The Ones Truckin' Like The Do-Dah Man Away From Omelas. Tabs, Wed., Nov. 19, 2025

Your roundup of news and things to read and stuff.

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Goat morning, friends, it’s time for tabs!

How vile is Brownshirts leader Greg Bovino? Vile enough to name an ethic cleansing operation after a beloved children’s book, Charlotte’s Web. Yes, that’s the official name, “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” Because, hurr hurr, it’s in Charlotte, you know, and it will catch many immigrant flies in the web.

EB White’s granddaughter and literary executor, Martha White, said in a statement that her grandfather “didn’t condone fearmongering,” and that he “certainly didn’t believe in masked men, in unmarked cars, raiding people’s homes and workplaces without IDs or summons.” [CNN]

Just to underline the fact that fascism can corrupt anything, Bovino this week posted a little propaganda video along with a quote from Charlotte’s Web (archive link), no doubt the result of three minutes’ googling. It’s from near the end where the little baby spiders are about to be carried away by the wind to begin their own careers as hype arachnids for farm animals. Our screenshot cuts off the video because it’s a waste of space.

In the book, that line is a metaphor about carefree wandering as Charlotte’s babies cast their fates to the wind. In Bovino’s hands, it’s completely subverted, a threat of terror that can strike anywhere and drag you away. We can say this about Bovino and all his Border Patrol goons: They are … SOME PIGS.

You might also enjoy this meditation on DHS’s repulsive misuse of the great humanistic children’s fable. It puts words to some of the fury I’ve been feeling. [“In Charlotte, a Web of Fear” (It’s Medium, so archive link if you need it)]

In the Oval Office yesterday with Prince Bonesaw, Donald Trump got shirty with another woman reporter, griping that ABC News reporter Mary Bruce needed to be far more deferential to him and to MBS. Bruce was partway through asking the Saudi dictator a question about the 2018 murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, noting that the CIA said MBS had ordered it, when President Piggy interrupted her, called ABC “fake news.” Great Leader, sounding like a mobster again, explained that “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you liked him or didn’t like him, things happen.” He added that ABC should lose its broadcast license (which it doesn’t have; the FCC only licenses stations), and told Bruce, “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” so there’s another murderer welcomed back to the USA. [CNN]

Nobody knows how many people die in jails in Mississippi. And yeah, that predates Trump. [Marshall Project]

A federal judge ordered Texas to remove displays of the 10 Commandments from public school classes, at least until the Supremes say “Naw, that’s OK on a temporary basis at least.” [ACLU]

Noella Turnage, a nurse at the Texas federal women’s prison where Ghislaine Maxwell is being treated like royalty, was demoted as retaliation for documenting mistreatment of inmates who were not Maxwell, and moved to a nonmedical job, monitoring inmates’ communications for forbidden content. She was also outraged by the special treatment Maxwell received, so she collected and sent copies of Maxwell’s emails to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland). She was then fired for the whistle-blowing, but you won’t see her worrying about her safety after coming forward. She told local station KBTX, “I’ve got seven, eight very large livestock dogs out there. If somebody wants to get past them, good luck. Go for it, babe. You earn whatever you get after getting past them.” [KBTX]

Check out this excellent, sad look at what the loss of Teen Vogue means, not just to the disappointed Gen Z readers, but to feminist journalism. [Columbia Journalism Review]

Even after the government shutdown is over, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins still wants to fuck over people who rely on the SNAP nutrition program. She claimed on a rightwing podcast that 186,000 “deceased men and women and children” are still “receiving a check,” even though SNAP uses EBT cards, not checks. She claims that now all 42 million people receiving SNAP will have to reapply for the program from scratch, to stop “fraud.” That’s bound to result in Crom only knows how many people losing benefits. [Truthout]

For some reason — maybe it’s the talk of having to keep children hungry to save America from the Democrats, maybe it’s the knowledge that Jeffrey Epstein knew everyone and they knew what he was about, and they joked about it — it feels like Ursula K. LeGuin’s dystopian 1973 parable “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is having a moment. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Anyway, I thought this Bluesky post of a New Yorker cartoon by Will Santino was pretty funny.

And as it happens, I recently also came across this “Omelas”-flavored 2020 story by one of my favorite SF writers, NK Jemesin, titled “The Ones Who Stay and Fight.” [Lightspeed]

UPDATE: Also, wow, this 2024 variation on LeGuin’s original, by Isabel J. Kim, “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole?” (The title may need to be in all caps.) Hell of a good story! Thanks to alert Wonkette Operative “Laurel” for the tip!

Could you use a little climate optimism? Not Pollyanna stuff, but a cautiously optimistic reminder that we really have come a long way since the Paris agreement a decade ago? You’re welcome. [DW]

Australia has so much solar power that the national grid is giving everybody 3 free hours of electricity every day. [Electrek]

How about some Thornton? I caught him snoozling the other day in this Superhero pose.

The real surprise was realizing he was purring the John Williams theme.

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