March 12, 2026 · 5:15 am

“We truly do live in the New Gilded Age, where our elites simply do not give a fuck what it looks like.”

That was a quote from a recent post on Lawyers, Guns and Money, discussing how the current ruling class is not only shitty and corrupt, they enjoy flaunting it. In this case, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whose husband has been barred from the department due to sexual assault accusations, and who’s also spent government money to throw herself a birthday party.

Some more examples, not only of corruption but stupidity —

The DOJ’s lawyers keep getting slapped with state-level misconduct charges. Pam Bondi’s solution isn’t to make them act ethically, it’s to ban such charges so her department can investigate (yeah, right).

“Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counter intelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran. They were ousted for a simple reason: Each was involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.” Well, no way that could backfire, is there?

I don’t think assigning a 22 year old with no counterterrorism experience to lead Homeland Security’s counter-terrorism hub will work out well either. Of course all that really matters to the current administration is blind loyalty to President Toddler.

“According to MRFF President Mikey Weinstein, service members report “unrestricted euphoria” among segments of the chain of command portraying the assault on Iran as biblically sanctioned and tied to end-times prophecy in the Book of Revelation. One NCO wrote that such rhetoric is eroding morale and violating constitutional oaths, particularly for troops in Ready-Support status who could be deployed at any moment.”

“the Mahmoud opinion was the low-water water mark for the ways this court plans to use religious freedom to wash away any protections and policies that might be opposed by religious parents.” — another example of the Supreme Court’s Republicans being partisan hacks.

SCOTUS striking down the Toddler’s tariffs “is actually an indictment of the Court. These tariffs have been in effect for almost a year. They have upended whole sectors of the U.S. and global economies. The fact that a president can illegally exercise such powers for so long and with such great consequences for almost a year means we’re not living in a functional constitutional system. If the Constitution allows untrammeled and dictatorial powers for almost one year, massive dictator mulligans, then there is no Constitution.”

Can you imagine if Clinton or Harris were president and they started talking about interior decorating during a press conference on the war?

“Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) threatened Tuesday to use aggressive procedural measures to bring Senate work to a standstill if Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fails to respond to his offices’ inquiries about an immigration crackdown in Charlotte, North Carolina.” — I’m pleased Tillis has finally grown a spine now that he’s retiring. After ten years of toadying to the Toddler, it’s also too little too late.

The Toddler is now talking about conquering Cuba as well.

Conspiracy theorist and bullshit artist Chris Rufo is shocked that so many people have gone down the conspiracy-theory hole — OMG, some of them are anti-semitic and anti-Republican!

“why are these people so utterly obsessive about constantly expanding their already uncountable wealth up until the very last day of their wretched lives?

“In a video posted online last week, two detectives with the Miami Beach Police Department were filmed questioning Raquel Pacheco, a former candidate for statewide office and longtime resident of the seaside resort city, over a post she made criticizing what she said was Mayor Steven Meiner’s hypocrisy around Israel and Palestine.”

“It’s remarkable that Nuzzi (according to multiple reviewers) seems to think even now that her having an affair with a subject she was covering and whose political goals she was working to advance without disclosure in subsequent profiles and who she was running ratfucking operations on behalf of represents merely “private” misconduct, like she had an affair with some random person she met on a dating app. It’s even more remarkable that she thought it was plausible that it would remain private. And her belief that Kennedy would just fade away would be the most remarkable and damning thing if she probably wasn’t lying about that.”

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March 11, 2026 · 5:17 am

Is this a weakness or a foundation? Or both?

I am now 26,000 words into this draft of Impossible Takes a Little Longer. I’m wondering if I’m doing it right.

This draft is a big improvement because I relocated it to 1983 and that was definitely right. A lot of the worldbuilding makes much more sense if things happen in the 1980s — the Stardians and Un-Things occupying part of Dallas will play out better if they’ve only been there twenty years. Also the changes to the timeline are more manageable if I shave 40 years off them. They’re also closer to the real timeline which makes them more interesting — when it was set in the present, everything was far more unrecognizable. And I can make better use of pop culture references, such as the 1980s comic book Thriller (almost nobody remembers it, but it has a role to play).

Looking at the first 26,000 words, however, I’m thinking about a critique someone in my writing group made about the previous draft. The early chapters spend a lot of time on KC’s social relationships and unless that pays off down the road, it’s too much.

It does pay off. What happens to Skeeter Powell and Sarah Wyzbecki is vitally important, and I need to establish them as KC’s friends before the crazy stuff happens. And some of the discussion sets up themes that will play off later — violence, compassion, doing the right thing, empowering others, etc.

That said, it still feels like I’m taking too long to get to the meat of the story, the looming threat. It’s out there and KC has already had a couple of intense battles but the sense of menace I want isn’t there. I’m also thinking of the feedback I got on Southern Discomfort a couple of years back: that an urban fantasy needs urgency and tension from the start whereas I’m writing at the pace of epic fantasy, where the build can be slower.

Then again, it may be that I have enough action and menace, it’s just that there’s two chapters in a row that are heavily talky or not focusing on the main threat. If I were in the middle of Chapter Three or Four I wouldn’t feel the same. Perhaps I need some tension in the middle? Which could mean rearranging events, or simply making KC’s reaction more intense.

Not a fatal flaw, I think, but definitely a problem to be aware of as I keep going.

Cover by Trevor von Eeden, all rights to image remain with current holder.

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March 10, 2026 · 12:30 pm

Rules of war are not handcuffs on our troops. And toxic masculinity is not how we win wars.

SecDef — oh, sorry, SecWar — Pete Hegseth has made it clear that in his eyes rules of war are for sissies and wimps.

“Hegseth appears to argue that the US military should ignore the Geneva conventions and any international laws governing the conduct of war, and instead “unleash them” to become a “ruthless”, “uncompromising” and “overwhelmingly lethal” force geared to “winning our wars according to our own rules.'” Because if we fight fair, what happens when the other side doesn’t, huh? Maybe if we were as brutal and ruthless as our enemy, they’d learn better fast!”

This is bullshit on multiple levels. I’ll get to why it’s bullshit in a second. First though, I want to look at what’s behind it: toxic masculinity, the belief that men are brutal, violent creatures and indeed should be brutal, violent creatures

It’s not an attitude unique to Hegseth. Lots of right-wingers grumble that the militry accepting trans Americans and women and working to treat minorities and women fairly is too woke. As noted at the link, there’s not the slightest evidence we’re less effective in war, even though Sen. Ted Cruz whines that having a woman raised by two gay parents in the Army reduces the military to “pansies” — how can soldiers like that possibly compete with the savage brutes of Putin’s utterly masculine Russian military?

Ukraine, of course, proved that the Russian man-beasts were somewhat less than invincible. While boots on the ground are essential to hold territory, battles in the age of drone warfare are no longer about brute strength or which side has the most testosterone. However, as Paul Waldman puts it, “in a world where most men are unable to demonstrate that their upper-body strength justifies their superior social status, some are desperate to defend a physical hierarchy wherever it can be found.”

That ties in with toxic masculinity, an obsession of religious conservatives such as Hegseth (they’re for it, in case you were wondering). As Dr. Nerdlove puts it, toxic masculinity is the belief men are inherently, innately violent, sexually aggressive (rape is natural! [no, it isn’t]) and supposed to be dominant. Worse, “everything is about the performance rather than the reality. Even expressions of theoretical selflessness – the idea of “a real man provides”, for example – are at their core aimed at maintaining their masculine credentials rather than caring for the wellbeing of one’s spouse and family.”

Who judges your performance? Other men, as Celeste Davis points out (and Nerdlove too). Men police masculinity and judge other men for coming up too short — not tough enough, not brave enough, didn’t laugh at the rape joke, like whatever’s considered “girly.” It’s a paradox: this kind of manhood is supposed to embody toughness and strength but in the face of male criticism you’re expected to cave instantly.

Pete Hegseth, despite having served, seems to embody this performative aspect, spouting about how those Iraqis better be scared we are in total control of what happens, “we are punching them when they’re down,” and sure, bad things are going to happen to American troops but it’s war, it’s hell! You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few human eggs, amiright?

Now, as to the bullshit. Hegseth obviously wants a war that conforms to his toxic masculine priors, where savage American brutes are unleashed to do their worst to the Iranians. Calling for America to reject the Geneva Convention and hand-wave any rules of engagement — yeah, he’s one tough mother alpha male!

Like I said it’s bullshit. We do not have to be as ruthless/cruel/barbaric as the enemy to beat them. The Union beat the Confederacy without embracing slavery. We defeated the Axis without imposing a final solution. We won the Cold War without adopting a Soviet-style dictatorship. Conversely we lost in Iraq even though we used torture. The idea we have to sink to the enemy’s level does not hold up, nor does victory go to the most savage or cruel. It’s the military equivalent of the myth that respecting people’s constitutional rights would be a suicide pact.

On top of which, being cruel and savage is a bad thing. This isn’t a modern “woke” idea — Christians have been debating what constitutes just wars and legitimate tactics for centuries. In the words of the 1863 Army regulations, “Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral human beings, responsible to one another and to God.” Doing evil — murdering fishermen because just maybe possibly they’re transporting drugs — does not become justified because you’re now in the military. Or because you’re the Secretary of War or the Commander in Chief.

As Military.com puts it, “no competent military runs ‘no ROE,’ because U.S. forces remain bound by domestic orders and the law of armed conflict, including concepts such as distinction and proportionality. The Department of Defense Law of War Manual lays out those rules as operational obligations, not optional preferences.” As the article notes, rules can become cumbersome and overly lawyered but they give guidelines for what to do and not do. No torture (at least that was the rule before W decided to embrace “harsh interrogation” in his presidency). No executing helpless prisoners. No massacring civilians as happened in Vietnam (and of course, the butchering of Venezuelan fishing boats).

This isn’t purely about being noble: not being a brute is in our interest too. The enemy are more likely to surrender if we treat prisoners fairly. Civilian casualties “can create tactical blowback, degrade intelligence access, and strengthen enemy recruiting,” in the words of Military.com. Having rules of engagement that treat the enemy as humans is often a pragmatic strategy. Well, if your primary goal is winning rather than proving how masculine you are by terrorizing and crushing your enemy.

I think we know which way Hegseth and the Toddler of the United States prefer to go. The wrong one.

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March 10, 2026 · 5:15 am

Two by Earle Bergey

First this paperback cover. “A century ahead of her sex” refers to the adversaries being homo superior, I believe.

Second, this one, which the source credited to Bergey. Those are some comical looking aliens, aren’t they?

For more Bergey covers, click here.

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March 9, 2026 · 5:09 am

War should not be a stage for Hegseth and the Toddler president to strut upon

Pete Hegseth: “We’re playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

Actually the purpose of rules of engagement and rules of war is indeed to shackle the combatants: no bombing hospitals, no torturing of prisoners, no blowing up schools. Hegseth, having had a more distinguished career at Fox News than in the military, seems to feel there’s not enough toxic masculinity in observing such nitpicking. And that his duty as SecDef is to act tough for the camera.

I’m also bothered by that bit about how the authority was “granted personally.” As if the Necrotic Toddler he servers were King Donald (as he so wishes to be) and Hegseth were his vassal, giving orders to armed knights. What Hegseth does, he does as an official of the United States government, as does his boss. It isn’t “personal” in a sense. But as Paul Campos says at the link above, it’s striking “how many top Nazis and MAGATS share the same basic social profile, i.e., lifelong catastrophic fuckup who failed upward under conditions ripe for such people to ascend to positions for which they were farcically unqualified.” And yes, the Toddler is one of those.

Let’s step back in time. If you’re too young to remember the 2003 Gulf War, the occupation of Iraq that followed was a massive drain on our military preparedness, got lots of soldiers killed (and many, may more Iraqis), and accomplished nothing other than removing Saddam. Based on a threat of WMDs that never existed. Despite which the press were happy to gush about W as a great, great war leader — oh, how we Americans love it when our president has a swagger! He’ll destroy our enemies with the same relentlessness with which he clears brush off his Texas farmland — yes, one reporter wrote that (the media often presented W, a child of wealth and a Yale graduate, as a plain-spoken Texas farmer).

One difference is that in 2003, Democrats solidly supported W’s war. Not this time, though Republicans are all in (and so are a handful of Democrats). As the Constitution requires Congress to declare war, Republicans are declaring it can’t be a war, therefore the Toddler is in charge. The administartion’s rationale for doing it without consulting Congress is equally dubious.

And much like the Iraq war, bigots such as Laura Loomer are now declaring its time to round up American Muslims. Because …? Apparently she’s fine with Nazi tactics when they’re not directed at Jews such as herself.

The Toddler and Hegseth almost make W look like he was a competent war leader — and he was emphatically not a competent war leader. The stated reasons for rushing to war are completely inconsistent when they’re not incoherent — Iran was weeks from having a nuke (despite the Toddler declaring last year that we’d annihilated Iran’s nuclear facilities)! Israel was going to attack, Iran would have retaliated against us, therefore there was an imminent threat! It’s regime change! It’s not regime change! The toddler wants unconditional surrender! It’s because we’ve been at war with Iran for 47 years!

This has become the right-wing catchphrase of the day. It’s a lie. We’ve been hostile, but not at war. And fixating on Iran seizing our embassy 47 years ago as the start of things that we overthrew their democratically elected government and installed the Shah as our puppet dictator more than a decade earlier.

Karoline “Axis Sally” Leavitt is faux-outraged that the press a)mention the war dead on the front page and b)quote Hegseth accurately. Why can’t they say how wonderful her boss is? She does that constantly, but she’s lying. While I realize the press secretary is supposed to stick up for their employer, that’s no excuse: Leavitt didn’t have to take the job and become a lying fascist toady.

Hegseth is similarly whining that sure, “tragic things happen” but the press should be reporting how awesome his leadership is, not mentioning dead American soldiers on the front page (and he’s definitely not mentioning allegations an Iranian warship we torpedoed may have been unarmed, and we knew it).! He’s also an idiot when he claims “the terms of this war will be set by us at every step” — no, they won’t be. The Iranians have a say too. Hell, the Toddler and “Whisky Pete” can’t even decide whether this is a quick decisive strike and possibly being in Iran or bombing them, for months or years. “But many reports suggest that the United States doesn’t have enough left in its weapons stockpiles to continue the current pace of action for more than a few days without dangerously weakening the military’s ability to counter other threats, such as a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan.” A Kuwaiti fighter shot down three American F-15s in error; those aren’t cheap either. Our Navy may not be able to provide the Toddler’s promised merchant vessel protection.

It’s going to hit our economy hard. By interfering with the oil flow, the Toddler’s making the case for renewable energy — solar power can’t be cut off in a time of war.

We’re talking spending billions to make the Toddler and his SecWar feel like they’re real men. There’s lots we could do with that money. As usual Republicans only care about the budget when they object to doing stuff that helps people (W left office after racking up record red ink too). And no, the press are not making the Toddler and Hegseth look bad — they’re self-owning.

“The White House has helped MAGA influencers escape the Middle East on a private jet while more than a million ordinary Americans are still trapped with no way out.” Paul Krugman: “U.S. officials have urged all Americans in the region to leave, but they did so after almost all flights had been canceled. Only now are they saying that they’re going to arrange flights on military aircraft and charter flights — an airlift that will have to be immense given that there are surely tens of thousands of Americans currently stranded. Did I mention that Trump and co. clearly went to war without a plan?”

As for regime change: “Asked who he would like to take over Iran, Mr. Trump gave a strikingly blunt answer. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. “So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”” However he’s asserted it should be his decision who takes the reins.

A few final notes:

How about betting markets on the war’s outcome? Their spokespeople insist they don’t do bad stuff like bet on the deaths of the enemy leaders but “it’s just that the company would rather let you bet on the deaths and suffering of civilians rather than dictators and presidents. Betting that Khamenei would stay in power is an explicit bet that he would be allowed to continue silencing dissent and killing those who oppose him; betting that he would be deposed is an explicit bet on what has already become a very deadly, illegal regional war.

The Toddler, who’s been in shit fits because South Korea and Brazil arrested their presidents for crimes, wants a pardon for Netanhayu. Here’s a counter-argument for ending our close relationship with Israel.

The reports of Christian military officers proclaiming this is the start of Armageddon may be inaccurate. Though plenty of right-wing preachers outside the military make a similar claim.

Russia’s providing Iran with intelligence about our operations. The Toddler doesn’t care.

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March 8, 2026 · 5:15 am

Captain America at the Oz bicentennial!

More than a decade ago, I listed Steve Englehart’s Captain America run as one of my top 10 favorite comics. It was an unpleasant shock when he left the book, Cap-creator Jack Kirby took over and proceeded to ignore everything Englehart had developed in favor of doing his own thing (for reasons explained here, Kirby wanted to ignore the rest of the Marvel Universe as much as possible). I’ve been following Alan Stewart’s recounting of the Kirby run and I can safely say I don’t like it any better than I did at the time. While I admire a lot of Kirby’s Silver Age and Fourth World work, at this point nothing he was doing impressed me (e.g., Devil Dinosaur).

Discussion on Alan’s blog got me to check out CAPTAIN AMERICA’S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES, one of the big treasury-edition books DC and Marvel were putting out back then — bigger size, bigger price, more profit per issue.

The story, such as it is, has the mystical Mr. Buda challenging Captain America about his belief in America, then sending him across time to experience it: the Chicago fire, a boxing bought with heavyweight legend John L. Sullivan, helping John Brown’s son protect a runaway slave, inspiring Betsy Ross in her design for the new flag she’s working on. There’s no plot, just a set of set pieces followed by an uninspired Why America Is Cool message. Like most of Kirby’s work after his return to Marvel, this had my wondering why people thought Kirby was such a genius.

I had more fun with ULTIMATE OZ UNIVERSE: The Lost Lands by Cullen Bunn and Mike Deodato. It’s the kick off of a new Oz series, adapting Land of Oz with Ozma of Oz to follow (I’m curious if they thought the ur-book was done too much, worried about flak from MGM which made the ’39 movie or what). It looks good —

— stays close enough to the story to satisfy me and the changes (adding a special ops Oz team working for Glinda, amping up Mombi’s powers) don’t annoy me. The exception is that I’d have preferred the Hungry Tiger and Cowardly Lion as animals rather than biped beast-men, and that in stripping Wogglebug of his personality as pompous academic, they’ve made him utterly blad. I’m also surprised given the reveal, that they don’t lean into the trans overtones. Still, a solid start.

Art by Kirby and Deodata, all rights to images remain with their owners.

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March 7, 2026 · 5:30 am

Choose the bear: movies about men you should avoid

Classics of the Horror Film listed THE MAGICIAN (1926) not as a classic but one with really good visuals. They have a point: director Rex Ingram gives this silent film, based on W.S. Maugham’s novel (based loosely on the life of notorious Satanist libertine Alistair Crowley) a good look, whether it’s the sinister Haddo’s ancient castle or a snake-charming ceremony. I still can’t recommend it.

Paul Wegener has a strong screen presence as Haddo, who needs the heart-blood of a virginal young woman for his plan to create a homonculus. His solution is to entrance young, beautiful Alice Terry away from her fiancee and marry her, though he doesn’t lay hands on her. Can her sweetheart rescue her before the fatal hour? There isn’t enough of a story here to work for me and the fight over Terry comes off less like a struggle with evil and more like a domestic melodrama. “This is the song of the wheel that spins — who loses today, tomorrow wins!”

While I thoroughly disliked Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, TYG caught her WUTHERING HEIGHTS (2026) Valentine’s Day weekend and liked it so much she wanted to see it again, with me. Good call on her part — this is a much better film.

Catherine (Margot Robbie) is the child of a drunken, wastrel, living on their slowly decaying estate with her companion Nelly (Hong Chau — her ethnicity is explained by being a byblow of Cathy’s father in his younger days, IIRC). When dad brings home an abused boy he rescued to serve as a pet for her, Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) becomes instead Cathy’s soulmate, leading to obsessive love, insane jealousy and ultimately tragedy (it’s a 200 year old book, I don’t think that’s a spoiler).

I’ve never read the novel, though TYG says they softened the edges of the characters some; even so they still come across as awful people. The performances are excellent and as TYG told me, the look of the film is breathtaking — Fennell and her cinematographers manage to make every scene look cool. “If I thought you meant that, I’d slit my own throat.”

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March 6, 2026 · 5:15 pm

Everything everywhere all at once on Monday!

As I said last month, when I budgeted time off for emergencies into my year’s goals, I didn’t anticipate losing a week to dog problems this soon.

Similarly, while I budgeted several hours for errands into my plans for March, I didn’t expect to use them up last Monday.

I knew it would be a long day because we were taking the dogs to their PT session and it included Plushie’s recheck, adding time. Plus TYG had a couple of necessary errands on the way home, adding time. Still, I’d planned for that: my writing time would be all Savage Adventures. Proofing it doesn’t require the same creative energy as writing fiction and if the workday broke into chunks I could adapt to that too.

Unfortunately Trixie had been peeing in the house the past couple of days, or getting really frantic to go out, so we’d scheduled an afternoon vet visit for her. Still had hopes of getting stuff done … but on the way to PT, our rear left tire took a nail. No immediate threat — it served as its own hole plug — but once we got back I had to take it down to a tire place. They said probably a half-hour; it wasn’t. In fairness I’d asked about patching and they decided it needed replacing. I thought about getting a second opinion but TYG said go ahead and pay it. I was happy not to take more time.

So Monday was a wash as far as doing anything writerly. An hour of Savage Adventures, nothing more. However Trixie’s on antibiotics for a UTI and improving and the rehab vet is very pleased with Plush Dudley’s progress — we may not see much improvement but she doesn’t anticipate things getting worse or having to go through another surgery. Yay.

That said, the week went reasonably well; it helped that The Local Reporter is still on hiatus (I do hope we’re back in action soon, though). I got about 10,000 words done on Let No Man Put Asunder and around 7000 on The Impossible Takes a Little Longer. Part of the work on the latter book was rewriting Chapter Two — normally I don’t go back until a draft is finished but so much bugged me about the chapter I took the time to fix it.

And that was it, other than a post about awkward film endings over at Atomic Junk Shop. Yesterday the cleaners were in and that never works out well for getting anything done. Still, getting some fiction written always feels good. Ditto knowing the dogs are in good health.

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March 6, 2026 · 5:15 am

Snowdrop: the first year

In January 2025, TYG dragged Snowdrop inside for fear the cold weather would be fatal.

After a couple of nights of wailing and hiding under furniture, he settled in quite nicely. I’m sure having Wisp around helped.

He’s very skittish about being petted. Wisp is always up for petting, he’s much more wary. And hates it when both TYG and I seem to be closing in on him.

However he’s establishing his own turf — he loves those poofs TYG recently bought (they double as bags holding extra sheets and blankets). And he’s never attempted to run out again, despite having had occasional opportunities (we try to minimize those, just in case). Overall he seems happy with his life as a pampered indoor cat: Wisp, easy food, comfortable places to sit, normal temperatures, no mosquitos—the summer before he came indoors, they absolutely mutilated his ears.

Four pets is a lot, but we’re glad the cat distribution network sent you are way, Snow-Snow. And not having to sit with you in the living room with the porch door open on freezing cold — it used to be the only way he’d come in and get warm — is a plus too.

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March 5, 2026 · 5:00 am

“A fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race”

That was Hunter S. Thompson’s line in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 discussing the Nixon/McGovern mashup. He correctly foresaw that Nixon’s victory would be a blowout and concluded “we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes and all his imprecise talk about “new politics” and “honesty in government,” is one of the few men who’ve run for President of the United States in this century who really understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been.”

That’s a lovely aspiration. It’s echoed in the closing of the Necrotic Toddler’s State of the Union (“And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder and more glorious than ever before.”) but the Toddler and his party, unlike Thompson, can’t bear to look at the dark side of America: slavery, misogyny, segregation and currently the ratcheting power of the super-rich to take over everything. Hell, those are the things they like about this country; legal equality and freedom for all are what they hate.

The Toddler’s speech invokes the idea of American exceptionalism, but as I’ve said before, American exceptionalism is cheap grace. The people who believe in it most see it not as a mission statement — let’s make America awesome! — but as a salve for their ego. They live in the greatest country on Earth, all you other people in shit-hole countries can suck it!

There are countries that can go a year or more without a mass shooting; we can’t manage a week. There are countries where police killing someone is a rare event; not here. Brazil and South Korea both jailed a president who tried to overthrow the government. China’s developed a 700 MPH bullet train; here even NYC’s successful congestion pricing program for using roads generates screams of outrage.

A big part of the problem is our commitment to hierarchy: whites, men, Christians who can’t let go of their desire to be at the top of the heap. They don’t want to earn it, they feel they should be recognized by default (i.e., Pete Hegseth) as a superior being. Like I said, even the limited steps America has already taken towards equality make them hate this country in favor of the fantasy WASP male-ruled America in their heads.

Another is money. Elon Musk buys Twitter and turns it into a right-wing cesspool; David Ellison buys CBS and now CNN and does the same. The gun industry blocks any effort at gun regulation; the auto industry propagandizes that mass transit is just a step towards putting us all in government chains. And that for all the struggles, in many ways life in the US is so good for many of us it’s easy to think it just happens naturally.

Fixing it will be a long hard struggle, and I don’t know the path to get there. But then, the same can be said of the women, POC and gay activists who looked at a country absolutely opposed to their rights, and won an impossible fight (even if they’re now having to fight it all over again, as are we all). I’ll close with the words of Andrea Pitzer: “My advice to you is that if you want to live this next year in a more beautiful world, go make that world. Make it where you are right now, without waiting for things to get worse before you decide to act, or assuming that they will get better without you taking part.”

No, wait, I’ll close less poetically but amusingly with an event in Texas. High school students staged a protest walkout over ICE. A local man attacked one of the girls. The kids kick his ass.

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