Recent Comments

1. 1 day ago on La Cucaracha

   — As for JD Vance’s thing about names…

   His birth name is James Donald Bowman

   He soon changed his middle name and became James David Bowman

   He then changed his name to James David “Jimmy” Hamel, which was the name under which he graduated high school, served in the Marines and began his studies at Yale.

   He changed name to: JD Vance in 2013 in honor of his grandmother’s last name and initials by which he had come to be best known.

   And his legal name now is “JD” — not initials, not standing for “James David,” but just the two letters “JD.”

   I don’t begrudge him the right to change his name as often as he wants, or dress in drag as he did during his college years, except that now he insists on wagging his moralistic finger in everyone else’s fingers and dictating gender identity including that they should not change their name from their birth name to reflect their true, authentic self.

   I don’t care about his private preferences or proclivities. But he should have his nose rubbed hard into the rank HYPOCRISY.

   And remember when Republicans DEMANDED that Barack Obama (which was his actual birth name) and the name he used most of his life, and instead go by the name “Barry Soetoro,” a variation of his birth name used by his white grandparents and a last name (never legally changed) he had only used for a few years during his childhood while his mother was briefly married to Lolo Soetoro?

   Or remember how they refuse to honor the chosen and legally-changed names or pronouns preferred by trans people?

   It’s the hypocrisy.

2. 1 day ago on La Cucaracha

   — Your analysis of the difference between Trump and Vance is spot on and, yes, Vance has his glorious Yale law degree, his esteemed military service and his close ties to the Silicon Valley techies and hedge fund billionaires who made him rich and pressured Trump to set him one cholesterol-laden heartbeat away from the presidency.

   In those ways, Vance would be far more effective than Trump which makes him also far more dangerous in actual policy and administration.

   The difference is that Vance would leave office at the end of four years, and would stop far short of the egregious and outrageous outright unconstitutional absurdities (like trying to end birthright citizenship with an executive order), and would leave office at the end of his term.

   Also Vance could never command the complete mass obedience of Trump’s unruly mob, who would reject him as a pretender, nor the total capitulation of all the other Republicans who would be willing to stand up to him and resist him in a way that they cannot do with Trump, who unifies the mobs in a way that Vance could never do.

3. 2 days ago on La Cucaracha

   — This is true! I once received an unsolicited brochure in the mail, and it does include that quote.

   That was a print brochure. I have never visited their website, so can’t speak to that, but I don’t doubt it.

   Prior to that, I thought they were just a joke. They really exist and they are serious.

4. 2 days ago on La Cucaracha

   I’m betting Trump won this demographic overwhelmingly, with some approaching 99% of the vote.

5. 2 days ago on La Cucaracha

   — Yep, thinking he can reverse a treaty with an executive order is a perfect example of Trump’s arrogance combined with his ignorance.

   The Panama Canal was repatriated to Panama under a treaty that was negotiated by the State Department and ratified by the senate with at least the 2/3 supermajority required by Article II Section 2 of the Constitution.

   Reversing the treaty may be an item on the Trump agenda, but a fully-ratified treaty cannot be undone by an executive order any more than an executive order can remove part of the Fourteenth Amendment, and only a buffoon acting as president or someone trying to replace our Constitution with himself as dictator, would be so stupid to think he could do that.

   Trump, in his ignorance, may be confusing Panama with the Iranian nuclear treaty, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA]), negotiated by a seven-nation agreedment comprised of U.K., France, Germany, China, Russia, U.S. and Iran), negotiated by the Obama administration to prevent a nuclear Iran and which Trump did reverse.

   The big difference is that, while the U.S. did negotiate and sign the JCPOA, it was never ratified by the Senate. The Panama Canal treaty was. Trump obviously is too stupid to tell the difference.

6. 3 days ago on La Cucaracha

   — So the way to take ownership of stuff is to just break it, then you can claim it as your own?

   If damage your house or car I can claim it as mine?

   Convenient way to just take stuff that isn’t for sale, though there is a long historical precedent of this being done by people who think they are racially superior and have the right take whatever they want.

   Apt description of Trump.

   “You broke it, you bought it” is a simplistic slogan that may work as a warning to customers in a retail store that has merchandise for sale to handle merchandise they are selling with care does not work as well in geopolitical realities.

   (By the way, even when that sign is posted in a store, demanding purchase of a product that was damaged in the course of reasonable customer examination is not legally enforceable unless the damage was intentional, malicious or the result of gross negligence.)

7. 3 days ago on La Cucaracha

   No, it is not the “Gulf of America.” An executive order cannot alter the long-established name of an international body of water, which got its name when all land bordering it was part of Mexico, from La Florida, to Louisiana (before being sold to Napoleon who would then sell it to the U.S. to pay for his military adventures) to Texas to, of course, Mexico.

   No, we are not going to invade Panama or Greenland or make Canada the 51st state.

   Mt Denali is the name the highest peak in all of North America was known by for hundreds, possibly thousands of years by its indigenous original inhabitants, before it was renamed in 1917 to honor an assassinated president from Ohio who never once set foot anywhere in Alaska.

   Not one vote was cast for Trump in support of any of these policies, all of which surfaced after the election was over.

   People voted to lower the price of eggs.

   All we have gotten so far is that Trump has ordered that prices should be INCREASED for seniors’ prescription drugs, and he has promised tariffs that will jack up the prices of all imported foods, and promised to deport half the farm workers and meat packers who produce our domestic food.

   Still waiting to hear about the eggs.

8. 3 days ago on Prickly City

   — The Q-Anon Shaman, along with Tarriot and Rhodes, may be able to purchase their MF guns now, though a pardon does not shield them from civil liability (lawsuits), either in state or federal courts.

   As for Trump himself, his 34 felony convictions still stand. They are state convictions, so no federal pardon can make them go away. 34x CONVICTED FELON Trump cannot lawfully purchase a firearm.

   Nuclear codes? Whole ’nother story.

9. 3 days ago on Prickly City

   Trump just increased the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.

   No word on the eggs, yet.

   Must be another bait and switch from the grifter-in-chief who would not put his hand on the Bible (fire hazard?), but will be glad to sell you one.

10. 4 days ago on Prickly City

    — There will be no impeachment in the next two years.

    After those who voted for Trump in the hopes of cheaper eggs find that food and housing prices have skyrocketed because of Trump tariffs, deporting half the farm, cannery and construction workers, Medicare price caps on insulin and, more recently, Wegovy and Mounjaro have been eliminated, and taxes on working people have been increased to make up for corporate welfare and tax giveaways to the few richest elites who already had the most, then if they come to their senses by 2026, when it is Republicans who are defending the most senate seats, maybe we can elect a Senate and House that can actually make that dream come true.