PLAYING POSSUM, FULL OF IT, RUBY, COOKOUT POTATO SALAD

James Carville seems to have adopted the Napoleon Bonaparte quote: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” The influential Democratic Party strategist who came to prominence in the Bill Clinton years recently predicted that the Trump White House will “collapse” in less than a month as his approval ratings continue to decline with his multitude of unpopular executive orders, and slashing of governmental agencies by firing thousands — risking an economic nosedive. His advice to his party is to simply sit back and watch it all come down: “Democrats need to play possum. This whole thing is collapsing,” he predicted in an interview with Dan Abrams of Mediaite. “We’re in the midst of a collapse. This is the lowest approval — not even close — that any president has ever had at a comparable time. It’s going to be easy pickings here in six weeks. Just lay back.” Later, he told Sean Hannity on Fox News that he sees Democrats up by 13 points in the congressional generic, with Trump at the lowest approval of any president, so early in the game, in American history. He challenged Hannity by his query, “So, your viewers are getting one view. And I’m reading another view. One of us is right and one of us is wrong. It’s that simple. Have they got fact checkers at Fox?” Trump came to his defense on Truth Social with the claim that he has “the best polling numbers” in his history. “The Democrats, run by broken down losers like James Carville, who’s weak of mind and body, are going crazy, and just don’t know what to do. They have lost their confidence and spirit — they have lost their minds!” he fired back. Carville maintains that the House Democrats know exactly what they are doing because they see what is going to happen, in spite of the concern in the party that its defenses are lacking. Trump’s first moves in office instigated from constituents, 1,600 phone calls a minute to the Senate, complaining that more needed to be done. Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts told Axios that the record number of calls were from “people disgusted with what’s going on, and they want us to fight back.”

Carville suggested to Democratic politicians that they should not get in the way of protesters around the country who are speaking out against co-presidents Trump and Musk, or as rural America says, “‘Don’t just stand there. Do nothing.’ Let this germinate. In the immortal words of Dalton in ‘Road House,’ ‘be nice until it’s time not to be nice.’ And that time is coming shortly.” Carville disagrees with moderates who say people are overreacting to Trump, warning, “No one is overreacting. We’re living in real time in a catastrophe.” One prominent date he sees is the November 5 election in Virginia, where Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, a leading Trump supporter, will be dealing with a large and angry electorate made up of thousands of fired federal employees. Carvile asks, “Do you think they’re gonna vote? I think they’re gonna vote. I think I know which way they’re gonna vote, and they’re gonna vote heavily.”

Robert Reich says people are asking him, “Where’s the Democratic Party?” He says that at a time when America needs a strong, bold, courageous opposition, the party’s silence is deafening, but goes on to say, “But with due respect to my old friend James Carville who is telling Democrats to ‘roll over and play dead,’ he’s full of it. Trump is killing our country, reducing the US government to rubble, and destroying our relationships with our allies. Putin may love it, but it’s a catastrophe four us and much of the rest of the world. Democrats have been rolling over and playing dead too long. That’s one reason the nation is in the trouble we’re in. My simple advice to congressional Democrats: Wake the hell up!” He goes on to say that if the party had only “had the guts years ago to condemn big money in politics, fight corporate welfare, and unrig a market that’s been rigged in favor of big corporations and the rich, Trump’s absurd bogeymen (the deep state, immigrants, socialists, trans people, diversity-equity-inclusion) wouldn’t have stood a chance.” His comments preceded the joint congressional session State-of-Trump speech, where he correctly predicted the “Republican lawmakers who have turned over their brains and intestines” would applaud his stream of lies. His wish that the Democrats would boycott the whole event en masse did not come to pass and his suggestion that they would perhaps just sit on their hands and applaud a few insipid Trump utterances was close to what we saw. There were many empty seats, with some making an exit at various times during the ninety-nine minute ordeal. Representative Al Green had to be escorted from the gathering when he heckled Trump as he pointed his cane toward the president for spewing lies, and many of those remaining had brought signs which they held up in response to his insults and rambling lies.

The small, hand-held signs only brought derision and chuckles from the Republican faction, and a political cartoon printed in some newspapers emphasized the futility of the protest in showing a chainsaw wielding Elon Musk laying waste to government buildings as the Democratic donkey mascot sat nearby in a chair holding up a sign that read, “Tsk, tsk.” Andy Borowitz satirized the event with his own account: “Donald J Trump watched Elon Musk’s historic address to Congress Tuesday night from the last row of the House chamber. Striking a menacing tone, Musk threatened to mount lavishly funded primary campaigns against congressional Republicans unless they gave him a standing ovation after every line of his speech. Trump’s view of the speech was partially obstructed by Robert F Kennedy, Jr, who sat in the second-to-last row and brought a dismembered whale’s head as his plus-one guest.” With a bit more accuracy, Borowitz said, “In what is being called a historic performance, on Tuesday night Donald J Trump set a new world record for delivering the longest speech that did not include a single fact. Congressional Republicans were awestruck by their leader’s ability, at the age of 78, to give such a sustained fact-free oration. House Speaker Mike Johnson said, ‘He’s still got it.’ Republicans contrasted Trump’s address favorably with the Democratic response of Senator Elissa Slotkin, who spoke only briefly but whose remarks were riddled with facts.” It must be noted that Elon was actually present, all spruced up in a fitted suit and tie, after ditching the blazer/t-shirt/baseball cap/dark sunglasses attire which is his Oval Office outfit — much the same as Zelensky’s. Stephen Colbert offered his thoughts on the Oval Office’s strict dress code of decorum, saying, “You must either look like a businessman or a guy trying to hand you a flyer outside of a strip club.”

In his speech, Trump again spoke about trying to regain ownership of the Panama Canal, sure to cause diplomatic shockwaves, as he singled out Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the one “to blame if anything goes wrong,” — resulting in a wide-eyed and shocked reaction from Rubio, and a classic forever meme for denizens of social media sites. Poor ‘Little Marco’ was probably still in a state of shock from being present at the Trump-Vance-Zelensky brawl in the Oval Office a few days before. Rubio — who according to Saturday Night Live, will now be known as ‘Marc Ruby’ since Trump signed his English-only language executive order — posted on X that the president’s speech was “inspiring” and “momentous,” with Trump’s “clear mandate from the American people to renew the American Dream.” Ruby won his Senate confirmation 99 to 0, and many hoped that his maturity and government experience would serve him well in holding some sway over Bully Trump, but that is obviously not to be. Ominously, the American asset management company, BlackRock has volunteered to buy two ports at either end of the Panama Canal from their current Hong Kong-based ownership in order to lessen Chinese influence over the crucial international waterway. BlackRock and other investors will spend $22.8 billion to buy the ports of Balboa and Cristobal — a deal which is now only an ‘agreement in principal.’

Response by Senator Bernie Sanders to the joint session speech charges Trump with creating a parallel universe with “a set of ideas that either have no basis in reality, or are nowhere near the most important concerns of the American people” — a pivotal moment in our country’s history. He says Trump’s tactic is the BIG LIE, many of which were heard during the Tuesday night blathering, and these grossly false lies are repeated over and over again, with complicity of right-wing social media sites blasting them out until people accept it as truth. Sanders points to the purpose of these lies, not only to push a right-wing agenda, but to deflect attention away from those important issues facing the country — issues Trump and his billionaire friends don’t wish to address, otherwise there is no financial benefit to them. He emphasized the issues Trump ignored in his record-setting speech: About how will working people support families in these tough times, made tougher by the administration; the reality of the 60% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck; the broken, dysfunctional, expensive health care system, and the non-affordabilty of prescription drugs; the major housing crisis and homelessness;  the massive income and wealth inequality with three 3 Americans owning more wealth than the bottom half of our society; the corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires to buy elections; the life expectancy of the poor compared to the wealthy; and the planetary crisis of climate change. Trump urged Congress to pass his “big beautiful budget,” leaving out ugliness of the $880 billion that would come from Medicaid, leaving 36 million Americans in peril. But what the hey — spaceship ownership is such an important factor nowadays, as well! An occasional fireworks display over the Caribbean is a sight to behold!

On his nightly show, Stephen Colbert mocked Trump’s remarks, but he was most critical of the Democrats, saying, “But don’t you worry. The Democrats came ready to fight back with their little paddles. That is how you save democracy. By quietly dissenting…or bidding on an antique tea set, it was hard to tell what was going on. In fact, I made my own sign.” Impassively, he held up a sign reading: “Try doing something.” Before Trump’s address, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had demanded that Democrats sit meekly and do nothing during the MAGASpeech, a demand that was not respected by several individuals. Consequently, a dozen or so disruptors were called into a ‘come to Jesus meeting’ on Thursday following the address, to be helped to “understand why their strategy is a bad idea,” which brought forth the comment that “if Jeffries has any good ideas, we’d love to hear them,” accompanied by the snarky, “But he’s been busy on a tour to sell his children’s book, “The ABCs of Democracy.” It seems incredibly misguided to scold Congressional Democrats for taking a stand against an autocrat who the party has characterized as a fascist authoritarian — a puny stand though it may be. Elie Mystal wrote in The Nation: “I asked Democrats to boycott Trump’s speech to Congress. They did not. Instead, they brought little placards emblazoned with political messages, as if they were in a silent auction for fascism. We live in hell.” Senator John Fetterman on X, characterized the protests as a “sad cavalcade of self-owns and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained.”

Elie Mystal, besides being disgusted with Democrats for showing up at the joint session, was further enraged that Representative Al Green was censured by Congress for disrupting Trump’s speech “to a joint session of sycophants and co-conspirators”; and, though many Democrats protested and voted against the procedure punishing Green, Mystal posted a list of the ten Democrats who voted with the MAGAts who he hopes will never be able to raise a dollar from other Democrats, ever again: Ami Bera (D-CA), Ed Case (D-HI), Jim Costa (D-CA), Laura Gillen (D-NY), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), Jim Himes (D-CT), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), and Tom Suozzi (D-NY). He also decried Elissa Slotkin’s “tepid Democratic response to Trump’s multi-hour Netflix series address to Congress, during which she managed to praise notable Democratic hero, Ronald Reagan.” Mystal recounts her follow-up interview with Tim Alberta of The Atlantic, “where she outlined her priorities. Her answers were the usual thin gruel that passes for Democratic Party talking points, but one line really stood out to me. She said, ‘It doesn’t win elections to speak to just the base of the party…if it did, Kamala Harris would be president.’ First of all, I’m really gonna need Becky with the 80% White Congressional district to keep Kamala Harris’s name out of her mouth. It’s easy to slag off the Democratic ‘base,’ which has been Black people for Slotkin’s entire life, when nobody is inviting you or your potato salad to the cookout anyway. It’s a little harder when you are running to represent all of America, not just the White folks who think they should own the place.”

Co-president Elon Musk is watching his Tesla vehicle empire skid downward, almost as fast as his pyrotechnics rocket company, though not quite as flashy. Sales are dropping dramatically worldwide, and dealerships are experiencing violent actions from an angry anti-Musk crowd, not to mention individual car and truck owners having their vehicles damaged and getting new paint treatments, or protest stickers applied surreptitiously. A post on Quora shares a definition of the portmanteau word, ‘DePlorean,’ combining ‘deplorable’ and ‘DeLorean,’ which has been applied to Tesla’s Cybertruck. The early 80s DeLorean sports car had a brushed aluminum exterior similar to the C-Truck, and carried similar social connotations of audacity, impracticality, and irritating behavior. While the DeLorean, which originally sold for $12,000 is now a prized collector’s item, the Cybertruck at $100,240 is an overpriced, poorly constructed symbol of excess, greed and stupidity, and much uglier when seen up close than online photos reveal. A UK-based group, ‘Everyone Hates Elon,’ recently unveiled an advertisement for a ‘Swasticar,’ which shows Musk standing in one of his cars while giving the Nazi salute, with printed copy proclaiming the vehicle “goes from zero to 1939 in three seconds.” The bus stop posted image has gone viral, and the group encourages supporters to spread it far and wide, saying, “Not happy with fueling the far-right in the USA, Elon Musk is now doing the same in Europe. We can’t let the richest man in the world poison our politics.” A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise cash to plaster the ‘Swasticar’ ad in more public places, as well as for production of small stickers reading “Don’t buy a Swasticar,” giving emphasis to their motto: “Pissing off Elon Musk, one small action at a time.”

In the UK, Musk has supported the far-right, anti-immigrant Reform Party, and attacked the Labour government by spreading “lies and misinformation” about the criminality of immigrants according to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. A few weeks back, Musk expressed support for Germany’s Alternative for Germany party, which gained support in their losing election campaign, even though it has been classified as a suspected extremist group by Germany’s intelligence service. Two left-wing activist groups — UK’s Led by Donkeys, and Germany’s Center for Political Beauty, claimed responsibility after they beamed an image of Elon Musk making the Nazi salute onto Tesla’s factory in Berlin, accompanied by the words “Heil Tesla.” A jeering crowd who erupted at the mention of Musk’s name on the ‘Late Show‘ caused Stephen Colbert to comment, “That is the sound of Tesla sales plummeting.” He also joked, “Millions of young people can’t stand him — and those are just his kids.” Colin Jost on ‘Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update‘ reported that “experts are saying that Trump’s tariffs will raise the cost of a new car by as much as $12,000, or you can get a free Tesla, since people are throwing them away.” Update co-host, Michael Che reported that European leaders have been coaching Volodymyr Zelensky on dealing with Trump —“kind of like how you need extra training to be a special ed teacher.” Che referred to a Trump claim that “no president has changed government more in 43 days,” to which Che replied, “Yeah, and nobody changed airport security more than bin Laden.” Addressing Trump’s constant back-tracking on his tariffs, amid concerns among consumers and investors, Che joked, “It’s a cunning political tactic experts call ‘bipolar disorder.”