waiting on 2026

 

war is over if you want it...

 

Check it out below on YouTube. It’s a very moving film, and beautifully animated. It’s only 11 minutes. Share it with friends and family over this holiday season.

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Sean is also using the film to raise money to help kids in conflict zones this holiday season. This has been one of the deadliest times to be a child in this century. Please join me in donating here to War Child to get these kids (in places like Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan) life-saving medical and mental health aid.

musical interlude

 

Glass Houses. continued....

THANK YOU WELLS!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/opinion/trump-obama-drone-strikes-illegal.html

To the Editor:

Jeh C. Johnson’s condemnation of the Trump administration’s recent strikes on boats in the Caribbean appears to be either ironic or lacking in self-awareness.

While Mr. Johnson argues that Congress gave “implicit” authorization for the Obama administration’s targeted killings in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia — a claim many national security lawyers like me strongly disagree with — it is undeniable that this policy opened the door to what is playing out now off the coast of Latin America.

For the nearly quarter-century since the attacks of Sept. 11, the public has been primed and conditioned by a “global war on terror” to accept war without end or geographic limitation. The incineration of human beings outside areas of active hostilities, who have not been identified or tied to specific threats, let alone tried or convicted of crimes, has been normalized.

Secret legal opinions conjured by creative executive branch lawyers have twisted both domestic and international law beyond its breaking point in order to authorize torture and warrantless surveillance, and to make murder and assassination legal so long as, the public is told, the victims were bad guys who posed a threat to the United States.

Let’s be clear: Drug traffickers are not terrorists or combatants, the United States is not at war with any country in Latin America and the extrajudicial killing of civilians is always murder. Mr. Johnson is correct to condemn President Trump’s strikes, but his attempt to distinguish and exculpate himself and his Obama administration colleagues rings hollow.

J. Wells Dixon
New York
The writer is a senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Happy Human Rights day... support the Guantanamo survivors fund.

 

The Guantánamo survivors fund helps the men who are still living on the edge following their years of illegal detention and torture. If you can help please do.

Support the Guantanamo Survivors Fund

Whether Guantanamo torture survivors return home or are resettled elsewhere, most face significant hurdles to resuming a normal life.

Your donation helps the Guantanamo Survivors Fund provide short-term support for survivors’ most urgent needs such as medical care, rent and food, prosthetics, and other vital necessities.

Click here to make a donation.

Ice is copying the torture techniques used on the men at Guantanamo

 Remember when it came to light that my country was stuffing men in little boxes? How about the complaints of bright lights being left on all night so that the men couldn't sleep?The lack of medical care? The refusal to allow attorneys to visit?

If all of this sounds familiar it is because it is. This again is some of the torture we subjected the men at Guantanamo to.... and now ICE is reportedly using this same torture techniques on the men and women being held at detention centers here in the U.S. of A. 

Read more here. (I think this is a gift link.)

Yes, these too are war crimes- but war crimes are a way of life in this government of mine.

The Fitch is Back.

 

Washington Crime Report

Roger Fitch Esq    Tuesday, November 18, 2025

The Supreme Court's failure to rein in a lawless president ... A credulous and weak chief justice ... Federal judges critical of Supreme Court ... MAGA fortunes changing ... Revealing off-year election results ... Trump's shakedowns and litigation try-ons ... Urging the military onto US citizens ... Roger Fitch emerges from hibernation

“Everything the Trump Administration Does Must be Presumed Irregular” – Norman Eisen

There’s no doubt that crime is a problem in Washington. The current president, convicted criminal Donald Trump, continually breaks the law through Orwellian edicts, purported  “executive orders”, tracts and brain spasms that are by turns laughable, alarming and downright crazy. Most are without authority.

Since Roger Fitch’s June report, many new EOs have been published with flagrantly lawless purposes; (executive) crime persists in Washington, even if Trump himself is immunised from penal consequences.

Many of the fledgling dictator’s oracular rants have been successfully attacked in federal district courts of the US, struck down or enjoined by judges who were appointed by Democrats, Republicans and Trump himself.

Read the rest here.

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.