Pretti Good! Defund ICE!

What is the fucking difference here? On the left we have some murderous Nazi shooting some innocent in the head and on the right, we have a murderous loser about to shoot a guy for not being afraid of him. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse working with veterans at the local VA. He was not happy with the foreign invasion of Minneapolis by an organization full of untrained bullies, thugs, and Trump worshippers. He went to the protest brandishing the "weapon" those authoritarians all over the globe fear, the cell phone. ICE decided that this man without fear continued to tape them as they rushed him, shoved him and a woman to the ground and as this nurse did what he did for a living, help the woman up. ICE shoved him to the ground, took a gun from his back waistband and cleared it, then stepped back and shot Alex Pretti in da head. Then, as Nazis tend to do, the pumped 9 more bullets into his dead body. High fiving, calling it so cool like Call of Duty, these emotional adolescents in tactical gear showed who they are. Little boys who love power. Little boys who for whatever reason have fulfilled their lifetime goal of being somebody and not a locker stuffed geek exacting revenge on society.

There is nothing worse than cold blooded murder of a citizen by so called law enforcement, but the response of Trump and his minions is about as bad. What did they do? They do what all moral lepers do when they fuck up. They lie and they smear the victim. Kristi Noem, as despicable a person as Stephen Miller, made false claims about the confiscated gun, the circumstances and smeared the dead man with an accusation that he was out to "massacre law enforcement". Greg Bovino, the lil Nazi in the SS trench coat, parroted the same bullshit followed by Miller, various Republican sycophants, really dumb Senators and then by The Master himself, Donnie Trump. As the bullshit became obviously bullshit, not only did Noem and her mob boss double down, they got worse. The Twitter bots went to work. Fake pics of the victim in drag, the ultimate MAGA insult (due to their obvious repression) were posted by trolls and bots that permeate that awful social media site (yeah I'm still there trying to fight the good fight)..

The videos are obvious. If you deny that this was an execution of a citizen for daring to protest, or at best a colossal fuck up by these legal goons, you are a lost soul again. You are blind, deaf and probably very stupid. Or very dishonest.

My anger at this event and at the murder of Renee Good is beyond anything I can believe. I was alive at the time of Kent State. That was appalling enough. This is worse and I'll tell you why. Back in 1970 the world was a different place. The news was the news. The pictures were the pictures. Facts were not challenged. People were mostly disgusted with Nixon and his warmongering crowd of neo cons. There was no social media, no twitter, no Fox News telling its brain-dead audience that Nixon was being railroaded. Therefore, the facts were the facts. There was no Kristi Noem lying on behalf of a criminal enterprise. There were no whores like Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly out there promoting the horseshit emailed to them by the powers that be. 

RIP Alex Pretti, Renee Good AND the nameless immigrants murdered by ICE in other places. Yes, it's a shame that their deaths were mostly uncovered by the media and that it takes white victims to get the press off their asses to cover it.

Alex Pretti did more good for society in one fucking hour than Noem and her hooligans do in a lifetime. A VA nurse that had the respect of everyone he worked with as opposed to a failed South Dakota Governor hired for her fealty to a madman (and that he probably thinks she's hot). 

2025 sucked. 2026 appears to be gearing up to be even worse. Strap in folks. And remember, the 2nd Amendment exists for everybody, not just white men with tiny dicks. Is that a threat? No, it's just one of those pesky facts.

Fuck ICE

NATO Dis!

"We never needed NATO. We never asked anything of them. You know, they say they sent troops to Afghanistan, and they did. BUT THEY STAYED BACK A LITTLE, A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE FRONT LINE."

Donald J Trump

Yes, he said that because he can't shut his fucking mouth. He shat on the families of European men and women who died in Afghanistan supporting America. The Moron in Chief ladies and gentlemen.

The utter cruelty and ignorance of the man is unlimited. 

For a POS like Trump who says something outrageous daily, to add to a Top 10 of horrible things to come out of his filthy mouth is impressive. This is a Top 10 moronic statement. But for the guy who called American dead "suckers and losers" why would anyone be surprised?

Of all people, the rather mellow Rod Stewart summed it up best. 

Now the Creature in Chief will never apologize. But what he will do is Truth Social more bullshit ignoring that he said it. And voila!

Bugger off you orange twatwaffle.

Liam Cornejo Ramos!

 If the image above doesn't break your heart you aint got one. And trust me I know since about 2015 the people without a heart or one filled with hate have slithered out into the open.

5-year-old Liam Cornejo Ramos came home from his preschool in Minneapolis the other day, he was "detained" by ICE because he is definitely the "worst of the worst" in his own driveway. ICE thugs marched him up to his front door where they forced him to knock on the door so they could arrest anybody else in the house. Hey, it worked. ICE used a 5-year-old child as bait so they could send him and his Dad to a Texas concentration camp. How fucking low can one go?

Liam's school has had 3 other "detentions" of its students in the past weeks. His teachers are in tears, they describe this little boy as kind and loving and very bright.
Unlike ICE baboons who are assholes and bitter men who will take revenge on everyone for stuffing them in lockers in middle school. I'll take kind and loving any day of the week over bullies and felons and J6 racists.

ICE is now going door to door without warrants busting down doors and terrifying decent people for the crime of being brown. Anne Frank comes to mind. But ya know that 40% of this country would have turned her in to the Gestapo as sure as they exist. That's the rub. The fact that 4 out of 10 Americans would snitch to a glorified gangster organization called ICE is disturbing enough, but to be supportive of masked goons in Amazon vests and guns kicking in doors tells me my old man fought Nazis in 1944 for nothing. Congrats Adolf and Benito you win.

Buckle up Minneapolis. Throw these bums out of your fucking city. You're doing a great job!

If that little boy is your enemy, you are a lost cause. That's the problem. Lost causes don't give a shit as long as their white nationalist dreams get closer.

Jackass In Chief!

 The guy isn't even trying to sound reasonable any longer. Just in the past few days, The Asshole in Chief, has written a mash note to the prime minister of Norway stating he was no longer interested in peace. Why? Because the Nobel Committee refused to give a war monger a peace prize and somehow, Trump thinks the prime minister of Norway gives out the prizes. Oh yeah and he's taking Greenland from him. Ok but since Norway doesn't own Greenland it was a bit like a madman telling The Mayor of New York that he was taking over Buffalo. But Trump goes on.

The yesterday we have a damn near two-hour rambling screed in the White House press room with all the greatest hits. 2020 election was stolen, Minneapolis is overrun by commies and black people, economic lies, holding up pictures of "the worst of the worse" like a DUI brown guy, Switzerland happily awaits his arrival blah blah for an hour and 44 minutes. Now the press, what's left of them, is used to a liar yelling at them but this was a new experience. A senile old man screaming at clouds. I'm not sure he is even capable of pretending to be a decent human being what with that rotting brain rather it be from dementia or syphilis or RFK's brain worm. 

Today after arriving at Davos, Trump continued on insulting the countries of NATO to their face. It's like Putin himself is channeling Donnie as he attempts to kill NATO to allow Russian expansion into the old USSR again. It's almost like Trump, Putin and Xi have divided the world into three separate empires. You back off here and I'll back off there. Taiwan is fucked. Ukraine is fucked. Greenland is fucked. NATO is fucked. As long as this bird brain (sorry birds) is in charge, or rather allowed to remain in charge, the United States is also fucked.

25th Amendment anyone. Sorry as I start laughing. The 25th allows a cabinet to vote to remove the President. Some cling to this idea as hope. Cmon now. You think Kristi Noem or Pam Bondi or Marco Rubio or Doug Burgham or Bessent or that idiot Ag Secretary, the $3 a day to eat woman, are going to do the right thing? EVER? Keep dreaming.

The only way out of this is to impeach this monster a third time. But of course, the pussies in the Senate would never cross their mob boss lest they be threatened with death from the millions of goons out there who have waited to be fascists for years. Well, I can think of another way out but leave that to McDonalds.

Midterms are 20 months out. Lots can happen in 10 months. Americans forget a lot and with this regime it's an everyday occurrence that batshit crazy doesn't enter the room. We fucking killed over a 100 people on boats, kidnapped a sitting President, seized oil tankers like a goddamned pirate, and sent feds to Minneapolis to shoot people in the head and arrest US citizens for daring to protest the Orange King. All of this seems like the distant past now. Americans forget. That's how this ogre got reelected. Forgetfulness.

I worry for my country. I worry for my fellow citizens of color, gay citizens, women and all the rest. The decision to put this loudmouthed Orc back into office is the stupidest thing America has ever done and for crissakes there's so much to choose from. 

As we wait for the midterms, where in a perfect world the GOP would lose every race possible, we cannot do much but endure this blabbermouth and his insanity.

Hold on and don't let go. EVER!

Shucked!

 

First of all, Shucked aint gonna change your life. It starts with Storyteller 1 (Maya Lagerstam) saying "open your mind and think ,,,,now think smaller". That's the gist. A lot of jokes pepper this musical like a Naked Gun movie or Airplane or for those of us of a certain age, Laugh In. Not all hit the mark, but enough of them do.

The story is about Maizy (Celeste Rose) who lives in a small town and is engaged to Beau (Nick Bailey) a corn farmer with a failing crop. But Maizy goes to the big city, Tampa, to see a "corn doctor", a great Quinn Vanantwerp as Gordie. Gordie is a con man much like Professor Henry Hill in the Music Man. He seduces Maizy and returns to her town to "cure" the corn crop. Maizy's cousin Lulu, a powerful voiced Dominique Kent has a great bullshit detector, and Gordie is in trouble. Look, we all know how this will end and it does end well.

Now about the jokes. They are much edgier than you might think about a musical about corn and a small town. Never shake hands with a single man in his 30s. I was so poor as a child I was lucky I was a guy, so I had a toy to play with. There are lots of jokes like that. Don't blink. Yes, there are numerous "corny" jokes also but all in all there is nothing serious about this play. It makes fun of small towns, rural Americans, and city slickers. Equal opportunity.

The performers are all very good at their jobs. There aren't any voices you have trouble with. Nick Bailey as Beau belts out the songs he gets with gusto. Dominique Kent (Lulu) has a voice made for church. Jesus Christ she was an understudy; I can't imagine the actual star doing any better. Beau's brother Peanut, Mike Nappi, is rather dim, doesn't sing much but gets off the best lines whenever someone asks what he thinks. "I think politicians and diapers need to be changed often for the same reason". "I think if you know more than 4 Metallica songs, you must be in Metallica". He is great. Look for the red hat. Storyteller 2, Joe Moeller, also has great comic timing. It is a strong cast.;

Hey again, I expected nothing and what I got was something. A two-hour fun time. What more can you ask for? The other thing is once you've seen Shucked you never need to see it again. The jokes will be stale.

Now the Orpheum sound. Opening night was ok, but some glitches happened with static and microphones going out. But when it was working it was fine. Better than usual in fact.

It's in town thru Sunday. Wanna laugh? Go see it.

Minneapolis!

 ICE is a boil on America's ass. Sent to Minneapolis by a DOJ to harass Somalians because some 23-year-old punkass YouTube influencer grifted MAGA by claiming to have uncovered a day care scandal that has been investigated and prosecuted for 10 years. Oh, and the perpetrator was a white woman buy I digress.

The ICE agents drive around Minneapolis, harassing schoolkids, tear gassing teachers, pointing guns at anyone recording them, looking for nonwhite people to arrest. But two days ago, on a street I was on in October, a woman named Renee Good, a mother, a wife, who had just dropped her 6-year-old off at school, was stuck sideways in her minivan with her wife and stuffed animals on 34th street when ICE thugs pulled up in their unmarked car, jumped out, masked and armed, and one demanded she get out of the "fucking car", the other said "move move move" to her, and a third man stood there itching to kill. Renee said "I'm pulling out" and turned the van to the right to leave as ordered. An ICE thug named Jonathan Ross stood at the left side of the van and as she pulled away, shot her three times in the face. The van accelerated as dead people tend to do and rammed into   pole. A physician attempted to help and was told to back off, and when he asked to at least check her pulse was told "I dont care" by an ICE sociopath. She had died, making her child motherless and her wife a widow. It was a murder.

As usual, the federal law enforcement community, as do all law enforcement communities when the fuck up, went into smear the victim mode. Within an hour of the killing, the powers that be had already declared the shoot "self-defense". She was trying to run them over. She's a "radical leftist". She's a lesbian, she has pronouns in her bio. Thank goodness she didn't have green hair or they'd have shot her even more.

Kristi Noem, in a ridiculous looking cowboy hat, concluded with so many lies and inaccuracies, that the cowboy hat grew bigger as she lied. But don't worry, Americans, Kash Patel and the FBI are on it. That investigation will be swift, accurate and probably involve numerous trips via private plane by Patel to "interview" his gal pal, the honey pot.

Minnesota authorities were then shut out. The feds circled the wagons to keep Minnesota from prosecuting on a state level where Trump the Pardon Weasel can't get to them. Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to "get the fuck out of Minneapolis". Governor Tim Walz called the federal response "bullshit" and Walz unleashed is the Walz we needed in 2024. 

J D Vance, a spineless phony if there ever was one, held a press conference where he became combatant with the age-old attack the press to divert from the truth. This asshole Vance, obviously grooming himself to take over MAGA once the Treason Twat is no longer available, trashed Renee Good, lied about the incident, rolled his eyes like a maniac, and attacked CNN to keep that mouth breathing base happy. Vance, who once called Trump "America's Hitler", has completely changed his views to fit the narrative. He is a principles lacking jellyfish in a beard. He's worse than Trump, Trump is dumb, Vance is not thus he's evil.

Anyway, the murder of Renee Good is just that, murder. And as sure as if one of the "illegals" had killed her, which this fascist regime would have never stopped talking about, a white Minneapolis ICE thug killed her in cold blood. ICE is not law enforcement; it's a gang of masked meatheads who are exacting their revenge for being stuffed into lockers much like the scumbag Stephen Miller.

Fuck ICE. Fuck Noem and Fuck Vance.

The Emergency Room!

The emergency room is someplace you don't want to frequent, despite the current regime's claim that everyone there is an "illegal". Unfortunately, due to a drug reaction, Max's Mom and I were "advised" to head for the ER immediately. What we saw was eye opening on the state of "the greatest health care system in the world". Spoiler alert: It's not.

We arrived at the UNMC Emergency Room around 4pm. Checked in, triaged, and fitted with a blood pressure cuff, we took our seats in the crowded waiting room. The people in the ER were packed in like sardines. Many were complaining they hadn't been seen in 4 or 5 hours. I scoffed. Spoiler alert: they were right.

Over in the corner a young man and a girl sat. The young man was in obvious pain. He gyrated, he stood, he groaned, he put his head under a blanket and he was ignored. A woman in a wheelchair without a fuck to give loudly complained on her phone that she also hadn't been seen in hours. A woman who spoke no English in a wheelchair looked lost. Translators were nonexistent. A young man behind us slept in the chair also ignored. 

As the hours dragged on, we were also ignored. So much for white privilege at least in any inner-city ER. People wandered in, obviously in pain, An older man with a nonstop nosebleed sat in a chair and bled and bled. A family with a father who'd had a stroke sat in the corner. A man in a wheelchair sat in it dropping his phone over and over. A young woman wailed in pain. Max's Mom had blood work done and the results came in but nothing happened. We sat. 

Many of the people got up and left. They'd been there too long, Shit, we'll just go home and die I guess.

Then came the night. We'd been there 3 hours when the cops began showing up with injured people. The ambulances began arriving en masse. A poor old man in a wheelchair in a gown sat there with no idea where he was. The nurses tried to communicate with him. He had no answers for them. He wanted his phone. Turns out a nursing home had driven him there and dumped him. Just fucking dumped him as garbage that was now somebody else's problem. 

A young man brought in by the police was having a mental health issue screaming for his mom and alleging "They" were out to kill him. The police waited as they processed him to be committed as non-voluntary hold. He sat in the corner crying for his mother as police stood by.to protect him from himself. 

More people came in with injuries and illnesses, some with police escorts. The chaos was rampant. Many more people got up and left. 

This was a life lesson for us. The health care system in this country is a goddamned disgrace. Yet as bad as it is, the current regime wants to make it worse. I'm not sure how they can. Desperate people, mostly black or Hispanic and definitely poor can't get help. It really is a sad state of affairs. 

Then came 9 pm. We'd been there over 5 hours. And this time it was us who got up and left, going home to die. Spoiler: Max's Mom is better.

There is no way I am blaming the fine folks who work in the ER. They are underfunded, understaffed, overworked and underappreciated, taking the abuse from people frustrated with the wait time and the perceived apathy. They do the best they can with the resources from the state and feds. But it's not enough to even put a dent in this nonsensical system that has permeated the nation over the last 40 years. Congress and the executive branch have the gold plan. They get seen immediately. They don't have to sit with the great unwashed in emergency rooms overwhelmed with the sick and poor. And thus, they do nothing to fix this disgusting system because they don't have to. They got theirs so fuck you. 

In the meantime, a madman and his handlers declassify nursing as a profession thus cutting into loans to help these saints become health care professionals. It makes no sense unless you think the agenda is to devalue a woman dominated profession. Of course it is.

The UNMC is a great resource. But it needs further funding. Lots more. Will it happen? Not as long as the main priority of a university is paying $3 million for a freakin quarterback.

Hut Hut.