Uh-oh…time to start packing our bags? Allison Detzel writes on the MSNBC website that three Yale professors who are experts in their knowledge and study of authoritarianism are concerned enough about the “democratic emergency” in this country to cross the border to continue their teaching in Canada. They believe the rise of fascism in the US has become so dire that they have decided to leave, with professor Marci Shore referring to Nazi Germany of 1933, and saying, “…the lesson is you get out sooner rather than later. We’re like people on the Titanic, saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink. We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship.’ And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.” The exits of these highly-respected educators comes as a result of the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education, with investigations into dozens of universities over the policies of diversity, equity and inclusion, part of the effort to get them to toe the line and bow down to the new regime in DC. Accusing the universities of favoring antisemitism by allowing pro-Palestinian protests, funding has been cut to many of the institutions, with Harvard being hit particularly hard with cuts and freezing of funds amounting to nearly three billion dollars. As promised during his presidential campaign, the targeting of his perceived enemies and those who publicly criticize his policies are simply victims in the  continuation of his “I am your retribution” mantra. Professor Jason Stanley fears persecution if he stays at Yale, and will go to the University of Toronto “because I want to do my work without the fear that I will be punished for my words. In times as these, it’s essential to set up centers of resistance in places of relative safety.” Stanley shares his colleagues’ concerns, but says he isn’t leaving explicitly because of Trump, a personal reason being his marriage to Marci Shore.

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of his small but familiar book, ‘On Tyranny,’ wrote in the Yale Daily News, that ‘conversations about freedom and unfreedom’ have become harder to have in this country. He warns Americans who believe fascism is only a foreign predicament, saying, “Talking about American exceptionalism is basically a way to get people to fall into line. If you think that there’s this thing out there called ‘America’ and it’s exceptional — that you don’t have to do anything, whatever is happening, it must be freedom. And so then, what your definition of freedom is gets narrowed, and soon you’re using the word ‘freedom’ but what you’re talking about is authoritarianism.” Snyder’s 2017 book, ‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,’ is a worthy read, with a frontispiece quote by Leszek Kolakowski: “In politics, being deceived is no excuse.”

Someone who forgot that you don’t have to make big waves to ruffle the feathers of MAGA this week, was former FBI Director James Comey — who made what should be regarded as only a ripple effect. Seeing a rock and sea shell formation on the beach that someone left behind, a layout reading ‘8647,’ he photographed it and posted it to Instagram, — and the “interesting” post then ramped up the retribution rampagers. The number ’86’ has long been a slang term that means ‘to eliminate’ or ‘get rid of,’ as in: “Get out, and stay out.” Unfortunately, the number ’47’ relates to Donald Trump being the 47th President of the US, so MAGA accused him of threatening or encouraging another assassination attempt. Comey surely knew what ’86’ means, but he apologized , taking down the post, and writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. That didn’t occur to me when I saw it. But I am opposed to violence, so I took the post down.” That wasn’t enough for Team Retribution within the DOJ and Secret Service to forego an investigation, or Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to say he should be in jail — and we can be certain that trickster Roger Stone is lining up the firing squad. Gabbard told Fox Host Jesse Waters that Comey should automatically be locked up — no investigation, no evidence, no due process, just throw away the key for ‘threatening’ a president. A David Schuster piece on BlueAmp mentions the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia who sits in a jail in El Salvador following his deportation without benefit of a court hearing or judicial ruling, despite a 9-0 Supreme Court decision that his return must be ‘facilitated‘ by the Trump administration. Schuster says MAGA World keeps proving Comey’s point: “The threat is not on the beach. It’s coming from inside the house — the White House.”

Still being bandied about by Trump and his Eichmann clone, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, is the threat of suspending habeas corpus — the right of a person to challenge their detention in court — which would be a dramatic escalation of the administration’s immigration policy, and a curtailment of a right enshrined in the Constitution. Miller was asked by a reporter, “First, you know, President Trump has talked about potentially suspending habeas corpus to take care of the illegal immigration problem. When could we see that happen in the future?” Miller raised the specter that it may be necessary because of undocumenteds “invading” the country. “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion. So, it’s an option we’re actively looking at.” The Constitution allows for the suspension in extraordinary circumstances, Article I saying writs of habeas corpus “shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” Our history shows it has been done four times — during the Civil War, the reconstruction period in South Carolina, in the Philippines during the 1905 insurrection, and in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Miller sees a threat from the undocumented migrants, and a similar argument was used by Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, which in his view allowed him to remove noncitizens with no due process, among them Kilmar Abrego Garcia, purported to be a member of Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Two Trump-appointed judges concluded that use of the act was unlawful because the administration failed to prove a Tren de Aragua invasion, but Miller responded that the administration’s decision would come down to whether the “courts do the right thing or not.” Legal experts say the issue is not as simple as Miller suggests, and that a president cannot suspend habeas corpus without authorization from Congress, making any unilateral suspensions by Trump unconstitutional.

In a recent interview, Trump told the interviewer he didn’t know whether the Constitution required him to uphold due process rights of non-citizens, complaining it would present an extraordinary burden of providing individual hearings for millions of immigrants scheduled for deportation. As he wrote on Truth Social, “Our Court System is not letting me do the job I was Elected to do. Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!” Trump’s unmerciful cheerleader, Miller, rages against what he terms a “judicial coup” of rulings upholding the due process rights of immigrants, scoffing at the notion that Trump’s so-called “terrorists” have the right to contest their deportations, their only “right” being deportation. Robert Reich reminds us of four things to remember: 1) The Constitution clearly guarantees “due process” to all “person[s]. The word “person” makes no distinction between citizens and non-citizens. 2) The Supreme Court has long held that this promise extends to immigrants in deportation proceedings. In 1993, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that “It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.” 3) Due process doesn’t always require a full trial, however. Immigrants are entitled to: a) Notice of the charges against them in a “notice to appear,” outlining the reasons for potential deportation. b) The opportunity to present evidence before an immigration judge to show why they should not be deported. c) A judgement based on the facts of the case and applicable immigration law. d) The right to appeal the decision to a higher court. 4) The right to habeas corpus is fundamental to our legal system. Defendants have used habeas corpus to challenge detentions by governments since 13th-century England and the Magna Carta. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 84, “The subjecting of men to punishment for things which, when they were done, were breaches of no law, and the practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.” Reich asks, “What happens if ICE decides that the definition of an ‘American citizen’ doesn’t apply to someone who has spoken out against the regime, for example? What happens if habeas corpus is suspended and all Americans are in danger of arbitrary punishment? A growing number of jurists have framed this fight as existential for all Americans’ fundamental rights, not just those of immigrants. They’re right.”

In one of his posts, Reich says we are living in a time of “monsters” who roam the globe: Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Xi, Modi, Erdogan, and others, who are destroying countless lives, fueling hate, spreading fear. He asks, “What is our moral obligation as human beings in the face of this? How do we maintain integrity in a time of monsters?” Some are in denial and have stopped listening to the news, preferring not to know what the monsters are doing, and he understands that it’s too painful to hear about the abductions and deportations in our country, the deaths in Ukraine and Gaza, human rights abuses in China and Turkey, and the violence in Kashmir. Being immobilized by grief, some cannot abide the inhumanity and suffering, sinking into despair, believing nothing will be done. Others are resigned to what’s happening, believing their only choice is to keep quiet for fear of reprisals from the monsters; and no matter what one feels, guilt should not be a response — “we are only human.” However, it’s also important to know that these attitudes help the monsters thrive and grow — believing nothing can be done, or assuming nothing will be done, or believing silence is a practical choice, only fueling more monstrosity. Reich relates the story of New York social worker, Emily Feiner, who went to Republican Congressman Mike Lawler’s town hall and asked him ‘what would it take for him to refuse to go along with Trump?’ His non-answer drove her to persist, so she was told to leave, refusing to do so. State troopers then lifted the 64-year old from her chair to deposit her outside the meeting hall, with catcalls erupting from the attendees, shouting, “Shame, shame, shame!” Feiner was subsequently labeled a “radical far-left” activist by Lawler, though she is only an average American, sometime-Republican voter, who has now had enough. She does not deny what is happening, going to town halls to express her views, and asking questions. She’s not in despair, but is filled with positive energy, and is not silent as she actively resists the monsters and their agents to hold them accountable. Reich believes that if enough of us emulate Emily by standing up, the monsters cannot win — we will prevail, ending up with a democracy stronger than it was before the time of monsters.

Steve Schmidt was appalled by the gilded parade of Trump and his entourage in Saudi Arabia last week, saying, “The images of Donald Trump’s arrival in Saudi Arabia are disgraceful and without precedent. What the American people [witnessed] is an ‘Eras’ tour [a la Taylor Swift] of corruption and crony capitalism that beggars belief and description, while being broadcast in the plain light of day. It is a death march and a celebration of decay, collapse and the shattering of free market capitalism in favor of a new Trump gangsterism that picks winners and losers.” His posse for this trip consisted of about 20 business leaders from Tesla, IBM, Boeing, Amazon, Halliburton, Citigroup, Google, Coca-Cola, Uber, LinkedIn, and The LA Times — just a simple mom-and-pop collection of small-business owners! Schmidt continues, “Trump has come to the Arab thugs, hat in one hand, with weapons systems dangling from the other, looking for more for Trump, while telling the American people that they must have less for America. When historians look back at this era there will never be a lack of fascination over our anesthetized culture and indifferent population that was the frog in the pot for 10 long years before the water boiled. The lies spilling over the American people from Trump and his propagandists aren’t just absurd, but ludicrously so. America’s politicians, billionaires and CEOs have turned aggressive against the American people, the US Constitution, free market capitalism, the rule of law, personal liberty and democracy. It will be up to all of us to help instruct them with a memorable teachable moment. Each day the reckoning draws closer — it is coming. A judgement will be rendered over the obscenities at hand, for there has never been a worse lot of Americans who have ever gathered together with temporary power, and more profoundly betrayed the interests of the people who gave it to them in the entire history of America. Donald Trump thinks he has a license to steal and take, and more incredibly, the scumbags who surround him and compete for his affections and a chance to taste his detritus, think they have a license to steal. There is a terrible price to be paid for indifference and not caring — America is paying for it now, but soon the indifferent will start caring again. That’s why Donald, cocooned by his arrogance, will never see it coming.”

The Onion, in a post aimed at Gangster Trump and his minions, quotes an individual who is complaining about having to read the Terms and Conditions before he is able to download a ‘stupid app’ to bribe the president. He longs for the old days when it was a straightforward procedure, like “doing a dead drop of a briefcase in a parking garage,” but nowadays he has to link his bank account to a cryptocurrency exchange, making space on his phone by deleting some apps he uses to bribe other world leaders and public officials. Plus, he now must ‘create a wallet’ and convert all his funds into special tokens, hardly a simple and streamlined procedure. Further, he expects he will be getting push notifications to inform him about new opportunities to funnel money to the president and his family. However, The Onion reports a glitch in the process as a result of Chinese spyware that came with the app — what a headache! Sounds almost plausible?

Donald Trump now has more work to do in his retributions procedures, with Bruce Springsteen rising to the top of the list following his ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ tour in Manchester, England. Springsteen’s message to his audience attacked Trump, charging him with leading “a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” which only raised Trump’s hackles even more in light of the rocker’s endorsement of candidate Kamala Harris in October 2024, and a history of endorsements to include Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. In giving his seal of approval to Harris, Springsteen called Trump “The most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime. Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually, and emotionally divided as it does at this moment. It doesn’t have to be that way.” A couple of days following ‘The Boss’s’ fiery description of the MAGA regime, Trump lashed out to call the artist “a dried-out prune of a rocker.” The president posted on Truth Social, “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our country.” Patting himself on the back yet again, Trump suggests the country “would be gone by now” absent his election, and warned Springsteen of repercussions from MAGA World should he make similar comments during his domestic shows. “Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on. This dried-out ‘prune’ of a rocker ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country. That’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” cautioned the president.

With his fiery juices flowing, Trump then launched into other performers on Truth Social, asking, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?'” Swift has long been a Trump critic and they have exchanged comments and insults in the past. David Gura of Bloomberg News posted on X: “Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which concluded in December, sold $2,077,618,725 in tickets — double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history.” In reaction to Trump’s dissing of Swift, Representative Jamie Raskin quoted words from Springsteen’s ‘Badlands’ recording: “Poor man wanna be rich. Rich man wanna be king. The king ain’t satisfied ’til he rules everything.” Other posts on social media called The Don’s comments simply distractions to cover his new Qatari plane brouhaha, retail price hikes from his tariffs, or the fact that he’s ripping away Medicare and Medicaid from millions of Americans. Political analyst Larry Sabato said, “77 million Americans voted for a president who spends his time on Air Force One (the real one) trashing Swift and Springsteen.” On a roll, Trump couldn’t stop, so now it’s on to investigating not only Springsteen, but Beyoncé, Oprah, and Bono, accusing the Kamala Harris campaign of paying them illegally to endorse her under the guise of performance fees. Trump is throwing around ridiculously large expenditures that were paid — no proof or backup, of course, but the Federal Elections Commission shows much lower fees were paid to production companies for staging the events — which would include payroll, sound and lighting equipment — all of which cannot be donated to political campaigns. In all likelihood, Donny is still digging — many more lies to tell and lives to shatter before he rests, a monster on the edge!

Carley Suthers writes on BuzzFeed, “As an American, I’ll be the first to admit that we can be a bit weird. While all countries have habits and behaviors that make them unique, the US takes that to a bit of an extreme, much to the bafflement of others.” She picks up a feed on social media platform Reddit, where a member posted an invitation to followers to submit comments about things about the US that don’t make sense, yet are considered ‘normal’ by most Americans. One commenter feels that second- and third-generation Americans who boast about having Irish, German, etc. roots in other countries should simply face the reality that they are Americans, with nothing in common with those countries. Another feels Americans are weird about religion, citing tour guides on European trips explaining that most locals are not practicing believers — just following a tradition, and not having their whole personas wrapped around religious beliefs. Several felt that allowing a waiter to take your credit card, walk into another room out of sight, before bringing back the receipt, is completely wild and ripe for credit card fraud. Likely speaking from experience, another feels that teenagers should not have jobs while in high school, which wastes the remainder of their childhood between work, study, and school attendance — no time to hang out with friends and socialize to develop relationships. Another submission reads, “The incongruity between blind flag-worship and constantly desecrating the flag by putting it on everything — if you like the flag so much, don’t turn it into a swimsuit!” One submission bashes ‘tipping’ with, “Why is it ok to underpay certain jobs in hopes that the consumers will pay extra to provide a living for employees — employers should pay employees, period!” Americans who buy pickup trucks as their ‘normal’ family vehicle, but rarely haul anything, strikes another as unusual. ‘Pharmaceutical ads’ grate on a few people, who dislike hearing several speeded-up seconds of ‘possible side effects’ before being advised to get a doctor’s recommendation. One ‘weirdness’ with several commenters targets our health care system. One says, “Our healthcare system is trash. So many people can’t afford health insurance, so they slowly wither away or go broke to stay healthy. Horrific!” The topper has to be the follower who wrote, “Honestly? Electing a bankrupt reality TV host as president and then doubling down eight years later, like it was a subscription you forgot to cancel. That’s not politics — that’s a national cry for help!”

A post on Quora begins, “Trump is not the president.” Attribution is to Jesse Dollemore and it continues, “I have long suspected something similar, as have many others. There are too many things Trump does not know — too many people, he says, are responsible for the things he does not know; too many things he does are because Laura Loomer, Bobby Kennedy, Stephen Miller, etc. tell him to do those things. He has no idea what half the things he signs are about. They have to be explained. There are aides in the Oval Office in every presser having to explain things to him. Trump is a narcissistic old man, on the edge of dementia, loving the idea of being powerful and respected and feared by all, but woefully incompetent. It bewilders him that people hate him, it makes him furious, and he lashes out with insane posts, night after night. His handlers reassure him with compliments, thank him, and tell him what a genius he is.” No president? Seems like MANY presidents! David McAfee writes on the Raw Story blog, that a Washington Post analysis says Trump could be “out of the loop.” Reporter Aaron Blake wrote, “The president appears to be taking a backseat in his own presidency despite criticizing his predecessor for being asleep at the wheel, suggesting himself that ‘he’s not involved in major decisions.'” Blake’s article says, “One of the major themes of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign was the idea that Joe Biden had no idea what was happening around him, but less than four months after taking over from Biden, it’s Trump who, in his own telling, is often unaware of major events surrounding him and directly involving his administration.” He highlights, in addition to ‘pleading ignorance’ on some issues,Trump has also distanced himself from certain administration moves — as if he had little or nothing to do with them, suggesting he played virtually no role in the selection of his new candidate for surgeon general, Casey Means. “I don’t know her,” Trump said in his announcement. “There’s certainly a question about how much Trump actually is out of the loop and how much he’s just saying that. Trump’s record for dishonesty is nearly without compare. When it comes to some of the more sensitive issues, he could benefit from distance from these decisions, but this seemingly hands-off approach also reared its head in his first term, particularly when it came to the administration’s COVID response,” writes Blake. He concludes, “And it’s certainly a notable posture from the man who said his predecessor was hopelessly disengaged and repeatedly talked about how bad it was to have people who aren’t president call the shots.”

As CNN reports, Trump influencer Laura Loomer can get President Trump on his direct phone line, but she can’t get a seat in his briefing room, even as the White House opens its doors to a new class of media personalities consisting of online commentators, podcasters, web video hosts and partisan influencers — leaving her as one of the most prominent figures in the pro-Trump digital ecosystem remaining on the outside looking in. Loomer explained to CNN, “I do think there’s a fear that I may ask questions about the loyalties of people in the White House, and they fear me having a national and global microphone to ask these questions.” For instance, she wanted to know why Hunter Biden still had Secret Service protection once Trump took office, so the president revoked that privilege in March, but she also questions why the White House legal team isn’t pushing to disqualify judges she sees as conflicted. And most of all, why certain staffers with what she claims are questionable allegiances have been hired in the first place. “I would hold people accountable,” Loomer continues. “Not to be malicious toward anyone in the administration but to support the America First agenda.” CNN says the White House did not respond to their request for comment on this. Loomer’s skepticism of Trump’s White House is a right-wing rarity, since most of her peers amplify the presidents actions, echoing the administration’s talking points or attack outside critics; she, on the other hand, often directs her fire to target perceived traitors inside the government and maximizing pain on is enemies. A few weeks ago, following a Loomer phone call, and a followup Oval Office meeting, Trump dismissed several national security aides that she flagged, and more recently he reassigned national security adviser Michael Waltz to be ambassador to the UN, following weeks of public criticism by Loomer regarding Waltz’s staffing appointments. Following this shakeup, she posted on X, ‘Loomered‘ — a term used to describe those who draw her anger, soon to find their jobs and reputations in jeopardy. Describing herself as an investigative journalist on X, and with her twice-weekly broadcast on alt-right video platform, Rumble, she said, “Contrary to what’s been said, Trump doesn’t hire the best people. That’s why it’s so important there’s people to help support the president, because nobody’s perfect. Show me any other independent ‘new media’ reporter that’s having more of an impact on the Trump administration than me, with the president calling me for private meetings — but I don’t meet the standards of the esteemed press team? It’s a joke.” Loomer’s confrontational style, her past inflammatory rhetoric, and promotion of conspiracy theories, and being out of step with the tone of those so far granted access is why she is being held at arm’s length, and in the view of Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, she is viewed more as an influencer. “All those details matter,” Spicey said.

So, influencer and MAGA disciple Loomer says she is “deeply disappointed” in Trump for accepting a luxury jet from what she called “jihadists in suits,” reports Malcolm Ferguson in The New Republic. The gift of a Boeing 747-8 from Qatar’s royal family is to be upgraded, at taxpayer expense, into the new Air Force One, replacing the 40 year old aircraft now in use, and making it one of the most lavish gifts given to a US president. The president claims it will not be used by him following his presidency, as it will be given to his presidential library. “Loomer was quick to voice her distaste for the move, even as it was rooted in Islamophobia,” writes Ferguson. She continued her diatribe, saying, “It’s going to be hard for the administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and obliterate Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah when Qatar funds the Muslim Brotherhood, harbors Hamas, and the US just accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar. We are watching an Islamic takeover of our country in real time. And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump. I’m so disappointed.”

Greg Sargent writes in The New Republic, that our know-nothing president in his “intensive daily reading of complex policy papers,” noticed in the title of a government initiative created by President Biden, a ‘woke’ term — ‘equity’ — leading him to conclude, of course, the initiative was designed to aid undeserving minorities. Perceiving it to be reverse racism toward Whites, he immediately announced on Truth Social he had cancelled the program, fuming, “It’s RACIST. No more woke handouts based on race!” The program, the Digital Equity Act, contained mega-amounts of money for governments in GOP-run states, as well a Democratic ones, to expand high-speed internet access in underserved communities, including red states’ rural areas. Much of the money has already been approved, following submission of states’ proposals, explicitly designed by GOP governments to serve their rural constituents. Many proposals have not been approved, and with Trump’s clumsy interference, reductions or complete blockage of funds is now possible. Senator Patty Murray says his cutoff is illegal, and states are likely to sue, as Republicans see their own voters threatened. Trump posted on social media, “I have spoken to my wonderful Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and we agree that the Biden/Harris so-called “Digital Equity Act” is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL. No more woke handouts based on race! The Digital Equity Program is a RACIST and ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR giveaway. I am ending this IMMEDIATELY, and saving Taxpayers BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!” Sargent says, “It’s anybody’s guess how serious Lutnick really is about this. But if the Commerce Department, which is implementing this law, follows Trump’s command, it will do all it can to halt these payments.” In her statement, Senator Murray says, “It’s insane that Trump is blocking resources to help make sure kids in rural school districts can get online all because he doesn’t like the word ‘equity.’ My Republican colleagues will need to explain to their constituents why the rural schools they represent won’t get this funding for hotspots or laptops in the meantime.” Somebody needs to get ‘Loomered.’

As noted above, on May 7, Trump announced he was nominating Dr. Casey Means to be surgeon general instead of his initial choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, igniting criticism since Means is only a wellness influencer who didn’t finish her medical residency at Stanford, therefore lacking a valid medical license. As one social media posting pointed out, “The US is the only country where one needs a license to cut hair, but not so to practice medicine at the highest level.” The president praised her qualifications, though she is closely linked to the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ ideology championed by none other than Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump posted on Truth Social, “Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of HHS, Robert Kennedy, to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans. Her academic achievements, together with her life’s work, are absolutely outstanding. Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in US History.” Later, as he was faced with questions about her qualifications, he was backtracking about his selection of an individual who never finished her residency. “Because Bobby thought she was fantastic,” he answered to a questioner’s query about why she was qualified to be America’s top doctor, adding, “I don’t know her.” Means completed her undergraduate degree and medical school at Stanford, but never finished her surgical residency, though she ultimately finished enough postgraduate work to qualify for a medical license in Oregon before turning to alternative medicine. In her public appearances, and in her book, ‘Good Energy,’ she claims that her residency experience left her disillusioned with the state of modern medicine, purporting to now be “working towards a healthier and happier planet by empowering people to understand their health and the limitless potential within them.” Oregon public records indicate her medical license has been inactive since January 2024, so it remains to be seen if her nomination will hold up to congressional scrutiny, despite Kennedy’s defense of her on X. The People website quotes RFK as saying, “The attacks that Casey is unqualified because she left the medical system completely misses the point of what we are trying to accomplish with MAHA. Casey is the perfect choice for Surgeon General precisely because she left the traditional medical system — not in spite of it.” Kennedy accuses the medical industry and media outlets of paying influencers to “vilify” Means, adding, “But it will not work.” Sure, but can she cut hair, Bobby?

Being a fanatical Trump supporter seemed to be qualification enough for the president to raid the Fox Network once again for one of his new appointments. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is such an unhinged individual that the network took her show off the air following the 2020 election out of fear that she would use it to launder deranged conspiracy theories about a ‘stolen election,’ but Trump praised her Fox News career last week, appointing her interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, dumping US Attorney Ed Martin as a nominee who showed weakness for a Senate confirmation. If you’re keeping score, Pirro is person number 23 with Fox history, picked by Trump for his second Oval Office occupancy. Martin’s Achilles heel seemed to be his legal support for January 6 defendants. Pirro was elected as a Westchester County Court Judge in New York in 1990, then later served as the county’s district attorney prior to her losing run for US Senate in 2005 — for which she is still in debt to the tune of $600,000, not to mention failure to file mandatory financial reports. She then experienced a landslide defeat for state attorney general, and the following year began her Fox sojourn for two decades, serving as a legal analyst, hosting the weekend program Justice with Judge Jeanine, and co-hosting the weekday panel show The Five.

After Trump’s 2016 victory, Pirro essentially became a Fox shill and propagandist in what the late Simon Maloy termed “advocacy for the president that is so aggressive that it often borders on insane.” She called for a “cleansing” of the FBI and the Justice Department, firing individuals “who should be taken out in handcuffs.” Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was urged to resign if he was “unwilling to protect Trump and prosecute his enemies,” and then getting a suspension for pointing out that Representative Ilhan Omar’s hijab was a sign of her adherence to Sharia Law, and not the US Constitution. Pirro vehemently defended Trump’s ‘stolen election’ lies in 2020, prompting Fox to preempt her first broadcast following the election; yet when she was allowed to return, she provided conspiracy-minded segments promoting the false claims, including attacks on technology company Dominion Voting Systems — segments which provided ammo for Dominion in its lawsuit against Fox, resulting in a massive payout for Fox in the court decision. The lawsuit gave some insight into how her Fox colleagues viewed her, with Fox executive David Clark explaining he had taken her show off the air initially because, “I don’t trust her to be responsible. If she offers any pushback against guests, it will only be token.” Internal emails reveal her executive producer described her as a “reckless maniac” who is “nuts,” and “should never be on live television, promoting her conspiracy theories.”

But Fox being what it is, it’s hard to fire a Trump supporter, so Pirro got a promotion to The Five, using that position to furiously denounce the legal cases against Trump, along with the prosecutors and jurors involved in the cases. After a jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts in New York, she said, “We have gone over a cliff in America. This is a new era in America, and I think it goes against the ilk of who we are as Americans and our faith in the criminal justice system.” After Trump’s return to the Oval Office, she kept showering him with praise, saying, “Donald Trump is not panicked and neither should we be because he’s bringing us to the golden age, and that’s the end of it.” Her years of denunciation of the Justice Department’s failing to serve Trump’s will and throwing his political enemies in jail, now opens up her own opportunities for doing just that. The Daily Dose of Democracy website advises us, “Strap in, folks! Donald Trump has turned to yet another Fox teevee talker for yet another top post…Jeanine Pirro will apparently take a break from drunkenly shouting about her many phobias on the Fox New airwaves to become the interim US Attorney for DC…the same Judge Jeanine who was named in the $787 million Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit for spreading election lies, and whose convicted husband was granted a last-minute pardon by Trump in 2021 for tax evasion. Someone at Saturday Night Live better get Cecily Strong and her wine goblet on speed dial.” And, indeed that happened…Cecily appeared on SNL last week as Jeanine in the opening sketch along with the regulars portraying Trump and Hegseth (who, true to his promise to ‘put down the bottle’ during his tenure as Defense Secretary is sated by Mama Bird Jeanine to Baby Bird Pete). The Lincoln Project says all one has to do to get a Trump job is wend your way onto Fox News and praise Donald like you’re on a Russian propaganda network — don’t try to tell anybody Pete Hegseth or Jeanine Pirro got their nominations based on qualifications! TLP’s favorite Pirro fact is that she has been nominated for two Daytime Emmy awards, losing both times, and the hope is that she goes 0 for 3.

Brian Karem headlines his thoughts on Salon, “When facts become seditious, it’s time to hit the panic button.” Karem mentions the cabinet meeting of a couple of weeks ago, where for two hours, Trump “reveled in their professed unconditional love and appreciation,” with “Pam Bondi telling the president ‘no one has ever done anything better in the history of mankind,’ or something like that,” and Pete Hegseth texting the entire meeting to his family and a reporter from The Atlantic on his Signal app. “According to Elon Trump, or Donald Musk, the president has brought the world to the brink of Nirvana,” observes Karem, but “we have to come to grips with an unshakeable truth — free speech no longer exists. Every positive thing that Trump claims he’s done, he can back up because he’s stifled dissent. Everything his detractors say he’s done to the detriment of the country begins and ends with the same reason. Without dissent, without facts, without the ability to speak truth to power, you cannot have due process. You cannot educate. You cannot inform, and you certainly can’t govern democratically. Today, if we’re not kissing the ring, we aren’t wanted. What Trump wants and needs is a roomful of sycophants and media influencers who applaud the lunacy that has destroyed free speech. That’s why Trump is an unmitigated disaster, and the next 1,360 days will be fraught with peril. But, on the upside, your Uber driver speaks English.”