Tuesday, July 07, 2026

Trump Is Not Thomas Jefferson…

... and he’s never going to be.
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EOD

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Monday, July 06, 2026

ETTD

THE TRUMP EFFECT: The USA just lost to Belgium in the World Cup Round of 16 by a score of 4-1, right after Trump personally called FIFA to clear star striker Balogun to play.

Sports fans are calling it the Trump curse.

He attended the Super Bowl and predicted a Chiefs win, but the Eagles blew them out.

He was there when the Commanders hosted the Lions and lost at home.

He watched from a suite as Miami fell in the College Football National Championship.

He sat in the owner’s suite when the Knicks snapped their huge playoff streak in NBA Finals Game 3.

And he attended the Ryder Cup where Europe topped the US team.
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Trump Thinks Jefferson Just Wrote A Check For The Louisiana Purchase

According to DR, Denmark’s Public Service Broadcaster, Trump Still Sees Buying Greenland as Best Solution

According to DR, Denmark’s public service broadcaster, a White House official has reiterated President Donald Trump’s ambition to acquire Greenland, saying the administration still considers a U.S. purchase of the territory the best way to strengthen security in the Arctic.

The remarks were made during a U.S. press briefing ahead of Tuesday’s NATO summit, which was attended by DR’s U.S. correspondent, Kim Bildsøe.

“As things stand now, the only solution we have found that could resolve this is for the United States to buy Greenland, but we will continue to explore other options,” the official said.

The official added that Trump wants to address the issue in a way that does not leave it to future presidents.

“When the President sees a problem that can be solved, he wants to solve it. He wants to solve it in a way that does not leave the problem for future presidents,” the official said.

—DR
...and Congress just covered it.
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Affordability Is A Hoax

What matters is whether the US can rig the World Cup.
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Now He’s Undermining American Faith In Sports

If Trump doesn’t like the outcome, it’s rigged. And there’s nothing we can do about this, except be afraid. 😱 
Trump on Balogun: "I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports ... that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction ... this referee, who is a little bit suspect if you check his past. He made a call that nobody could believe ... he's our best player, or one of our best players. And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant ... yes, I asked for a review by FIFA."
He knows the rules of football well enough to know what a foul and an infraction are. But he doesn’t know what a “red card” is. 🤔 Trump wants us to be like France, right down to the lack of A/C at the Great American State Fair. I guess he was going for the rhyme? 🤷‍♂️
The picture got worse at a recent Senate Republican lunch, according to the report.

Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) presented polling showing independents fleeing the GOP in "significant numbers" and moving toward Democrats. The data was stark enough that attendees left the meeting "visibly shaken."

According to prominent Republican pollster Whit Ayres, "We know that the party in power tends to lose House seats in a midterm election, but the number of seats lost is highly correlated with the president’s popularity. When presidential job approval is above 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 14. When it’s below 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 32.”

"But there are very few people at this point who are predicting that the Democrats will not gain seats in the House," Ayres added.

According to the report, a recent Fox News poll of 1,002 registered voters conducted in mid-June showed only 23 percent of voters approve of Trump's handling of gas prices. Just 31 percent approve of his economic management.

Democratic strategist Tad Devine told The Hill he sees a wave election in the making. "It may be a very big change election in that the Republicans are going to lose the House of Representatives and could lose the Senate as well. And I think the Democrats will gain ground not just in those federal races but I think in governors' races, in legislative races."
Can’t imagine why…
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Sunday, July 05, 2026

And Let The People Say: “AMEN!”

I’m not speaking against the Reverend to say the real praise goes to his congregation, who accepts what he’s saying as the word of the Lord.

Because it is. IMHTheologicalO, anyway.

And it needn’t be painful to you if it’s truthful. Niebuhr said you can’t have a Xian nation, because a nation cannot be ethical. Ethics requires some measure of sacrifice, and you cannot require someone else to sacrifice for your ethical decision (here we meet the conundrum of the akedeh, the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. The ethical paradox, the ethical crisis, of that story is something Johannes de Silentio will not let us look away from. A nation cannot ask its citizens, the very citizens it is supposed to protect, to sacrifice their lives for the nation’s ethics. For its survival: yes. But what if, as some Christians once said, it is unethical for white Americans and black Americans to live as equals? That the blacks must sacrifice so this ethic can prevail? That’s, in part, the Reverend’s point. To put a finer point on it, would you consider Omelas ethical? They ask only one person to be the living sacrifice.

And what, as Niebuhr asks, if the ethics of the nation require that the nation itself make the sacrifice? Not just give up something; but give up everything.

Omelas points us to a whole separate ethical question coming from the Hebrew and Xian scriptures about how to treat the poor and the marginalized, and how “Christian” a nation can be that doesn’t follow those teachings (major hint: the prophets blame the Babylonian Exile on Israel’s failure to remember the poor and the widows and orphans.) we prefer the capitalism that requires the greatest good for the greatest number be our ethical standard. (Omelas, in the logical extreme.) But is there anything Christian about utilitarianism? Or Omelas?

Aside from that, there’s the problem of defining an “Christian nation.” “One nation, under God,” but under whose God? Israel had (has) a covenant with God. We do not. Our ability to be Xian is really an individual matter, and has been since the Romantics cemented that Enlightenment idea as the foundation of ourselves as persons. Not only because there are too many faiths (religious and secular; we all trust in something), but because there are too many differences alone just between Xians. Am I to bend the knee to the encyclicals of the Bishop of Rome? Of this Pastor? Or Robert Jeffress or Paula White? Should you bend your knee to me? Who preaches the Xianity of this nation to which I must adhere? Or at least acknowledge? The Constitution says “We, the people of the United States….”And already we’ve got a problem.  Who are “the people of the United States”? Four out of nine Supreme Court Justices say that not all persons born in this country should be included as “the people of this United States,” even though (I don’t think?) they don’t deny those people are all persons.

Although  they seem to think those excluded from “all persons” in the 14th are in a new class of “illegal,” Which may not create stateless persons, but seem to be very close to the old concept of “outlaw:” someone outside the protection of the law, who can be dealt with as anyone sees fit.

(The contemporary example shows up in the “new” “Twilight Zone,” where a man is branded “invisible” for being anti-social. No one is allowed to speak to him or look at him. At one point he’s mugged, but when he calls for an ambulance (because no one else will help him, on pain of being branded “invisible” themselves). When 911 realizes who he is (“invisible”), they refuse him treatment and end the call. For the time he is invisible, he is “outlaw.”)

So who are the people of the United States? And can we claim Christianity for them? “Hang it all, Robert Browning! There can be but one Sordello! But Sordello, and my Sordello?”—Ol’ Ez (Pound; the REAL Ezra). What is the ethics of the four dissenting opinions in Barbara? Can they properly be described as “Christian”? Show your work.

If you ask me if they should be properly described as Christian, my answer is: no. The law should not concern itself with ethical considerations, except as they are considerations of justice (or: why AI can never judge a trial outcome, or a legal appeal). The law has professional ethics, and the ethical concerns for doing justice (a foundational concern of the jurisprudential school known as “judicial realism.”) But I’m concerned with the ethics of Matthew 25 and the Lukan Beatitudes, and rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and giving God what is God’s. With doing justice (and not the legal kind), loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God. With being last of all, and servant of all, in order to be first of all. And how do you ask an entire nation to do any of that?

In other words, I’m concerned with being ethical in a way the world flipping doesn’t understand. And not expecting the world to do so.

So I like what the Reverend’s saying; but I appreciate more, the congregation that supports him in saying it.

Thanks be to God.
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Happy Holidays To Everybody! 🧨

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I know @realDonaldTrump and family did.

250 years ago we declared independence from a king who ran the colonies as a family business. In just 18 months the Trumps have made King George look like an amateur.

A $620 million Pentagon loan, the largest in the program’s history, to a company Don Jr.’s firm bought into three months before.

An Air Force drone contract to a startup the princelings took public through a golf course company they own a piece of.

The Army’s largest drone motor order ever, to a company where Don Jr. sits on the board and holds millions in stock.

A $24 million Pentagon robotics contract to the company that employs Eric as Chief Strategy Advisor.

A stake in the largest undeveloped tungsten deposit on earth, in Kazakhstan, backed by $1.6 billion in US government support.

Jared’s fund seeded with $2 billion from the Saudi crown prince, now $6.2 billion, 99% of it foreign money from Gulf governments. Over $110 million in fees collected from the Saudis alone. He negotiates American foreign policy with the governments that pay him.

$2.3 billion from crypto ventures their father regulates. More than a million people bought in and lost $2.3 billion. The money didn’t grow. It simply moved from the subjects pockets to the crown’s coffers.

And the next one is already drafted. A proposed ATF rule that will allow guns to be shipped straight to your front door. The government’s own estimate is 3.3 million home gun deliveries a year. Don Jr. sits on the board of the online gun megastore built to cash in. He holds 300,000 shares.

And that’s only the fraction they’ve allowed us to see. Not one subpoena served. Not one search executed. Why hide anything when you own the investigators?

Me? They searched a laptop for six years. Federal prosecutors. Grand juries. Subpoena power. Congressional hearings. They found nothing. I made about $200k a year selling paintings when my Dad was President, and they made my paintings part of an impeachment inquiry.

For six years they’ve asked Where’s Hunter? What about the laptop?

Wrong questions. The right one is 250 years old. Does America belong to a family?

They’ve given their answer. Long live the King.
Gavin Newsom goes off on the Trump Family corruption:

Newsom: And I’m not talking about the $100,000 watches. I’m not talking about the guitars that he’s selling that you didn’t even know about, or the Bibles, or the sneakers. I’m not talking about all that.

I’m talking about what’s happening substantively with these kids and these investments, and the Pentagon contracts they’re receiving on rare earth minerals and drone companies, and all the stuff that’s happening with the Kushner family, the Witkoff family, the “Board of Peace,” which is about getting a piece of the Middle East.

Let’s talk about the UAE and high-value chips, where they’re getting a piece of our national security, where the Biden administration held off. But as long as you can get a deal done with the UAE on the private family businesses, then all of a sudden national security becomes less of an important talking point.

Or how about the tariff relief in places like Vietnam for the golf courses and the development deals, and the dozen other countries that he’s doing business in? How about all the corruption as it relates to the self-dealing with his resorts and all of his assets that the Secret Service and taxpayers are subsidizing? Or directing G7 investments? Or the emoluments issues across the spectrum every day? Or just the day trading literally behind the Oval Office desk, or showing up on your calendar at a company that you just invested in because you know that stock’s going to pop because you’re going to promote it the next day?

All of this happening—this open sewage system. You talk about draining the swamp. He gave it a presidential suite with gold leaf.

And you’re seeing this gross corruption at a scale and scope never before seen in modern American history. This is stuff I don’t even imagine exists at this scale in a year and a half, even in Putin’s Russia or Kim Jong-un’s North Korea.
Trump likes those guys. Blind hog finds acorn. Film at 11.
Trump: The Crowd at 7:05 in the evening was 422,000 people! All were forced to leave because of the weather, the event was cancelled, and everyone was gone because of lightning. When I heard that it was cancelled, I immediately overturned that decision, and waited a while for people to come back. Incredibly, at least 150,000 people returned, and it was an even more spectacular evening than it would have been as normalized! It showed work under pressure. Congratulations to the Secret Service and Law Enforcement on being able to get so many people back into the Arena in such rapid fashion! It was an amazing evening made even more spectacular by the fact that, immediately after the Great Fireworks ended, the rains came down, full blast!
"The Crowd at 7:05 in the evening was 422,000 people!” Last night he said it was 375.000.
I think the recount was rigged!

“When I heard that it was cancelled, I immediately overturned that decision, and waited a while for people to come back.” Because my people should be willing to die in a lightning storm for me!

“It was an amazing evening made even more spectacular by the fact that, immediately after the Great Fireworks ended, the rains came down, full blast!” And washed all those heavy metals and particulate matter onto the people below! Win-win!
Trump had spent months ginning up a story that his July 4 bash would be the biggest in American history. However, the event was marred by extreme heat, long lines, and a weather delay, which caused many people to leave the National Mall before Trump took the stage. Washington, D.C., was so hazy the morning after the fireworks that some people reported feeling a burning sensation in their lungs when they went outside.
That’s freedom burning in your lungs! Feel the burn!🔥 
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Box Cutters Are The New Black

They have been since 9/11 when the airlines made ‘em up. Even CSI (the TeeVee show) couldn’t have identified the weapons used by the terrorists in the plane wreckage. “Box cutters” sounded more innocuous than GREAT BIG SCARY KNIVES! Especially since knives were not supposed to get through security checkpoints (operated by the airlines in the days before TSA). Box cutters, somehow, sounded easier to conceal.

Google tells me box cutters are what I’ve always called X-acto knives: a long handle with a short, retractable blade. The blade to handle ratio is VERY high. The handle is meant to hold the tiny blade until you need it. Maybe that’s how they got through security in 2001.  To do any serious damage with a box cutter, you’d have to cut directly into the aorta in the neck. Which would sorta work with a hostage, but I’m guessing Al Qaeda was a bit better armed than that.

Anyway, it’s become the metaphorical knife of choice for evil deeds, although the cutting edge of the blade is barely an inch long. I mean, it’s used for opening boxes, not skinning deer. I’ve got one of those knives, a folding lock knife, and as a weapon, it’s not that scary. But it would cut deeper into that “invulnerable” liner (Trump’s word). If you could hold your breath that long. I seen pictures of people in that pool, it’s about waist deep on most adults. It would take some sustained effort to cut 350 feet worth of gashes, even with a big ass knife.

 Or a samurai sword… 🥷. 🤔

Anyway, the box cutter has become the go to vandalism blade for made-up criminal narratives since 9/11, although it’ll barely get through a corrugated box. It does do a fair job on paper and fiber reinforced paper tape….
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Less Is More

The top EPA atmospheric warming is Code Maroon, used only for emergency situations. Code Purple is the warning level just below Maroon. To Trump, “biggest” only means “best.” Which explains his complete lack of aesthetic values. Clearly the work of Ninja 🥷 vandals who snuck in during the night.
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“But What If The Supreme Court Were A Bunch Of Yes-Men, And The Congress Were A Bunch Of P*ssies?!”

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Someone’s Been Reading Reinie Niebuhr And Soren K.

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It Was Vandals!

With box cutters!
STEPHANOPOULOS: The president has repeatedly claimed vandals cut a 350 foot gash in the pool. That claim is echoed in a legal filing by your department. What evidence do you have?

BURGUM: Ah, well we have the actual cuts that were made

STEPHANOPOULOS: There's a 350 foot gash?

BURGUM: Well it's multiple gashes that add up to 350 feet
Big, strong boxcutters! With tears in their eyes! Are we sure 10 tons couldn’t do it? Ninja 🥷 vandals! You never even see them!
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Wrapping Up The Texas Vote

We’re done here. 🤠
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Innumerate? Or Demented By Narcissism?

Park Services only closed the Fair due to rain. There was no A/C available on the fairgrounds, anywhere. But they offered “free water refill and misting stations.”  Trump wanted people to stay there all day to satisfy his need for attention. If you didn’t stay up to watch the speech, you didn’t miss anything:
“As he did one night earlier at Mount Rushmore, Mr. Trump used the nation’s birthday to scaremonger about Democrats four months before the midterms (he talked a lot again about ‘communism’) and demand that Congress pass an act that would make it harder to vote,” the Times’ Shawn McCreesh wrote early Sunday morning.
Trump didn’t, either.
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Saturday, July 04, 2026

This Is Probably Something

If you are old enough to remember Cheech and Chong’s record albums, you probably remember the sketch where Cheech is looking for a late night TV show, and while channel surfing comes across a late night movie where the bad guy is telling an old man to “sign the papers.” The old man protests that he can’t sign the papers. They go back and forth a few times, until the bad guy, in a worse German accent, demands: “And why cannot you sign the papers?!” To which comes the punchline: “Because you have broken both of my hands!”🙌 

And in those innocent, pre-Google days, we all thought they made that up.

But tonight, ironically, I was watching an old movie on TV, a movie called “Invisible Agent.” The hero is an invisible American, tasked with spying on the Nazis. In the third act, one of his associates is captured and questioned by the Nazis and, at last, told to sign the papers. He says he can’t, and this goes back and forth a few times, until he explains: “Because you have broken all of my fingers!”

Truth is always stranger than fiction.
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Well, It Is Called An Act Of God

REPORT: Trump’s “Freedom 250” July 4 is in utter chaos right now.

Severe weather rolled in tonight and NPS ordered a full evacuation. MAGA is absolutely furious.

National Guard troops were filmed flipping over picnic tables trying to clear the grounds. Some families gave up and went home furious. Others screamed at Secret Service service and other federal officials.

Trump told Fox he’s doing his speech no matter what, “whether it’s 10 PM, 11 PM, or even 2AM,” because “if they can storm the beaches on D-Day, I can deliver a speech.”

Except D-Day was delayed a full 24 hours because of bad weather. Eisenhower waited it out. Trump’s own comparison proves the exact opposite point he’s trying to make.

If you are in the area, remember to exercise extreme caution.
JUST IN: After heat and storms forced evacuations, Trump is now urging supporters to stay anyway, saying he doesn’t care if his speech starts at 2 a.m. and insisting, “I’m not going to let some rain stop our 250th.” He now says the speech is expected around 11 p.m. and vows to attend “no matter what” even if it’s “2:00 O’Clock in the morning.”

Trump is actively urging his supporters to remain in danger.
If the security perimeter has been compromised, it may be 2:00 AM before Trump can speak. 😈 Because that’s where reality is? Obama and Biden couldn’t do that! 😈 💯 
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Humbly Noted

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Damned Good Question

Pretty sure the point of the clause was for Congress to enforce it.
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July 4, 2026

I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all Americans on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This anniversary stands as an invitation not only to celebrate the nation’s remarkable journey, but also to reflect upon the responsibilities that the sons and daughters of this country bear to one another, and to the generations who will inherit the nation that is being shaped today.

....

Also among the principles that have guided the development of this country is the God-given dignity of every human life, each person being endowed with an inherent worth that calls for reverence, protection and care. In this spirit, a full understanding of this dignity leads to recognizing the importance of safeguarding human life from its beginning at conception until natural death, and of building a society in which the vulnerable, the suffering and the forgotten are always met with compassion, solidarity and love.

Defending human life also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning. In every generation, those who have arrived seeking freedom, opportunity and a place to belong have helped to shape the nation’s character. To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person.

In my recent Encyclical Letter,Magnifica Humanitas, I wrote about working together for the common good. “Building a world in which everyone can flourish requires shared responsibility and courage. No one can single-handedly bear the weight of the challenges the world is facing” (no. 13). We need one another, and we need to work together in unity to confront the challenges that the world is facing today.

May this milestone renew the shared commitment to the promise of freedom, justice, opportunity and democracy. May Americans honor the courage and vision of those who came before them by strengthening their communities, respecting their differences and working together toward a more perfect union.

Congratulations on this extraordinary national anniversary. May the spirit of 1776 continue to inspire hope and unity as the United States of America moves into the future. In assuring all of you of my prayers in your renewed efforts to strengthen the nation in the principles that guided its Founding Fathers, I entrust you to the intercession of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of this country, that she will continue to watch over America and protect all who dwell therein.
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Well, It’s More People Than Trump’s Gotten At His State Fair

The permit should require they march in the afternoon. 😈 Mad dogs and the Patriot Front….
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Friday, July 03, 2026

$68 Million Later

Or A/C! I suspect foreign interference! From France!🇫🇷  Unfortunately, people went out to see the epic flyover on one of the hottest days on record, in one of the hottest places on earth. As it turns out.

Brought to you by clean, beautiful coal.
Certainly not for preparedness. Imagine the calamity if there had been far more people, dropping like flies. Except God wasn’t angry. But I do like the idea of Trump as Pharoah; thinking he’s in charge, when he so clearly is not. NOT reading the room.
In a joint statement Friday, Freedom 250, the U.S. Park Police, the National Park Service, the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said they had coordinated to expand cooling resources, water stations and medical support for the "Salute to America" event.

"We are proud to welcome the public to a safe, well-prepared, and truly memorable celebration of America's 250th birthday," the statement read.
Hours after 7 people went to hospital and the fair closed for the afternoon. It’s not like the heat wasn’t predicted,,wasn’t known, and wasn’t knowable.

And the President is still delusional.
NOT before Hell freezes over.
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Bless Your Heart, S. Miller

"Foreign public ships” would include Miller’s hypothetical Mexican Air jet passing over the continental United States en route to Canada, with a 9 month pregnant woman finding she can’t wait for the plane to land. I not only “believe” in citizenship (what my belief matters in this context remains a mystery), I believe in the rule of law (I do know what that means). Although the rule of law is something Stephen Miller knows no more about than his boss does.

No one “believes” in your hypotheticals, Stephen, except you and the people ignorant enough to think you make sense. And keep believing in this fantasy that the Roberts Court is going to reverse itself before Trump leaves office (because who else besides a POTUS signing a stupid EO is going to challenge the citizenship clause again?). You’re betting on a change in court personnel before then, and the likeliest two candidates are Thomas and Alito. Replacing them with Trump appointees doesn’t change the vote. The other 5 are too young to be expected to go anywhere any time soon.

And please keep wishing on Thomas’ textual analysis, maybe the worst statutory/constitutional interpretation in American history, because it ignores ALL the rules of interpretation, to save you from a brown nation. Very simply, if everyone who drafted and approved the 14th thought it only applied to slaves freed by the 13th, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN SURE CL. 1 CLEARLY SAID SO! BUT IT SAID “PERSONS,” AND THAT MEANS ANYONE RECOGNIZED AS A HUMAN BEING, WITHOUT REGARD TO AGE, RACE, GENDER, OR PARENTS’ NATIONAL ORIGIN. The majority affirmed U.S. v. Ark after all.

Now you can fret about AI and Turing Tests and the brave new world of “Will AI ever qualify as human?” You seem like someone who needs something to fret about.
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TalaricoDS

He sure sounds like it.
I think about the maternal mortality crisis, where you see Black women dying at three times the rate of other mothers. And so I've rolled out a plan in consultation with a lot of community leaders to figure out what we can do to address this crisis. And that's ensuring that every new mother, including every Black mother, has access to prenatal care and paid family leave so that after they give birth they can tend to their own health and the health of their child. There's so much that we could do at the federal level to save the lives of Black mothers all across the state.

Another issue that I think impacts Black Texans particularly is voting rights and gerrymandering — probably the biggest attack on Black political power since Jim Crow. They are systematically diluting the voting power of Black and brown Texans. And so these two issues in particular I think need a lot of spotlight.
To be honest with you, both political parties have way too much influence from big money and corporate special interests.

It is a systemic problem, and I really think it's why we need holistic systemic reform. Because until we fix the system itself, we're not going to make progress on education, on health care, on jobs, on the environment... It's a corrupt system that's preventing us from making progress on those issues.
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THE SOFT HANDS OF A PRECIOUS FEW

SEND THE TALL SHIPS TO IRAN! LET’S SEE HOW THEY LIKE THAT! YOU KNOW WHERE ELSE THEY DON’T HAVE A/C? FRANCE!!🇫🇷 SO WHY DON’T YOU GO OVER THERE IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT!?!?? HERE.
JUST IN: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani used America’s 250th anniversary to sharply criticize the country, accusing the U.S. of allowing children to go hungry while billionaires and “oligarchs” gain more power.

He said America’s wealth was built by working people with “calloused, dirt-streaked hands" while accusing the country of allowing the wealth built by workers to be concentrated in “the soft hands of a precious few.”
THOSE OVERWORKED POOR PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRATEFUL THEY HAD JOBS! EXPLOITATION OF LABOR IS WHAT MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT!! FOR RICH PEOPLE! 🤑 WALK IT OFF! NEGLIGENCE AND UNSAFE CONDITIONS ARE WHAT MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT! AND LIABILITY INSURANCE!! IT’S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHIN’ LEFT TO LOSE!! AIN’T YOU PEOPLE GOT NO KULCHUR?! THIS IS NOT SOCIALISM! BECAUSE A REPUBLICAN IS DOING IT!! AND THEY CAN’T BE SOCIALISTS! I’S LIKE,  A LAW…OR SOMETHING.

 🤦‍♂️

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Has Trump Installed An Extra Large Bathtub?

Yet? 🛀  The two guys from Texas aren’t there yet? Well, the two guys from Texas can visit all the monuments Trump has messed up.
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You Don’t Have To Be An Asshole To Be A TechBro…

...or maybe you do:
Peter Thiel stood before the Aspen Ideas Festival on Tuesday and told the crowd that Pope Leo XIV is “working for the Chinese Communists.”

The audience laughed, but Thiel was dead serious.

CNN reported the remarks Thursday from a non-recorded panel in Colorado, where Thiel appeared alongside the political scientist Francis Fukuyama, and reporters were permitted to take notes.

The logic behind the accusation runs through the pope’s own words. In May, Leo published Magnifica Humanitas, his first encyclical, a 40,000-word document declaring that artificial intelligence “must be disarmed” and calling for stronger international oversight of the technology.
Stop right there. I think I see the problem. Leo called for stronger international oversight of AI. Which is anathema to a TechBro, who must be allowed to do as he pleases, first the benign all humankind, and because we cannot allow a mineshaft gap!
Because Americans might actually heed that teaching while the Chinese Communist Party ignores it, Thiel argued, the encyclical threatens to slow exactly one side of the AI race between Washington and Beijing. A pope who asks his flock to think before they build becomes, by this arithmetic, an asset of a foreign adversary.

The Vatican did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Readers of this community know the longer arc.

Last November, I wrote the story of leaked audio from Thiel’s private San Francisco lecture series, in which he suggested Leo himself might be a manifestation of the Antichrist — and revealed that he has urged Vice President JD Vance to ignore the pope’s moral guidance.

By March, Thiel had carried his Antichrist lectures to Rome, staging the invitation-only events blocks from the Holy See. The lectures unnerved the Vatican and prompted two Catholic universities to state publicly that they had no role in hosting them.

The encyclical itself arrived on Memorial Day carrying a quotation from The Lord of the Rings — a literary choice that writers from the United States to Italy read as aimed squarely at Thiel, while the Catholic Herald in Britain asked whether the whole encyclical targets his empire. Within days, The New York Times found the billionaire settled into a $12 million mansion in Buenos Aires, steering dinner conversation — once again — toward the Antichrist.
Thiel is really only worried about his money and his freedom. 
The New York Times reported in May that Thiel has grown so concerned about the political situation in the US that he’s created a “foothold” for himself in Argentina, which is currently being governed by ideologically likeminded libertarian President Javier Milei.

“Thiel, who has a history of collecting backup countries as he hedges his bets against the United States, is considering making Argentina another Plan B,” the Times reported. “Born in Germany and raised in the United States, he received citizenship in New Zealand in 2011, and applied for a passport in Malta in 2022.”
Thiel won’t put his money where his ass is. He just wants to be sure the regulatory environment is conducive to him making money.
The pope occupied one slot on a longer roster of enemies Thiel described in Colorado. He claimed, without offering evidence, that Anthropic — “a woke liberal company” he credits with “winning the AI race” — would “rig the elections in 2028” on behalf of Democrats.

The San Francisco lectures had already counted regulators, environmentalists, and Greta Thunberg among what Thiel calls the “legionnaires of the Antichrist.” Anyone who asks his industry a moral question ends up, in his telling, working for something sinister.
Thiel is not comfortable with competing viewpoints. But he seems to have tired of the shibboleth of the “Antichrist,” and he’s moved to another golden oldie: commies under the bed!
Thiel spent another stretch of the panel defending the name of his surveillance company, which he drew from the palantíri, the seeing-stones of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

“Toward the end, it gets used by the good guys,” Thiel said of the seeing-stone. “Anybody who tells you a different story of Tolkien,” he added, “doesn’t even know what they’re talking about, on the level of literature.”

The good guy in question is Aragorn, and the scene undoes Thiel’s defense. As John Grosso argued at Where Peter Is — a reading I walked through in May — Aragorn prevails with the stone by surrendering through it: he reveals himself to Sauron deliberately, drawing the enemy’s gaze away from Frodo so someone smaller and weaker can finish the work. The stone rewards sacrifice and destroys everyone who reaches for control.
The Palantir was turned to evil; and was never turned back. Thiel's intelligence is really rather limited to only certain subjects.
The encyclical Thiel now brands as Chinese propaganda quotes Gandalf’s address to the captains of the West from the very council where that gambit is proposed: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set.”

Put the two theologies side by side, and the argument settles itself. Thiel warns that the Antichrist will arrive as a one-world government promising to protect humanity from existential threats like artificial intelligence. No world government has materialized. His software, meanwhile, already runs the data engine of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program, part of billions of dollars in Palantir’s federal contracts.

Leo’s teaching moves in the opposite direction. The human person carries a dignity no machine may override, and the technologies of the powerful must answer to the people they surveil, sort, and deport.

The pope chose his name with machines in mind. Days after his election, he told the College of Cardinals that Leo XIII had answered the first industrial revolution with Rerum Novarum, and that the Church now faces another industrial revolution in artificial intelligence, with new threats to human dignity, justice, and labor.

The Church has been asking who the machine serves since 1891, and no version of her answer has ever named a government or a fortune.

This week a room of wealthy Americans laughed while a billionaire accused the successor of Peter of serving a communist state. The laughter deserves attention, because it measures what money has learned it can say without consequence.

Leo shepherds a Church that buried her martyrs under emperors who demanded she choose sides, and that Church outlived every one of them. The laughter will fade by autumn, and Magnifica Humanitas will still be teaching long after the seeing-stones of Silicon Valley have gone dark.
Thiel is not only fighting out of his weight class; he doesn’t even understand what arena he’s in.
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Before Trump Was President, The World Was Laughing At Us

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ETTD: 4th Of July Version

There was that little hitch with respirators, wasn’t there? That’s when he explained why he had tweeted “INVOKE ‘P’!”, with no further explanation. He thought he was increasing the availability of respirators.  He thought that’s how government worked. We may need those respirations again.
The bulletin references the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures air pollution on a scale from 0 to 500. During a typical large fireworks display, air quality forecasts often reach the Orange category (AQI 101-150), indicating unhealthy conditions for sensitive groups, including children, older adults, and individuals with heart or lung disease.

For comparison, severe wildfire smoke events commonly produce AQI readings between 200 and 300.

According to the emergency bulletin, however, two air quality models are projecting pollution levels that exceed the EPA’s standard AQI scale, with forecast values above 500 AQI near the center of the projected smoke plume.

The bulletin further states that most atmospheric models predict the plume will move eastward. Many scenarios indicate the smoke could remain trapped at relatively low altitudes rather than rising high enough to disperse quickly, potentially prolonging exposure for communities downwind.

Officials are reportedly concerned about exposure to both heavy metal particulate matter released by fireworks and carbon-based smoke particles.

According to the bulletin, both pollutants could maintain AQI-equivalent risk levels above 500 for at least two hours after the fireworks conclude. The document also states that heavy metal contaminants may remain suspended in the air for 14 hours or longer following the display.

The reported health concerns extend beyond the immediate aftermath of the event. The bulletin cites historical data indicating significant increases in cardiovascular and respiratory emergency cases immediately following major fireworks displays, with an additional surge occurring approximately six to ten days later.

As a result, healthcare facilities are reportedly being advised to prepare for elevated cardiopulmonary patient volumes during the two weeks following the celebration.

The bulletin also recommends that staff and volunteers working on or near the National Mall and surrounding areas wear N95 respirator masks to reduce inhalation of airborne particulate matter.

If the forecasts prove accurate, the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration could produce one of the largest short-term air pollution events ever associated with a fireworks display in the United States. Whether those modeled conditions ultimately materialize will depend on weather patterns, atmospheric mixing, and the final execution of the fireworks program.
Why this extraordinary concern?
According to the document, this year’s fireworks show is expected to be unlike anything previously conducted in Washington, D.C. Officials estimate approximately 880,000 fireworks shells will be launched—compared with roughly 20,000 shells during a typical Independence Day display, representing more than 40 times the normal number of fireworks.
I’m sure it will be fine. It’s not like the Administration is malignant, incompetent creeps all the way down….
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😵 The Chicken Littles Are Coming Home To Roost

I’m hearing this Maduro rumor also.

As soon as he was captured, I thought Trump would try this nonsense.

Firing Bondi, then Gabbard opened up this scheme with Blanche & Pulte as the henchmen.

I hope this doesn’t happen but it’s more than plausible and would throw the midterms into utter chaos.
Because if there’s one overriding concern of the voters in 2026, one issue more important than gas prices or inflation or the cost of housing and food, or stagnant wages and AI centers in everybody’s backyard, it’s: did Trump really win the 2020 election six years ago? And was Nicolas Maduro involved in helping Biden win?

This is the question that has roiled America for six years, and it’s time we got answers! This is the issue that will make everyone in America vote GOP, and storm the… well, where do we storm in order to stop the vote count in 50 states and 435 congressional districts? What building do we attack and deface, what process do we disrupt to be sure Donald Trump is re-elected in…2020?

Wait a minute….🤔

Or worse! No one would know who to vote for or how to vote or when to vote or what to vote for because who wouldn’t believe Trump had finally proven his unproven claims six years later by putting somebody most Americans have never heard of in the same prison where he put Ghislaine Maxwell. I mean, it’s foolproof! 

Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. But it’s not what they told us it was.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." --Nietzsche
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Thursday, July 02, 2026

“Prison, police, uhh, prison, police, and private property”

Pretty sure he does:
I am officially nominating Donald J. Trump ( @realDonaldTrump ) for the Nobel Peace Prize.

No President in History has ended the same war so many times.

Our Dear Leader has ended the war with Iran at least 38 times by CNN’s count.

No President has ever done this before.

And he is nowhere near finished ending it.

It’s a record worthy of the Nobel committee’s recognition. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Found that clip I mentioned in a comment below:
Psaki: Now, in order to put on this celebration, Trump is using $68 million of taxpayer money. At least some of that money is being paid to a company called Event Strategies Incorporated. It's run by a group of Trump allies. We don't know how responsible they are for the 68 million of your tax dollars going towards this event. But so far, that money has paid for a janky ferris wheel plagued by power outages, a couple of tents with chairs in them, a temu version of Trump's planned arch, which appears to be falling apart and seems like it's being held together with a slapdash sealant job and, of course, some bizarre entertainment, half of which seems to just be Trump officials sitting on stage, basically filling the time. So how much of that $68 million actually went to the state fair, and how much to Event Strategies Incorporated did they get to keep for themselves?
And how much found its way into Trump’s pocket? Where did the money go? Because it certainly didn’t go into that shitshow on the Mall.
Phillip: The $400,000 annual salary that Trump says he gave up is obviously a drop in the bucket compared to the $2.2 billion he reportedly made during his first year in office. Now, just to put that number into context for you, the presidential salary would have been just 0.018 of a percent of his total earnings just last year.
IF he gave it up. We only have his word for that. There’s never been an accounting. Start with the guy who drove six cars across it. Then consider the science. Is that how Social Security and Medicare work?

And do they ever listen to themselves? Are they just incapable of that?
Because, of course it is. This, by the way, is what Pirro calls respect for the country and the freedoms. You’ll see.
Leavitt: This is a full blown communist revolution that is taking over capitol hill right here in Washington D.C. The inmates are running the asylum. These are crazy people who are advocating the three P’s. Prison, police, uhh, prison, police, and private property. Those are the ideals that founded this country.
In this administration, incoherence is a job requirement.  The crazy people are advocating prison, police, and private property; which are signs of a “full blown communist revolution,” and “the ideals that founded this country”? At least Pirro’s excuse is, she’s a lush.
“I wish I could camp here until Donald got here.”

The Texans HAVE ARRIVED at the Great American State Fair calling it a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Come on, a little heat? I drove 1500 miles.

1500 miles, two busted rims, not being able to find our place, not being able to find a place to put our little old bulldog, air-conditioning went out on us, and it didn’t stop us.

Because we are proud to be American and we’re also Texan.” 🇺🇸
All two of you. How cute. Now what’re you going to do? Ride the janky ferris wheel? 🎡 Look at the NC NASCAR?  And then sit all day until 9 for Trump to speak? Well…enjoy. I hope it was worth $68 million.
USA Today reported that the only food stall open on Thursday sold turkey legs for $23—almost twice the price of the same offering from a Disney theme park. The stall also offered smashburgers and giant Western sausage sandwiches for $20, and lemonade for a whopping $9.

Online, people were particularly outraged by the price of a stuffed pretzel roll—which ranged from $12.48 to $24.96.

One attendee wasn’t impressed by the offerings at the Express Hibachi stand, which offered pizzas and salads for $13 to $14, boneless wings for $15, and rice bowls for $16.
Hope those two from Texas came prepared. And don’t get hungry.
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