IF Helping Try to Avert An Execution Might Be A Thing You’d Do Today,

James Duckett. A snippet from the petition page:


James Duckett is scheduled for execution in Florida on March 31, 2026 for his alleged 1987 murder of Teresa McAbee.

NOTE: As of 6pm ET on March 27, 2027, a *temporary* stay remains in place as the State seeks to reverse the stay rather than follow the advice of its own expert, who suggests that further DNA evaluation is warranted. Read the press release from FADP here. This stay may be revoked at any time. Please act as if the March 31 execution date will proceed.

Mr. Duckett has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. His attorneys argue that the case against him, built entirely on circumstantial evidence, has been undermined by recanted testimony, discredited forensic science, and the possibility of DNA testing that was never presented to the jury who sentenced him to death.

Duckett’s attorneys argue that modern forensic technology — capable of producing answers that were unattainable in the 1980s — now exists, yet the state is pressing forward with an irreversible punishment while key evidence remains inconclusively tested and thus, unresolved. (snip; more on the page, which is the petition page.)

Two stories from Joe My God worth reading.

MAGA Texas Candidate: Deport Native Americans

Snopes confirms:

In February 2026, a rumor spread that Bo French, a Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas, wanted to deport Native Americans — people indigenous to the U.S. Several social media posts made the claim, including on Facebook, where one user said French had called for the deportation of “third world savages” including Native Americans.

Some posts linked to a Feb. 10, 2026, article in Texas Monthly, which included a line that read, “One of French’s favorite phrases is ‘third world savages’—which he has applied to Afghan asylum seekers, Muslims, and even Native Americans, who he also wants deported.” It is true that French called for the deportation of Native Americans. He did so in an Oct. 10, 2025, post on X.

Read the full article. French, who is allied with two far-right Christian nationalist fracking billionaire pastors, last appeared here in November 2024 when he declared that Democrats are “retarded unmanly homos.” He appeared here in September 2024 when he lost a court battle to ban early voting on college campuses.

https://x.com/BoFrenchTX/status/1980654035972816972?s=20

https://x.com/covie_93/status/2024225968617828362?s=20

Whistleblower Testifies: DHS Lied About ICE Training

The Washington Post reports:

A former instructor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday accused the agency of dramatically slashing training standards for new officers and lying to Congress about it as the Trump administration seeks to rapidly expand its mass deportation operation.

Ryan Schwank, who resigned from his job at an ICE academy in Georgia last week, told congressional Democrats at a hearing that the agency eliminated 240 hours of “vital classes” from a mandatory 580-hour training program, including instruction about the legal boundaries for the use of force, how to safely handle firearms, and the proper way to detain and arrest immigrants.

“Law enforcement is a deadly serious biz. It is not a place for shortcuts,” Schwank said. “Deficient training can and will get people killed. … ICE is lying to Congress and the American people about the steps it is taking to ensure that 12,000 officers can faithfully uphold the Constitution and perform their jobs.”

Read the full article.

ICE whistleblower Ryan Schwank, a former ICE instructor and attorney, testifies that agents were trained to disregard constitutional rights.

Molly Ploofkins (@mollyploofkins.bsky.social) 2026-02-23T22:22:40.048Z

Ryan Schwank, a former ICE academy instructor, testified in front of Congress today about constitutional violations.“At the academy, we took out the class that tells the officers that they have an oath to the Constitution.”

Karly Kingsley (@karlykingsley.bsky.social) 2026-02-23T22:11:30.691Z

Former ICE agent: My first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a warrant. I watched ICE cut classes that teach our legal system, firearms training, use of force, lawful arrests, and the limits of officers' authority

FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) 2026-02-23T21:53:57.077196463Z

Former ICE trainer Ryan Schwank is telling Congress that agents are being trained to ignore the Constitution. "I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution when I joined ICE. I followed it when I resigned. The legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective, and broken."

Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) 2026-02-23T22:49:46.905Z

Director Lyons looked me in the eyes and said ICE was receiving proper training.Now a whistleblower says officials are lying about how much training new recruits actually get.They’re cutting corners and covering up. We need real answers and accountability. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-whi…

Senator Ruben Gallego (@gallego.senate.gov) 2026-02-23T21:17:10.839Z

 

Coloradans who underwent conversion therapy could sue for damages under proposed bill

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/coloradans-conversion-therapy-lawsuit-damages-proposed-bill/

A newly introduced bill at the Colorado State Capitol would allow LGBTQ individuals to sue for damages caused by so-called conversion therapy, or therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person.

The practice was banned in Colorado in 2019, and the American Medical Association – among other medical and mental health organizations – has said it is ineffective and can lead to depression, anxiety, and other psychological injuries. 

Colorado State Capitol 2026 legislative session
DENVER, CO – JANUARY 14: Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie in front of the House Gallery starts the 2026 legislative session at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, Colorado on January 14, 2026.RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Sponsors of HB26-1322 say many of those harmed by the therapy don’t come forward for years. Their bill would eliminate the statute of limitations in cases involving conversion therapy.

Individuals could sue their therapists, facilities that hired the therapists, and anyone who knew or should have known about the therapy and didn’t take reasonable steps to stop it.

Plaintiffs could recover economic and punitive damages if they could prove that the therapy was a substantial factor in their psychological injuries.

The bill is sponsored by State Representatives Alex Valdez and Karen McCormick in the House and State Senators Lisa Cutter and Kyle Mullica in the Senate.

The House Judiciary Committee will hear the bill this Wednesday.

Trump Admits Plan to Build Secret Lair Under Ballroom Got Busted

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admits-plan-to-build-secret-lair-under-ballroom-got-busted/

The president has been forced to defend the scale and cost of his vanity project.

Cool Off Topic Thing, If You’re A Puzzler (or even if not!)

Now and then, I post here from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. I read there every day; it’s a good way to begin the day online, for me. Anyway, today, there is a link, Jigsaw Galaxy: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day So, being curious, I clicked it, and it’s pretty neat. If you like to do jigsaws, take a look!

Trump Struggles Speaking After Being Humiliated By Iran

 

A Few Current Event-Related & Other Funny Short Vids



https://youtube.com/shorts/Kcol2OLmmko?si=jbo2a_Rarb8s-rsO




A Quick Women’s History Month Post

My Ears are Burning

they were already a little floppy

Nancy Beiman

This review appeared on Facebook yesterday. I do not know Mr. Highson, but I read his columns.

My blushes, Watson.

Mr. Highson posts the cover of the first edition of Animated Performance on the Facebook post. The second edition, an essentially ‘new’ book, is available from Bloomsbury Press.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/animated-performance-9781501376672/

It’s nice of him to speak of me during Women’s History Month. Now let’s hear about the other female animators. One of my students, Ami Thompson, appears on the first page of this site. There are many others.

https://greatwomenanimators.com/

Animation really does let you ‘play’ any character; your sex, age, ethnic group do not matter. It allows you to act without anyone staring at you; there are many introverts in this profession!

that’s all for today, folks.

Note To Scottie re Emails:

I read and responded to the emails. Just so you know. Maybe they won’t be so hard to find if you get there pretty quick?

A #No Kings Report

No Kings 3, fuck yeah

massive protests coast to coast — and country to country

Jeff Tiedrich

let’s start off with a bang, and put the hero of the day right up top. ladies and gents, I give you the Poet Laureate of No Kings Day.

‘see you later, alligator. at your trial, pedophile’ — now that’s a message we can all get behind.

we did it again, folks. in fact, We the People outdid ourselves. yesterday’s No Kings 3 was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

over eight million of us gathered peacefully coast to coast, to rise up as one and convey a singular message: fuck you, you fucking fuck — you’re not our king.

wait, did I say coast to coast? no, it was the entire world telling Donny Convict to fuck straight off.

HAPPENING NOW: A HUGE crowd has gathered in London, England for a protest against the far right in coordination with the No Kings day protests in the US

[image or embed]— alexjungle.bsky.social (@alexjungle.bsky.social) March 28, 2026 at 10:07 AM

and at the Bastille in Paris.

In 1789, furious protesters stormed the Bastille in Paris. This marks the start of the French Revolution that put an end to the highly corrupt, rotten regime of aristocrats and the ultra rich. Yesterday, thousands joined a #NoKings protest at the Bastille.

[image or embed]— Hendrik Klaassens #FBPE #FBR #BanX (@aurorablogspot.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 4:39 AM

Scotland fucking loathes Donny.

Solidarity from #Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇸 #NoKings

[image or embed]— Dial M for Madeye 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@carnaptiousmadeye.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 1:32 AM

so does Portugal.

Germany’s seen this movie before, and they want no part of its sequel.

two stalwarts showed up in the town of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

holy shit, there was even one homey who parked himself in front of the US embassy in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

this dude fucking rules. he held the exact same one-person protest during the previous No Kings Day last October.

meanwhile, back here in the US of A, the crowds were gi-fucking-normous.

of course, Boston is in the major leagues when it comes to protesting. they’ve been perfecting this shit since 1773.

another two hundred thousand showed up at the rally in the Twin Cities.

We are estimating more than 200,000 people at the flagship No Kings rally in the Twin Cities. #NoKings

[image or embed]— Indivisible ❌👑 (@indivisible.org) March 28, 2026 at 2:37 PM

while we’re in the Twin Cities, you need to hear this chunk from comedian Lizz Winstead’s great speech.

“I’m so proud of you. you chased out of this state pure evil. you chased them out. you chased out the fun-size fascist Greg Bovino. you chased out that evil Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem is so evil, I’m starting to think that that dog took his own life. just couldn’t take it. ‘is this my future? I need to get out. I’m taking the goat with me.’”

Times Square in New York City was packed to the gills.

so was Chicago.

San Francisco does not screw around. at Ocean Beach, protesters formed a human banner telling Donny to get the fuck out.

check out deeply-red Boise, Idaho, folks. even Republicans are fed up with this shit.

Bill Kristol, who used to be the biggest neocon in the world and is now an actual goddamned social progressive, was in Waltham, MA.

huge crowds were everywhere — except for one place: the CPAC conference in Texas.

while millions of people were protesting the fucked-up reign of Mad King Donny, CPAC couldn’t even fill one small room. look at this clownfuckingly pathetic display.

it’s as if Sad Trombone became a real political party.

now let’s check out some heroes — like this dude in Seattle.

we definitely need to gif this hilarious shit for posterity’s sake.

it was raining frogs in the District of Columbia.

we’re going to need to gif that shit, too.

handmaidens bearing the names of Jeffrey Epstein’s degenerate BFFs showed up in Nashville.

there’s no way we’re not giffing that shit.

hey, do you know who can go fuck themselves all the way to Mars? the Los Angeles Police Department, that’s who. these goons couldn’t make it through the day without arresting a protester who was dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.

A remarkable photo from #NoKings in DTLA from Connor Sheets of @latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/california/l…

[image or embed]— sam³⁰⁰⁰ (@samgavin.com) March 28, 2026 at 9:09 PM

great optics, you guys. bravo. ten out of ten — no notes.


fuck those fucking fucks. let’s go out with a bang. here are some of the best protest signs from around the country.

and finally, once again, our unknown poet laureate from Ellsworth, Maine.


as for Sundowning Grandpa Bugfuck, he was unusually silent — and nowhere to be seen. there were none of his usual protest-day batshit meltdowns on the feed of his crappy app. he couldn’t even be bothered to post AI slop of himself shitting on protesters, as he did last October.

he just spent the day holed up in Motel-a-Lago. according to his official schedule, the lazy fuck didn’t even bother to cheat at golf.

I’ve got a news flash for you, Donny: America is sick of you. aside from your brain-dead cultists who are too fucking stupid to understand what’s going on, nobody voted for this shit.

nobody voted for the historic and stately East Wing to be demolished so that you can replace it with some vulgar Epstein Dance Hall™ — and speaking of your dead pedo bestie, nobody voted for the continuing cover-up of a massive pedophile ring.

nobody voted for off-the-charts corruption and greed.

nobody voted for masked ICE thugs teargassing children, and murdering anyone who looks at them funny. nobody voted for innocent immigrants to be disappeared off the streets and shipped off to far-away slave-labor gulags.

nobody voted for the price of everything continuing to skyrocket — especially when you promised bring all that shit down on Day One.

nobody voted for our allies to be insulted and ignored, or for Ukraine to be thrown to the wolves, or for Greenland to be perpetually harassed, or for Venezuela to become a vassal state.

and nobody voted for an unwinnable clusterfuck of a don’t-you-dare-call-it-a-war in Iran — certainly not one that shut down the Strait of Hormuz, destabilized the entire Middle East, and sent the price crude through the roof.

guess what, Donny: you’re such a loathsome piece of shit that over eight million people took to the streets yesterday to deliver this singular message: fuck you, you fucking fuck — you’re not our king, and you never will be.

boo fucking hoo, bro. sucks to be you.


have a great Sunday, everyone. you earned it.