James Fell

Poor Rudy Giuliani. He ain't doing too well. And it's just like Trump to whine that it's the DEMOCRATS that were so mean to Rudy, they put him in the hospital! Something 99% of regular humans would not think, our so-called president is johnny-on-the-spot to blame Democrats, especially Joe Biden and Barack Hussein Obama, for anything and everything negative and bad, and Guiliani's "troubles." 

But we know that Trump is never guilty of anything. That would be admitting weakness and that's a no-no, according to Roy Cohn's poisonous reasoning. Roy was Trump's hero and teacher.  Never admit you are wrong. Never take blame or responsibility for anything. And this horrible example of a mendacious, soul-dead human weaseled his way back into the presidency.

This one is from James Fell, a Canadian, who has some pretty funny books out.

As Rudy Giuliani is in hospital in critical condition, we should all remember the time he was the center of the funniest fucking thing in the history of forever.

It took four days to call the 2020 U.S. Presidential election for Joe Biden, but Rudy Giuliani wasn’t fucking having it. So, on November 7, 2020, he held a press conference to challenge the results at the Four Seasons … Total Landscaping. Located in Northeast Philadelphia, with a dildo store on one side and a crematorium on the other, Rudy was stuck between a cock and a charred place.

It was a metaphor for the Manchurian Cantaloupe’s presidency. He did lose, FYI. You disagree? You’re in a cult. Biden got seven million more votes than Cadet Bone Spurs and took 306 Electoral College votes for a healthy margin of victory. Pennsylvania was one of the states that swung to Biden as absentee ballots were counted, but lapdog Rudy called bullshit on his deranged boss’s behalf, calling a press conference to protest. Trumpelthinskin tweeted it, saying the event would be held at the “Four Seasons, Philadelphia.” The hotel, a fancy one in downtown Philly, said no it’s fucking not. Nothing was booked at the 5-Star residences.

So, the sack of congealed spray tan deleted his tweet then later posted two others saying it was at “Four Season’s Landscaping.” (That apostrophe was his, not mine.) The Four Seasons Hotel also tweeted for clarity it was at the landscaping company, and there was “no relation with the hotel.” Being a bunch of lying fucking liars who always lie, the Jackass-o-lantern campaign bullshitted its ass off so hard it’s difficult to know the exact chain of events. The fuckup might have begun with Scooby Coup’s tweet about the location, and when the hotel said nuh-uh, his toadies scrambled for a face-saving solution, and rather than book a different hotel some genius said well he didn’t say the word “hotel” and there is this landscaping company in the sketchy butt-ass nowhere end of town called Four Seasons can we host it there? And they called the landscaping company and the place that specializes in lawns and gardens not corruption of democracy said yeah sure I guess. Or, possibly, an aide mistakenly booked the landscaping company, and rather than admit the error they ran with it. Regardless, a decisionmaker ultimately said do it in a landscaper’s parking lot next to a porn store and a place where corpses are turned to ash.

What a literal shitshow, with Rudy droning about election fraud while in proximity to actual bags of manure. Being Voldemoron’s main lackey, standing next to a pile of shit was nothing new for Giuliani. To add insult to hilarity, Giuliani put “witness” of alleged vote tampering Daryl Brooks before the cameras. It was soon revealed that Brooks is a convicted sex offender. The entire debacle epitomized the incompetence of the orange shitgibbon’s presidency, and non-Trumpanzee social media—hyperventilating from so many sighs of relief over legitimate news sources all proclaiming Biden as victor—had a fucking field day.

The owners of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, who proclaim to be non-partisan, cashed in bigly on merchandise, selling “Make America Rake Again” and “Lawn and Order” stickers and T-shirts.

Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says “fuck” a lot. Get both volumes of “On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down” at JamesFell.com/books.

James Fell on Facebook (ouch!)

suing Musk

I am very happy to see this lawsuit "launched." We lived on South Padre Island (SPI) from 2016 until last year, and as the SpaceX launches increased, we were getting freaked out about how strong they were getting. Our house, only around 6 miles from the launch pads on Boca Chica as the crow flies, shook like a leaf in a strong wind. 

It was bad enough to see the house shake and cracks start to develop in our inside walls, but when SpaceX started returning the rocket boosters to the launch pad at Boca, we had a new rude awakening: sonic booms. But not the kind of sonic booms you might have heard as a kid when maybe a military aircraft streaked across the sky. No, these booms seem 10x stronger. When one hits, you cannot help but cry out and your heart might skip a beat. I'll bet some form of PTSD is likely from multiple booms, and multiple booms is what Musk wants. 

Right now, Musk has permission to launch up to 25 times per year from Boca. Recently, they have not held up that cadence, thank goodness. But when they get ramped up, Musk wants to launch THREE times per day. That's three launches, three returning boosters and three returning Starships to the launch site, and at least six intense sonic booms. Per day. 

I don't see how anyone would want to live on SPI under those conditions. We got out when we could. Home prices were still on the rise and we cashed out. The sense of relief is palpable, but I feel very bad for those people who are still on SPI and don't have much to fight Musk with. We see a long history of the very rich getting their way and doing basically whatever they want in this country. And Texas, mind you, is not California. The regulatory authorities here in Texas are almost non-existent, especially if you are politically connected, as the neo-Nazi Musk certainly is.

A view from Texas State Highway 48 of SpaceX's Starship Flight 8 launch as the Booster is caught at the launch pad Thursday, March, 6, 2025. (Miguel Roberts | The Brownsville Herald)

Nearly 60 Valley households sue SpaceX over damage to homes from launches

By

 Montserrat Pagan

 - 

May 1, 2026

More than 50 plaintiffs on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against SpaceX alleging that sonic booms from the company’s test launches at Boca Chica Beach are damaging their homes.

The lawsuit was filed by 58 households in Port Isabel, South Padre Island and Laguna Vista.

The petition says that between April 2023 and October 2025, “SpaceX completed eleven fully integrated Starship/Super Heavy test flights.”

“Additionally, between 2020 and May 2021, the company completed six non-full-stack test flights. Further, at various times the company has completed static Starship engine tests at the Starbase facility,” the lawsuit stated. “As a result of SpaceX’s Starship operations, Plaintiffs’ homes have been subjected to repeated intense and damaging acoustic events.”

The lawsuit says the Boca Chica Beach location was intended to be a commercial space port for existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

“In 2018, however, SpaceX dedicated the site exclusively to the development and launch of its next-generation Starship vehicle. To accommodate this program, SpaceX acquired hundreds of acres of coastal land, transforming a quiet beach community into a sprawling industrial spaceport and manufacturing complex,” the petition said. “Starbase is now the exclusive testing, launching, and landing site for the largest rockets in human history.”

At the spaceport’s launch pads, there are massive integration and catch towers that are the tallest launch towers in the world, the petition said.

“SpaceX deliberately constructed this colossal, skyscraper-sized infrastructure mere miles from coastal residential communities,” the document stated.

LACK OF DATA

The petition details the “colossal” size of the launch site’s infrastructure, with the Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy Booster standing as tall as a 30 story building when prepared for flight.

The Super Heavy Booster relies on 33 Raptor 2 engines to lift onto the launch mount, according to the document.

They burn liquid oxygen and methane propellants which “collectively generates 16.7 million pounds of thrust,” the lawsuit states. The engines’ power creates a “violent aeroacoustic phenomena.”

“By comparison, Starship generates nearly twice the thrust as NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and nearly ten times the thrust of SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 rocket,” the lawsuit continued.

“SpaceX has publicly acknowledged scientific and regulatory deficits,” the document stated, referring to the company’s use of oxygen and methane propellants.

The lawsuit cited a SpaceX document that notes a lack of “data to make refined, accurate clear zones” for blast and acoustic impacts.

For instance, the lawsuit referred to SpaceX’s inaugural Starship test flight in April 2023 that completely blew up the launch pad and carved a crater into the ground while generating a massive debris cloud of pulverized concrete and metal shrapnel reaching residential areas nearly seven miles away.

Following the test launch, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the Starship program for months so the company could make corrective actions.

“SpaceX’s Starship operations are therefore experimental and iterative by nature. Each launch generates new acoustic data for SpaceX and its regulators,” the lawsuit says.

LIKE A GUNSHOT

As SpaceX continued testing at Boca Chica much to the delight of space flight enthusiasts who gather at Isla Blanca Park on South Padre Island and on Highway 48 between the Island and Brownsville, it has also piqued the curiosity of researchers.

For instance, a team from Brigham Young University (BYU) monitored the acoustic energy of test flights by placing measuring devices at eight locations various distances from the rocket launch pad, including in homes of some residents who filed the lawsuit.

“And they concluded that, by comparison, ‘one Starship launch is equivalent to around 4-6 SLS (NASA’s Space Launch System) and at least 10 Falcon 9 launches,” the lawsuit said.

The sonic boom generated from Test Flight 5 generated a “greater risk of structural damage, such as glass breaking and falling bric-a-brac,” according to the lawsuit’s citation of the researcher’s notes.

One researcher was cited saying that the sonic boom sounded like a gunshot at close range.

The launches pose a serious problem to sensitive populations, said Victor Sparrow, director of the Graduate Acoustics Program at Penn State University, according to the lawsuit.

BYU researchers continued to study test flight sonic booms and published findings, though they had variation in results per test due to changes in the environment as well as the number and nearness of recording stations.

“While these independent acoustic scientists successfully recorded actionable acoustic data during Test Flights 5 and 6, SpaceX’s orbital test campaign spans far beyond two isolated events,” the lawsuit says.

“Test Flights 5, 7, and 8 inflicted even greater acoustic trauma on Plaintiff’s homes. Because these flights involved the return and catch of the Super Heavy booster at Starbase, they subjected the surrounding areas to severe triple exposure acoustic events,” the lawsuit stated.

As of Friday afternoon, SpaceX had not filed a response to the lawsuit and no initial hearing in the case had been scheduled, court records indicate.

Original.

Mike McCready

Today's contribution is from Mike McCready from New York City, New York. Each week I seem to come across a new voice I had not heard from before. Are they human? Could any of these writings actually be from Artificial Intelligence? Conspiracy theories multiply.

This was supposed to be their moment.

This was supposed to be the great vindication. The glorious “I told you so.” The moment when every liberal, moderate, economist, historian, journalist, judge, democracy expert, constitutional scholar, retired general, and houseplant with basic pattern recognition had to admit MAGA had been right all along.

Instead, here we are.

No triumphant march.

No grand awakening.

No golden age.

Just a lot of people quietly backing out of the room, avoiding eye contact, muttering something about “the deep state,” and pretending they never loudly guaranteed that all of this would go beautifully.

And yes, I feel sad for them.

Because realizing you’ve been had is painful.

Realizing you spent years defending the indefensible is painful.

Realizing you mistook cruelty for strength, ignorance for authenticity, and corruption for patriotism has to be a difficult emotional pivot.

But I’m also mad.

Very mad.

And I suspect I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life.

I’m going to be mad every time the news explains that America is no longer the unquestioned global superpower because millions of people handed the country to a man who treats geopolitics like a casino buffet dispute.

I’m going to be mad every time goods cost more because global shipping is less secure, trade routes are more expensive, and the country that used to help keep the lanes open decided it would rather posture, pout, and slap tariffs on reality.

I’m going to be mad every time some new “passage tax,” “security surcharge,” “regional instability premium,” or other elegant little phrase for “you broke the world order, now pay at checkout” gets passed down to regular people.

I’m going to be mad if Taiwan is swallowed back into China because America became too chaotic, too divided, too cowardly, or too unserious to defend the system it built.

I’m going to be mad every time traveling to Europe becomes harder because the rest of the world looks at an American passport and no longer sees stability, competence, or trust — just a warning label with an eagle on it.

I’m going to be mad when Americans who used to hop on a plane now need extra paperwork, extra screening, extra approvals, and extra explanations because half the country decided democracy was less important than giving liberals a nervous breakdown.

So yes, I feel bad for MAGA.

But let’s be clear.

They were not tricked by something subtle.

This was not a sophisticated long con involving offshore shell companies, encrypted ledgers, and a charming man named Sebastian with excellent teeth.

This was a man standing in the middle of the room yelling, “I am going to do the bad thing,” while selling hats that said, “I intend to do the bad thing,” surrounded by people explaining that the bad thing was actually very good because it annoyed the right people.

And somehow, millions of people looked at that and said:

“Finally. A statesman.”

The warnings were not hidden.

He told them.

We told them.

His own former staff told them.

The courts told them.

The indictments told them.

The bankruptcies told them.

The tapes told them.

The steaks told them.

The university told them.

The bibles told them, although admittedly not in the way they thought.

At some point, you don’t get to say you were deceived.

You have to admit you volunteered.

That’s the part that makes this so infuriating.

Everyone can be conned.

Good people get manipulated all the time.

But being conned after the entire country spent years pointing at the con man and shouting, “That is a con man,” is a special category of civic achievement.

It’s not just falling for the email from the Nigerian prince.

It’s replying, “Your Highness, ignore the haters. I alone believe in your wire transfer.”

So yes, I feel bad for them.

In the way one feels bad for a man who ignored six “wet paint” signs, sat on the bench anyway, then blamed the bench.

In the way one feels bad for someone who touched the stove, screamed, touched it again, called you a communist for warning him, then started a podcast about stove freedom.

There is compassion here.

But it is compassion with a clenched jaw.

Because this was never unknowable.

This was never mysterious.

This was the most obvious slow-motion disaster in American political history, performed daily in public by a man who treats truth like garnish and the Constitution like a hotel towel.

And now MAGA has arrived at the place everyone else saw coming.

No victory lap.

No grand vindication.

No “I told you so.”

Just regret.

Just excuses.

Just people suddenly pretending they were never that into him.

Unfortunately, we kept the receipts.

The flags.

The hats.

The memes.

The bumper stickers.

The Facebook comments.

The “do your own research” lectures from people who thought YouTube was a law degree.

So yes.

My thoughts and prayers are with MAGA during this difficult time.

May they find healing.

May they find clarity.

And may they someday discover the courage to admit that being fooled is human…

…but being warned 10,000 times and still buying the commemorative mug is on you.

Mike McCready

worst of the worst

No explanation needed.

George Carlin

Side note: Hard to believe George Carlin died almost 18 years ago at age 71. I sure miss his wit and wisdom. Every now and then you run across a snip from George and you remember how much you miss him. No one has stepped up to even try to take his place. I don't think it's possible.  

SOMETHING TO PONDER: George Carlin

George Carlin's wife died early in 2008 and George followed her, dying in July 2008. It is ironic George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent and so very appropriate.

An observation by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

And always remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin