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cyberbarf

THE UNDECLARED UNCIVIL WAR ANALYSIS

Donald Trump is under the delusion that the Supreme Court ruling that presidents have immunity for official acts gives him impunity for his injurious consequences of an his own actions. He swore an oath to uphold the laws of the country, not to discard them as meaningless words in his revenge tour. In a matter of months, he has created chaos throughout the federal government, dissed and upset our closest allies and continues to cozy up to vile dictators and thugs.

The national NO KINGS rallies does not phase him because he is Tyrant. It is his way or the highway. He wants payback for anyone who “wronged” him in the past. He has surrounded himself with evil minions instead of the first term enablers. Unqualified, partisan and loyal idiots are running the executive branches to the frustration of federal judges, local governments and Democrats and Libertarians.

His Republican Congress has done nothing to stop Trump abusing power, usurping the rule of law, and bypassing Congressional duties and responsibilities to make himself the sole authority of all things; all things Trump. When a bully gets a club, he uses it. When a bully gets minions, he has a gang to do his bidding. When his gang gets armed instructions to harass brown people, ICE becomes a private army of intimidation and terror. It should be no surprise that Trump would want this type of power because during his first term he was openly jealous of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. The leaders of China, Russia and North Korea rule by fiat and fear. Their political enemies are eliminated; they themselves are above the law.

Look at the examples he is trying to follow:

XI violated the turnover treaty to commandeer Hong Kong, take over local government, imprison dissent and extract punishment against wealthy businessmen. Some believe this was a test case for his eventual armed take over of Taiwan.

Kim is one of the worst human rights abusers. He has executed teens for watching South Korean k-dramas or listening to k-pop. He purges dissents in brutal fashion. He consolidated power by killing his half-brother.

Putin is more brutal. A record number of Russian people have fallen out of windows to their deaths for opposing Putin. The rich business oligarchy is beholden to Putin or their businesses will be nationalized and their lives ended. His secret police, the Federal Security Service (FSB), is widely seen as a continuation of KGB-style tactics to maintain domestic control and suppress dissent in Russia. Putin, a former KGB officer, has reportedly leveraged the FSB for surveillance, intimidation, and disinformation.

The appalling pattern of Trump's second term actions mirrors his world leader idols. Trump, himself, has taken the Congressional power of the purse, to withhold money legally appropriated to universities, researchers, government contractors, federal workers, and welfare beneficiaries and then without Congressional approval, spend like a drunken sailor on his own vanity projects (though he claims private donors will pay for his golden statues but recall, he said Mexico would pay for the border wall. In direct retaliation for the lawfare used against him by New York Democratic Attorney General and District Attorney in legally dubious claims of “hush” money election fraud and mortgage fraud in overstating his net worth. While both matters are still on appeal, Trump did not wait for any civil court verdict but had his DOJ go after his prosecutors and enemies. Career federal prosecutors who refused to indict to appease Trump's demands were fired and replaced with unqualified attorneys who lack criminal trial experience but are lapdogs for his hell-bent retribution.

No other president has neutered the press and media more than Trump has done by suing major news organizations for reporting the News (he did not like) to exact more than $38 million in settlements in order to get his blessing for media mergers. A few Congressmen and commentators think that looks like alleged bribery. But Trump has been brazenly open about taking grift in the form of foreign gifted airplane, tech bros giving gold gifts in White House access events and tariff relief, crypto king pardons to boost his family fortunes and demanding (US government equity) stakes in private companies in order to release security trade barriers for IT companies.

It is the total misreading of the tariff statutes and constitution that narcissistic Trump welds his most dangerous traits. He gets extreme pleasure watching other people bowing down to his demands, having the world's attention, and manipulating markets to make himself the center of power. He provokes by dissing other country leaders, he tries to humiliate his opponents with childish AI memes, and demeans anyone who does not think he is the smartest person in the world. He has a history of manipulating his yes-men in doing his bidding. He has become addicted to the dopamine rush of power moves. It reinforces these bad behaviors by signaling his brain that they are rewarding so he continues to repeat them.

By creating an unstable environment, he appears calm in the chaos. He thinks he is the only one to solve any problem that he himself has created. He thought the federal courts, especially the Supreme Court, would rubber-stamp his actions since as the chief executive, he is in charge of all federal daily activities. As such he has fired federal union workers, sacked department heads, fired independent agency heads, taking over DC police force, federalizing the National Guard to enforce local laws (under guise of protecting ICE agents), blatantly ignored court orders and attempted to undermine the judiciaryâ' power to hold the executive branch accountable, issued unconstitutional executive orders that threaten the freedom to vote and our nationâ' guarantee of birthright citizenship, dismantled ethics rules and fired watchdogs within the executive branch, disregarded the sovereignty of states and cities by deploying federal agents and the National Guard to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Portland, and used DOGE in an unprecedented effort to amass private data about Americans, often in violation of law.

What is the end goal?

The cynic would say that Trump wants to incite 1960s style burning cities in order to further expand his power base. He wants to create a fantasy version of the next American Civil War where he can take over by force those rebellious Blue States and Cities. What would happen if a fed-up state governor calls up his own National Guard Units to arrest the federal ICE arrestors for unconstitutional due process violations against their residents? Constitutional crisis' seems to be Trump's playground . . . because bullies rule the playground. By using tariffs, using ICE agents and troops and using executive orders to cause misery, confusion, and economic pain on various segments of Americans, he is sowing the seeds of discontent. He classifies peaceful protests (protected under the First Amendment) as acts of rebellion. He is trying to weave a poor narrative that he needs to quell a rebellion (that he himself has created) in order to punish, take over and control states and municipalities. - - to oust opponents and impose his policies on everyone. Even if the Supreme Court tells Trump he is wrong, who can stop him? The Supreme Court does not have its own police force to force compliance (it falls to the executive branch to concede to it). Republican Republican leaders, who have the power of impeachment, have no back bone to stand up to Trump and his crazy methods of policy enforcement even if it is clearly unconstitutional and wrong. The last stand is the ballot box, where the electorate could oust the feeble Republican majorities and win back the counterbalance of Congressional action.

Again, it is doubtful that Trump would care about the mid-terms. If it causes more chaos, the better for him to manipulate his blind followers to believe their is a vast conspiracy against them. A few political scientists think that Trump is setting the groundwork to attempt to avoid the next election's results as being fraudulent. How would a recalcitrant Congress or President be removed from power? The whole American system is based on respect and trust in the rules of law and procedure. But if the second term creates lawlessness as the new social norm, what happens then?

Trump fancies the idea of President for Life with his Trump 2028 campaign hat in the Oval Office. Even if Speaker Johnson told him he could not run for a third term, Trump has no limits on what he wants to become. He really wants to become the American Napoleon. He wants all of American commerce (international trade, domestic production, IT, global resources) to go through his office (so he can get a piece of the action?) He feeds off the attention and limelight even though his diplomacy fails, his trade goals punish average American households, and disrespect for American institutions is like Nero letting Rome burn to the ground. Trump is both creating and neglecting a crisis while pursuing selfish interests; a leader who is indifferent to their people's suffering and exploits a disaster for personal gain. He wants all political leaders to bow to his mandates (with the use of ICE, the DOJ, DHS, etc as his personal KBG). His bully nature can turn into a sociopathic high on physically harming people.

And it can get worse. His bombing of dubious claimed drug-running fishing boats puts him into the psychopathic realm of a serial killer. He has stripped the military branches of their career generals in order to put his men in the top posts. It is probable that he eyes bombing and taking over Venezuela as his macho military trophy to rival Putin's attempt to annex Ukraine.

It is an unprecedented upheaval of American society. Fiction writers and futurists cannot even try to predict what could be next in this cascade of political chaos. It could be traced back to when the two major parties abandoned their moderate, silent majority statesmen for far left/radical blowhards whose only goal was political wins and not compromise for the betterment of the nation as a whole. A cultural civil war has been stewing on social media for a long time. Now that stew has boiled over into the streets of reality.

cyberbarf

JOURNALISM GRAPHIC ANALYSIS

Journalism is about taking newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events by reporting, writing, feature writing, news coverage, investigative reporting, articles, features, stories and analysis. Editorial cartoonists are the graphic newspaper columnists who use facts in order to give context, comparison and analysis in their drawings to find the Truth.

In the past several years, many our friends and colleagues in the journalism profession, including cartoonists, have had their jobs eliminated their roles cut, their voices restricted. As a result, journalism, a founding institution, has been gutted by politics and corporate greed. The founding fathers sought to protect a free press in order to add the people's role in checking and balancing the three branches of government: by being accountable, responsible and beholden to the life, liberty and rights of the people. Today, the people's guardian, the press, is weak. As a result the government, at all levels, is out of control. The Truth no longer matters in the culture of extreme, uncivil behavior.

Ski drew this cartoon in homage to the professing but also to tell a story to a fairly apathetic public. He did not finish the inking to show an incomplete character looking for its missing creator. For most, you only miss something when it is gone for good. Supporting all aspects of journalism is needed to bring back balance to our nation.

iToons

cyberbarf

CUSTOMER DISSERVICE LETTER FROM THE PUB

For taxpayers who filed an extension, October 15 was the deadline to file your returns. When I competed my return, my tax program did not want to print paper returns. I tried to bypass the direct print by doing a save as as a PDF. But that did not work either. I checked all the printer settings. I restarted the computer. I removed all cache amd restarted the program. Nothing worked. The program effectively disabled all printing functions.

A review on on-line support forums suggested that this problem started in March, 2025. Customers were not happy. The updates were not working. Even after April, the developer would continue to have software updates. There was an update a few weeks before my return. Was this when it disabled printing functions? That makes no sense.

A call to customer service got an automatic call tree that only referred me back to the website support page which was a sparse page of text. It said make sure all updates made; try printing a PDF. And if that fails, e-file (and PAY a fee to do so.) Was this the real reason for my misery and wasted time trying to find a solution?

That would be an unacceptable greed play by the developer. It still grinds my gears that I had to e-file. I do not like my personal information spread across the net (and the IRS has been hacked several times in the past.) The default solution is suspect: instead of fixing a problem was to squeeze some bucks from your customer?A software problem that would not allow me to print an archive copy of the returns and worksheets. It was a major software fail. It was a major customer service fail. And it was a customer loyalty fail.

The next problem is that the IRS will be mandating e-filing ALL returns to be e-filed. Considering that fifty percent of the employees of the IRS have been fired or furloughed, I do not think this is the greatest idea of all time. I will also have to research a new tax software program. for 2026.

cyberbarf

QUICK BYTES CYBERCULTURE

DYNAMIC GROCERIES . Grocery stores are upsetting customers by using dynamic pricing of items at the cash register which do not reflect the price stated on the shelves. Sports teams use dynamic pricing to sell seats for high demand games. But what is dynamic about a bunch f bananas or a can of corn? There is no apparent standard for why product prices would need to float up and down like a mem stock.

SPOOF YOU. Trump and his minions apparently spend more time making AI generated memes and spoof videos of their opponents than actually running the executive branch. It takes a bitter and shallow man to condone vile attacks when he himself cannot take a joke (cough, cough, Jimmy KImmel, cough cough.)

DE-FRIENDED. Facebook is not feeding you posts to your friends or followers. Sometimes it takes days for a friend to see or reply to a post. The algorithm no longer stresses communication and connection with your group but favors bots, fake posters and AI generated content. It is really turning into a muddy slop-fest.

GO FEED ME: The CEO of GoFundMe platform has stated the economy is so bad that people are starting GoFundMe pages just to buy groceries. People have gotten into expensive credit card debt just to buy food. Only 33 percent of people who charge groceries pay off that debt in the first 30 day billing cycle. You shopping card is dragging a plus 18 percent interest rate like an anchor chained to your ankle. The government shutdown, missed paychecks and stoppage of SNAP benefits to the poor paint a dystopian vision of America.

DUMB DUMB. Oh, you strange kids. The term“6,7â” is a big laugh buster for the GenA. With an added gesture, the number gag was just a meaningless comment. It meant nothing (which probably means something in a meaningless world). But when dictionary.com called it the 2025 Word of the Year, people want to give it some meaning, such as it being used to describe someone or something that is confusing, bewildering, or a bit weird. It can also imply that someone is a "noob" or inexperienced. No, we believe it was just a nonsensical phrase that their older siblings, parents and teachers would not understand; a generational inside joke.

cyberbarf

FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET

Recent photographs from the Chernobyl area in Russia show several wild Blue Dogs. Because of the nuclear disaster, a few people thought it was a genetic mutation. But most scientists believe that these dogs wandered into a portable toilet. In either event, ewww.

Source: Daily Mail (UK)

We guess that some people have given up on on-line dating apps to go back to communicate directly in a new old-school way. Clever? Desperate? Satire? All of the Above? But still, daters must have the shortest attention spans in order to skip to the chase.

Source: Instagram

ICE agents in Chicago are using military advanced face recognition software in their street sweeps. The amount of data DOGE swept from government files must have populated into this application (which reportedly has a high error rate). It is ironic that Illinois has a very strict biometric state law which would prohibit this type of facial recognition program. But ICE agents are exempt because they are federal officials.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

ICE agents in Chicago have been called lawless thugs. But their alleged immunity for their actions does not include copyright violations. The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has objected to ICE and DHS from using its photographs to create propaganda for the Trump administration. It is strange that ICE agent raids include federal camera crews to create docu-advertising to recruit more thugs. But then again, in the not too distant past, propaganda was used to control the people by intimidation and fear.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

cyberbarf

THE WHETHER REPORT

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STATUS

Question: Whether professionalized college football is better than NFL parity?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether Trump administration will ever concede defeat and follow federal court orders that reverse his actions and policies?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether a weakened national journalism media landscape has allowed rampant civil and government abuses?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

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THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER.

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