Terrorism? A zombie in the White House? More chaos from Republicans in Congress? A Presidential honor for…Liz Cheney? Stupid headlines like “Harris Heads To D.C. To Swear in Senators Who Won’t Evven Say Her Name Right” and “Why Murdering a CEO Won’t Fix Healthcare Costs…“?
And why is someone pissing on 2025 already? There are a lot of events and issues you can debate here so I can write about other things…
Ethics Alarms 
A regular poster on Blue Sky posts about the Capitol Riot every day so that we will not forget.
The decision to physically move the President came as protesters confronted Secret Service officers outside the White House for hours on Friday – shouting, throwing water bottles and other objects at the line of officers, and attempting to break through the metal barriers.
None of the rioters who attacked Secret Service agents claimed self-defense.
There is no logical rationale for their actions except that they were attacking Secret Service agents in an attempt to murder the President of the United States.
And when these murderous rioters were repelled with tear gas, these people forgot what they were trying to do, and accused Trump of using tear gas against peaceful protesters!
These people simped for those who were trying to commit murder!
Make no mistake.
Everyone who accused Trump of using tear gas against peaceful protesters also accused Trump of causing the iNsUrReCtIon!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found Allstate CEO Tom Wilson’s pre-Sugar Bowl message yesterday to be nauseating with it’s preaching about America’s “culture of divisiveness” and so on and on…
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/01/03/allstate-ceo-criticism-messaging-sugar-bowl
They showed that but not the national anthem??? No “USA!” chant? (See Jack’s post)
I had forgotten the story of the Kentucky Sheriff who killed a judge in the judge’s chambers. It seems that the judge in (you can’t make this up) Letcher County, Ky had been extorting teen girls for sex. The sheriff was aware of this and when he found that his daughter’s number was saved in the judge’s phone, he shot the judge.
So, a very dirty judge
and
a sheriff that knew what the judge was doing (he had been that judge’s bailiff previously) and did nothing until the judge did it to his own daughter.
It was found that the judge and multiple deputies (the sheriff’s men) participated in the ‘sex for freedom’ scandal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf7-GWWtN6w
I wonder if this deputy will be deified the way Luigi Mangione is deified by some people.
Probably not, since it appears that he was partaking of the ‘spoils’ and only had a problem with it when he found that his daughter was being victimized.
Well, I guess I can say that at least the judge here didn’t get an innocent man killed over a weedeater (London, Ky).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9jmOWRz3CA
We just finished the 4th and apparently final season of the Jack Ryan television series. I was under the impression that #3 was the final season when we watched it years ago and vaguely recall people saying that was the last. So to our surprise a year and a half later we found season 4. So we watched it. It introduces Tom Clancy character Domingo Chavez (in the movie franchise, he appears in Clear and Present Danger).
It started off really enjoyable. But the final two episodes really felt haphazard as if there was a lot of rewriting and re-doing to add some final twists in what was a very very clumsily put together commentary on the current political zeitgeist surrounding the “deep state” and whose ‘side’ they’re on.
A semi-key character in the show is a congressman from Texas – last name Henshaw. How imaginative.
I assume (and was not disabused of my assumption) when the Texas congressman is depicted as voting *no* for confirming the appointment of female african american character Elizabeth Wright to the CIA directorship. Whatever – hollywood gonna dunk on what we presume is caricature Republican.
But wait – there’s more:
Turns out, the villain in the story – which we start off seeing as internal rogue CIA elements engaging in their own self-profiting internal efforts that Jack Ryan is tasked with cleaning up – turns out NOT to be internal rogue CIA elements but actually the Texas congressman Henshaw (so imaginative).
In the extremely clumsy 2 episode wrap up which culminates in one of the most self-satisfying monologues by John Krasinski that I’m sure partisan hollywood could put together – we find out the message the season 4 writers want us to take away is that there is a gross and fatal weakness in the American system. But it isn’t the deeply embedded often partisan bureaucratic side of our system – but rather it is the *elected* side of the system. Never mind current events showing otherwise.
Oh and for those who might say “well, yeah, there is an exploitable weakness in some elected politicians, just look at the Biden family”, Jack Ryan season 4 makes sure we know it’s the congressman from Texas who is the corrupted one.
What absolute tripe.
I need to catch up. Grace, a huge fan of the Jack Ryan movies and novels, couldn’t stand the series’ star, though she liked all of the earlier Jacks, even Alec Baldwin. (And “Red October” is, I agree, the best of the movies.) I had to catch the series in snippets when she was elsewhere or asleep.
That’s interesting that she doesn’t like John Krasinski as Jack Ryan. I couldn’t stand him because of his role in the office – a show that arbitrarily puts into primary “hero” status, one of TV’s most loathsome characters. Full disclosure – I can’t stand the character of Jim. He has redeeming qualities which the show uses to gloss over a lot of dross. But his overall evaluation in my view is low. And I’m sometimes too low-brow to disassociate actors with their characters. However, his acting in Jack Ryan really renovated John Krasinski in my opinion. Until this last season.
Even with my complaint about Season 4 – it is still enjoyable. Just deflating.
Interestingly enough – I think, overall, Jack Ryan is *WAY* better as a character when he’s portrayed the way Clancy wanted him portrayed – a little bit clunky and academic – a true analyst – found in situations where he had to use brains and luck to extract himself. The shows and movies over time converted him into an action star – shooting and maneuvering his way out of messes that a CIA desk jockey would more likely than not be huffing and puffing looking for doorways instead of hopping over roof-tops.
And she never watched The Office. He’s a lower wattage star than Affleck, Chris Pine and Harrison Ford for sure, even Baldwin. And actors do carry baggage with them, sometimes to their benefit, sometimes not.