February 4, 2026

Ok: I heard the MOST INCREDIBLY VILE rumor, which I shall not repeat here

And was wondering if anyone else has heard/seen it. I need not be descriptive because if you are familiar with that which I am talking about, you know.

And believe me, if you haven’t heard, and it turns out to be untrue, then you absolutely do not want to know what it is.

It borders on the indescribable. No…it’s there. I’m not asking for you to post it, just an acknowledgment.

ON EDIT: SOMEONE BELOW-THREAD POSTED MORE OR LESS THAT TO WHICH I AM REFERRING.

February 1, 2026

I am good and goddamned sick and tired of reading or hearing the following clause:

“Today, President Trump said…”

Since what he says or doesn’t say is either a bald-faced lie or fronto-temporal-influenced gabble -degook, what the actual fuck does it really matter at all whatsoever what he said?

It reminds me of the time just prior to the Gulf War when all the news outlets would “report”: “Today, Saddam Hussein said…”

Yes, I am well aware that reportage must needs include the quotation, but isn’t it “something” that our press does not add the proviso “let it be stated for the record that this President has told tens of thousands of lies and gross exaggerations, so it might be prudent to take today’s statement with the proverbial grain of salt until it can be verified.” Or better, “ Our staff has thoroughly researched the validity of this statement and found it to be, as many of his pronouncements are, false in many (all) respects.”

But no. Even though this sociopathic ephebophile has never knowingly told the truth in his lifetime, it is reported as a fact upon initial presentation, and since we have a torrent/firehose of lies, no amount of evidence to the contrary can possibly make up for the initial statement/lie/untruth/prevarication/bullshit. I had a member of my former family of acquisition who considered himself very bright and informed who bought into this nonsense and was exasperated by sane individuals’ contradictions. Very stupid and frustrating. And moronic. And worthy of gnashing of teeth.

But my favorite thing on the news shows is when they’re interviewing a Democrat and ask him or her “Well, the President said such and such.” and the Democrat responds to the lie with the Truth, the interviewer then says dismissively , “Well, we are going to have to leave it there.” And so without discussion, the topic and victory go to the President/Liar. Now when a Republican is interviewed and asked about a Democrat, he or she is given full rein to blather on and on and ascribe not only the “evil motive” to this Democrat, but every ill in the USAand around the world is the fault of the Dem and of course, the Party at-large. Fuck these assholes.

Rant complete.

January 31, 2026

Another in a long line of PCIntern reminiscences:

You know at one time I was actually thinking of writing a book, but since nobody reads books anymore, I decided not to waste my time. The last thing I want to see before I leave this Earth is my name as an author on remainder shelves in pop-up bookstores.

When I established my practice in 1980, I moved into a very large building in Center City, Philadelphia, which primarily had dentists. In fact, in the 15 floors of this building were about 120 dentists of all specialties as well as those in general practice , and if it seems like a large number, you must know that many of the doctors were sublets, postdoctoral students who were permitted to practice a day or two a week, and semi-retired dentists, who showed up when one of their patients gave them a call. It was a whole different era in healthcare, believe me… you younger people would not believe what was going on and not going on in those days.

Since I inhabited that building for over 40 years, I came to know nearly everybody both docs and long-time staff in one way or another and I will tell you that this is why nothing which happens in the corridors of power with respect to influence, sex, money, blackmail, surprises me… for one instant. To begin with, there were a number of self-described “aristocratic” very well known dental practices which catered to the elite of what we call the Delaware Valley: Philadelphia and the five surrounding counties, which included the Main Line. In addition, people used to come from all over the East Coast to have their reconstructive work done in some of these offices because a few of these dentists were internationally famous within the field, such as Cary Grant who took the train biweekly from Manhattan.

Now the word “famous“ is of course relative, but I will tell you frankly that these people thought they were elite and very very special, very narcissistic. One fellow actually compared himself to Pasteur. They commanded enormous amounts of power within the profession and God forbid you ever get on any of their nerves personally or professionally because you would hear about it immediately and they held grudges forever.

Now in the metropolitan areas there is or was an established standard of care which essentially required us as general dentists to refer to specialists for root canal therapy, for orthodontics, and for any reasonably complex oral surgery, other than routine extractions of teeth. The pathways of referrals were often ironclad, and it piqued my interest as a young practitioner that if say a certain periodontist referred to patient to me for restorative work, I was only “allowed“ to refer this patient to a certain endodontist if they required root canal therapy. So okay, I followed the rules with one raised eyebrow.

So one day, I run into an endodontist with whom I dealt very infrequently and he was wearing a plain white Arrow shirt and he asked me if I had seen so-and-so this Periodontist, who was one of these fellows who stipulated referral to this particular doc to whom I was speaking. . I replied no, and when I looked at his shirt pocket I could see that there was a check folded in half and I could read the doctor’s last name, this Periodontist about whom he had asked, and an amount and understand, this was 1984 or so, and amount was for a little over $13,000. I realized that that moment that this was the fee splitting payoff which is illegal in medicine and dentistry at least in Pennsylvania. Suddenly, things started to make sense with respect to referral patterns. .

The second thing which was fascinating, was that when I opened my office, a dentist came to visit me, whom I did not know, introduced himself to welcome me to the building, all very nice, and he started asking me some questions about school and where I was from and the like, and then he asked me if I was married or not, and I said no, but I at that time had a long-term girlfriend with whom I was essentially living. And the conversation went on from there and ended very genteely and politely, and that was it. Or so I thought.

So as I’m getting to know people in the building, I realize that many of them, male and female, are leading second lives of a personal nature. I would say that perhaps 40% of the dentist in the building who were long-term people there were gay or lesbian and not out of the closet. Virtually all of them had families living in the suburbs, but believe me when I tell you, I was able to observe behaviors and companionships among many which would be atypical of a standard issue heterosexual American family. I realize that this gentleman who came to see me to say hello was in fact sent to see if I was a member of their club which was very extensive and self-protective which of course they had to be in those days. Interestingly, as an aside, as time went by, several of these individuals came out to their families, divorced, and led lives in retirement away from Philadelphia and the vast number I never heard from or about again.

Of course, I didn’t care what people did in their spare time and I became one of the grand old men of the building as time went by and one of the few people who knew the history of the goings on within. It was like a giant dysfunctional family, and the vast number of us got along famously because we were all in the “club”. I never once said a word to anyone about anyone’s business outside because in the first place, I had been entrusted with a certain amount of confidential knowledge and secondly, I did not want to open Pandora’s box and be a lightning rod for the sequelae.

Now to the point of this post: of course I like telling stories as I am a natural raconteur, but that it it’s important, no, critical, to understand that in every situation, no matter how innocuous and benign it might be, such as “a whole bunch o’ dentists” there exists a complex network of financial and sexual politics that can at any moment easily destroy an individual or a group of people. When I read the emails coming out of Epstein‘s life, I think to myself that the incredible complexity of managing all of these people who were truly powerful, truly famous, truly manipulative, and vindictive, was remarkable almost beyond comprehension. It is clearly the pinnacle of the narratives which portray megalomania, sexual insanity, and the worst of human behaviors. The fact that it is encompassing so many individuals from so many different spheres is a testimony to how flawed we are as a species, and we better get our act together soon.

And I didn’t even start getting into the stories about professional and personal blackmail…. Too many of the victims whom I knew are still with us today.

Tough world in which we live.

January 31, 2026

Trumpoleon Bonerfart

January 30, 2026

Hey Ari MelbaToast: fuck your "both parties horseshit"

Yeah yeah yeah…you’re very lawyerly. Fuck that shit. These Trump Republicans are planning a nationwide putsch of local and state governments and our absolute right to have our votes counted and you’re jerking us off with your Newspeak “fairness”. You’re not a newsman, you’re a commentator so why don’t you stop with the both-siderism and be more like Edward R Murrow who chucked his reporter hat and decided to help save Democracy in this country.

Remember, if you keep this up, there surely ain’t gonna be no George Clooney type making a film or Broadway show about your heroism in fifty years. You’re gonna just disappear like Edwin Newman, Frank McGee, or Charles Collingwood. Who?? Who???

As Al Pacino said in the film “Heat”: “What are you, a fucking owl?” Straighten up and fly right. You have biblical morality on your side if you want it.

Or you can be a schmuck. Your choice. You can be Ari Melber who assisted America in righting itself or you can be the answer to a trivia question.

My rant is now complete. I’m here all week. Try the veal.

January 29, 2026

Lookit what my emailed "Word of the Day" is:

Anybody we know of?? Anybody?? Bueller??

January 25, 2026

This explains much of what's going on with people's perception of law enforcement

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CNnLmrdC7/?mibextid=wwXIfr

In it, author Jason Pargin discusses the most popular archetype in America: the “rogue” cop. It is an excellent primer for those whose wonder how “these things can happen” and in my mind, refutes the ridiculous assertion that “this is not who we are”.

This is in fact, EXACTLY who we are and I’ll give you an example close to home. My family, as I have described before, were intellectual progressives in the best sense. They would have fit in perfectly here on DU and my mom for one might well be somewhat to the left of many here, my dad was more pragmatic since he was a combat veteran who better understood where many Americans are “coming from” and was less of an idealist, but a true progressive nonetheless.

I came home from college for a vacation and since we were a movie family, went to a “picture” as we used to call it. The film playing was Dirty Harry with Clint Eastwood. My parents watched the film, shaking their heads at many points but afterwards were clearly impressed and entertained by the dramatic presentation of “good” vs pure evil. On the one hand, they were mildly appalled but on the other hand, well, this villain had to die. There was a head shaking acceptance and you understand, these people were civil rights activists. Can you imagine what this film, these people Lethal Weapon films, Stallone and all the rest did to average American consciousness? Incalculable.

The link provides an excellent overview and as I always say, if you don’t click FB links, I don’t care.

January 25, 2026

Leave it to Robert DeNiro to nail it:

And even if it’s AI, I don’t give a crap: all weapons are fair game when fighting Nazis.

January 25, 2026

If you feel that you need a break from this horror for a couple hours,

Take a look at the Mel Brooks biography on Netflix entitled “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man”.

I have to say that I’m generally lukewarm when it comes to these retrospectives but this is terrific and very informative and heartwarming.

The thing they did not delve into but is implied, is that he is the last remaining of the great comics of the Fifties and forward. It’s a wonderful show in two parts.

January 23, 2026

Holy crap. Could it be? COULD IT BE??

OK, I just had an Aha! Moment. I’m flipping through my cable channels, you know, the premium ones that bring my cable bill to $325.00 a month, and I see a 2020 movie on HBO and think “Hey! They just released a sequel to this film starring Gerard Butler”.

In the film, a comet breaks up into many meteorites, some of them huge, and certain selected people are evacuated in advance to a far-off outpost where they enter a bunker for nine months (!) while the planet is bombarded and then begins to recover. It represents the end of humanity and civilization as we know it and rebirth.

The name of the film is Greenland. The sequel is Greenland 2.

If he has been made aware of his mortality, perhaps he has entered a mindset wherein this film represents his only chance of survival, albeit allegorical. The mental health implications are stark. Who knows how his mind works? Not I.

Just a thought. We know that films are often presented at the White House prior to general release. Or perhaps he saw or heard of the original. And for those of you who may not believe that he watches movies, he has to do something after he takes three or four minutes to bang whomever and then get to posting on Untruth Social.

I mean, where the fuck did he come up with Greenland? It’s not like he knows anything about geography or world affairs. Even if he was given this idea, it has become an obsession. Life is never as simple as we think it is.