The OWL and the Batya Cat.

 Hey, look at me.  I managed to make a reference to Batya Unger-Sargon, without grabbing for the low hanging fruit of making a play on Batya's name, and subbing, sarcastically Batty.  Anyway.

For those of you not familiar, she is the allegedly former left of center, allegedly a journalist.  But even if she somehow qualifies as an opinion journalist?  On account of having such a gig?  I don't really consider opinion sharers to be journalists, on account of not following the ethnical, and other rules for real journalists.

Anyway, that maga, domestic Hitler fluffer has been making the rounds, wherever she seems she still can, to spew a favorable opinion of a layman's analysis of the insanely corrupt indictment against Former FBI Dir. Comey, and spew related dishonest talking points.  And she is one of the liars making the dishonest argument that the American "left" if not more specifically Democrats, are the worst offenders regarding violent rhetoric.

Now, a fact check.  In the past year, alleged incidents and "plots" from people identified as left of center has gone up and above the right wing loons.  But note, is more for 2025 then it has been in decades.  My response to that is firstly.  Lumping actual completed criminal acts together with "plots" is adding too much to the graph.  If you want an accurate picture, separate that shit. Make the chart just about actual acts of violence, not people thinking about maybe doing violence.

And after that?  Since we have a right wing, authoritarian regime that is out there in a unprecedented way for America, cracking down on the population?  With political bigotry, bias, and prejudice aforethought? Shit.  Why would any right wing Americans need to go out and commit hate crimes against the people they hate on their own?  

Wanna go beyond merely owning the libs and the browns and the Blacks?  Wanna  kick their asses and bust their skulls?  Join ICE!  They are recruiting!  Promising bonuses, and new and recently lowered standards! 

The overall 2025 figure does not include acts of violence committed by the Federal government and any right wing controlled states or cities.  Get my point?  The figure isn't cooked as much as it is technically inaccurate as far as actual, political violent acts committed.  And state sponsored violence is not beyond the category of political violence.  It's not exempt as data, even if arrests and convictions for that are not the rule.

Anyway, the OWL saw fit to do one of her stir the pot posts.   She shared without comment or context, some tweet from Batya, where she asserts with out any evidence at all:

"but the organizations producing that data are cooking the books so they can smear the Right with the Left's crimes.?

Reference to what I said about not following the ethnical, and other rules for real journalists.  

Further reference to what is the actual source of the data Batya blows off as cooked books, and smears.  And that would be DOJ stats, State and local stats.  Data culled from Federal and state and local criminal court filings.  And the kind of researchers who have jobs to track that shit, and if it's a proper honest academic job?  What ever they publish is instantly subject to informal if not quickly, formal peer review.

Parting shot (metaphorically speaking.)  Lately on my facebook wall, I have been posting pics and memes often with either of the following:

"Fucking republicans!"

Or "Fucking maga republicans."

And I am remind of the time I told a republican nut job lady I made the mistake of getting emotionally involved with, to fuck off.

She immediately accused me of making a violent reference.  So yes.  There is nothing new about fucking republicans escalating any criticism, push back, resistance, or negative comment as if it were some violent threat against them.  Because they are liars.  And delusional.  And very thin skinned.

Is Overuse of AI a Sign of Being a Moron? How About Habitual Shallow Thinking?

 The owl is still using the racist AI.  But that is not the point of this post.  She has bought fully in, at least says she has.  There is the theory that CBS actually didn't cancel Colbert's late-night show because of political pressure.  The argument is that if they really wanted to shut him up, why did they give him 10 months to stay on air?

That is sophistry:

Sophistry refers to subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation that appears plausible but is often misleading or fallacious. It originated from ancient Greek philosophers known as sophists, who were skilled in rhetoric but later gained a negative reputation for their questionable reasoning methods. Merriam-Webster Wikipedia

And morons fall for that shit.  

Here is the problem with that moronic argument.  I will start with the truism, that two or more things can be true at the same time.  Going the next level up, false choices are false.  We don't really know all the possible reasons that went into the decision.  Failing to allow for the possibility of more than one thing being behind the decision, is moronic.

Next is the human limitation point.  Humans tend to fucking suck at, as in having pretty much no ability to read other people's minds.  

And I will end on the Aaron Burr point.  From the musical, one of that character's lead songs is the one where he sings about wanting to be in the room where it happens.  If someone wasn't in not only what ever real or virtual space where the decision was made, one was not in the room where it happened, so at best is just guessing.  Which humans suck at.

Any of a number of explanations could be the truth here.  Personally, I immediately guessed the gloves would be off for the remainder of the show's run.  And I watched last night, and was quickly proven right.  There was a show of solidarity with the other late-night hosts being in the studio audience.  Jolly good fun!  However.  Since we don't know what happened in the room.  There could have been some deal where network brass greed to capitulate to the political pressure.  And bargained for the timing, hoping Colbert would go out in a blaze.  

I will leave it there.  Yes, I used to work at CBS's hq.  40 years ago.  So any manager I could have known then is long gone now.  But I can easily imagine some of the lawyers and network brass thinking . . . . be careful what you wish for bitches.  We do this TV thing for a living.

 

Andor - Mon Mothma's Wedding Dance

According to the creator of the Disney/Star Wars series "Andor."  Mon Mothma is dancing (with such abandon,) to keep from screaming.  Spoiler alerts to follow.

Mon Mothma was a minor, as far as screen time goes, character from the last of the original trilogy.  At that point in time she is one of  the highest leaders of the rebellion against the evil empire and emperor.  She pops back in the franchise in the film "Rogue One."  But she is one of the three most important characters in the "Andor" series.

The setting.  We are at least a year or so before the revolution takes out the death star.  She is having a very bad day, week, year.  A lot of shit is hitting her, between her daughter's wedding to a loveless union, blackmail from her oldest friend, and having to ok his assassination.  And not only struggling to keep the revolution going and remaining undetected, their top operative on a crucial mission, is way past his check-in.  So yeah.  She wants to scream, but abandons herself to trance dance instead.

This is the culture story of the week.   Among people like me, at least.  Sci-Fi fans who look to the politics and rebellion in the Star Wars galaxy as something too close to reality.  Many of us want to scream, over what the empire we have to deal with, has been up to.  And would love to be able to trance dance for a bit and really blow off some steam.

I am definitely on Team Mon Mothma!

Fucking Credentials Fucking Matter, Bitch!

 Disturbingly ironic, that people who love to pay lip service to the myth that is meritocracy, approve of an audit not only not  conducted by any kind of financial auditor.  But not by the best trained for the job.

Let me be clear.  I have already wished (because wishful thinking isn't real, no harm in it really,) a lifetime of night terrors for any maganazi.  Anyone who ever voted for DJT.  Lately, I call him the orangenazi. So just to be sure I include all who approve of doge.  I like the usage, doge-bag.  Same goes for any such person.  I wish a lifetime of night terrors for anyone who approves of the  doge-bags audit of gvt. departments and agencies, by people who lack any credentials in financial auditing.  Never mind, the specialty of government financial auditing.

What the fuck is wrong with these motherfuckers?

Fucking Nazis. I mean Maganazis.

 

American Government. February 11, 2025.

 

Hired Goons?

This old clip better explains what is going on with orangenazi's tariffs . . . Shit. His whole theory of the presidency, better than I usually do. Even with my over-educated brain.

Hurts My Pretty Brain!

 Let me try to understand this. On Monday he declared a "State of Emergency" because, immigrants. Claimed migration is an "invasion," as justification.

And he will decide, in about 90 days, whether to invoke the "Insurrection" Act because of the migration, he has mislabeled an invasion?

About That Election

 

Rabid Dog

 I just saw an article where some dick-faced, pro-orange nazi, contributor for CNBC, used that fucking phrase that irks me to no end, The one about "unleashing capitalism."

Granted. I am biased. I would say, I am not violently anti-capitalist, but I am functionally so. I believe it needs to be leashed because, when left to its own whims, capitalism is very much like a rabid dog. It attacks. It's toxic. It destroys. It respects nothing but its diseased mind-driven hunger and insatiable desire.

And I wonder, at least. If the dick faces who use that phrase, unleash capitalism, are Freudian slipping when they do so?

Rabid Dog

Matches my mood.

 

Not only, but particularly when Nazis are in charge.  Or about to be in charge.  All Republicans are Nazis.

I don't have time to read biographies of people I don't respect, unless

 Someone pays me.  That is what I basically do for a living. I read shit you would have to pay me to read.

More is the point. I don't favor biographies. Specifically autobiography.  That sub genre is about as suspect as it gets.  Particularly, when the autobiographer has an ego that is several orders of magnitude above his meager accomplishments.

So I ain't never fucking ever gonna read Glenn Loury's doorstop. 

I read two reviews of it today. Even the one written by a political admirer remarks how much of an unflattering picture Loury on Loury drew of himself.  I don't know for sure.  But seems to me.  This blowhard who not only is a self appointed intellectual.  But also is a self appointed moral agent, at least when he wants to tell other people how they should live.  Because that is what Republicans do no matter how bad material they are, for moral fiber sources.  But more based on the observations of the reviewer in the NYT piece.  Loury seems to admire his own inner thug, and history of his street life.

Sounds like pretty sad shit to me.  And the disturbingly hilarious part of the whole perverse spectacle?  Loury has, seemingly, no idea how sad he is.  Even if he gave up crack years ago.  He comes across as still something of a crack head.  

I don't say that to be insulting. Oftentimes, the main difference between a still crack head and an ex is just the not smoking crack anymore, part.  Note, I do not mean to say every recovering crack addict will always have the personality of a crack head, for life.  But until now, I just took Loury for a delusional, egotistical, narcissist with above average intelligence, but not even a tiny bit of actual genius, who at the same time, was resentful that most of the world clearly was not impressed by him.  And he thinks they should.  However, viewing him as a recovering crack addict?  It makes sense to me now, how he seems to be so clueless to the actual, objective impression he makes on the wider swath of humanity.

And for what ever fucked up reasons.  And there is scholarship on this point, specifically due to the right wing popularity of that human dumpster fire I call bozo, or the Leper Messiah,  The previous president?

Right wingers love them some toxic personalities. So Loury gets some superficial love from the right wing.  Because he is useful for their white supremacist agenda.  But otherwise, he is a not very likeable person who just wrote a book about how not very likeable he is, actually.  As I frequently say or at least think.  There is a market for that shit.  I am not that market.

Like I said.  Sad.

I can end it here.