lofty but impractical

they perform as well as expensive HEPA air cleaners, and are comparatively VERY inexpensive. all you need is a box fan, 4 air filters, a piece of cardboard, and some duct tape!!!!

The medieval peasant I went back in time to give a bag of Doritos to, concerned: what terrible and powerful sorcerers they must have in your age, to be able to veil the vault of heaven itself from view, as you say

Me, sniffling: I didn’t realize, I can’t, it’s so much, I, I… are the chips good, at least?

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says that Renee Good, the mom shot dead in the face in Milwaukee by ICE agent Jonathan Ross was a “domestic terrorist.” Noem argued that Good tried to run Ross over with her car on Jan. 7 during an ICE operation.

Video says otherwise. For starters, it is the ICE agents that look like terrorists. They wear masks and brandish weapons to terrorize the population. While the video does not show Good, it does show her vehicle. It is sideways on a public street and already close to an unidentified agent while Ross – contrary to basic law enforcement training – stands partially in front of the car's drivers side instead of completely to the side. ABC has recently aired a video of the first agent grabbing the driver's door and ordering her to get out of the car (though his voice was barely audible). Good speaks to Ross, smiling and briefly chatting with him, saying what sounds like, "We're not upset with you." Good then attempts to drive away as the first agent attempts to forcefully open her front door. Ross then fired multiple rounds directly into the window and windshield and Ross’s car crashes into another, coming to a stop.

Notably, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey described Noem’s story as “bullshit” and famously said, “To ICE. Get the f--- out of Minneapolis. We don’t want you here.”

Frey also argued, “We know that the underlying intention of ICE is not safety, it's not reducing crime, what it is, is to cause chaos and disruption in our city. Clearly they want to deploy additional military resources, and we're not gonna take the bait."

And, the Department of Justice reportedly has, to this point, kept local and state law enforcement agencies from gaining access to the scene to investigate the incident. Meanwhile, the Administration tried to steer the media to the “f-bomb” dropped by Frey. Frey owned that and pointed out that there’s a significant difference between cursing and killing somebody.

That it has to be said is disturbing. Fortunately, even one of MAGA’s own – Tucker Carlson – has chided conservatives by asking,“How come so few conservatives are viewing this story through a human lens?” He added, “A woman was shot in the face.”

Under Donald Trump, federal law enforcement are no longer our protectors; instead they terrorize our neighbors in their communities. They bully. They kill. Recently, we learned and reported that a Bulgarian Chicago business owner dies in ICE custody, sparking calls for ‘immediate investigation’. It does not matter if they wear a badge. The agents of tyrants often do. This is why we must know our rights. We are far more likely to be successful in opposing this tyrannical administration if we all simply refuse to comply with roaming bandits in armored vehicles posing as patriots, daring to wear the American flag on their uniforms as they violate Americans’ rights, widely and regularly.

This is not an enforcement action; it is a provocation. The tactics, behavior and body language of the feds, especially in this video, reveal it. If you doubt it, if the roles were reversed you must realize that most people would presume the citizen guilty of murdering a police officer.

So, basic human decency and common sense require that we ask of ourselves – who are the real terrorists?

As we do so, let’s consider the passionate and bold statement of Mayor Frey, the person elected by the people of Minneapolis to lead their city: “ … where something horrific takes place, they (ICE), from the get-go, say this is domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism? Give me a break, this woman was trying to leave."

© Michael M. Barrick, 2025. Statue of Liberty Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash

In 2011 Florida passed a drug test requirement bill for public benefits.

It was struck down by higher courts but here's two things we learned while it was in effect.

Very few people on benefits were on drugs. Turned out drugs are expensive and the idea that everyone in poverty is on drugs is just classism bull shit.

They spent FARRR more on testing than they saved on kicking people off the benefits. So it is about making the poor miserable and not about saving money. Don't ever let them bull shit you into thinking otherwise.

it’s like ice cream in a soft skin!

When we first started dating, my boyfriend would often answer "why?" or "for what?" when I thanked him for something nice that he did, and I was just as confused by his reaction as he had been with me thanking him for something as little as making me a cup of coffee, every single time he did that, even though he did so every morning. At first I thought it was just a him-thing, but once I got to know his family better, I noticed that it really just isn't their custom.

It took me a bit longer to understand that saying thank you for something is something they'll do for unexpected things, like an unprompted gift that someone got you because they saw something little at the market that they thought that you'd like, or running an errand for you that you had been procrastinating but never asked them to do. When someone goes out of their way to do something that they had no obligation at all to do for you.

And they don't see helping family as an optional favour, it's just what you do, just like eating from plates and wearing shoes on your feet. Being thanked for something so obvious would be downright insulting, like someone thanking you for flushing the toilet or your boss thanking you for showing up for work sober when you've never given indication that you might ever do otherwise.

Anyway, the running gag was that the king (an old Power Rangers knock-off doll) had absolute and unwavering faith in Evil Chancellor Traytor, who basically comported himself like a mix between Grima Wormtongue and Jafar from the Aladdin movies. Everyone was always sure that Evil Chancellor Traytor had something to do with the nefarious scheme of the day. The dude even carried around a poisoned knife called ‘the kingslayer’.

The additional twist on the joke, though, was that he never was behind anything. The king was actually right. Evil Chancellor Traytor was the most devoted civil servant in the entire Action Figure Dystopia. He spent his nights working on writing up new legislature to ensure that broken toys had access to mobility devices, was always on the lookout to acquire new shoeboxes for expanding city infrastructure, and drafted a proposal that once got half the ‘settlement’ in my sister and I’s closet moved to the upper shelf so that vulnerable toys were less likely to be snatched up by the dog.

The knife, as it turned out, was as symbolic as the ‘evil’ in his name. See, Action Figure Dystopia had a long history of corrupted monarchs getting too big for their thrones and exploiting the underclasses. The job of the Evil Chancellor was to always remain vigilant, and loyally serve a good ruler - or, if the regent should became a despot, to slay them on behalf of the people.

But since killing the king would be a terrible crime, the Evil Chancellor had to be the kind of person who would willingly die to spare the people from the plight of a wicked leader; because the murder would be pinned on them, in order to keep the ‘machinery of politics’ working as smoothly as ever.

Anyway, Evil Chancellor Traytor had a diary, in which my sister I would take turns writing out the most over-the-top good shit he’d done behind the scenes. Usually after everyone else had finished talking shit about him. I don’t know why but we got the biggest kick out of being like:

Barbie With the Unfortunate Haircut: Oh that Evil Chancellor Traytor! Why can’t the king see how wicked he is?!

Charmander From the Vending Machine: Char!

Jurassic Park Toy of Jeff Goldblum With Disturbingly Realistic Face: At least if someone puts a knife in the king’s back, we’ll know where to look!

Evil Chancellor Traytor’s Diary: Today I was feeding ducks at the park when I noticed another legless action figure sitting by the benches. I put a hundred dollars into his bag while he wasn’t looking. I really need to increase budgeting to the medical treatment centers. If only we had enough glue, I think we would see far fewer toys trying to get by without limbs… *insert iconic evil laugh*

Anyway, Evil Chancellor Traytor eventually fell victim to one of my mom’s cleaning sprees, and she decided he was too busted up to keep and tossed him out. My littler brother, who tended to follow my sister and I’s games like he was watching a daily soap opera, cried so hard that we had to do a special ‘episode’ where one of the toys found the Evil Chancellor’s diary, and so he got a big huge memorial and the king threw himself into the empty grave and then ordered the toys driving the toy bulldozer to bury him so that ‘Traytor’s grave would have a body’ (this seemed very important for some reason).