All I can think about is national politics. It’s depressing. And cringey. Like a dystopian novel no one wants to read because the author sucks.
Every time the Great Orange Man or one of his administration minions speaks, my gears beg for oil. They’ve been working in overdrive. And I’m over it.
Our esteemed “political” parties—which are only throwing pity parties at the moment (no one likes a pity party)—are launching flaming balls of blame at each other over the federal government shutdown. And everyone is trying to frame it to score political points. Trump and the GOP are blaming “leftists.” Democrats are blaming the administration. And the administration is using your hard-earned tax dollars to politicize the issue via what are supposed to be nonpartisan federal agencies, which is the icing on the fucking cake.
I’m blaming all of the politicians. The bloviating, simpering fools. And you should, too!
But then you should look in the mirror, because it’s our fault too. Your fault. My fault. Democrats. Republicans. Independents. Social media. The dark web. Talking heads. Right-wing nuts. Left-wing nuts. Everybody’s nuts!
Everyone’s culpable for the current state of affairs.
The real question is: What are we going to do about it? The blame game, which is everyone’s favorite game to play, isn’t working. The escalating game of one-upmanship isn’t working either—how are we redrawing election districts in the middle of a census cycle in multiple states? And everyone’s OK with their side doing it but not the other side. What in the actual fuck is that?
All of it is driving us deeper into our ideological trenches, and it seems like nobody is willing to come out of their foxhole. Shoot first and last. Ask questions never.
It’s ridiculous. I’m so disgusted that I can’t even bring myself to satirize SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow, who spoke at the recent Cal Poly Turning Point USA memorial for assassinated conservative lighting rod Charlie Kirk.
I’m lying. I can totally do that.
Dow—the elected district attorney in charge of prosecuting crimes, including hate crimes against the LGBTQ-plus community—leaned into both Christianity and Kirk’s call to action against members of that community (not very Christian, if you ask me) after Dow’s office declined to file hate crime charges against someone who went onto someone’s property, pulled down their Pride flag, ripped it, and threw it in the trash.
Dow told the crowd that Kirk had “controversially, but truthfully” called transgender women “cowards,” and then received a loud, raucous round of applause for the comment. It really tells you where we’re at today when the rallying cry at a vigil for someone who was tragically assassinated is to put down a community that makes up less than half a percent of our entire country.
Just to reiterate: That’s less than 0.5 percent of Americans. And the hatred against them has galvanized one party in the two-party system. And it’s the party that’s historically been adamantly opposed to the government butting into their lives. They seem to be fine if the government tries to tell everyone else what to do. It’s wild.
I’m dumbfounded, honestly. We have so many issues. The economy has not improved at all. The housing crisis is not getting better. The job market is stagnating. Our immigration system is in shambles and getting worse. We are deploying troops in Democratic cities! Our social safety nets are also in shambles. Our medical and property insurance markets are so expensive no one can afford any of it. Mental health issues are increasing. Mass shootings are constant. The list is so much longer, too.
And all one party can do is bitch about a tiny minority of the American population that they don’t understand. Why? Is everything else too complex for a rallying cry?
And the other party literally hasn’t fixed any of it either. All it can do is blame the Republicans for being fascist, racist, sexist, and spineless.
Get it together, America. We have real problems that aren’t being solved while we lean into a culture war that does nothing but drive us a part. Slow clap, people.
Anyway! The man in charge of prosecuting hate crimes in SLO County engaged in what I would argue is hate speech against a minority community. And hate speech is completely legal in the United States, so way to practice your First Amendment right, Dan Dow!
I’m practicing mine right now by criticizing the speech of an elected official and wondering out loud how it might impact his tax-paid job. Isn’t it great how that amendment has given us so much? We can discuss things like this out in the open. Rather than trying to brush it all under the rug, cancel it, or censor it.
No one should be threatening to censor speech they don’t like (Trump and company, I’m looking at you. Progressives, I’m looking at you, too.). Speech is allowed until it gets ripped away from us. It is fundamental to our understanding of democracy, of this democracy. It’s not political. It’s our right.
If we’re just shouting obscenities into the abyss, name-calling, and abusing each other, we’re wasting the right we were given to speak, to criticize, to compromise, and to govern ourselves.
Without it, we are worthless. ∆
The Shredder practices what it preaches. Send speech to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 2 – 12, 2025.
Having worn the uniform of our nation and a uniform of our state, and still having the honor and privilege of wearing the combat uniform our state in a volunteer capacity, until you have done so, Shredder, why don’t you keep your ideas of what public service is or should be, to your self? You want perfection? The only place that exists is in fairy tale books.
As our District Attorney mentioned in his eloquent speech at the Charlie Kirk memorial and in a refreshingly humble manner coming from a high ranking public official, he isn’t perfect, but tries to bring a vision of what perfection could be, to his difficult job. Need you, and the general public be reminded, it was Dan Dow’s office that brought closure to the family of Kristin Smart (amongst numerous other heinous crimes). It took decades to close and bring to account the murderer of this young woman. Would you prefer her family to live, knowing the person who murdered her, get away scot free? They can now rest easy knowing the District Attorney who you wrongfully describe as some sort of nut just because he isn’t an atheist, sent a murderer to prison. He should be commended for doing so, and I dare you to tell Kristin Smart’s family what a POS you think he is. Her murder, as is any murder, was a black eye on Cal Poly and our community at large. Dan Dow, our august District Attorney, has restored honor to our community and to the rule of law.
It’s easy to say what you want when you’re anonymous. Love, Harvey Milk.
Well of course District Attorney Dan Dow would downgrade this Hate Crime to a misdemeanor.
It could be that the parents taught their child, the person that shredded a private person’s LGBTQ flag in their yard, to hate the LGBTQ community. Though he was probably coached to say something that was not true by the DA.
And from the reporting it sounds like the family and perpetrator is part of Dow’s prayer group who agree with CK’s distorted and discriminatory interpretations of Jesus’ teaching.
The act is on video. That with the great reporting, and Pismo PD’s first impressions of their investigation that this looked like a hate crime to them, should be valid evidence.
Hopefully DA Dan Dow will NOT let the perpetrator go after a day of diversion.
There really should be a second opinion from DA Dow’s mistaken conclusion.
This case should be given back to the City of Pismo Beach Police Department and their investigators, and maybe a special investigator.
Dan Dow cannot “separate church and state” in his interpretation of the evidence and “the Rule of Law.” Someone needs to step up and run against Mr. Partisan Dow.
Scott:
If you were truly concerned about the the pride flag you speak of, why are (presumably) voting for the Democratic party?? Your party is trampling on that flag on a daily basis every time an illegal crosses our southern border. Why? The majority of them follow a religion, based in Rome, that abhors marriage equality, that abhors reproductive rights, that abhors unmarried people living together, that abhors the secular state. That, if given their druthers, would rule, as they have, from the Vatican and not Washington D.C. Although these illegals are precluded from voting, the children they have here aren’t. They too will be brought up in that faith and will no doubt vote for candidates that kiss their local Cardinal’s ring. These candidates, once in office and in collusion with collusion of their majority in Congress and state assemblies, will roll back every single advancement made in the last 100 years. Mind you, this is the religion that burned people at the stake. This is the religion that created the Spanish Inquisition. This is the religion currently in court paying billions in penalties for their sexually repressed clerics raping the children put in their care. So, Scott, go ahead and shoot yourself in the foot by voting for your Democratic party. While you concentrate on the forest, you can’s see the trees your own party is creating. Further, if you really want to protect a flag, why don’t you protect the American flag? We are one nation, under God, and not a bunch of hyphenated individuals. As you cry rivers of tears over that pride flag, we just watched the American flag get trampled on and burned in the street in LA a couple of months ago. Why weren’t you writing to the New Times about that? I was. These Cretans in LA and across the U.S., who most likely were on some sort of public assistance, dropped chunks of concrete from bridges onto federal agents doing their jobs and (finally) starting to remove the 40 million illegals running rampant all over our country. As they did, they rejoiced in lighting the American flag on fire in the street. Where are we, Mogadishu? As they did, they probably went home, opened their mailboxes, collected their public assistance checks of all sorts, and did what ever they do with them. This is what you call hypocrisy. These are the people your party, the Democratic party, is courting and salivates at the thought of registering. As far as I’m concerned, if Antifa can be designated a terrorist organization, why not the Democratic party? This is why sensible people have left your party and will never return. Lastly, why should the DA waste time and money on a boutique issue like the destruction of a pride flag when there are bigger fish to fry. Why not focus on murder, rape, white collar crime, and getting rid of the gangs in our county? The office of the DA should be commended for being judicious on what is spends our tax money on.
Our DA was voted in once, he will certainly be voted in again. He’s done a great job and as reminder, it was his office who, after decades, was able to get a conviction against Paul Flores and justice for Kirstin Smart. I’m not a lawyer, but doing so was a gamble. Can you imagine if the case fell apart and the county lost? It was pretty ballsy considering there wasn’t a murder weapon or body. The sad part is, we still don’t know where Ms. Smart is buried. Paul Flores gets to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watch tv for the rest of his life in prison, but Kristin Smart’s life was taken from her. Why would we not re-elect Dan Dow, a DA with actual convictions? If you want a liberal DA, why not bring back Chesa Boudin, son of convicted murderers and terrorists from the Weather Underground? Oh, that’s right, when he was San Francisco DA from 2019 until he was recalled in 2022, the City completely fell apart. No, most of us are REAL happy we have a conservative in the office of the District Attorney.
Again, Scott, if you want a circus, just vote in your Democratic clowns.
What the public needs to understand and why the religion that 99% of the illegals that cross the US southern border follow (based in Rome), is so dangerous is because of the power of excommunication. This religion can threaten the very soul, according to their edicts, of its adherents. If a follower, let’s say a politician or Supreme Court Justice, rules, passes, or executes a law a certain way, this religion can threaten to excommunicate them and in so doing, condemn them to hell (according to the edicts of that religion). This is the very way, throughout history, this religion controlled kings. Is this what we want in the United States? A large portion of SCOTUS follows this religion and can be seen in their rulings i.e. the ending of Roe v. Wade, funding for public education, and numerous other rulings. Is this really what we want in the US? Keep flooding our country with illegals, and it may come to fruition. This religion, once obtaining enough power, could easily destroy the Protestant faith our founders followed, by perhaps limiting the ability of churches with fewer than say 10,000 members from enjoying their tax free status. Right there, that would destroy the thousands of Protestant denomination across our country and further enrich and empower the religion of the millions of illegals in our country. Can these illegals vote? No, but their children can.
Although not a practicing Christian myself, we need to protect the Protestant faith and all it’s values that have made America great. We can start by deportations and building the wall.
Blah, blah, blah. Get over it.
Berry:
I’m just getting warmed up, a new issue of New Times comes out tomorrow.