Some gratitude to the good people of Minneapolis. The city’s martyrs of ICE resistance, such as Alex Pretti and Renée Good, are apparently forgotten because Donald Trump briefly posted part of a “king of the jungle” video (apparently suppressed by the righteous who run YouTube, but available from the haters at X). Front page of the NYT today condemning Trump for his racism; nothing anywhere on the front page about Minneapolis, as if the sacrifices were for nothing:
I will celebrate Minneapolis, therefore, with a shout-out to SANUS, headquartered in suburban Minneapolis (a 3-minute drive from the Al-Amaan mosque). Mere hours before we were to our Super Bowl extravaganza guests are arriving, our four-year-old $900 Costco 86″ TV wouldn’t turn on. Thanks to the Sanus BLT3-B1 “tilt 4D” mount, however, I was able to pull the recalcitrant machine from the wall and use my Ph.D. in EECS skills to unplug it and plug it back in. The kids are watching the Puppy Bowl and, if the Costco gods are with us, the party will proceed as planned.
I suppose that we also have to celebrate our brothers and sisters in China (not too many binary-resisters there) for actually making the Sanus BLT3-B1 so that it cost $100 instead of $300.
(I do wish that ICE would detain and deport whoever made the Xfinity XG1v4 box, which I picked up because of its advertised 4K capability. It needs to be power-cycled almost every time that we want to use it and the boot-up process is almost 10 minutes.)
Let this be a cautionary tale for anyone who is considering a super-slim wall-hugging TV mount that requires professional skills and multiple humans to execute a dismount and reach-around. (I guess we could have accomplished the power-cycle via flipping breakers. I’ve never seen a behind-the-TV outlet that is associated with a convenient switch that could be used for a convenient power-cycle.)
Finally, maybe this is the time to start an extended warranty claim on the TV? It was a floor model at Costco and they threw in a five-year warranty from Allstate. The warranty was already used once to replace the TV’s main board, possibly a casualty of a lightning storm putting high voltage into the Xfinity cable (another good reason to go with a fiber connection if you’re lucky enough to live in a place where fiber is available).
Loosely related
From the masjid around the corner from Sanus, a Facebook post from one month after the Gazans’ peaceful October 7, 2023 excursion into Israel:
Allah is the All-Mighty, the Most Merciful, the One Who has the absolute ability to save the oppressed, inflict punishment on the criminals and stop the brutal massacre and genocide happening in Gaza.
It’s a challenging theological question. Allah is “All-Mighty, the Most Merciful” and with “the absolute ability to save the oppressed” (redundant with “All-Mighty”?). Yet the genocide happening in Gaza wasn’t stopped until the Gazans had suffered the loss of most of their military capability. Why did Allah wait two more years and, perhaps more importantly, not assist the Gazans in realizing their military goals, including the destruction of the Zionist entity and the establishment of Hamas rule from the river to the sea?
Phil, a little secret I wanted to share with you (please keep it on the down low?). Smart people don’t rent the Comcast Xfinity XG1v4 box because it is highway robbery. Smart people buy their own box or switch to an internet only plan and buy YoutubeTV for TV, so they don’t have to deal with the issues you describe. Comprende?
Hunter: Thank you for your advice and I would love to get a list of your favorite programs to watch when entertaining young ladies. The wise Karens who control our HOA negotiated a plan whereby a vast sum of money is handed to Xfinity every year and, in exchange, every house in the neighborhood receives THREE cable TV boxes from the noble Xfinitons. Every household is then free to buy Internet service at retail. from Xfinity. (I do have my own cable modem, not because I want to save $15/month but because none of the Xfinity-managed cable modems will fit into our A/V cabinet (about 4″ deep)).
Good idea to have a convenient switch for the tv outlet, I have a GE Advantium microwave oven that periodically goes insane and ignores the control panel, I have to flip the breaker to bring it back to reality.
In my opinion it’s been way more than 3 months since you’ve had an interesting idea. I guess your blog is perfect for your audience and anyone who has no problem with Trump’s racist posts such as characterizing Obamas as apes. As a resident of Massachusetts I’m not surprised you moved away. We don’t deserve your brilliance. I’m always amazed, though, how often you write to complain about my home state. I can only assume you can’t find anything to bitch about in your own home state of Florida where true patriots reside. As our license plates plainly say Massachusetts is the “Spirit of America.” Perhaps you believe that tag line more closely fits Florida’s personality. In my experience many people find Florida the land of the crazies.
Hmmm… The original post doesn’t mention Massachusetts, but rather the noble #resisting progressives of Minnesota. (If you want to spend a month in Minneapolis #resisting ICE I will be happy to pay for your plane ticket from BOS.)
Unlike in the Frozen North (going down to 10F tonight in our old neighborhood), Floridians celebrate license plate diversity. There are about 2.5 million specialty plates here. “https://www.flhsmv.gov/motor-vehicles-tags-titles/personalized-specialty-license-plates/specialty-license-plates/
We have this one with two kids reading: https://www.futuresvolusia.org/Florida-s-Refreshed–Support-Education–License-Plate-Garners-International-Recognition-1-42.html (ties into Florida state law requiring gifted education beginning in 2nd grade)
As someone who loves to see roseate spoonbills, I do like seeing cars with https://www.sfwmd.gov/community-residents/everglades-license-plate
@Anonymous
I will not allow you to make Phil into Trotsky, comrade Stalin. I have my disagreements with him, like his plan to make me work harder to pay for the lavish lifestyle of my intellectual betters (the poor and the rich). Massachusetts is the “Spirit of America” in the sense that Americans have been conned into thinking taxes and debt are our form of religious worship. As soon as I can afford $20M to live in Florida in a shack, I’m going to get an “ILUVPHIL” vanity tag on my third-hand F40. Try to find something as interesting to read as Phil’s blog on Reddit, and good luck with that.
OAG: I think Anonymous may be correct about Massachusetts being The Spirit of America. The state is wealthy because it is home to four industries with massive federal subsidies: higher education, pharma, health care, and money management (carried interest tax rate scam). Nothing is more American than using political power to steal from the average taxpayer. Massachusetts was also on the leading edge of heterosexual Rainbow Flagism, now the established national religion. A Somali day care with no kids and three Rainbow Flags out front would perhaps be more fully aligned with the Spirit of America since 100% of the funds would be federal.
Anon 1, Philip often lampoons subtle racism of MA so – called “liberals” from his past homogeneous white rich and overextended upper middle class neighborhood. You just confirmed Philip’s point. The stupid cartoon is populated only by animals with politians’ faces and of all of them you selected only instance of great apes, a symbol of wisdom in many cultures and by far most intelligent animals in the entire cartoon. This reflects your limited racist mindset and not necessary the cartoons message, which I think was that Trump meant to portray himself as the King of the jungle ( or rather of a swamp) to trigger his haters You got triggered by your self-centered reflections and not by what Trump wanted you to be triggered by.
Anon 2: What I like most about Anon 1’s comment is that it reinforced the original post’s point about the video. ICE has arrested 400,000 noble enrichers, only 60 percent of whom were criminally charged or convicted here in the U.S. (see below) At least two white entirely peaceful progressives in Minneapolis have been murdered by ICE. The genocide in Gaza perpetrated by the genocidal Israelis continues. Nearly every progressive who used to be angry regarding the foregoing is instead focused on a few seconds of video in which two saints are depicted as ape-adjacent.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-arrests-violent-criminal-records-trump-first-year/
Hasn’t AI been caught being racist? Wasn’t this cartoon generated by an AI? Most likely the prompt was:
> Create a Lion King novelty video with me (Trump) as the king, and my political opponents as the other funny animals bowing to me. Make sure you cast H. Clinton as a warthog. Then post directly to social media, you have the passwords. Make it so.
Coco the signing gorilla is no longer with us, so we can’t ask her–but I wonder how she would feel about being portrayed as Michelle Obama, downright insulting IMO. You wouldn’t catch any self-respecting gorilla living in the elitist enclave of Martha’s Vineyard.
@Anonymous, Like you, I am still in Maskachu$etts. As you may or may not know, the “Spirit of America” slogan is gone. It is being replaced with “250 Years of Independence.” [1]
Honestly, I am not sure what we are supposed to be “independent” from after 250 years. If anything, it is the opposite — we have become more and more dependent on our government, while our government is more and more dependent on illegal migrants. A more fitting slogan for Maskachu$etts would be something like “No Kings, No Tyranny,” or perhaps “Illegals Are Welcome.” Personally, I would go with “The Spirit of the Illegals.”
https://www.mass.gov/news/rmv-celebrates-massachusetts-250-with-commemorative-license-plate
@George A
Maybe the “Spirit of 400 Years”?
Four hundred years (Four hundred years, four hundred years)
Of the same philosophy
Four hundred years (Four hundred years, four hundred years)
And, the people, they still can’t see
— Peter Tosh
Same shit, different Pharaoh.
I suppose this has been said elsewhere, but Trump’s critics aren’t above denigrating and dehumanizing him. The outrage about the Jungle Book video seems hypocritical:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/27/best-opinion-cartoons-2025-donald-trump-prince-andrew
(See the tiny hands and feet? Did Trump’s video go that far?)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/jan/19/ben-jennings-special-relationship-donald-trump-keir-starmer-cartoon
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. (No offense meant to geese.)
@OAG, If Trump is a smooth talker who didn’t spit reality so bluntly in our faces, and instead just called people names, degraded them, and stabbed them in the back behind closed doors like so many other politicians do, all of our liberal friends would have been in love with him.