Public Comment

Antisocial Media

Xfinity is currently running radio ads promoting their 5G systems as tools of social enrichment—when the truth is that they are actually pushing a high-tech world of social isolation.

The ad begins with a frantic call from a panicked dad who phones Xfinity with the following question: "My daughter just invited her entire class to her birthday party! Will my WiFi handle it?"

The Xfinity operator assures him that its 5G system can simultaneously handle "hundreds of calls". He replies with relief: "So the kids can watch stuff on their phones while the parents share movies online!"

If this was a TV ad, it could close with a panoramic shot of multiple dozens of kids and adults sprawled across chairs, sofas, beds and carpets with their eyes fixed on little glowing screens.

This is not "social media." It is "anti-social media"—applied in the form of a self-administered techo-overdose. 

Immigration Criminalization  

With millions of working Americans struggling to stay housed and fed, Trump continues to monetize—by upwards of $88 billion—his vengeful plan to un-house and deport hundreds of thousands of "illegal immigrants." (All in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the use of Pentagon troops to enforce domestic military functions. 

While American families pay escalating costs to the corporate suppliers of food and housing, Trump plans to arrest and jail 30,000 immigrants in Guantanamo, the Pentagon's Cuban prison. 

And how will the arrestees be shunted to this notorious military jail? According to Win Without War: "The cost to operate a C-17 military transport aircraft is $28,500 per hour. A flight back and forth to Guatemala, only counting time spent in the air, takes about 10½ hours, ticking up a bill of $300,000 per flight." 

Meanwhile, Der Trump maintains a contradictory stance on the question: "migrants: good or bad." Trump plans to offer "Gold Cards" to rich foreigners willing to pay $5 million to become official US immigrants. While cash-strapped "immigrant hoards" remain intolerable in Trump's America, our Ocher Ogre is all for adding to the immigrant tides by driving 2 million Palestinians from their homes to face a bleak and uncertain future. 

Win WIthout War has a petition with a simple statement you can sign to protest the criminalization of migrants. Servicemembers should be safeguarding and protecting people, not hunting down families seeking refuge. 

  As Phony As a Two-dollar Bill

  The Grifter-in-Chief likes to conjure self-celebrating "personality totems" bearing his name and/or likeness and offered to his mega-MAGA fans for real money. We've seen it all: Trump University, Trump AI-generated Superhero cards (featuring a lean Trump outfitted as a cowboy, auto racer, and astronaut), Trump Bibles (made cheap in China and selling for $60 over the counter in the US.

The contents of the envelop were devoted to soliciting "privately-enhanced US Mint $2 Bills saluting Donald Trump's victory" in the 2024 election. The bills are nothing more than regular "legal tender" paper bills "privately enhanced" with two laminated, full-color images of Trump on either side of a quizzical-looking Thomas Jefferson. 

The bills come wrapped inside a "custom-designed tamper-proof holder" and one of these tacky artifacts can be yours for only $39.99, plus $6.99 for "shipping and service." Just don't try folding and stuffing it in your wallet while it's still packed inside its Deluxe Display Case ("a $70 value"). 

But wait, there's more! "Due to Donald Trump's enduring popularity," a set of new and different Trump bills are set to be issued on a monthly basis. And there's an unexpected offer: Bradford promises to send the first Trump Bill for a free inspection "so you can see it up close, in your home, without sending a penny. You pay for it only if you want to keep it. Otherwise, just send it back." 

That's a pretty cavalier way to treat something with a combined value nearing $117. So what are they going to do if you should happen to "forget" it? Send out a bill collector? 

The Bradford's large 4-page "Collector's Notice" includes this odd disclaimer: "The presentation of this collectible for sale does not indicate an endorsement of any political candidate or opinion by the Bradford Exchange or its affiliates." 

(You can peruse the Trump Bill online at: Bradforexchange.com/trump2pres.) 

Fashion Plates
Here's the latest collection of personalized license plates spotted around town:
SOCCER2
JN4GIRL
BEAN SNX
YOOM
AIRFAN
SAY YEAH
LADY KO
CYLUS
EUTONY2
4BURSA
2UPNDWN (Two Up and Down)
Bumpersnickers 

A bevy of political bumperstickers is cropping up in the wake of the anti-woke whackos in and out of the White House. Here's a sampler: 

Are We Great Yet? 'Cause I Just Feel Embarrassed
Keep the Immigrants. Deport the Racists
No One Elected The Trump Puppet Master
F-ELON
One Day We'll Wake Up to His Obituary
Elect a Clown Expect a Circus
No Kings In America
Unwilling Participant in an Idiocracy
I Think, Therefore I Am… Not a Trump Supporter
Two Paths and America Chose the Psychopath 

'America the Battleful' 

The following digitized political ditty was created by Donald A. Smith, PhD., a prolific and political professor who knows how to put AI to good use. He writes the lyrics, uses AI to create powerful images and taps into Udio.com to provide the music. Feel free to sing along.

And here are some of the lyrics:
O beautiful, for endless wars
For searing waves of pain
For vicious bombing travesties
Above the ravaged plain!
America, America,
God shed his tears on thee
And crown falsehood with orphanhood
From sea to blood-drenched sea!