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

David Rothkopf writes on The Daily Beast that great national leaders dedicate their time in office to strengthening the countries they serve — the worst do the opposite. They suck the strength out of the institutions, economies and resources they have been entrusted with protecting and cultivating — and take the wealth, status and influence for themselves — which is exactly what Donald Trump is doing to the US. Rothkopf designates this as vampirism, a term he only wishes were an overstatement. Vampire Trump is sucking the blood out of our country, and if he continues at this pace, when he is done “there will be nothing left but the pale, lifeless husk of the America that was. He is using the office of the presidency to openly enrich himself as has no other president or public official in US history,” says the author. “He has created elaborate schemes by which they and others who seek his favor can purchase crypto currency in ways that have already made him billions of dollars richer this year alone.” He is demanding gifts from other nations, as we are witnessing in our government’s acceptance of the ‘flying golden palace‘ from the nation of Qatar, destined to become Air Force One after its multi-million-dollar refitting, then onward to Trump’s presidential library — between the Little Golden Books section and the Grimm’s Fairy Tales wing. This is burdening the taxpayer with more debt resulting from tax cuts and sweetheart deals for his rich donors and the corporate world, which will bring more environmental despoliation, and an increase in health and safety conditions. The president is using the power of the government and the court system to squeeze corporations and institutions to settle lawsuits in ways that don’t benefit the country, but serve to enrich his future library with millions of dollars. Resources sucked from governmental departments and agencies that once served the people, such as health care, health research, or offices that endeavored in various ways to keep us safe, are now diverted to those agencies that increase his power and that of his mushrooming police state.

The masked, militarized forces of Homeland Security, now heavily funded by former FEMA funds, only serve to target his enemies, and to support the cruel white supremacist agenda toward the satisfaction and glee of his MAGA reactionaries — the “invasion of illegals” ploy serving only to achieve Trump’s goals. The Department of Justice is now protecting Trump personally, as it targets his opponents, enabling his obvious corruption, and aids his patrons. The intelligence community has become so corrupted, our intel assets have lost trust among our allies, making it unlikely that they will cooperate with us in the future. “Every day our government’s purpose shrinks and the power within it is more concentrated in the hands of one man. Every day we are diminished. Every day the resistance of those with strength within our system and around the world appears to grow weaker. The only comfort we can take is from the knowledge that in the end, sunlight kills vampires. You know that’s true because Trump fights so hard to bury the truth and keep the country in the dark,” writes Rothkopf. He concludes that despite the mainstream media being muzzled, and complicit in some cases, new platforms are coming to life which will enable us to work toward overcoming the “blood-sucking regime,” and to reject all those complicit in bringing on the darkness in every election until they are banished.

Monitoring use of taxpayer funds is being done by The Dekleptocracy Alliance in an attempt to expose the illegal infrastructure Trump is building to reward his allies and normalize political alliance. Examples of such payoffs are the DOJ settlement of the lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt who was killed as she stormed the Capitol building during the January 6, 2021 insurrection; in June, five Proud Boys leaders filed a $100 million lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI for “violating their rights” while committing seditious conspiracy; and in May, Trump met with Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys, telling him he is “working to make things right.” The Alliance says it looks coordinated, raising the concern that the DOJ is being used to quietly funnel taxpayer money to convicted insurrectionists. In March, Trump floated the idea of a compensation fund for the J6 rioters, but asking Congress for that kind of funding would be a political nightmare, which leaves civil settlements as a workaround — fast, quiet, and no media headlines. Tom Manger, former Capitol Police Chief, points to the Babbitt settlement as sending a “chilling message” to law enforcement nationwide. If these actions are being encouraged or coordinated quietly, it could mean DOJ attorneys are participating in a scheme to pay off Trump’s white nationalist base using public funds. One unsettling occurrence that the Trump administration seems to take pride in, is the appointment of J6 rioter, Jared Wise, who had encouraged rioters to kill police. Wise, now a senior adviser in the office of the deputy attorney general, was videoed yelling at police, “You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo,” following up with admonitions to rioters, “Kill ‘em, yeah! Kill ‘em, kill ‘em!” The new appointee is described as “a valued member of the Justice Department and we appreciate his contributions to our team.” Go team, law and order, rah-rah!

Rolling Stone magazine has detailed a few of the flamboyant and opulent efforts Donald Trump has initiated at taxpayer expense to boost his ego and flatter his wonderfulness. The recent, awkward birthday/military parade in DC was laughable — and a drag on your 401k — earning Trump a double-cream-pie-in-his-clown-face, and a kick in JD Vance’s butt for failing to requisition gold-plated military vehicles, and preventing the troops from marching in Monty Pythonesque-silly-walks. Quatar’s golden, bedecked jumbo jet (for which only Trump will hold the gold library card) is being completely repurposed at our expense and that of descendants yet unborn. And now we have, following the destruction and paving of Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden, the promise of a $200 million ballroom in which even more invitees can watch the president boogie to ‘YMCA‘ or other pirated recordings during the long evening. Trump has promised to foot the bill for construction, but yet another contractor is likely to get stiffed — unless taxpayers or donors step up.

Jesse Mackinnon posts on Common Dreams that Trump’s new ballroom plan for the White House grounds is “not just a monument to narcissism, but is stagecraft by spectacle, financed by national rot.” Architectural self-glorification for the ruling executive, fiscal starvation for the governed after slashing Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, and climate programs, all while inflating the national deficit past $40 trillion, is a juxtaposition not of innovation, but a rerun of Versailles. “Louis XVI’s France operated on the principle of dépense utile, or ‘useful splendor’ — the idea that royal extravagance was a form of political investment. Gold leaf and crystal chandeliers weren’t indulgence. They were instruments of authority. Versailles was never merely a residence. It was theater. It showcased the king’s ability to dominate not only his nobles but the metaphysical order of the kingdom itself. Every garden vista, every mirrored hallway, whispered the same thing: Obedience is beautiful and beauty belongs to the crown. This logic broke the country. Charles-Alexandre Calonne, Louis XVI’s finance minister in the 1780s, argued with sincerity that royal pageantry had diplomatic utility. France, he said, could not afford to be poor. To reduce spending would be to lose face, both at home and abroad. It would risk undermining the delicate myth of royal omnipotence that kept the aristocracy groveling and foreign rivals guessing. So he doubled down. The state borrowed to cover Versailles’ operating costs. The result was a debt spiral so vast that it cracked the ancien régime wide open,” Mackinnon writes. The US, in 2025, now faces annual payments nearing $2 trillion, about a third of our federal revenue. 1789 France had a tax-exempt aristocracy — the US has tax-exempt billionaires; and instead of court ballet, we have cable news. But the fiscal structure is no less absurd — Trump’s budget performs the same dark magic: redirecting public funds toward elite vanity while accelerating structural collapse, maintains Mackinnon.

The ballroom is only a symptom. The marble-and-gold performance space, modeled loosely on Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, will sit at the center of Trump’s renovated West Wing, hosting foreign dignitaries, Republican fundraisers, and presidential photo ops. This is how kleptocracy dresses itself — in borrowed grandeur, gilded walls, and florid illusions of permanence, designed to shrink the public sphere until only the strong, the connected, and the loyal remain. The money isn’t gone. It’s just moved — upwards. There is a bitter historical irony here, says Mackinnon — the French Revolution did not erupt because peasants lacked bread, because bread shortages had existed for centuries. What changed was the visibility of the farce. The illusion cracked. People saw a monarchy bleeding the treasury dry for glitter and pride, while demanding austerity from everyone else. The palace at Versailles, once a symbol of majesty, began to look grotesque. The line between luxury and insult collapsed. Americans are now watching that same shift in real time, with a president who calls himself ‘king’ on social media, while receiving thunderous applause from his MAGA base, as he throws gala dinners while food pantries are deprived of funds. Royal France justified its excess as necessary for order and prestige; Trump justifies it with the language of branding. Both are the same: obscene pageantry disguising political decay with the people footing the bill. The rituals of accountability have vanished — no one will explain why America can afford a golden ballroom, but not insulin. Only theater remains, with a lineage from the Roman circuses, to Versailles, to Trump’s ballroom — all psychological, with the same ending. The French monarchy failed because people eventually realized they were not guests at the party — they were the bill.

The glitziness and the glam is about more than simply placating the president, according to political scientists. Instead, the whole spectacle is attached to Trump’s authoritarian leanings. “They have to do with a president who needs to be not only at the center of the media circus, but who needs to be told ritualistically over and over how great he is,” Anthony DiMaggio, author of ‘Rising Fascism in America: It Can Happen Here,’ told Rolling Stone. “What’s interesting to me about this, as a political scientist, is that it’s not just a personality-based thing or a defect. It’s a broader pattern that has to do with behaviors that are overlapping with authoritarian politics and ideology.” At Cabinet meetings and press briefings, officials from across the political landscape are quick to puff up the president, and no none dares correct him if he presents something with flawed information. Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling of The New Republic says, “The result is a Trumpian loyalty more akin to a religion than a political ideology; even Congressional Republicans, who are supposed to be detached from Trump’s influence, have repeatedly kowtowed to the president’s will.” Virginia Canter of Democracy Defenders Fund told Rolling Stone, “The sycophantic displays between Trump and his advisers give off ‘Dear Leader’ vibes, similar to what you would see with Kim Jong Un or Vladimir Putin, noting that the president treats his Cabinet members as his ‘personal staff.’ They’re there to stroke his ego.”

President Trump turned up on the roof of the White House last week along with a gaggle of his entourage, and Seth Meyers on his NBC show found it hard to absorb, unable to even laugh at the situation. “This looks like one of those human-interest stories where firefighters have to rescue a dog that got stuck on the roof,” he offered. “If Joe Biden had been seen wandering around on the roof one day, all hell would have broken loose, even though we all know he insists he is capable of cleaning the gutters himself.” The president even tried to field questions from the reporters on the ground, but Meyers suggested he couldn’t answer them if he was unable to hear them on his rooftop perch, and if poll numbers worsen he may try press conferences from atop the Washington Monument. Meyers joked, “Trump did eventually come down, thanks to firefighters luring him with a Big Mac on a string.” On ‘The Tonight Show,’ Jimmy Fallon noted that Apple CEO Tim Cook “joined President Trump at the White House to announce another $100 billion investment in the US. Cook said they plan to make it all back by selling six iPhones.”

A Trump action that was expected for weeks finally came to pass when he announced the federalizing of Washington, DC’s police department, and the deployment of several hundred National Guard troops in his attempt to “liberate” the city from crime. It just happened to be the first day of arguments in California’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that the chief executive acted illegally when he commandeered California’s National Guard to conduct immigration raids. By law, this unilateral takeover of the DC forces will require Congressional approval to continue, so we can bet that Speaker Johnson is pedaling as fast as he can to come up with justification(s) for the move since data shows that violent crime in the capitol city is down dramatically. Trump’s targeting of a majority-Democratic led city, bypassing local leaders, and using federal troops as a show of force is just another step in his attempt to acclimate such actions to portray it as necessary and normal in the eyes of the public. His occupancy of an LA neighborhood with troops firmly under his belt, was only a prelude to a takeover of a whole city — a small one, but larger populations are on his list as he aspires to eradicate home rule in all our states as he doubles down. A normal Congress has the constitutional power AND the responsibility to check our lawless leader by holding oversight hearings, examining all subpoenaed documents, and pass legislation to strictly define domestic troop deployments, a line we cannot afford to let Trump cross. As Josh posts on Civic Shout, “It erodes the separation of powers, undermines local authority, and violates the principles behind the Posse Comitatus Act.”

The Sunday preceding his actions, Trump issued a warning to the unhoused in DC, telling them to “move out immediately,” even in light of an increased homeless population. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital (sic). The criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong,” Trump posted. Jesse Rabinowitz, spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center, wrote on Bluesky, “The billionaires at the Cicero Institute have their hands all over these shameful steps. Again, Republicans are using DC as a sandbox for their failed, racist and backwards policies. Pay attention to what happens here, because it will soon happen everywhere.” Steve Berg, chief policy officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, posted on LinkedIn, “I hardly see anybody on the streets in DC these days. If there are encampments, they’re hiding. Could it be somebody thinks he can prove how tough he is by threatening people who are homeless?” Melanie D’Arrigo of the Campaign for New York Health, wrote on X, “Trump is going to traffic homeless people. Many won’t have ID, and will likely end up incarcerated with immigrants who are being arrested, trafficked and detained, without due process.” The Washington Legal Clinic, also posted on X: “People are not criminals or dangerous, by virtue of their unhoused status. People are struggling to afford rent and food in an expensive city. We should not have homelessness in our nation’s capitol. But the path to ending homelessness is housing, not displacement.”

As the president rambled on about roving gangs of teens attacking locals and visitors, comparing crime in DC to cities around the globe, MSNBC posted a bright red graphic next to him that proved his numbers incorrect, that he was making things up on the fly — lies #4501? or #5501?, for his second-term quota — based on the former Washington Post’s lie count of 21 or so lies per day from his first term. CNN also displayed a graph during Trump’s presentation, showing a 35% drop in DC violent crimes — a blatant put-down of the president’s “bloodthirsty criminals, drugged out maniacs and homeless people” claim. Trump raged on with, “We’re not going to let it happen. It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness. And we’re getting rid of slums, too. We have slums here. We’re getting rid of them. I know it’s not politically correct. You’ll say, oh, so terrible. No, we’re getting rid of the slums where they live.” Got that? He’s getting rid of slums! Yes, slums! Trump had posted on Truth Social on Friday preceding his formal takeover announcement, “Washington DC will be LIBERATED today! Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in the last 3 months!), DC is next!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT” Tom Boggioni of Raw Story wrote: “Trump’s latest post follows a Truth Social flurry on Monday morning where, in one, he raged at the New York Times, and in another attacked the intelligence of female Democrats while boasting about the cognitive tests he has “aced” — both at a time when he is being scrutinized over his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.” Just another Epstein cover-up distraction? Plus, he’s getting rid of slums!

Curiously, as we all remember, Mr. Trump refused to call up the National Guard in DC on January 6, 2021, when the rioting was completely out of control, blaming it on Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s failure to do so, because he “didn’t have the power.” And, as we have seen the president has pardoned those convicted of violent crimes during that insurrection. Former DC police officer, Daniel Hodges, who was present on that fateful day says, “As a former National Guard member and of the DC police, if Trump’s edict comes to pass, the vast majority of the troops are just going to stand around. They are not trained law enforcement. Extremely expensive photo op, and you’re paying for it.”

ECONOMIC FABULISM, ORWELLIAN EXERCISE, PETULANT CHILD

If you’ve been paying attention, by now you know that all future jobs numbers will be coming from the guy who says he’s 6’3″ tall and weighs 215 pounds…oh, and is a complete master at the game of golf — with a proper caddy. George Stephanopolous on ABC’s This Week said President Trump’s administration resembles the authoritarian regimes of Venezuela and Turkey after he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for releasing a “RIGGED” report for July. BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer’s report showed only 73,000 jobs were added to the employment rolls, after the White House had estimated 109,000 jobs would be added, with Trump claiming it was meant “to make Republicans, and ME, look bad. I’ve had issues with numbers for a long time, but today’s — we’re doing so well. I believe the numbers were phony just like they were before the election, and there were other times. So you know what I did, I fired her.” Stephanopolous said, “Suppressing statisticians is a time-honored tool for leaders trying to solidify their power and stifle dissent. It’s happened throughout history. Most recently in Venezuela and Turkey, where presidents punished officials and economists who do not toe the party line.” McEntarfer was appointed by Joe Biden in 2023 to compile the closely watched employment report, as well as consumer and producer price data, and the Democrats were quick to criticize the firing as an attempt by the administration to manipulate data, warning of lasting damage to the economy. The BLS also revised sharply downward the data from May and June, showing 258,000 fewer jobs were created than had previously been reported. Economists attributed the sharply slower job growth to Trump’s trade and immigration policies, saying uncertainty about tariff levels had made it difficult for businesses to plan for the future according to Reuters.

The satirical Borowitz Report disclosed that the president had found a replacement for Commissioner McEntarfer: “In one of the most stunning political comebacks in American history, on Monday Donald J. Trump picked the disgraced former congressman George Santos to lead the Department of Labor Statistics. ‘This is such an honor,’ Santos told reporters. ‘I really didn’t think I’d get pardoned before Ghislaine.’ The new DLS chief hit the ground running, revising the job figures from every month of Trump’s presidency. ‘The American economy added a million new jobs in May and a billion new jobs in June,’ Santos declared. ‘President Trump is creating jobs like crazy — he even gave on to Pete Hegseth.’ The unprecedented job growth has boosted Trump’s approval rating, which Santos said currently stands at 140 percent.”

Mike Nellis writes on Endless Urgency, “It’s the mistake of thinking you can spin people out of their own lived experience. That you can gaslight the country into believing the economy is strong…when it’s clearly, tangibly not.” He recalls an interview on Fox News when the host and another guest laughed at his statement that everything is more expensive under Trump, only a few days later to have a Fox poll showing Trump with a -30% rating on inflation. Nellis says, “People aren’t stupid. Prices are still high and they’re getting more expensive, not less — largely because of Trump’s own tariffs. Americans aren’t buying the spin. They’re living the struggle. And now, Trump has fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — not because the numbers were wrong, but because they didn’t flatter him. He wants a ‘single source of truth,’ and that source is him. His ‘truth’ is whatever serves his ego. Even when it’s a lie. This is more that authoritarian fluff. It’s economic gaslighting. Just like claiming there have been ‘zero border crossing’ in the last three months. It’s not even a good lie. It’s just lazy. You can get away with gaslighting people on stuff they don’t track. But you can’t tell them they’ve ‘beaten inflation’ while their rent’s going up, their groceries cost more, and their credit card balance is rising. And it’s not just working-class families feeling the squeeze. A recent report from VantageScore found that even people making $150,000 a year are falling behind on their bills. And yet, the GOP and their media echo chamber keep pushing this fantasy that Trump fixed the economy. Two weeks ago, he said it from the White House lawn. It’s nonsense — and it’s not going to work.”

CNN’s Stephen Collinson says, “One big danger now is that Trump’s economic fabulism will gather its own momentum and infect confidence in government statistics that will long outlive his presidency. If Trump appoints a politicized official to head the BLS with an incentive to please him, the pressure on officials to produce corrupted data would be intense. If job numbers are worse next month, will he fire someone else? And if the numbers improve, will anyone believe in their integrity?” Collinson wrote that Trump infamously told supporters, “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” This was the mantra that guided his COVID-19 response and culminated in his ‘Big Lie‘ about the 2020 election, and many observers call Trump’s actions an ‘Orwellian‘ exercise in rewriting reality. Former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, called President Trump a “petulant child” upon his firing of Commissioner McEntarfer. “When he gets news he doesn’t like, he needs someone to blame because he won’t take the responsibility himself,” Christie said on ABC. “It seems to me from everything I learned over my years as governor, that it would be almost impossible for anyone to try to rig these numbers because so many people are involved in putting them together, and in the end, when it comes to the director of BLS, all she’s doing is being a conduit of the information.”

To back up Christie’s summation, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told George Stephanopolous, “This is way beyond anything that Richard Nixon ever did. I’m surprised that other officials have not responded by resigning themselves, as took place when Nixon fired people lawlessly. This is a preposterous charge. These numbers are put together by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals. There is no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number. This is the stuff of democracy giving way to authoritarianism. Firing statisticians goes with threatening the heads of newspapers. It goes with launching assaults on universities. It goes with launching assaults on law firms.” Stephanopolous disclosed that the White House had declined to provide a guest for his Sunday show to respond to the firing and the “rigged jobs report,” even as Trump’s cronies scrambled to defend the situation. White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said, “The president wants to see his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they’re more transparent and more reliable.” Senator Elizabeth Warren told CNBC in an interview, “Well, look, you know, you get bad data, you kill the messenger, right? And that’s Donald Trump because he thinks he can bend reality. If he can just tell a different story, then everyone will have to believe his story.”

The New York Times’ Zolan Kanno-Youngs believes that Trump’s knee-jerk firing of McEntarfer is a sign of his increasing agitation when things don’t go his way. Trump was relatively buoyed by his recent trip abroad, only to return home to be “confronted with foes and facts the he could not easily control, displaying another side of himself, responding with disproportionate intensity and a distinct impatience,” along with saber-rattling volatility over comments made by Russia’s Dmitri Medvedev. Former Trump administration official John Bolton said no one should be surprised at this uglier turn with Trump no longer able to tolerate facts and people refusing to “bend to his will.” Bolton told The Times, “I think he deliberately surrounded himself with ‘yes’ men and ‘yes’ women. It’s more evidence he’s not fit to be president. This is not the way a president responds to either one of these situations.” About Trump’s increased agitation with Russia, which Bolton believes Trump hasn’t thought through, he says, “He many not even understand what he’s doing. It’s so natural to him to say outrageous things that he’s incapable of thinking about the strategic consequences. Trump is not deterred by reality. He just says what the wants to say.” “You can wear a mask and paint your face; You can call yourself the human race; You can wear a collar and a tie; One thing you can’t hide, is when you’re crippled inside,” — John Lennon said that.

Donald Trump’s frequent bizarre public appearances, which have seen him claim that his uncle knew the Unabomber, or that windmills cause a litany of health problems — not to mention a plethora of problems for the petroleum industry, of course, raising questions about his mental acuity. His odd behaviors at campaign events, during interviews, and spontaneous remarks at press conferences, or drifting off-topic as he did at a cabinet meeting last month when he spent fifteen minutes talking about decorating; and, we are all familiar with his misremembering facts about government and his own life. Trump has been excused from the same scrutiny received by Joe Biden despite bouts of confusion and unusual behavior as seen in his recent meeting with European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, when he sidestepped from their immigration discussion to ranting about windmills for two minutes. Harry Segal, lecturer at Cornell University’s psychiatry department, and at Weill Cornell Medicine, calls the abrupt changes in conversation an example of Trump’s “digressing without thinking — he’ll just switch topics without self-regulation, without having a coherent narrative.” A questioner approached him regarding aid toward the famine in Gaza, with his response being that the US gave $60 million “two weeks ago — no other country gave anything,” not realizing or remembering that the UK allocated $80 million, and the European Union allocated $195 million, the Guardian finding no evidence that the US had given anything in the past two weeks. Last month the US State Department approved a $30 million grant to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group backed by Israeli and US interests which has been criticized by Democrats as “connected to deadly violence against starving people seeking food in Gaza.” No response from the White House questioning the claimed $60 million donation!

Harry Segal brought up another characteristic of Trump’s questionable mental acuity — confabulation. “It’s where he takes an idea or something that’s happened and he adds to it things that have not happened,” — the Unabomber story. Aside from the confabulation, there have been times when Trump seems unable to focus, such as during the 2024 campaign when he spent 40 minutes swaying to the music after a medical emergency occurred at the rally, and he called a ‘timeout’. His rambling speeches, drifting between topics, which he terms “the weave,” also draws scrutiny. Segal adds, “If a patient presented me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech that Trump regularly demonstrates, I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness.” John Gartner, psychologist and author who was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School for 28 years said, “What we see are the classic signs of dementia, which is gross deterioration from someone’s baseline and function. If you go back and look at film from the 1980s, Trump actually was extremely articulate. He was still a jerk, but he was able to express himself in polished paragraphs, and now he really has trouble completing a thought and that is a huge deterioration. I predicted before the election that he would probably fall off the cliff before the end of his term. And at the rate he is deteriorating, you know…we’ll see. But the point is that it’s going to get worse. That’s my prediction.”

Travis Gettys on Raw Story reports that there may be good news about drug prices!: “The president sent letters last week to the heads of 17 major pharmaceutical companies demanding they cut prices to levels paid by other countries, but he repeated a claim last week to reporters that he would reduce the cost for prescription medications by a whopping 1,500 percent — which many social media users pointed out was absurd.” Health policy professor Miranda Yaver posted: “The thing about lying about cutting prescription drug prices is that while a lot of economic policy is too complicated for the average American to understand, Americans know whether they’re paying more/less for their prescriptions when they go to the pharmacy.” Don Moynihan mockingly posted: “We are going to cut prices by 1500% and I fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because she is incompetent.” Child psychologist and professor Ellen Braaten wrote: “Today’s best confabulation by our esteemed president.” HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte posted: “This is how this works: The prescription costs $100. You go to the drug store to pick it up, and instead of paying the pharmacist, the pharmacist gives you the medicine AND $1,400! Why didn’t any previous president think of this!?” “Tomorrow, it’ll be eleventy thousand percent, and the media will report it without question, and we’ll all shake our heads and move along, and it’ll be just another day of reality eroding before our eyes,” posted author Jennifer Erin Valent.

A few weeks ago, on ‘The Jim Acosta Show,’ Democratic strategist James Carville was asked whether he was worried about potential vote tampering from President Trump and senior aide, Stephen Miller. Carville said he wouldn’t “put anything past” Trump to prevent Democrats from taking back Congress, perhaps going so far as to cancel elections entirely to retain power for himself and MAGA. He feels that Trump fears what may happen in Virginia and New Jersey, and with retirements, or office holders distancing themselves from him, he will panic, and in Carville’s words “try to steal another one,” especially in light of possible impeachment proceedings being launched by a Democratic Congress. Acosta was taken aback by Carville’s predictions, but agreed that Trump has determination to stay in power. “He can think of things like that, that we can’t, because we’re not accustomed to thinking like that. We always assume there’s going to be an election, in your case, ‘How do I cover the election?’ My case, ‘How do I affect the election?‘ said Carville. “This is a whole new thing. You have every reason to be scared. Don’t kid yourself,” he warned.

Mike Nellis provides further insight into Trump’s furtiveness: “When gaslighting stops working, Republicans reach for their favorite tool — rigging the rules. Texas Republicans introduced a radically gerrymandered congressional map designed to hand them five more House seats in 2026. It’s not subtle. It’s not legal (yet). But it is strategic. Why? Because Donald Trump asked for it. And today’s GOP doesn’t resist Trump — they obey him. Let’s be clear: this map isn’t about governing or fairness. It’s about fear. Fear of a changing electorate. Fear of suburban voters, young people, and Black and brown Texans. Fear of competition. And above all — fear of losing. So instead of trying to win votes, they’re trying to erase them. They’re cracking and packing districts, slicing up communities of color, and drawing lines so surgically partisan it would make a corrupt Tammany Hall boss blush. This isn’t confidence. It’s cowardice. Texas Republicans are trying to redraw reality to protect themselves from accountability. Because they know they’re losing — and instead of improving, they’re cheating. And if that weren’t authoritarian enough? When Democratic legislators fled the state to block the vote, Republicans didn’t stop to reflect what they were doing to democracy. They threatened legal action. Floated arrests. Anything to force a vote on a map that serves Trump — not Texans. That’s not democracy. That’s hostage politics.”

Nellis says the map is being dictated straight from Mar-a-Lago, a national redistricting scheme orchestrated by a man who couldn’t name a Texas county if his life depended on it — this isn’t conservatism. It’s autocracy with a Southern accent. This tactic is being taken to other states, because the way to hold onto power is by rigging the system — redraw the map, change the rules. Nellis believes the GOP can’t be saved this way — gerrymandering doesn’t pay the grocery bill, doesn’t make one forget that the monthly paycheck is depleted by mid-month, doesn’t reduce the rent, or get proper meals at school for the kids. Kicking 20 million off health care and cutting food assistance for 18 million kids simply to give billionaires yet another tax cut shows Americans that the Republicans don’t care. It’s not leadership — it’s theft. Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security aren’t handouts if we all pay into it. Our contributions to our economy, paid with taxes from our hard work is part of the deal — we are supposed to get some payback, but Republicans have once again broken their part of this agreement, and are digging their own political graves. The GOP isn’t governing. They’re not planning. They’re not solving. They’re lying, cheating, and redrawing the board. Tariffs are wrecking the economy, and Trump has no plan to fix it — only looking after himself and his inner circle with ill-gotten riches.

Satirist Andy Borowitz has posted a fictitious letter that Texas Governor Abbott MAY have sent to his fellow Americans (read Republicans): “My fellow Americans: As you may know, 51 cowardly Democrat legislators are on the run from Texas. They are shirking their duty to rid our glorious state of the representative government that has plagued us for far too long. These Democrats could be anywhere. They could be in your town. They could be hiding under your bed. More likely, they are at a farmer’s market, selecting artisanal pickles. The following tips to help you identify Democrats in your midst: 1) Democrats are often seen carrying tote bags featuring the logos of PBS, NPR, Doctors Without Borders and other subversive organizations. 2) Democrats do not eat cats and dogs, but they do rescue them. 3) Someone driving a car with a bumper sticker that says ‘RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES’ could be a Democrat, but it could also be a member of QAnon. If the car stereo is playing Bruce Springsteen, it’s a Democrat. If you see someone with any of these identifying characteristics, remember: Democrats are dangerous. Some may be armed with concealed pocket Constitutions. To help bring these fugitives to justice, immediately report your sighting to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He will be standing by at one of his three primary residences. God Bless America, Gov. Greg Abbott.”

The fallout from the Paramount/CBS News settlement with Donald Trump still echoes with the charges of bribery since most legal experts termed Trump’s lawsuit as baseless, succeeding only because a merger with Skydance Media was dependent on the FCC, a la the Trump administration, resulting in final approval of the $16 million payoff. That money won’t go directly to Trump, but to his future presidential library — a political monument touting his name, and forever to be recognized as part of his legacy, and his ability to shakedown his victims. As Michael Cohen writes on MeidasTouch, “If American democracy were a deer, it would be standing in the middle of the highway trying to reason with an oncoming semi. That semi, of course, is President Trump. And the Democrats? They’re standing on the shoulder with a clipboard, giving speeches about traffic safety. It’s been a decade since Trump first took a wrecking ball to our political institutions, and still — still — Democrats haven’t figured out how to contend with a president who doesn’t break rules so much as bend them until they no longer resemble anything that could be called a law.” Thus, we have the $16 million payoff by Paramount Global to Trump over a ‘60 Minutes‘ interview with Kamala Harris that was edited much like any other television interview — no “deliberate manipulation,” no “election interference,” and hardly “the biggest scandal in broadcast history.” Cohen reminds us that Trump’s original demand was for $10 billion before bumping it to $20 billion — not being one to allow reality to get in the way of leverage.

Press freedom groups called the suit “beyond frivolous,” and the CBS/60 Minutes release of raw footage and transcripts showed nothing diabolical was afoot. Cohen says the finality achieved its purpose: intimidation, silence, and compliance. A similar shakedown was paid by Disney/ABC after Trump sued George Stephanopoulos for defamation which resulted in a payout to avoid political and regulatory aggravation — no apology required, no admission of guilt sought, just the money will do! Cohen sees this as a new model of media control, which is not about censorship, but consequence. Trump won’t have to muzzle the press if he makes it expensive, risky, and exhausting to be truthful, with valid journalism becoming a liability. And those Democrats with the clipboards find they are no match for Trump’s second term, with no strategy to parry with a president who views the law as a tool, using litigation not as a means to justice, but as a tool to jimmy the works for political power and monetary benefit. Victims of the fallout brought the resignations of ’60 Minutes’ executive producer Bill Owens, and CBS News President Wendy McMahon. Owens cited loss of editorial independence, and McMahon said she disagrees on “the path forward,” — a path of compliance, timidity, and self-censorship facing legal intimidation and regulatory blackmail. Cohen says we are watching not only the erosion of the First Amendment coupled with monetization of fear, but Trump’s proving our guardrails are only as strong as the will to defend them. That will is lacking in media companies, law firms and the Democratic Party, allowing setting of the precedent that a president can and will sue the media into silence, funneling the proceeds into a personal monument, and skate away sans inquiry, with the opposition stumbling over whether to resist or concede. Cohen concludes that though Democrats are writing letters, making speeches, and asking America to believe that norms and decency are enough — not so, not anymore, and perhaps never again. The most noteworthy monument standing at present is the one to Paramount’s surrender.

As reported on The Hartmann Report, in the wake of the Paramount/CBS payoff, CBS is installing a ‘monitor‘ to look for ‘leftwing bias.’ Such as facts. Hartmann writes, “Reality has a well-known leftwing bias because much of the rightwing ideology out there is based, simply, in lies. Trickle-down economics benefits working class people. Immigrants are more likely to be criminals. Women lover getting abortions, particularly late-term. Unions steal from their workers to make ‘union bosses’ rich. Global warming is a hoax. The fossil fuel and chemical industry aren’t poisoning us and our environment. Green energy is more expensive than gas, oil, or coal. People on Medicaid and food stamps are lazy. Unemployment insurance discourages work. Raising the minimum wage increases unemployment. People only value a college education if they go into debt to get it. Healthcare for all Americans is too complicated for any government to create and administer. America was created as a Christian nation. Every single one of those statements is a demonstrable lie, but when they pop up on CBS News going forward don’t expect any push-back. As part of Skydance’s deal with Trump and the FCC, they not only gave the president a personal $16 million bribe (and apparently also offered a similar amount in free advertising) but also agreed to install in the CBS operations a ‘monitor’ to catch and kill any semblance of ‘leftwing bias.’ This is the sort of thing that routinely happens when nations lose their democracy, and is a flashing red sign that we’re in the actual process of losing ours.”

Joyce Vance writes on Civil Discourse that the CBS ‘bias monitor‘ prompts her to comment on George Orwell’s novel, ‘1984,’ which she quotes from in her upcoming book, ‘Giving Up Is Unforgivable.’ She calls Orwell’s novel ‘illuminating‘ as it looks at the risks of succumbing to fascism. “It underscores the vital role of open, truthful dialogues. It’s about the protection of democratic institutions against the corrosive effects of misinformation and attempts to rewrite history. A bias monitor. Accepted by a major news network. Not a huge public outcry as Trump brings the thought police of fiction into fact. We are overdue to read, or reread, 1984.” In the words of George Orwell: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” In July of 2024, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that spawned Project 2025, and one of that document’s chief architects, said on Steve Bannon’s podcast, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Vance tells us that after that announcement, Trump disclaimed all knowledge of Project 2025, and most people moved on. Four months later, Americans returned Donald Trump to office, and now we’re living under Project 2025 — lots of parallels to 1984. FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino tweeted that he knows things that you don’t — a dark brooding vibe, insinuating that there’s more, enflaming any conspiracy theory MAGA may wish to revisit.

In this same vein, Steven Asarch writes on MSNBC, “Franklin Roosevelt mastered the use of radio. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were top of the game on TV. And Donald Trump is the first AI slop president. Since January, Trump’s administration has used artificial intelligence to churn out a steady stream of fake images on social media, from alligators in ICE hats to crying members of Congress, while the official White House account on X has used it to portray the president as Superman, the pope and a villain from ‘Star Wars.'” Asarch brings up the AI-generated clip showing President Obama being forcibly detained by the FBI, and another showing various Democrats in orange prison jumpsuits tagged as the ‘Shady Bunch.’ He says it’s not harmless, necessarily, but it’s mostly just lame trolling usually done by a 14-year old boy, or someone who acts like one. It becomes another thing entirely when Trump does it, as he muddies the waters of reality, encouraging his MAGA horde to believe everything and nothing — to a Trumper steeped in these memes, the answer may not even matter. Past presidents may have lied or presented false evidence on occasion, but Trump at this stage of his political presence, has made us all so tired of his commonplace mission to blame everyone else for the problems he’s created, that it’s easily overlooked. Two risks: One is that malevolent forces disseminate a fake video that is widely believed, leading to real-world consequences. The other is that people stop believing video entirely — the next video leak of prisoners being tortured or a presidential candidate bragging about his sexual assaults, may lead Americans to shrug it off, saying it’s fake. Trump is creating a world in which you can’t trust anyone, facts are fungible and the truth is whatever your political team says it is.

MSNBC’s columnist, Michael A Cohen, writes that the biggest political story in the country is the Jeffrey Epstein saga, but that the hidden story is the cratering popularity of President Trump, with Real Clear Politics, Nate Silver, and Elliott Morris all agreeing that Trump has fallen to the lowest point in his tenure, and that the numbers are still in free fall. The populace is souring on his campaign promises, the very issues his zealotry has visited upon the country. Seeing and hearing stories about his ICE secret police and their unmerciful tactics, the construction of Alligator Alcatraz and a promise to build many more, and most of all, the economy and the threat of even higher prices with his new tariffs aren’t passing muster. If we are fortunate enough to hold midterm elections next year, and the president can’t move the needle into a more favorable position in the interim, the GOP could be in a world of trouble — and it’s difficult to see him dramatically changing his mind about any of his agenda items. In MAGA’s realm, the Epstein situation weakens Trump, and even if he can somehow maintain support in this area, he is taking his party into treacherous political waters. With his Big Beautiful Bill, Immigration and Customs gets a huge infusion of money with which he has promised to double down on mass deportation cruelty, and the tariffs have become his mantra, so voters can expect more Republican trickle-down in the form of pain. If Democrats can get it together, they should have an easier chore at recruiting viable candidates to pit against Republicans, while raising the money to compete successfully. Even the campaign slogan, ‘We’re not President Donald Trump,’ which was a midterm success during Trump’s first term, might work for them again.

It’s the Epstein files that are driving Washington, DC’s Republicans and the MAGA bunch, into insanity, prompting the House Speaker to call for the August recess despite unfinished business. And Trump took a cue from Johnson’s action, hotfooting it to Scotland on a business/pleasure trip — the business part being a combination of Trump Golf course business and US government business, all courtesy of the US taxpayer, of course. Scotland’s newspaper, ‘The National‘, greeted him with the headline: ‘CONVICTED US FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND.’ Hordes of demonstrators with appropriate signs are welcoming him as well, so he will do his utmost to avoid them, but the Scottish press hasn’t let him forget about his pedo-buddy Epstein. It would probably be his preference to remain on his golf courses until September when Washington comes back to life. Nobody seems to know where JD Vance is hiding out, but he’s saying very little about Jeffrey Epstein in an effort to salvage his political future according to Trump biographer, Michael Wolff. Wolff says, “JD Vance cannot, for his own political future, lose the MAGA base, but at the same time he cannot lose Donald Trump. Go figure.” Some see Vance as the heir apparent to Trump, but the president may have a different view — “We’ll see,” he has said. JD hasn’t been in the White House spotlight lately, which some see as a diminished role in Trump’s hierarchy, with New York Times columnist, Jamelle Bouie describing his function as the ‘president’s official fanboy,’ able to effectively communicate his leader’s vile messages to the base. “And in addition to acting as cheer captain for his boss, Vance also works to give the administration a veneer of intellectualism to cover its cruelty, corruption, and incompetence — a spokesman for the president’s brand of national populism,” Bouie argues.

Even the First Lady is in the middle of the Epstein drama according to Michael Wolff, being “very involved” he commented to Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast. “She was very involved in this Epstein relationship,” Wolff says, adding that Melania was introduced to Trump through model agent, Paolo Zampolli, who had a relationship with both Trump and Epstein. “This is another complicated issue in this — where does she fit into all this? Where does she fit in the Epstein story? Into the whole culture of models of indeterminate age?” asks Wolff. The president has frantically tried to cast off the Epstein tie, trying to blame the Democrats, Obama and Biden, calling it a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” But with the numerous stories in magazines, tabloids, and the shoeboxes full of photos online, Musk’s revenge won’t be an easy one to turn aside. If doing humiliating and irreparable damage to his former Oval Office buddy was the point with his infamous X post — “Trump is in the Epstein files” — Musk has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski wrote, “If Musk’s goal was merely to stoke the controversy without necessarily settling it, his mission has been accomplished — and then some.” Musk has danced around the periphery of the hidden files, and while not directly attacking Trump since then, he has lent no support either, simply remaining a potent political risk with his reaping of the spoils of his DOGE gleanings. Zakrzewski notes that the X hashtag ‘#TrumpIsAPedoRapist,’ has been popular, and that, “Allies of Musk serving in the Trump administration have had to tread carefully, largely declining to comment on the feud between the president and one of the world’s most powerful business leaders.” Trump posted on Truth Social that he wishes Elon and all US businesses well, for the good of the country, but Elon chose to ignore the post since he still carries a grudge toward the president and the administration for slashing tax credits for electric vehicle purchases, yet retaining subsidies for the petroleum industries.

The House Republican proposal that The Kennedy Center opera house should be renamed to honor Melania Trump— ‘First Lady Melania Trump Opera House‘ — may be on tenterhooks as the Epstein revelations come to light. A House panel voted 33-25 to approve the push to pay homage to the first lady, following President Trump’s takeover of the ‘woke’ institution and naming himself as board chairman. It’s unknown at this time when the GOP plans to bring the legislation to the House floor for a vote by the full chamber, and it’s also unknown if Melania is in rehearsals for the role of Floria Tosca to headline a premiere performance.

Satirist Andy Borowitz writes of his own take on the opera house action in ‘The Borowitz Report‘: “Millions of Americans support renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after the writer E. Jean Carroll, according to a poll released on Wednesday. Conversely, poll respondents opposed naming the venue after First Lady Melania Trump, strongly agreeing with the statement, ‘An arts center should not be named after someone who finds blood-red Christmas trees aesthetically pleasing.’ At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to rename the Kennedy Center after Mrs. Trump, stating, ‘Since President Trump took it over, the Kennedy Center has been just like the First Lady: renovated and vacant.'”

Broadcast TV’s late night hosts were quick to jump on Trump and his Jeffrey Epstein troubles. The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert began his monologue with, “It’s a great day to be me, because I’m not Donald Trump. That guy has got a lot of problems…the Epstein scandal just won’t kill itself.” About the thousand FBI agents who scoured approximately 100,000 records related to Epstein in order to flag any mentions of Trump, Colbert said, “That is a suspiciously Herculean effort. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t hide who Dumpty humped with his friend. You cannot blame Trump and his allies for being scared here, because the more we know about Trump’s relationship to Epstein, the more WE wish we didn’t.” Court records show that Trump flew on Epstein’s plane, the ‘Lolita Express‘, at least seven times, about which Colbert commented, “That doesn’t mean he did anything illegal, but it’s not a great look when you fly on the pedophile’s plane enough times to earn Diamond Pervert status.” ‘Late Night‘ host Seth Meyers referenced Trump’s Truth Social post about hitting the six months mark of his second term, “Wow, time flies.” “Does it though? Its’ been six months of this term, but we already did four years of you, and even when Biden was president, you were still the president of every news cycle. It feels like you’ve been president forever. I think it goes Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and then you,” Meyers responded. Meyers also quipped that Trump has finally named First Lady Melania as his emergency contact.

Speculation is high that a pardon for Jeffrey Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, is in the works, with Trump’s former personal attorney, Todd Blanche — now his personal attorney AND now deputy attorney general of the US — has been assigned the task of ‘interviewing‘ Maxwell to ‘garner more information‘ about the Epstein files. A former official who worked with Attorney General Pammy Ann Bondi in Florida predicted that Blanche would work out a “hidden pardon,” and in light of the firing of Maurene Comey who was handling the case for DOJ, it seems that any obstructions are being cleared. Dave Aronberg, Bondi’s former border czar, called this move “extraordinary” leading him to believe a lot of politics is involved, which might get Maxwell some immunity now and a pardon of sorts in the future — if she claims that Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing in the whole mess. Senator Adam Schiff says, “Clearly, this errand that Todd Blanche, the number-two at the Justice Department, is going on now is in his capacity as Trump’s defense attorney. He wants to know what this convicted child sex trafficker has to say about Donald Trump. And, certainly, she wants a pardon. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.” Attorney Ben Meiselas of ‘MeidasTouch‘ believes Trump is giving Ghislaine a golden ticket for a retrial.

With all this activity, Andy Borowitz has a hit upon where VP JD Vance might be found, his theory datelined from Edinburgh, Scotland: “Donald J Trump revealed on Monday that JD Vance has agreed to serve the remainder of Ghislaiine Maxwell’s prison sentence for her. ‘JD wasn’t thrilled about it, quite frankly,’ Trump told reporters. ‘He was crying like a dog. I told him to be a man. It’s only 20 years.’ As for Maxwell, Trump said, ‘I wish her well,’ adding that he expects her to be a ‘terrific vice president’.”

CASE CLOSED, LOYALTIES LIE, SCHLEMIEL, SCHLIMAZEL, SCIENCE

President Trump is probably hoping his new addition to his line of fragrances — ‘Victory 45-47’ — will cover the stench of the rebirth of the Jeffrey Epstein imbroglio into his existence. The Don has a long history of pushing fragrances, introducing ‘Donald Trump, The Fragrance’ in 2004, in a partnership with Estée Lauder. ‘Empire by Trump’ came along in 2015, and ‘Victory 47’ cologne and perfume was offered in 2024, as well as ‘Fight, Fight, Fight,’ which encompassed scents for both sexes. Promos for the latest addition read, “Trump Fragrances are here. They’re called ‘Victory 45-47’ because they’re all about Winning, Strength, and Success — For men and women. Get yourself a bottle, and don’t forget to get one for your loved ones too. Enjoy, have fun, and keep winning!” The announcement quickly brought forth comments on social media sites: Burt on X joked, “Just spent my entire life savings on his new phone service. Going to take a few payday loans to get this new fragrance;” Drew warned potential buyers, “You are a complete loser if you buy this;” Aaron wrote, “New frontiers of grifting;” former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan questioned, “How is this legal?” And on X, Jeff remarked, “Trump launching fragrance line called ‘Victory 45-47’ for $199 a bottle. Rumored to be made from ‘essence’ of his ‘precious bodily fluids.’ Appropriate warnings may or may not be listed on label. Use with extreme caution and ideally in the presence of a medical professional.”

Of course, we know Trump has an even longer history as a sexual predator, which led him and Epstein to become ‘best friends for ten or fifteen years,’ documented in interviews, nearly 300 photos and videos posted online, all verified by his many friends and associates. Trump’s promises, during the 2024 presidential campaign, to MAGA and potential voters included his plan to release all files related to the Epstein investigation, his arrest and conviction, and his subsequent prison cell suicide — which the hordes demanded — with the icing on the cake being the rumored ‘client list.’ Asked about it several weeks ago, Secretary Pammy Ann Bondi told the press “everything is sitting on my desk, awaiting review,” with an expected release to follow. It all hit the fan, when at a recent Cabinet meeting, she proclaimed that the files didn’t exist, causing a complete uproar among the MAGAt faithful, and a stream of excuses and what-aboutisms from the panic-stricken White House. Trump had already used one of his highest attention-grabbing Wag-The-Dog diversions by dropping bunker busters on Iran — where could he go from here without starting WWIII? Of course — he could revert to his old tried and true attack of — name calling! That’s the ticket, simply disown the GOP and MAGAts who were calling him out as a liar about the Epstein situation; besides, Elon Musk doesn’t have anything since he didn’t release any details along with his dubious threat, and the fact that his DOGE crew ransacked or copied all the files they got their hands on means nothing — just “don’t believe your lying eyes and ears, only believe what I tell you.” Case closed!

Marc Elias wrote on Democracy Docket that Conspiracy-In-Chief leader Trump has let his self-inflicted crisis on the Epstein Files get out of control and in his attempt to control the debacle he is reduced to expressing his anger in gibberish-filled posts on Truth Social. He has lost control of his narrative, and for the time being, a huge swath of his MAGA base, on an issue of great importance to both Republicans and Democrats, who failed to communicate with voters in 2024. Elias points out that the cultural influencers and podcasters who pushed their audiences into the Trump camp are making their angry voices heard — the most alienated in Trump’s about-face. Should an election actually happen in 2026, the GOP stands to lose many of the current officeholders whose names will be on the ballot once again. The unpopular legislation that Congress is pressured to enact is already the albatross on their shoulders, and the Epstein episode will only add to their burden. Despite Trump’s weakness of his hold on his base, “the elections of 2018 and 2022 are a reminder of how badly the GOP fared in those midterms, with Trump’s attracting and endorsing the worst candidates while offering no increase in voter turnout or enthusiasm,” asserts Elias. Roiling the waters with dismissal of Epstein as unimportant, Trump has brought on the wrath of his former supporters, while bringing momentum to the Democrats who hope that GOPers in both the House and Senate will bear the brunt of the president’s lies and idiocy next year.

Elias urges caution as we watch the impotence of the Congressional Republicans toward this scandal — they call for the release of the files, yet cast votes for the exact opposite. To Elias, “It seems clear that the overwhelming majority of House and Senate Republicans will end up voting to protect Trump and the secrets contained in those files. It’s clear where their loyalties lie — and it’s not with the American people. Finally, the biggest difference is Trump himself. He is selfish and does not care about any of the Republicans serving in Congress. Even as they hav become more obsequious — perhaps because of it — he holds them in contempt. We know — and they know — that Trump will do whatever he deems is in his best interest and will sacrifice any or all of them without a second thought.” Elias recounts the words of his grandmother who taught him, “Learn manners because when you grow up, you don’t want to be a schlemiel — a person who, at a nice dinner party, spills the soup. But even more important, never be the schlimazel — the chronically unlucky person onto whose lap the soup is spilled.” He then concludes, “When it comes to congressional politics, Trump may be a vulgar schlemiel, but congressional Republicans are always the schlimazels.”

At the recent Hill Nation Summit, some Democrats grudgingly complimented Trump’s strategies as they attempt to learn from the November losses as they move toward 2026, attempting to narrow the Republican majorities. California’s Ro Khanna believes Democrats have been “way too judgmental” of Americans who voted for Donald Trump. “We acted as if the problem was the voters; the problem was the party, and we acted with a condescension and a judgment on voters,” he said to NewsNation’s Chris Cillizza. With the Democratic Party showing its lowest favorability ratings in years, and struggling to redefine its image, many are calling for a new generation of leaders, which is adding fuel to intra-party frustrations. Democratic strategist, Fred Hicks said, “You can’t understand how to win by repeating losing behavior; you have to study winners. And the reality is that Trump has won two of his three elections. I think it’s prudent to understand how Republicans have earned the votes of so many people.” Khanna criticized his party for not having a compelling economic vision for years, but suggested he could bring a better economic vision forward, with many speculating he has his eye on a presidential run. Hicks disparages our system in saying, “The problem in American politics right now is that if your team runs the play, then it’s OK; if the other team does it, then it’s not. What that has done is that’s created a deficit of trust in our system, amongst voters, everyday people.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that no vote on a resolution calling for the release of Epstein-related documents will be held before the August recess, despite the growing outcry over the Trump administration’s handling of the case. Johnson says he wants the administration to have time to act on the matter before going ahead with congressional action, though Trump is urging the GOP to just drop the issue. AG Pam Bondi has requested release of grand jury transcripts, with Johnson claiming there is no argument over the need for maximum transparency. “My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing and if further Congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that. But I don’t think we are at that point right now because we agree with the president,” Johnson replied to reporters. Latching on to the frustrations in the Epstein case, Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have joined forces on a resolution to release the files — a discharge petition for the legislation in an attempt to force it to the floor, which has at least ten GOP co-sponsors. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the critics of Trump’s foot-dragging, said, “Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else — the base will turn and there’s no going back.”

Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright believes there’s “a lot” for Democrats to learn from Trump’s approach to politics, which has allowed him to “hypnotize his base” along the campaign trail and in office. “Two things happen with elections: You win or you learn. I think there’s certainly a lot to learn from Trump’s political career and his style, and I think more than anything, to learn that we don’t have to continue this idea of doing business as usual, but we must master doing unusual business,” he contends. Maryland Representative Glenn Ivey stressed that his party’s need to keep up with the changing media landscape, which the GOP dominated so effectively in the last election, is a top priority. Ivey feels optimistic about the midterms next year, pointing to President Trump’s falling poll numbers. “He’s hurting himself a lot. If we later on — we being the Democrats — layer on top of that an affirmative message…we could really have very strong gains.” Polls put Trump’s disapproval rating at its highest since the beginning of his second term, and Ivey says, “If you want to turn voters out, get ’em angry, get ’em excited. We’ll see if we can sustain it, but it’s certainly heading in the right direction for us at this point.”

Salon.com has presented why many Americans are put off by the Trump administration’s policies — MAGA hates science! The ongoing destruction of stormy weather wreaking havoc in our communities isn’t convincing enough for them to even consider that climate change is nothing more than a hoax. Measles? Meh, no biggie — shut down research, clinics, and ban vaccines — all medical research, while we’re at it! Salon’s article speculates that it’s because scientific advances don’t discriminate between the ‘worthy’ and those considered ‘unworthy,’ and because some in the billionaire class think they deserve to live much longer than you do. “But it’s not just the small — and small-minded, and small-hearted — wealthy libertarian or right-wing elite. Working people who choose to wear MAGA red caps hate science for their own reasons: It tells them things about disease and environmental destruction and, say, women’s reproductive health that they cannot bear to face. Scientific findings often do not jibe with their religious beliefs. If you believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, were never taught how to distinguish between faith and knowledge, you’re naturally going to have a testy relationship with science,” Salon declares.

The article continues: “By its nature of openness to new ideas, scientific inquiry exemplifies the secular worldview of liberals. Science levels the playing field. It’s woke. Scientists discriminate about the significance of evidence, but they do no discriminate about the significance of different human beings. (That is what the MAGA faithful think their religion is for —because Republicans have spent a long time perverting Christianity, too, to justify their greed and bigotry.) There’s the danger to those who consider themselves superior — by race, color, creed or position on the Forbes list — to the mass of men and women. Scientific advancements make us ever more aware that we are all the same and should enjoy the same basic rights to education, health care, civil liberties like voting, freedom of and freedom from religion, and the freedom to read or otherwise consume whatever opinions or cultural works we choose — the very things that the current occupant of the White House and his MAGA followers are working to take away from us.” History tells us that friction between science and religion could bring imprisonment or death to scientists, and now we see our president calling global warming “a hoax,” as he takes down NOAA and FEMA, while defunding climate research and green technology. What Trump and his party of grifters and religious zealots are accomplishing in taking down universities funding for research will be economically devastating, not only to those now directly involved, but to future generations who could receive advantages from any developments. Make COVID great again!

What our felonious leader wants to see is the destruction of all expertise, as all autocrats are inclined to accomplish. He wishes to be respected for any idiotic public health proposals, or for changing the weather by unleashing nuclear bombs inside a developing hurricane, or simply changing the name of a geographical location to satisfy his delicate ego — or demanding that professional sports organizations change their team’s names. He doesn’t wish to have some Pulitzer Prize-winning economist or historian tell him and his base that his Big Beautiful Bill is a failure, or that he isn’t the greatest president — or the greatest world leader — in all of history. Hating to be questioned, he despises journalists, scientists, or anyone educated enough to be critically challenging; hence, his “Cabinet of white nationalist frat boys, shameless sycophants, and fellow grifters — not to mention a supermajority of right-wing Supreme Court justices who appear ready to hand him absolute power,” the Salon article charges.

A notable President Trump story resulting from his attendance at an energy and technology summit in Pittsburgh, has him claiming that his uncle, John Trump, taught the Unabomber. Uncle John was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who Nephew Donald calls “one of the great professors, longest-serving professor in MIT history, with three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math — that’s a smart man.” The ‘longest-serving’ lie has been debunked numerous times over the years, but what can we expect from the least honest president in American history? He asked his audience, “Do you know who Ted Kaczynski was? There’s very little difference between a madman and a genius.” Trump then regaled the assembled with a supposed ‘conversation’ he had with Uncle John, who told him all about student Kaczynski, none of it, however, being true — a complete fabrication. To begin with, Kaczynski attended Harvard, not MIT, and the most damning fact is that John Trump died in 1985, with Kaczynski not being identified and arrested until 1986. MSNBC says that if both Trumps knew of Kaczynski’s role as the Unabomber a decade before his apprehension, that would be quite a newsworthy story. White House press secretary, Katherine Leavitt, was asked about Trump’s whopper, and as usual admonished the reporter who dared to ask such a question “with so many issues going on in the world.” A good follow-up question would have been, “Then why isn’t the president dealing with THOSE issues?”

The Unabomber story bomb seems just another sad event that the mainstream media is ignoring is Trump’s increasing disconnect from reality. One day after he graced the Pittsburgh audience with the story, he again complained about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying, “I was surprised he was appointed,” obviously forgetting he had made the appointment himself in 2017? Or trying to pass the buck? He resumed his attack on Powell at a White House Faith Office summit, calling the chairman “a knucklehead” and “a stupid guy,” as he went on to deride the intelligence of his former energy secretary Rick Perry, and telling the assembled that President Biden “wasn’t faithful enough and sought to persecute religious leaders.” Those gathered heard his claim that gasoline prices are priced at the lowest level in decades — under $2 per gallon — a claim he has repeated for weeks, while everyone knows the per gallon price has not fallen below the nationwide average of $3 since his inauguration. It seems that most of the time he has no idea what is going on in his own bailiwick, telling House Republicans not to touch Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security if they want to keep winning elections. This admonition just days before he actually signed the Big Beautiful Bill which did those very things, prompting one GOPer to tell him,“But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill.” Surprise, surprise, Donny! Another incident, when asked by a reporter why military aid shipments to Ukraine had been placed on hold, he turned the question to ask if SHE knew who had ordered the halt — “You tell me!” Making up stories, making false claims, attacking other public officials — seems the stuff for a good in-depth story, perhaps? So, where are the reports connecting these incidents? Why only tossed off comments that hardly equate to the “aggressive reporting on President Biden’s cognitive decline,” which won Axios reporter Alex Thompson the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Thompson, who teamed up with CNN’s Jake Tapper to write a best-seller that delved into Biden’s alleged decline and the White House’s attempt to cover his difficulties, said in his acceptance speech, “President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception. But being truth-tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story, and some people trusted us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows.” So, he admits the media dropped the ball back then. Where is the media NOW? Where is the team of Thompson/Tapper? Are they resting on their laurels, gloating over their ‘success’? The truth-tellers have chickened out!

A truth-teller who crossed Trump and corporate America last week — Stephen Colbert — learned a hard lesson, which we should all take as a warning. His show was cancelled, and will no longer be in the CBS lineup after May 2026, at the end of his current contract. This has brought forth a cacophony of voices and a few offers, he will surely land in a good spot to continue his pointed commentary — more on this later to be sure. In the meantime send your best wishes to the Trumps, CBS, Skydance, the Redstones, and the Ellisons to let them know how we feel.

Its title had been staring out from the bedside table for some time, a bookmark jutting out from pages closed years ago — ‘How to Overthrow the Government’ by Arianna Huffington, released in 2000, in retrospect a much simpler time. Pre-9/11, pre-Iraq War, pre-COVID19, pre-internet as we know it today — ancient history almost. Despite its sinister-sounding title, the book is hardly a ‘Mein Kampf,’ or even a ‘Project 2025’ manifesto. All those years ago, Huffington wrote, “Entering the political field has become less appealing than visiting a proctologist with a hangnail,” and citing Sean Connery’s character’s line from the movie ‘The Untouchables’: “The other guy pulls a knife, you pull a gun…he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send two of his to the morgue. That’s how you win an election. That’s the American Way!” She termed it the “survival of the unfittest,” as we are subjected to political ads that “are styled as Early Sledgehammer,” which is clearly where we are today, only much more so with the advent of the internet with innumerable podcasts, social media, texts and emails…all of which the GOP/MAGA forces used to their distinct advantage over the Democrats in the last presidential election. In that period when Huffington wrote her book, ‘Campaigns and Elections’ magazine said that 81% of political candidates surveyed believed that press scrutiny keeps qualified people from running for office. Huffington said, “By spotlighting our political leaders’ private weaknesses, we’re in danger of limiting our pool of potential leaders to a group of men and women with no private weaknesses — or, indeed private thoughts or ideas. We’ll eliminate any number of potential Jeffersons or Lincolns and what we’ll get instead will be a parade of smiling, handshaking automatons, programmed with the requisite poll-tested policies and focus group-approved sound bites…personally, I’m willing to countenance a little infidelity in order to expand the field.” And a veritable cornucopia in her wished-for expansion is exactly what we’ve experienced over the past several years!

Huffington laments, “Just as our two-party system is showing unmistakable signs of exhaustion, and the public’s suppressed discontent is ready to be tapped, a disaster in reform’s clothing stands poised to take advantage. Like the townsfolk in an old Western, the millions who feel shut out of our ‘unprecedented prosperity’ may thrill at the sight of a masked man riding to our rescue — until it turns out he isn’t the Lone Ranger, but a racist gunslinger bent on turning them against one another.” Yikes! The racist gunslinger we ended up with is doing his utmost to divide us along racial lines, but also politically as seen by his diatribe in Iowa against Democrats who voted against his ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ and who don’t really count, being the minority in the chamber — in his estimation. He claims they didn’t support his bill because they hate him, but he hates them right back “because they hate our country!” We must remember  that candidate Trump described Americans he disagreed with as “evil…the enemy within.” His Independence Day comments are worth noting because past elected leaders have never voiced public “hatred” for those who dare disagree with them. Steve Benen of MSNBC writes, “There’s another angle to this that arguably matters more. Different political scientists define the nuances of authoritarianism in different ways, but I think most would agree that a hallmark of any despotic regime is the delegitimization of political opposition. It’s against this backdrop that the incumbent president, using language foreign to American ears, wants the public to believe that his partisan opponents literally don’t count, are inherently unpatriotic, and are worthy of hatred.” Trump may view himself as the Lone Ranger riding to the rescue, but he is unmasked, telling us exactly who he is and how he wants to remake the US into the dream of every tinhorn dictator who ever lived. The masking duties he has left to his Homeland Security Barbie to see that her ICE secret police are outfitted properly to not only hide their faces, but to instill fear in those who are victimized by the un-American raids and kidnappings — los desaparecidos.

President Trump is thrilled at the new facility in Florida being built with $450 million in FEMA funds to imprison more than 3000 immigrants, in reality a concentration camp meant to frighten fearful immigrants into self-deporting to their countries of origin. Ahead of a visit to the detention camp by Trump and Kristi Noem, the Florida Republican Party gave the place the nickname of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and began merchandising t-shirts and other items to capitalize on the Everglades location among the “gators and pythons” (“The moral bankruptcy knows no bounds,” – Emily Singer’s Daily Kos post) which supposedly will thwart any attempted escape by prisoners. The name was soon corrupted to ‘Alligator Auschwitz’ by those who see it bearing a resemblance to the Nazi detention centers of WWII. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the facility as, “An efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history. The only way out is a one-way flight. It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife.” Trump is known to love inhumane prisons and has a fantasy about using wildlife to dissuade immigrants from entering this country, and as he showed his excitement during a Fox News interview, he said of the possibility that immigrants might be eaten by alligators, “I guess that’s the concept. This is not a nice business. I guess that’s the concept.” Many experts are at odds with Leavitt’s summation of the camp being cost effective. “As someone who has studied the costs of detention centers, I can tell you for a fact that this facility will run at a cost substantially higher than average,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick posted on X. The senior fellow at the American Immigration Council wrote, “Detention tent camps are always more expensive to operate than brick and mortar facilities with permanent infrastructure.” Trump’s deportation agenda is unpopular with voters, who view him as being too harsh, but ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ fills the bill for the president and his MAGA gang as they seek to be even more cruel to immigrants with their torture tactics.

Inaccurately, concentration camps are compared to prisons but in the US, inmates arrive in penitentiaries after being convicted of serious crimes, under processes determined by the US Constitution. Cases begin with probable cause, not skin tone, followed by an arrest during which one has a right to remain silent. Actual voluntary pleading…no coercion…leads to a formal trial with defendant choosing a bench trial or a jury trial, based only on admissible evidence, all stages under Constitutional constraints. If a court falters, appellate courts stand to intervene. Prior to Donald Trump, wrongful, sloppy, or vengeance-driven criminal convictions of the innocent were the product of flawed men, not a flawed system. Establishment of concentration camps is a reflection of an illegal system — detainment is independent of judicial review — no conviction of any crime, simply pointing to incarceration for political reasons. A human roundup based on maniacal whims doesn’t represent the rule of law, only an autocrat’s lust for power. Father Federico Capdepón, a retired priest from the Miami Archdiocese who has been watching this development, describes both the camp and the inhumanity it reflects as, quite simply, “Sinful.” But hey, Father, what do you say of the six Roman Catholic Supreme Court Justices who paved the way for the Trumpian cruelty with their complicity? Those six justices are aware of the statistics that show immigrants account for low crime rates, comprising 14% of the non-US citizen population with data showing only 3% being jailed. The six are also aware of the sinister methods Trump has devised to dismantle the US Constitution; yet, on June 27, the court outlawed nationwide injunctive relief, removing people’s protection from the president’s lawlessness. So whaddya know…hard to believe that three days later, Trump visited the completed ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ with more on the way?

Andrea Pitzer, author of ‘One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps,’ writes, “the words ‘concentration camp’ evokes another country, another time, describing a facility operating in the dark of night, away from the prying eyes of an outraged public,” but we now have a camp in Florida’s Everglades that’s hardly a secret. We’ve all seen the video of Trump, Noem, and Ron DeSantis laughing in front of the cages which will hold human beings; and, Pitzer relates that she visited four continents in writing her history — and this one fits the purpose of the classic model for holding masses of civilian detainees. Detainees consisting of vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed, all without trials as it points to serious dangers ahead for the country. Projected capacity of 5,000 beds is several times the average detention center occupancy, though billed as a ‘temporary’ camp theorized as a seamless processing center with rapid-fire judicial hearings conducted by National Guardsmen performing as immigration judges — an unlikely fluid process. Some defenders of Trump’s policy claim that arbitrary detention or abuse of foreigners doesn’t resemble Hitler’s treatment of citizens, but the Fuehrer’s goal of stripping Jews of legal protections and having no more rights than aliens, and therefore eligible for his encampments, echo an uneasy refrain from our current administration. The Nazis imagined their targets would self-deport with the tighter restrictions, but when that myth dissolved, their uglier and more punitive measures were initiated. And Kristi Noem said it out loud, if immigrants aren’t frightened enough to self-deport, “You may end up here.”

So, what can we expect? Already, aggressive moves against those residing legally in the US are seen, with legal status of half a million Haitians in the crosshairs. The Department of Justice is fast-tracking cases involving possible revocation of citizenship, working to undo birthright citizenship, and earmarking the citizenship of political enemies. MAGA wants to define who can be an American in ways that appear profoundly racist, with immigrants the most politically advantageous large population to target. US history has precedents and parallels for such abuse of populations not viewed as citizens, as we examine centuries of Native American removal and genocide, or courts wielding the weight of law or executive authority to prop up slavery, allowing cross-border trafficking and detention of humans who are denied lawful rights. The confiscation of property and removal of Japanese Americans to concentration facilities at the outbreak of WWII is just one of the most egregious of such actions, with Trump himself praising the ‘Operation Wetback’ deportations of the Eisenhower years, which included camps noted for their abuse and lethality. As the administration looks toward expanding its concentration camp legacy, we are seeing police-state tactics on our streets, as masked agents who refuse to show their IDs, travel in unmarked cars to sweep people from churches, their homes, their work places, from schools, and Home Depot parking lots — some reemerging after their ordeal, others simply ‘disappeared.’

MSNBC reports that the American Immigration Council believes the budget reconciliation bill is likely to make Immigration and Customs Enforcement “the largest investment in detention and deportation in US history,” an expansion which makes ICE the center of gravity for state overreach. And, Trump seems to lean in that direction as he espouses a multi-state network of sites like ‘Alligator Auschwitz,’ having already sent detainees to El Salvador, Panama, Rwanda, and Libya, with deals in-the-making with other countries — the imposition of a global concentration camp network. Members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida have opposed and are protesting the Everglades camp as a threat to their sacred lands, but five Democratic state lawmakers were turned away recently as they tried to inspect the facility. The MSNBC report neatly sums up an untidy situation: “The history of this kind of detention camp underlines that it would be a mistake to think the current cruelties are the endpoint. America is likely just getting started.”

That starting point is seen by Hayes Brown, MSNBC writer and editor, as the $150 billion cash infusion toward immigration enforcement which Republicans handed Trump in last week’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ which he needs to carry out his mass deportation policy. Brown writes, “The intended result is as aggressive as it is likely transformative: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is slated to become the largest law enforcement agency in the country as dozens of new detention centers spring up to hold hundreds of thousands of immigrants awaiting expulsion.” Despite all the arrests from the sweeps, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is still unsatisfied, insisting that he needs more resources to meet his goal of 3,000 arrests per day. To put this into perspective, the budget reconciliation bill funds $45 billion EACH toward the southern border wall, and expansion of immigration detention capacity — thirteen times the current annual ICE budget for detention, and five times more than the entire annual budget of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The American Immigration Council estimates the money allocation would be enough for ICE to maintain 116,000 beds annually, compared to current support for 41,000 detainees — if one is lucky enough to get a bed. As of June 15, reported inhumane conditions at detention centers now holding around 56,000 immigrants, show the need for rapid escalation in building more facilities — monies which will be spent as quickly as possible with little oversight. Already, ICE has asked contractors for “proposals to provide new detention facilities, transportation, security guards, medical support and other administrative services over the next two years.” Full well we know, that much of that money will go to private companies which have been major political backers of Trump and the MAGA/GOP.

Travis Gettys writes on Raw Story that even though Stephen Miller has become a powerful, and empowered, adviser in Trump’s second term, his ambitions to become national security adviser may be jeopardizing his place in his current lofty position. He has remained in Trump’s inner circle by casting aside former allies like Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions as they have fallen into the president’s disfavor, while striking up new alliances, as he attempts turning the president against others in his orbit, according to The New York Times’ Jason Zengerle. “At the same time, Mr. Miller is a world-class brown-noser. In an administration that puts a premium on sycophancy, he stands out for just how much he sucks up to his boss,” reports Zengerle. “And yet, Mr. Miller’s power could ultimately unravel because of something far more profound than office politics. Translating Trumpism into a coherent ideological doctrine can be a vexing proposition, as MAGA’s isolationist wing recently experienced with the US airstrikes on Iran,” writes Zengerle. Miller has translated Trumpism into public policy as well as anyone by showing a willingness to embrace the president’s contradictions and reversals, yet he isn’t viewed as indispensable because no one his circle ever was, but Trump can’t imagine Miller not working for him at present. Zengerle concludes, “For the moment, though, it seems Mr. Miller and Mr. Trump are aligned — and that means Mr. Miller has achieved a level of success, and satisfaction, that he never dreamed of during Mr. Trump’s first term.”

This week:

Several weeks ago following President Trump’s deportations of planeloads of ICE victims, Stephen Miller called on Congress to impose upon and abolish the Washington, DC federal court district after it blocked Trump’s actions of sending the “violent criminals” to El Salvador’s mega prison. Miller’s guest appearance on Fox News’ Life, Liberty and Levin, with host Mark Levin, Levin suggested the Republican Congress should scrap the DC court by eliminating the federal funding during the budget reconciliation process. Miller concurred with: “Congress has the authority to create the inferior courts. They have the authority to fund or not fund these courts. So yes, Congress has to step up here.” House Speaker Mike Johnson had previously threatened to eliminate entire district courts if judges issued rulings against the Trump administration, saying, “As you know, we can eliminate an entire district court. We have power over funding, over the courts, and all these other things. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.” Judges across the nation have issued temporary orders to block many of Trump’s 100+ executive orders, many of which are seen to exceed his presidential authority, and angering the GOP in the process. Trump’s justification to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang by using the Alien Enemies Act was temporarily blocked by Judge James Boasberg as he pointed out that our country is not at war. True to form, the administration ignored the ruling and sent more than 250 men to El Salvador without their required court hearings. A CBS ’60 Minutes’ investigation found at least one deportee had legal protective status, one had been granted refugee status, and several were all formally seeking asylum — and 75% did not have criminal records.

Stephen Miller is hoping that Republicans won’t need to fly in the face of court orders or eliminate any federal courts, as the administration sought relief from the Supreme Court to overturn any deportation bans, allowing it to send individuals to foreign prisons sans legal proceedings. “We would just implore the Supreme Court to do the right thing and protect our democracy. President Trump will not be bowed, will not be swayed, and will not be deterred,” he told Levin. Miller has taken much criticism for his past remarks — one notable one: “Children will be taught to love America. Children will be taught to be patriots. Children will be taught civic values for schools that want federal taxpayer funding. So as we close the Department of Education and provide funding to states, we’re going to make sure these funds are not being used to promote communist ideology.” Political analyst Jose Larky says, “Miller is afraid of a problem that doesn’t exist. America is the furthest thing from a communist society.” He cites the Gini Coefficient, the primary measure of wealth inequality within a population, which shows that the US has much more inequality than at least 22 other nations. Zaid Jilani writes, “Does Stephen Miller love America as it exists today? His goal seems to be to return it to 1925.”

Dr. David S Glosser writes in POLITICO Magazine, that Stephen Miller is an immigration hypocrite, and he should know since he is Miller’s uncle, being the brother of Miller’s mother. Glosser details the beginnings of the family’s migration account from Belarus at the turn of the 20th century, fleeing from anti-Jewish persecution, individuals arriving on these shores and sending for other family members as they were able to afford passage. Uncle David says he has “watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, an educated man who is well aware of this heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country. These facts are important not only for their grim historical irony but because vulnerable people are being hurt. They are real people, not the ghoulish caricatures portrayed by Trump. When confronted by the deaths and suffering of thousands, our senses are overwhelmed, and the victims become statistics rather than people. Immigration reform is a complex issue that will require compassion and wisdom to bring the nation to a just solution, but the politicians who have based their political and professional identity on ethnic demonization and exclusion cannot be trusted to do so. As free Americans, and descendants of immigrants and refugees, we have the obligation to exercise our conscience by voting for candidates who will stand up for our highest national values and not succumb to our lowest fears.”

“Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him, because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats hate,” wrote Terry Moran, late of ABC News. Moran was dumped by ABC after tweeting those words, which prompted a pressure campaign by the White House despite Donald Trump’s campaign support for free speech. ABC was bullied by the president’s threatened media persecution encompassing frivolous lawsuits and threats of punitive regulation, so Moran’s contract was not renewed because the network felt their standards of objectivity and professionalism were violated. The administration was already steaming at Moran’s earlier exposé of Trump’s belief that the M-S-1-3 labels on a photo of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s fingers were actual tattoos, and not Photoshopped as was readily apparent. John Stoehr of The Editorial Board writes that Miller is, objectively, a hater. The mainstream media says so all the time. “Miller is extremely hostile to immigrants. He has always, as far back as high school, rejected the idea that immigration is a net positive for America, and he’s been very consistent in that,” says Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times. “This is all I care about. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything else. This is my life,” Miller said during Trump’s first term. Stoehr writes that Trump reportedly said that if Miller had his way, there’d only be 100 million Americans and they’d all look like Stephen. “It’s hard to think of a human being whose hateration is better documented than Miller’s. It’s a cornerstone of his public image. The MAGA loves his PeeWee German persona,” according to Stoehr. Stoehr maintains that the vast body of literature documenting Miller’s hatefulness being disallowed only reduces journalists to stenographers who merely transcribe what powerful people say; Moran’s only error was in taking down his tweet in the end.

Editor Michael Tomasky of The New Republic writes that “madness is everywhere” if the headlines of The New York Times or The Washington Post are read, and it barely scratches the surface. “Across human history, fascism has been imposed upon democracy mostly in one of two ways. First, by brute force — a military coup; second, a bit more stealthily, and legally — through legislation, executive decrees, and court decisions that hand more power to the leader. Donald Trump is inventing a new way. Call it chaos fascism. Destroy the institutions of democracy until they’re so disfigured or dysfunctional that a majority no longer cares about them. That’s exactly what’s happening with Social Security…wreck the agency so that its service becomes crap. Let public anger build. And in time, they can just dismantle it and privatize the greatest social insurance system ever devised by this government and put people’s financial fate in the hands of the rich cronies,” he writes. He says Trump probably doesn’t have some secret plan — he doesn’t think far enough ahead, as he and DOGE destroy the government. Trump has contempt for rules and procedures, so he appoints unqualified stooges who share his contempt, to run his government by thinking that being tough means showing the world that they can do anything they want with no consequences. “Again, ignore the law, trash the rules, establish that procedure is whatever you say it is. Chaos fascism. Trump will orchestrate no military coup. The Republican Congress will probably pass no law that makes Trump president for life. That would be too obvious. What they’ll do is make stealthier moves across the board that discredit and destroy our democratic institutions until he and his billionaire friends can strip them for parts. Chaos fascism is here to stay,” Tomasky concludes.

Last week the US Supreme Court issued a decision in Trump v. CASA that made nationwide injunctions illegal — the high court said such provisions amounted to judicial overreach should lower courts prevent a government entity from enforcing a law or policy. Of course, the ruling sparked outrage from legal experts and court watchers, with one analyst calling it a ‘trap’ that the court willingly walked through. Slate Senior Writer Mark Stern said, “There are some technical maneuvers lawyers can make to force the Supreme Court to reconsider the issue, like certifying a class action lawsuit. However, there are still some big issues left on the table for the court to sort through. Those issues range from the merits of the case they just decided and the practicality of President Donal d Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship altogether.” Stern continued: “This is a fundamental problem. No one can explain how Trump’s order would work in practice. No one. Because the only reason that the vast majority of us have citizenship is because we were born here. When a child is born in America, the doctor doesn’t demand the papers of their parents to ensure they are citizens or a green card holder.” He says that Trump’s order would create a situation where everyone’s citizenship is called into question, and that could have massive legal implications going forward. “This is going to destabilize the fundamental right of citizenship for everybody. It is going to have massive downstream consequences in a really horrible and unworkable way…It’s chaos all the way down,” Stern fears.

On MSNBC’s ‘The Weekend,’ Stern called Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s thin-skinned attack on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissenting opinion “arrogant and out of bounds.” Barrett criticized Jackson for “decrying an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary,” which Stern saw as “a far too personal retort that accuses Jackson of not really being smart enough to levy a strong criticism of her opinion. That’s totally out of bounds, it’s highly unusual, even when justices disagree, they usually do so respectfully.” He continued, “And here Barrett is going much further and I think the reason is really obvious, right? Justice Jackson’s dissent if one the sharpest, fiercest, most blunt dissents we’ve ever seen. She is taking on the Supreme Court as an institution and the conservative super majority. It’s one of several dissents she published this term where she accused the super majority on the right of bias toward the Trump administration, of surrendering the rule of law so that Trump can rule like a king. This is how the majority sees the country, that they really believe Trump should rule it with no limits and, you know, I think after this decision, it’s kind of hard to argue with that. The majority sees a policy that is so patently unconstitutional and rather than understand that that’s the emergency that courts need to address, it turns around and smacks down the lower courts and says, ‘You went too far.'”

Satirist Andy Borowitz weighed in on the high court’s decision in his ‘The Borowitz Report’: “In a stunning case of unintended consequences, the six conservative Supreme Court justices inadvertently ruled that their jobs no longer exist, legal experts revealed on Monday. By virtually eliminating the role of the nation’s judicial branch last Friday, the Republican justices unwittingly downsized themselves, Constitutional scholars said. ‘I’m sure they’re having second thoughts now that they’re unemployed, but it’s too late for them to reverse their ruling,’ said Professor Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota Law School. ‘The Constitution explicitly says, ‘No backsies.’ On Monday morning, a shell-shocked Brett Kavanaugh was seen clearing out his office, lugging an unwieldy beer keg down the Supreme Court’s fabled front steps. Meanwhile, the sudden demise of the Court has alarmed ex-justices Thomas and Alito, who reportedly asked, ‘Will this affect our yacht cruises?'”

Robert Reich writes that the hardest part of his nights hit at about 3am when he starts obsessing about upsetting things, such as what Trump is doing to America. On a recent night he couldn’t ignore the distraction that Trump is intent on abolishing the two branches of government that historically constrain the executive office — no more checks and balances as established by the Constitution, as Trump and his henchmen/women continue to usurp congressional authority, and war against the judiciary. The president and his lackeys wish to have only one branch of government led by Executive Trump, which is coming to pass as the Congress has all but disappeared, being controlled by Republican zombies who will say and do whatever Trump wants, maintains Reich. One down, and one to go! The federal judiciary was faintly seen as the only remaining check on the president, as they paused about 80 of Trump’s executive orders to await arguments and presentation of evidence at full trials. “But even this is too much for the ‘Dictator-In-Chief,'” says Reich. So, a majority of the Supreme Court, urged by the Justice Department, ruled that federal judges could pause executive actions only for the specific plaintiffs that bring the case — not a nationwide injunction which would immediately halt government policies. Previously, the Trump Gang had filed a lawsuit against 15 federal judges in Maryland, seeking a court order that would block them from making any ruling that might “interfere” in “the president’s powers to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.” Trump has previously launched personal attacks against federal judges after they rule against him, calling them “monsters” who want America to “go to hell,” and “radical left lunatics,” demanding their impeachment.

Trump’s actions and verbal attacks have incited some of his more rabid followers to threaten the lives of judges and their families, threats which have seen an increase of late to include bomb threats and swatting incidents. All those who push back on the administration’s actions are seen as the “opposition,” which has prompted Attorney General Pam Bondi to accuse federal judges of “meddling in our government,” rather than viewing the federal judiciary as an inherent part of the government. Reich says that Trump and his followers failed to learn that lesson in school, or they have conveniently forgotten it as they sit in the seat of power. He says our pessimism is understandable, and warns against cynicism which dooms any positive outcome — exactly where MAGA wishes us to be. “It looks dark today, but it will not remain dark. The Caligula-on-the-Potomac is getting nowhere on tariffs. Inflation threatens. The vast majority of Americans oppose his plan to cut Medicaid and give the rich a huge tax cut. His popularity continues to plummet. He is facing mounting opposition from the rest of the world,” concludes Reich. The road to fascism is lined with people telling us to stop overreacting, so, we have to do our best to shove that 3am monster back under the bed — and remember Reich’s encouragement!

Last week:

INSANA, HISTORY IS OVER, ONLY WHEN WE WIN, SCARED ENOUGH

We’ve been hearing it since 1995 — ‘Iran is just two weeks away from having nuclear weapons!’ Then, last week President Trump announced that he could wait two weeks before deciding whether the US would get directly involved in the Israel-Iran hostilities. His statement spotlighted his favorite measure of time, with late-night hosts showing clips of his ten-years of kicking the can down the road as he promised a healthcare plan or a tariff plan —just  two weeks until decision time. As The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon commented, “Today, the White House said Trump will make a decision on the US involvement in Iran within the next two weeks. All good, no rush, just take your time. If Trump thinks about his decision for two weeks, it’ll beat his previous thinking record by two weeks.” Stephen Colbert jumped on the bandwagon with, “America stands on the brink of the precipice of the edge of possibly finding out if Donald Trump is going to bomb Iran. We’ve all been desperately trying to read Trump’s tea leaves. His type of tea? Insana! ‘Two weeks notice’ is so important. Trump understands starting a war in the Middle East is a lot like quitting your sales job at Best Buy. It’s just polite.” Jimmy Kimmel, calling Trump “Two Week POTUS,” joked, “Obviously, a decision to attack Iran directly would have very serious implications that would put US troops in that region at risk and could ignite a bigger war. He enjoys making threats, and he loves attaching them to timelines. Two weeks. It’s always two weeks. For a guy whose catchphrase was “You’re fired,” no one has ever given more two weeks’ notices than Donald J. Trump.”

Following Trump’s statement, Steve Schmidt wrote on his The Warning blog, “It has been 22 years and 93 days since President George W. Bush addressed the American people, and announced the commencement of the Iraq war. Lest there be any historical revisionism the record shows that the war resolution was passed in Congress with 81 Democratic votes. The point of mentioning this is not to judge or recriminate, but rather to remind all of you that it is the nation — not the party — that goes to war, and that beginning a war is a different project than ending one.” He questions how an Iran conflict might end by saying, “The American military is powerful, but led by imbeciles starting with Trump, but including Hegseth. They are as unfit as two people can possibly be to lead this nation into conflict. Trump, full of bluster and threats, cannot be trusted to tell the truth, or hold the course when times get tough. He exists in a world of make-believe and pretend. The war that he commences will be real.” Schmidt then lays out the Iraq war casualties, which he says the Fox News field marshals like Sean Hannity and Mark Levin continue to cheerlead because they failed to learn a single lesson: 4,419 Americans killed; 31,993 Americans wounded; 30,000+ post-9/11 wars veteran suicides; $1.79 trillion to include future obligations for veterans’ care. As the war drums sounded, Schmidt asked, “What is the plan, when do we leave, what is winning, what is the strategy?” As a former GOP team member, Schmidt feels that President Bush is an honorable man who made a colossal mistake amid the profound misjudgments in an effort to defend the country from a follow-up attack after 9/11.

In the lead up to his decision, Trump sidestepped Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, depending upon a couple of four-star generals for guidance on whether to join Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to an unnamed White House official, “Nobody is talking to Hegseth. There is no interface operationally between Hegseth and the White House at all.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said claims that Hegseth has been frozen out are “totally false.” CBS News reported that speculation indicated that Trump was willing to escalate the hostilities, having signed off on on attack plans which lacked only his final go-ahead for execution, with Trump’s response being, “I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I will do.” Truer words were never spoken! Hegseth isn’t the only senior official reported to have been snubbed by Trump during the Iran situation — he has also taken issue with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, over comments she had made, particularly her criticism of “political elite warmongers.” A spokesperson spoke in her defense, saying, “Gabbard remains focused on her mission: providing accurate and actionable intelligence to the President, cleaning up the Deep State, and keeping the American people safe, secure, and free.” Trump seemed to be closely involved with what was termed his ‘tier one’ advisory group, which included VP Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, CIA Director Ratcliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Caine, which many see as a troubling level of internal discord and disunity, just a few short months into his second presidency.

Democratic strategist James Carville saw any Iran involvement from the self-proclaimed “peacemaker” president who vowed to end “forever wars,” could signal the “end of global stability and MAGA as we know it.” Carville, on The Daily Beast Podcast, commented that the rift within MAGA resulting from Israel’s June 12 incursion into Iran had become very public in nature. Trump, Hegseth, and Fox News host Mark Levin were notable for favoring US intervention, while Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Tulsi Gabbard wanted to stay out of the fray, though according to Carville, “This rift has always existed below the surface” in MAGA world. “Trump has no idea what he’s doing. I guarantee you that Tucker Carlson or Steve Bannon or any of these people believe that if you pointed to a globe and said, ‘Point to the Middle East,’ Trump would have no idea what it is. The president has never given an iota of thought to this. He knows not one piece of history about the region, about the adversaries, he’s just massively ignorant.” Tulsi Gabbard testified before a Senate Intelligence Committee in March that her agency felt Iran was not building nuclear weapons; yet, Trump was quick to dispel that notion before the press on Air Force One by saying, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having them.” Referring to this rift, Carville said, “And you know what I say? You’re not scared enough. If you knew more, you would be even more scared than you are.”

In a phone call between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, China and Russia tried to position themselves as a voice of reason, calling for easing of tensions between Israel and Iran, and encouraging Trump to use his influence “to cool the situation, not the opposite.” Middle East expert, Liu Zhongmin of the Shanghai International Studies University, attributed the flareup to the uncertainty created by Trump’s return to the White House and his chaotic, opportunistic and transactional nature of Middle East policies. Beijing has viewed the US as being a source of instability and tensions in the Middle East, and now that point is being underscored by Chinese scholars, with an erosion of America’s leadership among its allies while weakening its ability to threaten and deter regional adversaries. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran was favored by Beijing, being a formidable power in the region and an important counterweight to US influence, allowing China to expand its own diplomatic and economic footprint in the area. As China and Iran strengthened ties over the years, the two countries held joint naval exercises along with Russia, and both Beijing and Moscow have offered to mediate the Iran-Israel conflict as an alternative to the US. Whether or not the two countries wield any leverage in the situation, they stand to gain in the eyes of the world as the US continues to lose respect and influence under Trump.

A Meidas Touch Podcast last week featured an interview with Congressman Seth Moulton –  a decorated Marine vet willing to speak bluntly about the authoritarian threat posed by Trump. Discussed was the president’s drop-in appearance at the G7 in Alberta where he bailed after just 12 hours to avoid meeting up with President Zelensky, and instead of coordinating with leaders about critical global issues, Trump became a full-blown Kremlin mouthpiece, rambling about how the G7 should “really be the G8,” praising Putin as he had been instructed to do. Moulton said, “Trump sounded like a Kremlin spokesman. He genuinely prefers the company of dictators to our allies.” Trump and Putin spoke on a call, after which the Russian strongman launched another attack on Ukraine’s energy grid, with Trump posting his unhinged “orders” telling the 9 million inhabitants of Tehran to evacuate as he played a wannabe general on Truth Social. Moulton discussed Trump’s embarrassing “dictator parade” in DC, which soaked taxpayers for $40+ million for his egotistical glorification, replete with bitcoin advertising, and ignoring the US Army’s 250th anniversary celebration. Moulton was outspoken in his criticism, saying, “The military hates parades. If one leader, one political party controls the military, then you don’t have a fair and equal democracy anymore.” He finds it alarming that many of his active-duty Marine acquaintances are quietly discussing their commissions because Trump’s latest actions are unconstitutional. He advises: “Remember your oath.” This isn’t a hypothetical anymore — Trump is using the military as a political weapon, threatening American cities, spreading conspiracy-laced nonsense, pushing the nation to the brink. One subject was the hope seen in the ‘No Kings’ protests consisting of millions across the country, a moment that demands all of us to have courage, to insist on clarity, and the need to speak out every single day.

John Stoehr of The Editorial Board quotes Will Stancil: “Politics is a schoolyard. Dems gotta speak up.” Stancil points out that as Trump and the drum beaters of war against Iran, US Senators Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders were quite vocal about the need for Congress to be involved for any declaration of war — anything short of that would be illegal. Where were the party’s leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who did next to nothing? Stancil asks, “How did this happen?” Stancil’s opinion is that it’s about Schumer’s and Jeffries’ view of politics. “Iran shows what the mindset if really about — all the pretexts about distractions really break down when the thing under discussion is what could easily become a generation-defining war, bigger than Iraq. But Democrats can’t seem to shake themselves out of their policy-wonk stupor here either. And it shows how what really underlies the ‘distraction’ rhetoric is a desire to focus on issues where the stakes are low and conflict is muted. It’s an evidence mechanism.” He says, “Democrats don’t want to fight, not openly, because combat is risky, which is something to dodge. Ironically, dodging is what’s preventing the Democrats from earning public trust. Party leaders tend to believe that the Democrats can win back trust by compromising — by moving to the middle on things like trans right. But if they won’t fight for the authority of Congress, which is the only authority they have, why would anyone trust them to fight for them?”

Stancil continues: “Liberals have trained themselves to see the world through this very particular end-of-history lens, where the ‘stuff that matters’ is inevitably wonky policy questions, the day-to-day of taxes and government, who gets subsidies, what healthcare policy looks like. The stuff that feels bigger and traditionally historical — scandal, social movements, violence, power and authoritarianism — that’s all assumed to be silly TV drama. That stuff belongs to history, and history is over! But it’s ridiculous. History isn’t over, the future will contain events as dramatic and horrible as the events of the past, and this stuff is just what it looks like: an assault on the foundations of our government, with all the terrifying and weighty implications that it seems to have.” Stoehr says, “I would suggest that liberals have a reading of history in which certain things are inevitable, like justice for all. It whitewashes the fact that people made moral choices and that moral choices have consequences. I suppose we could blame Obama for some of that.” Stancil answers, “I don’t know if they think these things are inevitable, but  they certainly think these fights are over. I’m not sure I’d blame Obama, but I think people are used to living in a relatively stable era and have come to believe that stability is normal. You see it in news coverage, where dramatic pronouncements are treated as hysterical or hyperbolic. It’s a little better now, but for the most of Trump’s first term, the consensus was that he was functionally a normal Republican with an uncouth demeanor. This was, in my view, insane — you could tell the guy was corrupt and unbalanced in an unprecedented way, openly supportive of authoritarianism. But in the view of a lot of liberals, it was just a gloss on an underlying normality. When Joe Biden won, people scoffed at the idea that Trump might try to stay in power, even though you had to examine the guy for 10 seconds to realize he was capable of doing something dramatic. If you thought about why it seemed ridiculous, it was because they implicitly assumed that here are just some sort of guardrails on modern affairs — that we stay in the Normal Zone because the Danger Zone was something that happens in other countries and in history, not to us.”

Donald Trump is quoted on November 12, 2015, saying, “This is the Trump theory on war. But I’m good at war. I’ve had lots of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war, in a certain way, but only when we win.” As Brad Harrison of Newsflanks.com says, “The genie is out of the bottle now. Like Iraq, it’s easy to get into war but hard to get out of it. Trump and Project 2025 have turned America into a far-right, nationalist, white Judeo-Christian theocracy, now officially a war with Islam. Didn’t the Book of Revelations predict this? Hey, you never know. We’re returning to religiosity of the Dark Ages. The Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Reason are distant dreams now. This has been in the cards since his first term, but during his first term he had some experienced and seasoned people in his cabinet who kept it from happening. But they allowed him to withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Agreement, which the rest of the world was solidly behind, and now we can see how horrible a mistake that was. That was the beginning of Iran’s return to enriching uranium for a bomb, and the precursor to this mess. Plus, now we have him taking war into space with the ‘Golden Dome’ and heavy funding for his Space Force and space tech like Musk’s. As he widens his wars, we’ll need a golden dome. But this dome is impractical from a physics point of view, and will just be a big waste of money, like Reagan’s Star Wars dome.” Harrison says Trump has only informed the House and Senate Republicans of his plans, which clearly shows he is in the process of a full-on domestic war on the Dems and is attempting to eliminate the party as a political force in America. He wants one MAGA party running everything, like the Nazis. He has already started this with his deployment of the National Guard and the military in LA. We know the same deployments are planned for at least 15 other Blue cities.

Harrison points out that Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that Iran was nowhere near a nuclear weapon, but Trump straight-up ignored her and the American national intelligence apparatus. He’s entirely out of control. He really does believe he is on some sort of mission from God. The military budget is going to a trillion dollars under the reconciliation bill, and we are currently paying nearly a trillion dollars per year in interest on the national debt, most of which was due to military overspending — especially during the Bush era, most of which didn’t even go through Congress. Harrison points to right-wingers blaming ‘entitlement programs,’ but Social Security now pays for itself, with Medicare being half funded from general tax revenues. The Feds give about $600 billion to the states for Medicaid, now looking at a trillion dollar cut over the next ten years with the reconciliation bill. If we had stuck with the pre-Reagan tax brackets and not spent so much on the military starting with Reagan, our debt would be tiny compared to what it is now. America is now just an over-militarized, debt-laden giant under total control of an out-of-control dictator. Harrison calls it correctly: “What a mess.”

Simon Rosenberg on his Substack blog, Hopium Chronicles says, “Trump’s presidency is failing and unpopular, and he had to do something. Elon attacked and emasculated him, and made him weak and stupid. Global leaders are not bending the knee, and there has been no ’90 trade deals in 90 days’ [as he predicted]. Putin is treating him like a coffee boy, and Zelensky has made him look like a clown. His economic policy is slowing the economy down in every country in the world including the US, has caused our credit to go through an unprecedented downgrade, and the American people have figured out this budget bill will make their lives worse (as it will). All across the country news organizations are reporting on how his cuts and plans will do harm to their communities. He keeps losing in court, badly. The Vatican elected an American cardinal who has been very critical of his Administration. He had to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home. No one showed up for his sad birthday parade. His ugliness has spawned what appears to be the biggest protest movement in American history. His immigration enforcement escalation has backfired. His intel community has called b.s. on his claims of Iran’s nuclear progress.” Other than that, how did you enjoy the play at the Lincoln Center, Mrs. Trump?

On June 21, The Onion website reminded us that Trump’s campaign statement: “No new wars,” was eclipsed by his latest, “No, new wars.” As satirist Andy Borowitz wrote: “In a nationally televised address Saturday night, Donald J. Trump announced he had ordered his son Barron to visit a podiatrist. ‘My fellow Americans, earlier this evening, at my command, Barron saw a podiatrist,’ said Trump, flanked by JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth. ‘I am pleased to announce that he has returned home safely. Barron’s mission was to obtain a note from the doctor,’ Trump added. ‘Mission accomplished.’ Minutes after the speech, a new poll showed a majority of Americans favor dropping Donald Trump on Iran.” As we know, Trump actually compressed his “two weeks” on this Saturday to wag the dog, by unilaterally ordering strikes on Iran’s three key nuclear facilities, declaring the move a “spectacular military success,” with a warning that further action might follow if Tehran doesn’t come to the peace table. Khamenei will surely respond — anywhere, at any time, and in any form, with their options of missiles — already sent to a US base in Qatar, militias, oil supply disruption, or hostage-taking, only marking a new chapter in this history, rather than a conclusion. We must remember that the 9/11 plot was ten years in the making. As Trump made the televised announcement, standing behind him were his ill-suited, glum-looking hostages Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio — not necessarily proud of the sequence of events — with the notable absence of Tulsi Gabbard. Trump needed his yes-men to back him up, to share the blame for a situation that will likely get worse, as they look for another dog to wag.