25- Forced Removal is Fairness Denied

I have thought about this all day. I have thought about how to approach writing about it. I have thought about all the the F words I wanted to use. I have felt compassion for these individuals impacted. I have felt rage at those who deny those who have bled for this country and served it honorably.

I am referring to the announcement that the Air Force is early denying retirement to all of its transgender members who have between 15 and 18 years of military service. They are being forced out with no retirement benefits. According to a Guardian article even those who were approved for temporary early retirement has had the rug pulled out from under them.

And then I remembered that cruelty is the point with this bastards.

No matter that the enlisted swore to uphold the Constitution, and would obey the President and the officers above them. All they wanted to do was continue to serve their country.
No matter that the oath of office for officers (yes they are different) is that they will support and defend the Constitution, while bearing allegiance to the country.

No, these individuals served as trans members of the military, proudly, for YEARS. And then an ill wind appeared and blew it all to hell. Because the ill wind is a petty little bitch and must destroy what they don’t understand.

To recap, trans members of the Air Force who have served the country and upheld their oaths, enlisted and officer alike, have bled in service of the country, have died for their country, have continued to serve under those who do not understand, who have done their best for the Constitution and their country were targeted for attack under the current administration. Some held strong to get to their 20. Others opted to take early retirement, unable to bear the strain of the unrighteous attacks from those who should be supporting them.

To me, they were forced out. In fact they were told to leave, that they were an abomination.

All they wanted to do was serve.

In 1993, 18 year old me, newly graduated, newly moved across the country to Nebraska, newly a college student, newly dressed in uniform, stood proudly on the wool rug in my detachment’s captain’s office, raised my right hand, and swore the oath of office. I was determined to be a career officer, to study hard, to be the best nurse I could be, to protect and care for servicemen in my care. I was excited to be among other cadets as we all learned what it meant to be an officer and how to support the Constitution to the best of our abilities and with our lives if needed.

This was not to be as I suffered an Air Force career injury due to some ripped up dorm stairs the next year and I was invited to leave as I could no longer fulfill my part of the oral contract. I was weeks away from bootcamp.

What they are doing now is barbaric and is spitting on the graves of all who willingly served before.

Forced removal is fairness denied. No matter that they took the enlisted oath or the oath of office. No matter that they were under attack by those who should have cared for them. No matter that as they had the country’s back in war times, the country decided they were nothing and flicked them off like a cigarette butt when you are done smoking it.

Are you paying attention yet?

I fear that next target will be the women of child bearing age so that they can go home and have babies.

FFS Friday 8/1/25-F-in Cowards #4

Oh, my god, they pulled up the corpse of Elmo and shot him again.

Shield your eyes, children.

And just like that the path in childhood has been closed to CHILDREN. No more education programs that are not ads for toys or ads for movies or just plain ads.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced today that it has begun shut down procedures. People are being laid off, with the corporation shuttering in January 2026.

The CPB was authorized by Congress in the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act to ensure that everyone, and I mean everyone, has access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications. They used 70% of their own funding to support more than 1500 locally owned radio and television stations.

This means that the shows and the broadcasts are not trying to sell you anything.

Unlike the rest of the world.

Every minute of every day.

But, alas, this is no more because congress yanked its funding in order to give money to millionaires and billionaires in the form of tax credits.

“But, but you will get a tax credit too!”

pffft, I’ll believe it when I see it.

We certainly did not receive any money during the pandemic and those 2017 “tax cuts”? Our taxes went up. By a lot. Many thousands of dollars a lot.

No, I don’t believe you when you tell me that it was worth it.

Fucking cowards.

Mr. Rogers is very disappointed in you.

I believe Horatio in Hamlet said it best “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince/and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Or maybe Inigo Montoya when he is advancing on Count Rugen, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoyo, you killed my father, prepare to die.” Count Rugen pleads for his life in the final duel, offering Inigo all that he wants, money, power jewels anything Inigo wants.

And Inigo, stabbed, bleeding, facing down the man who murdered his father twenty years before, tells him “I want my father back, you son of a bitch.”

Let me tell you, we are all Inigo.

We want our PBS and NPR.

Again, Mr. Rogers is very disappointed in all who voted for this.

FFS 7/18/25- F’in Cowards #3

Oh, my God, they killed Elmo.

Say it along with me and Kyle “You Bastards!”

Or they are doing their damnedest too. Kill Elmo that is.

This is, of course, a riff on the long standing killing of Kenny on South Park. This is a not quite children’s show on Comedy Central.

It isn’t just Elmo. It is also Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. It is also Fresh Air with Terry Gross. It is also Sesame Street, writ large. It is also Masterpiece Theater. It is also PBS Newshour. It is also Antiques Roadshow. It is also Ken Burns’ myriad historically important history programs. It is also Morning Edition. It is also may podcasts that go beyond the story. Hey, that is a good point, it was also Paul Harvey.

This is when the big bad budget that was passed in March, with Chuck Schumer’s reluctant support, was deemed by some people to be too “woke” and so their leader decided that there needed to be a claw-back to money that has already been approved for things like NPR, PBS, and foreign aid.

As always, the more poor people are punished for being poor by the richest congress that lobby money can buy, the better for the richest congress that lobby money can buy.

For why?

Because we as a society don’t deserve nice things, apparently.

After all, if children watch PBS and see everyone being kind to the Muppets or learn something, they will be tainted. And infected with the so called “woke mind” virus.

Many people who voted for this stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid (did I write stupid yet?) bills in the last two weeks have come out to their outraged constituents as being unhappy with the bill. Cough, cough, Josh Hawley, Lisa Murkowski. Look at you trying desperately to save your jobs from your rightly outraged constituents.

Um, if the congressperson or senator doesn’t like a bill, there is a REALLY simple and EASY solution. Don’t vote for the fucking thing!!!!!!!!!!!

Grow a back bone or develop a set of balls or ovaries and stand up for your constituents! Stop listening to the minority who have the megaphone at the moment and start listening to the everyday Americans who have been calling your offices and standing up to you at town halls.

Stand up for the people who sent you there!

Stand up for your children and your grandchildren, for the god you profess to believe in’s sake!

Stand up to the wannabe tyrant at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

For fuck’s sake, the Founding Fathers would be so disappointed in your lack of care for those you wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.

Fucking cowards, the whole lot of you!

FFS Friday 7/4/2025- freedom*

Today is the 4th of July and our nation’s independence day.

The asterisk? Well, let’s talk about it.

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the asterisk is used as an indication of the omission of letters or words.

Independence through resolution in three parts: separation from the British Crown, a call to form foreign alliances, and a plan for confederation. Seems simple enough.

This means that we were separating from England and all that entailed, looking for friends that were not England, and grouping together. This grouping of people is also known as a confederacy.

No, not that one. The original one.

At the time the new country was a group of people who wanted to leave British rule and strike out on their own. With their own laws and their own ways of doing things. Where no king could wave his fat white hand and make nonsense rules for everyone.

Sound familiar? America just had a multi-million people nationwide protest on June 7, 2025 about it.

At the time to be a voting member of this new society you had to be a land owner, white, and male.

And that was it.

Women need not apply.

Slaves that were forcibly brought here from Africa and sold to these men need not apply.

Men who did not own property need not apply.

In the nearly two hundred and seventy five year history, these marginalized groups have fought and bled and died to be seen as a citizen. As a voter.

Strides were made. And the rich white men were not happy about it.

White men who were not property owners were granted the right to vote in 1787.

Slaves earned their ability not to be owned by another human with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

Black men earned the right to vote in 1870.

Women earned the right to vote in 1920.

Poll taxes that were just racism by another name were abolished in 1964. As was segregation.

America has a checkered past and those of us who were not thought of or dismissed as not a person in the original documents has fought for every single step along the way.

And those who don’t think women are people or black people are people or native Americans are people have fought tooth and nail to maintain their grip on control.

Inch by inch, legislation by legislation, the rights that were bled for and wept over and fought for are being taken away by rich old white men who remember the “good old days”. When non white people were property of the whites and women were kept under their husband’s thumb.

That is the meaning of the asterisk in today’s post title.

Freedom for old rich white male property owners.

Crickets for everyone else.

Tuesday Top of Mind 7/1/25- Congratulations, senate! You have invented a new kind of stupid!

The song Congratulations from Hamilton begins with Angelica yelling at Alexander “Congratulations, you have invented a new kind of stupid. A damage that you can never undo kind of stupid.”

I was on tenterhooks all weekend. Waiting out the inevitable.

So this terrible bill has been top of mind all weekend. Which is exhausting.

You know, when exactly 50 of our senators bent over and took it. And said “Thank you, daddy, might I have another.”

A gross analogy but these are gross times.

This is when fifty of our senators did the unthinkable and consigned their constituents to the wolves.

Yes, some of them held their noses and voted.

Yes, three senators crossed the aisle and voted against the big ugly bill. Albeit for different reasons.

Rand Paul of Kentucky opposed the bill because it will add TRILLIONS to the deficit. And that was just a bridge too far. Not because of all the women and children and disabled people who will be tossed off the Medicaid roles. No. Because of money.

Thom Tillis of North Carolina (troll that he is) found at least one of his balls and voted against the bill. Because he knows what we all know, that many North Carolinians are in danger because of this passage.

Susan Collins of Maine also knows what we all know, that many of her Maine constituents will be in danger after the Medicaid cuts go fully into effect in 2026.

They are counting on us to forget this travesty.

You know who won’t forget they sold us down the river? Alaskans.

Lisa Murkowski played a will she or won’t she game all weekend. But in the end she voted for it after she secured some carve outs for Alaskans. The carve outs were then rebuked and removed by the Parliamentarian. So she got little for her trouble.

This ugly monstrosity of a bill now goes back the House of Representatives.

Man those phones and call your representative now.

Call them tomorrow.

Call them the day after.

Get your parents to call. Get your siblings to call.

CALL them incessantly.

Mail them congratulations cards.

Congratulations on being cowards.

Remind them that they serve at our pleasure. Well, in North Carolina, they serve at the pleasure of the gerrymandered districts and the lopsided government that the state legislature willed into being. But that is a post for another day.

There will be more coming but I have to end with f’in cowards, the lot of them.

Post-script- I heard back from the other North Carolina senator. Did I call him a coward in my email message? You bet I did.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war

The title is a direct Shakespearian quote. It is a line spoken by Marc Antony in the play Julius Caesar. It is chaotic times like these that make me turn philosophical and remember that we’ve all been here before. Many, many, many times. In a call back to the June 13’s dispatch about too numerous to count. I was referring to cultures at the time but pretend war also fits.

There is a moment in Hannah Gadsby’s 2020 comic special “Douglas” when they are explaining that we don’t hold men accountable for their hormonal actions, instead society holds women accountable.

The audience claps and cheers that sentiment and they snap to the audience “It’s bait, you fucking idiots. It’s bait, leave it.”

This part of the bit is particularly genius.

It is at once acknowledging that society does women dirty by making us shoulder the entire weight of the world while at the same time cooing at the men and praising them for the fucking bare minimum. It is telling women that there is nothing wrong with how things are and if the women feel like there absolutely is, gaslighting women into toeing the line.

In the comedy special they go on “It’s not for you. Fuck. It’s not a rally.” To me this brings to mind all the political rallies that a certain president was giving, trying desperately to hold on to the job that he very much did not want, but enjoyed the special treatments that he got because of this. Also this was released in 2020, bringing that chaotic time specifically to mind.

This time with the same president is also chaotic as fuck. On purpose. Again.

The truest thing they said during the special is that “Confidence makes (Americans) stupid”.

And it truly does.

Individually we are not stupid, but collectively some of us are. Some of us know that the bombing of “nuclear” sites in Iran was bait. And some of us hang on every word that the president utters.

Why is it bait?

Well there were the dramatic “No Kings” protests on June 14th. Millions of Americans (I have heard estimates from 4 million to over 10 million) took to the streets to declare that America is not a place for Kings. No matter how the president wants to be made a king.

Making spurious and curious bombing decisions. A tanking economy that had been the envy of the world less than 6 months ago. A federal bank that won’t cut interest rates. Thousands of research projects that had the potential to save lives and relieve suffering wiped out by disastrous policies. Leaning in to the echo chamber about vaccines, regardless of them being wrong. A beyond catastrophic bill in the Senate that the House of Representatives passed only because 2 Democratic reps had died in the month before and were not yet replaced. Not to mention the tanking, and I mean tanking, approval ratings.

That same day there was a fairly disastrous military parade through the streets of the nation’s capital. Low turnout, sloppy marching, miserably huddled guest of honor.

He had to distract from last weekend somehow.

And what is the best distraction?

Millions of Americans being forthright about hating you.

What’s a president have to do to get the heat off? Bomb a sovereign county that your own intelligence head said had no nuclear bombs or capabilities.

Which is what the asshole did.

Remember this is how the then president got us into the Iraq War II. Lying about weapons of mass destruction? Where trillions of dollars were spent and thousands of American lives were lost? It feels very much like that. We were lied to then too.

Because we do.

The American public has been very outspoken about not wanting war.

We are very tired of war.

But you had to do something to change the narrative.

Too bad it was getting you out of the boiling pot and putting the rest of us in the fire.

See also Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”. I’ve written about this before. It is a poem about the atrocities of World War I and the agonies of the front line.

FFS Friday 5/30/25- F’in 5th circuit appeals court

Double F today.

Last week, the rage baiting 5th circuit appeals court. Yes, the same one that has been used as a basis for a Supreme Court judgement superhighway. You know, forum shopping. Also known as court shopping where the right judgement can be bought by choosing the right judge and getting on their calendar.

According to Merriam Webster, forum shopping is the “practice of choosing the court in which an action from among those courts that could properly exercise jurisdiction based on a determination of which court is likely to provide the most favorable outcome”.

The favorable outcome is, of course, a case to be adjudicated by the wildly biased and conservatively weighted Supreme Court. Then the Supreme Court can issue a for or against ruling, depending on the circumstances, that will warp this country to the will of the people who were court shopping.

We know their game. We have seen it in the relentless battering of some people against things THEY personally don’t like and don’t agree with. After all, why should people be allowed to love who they love. And marry them. I am looking at you people who want to overturn Obergefell. Or the shrill voices who pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed against Roe v. Wade for fifty years until they got the result they wanted.

Remember?

Yeah, so those same judge (forum) shoppers are also against books that they don’t like. We’ve seen it in the book bans. No matter that they don’t have to read the books, the book banners want no one to have to right to read whatever the reader wants. They bleat save the children when it really isn’t about the children, never has been. But that’s a rant for another time.

Book banning at schools has reached a fever pitch over the last forever. Well, at least, that’s what it feels like. They are a slow erosion of America’s rights. And I think contribute to the dumbing down that we’ve been experiencing in society.

Yeah, yeah, Kate, we know. But did you know the newest gambit?

Last week the 5th Circuit Appeals Court effectively said that books in schools were the purview of the government and not subject for 1st Amendment rights.

The government is arguing that the books are the property of the government and therefore are immune from 1st Amendment rights arguments.

That is not a typo. I just find it so outrageous that I had to type it twice.

The Fifth Circuit Appeals court has fired a missile against a citizen’s right to receive and have information. In fact, Judge Kyle Duncan wrote those very words in the judgement, “that the First Amendment of the US Constitution does not grant a right to receive information.”

Are they reading the same U.S. Constitution that I am? Or is it the thought that we can have free exchange of information uninfected by harmful rhetoric and without bias that they object to?

I am chilled by the idea that words are not freely expressed in a written format are not, in fact, free. And that I, as an American citizen born in this country, does not have the right to information that they might object to.

Do they know how words work? Or are they just a shill for their corporate overlords who want the book banners to control what is written and read by EVERYONE and is trusting in the slow drip of poison getting them their way.

After all, it worked against Roe.

This is screaming capitals DANGEROUS!

Trust me, I’m a woman and I’ve seen this before. I’ve watched my right to own my body be dismantled. Even though we could see the train wreck coming and tried warning against it. For literal years.

Listen to Uncle Steven (King) on the subject, kids. “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned.”

FFS Friday 5/23/25- f’in cowards- part 2

Well that vote finally happened with the conclusion that they all wanted.

215- yea.

214- nay- including two republicans. Good for them and thank you.

There was also two that just didn’t vote and 1 who voted present. I guess so they can look themselves in the mirror tomorrow. Or brag to those they will BEG to reelect them, promising to do better next time. They are the real villains of this piece.

Except for those 2 the vote was on party lines. Too bad for the Democrat representative that died this week. Gerry Connolly of Virginia.

RIP. You should have retired. Did you learn nothing from the lesson of Ruth Bader Ginsburg? And why oh why does this keep happening. The last 8 congressional deaths were democrats. Maybe look to the younger candidates instead of wiping the assess and mouths of the gerontocracy.

But I digress.

This fucking bill- Why?

Because this is a fucking abomination of a bill.

It strips money from suffering people in so very many ways.

It strips healthcare away from struggling people. By ending Medicaid. Fun fact, Medicaid has many different names depending on the state. There are going to be a LOT of angry and desperate people when their medications suddenly quadruple or higher.

It takes food out of the mouths of babies and children. By nearly ending SNAP benefits. I have known people on SNAP and they were 1) struggling and 2) working. What now?

It kicks grandma out of the retirement home. Because of the decrease in Medicaid. Which we fucking told you was fucking coming. Better clear out the spare bedroom because she’s coming home.

It is a death knell to the declining hospitals in the rural South and everywhere because it ends Medicaid. The already high number of hospital closures is about to go to stratospheric numbers.

But don’t worry there is some good in it. For those who want to buy a tanning bed. The excise tax on it has been decreased. Of all fucking things, of course.

Here is the end of democracy, have to put a cherry on it for their corporate masters.

It is cruelty and project 2025 marked up pretty like. So that they could lie and make pretty speeches about while picking your pocket at the same time.

The end goal is to provide a multi-trillion dollar tax break to those who DO NOT NEED IT! The billionaire class that Nixon started and Reagan fostered and the current president has egged on. Because he is one?

Next it heads to the Senate.

Upon wake up to this piece of bullshittery, I immediately wrote the two senators in my state.

I told them to vote no on the senate bill.

I told them to find their balls.

I told them their grandparents and grandkids would be ashamed of them.

I told them that I, a citizen of their state, wanted them to vote no. This is to take care of people who are citizens in their state, who failing and will fail harder with a yes vote.

I also did a hand written series of cards with a lot less nice wording on it.

I lambasted the reps in my state.

Being the OR nurse that I am I have to wonder what is their end-game?

Slavish obedience to their one true god of a president.

Slavish obedience to the people whose money they will NEVER reach.

Or is the cruelty the point?

Cowards, the lot of them.

Grow a set, will you?

And also get a replacement rep in there ASAP.

The time for mourning will come but now is the time for action.

Write and call as much as you can.

Remind them that they work for us, not the billionaires.

Remind them that they have to be reelected in 18 short months.

Remind them that while some in their district won’t have the energy or the capacity to remember who is to blame for their new worse circumstances, some of us have fucking long memories and will be sure to remind them.

Over and over and over and over.

Your grandparents and grandkids are ashamed of you kicking the other old people and stealing food from the babies.

For shame!

Tuesday Top of Mind 5/20/25- Adriana Smith, a cautionary tale

Somewhere in a hospital in Georgia a woman lies dead. Her body is being illegally hijacked by the state’s abortion bill and is serving as a dead host to a parasite. Without her permission, against her family’s wishes and permission.

It does not matter that this parasite is a child to be.

It does not matter to the state that she was a nurse.

It does not matter to the state that she was a mother to a five year old little boy who is now confused and

It does not matter to the state that she was a daughter.

It does matter matter to the insurance company who will not pay this astronomical hospital bill because the policyholder has been declared brain dead 12 weeks ago.

It matters that her headaches were not treated appropriately.

It matters that her five year old son cannot conceive that his mother is dead and he thinks that she is sleeping.

It matters that the fetus has been without stimulation from the mother for 12 weeks. No one knows what that does to the fetus.

It matters to women everywhere because we knew this was coming and were unable to stop it.

This is medical experimentation of the worst kind. This smacks of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cancer cells.

Be mad for her.

But be mad at the crazy politician who wrote the abortion ban in such a way that allows for the state to deny this woman a peaceful passing.

Be mad at the mad scientist who just wants to see what they can do with the bill and how far they can push medical knowledge.

Be sorrowful for Adriana Smith’s family, especially the 5-year old, and the mother who has to watch her child be experimented on with no consent granted.

But be mad at the political machinery that has been put in place to prey upon this woman and her family and the child who may never be.

Most importantly, when this fails and this fetus dies a horrible death, stay mad.

Most importantly, when this fails and this fetus survives into a family that is shocked and appalled at this science fiction bullshit, stay mad.

I have written it before and often. This kind of chicanery is about control.

Only now they have added medical experimentation on top of it.

But stay mad.

Stay vocal.

Tell the mad scientists that there will be no more experimentation without consent. Tell the mad scientists that we are ashamed of them and their ancestors are ashamed of them.

Call this what it is, Handmaid’s Tale bullshit.

A nugget of information that I learned very recently is that Margaret Atwood was intentional about the scenes that she wrote. Nothing that happened to any of the women, to any of the Handmaids, was plucked from history.

Be careful out there.

Tuesday Top of Mind 5/6/25-Missouri is trying to pull a fast one on abortion rights that they just got back

Send abortion rights back to state? That was the plan after the supreme court released the Dobbs decision, right? After all, restoring the power back to the states would make sure that your state made the right decision. Well, right in more ways than one.

Changing the state constitution or passing an amendment protecting a woman’s right to bodily autonomy is never done quickly. It takes a lot of time to gather signatures and gin up support. It takes more time to get the regular public excited about the measure, hopefully enough to get out to the polls.

There were seven states that passed abortion right legislation in the November 2024 election. There were 10 states with abortion related constitutional amendments with on their ballots. The states that wanted to protect abortion rights and enshrine them into the state constitution were Montana, Nevada, Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, Maryland, Wyoming, and Florida. The state that wanted further curtailing of a woman’s right to bodily autonomy was Nebraska. Wyoming and Florida were unable to pass their measure but so was Nebraska. Nevada has a 2 election pass/fail test, and they are half way there. These states join Ohio and Kansas and California and Vermont and Michigan in protecting abortion rights.

Of the seven states Missouri’s state legislature is throwing a temper tantrum. It’s not fair, they whined. People didn’t know what they were voting for, they cried! We deserve a mulligan, they challenged.

Eye roll.

I mean they’ve done everything a spoiled brat would do except stomp their little feet and threaten to hold their breath.

Pouty McPoutyton.

Well, they are kind of doing the last one.

They have put in place as many roadblocks as they possibly could. Including many bills in the state legislature about classifying abortion pills as a controlled substance, and legislation to treat abortion as a homicide. Also they have stopped allowing abortion pills to be prescribed.

But their favorite is crying foul on the Amendment 3. The amendment showed that women will be dying in hospital, unable to receive medical care.

Show me the lie.

Better yet, ask Texas or Georgia.

Best yet, google deaths post Dobbs decision in states that outright ban abortion. Cough, cough, Texas.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

But the women who need this often life saving care can’t.

Women have died, are dying, and will continue to die without access to abortion.