Shite Site Remains Shitty

After an extended period of reasonableness, certain turds over at Hawkeye Lounge are at it again, teeing off on a straw man of me they've set up.  It all came down to a discussion of the underfunding of Social Security and the effect of Chimpy's raid on the trust fund to cover his Middle East wars.  And for the record, I know any surplus in the fund is held in nonnegotiable bonds and that there are constant draws against the trust for current accounts.  My points, and I did have them, were that 1) such draws are generally relatively short term, fully papered, and provide some return on investment; 2) Chimpy's raid was none of the above and was fully intended to allow Congress to pretend war costs were covered while in fact financing war grift by leaving a fat, eternal IOU on the trust's books; 3) they pulled this off by issuing new bonds, bonds that will have to be redeemed at some point; 4) OBTW, they redirected payment streams too; 5) since neither party can get its head out of its neoclassical economics and accept the reality of Modern Monetary Theory, they'll insist on massive taxes to cover this (unless they just fold Social Security up entirely); and 6) yes I know the book amount was $708 billion, but the actual cost will end up being something like $1.37 trillion, if we're lucky.  But Fletch, 26.2, and ThePracticalPundit would rather just call me stupid and unleash the ad hominems.

Shite Site Is Differently Shitty

Several years ago, I made some remarks about a site named Hawkeye Lounge.  Politically it's changed quite a bit since then.  While there are still some fascists floating around there (Coff, NLP, Coff, Serge, Coff, Rolo, Coff, Serb, Coff...), the bulk of them are gone.  In fact the folks over there refer to those days as Old Halo, as opposed to the current version, New Halo.  Unfortunately it's managed to adopt a different form of toxicity.

As late as the late 80s, Iowa was a very different place than it is now.  Perpetually locked in a race with Minnesota for best public school system in the country.  Iowa and Michigan were in another race for best university hospital.  Iowa State had a vet program to die for.  You couldn't throw a rock without hitting a first tier liberal arts college.  It was a conservative place, but there was a deep respect for research, education, and innovation.

That was then.  But the religio-fascists had been infiltrating since the 70s, and by the 90s the train started going off the tracks.  Most of the state descended into MAGAt madness, becoming an ugly, ignorant cesspool indistinguishable from Nebraska.

An example of the rot is the Iowa football program.  Kirk Ferentz, the head coach, was once a golden boy, leading Iowa to amazing heights.  But, all too predictably, the athletic department grew complacent, stopped supervising Ferentz, let him run the show any damned way he saw fit.  One of the ways he saw fit was hiring his son Brian as offensive coordinator (For those who don't know American football, a coaching staff can be quite extensive, but a head coach typically has three immediate subordinates: offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and special teams coordinator.  So offensive coordinator is kind of a big deal.).  The problem is Brian has zero skills.  He's Tommy Boy without the redemption arc.  His offenses have never been good, and for the last several years they've been reduced to punchlines.  As a condition of his returning this year, he was supposed to average 25 points per game, which these days ain't that big a deal.  He hasn't come close.  My brain-damaged cat would be a better OC (And yes, I have a brain-damaged cat.  She was electrocuted as a kitten, and it fucked up her neurological system.).  If it weren't for Defensive Coordinator Phil Parker fielding a defense year after year that was forged in Asgard, Iowa's average record each season would have been 4-8.  Brian shouldn't have been hired in the first place, and he shouldn't have been allowed to keep his position.

But.  Everybody loves Kirk.  Kirk has given us SO much.  Kirk is going to be head coach only so much longer, and he deserves to have things happen the way he wants.  We OWE Kirk that.  Baa baa.  Wet cowflop hitting the pavement with a major splat.  And other evidence you have a Turdville brain.

By some miracle, Iowa recently hired a competent athletic director, Beth Goetz.  She has bigger swinging brass cajones than the rest of the university administration combined, because she sacked Brian.  She didn't have the political suck to chuck the fuck immediately, so he still gets to fuck up the rest of the season, but still, good on ya, Beth.

Which circles us back to Hawkeye Lounge.  A number of us have been saying for years that Brian needed to go.  Some of us have been saying it was time for Kirk to go as well.  Then came today's game against Illinois.  Home game.  Win this and you win the Big 10 Western Division and go to the conference championship game.  Lots of motivation to do a job here.  But once again the offense was a rancid raft of rat shit, and Iowa barely squeaked to a come-from-behind 15-13 victory.  And unfortunately there was much rejoicing by all, including Kirk and Brian.

And given all the fuckery of the last several years, and this year, and this game, I saw that as all sorts of wrong.  And I said so on Hawkeye Lounge.  And all those who so recently had been calling for Brian's and even Kirk's heads reared up on their self-righteous high horses and asked how I dared to say such things.  The defense was fantastic.  We'd just won the division championship and were heading for the conference championship (conveniently ignoring that if this offense sucked any harder, it would be a perfect vacuum, and that our opponent in the championship, either Michigan or Ohio State, is going to go in dry on us with a Husqvarna with a 72" titanium bar and a dull chain).

Jesus Titty-Fucking Christ.  Pro tip, kids: Any pustule on a warthog's ass can learn from losing; winners learn from winning.  What I'd learned was that we'd once again won by accident and in spite of ourselves, not a good thing, and we'd gotten away with it for the umpteenth time, also not a good thing.  But the fucktards at Hawkeye Lounge wanted to party rather than learn, something they probably had in common with everyone else attached to the Iowa football program.

So nothing will be learned.  And I shall now share my predictions for what happens next:

1) Nebraska played Wisconsin very tough in Madison tonight, so I expect Iowa to blow dead bears in Lincoln next week, although I really hope not because I FUCKING HATE Nebraska;

2) The conference championship will be a rape room with Iowa as the Catholic choir boy of honor;

3) Kirk will be allowed to coach until they take him out feet first because "he deserves to go out on his own terms" (fucking Turdville bullshit).  He may try to back door Brian back into the program, but I think that ship has already sailed.  He WILL hire an OC just as bad, so within two years it will be impossible to recruit offensive talent that has other opportunities more significant than Luther College (FYI: Luther is a Division III school and so has no scholarships, and it has a bad habit of going winless, such as this season.).

4) At some point in this one-star shit parade, Parker is going to say, "Fuck it, I'm tired of breaking my balls for nothing, I'm going to barbeque, golf, and play with my my grandkids."  And since by that point Kirk will be making the Crypt Keeper look like a beamish boy, he won't be able to get even remotely like a replacement and will have to settle for deli ham of the same brand as his OC.  Then the recruitment chain stops entirely, and Iowa football turns into what it was in the 1970s.

This was my threat'ning and my message.  But since the good brethren of the Lounge elected to be asses in the world, I bring this greeting too: scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt, and any thing that may not misbecome those who fail to recognize the consequences of shitheadedness.

Fascist Show Of Force

Chauvin was convicted today, and 30 seconds later there was a pile of cop cars cruising the streets here in Salt Lake City.  Why?  Because fear is these fucks' main weapon.  They NEED you to be afraid, and they want to remind you that, no matter what that jury did, you'd better STAY afraid.  DON'T GIVE IN!

And Unregulated Crapitalism is the Greatest Thing EVER!

For anyone who thinks fossil fuel pipelines are a good idea, you might want to look up what happened in Bellingham, WA, 21 years ago next Wednesday.  If you're intellectually honest, that is.  Which, if you support these pipelines, you can't be.  The rest of you, who aren't crapitalist whores and have two brain cells to rub together, should look it up as well, and since you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a link.  Isn't it amazing how something like that can happen in a US city just two decades ago and it's like it never happened?  Come on people, boost the link.  People should know.  And OBTW, the assholes at Olympic Pipeline were an even bigger bunch of assholes than how they're presented in the documentary.  They were convinced they were untouchable (just as every pipeline fuck everywhere thinks he's untouchable).  They should have been lined up against a wall and had a flamethrower turned on them.

As for you Trumptard asswipes in Whatcom, Skagit, Island, Snohomish, etc. Counties (including the fascist buttplug who is the SnoCo Sheriff) who incessantly whine about how the gummint is takin' away yer rats, most of you were in the territory when the Bellingham explosion happened.  This is the inevitable consequence of your philosophy.  And yet you cling to it.  You aren't just stupid.  You aren't just selfish.  You're fucking evil.  You are a fundamental threat to the health and safety of all of us.  The funny thing is, though, by your philosophy the rest us don't have to give a shit about your health and safety.  And guess what?  We don't.  The time is coming when everyone realizes you're the threat, and it won't go well for you.  You sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.  I read that in a book none of you have ever read but you all like to thump on a lot.

When Fascism Comes to Murica...

...it will be brought by white, suburban, "thoughts-and-prayers" liberals.  Like Mayor Maggothaul.  More on that fucktard below (Keep reading.  It's a doozy and worth your time.)

Thanks to Herroner, we now have an overnight curfew through next Monday.  Because of the "riot."  GODDAMNIT PEOPLE, THERE WAS NO FUCKING RIOT!  A cop car got burned, and another car got trashed.  Boo fucking hoo.  One of the cardinal rules of riots is, "Fuck the rules."  But here were hundreds of people waiting for the traffic lights to change before they crossed the street.  OH, THE HUMANITY!  A number of cops claim they "felt threatened."  BULLSHIT, you motherfucking thugs!  You're more heavily armed and armored than the average Marine in Kandahar.  Threatened?  Fuck that.  That was a Sunday School picnic next to the real thing, you wienie, lying sacks of shit.  I was sucked into worse when I was 9.  I was actively involved in worse when I was 11.  And you big, brave heroes were afraid?  Suck it.  You weren't afraid when almost as big a crowd, armed to the teeth with semi-auto weapons, surrounded City Hall because their favorite bar was closed and they couldn't get a haircut.  But oh wait, those inbred Trumptards were political allies of yours, weren't they?  And memo to Maggothaul: Remind me again what curfew you imposed then?  Oh that's right, there wasn't one.  But there weren't any cops telling you to get your kneepads out and start servicing them that time, were there?  You are such a piece of...work.

You apologists out there are going, "Well yeah, but the anti-lockdown demonstrators weren't causing any damage."  First, morons, these were suburban whites who have a voice in what happens.  They like to whine about being ignored, but they aren't.  Second, the lockdown did not put them at risk for their lives, it just inconvenienced their lifestyles.  They aren't being murdered in their homes or on routine traffic stops.  Finally, if you and your gang are walking around packing Armalites and threatening violence up to and including civil war, THAT is damage.  You're damaging everyone else's security just because you're an overgrown brat throwing a temper tantrum.  Just like your Fearless Leader Der Drumpfenfuehrer.

One of the schmucks who torched the cop car has been charged .  Federally.  They went that way because the federal criminal justice system is criminal.  He's facing a mandatory five years and up to 20.  Because his arson "interfered with interstate commerce."  Again, bullshit.  This isn't about enforcing the law.  This is about intimidating.  This is about terrorizing.  And OBTW, fuck the Feddies for going along with this.  ATF are whores.  DAs are whores.  SEC, FTC, FBI, CBP, etc., etc., etc.  They don't give a SHIT about that guy.  They want an example.  They want to beat all the rest of us into line.  So watch out, guy with "Black Lives Matter" painted on your car.  You're on a road, you're "interfering with interstate commerce."  And the sign on the I-215 crossing saying "Black Lives Matter"?  Definitely "interfering with interstate commerce."  You see where this is going?  They want to CRUSH your ability to speak out.

Now on to Mayor Maggothaul.  My intel network has given me some intel.  I have been unable to determine whether it's gold dust or chicken feed, but I'm going to throw it out there at least as a heads up.  We knew in the mayor's race that Escamilla was the progressive candidate and Maggothaul was the DNC/DLC corporate whore.  I have learned that certain shit may have gone down in that race.  Namely that DNC/DLC corporate operatives engaged in a covert get-out-the-vote campaign with East Bench Rethuglican whites that basically said, "You'd better get out and vote because you don't want a brown West Sider as mayor, do you?"  Now, there is no way to verify that anyone received such a  pitch because no one will admit they received such a pitch, much less acted on it, so that is pretty much a dead end.  But such behavior is consistent with the thoroughly assholish behavior I saw from the DNC/DLC tools as Hilbots in 2016 and Anybody-But-Bernie-Bots in 2020.  "Erin is white/cute/white/pliant/white" (not necessarily in that order).  So while it would not surprise me if this happened, for obvious reasons, I can not tell you with certainty it happened.  But I can tell you that, even if they didn't, they wanted to, and that sentiment is what they're acting on now.

But hey, law and order, right?  Earlier this week some fascist asshat was pontificating down at the former protest site about how we need "law and order".  Let me tell you about the history of "law and order" in this country.  Farmers in western Massachusetts want more of a say in the government?  We need "law and order".  Natives want to keep their land?  We need "law and order".  Abolitionists want to end slavery?  We need "law and order".  Miners and railway workers want decent working conditions?  We need "law and order".  Women want to vote?  We need "law and order".  Veterans want their benefits?  We need "law and order".  Blacks want to vote?  We need "law and order".  People want to stop the draft and the invasion of Southeast Asia?  We need "law and order".  Hispanic farm workers try to organize?  We need "law and order".  Anyone advocating "law and order" is in fact advocating mob rule supporting the powers that be and needs his head turned into a canoe.

Maggothaul needs gone.  Even if this racist crap from the election isn't the case, she needs gone.  She, along with her DNC/DLC enablers, need removed.  Otherwise, we are headed for full on fascism.  And don't believe the narrative trying to demonize the protesters.  They aren't the problem, and it's pretty damned obvious exactly who actually is.  And fuck you if you insist on believing otherwise.

Be Careful Out There

And I'm not talking about avoiding SARS-CoV-2.  I made the mistake of going downtown today without a tie and a briefcase.  Tieless and with a backpack.  And I got shaken down by two of the county's finest brownshirts.  Fortunately I was able to prove fairly readily that I actually have a home I live in and such things, so they gave up their thoroughly illegal harassment and let me go on my way.  But FFS, I'm an older white male and reasonably clean.  I can guess what these cheesedicks are doing to people without those advantages.

As if cops weren't already bad enough, they're using the virus to get worse.  And as always it's because they "feel threatened."  By what?  No one is restricting their movement.  No one is threatening their nice salaries, health benefits, and pensions.  And it isn't like they aren't equipped with better PPEs than most healthcare workers, let alone the poor cashier at you grocery store.  No, they're just engaging in one of the favorite cop pastimes,  whining to make everyone feel sorry for them and let them get away with even more murder.

Am I going to report it?  Are you shitting me?  Those two asswipes would just make up a lie about it, because lying is what cops do, and I don't need that trouble.  Just remember that the only people cops "protect and serve" are the Ueberklass and themselves.

And If You Wonder Why Everyone is Misinformed...

...it could because shit like this is what poses for in-depth coverage in Murican spews media.  Trump has done much to boost the economy?  No Ross, Trump has done much to boost YOUR economy, which is why you people put him in office, isn't it.  You don't want to admit we're already in a housing bubble?  Well I guess I can understand that since you still have properties you're trying to unload, and you don't want your marks to find out it's all a scam and the merry-go-round is about to break down yet again.  But this is all a bit much coming from a guy who has been at the hub of the bubble AND the growth in unaffordable housing (Hudson Yards gentrification, anyone?).  Fuck you, Stephen Ross.  And fuck you Andy Serwer for giving him just another PR platform.  And double fuck you Calder McHugh for promoting this flack flatulence.

Another Kentucky Dipshit

A response to an op-ed piece by Georgetown, KY-Jelly native Michael Smith:

Somebody call the waaambulance for Michael Smith, who's from Kentucky and probably masturbates to pictures of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.  I'd say your opnion is bullshit, but bullshit has positive uses, and you opinion has none.  First, no one is campaigning for open borders.  That's a straw man, and if you don't know it, you're too stupid to have a public comment.  Except in places like Kentucky.  Second, if you're opposed to the goals of the Green New Deal (and that's all the GND is right now, a statement of objectives), you're part of the problem, and you need "solved."  Third, if you're willing to back Der Drumpfenfuehrer in spite of the laundry list of evil you provided, well look at point #2.  You're one of those 1930s Germans who said, "I've got to back Hitler because the socialists must be stopped and some Jews have too much money and power."  Fourth, oh come on, the overwhelming majority of mass shootings have been committed by white, male Trumptards.  Like you.  Fifth, yes the rich are buying this country courtesy the Citizens United decision, and if you can't see that, you're blind every way but visually and maybe that way too.  Sixth, no one is saying the country is hopelessly racist.  Not even the Rethuglican Party is hopelessly racist, but I don't like its odds of recovery at this point.  You know that plant in Mississippi that got raided was a Koch plant, right?  You know the Koch's had the feds raid it after the workers started campaigning for better working conditions?  You know that a bunch of the workers who got swept up are actually here legally and have papers, but hey ICE don't need no stinkin' probable cause other than skin color, right?  And yet you want to say this isn't about money and race?  You're a special kind of stupid, Michael Smith.

License Plates

Utah has a new, custom license plate that is being sported all over.  It has the flag, "In God We Trust," and "United We Stand."  I call it The Fascist Trifecta.

Speaking of Shootings...

...we just had one in Parkland, FL, Rethuglican Territory.  And what was the reaction?  Just as I predicted:  The teachers should have been armed!  The students should have been armed!  And other bullshit by the feedlot-full.  The Rethuglicans (and the dimmest of the Dems) are just rabid dogs, and there's only one solution for a rabid dog.

DC Shooting

Straight off I want to say it wasn't me.  First, I haven't been out of the Theocratic Republic of Utardistan for...oh gods, SO long.  Second, walk up spray & pray is not my style.  My methods are rather more surgical.

Turns out this guy was a Sanders supporter, like me.  At least ostensibly.  He was so may standard deviations from the norm that it makes me wonder if he wasn't actually a Trump sleeper agent.  Anyway, Bernie is apologizing profusely and saying he's praying for the victims; he has to, he's the face of the campaign.  I have no such constraints.  I'm not praying for these assholes.  First, I don't believe in prayer.  Second, these are the people who have been working morning, noon, and night to make it easier for nutjobs to pack heat.  If this had been yet another school or church shooting, these people (along with that pile of pig poop Steve King and the Freedumb Caucus fuckwits) would have been lining up to spout their usual, "If the victims had been armed, they would have stopped him.  We need MORE guns!"  (BTW, how were all these proud Rethuglicans caught unarmed?)  So I have NO sympathy for "the honored dead."

What Then Must We Do?

Call me "T", as my message predates V.  As for "U", well you're U, aren't you?  So, you're wondering what to do now that Der Drumpfenfuehrer and his white trash, Christ-licker stormtroopers are running wild for the greater glory of the 0.01%.  Gather round, kiddies, and let Ol' T impart some wisdom.  What do I know?  Trust me, this isn't my first rodeo.


First, purge your brains of two bits of bullshit that have been standard operating procedure for our pathetic Left for far too long.  1) We aren't going to win, or even survive, by joining hands around the campfire and singing "Kumbayah."  Hell, that didn't even stop the DLC/DNC and the Clintstones, and they're all limp dicks.  It sure isn't going to stop any genuine fascists such as we're dealing with now.  There will be blood, and you'd better prepare for it.  2) Dump all the left wing street theater.  I mean flush it down a commercial toilet and use the TARDIS to send it into a different timeline.  Petitions accomplish NOTHING beyond putting the signers on a right wing hit list.  Demonstrations accomplish NOTHING beyond getting you into a face recognition database.  Occupations accomplish NOTHING but providing new, soft targets for our thoroughly militarized, thug police.  These tactics by themselves have never accomplished a fucking thing.  Leave them to the morons who can't be taught.


Second, organize right.  This is guerrilla warfare; you need to play small ball here.  Form a local cell, a group of like-minded friends who can assemble quickly and below the radar.  Give it a bad ass name.  The days of fluffy-bunny shite like "Peace and Love Fellowship" are over.  You need something like "Eastern Washington Antifascist Brigade".  Or "Franklin County Fist-Fuck the Fascists Faction".

Third, use your organization.  Just because you're playing small doesn't mean you have to be isolated or that you can't support larger movements.  BUT: 1) Don't hook up with another group without rock solid references (i.e. "Don't bring me nobody nobody knows.").  It's tough enough to control your friends (Think Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter.); strangers are impossible, and they're probably either Ueberklass-funded astroturf shills or thug cop plants trying to infiltrate you.  2) Have your ORGANIZATION support a movement, not individuals.  Any legit outfit (such as Planned Parenthood) loves being endorsed by individuals, but it loves endorsements by organizations even more (OK, have a softer, alternative name to your bad ass name for such endorsements.).  This also gives the members cover.  That's what organizations are really for.

Fourth, work as an organization.  Do projects together.  Arm yourselves together (I told you there would be blood.  And get armed as quickly as possible.  The Second Amendment only applies to Trump supporters.  The last gun control in this country that stuck was 50 years ago when Gov. Ronnie Ray-gunz [Yes, you read that right.] and the NRA [Yes, you read that right too.] joined forces to block the Black Panthers in Oakland from arming themselves.).  Train with those weapons together.  Take self-defense courses together.  Go on picnics together (With weapons.  Open carry, they'll think you're "good guy" Trump supporters and leave you alone.).  Get used to operating as a team.  Individuals get squashed.

Fifth, learn history.  Learn about guerrilla operations, successful and unsuccessful, and dissect them.  Do the same with political movements.  Don't try and reinvent the wheel.  People have already done this.  Use your local library while it's still there.

Sixth, get some mad skillz.  Unlike sociopaths like Yours Truly, you probably haven't spent your lives learning sniper skills, knife-fighting, improvised weaponry, bare-handed killing, explosives, gunsmithing, lockpicking, and farming.  Time to learn, kiddies.  There's a world of information on Teh Interwebz, you just have to remember that most of it is a barrel of bollocks.  For example, as popular and as much fun as The Anarchist's Cookbook is, the explosives section will get you killed.

Seventh, and finally, apply.  Turn the key and put the rubber on the road.  Don't be the Judean People's Front in Life of Brian, constantly resolving and never doing.  There are people out there who need protection.  There are people out there who've already been attacked and need support and information on getting a lawyer who can go after those fuckers ( With any luck it's some fat, redneck sheriff they can go in dry on until his entire descending colon prolapses.).  We need to raise the barricades, and unless we want this to be Les Mis redux, we need to be ready.  The last line of defense is U.

Shite Site is Shitty

To placate certain family members, I keep more or less abreast of University of Iowa athletics.  At least I have, but it's become such a stupid, boring waste of time as the new administration leads the school into a hog wallow of mediocrity that I don't think being able to communicate with my relatives on these issues is worth it.  One of the places I would go to keep up with all this was a forum called The Hawkeye Lounge.  The place was always barely worth it, as it was overrun with the sort of mouth-breathing shit kickers who, if they lived in western Iowa, would be voting for Steve King.  Now even the "barely" is gone.