Minnesota Governor Tim Walz criticized President Donald Trump during an interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, stressing just why the people who elected Trump to run the country “like a business” were completely misguided.
Walz particularly lamented the impacts of Trump’s ongoing trade war with Canada and Mexico, noting that Trump has a history of scuttling deals and “a proven track record of being an absolute failure.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at the Al Udeid Air Base, Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Doha, Qatar. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Military commanders will be told to identify troops in their units who are transgender or have gender dysphoria, then send them to get medical checks in order to force them out of the service, officials said Thursday.
A senior defense official laid out what could be a complicated and lengthy new process aimed at fulfilling President Donald Trump’s directive to remove transgender service members from the U.S. military.
The new order to commanders relies on routine annual health checks that service members are required to undergo. Another defense official said the Defense Department has scrapped — for now — plans to go through troops’ health records to identify those with gender dysphoria.
Far Right Federal Judge Rules Gay And Trans People Can Be Discriminated Against In Workplaces
Judge Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas, ruled on the EEOC’s treatment of Title VII employment discrimination claims on gay and trans people.
On Thursday, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk—a far-right federal judge in the Northern District of Texas with a record of aligning with the GOP’s most extreme legal positions—issued a ruling declaring that Title VII no longer protects LGBTQ+ people from workplace discrimination. The decision directly contradicts the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 ruling inBostock v. Clayton County, which held that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is, by definition, sex discrimination. Kacsmaryk’s ruling marks one of the most alarming judicial rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights in recent memory—and sets up a direct legal challenge to one of the foundational civil rights protections for queer and trans people in the United States.
Montana Court Issues Final Blow to Anti-Trans Health Care Law
A judge found that the law’s premise is not scientific, but “political and ideological.”
A state judge in Montana has permanently struck down SB 99, a law which sought to ban gender-affirming care for Montana youth under age 18.
The court decision is a welcome reprieve for young trans Montanans, who have had the threat of forced detransition hanging over their heads since 2023. The bill would have threatened the licensure of physicians who provided trans-affirming care to this age group and prevented state funds from being used for gender-affirming surgeries, hormones, puberty blockers, and “social transitioning” measures for trans youth. It also would have allowed parents of trans kids to sue medical professionals for providing their children with the proper care.
But these kinds of laws, which are being passed around the country, are highly unscientific. They try to erase the biological reality of gender and sexual diversity to further a far-right gender ideology. As the court ruling declared, “the State’s interest is actually a political and ideological one: ensuring minors in Montana are never provided treatment to address” their gender dysphoria.
“In other words, the State’s interest is actually blocking transgender expression.”
1) The court found overwhelming evidence backing the benefits of gender-affirming care for trans people.
Israeli ministers said the settler outpost at Homesh will be retrospectively legalised (file photo from May 2023)
Israeli ministers say 22 new Jewish settlements have been approved in the occupied West Bank – the biggest expansion in decades.
Several already exist as outposts, built without government authorisation, but will now be made legal under Israeli law. Others are completely new, according to Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Settlements – which are widely seen as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this – are one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.
Katz said the move “prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”, while the Palestinian presidency called it a “dangerous escalation”.
The Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now called it “the most extensive move of its kind” in more than 30 years and warned that it would “dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further”.
BBC team’s tense encounter with sanctioned Israeli settler while filming in West Bank
Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war – they hope permanently
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for their hoped-for future state – in the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.
Successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
On Thursday, Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich – an ultranationalist leader and settler who has control over planning in the West Bank – officially confirmed a decision that is believed to have been taken by the government two weeks ago.
A statement said they had approved 22 new settlements, the “renewal of settlement in northern Samaria [northern West Bank], and reinforcement of the eastern axis of the State of Israel”.
It did not include information about the exact location of the new settlements, but maps being circulated suggest they will be across the length and width of the West Bank.
Katz and Smotrich did highlight what they described as the “historic return” to Homesh and Sa-Nur, two settlements deep in the northern West Bank which were evacuated at the same time as Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005.
Nine of the settlements would be completely new, according to the watchdog. They include Mount Ebal, just to the south of Homesh and near the city of Nablus, and Beit Horon North, west of Ramallah, where it said construction had already begun in recent days.
The last of the settlements, Nofei Prat, was currently officially considered a “neighbourhood” of another settlement near East Jerusalem, Kfar Adumim, and would now be recognised as independent, Peace Now added.
Katz said the decision was a “strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel, and serves as a buffer against our enemies.”
“This is a Zionist, security, and national response – and a clear decision on the future of the country,” he added.
Smotrich called it a “once-in-a-generation decision” and declared: “Next step sovereignty!”
But a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – who governs parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control – called it a “dangerous escalation” and accused Israel of continuing to drag the region into a “cycle of violence and instability”.
“This extremist Israeli government is trying by all means to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters news agency.
Lior Amihai, director of Peace Now, said: “The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal.”
Elisha Ben Kimon, an Israeli journalist with the popular Ynet news site who covers the West Bank and settlements, told the BBC’s Newshour programme that 70% to 80% of ministers wanted to declare the formal annexation of the West Bank.
“I think that Israel is a few steps from declaring this area as Israeli territory. They believe that this period will never be coming back, this is one opportunity that they don’t want to slip from their hands – that’s why they’re doing this now,” Mr Ben Kimon told the BBC’s Newshour programme.
Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, in a move not recognised by the vast majority of the international community.
AFP
Israeli soldiers accompanied settlers establishing the Homesh outpost in May 2023
This latest step is a blow to renewed efforts to revive momentum on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict – the internationally approved formula for peace that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel – with a French-Saudi summit planned at the UN’s headquarters in New York next month.
Jordan’s foreign ministry condemned what it called a “flagrant violation of international law” that “undermines prospects for peace by entrenching the occupation”.
UK Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer said the move was “a deliberate obstacle to Palestinian statehood”.
Since taking office, the current Israeli government has decided to establish a total of 49 new settlements and begun the legalisation process for seven unauthorised outposts which will be recognised as “neighbourhoods” of existing settlements, according to Peace Now.
Last year, the UN’s top court issued an advisory opinion that said “Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful”. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) also said Israeli settlements “have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law”, and that Israel should “evacuate all settlers”.
Netanyahu said at the time that the court had made a “decision of lies” and insisted that “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land”.
Anti-abortion and abortion rights protesters confront each other outside a Planned Parenthood office in Missouri in 2022.Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch vía AP
One might have thought that last November, when Missourians voted to enshrine “reproductive freedom,” including abortion, in the state constitution, that would be the end of the conversation. In overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, the US Supreme Court professed that the question of whether abortion should be legal was now up to states. And the people of Missouri made it very clear: They wanted abortion rights (at least until fetal viability).
Alas, the Missouri Supreme Court doesn’t seem to be inclined to listen.
Thanks to the passage of Amendment 3, Missouri’s criminal abortion ban is gone. But local Planned Parenthood affiliates are still fighting in court to overturn the web of restrictions, known as TRAP laws, that made providing abortions virtually impossible in the state even when Roe was the law of the land. These include a 72-hour waiting period, hallway width requirements for abortion clinics, and a rule that providers must have admitting privileges at a hospital 15 minutes away, to name just a few. In a pair of decisions in December and February, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang agreed to temporarily suspend enough of those old laws to allow abortions to resume in Missouri while the court case heads to a January 2026 trial.
But on Tuesday, the state supreme court overturned Zhang’s rulings, ordering her to reconsider the temporary block on the TRAP laws using a different legal standard. As a result, abortion providers have once again been forced to halt their work, rendering the constitutional right to abortion effectively moot, for now. For the second time since 2022, abortion clinics had to call pregnant people this week to let them know their scheduled abortions had been canceled, the Associated Pressreported.
“This decision puts our state back under a de facto abortion ban and is devastating for Missourians and the providers they trust with their personal health care decisions,” Emily Wales and Margot Riphagen, leaders of the two Planned Parenthood affiliates that operate in Missouri, said in a joint statement. “We will continue to fight for their freedom to the constitutionally protected health care they voted for.”
Planned Parenthood lawyers have already filed a brief asking Zhang to re-issue her preliminary injunction under the new standard and block the TRAP laws again. But even if Zhang agrees, and abortions do resume again in Missouri in a few weeks—or after a January 2026 trial—abortion rights in the state will remain far from settled.
That’s because, two weeks ago, Missouri lawmakers voted to put yet another constitutional amendment on the ballot—this one repealing the reproductive freedom amendment and banning virtually all abortions. Voters will see that question on their November 2026 ballots—or sooner, if Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe decides to call a special election.
PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!
“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.
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May 30, 1868 Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, was first observed some say [see May 1, 1865] when two women in Columbus, Mississippi, placed flowers on the graves of Civil War soldiers, both Confederate and Union. War widow Augusta Murdoch Sykes, one of the Columbus planners, pointed out that “after all, they are somebody’s sons.” It is now celebrated to honor all those who have died in America’s wars. “The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country….” -from an order from the Grand Army of the Republic ========================================================= May 30, 1937 1000 striking steel workers (and members of their families), on their way to picket at the Republic Steel plant in south Chicago where they were organizing a union, were stopped by the Chicago Police. In what became known as the “Memorial Day Massacre,” police shot and killed 10 fleeing workers, wounded 30 more, and beat 55 so badly they required hospitalization. More on the incident Watch a video of oral history with historic footage
(Both important stories. Of course, language alert, but definitely good reading here. -A)
Queer History 124: Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West by Wendy🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🌈
How an aristocratic garden-loving poet inspired the 20th century’s most experimental “love letter” ….. Read on Substack
When Virginia Woolf first met Vita Sackville-West at a dinner party in 1922, neither woman could have possibly predicted that their relationship would produce one of the most revolutionary novels of the 20th century. On the surface, they seemed like complete opposites: Virginia—brilliant, fragile, middle-class, and sexually timid; Vita—aristocratic, confident, adventurous, and sexually voracious. Yet their decade-long affair transcended a simple romance to become one of the most creatively fertile partnerships in literary history, producing a groundbreaking gender-bending masterpiece that still feels radical nearly a century later.
Let’s cut through the academic bullshit that often sanitizes their relationship and explore what really happened between these remarkable women. Their letters reveal a passionate connection that was intellectual, emotional, and unmistakably physical. “I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia,” Vita wrote in one letter. Not exactly the chaste “friendship” that some literary historians tried to paint it as for decades. Their affair challenged the conventions of their time, their social circles, and ultimately, the very form of the novel itself.
The Women Behind the Legend: Who They Really Were
(snip-More; it’s really good!)
Queer History 125: The Raw, Unfiltered History of Sapphic and Platonic Queer Cultures by Wendy🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🌈 Read on Substack
The Goddamn Poetry of Desire: An Introduction
The ancient world was no fucking stranger to same-sex love. While modern society often frames homosexuality as a contemporary phenomenon—something that emerged from the shadows of the closet into the damn light of day during the liberation movements of the 20th century—the historical record tells a far more complex and fascinating story. Long before we had Pride parades and marriage equality, we had Sappho of Lesbos and Plato of Athens, two figures whose works and philosophies have profoundly shaped how we understand same-sex desire.
Sappho Lesbos
The rocky shores of Lesbos and the philosophical gardens of Athens—separated by the azure waters of the Aegean—gave birth to two distinct yet equally significant homosexual cultural traditions that continue to echo through the halls of queer history. These traditions, one centered on the passionate lyrical expressions of a woman poet, and the other on the philosophical musings of a male thinker, offer us a window into the complex ways same-sex desire was articulated, celebrated, and sometimes condemned in ancient Greek society.
Standing on the windswept cliffs of Lesbos, one can almost hear the lyrical whispers of Sappho’s poetry carried on the salt-laden breeze—fragments of desire that have survived over two and a half millennia. Meanwhile, in the once-bustling agora of Athens, the philosophical dialogues of Plato still reverberate, offering a theoretical framework for understanding male same-sex love that has influenced Western thought for centuries.
This analysis isn’t just about ancient history—it’s about the living, breathing legacy of these traditions and how they’ve been twisted, reimagined, and reclaimed through the bloody centuries. It’s about the raw power of words to shape how we understand our deepest desires and most intimate connections. It’s about the tension between poetic expression and philosophical reasoning in articulating the ineffable experiences of love and longing.
So let’s cut through the academic bullshit and get to the heart of the matter. Let’s explore the goddamn fascinating parallels and divergences between these two seminal traditions—one rooted in the fragmented verses of a woman whose very name has become synonymous with female homosexuality, and the other in the philosophical dialogues of a man whose ideas about love between men have shaped Western thought for millennia.
The Lyrical Fucking Fire: Sappho and Her Sacred Circle
On the sun-drenched isle of Lesbos, around 630-570 BCE, Sappho created a world of women that would reverberate through time like a pebble dropped in still water, its ripples still touching distant shores millennia later. The island’s rugged landscapes and azure waters formed the sensuous backdrop to her life and work—a physical paradise that mirrored the emotional and erotic paradise she created in her verses. (snip-More important history)
Palantir employees, including CEO Alex Karp, made millions in campaign donations in 2024. In April, the company won a $30 million contract to develop software to help ICE manage deportations. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In early April, hundreds of military and tech companies exhibited their products at the Border Security Expo, which brought “government leaders, law enforcement officials, and industry innovators” together. During the two-day event in Phoenix, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said he would like ICE to operate more like a business: “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.” He added that “the badge and guns” should do “the badge-and-gun stuff, everything else, let’s contract out.”
The event illustrates how companies are rushing to secure government contracts as the Trump administration ramps up its spending on ICE to reach its deportation goals. The House approved a spending bill in early May that sets aside $175 billion for immigration enforcement – about 22 times ICE’s annual budget – and includes $45 billion for detention, $14.4 billion for transportation and removal operations and $8 billion for hiring new ICE staff. The Trump administration ordered DHS to hire an additional 20,000 ICE officers.
OpenSecrets previously reported on the private prisons and air carriers that are poised to benefit from President Donald Trump’s plans to increase deportation. This final article in the series focuses on other for-profit companies benefiting from deportations.
New contracts
In April, ICE awarded software company Palantir Technologies a $29.8 millioncontract for developing ImmigrationOS, a tool to help ICE with identifying and prioritizing the deportations of individuals who are considered a risk, such as violent criminals; tracking who is self-deporting; and managing cases from the individual’s entry through detention, hearing and deportation. Palantir is expected to provide a prototype of the ImmigrationOS tool by Sept. 25. The tool is an extension of systems that Palantir has already delivered as part of its almost $128 million contract signed in 2022.
Deployed Resources, an emergency management company that has provided mobile restrooms, sinks and tents to music festivals such as Lollapalooza and emergency relief following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Sandy, has been awarded over $4 billion in government contracts to build and operate border tents since 2016, according to ProPublica. The company earned a $3 billion contract with ICE in 2022 for running tent detention facilities around the border. On April 11, ProPublica reported that ICE awarded a new contract worth up to $3.8 billion to Deployed Resources. On April 17, however, the billion-dollar contract was canceled for reasons unknown. The next day, ICE submitted a $5 million proposal for Deployed Resources to deliver unarmed guard services for 30 days at an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas. ProPublica also revealed that ICE has housed detainees at a tent facility in El Paso operated by Deployed Resources since March. The facility was previously used by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but the Trump administration used the Department of Defense to award Deployed Resources an unannounced $140 million contract to run the site for ICE, citing the declaration of an emergency at the southern border. The facility can house up to 1,000 detainees, and ICE started transferring detainees on March 10, according to ProPublica.
Axon Enterprise, a company that develops technology and weapons for public safety, law enforcement and the military, took part in the Border Expo. The company was awarded a year-long $5.1 million contract on March 10 to deliver body cams and equipment. A day later, the company was awarded a $22,376 contract to deliver tasers that have been used specifically in deportations. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division bought $2.6 million worth of Axon tasers in 2020 and 2021.
Parsons Government Services, a “technology provider,” was also at the Border Expo. The company was awarded a contract worth up to $8.9 million for COVID-19 testing supplies in February, as well as an $87,467 contract in March and a $118,758 contract in April with ICE, both to provide “mobile biometric collection devices in support of the biometric identification transnational migration alert program.” The company is already wrapping up a one-year, $4.2 million contract for the transportation and guard services of ICE detainees in Newark.
General Dynamics, a weapons company, was awarded new $101,034 and $80,050 contracts in March to purchase non-lethal ammunition for training purposes for ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs.
Sig Sauer Inc., a firearms company, was awarded more than $200,000 worth of contracts with ICE for firearms and firearm accessories in the first months of 2025: $57,163 in February, and $19,824, $35,106 and $90,854 contracts in April.
Paragon Professional Services, was awarded a $1.1 million contract on April 1 for transporting people who are detained by ICE in the New York City area and a $458,400 month-long contract to provide transportation of ICE detainees in Baltimore on April 17.
Follow the money
Palantir spent $5.8 million on lobbying the federal government in 2024. The company’s employees also made almost $5 million in campaign contributions during the 2024 elections. The largest contributions included $1 million to Make America Great Again Inc, $1 million to MAGA Inc and $344,914 to the Republican National Committee. Palantir’s CEO, Alexander Karp, contributed to Democratic as well as Republican candidates during the 2024 elections. In 2023, Karp contributed $163,800 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $154,920 to their Republican counterparts. Karp increased his contributions to the Republican Party after Trump was elected: On Dec. 12, 2024, Karp contributed $1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-supporting super PAC. In the first months of 2025, Karp contributed $360,000 to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) Grow the Majority PAC and a combined $310,100 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Palantir also spent $170,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025.
Even though the company has no lobbying history, Deployed Resources has hired more than a dozen former government insiders, according to ProPublica, including some high-ranking ICE officials. Marlen Pineiro joined Deployed recently, after working for the Department of Homeland Security in Central America developing policies with Panama, and a decade as a senior official at ICE, according to her LinkedIn profile. A month after Trump’s victory, former ICE field office director Sean Ervin announced he was joining Deployed Resources as a senior adviser for strategic initiatives.
Axon Enterprise contributed to both the Democratic and Republican parties. The CEO, Patrick Smith, donated $25,000 to the Scalise Leadership Fund of 2024, a joint fundraising committee run by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). James Norton, the vice president of the company, contributed several thousand dollars to Republicans in the past two years. Axon Enterprise spent $1.5 million on lobbying in 2024 and $510,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a $180,000 increase compared to Q1 2024. One of Axon’s lobbyists, Helen Tolar, also served as a transition advisor to Doug Collins, Trump’s secretary of veterans affairs.
Employees and PACs related to Parsons Government Services’ mother corporation, Parsons Corporation, contributed $592,053 in the 2024 elections, with $27,715 to Kamala Harris and $13,076 to Donald Trump. The company spent $950,000 on lobbying in 2024, mostly on defense issues. In the first quarter of 2025, the company ramped up its lobbying to $590,000, a $370,000 increase from the same quarter in 2024. Parsons Corporation has its own PAC, which spent $247,600 on Republican federal candidates in the 2024 elections, and $151,250 on Democratic candidates.
Sig Sauer Inc.’s PAC contributed $87,715 in the 2024 elections, mostly to Republican candidates. The company’s CEO, Ron Cohen, contributed $25,000 in 2024 to Preserve America, a super PAC supporting Donald Trump. The company spent $530,000 on lobbying in 2024 and $260,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a $180,000 increase from the first quarter in 2024. It did not lobby on specific bills in 2024.
General Dynamics contributed $3.4 million in the election, both to Republicans as well as Democrats. The company also spent $12.2 million on lobbying in 2024, mostly regarding defense issues. It spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025, a $340,000 increase from the previous year.
Paragon Professional Services LLC is a subsidiary of Bering Straits Assn., which contributed $15,305 in the 2024 elections, both on Democratic as well as Republican candidates. The company lobbied to the tune of $280,000 in 2024, mostly on the Coast Guard Authorization Act and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. It has spent $60,000 on lobbying in 2025 so far. CEO Gail Schubert spent several thousand dollars on Republican candidates in Alaska.
Why does it matter?
(snip-It Matters! MORE on the page; click through above on the article headline.)
So I read all the advice on my stepper work out post. I did listen … sort of. I wish right now I had listened to the advice better. Several people said to do 2 minutes and then 12 hours later or the next day to do 2 minutes more.
Today was the day I wanted to do legs, tomorrow will be arms with light weights, as Sunday is the day for heavy ones. So I did two minutes like people advised. I waited 30 minutes and did not feel any issues, so I did another 2 minutes. Then I sat down at my desk and sharpened the house knives. It took a while. Then I made supper in the deep frier of breaded chicken strips and french fries. By the time I got halfway through frying the food, I was struggling to bend my legs as my thighs felt like tree trunks. I did not tell Ron as I put the food away and came into my office. I had already taken my evening morphines, muscle relaxers, and 800 mg Ibuprofen. And my legs still hurt. They ache.
I am sitting at my desk and my legs feel like they can’t fit inside my pant legs. As I sit they are better bent as if I stretch them out it hurts more.
Ok I goofed, you all can say I told you so. I thought since the first two minutes did not seem to cause pain I could do another 2 minutes. I know it was suggested at least 12 hours before doing more. I can clearly see I will have to do that at least if not wait longer. I guess I want to get healthier faster and I can see there is not going to be a shortcut with this. This is going to take far longer than even I had thought it would.
So I will wait two days, then do 2 minutes on the stepper then put it away for the next couple of days. Then do two more minutes. As several said and Ten Bears reminded me he had advised me about before, this is a slow process that I can not make go at the speed I would wish it to. Not and do it correctly and keep from being in pain. I just took a 15 mg instant morphine my legs hurt so bad. Ok I fucked up … again. But I just wanted my leg muscles to fill out again so I can walk and do stuff. Hugs
The funniest thing of all time has happened, you can stop looking for funny things. Ageless wonder hack Chris Cillizza has taken to the pages of the Daily Beast to bemoan the brutal recent vandalism committed against his precious Tesla and the concomitant decline and fall of American civility it demonstrates.
Can’t we all just get along? And why we gotta make everything about politics? That’s what Cillizza wants to know. It’s not like one of the major parties is virtually indistinguishable from the Nazis at this point, oh wait, yes it is.
Let’s read this together.
Cutting right to the business, Cillizza says he came out to his car after his son’s soccer game in Virginia this week, and found that the Tesla Model 3 had been windows smashedspray-painted with swastikaskeyedeggedset on fire violently stickered. He produced a picture of the sticker, TRIGGER WARNING for it’s a sticker:
Sticker. It says ‘Musk is a Nazi.’
We are surprised the sticker hooligan didn’t include a piece of candy, just to let people know they were a peaceful sticker hooligan. Maybe a homemade Rice Krispie treat. Cillizza still decided to write a full column about the nonetheless painful incident.
You see, when Cillizza bought his Tesla Model 3 during the first Trump administration, he didn’t buy it to say he was a gay liberal climate change affirmer, which is what Tesla meant then. He bought it because it made him feel cool.
Likewise, when he drives his Tesla around now, he doesn’t drive it to say hey, I love Elon Musk and Donald Trump and being a Nazi! He drives it because it makes him feel cool.
When he first bought his Tesla, he was worried a “bro” was going to key it — you know how the “bros” are — or maybe set a charging station on fire!
And now? Libs with stickers!
To me, the vandalism speaks to the idiocy of trying to make everything political. Five or six years ago, my Tesla symbolized everything MAGA world hated. But now it symbolizes everything the left hates?
Things, how do they change! No, he literally means how do they change, because he doesn’t understand:
Doesn’t that suggest that there’s an inherent ephemeralness to what an inanimate object “means” in a political context? If the meaning of owning a certain kind of car can change 180 degrees in the space of a single administration, give or take, isn’t it possible that ascribing meaning to it in the first place was misguided?
How can Chris Cillizza’s Tesla go from being very cool to being a Nazi mating signal in just one presidential administration? Doesn’t that mean giving meanings to things is wrong?
All of these would be good questions if the answers weren’t so mindfuckingly simple, or if everything existed in a vacuum.
One more example: Anytime I post about going to eat at Chick-Fil-A, I get a few comments of this sort: How does HATE taste????
Ooh, we bet he eats Chick-Fil-A in his Tesla too. Wonder how HATE tastes inside SWASTICARS.
Probably tastes like chicken.
But does a sandwich have to be political?
Well, we don’t imagine all sandwiches have to be political, just like all cars don’t have to be political. If you’re eating Popeye’s in your RAV4, we doubt anybody is going to pull up next to you and shout “Sieg heil, queer-hater!”
At least not without some other context for the story that we don’t know.
But that’s the thing here, isn’t it? Chris Cillizza wants to be able to make whatever choices he wants to make, devoid of context, and also devoid of any kind of public criticism. Because freedom for conservative white men in America is defined as “I get to do anything I want, without consequences, and without ever being criticized.”
I didn’t eat it because I wanted to send a message to gay people. I ate it because it was delicious.
Yes, yes, we get it, it’s fine.
I know there are plenty of people out there who will argue some version of this: By eating the sandwich or buying the Tesla, you are lining the pockets of people with views that should be rejected. You are—in the parlance of the times—“normalizing” them and their views.
Yes, we know, and he just wants to eat the sandwich in the car that makes him feel cool, without even having to think about gay-bashing or the people who are murdering starving and sick babies in Africa by destroying the federal government.
He acts like he’s the first one who’s ever discovered this concept:
To this I would say two things:
I am pretty sure Elon Musk and Chick-Fil-A are going to be just fine whether or not I own a Tesla or buy a #1 meal.
If your bar is that you never interact with or buy anything from a company whose founder has taken a position with which you disagree or which has donated to a cause you don’t support, I find it very hard to believe you are going to make any purchases ever. Breaking news: Giant corporations tend to do what makes them the most money, not always what’s “right.”
Yeah, he’s probably right about the Chick-Fil-A. However, Tesla — the car company, not Elon Musk the man — is really hurting right now. Sales are down 87 percent in Quebec. Sales are down 49 percent in Europe. New headlines like that come out every week. And they’re not going away, even as Elon allegedly prepares to “leave” the government, as the excitable and impressionable New York Timesis telling us today.
The #TeslaTakedown isn’t going anywhere. That car has become synonymous with Nazis, with incels, with the self-inflicted destruction of the US government, with firing veterans, with hurting immigrants, with every vile and terrible thing Elon and his boss Stupid Hitler have done to America without its consent since January 20.
That’s gonna stick, and it’s gonna stick forever. The #TeslaTakedown is here to stay. In 50 years people are going to be violently taking magic marker to sticker and writing “Elon Musk is a Nazi” and putting it on whatever godawfully ugly shit cars the company is making then, assuming it still exists, and it might not at this rate.
As for his second thing, yes, we know that policing every purchase for the ideological associations of its manufacturer is pretty impossible. Cillizza seems to believe that, such being the case, no manufacturer should ever reap the consequences of their political behavior or that of their South African apartheid scumbag CEO.
We disagree!
Not everything has to be political. You can buy a car because it’s fun to drive without sending some deep signal about where you stand in politics.
Not a Tesla you can’t.
You can eat a sandwich because it’s delicious, not because you have an anti-gay agenda.
He’s really worried somebody is going to put a sticker on his sandwich.
The obsession with making every little bit of our lives into a political statement is, I think, making us all crazy. And driving us further from any sort of recognition of our common humanity.
That’s the end of it. Please note that in the entire column he only produced two (2) examples of this phenomenon that he describes as “making every little bit of our lives into a political statement.” It sounds more to us like he has two (2) favorite products that make his dick hard without any pharmaceutical intervention, and one of them is a sandwich and one of them is a car, and people keep saying things to him about it.
It would be different if he could have labored to come up with even a third thing. (Three things is a pattern, that’s the rule in journalism, idiots.) If he could even muster up a “And then they said I love slavery because I bought the wrong crock pot!” it might be slightly more convincing. Slightly.
But really, to support “every little bit of our lives,” we’re gonna need more than three.
But that would require Chris Cillizza to put in some effort, and we have never seen evidence that he’s willing or capable in that regard.
So, in summary and in conclusion, wank wank wank wank fuck off, Chris Cillizza can take his Tesla through a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru in hell, we don’t give a care, how’s that for common humanity?
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