Sorry if I’m out of sorts lately; trying to figure how one remains sane in a country collectively underreacting being governed by a cabal of convicts and pedophile protectors, disappearing people in real-time, telling us someone ELSE is dangerous
When Massachusetts passed a "millionaires tax" in 2023, conservatives claimed the rich would flee. But two years later, they haven't — and MA has collected $5.7B for infrastructure and public education. A reminder that positive change can still happen at the state level.
(The Village Voice - May 5, 1980) -- “Trump Evicts Stroke Victim”
For more than 30 years Mary Filan — widowed, 74 years old, and half-paralyzed from a recent stroke — has lived in apartment 6B, 143-15 Barclay Avenue in Flushing. Last Friday afternoon, she answered the insistent doorbell, only to be pushed aside by the henchmen of city marshal Norman Katz, who proceeded to cart her belongings out to an idling truck. Taped to her door was an eviction notice from her landlords, the Trump Organization.
They took Filan’s sofa, chairs, TV, jewelry, dishes, and silverware, leaving nothing but a hamper for her to sit on. The marshals and the police tried to convince her to leave, but she refused to go until a neighbor, Bob Hennessy, convinced her to stay in his apartment until she could get help.
“She was distraught,” said Hennessy, and by Monday afternoon he was still unable to ascertain where her belongings had been taken. Thanks to her doctor and the Human Resources Administration, Mary Filan is resting in a bed at Parsons Hospital.
“They rang the bell,” recalls Filan, “and I was still in bed. I don’t get up much unless I have to. They rang and rang, and when I got to the door they pushed it open, and walked in, these three big fat men. They went right in the kitchen and started pulling out drawers, turning ’em upside down into one of these big cartons.
“They said they’d come to put me on the street because I owed four months rent. I don’t owe back rent. The last thing I got from Trump was a bill for $10.20 about two weeks ago, and I sent that. They just want me out because they can get twice as much rent.” Mary Filan currently pays about $200 a month for her apartment. Her income — from Social Security and a telephone company pension — is under $500 a month.
The Trump Organization is one of the biggest landlords in this city, a dynasty passed from father Fred to son Donald. Like most dynasties, it has flourished through the exercise of power; in earlier time, mostly through the Brooklyn Democratic machine; now, through Donald’s liaisons with the governor and a variety of state agencies, particularly the Urban Development Corporation, which paid Donald Trump more than $800,000 for brokering its convention center deal. He has used political clout to obtain more than $160 million in tax exemptions for his renovation of the old Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street. Donald Trump is a very successful 33-year-old dealer and developer. So why did Trump evict Mary Filan?
“The Trumps don’t get involved in any of that,” said a spokesman at their Manhattan office. “The management corporation handles that kind of thing. It’s part of the company, but the Trumps don’t get involved with individual cases.” He didn’t know why Mary Filan had been evicted. She doesn’t give loud parties, or cause property damage, or threaten her neighbors, who are actually fond of her.
“The Trump Organization doesn’t evict people indiscriminately,” he said at last, and suggested another number to call for specific comments on the Filan case. There was no answer at that number; nobody seemed to care about the details.
Two thoughts persist: How would Donald Trump feel if some corporation evicted his ill and aging parent, without notice or compassion, removing all possessions to some unknown location? And how does Trump manage to have the taxpayers subsidize so many of his enterprises? Mary Filan’s hospital stay is being paid for by Medicare and Medicaid.
Lawrence O'Donnell is reminding everyone tonight that Gislaine Maxwell not only procured children for Jeffrey Epstein to rape, she raped these children, as well. Gislaine Maxwell is a pedophile who lied under oath, and yet Trump thinks he can use this pedophile perjurer to exonerate himself. This is how desperate Trump has become. He knows what is in the Epstein files is an existential threat to his presidency. The truth is, Epstein, Maxwell, and Trump are all monsters.
🚨BREAKING: The gangs of L.A. brokered a truce and just did more for injustice against innocent immigrants than the entire U.S. Senate has done since they discovered C-SPAN doesn’t have commercials.
Yeah, you heard me. Street crews… yes, those same folks your racist uncle thinks are the final boss in a Fox News fever dream… are now escorting immigrants to court like chivalrous vigilantes in Nike tech fleece. Because when the state decides the Constitution is optional and ICE turns into a roaming death squad with a mask and a clipboard, sometimes the only due process you get is five dudes in matching hoodies telling the feds, “Nah, bro. Not today.”
And guess what? It works. Because ICE agents will happily snatch a grandma from a church picnic if she makes a good deportation stat… but put them near anyone who doesn’t say “yes, sir” with a trembling voice and suddenly they remember they have “other priorities.” These federalized cosplay commandos without badges (but definitely daddy issues) don’t go after the dangerous… they go after the docile. Why? Because they’re not enforcers of law… they’re mall cops with militarized toys and the moral compass of a broken Etch A Sketch.
So of course ICE targets “assimilated immigrants with families.” Because God forbid we deport a white-collar CEO laundering cartel money in Miami… nah, better to rip a kid from his dad in front of the school, then call it “border security.” These aren’t agents… they’re cowards in windbreakers playing hide-and-seek with the American Dream.
And meanwhile, the gangs… yes, gangs… have done what Congress won’t: form a coalition to protect vulnerable people from a government that thinks “compassion” is a foreign threat. These guys just unionized against fascism faster than the Democratic Party could agree on brunch.
So let’s be real. If you’re more outraged that gang members are helping immigrants than you are that the government is hunting them like they’re Pokémon with poor English, you’re not patriotic… you’re complicit. You’re the spiritual lovechild of George Wallace and a Ring doorbell, screaming “law and order” while your empathy dies in 4K.
ICE isn’t about safety. It’s about optics. It’s about keeping middle America scared shitless so they don’t realize who’s actually robbing them blind: it’s not José from Oaxaca, it’s Jeff from JPMorgan.
So props to the homies rolling deep to immigration court. Because while Congress filibusters itself into irrelevance and ICE roleplays as apartheid cosplay, someone’s actually showing up for justice.
You call it gang violence. I call it community defense.
And if that scares you? That’s not fear. That’s your conscience trying to escape the prison you built out of denial. Let it out. Or stay silent… and history will remember you the same way it remembers the cowards: not at all.
If your biggest concern is how uncomfortable this rant made you, congrats… you’re officially less useful than a wet napkin at a house fire. But hey, keep scrolling. I’m sure there’s a cat video somewhere that’ll let you pretend the world isn’t burning.
Wishing a Happy 99 years Birthday to Mel Brooks 🎂🍕💵🍾
A comedy legend whose genius gave us timeless classics like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. Here's to nearly a century of laughter, creativity, and unmatched wit—thank you for the joy you've brought to the world! 🥳👏
It was the Assyrians, over 6000 years ago, who practiced a strategy which Stalin of Russia made infamous in the twentieth century: Uproot a whole population and move them to other places, on the premise that people who lose their homes, live among strangers and; cut off from familiar resources, would be too confused and unhappy to organize rebellion.
The same injustice is being contemplated by Trump with his announcement of his intention of moving Palestinians into jungle and turning Gaza into a Bear parlour.
The IRS unit that audits ultrawealthy earners has been gutted. This will starve the government of revenue by making it easier for the rich to evade taxes — which the top 1% already do to the tune of at least $163 billion a year.
Just a simple old man living in Baton Rouge.Or the grumpy old dwarf tagging along to Mordor, tolerated only for his fighting spirit.Or something. Retired, foodie, okay cook, but pretty lazy.Alpha/beta/gamma/delta...upsilon?Or something