DING DONG

 An expression many from my generation revert to when someone "bad" dies.  The expression hails back to the movie "the wizard of oz." When the bad witch dies, the munchkins and everyone else bursts into spontaneous singing:

Well today someone bad died. Dick Cheney. In fact, I think it is fair to say that he led the way for trump. Cheney pushed for the unitary executive theory- expanding the power of the president beyond the constitutional limits. Basically turning the presidency into a monarchy.

Cheney also push for the use of torture in the "war on terror." 

As a dear friend said to me today "Cheney died today but thanks to trump, none of us can enjoy it,"

I am trying my best to enjoy it - but yes, we are in such bad times that it is hard to celebrate this particular war criminals death.

I hope to find time to say more about this awful human being in the future.

Stay tuned.

Halloween in Chicago while under siege.

 Halloween is a big holiday in this here country of mine. And it is especially popular in my neighborhood in Chicago. People decorate their houses and the atmosphere is festive as kids and adults dress up in costume. Kids from all over the city come to the neighborhood that I live in. It is safe and lots of good candy passed out.

This year we took precautions to continue keeping the neighborhood as safe as possible. The ICE thugs were all around us in the morning and our neighborhood set up a system with spotters relaying information and armed with whistles to alert everyone. I did my part. The ICE thugs stayed away from our neighborhood but we were just lucky. They were busy terrorizing other neighborhoods.

Back to the Gitmo playbook....again

 It was less than a month ago when I posed the question as to whether the criminals in my government would resort to bounties for capturing supposed drug dealers. Today I learned I was not far off. Seems the criminals are offering bounties for "illegal immigrants." I guess it doesn't matter if they are selling drugs, it only matters if they might be here in this country without the proper paper work.

At least they are not dropping leaflets yet- because with the economic hardship of so many people in this country that could work as well as it did in Afghanistan and Pakistan- and of course it would mean rounding up a lot of people that should never have been rounded up just so people could get the bounty. [This is not to suggest that people without the proper paperwork are legit targets.]

EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

 These killings have been a factor in the history of this country of mine - killing people suspected of being terrorists was okd by the Bush administration and even by the Obama administration (shame on Barrack). However, our current criminal president has taken these extrajudicial killings to a new level. Clearly the criminals in our current administration have the goal of regime change in Venezuela. Unfortunately we also have a history of just killing people without any process- now we are killing people in boats on the guise that they are trying to bring drugs to the U.S. 

According to the U.N. these actions by my government violate not only Venezuela's sovereignty but also the U.N. charter:

GENEVA - Covert action and threats of using armed force against the Government of Venezuela by the United States violate Venezuela’s sovereignty and the UN Charter, UN experts* said today.

“These actions also violate the fundamental international obligations not to intervene in the domestic affairs or threaten to use armed force against another country,” the experts said. “These moves are an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region.”

read more here.

But things get more complicated when the people attacked are not who our government claims they are (not to even mention the impossibility of traveling in a small boat the thousands of miles to reach the U.S.). Two survivors are not Venezuelan: one is from Ecuador and the other from Columbia. oops?

Funny how just last month trump was begging for the nobel peace prize.

Chicago tells the criminal to get the hell out of our city.

 

NO KINGS DAY....WHILE UNDER SEIGE HERE IN CHICAGO

 

and keep an eye on the U.S. activities in and around Venezuela

 While the trump criminals are, on the one hand, busy attacking U.S. cities and doing their best to undermine our democratic republic, do not lose focus on what is going on to our South. 

We have an undeclared war against Venezuela and we are attacking ships in the Caribbean because they might be carrying drugs. The U.S. war on drugs on steroids. 

At the same time we have unleashed the CIA into Venezuela to attempt a coup and now we have prisoners of "war" from our latest ship attack. Since everything that comes out of the mouths of the administration is propaganda we must take everything they say as suspected lies.

Here are a few articles worth exploring:

Exclusive: US Navy warship holding survivors from strike on Caribbean vessel, sources say | Reuters

Exclusive: Classified Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels, sources say | CNN Politics

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-confirms-cia-authorization-venezuela-2025-10-15/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/16/trump-approves-cia-operations-in-venezuela-what-we-know-and-whats-next

Trump’s Disappearing Migrants at Guantánamo - Articles - Welcome to "Close Guantánamo"

CHICAGO UNDER SEIGE

 Ice has been very aggressive in Chicago this past week- targeting peaceful communities and rounding up both citizens and non citizens. Protests have remained strong, well attended and peaceful. I expect a huge crowd at Chicago's "no kings day" event. Unlike the earlier protests (at the federal building and the state court house) this will be held at Grant Park. A space that can accommodate the expected hundred thousand people. We will not be intimidated and we will stand firm. AND WE WILL WIN.

 

THE GUANTANAMO PLAYBOOK AGAIN....

 Bush and his war criminals came up with the idea of classifying people they had no authority to "detain" as "unlawful enemy combatants." And they declared them to be outside of the Geneva conventions and therefore not subject to any rules or laws. That gave them the "permission" to detain those men at Guantanamo. It led to 100's of men being held for literally decades without charge. I wrote about one of these men for Huffington Post almost twenty years ago. Many people in this country still do not understand the grave harm this caused to the U.S.  and the rule of law.

The trump war criminals understand the license that this gave them. Now they are taking it to another step and declaring supposed drug dealers as "unlawful enemy combatants." And killing them- not only to provoke a war - but to give them free reign to round up people here in this country under the guise of the "terrorist drug war."

In the early days of the "war on terror" we dropped leaflets on Afghanistan and Pakistan offering bounties for "terrorists."  Will that be next? Will we offer bounties for turning over supposed drug dealer  "terrorists."

Stay tuned.

Chicago Under Siege

 The ICE thugs are roaming Chicago streets- randomly picking up mostly non white people who don't have proper ID. Chicago has a big and active biking community and this man taunted the ICE thugs--

I think it is fair to say that Chicago will not go quietly in the night....

THE OPPOSITE OF "WOKE" IS ASLEEP

 We are in dangerous times here in the good old U S of A. Unfortunately many people here are not paying attention or just don't care. Next week will be pivotal on many levels and I hope Americans are ready to take to the streets to try to save our democracy.

Stay tuned.

meanwhile:

 

Paper Clip Protest Joyce Vance Sep 20   On Thursday, E. Jean Carroll started it: Paper Clip Protest. “Comely Reader! I suggest we all start wearing the paper clip. Subtler than a red hat, more powerful as a CONNECTION,” she wrote, explaining they were also worn during World War II as a sign of resistance against the Nazis. Norwegian teachers and students wore paper clips to signal their opposition to Nazi occupation. They attached them to their lapels and wore them as jewelry, a symbol of solidarity binding them together as paper clips did with papers. It was a quiet act of defiance, expressing that Norwegians remained united against Nazi rule. Friday, when I signed on to tape the #SistersInLaw Podcast, Jill Wine Banks had a clip delicately attached to the collar of her shirt. It made me smile. In that moment, I knew E. Jean was onto something. Our defiance can and must be loud and public at this point. But the quiet symbol of solidarity on someone’s collar when you walk into a crowded room? Genius. And much better than a red hat. You probably have a paper clip in your desk or junk drawer that you can put on straight away. You can be a subtle signal of support for people who need that right now. You can be a conservation starter. Jill tells me she’s having special paper clips made for the occasion—very fitting for a woman known for wearing pins—and has promised to send me one. Small efforts can bear fruit when we’re all in on them. I’m going to find a paper clip before I head out to the farmers’ market. We’re in this together, Joyce

Lift every voice and sing...

 The Black National Anthem

(h/o to Walt)

LEST WE FORGET

Apartheid police always maintained that the Black Consciousness Movement leader died after accidently hitting his head against his prison cell wall. Now the South African government wants to establish what really happened in "room 619," where Biko spent almost a month in custody naked and shackled in leg irons.

On Friday, the 48th anniversary of the liberation icon's death, the government reopened the inquest into the 1977 case, in what Luxolo Tyali, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), said was an effort "to address the atrocities of the past and assist in providing closure to the Biko family and society at large."

 

The Talking Dog on 9/11

 

On this day I always turn to my friend the talking dog who was in NYC - not far from where the towers of the WTC once stood.

9.11 + 24.0

And so we’re back. It’s 24 years on. Almost 10% in the life of our relatively young republic, almost 40% of my own life, since that fateful day (it was a Tuesday, and quite sunny, not unlike today in downtown N.Y.C., where I sit a few hundred yards from the WTC, as I did on the day itself; but I digress).

Given how traumatic 2024 was in Stately Dog Manor (I am pleased to report that the Loquacious Pup appears to have come through with a good recovery from her extremely unpleasant illness and has resumed her studies in graduate school), I have very little to say about 2025. Political violence, including but certainly not limited to the improper use of federal military personnel on the streets of American cities, has now been normalized, as has the use of “executive orders” at odds with statutes and the constitution, all while a supposed “opposition party” appears to have disappeared. The murder of a [Republican] political troll is an occasion for national lowering of flags to half mast, unlike the murder of [Democratic] lawmakers and legislative leaders.

READ THE REST HERE.