So, I've Got That Going For Me.: 2025

Monday, December 29, 2025

You Don't Have To Read This: 2025

Postcards 29 December 2025

In August of 2024, I entered Hinkley high school with a new choir teacher---the third since I arrived in 2020---and said "Nope, I'm done." Partly because he was clearly incompetent. Partly because I was the department chair and was not invited to the interview. Partly because I had built a strong program that admin cared not a whit about, and I was done being disrespected.

I had been applying and even interviewed, but my age or mohawk were preventing me from getting out. I decided instead that in May of 2025 I was going to simply retire. It was not what I necessarily wanted to do, and certainly not what I could afford to do. But after putting up four mainstage shows, a showcase, a collage and two full cabarets with no admin support the previous year, I just couldn't. Remember, the year before (2023) I was called racist by an AP. Nope.

A former Hink AP is the principal at Kennedy, and Hink's former Athletic director/AP was also at Kennedy. In September, I was morosely sitting in the Hinkely parking lot at 6.45 am when the later human texted me.

"Hey, do you have any interest in coming to Kennedy and doing what you did at Hinkley? Rebuild the theatre?"

There were a few bumps, and I had to finish directing Steel Magnolias, but by 20 Dec 2024 I was at Kennedy digging out the storage closet to make it my office.

I took at $10K a year pay cut because teaching is like being an indentured servant, and they punish you if you move districts. They do not honor your years. So as a 21 year veteran I was hired on the pay ladder at Year Ten. Total bullshit, but I wanted out and money no longer mattered. When I am In Charge Of Everything, that practice will be the first thing to go.

I got two cabarets, a Peer to Peer show and a showcase up in the spring at Kennedy. Also my dad died on our first cabaret on 28 February 2025.

I got six kids to pledge Thespians---there's not been a troupe at Kennedy in 20 years. One was a senior, but hey, it's a start.

How Long It's Been Since A Show Happened is under debate; some folks say eight years, other five. Either way, I got The Female Odd Couple up, with a set and everything, in November 2025. Two Peer to Peer shows and one small Christmas Cabaret Next up: Mamma Mia in March 2026. Oy Vey.

2025 has been so horrible in so many ways it feels redundant to even mention. On the other hand, they want us to shut up and comply.

The husky is underweight and the pug thing and muppet are fat.

Also the black cat is pretty chunky. I don't overfeed so much as they steal each other's food.

Togo's chicken foot is healing. She had cancer on her toe and had to have it removed, so her three toed, furless back leg looks like a chicken foot.

No traveling this year, or in our future, based on the above mentioned "horrible". Sigh.

My friends from Canada visited, which was truly awesome. Jim finished the spare room renovation so they could be comfortable. Then in November Harp broke up with Lillith, lost the apartment and moved back in. A friend and colleague of hers is crashing in the orange cat room. Another friend was here for a few weeks as well while he got back on his feet. At some point when Harp moves out, we'll get to renovating the orange room.

Harp finished her BA and has been hired as a PT teacher/ PT para at her building, which is a pay raise. Then in the fall she'll be a FT teacher---another pay raise. She lost 100 pounds, is sober and got off all her meds---which were poisoning her, which was great. She won't sue the psych, but would win if she did.

G left Indigo and moved to Bee Suite which is a fully queer salon in the arts district on Santa Fe. They love it.

Jim is still at Ready Care, seems fine. Doesn't hate it, doesn't love it. It's a job. He has a salary and insurance.

On that note DPS is pulling Kaiser out from under 7.5 thousand of us employees and forcing us into United Healthcare. Because somebody's making a lot of money off of this, and nobody cares that there are not enough doctors taking new patients to accommodate such an onslought. But for me to go rogue and keep Kaiser on my own would cost me $800/month! So I hope to get all my health stuff and knee surgeries done, updated and set before I'm kicked off in June and no longer have healthcare that I am paying for. 'merica is GREAT AGAIN.

Anyone else hearing scuttlebutt about Paris, Tokyo and other cities canceling their NYE celebrations? Heard there was a "gang" in LA plotting bombs, but only four people were arrested. And it's a gang? So great. Love the way information and news have been destroyed and shattered by deregulating social media and AI guardrails. The truth is difficult to ferret out and requires patience. Tho TBH substackers on Tik Tok are pretty great. I use BBC and Al Jazeera, but they are hardly "breaking" in the moment. Looks like Australia cancelled since it was scheduled on Bondi beach where the shooting was, Tokyo is worried about crowds and public drinking? That one is weird. Paris is worried about a stampede. Everything sounds weird and wrong. The four people caught in the desert with a bomb were caught, so why are cities canceling or scaling back?

Well, today's the 29th. That wasn't much of a wrap up.

Happy New Year, y'all. The regime is eating itself from the inside, we just have to be ready to move when it's time.

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

You Don't Have To Read This: Bullying

You Don't Have To Read This: A Short Series of Personal Reflections

Bullying

When I was in second (or third) grade, the following true story happened.

I was playing at Jewell park. There is a little duck lake there with a small playground my siblings and I grew up playing on. One summer day, two older boys were at the pond. One blondeish and one with brown hair. They were chucking rocks at the ducks.

Without hesitation, I marched my ugly self over there---one moment, let's get a picture. I looked almost exactly like Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon: more freckles, worse hair cut, some where between her and Opie Taylor. We both grew into beautiful women---Tatum and I, not Ron Howard- so no reason to stop reading or sputter to reverse "You weren't ugly" because I was. It's OK. I'm good and now you have a visual.

The boys were in fifth or sixth grade at the Patterson Main Building. I was still a tyke at the Patterson Cottages, which housed K-3. In fourth grade I had to schlep to the main building, but at this time, I walked a few blocks to school.

So I marched over to the bigger boys and shouted at them to stop being dicks to the ducks.

OK, so maybe I didn't use my teenaged spicy mohawk vocab. I said "Stop throwing rocks at the ducks." I know my demeanor suggests I was shouting "Don't be a dick" in the second grade, but I was not. I did not use foul language.

Now, they stopped, but not because I told them. They stopped because I was the new target.

Only a few pebbles were lacklusterly thrown---even a small person is more risky than a duck. So there was little heart in it, they just wanted me to leave. When I didn't move, they tossed another pebble into the pond and moved on.

This is not the end of the story.

My walking route to the Cottages took me directly by the blonde boy's house. Daily. I could have walked on the other side of the narrow suburban street but he would have seen me. He stood at his window and waited. Daily. With his buddy.

As soon as I came into view, they'd emerge. They wouldn't start yelling until they were on the sidewalk outside of the house--their parents might hear them, I guess? As soon as they were behind me, keeping a distance that was close enough for me to hear but far enough not to touch me, they'd start bellowing. "Duck Lady! Duck Lady!"

This went on for at least a year. Either their schedule changed or they no longer cared. But at some point, they just stopped. One day I walked past the house and it was quiet, the door shut. I went on with my life. Which includes my pride at standing up to duck bullies, and persevering their verbal torment on the way to school.

__________________________________________________________________________

The year before, the playground bully Ricky Garcia had started in on me. I had a brown bodysuit and skirt combo I absolutely loved--largely because it was not underwear, it was a BODY SUIT and I could flip on the monkey bars.

Until Ricky decided it was underwear, and began to bellow that kryssi had BROWN UNDERWEAR!

___________________________________________________________________________

I attended O'Connell Jr High in 7th grade only. Most of my Patterson friends were with me, and I continued choir and band at first. Then the schedule changed and I had to choose. I chose choir.

I also chose to love Mork and Mindy and the Beatles. My mom bought me Mork suspenders which I wore with Great Glee, accompanied by striped socks. I'd roll up my pant legs and sing "Yellow Submarine" with my friends in the halls.

I was not aware that this behavior enraged the popular girls. I was shouldered, pushed into lockers and called names. At one point, they lined up at the end of the hall to block my path. When I told my mom, she contacted the AP, whose name I recall as being "Mr. Green" who told her I was making it up. When it continued, she scheduled an appointment with him. He wanted names. I didn't know all their names. The ones I passed on through mom apparently "Didn't exist", and besides I was asking for it. I really should just shut up and stop calling attention to myself. That's why I was being bothered, he said. In the same breath that he said I was making it up he said I brought it on myself. I needed to stop being...me.

Instead, I continued. I participated in the talent show with my friend Karen, performing a silly song, while the popular girls---clad in tight Jordache jeans and scarves, dancing to "Le Chic"---mocked me from the wings. Not just mocked---threatened. They flipped their brown hair and stabbed me with their brown eyes and laughed, pointed, whispered "we're going to get you", etc. I had not seen West Side Story by this time in my life, when I saw it later it would cause PTSD. After the talent show, I was pushed in front of a moving car on my way to the school bus.

I can't say this is why we sold the house and moved, but mom and dad sold the house and we moved. I did eighth grade at Dunstan, where my weirdness didn't seem to upset anyone.

I don't have any patience for bullying.

Scene.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Take The Positive When You Can-60

9 December 2025

I was in the hall with my coteacher when the Dean of Culture stopped by. He's not much of a chatter, I assumed he wanted something. But no, he was honestly just trying to distract himself. He referred to me as "young lady"--he is five years younger than me at least. In a very proud and not rude way, I laughed and said "Dude I think I'm the oldest teacher in the builing." Politely-the same kind of "I was raised to be polite" way he called me "young lady"---he said nothing. My coteacher , however, who is half my age, had no issue asking. When I gave him the number, he said "Damn, really? Amazing, you're awesome I figured mid fifties."

The dean stayed silent, either because he is polite or shocked that I'm older.

Either way, it was nice to have someone NOT know I'm an old crone.

I'll take it.

I'm 60. I can't retire because I need the insurance and I don't want to continue because I'm old and tired. And my insurance is being changed and will be insufficient. So. I'll take that I look five years younger than I am.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Are You Kidding Me Insurance Post

9 December 2025

My child-- a professional business owner who works hard---now has to choose between insurance and rent.

Why?

Their insurance cost increased 3X this month.

They are not being provided with better insurance. It is not more inclusive--like adding coverage for hospital stays or ambulance. Nope. It's just the usual baseline--you get a doctor on paper, but it's unlikley you can get an appoinment. And if you do, there is a 50/50 chance the receptionist will turn you away due to a clerical error and still charge you the "no show" fee.

If this is news to you, you are richer than we are. And fortunate. Congratulations on your wealth and good looks.

The rest of us have had this happen.

DPS has unilaterally decided that the district no longer offers Kaiser as an option for us.

They did not ask us. They did not ask the union.

There are literally thousands of teachers on Kaiser through the district-which subsidizes the cost so we can manage to exist- who are being thrown to the capitalist wolves of United Health care or something called something out of Utah. Nobody asked us what we preferred, and we have to use district insurance options as the cost of the exchanges outpaces our cost of living by 4X. If I sign up for Kaiser on my own, it's 1/3 of my salary. One-Third. You heard that correctly.

Both United Health and Whoever In Utah are Insurance COMPANIES who are BROKERS. So they take your money and pass you off to Centra Health or another "health agency" and fuck you if none of their physicans are taking new patients. Enjoy paying for insurance you cannot use.

The article I read said there are 7500 of us. Seven THOUSAND and five HUNDRED public school employees who will be funneled into two other options, who will clearly have hundreds of physicans joyfully accepting new patients.

Again: they did this BEHIND OUR BACKS. Just threw us off our insurance, forcing us to bow to an inferior and cheaper company because somebody at the district is getting a kickback that Kaiser refused to also offer.

You know that's what happened.

And if you don't, you're lying because you're part of the problem or you're an infant.

Thursday, December 4, 2025

why they hate me

reverse freedoms

1 July 2025

Here's where we are.

We've attended the protests with signs stating "MY GRANDMOTHER WON ME THE RIGHT TO VOTE, YOU DON'T GET TO TAKE IT" and "KEEP ABORTION LEGAL: MY BODY, MY CHOICE!

We called and emailed our representatives.

We called and emailed their representatives.

We attended both live and virtual town meetings, spoke and and were even removed for asking questions.

They slashed our rights, anyway.

Think of the dragon of Silene, or Beowulf--how they went down. Evil dragons do not go easily, or quietly, and they take anyone they can with them. We are now fighting evil. Keep that image in mind as we forge through this, and accept that we may not all make it. And that's OK. I, for one, will die with my boots on.

Forward is the only direction: How do we survive from here? How do we continue in a country that clearly hates us?

We've no choice but to get a passport. If you do not have one already, it will take months, but you need to do it. Now. Today. You'll need your birth certificate--contact your county of birth for a copy. As backup, get a copy of your marriage license as well, from the county in which you were married. If you're over 50, you probably have your social security card stuffed in your wallet behind your state driver's license as well. Collect everything, apply for your passport.

Not because you are leaving the country, but because if you are married, they're trying to stop you from voting. Your married name---on your social security card, state driver's license, taxes, paycheck, house title, car title--your legal freaking name ---does not match your birth certificate, so they can deny you voting access. BONUS, they can also deny you traveling to another state, forcing you to surrender your state driver's license for a Federal ID that will not let you drive or rent a car, and you'll have to retake your driver's tests when you return to your home state.

A passport---at the moment---will avoid this ludicrous insanity.

And if you are young and planning on getting married----don't take his name. Just don't do it. It'll save a nightmare in the future, and honestly, the whole system is about women as possessions, not people. It should have been stopped decades ago.

Do Not Leave Your House Alone. Your early morning run or evening workout should already require that you check in with someone before you leave and when you arrive. If at all possible, take someone with you. Please. We are not safe any more. Absolutely do not go to a bar, movie, restaurant alone. Have a plan posted someplace that your husband, mother, girlfriend, wife, partner, best friend---someone---knows about that states your weekly schedule and contact numbers of individuals you see daily ( your bosses, colleagues). Think CSI is in your house and you've gone missing: where did you put your information for them to find?

Do you have a lawyer? Find one if you can. Their name is on the top of your plan.

Buy food at the farmer's market. Food poisoning is on the rise, whenever possible buy your food locally and prepare your own meals.

If you are fortunate enough to have health care, use it. See your doctor, get your yearly physical, mammograms, pap test. Start paying more attention to how you exercise and eat. Prepare as if you are going to lose access to your health care by the end of the year. This includes finding alternate ways to get your meds--by mail from Canada is a popular choice. Change your thinking about access and start shifting toward "What if" and a barter system. Change your definition of "Self Care" to "I don't have healthcare".

Use Karen For Good And Not Evil. She need only be unleashed on ICE or any bullying that you encounter. Leave your neighbor's fence, their garbage cans, their poopy dog, their 17 cars parked in front of their house, the hell alone. You have the power of crazy, unleash it on what matters: fight inequity, injustice, prejudice, assaults and kidnapping. Use your phone to record ICE detentions. Ask the detainee como te llamas?(koh-MOH teh YAH-mas) and cuantos anos ( quantos an-ohs). At the grocery store, demand to see the manager when you discover an unacceptable number of expired items on the shelves and get a contact number for the corporate office and follow through. Go higher. Don't yell at clerks, they have no power. Go after the Big Guys, follow the money and find the problem.

Stand Up For Other Women. Don't let your job title allow you to bully other women, or to allow someone else to bully a woman. Straighten her crown without anybody noticing. Help her help herself.

Volunteer. Somewhere. Anywhere. The animal shelter, usher at your regional theatre, drive one day a week for Meals on Wheels, help load in from the food bank---hell, donate to the food bank. Do Something For Someone Else.

Mostly, please stop yelling at clerks and calling the police on birdwatchers. Use your Mrs. Kravitz energy to impact change for the greater good, not for yourself.

Wear sunscreen. And a hat -at the protest you are attending even though it seems to be an uphill battle. You're a woman. You're a mom. You know it's all uphill and we do it anyway.

If you have a straight white male in your life who is saying things like "I don't know anything about that" or "It is beyond my control", and he is sharing your bed, consider going Lysistrata on his ass until he joins the real world. This may prove more motivating than simply saying "Just bury your head in the sand and wait for your fucking prom".

Control What You Can.

Repaint a room, refurbish furniture. Spend additional time with your children or parents or friends. Teach summer school. Finish "That Project" you've been meaning to complete for years. Learn to stitch or knit or crochet or write or paint or garden or work out or explore parts of your state. Make small micro plans to the zoo or coffee or rearrange your office--things you can complete easily and quickly and have complete control over. We've learned quickly we have no control over anything being decided about our lives--regardless of emails, phone calls and protests---and the only way to stay sane is to control something productive. Use it for good, not evil. We are women, and we build: we do not destroy.

Deep Thoughts

I wrote this in August.

Things I Don't Do:

Cross a picket line.

Rape young girls.

Kidnap humans who do not look like me.

Adding these in December:

Call the military fat and gay.

Blow up fishing boats.

Pardon drug lords.

Scream at a man wearing a pink sweater.

Strip women's rights to their own bodies.

Disrespect the American constitution.

Hate.

Yes And...

This year has been like a never ending improv game.

The kind of long form, unfunny improv that doesn't make it past rehearsals because it has failed.

Improv's cardinal rule is to take what you are given in the scene, and reply "yes, and" --meaning you accept the information and add to it. This is a concept Michael Scott did not comprehend, and therefore he always brought a gun into the scene, supporting the thesis that he is not a smart person. Actually...hold on. That's not a bad metaphor for our current situation. The point of "yes, and" is to keep the story going. Only bullies and people who think they're funny shut down improv stories. Everyone else keeps them going with "yes, and" so the full story can stretch out, and the funny can be found organically, not forced in the name of a fast laugh.

Anyway, there are so many "Breaking News" stories that are eternal long form improv lists. "Pete Hegseth is a War God" and we go "Yes, and he blew up fishing boats", "Yes and he told the military they are fat and gay"... This adminstration started that way, and unfortunately the "humor" turned sour after the fourth "Yes, and". "Trump Is A Rapist". "Yes, and he bankrupt casinos". "Yes, and he's a documented racist". "Yes, and he called a woman 'Piggy'" . "Yes, and he told reporters they were stupid for asking valid and accurate questions". We keep waiting for it to be funny, or at least for the red hats to figure out that the whole administration is absurd. But as they've proven, stupid people don't understand satire and cannot recognize when they're being punked. So they double down and bring a gun into the improv because that's funny to them.

The unabashed and deliberate cruelty that has been unleased is where I stop. I stop reading social media posts, I stop attempting to reason with red hats. You elected a rapist in the name of "He's a good businessman". You're either stupid or cruel.

Turns out you are both. There is no room for any more discussion. In the history of the presidency, nobody this unhinged has been elected. A turd so hateful that he has reignited the hate in other men like him, who believe they can bully and restrain and strip rights and break the law because they are stupid and feel entitled and need to blame someone else for their own inadequacy. I'm stupid because someone else made me stupid. It's someone else's fault. Always someone else's fault.

This deadly combination has the rest of us---by "The Rest of Us" I mean educated, working class, generally female humans who feel compassion and can agree that the system was broken, but all that has been done now is to shatter what remained of any attempt at law or consequences or compassion--covering our heads while delivering food to our neighbors, continuing to pester our ineffective representatives and pretending we don't hear you when you call the new mayor of New York a communist or suggest that you can easily "take care" of liberals by going building to building across the nation and shooting them dead.

I can't even look at you and say "yes, and..." because you're wrong and this isn't funny.

I'm not scared of you. I'm not even mad at you any more.

All I have is pity for your inadequacies. Pity and the knowledge that eventually you are going to pay for this.

Yes, you are going to pay. Yes, and...

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Long Live Jambi A Farce

The Female Odd Couple by Neil Simon is a great comedy. But not a farce. He did not write it as a farce. He wrote Rumors as a farce. Not The Odd Couple. That's just a comedy.

At least it wasn't a farce until fifteen minutes into Act 1 on Saturday, 15 November 2025 on the Kennedy Stage. At which point it became glorious farce. If The Play That Goes Wrong had not already been written, I'd be penning Odd Couple Goes Wrong.

Mounting the first show in five years using only the kids who signed up for class was a struggle from day one. With no judgement, the schedule would not allow upper level IB kids to enroll. In the eight person class I had : one severe mental health issue who stopped coming to class in October, three IEP's--one with severe anger issues, one with a reading level at sixth grade and one with anxiety, two who were also in sports, one kid who couldn't come to class on Thursdays due to his concurrent enrollment college classes and one who was also in choir and band. Three of the eight were also in choir, but one kid only had choir and band--no IEP, no mental health issues or sports.

No judgement. But this mix meant that I had to cast two of the roles from outside of class, causing more anxiety for actors in the class trying to learn lines. Mounting the first show in five years, with kids who cannot rehearse after school, and cast members in three different classes seems like it would be enough of an obstacle. It was not enough: add reading defecits, anxiety, anger management issues and serious memorization impediments and the stumbling blocks become mountains.

In other words:the kids had to not only learn Neil Simon banter, but had to prepare for at least one ( the truth was two)of their cast mates going up on her lines more than once.

So the stress was high, and I was not taking bets on IF they'd go up. It was happening at rehearsals. Once "Sylvie" exited the apartment a page early. I said "So that could happen. What're you going to do?"

Let's not forget our intrepid IEP Anxiety ridden first time stage manager. I just said "When they freeze and go quiet, ring the phone or the doorbell."

The Friday show went better than they deserved. A few minor hitches and skipped lines, but nothing impacting entrances, phone calls or exits. The stage manager, a kid with high anxiety and a heartbreaking desire to do everything correctly, had been prepped by me to simply ring the doorbell or the phone if the Trivial Pursuit game went silent. He was ready, but was not needed on Friday.

Saturday however...something went hideodeously wrong. "Sylvie" had proven herself despite her sixth grade reading level, completely capable of memorization. Listening for cues, and knowing it was her cue was the challenge for which everyone was prepped. "Vinny"---because I had an extra guy in the class, so "Vera" reverted back to the male version "Vinny" who decided his character was gay--would beat himself up when he missed a line. Struggling to keep the anger issues at bay, he was not always successful. In rehearsals when he would miss a line, or say it in the wrong place, he would stop and look at me in the audience. No amount of shouting "You CANNOT GO SILENT AND BREAK THE FOURTH WALL", notegiving or whispering or one on one or coaching seemed to sink in. He would freeze and cuss under his breath. Because I told him if he dropped an F bomb on my stage he'd never do a show again. So at least he dropped the Fuck Volume.

So. Saturday. "Olive" is the only kid on stage with any experience --from junior high--and struggles with lines but for the most part stays on track. The storyline at the top of Act 1 is told in banter, fracturing the narrative between three phone calls to tell the audience that Florence is missing and has stated she's going to kill herself. On Cue, the doorbell rings and there she is- as Olive states "Of course, where's the best place to kill yourself? With your friends." This line is a good 20 minutes into Act 1.

On Saturday, Sylvie skipped at least one line. Maybe two. Usually "Renee" would hop in to save her, as she was prepped when she joined the cast from another class that her job was to make sure she knew Sylvie's lines as well. But for some reason, she also missed it. There was silence. Then Vinny said a line from a full page forward, and everyone went silent again. Vinny then started chanting "fuck fuck fuck" under his breath as he paced around the table. Sylvie tried to help by throwing a line closer to where they'd lost the thread only to have Renee say a line two pages later. Olive, trying to at least figure out where they were, anchored with a line about Florence missing. Which meant they'd skipped a phone call. At this point the SM is apoplexic trying to decide if he should ring the phone or the doorbell. The panic continued, as each character tried to throw a line in that made sense, when Olive said "Of course, where's the best place to kill yourself? With your friends."

But the doorbell had not rung, and there had been no mention of Florence going out to kill herself. The actors froze. The SM did exactly as he should have. He heard the cue so he rang the doorbell, and crossed his fingers that Florence would be at the door when it opened.

She was.

There are much worse things that could've gone wrong. Everything these kids know about theatre they've learned in three months. Many mistakes are worse. Honestly, they kept going No Mattter What and the audience was not aware of the glitch. Unless they were also present on Friday, and knew the missing lines.

I was in the lobby when the drama unfolded. I returned at Florence's entrance. The SM immediately descended upon me in panicked whispers "Ok, so here's what went wrong." I shook my head and smiled. I whispered back "Is anyone dead?" He shook his head. "Is anything on fire?" Again, negative. "Then it doesn't matter. The show goes on. You're fine."

And that was how I knew the curse really was lifted.

Long Live Jambi.

Friday, November 21, 2025

A Piece of Fantasy Fiction

Of Course They Did

The only unique aspect of this public school bulding is that the band room on the basement level flooded 15 times last year. So the band is in the auxilary building that used to house auto shop-because the district declared it racist to continue to offer auto shop---or wooodworking or Home Ec--- in a Title 1 school.

The school has the same "story" as many across districts. It was A Great School up until about the 2000's. That's when the neighborhood demographic changed and School Choice sucked the white kids with two working parents into schools whose claim to diversity were students with pigment in their skin that numbered so low they were counted on one hand.

And that is where they stood on that day in November 2025. The Friday before Thanksgiving break.

The purple state within which this school resides had had little contact thus far with ICE. The schools farther east had armed ICE agents on apartment rooftops surrounding one of the high schools, which was a lovely start to the day for those kids. But overall, the state had avoided any action bearing a name that sounds exactly like a military attack.

The building was run by a former WNBA player who traded her days on buses traveling from game to game for a home, kids and a job teaching high school science. She saw a need and earned her ME and Type D license. She was a good fit for a struggling building. And her skin had pigment. Bonus points in a school the district likes to call "a very diverse population".

Pigment is a big player in the skin tones of her all female admin, who are a beautiful range of latte to dark chocolate, with one pale outlier, whose kindness and perpetual smile made her look like she was constantly apologizing for her lack of skin color.

The kids were largely LatinX with a mix of black kids and a smattering of peach tones and even translucent white.

The school itself was on the district radar, as the kids were not scoring high enough on precollege assessments to prove the worthiness of the building. Teachers and students alike--all 700 of them--pulled together to "play the game" and work on test taking strategies to get them off the radar. The kids loved their school and stepped up to play a game they knew was rigged against them. They loved that only 700 people were rattling around a 60 year old, four story building like pinballs. They were close to their teachers, admin knew every one of them by name and they were welcomed daily with free breakfast and respect.

This closeness is why nobody who was there that day talks about what happened as anything out of the ordinary.

The month before, the kids handmade signs they walked to the Capital building after a shooting in a neighboring district. They win and lose at sports, their choir is world class but too small to be noticed and they rally around their MI (Sped) students like they are family.

It was early in the morning, 8.30 am. Classes begin at 8.20, and kids enter the building at 8 and mill around the giant marble and glass lobby until the bell rings and they hit the staircases. Late students must come in through the attendance office door and log their student number. No other doors are unlocked.

So when ICE arrived, students saw them from the upstairs windows or lobby. Most in the lobby were band kids getting ready to trek across the parking lot. Always A Big Deal, like they were hiking the Andes. The kids upstairs lept from their seats and rushed the stairs as soon as the verbal alarm went up.

So did the teachers.

The secretary was attempting to hold ICE at bay at her one entry, but their sheer volume and size pushed right past her. Once the first few were in, they opened the main doors for their buddies.

When they were all in the lobby-maybe thirty of them- they turned to face seven hundred teachers and students quietly glaring at them.

The Principal arrived--an impressive figure, she was taller than several of the masked kidnappers. She simply stood behind them---the kids could see her, but ICE had to turn around---until they all realized she was there. Flanked by her team, she quietly crossed her arms. When the silence settled, she said "You're trespassing."

"We're federal agents. We have authority."

"I'm the principal of this school. This is my school, and you have no authority over me."

"We followed a known felon into this building, we're here for him."

"Which one is he? What's his name? Where is your warrant, federal agents here legally?"

When ICE turned back to the mass of students and teachers, it was now facing a wall of white teachers. A latina girl with eyelashes like feathers and nails like talons pushed her way through to face the masked men.

"We don't need them to protect us, they're just suffering from White Savior Syndrome." There was a laugh behind her. "Show me the warrant."

"We don't need a warrant," the speaker's voice was oddly clear through the mask, like he was wearing a mic. He took a step toward her.

The entire crowd took two steps forward.

She held her ground and his eyes, forcing him to look at her. More aptly, down at her as she rang in at an impressive five foot three, and well under one hundred pounds. All of it grounded, sharpened and ready. "This is a public school building. You are not allowed here--we read the law in class, we know our rights. You do not have a warrant, and even if you did, you're in a public school building. You can't pull a kid out of class or this building without parental consent."

There was a roar from outside. On the suburban street, cars and motorcycles were lining up to block the ICE vehicles in. People were getting out and throwing slices of American cheese at the doors and windows of the black, unmarked vehicles. One gentleman methodically glued condoms on a windshield while his friend directed his artistic vision.

"'Cause cheese will fuck up your paint job," the girl stared at her opponont. "Y'all can't arrest us for cheese. We're in here. Inside our school."

They stood like that for a few minutes. Then the cars ouside, having layered cheese at least twice on every vehicle, began to disperse.

Then the fire alarm went off.

Nobody moved.

The fire department could not get into the parking lot due to the ICE vehicles.

A science teacher descended the stairs and joined the crowd.

"The isn't a scheduled drill, friends," the principal said. "Y'all need to get out of the children's exit path."

The mass of students and teachers pushed the kidnappers outside, without touching them, and stayed inside the building. They watched as the Fire department pulled onto the lawn and tow trucks arrived to begin moving the black, unmarked vehicles, now covered in cheese.

When the fire department arrived in the lobby, grumbling about SUV's in their way, the science teacher took the fire chief by the arm and quietly led him upstairs.

"We'll have to cite you in violation of fire drill protocol," said a fireman, looking at the group in the lobby as if they may attack him.

"I was keeping my kids safe," the principal stated flatly.

"Ya you did," the girl who had spoken, whose name was Gianna, said as she high fived her principal.

"Nope. We did." The principal smiled. She turned to her team and breathed "Wasn't that some shit?"

"We gotta go back to class Miss?" a voice from the crowd, big smile and bushy eyebrows raised to the roof.

"Yep. Head back up. Show's over."

"Aw dang...OK Miss. Did you see the guy gluing rubbers? That's my uncle."

Laughing, the kids slowly moved toward the staircases while admin stood in the slowly emptying lobby and exhaled.

Friday, 21 November 2025. Just a day in a small, public school, that nobody talks about.

Friday, November 7, 2025

Your Wish Is Granted, Long Live Jambi

7 November 2025

The struggle is real.

Yesterday, 6 November, I threw a script and walked off the stage in frustration. I can and have worked with very difficult kids, and managed to pull off shows, but the one thing I can No Longer Abide: Not Giving A Shit.

If you do not care, I am unsure what I am supposed to do. You have had ten weeks--TEN WEEKS to learn one scene. The date scene in The Female Odd Couple. You've been given tools, rehearsal time, free snacks and support. You were taught techniques as well as projection exercises, yet you refuse to A) learn your lines or B) project.

And to make matters worse, you stand on stage and whisper '"I don't know the lines" like that's OK. Like some magicall fairy is going to descend and whisper the lines to you. We open in seven days and you don't know your lines. I can't...even...what?!!! WHAT?!

This kid has been coddled, fussed at, supported, challenged and even yelled at by all three teachers in this department, and he still is Not The Fuck Getting It. He was threatened with not playing at a concert if he couldn't get it together. I have no idea what happened but he played. I can't threaten him with that because I don't have an understudy. I have a stage manager I can throw on stage with a script, which is not the WORST thing that can happen in a building that hasn't had a show in five years.

The WORST thing would be that this kid continues to whisper AND not know his lines when the curtain opens. The pressure on the other actors is ridiculous.

So I threw the script in the air, said "You're wasting my time" and walked away to do tech.

The girls continued to rehearse and he continued to whisper, then left early. Allegedly he had a game-he's a cheerleader- but he was seen wandering around downstairs. Later he came back to rehearsal as the stage manager was rehearsing his part, did not even register that he was supposed to be in rehearsal, asked if we had his backpack and left again.

I get trauma. I get oppression, apathy and learning struggles. I even get wanting to be a cheerleader and in the performing arts and having no idea how to balance a schedule.

But I do not get giving up.

Leaving a show in a lurch because you can't be bothered to do two baseline tasks: learn your lines and project.

So, stop wasting my time and I'll give the SM a script when you don't show up next week.

___________________________________________________________________________

I have a lot of PTSD with Neil Simon. In 2021 I mounted Rumors at Hinkley. It was a spectacular failure. Not only did the kids not project, but one flat out did not learn his lines. He exited and never returned on opening night. At one point, everyone exited and the stage was empty. It was horrifying. I would have just turned off the lights and ended it if I wasn't so stunned. I honestly did not see it coming. I assumed an audience would snap them back into reality.

Nope. Turns out the COVID lockdowns did more damage than I thought.

I walked in yesterday morning to the first set on the Kennedy stage in five years. It's not great, but it's theirs. The door frames are two inches too wide and the walls are not level, so the doors do not shut. But That's How You Learn. I'm not as wound up about the set as I am lines and projection. This place is an unforgiveable barn and I cannot figure out how to use the body mics. So. I got that going for me. They're working on it --all but "Manolo"--but honestly, these aren't theatre kids and they've not been in a theatre class, ever. It's hard.

I looked at the set when I walked in and smiled. I felt peace. As I approached it, I heard a voice somewhere say "The curse is lifted". I sighed and wondered...curse? I'm cursed? Then I heard John Paragon's voice say "The curse is lifted, long live Jambi."

I'm not cursed, I'm crazy.

Cool. Glad that's cleared up.

Scene.

Thursday, October 9, 2025

BREAKING NEWS 9 October

Kristi Noem has "captured" the "leader" of Antifa's "girlfriend". She identified the inflatable frog after he was peppermint sprayed by ICE and unmasked. She was led to him by Simone, who told her that her best friend's sister's boyfriend knows this guy who knows this kid who saw the frog's main squeeze at 31 Flavors last night.

These people would be funny morons if they weren't so dangerous.

Y'all know there is no "Anfifa". It's an ideal. Like vegeteraianism or Christianity. No...not Christian Nationalism. They have a leader and they are dangerous. "Antifa" has attacked no one. They did not blow up a judge's house. They do not attack hopeful new citizens as they leave their court hearings. They do not shatter windshields endangering infants in their breathless fervor to meet a quota. They do not lie on social media to incite hate. They do not pander to the lowest common denominator for support. In short---they are not bullies.

That is largely because "they" are not real. There is no organized ANTIFA movement. There are Christian Nationalists. White Supremists. ICE agents and a deranged president. There are lap dogs to the aforementioned deranged individual. All of these people are the problem, and they know it. But they rely on the general stupidity of the average American to keep pushing their destructive agenda. They were able to dismantle low hanging fruit that racism had instilled in their tiny minds as the enemy: SNAP, medicaid, Social Security and immigration. That gave them more strength and rightous vindication to keep abusing. Keep lying. Keep projecting everything they are causing onto the other side, blaming an invisible idea for their actions while relying on nobody actually understanding tarriffs. Which we do, because we saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off and totally got my joke in the first paragraph.

And today the lies have reached "We captured the girlfriend of ANTIFA's leader".

There IS no ANTIFA.

So...you're in violation of how many laws by lying about an arrest, or setting up another person for crucifixion like Kirk. Because we all know that was a set up, just like the "assasination attempt" that only nicked Deranged Orange's ear.

Oh right, you ignore the law. You are above it. You've made that quite clear as the legal system heaves and groans under the weight of your insanity.

Yet notice the law still exists. Judges still annoy you by upholding the law, they shut you down, tell you you're wrong. You have to actively ignore them, or go around them, which is costing you energy and the taxpayers' money.

The phrase "History will not look kindly on (insert fascist here)..." has been surfacing since the first incarnation of the Orange Beast. It's much louder now.

Must be ANTIFA.

The real Antifa. Which are people who are Anti Fascism. They also happen to be largely democrats or independents with advanced degrees and a penchant for PBS and NPR, free speech, healthcare for all and the Smithsonian.

Ya. Those people. The ones you openly mock and call names.

Guess what?

Sticks and stones dear...the fact that we have advanced degrees speaks to our tenacity. We don't give up and we know how to argue---actually argue---including reason and purpose and research and law. You think you can wear us out? You think arresting our imaginary girlfriend is going to stop anything? Many of us are teachers, dude. We answer 500 questions and provide snacks and kleenex to students every morning before you've even had your coffee.

We'll see.

Friday, August 1, 2025

Article by Heather Cox Richardson-with my comments

I have a friend who is very politically savvy, who posts articles by Heather Cox Richardson that I enjoy. Largely I enjoy them because she sites everything and her reporting is accurate. I also enjoy reading well written reporting.

This particular article left me wanting to respond. Like most of you---because you are reading this you are not likely a supporter of Project 2025 or interested in covering up pedophiles or refusing to help human beings--I'm alarmed at what's happening to our country. I'm also shocked at how we -"we" being people like me--are behaving so well. We have guns, but we are not storming the castle, as Trump believed we would. I say this based on the barbed wire reinforcements. He knows he's not doing this for the people, otherwise he would not have barricaded the castle. He is relying on our education---our "left leaning" tendencies that include human beings being fed and given health care---and our intellect to simply prove what he already knows: We're Smarter and not bullies, so we are less likely to take up arms to fight. We use logic, the law, rallies, calling our representatives.

Which means we also obey laws, believe in the constitution and engage in deep political and philosophical discussions above his IQ. I don't need regurgitated or false quotes from the man, I can (barely) read his tweets and watch his interactions on video. I know.

I'm smarter than he is.

What I am not, is manipulative or narcissistic. What I am not is rich and entitled--I've not been told I'm smarter than I am, nor have I been handed money to fritter away without consequence. I've never behaved inappropriately with someone and then had to pay them off to get them to be quiet. Which is a side note trigger of mine: COMPLIANCE.

Don't Comply.

Don't take the money honey- police, ICE, senator, congressperson, hedge fund manager. Don't believe his lies and vote for him, dear. Heed your creed Doctor and FIRST DO NO HARM instead of murdering women in Texas.

It's that simple.

What is sad is that those who've been duped are now impacted by his cruelty, and they cannot admit they were duped. They have to double down and say insane things about supporting a pedophile like "I don't think he does it any more" because admitting they are duped is admitting they are intellectually soft.

That is a dangerous combination, as dangerous and as a stupid as an entitled narcissist with dementia.

I read a lot. I dive down reddit rabbit holes. I watch videos of Late Night TV because I can't stay awake. And I read this article that was well written by a person. No AI, just a human.

So Heather Cox Richardson -link here and copied and pasted. I'm commenting in Blue.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1291183052376924&id=100044557238708&mibextid=WC7FNe&rdid=z3FO9oreKbRjYZ0s#

July 30, 2025 (Wednesday)

On July 2, 2024, just about a year ago, president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts told the listeners of Steve Bannon’s War Room webcast: “[W]e are going to win. We’re in the process of taking this country back.” Roberts pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States the day before giving the president absolute immunity for committing crimes while engaging in official acts. This decision physically turned my stomach and caused panic attacks. Why WHY would SCOTUS do this to us?

“That Supreme Court ruling yesterday on immunity is vital, and it's vital for a lot of reasons,” Roberts said, adding that the nation needs a strong leader because “the left has taken over our institutions.” “[W]e are in the process of the second American Revolution,” he said, “which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” So this "bloodless revolution" is about...what exactly? Gaining complete control and making sure you have all the money? Revolutions are about the people taking control, usually oppressed people taking control back from a dictator or authoritarian. If you are the dictator, you are staging a coup, or overthrowing the people's government. It's not a revolution. But these people don't use words correctly, anyway, so why am I surprised.

Roberts was the man who organized Project 2025, the blueprint for a new kind of government dictated by a right-wing strongman. Creating that new government would require a president willing to act illegally, stripping the secular language of civil rights from public life, packing the government with loyalists, ending the social safety net, killing business regulations, and purging American institutions of all but right-wing ideologues. Project 2025 is terrifying for many reasons. Straight white men who say "I don't know anything about that" need to man up and read it.

When Americans learned about Project 2025, they hated it. An NBC News poll from September 2024 showed that only 4% of Americans saw the project favorably. Even among Republicans, that number climbed only to 7%. For those identifying as MAGA Republicans, the number rose to just 9%.

So Trump and his campaign advisors denied that he had anything to do with the plan. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” he wrote on social media in July. “I have no idea who is behind it.” I am constantly flabbergasted by anyone who believes a single syllable this incomprehensibly malignant man utters.

And yet six months into the second Trump administration, on the sixtieth anniversary of the law that symbolized the modern American state by establishing Medicare and Medicaid, it’s clear we are indeed in a revolution designed to destroy the government we have known in favor of the radical right-wing government envisioned by those who wrote Project 2025. You know that nobody who voted for him knew/read/understood Project 2025. They believe the government is evil and out to get them----and they are not far from wrong----but they're blaming the wrong side. "The Left" does not bomb other countries, deny healthcare and social security to its citizens and make sure their rich friends get all the tax breaks--what it does it attempt to correct the greedy sins of the billionaires in charge with no support from the right, which is why nothing gets completely mended. Literally our government has been at a standstill since Reagan uncorked the Greed Genie and unleashed forgiveness for cruelty in the name of profit.

From the beginning, the administration declared war on the words that protected equal rights for all Americans, fired women and racial minorities from leadership positions, and attacked transgender Americans. It worked to replace civil servants with loyalists who embraced the tenets of Project 2025, putting people like former Fox News host Pete Hegseth at the head of government agencies. Yesterday Greg Jaffe and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported that in a break with past practices, Hegseth, now secretary of defense, is requiring nominees for four-star general positions in the U.S. military to meet personally with Trump. Say WHAT? Because you must fit his mold and be in his good graces or to ensure they are CIS white males...

It worked to dismantle the government by refusing to release the money Congress had appropriated to fund the existing government. Thanks to billionaire Elon Musk at the “Department of Government Efficiency” and Russell Vought—another author of Project 2025—at the Office of Management and Budget, the administration illegally impounded funds, slashing through funding for foreign aid, cancer research, veterans’ benefits, air traffic control staffing, and so on, claiming to be eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse.” That fight is ongoing.

But while it shrank government programs that helped ordinary people—programs like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—as part of their claim to be returning power to the states, the administration did not shrink the government itself. Instead, it dramatically expanded the government’s capacity to arrest and detain undocumented migrants. ICE and building concentration camps are costing billions that we need for health care, USAID and all those programs they shut down in the name of "waste". All they did was slush the money over to ICE. They get bonuses for kidnapping individuals and make more than teachers, and they don't need a degree. Look it up.

https://www.ice.gov/careers/how-apply

NOTE that they'll hire women...because ICE does not have to comply with Trump's DEI destruction, or the constitution or rule of law. They're literally rogue pirates at best, mercenaries at worst, trading human lives for money. That's the bottom line.

The administration set out to purge the country of what extremists claimed was “leftist” influence in law firms, media, and universities. It illegally blocked lawyers from law firms that represented Democrats from access to federal buildings, making it impossible for them to represent their clients. It sued media outlets for alleged bias, and it withheld congressionally appropriated funds for universities for alleged antisemitism. This is so far out there I have no words, but it's real. Here's a surface AI composite:

Reports and lawsuits indicate that lawyers have been targeted in ways that could restrict their access to clients and their ability to practice law. For instance:

Executive orders: Several executive orders have been issued that could potentially restrict access to government buildings and facilities for lawyers from firms representing certain clients or engaging in specific types of litigation.
Intimidation tactics: The American Bar Association (ABA) filed a lawsuit against the government, alleging a policy of intimidation against lawyers and firms, potentially discouraging them from representing certain clients or causes according to the ABA. This policy allegedly involved using the vast powers of the executive branch to pressure lawyers and firms to drop clients, causes, and policy positions disfavored by the administration, potentially limiting access to legal representation for individuals and organizations.

These actions have caused concern within the legal profession and have been seen as attempts to intimidate law firms and interfere with the justice system.

Important Note: The right to choose a lawyer is not absolute, and certain circumstances, like conflicts of interest, may require a lawyer to decline or terminate representation. However, this is distinct from government action that could restrict access to clients based on the nature of their representation or perceived political affiliations.

Last week, in order to obtain the Federal Communications Commission's approval of an $8 billion merger between CBS parent company Paramount and Skydance Media, Skydance agreed not to set up programs related to civil rights, or “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and to produce “unbiased” journalism. Again, please explain "unbiased" to me as you understand the term, and then defend bullying the media into only reporting what you want...which would be...BIAS. HERE let me help:

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford LanguagesLearn more

un·bi·ased

/ˌənˈbīəst/

adjective

showing no prejudice for or against something; impartial.
"his assessment of the benefits and drawbacks was unbiased"

What they feel is "biased" is simple truth in science, economics, racism and that the system is rigged against us. Also comedians. They're biased and you are correct sir, that's where satire comes from. That's how comedy works, you call it as you see it and spin the words so they become absurd enough for folks to laugh at a sad reality.

Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr approved the merger, then bragged on right-wing media shows that CBS has agreed to put in place an internal political “bias monitor” who will report to the president of Paramount to make sure the channel’s news coverage is favorable to Trump and the right wing. Cognitive dissonance needs a sound cue, like JAWS. You just contradicted yourself Brendan Carr, your "bias monitor" is a censor, making sure only pro Trump garbage is shoveled-which makes them a censor and a propogandist. Stop redefining words to make this sound like a good idea.

Last week, after Columbia University agreed to pay $221 million and to promise it will not use “race, color, sex, or national origin” in hiring decisions in exchange for the government’s restoring the $1.3 billion in funding the administration had withheld over charges of antisemitism, Trump’s education secretary Linda McMahon told Maria Bartiromo of the Fox News Channel: “[T]his is a monumental victory for conservatives who’ve wanted to do things on these elite campuses for a long time because we had such far left leaning professors.” What? "(we) want to do things because we had such far left leaning professors...."? What does that mean? You were not allowed to post the Ten Commandments at Columbia? They teach text analysis, research, science and law at Columbia, these are things you hate, so what you "wanted to do" was stop teaching text analysis, research, science and law. Just say it.

On Monday the Office of Personnel Management issued a memo allowing federal employees to pray publicly at work, as well as to try to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views.” Ok, first please note that I have recent first had experience with the OPM who've been eviscerated and those now "working" there are unqualified and not being trained. So, they aren't smart enough to read this and understand that the wording suggests open season on Mormons knocking at your cubicle wall, or Jehovah's Witness stopping by to chat you up about their ideas...also Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Atheists should---by this wording---be not just allowed but encouraged to pray in the middle of the day. Interestingly, those religions will not be the ones trying to recruit, they just quietly worship as they wish, but they are the ones who get the most hate. I look forward to this happening, and completely shutting down the OPM, because right now they're functioning at about 50% capacity. That will drop to 0 when everyone gets to stop their work to try and recruit their coworkers to their religion. Soon they'll start denying claims OPM employees who are LGBTQ because it conflicts with their religious beliefs. How fun!

The administration has worked to dismantle the regulations that protect Americans by using artificial intelligence to slash regulations in half by next January. With the blessing of the Supreme Court, Trump has claimed the power to fire the heads of independent agencies, effectively giving him power over agencies created by Congress. I am unsure what this addresses so I will not comment, but AI is being allowed to put us all out of our jobs. And then what, genius...?

Yesterday the administration took its fight against public protections a leap further when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a new rule that would get rid of a rule in place since 2009 establishing, on the basis of scientific evidence, that the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane warms the planet and thus endangers human life. Most of the vehicle, factory, and power plant emissions standards currently in place come from this “endangerment finding.” Making up words does not make you sound smart.

EPA officials told Lisa Friedman of the New York Times they intend to argue that it is climate regulations, rather than greenhouse gas emissions, that cause the real harm to human health because they lead to higher prices and less consumer choice. These are the same geniuses who think cloud seeding caused the Texas floods. You're idiots and I don't engage with idiots.

As Roberts said, the Supreme Court’s decision giving Trump immunity was important because destroying the country’s institutions would require lawbreaking. In nothing has that been so clear as in the administration’s handling of the rendering of undocumented migrants to third world countries. Whistleblowers from the Department of Justice claim that DOJ official Emil Bove told DOJ attorneys they could ignore court orders stopping migrant flights, saying they should consider telling the courts “f*ck you.” This is not proper use of Fuck You friends.

Last night, the Senate confirmed Bove to a federal judgeship, with 50 Republicans voting in favor. Forty-seven Democrats voted no. They were joined by Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who said: “I don’t think that somebody who has counseled other attorneys that you should ignore the law, you should reject the law, I don’t think that that individual should be placed in a lifetime seat on the bench.” The problem is these dangerous idiots keep getting confirmed, at some point we have to accept that logic, law and intelligence aren't working against imbecilic, bullying, entitled, greedy pedophiles.

But Thom Tillis (R-NC) voted in favor of Bove’s confirmation, illustrating that even those Republicans who have put distance between themselves and Trump are enabling the revolution in our government. I tire of revolution talk. Do It.

Republicans in Congress have enabled the dismantling of the country’s social safety net with dramatic cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program while also extending significant tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and pouring money into purges of undocumented migrants. Today Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told an audience at an event for the right-wing media outlet Breitbart that the new “Trump accounts” established by the budget reconciliation bill are “a backdoor for privatizing Social Security.” Just let them do it, you've let them cut everything that makes us human. Privatize SS and kill public schools, it's fine. I'll be over here making mud pies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAA-G947ofg

Congress’s unwillingness to stand against Trump shows most dramatically in its reluctance to reassert the power the Constitution gives to it—and only to it—over tariffs. Trump has fought his tariff war only by asserting emergency power, but he has used that power to change world trade and to punish countries like Brazil for its prosecution of Trump’s political ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro. Tomorrow, the day before the August 1 deadline on which most of Trump’s tariffs will go into effect, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will weigh in on whether those tariffs are legal.

When Kevin Roberts announced a year ago that the radical right was launching a second American revolution, he was telling the truth. But the new world they want to bring to life seems no more popular now than it was then.

And now the growing scandal around President Donald J. Trump’s connections to late convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein shows that the MAGA movement is apparently willing to accept the sexual abuse of children in order to cement their worldview.

Yesterday Trump tried to cast himself as a sort of protector when he claimed that he turned against Epstein because Epstein “stole people that worked for me.” When asked if those employees were young women, Trump answered “yes” and that they were hired “out of the spa” he ran. He said one of those girls was Virginia Giuffre, who was sex trafficked as a teenager by Ghislaine Maxwell and died by suicide earlier this year. Although Trump’s timeline did not add up—Giuffre left her job at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 and the friendship between the two men continued for several more years—the story itself suggests what’s on his mind. Today, a reporter asked Trump about those girls: “What did you think Epstein was stealing those women for?” He's trapped and he knows it. He said ended the genocide in Rwanda and nobody thanked him. Next he'll state he cured cancer. Please get him out of here.

Today Dan Ruetenik of CBS News issued a detailed report on the video from outside Epstein’s jail cell that the DOJ has released as proof he died by suicide. A government source told Ruetenik that the released video is not raw footage—confirming a report by Dhruv Mehrotra of Wired on July 15—and that it is two videos stitched together. Ruetenik reported that the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and the DOJ inspector general all possess the longer video. Video can be altered dude. Watch American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders. The only thing you'll be convinced of is that our government is corrupt and can make you believe whatever they want to.

And perhaps there is also a story about Project 2025’s staying power in the fact that this damning report dropped less than a week after Trump officials celebrated their control over CBS.

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