It was never about protecting women
Wes Streeting Apologises for Deadly Puberty Blocker Ban (Does Nothing to Fix It)
What does it mean to be free?
Good Morning Everyone, and Happy Easter! I recently had the opportunity to listen to an interview with the President of Wesleyan University. He spoke on something that grabbed my attention: See, as a listener in this interview I was a bit surprised by the willingness of this man, as a representative of the University, would be willing to be critical of the Drumpf Administration – especially right now as drumpf seems to be driving head long into the abyss of Fascism and Authoritarianism, and he was asked of that. I have to admit, I feel a bit of concern as I write what I write, knowing that I don’t have the power to contradict an arrest, imprisonment, deportation to a foreign land all because the ‘power of the moment’ doesn’t like what I say. How much more is this man in jeapardy, and so as the interviewer’s question sparked my own concerns and therein my attention, I was awarded this statement (para): “It says a lot that you would ask me that question. I mean, where are we?”.
It is striking to me that we are hearkening back to the age of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, only to find that the Red Scare is not Russia and Communism – in fact, they seem to be quite the fan of our current administration and our current administration is absolutely fawning at the feet of them! No, the fear of our administration is that people be treated with dignity, given their Constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms. And, to say to us that believe the Bill of Rights are sacrosanct that we must be treasonous if we demand our people be given those rights and freedoms flies in the face of our Forefathers who fought and died to provide us that freedom – from the contemporaries of Paul Revere and George Washington to the ones we see marching on Veteran’s Day.
Below is a video because I like to give a bit of entertainment along with my clanging sentences of woe and worry. Within are these lines:
‘And the young people ask, “what are they marching for?”, and I ask myself the same question. The old men still answer the call, but as year follows year, more old men disappear. Someday no one will march there at all”
It startles me how quickly we have forgotten. It saddens me the cost of our remiss.
Hugs. -randy
Sundays cartoon / meme / news items. Sorry I did not realize the post was this big.
https://x.com/NewsHour/status/1901420214887096815
https://x.com/StephenHegg/status/1911579021537845759
https://x.com/TexasTribune/status/1912501233690026183
I do not know if this on below is true, but it hurts me greatly. I read on MS of poor souls who grew up in the 1950s that had their dad’s farm them out for sex to pay debts. Sadly it is happening even today. Kids being used as currency using their bodies as a way for their parents to survive or for them on the street to survive. It makes me cry. Hugs
https://x.com/M_Simonyan/status/1912484008748888572
Facts matter:
Here’s what we KNOW. The seven biological karyotype sexes that do not result in death to the fetus are:
X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people.
XX – Most common form of female.
XXY or XXX – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people.
XY – Most common form of male.
XYY – Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people.
XXXY – Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births.
When you consider that there are over 7 billion people alive on the planet, there are almost assuredly tens of millions of people who are neither male (XY) nor female (XX).
This is why people look down on you for being stupid when you open your mouth with this “only two sexes” nonsense.
And this is just the genetics of it, gender is a social role construct.
Soooo, just the mere presence of tattoos is grounds for no due process and immediate kidnapping to foreign jail for prison sentence administered by a dictator?
Paging Pete Hegseth!
Worse than Nazis.
This administration delights in being evil and that is just beyond sick.
The malignant narcissism has destroyed the Right. All their values are inverted.
Never coming back to see his children? For what crime? What sentence? Why does Supreme Court ruling not matter? Why deport to a supermax prison if there is no crime/sentence?
https://liberalsarecool.com/post/781185588875395072/worse-than-nazis-this-administration-delights-in
This quote is from a few years ago.
Turd Cruz represents all that is weak and cowardly in the Right Wing.
Rules for Democrats, but no rules for himself.
When it comes to walking the walk, Rafael does a First Felon and betrays all.
https://liberalsarecool.com/post/781082754599337984/this-quote-is-from-a-few-years-ago-turd-cruz
Guess which is someone tRump fought to get into the US and which one he is fighting to keep out.
Peace & Justice History for 4/20
April 20, 1853 Harriet Tubman began her Underground Railroad, a network of people and places that aided in the escape of slaves to the north. Story of a liberator of her people from bondage  Harriet Tubman |
| April 20, 1914 Troops from the Colorado state militia attacked strikers, killing 25 (half women and children), at Ludlow.  Having struck the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Company the previous September for improved conditions, better wages, and union recognition, the workers established a tent camp which was fired upon and ultimately torched during a 14-hour siege. The Ludlow Massacre |
| April 20, 1964 In his closing statement at the Rivonia Trial, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela addressed the court: “We want a just share in the whole of South Africa . . . We want security and a stake in society. Above all, my lord, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent.” He was in Pretoria Supreme Court in South Africa where he and eight co-defendants were charged with 221 acts of sabotage designed to “ferment violent revolution,” and were facing the death penalty. At the time, black South Africans had no civil or political rights whatsoever, though they composed over 80% of the population. He concluded: “During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. “ I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live and to see realised. But, my lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”  Mandela in 1958 The trial that changed South Africa |
| April 20, 1969 On the site of a parking lot owned by the University of California, Berkeley, a diverse group of people came together, each freely contributing their skills and resources to create People’s Park.  People’s Park history |
| April 20, 1982 Seven women were arrested in an anti-nuclear protest outside Mather Air Force Base, near Sacramento, California, in what had become a weekly vigil. Speaking after her arrest, Barbara Weidner, 72, said, “As a mother and grandmother, I could no longer remain silent as our world rushes on its collision course with disaster which threatens the lives and futures of all children, everywhere, and the future of this beautiful planet itself.” She later said, “I hope people will not think we are encouraging people to break the law,” she said. “But our actions should teach people, and children, to scrutinize laws against human life, and they should be broken to prove a point.” |
| April 20, 2002 More than 75,000 marched in Washington, D.C. to protest U.S. policies in the Middle East, specifically regarding Palestine and the threatened war in Iraq. The demonstration was organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) and included members of the Arab-American, Muslim and South Asian communities.  |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april20
Supreme Cartoons
Justices Alito and Thomas never disappoint by Ann Telnaes
The Supreme Court temporarily block Trump’s unlawful deportations Read on Substack
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/18/supreme-court-aclu-venezuela
======================
He Has Risen by Clay Jones
So maybe don’t fuck with him Read on Substack
At 1 a.m. today, the Supreme Court paused the deportation of immigrants who are subject Donald Trump’s abuse of the Alien Enemies Act (a measure that’s only supposed to be used during an invasion or times of war), just as the Trump regime was on the verge of flying a group of Venezuelans from Texas to El Salvador to rot in that nation’s hellhole of a prison.
Breaking news at 1 a.m. is usually about an explosion, an invasion, a tsunami, a tweet from Trump containing an incomprehensible new word, but rarely a Supreme Court ruling.
SCOTUS had previously told the regime that it’d be OK if they used the illegal Alien Enemies Act, just so long as each immigrant (and maybe US citizen) received due process first. The regime apparently ignored that last part about due process and was about to go all-skippy with deporting more Venezuelans.
The court ordered the Trump administration to respond to the emergency appeal once a federal appeals court in Louisiana takes action in the case. The court said, “The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court.” That means the regime will probably go ahead and do it.
SCOTUS did not explain the ruling, maybe because it was 1 a.m. and a rumor started that Denny’s was about to close, and Sotomayor is a real grouch if she doesn’t get her Moons Over My Hammy.
But we probably don’t need an explanation for why the only two dissenters were (be ready to be surprised) Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito (OK, that wasn’t surprising).
Why would those two oppose delaying the deportation of immigrants without due process and support the regime violating the last order from SCOTUS? There are several possible reasons, and I’m sure none of them are good.
The first reason could, they’re fascist goons.
The second one could be that they just don’t give a shit about the Constitution and know this is the side they’re supposed to be on.
The third reason could be that they don’t care what the issue is and all they need is to be pointed in the direction Trump’s going, and they will follow.
The fourth reason could be that it’s booty night, Clarence doesn’t want to upset Ginny Thomas, and Samuel is hoping Mrs. Alito will help raise his flag.
The fifth reason could be that they’re both corrupt and were bought off to vote this way.
Even Trump’s justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, voted for this delay.
These guys would deport Jesus, especially since he’s not a blue-eyed blonde like White Christians make him out to be.
This part of the blog is short because I want to clean my apartment before I fly to Chicago on Monday. I like coming home to a clean apartment.
I have a beef, and it’s not the Italian beef sandwich I’m planning to try in Chicago: I may be starting a fight I don’t want to fight, but dammit. Somebody has to.
A caption contest is where a cartoonist draws a cartoon, but doesn’t finish writing it. He creates an image and leaves a blank speech bubble/balloon. He then invites the readers to fill in the bubble and makes a contest out of it. It’s fun for the readers, gets them to engage with the cartoonist and the publication, and brings more hits and views to the publication’s website. I always felt it was a cheap way to make readers come back to look at other same page, and I openly admitted that when I did a caption contest for The Free Lance-Star. I hated the caption contest, but knew my readers loved it and my editors liked the views. I don’t see anything wrong ethically with the caption contest because I don’t see it as political cartooning. I saw it as a newspaper feature similar to the crossword puzzle, the jumble, or today’s Wordle. I’ll occasionally bump into a reader who’ll bring up the caption contest…that I hated.
My friend Walt Handelsman is doing a caption contest, and he does it well.
I saw something similar last night that’s kinda similar to the caption contest, but it’s entirely unethical, diminishes political cartooning, lazy, and is screwing readers over.
This is what I saw, and it’s by Daryl Cagle, who operates the largest syndication company for political cartoons.
If this were just a game for his website, I’d think nothing of it, but it’s not a game.
Daryl is shopping for his reader to write his ideas, and then he plans to sell them. If he does manage to sell them, they won’t be next to a crossword puzzle, but on the opinion page. It’s not like editors will care if they suck, and they will. And if he sells them, he’s not sharing the money with the person who wrote the idea. They’ll just get an “attribution.”
Remember my blog about why I don’t use cartoon ideas I didn’t write? The reason boils down to ethics, which Daryl doesn’t have. Even though I might be the goofiest guy in this industry, I take this industry seriously. I care about my work. Obviously, Daryl doesn’t care about his. He once drew two versions of a cartoon, one version from the Right and the other from the Left. It was a total hack job. He doesn’t care.
I commented on Daryl’s Facebook page, telling him to write his own cartoons. He replied, “According to the Pulitzer people, we’re all just illustrators now, Clay.” That’s pretty much true as the Pulitzers have taken away the contest category for political cartoons and combined it with “illustrated reporting” or some shit like that, but I wasn’t going to let Daryl use it as an excuse.
I replied to Dayl’s reply, saying, “Then why are you helping the Pulitzers diminish us? You already used the anonymous cartoonist to tell editors and publishers that we’re not journalists.
Most political cartoonists have too much integrity to take ideas submitted by readers, and here you are shopping for them. Do you not care about your work? If you don’t want to be a political cartoonist, then get out of the political cartoon business.
And then on top of all that, you’re not going to pay the person who writes the cartoon you’re going to sell.”
Daryl previously syndicated an anonymous cartoonist who signed his work as Rivers. Rivers is a lying racist idiot MAGAt in Canada (that was a secret too). By syndicating Rivers, Daryl was telling editors and publishers that political cartoons didn’t have to abide by their ethics policies, thus cartoonists aren’t journalists anymore. That’s a weird position for a cartoonist to take. Even letters to the editor must be signed. When asked to justify this a couple of years ago, Daryl replied to me, “I don’t see a problem with this,” which wasn’t answering the question.
I first met Daryl in 1997 when I was in Hawaii. He flew out and bought me a burrito. I liked him. He’s a nice guy personally, and I thought at the time with his website, that he was a huge advocate for our entire industry, but over the years, he started doing shit like this, shit I can’t remain silent about. Other cartoonists have told me to shut up and not make noise, but you know I’m not good at that. I’m a noisy motherfucker. I rock a Gibson. And then others send me private messages encouraging me on, but won’t add their voices to my one-man protest. Those cartoonists are smarter than I am.
I would rather support other cartoonists than criticize them. I try to make any criticism about the message in it, like if it’s lying or racist, never just because I think it sucks. I don’t want to go after Daryl, but here I am.
Daryl could come after all my clients and try to chase me out of the business, but there’s no sign he’s ever tried that, though I have lost newspapers to his syndicate, which sells dozens of cartoons in one package for a flat fee. It’s hard to compete against that. Once, every cartoonist could submit to USA Today, but then Daryl made a deal with Gannett that shut out every cartoonist from their entire chain except for his cartoonists. Now, Gannett doesn’t publish political cartoons at all.
But he can’t come after my Substack. To all you paid subscribers, this is one of the things you’re helping me fight, and you’re giving me more freedom to speak out. So I thank you again.
I’m going to open the comments today to be fair, to give Daryl a chance to respond to this. I don’t think he will, but I’m trying to be fair.
I’m not going to fight a war or carry a torch for this. I’m going to move on and focus on my work, but somebody had to say something. I’ll end this with one more message to Daryl: Write your own fucking cartoons.
Creative note: I already did one Easter cartoon, which has a higher chance of being published than this one. I wanted to do something like this cartoon just to rouse up the conservatives on Easter Sunday. It’s so much better than the he-has-risen bullshit from the fake Christians like Gary Varvel.
Music note: I listened to Live.
Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see it)
A Multi-Post
of some stuff I ran across yesterday.
Let’s All Watch Liz Warren Tariffsplain To Inattentive Dunderhead On CNBC by Rebecca Schoenkopf
Ma’am, you need to use your listening skills. Read on Substack
Snippet-go read this, the videos are delightful- Sen. Prof. Warren remains outstanding!
Professor Senator Elizabeth Warren stopped by CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Friday for some chattin’ and some rantin’ and some tarriffsplainin’ for the benefit of the show’s blow-dried hosts. We don’t normally watch financial news shows, because what are we, the Vanderbilts? But put Warren on anytime, and we’ll consider tuning in more. She can be entertaining!
Especially if your anchor isn’t following her argument, which sends her into her professorial did-you-not-do-the-reading voice. Which is what happened to Sara Eisen, who must have thought for one moment that she was back at the Medill School and had skipped that week’s assignment. (snip)
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Not to pick up the is-it-blue-or-green thing again, but-
Scientists Learned How to Trick Our Eyes Into Seeing an Entirely New Color
By stimulating thousands of individual cone cells, researchers made volunteers see a blue-green color of “unprecedented saturation.”
By Ed Cara Published April 18, 2025
Black Mirror, eat your heart out. Researchers have apparently just figured out how to make people see a color completely new to humanity.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley conducted the research, published Friday in Science Advances. Using a technique called Oz, the research team induced human volunteers into seeing a color beyond the “natural human gamut.” Oz could allow scientists to conduct experiments previously not possible before, the authors say, and the lessons we learn from it might even someday help color-blind people regain their missing color vision.
Our retinas contain certain photoreceptive cells, known as cones, that allow us to see color. There are three cone types that correspond to different wavelengths of light: short-wavelength (S) cones, medium-wavelength (M) cones, and long-wavelength (L) cones.
Typically, when we try to reproduce color in front of someone’s eyes, we do so by manipulating the spectrum of light seen by the retina’s cones. But since some of our cones, particularly M cones, share overlap in how they respond to certain wavelengths, there are theoretically colors out there that our eyes can never truly see. The UC Berkeley researchers, based on their earlier work studying cone cells, say they’ve found a way around this limitation. (snip)
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South Africa’s Ambitious Renewable Energy Masterplan involves Solar Manufacturing
The Conversation 04/19/2025
By Ricardo Amansure, Stellenbosch University
(The Conversation) – About 85% of South Africa’s electricity is produced by burning coal. The country’s move to renewable energy means that the coal industry will be phased out. To this end, the South African cabinet recently approved the country’s first renewable energy masterplan, which sets out what’s needed to establish new renewable energy industries. Ricardo Amansure of the Centre for Sustainability Transitions researches the move towards renewable energy and how communities can benefit from this. He explains what the masterplan aims to achieve, what problems it might face, and how it can succeed.
What is the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan?
It is an industrial strategy that sets out how South Africa can set up a new manufacturing industry in renewable energy and battery storage value chains.
The masterplan was developed by the government, some sections of organised labour, a non-profit organisation advocating for renewable energy, and representatives of the renewable energy industries. It sets out a framework to produce renewable technologies locally. These include solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and batteries.
The masterplan has been drawn up so that it aligns with South Africa’s existing national target of adding 3–5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity each year to 2030. This is a scale that can support the development of local manufacturing hubs. (One gigawatt can supply electricity to about 700,000 average homes.) This steady supply will be enough to give businesses and investors the confidence to commit to long-term investments in local manufacturing hubs. These are zones where renewable systems and components are produced or assembled for domestic and export markets.
The state-owned electricity company, Eskom, has not directly guaranteed that it will buy 3-5 gigawatts of renewable energy each year. But the government’s national electricity plan (the Integrated Resource Plan) provides a strong indication of future demand. (snip)
Scottie's Playtime 