"I'm not smart, I'm dumb — like you"

/

And also in the “Black Like You” vein, the poor man says he won’t be able to comply with a voter ID law

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh

/

“Fled” to a country that, unlike the US, denies non-citizens shelter, food, medical care or the right to work. Oh, the humanity!

UPDATE: Of course, if she and her “partner” can achieve citizenship, paradise awaits.

Liberalism is a mental disorder, and therapists confirm it

/

Therapists explain cognitive dissonance you’re feeling watching the Olympics

While President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda separates families, and federal agents detain 5-year-olds and kill unarmed civilians, American athletes are winning medals on behalf of the nation at the Olympics right now. 

  • The cognitive dissonance of rooting for U.S. sports while hating the U.S. government is so common that “it continues to be one of the main topics I hold space for in therapy,” said Los Angeles-based licensed clinical social worker Aimee Monterrosa. “As we continue to witness national and global atrocities in real time...it can trigger feelings of guilt, despair, shame, anger.”

  • Although these feelings are common, you shouldn’t ignore them. “Cognitive dissonance isn’t just ‘having mixed feelings,’” said Tanisha Ranger, a Nevada-based clinical psychologist. “It’s a psychological state that happens when someone holds two conflicting beliefs or values at the same time, or they are engaging in behaviors that contradict their values.”

Watch Out For How This Tension Show Up In Your Body And Mind 

In your mind, this tension might show up as an internal war of words. You might worry, “Why do I want them to win when I’m angry about what the country is doing?” Ranger said, or you might qualify your feelings with statements like, “I’m rooting for them, but…” You might even need to turn the game off right after a big moment because it suddenly feels all too complicated to keep rooting, Ranger added. 

  • Ranger said it’s typical for people with this cognitive dissonance to feel a “weird mix of excitement and discomfort at the same time” that might feel like “a tightening in your chest or stomach when you realize you’re cheering and cringing simultaneously.” 

  • This cognitive dissonance can cause physical symptoms, too, like a tightness in the neck, shoulder or jaw areas, as well as digestive issues and trouble sleeping, Monterrosa said. 

  • The degree to which you feel shame and guilt right now for cheering U.S. Olympians might also depend on how much cognitive dissonance you have between the stated values of being American –– freedom, revolutionary spirit, opportunity for all –– versus how our government has actually acted in the hundreds of years since the U.S. was formed, said Lauren Appio, a psychologist and executive coach.

  • That’s why some people might not experience cognitive dissonance at all because what the U.S. government is doing to its citizens is not new for them. For these people, “They have already been exposed to the difference between what America claims to be versus what it is,” Appio said. 

  • There is no easy, tidy resolution to addressing these big feelings. Learning to move through cognitive dissonance means naming these emotions and letting complexity exist, Ranger said. 

  • “You can hold more than one truth at the same time,” Ranger said. “You can admire the discipline and sacrifice of the athletes, you can strongly disagree with government policy, [and] you can feel both pride and disgust without needing to collapse that into one ‘correct’ feeling.”

  • “Don’t forget to breathe, we are all just trying to take things one day at a time while navigating too many uncertainties,” Monterrosa said. 

  • “If waving the American flag or chanting, ‘USA!’ makes us feel grossed out or ashamed, we can cheer for individual athletes,” Appio said. “We can also learn more about their stories and the stories of athletes from around the world, and appreciate all they have done to get to the height of their sports.”

  • You could also find mutual aid campaigns to join and help educate yourself, so that you can ease the feelings of dissonance and disconnection, Monterrosa said. 

Imagine living like this, so miserable, guilty, and furious. It must be exhausting.

I haven't watched the Olympics in the forty-six years since the US hockey team beat the Ruskies (and someone else in the final, as I recall), but this is very satisfying

/

BREAKING: Men's USA Hockey Beats Canada in OT for Olympic GOLD!!! USA! USA! USA!

“Satisfying” because of this series of Tweets posted by Canadian hockey fans yesterday:

Poor Canada: Betting Their Entire Country's Worth on Beating the 'Hated' USA. Spoiler: We Don't Care

Tomorrow at approximately 8:00 am Eastern Time, the male American ice hockey team will take on Canada in the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics. Canada is apparently basing the hope of the survival of their country on this game, and they want Americans to know we are the underdogs and the world hates us. Pish, posh ... when did Americans ever care about that. 

Update

More Schadenfreude: Toronto Star’s coverage this morning:

‘One of the worst moments of my life:’ Canadian fans mourn gold medal hockey loss

Prime Minister Mark Carney was also up in hopes of watching Team Canada strike gold. 

Carney, wearing the jersey he was gifted earlier this year by the women’s national team with his surname on the back, was cheering on the Canadian men Sunday in Chelsea, Que., which is just northwest of the Ottawa-Gatineau area.

“Congratulations on a hard-fought and well-earned silver, @TeamCanada,” Carney wrote in an X post after the game. “You made your country proud.”

Hahahahaha!

(Another) Update:

U.S. - After defeating Canada at the only thing it was supposedly good at, the entire territory of Canada has been officially declared an American province.

"And to be clear, you're just a province. Being a state is for winners," announced President Trump. "We took you over and all we lost were a few teeth. This is is so embarrassing for you."

At publishing time, Canada had admitted defeat and euthanized the national hockey team.

And the hits keep coming:

Well, that's certainly getting off on the wrong foot — twice.

/

A Bangor doctor operated on the wrong foot. 7 years later he did it again.

In July 2024, a podiatrist in Bangor was scheduled to operate on a patient he’d been treating for months.

A nurse at St. Joseph Hospital remembered that morning as “hectic,” according to an investigative report. Surgeries were running late. Computer issues were preventing doctors from reviewing patient photos. But after a slight delay, the patient’s left foot was marked in preparation for a procedure to repair the Achilles and peroneal tendon surgery.

In the operation room a short time later, however, a stocking and tourniquet were placed on the right leg. The doctor, Adam Darcy of Acadia Foot & Ankle, didn’t notice until it was too late. He operated on the wrong foot.

And it wasn’t his first time.

Details about the 2024 botched surgery were included in a report filed last month with the Maine Board of Licensure of Podiatric Medicine, which investigates complaints against foot doctors.

Board members concluded Darcy “had been negligent in his practice,” by his own admission.

“Even during the surgery it did not occur to (Darcy) that he was operating on the wrong site,” the board concluded in its final report.

Though Darcy operated on the patient’s right foot, he wrote in an operating report following the surgery that it occurred on the left foot. He amended that report to reflect his mistake about a week later.

Darcy’s surgical privileges were revoked by St. Joseph Hospital in December last year and Northern Light Health the next month. The state’s licensing board issued lifetime restrictions on his surgical license and placed him on three years’ probation, but he is still allowed to practice non-surgical medicine.

Acadia Foot & Ankle’s website indicates Darcy is still working at the clinic. Darcy, who has been licensed in Maine since 2003, declined interview requests and did not answer a list of questions about the operation, citing patient confidentiality and an “ongoing lawsuit.”

What, a lawsuit? Who could have imagined that? Based on a similar case I once had, I guarantee you that the hospital’s first call here was to its errors and omissions carrier.

Because PowerLine's based in Minnesota, it tends to focus on that state's woes, but I have no doubt that these tales of corruption and ineptitude are being repeated across the country

/

(I keep reusing using this GIF just because it’s so much fun, and because it captures the nature of the man so perfectly)

Posted on February 21, 2026 by Bill Glahn in Crime, Minnesota

A baker’s dozen

From the Associated Press (AP),

How a defendant in Minnesota went free because of Justice Department turmoil.

The AP wants you to be angry at Donald Trump for enforcing immigration laws. AP reports,

The federal prosecutor’s office in Minnesota has been gutted by a wave of career officials resigning or retiring over objections to Trump administration directives. Because of the turmoil, 12-time convicted felon Cory Allen McKay caught a break.

As far as I can piece together, Mr. McKay’s dozen previous felony convictions all were acquired in state courts. Yet, not a single state prosecutor, not a single state judge thought to put Mr. McKay behind bars. His release is all laid at the feet of Pres. Trump.

McKay was scheduled to stand trial next month on methamphetamine trafficking charges that could have locked him up for 25 years. Instead, he walked free after the prosecutor on his case retired.

I am all but certain that meth dealing is against state laws. Regardless, not once in its 180-year existence has the AP cared about putting criminals behind bars.

The AP gloats at the exodus of federal prosecutors,

Over the past year, the number of assistant U.S. attorneys in Minnesota has fallen from more than 40 prosecutors before Trump retook office to fewer than two dozen. 

But they give away the game,

The exodus began last year as several prosecutors “saw the writing on the wall” that their jobs — and the government’s definition of justice — were going to be different under the new administration, the former federal prosecutor said.

The definition of “justice” never changed, what changed was a determination that all of the nation’s laws would be enforced, not just laws popular with Democrats.

China sends its best

/

Sarah Anderson, PJ Media:

As if the Venezuelan people don't have enough problems on their hands, some of the morons from Code Pink, including the head ones, Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, have arrived in Caracas. Of course, we already know these ladies were huge fans of Chavez and Nicolás Maduro, visited often, and were likely partially funded by them. 

According to them, they're there for an "International Peace Delegation to Venezuela" and they've "got a lot of work to do." They claim that their job is to promote regional stability, learn more about the U.S. intervention and sanctions, and do some peaceful protesting... and maybe something about standing up for the Venezuelan people. You know, the ones who actually wanted Trump to do this. They also met with the regime's "Foreign Minister," Yván Gil Pinto.

My God, why can't the Colectivos grab these idiots? Throw them in El Helicoide and release the political prisoners. No one in the United States would mind. (I'm kidding, of course. Mostly.) You may have missed it, but the State Department recently sent a report to Congress, asserting that Code Pink has ties to the China Communist Party, and we all know China, which has billions of dollars of loans sunk into Venezuela and which was getting cheap oil from the country, is quite hurt that it now has to answer to Trump and Rubio on such matters. Not suspicious at all...

I'll let you watch their little video for yourself because I just can't even.... It's old white women chanting and some guy who obviously lost his cajones years ago. If this is what standing up for the Venezuelan people looks like, I have a feeling they'll pass.