Nutshell

Good morning from my Hunker-Bunker overlooking the Puget Sound from West Seattle. It is a Wednesday morning and in about an hour I will be sitting down for an interview discussing my times and tribulations working with Alice in Chains and Mother Love Bone back in the day for an upcoming documentary on “The Seattle Sound”.

This is going to open up a lot of old wounds and sorrows for me. There are a lot of ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ moments back then where I wish I could have known then what I know now — Well, you know…

I am still sore from my treatment the other day, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was the other day. Just think: I’ve got to go through it again in a couple of weeks. Yay.

HEADS UP: Today I am going to skip parts of the news.

The hottie who murdered the CEO has had more than his fifteen minutes of fame, if you ask me.

The “51st State” is fighting back

Canada Threatens to Cut Power to U.S. Over Tariffs

Canada’s most populous province has no plans to go gentle into that good night if Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose massive tariffs on Canadian goods.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his province was putting together a list of retaliatory measures and would go so far as to cut off energy exports to the U.S. if President-elect Trump slaps Canadian products with a 25 percent tax as promised, the AP reported.

“We will use every tool in our tool box to fight back,” Ford said Wednesday after a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other provincial premiers. “We can’t sit back and roll over. We just won’t as a country. And isn’t this a shame, our closest friends and allies.”

As a major exporter of electricity to Michigan, Minnesota and New York, Ontario powered 1.5 million U.S. homes last year, a spokeswoman for Ford told the AP. Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to the news agency’s request for comment.

It wasn’t clear if other provinces planned to follow Ontario’s lead, but the idea was discussed on the call, the spokeswoman said. About 60 percent of U.S. crude oil imports and 85 percent of electricity imports come from Canada.

Trump has promised to levy a 25 percent tax on products from Mexico and Canada unless the two countries stop illegal drugs from entering the U.S. and prevent illegal border crossings.

MY TAKE:

It’s true, Canada does provide a lot of generated electricity to the border states in the US. It also provides most of the crude oil that becomes our gasoline, because the crude we produce is better suited for plastics, pharmaceuticals, and other needs. We could start getting more crude from Alaska for our gasoline needs, but we are already maxed out there.

We’ve always had a symbiotic trade partnership with Canada that has worked out fine for both sides for the most part. There may be a few small imbalances, but overall the trade between the US and Canada has been working quite well, until Donald Trump comes along and wants to change everything.

Trump knows very well, that his tariffs will cause a LOT of economic pain to the average American consumer. He just doesn’t give a shit.

But I suspect that his vow to impose high tariffs on Canada and Mexico is nothing more than tossing out a bomb and hoping that both Canada and Mexico come to the table with their tails between their legs.

Sorry, but it don’t work like that.

More from the Small-Government, Less-Regulation People…

Texas Prevents People From Owning More Than 6 Dildos. Now Lawmakers Want to Ban Sex Toys at Walmart

Texas is the land where regulation is always second, or so they say. However, it’s also a state where politicians have chosen to regulate oddly specific things, from laws allowing residents to hunt feral hogs from hot air balloons to laws outlining the number of dildos a person can own.

Recently, Texas lawmakers have set their sights on something that has become ubiquitous in recent years: sex toys in retail stores. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they want them out.

A ban on sex toys in stores. Republican Rep. Hillary Hickland is behind the proposal to ban sex toys. Earlier this week, Hickland filed HB 1549, a bill that would ban retail stores such as Walmart, Target, and CVS from selling sex toys. Under the bill, only a “sexually oriented business” will be able to sell sex toys.

MY TAKE:

I’ve always gotten a kick out of the lie that Republicans want ‘smaller, less-intrusive government with little or no regulations’. This has always been a lie. They just want THEIR regulations, that’s all.

Republicans tend to be the most intrusive group of fucknozzles that I’ve ever run across. They literally have a law in Texas that limits the number of dildoes a household can have? Are you fucking kidding me? Who decided that “six” was the magic number? Why not two? Why not seventeen? Which agency is responsible for the enforcement of this law? Do they just come in your house and start counting all the dildoes?

How much does that job pay?

Why should anyone care whether you have one dildo or dozens of them? Is there a size restriction? Color restriction? What is the maximum power allowed? I have so many questions…

Walmart has dildoes?

Maybe Walmart is different in Texas? Because I can’t think of any major department store here in Washington that carries dildoes. You’d have to go to a dedicated sex shop to get any of that stuff. Dildoes are not located in the toy department…

He’s Letting All The Criminals Go!

Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency

President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”

MY TAKE:
These were commutations, not pardons. He commuted the sentences for low-level federal pot crimes, now that roughly half the states have legalized it.

I don’t think he’s gotten around to issuing pardons for crimes.

He hasn’t made a decision to issue pre-emptive pardons yet. I am hoping that he DOESN’T issue pre-emptive pardons. I already believe the pardon thing is being abused, and issuing pardons for crimes not yet discovered or charged seems to be illegal to me. Or at least it SHOULD be illegal.

If Trump tries to go after his political enemies by arresting them and charging them with crimes, then I’d LOVE to see him try. The courts would shove it right back down his throat.

More Pardons…?

Bill Clinton may talk to Biden about preemptive pardon for Hillary so Trump can’t lock her up

Bill Clinton on Wednesday said he was willing to talk to President Joe Biden about a presumptive pardon for wife Hillary Clinton in case President-elect Donald Trump would try to lock her up.

Trump railed against Clinton in their 2016 campaign and his nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has said he thinks the former secretary of state has potentially committed crimes.

‘Lock her up,’ was a common chant about Clinton from Trump supporters. The president-elect also vowed revenge against those he calls his political enemies.

Bill Clinton, during an appearance on ABC’s The View, called any potential targeting of his wife a ‘fool’s errand.’

‘If Kash Patel is determined to make one up, he could do it, but I think if President Biden wanted to talk to me about that, I will talk to him about it,’ the former president said.

However, he then added he may not be the best person to talk about pardons. During his presidency Clinton caused a huge controversy when he pardoned billionaire Marc Rich, who had been a fugitive for decades for fraud related to making illegal oil deals and not paying more than $48 million in taxes.

‘I don’t think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power. I think it’s too — it’s a very personal thing, but it is — I hope [Trump] won’t do that,’ Clinton said.

‘Trump, you know, most of us get out of this world ahead of where we’d get if all we got was simple justice. And so it’s normally a fool’s ear and to spend a lot of time trying to get even,’ Bill Clinton added.

MY TAKE:

Trump is not going to have Hillary arrested. He’d probably continue to ignore her existence.

Paul Krugman Signs Off

Paul Krugman’s Last Column: Finding Hope in an Age of Resentment

This is my final column for The New York Times, where I began publishing my opinions in January 2000. I’m retiring from The Times, not the world, so I’ll still be expressing my views in other places. But this does seem like a good occasion to reflect on what has changed over these past 25 years.

What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the Western world, were back then and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment. And I’m not just talking about members of the working class who feel betrayed by elites; some of the angriest, most resentful people in America right now — people who seem very likely to have a lot of influence with the incoming Trump administration — are billionaires who don’t feel sufficiently admired.

It’s hard to convey just how good most Americans were feeling in 1999 and early 2000. Polls showed a level of satisfaction with the direction of the country that looks surreal by today’s standards. My sense of what happened in the 2000 election was that many Americans took peace and prosperity for granted, so they voted for the guy who seemed as if he’d be more fun to hang out with.

In Europe, too, things seemed to be going well. In particular, the introduction of the euro in 1999 was widely hailed as a step toward closer political as well as economic integration — toward a United States of Europe, if you like. Some of us ugly Americans had misgivings, but initially they weren’t widely shared.

[…]

So is there a way out of the grim place we’re in? What I believe is that while resentment can put bad people in power, in the long run it can’t keep them there. At some point the public will realize that most politicians railing against elites actually are elites in every sense that matters and start to hold them accountable for their failure to deliver on their promises. And at that point the public may be willing to listen to people who don’t try to argue from authority, don’t make false promises, but do try to tell the truth as best they can. [emphasis mine]

MY TAKE:

I always get a kick out of Hannity or some other blow-dried talking head making eight-figure salaries or a politician worth millions of bucks, rail on about “The Elites”.

There is always someone else responsible for the hell you find yourself in. It’s either those Elites or those ‘others’ who are keeping you down…

Never mind it’s the very people trying to convince you that it is someone else causing you strife, when in reality it is just them shifting the blame.

Transexuals are causing you problems. Republicans or Democrats aren’t causing you problems.
Those immigrants, those homeless, those … OTHERS aren’t the cause of your problems.

It’s always the ones trying to convince you it is someone else…

About those mysterious drones…

Homeland Security shares new details of mysterious drone flights over New Jersey

The large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off. The Morris County Republican was among several state and local lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the spate of sightings that range from the New York City area through New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia.

The devices do not appear to be being flown by hobbyists, Fantasia wrote.

Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month and have raised growing concern among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility; and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.

Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey were larger than those typically used by hobbyists.

MY TAKE:
Why can’t it be something the military is operating? Are they going to admit they are testing out drone technology?

Doing For-Profit Tax Industry’s Bidding:

GOP Calls On Trump to Cancel Direct File Program

“This is the most efficient way and cost-efficient way for millions of people to pay their taxes,” said one advocate.

Responding to the “absurd” news that more than two dozen U.S. House Republicans are calling on President-elect Donald Trump to end the Internal Revenue Service’s Direct File program, Rep. Gerry Connolly came to one conclusion: “Republicans want to make your lives more difficult.”

The Virginia Democrat wasn’t alone in denouncing a letter penned by Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) and signed by at least 27 other Republicans who called on Trump to sign a “day-one executive order” to end the free tax-filing program that allowed roughly 140,000 taxpayers to save an estimated $5.6 million in filing costs this year.

Direct File, which was introduced as a pilot program in 12 states in the last tax filing season and is set to be expanded to 24 states and more than 30 million eligible taxpayers this year, is “a free, easy way for people to file their taxes directly online with IRS,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The software allows taxpayers to keep their entire tax refund “rather than paying $150 to a sleazy tax prep company,” said the senator, adding that Republicans evidently want Americans “to keep wasting money on TurboTax,” the popular tax filing program run by Intuit, which reported a net income of $2 billion in 2023 and spent $3.5 million on federal lobbying the previous year. The private tax filing industry has spent decades lobbying to ensure a system like Direct File wouldn’t be made available to Americans.

In the letter, the Republicans claim the Direct File system is “unauthorized and wasteful” and that “the program’s creation and ongoing expansion pose a threat to taxpayers’ freedom from government overreach.”

The Republican lawmakers also sent the letter to billionaire businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s nominees to lead the proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In the letter they claim to want to protect “hardworking Americans” from the “overreach” of the IRS, but as In the Public Interest founder and executive director Donald Cohen told Common Dreams on Wednesday, the Direct File program is “incredibly popular” with those who have used it.

“This is the most efficient way and cost-efficient way for millions of people to pay their taxes,” Cohen said. “So what the Republicans want to do is make it more costly, more complicated, and more profitable for the big tax software vendors.”

MY TAKE:
NONE of the assholes pushing to eliminate this program are eligible to use it — because their tax returns are too complex for a quick-file system.

But I’m a bit confused here.

The last I looked, the GOP was kinda ‘anti-tax’ in the first place. Why in the flying fuckity-fuck are they trying to make it HARDER for people to file their returns? Why should we have to pay a middleman to pay our fucking taxes?!!!

Better yet, why do we have to file a fucking return in the first place? The IRS already knows — to the penny — what we’ve earned and what we owe. Just send us a post card at the end of the year.

Susan Collins is going to Susan Collins.

Sen. Collins undecided after meeting with Trump defense nominee Hegseth

Collins said she pressed Hegseth on allegations of heavy drinking and mistreatment of women, including a rape allegation made in 2017.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine met with Pete Hegseth on Wednesday and said she pressed President-elect Trump’s choice to be the next Pentagon chief about allegations of mistreating women and heavy drinking, as well as military matters.

The allegations against Hegseth emerged after Trump announced his intent to nominate the former Fox News host and have prompted concerns among some senators about his fitness to serve.

Hegseth has been meeting with key senators who could be influential voices or swing votes on his nomination. Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in the Senate and still have enough support to have a nominee confirmed, so all eyes are on Collins and a few other moderates who aren’t necessarily Trump loyalists.

In a brief interview Wednesday afternoon with the Press Herald, Collins said she met with Hegseth for an hour and 20 minutes and pressed him on “a wide range of policy questions as well as personal questions.” Topics ranged from military procurement reform, the role of women in the military, sexual assault in the military and his previous criticism of NATO.

Collins said she didn’t keep track of how long they discussed the personal allegations against Hegseth. She declined to characterize Hegseth’s response to her questions about the allegations and other topics.

“I’m not going to go into the details of our exchanges,” Collins said. “We covered a host of issues, and I didn’t divide up the time in segments dealing with allegations versus women in combat for example. I tried to cover virtually every important issue that I could in that period of time.”

Collins said she has not made a final decision about whether to support Hegseth.

MY TAKE:
Susan Collins always does this shit. She loves to pretend that she hasn’t made her mind up on a confirmation — even though she has always voted with the Party when it comes to nominations.

I remember when she pretended to waffle about Kavanaugh’s confirmation. She hemmed and hawwed about his abortion stance, and how he had promised her that he would always respect established law when it came to abortion. And then he did what EVERYONE KNEW he was going to do.

She had the audacity to act ‘surprised’ — which is basically her “rested botox face” look…

She’s made her mind up about Hegseth. She’s lying.