Thursday, May 22, 2025

In Trump’s America 🇺🇸

 When did Peter Baker become woke?

The Oval Office dressing down of South Africa's president became a stark demonstration of Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/politics/trump-ramaphosa-south-africa-visit.html
David Frum bemoans due process:
The original sin was failing to send Donald Trump to prison for the rest of his life for mounting a violent coup to overthrow the election of 2020.
Aside from the fact he still could have won the election, and then? Probably released from prison for four years, free to wander the world and do what he’s doing right now. As we know, there’s nothing to keep a convicted felon from being President.
So what does it mean that Elmo was in the Oval Office with the President of South Africa? And Trump made it clear his concerns about Afrikaaners are Elmo’s concerns? And government agencies are still pressuring nations (like South Africa) to contract with Starlink?

Watch the donut, not the hole.
My daughter had pink hair (briefly) in college (art school. I think it was a requirement.). Would that be enough to make her suspicious? And when did we start going after white people? Does this mean Niemoller was right? Yamiche Alcindor is going to lose her access to the White House.
The president showed a video that he said showed more than a thousand burial sites of white South Africans, and he said they were murdered," Alcindor told Leavitt at Thursday's press briefing. "We know that that was not true and that the video wasn't doing that."

"So I wonder, why did the president choose to show that? It's not true the video was showing a burial site," the correspondent continued. "It is unsubstantiated that that's the case."

"No, it's true that that video showed the crosses that represent what the president claimed!" Leavitt exclaimed. "The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin."

"What protocols are in place when there's unsubstantiated information being put out for the world and world leaders to show?" Alcindor pressed.

"What's unsubstantiated about the video?" Leavitt griped. "And that's a ridiculous line of questioning."
You can almost see the smoke coming out of the Leavitt bot.🤖  Oddly, Trump didn’t know. Pretty sure that’s what Yamiche Alcindor was referring to. The violence in Trump’s imagination? Also, pretty clear this is not going entirely Trump’s way. I know I feel better.
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Circumstances Are All

Of course, Johnson claims he actually had two more votes, because one GOP representative was just too late, and a second fell asleep and missed it, too.

At least Jeffries isn’t claiming he had the majority but for two dead people.

Although you can legitimately blame Greg Abbott for refusing to set a special election to replace Sylvester Turner until Nov. 4.

I wonder what a tie would have done under House rules…?
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The More They Remain The Same

When I was a kid (this was probably 60 years ago), my family was with my mother’s sister’s family at a pizza place, if I recall. Out of town, on vacation, some place none of us had ever been. And like a kid proud of my independence, I left the table in search of a restroom.

I knew how to read the signs (obviously), but this one confused me. Still, it was unoccupied, which is what mattered, so I used the facilities and returned to the table. Where I asked my father what it meant, and upon my recital he burst into laughter, and then explained the terms I had not, at that ripe and tender age, yet learned.

It was, as I say, a mom ‘n’ pop place, and the sign on the door of the single restroom in the building was handwritten. It read:

Co-ed head
Enter At Your Own Risk 

I would guess this was before Nancy Mace’s parents had even met. How we got this far without her guidance is truly a mystery.
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“I and the school children know…”

"...what everyone must learn..."
WRC TV - Two Israeli Embassy staff shot and killed in front of the Capital Jewish Museum in DC. The suspect shouted 'Free Palestine' while being arrested, according to law enforcement sources.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/police-investigate-shooting-in-downtown-dc/3919196/
"…those to whom violence is done/do violence in return.”
A 10-year-old was hoping to fetch bread from his aunt in Gaza when an Israeli bomb killed him, his family said.

Just a few hours earlier, Israel had announced it would begin letting some aid into Gaza after a blockade of nearly three months.
Rinse, repeat.
I read recently that most historians believe that the Reichstag fire — long used as the ur-example of a false flag justifying Nazi totalitarianism — was probably just set by a dude acting alone and not at the behest of Nazis. That it was a violent act that served as useful idiocy.
But never think it’s a closed system.
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“I Am Sorry I Don’t Have A Plane To Give You”

Donald Trump has access to the best intelligence information in the world. You’d never know it.

US President Donald Trump brandished a stack of printed articles at the White House Wednesday that he claimed documented a genocide taking place against white people in South Africa.

Mixed into the deck of papers he unveiled before South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa, however, was a months-old blog post featuring a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
What’s better there? The fact no one in the Administration vetted that picture to determine its provenance? Or the fact that picture is from a blog post?

Well researched information, eh?
"Death of people, death, death, death, horrible death, death," Trump said as he flipped through the headlines, which he said were published in "the last few days."

"These are all people that recently got killed."
Yeah, the date of that photograph (at least a month old), matters as much as the fact it isn’t even an event in the right country.
At the bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the US president held up a February article about tribalism in Africa from a little-known website called "American Thinker."
Another stellar source.
It featured a blown-up image showing Red Cross workers in protective gear handling body bags.

"Look, here's burial sites all over the place," said Trump. "These are all white farmers that are being buried."

But the image is a screengrab from a February YouTube video of Red Cross workers responding after women were raped and burned alive during a mass jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma, according to its caption.
Reading comprehension is not his strong suit. Good to know, eh? (But not really a surprise, either.)
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Castles In The Air

DOD has accepted the Qatari jet, but there’s nothing in that which contradicts anything I’ve read about it:

“The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement. “The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.”

The plane, which industry executives estimated is worth about $200 million, will require extensive work before it can be considered secure enough to carry Mr. Trump, Pentagon officials have acknowledged in recent days.

“Any civilian aircraft will take significant modifications to do so,” Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, said on Tuesday during Senate testimony. “Based on the secretary’s direction, we are postured and we’re off looking at that right now, what it’s going to take for that particular aircraft.”
Interestingly, it’s been in San Antonio (several bases there) undergoing maintenance. Which would conform with reports it needs heavy maintenance before it’s airworthy. And there’s the fact no one wants 747’s anymore, because, as we knew, they’re gas guzzlers (4 engines bad, 2 engines better).
The plan has drawn concern from members of Congress, who worry that Mr. Trump will pressure the Air Force to do the work so fast that sufficient security measures are not built into the plane, such as missile defense systems or even systems to protect the plane from the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear blast.

“If President Trump insists on converting this plane to a hardened Air Force One before 2029, I worry about the pressures you may be under to cut corners on operational security,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, said as Mr. Meink was testifying.

The Pentagon has not given an estimate of when the work on the Qatari plane might be done, even though Mr. Trump and the White House have made clear the president wants it soon, perhaps even by the end of the year.

“We will make sure that we do what’s necessary to ensure security of the aircraft,” Mr. Meink said at the Senate hearing. “I will be quite clear and discuss that with the secretary up to the president if necessary if we feel there’s any threats that we are unable to address.”
Trump wants his big, fancy plane now. He probably imagines it will still be a “flying palace,” too.  This matter is going to require Congressional oversight.
The new plane will be the third being retrofitted for use as Air Force One, replacing two planes that have been in use for 35 years and have had maintenance problems.

But maintaining the staff and equipment for three planes is extraordinarily expensive, an estimated $135 million a year for each plane, according to the Pentagon. And it could cost $1 billion or more to retrofit the Qatari plane to get it ready for use as Air Force One, a process that former Air Force officials said could take longer than finishing the job Boeing is already doing to deliver the replacements for the current two planes.

The first of the Boeing planes is scheduled to be delivered in 2027, Air Force officials recently said.

It remains unclear where the money will come from to retrofit the Qatari plane or to maintain and operate it, once it is completed. Congress typically reviews and approves spending on any new major Pentagon programs. But Mr. Trump has already shown a willingness to spend federal dollars as his administration wants, often without consulting Congress.
I suspect the bureaucracy in the Pentagon knows how NOT to lose money from their programs by, say, communicating with Congress.  $1 billion is lot to reallocate. There’s gonna be pushback, like: “Sorry. Tell the POTUS we can’t get enough qualified people to work on 3 planes at once. We could end up not getting any of the three ready. So we have Boeing concentrating on their contract. There aren’t enough people in the world to work on a third.”

And there’s still Congressional oversight:
The Senate majority leader, John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said this month that Congress would be asking questions about any possible use of the Qatari plane as Air Force One.
After Trump’s big, beautiful bill, Yeah, that one, the walking horror currently stalking the halls of Congress; after that thing fails (they don’t call Medicare and Social Security the “third rail” for nothing), there won’t be much stomach for all the expenses of a third AF1.
Marc J. Foulkrod, the chief executive officer of Avjet Global Sales, which tried to help Qatar sell the plane, said the United States would be better off working with Boeing to accelerate its work on the $3.9 billion contract to deliver the two 747 jets it has already been working on for five years.

“I’ve done completions on big airplanes, and there’s always ways to accelerate the program,” Mr. Foulkrod said in an interview. “That’s a better dollar value than trying to take an airplane from somebody else.”
On at least one level, the Qatari royal family just wanted to get this albatross off their necks. And there’s a certain pleasure in thinking Trump will never get any use of it, whether Congress funds its renovation or not. We really can’t allow the POTUS to fly in just any plane. ✈️ 

Trump may stomp his feet; but the midterms could change everything, and ground his dreams of riding in, or keeping, a flying palace.
I mean, really.
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All News Is Gossip

QED.

I know that should be the conclusion to a line of reasoning; but I have my reasons. 

When Clooney noted that Biden is old (Biden is. No shame or blame in it. I’m not as old as Biden and I know I’ve lost a step. Some of that comes from being retired (you’ll see), and it’s not a bad thing, because Lorry Nose I was tired of doing the jobs I was doing.), it was news because…no one "sympathetic" to Biden had actually said so. And to be fair, now, I don’t think what Clooney said made a real difference. It became part of the conversation after Biden’s debate performance. But I really don’t think even the debate cost Biden the election. ("Do I contradict myself?/Very well, then, I contradict myself./I am vast, I contain multitudes.")  Debates never do, I’m convinced, especially after the lame ass campaign Trump ran (playing music at a rally for an hour? Rambling nonsensically and proving he didn't understand the first thing about the problems facing the country?) and his fraud and criminal convictions meant nothing to anybody (remember when that was going to stop him?), people just pretty much voted on “What the hell? Can’t be any worse…” And turned out the incumbent.

But the Clooney remark let the gossip flow. After all, criticism of Trump U.S. old news. It’s TDS, it’s baked into the pie, it honestly has no effect anymore. Jake Tapper isn’t readying his book on Trump’s “hidden” dementia. There’s no there, there. Old news. Dog bites man. Gossip needs something new to chew on. Somebody actually saying: “You know, Joe Biden’s not as young as he used to be,” is something new to chew on.

Part of the problem here is age. It’s a problem I saw with the churches, and now the churches are dying because the old people wouldn’t let the young people in. The two churches I pastored wouldn’t let me in. Most of the members were old enough to be my parents, and I was in my 40’s. My father was the same age when I was a child, and so were most of the people in our church, including the pastors. Even then the younger ones didn’t fare as well as the older ones did. When I returned, this time as a pastor offering to help them adapt and change, they didn’t want to much more than they did in my childhood. They wanted things to be like they were 40 years ago.

Not unlike, I have to say, Trump does today. 

And so their churches died, because the old people refused to let go or get out of the way. And, of course, they were that old and “in the way” simply because they were living longer. 

My parents left the town they grew up in and moved to a different one. The church they went to was mostly people their age. The few elderly were happy to let those young people do things “their way.” But they were a distinct minority. Most people didn’t make it to 70. My grandfathers were “old.” I am not perceived, by society or myself, as being nearly as old as they were then. By the time they were my age now, they were dead. My father outlived his parents and siblings by decades. He died shortly after his 90th birthday. He died of brain cancer, which was only diagnosed shortly before he died, though in retrospect it was clear the tumor had been there for years. Funny how often that happens.

But we dare not insult Trump by questioning his age or attributing any infirmity to it.  Or we just all know Trump is demented and delusional suffering serious physical and mental decline, and that's not "news" because the voters elected him anyway.  The same way they elected a convicted rapist and felon and fraud and the guy who bragged about grabbing women "by the pussy!".  You know, after all that, what difference does it make?

And then it's just a matter who who's winning the latest media-proclaimed horse race.  Well, that, and Jake Tapper's new book.

We need to have a conversation about the elderly.  Not to we can put them on ice floes (I think that's an urban legend, anyway), but so we can deal with the fact we have an aging population who needs to be cared for, but who also doesn't need to be in charge when there are clear signs of insufficiency.  Of course, that assumes we agree on what those "clear signs" are, but we have to start talking about it.  We are already dividing on political/regional lines (I really think that's just the consensus forged by Pearl Harbor and full mobilization for a war in two theaters is over and we're settling back to status quo ante), but we are also dividing along age lines.  Old people, who used to be a numerical minority anyway, were seldom as vital as they are now.  The change is good, but we aren't facing it squarely and deciding how to manage it.  I don't want to be shunted aside or mothballed because I'm entering my seventh decade; but neither do I think a "cognitive test" which only shows you can remember a few words is a satisfactory test of leadership.  Age does bring infirmities that can't be overcome with exercise and diet and regular checkups.

But neither is age alone (as once it was) grounds for dismissal.  We just need to learn how, as a society, as a country who elects its government officials, we are going to make better decisions and better assessments about the effects of age.

Because this is not a problem that's going away.
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I Was Joking...

 ...about Musk and Trump ganging up on the President of South Africa.  But the motherfucker did it:

The Art of the Diplomacy Deal Is there a video Trump could watch? Idiot-In-Chief. Get him to explain what "apartheid" was, and who whatever he's talking about is the opposite of that.  

In the meantimre, I'll take "Things That Haven't Happened" for $1000, Alex. Trump believes in videos, not government reports. And, of course, in "white genocide." Also, too, as well:

[Daniel] Dale [on CNN*] jumped in, explaining, "The last nine months of 2024 in South Africa: 19,696 murders. How many of them occurred on farms? 36."

"36 about 0.2 percent," he re-emphasized. "That includes employees like security staff, farm workers. How many of them were actual farmers? Seven out of more than 19,000 and it's not even clear that those are all white farmers. Contrary to what the president said, many farmers in South Africa are Black."

"Even the white ones who have been victims of crime, it's not clear, have been targeted for racial reasons," he elaborated. "Experts and white farmers themselves in South Africa have repeatedly told media outlets and think tanks that they feel they are often targeted for robbery and even attacks because they are geographically isolated and therefore vulnerable."
Rather ordinary rural crime, IOW. Too stupid to realize Ramaphosa just pantsed him on the world stage.


A picture is worth 1000 more words.  First, the Oval Office now looks like a movie set for a New Orleans whorehouse.  Second, what the hell is that model of a plane doing there?  It's gonna take more than the waters of two rivers to clean this pile of shit out.

*No word on whether Dale also worked in a reference to Jake Tapper's new book.  I think management is requiring everyone on air on CNN to do so at least every 10 minutes.
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Why The Courts Matter

Because this guy has no fucking clue what he's talking about: 

Kiley: Do you believe that someone who has entered the US illegally— that the due process requirements for that individual are the same as for a US citizen?

Crockett: Per the constitution, if you are on our soil, you are guaranteed due process. The fact that there is even a question is why we are struggling right now…

Kiley: That is simply untrue. The Supreme Court has made it very clear that due process is a context dependent inquiry 

Crockett: There was never a distinction that said somehow dependent on your status you somehow lose your access to due process. That is the only thing the Supreme Court has been consistent on..

Kiley: Due process is not just something that is the same in every context

Jayapal: I would like to submit for the record the constitution of the US…
But Stephen Miller thinks the Supreme Court ruled the exact opposite way that they did, so...you lose.  Kiley's run rings around you logically!
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Who You Gonna Believe?

And Elon Musk will be there. Maybe playing the role of JD Vance as Ramaphosa is treated like Zelensky?

Nah, probably not. South Africa wants to make a Starlink deal. I’m guessing as a way to grease the skids with the U.S. *


Or, you know: not.
You'll notice that each of the major dailies has now run a "Musk is pulling back" ... "Musk won't be spending more on campaigns" article in just the last few days. But look closer and US diplos keep working to rack up Starlink contracts for him overseas and more USG contracts keep piling up.

2/ Meanwhile Musk remains the enforcer behind DOGE. This is a good example of a crisis comms team at work.



*Yeah, seriously:
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“Old Times There Are Not Forgotten”

JD Vance goes back to his roots:
The Vice President later added, “I saw an interview with Chief Justice Roberts recently where he said the role of the court is to check the excesses of the executive. I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment.”

Vance added, “That’s one-half of his job. The other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for. That’s where we are right now.”
How about if the people voted for racism and a return to the pre-Civil Rights Act, pre-Fair Housing Act, pre-Brown v Board and desegregated military days, the days of racial covenants in deeds and “whites only” diners and water fountains and bathrooms?

The courts have declared racial discrimination a “pernicious category,” despite some of the actions of the Roberts Court. I’m pretty sure they taught that at Yale.  Would you expect the courts to slavishly follow the election results then? 

Because the xenophobia of this Administration is just another form of racism. It’s pretty clear your Administration doesn’t think it can send the black people “back home.” But they still have hope they can drive out all the brown people.

You really aren’t fit to be among civilized people, are you?
In the full podcast, the pair spoke on a wide range of topics including how his faith shapes his politics.
I don’t like to comment on another person’s faith, but you are really pushing me.
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Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Every Time You Think It Can’t Get Worse

🤬
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A Copy Of A Parody

He wants to take it to Florida with him. (He also doesn’t have the first clue what it says.) "What? Me worry?” Prosecutor, judge and jury all in one. So much simpler that way. Oh, you’re no fun anymore! Trump’s autopen.
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The Borowitz Report

Still trying to figure out what Biden’s cancer diagnosis has to do with anything.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a bombshell report that stirred controversy on Tuesday, a prominent conspiracy theorist claimed that Joe Biden concealed his health problems by making the American economy boom for four straight years.

“Biden thought he could hide his health issues by making the U.S. economy the envy of the world,” the conspiracist, Harland Dorrinson, said. “Low unemployment, a surging stock market, and a stable dollar all played their parts in the cover-up.”

Strengthening NATO and bolstering relationships with allies were also key components of Biden’s elaborate scheme to hide his health woes, Dorrinson said.

“Biden kept the media distracted by making the US trusted and respected around the world,” he said. “Trump would never do that.”
Who is he going to chastise for pointing out the Emperor has no clothes?

Now…
"No, and I understand your point there for certain," said Brown. "But now this information is coming out and there's a big question of when this started, right? We know it's an aggressive form that it spread to his bone. And so you just wait until someone who's like the president of the United States shows symptoms until you test them in a situation like this?"

"In older men, yeah ... this is the specific recommendation for this particular disease," said Reiner. "But one other point I do want to make ... I think this is really illustrative of what can happen when we elect very old people to office. When you're 80 years old, stuff happens. And it doesn't matter how you look one day, but 80-year-olds get heart attacks, and they get strokes, and they get prostate cancer. And it happens more frequently the older we get."

This, he added, is the reason "I've always felt super strongly about, when we're vetting candidates running for office, we should expect, as the voting public, the people who are putting these people in office, we should expect complete transparency. We should expect that the medications listed on these disclosures are the complete list, right? Not the partial list."
...do Trump. While it matters.*


*Although I think the election if Trump, again, proves nobody really cares. Campaigns don’t really matter. Most voters don’t pay attention, and vote for who they think they’re voting for. Medical reports won’t really change minds, unless the press decides there’s a book promotion in it. Otherwise it’s soon gone; and who’s going to release a book on the scandal in the middle of the scandal? What Tapper is doing now is creating that scandal in order to sell his book. He can control the narrative now, because he has an excuse to: he’s not making news, he’s peddling product.

See how easy it is? The market makes it alright. Even as it undoes our electoral process. The only time to talk about a President’s condition is when he’s safely out of office; and there’s a book in it. A “free press” doesn’t pay, after all. Writing a book is a meal ticket; and the only way to ride herd on the narrative.
I mean, honestly, who are these people talking to? Each other? At best it demands we recognize that old people are subject to rapid decline; and we need to recognize that Trump is old

If that’s what you call “soul-searching,” then we are speaking different languages.
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ICE Barbie Doesn’t Know What She’s Talking About

🎶Fun, fun, fun ‘til her Daddy takes the T-bird away!🎶
G: Would you consistently be using it for travel?

NOEM: I have no idea

G: We've seen the Instagram photos. Some really bad weapons handling.
Fuck people! ICE Barbie needs a new jet! Well, at least she’s completely ignorant. And the check is in the mail. And China will pay for the tariffs. Like when we stopped testing for Covid, the number of cases went down. Or when you lower taxes, tax revenues skyrocket. Or something.
RUBIO: Your regret for voting for me confirms I'm doing a good job
Little Marco thinks he has hair on his balls. He doesn’t. He’s just the same sad little man he’s always been.

And we close with Sen. Professor Warren doing her job:
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How To (NOT) Win Friends And Influence People

TRUMP: I don't think Thomas Massie understands government ... I think he should be voted out of office
"Let’s just assume that Trump is already completely mentally incapacitated.” Because that’s the discussion they’re trying desperately to avoid.
Trump "weaponization czar" Ed Martin: "Many many people in this country are victims of what I call hoaxes that capture our imagination. The unselect committee of Liz Cheney -- they spent hundreds of millions of dollars with earned media to condition people to think something about J6 that we know was not true. So we have to unpack that, unravel it ... we have to go faster ... and then still have the trials and prosecutions."
I really want to know what his legal theories are, because the man doesn’t talk like a lawyer. He talks like a gibbering loon. (The congressional members of that committee all enjoy constitutional immunity from precisely the kind of prosecution Martin is talking about.)
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But Joe Biden Is Old! 🤮

And lied about his cancer:
We're going to have a bill. The one big, beautiful bill. I think it's going to be, it's the biggest bill ever passed and we got to get it done. Tremendous tax cuts for people, tremendous incentives, tremendous regulation cuts, all these regulations that are so horrible," Trump said.

He then devolved into spewing theories about former President Biden and promising to investigate who signed legislation with the "autopen."

"And now you find out what happened. Because Biden — look, it's a very sad thing what happened," Trump said, presumably about Biden's recent stage-4 cancer revelation.

"But I really — we're going to start looking into this whole thing with who signed this legislation, who signed legislation opening our border. I don't think he knew! I said, there's nobody that could want an open border. Nobody. And now I find out that it wasn't him. He opened it. Who was operating the auto pen? This is a very serious thing. We had a president that didn't sign anything. He had almost everything. He opened the borders of the United States of America, and I kept saying, who would do such a thing? Allowing criminals to pour in from all over the world, not just South America — all over the world.

"They came in from Africa, they came in from Asia, they came from the Congo, the prisons in the Congo, in Africa. These are rough, rough people. The prisons from the Congo are empty. You know where they are? They're in this country. Who would sign this? Nobody would sign it. No sane person would sign it. You know who signed it? Radical left lunatics that were running our country and the autopen signed it.

"And they didn't want him," Trump said of Biden. "And they were disappointed in getting him because they wanted Bernie Sanders. And then after about two weeks, they said, 'Wait a minute, this is a gift. He'll do anything. We're going to use the autopen.' And they use the autopen and everything. He didn't approve this stuff because when Joe Biden was with it, he would never have approved that. You take a look. he would have never approved open borders."
And did Jake Tapper mention he has a book to sell?

I’m sure that’s all more important than reporting on this word vomit.🤮 

ADDING: Nope, no exaggeration. This is how CNN covered Trump’s spew:
"Remember, we had a majority of one for six months,” Trump said, “and that was a very frightening thing because the Democrats have really hurt our country, and we are going to go into this very much unified. Remember what I said, the auto pen, this government was illegally run for four years.”

Anchor Kate Bolduan summed up the almost 10-minute remarks by saying, “All right. So we've been listening to the president, his position, his messaging, going in. Kind of an exercise in manifestation, trying to say that the party is very unified.”

“Manu, you heard you were listening in. You heard the president as he's walking in. What is he heading into? He says the party's very unified," Bolduan said to correspondent Manu Raju, who was in Congress.

“Yeah. It's actually not very unified,” Raju said. “There's actually significant division, particularly between the more moderate members and the more conservative members, over some of the issues that Donald Trump just laid out there. One of which is the issue of Medicaid.”
Dare not tread on Tapper’s toes, eh? Or dare not mention the Emperor is a naked raving lunatic. Far safer to handicap the voting in a bill.

I’ll retire to Bedlam….
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“President Coolidge say ‘Little fat man, idn’t it a shame/what the river have done to this poor crackers’ land?’”

Silence sometimes speaks volumes:
What we need right now is federal assistance,” declared St. Louis, Missouri Mayor Cara Spencer on MSNBC( video below) on Monday, “we need federal assistance.”

“This is where FEMA and the federal government has got to come in and help communities,” Mayor Spencer urged. “Our city cannot shoulder this alone. The State of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone. We need partners at the national level, at the federal level to step up and help.

Spencer said, “This is what the federal government is for. We need your help, we need the help of the broader community.”

“FEMA has not been on the ground—we do not have confirmed assistance from FEMA at this point,” Spencer said. “I do want to say, however, every other level of government has been on the ground with us, helping in every capacity possible. But when you have a disaster of this scale, eight miles of just pure destruction, this tornado didn’t just touch down and leave, this tornado ripped through our community for a full eight miles in the city of St. Louis, and this is an area that has needed help, that we need investment, you know, our North St. Louis has been neglected for a long time, and we need the help of our partners here.”

At a news conference, Spencer had called it “one of the worst storms,” ABC News reported. She said that “the devastation is truly heartbreaking—and let’s not forget people have lost their lives. We are continuing to make sure that we are identifying all those that are injured, in addition to the massive amount of property damage that has taken a huge toll.”

Tornadoes were reported in three more states, bringing the total to six states and 26 tornadoes.

“Over 462,000 customers were without power across multiple states, stretching from Michigan to Tennessee.”
And yet Trump has said not a word.
As of publication time, NCRM was unable to find anything from President Donald Trump on his Truth Social page about the tornadoes’ death and destruction. It does not appear he has offered support or guidance, nor has he suggested he will visit the areas.
I’m sure there are ideological reasons to defund FEMA, but I think Trump has personal ones, too. He doesn’t like disaster areas. They bore him, and he gets criticized for entertaining himself by throwing paper towels. So he doesn’t want to go. And without FEMA, there’s less attention paid to disasters, especially only a few days later.

So for Trump it’s a win-win. He can go pat himself on the back at the Kennedy Center, and Kristi Noem can, well…
This morning, I spoke with Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to offer federal resources and action for the deadly tornadoes and storms impacting Missouri, Kentucky, and Illinois. We discussed how while emergency management is best led by local authorities, we reinforced that DHS stands ready to take immediate action to offer resources and support.

I also left a message with Indiana Governor Mike Braun as Indiana has been impacted by these storms.
...yeah, do that. After all, who wants to cosplay a recovery worker?
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Media Whores Redefined

A) I had no idea it was this bad.

B) I’ve never felt better about cutting cable so many years ago. Ted Turner thought he had a good idea, setting up a 24 hour news channel. How very, very wrong he was.
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Pardon Me?

 Let’s start here:

...Naomi Biden after reading Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book about her grandfather: “Just read a copy of this silly book, and if anyone is curious for a review from someone who lived it first-hand: this book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class. The ones who rarely enter the arena, but profit from the spectacle of those that do. Put simply, it amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck. It relies on unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare. All of this at the expense of a man so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand the why or how of it all.”
I don’t quote that as the last word on Tapper’s book. I’d expect no less from a loving grandchild, though it certainly resonates with my impression of Biden’s character (and I wasn’t a fan when he was in the Judiciary Committee approving Thomas). I bring it up because it neatly questions Tapper’s book, which leads into this:
… Trump’s new DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin says the stuff in the Tapper book may be used by him to try to nullify Biden’s pardons: “The integrity of the American Pardon system requires that we examine the Biden pardons and who did what. We will get the bottom of it. Count on us.”
Again, outside the 25th Amendment, there isn’t the hint of a “diminished capacity” clause, else we could look forward to rescinding all of Trump’s J6 pardons (which don’t seem to have upset the public nearly as much as DOGE or tariffs;,sadly). Bill Clinton was accused of basically “selling” pardons, but nothing ever came of it. His pardons stood, they were never actually challenged. Because they can’t be. The pardon power is virtually absolute and unreviewable. As I’ve said, Poppy Bush pardoned himself by eliminating the charges against all the Iran/Contra defendants before the public investigation could get to him. Before Trump, that was about the most corrupt use of the power I know of. And yet now, it’s barely a footnote in popular history.

I mention Tapper’s book because that’s clearly where Martin is getting his ideas. Not from any information gathered by a legally valid investigative process,  but from gossip. Not that Martin is going to go to court, but he’s not even making a pretense of doing a lawyer’s work. Naomi Biden raises real questions about the validity of Tapper’s book. Martin treats that same book as gospel, just to score political points for his boss. He has no real legal purpose. He’s just being a shill.

The more legitimate question here is the wisdom of the pardons clause. Texas and most Reconstruction states gave the governor the pardon power, but set up a state board with final approval. In Texas, unfortunately, that Board is appointed by the Governor, and Abbott has used that power the way you’d expect Trump to. But the basic idea is sound because, at least since Ford pardoned Nixon, the power has not been wielded entirely wisely.

And a Pardon Attorney in this administration is a cruel joke anyway. Especially one as corruptly political as Ed Martin.
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Monday, May 19, 2025

We Are Being Protected From Evil By Kindergartners

She finally watched the video?
But, you know, just keep on keepin’ on. Gotta get those pharmacy factories back! Says the man with a drinking problem. (And Biden is not the President, and never will be again, so WHO THE FUCK CARES?) There’s that, too.
I mean, he’s not a knife. He doesn’t get sharpened by age. But Joe Biden is old, and nobody knows how long he’s had cancer, and Jake Tapper has a book to sell! Priorities, people!

Speaking of which: 
This reminds me of lawyers who didn’t work on the trial critiquing how it was conducted based on news reports. Every good lawyer knows you don’t know enough about the details of the case your own firm members are working on. Without reviewing Biden’s medical records, you don’t know shit about his condition.

Conduct yourself accordingly. And start with not being a media whore.
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And Trump Is 6’3” And Weighs 230 lbs

Trump: I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that it wasn’t—you know—the public wasn’t notified a long time ago, because to get to stage 9, that’s a long time. I just had my physical. You saw that. You saw the results of that particular test. I think that test is standard to pretty much anybody getting a physical—a good physical. We had the doctors at the White House and over at Walter Reed, which is a fantastic hospital, do it. I did a very complete physical, including a cognitive test. I’m proud to announce I aced it. I got them all right. You proud of me? Your husband would be proud of me for getting them all right. It’s a little risk. If I didn’t get them all right, these people would be after me. It would be not a good situation.

But I think, frankly, anybody running for president should take a cognitive test. They say it’s unconstitutional, but I would say in that particular case, having a cognitive test wouldn’t be so bad.

But when you take tests—medical, as a male—that test is very standard. I don’t know if it’s given to everybody, but it’s given just about. And it takes a long time to get to that situation… to get to a stage 9. I think that if you take a look, it’s the same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine, there was nothing wrong with him. If it’s the same doctor, he said there was nothing wrong there. That’s been proven to be a sad situation.

And the autopen is becoming a very big deal. You know, the autopen is becoming a big deal because it seems that maybe it was the president—whoever operated the autopen. But when they say that was not good, they also—you have to look and you have to say that the test was not so good either. In other words, there are things going on that the public wasn’t informed [about], and I think somebody is going to have to speak to his doctor—if it’s the same or even if it’s two separate doctors.

Why wasn’t the cognitive ability—why wasn’t that discussed? And I think the doctor said he’s just fine, and it’s turned out that’s not so. It’s very dangerous… this is dangerous for our country. Look at the mess we are in.

You talk about all these questions on Ukraine and Russia. That would’ve never happened, as an example, if I were president. It would’ve never happened. The other thing—you have to say: Why did it take so long? I mean, this takes a long time. It can take years to get to this level of danger. It’s a very, very sad situation. I feel very badly about it. And I think people should try and find out what happened.

Because I’ll tell you, I don’t know if it had anything to do with the hospital. Walter Reed is really good. They’re some of the best doctors I’ve ever seen. I don’t even know if they were involved. But a doctor was involved in each case. Maybe it was the same doctor. And somebody is not telling the facts. That’s a big problem.
$20 bucks says he doesn’t even know the initials of the test for signs of prostate cancer.

$100 says he doesn’t even know what “stage 9” means. (Mostly because Biden has stage 4 cancer.)

No signs of cognitive impairment here, wandering from Biden’s diagnosis to Athens to Ukraine/Russia which now he can’t solve before he takes office ;all Biden’s fault) to an inadvertent admission: 
And somebody is not telling the facts. That’s a big problem.
No shit, senile Sherlock.

BTW, if a “cognitive test” is unconstitutional, why has Trump had several of them? 

Looney as a clockwork orange.
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It’s A Slow Day…

 So…

MAGA supporters lit up social media with calls for Jackson to be ousted from the court. Many argued that Biden lacked proper mental capacity to appoint her to the court in 2022.

Ketanji Brown Jackson should be removed from the Supreme Court… She was a DEI appointee by an invalid who had no idea what he was doing," wrote MAGA commentator Gunther Eagleman to his 1.5 million followers.

Eric Daugherty with FloridaVoice News posted, "Kentanji Brown Jackson was the ONLY Supreme Court Justice to rule against Trump in today's alien parole decision, which was 8-UNQUALIFIED! She proves it every time."

Author Juanita Broaddrick wrote, "Ketanji Brown is not a legitimate Supreme Court Justice. She should be removed," while right-wing podcaster Jack Posobiec offered his thoughts on the matter:

"I will ask this again: Was Ketanji Brown Jackson a legally-nominated Supreme Court Justice if the person who appointed her lacked capacity? Only a President can sign a commission officially nominating a Supreme Court Justice Not a staffer, not an autopen, a president with full mental capacity."

Former West Virginia House member Derrick Evans called on Congress to "Impeach Kentanji Brown Jackson. Biden was not mentally capable of appointing her to the position. She needs to be removed from the Supreme Court." While MAGA commentator Ian Jaeger commentator told his 300,000 followers, "Kentanji Brown Jackson is the only Justice to rule against President Trump canceling legal status for over 500,000 illegal immigrants that came in under President Biden’s 'parole' program. She’s totally unqualified to serve on the Supreme Court."
Art. II. Sec. 2, clause 2, in relevant part:
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law:
The appointments clause is not absolute, of course. Appointments are only made with the consent of the Senate.  Who’s is why, although "diminished capacity" is a statutory concept now, it’s not a Constitutional one.

The idea arose from the common law. I’m fairly certain it first came up in probate, as a matter of determining testamentary intent. It came to criminal law in the 19th century, in the M’Naghten case, where the defendant believed he was killing a man who threatened his life, but he was deluded about the threat (paranoid delusions would be the pop psy explanation, if that helps. The delusion was quite severe, IOW.) To be clear, the probate elements were established centuries before the rule in M’Naghten.

But in modern American jurisprudence diminished capacity is limited to the probate code or family law (minors do not have the capacity at law to make contracts, for example); to statutory exceptions, in other words, which must be proven in court.

A long-winded way of saying there is no “diminished capacity” clause in Article. II, nor any standard for establishing it in the Constitution. The closest is the 25th amendment:
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
That’s section 3. Section 4 is the one most people think of:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
The standard is the same, but you can see the battle royale that would ensue to enforce it. Because it ain’t real clear what it means.

And the public record against Biden is pretty much George Clooney and a bad debate performance. Whereas the public record on Trump is…voluminous.

But the bottom line is, there is no language in the constitution, nor theory in Constitutional law, that allows for rescission of lawful Presidential actions based on a claim (or even evidence in court) of diminished capacity.

And even the Roberts court would never establish it.
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Math Is Hard!

Arbeit Macht Frei. Or not.
HASSETT: No. There have been a whole bunch of deals. So you don't think the deal with China counts as a deal? We have an agreement in principle with India
So, “two” is a “bunch.” And one more is a concept. But one was mostly about Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles. And the one with China is only good for 90 days. And nobody’s ordering because it could be 90 days before they take delivery, who knows what the tariffs will be then?

And two is still not 15. Or 150. Or 200. Or whatever the moving target is.

Math is hard.
See? Math is hard. Reading is hard.
HASSETT: What's going to happen is there's going to be a lot of trade deals ... all of America knows that the golden age is coming.*
And Santa Claus is real!

*But it’s sure coming slow. Meanwhile, wish in one hand, and piss in the other! And see which one fills up faster! This advice brought to you by the Trump Administration II: Electric Boogaloo!
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There’s A Reason People Are Cutting The Cord

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A Cup Of Water


 

Matthew 25:31-46 (SV)

"When the Son of Adam comes in his glory, accompanied by all his messengers, then he will occupy his glorious throne. Then all peoples will be assembled before him, and he will separate them into groups, much as a shepherd segregates sheep from goats. He'll place the sheep to his right and the goats to his left. Then the king will say to those at his right, 'Come, you who have the blessing of my Father, inherit the domain prepared for you from the foundations of the world. You may remember, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a foreigner and you showed me hospitality; I was naked and you clothed me; I was ill and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to see me.' Then the virtuous will say to him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and fed you or thirsty and gave you drink? When did we notice that you were a foreigner and extend hospitality to you? Or naked and clothe you? When did we find you ill or in prison and come to visit you?

And the king will respond to them, 'I swear to you, whatever you did for the most inconspicuous members of my family, you did for me as well.'

Next, he will say to those on his left, 'You, condemned to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his messengers, get away from me! You too may remember, I was hungry and you didn't give me amything to eat; I was thirsty and you refused me a drink; I was a foreigner and you failed to extend hospitality to me; naked and you didn't clothe me; ill and in prison and you didn't visit me.'

Then they will give him a similar reply: 'Lord, when did we notice that you were hungry or thirsty or a foreigner or naked or weak or in prison, and did not attempt to help you?'

He will then respond: 'I swear to you, whever you didn't do for the most inconspicuous members of my family, you didn't do for me.'

The second group will then head for everlasting punishment, but the virtuous for everlasting life.

Whenever I preached on this passage I emphasized that this parable was about how easy it is to be among the virtuous. All you have to do is give someone some clothes; a cup of water; help the foreigner or visit prisoners.*

We all know nursing homes can be bad places if no one is visiting frequently. But prisons? Well, we figure they deserve it, right? What would happen if we paid attention?


*Or maybe just support prison programs. I watched a 30 minute Netflix documentary on a program in a Missouri maximum security prison. A small group of prisoners there make quilts from donated fabrics, which are then given to foster children in the area. It is as decent, humane, and heartwarming as you can imagine. These men take great pride in their work, each designing a quilt themselves and making sure it is done right before they let it go. As I said, the fabrics they use are donated. There are probably opportunities like that around you, if you just look for them. Consider it a cup of water.
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