Brand builder, #bluegrass aficionado, BBQ enthusiast & award-winning baker. #AbolishICE. Never miss a Sunday show. (He / Him)
[Moved servers 12/28/25. Previous posts are on: @aburtch]
We have the Wayans brothers and In Living Color to thank for the modern Super Bowl halftime show.
When I last left this thread, I made it clear that I had no desire to write about the Epstein billionaire pedophile rapist influence peddling ring, which includes Trump as a co-conspirator, and operational partner, not a victim - remember, Trump is "the dog that hasn't barked." I didn't want to touch the story again because after years of dealing with the case, knowing the horrible shit I know about what was actually going on in Epstein's world, and watching precisely nobody go down for it except Epstein and Maxwell (even though we know the DoJ originally identified at least 10 co-conspirators and there were over a thousand victims; even Jeff Epstein can't rape minors 24 hours a day, so clearly he's not the only guilty party here) wasn't very good for my mental health.
Six months later, it's now clear that I made a mistake, both tactically, and in terms of how much worse what the FBI had on the Epstein ring was, than what had been publicly reported - which is astounding, because as I noted above, what had been publicly reported and could be hunted down on Jeff Epstein's Wikipedia page is pretty horrifying and incriminating for our ruling classes, already. In particular the sheer scale of the influence peddling operation Epstein was engaged in likely makes this the story of the century - and that's without factoring in that one of the members of the ring, would go on to become the most corrupt President in American history (twice, so far), almost certainly had Jeff Epstein murdered, and has had access to an entire decade-long Department of Justice investigation into all the people Epstein was colluding with or blackmailing. All of which probably goes a long way towards explaining why Trump appears to be running half the planet despite only being president of one country. I believe that in some respects, after killing Epstein, Trump became Epstein - or at least has been able to heavily influence the behavior of the billionaires, CEOs, royal family members, spies, political leaders, entertainment figures, intellectuals and celebrities in the files.
And that, I think is the handle that most people are only just now coming to grasp. What the Epstein files Trump's crooked DoJ has been willing to show us expose, isn't just a pedophile ring, but a vast influence trading operation that used blackmail as only one part of a larger plan to reshape the entire Pig Empire, and with it, the world, according to the whims of clearly unhinged, decadent, and reactionary rich people. In some ways, what the files that have been released so far show is that Epstein was the Little Finger of a Pig Empire (and beyond) billionaire ruling class; the guy pulling the strings on some truly unbelievable plots to control our society, and connecting the experts to transform the world for the benefit of obscenely wealthy capitalists, entire intelligence agencies (at least three that we know of) and political leaders all over the Pig Empire "West" and its subsidiaries. I think the overall goals of both Epstein, and the larger ring which Trump was definitely a valued member of, can best be understood by one June 2016 email chain between Epstein and billionaire nazi tech bro Peter Thiel. Epstein first tells Thiel that Brexit is "just the beginning." Thiel asks, "of what?" Epstein replied:
"Return to tribalism. Counter to globalization. Amazing new alliances. You and I both agreed zero interest rates were too high, and as I said in your office. Finding things on their way to collapse was much easier than finding the next bargain.”
Which might on the surface sound like a boast, but throughout the files the US DoJ has released so far, there's a great deal of evidence that Epstein was up in every single right wing, tech bro, billionaire nazi plot to destroy the liberal democratic order (don't get me started on why that sucks too), profit from its demise, and replace it with a Pig Empire-wide fascist order run by billionaire nazis - to my eyes, it genuinely looks like the entirety of right wing/fascist politics, activism, and plots to overthrow even faux democratic electoral processes over the past 15 are rooted in Epstein's plots, along with actors like Steve Bannon, but also guys like Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Peter Thiel, and other aligned power brokers we'll get into as we go forward.
In other words, and as alarming as this sounds - this isn't just a pedophile ring full of sadists and murderers, it isn't just a blackmail operation, it isn't just human trafficking and sex parties with billionaire guests, it isn't just an intelligence honeypot, it's all of those things as well as a working group for billionaire nazi cultists trying to take over the world, and to a frightening degree succeeding. We are through the looking glass now, and over the next little while I intend to prove it in this thread - if only so that anyone reading can look at the truly mind-blowing scope of it all with clear eyes, and brave hearts.
@ewen The teens love it. They love being able to make themselves look really old, or glamorous, or like a baby, or a devil using the AI filters. The dumb is a feature not a bug, kids love sending mindless dumb things to each other. Not condoning it, just pointing out that you’re probably not in the demographic they’re aiming for. It’s popular though, in the top 10 with 600 million users.
@blueemu I jumped into Reddit and found the “why doesn't Phish make a statement?" post (https://www.reddit.com/r/phish/comments/1qpu06x/comment/o2gfdxb/) and let fly.
The same way Dave Roberts is failing, Phish is failing by staying silent. I totally understand they have a long history of avoiding and staying silent when it comes to politics, but I made the argument that we are now past that point.
This isn't politics any more. Silence is complicity. And when ICE starts camping out at their concerts, racially profiling and arresting anyone who they don't like and Phish wonders why, it will be because they remained silent.
Kia's PV5 is the vehicle Tesla could have easily made if it hadn't followed Elon’s hallucinogenic pursuit of his Cybertruck thing.
Could the PV5 come to American streets?
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/02/05/kia-pv5-pickup-launched-in-south-korea-van-spied-testing-in-us/
@Strandjunker Everything boils down to money. Politicians don't stand up for what the people want or even what is decent because they are paid (funded) by their donors not to.
@aaron.rupar @quinn And the only reason you've seen him recently grow a backbone is because he announced he’s retiring.
@AAronL1968 They've figured out they can lie with impunity and so will continue to do so until held accountable. Which, how things are going right now, will never happen so they continue to do so.
Also, this whole album is really good. Great example of that laid-back freeform ‘California bluegrass' sound.
I found my new theme song! “The IPA Song” by the Brothers Comatose.
I'm going to take the opportunity of Adobe's reprieve for Animate to say: if your career depends on software that you have to rent, start investing in something else RIGHT NOW. You're only safe if a program is open source or a one-time purchase that doesn't require internet connectivity. When you "subscribe" to software, it can become too expensive, lose specific features you need, or be killed outright. At least one of these things will definitely happen, eventually—probably before you retire.
I want to get this out there now, before Adobe comes back and finally kills Animate in a couple years. I won't be a grumpy old scold saying "I told you so", so I promise that this will be the last thing I say about this.
@randomcha I was surprised how many Glass fans there are on Mastodon!
@Neddyo Sounds like they messed up, not you. I mean the order bands are listed is not some arbitrary thing in music. It matters, and it's always mattered ever since bands started playing live.
@randomcha Applogies, it got snapped up quick! Didn’t realize there were so many Philip Lgass fans on here.
RE: https://tomkahe.com/@GiftArticles/116015700327961186
“In every large population, roughly one-third of people just can’t resist a strongman. Not because they’re evil. Not because they’re dumb. But because they are wired — psychologically — to prefer:
Clear hierarchies
Dominant authority
Simple answers
Strong protectors in moments of threat
Democracies don’t collapse because authoritarians reach 51%. They collapse because everyone else fails to act like the 65% they are.”
Reframing Democracy: Trump’s Numbers Aren’t Falling. They’re Just Doing What 30% Always Does.
https://medium.com/the-left-is-right/reframing-democracy-trumps-numbers-aren-t-falling-they-re-just-doing-what-30-always-does-1189df0a1d18?sk=v2%2F0f2f90ab-bcf6-4311-a17a-4d042af55be6