I was oblivious to the Alien vs. Predator reboot that kicked off last night because I was at a writers’ group. We did some flash fiction, and one of the other writers produced a little piece about a Christian rock band called Abstinence Pistols. I wish I’d written that.
I also wish I’d written some of the lines in two recent pieces by SF Gate’s Drew Magary (he also writes for Defector). Formerly of Gawker/Deadspin, Magary almost kicked the bucket back in 2018 when he had a stroke, fell, smashed his head on a cement floor, and wound up in a coma for several weeks. His book about this experience, 2021’s The Night the Lights Went Out, is a funny and affecting read.
The first piece worth reading is his May column on John Fetterman, “As a Fellow Stroke Survivor, John Fetterman Disgusts Me.” In it, Magary explains how he was willing to extend Fetterman a lot of grace following the senator’s own stroke, and why he has now lost patience with him: Fetterman’s unwillingness to follow his treatment protocol is a dereliction of duty to his constituents and an insult to the people who have worked hard to save his life. Excerpts after the jump:
“No two traumatic brain injuries are alike, and I can’t know the extent of Fetterman’s brain damage because I’m not his doctor and because I’m prevented from seeing his CAT scans due to HIPAA laws — which currently remain in place until Oz, now in charge of Medicare for the second Trump administration, throws them into a bonfire. So it’s not necessarily fair of me to present my own TBI as an apples-to-apples comparison with Fetterman’s. I also understand that millions of my fellow Americans are bad patients: the inevitable result of a health care system that is both predatory and often unworthy of our trust.
But this man, unlike most of us, is a sitting U.S. senator. A senator who won’t take his meds, won’t operate within the limits of his physical and mental health, and appears to have no interest in ever getting better when the people who work for him and the people who love him are begging him to try. Other TBI survivors are free to bail on recovering, but this man is a public servant whose actions resonate out of the Keystone State and across the entire country. John Fetterman is duty bound to be a good patient; he and his colleagues take an oath of office that necessitates it. If he cared about the people he serves — or hell, just about himself — he would step down from office so that he can try, in good faith, to get his life, and his worldview, back together as best he can. Instead, he simply sits there and rots, forcing all of us to rot alongside him.”
His column from yesterday on Jake Tapper is also full of righteous fire. “Jake Tapper Is the Reason America Is Doomed” may seem hyperbolic as a headline, but Magary does his best to make the case:
“It makes perfect sense that this monstrously self-absorbed dips—t wants you to believe that Joe Biden, currently dying of aggressive prostate cancer, is the biggest threat America is facing right now. In 2025. Jake Tapper clearly gives much more of a s—t about his book sales than he does the fate of our national education system. And he wears his cravenness in the guise of a Serious Newsman, which makes it all the more insulting.
That’s one reason voters are in the dark about the Category 5 s—tstorm barreling down their street. Tapper is less a journalist now than he is one of the many prominent media figures eager to profit off the Trump news industrial complex. When he and his avaricious ilk get distracted from the mission of journalism, there are no longer enough trusted yet high-profile voices to help pick up the slack.”
If you’re looking for a pundit who doesn’t suck, add Drew to your reading list. And keep an eye out for his annual Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog. It’s as much a part of the holidays as Charlie Brown to me now.
That’s all I got. How’s everyone Friday shaping up? I’m going to karaoke for the first time in a long while tomorrow night. I’m thinking Pat Benatar’s Heartbreaker will work for me.
Old Man Shadow
Gonna make breakfast, maybe take it down to the beach tomorrow and watch the waves for a bit, then come back and maybe go out local sightseeing with the family. Despite having lived here most of my life, there’s still a lot of So. Cal. I haven’t seen yet.
twbrandt
Magary made an extremely funny (and extremely NSFW) video of him driving around San Francisco in a Cybertruck.
John Revolta
Yikes! Do we know that Fetterman isn’t taking his meds?
Scout211
Drew Magary (SF Gate, Defector) and Rex Huppke (USA Today) are two of my opinion writer heroes right now. Humor mixed in with mockery, all surrounding actual facts. I link to both of them here, as does Anne Laurie in her front page posts. Good stuff.
MazeDancer
ABC News reports that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is on his way back to US to face criminal charges.
Wonder where they’ll lock him up.
Rose Judson
@Scout211: Huppke is terrific!
@John Revolta: That is what aides and former staffers have said about him in a few different reports.
WTFGhost
My wife’s hip surgery on Thursday night, on the hip she broke at 5am Thursday went well; the Covid-19 symptoms are likely starting in me (sinus infection symptoms, like hers were); I’m not sure of the protocol for obtaining Paxlovid, and so far my doctor hasn’t returned my messages.
So my wife’s in the hospital, unable to walk, and although I’m not feverish yet, the similarity of symptoms to hers, and her covid+ status, means I’m not likely going anywhere for over a week. Sometimes it sucks to be a responsible adult, but I have to assume I’m shedding virus, so I shouldn’t be going anywhere, even masked.
Um. So, remember the old joke, about “if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen to you that day”? There’s a frog-eating vignette.
I’m not as cranky or as negative as I might sound over this – I’m just *tired*, which is what I feel when I’m surrounded by loads of horrible shit that I can’t do anything about.
So, if I say “enjoy your karaoke!” pretend I’m saying it in a cheerful voice, and not the voice of someone reporting this with the full disdain for human existence that is my normal (when extra-cranky) drawl .
Unless it’s *funny* the other way, of course.
Scout211
@MazeDancer: Discussed a bit downstairs. The indictment was in Tennessee so likely there?
Who knows, with Bondi in charge.
lowtechcyclist
Here’s the link for the Abrego Garcia story:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mistakenly-deported-kilmar-abrego-garcia-back-us-face/story?id=121333122
Apparently he’s a criminal mastermind who’s transported thousands of undocumented persons from Mexico to various interior states, according to the Department of Injustice.
Can’t wait to see what bullshit they’re using to justify this prosecution.
Old School
@Scout211:
I’ll assume the Jake Tapper one isn’t a good example then.
At least, “Democrats are clueless” and “Joe Biden could barely walk and speak” aren’t what I’m looking for in an opinion writer.
lowtechcyclist
It’s a sunny afternoon here in southern Maryland, warm but not hot, so I’ve spent most of the afternoon sitting on the deck. I should get some stuff done today, but I’m not motivated in the least.
Probably going to eat supper later with my BIL who came up for the kiddo’s HS graduation.
WTFGhost
@Rose Judson: “Not taking his meds” might not be what’s wrong, though that might be part of it. Recovering from TBI might require other forms of therapy, like speech therapy. Well, like with function-restoring *physical* therapy, function restoring brain therapy is hard, and often painful, but it might be painful in ways we don’t have words to describe.
That’s me – constantly in pain that I didn’t even know I had, until I learned that gabapentin helped it, and then, I could say “this isn’t just an icky feeling. It’s pain!”
Knowing when you’re in pain is a real advantage – sometimes, you need to say “it hurts too much right now, I can’t continue.” But even then, it’s super, super, frustrating because you know you can do something, you’ve done it before, but it’s not working, and wow, is it easy to get angry when it feels like the whole world is trying to piss you off, because your brain is misfiring, and you’re clumsy doing things.
None of this changes what was said above – Fetterman does have a duty to do the right things to fix himself, or, he should turn the reins over to someone who can do the job. I just have an inside view about how difficult those decisions can be.
VFX Lurker
Use a teledoc to write you a prescription. When I caught COVID last August, I called a random teledoc via video chat, reported my symptoms and showed the rapid test results over my webcam (but the doctor was willing to take my word for it). I got a prescription that I could pick up that evening at my local CVS.
I reported everything to my primary care doctor via messaging later — both my COVID and my Paxlovid.
Both your hospital and/or your insurer should offer teledoc services. Paxlovid is a $1200 medication, but it should be free with insurance.
Whatever you do, get enough sleep. Paxlovid almost banished COVID from my system, but I didn’t get enough sleep, the virus rallied and I got the dreaded COVID rebound. Rebound can happen with or without Paxlovid…so just get enough sleep.
Wishing you and your wife well.
RevRick
MrsRev and I will probably watch an episode of The Studio or Handmaid’s Tale tonight. Tomorrow, I schlep up to Palmerton for a meeting on the transition from having four UCC Conferences (equivalent to a diocese or synod) in Pennsylvania to one Keystone Conference. I’m chair of the Racial Justice Team, so we may merge since we meet via Zoom anyway.
Sunday, I’m filling in for a colleague so I’ll preach a revised version of my Earth Day Sunday sermon, and after worship there, I’ll hustle back to my church to lead a Green Team meeting.
I see a Glenfiddich or Macallan in my future.
dc
I really do wish the media and people in general stopped using “mistakenly deported” when talking about Abrego García and everyone on that flight to be imprisoned in El Salvador. Every single one of those people was abducted and trafficked to a Salvadoran dungeon by the US government. That should be said every single time.
Raoul Paste
@MazeDancer: It will be interesting to see an actual photo of his fingers
Chetan Murthy
@lowtechcyclist: I read that he worked in construction, and has been stopped going between worksites with a crew in the car he was driving. I’ll bet they’re gonna say the others in the crew were undocumented (haha, for sure, undocumented work construction a lot, surprise surprise) and some of them will be alleged to be MS-13 (ooga booga). And then it’ll be argued that he was part of the interstate and transnational network to move these undocumented gangsters (!!!) to the US — he was just one leg of the transport network.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: I am thrilled he’s coming back. If he’s committed a crime, then he can get his day in court. Due process was all we asked for, and it sounds like he will soon be getting it.
I hope the same for Andry Hernandez Romero, as well as all the others.
Chetan Murthy
@dc: 100% agree. I try to remember to write “kidnapped and sent to a gulag” every time.
VFX Lurker
Glad he’s coming back to the US; wish he didn’t have to go through additional nonsense.
Freemark
I met Fetterman a few days ago where I work. Even though I was working I planned to let him know, nicely because I was at work, my opinion on some things. Unfortunately after talking to him for a short time I realized the futility of it. Even with his phone app he had trouble understanding basic statements. No wonder he doesn’t want to be on the Senate floor.
JoyceH
Listened to Pam Bondi and wow, this is a bad bad man! Doing this alien smuggling was his full time job! Curiously every charge is based on “according to co-conspirators”. I’m going to be interested in hearing from his co-workers at his full time union job and find out how he was doing this right under their noses.
lowtechcyclist
@dc:
And sentenced – without trial, hell, without even any charges presented against them – to prison for an indefinite length of time, quite possibly for life. In a third-world prison where the conditions – even assuming no torture or forced labor, both of which happen at CECOT – are what most of us would regard as cruel and unusual: no contact with or even news from the outside world.
John Revolta
@JoyceH:“according to co-conspirators”.
That’s a funny way to spell “jailhouse rats”
trollhattan
@MazeDancer:
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, you are being charged today with one count of being Kilmar Abrego Garcia. How do you plead?”
“Uh, present?”
“I set your bail at seven kajillion dollars and a trial date of whenever the fuck we get around to it. Baliff, please escort Kilmar Abrego Garcia out of the courtroom.”
{gavelbang}
Elizabelle
@Freemark: Oh boy.
I wonder if we have a US Senator who is afraid to resign because he and his family will be swamped by medical bills. Strokes are expensive, and Fetterman is too young for Medicare.
He also has not served that long. Sworn in in 2023, aged 55.
He would possibly have to rely on Obamacare?
In any other first world country, the lack of access to healthcare would be a scandal. I am not sure we are still a “first world country.” We do have a big military, though, and more than our share of billionaires.
FWIW, it seems we have encountered this situation with Raul Grijalva and others who ran for office while facing a terminal or serious illness. (The late Gerry Connolly’s esophageal cancer came back after he had been re-elected in 2022; FWIW.) Particularly with Grijalva, perhaps someone let it slip that he stayed in office because he needed the health insurance?
Ihop
Also drew magary won on chopped. No shit.
Timill
@JoyceH: Obviously they were all in on it too…
If there were any truth in this, the DoJ would have mentioned it at a previous hearing. But they didn’t, so…
ETA The UK “Miranda” equivalent seems to apply “They may then state the police caution: “You do not have to say anything. But, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.” either during your arrest of before questioning.”
WTFGhost
@VFX Lurker: Thanks for the advice – I’m buying a test kit from Walgreens – I can get another if needed. I’m sure there’s a telehealth possibility at urgent care, so that takes care of regular doctor availability. I guess if my insurance doesn’t cover paxlovid, I’d put it on a card. They don’t cover tests, alas.
Thanks – I hadn’t even thought to remember that my PC is perfectly capable of telehealth, to urgent care – I was stuck on how to give my regular doctor enough info, in a timely manner.
Jackie
@Raoul Paste:
I wouldn’t be shocked to learn Garcia was strapped down and the tattoos forced on his knuckles. Doubt they’d match the photo shop pics, but…
JoyceH
@Timill: Pam Bondi’s past behavior is doing her no good. All through her presser, I kept remembering her emphatic and self-righteous condemnation of the Illegal who’d threatened Trump. And then whoops, turns out the letter was written by the American citizen who’d robbed the Illegal and was trying to get him deported to eliminate the witness against him. If she hadn’t been in such a rush, she might have had the investigators to get a writing sample from the fellow or look into whether he had the facility with English to be able to write such a letter. But it was too good to check.
Betty Cracker
I like Magary and also his “Defector” colleague David Roth. Not sure what to think about the Fetterman situation, except I feel sorry for his wife and kids.
Good luck with the karaoke!
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Sometimes one must look at the bright side, I suppose.
Kilmar will probably not have much difficulty retaining a first-rate lawyer to defend him. Certainly much less difficulty than the current (hack, spit, choke) President of the United States. I’ll make a further guess that he’ll have many choices of top-tier legal counsel, and I suspect that he will not be asked to pay his counsel’s fee up front.
Oh, yeah. I’m also going to guess that his counsel will agree to represent him for the astronomical sum of one dollar.
WTFGhost
@Chetan Murthy: I have a feeling that most of their “evidence” won’t make it past the courtroom door, unless it’s a Trump appointed judge pretending he’s facing Hunter Biden.
Most of what they’re relying on is speculation and headlines. None of that should survive in a courtroom. The MS-13 BS would be tossed as unduly prejudicial, given the paucity of evidence that there was any such connection; the traffic stop itself might not even make it through the door, but if it did, there would be some devastating questions on cross, pointing out the entirely speculative nature of the soi disant “evidence”.
Trump should be able to be sued into oblivion over this, but, Republicans think hurting innocent people is just *fine*, so he’ll never face consequences.
WTFGhost
@lowtechcyclist: I’ve heard the contract length with El Salvador is two years, but you’re correct that the USA has no right to arbitrarily send undocumented people to prison without due process. Removing them from the country is one thing, but, the Fifth Amendment is clear, you can’t take away, from a person – not a citizen, a *person* – life, liberty, or property, without due process.
But it’s an official act, which means Trump is immune to prosecution, because the SCOTUS thinks torturing innocent people is a sign of a “muscular presidency,” not an out-of-control, evil, shitbird crapping over everything it can.
Elizabelle
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: That’s what I am thinking.
Kilmar will get excellent, first rate legal counsel, who will be proud to be doing their part to fight back against the US of Trump’s police state.
Whether they get paid may not enter into it, although I am sure Kilmar, his family and supporters may try to come up some recompense for the legal team.
HopefullyNotcassandra
The Williams Sonoma Christmas guide … wow! How did I not know that existed in this world? Thank you for sharing it
HopefullyNotcassandra
@lowtechcyclist: has anyone heard from the deported Venezuelan barber asylum seeker, the one Kristy Noem, head of the new American Murder, Inc., refused to give his mother any information when asked?
WTFGhost
@Jackie: He was seen on video, and while we didn’t get a close-up of his hands, we could see there were no M, no S, no 1, no 3.
Trump just refuses to be corrected, even if he knows he’s wrong, and it works for him, really well. People end up saying “let’s agree to disagree,” rather than “didn’t anyone tell you it was photoshopped? If not, whose head is going to roll, for letting you walk into this interview completely unprepared over the basic facts of the case?”
HopefullyNotcassandra
@WTFGhost: take care of yourself. I hope your wife improves rapidly too.
Suzanne
@WTFGhost: My doctor was willing to just call in Paxlovid scripts, no appointment needed. Might be easy to solve with just a phone call.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WTFGhost:
Hope you and your wife get better soon
WTFGhost
@JoyceH: Re: Bondi’s stupidity, all i can think of is “wasn’t the ‘thirty yard six’ a clue?” I mean, seriously?
I’m sorry – but you kinda-sorta need to know a bit about rifles, to know that a rifle is chambered in “30-06”, the thirty caliber rifle accepted for use by the military in 1906, hence, 30 for the caliber, aught-six for the year. You’d see the cartridge name, “30-06” on each box of cartridges you bought.
I can easily imagine someone who doesn’t own a 30-06 rifle to think they’ve heard “thirty aur(t) six” and think it’s “30 yard six” – my brain is just messed up enough that I can *see* someone doing that. but if you ever shot the rifle, even once, you’d have wondered why “30-06” comes out as “30 yard 6”.
Obviously, I don’t expect criminals to have this much knowledge, but I thought Trumpworld Republicans nursed at the muzzle of an AR-15, and knew everything about guns.
(Okay, I only dreamed Trumpworld Republicans *would have* nursed at the muzzle of an AR-15 many years ago, so the headlines were “Donald Trump, and other bitter, angry, politicians, all died as children and weren’t around to bother us in 2016, much less 2024!”)
Seanly
I’ve been following Drew since I first started reading Deadspin. His take on each NFL team “Why Your Team Sucks” is must-read at the start of each NFL season (he now has other Defector staff & friendly journalists do some of the teams). I started listening to the Distraction (his podcast w/ David J Roth) is excellent. Some episodes are pure sports but most are a nice amalgamation of everything particularly when they have a non-sports person on as a guest. They also do a Sonoma Haters Guide episode where Roth has to guess the price from Drew’s copy.
I signed up for Defector to support the great work the old Deadspin folks did once they all decamped from there. It supports independent journalism.
My fav part of Deadspin & now Defector is that they don’t happily eat the shiite of the owners like almost all other sports media. This also translate to being against the selling out of America to various vulture capatalists which the non-sports media loves as much as sports media loves team owners.
trollhattan
@Seanly:
Why Your Team Sucks spoke to me.
Seanly
Drew hates both of my football teams – the Pittsburg Steelers and the Clemson Tigers. I came by those fandoms honestly – lived near Pittsburg in late 70’s as a kid & attended Clemson for grad school in the mid-90s when they stunk. But I’d still love to chat and have a drink with Drew & Roth.
divF
@RevRick: The way you phrased your plan for Sunday makes me think of P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster story, “The Great Sermon Handicap” .
Butch
I had a fairly mild stroke (blood clot) back in 2010 and I still face some challenges. I need to read his book.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@twbrandt:
Right off the bat as only a black woman can do:
“This is BULLSHIT! This is what they’re selling to the people?”
He then points out the build issues which are chronic with Der Wankpanzer.
“Doesn’t drive big” is actually a useful experience to relate. Every time I drive our Tacoma here in Denver, I always want to be in my Bolt.
And taking it down Lombard St was also a useful thing to do.
Jackie
Timill
@divF:
I thought of this Doonesbury: a mere 48 years old…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jackie:
Fuck the Roberts Court
Jay
TicToc vid at link, sound on.
https://bsky.app/profile/cwebbonline.com/post/3lqqsj2eiss2z
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Wait, HHS?
It seems like community resistance is happening more and more when these raids happen. I’m glad people are fighting back
Baud
Reddit did something to their website. It’s becoming unusable.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Massive numbers of LEO’s in Federal Agencies, IRS, HHS, FBI etc have been “redirected” to stop criminal investigations, and “back up” ICE in the streets. We saw this in Portland, Oregon during TACO45, but not to this extent.
Various Antifa researchers have already “doxxed” convicted then pardoned Jan6’ers, ProudBoys and Oathkeepers as new ICE employees. That’s why they are masked, don’t wear badges, dont identify themselves.
Next week, they will be joined by 20,000 National Guard members.
Soon they are going to have to “tap in” the Postal Inspectors.
trollhattan
@Jay:
So my postal carrier drops off the Penny Saver and hauls me off to the detention center?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Funny how groups like the Oath Keepers liked to portray themselves as “freedom fighters” or some shit fighting the evil tyrannical federal government during the Obama years and now they’re joining the Gestapo.
From Wiki:
Gee, I wonder if they’d encourage their members to disobey orders that they believe violate the US Constitution if Trump gave them
Jay
@trollhattan:
That’s a Postal Carrier, not a Postal Inspector. Postal Inspector’s go after Mail Fraud, Identity Theft, and various other actual crimes.
The Audacity of Krope
Jake Tapper, the reason I blocked CNN on my YouTube account almost a decade ago.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: Excellent points.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: you have 5 days from the start of symptoms, to get paxlovid. After that window, they used to offer the monoclonal anti bodies, but I don’t know any more.
I hope you can get some in time.