We’ve had seven years and counting of Hitler and Nazi references directed at Trump and his supporters, but in recent months we’ve had an opportunity to see who the real Jew-haters are in our country. And they’re not MAGA Republicans. Amazingly, the Hitler references continue. They haven’t stopped. This seems self-destructive. We’ve had seven years and counting of “Democracy is in danger” from a party that rigged the 2016 Presidential primary so Bernie Sanders wouldn’t win, rigged the 2020 Presidential primary so Bernie Sanders wouldn’t win, colludes with intel agencies, corporate media and Big Tech to lie, spy and censor. Amazingly, “Democracy is in danger” continues, even as they prosecute political opponents and take names off ballots. You can’t vote for the wrong candidate if his name isn’t on the ballot, right? Forget democracy. Democracy is dead. We had to take away your right to vote for the candidates of… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Asking for Help
Home Alone, Too
Feel-Good Marketing
Over the past few years, marketing has become much more inclusive in terms of using models of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, not retouching the photos, etc., rather than saturating our lives with images of flawless, unattainable beauty. Why is this not a terrible idea? Of course, we’re all beautiful in our own way, but from a marketing perspective, the ideal consumer is someone who is anxious, depressed and constantly dissatisfied. Academic studies from the most respected institutions show that sad people are bigger spenders. Helping people feel better about themselves the way they are may be laudable, but it doesn’t make the cash box jingle. P.S. I’ve never worked in marketing but I think I’d be good at it. Although I would also hate it. Read more →
I Know When You’re Awake
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rick Sanchez (@rsfit) Read more →
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of
Sometimes when two people are leaving each other’s company, one of them will say as a parting shot, “Stay out of trouble.” It doesn’t make sense, except as something to say to someone who’s in serious trouble all the time. Otherwise, it sounds like the speaker is trying to position both people involved as affable rakes who might stir up a bit of naughty fun from time to time, no harm done, that sort of thing. When someone says “Stay out of trouble” to me, I respond by saying “You too” and then Swatting them. Read more →
Why Popular Music is Rubbish
Almost all the female singers have the same voice, like a half-mumbling toddler. The male singers have a broader range but not a lot broader: the screamer, the effeminate and the high school dropout. But the main problem is that whoever is writing the songs, it is just not their destiny to be songwriters. There’s a complete lack of imagination, resulting in only a few themes, endlessly recycled: I love you I love you and you love me I love you and you don’t love me I love you but you left Let’s fuck Read more →
A Few More Reasons Teachers Don’t Want Parents to Know What Their Kids Are Doing at School
Newlywed Iowa Teacher, 24, Accused of ‘Engaging in Sexually Oriented Acts’ With 3 Students as Young as 13 Special Education Teacher Charged With Sexually Touching 7 Boys at New Jersey Elementary School Teacher Charged With Raping Child Under 13 Says She’s Pregnant Teacher, 33, Charged With Raping Student She Met at 14 and Who Fathered Her Baby at 17 Read more →
A Lone Individual
But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you–MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate on that which I am. — Henry Miller, Black Spring Read more →
The Day the Delusions Died
The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot. To put it another way: when Black Lives Matter organizations are lionizing Islamist terrorists by posting a paraglider logo, you’d be a fool not to reassess things. — Bari Weiss and Oliver Wiseman Read more →
Don’t Kill the Message
As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but probably leaning increasingly right, I am left yet again with an appreciation, despite the messenger, of the message of the Trump administration because what those guys did was pretty incredible in hindsight. So much of the work that happened in that administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what is so frustrating for me. The work on the border wall? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right. Issuing long-term debt to refinance when rates were at zero? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. A structural peace in the Middle East? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. When are we gonna stop shooting ourselves in the foot? And when are we going to actually see and take… Read more →
Israel’s 9/11
Today should mark the end of the Biden administration’s dishonorable effort to reenter the Iran nuclear deal and its string of disgraceful and one-sided concessions to Hamas’s biggest backer. Biden gave Iran access to frozen money, most recently $6 billion that had been frozen in South Korean banks. Since the administration came into office, it has been pouring money into Gaza aid projects knowing well that Iran’s client terrorist group, Hamas, is fully in control of the territory and would benefit from the help. In fact, Biden officials put in writing, in recently leaked documents, that they knew Hamas would benefit from the money they were sending. They sent it anyway. — Noah Pollak Read more →
True and False Statements About Trans People
Report: Trans People Seven Times More Likely Than Cisgender People to Experience Violence In California An annual report detailing how many Californians were the victims of violence over the past year finds a slight dip in reported violence among most populations, but a sharp increase in reported violence against transgender people. — sfist.com (emphasis added) Nothing I say here is intended to disparage trans people . . . I’m fine with adults doing what they want, dressing the way they want, acting the way they want, with a few minor restrictions — keep your hands to yourself, that sort of thing. I don’t really care about trans people. But I take exception to being lied to by people advancing an agenda. That said, the report mentioned in the article above is based on the fourth annual California Violence Experiences Survey, conducted by UC San Diego and Tulane University. If you… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Brooks Robinson
Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, the “Human Vacuum Cleaner,” has died at the age of 86. Robinson played his entire 23-year career with the Orioles. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games and earned the 1964 AL Most Valuable Player award after batting .318 with 28 home runs and a league-leading 118 RBIs. He won 16 consecutive Gold Gloves. He was the best-fielding third basemen I’ve ever seen. Robinson’s most memorable performance came as MVP of the 1970 World Series, a five-game triumph over the Reds, He hit .429, homered twice and drove in six runs. In Game 1, Robinson delivered the tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning. One inning earlier, he made a sensational backhanded grab of a hard grounder hit down the line by Lee May, spun around in foul territory and somehow threw out the runner. Robinson contributed an RBI single in the second… Read more →
Clapping for Nazis
The photo shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other members of the Canadian Parliament giving a standing ovation for Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian World War II veteran who later immigrated to Canada. Let me put this in hockey parlance so the Canadians can understand it. This is what’s known as an “own goal.” It’s hard to figure out how this happened, because Hunka’s introduction included the fact that he fought against Russia in WWII. Did no one think “Why was he fighting Russia? Russia was on our side.” It turns out that he was fighting Russia because he was in the Waffen-SS, i.e., he is (or was, at least) a Nazi. House Speaker Anthony Rota, who invited and introduced Hunka, has since resigned, and Trudeau has issued an on-brand non-apology apology. I haven’t heard that Zelenskyy said anything, but if he did, it was probably… Read more →
A Mystery of the Digital Censorship Era
A mystery of the digital censorship era is the ease with which its core ideas have been sold to people who were its fiercest initial opponents. The closer you look at mechanisms now used to isolate, remove, disrupt, and spy on everyone from environmentalists to antiwar activists to anti-mandate or anti-lockdown protesters, the more easily you’ll see a direct line to high-profile civil liberties controversies of two decades ago. The modern Internet surveillance state was born in programs bitterly opposed then by left-leaning intellectuals, of the type who subscribed to The Nation and carried NO BLOOD FOR OIL signs while protesting war in Iraq. — Matt Taibbi Read more →
A Beautiful Day in the Great State of Iowa
View this post on Instagram A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) Read more →
OnlyPans
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Isabella Maria DeLuca (@isabellamdeluca) Read more →
Robbie Robertson, 1943-2023
RIP Robbie Robertson Read more →
Success!
This is an actual job posting. I don’t know if I’d want to take success tips from someone making 22 bucks an hour . . . Read more →