MAGA COSPLAY, COCKTAIL #3, MERCY CLAPS, NEVER AGAIN

You’ve probably heard this spine-tingling Halloween joke already: A sleazy drunk and a fat draft dodger walk into an auditorium and lecture a roomful of 4- and 5-star generals and admirals. That’s it! As Rick Wilson writes on Lincoln Square,  commenting on Secretary of War Hegseth’s and the President’s addressing military leaders in an ill-conceived ‘pep talk,’ at Quantico, Virginia’s Marine Corps Base, “Here’s the thing, and you know it in your bones: That speech was insane. Not ‘politician riffing’ insane. Not ‘grandpa got a little too stoked on Adderall’ insane. It was the kind of rambling, aggrieved, slack-jawed performance you get when a man has fused his ego to a teleprompter and still can’t find the plot. Donald Trump shuffled out, tried to grunt his way through a ‘speech’ that was really just a slurry of ‘Sir’ stories, and absurd lies…and then inevitably fell back into the only narrative he’s truly capable of sustaining: grievance, fantasy, and the endless autobiographical fan fiction where he alone is hero, martyr, and field marshall. And the room knew it.”

This forced assembly of America’s senior military leadership, some having traveled from remote outposts around the world, with supporting staff, “manage more complexity before breakfast than Trump, Hegseth, and their entire MAGA cosplay corps could comprehend in a lifetime,” says Wilson. “They lead in real danger, in real time, in real space, against real adversaries. They run multivariate operations across the globe that would leave the weekend cable-host-turned-pretend-Patton drooling into his third morning cocktail. Instead, they had to sit for two hours and watch Pete Hegseth try to swing his rhetorical broadsword before Trump wandered onstage and word-vomited all over the carpet.” The silence was deafening, with only smatterings of polite applause — mercy claps from the DC MAGA entourage? The fact that the assembled brass were standing at attention, unable to clap as Trump strode onto the stage, escaped Donald Trump, and he chided them for not giving him the kind of ovation he expects when his orange magnificence enters a room. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” the president began, “Just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want, you can do anything you want. And if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank; there goes your future.” A ripple of laughter — from backstage?

Secretary Hegseth encountered the same awkward situation during his address, waiting for laughs and applause that never came. Trump appeared quieter and more confused than usual facing an uncertain event, perhaps because he had announced his participation only a few days earlier, leaving him with little time to prepare? Nah, probably not the case! He began his rambling discourse right off the bat, giving the captive audience a history lesson about the Department of War, the Atomic Energy Commission and the recent destruction of Iran’s nuclear program, whining about the ‘victory’ in the ‘Gulf of America‘ court case against the Associated Press (still unsettled), and a story about the “three thousand year conflict of the Israelis’ and the Palestinians’.” “That’s a long time. But we got it, I think, settled. War is very strange,” he surmised.

And so, from the “enemy within” his brain, he began to recycle campaign speeches, lies and more lies, whining and misrepresentations, preoccupations about Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and disappointment at not having a Nobel Prize on his resumé. The generals and admirals were probably elated to hear his take, and self-congratulation, about levying tariffs which “could buy a lot of battleships, to use an old term.” And then, joking/not-joking (?), he criticized the US Navy for building ships from “paper-mâché and aluminum stuff that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. It starts melting as the missile is about two miles away.” Yikes, that’s one for your Halloween lawn display! As Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic, “The president talked at length, and his comments should have confirmed to even the most sympathetic observer that he is not okay.” According to Hegseth’s gang, the goal was to energize America’s top military leaders at the conclave, getting them to focus on the Secretary’s vision for a new Department of War, but the assembled video props, or pawns, sitting in the audience should be forgiven if they returned to their respective commands wondering: What on earth is wrong with the commander-in-chief?

Some, and maybe most, of the officers had never attended a MAGA rally, and perhaps, had never witnessed such a video, but they can now chalk up a first-hand account of seeing a typical, unhinged Trump tirade — worthy of another ribbon on their uniform? In essence, Trump was simply riffing off the teleprompter, snagging a word or phrase here and there that he felt would enhance his performance to the stone-faced officers who would have been more receptive to a Churchillian rip-off. The Founding Fathers were undoubtedly spinning in their graves with the president’s ominous suggestion that our military would be part of the solution to domestic threats, fighting the “enemy from within,” by using our ‘dangerous cities’ as training grounds. “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military — National Guard, but military — because we’re going into Chicago very soon. That’s a big city with an incompetent governor. Stupid governor,” he menacingly growled.

The late New York senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan called such jumbles of fantasy, menace, and autocratic peacocking as “boob bait for the Bubbas,” and Tom Nichols suggests that George Orwell might have termed Trump’s notions “prolefeed.” Nichols offers, “It’s one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd: They know that most of it is nonsense and only some of it is real. They find it entertaining, and they can take or leave as much of Trump’s rhetorical junk-food buffet as they would like. It is another thing entirely to aim this kind of sludge at military officers, who are trained and acculturated to treat every word from the president with respect, and to regard his thoughts as policy.” In the past, American officers dealt with presidents who behaved badly and suffered mental and emotional setbacks, but they knew the commanders-in-chief they served under were basically normal individuals surrounded by other normal men and women, and that the constitutional system would insulate the military from any mad orders emerging from the Oval Office.

Now, the second coming of Trump doesn’t have even a hint of the control and influence of others that were present during his first term, appointees who were able to control his goofiest ideas. Today’s military has to wonder who will shield them from the impulses of the person who had a melt-down onstage at Quantico. How are they to respond to the slippery lies, and the insults thrown at fellow soldiers and past commanders-in-chief — and what of his love affair with Putin? Air Force nuclear-missile officer Harold Hering, asked during a 1973 training session, “How can I know that an order I receive to launch missiles came from a sane president?” Hering quickly found himself bounced from the military because in his position, officers are trained to execute orders, not question them. Those officers who watched the Trump/Hegseth Show at Quantico now have Hering’s question staring them in the face, knowing that they just watched the man who can order use of nuclear weaponry, and the one who would verify such an order, start the drumbeat of war.

Already the advance contingents of National Guardsmen are moving into, or are being scheduled for deployment into Democrat-run cities. Agents ransacked a Chicago apartment building last week, leading zip-tied families into unmarked vans in the darkness, which MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called “one of the most egregious abuses of our basic rights.” Witnesses told local news sources that heavily armed ICE agents arrived in the neighborhood in U-Haul vans and a Black Hawk helicopter, then broke down residents’ doors, dragging them out of their beds. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has directed state agencies to investigate the “unconscionable treatment” of children who were separated from their parents, and detained for several hours. Pritzker is quoted as saying, “This didn’t happen in a country with an authoritarian regime — it happened here in Chicago.” Daily Dose of Democracy’s blog suggests that JB might want to rethink that statement — “an authoritarian regime, by any other name would smell as foul.”

The blog goes on to say that, “in his desperation to justify sending federal troops into yet another American city, to crack down on citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest, America’s fascist ignoramus-in-chief is literally playing make believe.” Telling reporters outside the White House, with not a shred of evidence except for what Stephen Miller told him, Trump claimed that Portland, Oregon is “burning to the ground,” that city leaders are “afraid for their lives,” — the reason they say, “there’s nothing happening.” Any constitutionalist knows that a president must justify any domestic deployment of the US military, and with no evidence, that’s why Daily Dose of Democracy calls it “fascism because it is fascism.”

Trump-appointed District Judge Karin Immergut blocked his order — twice — to deploy troops to Portland to stop what the president has called “lawless mayhem,” saying the relatively small protests did not justify such action, acting against the state’s sovereignty. Of course, Trump’s whining about judges he appoints not falling into line with his edicts began, and he chided Immergut, saying, “That judge ought to be ashamed of himself,” — “herself” would have been correct, proof that The Don is a bit out of line himself. Immergut’s ruling reads, “This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs. This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. The president’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.” Trump’s claim that all we have to do is look at TV and read the newspapers to back him up indicates that he is tethered to Stephen Miller’s old 60’s news videos or some WWII movie that has captured what’s left of his imagination. Both Oregon and California leaders are suing the administration for the allegedly illegal call-up of their state’s troops for the Portland occupation.

Laura Esposito of The Daily Beast highlighted another whiner — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who she describes as “tough on immigration but apparently soft on lunchtime.” Noem told Fox & Friends Weekend hosts that she is agonizing over the not-so-warm welcome ICE agents are receiving in Chicago. The “war zone city” residents are accused of intimidating the armed, masked, and largely unwanted federal officers, “not letting our ICE officers and our border patrol officers use restrooms and facilities. Those men and women were telling us that they have to figure out even where they can go sit down for five minutes to have lunch or use the restroom throughout their shift or their break.” Esposito reminds Noem that war zones aren’t exactly known for safe and secure public restrooms, and the secretary’s own experience of being denied access to a government building’s bathroom by a barrage of protesters should have cleared up that misconception. Let’s hope that the Fox & Friends studio was more accommodating for her needs.

Governor Pritzker agrees, “People are booing her on the street. ICE is raiding neighborhoods where instead of going after the bad guys, they’re just picking up people who are brown and Black, then checking their credentials…I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry around papers that say I’m a US citizen.” Right-wing commentator Benny Johnson posted a video of Noem, saying, “We’re sending in the Department of War. I sent a request to Secretary Hegseth. We’ll be rolling in the next 24 hours…this is a country of laws. If you don’t like the laws, go change them. We are enforcing them. That is sending a message to the whole world.”

Steve Schmidt on his The Warning blog asks, “What do you think about the new look of federal law enforcement? These are Miller’s men. Look at the rage in his eyes. Notice his lack of control and professionalism. Miller’s thug cannot control his temper. When he finally strikes it is for no reason whatsoever beyond his lack of discipline, bearing and zest for violence. This is a man who looks like he wants to beat someone, or maybe shoot up a street film of protestors.” Schmidt suggests that Governor Pritzker should call the Illinois General Assembly into a special session and establish committees to investigate every abuse, document every federal aggression, and conduct public oversight of federal police agencies that are out of control, and operating like American Gestapo in American cities.

“Some people said that what was happening in America couldn’t happen here, but they were wrong. It is happening here. How did it happen? Arrogance, ignorance and incompetence, of course, but indifference, mainly. Step by step, tweet by tweet, and threat by threat, is how it happened. Fascism didn’t rise in the 30s because it was strong. It rose because democracy was weak,” writes Schmidt. He brings up the often used quote attributed to Sinclair Lewis: “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” with which he agrees, saying, “It’s so very true. These men have been told who their enemy is. It is us.”

On his show last weekend, John Oliver poked fun at co-president Stephen Miller for trying to sound tough during his speech to police officials in Memphis — “which only sounded tough in his own head” as he talked about facing off with “gangbangers.” Oliver asked, “I’ve got to say, at this point, white supremacists just have to be embarrassed, right? This is your champion, right here? A man who looks like he still has a soft spot on his skull?!?” Oliver notes that Miller’s ‘tough talk’ has been accompanied by “nauseating footage” from Trump’s expansion of ICE activity, particularly in the apartment building raid in Chicago. He also targeted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump for their presentations to the military brass in Quantico, saying, “This administration is clearly still hellbent on trying to intimidate communities with shows of force. They are obsessed with appearances, kicking out all the beardos and fatties, but what they cannot do is cover up the ugliness of what they are doing right now.”

With a scathing post on Facebook last summer, Alisa Kasmer, Stephen Miller’s cousin, publicly disowned him for his role as the architect of Trump’s immigration policies. She recently made a new entry in which she revealed that most of Miller’s extended family has disowned him, highlighting the family’s history of surviving persecution with their Jewish heritage. She explained, “We celebrated holidays each year with the reminder to stand up and say, “never again.” But what you are doing breaks that sacred promise. It breaks everything we were taught. I am living with the deep pain of watching someone I once loved become the face of evil. I will never knowingly let evil in my life, no matter whose blood it carries — including my own.”

Last week, President Trump took the stage with HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and expounded upon his knowledge of OTC medicines with unpronounceable names — therefore unsafe for HIM as well? He expanded his Department of War on Women by spewing conspiracy theories about Tylenol, taking his cues from RFK Jr, that the pain reliever when taken by pregnant women causes autism in their offspring — this in spite of the fact that studies don’t agree with these two unqualified non-holders of medical licenses, though both may hold documentation from Trump University. Kristofer Harrison of Dekleptocracy Alliance agrees that these claims are going to harm expectant mothers since Tylenol is the only pain reliever deemed safe during pregnancies, not to mention allowing fevers to go unchecked is a risk to the developing child. Also, Harrison’s quibble with this whole episode is the sickness that someone got rich off this “farce of an announcement.” It was noted that traders were shorting Tylenol’s parent company, Kenvue, even before the dynamic MAGADuo took to the podium, which is “not a natural market movement.” Someone had foreknowledge of the two fakers’ impending attack which Harrison calls a “textbook case for an insider trading investigation,” a consistent pattern with Trump insiders.

To Harrison, “it’s bad enough that Trump and his cronies are spreading misinformation, endangering kids with anti-vax conspiracies, and forcing pregnant women to suffer — it’s even worse that they’re getting rich while they do so. Trump’s administration is stacked with con artists. And when it comes to public policy, it’s clear that their first priority is always running to the stock market and cashing in.” Arwa Mahdawi writes in The Guardian, “Donald Trump is a man with no medical training. However, that’s’ never stopped the very stable genius from inflicting his unhinged health views on the rest of us, has it?” Mahdawi reminds us that in 2020, the makers of Dettol and Lysol had to issue urgent statements explaining that injecting disinfectants to fight COVID-19 was not a good suggestion — after The Don had proposed that cure. Attacking Trump’s “trademark eloquence” — “Taking Tylenol is, uuuuhhhhh, not good,” — and she recalls that Kennedy told Congress, “people shouldn’t take medical advice from me.” Case closed? Ha!

But Trump suggests his medical advice is, “if you’re feeling poorly while pregnant you should ‘fight like hell,'” and continue to suffer? Mahdawi says Trump’s point makes no sense and is advancing wildly irresponsible guidance, since there is no evidence for a causative link between the ingredient, acetaminophen, and autism. Even JD Vance restrained himself from advancing Trump’s advice, urging women to rely on their doctors. Trump’s misogynistic demand that women ‘tough it out’ also reminds us that women’s pain is often misunderstood or ignored, with the medical establishment taking more seriously a man’s suffering. Mahdawi references a 2022 study from the Journal of the American Heart Association, finding that chest pain in women resulted in a 29% longer wait in the emergency department for evaluation compared to men.

The Tylenol bugaboo is yet another instance of mom-shaming says sociology professor Martine Lappé. Studies have shown a link between advanced paternal age and autism, but society ignores that and doesn’t shame men for fathering children late in life. A 59- year-old Donald Trump sired Barron, resulting in his preening about his virility, of his staying young by producing offspring. The president’s concern is not for women’s health, rather another thumb on the scale for control. Mahdawi concludes her piece with, “It’s another way to reduce us to walking wombs rather than multidimensional human beings. This war on Tylenol is also very much a war on women. Now, if only there was a pill we could take to help us deal with this MAGA-induced malaise. As it is, we are ALL just going to have to ‘tough it out.'” And, remember, the only way to stop a bad guy with Tylenol is a good guy with Extra-Strength Tylenol.

Brett Meiselas of MeidasTouch/Meidas Health sat down with Dr. Vin Gupta last week to respond to the disinformation disgorged by Trump and the Kennedy family’s black sheep, RFK Jr. Terming it deliberate, malicious, reckless and dangerous, they sought to challenge these types of lies that will result in people dying. It was said that children “shouldn’t receive vaccines like MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) together,” insisting hepatitis B shots be delayed until age 12, and as RFK Jr declared he had never seen an elderly person with autism, “as if that were meaningful science,” Trump was nodding his head in agreement — or fighting off a nap. “And then came the lies about the Amish, about Cuba, about autism being virtually nonexistent in those populations because they ‘don’t take vaccines,'” writes Meiselas. “This wasn’t just ignorance. It was a calculated performance of disinformation designed to confuse, scare, and undermine public trust in medicine. We’ve seen this Trump Show before. During COVID, it was bleach injections and hydroxychloroquine. Now it’s Tylenol and childhood vaccines. The difference? Back then, his own advisors looked at him like he was insane. Today, he surrounds himself with professional sycophants nodding along, giving legitimacy to his gibberish.”

Dr. Gupta discussed the respected research on the Tylenol question in the 25-year Swedish study of 2.5 million children, which showed no link in acetaminophen use and autism. He says, “That’s not speculation. It’s peer-reviewed data published in top medical journals and affirmed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Denying that reality isn’t just irresponsible. It’s cruel. It’s telling women to grit their teeth and suffer, all in the service of Trump’s warped ego and RFK Jr’s long-debunked crusade.” Meiselas added to the discussion, saying what Trump is doing isn’t random: “It fits his authoritarian playbook. Strongmen across history have pretended that they alone can solve complex problems without experts, without science, without evidence. Trump thrives on bending reality, doubling down on lies, and creating chaos until people don’t know what’s true anymore. He doesn’t care if pregnant women suffer or if children die of preventable disease. What he cares about is control over truth, over institutions, over people’s very bodies. It’s the same pathology we’ve seen in his cover-ups, in his ‘hoax’ rhetoric, in his disdain for science and expertise.”

And now, we see the damage spreading across the country as pediatricians and OB-GYNs field frantic questions from parents, expectant mothers, with doctors already overburdened by the confusion strewn about by the Trump machine as it attacks our medical and health framework. This is real-world harm falling hardest on those who need clear, accurate guidance to obtain consistent access to healthcare. Meiselas says, “We need corporate America to show moral clarity and reject this nonsense. We need leaders across politics, business and culture to stand up and say ‘enough is enough.’ Short-term profit and transactional deals are meaningless if we allow authoritarian lies to dismantle the very fabric of public health.”

From The New York Times‘ headline, ‘President Ignores Science,’ Eliot Kirschner of Through the Fog on Substack surmises that Trump has wandered into flat Earth territory, with his “pure and unadulterated quack-doctoring b.s.” In actuality, Kirschner says the Times headline could be used on almost “any press run reporting on any day of this horrific administration…the president ignores data and goes with his gut (which some have pointed out seems a bit less ample these days likely because of the new weight loss drugs discovered by, yes, SCIENCE).” He suggests headlines that read ‘President Ignores Democracy; …the Law;…History;…Empathy;…National Security;…Our Allies;…Accountability;…Expertise;…Critical Thinking’ and on and on. “In this way, and others, Donald Trump is an ignoramus. The modern definition of the word some sources helpfully caution is ‘derogatory,’ an ignorant person. A dunce. The word’s origins come from the Latin, where ignoramus literally means ‘we do not know,” writes Kirschner.

In medieval times, grand juries not finding suitable evidence to bring charges against an accused, returned any investigative documents marked ‘ignoramus,’ and from which this legal jargon morphed into an epithet, today savored and used by many. Kirschner fears that the press, in taking baby steps in their honesty about reporting Trump’s spurning of truth, doesn’t even approach the full “picture of horror” we are experiencing. The president doesn’t stop at ignoring science, he is hostile toward it, and everything it represents, destroying it in his war on the truth, his war with democracy, and his war with reason. Kirschner concedes, “While Trump certainly fits the definition of an ignoramus, that term doesn’t begin to capture all of the other attributes that make him completely unfit for office — the malevolence, the cruelty, the corruption, and the hatred. We are too deep into this regime to give him any benefit of the doubt. ‘Ignores’ is far too benign a verb. What we see everyday is a mixture of power, stupidity, and cruelty that would be unimaginably shocking in any other presidency in our history. And that is a truth that should be impossible for any of us to ignore.”

As might be expected, humorist Andy Borowitz jumped into the Tylenol confusion: “According to a new study published on Monday, there is a strong link between Donald Trump being president and increased use of Tylenol. The study, which was published by the University of Minnesota Medical School, reports that consumption of the pain reliever has increased by nine thousand percent since Trump’s inauguration in January. Professor Davis Logsdon, who supervised the study, called the data ‘surprising,’ adding, ‘We expected the increase to be much greater.’ Logsdon said that the medical school would soon release additional findings linking Trump’s presidency to an increased use of alcohol, marijuana, and crack.”

Daily Kos reported that Boeing announced a deal with Uzbekistan to buy 14 planes, and perhaps another eight later on. That was Trump’s cue to jump on Truth Social, trying to take credit: “Earlier this month I spoke with the Highly Respected President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Today I want to congratulate President Mirziyoyev on signing a GREAT Deal with Boeing! Worth over $8 Billion Dollars, Uzbekistan Airways is purchasing 22,787 Dreamliners. This will create over 35,000 jobs in the United States. President Mirziyoyev is a man of his word, and we will continue to work together on many more items! Thank you for your attention to this matter.” So, Donnie Boy, that works out to $351,000 per plane, at an efficiency of 1.5 workers per plane? Yep, the ignoramus added a comma where there should have been a space, and no one felt empowered or emboldened enough to actually say, “Sir, ahem, Sir, that’s inaccurate, Sir.” Of course, his brain isn’t capable of doing the basic math that would have immediately have caught the error. His mention of creating 35,000 new jobs is also in error — the existing work force will be kept on the assembly line, with no lay offs — so ignore Trump’s claim of creating new jobs as well…ain’t happenin’.

The president’s Boeing Dreamliner post blunder is a good reminder of his statement recently at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, where he is seen on video telling chortling attendees, “Smart people don’t like me, you know? And they don’t like what we talk about.” Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett fired back on X, “I agree! So does MAGA know what this means…what he thinks of them?” Asked for comments on Crockett’s post, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast, “All three of Jasmine Crockett’s brain cells are infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome.” As Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Lee Moran writes on HuffPost, “Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at the University of Oxford, predicted in an essay for The Guardian that Americans have only 400 days to save their democracy.” “Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so,” admits Garton Ash, “but during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy, and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault.” He says that despite the Democrats‘ muddled policies, and their current mess of leadership, Americans must hope that this party regains control of Congress to force the GOP to “start doing its job again” to keep the White House in check.

So what do you do with a podcast bozo you placed in charge of the nation’s top law enforcement agency? FBI Director Kashyap Patel is said to be underwater in the Trump administration, admits Fox News, with former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey being sworn in as deputy FBI director along with Dan Bongino, even as officials question Patel’s competence in running the agency. All this, with the White House establishing a new position, unexplained, and leaving the FBI confused, according to Fox. Patel’s complete bungling of the Charlie Kirk assassination, ignoring input from local authorities, and coating his face with egg by announcing on X that two suspects had been arrested, but later released, only leads to questions about his firing of the Salt Lake City FBI office head, Mehtab Syed, for ambiguous reasons — Syed being a competent and well-respected leader. Mr. Patel is already facing several lawsuits for his political-related purges at the FBI.

Satirist Andy Borowitz, in his The Borowitz Report, contributed his take on Patel’s skating on thin ice: “In a setback for the embattled FBI director, Kash Patel learned on Friday that he was being replaced by a startled deer. According to White House sources, Donald J. Trump made the decision after deciding that the deer would instill more confidence during its media appearances. Informing Patel of his decision in a brief phone call, Trump reportedly said, ‘Sorry, Kash — we’re going deer.’ Though Trump’s nominee, if confirmed would become the first antlered mammal to lead the FBI, most law enforcement experts believe that the deer would represent an upgrade.”

A followup by Borowitz on Patel’s replacement reads: “Hoping to stop the bleeding after millions boycotted its products, Disney announced on Monday that it was launching a new late-night comedy show on ABC starring Kash Patel. Patel, who earlier this month was replaced as FBI director by a startled deer, received a ringing endorsement from Disney CEO Bob Iger. “We’re confident that all of Kash’s jokes will be acceptable to the president, especially since the head writer will be Stephen Miller,” Iger said. Urging viewers to ‘give Kash a chance,” Iger added, “if he’s even half as funny as he was at the Senate last week, this show is going to huge.'”

Patel’s stumble with saying a shooter was in custody, only to discover the killer was still at large, generated heat over his leadership and his candor — or lack thereof. After suspect Tyler Robinson was finally in custody, anti-DEI crusader Chris Rufo posted on X, “I’m grateful that Utah authorities have captured the suspect in the Charilie Kirk assassination, and I think it is time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI. He performed terribly in the last few days, and it’s not clear whether he has the operational expertise to investigate, infiltrate, and disrupt violent movements — of whatever ideology — that threaten the peace in the United States.” Rufo adds that many of his conservative acquaintances lack confidence in “the current structure of the FBI.”

Director Patel flew to Utah the day after the shooting, purportedly to oversee the investigation, but former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his ‘Bannon’s War Room‘ show, said, “I don’t know why Kash flew out there, you know, thousands of miles, to give us, ‘Hey, working partnerships and our great partnership in Utah’ — OK, got that.” Bannon complained that the resulting press conference did not include more details about the shooter, the timeline of the incident, and how he was apprehended, but the FBI offered no comment on the criticism from MAGAts on their handling of the case. Utah Governor Spencer Cox disclosed that Tyler Robinson’s family had reached out to a friend who then contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, to tell them the suspect had “confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.” Bannon emphasized that it all came together because of the family and there “was not great law enforcement work.”

Smarting from his failure, the following day Patel fumed at his minions over their failure to give him timely information, including photos of the suspect, then going into a profanity-laced tirade, telling his subordinates he would not tolerate “Mickey Mouse operations,” further antagonizing right-wingers. On HuffPost, Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is quoted as saying, “It was amateur hour. He was doing a running commentary. Historically, the FBI keeps its mouth closed until it believes it’s the right time and the right message.” A New York Times report added that Director Patel’s actions “have already invited scorn and scrutiny from the bureau’s work force, and some senior officials at the Justice Department, who think his behavior has eroded public confidence in the agency.”

Kashyap Patel instituted himself into the president’s good graces once he became a fixture in MAGA media/social media following Trump’s first term. He served as an aide on the House Intelligence Committee and National Security Council, using that experience to bolster his bonafides on right-wing podcasts to accuse the government of “weaponization” against Trump. He also authored a children’s book, ‘The Plot Against the King,’ featuring a character named Hillary Queenton who spreads lies against King Donald, lies based on the Steele dossier. After Trump’s announcement of nominating Patel to lead the FBI, many reasons were raised about why this was a bad idea, most having to do with the podcaster’s record of being a hyper-partisan conspiracy theorist and sycophantic ally of The Don; but the most compelling reason should have been his lack of experience or qualifications for the job, a charge he has been battling since day one. Political scientist, Norman Ornstein, added his own brickbat: “Not merely an utter incompetent. A liar too.”

As might be expected, in covering his own butt, Trump specifically praised Attorney General Pam Bondi on ‘Fox and Friends‘ after he had announced the apprehension of suspect Robinson. “Everybody worked together. Pam Bondi is incredible, by the way. People don’t know what a star she is, she’s incredible. And it all worked out,” raved Trump. Incredible, got that? On the other hand, Rachel Cohen of NJ.com says, “The White House, Bondi, Blanche have no confidence in Kash,” according to one of her sources. The source added, “Pam in particular cannot stand him. Blanche either.” The administration shrugged off any plans to remove Patel, and both Bondi and Blanche discounted any blame for criticisms they may actually have. Reports from several sources close to Trump point to his dissatisfaction with incidents of Patel’s performance — in particular, his feuding with Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein case, but also over “botched communications” during the Utah manhunt.

Posting as a guest writer on Cliff Schecter’s Blue Amp blog, a piece by David Shuster entitled ‘Kash Patel: The Keystone Cop Choking Our Republic, A joke who would just be a punchline if he weren’t so dangerous,’ says, “Donald Trump has long produced sycophants of such stupendous mediocrity that one marvels not merely at their survival, but at their ongoing power. Mr. Kashyap Patel, Trump’s Director of the FBI, is the latest example. It would be difficult to imagine a man less suited to run a federal agency — unless, of course, one has glimpsed at the rest of the current Trump Cabinet, which increasingly resembles a low-class variety show curated by Steve Bannon after three bourbons. To say that Patel is a bumbler is to libel honest incompetents the world over. Patel is something more extreme — a man who, when given a match, doesn’t merely drop it in the gasoline but insists it is actually lemonade, lights it anyway, and then lectures the fire chief on the virtues of deregulation.”

Shuster says the Utah assassination “demanded forensic rigor, tight-lipped professionalism, and the kind of strategic discretion that one would expect from whoever is running our nation’s top investigative body. Instead what did we get?” He describes Patel with “thumbs ablaze — though not definitively opposable — taking to X, blurting out that a suspect was in custody,” while law enforcement was finishing up at the crime scene. The writer calls it not just a failure of leadership, but a failure of basic adult thinking, as “truth inconveniently emerged with no suspect, no arrest, no idea who killed Charlie Kirk,” with Patel being forced to make his mortifying retraction. The embarrassing truth is that the FBI never ‘caught’ the killer, before he was finally turned in a day and a half later by family; then, Patel and Trump withheld the news for another nine hours to allow the president to make the announcement on ‘Fox and Friends.’

End of the self-glorification? Hardly! Patel’s desire for the limelight and self-promotion later found him on Fox News posing as a prosecutor, as he disclosed details that any half-witted defense attorney will now use to argue for a mistrial, “tainting the public record before the yellow police tape had been removed,” claims Shuster. “If justice is blind, Patel seems determined to gouge out its remaining eye — even if both of his can’t seem to focus on the problem. But we should not be surprised. Patel is the same man whose first order of business as FBI Director was to fire agents whose primary sin was doggedly investigating two things that inflame Trump World: the January 6 insurrection and Russia’s curious fondness for the 2016 GOP Presidential nominee.” Shuster adds: “in a saner era, firing career FBI agents because they pursued criminal investigations would be called obstruction of justice. Under the Trump administration, it’s called ‘cleaning house.'”

Patel personally knew Kirk, considering him a friend, which led to his emotional tribute at the end of the week: “To my friend Charlie Kirk: Rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I’ll see you in Valhalla,” referencing the hall of slain warriors from Norse mythology. These words may end up jeopardizing the prosecution of Robinson according to a former prosecutor. Robert James, a former DA in DeKalb County in Georgia, said, “Impartiality is very important when you’re looking at facts and determining who did what, what the motivation was and that sort of thing. So you never want to put yourself in a position where lawyers get involved and then you open yourself up to cross examination in a courtroom about your perception or perspective, and it happens in high-profile homicide cases all the time.” Legal ramifications aside, Patel’s Valhalla comment resulted in some confusion online since Patel is Hindu, and Kirk, an evangelical Christian.

Shuster ends his piece with: “Mr. Patel is not an anomaly. He is the perfect mascot for a Trump administration that is fueled by narcissism, delusion, incompetence, and cruelty. The tragedy is not that Kash Patel holds power. It’s that so many Americans are content to let him keep it.” A sad observation, but undeniably, right on the money. At this reading, is he still there?

PROVE ME WRONG, HYPOCRISY, REALITY, TRN

Social media commenters, politicians, broadcast and printed media pundits of all stripes have had a field day following the shooting of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus. Many have echoed similar lines, such as Garry Kasparov’s on Substack: “I unequivocally condemn his killing. We understand that lawless violence at our universities, or anywhere else, shuts down vital forums for free speech and endangers all of us. Speech does not just justify violence. Period. I more than disagreed with Kirk’s actions and statements. I rejected much of his worldview. What happened today does not change my perspective. But my ideological opposition does not in any way qualify my condemnation of this horrendous attack. Violence harms not only the target, but society at large.” Kasparov discloses that he lost his own father when he was a teenager, and so mourns with Kirk’s two young children who will grow up without their father. He emphasizes that in our democracy, our rights and our institutions, not bullets, are what protect us from demagogues, yet the process is slow with no straight line to victory. Political violence threatens that order, and is a death spiral that some countries never escape from, with the strain on our democracy being a sign that we are giving up — the fight for civil order is over. At that point, politics becomes a question of survival of the fittest — a dangerous territory for us to inhabit.

Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 years of age, and had become one of the most influential young conservatives on the political scene, especially with many college-age students, challenging students who disagreed with him to debate at his ‘Prove Me Wrong‘ events. His influence with Trump and the White House was significant, with the president proclaiming, “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me.” Many were quick to revive a Kirk comment from 2023 at a Turning Point USA event, when he said, “We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty. Driving comes with a price. Fifty thousand people die on the road every year. That’s a price. You get rid of driving, you’d have 50,000 less auto fatalities. But we have decided that the benefit of driving — speed, accessibility, mobility — is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road. We need to be very clear that you’re not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen, but I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment.” Further, he suggested that efforts to stop shootings should include more armed guards at locations holding noteworthy events.

Elliot Kirschner posted on Substack, “There can be no place for political violence in a democracy. And there can never be a ‘but’ or ‘yet’ or ‘however’ that follows that sentiment. So let’s try a different conjunction. Let’s try ‘and.'” He continues, “AND, that is why the violent, cop-bashing insurrectionists on January 6th should have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and certainly never pardoned. AND, why the would-be king who stoked the riot to remain in power should never have been given immunity by the cowardly Supreme Court. AND, this is why the violent attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband by a crazed man looking to harm the former Speaker of the House should never have been turned into a vicious punchline, as President Trump did. AND, why the lies spread by Rudy Giuliani, and echoed by Fox News, about the Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — who received death threats as a result — were so dangerous. AND, why it’s so provocative to inject heavily armed military troops into a city that doesn’t want them, in order to provoke confrontation. Kirk’s murder is a tragedy, and I am especially saddened for his young children. It is the facts of what occurred — the death itself and the presumed political motive — that should be the focus of the press and commentators. And the tragedy does not erase the long list of vile and harmful things Kirk said and did over his lifetime. And the final deed does not dismiss the threats of violence he injected into our politics and society. The condemnation of a political assassination, with all its implications, should not be used to turn someone who preached hate into a martyr. And it is instructive, as so many have noted, how selective the outpouring of official grief and press coverage can be depending on the politics of the victim.” Kirschner goes on to point out that the New York Yankees began a game with a moment of silence for Kirk, yet, they didn’t offer the same honor for Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, an elected official, and her husband, Mark, after they were assassinated the day before a Yankees/Red Sox game! “The GOP is is terrified to say the name of Melissa Hortman, because it shatters the narrative they’re trying to sell — that the left is violent and the right is peaceful. That narrative is a lie, and we need to call it out,” writes Mike Nellis on Substack.

Kirschner tells of his young daughters, who are becoming more aware of politics as they seek their own voice in such matters, questioning why other countries don’t have the same proliferation of weaponry as does this country, and how concerning the Kirk assassination is, happening on a school campus. His daughters have shared how they fear that masked, plainclothes federal agents will swoop into their own schools and remove friends and acquaintances, in an act of uncaring violence. Kirschner’s post pinpoints the appearance of the word ‘hypocrisy‘ in many commentaries, how Republicans who decry the Kirk attack, themselves calling for retribution, yet remain silent regarding threats to targeted political rivals — ignoring that most Democratic leaders denounced the Kirk murder. He references Trump’s own threat of violence toward an American city, with the ‘Chipocalypse‘ meme post as a call to civil war. “Certainly hypocrisy is part of what we are seeing. This regime, and the leader the MAGA masses follow with cult-like devotion, has built a political brand around political violence — in many forms. And here is what I think we all need to stop and consider how broadly we define political violence, especially in the press: Women die because they lack access to reproductive medical care — that is political violence. Immigrants being sent to inhumane prisons without due process is political violence. Congress giving billions to ICE, turning it into a personal domestic army acting with impunity is political violence. A polluted environment with toxins and natural disasters from climate change becoming increasingly deadly because of craven politicians is political violence. It is essential that our leaders and the press denounce political violence in all its forms, and in doing so continue to tell the full and truthful story of what is at stake. No one should be threatened with violence and certainly not killed for their beliefs in a democracy. And neither should those who stoke violence be excused from political responsibility, at the polls and be the press, for their words and actions. Because that is not democracy either.”

Political consultant, Jeff Timmer posted on Lincoln Square, “I have long argued that Donald Trump and today’s Republican Party are the greatest threat this nation has ever faced. Greater than Nazi Germany; greater than the Soviet Union; greater than al-Quida. That claim may strike some as overstatement, but it is not. None of those external enemies ever succeeded in capturing one of our major political parties. None had millions of Americans willing to surrender the rule of law, civic peace, and even basic facts to a single man. Trump has done what no foreign foe ever could: He has turned a major American party into an instrument of authoritarian power. From the beginning, Trump has governed not as a president, but as a strongman. The institutions of government — the courts, the military, federal law enforcement — he sees not as independent guardians of the Constitution but as weapons to be bent to his will. The Republican Party has not resisted this transformation; it has welcomed it. What once was a party of limited government and traditional conservatism has become a vessel for fascism, white Christian nationalism, and the normalization of political violence. I said these things before Charlie Kirk was murdered. They were true then. They remain true now. Kirk’s death has not changed reality — and Trump’s grotesque exploitation of the tragedy only underscores it.” Timmer calls the Oval Office response to the assassination ‘pure authoritarian theater,’ and with no factual evidence, blaming the political opposition, he uses the favored tool of scapegoating. By placing blame, Trump seeks to mobilize his MAGA troops, discredit his critics and justify further repression, a familiar tactic of Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and Pinochet. The very scenario many warned us about is now fact — Trump’s return to power in a second term displays precisely what authoritarian rules looks like in America.

Political columnist Ezra Klein of The New York Times wrote last week: “The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in politics without fear of violence. To lose that is to risk losing everything. Charlie Kirk — and his family — just lost everything. As a country, we came a step closer to losing everything, too.” Klein enumerates many incidents in recent years to show how we are edging closer to complete loss: The plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer; the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and the pipe bombs found during that period at committee headquarters of our two dominant political parties; the Pelosi home break-in when Paul Pelosi was injured; two attempted assassinations of presidential candidate Trump; Molotov cocktails thrown into Governor Josh Shapiro’s home; the murder of Minnesota’s Melissa Hortmann; and now, Charlie Kirk. Klein calls Kirk “one of the era’s most effective practitioners of persuasion, and though we may dislike what he believed, he was practicing politics in the right way.” He proved his hold on young voters with their sharp move to the right in the 2024 election. Klein did not know Kirk, admitting he is not the right person to eulogize him, but envied what he built — liberalism could use more of his moxie and fearlessness, he says. In his Times column, he mentions seeing mostly decent and human reactions to Kirk’s fate, but also two forms of reaction that are misguided: One is from the left, attempting to wrap Kirk’s death around his views on the Second Amendment; the second from the right’s attempt to turn the murder into a justification for an all-out war, “a Reichstag fire for our time.” Klein calls political violence a contagious virus, which became endemic in the country in the 1960s and into the 1970s; and while American politics has sides, we are meant to be on the same side of a larger project — to maintain the viability of the American experiment. “I wanted Kirk to be safe for his sake, but I also wanted him to be safe for mine and for the sake of our larger shared project. We are all safe, or none of us are,” he concludes.

Writer Elie Mystal in The Nation tore into some of the words surrounding the “canonization” of Charlie Kirk, cautioning that the “martyred mascot of racism” has distracted people from facing heightened racism and the country’s raging gun problem. Mystal wrote, “Before the shooting, the biggest story in America was the Supreme Court’s authorization of racial profiling against Latinos. After the white media is done celebrating their martyred mascot, I hope we can resume our conversation about how the rest of us are forced to live in this white supremacist state.” While Mystal offered condolences for Kirk and his family, he recounts how historically Black colleges and universities in Virginia cancelled classes after receiving threats in the fallout. “To recap, a white man was murdered by another white man for reasons we don’t know yet, but somehow that means Black people have to catch hell,” said Mystal. Calling out the Yankees baseball management for the moment of silence for Kirk, he also jumped on Ezra Klein’s “unconscionably” entitled ‘Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics The Right Way‘ in The New York Times, calling it the “worst argument of the week.” “Klein’s article goes on to condemn political violence,” Mystal wrote. “I agree with that, of course. But condemning political violence as an op-ed columnist is a little bit like condemning the French Revolution when you’re a member of the aristocracy. It is in our best interests to condemn the violent murder of public figures, because we all know we might be next. That doesn’t make us empathetic or graceful or more enlightened than the least common denominator on social media, it makes us self-interested.”

He feels that Klein missed the point, because Kirk attacked and denigrated Black people and threatened the existence of LGBTQ people. To him it is impossible to condemn political violence and mourn the victims of that violence without also lauding the political influence of the those victims — a basic test for Mystal. “Charlie Kirk represented the very worst American political discourse had to offer, and I wish he were still alive so I could tell that to him, to his face, over and over again. I wish he lived long enough to see everything that he worked to achieve crumble all around him. You see what I did there, Ezra? It’s really not hard,” he throws at Klein. Mystal claims he’s a New York Mets fan, and wants “people who practice politics to be better than Charlie Kirk. And Ezra Klein. All I can do is try to weather the storm. Violent whites have their blood up, and that usually means incredibly bad things for people like me. I’ve got public appearances that I probably need to cancel. I hope to survive this by staying as far away from white folks as I possibly can until this fever breaks.” The ammunition used by Kirk’s assassin had been etched with his anti-fascist messages, and because the ends of the bullets were stamped with initials ‘TRN,’ designating Turkish bullet maker Turan, MAGA in their trans-people fixation chose to interpret these letters as a trans community creation.

The Snopes website posted various quotes from Charlie Kirk, one from July 13, 2023 when he said some prominent Black women did not have “the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.” He was talking specifically about MSNBC television host Joy Reid; former first lady Michelle Obama; US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee; and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “If we would have said three weeks ago that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative-action picks, we would have been called racist. But now they’re coming out and saying it for us! They’re coming out and they’re saying, ‘I’m only here because of affirmative action,'” Kirk charged. A post on X from a year ago included a video clip of Kirk saying, “You have to go steal a white person’s slot,” that same clip being reposted to Instagram several times. Also confirmed are quotes when he said empathy is a “made-up, new age term,” and that “Jewish money has ruined US culture.”

The Common Dreams website has posted comments by Reverend Graylan Scott Hagler, advisor with FOR-USA and the founder and president of Faith Strategies USA, with his thoughts on the killing of Charlie Kirk. He says there are so many words and cliches condemning the murder and “none of the refrains are unique.” “We need to dial back our discourse. We need to be tolerant of different opinions. There is no room in American politics for political violence. Are people blind to the realties that have been swirling around us? The language has been violent. The discord has been great. There has been consistent room to dine at the table of heated racist discussion posing as legitimate political speech. The killing of Charlie Kirk fits within this arena of speech that is racist and hate-filled but is designed to pose as rational an logical political speech. In his rhetoric and so-called debate style this 31-year old evangelical firebrand of the right has stated that Black pilots were incompetent, gays should be stoned, ironically he was opposed to gun control, abortion, LGBTQ rights, criticized the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Martin Luther King, Jr., promoted Christian nationalism, advanced Covid-19 misinformation, made false claims of electoral fraud in 2020, and is a proponent of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. This Chicago-born suburbanite brought all of the racial innuendo to speech and rhetorically violated the safety and security of Blacks, people of color, the LGBTQIA community, perverted the history of race and racism in America, attempted to legitimize the nation as a white bastion of civilization and Christianity, and in general perfected the use of racial and hateful language and molded it into a form of acceptable and legitimate political debate and viewpoint.”

Reverend Hagler goes on to say, “But the legitimate debate aspect was far from legitimate historical benign speech, nor was it nonviolent in character. In fact, it touched all of the refrains of the vile language of the past that resulted far too many times in lynchings and other forms of racial violence and upheaval. Don’t get me wrong, I am sorry for the death, the killing of Charlie Kirk. I have stood over many coffins of many people I did not agree with, and words of comfort to the families during my 40-plus years of ministry. In doing so I have looked at a person’s life to find something to say about their character, worthiness, and contributions they have made in their lifetime. Sometimes the task is easier than at other times.” In examining Kirk’s life, Hagler notes that he was a husband, a father, but what else, he doesn’t know. He is sure he had friends, and he played a significant role in his connection with community that was personal and also collective, but the problem in affirming his life at an end-of-life ceremony is that he evidently did not care in his living about the security and comfort of others, showing no empathy. Questioning whether or not he believed what he espoused, or whether it was simply a marketing ploy for influence and money, the reverend doesn’t know, and no one will ever know for sure, but he expanded hatred, marketed the vile speech of old racisms in new wineskins, and further jeopardized the lives and security of others. Hagler ends his essay with, “Trump talked about lowering the temperature of the political language that is used, but in the next breath criticized ‘the radical left’ for castigating the hate language of Kirk. If we are going to be truthful in this moment, the hate that Kirk put out came back on him, and the violent political language that continues to fly in this country will continue to manifest itself in ways where we will continually be praying for victims and their families.”

As Elizabeth Spiers writes in The Nation: “There is no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign, and refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins ‘Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.’ His entire business was simply performances, and he could not have an entertaining public fight without opposition. Turning Point did not work to bring people together; it worked to bring about a country where anyone who wasn’t a white Christian nationalist wasn’t welcome. I won’t celebrate his death, but I’m not obligated to celebrate his life, either.”

MAGANOT!, AMERICAN DISEASE, CRACKERS, DISTRACTIONS

Last week there was another school shooting, this time at a Catholic church adjacent to its school, and as usual Republicans were offering their usual thoughts and prayers. Or as Mitch McConnell is noted for saying, “Mmpfa, mupha, phanfa b-bank suphapah, too soon,” or something similar — we may never know — gapha gapha ekphi debubba! Fox talking head, and former GOP congressman, Trey Gowdy crossed the MAGANOT! line later by suggesting that it might be time to start talking about gun control, despite his raking in wads of cash from the NRA during his term in office to speak out against a sensible gun safety plan. A new dawn may have found Gowdy tarred-and- feathered and looking for a new job — if only he could get past the FBI and armed National Guardsmen now stationed outside his home environs. Bad Trey dared to say on the ‘Outnumbered’ panel show, “Our system is reactive. Something bad happens, we react to it. And what people are crying for now is how can we prevent this? How can we stop it? And if the only way to stop it is to identify the shooter ahead of time or keep the weapons out of their hands. I mean, how many school shootings does it take before we’re going to have a conversation about keeping firearms out?” Critics immediately jumped onto social media to call him ‘not conservative,’ and they ‘despised him,’ — ‘shameful.’ That’s the routine the country goes through after every mass shooting with victims and families crying, as they follow the wailing sirens on the emergency vehicles — and politicians tweeting, emailing, or calling for ‘thoughts and prayers’ in their interviews. If that works for anyone in the moment, fine. But what about the next time? What comfort is there if you know the next gunman is caressing his or her fully-loaded weapon, ready to launch into yet another round of bloodshed? Names and places change, but the blood on the floor after unspeakable violence remains the same.

Michael Cohen writes on MeidasTouch, “The truth is, America has stopped even pretending to look for answers. Politicians point fingers, advocacy groups dig into their trenches, and the rest of us are left with a toxic cocktail of rage and resignation. We know the script. We’ve seen it too many times. And yet, the body count keeps climbing. How many more mothers need to bury their children before someone in Washington grows a spine? How many fathers will hold their son’s baseball glove, never to see him step up to the plate again? How many of these tragedies need to unfold before we admit that ‘thoughts and prayers’ are not policy? Why is this topic so untouchable? Why is the right to own an arsenal more sacred than the right of a child to sit safely in a classroom, or a worshipper to bow their head in peace?” Cohen goes on to say that we live in a nation where there are more guns than people — every citizen could be armed, and still weapons would be left unclaimed. “If that doesn’t tell you something is broken, you’re not paying attention,” he says. Any compromise is regarded as blasphemy, and any reference to common-sense reform invites outrage, attack ads, and threats, a path to surrender. Melania Trump was compelled to speak out for a call to action — a sincere, heartfelt response which will only be ignored. Columbine? Sandy Hook? Las Vegas? Uvalde? Park Avenue? Minneapolis? Nothing changes! Apathy and campaign contributions take hold.

Cohen chides Americans, saying, “It should shame us that we’ve let it get this far. That we’ve allowed gun violence become the background noise of American life. That parents now rehearse active shooter drills the same way past generations practiced fire drills. That worshippers look for exits when they walk into a sanctuary. That teachers keep bandages and tourniquets next to textbooks.” Steve Schmidt writes on his ‘The Warning’ blog, the words of the Minneapolis shooter, “‘I don’t want to do it spread a message. I do it to please myself. I do it because I am sick.'” Schmidt recalls Fox News’ Laura Ingraham as she reported the violence in Minneapolis: “Look at the evil etched on her face. Look at the menace in her smirk as she uses the death of children to celebrate her bigotry, indicting every transgender person in American as a danger. Her hate is her evidence that all are guilty of a sick person’s crime. Collective guilt is not justice. It is the rallying cry of a mob. The Trump mob was out in full force with a curated indictment, making sure in the main to leave out the big parts of the story. It’s always inconvenient when the events don’t fit perfectly in the demagogue’s box. Those dead kids in Minnesota were killed by an American disease, and the people who spread it want you to know a transgender person did it.”

The day after the mass shooting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attacked former press secretary Jen Psaki’s comments about ‘thoughts and prayers,’ saying, “I think they’re incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that prayer works, and who believe that in a time of mourning like this, it’s utterly disrespectful…ummm…to deride the power the power of prayer in this country.” Psaki had expressed her frustrations that “half the politicians in our country have little more to offer than thoughts and prayers,” saying, “We have seen this play out over and over again. There is a shooting, then come the thoughts and prayers, and then comes the attempt to shift the focus. This is what always happens. Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayer does not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring those kids back. Enough with thoughts and prayers.” Like clockwork, the GOP and their pro-gun allies pivoted to mental health and transgender rights, ignoring the obvious truth that the only factor that separates the US from other countries is the sheer number of guns. As Walter Einenkel writes on Daily Kos, “At least one White House secretary knows how to tell the truth.”

Psaki further criticized the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, DC, amid reports that they have been seen mulching down planted areas and picking up trash. “When kids are getting shot in their pews at a Catholic school mass and your crime plan is to have National Guard troops mulch around DC, maybe you should rethink your strategy,” she zinged. VP Vance also berated Psaki for her “bizarre” declaration that “prayer is not freaking enough.” Catholic convert Vance defended the power of prayer, saying, “We pray because our hearts are broken. We pray because we know God listens. We pray because we know that God works in mysterious ways, and can inspire us to further action.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected the standard response in his speech, saying, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now — these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in church.” Democrats and liberal pundits in particular have seen expressions of thoughts and prayers, particularly coming from the GOP and prominent commentators on the right, as an empty gesture when uncoupled with specific actions on gun control to prevent mass shootings. Democrats argue that the debate over the usefulness or appropriateness of prayer is an unhelpful distraction from what they see as the root cause of mass shootings: Ease of access to guns. “On this, Republicans are trying to own the space of faith just like they do patriotism. Scripture says faith without works is dead. The difference between us and them is we follow our thoughts and prayers up with action and they do not.” This would be in the vein of the oft-quoted West African proverb: “When you pray, move your feet.”

It seems that our vice president is becoming all too familiar with getting harshly booed and heckled in public appearances — quite satisfying for the participants and those who oppose the administration, and Trump’s policies. Michaela Bramwell of BuzzFeed says one habit of Vance, which is growing tiresome to many, “his single most obnoxious characteristic” to one person, is his constant demand for gratitude from those he opposes — one person calling it “straight-up whiny,” as in whiny fascism. We all remember the viral argument he initiated with Ukraine’s President Zelensky in the Oval Office a few weeks back, demanding a “thank you.” His most recent attack was on New York City mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, who Vance accuses of “attacking” the country “for all its problems,” when he should be showing “a sense of gratitude.” The candidate’s defenders say he ran the “most positive possible campaign” about New York City, and another agreed that Mamdani’s “brand is loving New York and celebrating that it’s an awesome place to live.” Another writer suggests that Vance tackle comments made by his orange-hued boss, such as, calling the US a “failing nation,” “a garbage can,” and “no better than Russia.” A Fran Lebowitz quote might be applied to our two fearless leaders: “The conversational overachiever is someone whose grasp exceeds his reach. This is possible but not attractive.” Or, as Mitch McConnell might say, “Dagso rab micle tacis plal.”

A post on social media poses, “Imagine if the MAGAs reacted to mass shootings with the same passion and outrage as when Cracker Barrel changed their stupid logo.” The Daily Dose of Democracy site snakily posted: “In these tenuous and truly exceptional times, it’s comforting to know the Trump regime is laser focused on the critical issues of the day that clearly matter most to Americans, like…chain restaurant logo rebranding. Lord Goldemort’s goon squad claimed it was the president’s Truth Social post lambasting the new logo that helped the famed restaurant chain finally see the light and ditch their woke-ass, anti-racist, gender-bending, homosexual lifestyle-approving new logo and return to their pious, Cracker (next to a) Barrel roots. And to think, there are people out there that still don’t think this man deserves the Nobel Peace Prize!” Cartoonist Nick Anderson captured the idiocy of the Cracker Brouhaha in his drawing of a team of red-hatted, googly-faced MAGAs raising a sign with the original Cracker Barrel logo — a la the WWII photo of US troops raising the US flag over Iwo Jima. So not only did corporate roll back the drab, characterless, new logo — it went a step further and ditched its webpage boasting its support for the LGBTQ+ community. “In connection with the Company’s brand work, we have recently made updates to the Cracker Barrel website, including adding new content and removal of out-of-date content,” the company told Fox News, touting a ‘Culture and Belonging’ page in place of ‘Bringing the Porch to Pride’ page.

On August 19, Cracker Barrel announced a modernized, simplified, barrel-shaped logo, removing the ‘Old Timer’ leaning against a barrel, as a way to appeal to the younger clientele, which MAGA took to be conspiratorial attack on American culture, a “woke” rebranding relating to the chain’s past affiliation with Pride parades and their bugaboos of diversity, equity, and inclusion. After much social media criticism, President Trump stepped in saying, “Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response, and manage the company better than ever before.” Hours later, the company announced the reversion, even calling Trump to thank him for weighing in on the issue — but it really simply boils down to doing what is best for the bottom line, especially in light of the stock’s plunge on Wall Street. The Atlantic Daily quotes Ted Gioia on the phoniness of the Cracker Barrel brand and the absurdity of MAGA’s fake outrage over the new logo. “Cracker Barrel’s biggest shareholder is BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, headquartered in New York City. Did you think it was Dolly Parton or Willie Nelson?” The article continues, “The fried chickens have come home to roost. Cracker Barrel is reverting to its old logo, fewer than ten days after announcing a new, stripped-down version. The ensuing controversy has been at once a welcome distraction from other news and an outgrowth of all the most annoying impulses in American life.” Hardly an avatar of small-town southern authenticity — more of a simulacrum of rural life, a corporate behemoth masquerading as a mom-and-pop lunch counter, intended to capitalize on nostalgia for a way of life that was already disappearing when it first opened it 1969. But all this background failed to stop Florida Congressman Byron Donald’s post on X: “It’s time to Make Cracker Barrel Great Again.”

D. Earl Stephens writes in Rolling Stone magazine: “I have grown sick and tired of the word, ‘distraction.’ And if you are a patriot doing what you can to fight against the most anti-American administration in our nation’s history, I bet you know exactly what I am talking about. I am done being lectured to by so-called ‘influencers’ and Democratic ‘operatives’ and politicians that everything the America-attacking Donald Trump and his odious fascists are doing today, is just a mere ‘distraction’ from something they did yesterday. Every terrible thing they did yesterday, is but a mere ‘distraction’ from some gruesome thing they did last week…note to all of these people: Please shut up. You are insulting as hell, are part of the problem, and are giving me a headache. The word ‘distraction’ is being thrown all over the Internet in response to Trump’s FBI search of the home of his former national security adviser, John Bolton. The search is allegedly just a ‘distraction’ from any of the other 227 terrible things Trump and his panting hyenas have afflicted on this country the past decade. Was the search of Bolton’s home chilling? Yes, of course. Was it predictable to anybody paying even the slightest amount of attention, and who has managed not to get ‘distracted’ by what has been going on in this country the past ten years? Of course it was. Was it any more chilling than rounding up US citizens and shipping them off to God knows where? Of course not. Was it merely a ‘distraction’ to drag attention away from whatever is happening with the elusive Epstein Files? Please…stop insulting us with all this crap. We aren’t distracted, you nitwits, we are wide awake, and furious about ALL OF IT, and wondering when the hell it is people like you will stop worrying about us being ‘distracted.'”

Stephens lists several items which have been called “distractions”: 1)Turning our military loose on OUR streets, 2) Trump’s visiting military bases to sell cheap memorabilia while criticizing political opponents, 3) Firing non-partisan, non-political experts for delivering job numbers Trump doesn’t like, 4) Killing life-saving vaccine, 5) Attacking safeguards on clean air and water, 6) Posting videos of a kneeling Barack Obama being placed in handcuffs, 7) Re-writing our nation’s history to minimize caging, beating and owning other human beings. “NONE of these things, or the scores of other gruesome events perpetrated on American citizens by this heinous administration, are mere ‘distractions.’ They are awful, intentional attacks, many of which used to be crimes in this country. Taken separately any of these things would have been threatened to bring down entire presidential administrations. Now they are being treated as just another cloudy afternoon in America,” he says. Continuing with his gut-punching, Stephens writes, “But if you are one of these feeble, simple-minded people, who are easily confused, and have a problem with all these ‘distractions’ maybe I can help: Trump declared war on the USA on January 6, 2021, when he refused to accept the results of an election he lost by more than seven million votes. It was an attempted insurrection, in which law enforcement officers were savagely beaten with rebel flag poles, clubs, stanchions, bats, and anything else Trump’s mob could get their filthy hands on. Millions of dollars of damage was done to OUR capitol building, where politicians — Republicans and Democrats — were hunted down and threatened with hanging and/or death. Instead of stopping the attack, Trump sequestered himself in the White House for more than three hours and rooted for its success. When it failed, he grudgingly stalked out on the White House lawn, and told his homegrown terrorists to surrender and go home, but not before telling them: ‘We love you, you’re very special.’ Read that again…”

Stephens wraps it up with: “EVERYTHING Trump has done since that terrible day has been designed around exactly ONE thing: rebuilding his anti-American army, exacting revenge on American patriots who are standing up for our country, and putting an end to our 249-year Democracy, so Republicans never relinquish power again. Got it? Good! Now try concentrating on only this, and stop lecturing the rest of us about being ‘distracted.'”

Illegitimi non carborundum – Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

According to humorist Andy Borowitz, “Sarah Palin’s tenure as the dumbest person to set foot in the state of Alaska came to an abrupt end on Friday. Speaking to reporters, the former governor was philosophical about losing her crown of idiocy, declaring, ‘I had a good run.’ Watching the newly-minted king of stupid ramble incoherently at a press conference in Anchorage, Palin observed, ‘Whoa — now there’s a moron!’ As for how he clinched the title, Palin opined, ‘Even I know the difference between Alaska and Russia.'” This was in reference to President Trump, twice, telling reporters that he had scheduled a meeting — or perhaps, President Putin had scheduled a meeting — in Russia. Of course, we all know that it took place in Anchorage, Alaska at Elmendorf AFB — former Russian territory…oops! On Monday, following the Alaskan disaster, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that following his meeting with eight European leaders, including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, he planned to speak again with Russia’s Putin, prompting a CNN commentator to speculate that it was a prearranged discussion to get Russian approval for any future planning. Global affairs analyst, Kimberly Dozier on CNN with Boris Sanchez, said, “The fact that he feels he’s got to check in with Putin right away, as the meeting is taking place, and being told that no NATO ground troops will be acceptable, makes it feel like Trump needs Putin’s approval in a way that’s got to be very disturbing to Zelensky. But Zelensky is a good actor. He’s playing it cool. He’s not biting on any to the questions he got. Hopefully the European officials will tell Trump that it’s time to put ‘troops on the ground’ inside Ukraine and that it’s not Vladimir Putin’s business.”

Trump was denied being able to call the Anchorage meeting ‘historic’ — just take a look at the faces of the US entourage as they met with reporters, and at the boldness of Putin as he addressed the press. Maybe they all got to view the ‘golden showers’ videos? At any rate, Putin turned the screws, coming out with the victor’s gold medal on that meetup, leaving Ukraine in limbo again, and the Nobel Peace Prize firmly locked away in Oslo. As Nicholas Grossman said, “The reason there’s a Nobel Peace Prize in the first place is because peace is hard,” something Trump can never comprehend. With Putin’s refusal to allow Zelensky to attend the meeting, “even the ghost of Neville Chamerlain and Vidkun Quisling are blushing,” said David Shuster of MSNBC, “And, this is not diplomacy. It is not even buffoonery. It is straight up betrayal.” Trump describes his Russian idol as a “man of strength,” but as Shuster says, “Strength to bomb hospitals, kidnap children and send your own troops into a meat grinder. To Trump, morality is a nuisance, history is a fog, and truth is an inconvenience, at best. A meeting about peace that excludes Ukraine is as rational as a trial without a victim, or a wedding without a bride.” The danger is that Trump doesn’t see Putin’s smooth talk as manipulation or strategy — he only hears affirmation which allows him to revisit old political wounds, as Putin directs this theatrical production — with Trump’s ego taking precedence over reality and our national well-being. Trump biographer, Michael Wolff, says, “He’s going to sacrifice Ukraine for Epstein. Essentially, this is, in his mind, a trade.” Wolff reminds us that it is the MAGAs who are pressing the Epstein issue constantly — they are the threat. “The Epstein drumbeat is real. It is unceasing and it is threatening, most of all, to Donald Trump,” said Wolff.

John Jameson Gould wrote on The Signal website: “Earlier in the week, the American president’s performance in his federal takeover of Washington, DC’s police force had comparable aspects: dramatic announcements, National Guard deployments, press conference slogans: ‘This is Liberaton Day in DC!’ — never mind what the crime statistics said. Seems there’s a lot of stagecraft going on these days. Which might strike you as a curious approach to statecraft — or at least one that’s curiously particular to Donald Trump — and recognizably exasperating to his many haters.” Trump would undoubtedly prefer that Tennessee’s Representative Andy Ogles call the shots for the president’s tenure, who said basically that Trump should be given a hall pass to do as he wants. Posting on X, Ogles wrote, “Give Trump a third term, give him the Peace Prize, and let him run DC as long as he wants.” Republicans Against Trump asked X’s AI bot, Grok, what was wrong with Ogles’ statement, bringing forth this answer: “The tweet proposes unconstitutional actions: a third term violates the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Committee, not ‘given’ by the US. Allowing indefinite rule undermines democracy and the Constitution.” Should Elon and The Donald become conversant once again, we can bet the president will ask Elon to set Grok straight on the issues. Trump has steadily pounded the electorate about a third term, even selling ‘Trump 2028‘ merchandise in his grifting operation, but only to needle his opposition…so he says.

The crackdown on crime in DC is the latest Trump project, being touted as a success by the president, and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who takes center stage on the issues of immigration, border security, and culture wars. Trump’s federal takeover by sending in National Guard troops to define his legacy, also sees Miller working to make his own mark, shaping and driving the message that the nation’s capital will be safe again, all the while railing against other Democratic mayors that their cities are on the list for the same treatment, with Chicago named as the next victim. Meeting with troops at DC’s Union Station, VP Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth and Miller heaped criticism on those protesting the federal occupation, with Miller calling them “stupid white hippies,” in his diatribe against “crazy Democrats screeching on TV on behalf of foreign terrorists, hardened criminals and violent illegal aliens.” The White House reported that 2,300 federal law enforcement worked in DC on one Thursday night, with the number of personnel increasing by a few hundred daily — most sent by Red State governors. By Friday, 719 arrests had been made as part of the operation, 300 of which were non-legal migrants with a smattering of known gang members.

Alex Gangitano of The Hill, reports that one area of success for Miller is his messaging approach to DC’s homeless problem. A former Trump aide said of the situation, “For years, cities like Wasington, DC treated homelessness as a housing affordability problem, which pushed the idea that living on the street was an acceptable alternative so long as civil liberties were preserved. What we’re seeing Miller do is flip that script. His message is that the real crisis is driven by drug abuse, mental illness, and criminal activity, and that is why there is broad support for moving people indoors and into treatment.” DC residents aren’t supportive of the ‘anticrime’ push, with a Washington Post survey finding 69% of those polled “strongly” in opposition, and 10% “somewhat” opposed. “Communists,” said Miller in his protester bashing, “All these demonstrators, elderly white hippies are not part of the city and never have been. And by the way, most of the citizens who live in Washington, DC are Black. So we’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old.” Dozen of homeless encampments have been removed, illegal firearms seized, and many of the migrants have been arrested for additional crimes or having outstanding warrants and convictions. Gangitano quotes a source saying, “A lot of what Miller talks about resonates with the debate. There’s alignment there, so it’s reinforcing. And I think Trump very much likes to get the roar of the crowd. If it seems like it’s something that’s going to drive is base, then he dives headfirst.” Former US Senator Claire McCaskill believes that Stephen Miller is actually running the whole show for Trump, which has resulted in White House staffers complaining that Miller is always on the phone spouting his directives. Heads up Chicago, Los Angeles and Baltimore!

Ben Meiselas writes on MeidasTouch, “Trump is getting more desperate by the day. His approval is collapsing. He is the most unpopular president in history. He is accelerating his authoritarian tactics. The latest reports are that he is planning a military invasion of Illinois with active-duty armed forces and the National Guard. Trump is too afraid to confront America’s actual enemies, like Russia. Instead, at press conferences, he holds photos of himself and Putin in the Oval Office, that Putin sent him. Trump would rather invade Blue States that don’t have a military, or pick on marginalized communities instead of actually showing strength. That’s where we are as a country.” Michael Cohen, also on MeidasTouch, writes, “Illinois governor JB Pritzker was quick to cut through the spin, calling the proposed deployment a ‘manufactured crisis.’ He’s right. There is no emergency that justifies military involvement in Chicago. Crime is not spiraling out of control. Local law enforcement has not asked for assistance. Yet the president is pressing forward, because the goal isn’t safety; it’s spectacle. By painting Democratic-led cities as lawless ‘hellholes,’ he positions himself as the singular force capable of restoring order. It’s political theater, except the props here are armed troops and the backdrop is one of America’s great cities.” Chicago’s Mayor Johnson warns that federal troops on his streets could undo fragile progress in community relations and potentially inflame tensions. Cohen sees this warning as fact — not alarmism, in his belief that armed troops in civilian locations has never de-escalated a situation, almost always heightening the risk of confrontation. Especially for Chicago where the mistrust between residents and the police is longstanding, the risk is profound; if Johnson sounds worried, it’s because he has every reason to be.

Troops sent to Washington, DC were initially unarmed, but our macho Defense Secretary has seen to it that weapons were issued — an escalation that leaves little margin for error. It only takes one misunderstanding, one panicked reaction, to result in tragedy. Michael Cohen is concerned about Trump’s threat that he “may” declare a national emergency which would give him authority to keep troops in place indefinitely, sidestepping Congress, overriding local leadership, and normalizing use of military force in governance — rewriting the rules altogether. If any city doesn’t align with the White House politically, that city is rebranded as having a public safety crisis, a potential target for a troop invasion. “Polls already show that residents of DC overwhelmingly oppose the current deployment. Local leaders point to long-term declines in crime rates, evidence that contradicts the administrations’s claim of chaos. And yet, these objections are brushed aside. That dismissal should trouble all of us, because it underscores how little local input matters once the machinery of federal power is in motion. If you think local democracy is safe in that environment, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you — and real cheap,” says Cohen. He says it’s questionable whether Trump can legally justify his actions, but the issue is the slow erosion of democratic norms since the military is designed to protect us from foreign threats, not to police Americans. The lines blur, democracy weakens, and with Trump opening that door, it is nearly impossible to close, with future leaders succumbing to the same power moves. And it is about power, not law and order; it’s governance by intimidation, spectacle, and a dangerous rehearsal for authoritarian rule that risks dismantling democracy itself.

As if the federal takeover of DC wasn’t enough, according to Rachel Kahn of The New Republic, Trump wants to “beautify” the city — turning it into a resort? Giving him esthetic control will surely result in the garishness we see in the Oval Office or Mar-a-Lago — not a pretty picture! The president wants to repave the streets and update the lampposts within a three-mile radius of the Capitol Building, as he claims, “It’s gonna be beautiful, all those lightbulbs — you see the poles, they’re rusting and they’ve got different lenses on top, if you look. We’re going to have this place beautified.” He speculates that his redecoration plan would require approval by Congress of a $2 billion expenditure; however, House Republicans have yet to restore the $1 billion city funds they blocked earlier, because the city budget doesn’t align with the conservative agenda. But just imagine gold-plated lampposts, and manicured city parks resembling his golf courses! Trump brags, “I’m very good at grass because I have a lot of golf courses all over the place. I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world, and we’re going to be re-grassing all of your parks…it’l look like Augusta. It’ll look like, more important, Trump National Golf Club — that’s even better.” Mar-a-Lago on the Potomac!

Last Monday, as Trump signed executive orders in the Oval Office, he whined that people were up in arms after he suggested Chicago was up next for deployment of National Guardsmen. Not everyone in Chicago was unhappy with his plan, he claimed, saying, “A lot of people are saying ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.'” He quickly said, “I don’t like a dictator, I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense, and I’m a smart person.” Edith Olmstead of The New Republic writes, “It’s not clear that there is any meaningful difference between a dictator, and a leader pleasing the people who are asking for one. What is apparent, however, is that Trump’s plan to move federal forces to other American cities is so unpopular that he’s concocting consent for tyranny as a means to justify it. Crucially, Trump gets closer to becoming a dictator everyday. On Monday, he signed an executive order which would criminalize flag burning, and act of political expression protected by the First Amendment, claiming that it incited riots. If Trump truly believed that inciting a riot earns you a year in prison, then the president himself is well overdue for a stint behind bars.”

Marco Margaritoff of HuffPost points to a comment made by Bill Maher, host of ‘Real Time,’ that Trump might be planning another ‘slow-moving coup.’ Maher had predicted an attempted power grab by Trump during his first term, but the recent DC deployment of the National Guard and federalization of the local police to combat the purported “bedlam” has revived his speculation. He said his first mention of the “slow-moving coup” brought laughter, especially when he predicted Trump would never concede his power. “They would say, ‘Oh, you smoke too much pot,'” he remembers, and adds, “Well, turned out I was smoking just the right amount of pot,” and calling out those people as being in a trance. “If there was a slow-moving coup, let me just describe some of the steps and you tell me if I’m being paranoid,” said Maher. “First, create a masked police force — get people used to looking at that. Normalize snatching people off the street — get them used to that. Normalize seeing the National Guard and the military on the street. Then, start talking about crime in the capital, which is basically, you know, has always been a fairly crime-ridden city, but this is our nation’s capital — where elections are decided. So, when an election dispute might come up, just hypothetically….” as he trailed off into the uneasy studio laughter. Maher suffered criticism for dining with Trump in March, describing the president as “gracious and measured,” and now, not wanting to be “a big pessimist, I’m going to pretend for the rest of the duration that the Democrats do have a chance of winning, and they might win the next election.” But having said that, he throws out the warning, “I just don’t think they’re ever going to take power, because this is what’s going to happen. I think THIS coup is going off a lot smoother that the last one.”

Greg Sargent writes in The New Republic regarding the FBI raid on the home of Trump’s former associate, John Bolton: “Whatever we end up learning about the rationale for the FBI’s early morning raid on former national security adviser John Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland home on Friday, there’s plainly a major escalation underway in President Donald Trump’s use of law enforcement to persecute his perceived enemies and entrench his authoritarian power. Consider the pattern: The targeting of Bolton, a major critic of Trump, appears to have been personally authorized by Kash Patel. An apparently official leak to the New York Post deliberately underscored Patel’s involvement, probably to make sure it’s understood by Trump’s other enemies.” Others on Trump’s enemies list include Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Whatever happens with Bolton, we should keep focused on the unmistakeable broader pattern — the escalation of law enforcement and military to target critics and consolidate power. MAGA leaders are openly declaring that the specter of state violence will be used to intimidate voters in urban strongholds, and the president’s manufacturing of fake pretexts for all of it is growing bolder and more unconstrained. Sargent asks, “Do we get to call it fascism yet?”

Not to the surprise of anyone, there he was on the golf course for another $4.2 million  weekend — courtesy of the taxpayers — in ‘celebration’ of his big ‘victory’ in his Alaska encounter with accused war criminal, President Putin, who dog-walked him in his quest for a Nobel Peace Prize. Conservative writer, Nick Adams, commented, “Donald Trump is the only man alive who can end wars in the morning and head out to the golf course, drive the ball 300 yards, and shoot a 67 in the afternoon. His stamina is the envy of men in their 20s” Not only did Adams gloss over the lack of any cease fires, or indication of peaceful settlements, he failed to recognize Trump’s faithful team of caddies with their secret golf ball pockets sewn into the cuffs of their pants. MAGATs don’t see Trump’s retreat to the golf course as a sign of defeat, however, it is one of his safe places where members praise him for his good ideas and the great job he is doing. Critics of the president were incensed that he rolled out the red carpet for Putin, clapping energetically as the Russian president was met with a warm, enthusiastic handshake while a contingent of our military planes added to the welcome with a flyover. The Anchorage meeting, originally to be a one-on-one, was transformed into a three-on-three with Secretary of State Rubio and Special Envoy Witkoff joining Trump, along with Putin and his team.

President Putin still has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, alleging that he is responsible for transferring Ukrainian children to Russia, a war crime under international law. This wasn’t a cause for alarm to our 34-felony-counts-convicted President, nor to his DOJ, the DOD or any other arm of his administration. Just keep on clapping! With every global dictator watching, Putin left Alaska knowing that genocide pays. “While Putin posed for photos in Alaska, Ukrainian parents were pulling their kids from rubble. While he grinned in Trump’s limousine, Ukrainian mothers were digging graves, and 19,000 stolen Ukrainian children remained in Russian camps. Russia’s Foreign Minister showed up wearing a USSR sweatshirt. Russian state media served ‘chicken Kyiv’ on Putin’s plane while the city of Kyiv burns brightly from Russia’s drones. The message was clear: We own you now. The truth Trump abandoned. Putin didn’t just get legitimacy in Alaska; he got proof that the West has abandoned truth itself,” writes Euromaidan on Reader Supported News. While America rolled out the red carpet for our destroyer, Ukraine stood up for the right of all peoples to flourish in this world. Trump promised to “Make America Great Again.” He could have done exactly that by supporting the nation fighting for the very things that make America great — instead, he chose a perpetrator of genocide. This is the West’s war being fought with Ukrainian blood. Putin is testing whether democratic civilization will defend itself — on Friday, Trump gave him his answer. Friday was America’s test. America failed.

Speculation before the Alaska meeting was that Trump would take Putin’s side in his war against Ukraine, Europe, and what was once called ‘the West,’ particularly with a one-on-one meeting. No one expected ‘peace’ to be the outcome, only ‘appeasement’ as a gift from Trump to the Russian dictator, as Trump continues to sabotage the American-led order built after WWII — an unprecedented peace and prosperity for both this country and the world. Simon Rosenberg writes on his Hopium Chronicles, “It is a day, if it goes as it appears it will go, that will surely live in infamy.” As we are seeing, Putin’s reasons for continuing his war are far more compelling than any incentive Trump can give him to end it. “I think we in Washington sometimes underestimate just how invested the Kremlin is in waging this war,” says Russian expert David Salvo. “The legitimacy and the fate of the entire Putin regime is based on not just concluding this war on Russian terms but continuing to fight it for the foreseeable future, the entire economy is propped up around the war. I just don’t see anything that’s going to move the needle and change the calculus of the Kremlin.” In the weeks preceding the meeting in Anchorage, Putin kept playing the same old game of humiliating Trump by ignoring peace efforts, keeping up the assault on Ukrainians, with Trump finally seeming to realize he was taken for a fool, with the Russian strongman stringing him along. After the announcement of the upcoming meeting, former Pentagon official, a shocked Sabrina Singh, said it proves who holds “all the cards.” “I mean, I’m shocked that this meeting is actually being held in the United States. I think that’s giving incredible deference to someone that invaded a sovereign country. This is a war of choice that Putin started back in 2022,” she said. Singh felt that the meeting should have been scheduled outside the US, warning that Putin proved he can “move the chess pieces on the board in his favor,” and that he’s gotten the Trump administration to “cater to a lot of his demands.”

Satirical writer Andy Borowitz offered his behind-the-scenes view as he looked forward to the Putin/Trump meetup: “Giving helpful advice ahead of the talks in Alaska, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested on Monday that Donald J. Trump offer Vladimir Putin ‘full sovereignty’ over the state of Florida. ‘If you are considering some kind of ‘land swap’ for peace, Florida should be on the table,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘With Florida, you have cards.’ Explaining his rationale for a Russian annexation of the Sunshine State, Zelenskyy said, ‘There are already so many Russian-speaking people there, especially oligarchs and criminals around Mar-a-Lago.’ Speaking from the Kremlin, Putin said he would ‘consider’ an offer of Florida, but only if it did not include ownership of Ron DeSantis.” In a previous post, Borowitz wrote: “An unscrupulous Russian man has lured a confused septuagenarian to Alaska in an apparent elder scam, concerned associates of the old man reported on Thursday. According to those associates, the Russian has posed as a friend of his geriatric mark in order to take advantage of him in the remote, icy setting. ‘This poor, addled codger isn’t playing with a full deck and hasn’t for some time,’ one associate said. ‘We’re afraid that the Russian will trick him into signing something away.’ The situation is particularly troubling, the associate said, because ‘he’s a feeble old man who likes to wander around on top of buildings, and the Russian likes pushing people off them.'”

Trump’s former attorney, Michael Coen, said in anticipation of the Putin/Trump confab, “Cue the swelling violins. But after more than a decade of working for President Trump, I’ve learned you can’t be cynical enough…think he’s doing something for the greater good? You’re not looking closely enough — in fact, you might be in the cult.” Calling the Alaska setup a “traveling circus,” he said the reality check is that the “peace summit” doesn’t include the actual president of Ukraine — “the guy whose country has been invaded, bombed and carved up like a real estate deal in Atlantic City circa 1987. The man elected to represent 44 million Ukrainians doesn’t get a seat at his own table. But Trump and Putin do. This is not a negotiation; it’s a photo-op. A show. A scripted performance in which the ending has already been decided — and not by the people of Ukraine.” Cohen said Trump wants to slap “The Peace President” on a MAGA hat, and pick out a tux for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony — thinking about his legacy, not liberty, as he rides straight into the history books. As for Putin, he isn’t in Alaska for the scenery — he’s there for the land already stolen and more land, plus mineral rights, as he plays the long game. Zelensky knows they aren’t meeting for his benefit, only present to split the spoils. Cohen snarkily suggests: “The next big fight — which actor gets to accept the Emmy!?”

Then the big day arrived with the red carpet, the fanfare and the clapping US leader, only to end with Simon Rosenberg’s synopsis: For America, Trump = Unceasing Sabotage, Plunder, And Betrayal as a subheading in his article on Substack — ‘Trump, A Very Useful Idiot, Buckles in Alaska, Disastrously Sells Out Ukraine And The West.’ “Yes, it was as horrible as we all feared. Trump literally rolls out the red carpet for Putin on American soil and not only does he get nothing in return, but yesterday our weak, cowardly and corrupt leader broke with Ukraine and the Europeans/NATO and adopted Putin’s position on the conflict, folding like a cheap suit,” Simon says. Quoting The New York Times story, Rosenberg relays that Trump claimed to have spoken to Zelensky and European leaders following his fleeing Alaska, saying, “It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.” However, a statement issued by European leaders did not echo the president’s claim, which has also been Putin’s demand. “So, what happened yesterday we now know is Putin got the photo op on American soil, told Trump what to do, and went home,” concludes Roseberg. Even Fox News reported from Alaska: “The way it felt in that room was not good. It did not seem like things went well. And it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say, and got is photo op next to the president and then left.” The MSNBC reporter posted similarly: “What struck me was the looks on the faces of a lot of the American delegation here. Caroline Leavitt, Steve Witkoff, who came into the room, then left quickly. Leavitt appeared to be a bit stressed out, anxious. Their eyes were wide, almost ashen at times.”

Rosenberg calls Trump a terrible, terrible leader, the worst in our history — it’s hard to

imagine how he could have done more damage to America than he has in these initial seven months. But Trump is still going, still needing the spectacular, still needing to feel strong and powerful and manly, while his VP has been on vacation, as has Congress. He’s an old man with health problems. His gait was very wobbly yesterday, and as John Bolton said, he looked very, very tired — read defeated. Trump is aware that his powers are ebbing, especially after falling into Putin’s Anchorage Trap. He is in political, physical and cognitive decline — Elon emasculated him repeatedly. He and his agenda are wildly unpopular and no matter how much he rages, the economy is slowing, prices are rising, and the deficit exploding — he is a villain, not a hero. “The bluster and blather will come. The Truths, the troops, the spectacles, the damage, the lies and the never-ending b.s. But this things ain’t going as they planned and it’s getting harder and harder to spread all that lipstick and orange bronzer on the Trumpian pig,” Rosenberg declares.

Chris Bowers wrote on Wolves and Sheep: “Donald Trump really wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He wants to win it to the point where he took the unprecedented step of cold calling Norwegian Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg to ask about the award. In fact, he has brought up the topic in discussions with Stoltenberg on multiple occasions.” On one call Trump made to discuss trade tariffs, the Nobel Peace Prize drifted into the conversation. The Finance Minister commented to Politico, “It is true that President Trump called me a few days before his conversation with Prime Minister Støre. Several of the president’s staff members also participated in the conversation, including Treasury Secretary Bessent and Trade Representative Greer.” Bowers asks, “How can someone who tried to violently overturn the results of a democratic election in his own country ever deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Or who instructed his administration to vote against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Or who is threatening to acquire land from other countries, including Panama, Denmark and Canada? Or who isn’t even trying to broker a cease fire in Gaza? Or who has ordered his military to target drug cartels in other countries? The real problem with Trump trying so hard to win the Prize isn’t really about what he has done or hasn’t done, but rather that he obviously cares so much about winning an award over which he has no real control. Trump wanting to win the approval of five unknown retired Norwegian politicians on the Nobel Committee is pretty eye rolling, and getting other countries that want to curry his favor to nominate him is a pretty extreme demonstration of personal weakness — not strength.”

Former attorney Michael Cohen, on MeidasTouch, remembers when Trump asked him “about the Nobel Peace Prize, eyes glinting with that familiar mix of envy and self-delusion,” wondering why Obama got it — “he didn’t do anything.” Cohen says the implication was clear: “Trump deserved it more, because in his own mind he deserved everything more. That obsession — what began as an offhand gripe — has now metastasized into a full-blown crusade. President Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize, and he wants it badly.” Aides have told him in the past that he deserved the award, but he shrugged it off, pretending indifference, but as Cohen says, “Trump has never been indifferent to applause. If you hear him claim otherwise, its’ because he’s already plotting how to manipulate the narrative so he looks like he doesn’t care — even as it consumes him. And now, years later, we see the truth. Trump is campaigning harder for the Nobel than he did for reelection. It’s a man chasing his own reflection.” Cohen warns us of the darker side of Trump’s pursuit — peace isn’t the goal, it’s the trophy, so what happens when there’s no war left to stop? The recent India/Pakistan dustup was settled by the two nations unassisted, yet Trump invented his own role in the outcome despite the flat-out denial from India that he helped cool tensions. “Facts don’t matter when the story is about Donald Trump,” says Cohen. So, conflict becomes a tool, the backdrop for Trump’s success as the ‘great peacemaker’ as he fans the flames just long enough to ensure that the cameras are focused on him when a truce is announced. As Trump has proven to us, chaos is not an obstacle — it’s leverage. The Nobel trophy is about genuine peacemaking, with its sacrifice, compromise and vision, a role for which Trump is incapable. “He doesn’t broker peace; he commodifies it. He doesn’t soothe conflict; he exploits it. He doesn’t end wars; he monetizes them for applause. President is not chasing peace. He’s chasing a prize. And in his pursuit of it, the world should be very afraid,” concludes Cohen.

The Daily Dose of Democracy reports: “Lord Goldemort spent the wee hours of Sunday night in typical fashion, thumb-smashing childish insults on Truth Social and raging against critics left and right lambasting his ballyhooed summit with Vladimir Putin on Friday, just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to arrive at the White House. As Donalds’s late-night Twitterstorms usually do, this one eventually veered off in self-congratulatory praise, with the MAGA cult leader declaring: ‘One year ago, the United States was an almost DEAD COUNTRY. Now we are the HOTTEST Country anywhere in the World, the envy of all. What a difference a President makes!!!’ It’s almost like you can count the number of times his father hugged him as a child on one hand.”

As DDD mentions, Zelenskyy was set to meet Trump, along with a European team of leaders from Britain, France and Germany to head off any ambushes a la the one Trump and VP Vance launched against the Ukrainian leader earlier this year. The Donald’s post on Truth Social attacked the “Fake News” who framed his summit as a ‘major defeat,’ rebuking them as “sick.” He bragged that the Southern Border is now secure, and that Washington, DC will lead the way to safer cities across the nation. He then proceeded to attack Democratic Senator Chris Murphy who had called his Alaska summit “an embarrassment” in an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press. Murphy’s contention that “Putin got everything that he wanted” sent Trump into a frenzy, calling the Senator a “lightweight,” calling him “stupid,” along with John Bolton, both guilty of prolonging the war. Looking forward to Monday’s meeting, Trump posted, “Big day at the White House tomorrow. Never had so many European leaders at one time. My great honor to host them!!! As David Gilmour wrote on Mediaite, “Last night’s Truth Social barrage will certainly have everyone walking on eggshells as Trump seeks a close on the conflict he vowed last year to end on his first day in office.”

As yet, there is no comment from Trump on the photo making the rounds on the internet of Russian forces mocking the Trump capitulation to Putin, by attaching American flags to their vehicles as they ride into battle in Ukraine. Video footage from RT, the Kremlin’s propaganda network, shows a captured trophy, an American M113 armored personnel carrier flying both US and Russian flags. Zelensky’s right-hand man, Andriy Yermak, accuses Russians of using US symbols in their terrorist aggression against civilians. “Maximum audacity,” he terms it. Petr Andryushchenko of Ukraine’s Centre for the Study of the Occupation, says, “This is the logical conclusion of Trump’s absurdity. And all of this is on the official propaganda of Russia Today. There are no words.” Putin flaunted his authority ahead of the DC summit by launching a new wave of missile attacks in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, killing and wounding several Ukrainians. Zelensky said the attacks were “demonstrative” proof of Russia’s intentions and showed they had no plan to end the war. Tom Sanders‘ post on The Daily Beast says it all: “Trump has continued to urge Kyiv to ‘make a deal’ with the Russian autocrat, previously telling Zelensky that ‘Russia is a very big power, and you’re not.'”

“One thing you can’t hide, is when you’re crippled inside” – John Lennon