WTF-Beta

Interesting watch. Explains the reason behind several car features that have disappeared since the 'old days'. I always wondered about some of these and why we don't see them any more.

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Nice. We need this. Music is powerful.

@wtg Serious question. Are there any ramifications for lawyers abusing the law? Do they ever face sanctions? Or is it OK to twist reality and truth until it's unrecognizable? If so, what's noble about that?

ICE watchers in Maine say they were threatened by federal agents

Community members have been monitoring the activity of immigration agents in Greater Portland.

https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/ice-watchers-in-maine-say-they-were-threatened-by-federal-agents/

Millions and millions of Bezos' dollars for production and marketing. Makes him look like a damned fool.

The Guardian reports that “UK ticket sales for Melania are so far ‘soft,’ according to Tim Richards, the chief executive of Vue, one of the country’s biggest cinema operators. Just one ticket has been sold for the first 3.10pm screening on Friday at its flagship Islington branch in London, while two have been booked for 6pm.
“At the time of publication, all seats remained available for the 28 screenings of Melania at the Blackburn, Castleford and Hamilton branches.”
“The picture was slightly rosier at the Cineworld in Wandsworth, which had sold four tickets, while five backrow seats were also booked at the Cineworld in Broughton.”
So, that’s a total of 11 tickets so far.

It's outrageous. To the rest of the world, I think we're looking like a shithole country.

What's that saying? The courts won't save us, but we won't win without them. Something like that.

I made these tonight. Yummy.

Chocolate Cherry Bars

1 cup butter (or margarine)
1.25 cups sugar
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoonn vanilla
2.25 cups flour
1.25 teaspoons baking powder
.25 teaspoon salt
.25 cup nuts, chopped
.25 cup flaked sweetened cococnut
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
.25 cup maraschino cherries, drained with stems removed

Preheat oven to 375 (for 11 x 16 pan) or 350 F (for 9 x 13 pan)

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add nuts, ,coconut, chocolate pieces, and cherries to flour mixture.
Add flour mixture to the butter and sugar.
Mix well. Press into pan.

Bake 20 minutes for 11 x 16 pan; 35 minutes for 9 x 13 plan.

Coincidentally, I just read this article:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-ice-barbie-kristi-noem-thin-ice-donald-trump-stephen-miller-gregory-bovino-miscalculation/

They’re Afraid to Tell Trump.

Pathetic.

@wtg said in A turning point?:

Of course with him it's also about the last person he talked to, so if Stephen Miller gets his ear again we could be richocheting in another direction.

Keep our eyes on Maine. There was a brief altercation there over the weekend with ICE agents.

Gillibrand is hardly my favorite Dem Senator, but I'm pleased to read this.

Gillibrand Calls on GOP to Help Pass Five Remaining Bills Separately

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) put out a statement on Monday showing her support for passing the five appropriations bills in the minibus separate from the DHS bills. She asked Republicans to join Democrats in this endeavor.

“A government shutdown is completely avoidable,” Gillibrand said. “Republicans must join Democrats in advancing the other five funding bills separately and then work in a bipartisan fashion to secure reasonable reforms to restore public safety and trust for any DHS funding bill to move forward.”

• Emine Yücel

Or (as I suspect) will Trump just dig in deeper?

A number of editorials are calling out the administration today and some republicans (governors, maybe a few senators) are calling for independent investigations.

It's probably a turning point, but the question is, which way will Trump take? He could get a lot worse, or he could back off. It's hard to imagine the latter.

WaPo:

The unjust killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, marks a turning point in President Donald Trump’s second term. His mass deportation campaign has been a moral and political failure, leaving American citizens feeling outraged and unsafe.

A Border Patrol officer killed Pretti on Saturday, and the Department of Homeland Security quickly claimed that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who wanted to “massacre” agents. Yet Pretti can be seen on tape holding his phone, not a gun, in his right hand, and his left hand is empty.

The outrageous refusal by the feds to allow local authorities to properly secure the crime scene or gather evidence further inflames tensions with state and city police. The lack of accountability for federal officers has undermined the administration’s claims that this is about law and order.

WSJ:

Stephen Miller’s mass deportation methods are turning immigration, an issue Mr. Trump owned in 2024, into a political liability for Republicans in 2026. Americans don’t want law enforcement shooting people in the street or arresting five-year-old boys. The Trump Administration spin on this simply isn’t believable.

Stephen Miller, the political architect of the mass deportation policy, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” He was a nurse without a criminal record. To hear the ardent gun-rights advocates of the Trump Administration claim he had malicious intentions because he carried a concealed weapon is bizarre.

It’s worth noting the comments over the weekend by police around the country who say that this isn’t how they conduct law enforcement. This is backfiring against Republicans. Ms. Noem and Mr. Miller aren’t credible spokesmen. Their social-media and cable-TV strategy is to own the libs, rather than to persuade Americans.

NYPost:

It’s time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President. Not because you’re wrong to enforce immigration law, nor to go after fraudsters who’ve stolen billions in federal funds — but because these enforcement tactics won’t turn the tide, instead they are backfiring. Swing voters — Hispanics and independents who turned to you at the last election — see US citizens dying at federal agents’ hands, and recoil in horror.

The anti-ICE crew is getting exactly what it wants right now. People looking at a video on TikTok don’t get any of the context: All they’re seeing is a crowd of agents beating a guy onto the ground, with shots then ringing out and him ending up dead. Having Homeland Security double down now is all too likely to produce more such scenes. Nor is invoking the Insurrection Act going to fix things. Quite the contrary, it’ll backfire even worse.

Team Trump needs to cool things down, and let the American public see calm leadership. However noble the mission is to rid the country of the “worst of the worst,” the broad support for it is now ebbing fast. Mr. President, the American people didn’t vote for these scenes and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes.

Also, VT's GOP governor speaks out,

“Enough…It’s not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government. At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership. At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans. Again, enough is enough. The president should pause these operations, de-escalate the situation, and reset the federal government’s focus on truly criminal illegal immigrants. In the absence of presidential action, Congress and the courts must step up to restore constitutionality.” – Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott. The cult is reacting in standard fashion.

MTG:

“Both sides need to take off their political blinders,” she said. “You are all being incited into civil war, yet none of it solves any of the real problems that we all face, and tragically people are dying.”

What? Does she think we take her as some sort of sage? Ha! No. I appreciate that she is speaking out, but she defends an assault on the Capital, and has spent years being a disrespectful, hard line, nasty so and so. It's not like she's had a major epiphany, it seems to me. I don't trust her. Still, the more people like her who turn on the orange bastard and his fascist administration, the better.

I don't know much, but several Dem Senators have said, "no way", including Schumer, which is good to see (so long as he holds the fort). DHS funding was a separate bill in the House, which would theoretically--it seems to me--make it easy for the Senate to vote on the other bills separately to keep the government open. But I don't think it has to remain a separate vote in the Senate, and I imagine it's up to the republicans. So, not getting any hopes up. And Fetterman is up to his usual nonsense, we can count him out for sure.

Been snowing all day. Due to get 12"-18". Won't do anything until it's over, some time tomorrow. Snowblower will have it taken care of in less than an hour. Today's high, so far, is 6 F.

French Onion; Corn Chowder; Split Pea; Lentil; Cabbage; Potato & Leek: a few of my faves. Very rarely from a can.

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