Notices by M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im), page 5

@steter They know what you and that other kid your mom called a "bad influence" did to the neighbor's cat back in 6th grade?

@steter My ymail is working.

Here, have some Christmas stuff. Ho ho ho etc.

As usual, all you libtards are underestimating Trump's genius. When he promised to reduce drug costs by 600%, which would mean the drugs were free and then people got paid five times their cost to take them, he actually was proposing to pay people to take statins and GLP-1s, which will have preventative health benefits so powerful that government healthcare spending will decrease by more than the cost of the program. Brilliant, as all his ideas are!

/snark

Came home from a weekend away and it looks like our otherwise well-behaved Mara couldn't resist getting into a package Lyricdancer left on the kitchen table.

@drahardja @blogdiva Don't you get deductions for charitable contributions or travel? What if you're self-employed?

Can we do this to Trump when he leaves office, too? Just nullify all his pardons, every bill he signed, every judicial appointment, etc.?

@steter Right. But ranked choice voting can help (and some Democrats support it, while no Republicans do). And a free years ago I did an explainer of why having two parties isn't necessarily that different than multiparty parliamentary systems:

"In parliamentary systems, there are multiple parties that form coalitions after the election to create a governing majority. We do the same thing, only before the election: the Democrats are a coalition of what in other countries might be the Urban Minority Party, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Labor Party, the Rainbow Party, etc., while the Republicans are a coalition of the Wall Street Party, the White Nationalist (aka the "I Miss The Antebellum South And Oh BTW That Flag Just Represents My Culture") Party, the Evangelical Party, etc.

"Under either system, power actually is consolidated by smaller interest groups -- some of them quite disparate, like Southern working class Evangelicals and Wall Street bankers -- forming governing coalitions, whether before or after the election. And occasionally, a brand new party succeeds wildly and replaces one of the others, as Republicans did when they displaced the Whigs in the 1860s -- after which, things always settle down and there are two major parties again."

@steter What's aggravating is that the Framers HATED parties, then enacted a Constitution that made them (and specifically, two of them, no more, no less) inevitable. The two-party system isn't a conspiracy; it's a math error, a mistake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

Here's a biographical factoid for the ages: "When [drummer Paul] English’s first wife, Carlene, died by suicide, [Willie] Nelson was there for him. He took him to Mexico to spend time with Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan. Together, they helped English through the painful loss."
https://americansongwriter.com/born-on-this-day-in-1932-willie-nelsons-longtime-friend-drummer-co-star-and-right-hand-man/

Jesus H. Christ, Trump's proposed "peace" plan for Ukraine is a cash and oil grab by the U.S.:

"The plan says the U.S. 'will receive 50 percent of the profits from this venture,' [rebuilding Ukraine] which appears to mean that Europe will foot the bill for the reconstruction of Ukraine—Russia, if the plan goes through—and the U.S. and Russia will split the proceeds....

"According to the plan, Russia and '[t]he US will enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centres, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities.'”

Heather Cox Richardson:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-21-2025

The "Border" Patrol is monitoring all American drivers (not just immigrants), everywhere in the country (not just at the borders), and detaining anyone whose driving patterns they think are "suspicious."

As I've said before, they are becoming a national police force – and because border agents operate under looser due process rules than other law enforcement, they're not giving anyone their normal rights, citizen and non-citizen alike.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-patrol-surveillance-drivers-ice-trump-9f5d05469ce8c629d6fecf32d32098cd

How it started/how it's going:

1850: "[T]he Fugitive Slave Act of 1850... penalized officials who did not arrest fugitive slaves and made them liable to a fine of $1,000.... In addition, any person aiding a fugitive by providing food or shelter was subject to as long as six months of imprisonment and a fine as high as $1,000."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850

2025: Border Patrol arrests 2 US citizens in Charlotte warning others of operation
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/politics/immigration-news/heavy-handed-border-patrol-arrests-two-us-citizens-in-charlotte-for-allegedly-warning-others-of-operation/275-6d84fd32-0083-4f18-a70e-9fe84d0c3d94

^ @memeorandum

Tried to click a LA Times link and this popped up. An arbitration agreement and unchangeable cookies settings? To read your newspaper? Fuck off.

2/ Lyricdancer and I are considering retiring in Newport. It's a wonderful community!

Yes, there are immigrant workers there, but it's challenging to be a blue collar worker there, because of both remoteness and very limited housing. It's not a place that's desperately in need of, you know, ethnic cleansing. It's in need of worker HOUSING. ...

Maddow's reporting on ICE considering opening a facility in the remote, coastal community of Newport, Oregon, which is... interesting.

The Oregon coast is both gorgeous and economically challenged. Remember the great (GREAT!).Ken Kesey novel/film Sometimes a Great Notion (a.k.a. Never Give A Inch)?. Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Lee Remick? That's neat there.

It's REMOTE, people. 1/

3/3 Here's something really interesting about ICE putting a facility in Newport, Oregon:

There basically are only two routes between Newport and Portland. One through mountains, the other along the coast then through through mountains.

Both two-lane roads. With trees and hills with boulders lining them for dozens of miles.

I can't think of a better place to block the movement of fascist vehicles carrying shock troops or prisoners. If you were a location scout for a movie about the French resistance stopping Nazi convoys? You'd set it here.

These people have no fucking clue what they're up against here in Oregon.

Here in America.

@steter In our experience, Ziply's contractors are extremely fly-by-night. We had three different ones out to install our line and each one screwed something up.

Damn, I love being more literate than they are.

Happy Exploding Whale Day to those who celebrate!
#ExplodingWhale #ExplodingWhaleDay
https://youtu.be/V6CLumsir34?si=a53Iyx4TctYHXzl9