FInally Friday Reads Living in La-La-Land and the Dark TimeLine

Posted: October 9, 2026 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: "Der Fuehrer's Face", #FARTUS, #We are so Fucked, 2026 Elections, ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE raids, immigration, Please VOTE and KICK Trumpers out of Office | Tags: @johnbuss.bsky.social John Buss, ICE violence, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2026 Human Rights Lawyer Navi Pillay, Public Execution Hegseth Style, Tax-Payer Funded Trump ads, Trump's Special Immigrants |Leave a comment

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

No! Orange Caligula did not win the 2026 Nobel Prize! And I bet we’re going to hear the whining for a while. This Forbes headline says it all. “Nobel Committee ‘Shamed Itself Beyond Repair’ by Snubbing Trump, He Says In Truth Social Repost.” Conor Murray reported the story today. The only folks shamed beyond repair are the idiot MAGA Americans who voted for him. I seriously doubt they can express any form of human emotions, however. They’ll be a bit more sanguine when the draft gets reinstated and the young ones get sent to Iran to fight Bibi’s war. Did I mention the ever-higher gas prices?

“President Donald Trump, who has long campaigned to win the Nobel Peace Prize, reshared a Truth Social post Friday morning that attacked the Norwegian Nobel Committee and accused this year’s winner, South African human rights lawyer Navi Pillay, of being an “unabashed hater of America and Israel.”

I also like this headline in USA Today. “Donald Trump passed over for Nobel Peace Prize he’s long coveted.” Miles J. Herszenhorn and Francesca Chambers share the lede.

President Donald Trump was bracing for defeat. Still, he made a last-minute push, arguing in the Oval Office this week that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for intervening to settle or prevent conflicts around the world.

It didn’t work.

On Oct. 9 the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to South African lawyer Navi Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law. Pillay has dedicated her career to promoting human rights law by defending the anti-apartheid movement and investigating crimes against humanity.

The decision denies Trump an award he has long coveted and frequently griped about not receiving, months after he ousted Venezuela’s leader in a military operation and launched a war against Iran.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to recognize Pillay, an international jurist, serves as a rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to sanction the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged crimes committed by Israel in its war against Hamas. “The system of international law is under tremendous pressure and its institutions are under attack,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the committee’s chair. “We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice.”

The announcement was reported in the New York Times this morning, “Live Updates: Human Rights Lawyer Navi Pillay Is Awarded Nobel Peace Prize. Ms. Pillay has served as a judge in her native South Africa and on international courts investigating war crimes. She led a U.N. panel that determined that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a finding the Israeli government rejected. Ms. Pillay has served as a judge in her native South Africa and on international courts investigating war crimes. She led a U.N. panel that determined that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a finding the Israeli government rejected.”

One of Navi Pillay’s contributions to international law is her pioneering work on the gravity of sexual violence during conflict. As a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she pushed from the bench to define the rape of women and children as a weapon of war instead of “collateral damage.” In 1998, when that tribunal found a former Rwandan mayor guilty of genocide, it was the first time that rape had been defined as part of genocide. Sexual violence has since been integrated in international law as a potential war crime, a crime against humanity or an act of genocide.

She has quite a long list of credentials. You might, however, remember Orange Caligula is distinguishing himself by showing what kind of folks he wants to be future Americans. This is a headline from CBS News from September 26th. “Trump administration to welcome up to 17,500 more White South Africans as refugees.” Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports the story.

The Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday and obtained by CBS News. The State Department informed congressional officials that the Trump administration is planning to allocate 17,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2027, and that they will “primarily” go to Afrikaners, who President Trump has claimed are being oppressed for being White. Fiscal year 2027 starts in October. While the second Trump administration has effectively shut down the U.S. refugee resettlement program for most people fleeing persecution and violence around the world, it has made an exemption for Afrikaners, resettling thousands of them over the past year and a half.

Trump administration officials have portrayed Afrikaners as victims of racial oppression in post-apartheid South Africa. The South African government has consistently denied persecuting the ethnic minority, made up of descendants of European settlers, mostly from the Netherlands.

“Afrikaners face the seizure of agricultural property without compensation; government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business; and hateful rhetoric fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored minorities,” the State Department said in its notice to Congress. Last week, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on South African officials who it said were responsible for discriminating against Afrikaners. The Afrikaner resettlement effort is projected to cost the U.S. government $500 million, the notice to Congress said. “The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners,” the notice read.

I really had to share this picture of Trump’s ‘special immigrants’.  It’s really obvious isn’t it? Thanks to photographer Saul Loeb for capturing the special moment.  I have to say I have little hope for those dudes, but I have high hopes the children will spend time in our school system and learn what most of us value. Believe me when I say I’m trying hard to find topics that aren’t distasteful. It simply isn’t working,  The Guardian has this headline today  has ‘Medieval’ and ‘rather disturbing in it point directly at the US. I keep finding it more difficult these days to be a citizen of this country. “‘Medieval’ and ‘rather disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation. Pentagon said execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, would be broadcast live.”  How the fuck is this legal, constitutional or in keeping with all those  Christians in the White House and West Wing flashing their Christianess? Oh, dear. I’m cussing today.

The US is facing worldwide condemnation over a “barbaric” plan to execute a disabled man by firing squad and livestream it to the public, with critics comparing the Trump administration to dictatorships in Iran and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, would be livestreamed on 3 December.

The United Nations’ office of the high commissioner for human rights warned on Friday that broadcasting the killing would amount to a public execution and “breach the absolute prohibition of torture”.

The plan also drew opprobrium from politicians, religious leaders and human rights advocates in the US and abroad. Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, wrote on social media: “A barbaric idea, beneath our dignity as a country. Push back on this.”

Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to the US Congress, posted: “In Trump’s America, we’re doing public executions now. WTF. This is what happens under brutal dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan. It’s all part of Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the United States.”

Britain, which abolished the death penalty in the 1960s, moved to distance itself from the execution. Bridget Phillipson, the UK’s equalities minister and Labour party chair, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she found the concept “rather disturbing”.

Phillipson stressed that the decision was a matter for the US government, adding: “They are a close ally. Does that mean that we support everything the US government does? No.”

Under US military law, a president must approve an execution by firing squad. Trump did so on the recommendation of his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, according to the Pentagon.

Hegseth gleefully confirmed the livestream plan after previously saying that the execution would be public. Speaking to the conservative broadcaster Real America’s Voice, he said people should be able to watch because they need to understand that there were “serious consequences” for such crimes.

Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.”

Now 56, Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers.

The former army psychiatrist opened fire with a handgun at a medical facility at Fort Hood on 5 November 2009 as soldiers waited for medical checks before deployment. He was shot by a police officer during his arrest and left partly paralysed, and now uses a wheelchair.

The execution is expected to be the first by firing squad carried out by the US military since 1945, when army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during the second world war. The last US military execution of any kind took place in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged.

Hasan’s case comes amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment in the US following the botched lethal injection of Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike last week. Her lawyers said she awoke in hospital “angry and confused” and remained seriously ill and shackled to her hospital bed.

Mother Jones has this take on this. “Pete Hegseth Wants to Livestream a Snuff Film. The Defense Secretary plans to telecast the military’s first firing squad execution since 1945.” Sophie Hurwitz has the lede.

“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be,” Hegseth said. The execution, as Hegseth envisions it, would be first and foremost a mass spectacle. “We’re going to make sure people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said.

That is to say, Pete Hegseth wants to make a snuff film.

Jim Craig, a veteran Mississippi death penalty lawyer, spoke with me in April, after Trump announced his plan to bring back the federal firing squad. The obscenity of the violence, Craig said, is the whole idea.

This proposal by the Trump Justice Department is characterized by their attraction to brutality. It’s characterized by their affection for causing visible harm to people. You see it in their foreign policy. You see it in their policing. The firing squad is very physical and visceral in the damage that it does to the person being executed. That’s why they like it. We should not mince words about this. It has nothing to do with the Eighth Amendment. It has nothing to do with the supply of drugs, or anything else. They like it because it’s the same kind of video game brutality that they like in every other context of this administration’s barbarism.

A firing squad execution, when the executioners aim well, “essentially vaporizes” a person’s heart, Craig explained. When they don’t, the victim bleeds out and dies slowly.

This is the kind of thing that would cause my grandfather to look up from his newspaper to say “Jesus wept.” Then, all of us kids would say “shortest verse in the Bible”, he’d nod and go back to reading.  I might add it was usually something about the Vietnam War. Alright, so this isn’t getting any better.  While Donald’s special people are getting special treatment as ‘desirable’ immigrants,  I’m sharing this ICE nightmare with you.

This is headline is from today’s Washington Post. “ICE didn’t know 5-year-old boy was in car when officer fired, Mullin says. Federal authorities said Oscar Belgal used his car to ram government vehicles and endanger officers.”

Federal authorities on Friday strongly denounced the reaction of New York officials to the shooting of a Dominican man by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, casting the man as the aggressor who used his car to ram two government vehicles and accelerate toward officers despite having a 5-year-old in the back seat.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the ICE officers did not know the boy was in the vehicle driven by Oscar Belgal, 28, who was struck in the neck during the shooting Thursday afternoon in New York City. Belgal was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital before being moved to a detention facility outside the state, authorities said.

Mullin said Belgal, the boy’s father, would face criminal prosecution and be placed in deportation proceedings.

“He knew he had a child in the car and chose to accelerate at a high-rate of speed,” Mullin said at a news conference in Washington, flanked by senior ICE officials. “He’s a criminal, a thug, a gang banger. The outrage should be with him endangering a 5-year-old.”

New York officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), have denounced the agency and demanded that ICE pause enforcement operations in the state. Mamdani called on federal officials to “abolish ICE.”

“No, we’re not putting a pause on enforcement,” Mullin said. “I’m sorry, we’re not. In fact, I’m not sorry.”

I’m getting really tired of all this white male posturing. I’m beginning to think this entire demographic of Trumpers have teeny tiny little penises like their Dear Leader. You can shout all this hateful stuff and y’all still seem like wimps and simps for Trump.

Okay, I’ll let Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark have the last suggested read today. I seriously had trouble believing this was actually real, but then we’re deep in La-La-Land territory now. “‘I Need Some Pepto-Bismol’: Trump’s Taxpayer-Funded Ad Bombs in Focus Group. It’s not *just* the corruption that bothers them. It’s the actual content, too.”  This makes me glad that my TV gets used only for things like watching the Hurricane in the Gulf.

IF YOU’VE SPENT MUCH TIME watching the NFL, college football, or Dancing with the Stars over the past week, or if you’re just an average political obsessive,1 you’ve probably noticed the taxpayer-funded ads from Donald Trump.

They’re billed as “public service announcements,” and one of the spots features excerpts from a speech Trump gave at one of his 2024 campaign rallies. The speech goes like this: With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all. Since the ads began to air, it’s become pretty clear that people hate the idea of the government using taxpayer money to broadcast them. And I mean, they truly hate it. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that people oppose “using taxpayer funds to pay for election-related television ads featuring the President or members of his cabinet” by a margin of 86–9.2 What’s been less clear is whether the ads themselves are effective. After all, voters always claim to hate political ads. Even when campaign commercials are really effective, voters almost never admit to liking them, trusting them, or being influenced by them. And yet they work. But do Trump’s? To find out, we convened a group of voters from Florida who backed Trump in 2024 but now disapprove of his job performance—the very voters he needs to win back—and showed them the ad. What we saw was a whole new level of revulsion. In fact, we couldn’t even get through the question.

Well, you can go there if you want to, but at least some of them are leaving the Trump Train to Hell. So, I hope I haven’t grossed you out too much. I just kept wondering what it’s like to be one of these reporters on any of these beats. They all must need psychologists by now. What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today? Be sure to Vote DAMN IT! And have as good a weekend as possible   I can’t seem to leave a reply on this thread. Here’s what I want to add: It’s a bright, sunny, and slightly windy day here so far. Here’s the AP headline for the hurricane, and I’m not sure what I’m typing into, but every time they change something there, it’s not for the better.   Isaias closes in on the US Gulf Coast as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane

Isaias is expected to come ashore between Mobile Bay on the Alabama coast and the city of Destin in the Florida Panhandle — a region known for powdery white sand beaches dotted with vacation homes, waterfront bars, and seafood shacks.

  We lucked out here in Lousyana.    

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