United States

Killing Lincoln

close up of a pile of coins

Today is the last day the penny will be in production in the United States. It will probably go out unnoticed for the most part, as durable as the reddish currency has been for centuries. Made now out of just a speck of copper (mostly zinc), it’s apparently more expensive to make than it holds as currency, so some people say it shouldn’t be minted anymore. Not a terribly good reason (currency doesn’t hold value as the value of itself), but pennies are pretty worthless nowadays so there are only a couple of reasons why not to...

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Sandwich guy acquitted and towards a universal definition of what is not crime

two bacon burgers on plates

The D.C. sandwich guy™ has been found not guilty of whatever crime they decided to charge him with this time. He’d previously beat a grand jury on a felony charge, so the U.S. Attorney for D.C., in her infinite wisdom, decided to charge him with a misdemeanor. For throwing a sandwich at a cop. It’s laughable. Why? Because if somebody threw a sandwich at me, and I called the cops on them to charge with felony assault, or even some misdemeanor, the cops would laugh at me. “Why are you wasting our time?” they would ask. And,...

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Pelosi retiring

Congresswoman Pelosi, pictured proudly marching for equal rights in 1987, celebrates the Supreme Court decisions striking the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act and allowing marriage equality for all California families.

The last time Congress increased the federal minimum wage, Rep. Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House of Representatives. You may not be surprised if you think the minimum wage was increased recently, but this was back in 2007, when Democrats retook the House in the midst of President George W. Bush’s disastrous second term. The original bill to raise the minimum wage, from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour, was part of HR 2, which you may notice is the second bill the House took up that Congress. It would eventually run through both houses...

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Libbing out, or, what happened last night

Vote Sign

Election nights sure feel better when the evil people don’t win, don’t they? It’s a big relief, seeing decent people win in a variety of races around the country, instead of an overwhelming deluge of losses to the worst people you have ever heard of. Just focusing on the executive races, we first had Abigail Spanberger winning the governorship of Virginia. Then we had Mikie Sherrill winning the governorship of New Jersey. Then, to cap it off, we had Zohran Mamdani winning the mayorship of New York City. It was nice that Virginia closed polls at 7pm,...

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What cutting down a couple trees tells us about D.C. statehood

So, as you may have heard, President Trump has decided to destroy the East Wing of the White House to build some kind of Bribery Ballroom (name pending, but actually not because it’s going to be called the Trump Ballroom because of course it is). He also, you may not have noticed, cut down a few heritage trees for the same reason. If this were just a normal building somewhere else, owned by a real property owner, this would have been illegal. Mostly due to lack of permits, environmental protection (or lack of report of environmental impacts),...

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What are they thinking?

building with cameron s lobster house signage

Janet Mills, former Democratic governor of Maine, is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Many have described this as a “coup,” specifically for Sen. Chuck Schumer, who wants to regain the majority in the senate, and has been trying to get Mills to run this cycle, seeing her as the best possible nominee for the Democrats. Some have called her some kind of dream candidate, one with the best chance of winning the seat for the Democrats due to her popularity and proven ability to win state-wide in Maine. She’s also 77 years old. Now,...

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From occupied DC

magnificent view of arc de triomphe in paris

How does it feel to live in an occupied city? Well, it fucking sucks, man. How does all this feel? It fucking sucks, man. In case you’re unaware because you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or so, our so-called commander-in-chief decided that the capital (capitol) city is such a hornet’s nest of criminal activity that it is a national emergency that he had to surge the troops or whatever the fuck he is thinking on any given sundown. It’s all bullshit. This whole administration is bullshit. Don’t worry, though: it’s all a distraction....

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What even is the law now

referee showing red card to goalkeeper

You’re watching a soccer game: It’s USA versus Germany, World Cup knockout round. It’s early in the match, about 13 or so minutes in, and Germany are awarded a corner kick. Pretty normal stuff. Well, there’s some tussling and janking around in the box, a pretty normal big mess. But the referee blows his whistle—normal enough, and then the stadium announces that VAR is going to take a look. VAR, or Video Assistant Referee, is the name of a technology and procedure for looking at contested calls on the field. In a box, several referees look over...

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Trump take trophy

white adidas soccer ball on grass

From the annals of You Can’t Make This Shit Up: President Trump has revealed that the champions of the Club World Cup won’t be getting the original trophy, because he’s keeping it. English club Chelsea easily dispatched France’s Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the tournament in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sunday, with Trump joining the players for the trophy lift—much to their confusion. It has since been revealed that the intricate prize hoisted aloft by the London club’s captain, Reece James, was a replica because the president of football’s governing body, FIFA, has let Trump use...

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On the media (not the NPR show)

Antique newspaper

We all have our issues with the news media. There are just too many to name, count, or even describe generally. It’s a mess out there, whether it’s corporate power, two-siding every issue, hell, even just describing facts. So, I will limit this post to just one issue: I am simply begging the news media to stop covering voters and start covering elected officials. Barely a day goes by without some story popping around where either a Trump voter says why they voted for Trump (you know, to educate the libs), or somebody who is very hurt...

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