in GOPland is now complete – a tanking economy and a no-win war – boy oh boy.
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Deborah said on June 18, 2025 at 11:53 am
My first thought when I heard Kristi was taken to a hospital was that it was to generate sympathy for her because she’s not high on the list for affection by a lot of Americans. Plus the R regime is scouring the internet for jokes about her at this “concerning” time so they can compare that to the jokes Mike Lee made about the assassination in Minnesota and say they’re equal.
Having said that, I realize that people with allergies/asthma can die from it, bee stings etc.
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Jeff Borden said on June 18, 2025 at 12:45 pm
Looks like there’s a bit of a civil war in MAGAland between the isolationists (Bannon, Carlson) and the war hawks (Graham, Cotton, Fox News). tRump promised not only peace in Ukraine and Gaza, but also to avoid foreign conflicts. He much prefers making war on Americans. But now? Remember, Mike Huckabee is our ambassador to Israel and he’s an evangelical who can’t wait for the Rapture to begin. Not exactly the diplomat you want in this fraught situation.
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Dexter Friend said on June 18, 2025 at 1:37 pm
How much more ridiculous horseshit can we stand?
Well, this fucking crooked Trump just appointed Charles Kushner as Ambassador to France.
Oh yeah, of course, he’s a felon too.
Felonious conduct and a rap sheet reading laden with prison term, is essential for a Trump appointment today.
I just learned that not one, not two, but MANY bunker penetrator bombs (bunker-busters, the cutie name) must be dropped to ruin the centrifuge plant in Iran. B2 bombers can only carry 1 15 ton bomb at a time. Only USA pilots can be trusted to deliver the drop accurately. This propels the USA into another full-fledged foreign war. Drones, yes, bombers, yes…but no President would ever rule out a land invasion. It’s ‘our’ DNA. Trump is at least as incompetent as WBush43 was. I don’t for a second believe a land invasion of boots on the ground is or would be out for certain. After all, Trump’s parade likely led to massive enlistments of killer soldiers, no?
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FDChief said on June 18, 2025 at 6:03 pm
The bizarre part of the Fifth Gulf War (as in “did anyone think about this before getting involved ..?”) is the “what earthly good political outcome did you think would happen in Iran if you bomb the shit out of them?” part.
There’s been nothing but brutal dictatorship since the Mossadegh coup in ‘53 (well done, Ike and the CIA!); first the Pahlavi shahdom and then the Shiite theocracy. The chance that the next regime will be “better” is no more likely than it was for Iraq, and then what? The lesson of Iraq and Ukraine versus Israel and North Korea is that the only safety from Great Power bullying is having your own nukes. So any regime in Tehran unwilling to be a punching bag for every nuclear power MUST develop their own.
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Sherri said on June 18, 2025 at 6:44 pm
There’s nobody in any position of power in this administration who knows anything about the Middle East, foreign policy, or can think beyond the immediate “let’s blow shit up” stage. And, even if there were, Trump is so easily manipulated by Fox News and Netanyahu that it probably wouldn’t matter.
Trump only cares about what makes him look like a strong winner right now. Since it looks like Israel is getting the better of Iran, now he wants to jump in so he can be the winner. As soon as it all goes to hell, he’ll TACO, like he did with the air strikes in Yemen. Really, I think he’d like to ignore foreign policy for a while, because it’s not giving him any wins, and there’s no Stephen Miller equivalent with the juice to push foreign policy. Rubio has no influence, Hegseth is too busy playing at looking warrior-like, and nobody’s listening to Tulsi Gabbard.
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FDChief said on June 19, 2025 at 10:02 am
The thing is that there’s no real downside in danger if all Tubby does is send bombers. The Iranian government already has reasons enough to try and do the U.S. the dirty without this.
It’s just that if it’s just bombers I don’t see this as anything more valuable than the whack-a-muj we’ve been playing since the 1980s. Whatever takes over from the mullahs is very likely to be a source of regional instability which, as a “status quo” Power, is not really in US geopolitical interests.
But the alternative is to attempt to do a “post-WW2 occupation” which would be Iraq/Afghanistan on Death Steroids. I hope that even Fatso isn’t that stupid.
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Dexter Friend said on June 19, 2025 at 1:12 pm
40,000 USA troops are stationed within air-strike range of Iraq Defense systems.
40,000. Not a typo.
(FD Chief: I posted your 6:03 PM post on Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix blog. I hope that was OK…I gave you credit.)
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