Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Wrapping Up Another Turn Around The Sun

Focused like a laser beam on the concerns of the electorate.

And now, lessons from VP Vance:
A “moral win” in court and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee. Is he expecting Roberts to die? Or retire? Or Comey Barrett? Because the likeliest candidates for replacement before 2028 are Alito and Thomas. And changing either of them won’t change the results.

But if that’s the morbid campaign promise you want the GOP to run on, don’t let me get in the way. Besides:
Did they teach you anything at Yale Law School! Or they just don’t have the votes. Me, I’d prefer the filibuster be eliminated. It still won’t get the SAVE America act passed, and it would speed the plow in 2027.

Be careful what you ask for, little boy.  The Senate GOP may be doing you a favor.
Only if the inmates are running the asylum. You can’t be a part of this Administration and be coherent. Still not familiar with the concept. He is just too ignorant to stop and realize how ignorant he is.
I like AOC, but boo-fuckin’ hoo. Boomers born ten years in rode waves of boom and bust that kept most of us in economic straits long after our parents were at our age. The long term boom of the postwar era ebbed in the late ‘60’s, and turned into inflation that lasted into the ‘80’s. Double digit inflation the likes of which nobody not a Boomer and alive today has seen.

The world “you’ve” been left with? Boomers didn’t like the world they were “left with,” so they fucking changed it. Not completely; the economics of it got worse, not better.  But you have two choices: light a candle; or curse the darkness.

And while we’re on the subject, what about the generation born into the Great Depression? The same generation that had to go to war against Germany and Japan. Do you think they felt “a tremendous amount of betrayal about the world [they’d] been left with’?

As Chris Rock used to say: “Whaddya want, a cookie?”

Don’t whinge; nobody likes whingers.

On the other hand:
Stephen Miller on Birthright Citizenship Decision: I can step tomorrow onto the deck of a 747. It does not mean that I'm the pilot of that plane and I'm qualified to fly it.

We have people from all over the world from third world nations, nations that on their own would have never invented the wheel let alone modern technology, let alone medicine, let alone air travel, and they can just come into the country, have a baby, and then that baby is automatically a citizen? The baby can sit on a jury when they turn 18??
He’s afraid of non-white babies. (He’s ignorant as a stump, too.)
Collins: Do you really think the president has dementia?

Pritzker: I do. Look at any of the videos from 2015 or 2016 and then you fast forward and look at him now, I really think that there's something genuinely wrong with him.
Dementia. Or incompetence that has him in so far over his head when he looks up he can’t see bottom. He only did this to stay out of jail, after all. And he’s so demented he’s grifting like mad? He seems to know what he’s doing there.
TRUMP’S FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE JUST DROPPED…AND IT’S WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT.

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics released Donald Trump’s 927-page financial disclosure today. Here’s what a sitting U.S. President made in 2025:

💰 $635 MILLION from the TRUMP memecoin, while retail investors watched it crash from $74 to $1.68

💰 $594 MILLION from World Liberty Financial token and stablecoin sales, a crypto venture co-founded with his own sons

💰 $65 MILLION from selling equity in that same company

💰 $80+ MILLION in media settlements from ABC, CBS, Meta, and YouTube, paid to his own presidential library

Total crypto haul: over $1.4 BILLION. In one year. While serving as President of the United States.

His net worth has nearly TRIPLED, from $2.4 billion to $6.3 billion, since taking office.

And while Trump pocketed $1.4 billion from crypto, the everyday Americans who bought his memecoin? They lost. 764,000 wallets ended up in the red.

This is the most corrupt presidency in American history. Period.
Square that circle for me. Just don’t call it “feral cunning.” Much better than whinging.

Swinging back around to VP Vance (not coincidentally):
It's hard to know what to make of the Vice President's bizarre, almost nonsensical, comments here. It sounds like he is equating the use of these "hideous signs" to an alternative version of the Nicene Creed.

A little background: The Nicene Creed, formulated by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, is an essential profession of faith used by the Catholic Church (among other churches). It is also the familiar creedal formula spoken by Catholics during Sunday Masses: "I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth..." It's a statement of belief, mainly about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It obviously doesn't talk about "hideous signs" welcoming people.

However, the Nicene Creed does affirm belief in the church as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic." (These are the four traditional "marks" of the church.) This means, among other things, believing that the church comes to us directly from the apostles (it's "apostolic"). Thus, it derives its authority not only from Jesus Christ, but also through the "apostolic succession," an authority passed down from the apostles in the early church to the Pope and to the bishops today.

It's ironic, then, that the Vice President is mocking things like love and the church's teaching on migrants in the same breath that he is professing his faith through the words of the Creed, which includes belief in authority of the church. Because this "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" church has long proclaimed the Gospel message of love and care for the stranger, which Jesus himself preached during his public ministry.

So a butchering of the Creed would mean, in fact, not listening to the church's teaching on these matters and, even worse, not listening to Jesus's own teaching on love and loving the stranger.

Because, in the words of the Creed, we also believe in "one Lord, Jesus Christ."
"Care for the stranger" is one of the consistent messages in the scriptures, starting with Abraham at the oaks of Mambre, all the way through to the Christian epistles. It is a primary feature of the law of Moses (care for the strangers among you, for you were strangers yourselves), and a primary teaching of the major and minor prophets, as well as throughout the four gospels. 

Vance really is just a relentless boob.
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How I Feel Today

Unless you have a note from your doctor saying you are not in your third trimester. A) It doesn’t work that way
B) Even if it did, Congress is going to recess about three weeks after the 4th, and not return until after the elections.
C) Trump is such an incompetent boob, he doesn’t understand the Constitution, the concept of the constitution, or the Congressional calendar.
Manchurian candidate children? I guess. 🤷‍♂️ 
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Fallout

Oh, okay. (You can’t fix stupid.)
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“Fuck ‘Em. They Weren’t Born Here.”

CNN: Hours before the earthquake in Venezuela, close to 150 people on a deportation flight were at the epicenter and the hotel they were in collapsed. Many remain missing. Do you think DHS has responsibility to account for those missing?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: No I don't. It's just an act of God.
"And even if they were, they shouldn’t have been citizens.”

Or does he mean God wanted them dead? 😵 
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Is There A Medical Condition…

... for not knowing how to use words?

And is it contagious?
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Even The Supreme Court Is Supposed To Follow Rules

I haven’t read the Court opinions, but from what I’ve heard, Justice Thomas sails blithely past the fundamental rule of constitutional and statutory interpretation, without even a passing nod.

If I remember correctly from law school (which I left almost 40 years ago), statutory (or constitutional) interpretation starts with the plain language of the statute/provision. The idea arises from English common law. Torts, for example, in the common law, arise from practice, not legislation (I speak generally). So “assault” is defined in case law as an “offensive contact,” and further refined “offensive” as understood by “a reasonably prudent person.” (No, I’m not going to define that. This discussion won’t need more rabbit holes.)  To determine what that means on the facts presented by a particular case, you have to refer to relevant case law, seeking definitions of “contact” and “offensive,” and so on. I can tell you that, while you might think contact must be bodily, in one case the defendant struck the tray out of the hands of the plaintiff. That was deemed “contact” sufficient to establish the tort.

Similarly, with statutory interpretation, one begins with the case law. I don’t know what Thomas does with Wong Kim Ark, but that case clearly held that a person born here was “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” His parents certainly were: the Chinese Exclusion Act barred them from being citizens, but not, the Court held, their child, under a very plain reading of the first clause of the 14th Amendment. Which, frankly, I find dispositive of Thomas’ putative argument. At least what I’ve read about it. (Caveats abound!) If the case law doesn’t provide an adequate interpretation of the statute based on the facts presented, one turns, carefully, to statutory interpretation.

Such interpretation starts with the language of the law. If that doesn’t clearly answer the question, one looks to the legislative history, or even how words and phrases were understood at the time the law was adopted. I can tell you as some trained in textual analysis and word changes (both in literature and Biblical works), that the rules of statutory interpretation are often obtuse and bizarre. But we don’t have to go into them because, as I said, Thomas doesn’t.

What Thomas does is ignore the language of the 14th, and replace it with his own. So children of slaves get citizenship, which bootstraps him into citizenship. (Rather like Thomas would undo every Court ruling on what marriages are allowed by the Constitution, except Loving v Virginia, the case that disallows criminalizing mixed race marriages.) But people not “domiciled” here, says Thomas, have no such privilege.

Here I would point out that “domicile” and “residency” have little meaning in Texas law. You need an address in order to register to vote; or to use some of the city services of Houston, like recycling centers (largely meant to keep companies from showing up with skiploaders of trash). But “residency” had limited meaning in Texas law, and I don’t believe the word appears anywhere in the Constitution. Even the restrictions on the President, who must be over 35 and a “natural born citizen” (i.e., by birth), doesn’t include being a resident of the United States, or domiciled here. Frankly, if we’re going to add requirements to the qualifications, it should bar anyone convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. A felony, IOW. But we can’t interpret the Constitution that way (or even bar a candidate for participating in an insurrection; clause 3 of the 14th.) We can decide a President enjoys limited criminal immunity, but that’s a different question of Constitutional interpretation (not really different, but we pretend it is).

But I digress, and I said I wouldn’t do that. The point being, Thomas is reading the requirements of residence or domicile, even allegiance, into the plain text of the Constitution, when those words don’t appear, those concepts don’t apply (else they would have been included). I was a child in school pledging allegiance to the flag and the United States long before I had any idea what I was pledging (or what “pledging” meant), but I was an American citizen ab initio, because of place of birth, not because of my parents (i.e., blood). Nor did the freed slaves have to pledge allegiance in order to be free (the states put a lot of other restrictions on them, but that’s another matter). Indeed, the descendants of slaves didn’t enjoy the full benefits of citizenship until the Civil Rights movement and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (now a half a loaf victory, thanks to this Court).

Thomas, in short, wants to create a 14h Amendment as he sees fit, from whole cloth, and tailored to his individual preferences. The latter he doesn’t get in this republic, although he and Stephen Miller and Elon Musk, among others, think they’re entitled to do so, simply because they prefer the country that way. As for the former, that would require an amendment to the 14th Amendment (that would not be a constitutional anomaly), which he can retire and lobby Congress for as a private citizen. Of course, his sugar daddies might not be quite so interested in buying gifts for him then….

We’re gonna need two Congresses simultaneously; or just one, that can walk and chew gum.  There’s a lot of legislation to be written and/or amended (starting with the VRA, ending with the size, and term limits, of the Court); and a separate track just to clean the Augean stables of the rank corruption these decades have wrought.

But they can start with forcing the corrupt Thomas from the bench. His corruption is not just ethical, it’s in his legal reasoning, which is NOT all created equal but just applied differently.  If that were true, we’d all be able to graduate law school handily. And then we really would have an Idiocracy.

(Somebody told Trump about U.S. v. Ark. That link also shows the argument accepted by Thomas has an old, and racist, pedigree, Quelle surprise, huh?
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The Taney Court Rises From The Dead Bottom

BREAKING: The Supreme Court holds that the Fourteenth Amendment protects birthright citizenship, blocking Donald Trump's executive order to end it.

Roberts has the opinion for the court, which is 5-4 on the constitutional question and 6-3 on whether federal law protects birthright citizenship.
Kavanaugh dissented on the constitutional question (?), but affirmed the statutory one (??).

Earl Warren held Brown v Board until he had crafted an opinion that won unanimous support. And that case didn’t involve black letter constitutional law.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
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Well, I’ve Heard Of Brooke Rollins….

"President Trump who?" (Does anybody ever ask why he needs to raise money? He won’t spend it on Congressional races. He’s hobbling those with his policies. And he can’t run again. It’s just pure grift. P.T. Barnum was right.) A golden age. They get the gold. We get the shaft. (Is this really the best they can do?) Still the best answer. Oh, no, don’t stop there.
Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.

The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got on the phone to close it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick worked it from the inside, sending letters, leaning on the Kazakh president, lining up as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing.

Within weeks of those negotiations, investors tied to a firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump took a 20% stake in an entity connected to the very same Kazakhstan project their father was negotiating. Around that same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm run by Lutnick’s own sons, raised $210 million for a partner in the deal and pocketed the fees.

The fathers set the policy. The sons cashed in.

Six days after the Trump sons and their partners moved their money, Lutnick signed the final deal.

The reporting found one or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies working with the government on critical mining deals.

The total federal funding flowing toward those companies tops $8.9 billion.

This is your tax money.

It is supposed to secure our supply chains and protect our troops, not pad the portfolios of the President’s children and the Commerce Secretary’s children.

This is the most corrupt administration in American history. It is not close.

We must keep digging, and keep asking the questions they do not want asked. Republicans in Congress are unwilling to lift a finger. Mike Johnson is running a protection racket.

Either we will end the corruption, or the corruption will be the end of us.
Congressional oversight is a quaint concept. But it is what Mike Johnson is worried about.
Johnson: If we lose the midterms, these Democrats will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they'll go after the president's family, the cabinet, his donors, friends, half of you in this room will be targeted. I run the protection program. We’ll take care of you.
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More Importantly…

... can we drain the pool and measure the “cut”? Or will you have to put a tarp over the pool first?

Are you going to arrest people who try to take pictures of the damage?
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Isn’t It Ironic? Don’t You Think?

A little too ironic?
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A Reminder…

... that the first Europeans to come to this continent (well, from Columbus on), came looking for resources to exploit; or “cites of gold” (El Dorado), or even magical fulfillment (the Fountain of Youth). And gaining wealth was predicated on exploiting labor (just read Moby Dick), or the brutality of slavery. The Cain and Abel of American history.

And the “American Dream” is still an amalgam of possession, exploitation (AI is the latest in a long line of efforts to exploit resources at the expense of many for the benefit of a few. Even Andrew Carnegie built libraries across the country. What has Elon Musk done for anyone besides Elon Musk?), and the pursuit of money as the only real “pursuit of happiness.”

We convinced ourselves (very recently) that we are the “land of the free because of the brave” so we could just justify the standing military and the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us against.  What he was warning about was the siren song of all that money. $80 billion worth Trump managed to burn up in a month, to what end? So we could be free? Or so we could be brave? Or so defense contractors could get a lot of money?

🎶 “It’s money that matters/in the U.S.A. 🎶

That die was cast over 500 years ago.
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Monday, June 29, 2026

Walking While Not White (But Wearing White)

She was walking to Mass.
Ugboaja is also a registered nurse at South Texas Health System and worked previously for 10 years as a certified nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Riojas confirmed.

Members of congress representing south Texas intervened with federal officials. As of Monday, Ugboaja was back in her home.
She lives in McAllen. She was walking to a church in McAllen. But she’s not white. That’s all it took.

And then it took the attention of elected federal officials to get her released.

Somewhere, Stephen Miller is grinning an evil, shit-eating grin. This is his dream.
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How It’s Going

MacFarlane: I feel like all of this was doomed to fail at the Great American State Fair the second Milli Vanilli canceled. Only bad things happen when Milli Vanilli cancels on you.

It’s going to be a chapter of the story of Trump that’s titled, Milli Vanilli Canceled on Trump, but He Persevered.

Yes. Here’s the thing. I’ve got an official document here. I’ve got a Post-it note that lists all the important dates coming up soon on Trump vanity projects.

It’s put-up-or-shut-up time. July 8, he’s going to be in court—or his Department of Justice will be in court—on the slush fund.

July 9, the Department of Justice, has to actually put on paper what it says people did at the reflecting pool. That’s the deadline to charge people either with minor water touching or some type of felonious box-cutter assault.

Then, in mid-July, he’s got to answer for the tarp on the Kennedy Center. The judge wants to know why the tarp is still up there and when the tarp is coming down.

There’s an Epstein file deadline this week….
Working hard to win the midterms! Like a rock. Tied around the country’s neck. And you’re just the guy who can sell that…to MAGA. Maybe. In those three races in New York….
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Telling The Emperor He Is Not Naked—State Fair Edition

It’s a pancake 🥞 eating contest. For MAHA. 🤡 Trump is watching Fox with the picture off. When the people show up, they’ll be there! 🤪
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Why Must Everyone Laugh At My Mighty Sword?

Trump really thinks he has superpowers, which extend to even campaigning for the office. (Please note the POTUS has no Presidential shield from civil judgments, a precedent set at least by Bill Clinton.)

I wonder if the Roberts Court will decide buying interests in a mining company is part of the President’s “official duties”? It is enough to get him impeached and removed from office. But being POTUS is not enough to protect him from civil discovery in the BBC libel suit Trump started.
Also, too, as well: I really don’t think the broad scope of civil discovery in a suit Trump brought as a private citizen is going to support intervention by the DOJ to protect “government interests.”

🍿🍿
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Primal Forces 💰

The Roberts Court has overturned 90 years of precedent to say the POTUS can control “independent agencies,” by firing any agency head who isn’t loyal to the new Administration.

The Roberts Court has also sustained precedent, by ruling POTUS cannot fire a Federal Reserve Board governor without valid cause, which does not include half-baked allegations from anyone named Bill Pulte.

And here is the lesson: government regulatory agencies suck. But YOU DON’T FUCK WITH THE MONEY!💰 

That would be meddling with primal forces.

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😳

Trump: “Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American State Fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people, and everybody loving it? Ask yourself this simple question, ‘DO YOU THINK THAT OBUMA OR SLEEPY JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE DONE IT?’ THE ANSWER IS NO!”
Even flying over the fairgrounds, Trump couldn’t possibly miss how empty it was. Or that it closed yesterday due to rain. “Chaotic” seems optimistic. It looks much more like he’s completely lost touch with reality.
Every Trump debacle follows the same 13 steps. The reflecting pool fiasco is just one of the lower stakes versions of it.
1. Devise unnecessary spectacle
2. Disregard expertise
3. Bypass normal procedures
4. Declare victory too early (bonus if done by AI-slop post)
5. Spend way more than estimated
6. Ignore the haters
7. Realize it is not going well
8. Bypass normal procedures once again
9. Allege conspiracy and sabotage
10. Redeclare victory
11. More blaming
12. Losing interest
13. Pretend it never happened, and move on to the next thing
I think we’re at step 7, although arguably Trump’s post is skipping ahead to step 10. This “fair” is supposed to run through July 10, so we’ll see if they mercifully pull the plug early, or let the corpse just continue to fester. 😳
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Sunday, June 28, 2026

God Giving Trump The Middle Finger

Or, why most state fairs are not scheduled in the summer.

(And global warming is a hoax!)
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Rain, Rain, Go Away…☔️

In the rain? Sure he did. Good to know he doesn’t need to be in the Situation Room getting updates on the “ceasefire” with Iran.

And did the tarp ever come down from the KENNEDY Center?
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Making America Safe For White Americans

TAPPER: Is it the position of the Trump administration that Haiti is a safe country to send these people to?

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Those that are coming to this country legally, they need to be able to contribute to the US, not be a burden on the taxpayers

TAPPER: But do you maintain that it's safe in Haiti to send these people back? The State Dept has a level 4 do not travel advisory

MULLIN: Well, the do not travel is not for Haitians. That's do not travel for the United States.
The government has an obligation to keep white people safe. Sec. Mullin: “Well, if they aren’t white people….” Three House candidates. Even if I disagreed with their politics, they wouldn’t be a threat to the nation at all. A corrupt felon in the White House whose Id is Stephen Miller? Now that’s a threat.
NOBLES: If the US is still bombing Iran 120 days into this conflict, how can the Trump administration credibly say the war is over?

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: The major war is over. Think of this as almost just a mop up operation. Let's root for the Trump team for once rather than trying to tear them down.
Especially when they’re doing such a good job of tearing themselves down.
NOBLES: Did President Trump break his promise when it comes to housing and affordability?

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: I'm concerned about the cost of living. We're still reeling from Joe Biden. Real wages are outpacing inflation right now. This is classic Donald Trump negotiation style.

NOBLES: Wages are not outpacing inflation. That's not correct.
Reality is a fungible good.
NOBLES: There's no evidence that fraudulent votes have changed any election outcomes. Are you trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist?

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: Look, um, we make pilots before they start flying a plane, we make them get a license to do that. We don't wait until they crash the plane.
I know the concept of analogy can be a tough one, but Markwayne Mullin would struggle to do as badly as that.
Mamdani: "What I saw from Darializa when I would walk the streets of her district was a focus on what she describes as a politics of life. She would talk about how we have to invest in babies, not bombs ... what people in that district are exhausted by is a politics that has justified the spending of tens of billions of dollars in killing civilians overseas while working people are struggling just to do the basics."
"THE DEMOCRATS ARE COMING! THE DEMOCRATS ARE COMING!!”
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This, Too, Shall Pass*

Tl;dr: touch grass.

*obsessions with computers, AI, social media, etc. Passing fancies that, in time, will fade.
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Texas GOP Outreach

2 questions:

1) Beyond unreachable GOP voters, who is this aimed at? 

2). Why is Dan Patrick dressed like it’s still the ‘80’s? Is it a MAGA thing?

I’m also surprised the ad isn’t more Texas-centric. Paul Revere? New England? 

Talarico understands Texas chauvinism better than that:
BTW: So, vote for Dan Patrick because…he’s afraid of King George?
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More Increasingly Extreme Viewpoints

Ossoff: "The president was so humiliated in Hormuz he threw his toys out the stroller and refused to sign the affordable housing bill. That's after he gave some felon donor a no bid contract for the reflecting pool and it filled up with algae, which for some reason required the deployment of the National Guard. And then because of his war and tariffs, inflation rose to over 4%. He promised to bring down prices on day one, do you remember that?"
JD Vance just told you everything you need to know.

He thinks Watergate wouldn't have taken down a president today. He sees a parallel between what happened to Nixon and what's happening now, and he's proud of it.

JD Vance is dead wrong if he thinks a faster news cycle buys him immunity — especially for an Administration that, by his own admission, may be doing things that make Watergate look minor.

And when Democrats have the gavels again, every document, every corrupt act, every quid pro quo, and every conflict of interest that this Administration thought they buried will see the light of day.
Talarico: I believe anyone can be a Texan. It doesn’t matter if you’re an eighth-generation Texan like me or a California transplant like Ken Paxton.

Listen, what makes a Texan is not in the boots or in the truck. It’s deep in the heart.

These billionaires and their puppets have the wrong state of mind. Their hearts and their dreams are just not big enough.
@jamestalarico : This election shouldn't be about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It should be about chasing a vision of what our state can be: Texas schools that are the envy of the nation, a Texas economy that is second to none, and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than ever before. It won't happen overnight. But a giant state deserves giant dreams.

We are bigger than extremism, we're bigger than partisanship, we're bigger than corruption. Texas is bigger than all of those things. Because it's not just a state. It's a state of mind. It’s a cause. Texans don't like tyrants, and we don't surrender easily.

Tonight, standing before you to accept your nomination for the United States Senate, I make the same commitment to you that my ancestor made 200 years ago: "Any duty that my bodily strength would enable me to perform, either in public or private, that would advance the cause of Texas, I feel anxious and ever ready to perform."
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💯

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“Increasingly Extreme Viewpoints”

As someone who remembers the (state, not federal) supported violence against Americans of the ‘60’s, and the continued political violence of the ‘70’s, handwringing about “extreme viewpoints” in recent times is a bit rich. 

I’ll reiterate Jules Verne’s wry commentary on life in these United States when Phineas Fogg crossed the continent in his journey around the world. He came upon a riot in a small American town that turned out to be a political campaign… for the office of town dog catcher.

“Extreme viewpoints” is the tut-tutting of the would-be ruling class, dismayed that the servants are not quietly dusting the items in the drawing room and making sure the tradespeople use the servant’s entrance. And the temerity to complain about the Grey Lady! When it can be shown she is aware of how unruly the workers are!

Well, I mean! It’s so hard to get good help these days!

(Maybe this concerned apologist could spare a word about the violence of ICE, the Nazi spew of Stephen Miller, the blunt ignorance and threats of the Secretary of DHS, the random mutterings of the President against his perceived political enemies? Or is that kind of mention just not done?)
(Another “extreme viewpoint.”)
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Saturday, June 27, 2026

I’m Old Enough To Remember…

… When ex-Presidents didn’t talk about their successors. Or needed to.
Biden: The reflecting pool reflects something even worse than the narcissism and incompetence at the core of this administration. It’s the corruption. The corruption. The brazen, blatant corruption. Corruption on a scale never seen before in American history in any administration.

Trump has made billions of dollars since returning to the White House. Simply stunning to me.

He has no shame. Frankly, it’s embarrassing for the country. Trump couldn’t care less.

Making money off the presidency is one of the reasons he wants to be president
It’s not a schoolyard taunt to say Trump started it. But he did. And it’s not an excuse to say Trump deserves it. Because Trump needs it, because it is the truth. And the truth will set us free, from this ever happening again.
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🎶”Our State Fair Is A Great State Fair!”🎶

"Don’t miss it, don’t even be late!” 🎶 It’s the best State Fair in our state!”🎶
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Blustering Old Fool

I can’t find it now, but the NYT reported recently that about half our stock of defensive missiles, meant to ward off attack from Chin, have been depleted. 

Trump has been bleating this threat since March, leading to the perfectly legitimate question: “You and what army?”

Maybe the Congress needs to yank his chain more firmly; and someone needs to remind him about the Strait.
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“Illegal Aliens” Still Means “Brown People”

The majority of @illegal aliens “ in America are people who have overstayed their visas. I also love the responses (probably bots, TBH) that we cannot have a country if the 14th amendment means what it says. Although all it did was codify the practice since the Constitution became the law of the land, and erase the distinction that children of slaves were not citizens.

To this good day, it really is still all about race.

And then there’s the “argument” that “illegal aliens” are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. That phrase only excludes children born to diplomats in this country, who enjoy diplomatic immunity and so are not “subject to the jurisdiction.” (But they can be sent back to their country in appropriate circumstances.) Should an “illegal alien” commit an actual crime (entry into the U.S. without permission is an administrative matter, not a criminal one), they are certainly “subject to the jurisdiction,” and liable for prosecution. Diplomats can only be forced to return to their country.

The dumbest clucks in America cluster around posts on Twitter; or fall for the bots who gather there.

Davis’ “plan” would target women from menarche to menopause. And if they are already here “illegally,” what’s the point of that? What would his “plan” actually do? Except prove the cruelty is still the point.
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Rent Control

Trump was sent to military school when he was 13. He graduated 5 years later.

He was never actually in the military. Military school taught him to be the asshole he is today. Life made Barack Obama the better man.

And that’s why Obama still lives rent free in Trump’s head.
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Odysseus’ Long, Hot Summer

 I may be the only person on the planet not looking forward to Christopher Nolan’s version of “The Oddysey.”

I’ll try to be brief. 

Odysseus is Homer’s counterpart to Achilles. The Iliad is “the Rage of Achilles,” and to oversimplify, Achilles is all fury and selfishness (frankly) until the end of the story, when his rage is spent. Odysseus is wily. He comes up with the Trojan Horse, after all. He wins the war Achilles drops out of for awhile, and doesn’t win despite his rage. And Odysseus defies the gods and spends 10 years getting home. Where he proceeds to take out all the “suitors” who’ve been swilling down Penelope’s stores. He is the counterpart to Achilles, the man who is always clearheaded about what he us doing, and charismatic and dynamic enough to carry the story of the 10 year journey to an exciting climax, and lead his men through every danger.

As much as I respect his work, I did not just describe Matt Damon.

In the trailer, Matt Damon all but cries; looks confused inside the giant horse; leads his men into battle with a cry so weak I’m surprised they heard it; and generally seems bewildered and lost. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, draws on her Catwoman persona and, in the briefest appearance, shows more grit and determination than Damon. She could burn the topless towers of Ilium and take on all the mythical terrors of Greece, single handedly. She could put the fear of God into…the gods. Damon? Meh.

I’ve seen this trend in movies. Joauqin Phoenix played a Napoleon who was barely awake. The real Napoleon inspired France to take on Europe, and Beethoven to dedicate a symphony to him (Ludwig van later recanted that praise). Phoenix couldn’t inspire me to get out of bed. Pedro Pascal, bless him, played Reed Richards as a hapless genius overwhelmed with guilt (because he can’t “cure” Ben), and pretty much the weakest link in the chain of the Fantastic Four.

I get it. “The man” in action movies (what else is this?) as a John Wayne figure who can win WWII single handedly, and only needs a woman at home cooking meals, is a tired Hollywood trope. I have no problem with Penelope being as wily and tough as her husband. Look at what she had to deal with for 10 years. I think Ms. Hathaway nails it. But do we have to turn Napoleon into an anti-inspirational mumbler, and Odysseus into a suburban Dad who can’t find the way back to his cul-de-sac?

Nobody cares, just I’m just gonna read Homer this summer.

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The Popular Historical Trope…

AOC: The Republican Party’s brand is fear. And they have to constantly churn out what they want people to be afraid of—to be afraid of socialists, to be afraid of immigrants, to be afraid of women. They constantly want Americans in fear of somebody because, if you are not afraid of someone who is your neighbor, you’re going to realize who’s actually pickpocketing you.

And that is the large corporations that are engaged in profiteering and jacking up your prices for no good reason. It’s going to be this administration that is engaged in record levels of swindling, theft, tariffs, and attacks on your housing.

And so this is kind of their new thing of the day. But I think that people are feared out. I think everyone’s nerves are shot from constantly being taught and told what country, person, or community to be afraid of. And they just want a solution. They want their groceries to be more affordable. They want to figure out how we’re going to get health care. They want our housing to get under control.

And I think that we’re ready for an affirmative vision, and we’re ready for an affirmative agenda.
AOC: I actually think the more important advice that I would give would be to my incumbent colleagues, which is: you will create a self-fulfilling prophecy by deciding who these young women are before you’ve met them.

And if you are already panicking and sending little messages in your group chats about how these people need to be reined in, tamped down, and shown their place, you are creating the antagonistic dynamic that we do not need.

These are two young, talented, intelligent women who got elected against all odds, against millions of dollars. Perhaps there is something we can learn from them.
AOC: But there are a lot of folks who talk about change in leadership that don't necessarily articulate what their direction is. And so I would say that it's important we talk pretty specifically about the kind of changes that we want, because there are a lot of people in this country, and there are a lot of forces and lobbyists that want the Democratic party to become even more pro-corporate than it is.

And so when I talk about change, I talk about orienting the Democratic party to be unabashedly working class and to orient itself around working class Americans
AOC: Mike Johnson paints this as though it’s some partisan witch hunt. But if you don’t want to be prosecuted for crimes, don’t do crimes.

And he’s talking about running a protection racket. And we are already seeing that this Trump administration has run what some have called one of the largest pedophile protection programs in American history.

And so when Mike Johnson tells a group of wealthy donors, I'm the only thing standing between you, and a consequence that should rattle at the conscience of every American.

What he wants to do is create—or rather, not even create, because it’s already been created—but protect a class of impunity in America that says, “You can commit whatever crime, and so long as you pay a check to us, we will protect you.”

And that is a model of extortion in American politics. And you know what? That’s their pitch.
AOC: I think we’re now in a new time, and I think there is greater recognition of the brokenness that led to President Trump in the first place, which is that growing inequality yields to authoritarianism, and that economic instability and the collapse of democracy are intertwined…
...is that “great figures,” like Kennedy or FDR (to stick with American presidents), come along when we need them.

So let’s be contrarian and turn that observation onto a President no one would praise. After all, we’re supposed to look forward to this great figure saving us from ourselves. But Trump? Trump came along when we needed him?

Yes. Because we rejected two women to get Trump. We did that each time, and we did it quite deliberately. The second time we did although we knew what he’d done to us during Covid, and we knew he’d been convicted of criminal and civil fraud. We didn’t care. He wasn’t a woman (disappointed Trump voters still won’t admit this; just like they won’t admit his overt racism didn’t bother them). That’s all that really mattered, in the end. (Trump ran a joke campaign, Harris did everything she could. It didn’t matter. That’s a factor neither pundits nor consultants want us to think about.)

So Trump came along when we needed him to teach the truth of FAFO. We fucked around. We found out. Character matters. Government experience matters. Government is NOT a business (and looking at Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and the Tech Bros determined to foist AI in us all for their sole benefit, it’s a damned good thing!), and competence bluntly matters.

Now maybe we can improve how the only two choices we get every four years, come to be the only two choices we get. We, the people, need that, too.
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