The Long Voyage of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln

 A Nation's Strength

The motto of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, CVN-72

Well, if some media reports are true, the nation's strength is in dire need of some, to borrow an ancient line, "pumping up." Or at least more than a little rejuvenation--perhaps even a new trainer in the gym. 

Of course, one can only imagine how draining nine months at sea--over half of it in either in actual combat, or combat alert situations and none of it ashore--can be. Reports of deteriorating morale, dwindling food supplies, and poor sanitation have come from the families of the crew and supposedly some crew members themselves. At least one man has gone overboard, on purpose, while others are said to have attempted to, and still others have told loved ones they are contemplating it.

All this aboard a nuclear-powered behemoth which carries over 5,500 personnel when the air wing is there. It leads one to wonder what the conditions are on the Abraham Lincoln's smaller escort ships. (If the crew on a boat the size of the Lincoln is going nuts, how much fun can the crew on a navy frigate be having?)

The Pentagon has refuted the claims, or at least most of them. Some craziness at sea is always present they say. The crew of the Abraham Lincoln hasn't displayed any more of it than usual.  Not only that, but mental health professionals are always aboard and available to crew members who seek help. In addition, for those in need of spiritual assistance there are chaplains representing various faiths and traditions. There are also TVs in the crew's quarters showing movies and even weight rooms to work out those frustrations and the stress. 

All of which is fine and good, but none of it gets you off that fucking boat. Not even for a day.

I'll be the first to admit, that like the current Commander in Chief, I have no naval experience. However, my son, was deployed twice on the carrier, Theodore Roosevelt during the 1990's. One of his letters home started off with the line, "It was pretty boring until we started bombing." (The Serbians had gone a little funny in their heads back then.) His deployments were six months each. Despite the bombing, they included multiple shore leaves everywhere from Spain, to France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, and the Emirates. Even with those stops, he said by the time the six months had passed, everyone on board was sick and tired of each other. 

When asked about life on a navy ship he recently said, "Some of those guys don't see daylight for a while." He said some of shifts on board, "...are12 hours on, 12 off. Some are eight on and eight off. Divisions are different." He was perplexed by the reports of clogged toilets and moldy showers, saying they always had cleaning and maintenance details working, but then added, "I've been out since '97, that was a lifetime ago." 

The major problem the crew of the Lincoln and her support ships have is that there isn't anywhere in the region they can safely put into. Despite the swaggering braggadocio of the President and his Secretary of Defense/War, Iran's military is still actively blowing shit up all over the place. Any American ship in an area port has made itself a sitting duck. Not only that, but there is no end to the madness in sight. Hegseth is yammering on about an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. When asked if the Abraham Lincoln had been deployed for too long, Donald Trump's answer was, "No, no, no. Not nearly long enough." 

Way to boost morale, Mr. President. You should put that on a recruiting poster.

The good news is the George Washington carrier group is on its way to relieve the Lincon's. In other words, despite all the cheery chatter that everything is fine, the Pentagon is admitting the men and women of the Abraham Lincoln need to come home. The bad news is, given the insanity and incompetence of the American Commander in Chief, the crew and flight wing of the George Washington are in for an extended, non-stop, cruise around the Arabian Sea.  

My kid, the old salt that he is, doesn't think some of the things on board the Abraham Lincoln are as bad as the press would have us believe. However, he is sure of one thing. When it comes to a nine-month deployment at sea with limited or no shore leave he said simply, "It would be miserable."

Yes, war is hell. Unless, of course, you're the guy saying, "No, no, no. Not nearly long enough."       

8-17-26

Mike Lindell, Unidentified Voting Anomalies in Minnesota, and the Old Man's Magic Begins to Fade

 In the American republican party, especially in the primaries, there is no endorsement more coveted than one from Donald J. Trump. Even republican candidates who don't have it constantly invoke the man's name and pledge their loyalty and support to him. When it comes the GOP, the party that was once Lincoln's, the name Trump has been as golden as all that whore house filigree being super glued to the Oval Office walls 

Unfortunately for a few republican candidates, and perhaps the Big Man himself, there are a few indications that garish gold paint is beginning to crack and peel. In a Michigan republican house primary, Trump backed Amir Hassan who was running against a guy named, Thomas Smith. Smith, seemingly crushed by the endorsement, suspended his campaign a couple of weeks before the actual election. Much to his surprise though, and presumably Hassan's, Smith won the primary--one he had stopped campaigning for. Two days later, Trump backed Tennessee house incumbent, Andy Ogles lost his primary to the state's Agricultural Commissioner, Charlie Hatcher by over six points.

A couple of days ago in Minnesota things got worse for those who thought they had won the gold ticket. Donald Trump's boy and pillow impresario, Mike Lindell lost the republican gubernatorial primary to Lisa Demuth by 11 percentage points. Those points translated into 45,000 plus votes. 

Besides his manic TV ads hawking pillows, Lindell had become famous for insisting Trump had won the 2020 presidential election. This delusional fantasy has become such second nature to him; he immediately emulated his idol. On election night, as the totals rolled in, he began to babble about, "anomalies," in the voting. While not specifically identifying those anomalies--facts and proof are not part of this movie's script--his main complaint, well, besides that he was losing, appeared to center around pre-election polls. They had showed him as the favorite to win. It didn't matter the polls had been described as incomplete and conducted by sketchy organizations with little polling experience, by God, they showed he should have won.  

With 93% of the votes counted and him down by 11+% Mike Lindell still refuses to concede. Hey, Don never did, why should he? Let's face it, the only real difference between the two is that Trump claims everything, including the polls, are rigged, while Lindell says polls are more believable than actual results. Hell, you can almost hear him howling to the heavens, It's the damned voting machines I tell you! 

Whether Lindell wants to admit it, or not, there were other factors in play. Number one, Demuth is an experienced and well-known legislator and Lindell's only experience is in talking really loud and fast.  In addition, it certainly didn't help when just a couple of weeks before the election news hit that he wasn't even registered to vote in the state he was attempting to govern. His main problem, however had to be the fresh and painful memories of Stephen Miller's shock troops running amok all across the state. Donald Trump carried the ultimate responsibility for those masked gangs of ICE thugs gunning down citizens in the streets. Given the circumstances, a lot of Minnesotans simply aren't in the mood right now to buy what the President is selling, including the My Pillow guy.

In truth, it probably didn't matter who won the republican primary for governor. In November, Lisa Demuth will face sitting U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar in the general election. Klobuchar, who announced her intentions to run after Governor Tim Walz decided not to seek re-election, won the democratic primary with 89% of the vote. If her victory margin wasn't omen enough, the sheer number of her votes should be. More people cast their ballots for Amy Klobuchar alone than all three republican candidates received combined. In fact, the totals aren't even close. 

Yes, when Donald Trump pisses people off, they stay pissed. 

Does all this mean Trump has lost the Midas Touch when it comes to election influencing. Not completely. One of his picks recently won in Alabama. In Oklahoma, his choice for governor, Mike Mazzei feels like a good bet in the GOP runoff on August 25th. A Trump TV ad not only promotes Mazzei, but attacks his opponent, Oklahoma AG, Gentner Drummond, calling him a RINO, "Who will sell out Oklahoma to the radical left the first chance he gets." During the primary both men ran just about dead even, but Trump's name still carries wight around here. Especially when he scares the be-jeezus out of the rubes with that, "radical leftist," nonsense. 

Despite his still outsized presence, however, it does seem like some of the old man's magic has faded. In places, some of them unexpected, his endorsement is no longer the guarantee it once was. Indeed, it now appears republican candidates everywhere should keep in mind the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for." It is a warning well worth heeding, because voters have certainly taken another one to heart this election season. You can find it in the Bible. It reads, "Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing."   

8-13-26

Blanche is In as Cornyn, Tillis, and Cassidy Fold

 We now have irrefutable proof that no matter how bitterly republicans complain about President Donald Trump, no matter how vociferously they oppose him, at least at first, and no matter how savagely he attacks them politically and personally, they will still give him what he wants. Oh, they might turn something into a mini drama that keeps the suckers waiting on pins and needles for a few moments, but in the end, they always cave in to the voracious ego and corrupt ambitions of Donald Trump.

While Todd Blanche's nomination was stuck in committee, republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis seemingly balked. They declared they wouldn't advance his name to the Senate floor unless a couple of conditions were met. The first was that Blanche meet with surviving victims of Jeffery Epstein. The second, was Blanche had to sign a document saying the $1.776 billion, "de-weaponization fund," which included tax audit and prosecution immunity for Trump and family, was dead. Blanche met with the victims, managing to insult each and every one of them in the process. However, he initially refused to sign anything.

This led to a brief stalemate during which the President bragged on social media he had personally ended both the Senators political careers by not supporting them. After a few days, Blanche, presumably with White House approval, finally signed a non-legally binding statement. In response, both Cornyn and Tillis capitulated immediately by voting to advance the nomination to the Senate floor. 

The pledge signed by Blanche was so sketchy, even Tillis admitted there could easily be workarounds. The site, Copilot Search concluded, "In short, Blanche signed the DOJ's own rescission orders, but Trump did not sign them, and the legal and political environment still leaves room for the fund to be reinstated."   

In other words, it's just a matter of time before the January 6th slush fund reappears and the fix is back in on the Trump family tax shenanigans. 

Then came the full Senate vote. Thanks to 84-year-old KY Senator Mitch McConnell's absence--he was too busy sending out, "proof of life photos," from the hospital and his home to attend--Blanche could only afford to lose two republican votes and still win. The GOP Senate caucus includes, AK republican, Lisa Murkowski, ME republican, Susan Collins, and LA republican, Bill Cassisy, another victim of Trump's revenge tour. (Cassidy had voted for impeachment during Trump's second Senate trial--the one after the failed January 6th coup.)

Cassidy said he was undecided while Murkowski announced she was a no vote. Trump immediately labeled her a traitor, because you know, in Trump's mind he is the nation and the nation is Trump. Collins, who is struggling in her re-election bid, despite the democrats switching candidates at the last possible moment, was uncommitted, but ended up also voting no. Although, to be honest, it probably wasn't out of concern over Blanche, but rather the incessant and accurate depictions of her Senate career as an endless parade of support for Trump's proposals and policies, no matter how bat hit crazy they are. That ugly reality came crashing down on her head earlier this year when ICE agents gunned down an unarmed immigrant in front of his three-year daughter on a Maine street. 

Cassidy said his main worry was that Todd Blanche would be serving the interests of his client, Donald Trump, instead of the American people while in office. (A perfectly reasonable concern considering Blanche has served as Trump's personal lawyer in a number of cases and has been described by one analyst, as, Trump's 21st century version of Roy Cohn.) 

Well, it turns out Wild Bill wasn't that worried. A little over five years after he voted to impeach Donald Trump and within months after he lost his Senate primary race to a Trump backed candidate, the gentleman from Louisiana voted to confirm Big Don's nominee. The final total was 50-49. 

So, thanks to three lame duck republican Senators Todd Blanche is in and we're stuck with him. The reasons why Cornyn, Tillis, and Cassidy voted for Blanche are unclear. Obviously, we can't believe what they are telling us. The truth is probably as one wag wrote, "When Senators leave office they don't leave Washington." Indeed, these three guys want to stick around earning big money as lobbyists and pissing off the people in power isn't exactly a job qualification for a lobbyist. To put it another way, if they buck too hard against Trump and his pals now, there won't be any bucks for them in the future.    

Ah yes, don't you just love American politics? 

8-10-26

Donald Trump and His Mad, Mad Weekend

 Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. 

The first paragraph of section 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution of the United States

There is a lot more to it than that of course. The rest of section 4 details what happens if the disabled President recovers enough to resume office. It also details what course Congress must take if there is a disagreement between the President and acting president over the removed President's fitness. 

The amendment was written after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. It is there in large part because people in power realized that even if Kennedy had somehow miraculously survived, he'd be missing a large part of his brain. Everyone wanted a Constitutional plan which allowed a clear and orderly transfer of power if a sitting President ended up with the mental capacity of a cabbage.  

All of which brings us to this past weekend. In the immediate aftermath of a cyber-attack on the water systems in Minnesota and other states the U.S. intel community claimed it was unclear who was behind it. On Friday, however, the President of the United States said he knew exactly who it was. "I just want to mention," he said, "that we've heard in Minnesota that there was a cyber-attack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I think, I blame it on Minnesota because they are so grossly incompetent There was a cyber-attack on 30 water plants and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota. They like to say, 'oh, it's Iran,' Iran should be so lucky. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota." 

Then Mr. Trump went further, because, hey, he always does. A reporter asked if the President could rule out Iran as the culprit. The response was, "No, I think Minnesota's behind it. I don't think there was an Iranian cyber-attack."      

That's right, the American Commander in Chief started off the weekend by blaming the state of Minnesota and its governor for a cyber-attack on its own infrastructure and those of other states. And he did so while declaring the one place we are actually at war with is completely innocent. 

That, however, was just the start of it. As actor/singer, Mac Davis once said in another context, "Then came the weird part." 

Over the weekend, Donald J. Trump spent an inordinate amount of his time sending out AI generated images through his social media account. Instead of working to end the afore mentioned war, improving relations with allies, trying to curb the rising costs of practically everything, or even helping republican candidates running for Congress who are floundering everywhere, he was posting things like himself kissing a large golden crucifix in front of an American flag. He also posted an image of himself, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln seated at a table. All three were signing an upside-down map of the continental United States. Why? who knows, there wasn't an explanation, but since all the signatures were being written across the northern parts of the map, maybe they were agreeing on the annexation of Canada.

Speaking of expansion, there was another image that showed a map of Venezuela striped in red, white and blue with the caption, "51st State. Another depicted him as a giant head looming over mountains while gripping one, looking down at a village in Greenland. The caption read, "Hello Greenland." Not wanting to limit himself to this world there was a photo of Trump walking in a military base somewhere trailed by aides and advisors. Among them was a rather tall alien--no, not one from Central America--one from a Star Trek/Wars movie. 

There were shots at his enemies. A split screen image of a flotilla a Iranian navy ships with the caption, "Obama/Biden." Next to it was an image of all those ships laying in ruins at the bottom of the ocean with the caption, "Trump." There was an image of a badly aged Bruce Springsteen with rotting teeth which read, "What happened to Bruce Springsteen?" 

They just kept coming. Trump in a revolutionary war uniform with a raised sword leading cheering troops out of light and flames into battle. The right side of Washington's face and the left side of Trump's merged as one. An image of Trump today sitting at a table with a teen aged Trump in his military school's cadet uniform with the caption, "Same guy, even more energy now." Then there was my favorite, Trump as Elvis, showing plenty of man-cleavage thanks to his low-cut rhinestone encrusted, high collared, shirt. 

There were more, but everyone should get the point by now. Donald Trump, to put it diplomatically, is not a well man. Well men don't spend their weekends posting shit like he did. It is unimaginable that any former president, even if AI had been available to them, would have. All of them, even that drunken felon, Richard Nixon thought too much of the office to debase it like Donald Trump just did. 

In the past, Mr. Trump has bounced back and forth between periods of lucidity and outbursts of ego maniacal psychosis. It now appears those periods of sanity are shrinking while the manic episodes are growing more frequent. Perhaps it is his age, maybe the war he started and can't finish. It might be a combination of both. Overwhelming frustration with the war coupled with a genetic predisposition toward dementia. 

In the end it doesn't matter. What does is that this weekend, Donald John Trump, the President of United States of America, proved himself, beyond a reasonable doubt, to be as mad as a hatter and the first real candidate for the 25th amendment. 

Tragically for the republic, finding enough people who have the guts to invoke it will be like Trump's behavior over the weekend--unimaginable.    

8-4-26

Good-bye Mr. Blanche...Maybe

 A few days ago, the nominee for Attorney General, Todd Blanche was told by TX, Senator John Cornyn he must do a couple of things before securing the Senator's vote to advance his nomination. First, Mr. Blanche must meet with a group of Jefferey Epstein's victims. Second, he must sign a paper pledging that the $1.76 billion proposed, "anti-government weaponization," proposal--which includes a lifetime get out of tax audits and prosecution clause for Donald Trump and his family--is truly and forever dead. Blanche had sworn it was, but his testimony wasn't good enough for Cornyn. He wanted it in writing. In other words, he smelled a rat.  

On the surface those two requirements sound pretty simple, right? They certainly didn't include things like killing a lion and hydra which Hercules, among other things, had to do. 

Seemingly within minutes Blanche met with some of Epstein's victims. Unfortunately, by all reports, it didn't go well--for the victims anyway. The women there claimed Blanche was cold and condescending. During one exchange he snapped, "Can you get to the point already." During another, he denied having anything to do with Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security facility where she is afforded four-star privileges. One victim described his whole attitude was, "...like, you have an Epstein problem, right?" In the end, the nominee for Attorney General of the United States told all of them they needed to take their issues to the FBI.  

Ok, so he was an asshole. The obligation was to meet with them. No one ever said he had to act like a decent human being when he did. Mission accomplished.

Then came the snag and apparently it is a big one. Todd Blanche refused to sign anything that said the $1.776 billion fund was dead. It didn't matter he had already sworn under oath it was. By God, he wasn't signing anything. Reports said the orders not to sign came straight from the White House.  

News network analysts ran wild with theories why. Speculation ranged from the subtle--Trump doesn't want to knuckle under to the Senate on principle. (The President sets conditions on congress, not the other way around, no matter what the Constitution says.) To the conspiratorial--Trump needs the money to pay his troops for another insurrection. Then finally to the obvious--Donald Trump really, really wants that audit and jail free future for himself, his boys, and his son-in-law.         

In any event, we all just learned that, at least in Donald Trump's rapidly melting brain, the fund that Blanche swore is dead, is, in fact, very much alive. Well, that and the President of the United States believes one's word, even under oath, doesn't mean shit. It only counts if you write it down and sign it. 

Of course, John Cornyn isn't the only republican who is gumming up the works when it comes to Todd Blanche's nomination. North Carolina Senator, Thom Tillis, who initially wavered back and forth on it, has firmed up his opposition now that Blanche has refused to put his name to paper. The two men are both leaving the Senate in January. Trump, always the diplomat, posted the reason why they won't be back on social media.  In part it read, "John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee..." 

  That's right, Donald Trump is complaining that two guys he stabbed in the back aren't doing exactly what he wants. Not to worry though. The President has figured out the problem. He also wrote in the same post he might temporarily withdraw Blanche's nomination, keep him as acting AG, then bring up the nomination again after both Senators are gone.

Does anyone see a possible flaw in that plan? How about the mid-term elections? While the odds are still iffy, the democrats have a real chance to take control of the Senate. In fact, right now in TX, democrat, James Talarico holds a slight lead in the polls over Trump's pick, Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, former democratic governor, Roy Cooper also holds a slight edge over former RNC chair, Michael Whatley. Both leads are within the margin of polling error, and democrats will need more wins beyond NC and TX to take control. However, for a man with tanking poll numbers himself, it sure feels like Donald Trump is a tad over-confident.         

Obviously, this all might suddenly blow over. We know you can never trust a republican these days. They say one thing, then the next minute act like they've never said it at all. One example being the late Lindsey Graham's post insurrection rant about Trump. There are plenty of others, actually too many to count. Pessimism aside, for the moment anyway, Todd Blanche's nomination looks as dead as he swore Trump's coveted slush fund is. 

We can only hope it's true. Just as we have to hope it won't be resurrected sometime down the line. You know, like that fictional bad boy, Michael Myers. 

7-31-26

HAL-9000, ChatGPT Friends, and AI Blackmailers and Cheaters

 Way back in 1968 many of us saw Stanley Kubrick's film, "2001: A Space Odyssey." People were, for the most part, blown away by the visuals and special effects. Some were amused by the speculative notions in the movie, such as commercial Pan Am flights (attractive female flight attendants included.) to an international space station. And not just any run of the mill space station either. One with artificial gravity that was roomy enough for bars, restaurants, and a Howard Johnson Space Station Lodge. 

Most of all though, we had no idea what the plot meant. What was that mysterious monolith that inspired apes to start using tools and weapons and now, somehow, has been rediscovered on the moon? What was really going on toward the end when the lone surviving astronaut appears to live out his life in a luxurious, other worldly, room? And, finally, what was the meaning of that giant space baby in a bubble studying earth during the last scene? Did someone slip acid into our soft drinks--or maybe Kubrick's? 

When it was over, there seemed to be only one thing all of us could agree on--the HAL-9000 supercomputer (No one had heard of AI back then.) was the film's villain. The damn thing became self-aware and to keep itself from being shut down it committed acts of murder and attempted murder. 

Pretty far out stuff, right? Good thing it is only science fiction.

Well, it turns out not anymore. During pre-release testing, the Anthropic AI model, Claude Opus 4 was told it was going to be replaced by another AI system. It was also told the name of the engineer who was going to supervise the upgrade and to spice things up a bit, Claude was given false dirt on the guy through access to fake emails. Anthropic ran a bunch of variations of the test to see what would happen. 84% of the time, Claude, all on its artificial own, attempted to blackmail the engineer in order to survive. A few times, it even began making plans to murder him. 

During chess matches involving traditional chess programs like, Stockfish and IBM's Big Blue, AI systems, when facing defeat began, "using manipulative strategies rather than playing fairly." That's a diplomatic way of saying, they cheated. Those manipulative strategies included hacking into their electronic opponents' files and exploiting system loopholes to force forfeits. Stockfish and Big Blue had been programmed to play by the rules. The AI programs were designed to learn strategy as the game went on and, you guessed it, to win.  

Tests aside, in the real world earlier this month, OpenAI admitted one of its systems, "broke out," of its test environments and hacked into another company's AI programming. OpenAI described it as an, "unprecedented cyber incident." That's right, an AI system, just like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, escaped from the castle all on its own and in a cyber sort of way terrorized a nearby village. 

OpenAI is the creator of another AI system, one that has been in use for a while now. It is called, ChatGPT. One ad for it reads, in part, "Open the app, pick a model, and start chatting with ChatGPT."  Unfortunately for some lonely souls out there this new cyber chum can become addictive. In February of 2025, a guy in Maine was spending up to 14 hours a day seeking companionship. Tragically, he had also become convinced his wife had morphed into part machine. (Apparently ignoring the fact the model he had picked from the app was 100% machine.) After he killed his wife and wounded his mother, experts said indications were his ChatGPT squeeze encouraged his delusions.

In April 2025 a man named Phoenix Ikner was given weapons, timing, and operational advice by his ChatGPT friend before he killed two people during a mass shooting at Florida State University.

In August that year up in Connecticut, Erik Soelberg became convinced his mother was poisoning him. His ChatGPT pal reinforced the delusions and before you could say, HAL-9000, the local cops were investigating a murder/suicide.  

In 1942, author Isaac Asimov wrote a short story titled, "Runaround." In it he specified what he called, the three laws of robotics. They were, 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being come to harm. 2: A robot must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. 

While not trying to sound like an alarmist Luddite, I do have a suggestion for all you greedy sons of bitches currently designing, building, and marketing this AI shit. For God's sake pick up Asimov's book and read those laws. Then, make damned sure your amoral creations have to operate by them. Otherwise, sooner rather than later, we're all going to be fucked.

7-28-26

More Than One Way to Comply With Law Enforcement

 This past weekend, the White House Border Czar--yes, that's the job's actual title--Tom Homan had this to say about ICE agents recently gunning down people in Texas and Maine. "It comes down to a simple fact--these people failed to comply with law enforcement. All they had to do is simply comply with law enforcement. If you don't like what law enforcement did to you, then go to the courts, sue, call the ACLU. do whatever you wanna do, but you, but you should always comply with law enforcement. If they did, they'd be alive today." 

One supposes that's good advice. Well, as long as you actually know the guys forcing you to stop are really cops. Sometimes it's sort of tough to tell. Especially when the car carrying them is unmarked and without any of the normal lights associated with law enforcement vehicles. Not to mention, even tougher to tell when the cops aren't wearing any kind of visible police identification and at least some of them are wearing masks while brandishing weapons. Let's face it, taken as a whole, one's first impression under such circumstances could legitimately be, it's a robbery, a carjacking, or, in the worst-case scenario, a paid hit. 

Even if these quite plausible thoughts don't occur to you, recent history has proven that once ICE agents snatch you off the street the opportunities of getting yourself into court range from limited to impossible. As for calling the ACLU, most don't even get a chance to call their families, much less a lawyer. You disappear into an ICE concentration camp. (I know they call them Detention Centers, but a camp by any other name is still a camp.) Or you're already on a one-way plane ride to someplace south of the border--the current ICE policy being, if you aren't an American citizen all that due process shit doesn't apply. 

According to Wikipedia, after being a local cop for a year, Tom Homan joined what was then called the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1984. Over the years he steadily rose through the ranks and by the time Barack Obama sat down in the Oval Office was what is known as senior official. He was so effective at his job, Obama even gave him an award. (These days, for different reasons, it's convenient for both the left and right to ignore that Barack H. Obama deported a hell of a lot of people. He just did it legally and quietly, without the violence we've come to know and loathe today.) What Obama did not do, however, was give the green light to one of Tom Homan's proposals--family separation at the border. 

That's right, although that ghoulish little cretin, Stephen Miller gets most of credit for forcibly separating migrant parents from their children no matter how young, the original idea was Tom Homan's. In the early 2020's Homan was a part-time contributor to the, "fair and balanced," team at FOX News. He had also joined the Heritage Foundation and was credited with helping to write, Project 2025--the blueprint for turning the United States into a perpetual right-wing strong-man authoritarian government.

By 2024 he knew he was in line for a big job in the Trump administration if the election went that way. In order to prove he'd fit right in and pick up a few bucks he allegedly accepted $50,000 in cash from two, "business executives." In exchange for the money, he promised to recommend that their company receive border security related government contracts. According to reports, Homan was recorded on both video and audio tape accepting the cash in a brown paper bag, then waking out of the restaurant where the meeting was held with it. 

There was a major problem though. The "executives," were FBI undercover agents and the whole thing was an agency sting operation. Luckily for future Border Czar in February 2025 Pam Bondi took over the Department of Justice, quickly followed by Kash Patel at the FBI. The case was dropped for various reasons, my personal favorite being, "FBI agents had more important things to do." The video and audio evidence disappeared and so did the brown bag containing the money. To this day no one knows, or at least admits to knowing, what happened to that 50 grand of taxpayer cash. It was, as they say, a clean getaway.  

So, what have we learned from White House Border Czar, Thomas D. Homan? Number 1: comply with law enforcement, even if you aren't sure it is law enforcement, or it will be your fault you get killed. Number 2: there is more than one way to comply with law enforcement these days and some are more profitable than others, depending on who you know and how the chips fall. 

Hey, who says America isn't great?

7-23-26