Thursday, June 19, 2025

Not Reassuring

In his head? He’s waiting for the voices to tell him what to do. Congress will be informed via social media, like the rest of us. Which he has been trying desperately to reinstate. Because he’s a deal maker…or something. 🤷🏻‍♂️   Which got nowhere, but hey. Or the situations he created, like canceling international agreements because: Obama cooties. What’s meritocratic about Juneteenth, anyway, amirite? Cold comfort for the rest of us.
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Remain Calm! All Is Well!!

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Trump was thinking of Wonder Woman’s invisible jet.
I’m not really sure I do know better, though. Freud was right. (It’s a fucking Doonesbury cartoon, too.) "Legal" criminals are fine? I know, small beer; but fucking hell, these people are too stupid to know how to wipe their own asses.

Cheap Bastard in Chief (and several of his personal lawyers now work for DOJ):
A panel of judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied Trump's request to have Justice Department lawyers argue in his appeal of columnist E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against Trump.

...

DOJ lawyers had argued that since some of Trump's alleged conduct fell within the scope of his role as president, the Justice Department should be able to defend the president in court.

"Substitution is required because once the Attorney General certifies that a defendant is acting within the scope of his office or employment, the United States is the party defendant unless and until a court rules to the contrary," they argued.
Or maybe Trump thinks immunity means he gets free legal services, too. Anyway, the court ruled to the contrary.

And a closing thought:
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Juneteenth Is A Dark Day

 …for Donald Trump and Stephen Miller:

Politics editor Andrew Perez obtained an email from Hegseth's office that "requested 'a passive approach to Juneteenth messaging' for the holiday on Thursday commemorating the end of slavery."

The email was sent by "the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs, which said it wasn’t planning to publish Juneteenth-related content online," Perez wrote.

The date June 19th was declared a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021 after a bill unanimously passed the Senate and received "broad bipartisan support" in the House. It commemorates the day at the end of the Civil War in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were told that slavery had been abolished throughout the United States.

Dwayne E. Campbell with the African American Veterans Liaison, explained the significance of Juneteenth for Black veterans like himself in an article for VA News, "an official website of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs."

"Juneteenth is not just a day of celebration—it’s a day to remember the price of freedom and the ongoing work needed to preserve it," Campbell wrote. "For Black Veterans, it is a moment to reflect on the sacrifices of those who paved the way, recognizing that military service has always been at the tip of the spear."

He added that "Black Veterans, past and present" stand as a "testament to the resilience of a people who fought for their country even when their country did not fully fight for them."
But what’s meritocratic in reminding white people of that?
When Rolling Stone asked the Pentagon for comment on Juneteenth, the outlet was told that the DOD “may engage in the following activities, subject to applicable department guidance: holiday celebrations that build camaraderie and esprit de corps; outreach events (e.g., recruiting engagements with all-male, all-female, or minority-serving academic institutions) where doing so directly supports DoD’s mission; and recognition of historical events and notable figures where such recognition informs strategic thinking, reinforces our unity, and promotes meritocracy and accountability.”

Since taking office, President Trump has vowed to replace diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives with "merit-based" programs.
So the message is, slaves didn’t win their freedom based on merit?  Well, at least they’re clear about it.

And “merit based” means “white people deserve it, non-white people are just lucky to be here/shut up and play (or sing) to entertain the white people.”
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Does He Know What “Money Laundering” Is?

Because I don’t think he does. Neither does the “solution” he is backing do anything to help rural hospitals. Pretty sure it was the American backed regime change that put the Shah on the Peacock Throne, which ended with the regime change Sen. Tillis now wants U.S. soldiers to change again. And the music goes ‘round and ‘round…🎶 Giving Elmo another excuse to babble about “human consciousness” being “interplanetary,” thus mixing bad ‘70’s mystic babble with unscientific ‘50’s science fiction. First, outside of Mars, which we can’t inhabit, what planets do we go to? The gas giants? The frozen trans-Neptunian rocks? The burning clouds of Venus? 

We don’t have “warp drive.” “Class M planets” are not a scientific designation (or a reality). We are creatures of a specific biosphere and ecosystem, and unless those conditions are reproduced exactly somewhere within reach (and there ain’t no other such place in this solar system, which our reach doesn’t exceed yet), forget this “we shit the bed, time to move on,” ignorant claptrap.

If human consciousness disappears, it disappears. But it won’t be because we didn’t colonize Mars. Although human consciousness probably would improve if we sent Elmo to Mars. 🤔

(Elmo also excuses his failures as being part of the “learning process.” If NASA had taken this long to learn, Alan Shepard would have died an old man without ever making a suborbital flight in a space capsule. It reminds me Tesla is the most over-capitalized company on the planet, and with all that money they’re still making crappy cars, a truck nobody wants, and a self-driving taxi even the state of Texas doesn’t want on the streets. Why do people keep throwing money at this boob?)
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The Elephant 🐘 In The Room

Seeing what is right in front of your nose:
"If you’re looking for the definition of ‘self-fulling prophesy,’ look no further than Trump’s stream of policies that intentionally take legal status away from people so they go from being documented, to undocumented and then are fair game for being deported,” said Angela Kelley, an adviser at the American Immigration Law Center and a former senior adviser on immigration for the Department of Homeland Security.
The entire point of Miller's effort.
Trump pledged to target criminals, but immigration advocates say he has de-legalized many immigrants who had been authorized to live and work in the U.S. “What happened to his promise of targeting criminals?" Kelley said. "He’s had to create larger numbers of targets and even then, the folks aren’t criminals, because they’re here legally."
But they're still immigrants. Which is the point.
Critics say the administration has not expanded the number of visas or provided other pathways to legally bring workers into the country or legalize individuals who've spent years trying to improve their immigration status, which business and agriculture leaders say is necessary to maintain a viable workforce.

“We’ve just seen no effort to improve legal pathways and, if anything, things have gotten worse,” said Stuart Anderson, executive director for the National Foundation for American Policy.
Gee, why is that?
The administration wants to take away citizenship from people who don't have at least parent who's a U.S. citizen or legal resident, which would significantly enlarge the number of unauthorized people who could then potentially be deported, and they have challenged previous policies that allow migrants to legally be in this country.

“Now they are having the rug violently pulled out from under them,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director and founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance.
Even children of immigrants are immigrants. It’s the “one drop rule,” all over again. When you start to see that, you start to see what’s going on.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Is She Talking To Ted Cruz?

Or to the people who agree with Ted Cruz?
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Is He Really This Stupid?

We tried that, Smokey Bear. Turns out forests and grasslands west of the Rockies need fire to sustain their ecosystems. That’s why we control the burns now. You could have stopped it before it started, right?  And won the first Nobel prize 40 years before the first one was awarded. It’s all fun and games until the body bags come home.
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Biblical Witless

I don’t care about Tucker pantsing Cruz over the question of how many people live in Iran. This exchange shows Cruz to be the child of his father, and that makes him a bull goose looney.

I honestly don’t how Cruz connects Christian obligations to support for the “nation” of Israel,  That’s not Christian doctrine at all, that I’ve ever heard of. It became an idea among extreme right-wing Christian sects long after 1948, mostly as a part of eschatological ranting about “end times.”  People obsessed with that idea tend to either want to be “prophetic” (not the correct understanding of that term in Biblical history), or to hasten the “end.” As for “nation of Israel” meaning the “political nation state,” that concept didn’t exist before the 19th century (or at least wasn’t widely accepted before then). And it is a European concept, not a Middle Eastern one. It simply couldn’t be the correct interpretation of the Masoretic text.

Let me shorten this with the Shama: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One.” If you’re wondering about that phrasing, it’s because there are layers of history in the Torah, and one of them is the Jahwist (earliest layer), another the Elohist (later than Jahwist). The names refer to words used to identity God: “Jahweh” in the former, “elihu” in the latter. The standard English translation is “God” in the first case, “Lord” in the second. So, “Elihu is Jahweh,” and Jahweh is one (a statement of radical monotheism).

Which is beside the point, actually. I cite the Shama because “Israel” there refers to the children of Abraham, the people of the covenant. Biblically (v. politically), the word always refers to the people. Not the kingdom (when there was one), but the people. The kingdom of Israel was in fact a brief period in history. The children of Abraham consider themselves “Israel” because God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. It was after Jacob wrestled with an angel and was named “Israel,” and after Joseph brought the Hebrews to safety in Egypt, and after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, and after the decades in the wilderness, and after the time of the Judges, that Israel finally became a kingdom. Which didn’t last long, and Israel wasn’t a political state (like a kingdom, for example), until 1948. And “Israel” was always understood to be the people of the covenant, the children of Abraham. They were Israel with, or without, a king, or judges, or a state. How else can Israel hear, except with the ears of the people? Who else is the Shama addressed to, except the people?

I’m not saying the Biblical history I referenced is solidly historical, but the fall of the two kingdoms (Israel and Judah) is history, as is the establishment of a “nation of Israel” in 1948.  Nothing Ted Cruz said lines up with that reality in the least.

And then there’s the point Tucker Carlson implicitly makes. Who is Cruz to decide for this republic why we go to war? Especially when his decision is based on misunderstanding history, theology, and the Biblical witness. Cruz doesn’t make an argument, he asserts an ideological conclusion, one impervious to reason or argument. Carlson claims to be a Christian. What authority does Cruz have to impose his biblical interpretation on Carlson, or the rest of the nation? Some of us are Christians, some of us are not. I, for one, don’t think my Christianity empowers me to decide public policy, especially to settle questions of whom we go to war with, and why. I mean, religious beliefs can inform an individual’s decision making; but what Cruz says here is some weak ass shit which he asserts as unassailable authority. It may be for him; it cannot be for the nation. There’s a very serious ethical question here.

Not that Ted Cruz bothers himself much with ethical issues. Worse, this decision doesn’t just affect this country:
1. BREAKING via the Financial Times

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put his cabinet on alert for a possible US attack on Iran, just 24 hours after insisting Donald Trump had given no indication he was about to “get involved in this conflict”.
Cruz is not any dreamier or simple minded than this:
The only difference is, Cruz is a U.S. Senator. Which makes him more dangerous.
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Don't Blame Me, I Was Watching The New Wes Anderson Movie

Guess who?
We're doing well as a country. If the Fed would ever lower rates, you know, we'd buy debt for a lot less," Trump said as the workers looked on.
And then we could "afford" tax cuts for the 1%?
"It's a shame, this guy. I have a guy. Do you ever have a guy that's not a smart person and you're dealing with him and you have to deal?" Trump asked the workers.
That's an oddly familiar acenario.
"He's not a smart guy. He's worried about inflation. I said, 'That's all right, if there's inflation in six months or nine months, you lower the rates or you raise the rates. You can do whatever you want'...So let's say there's rampant inflation, which there's none. You know what? There is a success. I got a call from Congress last night: 'Sir, there's a problem.' I said, 'What is it?' 'Money is pouring in. We don't know how to account for it.' I said, 'Check the tariffs.' $88 billion came in from tariffs. No inflation. And it's going to get even more. So, I know what I'm doing. So, we have a stupid person frankly at the Fed."

"He probably won't cut today. Europe had 10 cuts and we had none. And I guess he's a political guy. I don't know. He's a political guy who's not a smart person, but he's costing the country a fortune. So, what I'm going to do is, you know, he gets out in about nine months. He has to. He gets fortunately terminated."

Trump then claimed people are losing "hundreds of billions" and "even trillions of dollars," because Powell is "too late" cutting interest rates.

"I call him 'Too Late Powell,' because he's always too late. I mean, if you look at him, every time I did this, I was right 100%. He was wrong. Maybe I should go to the Fed. Am I allowed to appoint myself? I don't know. Am I allowed to appoint myself at the Fed? I'd do a much better job than these people."
Who is going to explain to him that the Fed is not a sole proprietorship, and Powell does not set interest rates by fiat? And Trump appointing himself to chair the Fed? Even Lindsay Graham wouldn’t lapdog that one.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2025

It Can Be Hard To Know Who To Trust

Huh.
Lander tells supporters gathered in Foley Square that the ICE agents who detained him today are among the 40% of 8+ million NYers who are foreign-born

“One of whom is a Pakistani Muslim who lives in Brighton Beach — and the other, an Indo-Guyanese guy in South Ozone Park”
Has Stephen Miller tried to “re-migrate” them yet? What is he waiting for? I am left wondering who was going to enforce those reforms. 🤔
"Conan, what is best in life?”

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."
Fuck it, we’ll just send in Arnold Schwarzenegger. Can we get 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Fox News host Will Cain: "The 'No Secret Police Act' would ban local, state, and federal law enforcement from covering their faces when interacting with the public. Officers would also have to wear identifying information on them, like name tags. Hard to believe this is real!"
Much harder to believe you are sentient.

Census data says Los Angeles has 4 million total residents. A birther crypto scammer convicted of 34 felony fraud charges says the city harbors "Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens." For busy voters, it can be hard to know who to trust.
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⚛️

because there is opposition on both the Republican and Democratic side to the United States getting dragged into another potentially disastrous conflict in the Middle East.
I like the sentiment, but the only recourse Congress has is impeachment. You can’t imagine the courts will intervene. Boy, does he... Mark Levin has views. It could be worse. He could be Clay Travis. And now for something completely different.
I'm with Maga on this
Netanyahu needs this war. Not for Israel. For his control on power. IMHO. Why do you think Bibi did it this time?
Appearing on The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday, Haberman responded to new comments from Trump in which he contradicts testimony his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, delivered in March.

"I don't care what she said," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "I think they were very close to having one,” he said about the possibility that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.

Haberman was taken aback by the apparent split between the president and his spy chief.

“What I was struck by – you know, he was publicly dismissive. That just is what it is,” the Times reporter said Tuesday. “But what I was also struck by is he was saying, ‘This is what I think.’ You know, you asked him about his opinion. He made very clear his opinion. I was struck by that.”

Haberman also referenced her reporting with other Times journalists, telling Collins that “contrary to what the Israelis were saying, there was not some new piece of information that appeared to point to some acceleration, at least, that the U.S. intelligence officials were aware of.”
Bibi knew how to play Trump.
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Because That Worked So Well In…

Vietnam; and Iran; and Afghanistan. And frankly, it’s worked out so well for Israel in what used to be British Palestine.

It’s just a matter of “shock and awe,” isn’t it? Or just dropping a few bombs?💣 

Really, how hard can it be?
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Please Explain This Slowly, As If I Wasn’t A Kid…

/2 I stood there with half an eyebrow and was sullen. Why, I demanded to God, is there not some kind of pop-up screen where I get asked if I really want to shave off my eyebrow Y/N? Why is there no guardrail? But Guardrails are ineffective against human indifference, incompetence, or evil.
...who came home from 4th grade in November, 1963 to see my mother weeping because the President had been shot to death in the streets of Dallas, a city where I was born and we’d moved away from only 3 years earlier (and where most of my mother’s family still lived)…
3 What we’re seeing with the accelerating collapse of America is that the things we see as guardrails are not self-enforcing — they rely on norms and values and when those norms and values are ignored or defied the guardrails no longer work.
...who watched black Americans peacefully march for civil rights, being attacked by dogs and water cannon on TV; who entered “Robert E.Lee” high school the year the school district was forced to integrate, and did so by closing the black schools (because no white parent was going to tolerate their children being forced to attend those schools), and people cheering the symbols of the Civil War as.a weapon against the black students (the Confederate battle flag, the “Rebels” as the school mascot, the whole nine yards…)

Hell, I’ll diverge right here because the city was Tyler, established shortly after the Republic became a state, named to honor the President who pressed for the Republic’s acceptance into the Union, because he wanted another slave holding state, and Texas obliged. The first high school in the town was also named for him, so if you were black and forced into either school, you weren’t escaping the honoring of the legacy of American slavery. But I guess those “norms and values” worked to keep up the guardrails, huh? For white people, anyway.
/4 There is no Do You Want Society To Collapse Y/N prompt. There is no American ur-adult to step in and stop things from going to far. There ain’t to deus in this machina. If we are led by ineffectual, craven, dishonest, or evil people, all the bad things can absolutely happen ……
You mean like in 1968, when MLK was assassinated in broad daylight? Or 2 days after Kennedy’s death, when Oswald was shot to death while in police custody, live on TV? Or when RFK was assassinated, in ‘68? The same year Daley released his police thugs on protesters at the Democratic convention in Chicago? Or Nixon meeting with the North Vietnamese that year in secret to be sure there would be no peace agreement before the ‘68 election because he had a “secret plan to end the war”? The war that led people to flee to Canada to avoid the draft (or college; neither escape was really available to the working class kids who were fodder for that meat grinder. Right, Donald Trump?) A war Nixon kept going in ‘72 so he could get re-elected? (If you need the history lesson, the war officially ended in 1973. Coincidence? I think not. Watergate really was a trifling matter, in the rear view mirror). “…all the bad things can absolutely happen”? Really? No shit? What was your first fucking clue? A nation based in chattel slavery, maybe? And that slavery enshrined in the constitution as the only way to establish the nation?
/5….because the things we thought of as stable guardrails relied on the people running them adhering to a shared set of values. No values, no guardrails.
I really want to know, Pollyanna, who these people are, and who the man behind the curtain is, because in my 70 years I have yet to see a set of values shared by the country, except the value of keeping your foot firmly planted in someone else’s neck, and resolutely ignoring the fact that foot is your foot. The “shared set of values” was always “the status quo serves me and mine, and nobody better mess with it.” The ones who did were either murdered; shunted aside; eventually overruled or just discarded as no longer needed (how much of the 15th amendment is still needed, and how much of it is more honored in the breach than in the keeping? More relevant to your point, how long did it take for enabling legislation to begin to implement the 15th, and how long did that legislation last before it was effectively discarded? You can’t blame that solely on a few recent Justices.)

“No values, no guardrails”? Shit, son, that’s as American as violence and cherry pie. Ask anyone in American history who wasn’t white or just poor.  The Reconstruction amendments didn’t do a damned thing to stop Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Chattel slavery was simply traded for wage slavery and perfectly legal discrimination, and the iron wheels rolled on. As Stephen Miller thinks they should today.

In some ways I must confess, I think he has a less naive and navel gazing sense of history. He’s certainly less disappointed with reality.
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Facts Are Stupid Things

And I’m beginning to suspect a pattern. Except Mike Lindell didn’t make that his defense (that he was right), and he lost anyway. (Truth is an absolute defense to libel, but Lindell couldn’t prove his claims were true. He could yell it all he wanted; but wasn’t allowed to do that because he couldn’t present any evidence to prove it.)

So I think the pattern is Trump’s non-lawyer idea of fraud: that it undoes everything. That doesn’t work to undo elections or what Biden did as President (“AUTOPEN!!!”), or anything Trump wants to attack. But he wants desperately for everything he ever did to be “right,” which can only mean his opponents were WRONG! And the best way to prove that is to declare “FRAUD”, sweep the board if inconvenient history, and declare Trump Winner Forever No Take Backs!

"We're the first ones that went all the way to jury trial," he said of 2020 election fraud cases. "And we won. It was unanimous all the way, every single thing that they, when they brought up MyPillow, 100% victory. Now, the media is coming out and saying, well, you owe all this. Mike Lindell, you owe all this. Well, that's what appeals are for, Steve."

"But hang on a second," Bannon interrupted. "Appeals are only on points of law. What specifically in points of law are your attorneys involved — pointing to that because appeals almost, it almost never gets appealed, overturned at an appellate level."

"There was so many things they didn't let in that I wanted to bring in that my lawyers wanted to bring in," Lindell replied. "So I think that might be some of the things, because every time that happened, I'd go into kind of a panic, and they're going, Mike, this is all, if they do this, and it comes out, this is all part of the appeal process."

"It's the first victory involving his 2020 election," he insisted. "And I'm going to tell you, Steve, while it was there, you know, this all came out of Colorado media where it's going all over the country that, you know, Mike Lindell lost and all this rubbish."

"I feel very much that it was a great victory for us in our country."
Weirdest use of the term “victory” I’ve ever seen.

Gotta say, he’s expecting a lot more from the appeals process than he’s ever gonna get. His lawyers kept a lot of his wack-a-loon out, because they knew the judge would NEVER let it in, and that would hurt them with the jury (because it was NOT evidence). You can’t appeal for what you didn’t ask for at trial. And since he had no evidence, the appeals court would never order a new trial on those grounds, anyway.

Anyway, this recitation of an election now five years gone is not going to distract people from masked ICE agents kidnapping people off the streets and disappearing them.
Context note: DOJ doesn’t turn over evidence to Congress if they have a viable investigation in the works.
N.B. “Alarming allegations” are not evidence, either. They don’t want to take any if this to court. They just want to scream and shout and flap their arms.

I know we’re supposed to be “very afraid” of this stuff. 🙀 But it’s not really flying clear of the internet or FoxNews, whereas the DOJ demanding Colorado turn over 5 years of election data (the statutory requirement is to maintain 22 months of federal election data)* for what is clearly a fishing expedition, not even an investigation into a particular claim. (If Colorado says “I don’t think so,” the DOJ is gonna have fun in court. Well, until they tell Alito and Thomas it’s all about Trump’s double secret unitary executive powers…), really deserves more of our attention. I doubt it will ever get there, though. None of this is meant for court. But some of it is a more serious abuse of power, than the rest of it.

Watch the donut, 🍩 not the hole.🕳️ 


*Can you say “Tina Peters”? I thought you could.
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As Directed By Acting President Stephen Miller

 I’ve seen this movie:

Last week, the Secretary of Defense authorized the mobilization of up to 700 DoD military personnel in support of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

These service members, drawn from all components and operating in a Title 10 duty status, will provide logistical support, and conduct administrative and clerical functions associated with the processing of illegal aliens at ICE detention facilities. They will not directly participate in law enforcement activities.
I know how it turns out.

Abbott sent NG troops to the Texas border years ago. I think some of them are still there. Many got do bored (they had essentially nothing to do with), they went home (AWOL) or attempted suicide.

I don’t expect active duty personnel to do that. But I don’t expect to have a lot to do. I do expect they have military jobs they need to be doing. So it’s a lose-lose all around. 
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MORE COPIUM!!!

We pause for a commercial break as Jake Tapper pleads with you to please buy his book: Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
Eric Trump: My father has always been very direct: I don't want to go to war… but we are going to have the greatest and strongest military on Earth and if we ever have to use it we are going to knock the hell out of them.. My father is a man of his word
🌮
“Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” Trump told him. “For those people who say they want peace — you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon — that’s not peace.”
Ummm...
The term was coined by President Woodrow Wilson in his 1916 campaign that pledged to keep America neutral in World War I. A more non-interventionist approach gained prominence in the interwar period (1918–1939); it was also advocated by the America First Committee, a non-interventionist pressure group against U.S. entry into World War II.
Donald Trump is large and in charge! Or… not:
“You know, the measure of a politician is how well he can get contradictory parts of a coalition together to believe in him," Scherer said, "and the challenge of governing is, when you start governing, you have to make choices, and this is clearly a key moment for his coalition, and I think it has bothered him. I mean, he's spoken out to me on Saturday, he was speaking about a couple of times yesterday in Canada. He's tweeted about Tucker Carlson recently. I think he feels very strongly and he's been consistent for weeks now that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and that the option of military force by the U.S. has to be on the table."

"There is a significant part of his base that sees in that statement a return to sort of the Bush doctrine of the early 2000s," Scherer added. "I mean, that's where Tucker Carlson is coming from. He felt very burned by the invasion of Iraq, and we're going to see how that plays out over the coming days."

Trump's base has been famously loyal to the president, but Scherer said he's also faced down critics from inside the Republican Party since entering politics. He said Carlson's challenge stood out as notable.

Carlson, the ex-Fox News host, suggested on Monday that if Trump gets involved in Iran it could be the end of his presidency. Other outspoken right-wingers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have said that involvement in foreign wars runs contrary to the America First agenda.

"What is different is Tucker Carlson is actually basically an intimate of President Trump, and after the election last year, Tucker was down at Mar-a-Lago for weeks," Scherer said. "He's very close to the president's son, he's very close to Robert F. Kennedy, he was part of conversations about the formation of the government. If you go back to his time at Fox and after he left Fox he was the most Trumpist of the people there, but, again, the Trump message has always included more more people than any one policy can contain, if you look at tariffs and lowering taxes or anything along those lines."

"So this is a breaking point," Scherer added. "I mean, Tucker was on different web show yesterday saying that if Trump goes through with this, this could be the end of his presidency. So the stakes are pretty high, and these are very strong words being exchanged between the two men."
I guess this explains why Eric and Jr. are suddenly visible again? Or is it just that Trump has no concept of governing at all? And that’s becoming clear even to the Katzenjammer kids?

Both and a little bit of neither, I reckon.
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As Worthless As Tits On A Boar Hog 🐗

FOLLOW UP: I am convinced this is the same reason Trump wants to defund FEMA. It’s not ideological (it is for Vought/Project 2025), it’s that he hates going to disaster scenes and being empathetic, which he is utterly incapable of doing. If government isn’t paying for relief, he doesn’t have to interrupt his golf schedule. Or try to act like he gives a shit about others.
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“The Economy Is The Best In The History Of The World!”—DJT

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Who Is This “We”?

 


Waging Nonviolence:

“Our ongoing research on protests in the United States reveals that within the first two weeks of the second Trump administration, protest activity surpassed that of 2017. By the end of March 2025, there had been three times as many protests as had taken place in 2017. ...

... Protest has been surging since, with large boosts coming from major, multi-location actions in April and May.” https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/american-spring-nonviolent-protest-accelerating/
Rolling Stone:
Approximately 5 million turned out against Trump at the "No Kings" protests; turnout for Trump's military parade appeared to be in the thousands.

Story:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-parade-turnout-protest-no-kings-millions-1235365602/
Has Tom Nichols got a mouse in his pocket? Or is he like Trump, and only certain people matter? Only certain voices should be listened to, the rest are just background noise?
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Monday, June 16, 2025

Still Thinking Evil Thoughts About George Clooney

Pretty sure Israel said: “Fuck you, we’re doin’ it!” So you didn’t say “America first,” you said “Shit, now what?” "America first,” my ass! I was going to mock Trump for bailing on the G7 after he couldn’t take center stage: Keir Starmer thought bubble 💭: “Fuck you very much, you senile prick.” But now I’m just glad he can’t embarrass us anymore before the other world leaders. The GOP can do that for us at home.
There were other crowd shots that showed it was lightly attended. And, of course, true to form, Steve Cheung, the communications director at the White House, put out a tweet—very Sean Spicer–esque—claiming 250,000 people showed up for Trump’s birthday party on the Mall.

It’s just so sad. They can’t help but keep lying to soothe this president’s very fragile psyche and
There were bigger crowds than at his first inaugural, and those were the biggest crowds anyone had ever seen! Ever! Dear Leader must not be allowed to think this, or the Republic is done for! 

OTOH: Trump went home to do this, so it doesn’t exactly balance out.
Question: why is anyone asking the idiot son about geopolitics? The father isn’t stupid enough for us? Never mind. Jr. grabbed the title away from his brother.
Remember, Trump is to be relied on in all things:
🌮

Concluding unrelated postscript:
With respect to this top staffer and their grief, I think this is a mistake. For Mike Lee and the sort of people who would work for him, it’s great news that they caused more pain to Democrats. They have no decency to which one could appeal. They will consume this with laughter, not regret.

/2 In short: when dealing with shitty people with shitty values from a shitty culture, do not go asking for respect or decency. Expect shit. Shovel them into the sewers where they belong.
Hat of the Criminal City.

Context:

I think; “At long last, sir, have you no shame?,” still resonates.
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Trump Hears The Voice Of God

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“Vermin”

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Sunday, June 15, 2025

“Why Must Everyone Laugh At My Mighty Sword?”

Trump rants because they laughed at his mighty sword parade:
Our Nation’s ICE Officers have shown incredible strength, determination, and courage as they facilitate a very important mission, the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History. Every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our Mandate to the American People. ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History," Trump wrote. "In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens."
Except the ones working in hotels. And restaurants? Still a little unclear about that.
These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!"
Not sure how ICE is going to stop transgender athletes (all, what, 3 of them? 5? I’m not being dismissive of the athletes; just of the worry about them.), though.
Trump added, "I want our Brave ICE Officers to know that REAL Americans are cheering you on every day. The American People want our Cities, Schools, and Communities to be SAFE and FREE from Illegal Alien Crime, Conflict, and Chaos. That’s why I have directed my entire Administration to put every resource possible behind this effort, and reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia."
Which towns are those, again? Can you point to them in a map? Can you use a map?

A lot of people want to know.
"Our Federal Government will continue to be focused on the REMIGRATION of Aliens to the places from where they came, and preventing the admission of ANYONE who undermines the domestic tranquility of the United States," he concluded. "To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE! DJT"
And finally we get the naked racism that is so common to Trump nobody even blinks. Eh…it wouldn’t be a Trump rant without it.

And what is this supposed to change, anyway?
Or this? The fourth largest city, Houston, can’t get a shout out?
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“Don’t Take OUR Immigrants! Just Take Theirs! You Know, The BAD Ones!”

Nobody could have predicted….
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The Morning After

 


Smart analysis of the No Kings protests estimates roughly 4-6 million people protested Trump across America yesterday. The anti-Trump resistance is unprecedented, and exceeds his first term.

https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/no-kings-day-protests-turn-out-millions
And a thread roll that will convince you this Administration couldn’t organize a two-car funeral procession.  Tl;dr: people left early because:

A) they were bored;

B) they knew it would be hell getting out of there.

These are not mutually exclusive propositions.

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Saturday, June 14, 2025

The Reviews Are In!

Copium running low. (I was told Trump’s birthday was wholly coincidental to Saturday, Flag Day, and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.) Even the NYT agreed:
"Overall this was a pretty listless and low-energy parade and crowd. People wearing Trump paraphernalia far outnumbered those wearing Army hats and shirts from what I could see."

He added, "There were no speakers along the parade route, so spectators couldn’t hear whatever was being broadcast by the announcers closer to the reviewing stand. People are now flooding across Constitution Avenue at 18th Street to leave."

White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh also provided an update. Before Trump or JD Vance had even started to speak, the reporter wrote, "Hordes of people are streaming east across the mall to leave."

“'Where’s everybody going?' one man next to me just wondered aloud," the reporter added.
Except the lies told, and fiercely held to, by MAGA for the sake of Dear Leader. I mean, when you’ve lost FoxNews…. G’night, folks! Thanks for playing! 😹
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“A Would Be [Plutocrat]”

And all the people say: “AMEN!”  How much of the $45 million are they ponying up? And to whom? The situation screams for Congressional oversight. 🦗🦗🦗 

Meanwhile: Are they going to be handled very strongly? Trump will declare 1 billion attended his parade. 😈 On its 250th anniversary: The U.S. Army, for sale to the highest bidder. Your tax dollars at work.
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“All The News That’s Fit”

“No Kings” turned out a lot more people at MAL than MAGA did.

I’m kind of surprised I’m the only one here. I came because I love President Trump, and I want to show support,” he stated while admitting he drove over 80 miles to support the president.

He graciously added, "This all seems peaceful. They’re allowed to say what they want as long as it stays peaceful. That’s what America is about.”

As a side-note, Rocza reported, "Another Trump supporter asked a police officer whether he could engage with the protesters and was told he could yell at them if he wanted. When the man immediately began shouting expletives, the officer warned him not to try to incite an incident.The man moved on quietly."
Which is the kind of news I want to hear today.  I’m intentionally avoiding news about “No Kings” because I don’t want to stumble across news about Trump’s folly in DC. I can select it tomorrow, but today, I don’t want to see it. (Especially TeeVee ignoring the marches to broadcast the military spectacle. I don’t need to see a second if that,) So news like this, is news o’ the day for me. 😎

Emptywheel has a lot of pictures/videos about “No Kings” marches around the country, including Texas and Mississippi. It’s BlueSky, so I can’t post them. But follow the link…
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In Honor Of The Day

 


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I Don’t Think Much Of Social Media As A Political Tool

 Just ask The Lincoln Project how effective they were in keeping Trump out of office a second time. And most people claiming Democrats would win if only they’d abandon legacy media, have a stake in on-line media.

Nobody thinks Trump won because of Truth Social. More and more I think it’s clear Kamala Harris lost because she’s a black woman. Trump was the most appallingly bad political candidate in my memory (and my memory includes George McGovern, an incredibly decent man who only carried one state against Nixon’s re-election. And it wasn’t his home state.). People were not that overwhelmingly worried about the price of eggs.

I mention this because I want to praise Gov. Newsom’s use of Twitter. He’s not going to win any election by it, but Trump thinks he can run the country on his social platform. So Newsom is fighting Trump on his own terms, and showing the rest of us how to do it. Trump is successful because people accept his verbal belligerence (the way of the bully). Newsom doesn’t, and he diminishes Trump every day with tweets like this (the way to defeat the bully):

Diminishing Comer in the process is just lagniappe.

Not that releasing the transcript would be Trump’s silver bullet. But anything that even threatens to start the conversation about Trump’s mental decay is a welcome opportunity. Yes, the media follows elections returns and favors the GOP narrative. But when there’s blood in the water:
They can be turned. Slowly, but they follow their audience, too.

And Newsom isn’t even letting the White House have the “but violence!” argument.
I mean, the most Trump’s militarization has done is prove LA is not a war zone. If it was so dangerous to get downtown, what was this guy doing there? And did police arrest him, or just tell him the building was closed to the public until further notice? My guess is, trying to enter a federal building is not a crime. So what justified the detention?

This is not the royal road to victory. But it a damned sight better than fretting about what nickname Trump might give you. And it challenges reporting on that particular, weird trait as if it were just Trump being Trump, rather than a man in his 8th decade behaving like an 8th grader.

You gotta start somewhere, with something more effective than clever ads that please the people who made them.
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