MONGRELS, MATH EPIDEMIC, COMMUNICATIVE CANDOR

Robert Reich wrote on Substack this week that the shooting of two National Guard members by a gunman in DC was horrific enough, “but President Trump’s response has been disproportionate and bigoted,” vowing to “permanently pause” migrations from all Third World Countries, while deporting those considered “high risk.” Further, he threatens to strip US citizenship from naturalized migrants “who undermine domestic tranquility,” or those deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” And true to form, he wants more migrants jailed, either in this country or within foreign borders, without due process of the law. These unconstitutional actions stir up the worst nativist impulses within our citizenry as he blames and scapegoats entire groups for the act of one gunman.

Excluding Native Americans, we are all immigrants in some form or another, possibly descended from immigrants who came voluntarily and some who came in chains; and most of us “are mongrels,” says Reich. The mixed nationalities, mixed ethnicities, mixed races, mixed creeds embrace the ideals of this nation even as we maintain our own traditions within our families, our neighborhoods, and geographical regions. Reich says he hasn’t quoted President Reagan before now, but excerpts a 1988 speech which is pertinent for today: “I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan and live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.‘”

Reich continues: “A person becomes an American by adopting America’s principles, especially those principles summarized in the ‘self-evident truths’ of the Declaration of Independence, such as ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Carl Friedrich wrote that ‘To be and American is an ideal, while to be a Frenchman is a fact.’ As an immigrant friend once put it to me: ‘I was always an American; I was just born in the wrong country.'” Reich says, “Reagan was wrong about so many things, yet he understood something fundamental to this nation that Trump doesn’t have a clue about: America is an idea — a set of aspirations and ideals — more than a nationality. The only thing Trump knows is that he needs to fuel bigotry. His Straight White Male Christian Nationalism requires prejudice against anyone who’s ‘not.’ Like dictators before him, Trump’s road to tyranny is paved with stones hurled at ‘them.’ His entire project depends on hate.”

Andy Borowitz contributes another possible rationale for the Trump administration’s prejudice against migrants via his The Borowitz Report: “Delivering an incendiary accusation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned on Thursday that ‘an invasion force of migrants’ is smuggling math across the US-Mexico border. ‘They are bringing textbooks, calculators, and slide rules into our country, hoping to get America’s children hooked on math,’ she said. ‘President Trump has made a strong commitment to protect our country from math, whatever it takes,’ she added. Claiming that the nation was suffering from a ‘math epidemic,’ Leavitt refused to disclose how many math-smuggling migrants have invaded the US thus far, noting, ‘Using numbers is exactly what they want us to do.‘”

MeidasTouch’s Ben Meiselas writes, “This week, America got another reminder that something is fundamentally off-kilter inside Trump’s operation, and it’s bleeding straight out of his own mouth. And no, it’s not a diagnosis. It’s not a medical issue. It’s the consequences of pressure, bad advice, and a political strategy built on grievance gasoline with a match permanently lit. When the walls start closing in, Trump doesn’t adapt; he detonates.” Meiselas says starting with Mar-a-Lago — where good questions go to die — Trump detonated against CBS’s Nancy Cordes when she asked why blame President Biden for failing to vet DC shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal, when it was actually accomplished in Afghanistan, with Trump’s own administration later granting him asylum. Trump answered, “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Meiselas describes this response coming from a man who feels cornered by facts and defaulting to the same insult arsenal he used as a New York tabloid curiosity — no strategy, no sign of strength.

This can be seen as the result of the president’s surrounding himself with MAGAs who tell him every problem is someone else’s fault, every question is an attack, and every woman who challenges him is showing disrespect. Bad advice equals bad behavior, and America is reacting exactly the way you would expect, resulting in frustration, exhaustion, and increasing concern. Lately, Nancy Cordes hasn’t been the only Trump target. He tagged Katie Rogers of The New York Times as “third rate, and ugly, both inside and out,” after she and a male co-author wrote a conscientious, fact-based piece about the president’s age, mobility, stamina, schedule, and his recent MRI, all elements documented and observable by anyone paying attention. Trump called the Times a “rag” and “the enemy of the people,” with no comment about the male writer.

Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucy’s question about the Epstein files, which Trump has termed a “witch hunt,” brought his now infamous response of, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” Then came ABC’s Mary Bruce asking a question about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, which has been linked to the Saudi Crown Prince, who happened to be in the room with Trump, and members of the press. The president immediately scolded her for “embarrassing” MBS, calling her a “terrible person” for asking an “insubordinate” question. So he’s royalty and the White House press members are his disobedient subjects, particularly women, who he can blame for holding up mirrors he can’t bear to gaze at. Meiselas says, “Karoline Leavitt stepped up and called this barrage ‘honesty’ and ‘frankness,’ as if ‘Are you stupid?’ is presidential transparency. As if ‘piggy’ is a bold new chapter in communicative candor. As if calling a journalist ‘ugly’ is something the press should appreciate.”

Meiselas remarks that America isn’t buying it, because people see the hostility, the thin skin, and a president absorbing the weight of a job his own advisers have convinced him is a battlefield, not a responsibility. He concludes, “So here’s what we know. When presidents feel confident, they lead. When they feel cornered, they lash out. Trump isn’t lashing out because he’s strong; he’s lashing out because he’s under pressure, badly advised, and increasingly aware that the media questions he hates are questions millions of Americans are asking too. And the women asking those questions aren’t the problem. They’re the truth-tellers. They’re the accountability he can’t silence. And that, more than anything, is the truth he’s afraid you’ll hear.”

As those of you who grew up with siblings, or attended the average American elementary school, learned quickly that there are lines you don’t cross. Name-calling probably got you grounded, or marched to the principal’s office resulting in a note to take home to your parents, and maybe a paddle landed on your backside somewhere along in the process. It would take a fairly large paddle to cover Trump’s rear, which is hardly a solution to quell the world’s oldest third-grader letting fly with a continuous  lunchroom tantrum. A time-out at Mar-a-Lago won’t work because the seating appears to be quite comfortable.

Last Saturday, the tantrum continued with Trump’s message that “all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers” should avoid Venezuela’s airspace as it was now “closed in its entirety.” Giving no legal basis for his pronouncement, he left the impression that he was prepared to shoot down commercial airliners in the area, hardly a foreign policy — simply the unstable rhetoric of one who views war as a personal tool and an annoying threat based on his lethal strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the open ocean. These strikes are not lawful acts of war, but extrajudicial killings. Defense Secretary Hegseth reportedly ordered forces to “kill everybody,” a directive that violates the most basic tenets of the laws of armed conflict — a war crime, and murder.

When asked about Hegseth’s ‘kill order,’ President Trump, per his usual answer that he “knows nothing about it” — probably the truth — and believes his Secretary of Defense’s denial of having given the order. The Washington Post reported the Special Operations commander of the strike ordered a second attack to comply with Hegseth’s wishes, which the Secretary termed “fake news.” Trump claims that he himself would not have ordered a second strike, “so, we’ll look at, we’ll look into it,” while insisting that US military actions are “lawful.” Holding your breath is not advised. Perhaps we can take some comfort from Andy Borowitz’s statement: “Pete Hegseth has made me feel so much better about my drinking.”

Trump’s announcement last week that he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving 45 years for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into this country in collaboration with El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel, flies in the face of his administration’s so-called war on drugs. Hernández vowed to “shove cocaine up the noses of gringos until they die.” The former Honduran president is connected to people like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen and other techies, and was beloved by the crypto world for creating lawless, sovereign zones for tech utopias organized around crypto. As Alexander Willis writes on Raw Story, “The current government moved to shut down the zones. The crypto class fought back and Trump is now doing their bidding.” Perhaps Hernández can now get a job with Kristi Noem’s ICE mob, with his background of violence and his prison sentence bona fides.

As Richard Steiner, an advisor to Oasis Earth, writes that Trump’s saber-rattling about potential military action in Venezuela is indeed about drugs — not cocaine or fentanyl. Oil is the addiction of the USA. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, larger than Saudi Arabia’s reserves. Trump and his oil industry cronies may see that getting rid of President Nicolás Maduro will give them unlimited access to the reserves under a friendly government. To hell with any hope of future climate stability! Mr. Trump and his oil industry chums are the most dangerous narco-traffickers we should worry about.

Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch commented last week that President Trump awakened in “full panic mode” allowing us to see “a violent, public unraveling from a sitting president who once again threatened to execute elected lawmakers for doing their jobs and upholding the Constitution.” The six Democrats, all military veterans or former intelligence officials, in a video were simply reminding US service personnel to remember their sworn oaths and not follow unlawful orders; yet the president himself is flailing with intensified rage and Meiselas says the question is “not whether his behavior is dangerous — it is whether our institutions, our media and our citizens are prepared to confront that danger before the chaos he is creating becomes irreversible.” Trump isn’t operating from strength — his tantrums and threats reveal his weakness, and his predicament causes his lashing out. It should be mentioned that even Fox’s legal analyst reminded viewers that refusing unlawful orders is required under US law and should be understood in a functioning democracy.

Trump posted on social media that the six are “traitors,” accusing them of “seditious behavior punishable by death.” He urged that they should be hanged because, “George Washington would hang them,” and that they should be put on trial and face their punishment. The top military lawyer overseeing operations in the Caribbean and Pacific regions concluded that recent US military actions my constitute “extrajudicial killings,” which of course, was overruled by Attorney General Pam Bondi and her Department of Justice lackeys. The Don’s media outbursts are paths to exacting revenge, but also about distractions to draw attention away from the Epstein news, the economy, unemployment, and his tariffs. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insists that her boss doesn’t wish to execute these members of Congress, merely to see them “held accountable.” She insists that the president hasn’t given any illegal orders while accusing the lawmakers of attempting to incite violence by encouraging active duty military to defy the chain of command.

As might be expected, Republicans went to the president’s defense, attacking the six Democrats for threatening the country’s national security. Wishy-washy House Speaker Johnson interpreted Trump’s statement as “defining sedition,” and that the “so-called leaders in Congress” are “out of control” in their “wildly inappropriate” behavior. Senator Chuck Schumer commented, “When Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen. He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline.” Senator Rand Paul told Chris Cuomo, “There is no resistance on the the Republican side. They are afraid, they are frightened to cross him. He’s become more involved in primaries than any president has. They are just afraid. Even the ones who have a correct instinct are afraid to say anything.” Paul said on ‘Face the Nation‘ that the president’s remark were “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible” and that the country “can do better.” In this same vein, former Trump DOJ appointee, Chad Mizelle laid out his approach at a Federalist Society meeting on winning judicial fights in Pennsylvania. He shared a story involving his father’s implicit threats to put down stray cats in the family’s yard, suggesting that Trump should stand up to judges and say, “Judges, I know how to deal with stray cats.” This would seem to be the new strategy on the extreme-right: “If you can’t beat ’em, kill ’em.”

Joyce Vance writes on her Civil Discourse blog: “Trump continues to use his claimed power to kill people who have received no due process, in international waters, based on his administration’s assertion that they are narcoterrorists.” It is telling that Trump last week met with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who likely ordered the killing of US-based Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi during Trump’s first term as president. Trump tells a reporter who brought up the correspondent’s death, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” The point is evident that even if the six Congress members who made the video had done something traitorous or unlawful, neither of which they did, the president doesn’t get to impose punishment or impose the death penalty. That only happens in countries like North Korea, Iran, and…Saudi Arabia, writes Vance. Further, she says, “George Washington would, most certainly, not have hung members of Congress for expressing their views. He would not have approved of what Donald Trump said today, or pretty much any day…this president’s words have all too frequently become actions once spoken to his followers.”

One of Trump’s ‘condemned,’ Senator Mark Kelly, called on Republicans in Congress to denounce President Trump’s threats against he and his five ‘traitor‘ compatriots. “We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the US Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress,” Kelly told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ In a piece on MS Now, retired USAF Lt. Col. Rachel E. VanLandingham, wrote, “the six well-intentioned congressional Democrats who made the video likely did more harm than good for those of us who appreciate the quandary our service members are actually in — a political stunt that disrespects those in uniform.” The six are demanding that military members disobey unlawful orders without specifying just what military orders they are to disobey without acknowledging the grave risk that disobedience carries, VanLandingham believes — which only adds to the moral injury those in uniform are carrying, since there is no specificity.

Orders are issued with a presumption of legality, and disobedience would come at great risk to a service member’s career and liberty, and should that member interpret the ‘refuse unlawful orders’ demand as permission to not obey, then that member would be refusing at the risk of having to prove the illegality for their actions in a court-martial. VanLandingham says, “It’s awfully cavalier for lawmakers to urge that some unspecified order be disobeyed when they’re not the ones who’d be risking their career or even jail time for refusing an order.” The military also could always forgo court-martial and instead use what’s called ‘adverse administrative action’ to force a discharge, which would make it more difficult for a judge to answer the question about a particular order’s legality. The ‘Manual for Courts-Martial‘ has a subset of orders termed ‘patently’ or ‘manifestly’ illegal — an order ‘that directs the commission of a crime,’ under which a service member would be criminally liable.

VanLandingham goes on to say, “However, the bar for what constitutes a patently unlawful order is high and has, practically speaking, been largely reserved to obvious war crimes, that concept being forged  during the famous Nuremberg trials when the victorious Allies refused to allow the ‘superior orders’ defense to excuse the worst industrial-scale atrocities witnessed by mankind. The Nuremberg legacy is that a ‘patently unlawful order’ must be disobeyed, and the highest US military appellate court has described such an order as ‘one which a man of ordinary sense and understanding would, under the circumstances, know to be unlawful, or if the order in question is actually known to the accused to be unlawful.”” An example is when the court applied this standard to uphold US Army Lt. William Calley’s murder convictions for killing unarmed Vietnamese men, women and children at the hamlet of My Lai during the Vietnam War, despite the Nuremberg-esque defense that he was just following orders.

VanLandingham concludes, “What these lawmakers should have done is work to get enough bipartisan support to stop the executive branch’s excesses. Instead, they confused the issue and wrongly put service members in the middle of a political struggle. The sooner lawmakers on Capitol Hill realize that the military is not going to save us — and that’s by design — the sooner they will acknowledge that that’s a job for civilians. Hopefully with Congress leading the way.”

Again, last week, Trump press secretary Leavitt was forced to defend his badmouthing a reporter who asked a legitimate Epstein files question that he refused to face. The president lashed out at the female reporter by saying, “Quiet, piggy!” Leavitt justified his outburst, telling journalists at the White House briefing, “Look, the president is very frank and honest with everyone in the room. You’ve all seen it yourself. You’ve all experienced it yourselves. And I think it’s one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this president, because of his frankness. And he calls out fake news when he sees it. He gets frustrated with reporters when you lie about him, when you spread fake news about him and his administration. But he is the most transparent president in history, and he gives all of you in this room, as you all know, unprecedented access. So I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis.”

The Daily Dose of Democracy website, calling Leavitt ‘The Minister of Doublegrift Trumpthink,’ calls the “president’s disgusting, misogynistic attack on a female reporter with a smirking tornado of condescending lies would have left George Orwell speechless. That’s right, piggies, you should be GRATEFUL that the Most Beneficent Golden Leader magnanimously graces you swine with his presence. You should be grateful for the opportunity to have your dignity and professionalism disparaged on a daily basis!” Cynthia Miller-Idriss wrote on MS Now, “Those two little words — a low among lows for sexist comments from a sitting president — speak volumes about how Trump views women. They should be a warning sign about the rampant normalization of misogyny in the US political culture, and how it could affect our democracy more broadly. Hostile sexism is now the biggest — or among the top three — predictors of support for political violence and willingness to engage in it in survey research across multiple countries, including the US. We should be very concerned about how overt misogyny from political leaders may affect democracy, political violence and social cohesion.”

Miller-Idriss writes, “Some of this misogyny is cloaked as a call for a return to male leadership or more ‘masculine’ approaches over supposedly lesser feminine ones.” As examples, she notes Mark Zuckerberg’s call for more masculine energy in the corporate world, and Defense Secretary Hegseth’s announcing a return to the “highest male standards” for combat roles. She terms Trump’s bigger, bolder kind of misogyny taking center stage with his gendered slur as an attempt to disparage, belittle and put a woman in her place, an intent to insult and to erode the confidence and authority of a woman. The writer says it is no coincidence that Trump so easily reached for an animal slur to degrade and dehumanize a woman who was just doing her job. His slurs convey that a woman is insufficiently disciplined or slender, or that her behavior is unnatural, so aggressive that it can only be described as unhuman — similar to the popular slur ‘bitch,’ often directed at powerful or ambitious women whose behavior is cast as ‘uppity’ or difficult, and seen as insufficiently feminine, deferential, gentle, helpful or pleasing.

Miller-Idriss maintains that pairing ‘piggy‘ with an actual directive to be quiet makes it clearer that the goal is to silence women for speaking up, to punish her for daring to question Trump’s authority, a phrase that just popped out of his mouth spontaneously. Women who violate the unspoken rules about where they belong are met with swift reminders to stay in their place — such as the postelection celebratory chants and memes “get back in the kitchen” or “make me a sandwich.” She concludes: “‘Quiet, piggy‘ is only the latest terrible example. And if we stay quiet, the one thing we know is it won’t be the last.”

At this writing it’s too early to know if Trump will initiate his ‘stray cats‘ strategy for US District Judge Cameron Currie who dismissed the cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, by ruling that Trump’s retribution appointee, attorney Lindsey Halligan, was never eligible to assume that post. Cameron dismissed the indictments without prejudice, meaning another prosecutor could try to bring charges at a later time. It’s a good bet that Trump will continue to harass his perceived adversaries in any way possible since it’s taxpayer money footing the bill, so expect him to continue his technique of asking his DOJ to pinpoint his victim, then establish a crime.

Is it possible that President Trump is beginning to see the folly of his ways regarding his tariffs and the burden being place upon the American taxpayer? He has proposed sending $2,000 checks to “low and middle income” citizens, funded by tariff collections, with any money left over to go to “SUBSTANTIALLY PAY DOWN NATIONAL DEBT.” Middle class income ranges from $56,000 to $169,800, depending on residency location, but it is estimated that even if the proposal were capped at $100,000, the tariff revenue would not be enough to cover the cost of checks — and forget addressing the national debt! The Tax Foundation’s Erica York notes that about 150 million citizens earn less than $100,000, resulting in a $300 billion payout against the annual tariff revenue of $217 billion. Trump posted on social media, “We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion,” just as the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the legality of his tariffs.

It has been reported that singer Katy Perry and former Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, are “making plans for the holidays” after stepping out publicly as a couple. According to Harry Thompson of The Daily Beast, the Canadian politician who led his country for nine years “is much happier now, his stresses are greatly diminished. And he is intrigued by Katy.” As you might expect, Andy Borowitz, in his The Borowitz Report has contributed to this news: “In a move that has further imperiled relations between the US and its northern neighbor, on Monday Melania Trump hiked tariffs on Canada to 10,000% in retaliation for Katy Perry dating Justin Trudeau. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney attempted to mollify the First Lady by stressing that his government had no jurisdiction over the love lives of his predecessor and the pop star. But Mrs. Trump was unmoved, holding a White House press conference to blast the Trudeau-Perry romance. ‘There are many bad things in world right now,’ she said. ‘This be worst.‘”

FBI INFORMANT, LIQUOR IS FEAR, CURRENCY IS LOYALTY

A recent report from Drop Site News detailing Jeffrey Epstein’s international influence in assisting to broker a defense agreement between Israel and Côte d’Ivoire led Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to suggest that the bombshell news might keep the House of Representatives out of session throughout next year. Drop Site had previously reported on Epstein’s brokering of a security cooperation agreement between Israel and Mongolia, as well as helping to establish a backchannel for Israel to communicate with Russia during the Syrian Civil War. Of course, we know that the extended recess will not be in the cards, with the end of the government shutdown, also coinciding with release of Epstein emails, and forcing Speaker Johnson to throw in the towel on the prolonged vacation he gave the governing body. The Speaker had the ability to reconvene the House, even with the shutdown, with critics arguing that he was following the president’s directive to avoid a vote on an Epstein-related piece of legislation. The legislation in question was a discharge petition filed by Representative Thomas Massie which would compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on Epstein, and requiring 218 signatures, being one short with Johnson’s refusal to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva from Arizona.

Johnson’s efforts to protect the MAGA cult leader led him to lie that Trump was once an FBI informant given the duty of gathering incriminating evidence on Epstein, but he later had to walk that one back, wearing his boyish grin. The New Republic’s reporting has senior Republicans privately admitting that the Epstein files are potentially worse for Trump than previously thought, and former insiders now allege that the photos and documents held by the FBI will expose the president’s deep ties to the convicted sex trafficker. The fight about transparency, accountability, and truth terrifies the MAGA gang, who can see what’s left of Trump’s credibility being destroyed among the faithful. Speaker Johnson is holding relatively steady, accusing Democrats of zero accomplishments, adding that Jeffrey Epstein is their “entire game plan.” “President Trump has clean hands. He’s not worried about it. I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He’s frustrated that they’re turning this into a political issue,” Johnson told Fox News.

David Shuster writes on Blue Amp Media that Trump and his enablers have converted the Situation Room, a chamber of national vigilance for the often grave business of safeguarding the nation, into a sleazy coordination center against the Epstein scandal. Last week, AG Pam Bondi, Deputy AG Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel packed themselves into that secure vault in an attempt to coerce Congresswoman Lauren Boebert into withdrawing her name from Thomas Massie’s petition demanding that the FBI and DOJ release all the Epstein files. “It was Trumpism on full display: the art of turning every instrument of the federal government into a personal weapon. Cell phones won’t work in a SCIF and must be kept outside to prevent recordings. And everything said in the Situation Room is shielded not just from the outside world, but from the rest of the White House. The ambiance is deadly serious and stately. A contrast, of course, with the self-absorbed and tacky Trump. He cannot tell the difference between national security and his own political security; between classified secrets and personal embarrassments; between the power of the President and the extended and ongoing act of vandalism.”

Shuster asks us to picture the scene beneath the buzzing fluorescents, and beside the hum of surveillance screens, the three top law enforcement officers together not tracking an enemy or manage a national crisis, but to cajole a “Congressional backbencher into conformity and silence.” He calls the Situation Room a “holy bunker of national security turned into an immoral brew pub, where the liquor is fear and the currency is loyalty.” The documents from Epstein’s estate chronicle Trump’s name repeatedly, establishing that Trump and Epstein were best friends for over a decade, with contacts advising that those materials being withheld by the administration are even more graphic and disturbing than those seen publicly. The materials include grand jury testimony, witness statements, victim interviews, photographs, and videos, indicating that Trump’s denials and accusations about a “democratic hoax” are merely a ploy to prevent the swamp from being drained.

In conclusion, Shuster writes: “In any halfway decent America, this would provoke a constitutional crisis. In ours, among far too many republicans, it provokes a shrug…Our nation’s founders warned of tyranny, not anticipating a farce. They imagined a Caesar, not a demented carnival barker with a spray tan and social media addiction…a grotesque sideshow…Trump’s lobbying antics did nothing except underscore his weakness…Lauren Boebert wasn’t intimidated…and now, more republicans are joining the jail break.” Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said that President Trump, despite his best efforts, has exhausted his efforts to block the “Epstein Train,” as it is characterized by CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield. Representative Melanie Stansbury, sitting on the House committee actively investigating Jefferey Epstein and potential co-conspirators, predicted that the fallout from an impending vote would be as “explosive as Watergate. We know that the White House is engaged in a cover-up. I think we can see the cracks in his strategy…the president went full-bore attack on Marjorie Taylor Greene… trying to make an example of her.”

Stansbury says that the Trump administration has already failed to comply with lawful requests of her committee’s subpoena powers, calling the non-compliance by the White House and the DOJ another stalling tactic. Trump’s response has been an announcement that the Attorney General will be asked to launch an investigation into Epstein’s ties with former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and other Democratic Party figures. “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

“Trump is completely panicked,” said Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. “He is desperate. He knows the American public is all now lining up to fight to ensure that the release of the files actually happens, and he’s doing everything that he can to intimidate, to politicize and weaponize the government to stop the files from being released.” Garcia predicts that the discharge petition will sail through the House without an issue. Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch points out that “Trump is crashing out, erupting online, unleashing tirade after tirade at members of his own party and spiraling into increasingly erratic behavior, all in the wake of the 23,000 Epstein emails whose release has shattered what remains of Trump’s political equilibrium.” Meiselas says it is an extraordinary and deeply disturbing fact that Trump’s name appears on more than half to the Epstein email threads, and that the president’s reaction is somehow even more revealing…”this is not strategy. This is collapse.”

“Trump is soft on pedophiles!” wrote Dede Watson, a social media consultant and strategtist, when she heard that Jeffrey Epstein’s partner-in-crime, Ghislaine Maxwell might be privileged to leave her minimum security prison for ‘work assignments.’ Maxwell has been the subject of countless reports in recent weeks after the Trump administration transferred the British socialite to her low security prison in Texas, and which recently resulted in the firing of some staff members after they provided information about her special treatment. She is clearly angling for a presidential pardon to assist Trump in making the Epstein problem go away, but it appears the scandal is only escalating because the red-hatted horde wants names — and the heads that go with them.

The fired whistleblower revealed that Maxwell has customized meals prepared by federal prison camp employees and then personally delivered to her cell, and is also provided snacks and refreshments for her guests who meet with her in a special cordoned-off area. She is allowed to go alone after hours to the exercise area, and has a special proviso to contact people outside the jail with the help of the prison warden or other personnel. Ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jaimie Raskin, has written to the president about ‘Documents and information received…indicating that Dr. Tanisha Hall, the warden at the Bryan, Texas facility, has federal law enforcement staff waiting on Ms. Maxwell hand and foot. The deference and servility to Ms. Maxwell have reached such preposterous levels that one of the top officials at the facility has complained that he is ‘sick of having to be Maxwell’s bitch.’ Raskin is demanding that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche be made available for a public hearing before the committee “to answer for the corrupt misuse of law enforcement resources and potential exchange of favors for false testimony exonerating you and other Epstein accomplices.”

To top it all off, Maxwell has been given a puppy as part of her preferential treatment says the whistleblower, an inmate who trains puppies to become service dogs. The sex offender is allowed to play with the animal for a specified period of time, a favor not granted to other inmates or staff who are not allowed to touch them as part of the training regime. Animal lovers need to speak out on this issue! Who knows how she might corrupt a poor defenseless puppy into becoming a total failure at serving mankind!

Conservative attorney George Conway suggests that Trump would be toying with fate should he offer Maxwell a pardon after she was convicted of child sex trafficking and felony conspiracy along with other charges. Conway says that we may not remember what Roger Stone and Paul Manafort were charged with, and were convicted, but who can forget what Maxwell’s conviction was about? “It’s very simple. It’s like it’s worse than just the abstract. You know, this went on for years. This is what, a thousand victims? Ghislaine Maxwell was right there telling them what to do, how to do it, taking their passports away so they couldn’t get off Epstein Island, okay? This is not going to work for Donald Trump, okay? He does this, he’s pushing a big bomb to blow himself up,” says Conway. Back in July, Speaker Johnson told Kristen Welker on ‘Meet the Press‘ that Maxwell’s 20-year sentence was “a pittance…it should be a life sentence, at least.” Trump’s former White House press secretary Sean ‘Spicey’ Spicer warned his old boss that unprecedented fallout would ensue should he issue a pardon to the notorious sex trafficker, “Outrage like never before — this will transcend partisan lines…I hope to God nobody in the White House has led him to believe that that’s the case, that it would be a smart move.”

Satirist Andy Borowitz brings his take on The Borowitz Report: “In what experts are calling one of the most remarkable comebacks for a convicted sex offender in recent memory, on Friday Donald J. Trump announced that he was replacing Attorney General Pam Bondi with Ghislaine Maxwell. Explaining his decision, Trump said, ‘Pam said there was a client list, and Ghislaine said there isn’t. So I have decided Ghislaine would be better at this job than Pam.’ In another stunning reversal of fortune, Trump announced that Bondi would be taking Maxwell’s place in prison, adding, ‘I wish her well.’ He said he was confident that Maxwell would receive speedy confirmation by Senate Republicans, noting, ‘If they confirmed Hegseth they’ll confirm anyone.'”

In a startling reversal, late on Sunday, Trump reversed his stand on release of the Epstein files, writing on social media, “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.” He now says House Republicans should vote to release the files after previously fighting the proposal, even as a growing number of the MAGA base supported doing so. The president’s change of heart is an acknowledgment that supporters of the measure have enough votes to pass it in the House, although a possible verdict in the Senate is still unclear. So, why the big arm-twisting meeting in the Situation Room? As Marjorie Taylor Greene has been saying, “I have no idea what’s in the files. I can’t even guess. But that is the question everyone is asking, ‘Why fight this so hard?‘” To be continued…strategy or collapse?

People for the American Way website has a new report entitled Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears, in which they evaluate how far Trump’s judges and justices are inclined to rule in his favor as the president goes for the long game — no short-term power grab for him! In September through October, the report highlights 14 new rulings that undermine civil rights, environmental protections, and those agencies meant to serve our population. The organization expresses alarm that these results show exactly why Trump’s judicial legacy continues to be one the most dangerous aspects of his gangster regime.

Upholding Trump’s authority are decisions that splinter our rights, each one accentuates the importance of fighting against confirming judges nominated by Trump. People for the American Way track the various rulings, document patterns, and make the particulars available to journalists, activists, and lawmakers, for which they also provide a database. Among those disturbing decisions by various Trump judges is a case letting coal companies off the hook for black lung disease; another granted broad immunity to prison officials accused of serious abuse and denying justice to those that were harmed; a district judge allowed the administration to terminate billions in climate change grants, and halt foreign aid already approved by Congress; and, a most egregious one — the Supreme Court voted to uphold Trump’s authority to fire officials protected by law, thereby gutting oversight and accountability.

Steve Schmidt writes on The Warning of Judge Mark Wolf, a 78-year old serving since 1985 after being nominated and confirmed by the US Senate to serve a life term. Wolf has resigned from a job that he loved, explaining in his article in The Atlantic, that appointed at 38 years old, he eagerly looked forward to public service for the rest of his life. He gives his simple reason: “I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.”

Schmidt calls Wolf’s resignation a great service for the country with his powerful dissent against a metastasizing corruption that destroys justice, liberty and democracy. Schmidt writes, “The president of the United States, a sick, twisted and sinister man, has desecrated his oath of office. He has unleashed the power of the state against innocent Americans — per his promise — using his power to seek revenge, retribution and payback against his enemies, real and imagined. He has directed his malignant attorney general and a bevy of hideously deranged prosecutors — a mix of Fox News loons and vapid beauty queens — with a deep disdain for the law to lock up his political enemies as if America was the Soviet Union. What is happening in America is real, dangerous and unjust.”

Schmidt quotes federal judge Sara Ellis in her ruling about the obscenity code-named ‘Midway Blitz‘ which was led by liar and fascist Greg Bovino: “The government would have people believe instead that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators. That simply is untrue, and the government’s own evidence in this case belies that assertion.” Schmidt charges that Trump has turned federal law enforcement into his Gestapo, and set it loose on the American people, targeting innocent Americans for prosecution because he hates them. He points out that Trump has ordered the US military to direct weapons at the American people; he has ordered the murder of more than 70 people on the high seas, without any credible evidence or legal authority; there are long lines at food banks across the country, but champagne continues to flow at Mar-a-Lago; and, Ghislaine Maxwell awaits at her Texas ‘Club Fed‘ looking forward to a pardon.

Liar/fascist/assistant deputy attorney general Todd Blanche recently threatened the arrest of California’s Governor Newsom, his attorney general Rob Bonta, US Representative Nancy Pelosi, and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins for interference of federal agents and officers who “are tirelessly working to keep America safe.” The speech policeman says, “You have a right to watch your mouth, you have a right to my opinion, and if you don’t have an opinion, one will be provided for you.” ICE isn’t enforcing federal law, they are enforcing the whims of a madman, a demented traitorous sociopath. J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam of ProPublica write about ICE storming into Santa Ana, California in June, resulting in panicked calls flooding the city’s emergency response system to report masked men ambushing and forcing residents into unmarked cars. Complaints to the mayor and the police chief had little chance of holding individual agents accountable for alleged abuses with no way to identify them. There are virtually no limits on what Trump’s agents can do to achieve his goal of mass deportations, and Santa Ana is only providing a template for larger raids and more violent arrests.

Kat Lonsdorf reports on NPR that Trump has talked of invoking the Insurrection Act many times, especially in regard to deploying the National Guard. In doing so, to allow troops to help with immigration enforcement; it’s also something Stephen Miller has mentioned, and as far back as 2023, he is quoted as saying, “President Trump will do whatever it takes.” That probability has both legal experts and immigration authorities worried, especially about the implications it could have for Americans at large. Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, an immigration rights advocacy group, says it has her worried about the upcoming 2026 midterm elections and what the presence of troops might mean for voters as they cast ballots. “What I have said repeatedly is that the path to authoritarianism in this country is being built on the backs of immigrants. They will begin with immigrants. They will not end with immigrants,” she says.

After the off-year elections last week, Trump seemed to wake up with the realization that the GOP is in trouble, the shutdown causing a political disaster for his MAGA monsters as blame is falling on them according to polls. But since Trump can only think in political terms, he isn’t worried about the human costs of the shutdown — only ways to increase political pressure. So look for your life to continue its journey through hell, since this is the way the president operates. He only knows how to destroy, whether a federal agency, American businesses, or actual livelihoods, so expect more pain and destruction. Increasing suffering in hopes of achieving a policy goal can’t work, but that’s all Republicans have to offer.

We’ll never hear a Republican propose assurances that tax advantages will directly benefit lower income workers, before actually approving business tax cuts, since the GOP philosophy says that the poor will try to take you for every penny — though the corporations and others at the top of the wealth ladder are a constant and can surely be trusted fully. However, take the nation’s tax gap, or the difference between taxes owed and taxes the IRS is equipped to collect, an estimated $1 trillion annually. Charles Rettig, Trump’s former IRS commissioner, says, “Most of the unpaid taxes result from evasion by the wealthy and large corporations.” Yet, Republicans blame it all on the lack of work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients. As inequality.org reported in September, the richest top 0.1% of Americans are worth a combined $22.48 trillion and the bottom 50% are worth a total of $2.44 trillion. As Dana Wormald writes in the New Hampshire Bulletin, “I’m certain because, try as I might, I just can’t seem to see poverty as the lucrative endeavor Republicans tell me it is.”

Michael Tomasky writes in The New Republic that November 1 marked the day that the Trump administration stopped paying SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans to buy food for themselves and their families — an average of $175 a month — despite a $6 billion reserve for food stamp emergencies, though the administration argued in court that it’s no emergency. The date also marked 51 days since the House of Representatives had cast a vote, denying Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva the House seat she had won. House Speaker and lying Christian, Mike Johnson, is making children go hungry while protecting pedophiles, a reasonable explanation for the situation. Mikey has no power to block the Epstein vote from coming to the floor if the House were back in session with new Democratic member Grijalva, and as Tomasky argues the GOP/MAGA gang are only hurting their own constituents of rural white folks. People point to this fact as if the GOP don’t know this, and telling them would make them respond, “Oh, heck, we forgot, thank you, we better go change our ways. Praise Jesus.” News flash: They know. They just don’t care. After all, who can forget the imperishable New Testament chapter where Jesus said to let the poor go hungry and the undeserving poor take ill and die for the sake of protecting sexual predators? Keep on a-smilin’ Mikey!

Satirist Andy Borowitz jumps on Mikey’s bandwagon with this Borowitz Report exclusive: “Calling it the ‘nuclear option,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson opted on Tuesday to enter a medically induced coma to avoid swearing in newly elected Democratic congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. Johnson spoke to reporters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center moments before doctors administered pentobarbital through an intravenous tube connected to this left hand. ‘I’m doing this as a last resort,’ he said. ‘I was really hoping that people would forget about the Epstein files or that the Rapture would happen, but no such luck.’ A Republican colleague who visited Johnson’s bedside hours after he fell into a coma said that the Speaker ‘seemed like his usual self.'”

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says that President Trump’s ‘self-dealing’ is becoming a political issue for the GOP, as it’s been estimated the president and his family have raked in up to $1 billion since his return to the Oval Office in January. Tweedledumb and Tweedledee, his two sons, have been using their father’s position for their own benefit in business ventures. But to ‘Morning Joe,’ the ‘Great Gatsby‘-themed party at Mar-a-Lago a couple of weeks ago epitomizes a snowballing problem for Republicans. “As far as approval ratings on the economy here, only 34 percent of Americans believe that he’s lived up to expectations on the economy. Nearly two out of three say he’s fallen short, and with food assistance being torn from people in  red state America especially, but also blue state America, there are a lot of people in his own party asking, what the hell’s going on?”

Now we find that the Trump Syndicate is reaching into the US military by selling Trump-branded wine and cider, tax-free for military members at Coast Guard Exchanges, using his position of power to boost his brand and personally profit off the Presidency. Happy Veteran’s Day! Under any other president, it would be a shocking revelation — for Trump, it’s just another day in the USA. Forbes magazine quotes Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who points out that, “You don’t want the military essentially playing sides,” and sees the wine sales as an ethics issue. It’s not established how long the Trump products have been on the shelves, but the administration is not backing down, with Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin saying, “The brave men and women of the USCG are pleased to be able to buy Trump wine and cider tax free.”

Dekleptocracy says this is not the behavior, not the statement, of an administration that is taking corruption or conflicts of interest seriously. Assistant Secretary McLaughlin is practically writing advertisements for Trump brands in thinly veiled PR statements when she should be focused on homeland security. Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest before taking the oath of office, but for Trump raking it in is never enough. He simply can’t stop himself from trying to squeeze every last dollar and cent out of the American public, using the Presidency as an aesthetic along the way, and now the military is paying the price as he sets an authoritarian backdrop for our troops — inculcating them with the idea that they serve Donald J. Trump, the person, not the US Constitution. Hey, sailor, how about a Trump Bible, or a pair of golden tennis shoes to go with that wine?

The Lincoln Square website declares that with Trump losing the shutdown fight, he wants kids to starve anyway, so, “Donald Trump cancelled Thanksgiving.” The writer challenges Democrats to take that message and run with it, knowing it will result in a 500-page briefing book on SNAP — however, talk is better. Divulging that, ‘kids are starving‘ is much more effective than ‘the fiscal and health-impacts of the discontinuation of 7 CFR 272 programmatic efforts to ameliorate food insecurity,’ so forget the study! The GOP can taste the defeat of losing the shutdown — they lost it as soon as The Don turned the federal government into a hostage for his own vanity, and as protection from the release of the Epstein files.

“They lost it again when reality showed up with receipts: polls, long lines at food banks, missed paychecks, grounded flights, and, coming soon to an aisle near you, the SNAP freeze that wallops retailers,” asserts Lincoln Square, “this isn’t 5D chess. It’s 1D cruelty dressed up as strategy, and it’s detonating in their faces. Even little Mike Johnson, Trump’s latest meatbot who obviously finds self-abnegation and public embarrassment arousing, can’t hold it together too much longer.” New national polling shows Americans continue to blame Trump and Congress, with worsening numbers: Washington Post/ABC/Ipsos indicates voters are pointing fingers at the Trump-GOP side by a solid margin, with independents breaking against them by an almost 2-1 margin.

Michael Cohen writes on MeidasTouch, “Let’s be brutally honest: we’re not moving the needle because Democrats have suddenly figured out how to talk to voters or craft a compelling message. We’re moving it because the Republican Party has completely lost its mind. The GOP isn’t just bad at governing anymore; they’re morally bankrupt, publicly cruel, and proudly arrogant. And for once, the American people seem to be noticing.” Cohen interprets figures from the Quinniac poll that he says should both encourage and alarm Democrats, and not because the left is inspiring hope or offering visionary leadership. The fifty percent of voters who say they would rather see Democrats control the House is because they are disgusted by what the right is doing — in being “so detached from basic humanity that they think hunger, poverty, and suffering are punchlines.”

For example, Cohen refers to Louisiana’s Representative Clay Higgins, who told the 42 million citizens who are losing access to food assistance to “stop smoking crack.” Go tell your neighbor, your aging parent or grandparent that Higgins mockingly suggests their monthly stipend is some sort of unnecessary luxury with which MAGA sees no need to be concerned with. Eighteen percent of his own constituents are among his state’s one million SNAP recipients, but instead of his empathy, they get his contempt, no understanding, classed as stereotypical. The GOP has become a mockery by mocking the poor as it worships the powerful, the greedy. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump was the host of a ‘Roaring 20s’ Halloween gala, serving champagne and wagyu beef to a crowd that doesn’t care about the bottom line on their grocery bill, feasting while the country starves. Cohen writes, “The optics couldn’t be clearer — the Republican message to working Americans is simple: you’re on your own, peasants.”

Though poll numbers are shifting, Republicans being blamed for the shutdown and the economy, the cruelty and the chaos, with voters sick of it, Democrats can’t assume it’s because of their own success. With a year left until the mid-terms, complacency could doom the polls downward trajectory faster than MAGA’s corruption. Cohen believes the GOP is imploding under the weight of its own lunacy, but they’re still ruthless, still organized, and still willing to burn democracy to the ground if it means clinging to their money and power; however, Democrats aren’t winning because they’ve inspired confidence — they’re winning because Republicans are terrifying. Trump is underwater on every issue, except Israel where a fragile ceasefire is supposedly holding, but this self-proclaimed “business genius” would view customers shedding tears at the checkout counter, if only he were able to see beyond his potbelly.

Cohen concludes: “The Republican Party’s cruelty isn’t strategic anymore. It’s reflexive. It’s who they are. They can’t help themselves. When millions of Americans lose access to food, healthcare, or housing, they don’t feel shame; they feel pride. They call it ‘tough love.’ They sneer about ‘personal responsibility.’ They talk about crack pipes instead of policy, mock the hungry instead feeding them, and think empathy is weakness. If the Democrats don’t retake the House — and possibly the Senate — we’re in for another cycle of dysfunction, shutdowns, and moral decay, watching as Trump and his enablers turn hunger into a weapon and governance into performance art. Democrats need to stop assuming voters will automatically side with sanity. They won’t — not unless we remind them, daily, what’s at stake. The needle is moving only because the other side has revealed who they really are. The clock is ticking — one year to prove that America still has a conscience. The fight doesn’t end because the polls look good; it starts because they finally do.”

Conservative and former federal judge J. Michael Luttig wrote in The Atlantic, suggesting in his article that Trump has already taken steps in this second term to ensure he never relinquishes power. “With every word and deed, Trump has given Americans reason to believe that he will seek a third term, in defiance of the Constitution,” Luttig says. “It seems abundantly clear that he will hold on to the office at any cost, including America’s ruin.” The president has admitted to reporters that he would “love” to violate the Constitution by running for a third term, and Trump loyalist Steve Bannon has never let the possibility wane that there are “different alternatives” that could allow his golden idol run again. Luttig cites Trump’s use of the US military to carry out personal vendettas against Democratic-led cities, his efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship, and the conservative-majority Supreme Court giving the president its “imprimatur to continue his power grab.”

Luttig writes, “Trump has always told us exactly who he is. We have just not wanted to believe him. But we must believe him now. If America is to long endure, we must summon courage, or fearlessness, our hope, our spirited sense of invulnerability to political enthrall, and, most important, or abiding faith in the divine providence of this nation. We have been given the high charge of our forbears to ‘keep’ the republic they founded a quarter of a millennium ago. If we do not keep it now, we will surely lose it.” On MSNBC’S Morning Joe, Judge Luttig said, “Donald Trump has seized near absolute unchecked power in the United States — unchecked by either Congress, the Supreme Court, the several states, or the media itself. There’s no question at all that, as of today, Donald Trump has all the power he would ever need to run for a third term and be seated as the next president, whether or not he actually won that election.” As The Onion ‘quotes’ Trump — “I will not rule out a Third Reich.”

Concerns about the president’s health has been a big topic of late, and his claim of passing with ease his recent MRI, raises even more questions about his acuity to remain in office, with many looking for an early expiration date. Andy Borowitz has jumped into the conversation with usual satiric jab: “Donald J. Trump ordered members of his Cabinet on Wednesday to start wearing three pairs of tube socks to make his ankles appear normal. At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to downplay Trump’s demand, as well as his order that Cabinet members use a hammer to create bruises on the back of their hands. ‘The press has been trafficking in stories about the President’s health which are entirely malicious and false,’ said Leavitt, black sweat socks protruding from her Ann Taylor slingbacks. According to sources, Trump has also mandated that Cabinet members periodically babble incoherently and fall down, a directive immediately embraced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”

Robert Reich, on his blog, writes: “Trump is incapable of allowing tensions and stresses to ease without creating new ones.” One recent example comes after his meeting with China’s Ji, and the announcement that our countries will de-escalate the trade war — all well and good, but we are now in the same place before Trump created that tension in the first place. Then, what does he do? He announces the USA will restart nuclear testing after a 30-year lull by the three major military powers. His only explanation? “Other nations” are doing so — another Trump lie to fester the chaos. His refusal to fund food stamps, to extend Obamacare subsidies, to ease up on tariffs which are killing US farmers, to end criminal prosecutions of his ‘political foes,’ to end the violence of ICE raids, or to end the bullying of our neighboring countries to the south all ramp up the stress in our lives.

Reich says we cannot ignore the news, because it plays into Trump’s hands by allowing him to cause even more mayhem if we aren’t watching — all of it matters and denial only weakens our resolve. If we fall into despair or hopelessness, Trump wins it all, becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy; we cope by becoming stronger, by coming out in record numbers as on ‘No Kings‘ day, or calling our Congress members and showing up at their town halls, by protecting the vulnerable among us, and importantly — organize for the mid-term elections. His conclusion is: “We keep the faith in America’s ideals. We stay as close as we can to our loved ones and dearest friends. And we celebrate small and noble acts of decency, wherever they occur.”

[this week]

Thom Hartmann begins his piece on The Hartmann Report by quoting Thomas Jefferson’s commentary in the Federalist Papers #48: “All the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating of these in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotic government. An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one…in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by others.”

Hartmann says it is presumed that on orders from President Trump, House Speaker Johnson has shut down the House of Representatives in order for Trump to do whatever he wishes “without being effectually checked and restrained by others.” For the moment he is the King of America — it’s the coup that finally worked, writes Hartmann, even though it is Congress‘ duty to prevent seizure of such power. The Founders agreed upon this principle as shown in their writings, before and after inserting it into the Constitution itself. By demolishing the East Wing of the White House, a replica of Vladimir Putin’s Winter Palace Grand Throne Room, The Donald can entertain, and coerce, his rich hangers-on into fundraising for his personal and family projects, all at the expense of the American taxpayer. Donate to the Trumps, receive special favors, and let the hoi-polloi foot the bill, that’s the ticket!

As politico James Carville claimed, “I have to get sixteen permits before I can remodel my bathroom!” — but Trump barged ahead with his destruction on the White House, never submitting plans to the National Planning Commission or bothering to get permission from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Why? Loopholes in the law, and because nobody in government ever imagined a leader would be demented enough to undertake such a self-aggrandizing project, so why ban such a far-fetched idea through legislation? Thomas Jefferson’s idea of “being effectually checked and restrained by others” would have been appropriate and legal, so where were the others? Also, no voices are being raised concerning Trump’s “lawless murders” as Columbia’s president is calling the destruction of boats near his country’s shores. And for that matter, what of the imposition of tariffs violate Article 1 of the Constitution, or the brutality and warrantless arrests by ICE and the secret police!

But, here we are cruising into an indeterminate future as Congress vacations, with no congressional oversight of the president’s newly conferred dictatorial powers. Speaker Johnson is keeping the House in recess during the government shutdown, refusing to hold even pro forma sessions, which is keeping newly elected member Grijalva from being seated. Hartmann says, “This is against the law — the supreme law — of the land. There is no joint resolution with the Senate allowing for a recess longer than three days, nor has the Senate passed such a standalone resolution. As the Constitution reads: ‘Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.'” Such lengthy suspensions have never occurred before, even during the Civil War or WWII. “What’s the emergency that’s greater than the War of 1812, WWI, 9/11, or any other national crisis?,” asks Hartmann.

click here to continue (link expands, click again to collapse)

[last week]

One of the ‘No Kings‘ protesters last Saturday carried a sign that read, ‘If no mentally disturbed person should have an assault weapon, should a mentally ill president have an army?‘ Reasonable question, and by extension it might have read ‘…a navy?‘ or ‘…an air force?‘ As a response to the more than 2700 planned ‘No Kings’ events, President Trump in a show of strength and dominance toward the organizers, and in particular toward the people of California — to include Governor Newsom — he scheduled a live-fire military demonstration at the US Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton. To ‘celebrate‘ the 250th anniversary of the Corps, the live ammunition exercise was to fire land-based artillery pieces over Interstate 5 into impact areas, claiming it to be “an established and safe practice.” This massive Marine exercise featured fighter jet flyovers, amphibious ships, explosions in a simulated village and Navy SEALS dropping into the Pacific Ocean from helicopters. Vice President Vance contended that the administration was focused on supporting Marines and removing “woke” priorities that “have weakened the US armed forces.” He added, “When officials try to shift focus to mandating diversity quotas, or they try to inject partisan politics into the American armed forces, they impede the Marine Corps’ ability to do its best work.”

Governor Newsom confirmed that the live artillery would be fired over major roadways in Southern California, calling it “reckless,” “disrespectful,” and “beneath the office of the presidency.” The event, entitled “America’s Marines 250: From Sea to Shore — A Review of Amphibious Strength,” forced the California Highway Patrol to close a 17-mile stretch of Interstate 5 from 11 AM to 3 PM during the demonstration, with electronic signage reading “Overhead fire in progress” to inform drivers. San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, posted on social media: “This morning’s sudden freeway shutdown shows exactly what’s wrong with politics. No accountability, no planning — just finger-pointing while everyday people sit in traffic, miss work, and watch their plans fall apart.” The Orange County Republican Party posted on X: “Newsom shut down the 5 today to cause chaos around a Marine Corps celebration. What a jerk.” Nevertheless, safety assurances aside, a California Highway Patrol car reportedly was hit by shrapnel during the ‘Review of Amphibious Strength’. The CHP immediately notified Marine authorities who terminated the exercise after the fired shell detonated prematurely over the freeway.

Ben Meiselas on MeidasTouch calls Trump’s move fascism, and “what we are rallying against today.” Many see the live-ammunition exercise as a continuation of Trump’s June harassment in deploying the National Guard and US Marines into Los Angeles to quell small disturbances that Governor Newsom and local officials claim could have been easily handled by city and state law enforcement. Meiselas writes, “This ‘No Kings’ moment is bigger than Trump’s corruption. It’s about the spirit of a people refusing to surrender democracy to chaos and cruelty. As Governor Newsom said, ‘No Kings’ is a declaration of independence against tyranny…people are waking up to the rule of law increasingly appearing to be the rule of Don.'” Meiselas concludes, “That awakening is visible in every city where Americans are marching today. They are standing shoulder to shoulder, not as partisans but as citizens reclaiming their power. Trump can fire missiles, peddle lies, or try to silence dissent, but he cannot stop the truth. And the truth is this: the people of the United States are done kneeling before a would-be king. This is the day he feared most. This is the day America stood up and said, once again, no kings.”

In the weeks leading up to ‘No Kings,’ Trump and his gangsters had characterized the movement as radically anti-American, and potentially subversive. House Speaker Mike Johnson jumped onboard, calling it the ‘Hate America‘ rally, with “all the Marxists, antifas, Black Lives Matter remnants, pro-Hamas Democrats — all gathering to scream and wail.” White House press secretary KKKaroline Leavitt declared the Democratic Party’s “main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals. That is who the Democrat Party is catering to.” This alarmist hyperbole coming from the administration is signaling that a government crackdown is imminent according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, as MAGA readies plans to undercut funding of liberal organizations. The WSJ sees the administration “preparing sweeping changes” at the IRS, allowing “the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily.” And, Reuters made note of investigations into “what the administration labels ‘domestic terror networks’, which includes non-profits and educational institutions.”

Trump has already initiated the ‘domestic terror‘ effort by designating ‘antifa‘ a ‘domestic terror organization‘ with issuance of an executive order, calling all appropriate agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations.” The president has made ‘antifa’, a loosely organized enterprise of anti-fascists, into a structured and formidable force to be reckoned with, and his call for action is likely to be a pretext for repression of legitimate political opposition on a broader scale.

So, while the organizers of ‘No Kings” deem it a huge success, with an estimated 7 million demonstrators nationwide protesting against Trump and his un-Americanism, the Daily Dose of Democracy site says, “In the ultimate pronouncement that ‘subtlety is dead,’ Donald Trump responded to the 7 million Americans who marched against him yesterday by posting an AI video of himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet, and literally [crapping] on America. Way to tell us how you feel, Donny! While this is a disgusting and immensely childish response, it proves that the rallies worked — Trump is shook by the outpouring of public fury and knows now just how many people oppose him and his despotic regime.” Poet Amanda Gorman has it right in her poem: “There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”

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Poor President Trump will have to wait another year in his attempt to convince the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, as they probably considered his obsession a running joke in their deliberations. Humorist Andy Borowitz, tongue firmly planted in cheek, wrote, “Though the committee did not bestow its prize on Trump, it did recognize him with a laser printed ‘certificate of participation,’ saying ‘his entry gave us many hours of welcome laughter.‘” His quest to be awarded the prize has been front and center since his return to office but that fixation is seen by foreign diplomats as fodder for wisecracks, since TACO Trump hasn’t even been able to focus on the Ukraine situation, despite his claim to have solved eight wars — or is it nine now that his push for peace in Gaza seems fruitful? It’s ironic that the Norwegian committee held its final meeting two days before Trump announced the first phase of the possible mid-east truce on Truth Social, with many critics hailing it as a major achievement. And, besides, the Russia-Ukraine dilemma is just too difficult to mess with, considering his relationship with Comrade Putin.

Trump’s desperation for the prize, coupled with his belief that he would be passed over by the committee, led him to bitterly declare, “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.” Wow, he was correct on one point, but wrong on the other, and as Clarence Lusane writes on Nation of Change there are ten reasons for not deserving the honor — ten being just a nice round number. Lusane describes himself as a political scientist, focusing on human rights, global racial justice, and social movements, and having given thought and study on the Nobel Peace Prize, having taught a course on the prize at American University, and spending time at the Nobel Peace Center museum and the Norwegian Nobel Institute. In these capacities he has been able to review various documents, such as nomination letters.

From his activities, Lusane is categorized as one who can officially make a nomination for a desired recipient, a category which includes members of ‘parliamentary assemblies,’ previous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes, members of international courts, members of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and university professors. Lusane explains that whole the Committee has “never explicitly stated that such a thing is possible, I’m going to assume that I can also make an ‘unnomination.‘” For instance, there were many letters of support for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nomination in 1963 and into 1964, there were also letters asking the Prize Committee to deny him the prize, most coming from individuals ineligible to make, or unmake, such a request.

This leads Lusane to say, “I can think of no one more deserving of being unnominated for a Nobel Peace Prize than President Donald Trump. His record of authoritarian and antidemocratic rule grows more dangerous and harmful by the day, not just for the United States but for the entire global community. And yet he has been nominated by Republican sycophants in Congress who seek his favor, and global strongmen, including Gabon’s President Brice Oligui Nguema, who came to power thanks to a military coup, and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, who has been that country’s president for 22 years. They all understand that such recommendations appeal to his need for adulation and blunt any criticisms he may have of their own behavior.” The Nobel Committee keeps all nominations secret for fifty years, so the only way Trump and the world would know that a person nominated him is if they themselves made it public.

The Committee considers a nominee’s work in the previous year, making Trump’s ‘peace’ efforts during his first term in office, and the time out of office, not a factor. Lusane then examines the president’s first eight months in office in 2025, asking his question: “What has Trump done so far this year to NOT deserve the award?” Number one on his list: Pardoning and commuting prison sentences of 1,500 J-6 rioters; second, his immoral and radicalized campaign against undocumented immigrants who are “poisoning the blood of the country,” kidnappings of American streets, and renditions to foreign gulags; third, he shut down the United States Agency for International Development, precipitating loss of education for 23 million children, with another 95 million losing access to basic healthcare which could result in 3 million more preventable annual deaths; fourth, deploying ICE, National Guard troops in US cities, which sparked resistance and violence, all while claiming that troops were quelling widespread criminality; fifth, imperialistic threats to Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.

Reason #6, demanded Brazil stop “persecution” of his buddy, Jair Bolsonaro, who attempted to stop transition of power following a legitimate election — “a witch hunt” according to Trump; seventh, issued an unconstitutional order threatening two US professors for their work with the International Criminal Court, resulting in two federal judges concluding he was violating the First Amendment’s right to free speech; eighth, bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran under distinctly dubious legal authority, and despite Trump’s boast that the facilities were “completely and fully obliterated,” the truth came out that it was a setback of only a few months which led to War Secretary Hegseth firing Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse who reported the botched air action; ninth, Trump withdrew the country from critical international bodies that work with 46 European governments and organizations to address issues of discrimination; tenth, despite his claim of ending seven wars, he is/was complicit in the genocide and famine in Gaza. Lusane continues, “His unholy alliance with Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has meant a lot of performative concern about starvation and tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza along an unending supply of weapons for Israel. His insensitivity to the suffering has only been compounded by this disturbing desire to cleanse the area of Palestinians and develop what he’s called a ‘Riviera of the Middle East.'”

“And mind you, I won’t even count President Trump’s ‘pathetic’ groveling campaign for the Peace Prize as one of the reasons he shouldn’t get it. That seems almost self-evident. It reminds me of comedian Steven Wright’s joke: ‘I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.’ It’s impossible to imagine Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, or Martin Luther King Jr., calling officials in Norway and begging for the prize as Trump recently did; or, for that matter, using his platform at the United Nations to falsely claim that ‘everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize,’ just a few weeks after starting his killing campaign with military strikes in international waters in the Caribbean without due process or legal recourse, not to speak of changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War,” charges Lusane. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 76 percent of Americans don’t believe that he deserves the award, including 49 percent of Republicans, who believe that the award must be EARNED.

Lusane romps on with his anti-Trump diatribe: “His authoritarian push to reshape the US and demean all its governing, social, financial, and cultural institutions is itself a threat to peace. He continues to attack a free press, bully universities, ignore judicial orders, abuse the very principle of a separation of powers, and openly seeks to rig elections in his favor. Forget for the moment the fascism, authoritarianism, patrimonialism, retribution, bigotry, corruption, greed, mendacity, and incompetence — his one character trait that should be considered most disqualifying is his cruelty. His lust for revenge and power has brought unspeakable malice and pain to undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ families, federal workers, foreign students, and any number of individuals whom he feels have challenged him.” Who can forget at the assassinated Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, his widow forgave the shooter, stating that, “the answer to hate is not hate,” and Trump’s retort, “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.”

The Nobel Prize criteria for nominees, and for awarding the final award, is to “the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.” Trump has a long uphill slog to even come close in the next year. Lusane concludes, “Let Trump continue to whine and play the victim as he manifests his doctrine of intimidation, bribes, and palling around with authoritarians. In the not-too-distant future, history will extensively document and abhor the outrages and inhumanity of the Trump era, recording it with the same disdain and dismay that now is used for the eras of slavery and segregation, or the McCarthy years. Let’s hope that the Nobel Peace Prize never becomes another institution that Trump disgraces and diminishes.”

Satirical writer, Andy Borowitz couldn’t let the Trump/Nobel Show pass without his own contribution: “OSLO, NORWAY (The Borowitz Report) — After promising on Truth Social that the gathering would be ‘wild,’ on Friday Donald J. Trump summoned angry supporters to rally outside the headquarters of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Urging his irate loyalists to ‘stop the steal,’ Trump declared, ‘If you want to win the Nobel Peace Prize, you’ve got to fight like hell.’ In a brief public statement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, ‘What a effing baby.‘”

Trump may have to console himself with news that the US Treasury has released the first drafts of imagery for a new $1 coin to commemorate America’s 250th birthday and the President, who ostensibly will be in the Oval Office at that celebratory time. US Treasurer Brandon Beach says more information will be forthcoming after the “obstructionist shutdown” of the government is over. The first images depict Trump’s side profile on the front side, with the word ‘LIBERTY‘ at the top, and ‘In God We Trust‘ below the profile. The reverse side contains the overused image of Trump raising his fist as seen in photos following the Butler, PA assassination attempt, with a billowing US flag in the background, and words ‘FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT‘ at the top. At this time it isn’t clear the controversial coin will ever be minted, being against the law to display the image of a sitting president or living former president. A two-year lapse is required following a president’s death to have his or her features on a coin, according to the US code governing coin design. Congress has passed the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act, allowing the Treasury to mint special $1 coins to celebrate the upcoming anniversary for a one-year period beginning on January 1, “with designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial.”

The law also states, “No head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included on the reverse of specified coins.” So, does the side view portrait of Trump featured on the front side of the proposed coin, not the reverse, observe the law? The reverse side still features Trump, but the Butler image falls outside of the direct language “head and shoulders portrait or bust.” Treasurer Beach confirms that the drafts with Trump hogging both sides are legitimate, but a Treasury spokesperson emphasizes that a final design has not been chosen — though “the first draft reflects well the enduring spirit of our country and democracy, even in the face of immense obstacles,” and they look forward to sharing more soon. Thanks, we can hardly wait! The only living president to be featured on a coin was Calvin Coolidge in 1926, according to The American Numismatic Association.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and to finance the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, a million half-dollar coins were authorized, portraying the heads of George Washington and ‘silent Cal‘ facing right on the front, and a cracked Liberty Bell on the reverse, with the inscription ‘Sesquicentennial of American Independence.’ The Exposition Commission overestimated the public’s interest in the coin, and though the Exhibition was well-attended, 859,408 half-dollars were returned to the Philadelphia Mint, melting into history. NBC’s Saturday Night Live News Update has an idea that might spur interest in any Trump coin: Instead of Trump’s raised fist image from the Butler, PA photo, why not show Trump holding Harriet Tubman in a headlock on the reverse side?

The Nobel Committee’s selection of Venezuela’s María Corina Machado, an opposition leader driven into hiding since the country’s disputed 2024 election, for her keeping “the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness, and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Machado has described her life’s work as promoting “ballots over bullets,” with the Nobel Committee lauding her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.” In her statement of acceptance, Machado said the prize belongs to the people of Venezuela: “It is a recognition of what we have achieved together and a reminder of what still remains,” adding that it should act as an impetus for Venezuelans to complete the task of achieving freedom. Although the White House was disgruntled at the Nobel Committee’s choice, earlier this year President Trump had nothing but praise for Machado for “peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people.” Trump claimed that he spoke to her after the award was announced globally, and that she was “very nice” during their call. “The person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me and said, ‘I’m accepting this in honor of you, because you really deserved it,'” the president declared. WAIT a damn minute! Wasn’t she quoted as saying the prize belongs to the people of Venezuela? Sounds kinda fishy…definitely lacking in truthiness…the only list Trump belongs on is Epstein’s list!

But then, Machado told El País newspaper that Venezuelans are “deeply grateful” to the US president, and earlier she publicly thanked him on social media “for his decisive support of our cause. We are on the threshold of victory, and today more than ever we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the people of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our main allies in achieving freedom and democracy. Venezuela will be free!” Her efforts have become more difficult with the deterioration of her country’s democratic institutions due to despotic crackdowns by President Maduro’s government. “Everyone in Venezuela is afraid of losing our freedom or even our lives,” she explained to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “But above all we are committed to make the truth prevail…and get a transition to democracy peacefully.”

It’s curious that the prize award comes at this time of rising antagonism between the US and Venezuela, with the US military conducting lethal strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela, which the Trump White House has deemed to be “narco-trafficking vessels.” Evidence of any kind to support this action is totally lacking, so they could be fishing boats, pleasure boats or conveyances for carrying paying passengers to other ports — the last boat destroyed was said to have several Columbian citizens aboard. Also, the US has deployed at least seven warships to the southern Caribbean, while announcing a $50 million reward for information leading to President Maduro’s arrest stemming from formal drug trafficking charges in 2020 by the Justice Department.

Also curious is an email from CodePink.org, which decries the selection of Machado as a Nobel recipient. CodePink is a feminist grassroots organization working to end US warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs, according to their website. The writer of this particular message claims to be Venezuelan-American who knows exactly what Machado represents, whose politics have brought much suffering to that country while functioning as a polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention disguised as democracy. Machado is accused of working hand-in-hand with Washington to justify regime change, demanding foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force, and cheering on Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval show of force in the Caribbean. Further, she is accused of wanting to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations, “…the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.”

CodePink says that Machado praises Trump’s “decisive action” against a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by US migration policies. The email says Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress, the ideology being a belief that lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order. CodePink sums it up with: “If Henry Kissinger could win a Nobel Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give it to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for ‘compassion under occupation,’ or the Palestinian journalists in Gaza who, with no safety or rest, document the bombings, name the victims, and keep the truth alive when the world looks away.” Too late for debate, or the ‘unnomination,’ this year.