Agents Provocateurs and Congressman Ryan Mackenzie

A number of thugs follow 7th PA Congressional District Democratic candidate Bob Brooks to his various campaign events, including his appearance at the Carbon County fair.  They were also at the Democratic candidate debate in Carbon County.  They are “agents provocateurs.”  That is French for “inciting agent.”  Those tactics have an old history, often used in the past by extremist parties like the German Nazi party.  The idea is to stir up trouble and then use the trouble to discredit your opponents.

It is too bad that Republican candidates have resorted to this kind of authoritarian behavior, but it isn’t surprising.  The racial gerrymandering, the dark money, the attempts to subvert mail-in ballots, the constant whining about stolen elections only when they lose, false claims about illegal voting–what has happened to free and fair elections?

Could Ryan Mackenzie, Brooks’s opponent, call off these thugs?  No doubt, but I don’t think he will.

When I searched for “Agent Provocateur” to make sure I spelled it right, I learned it is also a brand of women’s lingerie.  It’s an expression of “confidence, sensuality, and style.”  Could the thugs be wearing it under their clothes?  Something to consider.

Chat GPT Uploads "The Terminator," Begins Hunt for Sarah Connor

This can not be good. 

Jeanine Pirro gives me Schadenfreude

Trump used Fox as a recruiting pool, and now one of his picks has had a problem with a different kind of pool and Trump is angry.  Trump appointed  former Fox “News” legal analyst Jeanine Pirro as federal prosecutor for D.C.  Yesterday she dropped the case against the man accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool.  The evidence was non-existent and the charge was ridiculous.  Pirro really had no choice.

Except that Trump hates–hates–to be contradicted.  Pirro might just be fired.  I hope so.  I love internal squabbles in the Administration.  

Hey, whatever happened to Kristi Noem? 

Blissfully ignorant

The owner of the Four Winds Craft Guild, an upscale artisan craft and antique shop on Nantucket, put up a sign that said “No Influencers,” and his friend posted it on Instagram.  An “influencer” named Paige Paul, who has over a million followers, said the sign was the same as a sign barring women.

When I read this, I realized I have never seen an “influencer.”  They don’t pop up on my emails, and you can’t get them on a landline, which is the only phone I own.  This is one of the reasons when Charlie Kirk was shot, my reaction was “Who?”

My second takeaway was: A MILLION FOLLOWERS!  Wow.  I usually get between 15 and 20 people reading these posts.  I once got a hundred.

My third takeaway was:  Why would anyone take the time to read people like Joseph Rogan or that asswipe who runs the Proud Boys?  Really?  Don’t people have anything better to do?  Get a library card.

Lastly, I thought:  I’ve got to figure out how to become an “influencer.”  This could be a whole new career.

Some info for this post is from an article by Madison Malone Kircher entitled “Two Words Cause Many on Nantucket to Weigh In” in today’s N.Y.T., p. 3st.

Presidential primaries in 2028

In many past elections the presidential nomination process began with caucuses in Iowa followed by a primary in New Hampshire.  Candidates with good organizations could win in both those states.  Both states had relatively small populations which lent themselves to personalized campaigning.

Unfortunately, neither Iowa nor New Hampshire are particularly representative of members of the Democratic Party in 2028.  Both states have mostly white voters, and neither state is a Democratic stronghold.  Since political parties can determine their own nominating process, the national Democratic organization decided the first six states will vote in this order:  South Carolina (in January) followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia.  

That’s a nice cross-county mixture of urban and rural.  Black voters, Latino voters, union members, and big city residents are all represented.  It should be an interesting contest.

Wiping the phone with a duress passcode

When airline passenger Samuel Tunick from Atlanta was stopped at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the authorities seized his phone.  He was not a spy or anything like that, but he had made a reputation as an opponent of the plan to build a police and fire training center in an urban woodland in Atlanta.  

Anyway, the authorities wanted the passcode to get into Mr Tunick’s call history.  The code he gave them is called a “duress” passcode, and it wipes the entire contents of the phone.  How cool is that?

The Feds were not amused.  They have now charged him with a felony for destroying evidence.  What evidence?  He made phone calls.  And what were the grounds for seizing the phone in the first place?  They didn’t have a warrant.  No crime was suspected. 

I think Mr. Tunick will win this case.  Even if he doesn’t, that is one of the best weapons against technology I’ve heard.  If I ever get a cell phone, I’ve got to get one of those duress passcodes. 

American Concentration Camps

Let’s be honest about this.  That’s the accurate name for where we are keeping our ICE detainees.  Some of detention warehouses are run by private for-profit firms.  Those warehouses are not usually required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.  That means if you have a parent or a child in one of them, you may not be able to obtain information.

Wormy food, lack of health care, brown water–all problems.  More than 65,000 people are in these concentration camps right now.  Now ICE wants to put people in county jails.  I don’t even know if my county is cooperating with ICE.  I will be attending a meeting of the County Commissioners to try to answer that question.

Is Congress doing anything about this?  Do pigs fly?