Losing My Perspicacity, September 19, 2025

Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for starting your day with me today.

As I was driving to pick up groceries yesterday evening, I passed by the Planned Parenthood located immediately next door to my local supermarket. The entryway is, necessarily, festooned with a gate, a security camera, warning signs, and, at busier times, at least one escort for women entering the facility.

Immediately across the street, by design, is one of those “crisis pregnancy” centers, that make a lot of noise about giving those expecting “options,” but their real goal is to guilt women out of having an abortion. Their parking lot has no extra security that’s noticeable to passersby, and they’ve erected a memorial plaque and benches near the street, where forced birthers often sit and harass the women heading into Planned Parenthood. More than once, I’ve called the police on the protestors, who rarely obey orders to stay on their side of the street.

Anyone looking at both those buildings could tell you which one, unfortunately, has to be concerned about the safety of its patients and staff, and which does not. It got me thinking about the “both-sidesing” we do when it comes to political violence from the left and the right. Abortion doctors have been murdered, and abortion clinics have been bombed. Crisis pregnancy centers, although loathed by the pro-choice movement and the left in general, have not. It’s evident to anyone who lived through the 1990s (Eric Rudolph, anyone?) which side is committing violence against the other. Yet I’ve watched a number of network and cable news hosts over the last few days say things along the lines of “There is violence from the left and violence from the right.” I guess that’s technically true, but violence by one side heavily outweighs the other.

And yet, you’d never know that listening to the President or Vice President of the United States speak. We’ve evolved into a society where truth is cheap and the facts are whatever one side insists they are, for the longest time. The MAGA propaganda machine is pumping out furor and outrage at a steady clip, and too many Americans are too…. (busy? lazy? uninterested?) to go searching for the truth themselves.

So let me do the work for them. The CATO institute has found that, since 1975, and excluding 9/11 (I don’t know why that would count as something that came from the left. The 9/11 hijackers were fundamentalist Muslims, as far as I know), those holding right-wing ideology have committed far more murders than those on the left.

Of course, the right wants to call things like #NoKingsDay and the Black Lives Matter marches of 2020 “political violence,” despite much of the physical confrontation in those events coming from the police. Recently, in Los Angeles, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the LAPD from harassing and arresting journalists.

Meanwhile, JD Vance, a political opportunist with no real principles if there ever was one, is out there telling Americans stuff like this:

If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done in 1930s Germany, 1940s Hollywood, or the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 80s, now’s your time to find out. Not only are Americans being disappeared off the street by ICE agents (ICE shot and killed a man in Chicago last week), but Americans’ First Amendment rights are being trampled by the current administration, and the media is tripping over itself to help out. Nexstar, which owns many ABC stations around the country, needs approval from the FCC for a planned merger, and Disney needs FCC approval for its ESPN to buy the NFL Network. Appeasing Trump is the quickest and easiest route to getting those deals approved, as Paramount’s merger with Skydance proved.

Drunk on what the federal government is letting him get away with, Trump has now suggested that he can pull the FCC licenses of any station that he disagrees with:

Isn’t this the kind of government overreach the right is always screaming about?

So, to recap: Asking Americans to mask and get vaccinated to protect the most vulnerable among us was akin to being in a concentration camp, but the President pressuring networks to get rid of comedians who target him is just part of freedom?

I said yesterday on social media that the reason outlets like CBS (Colbert), ABC (Kimmel), and NBC (Joy Reid, Tiffany Cross, etc.) are comfortable pulling comedians off the air for offending Trump’s delicate sensibilities is that they know there will be few consequences. Sure, some Americans may boycott Disney and ESPN to punish ABC, but most aren’t going to give up college football just to send a message.

And therein lies our problem: Despite being a country that loves to glorify the military’s “sacrifices,” few Americans are willing to make any of their own. I mentioned in a class last week that I was boycotting both Target and Amazon, and I never shopped at Walmart to begin with because of their politics. I was met with nothing but blank stares and several murmurs of “you can’t boycott everything.” That’s true, but some of us could start boycotting something. Anything. Pick something. God knows there are plenty of choices.

As a Gen Xer, I find myself living in a world I am wholly unprepared for. Though I’ve been watching the creep of fascism since college, I’ll admit to being one of those who never thought it would get this far. I thought saner minds would prevail, that Congress would step up, that the grownups would do the right thing. As a last resort, I thought Americans would fight back.

Alas, that is not where we find ourselves, and it’s time for all Americans who value the Constitution to step up or be prepared to admit that democracy failed on our watch.

Today: The Senate goes nuclear; Zuckerberg embarrasses himself again; Google is selling out users to ICE; and The High Note.

Let’s do it.

Another Senate rule bites the dust

In yet another disturbing turn of events, and further proof that the rules simply don’t matter anymore, Senate Republicans have confirmed 48 of Donald Trump’s nominees in one fell swoop.

Congrats to all of us on US Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle. Additionally, if you would like to donate to Graham Platner, who is running to unseat Susan Collins in Maine in 2028, you can do so here.

I will never buy these stupid glasses, and you shouldn’t, either

Oh Mark, you’re so cringey. No matter how hard Zuckerberg tries, no amount of surfing, MMA fighting, or superyachts can make this man cool. At his core, Zuckerberg is deeply, deeply awkward and weird. Not that I would ever endorse Theo Von, but I think this snippet pretty clearly shows what I’m talking about.

Look, I will never criticize someone for being socially awkward or missing social cues, but when you’ve set yourself up as a visionary tech genius who is constantly giving interviews and has been hauled before Congress multiple times to answer for how your tech is harming the world, I think your weirdness is fair game, especially given all the nefarious crap your company continues to do.

Anyway, Zuck’s “next big thing” is trying to reboot Google Glass, and the live demo pretty much sums up the problem with AI.

Well, sure. Tech always glitches when you’re trying to use it in front of people, right? But that wasn’t the only time it didn’t work during the presentation.

So, it works about as well as Siri, only stuck to my face. What a great use of billions of dollars. Keep in mind that Meta wants to build data centers all over America to support the amazing technology seen above, and they are going to gobble up plenty of clean air and water in the process. Eat the rich.

Before the presentation began, Zuckerberg told the media that those who don’t have his lame-ass glasses will be at a “significant cognitive disadvantage” compared to those who do. Yeah, I think I’m good. I’ll just take my cognitive disadvantage and see myself out.

Speaking of evil tech companies…

If you think Meta is the only tech company out there perpetrating evil on the world, prepare to have your mind blown. Google has been handing over user data to ICE, and doing it without notifying the users in question.

Google might as well be standing outside homes with ICE, helping them kick down doors to get in.

What ICE is using are administrative subpoenas, which means they haven’t been signed off on by a judge, nor do they have to meet the standard of probable cause, like a law enforcement warrant would. By declining to challenge the subpoenas in court, Google has essentially decided to trust that ICE is not abusing its power to subpoena documents. They’ve given the fox the keys to the henhouse because they asked so politely and on such an official-looking piece of paper.

Given ICE’s history of abusing its power and being smacked down by the federal judiciary over and over, we should all be concerned about our data. Google should have to answer for this before Congress and the American people.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

I’ve been watching this all day in a bid to feel something other than rage at the current state of my country. At this point, being ruled by Kylo Ren looks preferable to being ruled by Trump. Hope it makes you smile.

Survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Have a great weekend.