For the EPSTEINTH Time....

(Mic drop)

5150 and 25th AMENDMENT NOW!!!

5150 and 25th

AMENDMENT

NOW!!!

Notice we didn't even need to say his name, for everyone to know exactly who we mean.

(NOTE:  Since he is now, for all intents and purposes, a "Florida Man", perhaps we should say "Baker Act" him instead of "5150".)

Fauci Is NO HERO

Just your friendly neighborhood reminder:  while we at the TSAP absolutely LOATHE Trump and his vile and disgusting ilk, we also must note that, contrary to the legacy media lately, Dr. Anthony Fauci is NO HERO either.  During the pandemic, he clearly pushed questionable things like lockdowns, masks, antisocial distancing, and those experimental gene therapy injections that self-identified as "vaccines", all with precious little to no real evidence to back them up.  He was known for being, shall we say, "economical with the truth" on several occasions, not only about pandemic countermeasures, but also about the rather murky origins of the virus itself.  At best, he was a very mixed bag overall, from his rather checkered history regarding the emerging HIV/AIDS pandemic (among other things) at the start of his position as the head of the NIAID in 1984, all the way up until the day he retired on December 31, 2022 right around the end of the Covid pandemic era.  So NO, we will NOT celebrate him one iota!

Be A Human, Not A Ghost (And Let The Buyer Beware): Best Dating Advice For 2026 And Beyond

To any and all of the readers here, as a corrective to all the BS on social media lately, here is the best dating (and/or hookup or FWB) advice I can give for 2026 and beyond, from a liberal, progressive, male feminist ally + true egalitarian perspective:

Ladies, if a guy says some flavor of that he "doesn't want anything serious right now", BELIEVE HIM the first time!  Regardless of whether he is saying it in good faith or bad faith, or whether the accent is on the "right now" part, you will NOT change his mind, and you certainly won't do so by sleeping with him.  And also, in terms of agency, autonomy, and empowerment, you really cannot have it both ways.  Hiding behind self-denial of agency really does women no favors at all whatsoever.

Also ladies, remember that if you jump in bed with a guy before you even have a label (not that there is anything wrong with that, of course!), don't expect faithfulness and exclusivity to automatically follow.  In fact, NEVER automatically assume that a man is exclusively with you unless he explicitly says so (and even then, "trust but verify", as the old proverb goes).  "Let the buyer beware", in other words.  Natch.

Fellas, remember that honesty is still the best policy regardless, and enthusiastic consent is the FLOOR, not the ceiling.  And of course, do NOT lie, manipulate, fractionate, gaslight, or otherwise deliberately lead women on.  But please do NOT read into this that you should somehow be "cruel to be kind" to women (by having one-sided "smash and dash" or ghosting after sex, for example) so they don't "get the wrong idea" (UGH).  Be a decent human being, not a ghost.  Basic human decency is the bare minimum, after all.  Women are PEOPLE, not objects.  Think "I and Thou", not "I and It", as Martin Buber said.  Always treat humanity (regardless of gender) as an end in itself, never solely as a means to an end, echoing Immanuel Kant.

And remember that "casual" does NOT have to mean "meaningless", "impersonal", "degrading", "one-sided", or anything else besides "no expectation of commitment".

(Consider putting the "friend" back in "friends with benefits", mutually of course.)

Also, fellas, if you are feeling lonely, unloved, frustrated, "friendzoned", or any variation thereof, STOP simping for "Stacy", and give "Becky" a chance.  Get yourself out there, work on yourself, and stop feeling sorry for yourself!  And for the love of all that is good, jettison the word "inc*l" from your vocabulary at once, and quit all such adjacent groups and forums cold turkey, and don't look back!  That word a self-fulfilling and self-defeating prophecy that literally NEVER ends well at all.

And finally, for both primary genders (and otherwise), remember that if you cannot even be honest with yourself, how can you possibly be honest with each other?

Otherwise, you do you, live and let live.  Peace ✌️

(There, I literally just saved everyone thousands of dollars worth of therapy, lots of wasted time and energy, or much, much worse.  You're very welcome 😊)

When Even Mike Johnson Sounds Like The Voice Of Reason...

When even MIKE JOHNSON suddenly sounds like the voice of reason, you KNOW things are really, really bad!

 Can you say, "Mike Drop?"

The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this November.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be much worse.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)

Stop The Madness!

 (Mic drop)

5150 And 25th Amendment NOW! (AGAIN)

5150 and 25th AMENDMENT NOW!!!

Notice we didn't even need to say his name, for everyone to know exactly who we mean.

(NOTE:  Since he is now, for all intents and purposes, a "Florida Man", perhaps we should say "Baker Act" him instead of "5150".)

Trifecta of Tyranny

According to Dr. Google's infinite wisdom:

These three concepts—the precautionary principle, the prevention paradox, and the collective action problem—form a vicious cycle in public policy, public health, and environmental management. They explain why it is so difficult to address massive, slow-moving crises (like pandemics or climate change) until it is too late.

The Precautionary Principle argues that in the face of serious, potentially irreversible threats, scientific uncertainty should not justify delaying action. Instead of waiting for absolute proof of harm, the burden of proof is shifted to require proponents to prove an action is safe. [1]
The Prevention Paradox describes a situation where an action brings immense benefits to the population as a whole, but offers little discernible benefit to the individual who took it. For example, staying home during a pandemic protects the community from collapse, but makes the individual feel like they unnecessarily sacrificed their freedom. [1, 2, 3]
The Collective Action Problem occurs when multiple individuals or nations would benefit from cooperating, but conflicting interests discourage joint action. Because the Prevention Paradox makes the individual sacrifice feel pointless, it breeds "free-riding" where people wait for others to bear the cost of the precaution. [1, 2, 3]

To overcome this, your first step should be to design policies that align individual incentives with collective goals. Focus on shifting the "cost" of the precaution so that it is virtually effortless for the individual—or impose clear penalties for non-compliance. When navigating a specific policy challenge, ask yourself: "How can I make the safe choice the easy and personally beneficial choice for everyone involved?"

Google is correct overall to an extent, but the devil is always in the details.  These three concepts have their place, much like the related concept of "externalities" (in the Pigouvian sense), but they all too easily can be taken too far, misapplied, and used as a fig leaf for Orwellian-style tyranny.  Caveat lector.

And finally, remember what "public health" really has become in practice these days.  A good functional definition nowadays would be, "the art and science of delaying the inevitable".

The Pax Americana Is Over

If there were ever any doubts about whether or not the "Pax Americana" is over, those doubts have evaporated completely in the past year and a half.  From Trump alienating our allies to picking unnecessary fights with our adversaries, what was left of it is now gone with the wind.  Though, to be fair, it was already slowly but steadily declining well before Trump took over.

The Pax Americana was a period from 1945 until roughly 2025, eight decades of largely unipolar American global hegemony (dominance), and even more so after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and the Soviet Union, the only real rival superpower at the time, collapsed.  The very height of this supposed golden age was thus the 1990s.  This apex then came to an abrupt halt on the day of infamy that was September 11, 2001, and by the unnecessary wars of choice that followed under President George W. Bush, and became quagmires.  Meanwhile, America itself was being gradually hollowed out by neoliberalism since President Ronald Reagan and literally every single one of his successors (sorry, Clinton, and even Obama, you don't get a pass on this either).  And the ascendancy of other future superpowers (China for sure, and then India, Brazil, and possibly other countries too) and former superpowers temporarily experiencing a resurgence (Russia, I'm looking at you!) has made our world increasingly multipolar now.  This confluence of factors was already causing the Pax Americana to wane, but truly it was Trump (in both of his terms) that pushed it over the edge into the grave for good.

One could even call it, "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire", if that is a conversation we are ready to have yet.

This is truly the end of an era.  What comes next once Trump is out of power is not entirely clear.  While the Pax Americana was far from perfect, and was often quite costly and overzealous in terms of interventionism, looking back we can see that it did at least serve its purpose, for better or worse.  And the fact that it came to such an ignominious end under a wannabe fascist dictator like Trump, cannot really be a good thing on balance.

Stranger Than Fiction

It's stranger than fiction, how we've decayed......

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Your friendly reminder that Trump and MAGA do NOT own July 4th.  They own January 6th, a day which will live in infamy.

Happy 250th Birthday, America!  And many, many more!

Everything He Touches....

He really has the reverse Midas touch, apparently!

(Mic drop)

The Art Of The (Ransom) Deal

So much winning!  I mean, nothing says "winning" quite like paying Iran a "totally NOT a ransom" ransom, which will (at best) bring us back to the way things were before Trump ripped up the previous deal in 2017 just to spite his then arch-nemesis, Obama.  On June 17, 2026, the deal has been officially released, essentially confirming that (albeit with the requisite hedging).  He has succeeded only in making both the hawks AND the doves mad, all for naught.  To say nothing of all the needless deaths and injuries!

Granted, this was, realistically speaking, the least-worst possible outcome to this foolish war of choice, from the moment the war had begun.  Better still, of course, would have been not going to war in the first place, and even better would have been to simply leave the original 2015 deal intact and NOT ripped it up.

AND LEST WE FORGET.......

(Mic drop)