25 February—The fulsome cesspit known as Donald Trump didn’t disappoint last night. His gullible, clueless coprophagic fan base, as usual, eagerly gobbled up all the shit he disgorged, as usual, and the rest of us didn’t even bother counting all the lies that comprised the bulk of his protracted self-congratulatory and braggadocious, as usual, State of the Union farce. None of it was worth listening to. None of it is worth reading.
On the other hand, there’s Abigail Spanberger’s pretort, the new Virginia governor’s response to Trump’s bloviation prepared before—and presumably while—he bloviated. Here are Gov. Spanberger’s juiciest bits, with minor editing for style as well as bold italic editorial emphasis:
The United States was founded on the idea that ordinary people could reject the unacceptable excesses of poor leadership, band together to demand better of their government, and create a nation that would be an example for the world.
Tonight, as we watched our nation’s lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress, we did not hear the truth from our president.
So, let’s speak plainly and honestly, and let me ask you three questions:
Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?
Is the president working to keep Americans safe—both at home and abroad?
Is the president working for YOU?
Since this President took office last year, his reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs.
Small businesses have suffered. Farmers have suffered—some losing entire markets. Everyday Americans are paying the price.
And even though the Supreme Court struck these tariffs down four days ago, the damage to us, the American people, has already been done.
Meanwhile, the president is planning for new tariffs. Another massive tax hike on you and your family.
Republicans in Congress? They remain unwilling to assert their constitutional authority to stop him.
They’re making your life harder. They’re making your life more expensive. They’re even making it more difficult to see a doctor.
So I’ll ask again: Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?
We all know the answer is no.
Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans—and they have done it without a warrant.
They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies, they have sent children—a little boy in a blue bunny hat—to far-off detention centers, and they have killed American citizens on our streets.
And they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability.
Our president told us tonight that we are safer because these agents arrest mothers and detain children. Think about that.
Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed—not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.
As the president spoke of his perceived successes tonight, he continues to cede economic power and technological strength to China, bow down to a Russian dictator, and make plans for war with Iran.
Here’s the truth: over the last year, through DOGE, mass firings, and the appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation’s most serious positions, our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America being a force for good.
So, I’ll ask again: Is the president working to keep Americans safe—both at home and abroad?
We all know the answer is no.
In his speech tonight, the President did what he always does: he lied, he scapegoated, and he distracted. He also offered no real solutions to our nation’s pressing challenges—so many of which he is actively making worse.
He tries to enrage us, to divide us, to pit us against one another. Neighbor against neighbor. And sometimes, he succeeds.
And so you have to ask: Who benefits from his rhetoric, his policies, his actions, and the short list of laws he’s pushed through this Republican Congress?
Somebody must be benefiting.
He’s enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented.
There’s the cover-up of the Epstein files.
The crypto scams.
Cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms.
Putting his name and face on buildings all over our nation’s capital.
This is not what our founders envisioned.
So, I’ll ask again: Is the President working for you?
We all know the answer is no.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned us about the possibility of “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men” rising to power.
But he also encouraged us—all Americans—to unite in “a common cause” to move this nation forward.
That is our charge once more. And that is what we are seeing across the country.
It is deeply American and patriotic to do so, and it is how we ensure that the State of our Union remains strong, not just this year but for the next 250 years as well.
Because “We the people” have the power to make change, the power to stand up for what is right, and the power to demand more of our nation.
24 February—Four years ago today, Vladimir Putrid gleefully announced what he called a “special military operation” in which Russian airstrikes and missiles bombarded Ukrainian targets as Russian ground forces invaded the country from the north, east, and south—including Crimea, a part of Ukraine that Putrid’s troops had rather cleverly and easily occupied in 2014.
Joe Biden was president in 2022. So what did his inept administration with the full cooperation of an inept Congress do to put Putrid in his place? In simple terms, pretty much nothing. Sure, the U.S. and NATO—of which Ukraine wasn’t and still isn’t (because it would upset Putrid) a signatory—imposed economic sanctions against Putrid and his pals and provided some nonlethal matériel and lots of blather to make Ukraine think we cared.
But because of the so-called “direct conflict risk”—fear of escalation—that’s about all the U.S. did to help Ukraine. And although the U.S. didn’t formally warn NATO countries not to give Ukraine what it really needed to fight an all-out war against the evil Russian aggressor, it was understood. Besides lots of useless verbal support, some additional matériel and permissions were eventually granted, but too little and too late.
Eight years earlier, when Putrid took advantage of Ukraine’s internal mayhem to annex Crimea, Barack Obama’s ineffective administration with the full cooperation of an ineffective Congress had done pretty much the same thing—nothing that really helped Ukraine. Had Obama and his entourage done the right thing in 2014, Putrid wouldn’t—perhaps couldn’t—have invaded Ukraine in 2022 to mark the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
That takes us to Donald Trump. He pretty much ignored Ukraine during his first reign of terror. Who didn’t? Until President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and two Ukrainian-American army officers refused to play dirty pool with him, that is. Then it was never forget, never forgive, get mad, get even.
Precepts that guide Donald Trump’s life: “Never forget, never forgive. Get mad, get even. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
23 February—Like it or not, you’ve got to give some credit to Donald Trump. Although he’s put his miserable, unquestionably unworthy name on the Kennedy Center and the United States Institute of Peace, both of whose boards he’s packed with loyal flunkies, he hasn’t put it on his ludicrous Board of Peace. Yet. You wonder why, especially since the BOP is supposed to be the product of his own unstable and warped brain.
On the other hand, maybe Trump is playing it cool with keeping his moniker off his BOP so that the simple-minded Nobel people won’t think he’s trying to weasel his evil way to their coveted Peace Prize by bullying, intimidating, and threatening war.
Anyway, it’s no secret that the Department of Justice is Trump’s taxpayer-funded personal shyster firm. Forget the DOJ’s traditional independence. So now the scumbag tyrant is rubbing our faces in it by hanging a huge banner with his glorious face on the DOJ headquarters in DC.
Sure it’s reminiscent of dictators like Hitler and Stalin, but so is everything Trump does. Yet even dictators like his pals Viktor Orban in Hungary and Jair Bolsonaro in jail—where Trump should be—haven’t plastered their names on everything.
Only 1,061 days until Trump and his flunkies are out. Maybe sooner, if the gods are smiling . . .
22 February—George Washington was actually born on 11 February 1731. But don’t let it bother you. Because that was according to the old Julian calendar. While most European countries, being pope-fearing Catholics, had adopted the more accurate Gregorian calendar right after Pope Gregory XIII told them to do it in 1582, Protestant, staunchly anti-Catholic, reactionarily traditional, overly paranoid Great Britain didn’t get around to it until 1752. Even though it was a popish plot, to be sure.
For 170 years, Britain was thus out of sync with Europe. Kind of like the United States under the fat thumb of Donald Trump is currently out of sync with the world. And humanity and reality.
So by 1752 the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars had grown to such an extent that His Majesty King George II’s Government finally saw the light and went full Gregorian. That meant moving the Julian “legal” new year from 25 March [sic] to the Gregorian 1 January and dropping 11 days. Thus 2 September 1731 became 14 September 1732 in Britain and her colonies.
And that, children, is why we celebrate George Washington’s birthday on 22 February and this year he’d be 294 years old.
Believe it or not, narcissism is a common trait among presidents and politicians in general. Really. And, for the record, George Washington is said to have been among the more narcissistic American presidents. Modest, humble, reserved George Washington? Yes indeed. But of course GW’s narcissism was healthy and secret, as befits any American president and especially the Father of His Country.
Washington certainly was ambitious, conscious of his image, calculating, and sensitive to criticism. And he could be temperamental and a showman when necessary. But unlike you know who, GW obviously went to pains and was eminently successful in keeping his narcissism in check. That’s why he’s remembered as a great yet humble soldier, statesman, and thoroughgoing mensch.
Thomas Jefferson notably called George Washington “a wise, a good, and a great man.” And that’s what counts.
So Happy Birthday, George . . .
21 February—Housekeeping: Readers who get the daily link may have noticed that yesterday’s email emanated from Gmail.com rather than Optonline.net or Optimum.net, the reliably unreliable Altice domains. Altice straightened out its server in the afternoon.
Update: A few readers have questioned how the schmuck formerly known as Prince Andrew can be eighth in line for the British crown if he’s now a commoner. Well, you don’t have to be a royal to be in line. But it helps. And full-blooded (generally inbred or line-bred) royals are at the very front of the queue. And that accounts for a lot.
On the other hand, remember Princess Anne, Randy Andy’s elder sister? Her first husband, Army Capt. Mark Phillips, was a commoner and their son, Peter, is (as of this writing) 19th in line. That’s even though he’s Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest grandchild and King Charles III’s elder nephew. But he’s not HRH. Blame it on his father.
Peter’s mum, who even though she’s (still) a genuine HRH princess is only 18th in line because she’s not a male. And her granddaughters—Peter’s daughters, Savannah and Isla—are 20th and 21st in line.
Apropos nothing, HRH Princess Anne is now Lady Laurence, as she’s currently married to retired Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence. But he was only an untitled commander when HRH Anne married him in 1992. And Mark Phillips now lives in the United States.
Back to poor Randy Andy, then, his daughters with commoner Sarah Ferguson, HRH Princess Beatrice and HRH Princess Eugenie, follow their disgraced daddy in the line of succession, Beatrice at ninth and Eugenie at twelfth (don’t ask why she she’s not tenth), and will retain their places even if Parliament plucks Andy from the queue. And their mum, who after her divorce from Andy way back when retained the courtesy title of Duchess of York (without the HRH, of course), has stopped using it.
All that fascinating crap naturally takes us to the Trump line of succession, better known as the Cesspool Dynasty. But not for now . . .
20 February—Altice email has been out again since late last night, according to a tech, so there’s no telling when you’ll get—or bother to read—this. So, first things first, yesterday Donald Trump proclaimed, “I’ve won affordability!” Pity it’s just another of his lies—even though current inflation and resultant unaffordability aren’t all his fault. Or does he really believe all the crap he spouts? And do his flunkies really believe all the crap Trump spouts?
So the alleged victims of the schmuck formerly known as HRH Prince Andrew are ecstatic that he was arrested yesterday. It doesn’t matter to them that his arrest had nothing to do with what he allegedly paid the Epstein women for and is, rather, for suspected misconduct in public office by contravening the dreaded Official Secrets Act when he was the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment from 2001 to 2011.
It would have been great for tourism had poor Andrew been incarcerated in the Tower as another gawker attraction. In all events, compare the former prince’s alleged crime and punishment to his grand-uncle Prince of Wales-Edward VIII-Duke of Windsor’s. That royal asshole was a Nazi sympathizer and likely collaborator, yet his punishment was to be Governor of the Bahamas—just to get him out of England.
The good news for Randy Andy is that even though he’s been stripped of his royal titles and dignity, he’s still eighth in line to the British throne.
And the great news for America and the world is that this morning the Supreme Court, in a decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, told Donald Trump to stuff his tariffs. And of course Trump called the six-to-three decision a disgrace. Whoopee!
19 February—The invidious news this morning is that the former president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, was sentenced to life in prison for inciting insurrection, subverting the constitution, and abusing his authority by ordering troops to storm parliament and arrest people he didn’t like.
The distressing news this morning—well, it’s not really news, to be honest—is that thanks to the most misguided and reprehensible U.S. Supreme Court in modern history, former and (unfortunately) current president Donald Trump, who incited insurrection by ordering his vile and evil followers to invade the Capitol and murder people he didn’t like and has been subverting the Constitution and abusing his authority to an extent never before even thought possible in the republic, will never be prosecuted for any federal crime.
Like any tyrant, Donald Trump rules by fear and he’s shown that he’ll pretty well stop at nothing to get his way. Sad to say, he’s a past master at instilling fear, at intimidation. He’s been a bully from childhood, after all, and despite what he and his flunkies and defenders may claim, he knows no other way and has never had to use any other way to get whatever he’s wanted.
That Donald Trump is suffering from senile dementia may be an explanation—his partisans would call it a defense if they didn’t deny it—for his undeniably unstable and despicably bizarre behavior. But that’s cold comfort for the nation, the world, and all the institutions and individuals who have fallen victim to his demented ego.
Nobody wants to mess with the bully tyrant Trump. That’s why even powerful media and industries that could and should crush him instead kiss his fat ass and pay him what amounts to protection money. That’s why his second reign of terror isn’t being lampooned as savagely (and honestly) as his first. That’s why Gallup, which has been tracking presidential popularity since 1935 and most recently announced that Trump’s current popularity is the second lowest ever (after Nixon’s following Watergate) is giving up presidential polling.
Trump’s flunky Federal Communications Commission chairman has threatened to castrate broadcast media—illegally, of course—if they don’t kowtow to the bully tyrant Trump. And before you know it, print and digital media will do no more than disseminate the Trumpublican line, reminiscent of Trump’s fellow dictators in Red China, Hungary, North Korea, and Russia. Something really to look forward to.
But Trump and his corrupt, self-dealing administration won’t be around forever, hard as they may try to make it permanent. As of today, there are only 1,065 days before he and it will be out of office by honest electoral means. Only?
18 February—Not that it will result in any reduction of Eversource’s egregious—fifth highest nationally, after Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, and Hawaii—electric bills, but our least favorite monopoly utility just reported that its 2025 earnings doubled to $1.69 billion from $812 million in 2024. Pretty good for shareholders.
Leaving New England, Marco Rubio’s U.S. State Department claims, based on alleged seismological data, that Red China set off a secret underground nuclear bomb in 2020. You wonder why it took five and a half years for the allegation to be published? And so much for the presumed secrecy. Our Chinese friends knew—and know—exactly what they’re doing.
Assuming it was indeed a nuclear bomb that caused a mild earthquake in China on 22 June 2020, then, the nasty people’s republic isn’t living up to the terms of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which it signed but didn’t ratify—even though it expressed an intent to abide by it. The United States, first nation to sign the silly NTBT, didn’t itself get around to ratifying it until 1999.
(It’s not all that uncommon for a nation to sign a treaty or other international instrument but not ratify it. Signature merely indicates initial support by an administration, say, and intent to further consider whatever it may be, but isn’t a legally binding commitment to join or uphold anything. Ratification, on the other hand, is formal approval and is usually effected through—at least with the advice and consent of—legislative bodies. It was the U.S. Senate that delayed ratification of the NTBT, for instance.)
All that said, of course the People’s Republic of China likely has been conducting secret atom-bomb tests. And it’s more than likely the other eight nuclear powers are also doing it—and given the old world order and the new world order and well-founded mutual distrust among the good guys and the bad guys alike, the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea also are conducting secret bomb tests contrary to treaties they may or may not have signed and/or ratified.
With the United States and Russia stockpiling about 90 percent, the nine nuclear powers are said to hold something like 13,000 nuclear warheads between them. Stockpiling. Publicly acknowledged existing supply. So they’d all be unrealistic and just plain stupid not to do whatever may be necessary to retain or attain what may or may not be strategic nuclear superiority, treaties be damned. That means further development and (secret) testing.
While the specter of Donald Trump’s unstable finger on the button is unquestionably worrisome to say the least, it’s probably the least undesirable scenario.
And why is everybody bitching about Florida Trumpublican Congressman Randy Fine posting on Elon Musk’s social website, “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”? True, Randy should have posted, “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and people is not a difficult one.” But he’s a politician and is playing to his constituency . . .
17 February—Today is Fat Tuesday—Mardi Gras. Wow. St. Patrick’s Day is a month away. Wow again. Purim is a fortnight away. So what?
Anyway, today’s disquisition was intended to be about how the Lamont administration with the enthusiastic connivance of the Democrat majorities in both houses of the Connecticut General Assembly is almost as bad for the state (and worse for towns) as the Trump administration with the enthusiastic connivance of the Trumpublican majorities in both houses of the United States Congress is bad for the nation (and as bad for the world).
But Barack Obama’s pronouncements on extraterrestrial aliens the other day and the reaction in today’s Hearst RepublicanAmerican editorial must take precedence.
First, it must be noted that the Obama administration was pretty tough on aliens—on illegal terrestrial aliens, anyway. While showing pity for so-called undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, through so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Obama’s administration actually deported something like three million illegals, allegedly targeting criminals and focusing on border security. In fact, Obama was known as the Deporter-in-Chief in some circles.
And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which had been formed early in the Bush 43 administration in partial response to the 9/11 attacks, was accused of essentially the same overly aggressive tactics it’s accused of under the Trump administration. But that’s no defense of ICE. Or the Trump administration.
Back to extraterrestrial aliens, then, Obama said on Valentine’s Day, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the President of the United States.” Was he alluding to the movie “Independence Day”?
Then, yesterday, Obama elaborated: “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. The distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”
The HRA editorial largely agreed with Obama and went on to explain why—in its considered opinion—is it not only virtually impossible for extraterrestrial aliens to visit (or invade) Earth, but even that life on other planets in other solar systems in other galaxies is unlikely.
On the other hand, given the 200 sextillion stars the editorial says astronomers estimate, many of which have planets orbiting them, even if biological life as it’s known on Earth may not exist anywhere else, has anybody considered that there may in fact be totally, inconceivably different bases for biological life in other solar systems in other galaxies?
It’s only human arrogance that makes earthlings think that our carbon-based (for instance) life is the only one possible . . .
16 February—For a change, all three pieces on today’s Hearst RepublicanAmerican “Opinion” page have it right. First, there’s the editorial “Towns should have a say.” It deals with two compressors the Iroquois Natural Gas Transmission System wants to add to its existing Brookfield station.
Briefly, the only pro is that the new compressors would increase the pipeline’s capacity by some eight percent, while two of the cons are the danger of explosion and the compressors’ location fairly close to a school.
A third con is, as the editorial tells us (without specifically calling it a con), that “the fate of the $272 million Iroquois project rests with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which is expected to rule in March. [And that] Gov. Ned Lamont has offered tentative support for the project.”
It goes on to lament, “Not for the first time, Connecticut’s policy of limiting local influence on DEEP decisions on energy projects is coming into play. Last summer, Gov. Lamont vetoed a bill enabling small towns to veto DEEP rulings. [Litchfield Monitor emphasis] Brookfield and the environmental group Save the Sound have sued DEEP, stating the agency ‘failed to provide opponents to the project with adequate opportunities to raise concerns before the agency reached a final decision.’
“As towns struggle with proposals for massive solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage facilities, dual-fuel and nuclear power stations, and other projects likely to emerge to serve the state’s increasing demand for energy, it would behoove the legislature to reconsider bills like the one Gov. Lamont vetoed last summer. The people most affected by these projects deserve a voice. For example, Brookfield residents should have a say in the location of the compressor station, the use of electric rather than gas-fired motors to operate the compressors, and other technical aspects of the project. A state with a centuries-old tradition of home rule should do no less.”
The editorial’s title has it right, of course. But while the editorial tells us that Lamont vetoed the bill, it doesn’t tell us that HB 7004 passed the General Assembly with potentially veto-proof margins, with no negative votes, only “non-voting” votes: 25 yes, 11 non-voting in the Senate; 104 yes, 43 non-voting in the House.
So why all the non-voting and why wasn’t it called for veto override? Easy. HB 7004 reeks of the Connecticut Democrat trifecta’s ongoing crusade to usurp home rule from cities and towns.
* * * * * * *
The op-ed essay, written by Tyler O’Neil, an editor at the Daily Signal (an invariably noxious organ of the execrable Heritage Foundation), is titled “Trump administration unleashes American energy with key regulatory move” and written by. It’s about Trump and his EPA administrator-lackey Lee Zeldin having done the right thing by administratively revoking the Obama-era ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health. And, notwithstanding all the hype in the essay and on the White House website, it was indeed the right thing to do. Because despite the “consensus” of alleged experts in whatever fields, there’s just no real proof that greenhouse gases endanger public health. It’s all supposition and fear mongering.
* * * * * * *
And the best for last: There’s a letter from Joanne Nelson in Southbury titled “Republican Congress is complicit in undermining the American experiment.” The title tells the story, but one delightful sentence needs to be repeated: “They’ve abandoned their sworn oaths and responsibilities to the Constitution and their constituents in deference to a lying, infantile, vengeful, cruel, corrupt, violent and unstable vulgarian who is leading our country by whim.” [Litchfield Monitor emphasis]
Absolutely true. And beautiful . . .
15 February—For some time, several tentacles of the slimy Lamont administration have been in the process of stealthily and (of course) arrogantly foisting a new juvenile detention center on Tolland. For those unacquainted with Connecticut geography, the town of Tolland is in the county of Tolland in the state’s celebrated Quiet Corner. Tolland doesn’t want the juvie resort plopped on its main drag near a couple of daycare facilities, to say the least.
As Tolland town manager Brian Foley put it, “While some may characterize our residents’ concerns as classic NIMBY-ism [“Not In My Backyard”], one could argue that this is not our backyard—it’s our front yard. This property sits on our main thoroughfare within our primary business district corridor.”
Nobody from Tolland—except perhaps the potential juvie resort site’s current owners and agents—had even been aware of the state’s typically underhanded machinations, all held in executive sessions, which aren’t illegal under Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act in the case of many real estate transactions. To add to the concern and chagrin, the state has a nondisclosure agreement with the seller, which is not customary, at the very least.
Why?
The state’s judicial department is one of the parties to the coercive land deal and Connecticut Supreme Court Associate Justice Joan Alexander is the Chief Court Administrator. She regretted “that lines of communication with all stakeholders were not as strong as we would have wished,” and then predictably passes the buck to the “many stakeholders in state government” involved in property purchases. [“Stakeholder” has become a very popular and overused word in bureaucratic jargon.]
The deal between the state and the property owner hasn’t been finalized yet. Or maybe it has. Depending which state agency you ask. Is that a part of the nondisclosure agreement?
So Connecticut wants to build another juvie spa. Because that’s pretty much what juvenile detention centers are in Connecticut, prep schools with doors locked at night. Juvenile delinquents have it pretty good in this state. And as time passes, the age to qualify as a juvenile keeps going up. In most cases 18-year-olds can avoid serious consequences for non-capital crimes.
And, believe it or not, there’s a move afoot to expand so-called “emerging adult” protections to people up to age 25. No kidding. Emerging adult at 25?! Sure, it’s Connecticut and you expect all criminals to be mollycoddled here and juvies to be treated like infants who can’t be held responsible for committing crimes. But if a person hasn’t emerged from a juvenile or adolescent cocoon well before 25, it just ain’t gonna happen. Not that Ned Lamont or social workers care . . .