Aaron Pellish & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Monday said he is firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, escalating his pressure campaign on the Central Bank to lower interest rates. In a social media post, Trump shared a letter addressed to Cook asserting the Department of Justice’s inquiry into whether Cook lied on mortgage applications amounted to 'sufficient cause' to remove her from the fed board. 'The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve,' Trump said in the letter. 'In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.' Trump has repeatedly sought to influence the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and has previously suggested removing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.” ~~~
~~~ Rachel Maddow, on-air Monday night: "No president has ever fired a member of the Federal Research board -- because they aren't allowed to." (Slight paraphrase.) ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman: “If you write about politics and imagine that Trump cares about mortgage fraud — or for that matter believe anything Trump officials say about the affair without independent confirmation — you should find a different profession.... The real story here isn’t about [Lisa] Cook, or mortgages. It’s about the way the Trump administration is weaponizing government against political opponents, critics, or anyone it finds inconvenient.... Mainly it’s about intimidation: 'If you get in our way we will ruin your life.'... What we’re witnessing is the authoritarian playbook in action.... If the administration thinks it has enough evidence to bring charges, it should bring charges, not demand that she quit her job. The important thing to understand is that we are all Lisa Cook.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker knows what to say and how to say it: ~~~
Israel/Palestine. Isabel Kershner, et al., of the New York Times: “Twenty people were reported killed in Gaza on Monday, among them medical workers and [five] journalists, when two Israeli strikes hit a hospital in what Israel’s prime minister later described as a 'tragic mishap.' The Gaza health ministry, which provided the death toll, also said that dozens more people had been wounded. The five journalists had worked for media outlets including Reuters, The Associated Press and Al Jazeera, according to their employers.” This is an update of a story linked earlier today.
Kadia Goba of the Washington Post: “House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Kentucky) subpoenaed Jeffrey Epstein’s estate on Monday as part of an ongoing probe into the handling of the federal sex-trafficking investigation with Epstein at its center, requiring the estate’s attorneys to respond by Sept. 8. The committee, among other material, requested Epstein’s attorneys produce a leather-bound 'birthday book' Epstein’s former partner Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for her associate’s 50th birthday. Comer also requested 'any document or record that could be reasonably construed to be a potential list of clients involved in sex, sex acts or sex trafficking' facilitated by Epstein. The GOP base has been in an uproar since the Trump Justice Department said in early July that there was no 'client list' in its files associated with Epstein, contradicting what Attorney General Pam Bondi and some former administration officials have claimed.”
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at eliminating cashless bail in the United States by threatening to cut federal funding to jurisdictions that allow the practice. Mr. Trump has long railed against cashless bail, in which criminal defendants are not required to post bail when they face lesser charges. Studies have shown that such policies have not led to an increase in crime.... Mr. Trump’s executive order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify which jurisdictions have “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order” within 30 days.... Mr. Trump also signed a second executive order that targeted cashless bail practices specifically in Washington, D.C....
“Proponents of cashless bail argue that the cash-bail system is unfair, since wealthier individuals can pay to free themselves from jail while poorer individuals cannot afford to do so while their cases play out. They argue courts should consider whether an individual is threat to the community, not how wealthy they are, when deciding whether they can be released ahead of trial.”
~~~ Flag Burning? Good Grief! Emily Davies & Jenny Gathright of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump moved on two issues important to his conservative base Monday, signing executive orders aimed at ending cashless bail across the country and pushing courts to reconsider the legality of burning the American flag.... Trump’s order on flag burning directs his administration to prosecute people who 'desecrate' the American flag and to detain and remove immigrants who have been accused of such behavior. The Supreme Court in 1989 issued a 5-4 ruling that found burning the U.S. flag is protected by the First Amendment, but Trump in the executive order asked U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to find a case that could challenge that ruling. The majority of the justices now are significantly more conservative than the court was then.”
~~~ Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Monday temporarily barred Kilmar Abrego García’s deportation to Uganda until she can hold a hearing to examine whether the Trump administration will give him an opportunity to contest his removal to that country. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis issued that order from the bench, hours after Homeland Security officials detained him during a required check-in at the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore and said they’d begun processing him for removal. The effort to remove Abrego comes just three days after he was freed from criminal custody by another federal judge, in Tennessee, to await trial on migrant smuggling charges. Trump officials had insisted Abrego would “never go free” in the United States, and ICE notified him shortly after his release Friday that the agency intended to seek his removal to Africa within days.” ~~~
~~~ New York Times liveblog: “Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in March and then brought back to face criminal charges, was detained again on Monday after the administration indicated that it planned to re-deport him to Uganda, his lawyer said. The detention unfolded after Mr. Abrego Garcia arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore and came only three days after he was freed from custody in the criminal case that was filed against him in Federal District Court in Nashville.” ~~~
Chris Cameron: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyer announces to the crowd outside the immigration office in Baltimore that he has been taken into custody by ICE. His lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, says that the stated intention of the meeting with immigration police was for an interview, but 'clearly, that was false.' He said that ICE did not say why they were detaining him or where they were taking him.”
Jazmine Ulloa: “The crowd descended into boos and chants of 'shame' as Sandoval-Moshenberg announced that Abrego Garcia had been detained again. Immigrant rights volunteers in yellow vests shielded his family members as they left the building.” ~~~
~~~ The AP's liveblog is here.
Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “Employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote to Congress on Monday warning that the Trump administration had reversed much of the progress made in disaster response and recovery since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast two decades ago. The letter to Congress, titled the 'Katrina Declaration,' rebuked ... [Donald] Trump’s plan to drastically scale down FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster response — and more costs — to the states. It came days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest storms to ever strike the United States. 'Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration,' the FEMA employees wrote in the letter.” ~~~
~~~ The embedded letter was published by "Stand Up for Science" and is not firewalled. It lists the names of signatories and says 146 signatories did not list their names; there are a total of 181 signatories.
The New York Times story of Trump's threat against Christie is here. (Related Mediaite story linked below.) MB: I'll give Trump this: it's quite a feat to make Chris Christie seem heroic & turn John Bolton into a sympathetic figure.
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: Beyond Trump's hopes and plans in today's news -- to take over American cities, to take control of U.S. elections -- is the hubris such ambitions imply. This is a man who proves every day he is incompetent to do the one job he holds, yet he thinks he can simultaneously do that job, run major U.S. cities and supervise elections in 50 states. He also imagines he can do all of Congress's jobs, broker peace "deals" around the world, single-handedly manage the U.S. economy and negotiate international trade "deals," redesign the White House (and maybe update the Federal Reserve's H.Q.), run the universities and control the media, hold military parades, and do his own hair & makeup, all the while taking more vacation days than anyone except maybe JayDee. ~~~
~~~ Every which way you look, Trump and his policies spell disaster: ~~~
David Sanger of the New York Times takes a look at Trump's incoherence on the Russia/Ukraine war. ~~~
~~~ Peter Goodman of the New York Times looks at fundamental problems at home: “In the stories Americans tell about the decimation of middle-class life, international trade tends to get a prominent role. Anger over joblessness and diminishing fortunes in factory towns helped propel Donald J. Trump to the White House. Yet a look at the sources of American distress reveals another factor: a far less comprehensive social safety net than in the rest of the developed world. That defining feature of the American economy has left workers uniquely vulnerable to the pitfalls of joblessness.” MB: Nowhere in his longish article does Goodman mention that it is Republicans who have prevented the U.S. from more generously supporting workers who have lost their jobs. ~~~
~~~ AND There's This. Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: “When Columbia University struck a deal with the Trump administration last month, the agreement came with the promise that the financial lifeblood of scientific research would start to flow again. But that was only part of the story. While hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen federal research funding has been restored, a smaller subset of grants in areas that are out of favor with the White House, including transgender health, have not. Columbia’s School of Public Health and medical center remain in austerity mode, with fewer slots for Ph.D. students and hiring delays caused by the original suspension of funding. And looming over the deal, researchers said, is a bleak national outlook for federal science funding, making some scientists feel as if they dodged a bullet only to face the possibility of a firing squad.” ~~~
~~~ Climate change mitigation is a unique disaster. Not only does Trump -- who doesn't grasp the most childish physics -- think high ocean-levels mean more beachfront property, he doesn't believe climate change is happening. He is doing all he can to exacerbate Earth's problems, from encouraging fossil-fuel development to slamming the brakes on wind farms. ~~~
~~~ Scott Dance of the Washington Post (Aug. 22): “Ahead of ... Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, scientists and advocates sought to tighten rules that protect climate researchers and their work from political interference. They added policies to prevent a repeat of the scandal known as 'Sharpiegate' and even enshrined others in a union contract. The Trump administration has now rolled those changes back. Officials recently reverted scientific integrity policies at the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to versions as they existed at the end of the first Trump administration in January 2021.... The administration has thinned the government’s scientific workforce by thousands and is now taking steps to dramatically reshape the research it pursues. Trump’s budget proposals, which agencies are already preparing to follow, would eliminate many climate research centers and labs and cancel studies and data collection that could be used to inform climate-related policy.”
David Gilmour of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump doubled down on his late Sunday attacks on ABC News in fresh demands that ABC and NBC should both lose their broadcast licenses because of what he called 'biased and untruthful' coverage of his presidency. Ripping the networks as a 'threat to democracy' in a flurry of posts on Truth Social, the president wrote: 'Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% BAD STORIES. IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC....'...
“... Trump [also] rounded on former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a past ally turned critic, who appeared on ABC’s This Week to criticize FBI raids against the president’s ex-national security advisor John Bolton. Trump floated reopening an investigation into the 2013 'Bridgegate' scandal that involved Christie’s aides.” MB: Christie, BTW, was the federal prosecutor who put Charles Kushner in jail. More on Kushner linked below.
Mobster Trump Threatens Balto. Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump threatened to send troops to Baltimore as he and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) traded blows on social media over the president’s characterization of crime in the city and his deployment of the National Guard in Washington — who are carrying weapons as of Sunday night. Trump said Baltimore is 'out of control' and 'crime ridden' in a Sunday morning Truth Social post in response to an invitation by Moore to join city officials to walk the streets and discuss public safety in September. Moore responded by touting progress in reducing crime in Baltimore, which is experiencing its lowest homicide rate in 50 years.... Trump said Moore needs to 'clean up this Crime disaster' before he would consider joining the governor on a walk through Baltimore.... Trump also threatened to reconsider federal funding to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a landmark and major transportation artery that collapsed last year after a cargo ship lost power and crashed into a support pillar. Trump and Moore also hurled personal insults.”
Bernard Mokam & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “National Guard troops on duty in ... [Donald] Trump’s D.C. crackdown began carrying weapons Sunday evening.... Several members of the Guard from South Carolina were seen late Sunday outside Washington’s Union Station with firearms holstered to their hips. In a statement, Maj. Michael A. Maxwell said that the change was directed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. On Friday, officials said Mr. Hegseth authorized Guard members to carry their weapons.... Major Maxwell emphasized that service members would operate under established rules for the use of force, employing it 'only as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.'” The AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The POTUS* does not know how to behave himself. Why should we think young Guardsmen -- who have reason to anticipate the POTUS* would pardon them should they fire their weapons at passersby -- will behave any better than their Dear Leader? As Barton Gellman writes in an essay on another topic (linked below), “By pardoning or commuting the sentence of every member of the mob charged in connection with the effort to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump signaled clearly that crimes committed for his benefit would largely go unpunished.” See also yesterday's link to Jim Fallows' survey of downtown Washington, D.C.
Alyce McFadden & Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Democrats pushed back on Sunday against President Trump’s characterization of blue-state cities as crime-ridden and lawless, which the White House has used to justify calling up National Guard troops and sending federal law enforcement agents to Washington streets.”
Heather Cox Richardson's summary of the dispute between Trump and Democrats re: Trump's attempts to take over American cities in blue states gives a better overall picture than does reading through the series of stories linked above.
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is holding up Ghislaine Maxwell’s DOJ interview as confirmation that ... Donald Trump 'didn’t do anything wrong' as it relates to Jeffrey Epstein. Appearing on The Big Weekend Show on Fox News Saturday, Jordan claimed Maxwell’s statements that Trump was 'never inappropriate with anybody' show there’s 'nothing there' pertaining to the president. 'This confirms what we all knew,' Jordan said.... 'We knew President Trump didn’t do anything wrong here. He said that repeatedly. This transcript is the whole transcript and it confirms that. So I think there’s nothing there, it seems, based on what we got from the interview of Ms. Maxwell.'” ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: “Look, if the most prominent facilitator and frequent active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s serial rape of children doesn’t see anything wrong with Donald Trump’s behavior while trying to get Trump to pardon her, I think we have no choice but to say 'case closed.'” [MB: Leave us not forget the government has accused Maxwell of being a serial liar AND she is seeking a pardon from Trump AND her interrogator Todd Blanche is Trump's lawyer.] Lemieux also encourages us to watch an HBO documentary that, according to a NYT review, “examines the forces” that allowed years of sexual abuse of minors at Ohio State. “The biggest name publicly associated with this story is Jim Jordan, a former assistant wrestling coach who is now a Republican congressman from Ohio. At least seven victims, including some who hadn’t spoken publicly until appearing in the documentary, have claimed Jordan knew of the abuse during his time at Ohio State.”
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “Longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was honored a prestigious Clinton Global Initative event well after allegations against her of sexual misconduct had already been made public — a bombshell CNN report revealed Sunday. [MB: The CNN report is subscriber-firewalled.] According to CNN’s KFile, Maxwell was an honored guest at a Clinton luncheon in September 2013 on ocean conservation, — where she was recognized alongside other 'Commitment to Action' leaders. (Maxwell was representing a now-defunct non-profit called the TerraMar Project — an ocean conservation group.) Footage reviewed by CNN’s KFile showed Maxwell rising — along with others — to receive applause, at one point in the luncheon. KFile also reviewed a list which recommended Maxwell to receive complimentary access to the confab. Such a list, according to a source in KFile’s report, indicates that either Bill or Hillary Clinton personally approved the access for Maxwell.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Michelle Price of the AP: “France has summoned the American ambassador to Paris after the diplomat, Charles Kushner, wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism. France’s foreign ministry issued a statement Sunday announcing it had summoned Kushner to appear Monday at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and that his allegations 'are unacceptable.'... State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott on Sunday evening said it stood by Kushner’s comments, adding: 'Ambassador Kushner is our U.S. government representative in France and is doing a great job advancing our national interests in that role.' The summoning of the ambassador is a formal and public notice of displeasure. Kushner, a real-estate developer, is the father of ... Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.... Trump at the end of his first term as president pardoned Charles Kushner, who pleaded guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Another charge to which Charles Kushner pleaded guilty: witness-tampering. As summarized in Wikipedia: "The witness tampering charge arose from Kushner's retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators against Kushner. Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranging to record a sexual encounter between the two and send the tape to his sister."
Brian Witte & Ben Finley of the AP: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia surrendered to U.S. immigration authorities in Baltimore Monday and faces possible efforts by the Trump administration to deport him to Uganda, an African country with documented human rights abuses and a language he doesn’t speak.”
Life in Trump's U.S.A., 2025. Irene Rotondo of Mass Live: Upon returning to the U.S. at Boston's Logan Airport from a family vacation in Mexico, Jemmy "Jimenez Rosa, a legal permanent resident and mother of four U.S. citizens, was detained [by federal authorities] over what her lawyer believes was a decades-old, personal-use marijuana charge, which is no longer a crime in Massachusetts today. [During her ten-day detention, she] was shuttled between detention facilities — including one for men only — from Massachusetts to Maine. She was denied proper health care for her diabetes, asthma and other serious health issues, which led to two hospitalizations, her lawyer said. All the while, her husband — a former Department of Homeland Security employee who grew up in Boston — struggled to locate her and secure her release.... [Finally, o]n Wednesday afternoon..., a judge ... vacate[d] Jimenez Rosa’s past marijuana conviction [which had been sealed for years]..., and immediately filed a motion for her release." Federal agents then released her into the street in the rain, and she walked to a Cheesecake Factory where a stranger lent her his phone so she could call her family. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jared Gans of the Hill: “Republicans are plowing forward with plans for redistricting in several other states now that Texas is poised to approve its newly redrawn maps. The Lone Star State kicked off the redistricting arms race when Republicans in the state Legislature agreed to move forward with rewriting their congressional lines at the insistence of ... [Donald] Trump. Now..., the GOP is setting its sights on states from Florida to Indiana to Missouri, signaling a new phase of the fight.”
Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said in a Sunday interview that he is actively looking into redistricting options in his state, as the partisan effort expands across the country.... Asked if he’s 'actively looking' at redistricting now, Moore told [CBS News' 'Face the Nation'] moderator Margaret Brennan, 'Yes, and I think we have to because I think what’s happened is this is what people hate about politics in the first place.' Moore blamed ... [Donald] Trump and his insistence that Texas Republicans move forward with rewriting their congressional lines in order to give the GOP five more pickup opportunities in the next election cycle.”
Barton Gellman in a New York Times op-ed: “Buried in [a] long harangue [about mail-in ballots] was an announcement: The president had a plan to 'get rid of' election procedures that he alleged were scams. He intended to dictate, apparently by executive order, how states should count and tabulate the votes. This was stunning. The only modern president who had refused to concede a certified election defeat now proclaimed his authority over election rules nationwide.... As widely noted, the executive order that he described would be nakedly unconstitutional.... [The Constitution explicitly directs elections administration to the states and gives Congress the power to override state elections laws.] Later that day, Mr. Trump told reporters that 'the best lawyers' were drafting his executive order “right now.” But the next day the White House appeared to backpedal.” Looks like a gift link, and worth reading through.
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine. Isabel Kershner & Aaron Boxerman of the New York Times: “Two Israeli strikes hit a hospital in southern Gaza on Monday, killing four Palestinian journalists, a rescue worker and several more people, according to local officials. The Gaza Health Ministry put the initial death toll at eight and said many more had been injured. The four journalists killed all had worked for international media outlets, local journalists said. The Israeli military said it had carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital, without saying what the target was.... Hamas ... identified the four journalists who were killed as Hussam al-Masri, Mohammed Salama, Mariam Dagga and Moaz Abu Taha. The Reuters news agency confirmed that Mr. al-Masri was a contractor for Reuters.... Local journalists said Mr. Salama, a cameraman, worked for Al Jazeera and Ms. Dagga worked for various outlets including The Associated Press.” The AP's report is here.
21 comments:
Maybe Gym Jordan can get Maxwell to say that he was a perfect gentleman too and that she never saw him look the other way and like a rank coward, refuse to intervene to stop the sexual abuse of scores of students, choosing instead to make sure his job was protected. Never did that at all, because that would make him a craven, lying fraud, unfit to for any position more elevated than shoveling shit from the lion cages at the zoo, with the lions present. At least as far as she knows.
Kushner: Only the best people....and a Jewish paragon to boot.
I'm thinking France's sin was supporting the two-state solution and recognizing Palestine as a state.
Fat Hitler wants to clean up crime ridden areas?
Great! Seven of the top ten most dangerous states in the US, according to World Population Review are red states, including Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas. Memphis, TN is the single most dangerous city in the nation. Any chance Fatty will invade Memphis with his soldaten and tanks?
It has nothing to do with crime or public safety, or mom's apple pie. It has everything to do with a craven, cowardly bully feeding his need for revenge against people and places who don't bow down to him. It's also, as Marie and others suggest, a prelude to having troops stationed around polling places during the midterms with orders to take over sites that might vote for Democrats, abscond with voting machines and announce overwhelming victories everywhere for Party of Traitors candidates. This is very much not liberal pearl clutching or conspiracy thinking. He's gonna do it unless something drastic happens in the next few months. We already know the Supine Court will let him do pretty much whatever he wants and if he screeches "Fraud at the polls, aiiiieeeee!" and hauls away voting machines to black sites to "protect the vote", he'll get away with it.
Here's what I think will happen as he invades Chicago, New York, Oakland, Baltimore and maybe a few other blue cities. Drunk Pete has now ordered the weekend warriors and regular Army troops to carry weapons. He wants LETHALITY, baby. And maybe DC was caught off guard, but these other places won't be. There will be gigantic protests, and all Fatty needs is for a confrontation to turn violent, some weekend Rambo shoots a protester and the whole thing will make Kent State look like an argument over a parking spot. This is what he hopes will happen. This will be all he needs to declare martial law (or as Shady Vance puts it, "Marshall Law". If it works, in other words, deadly violence sparked by the unnecessary presence of National Guard and federal troops, resulting in martial law, he'll trot out the same playbook at election time, declare martial law, grab complete control and halt the voting.
Look, they know they can't win fairly. Texas style gerrymandering might work, it might not, control of the media will help, as it always does when Republicans are in trouble, but the most surefire way for a dictator to win an election is not to have one.
We absolutely have to move forward with complete confidence that this is the plan, and act accordingly. He's running roughshod over the legal system, the military, electoral systems, education, science, technology, and health. He believes he is unstoppable. So what more do we need to believe that given half a chance, he will halt the midterms and declare himself in charge of everything.
In many ways, this is a crisis worse than the Civil War. At least the good guys won that one. This time around, confederates and traitors will make sure that doesn't happen again.
Poor Fatty. He can't slide ALL his galactically unqualified hacks into positions where they can use their newfound powers to aid in his dictatorship.
Habba Dabba Do is, for now, Habba Dabba Don't. And the Orange Monster is not happy.
Habba Dabba got blue slipped, a tactic very often used by PoT pols to stymie Democrats, about which Fatty never complained, until his hack gets the sack. He is Pee Ohed!
I'm thinking Democrats need to do whatever they can to push, batter, needle, hammer. thwart, and generally poke fun at this thin skinned baboon.
Maybe he'll blow a gasket.
Can't you see Himmler Miller giving his Führer mouth to mouth as the golden spray-painted Angels of Home Depot look down upon the tender scene. Alas....it was hopeless.
Thots N Prayerz
Marie, David Rothkopf says what I've been droning for 40 years. The lying, the cheating, the anti-science, and the prejudice in favor of religious arguments for immoral acts like racism started with him. He read what his handlers put on the TelePrompter and by doing so enabled a generation of grifters to become bolder in telling their lies. Fox was Reagan's logical successor. Anyone who thinks people are inherently good and intelligent should remember that one minute before Copernicus's theory of the solar system became established science it was blasphemy.
https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/p/it-is-time-for-reagan-republicans?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=rd5o&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Part of the reason that FH's DC invasion was so smooth is the city's unique position under the federal government. The rest of the Blue cities he wants to invade are part of states that could theoretically cause some roadblocks and obstacles to his invasions. But escalation is part of what they are looking for. What would happen if a Blue state sent their guard to protect Chicago from FH's invading force? Or state patrols were order to shadow and arrest any criminal behavior by Trump's red shirts. They have so far received no consequences for abusing their authority, but what would a confrontation between dueling law enforcement lead to? How many local cops would follow those orders of having to police the MAGA fascists? Lots potentially bad outcomes that FH has given zero thought about.
A hat for our side
Who could've seen this happening? Kamala did. And was dismissed like so many of us by the media.
Imogen West-Knights reviews "a new biography of the Duke of York called Entitled, by the historian and author Andrew Lownie", for Slate
Royal sleaze
"Name an undesirable trait a person might have, and this book will demonstrate Andrew having it."
For an American version of being entitled, Annie Lowrey, in The Atlantic, reports on How the Richest People in America Avoid Paying Taxes
"Every year, America’s richest citizens paper over their earnings with losses and use other creative accounting strategies to shelter their fortunes, as the tax code allows them to do. As a result, the country’s billionaires pay lower tax rates than many of its millionaires do. Indeed, they pay lower tax rates than many middle-class professionals."
Last Week Tonight
"John Oliver talks about Mike Lindell, the online marketplace that is his mesmerizingly bizarre version of Amazon dot com"
Texas
"Health insurance companies have requested an average premium increase of 24% for Affordable Care Act plans in Texas in 2026, a significant hike that could lead to destabilization in the marketplace and customers opting for less or no coverage.
Last year, the average rate hike across insurance carriers was 3.8%. Data analysis from KFF found that next year’s rate hikes could be the largest increase since 2018, when average premiums went up by 35% in Texas. In 2018, companies factored in Congress’ attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Trump signing an executive order ending subsidies to insurers for low-income people."
"Her Dad Lost, but Hope Walz Hasn’t Stopped Speaking Out"
"Ms. Walz believes that the unapologetic approach is something Democrats could use a little more of. 'We should just be outward in our progressiveness,' she said. “We don’t need to pander to people that don’t like us.'”
From the AP article linked above, re France calling in Amb Kushner:
"... The dustup follows Macron’s rejection this past week of accusations from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state is fueling antisemitism.
France is home to the largest Jewish population in Europe, with an estimated 500,000 Jews, the third-largest Jewish population in the world after Israel and the United States. That’s approximately 1% of the national population. ..."
This is clearly DiJiT bringing the diplomatic weight of the United States against France, at the direct instigation of Israel PM Netanyahu. Equating anti-Zionism with anti-semitism has long been U.S. policy, but this ain't it. This is all about Gaza and the two state proposal, and the US is allowing Netanyahu to dictate US policy with respect to an allied country (France). DiJiT is clearly Netanyahu's cabana boy; Marco Rubio wouldn't do this on his own.
MAGA here to save the children!
MAGAts have supercharged hypocrisy, especially those who scream loudest about protecting innocent children from the horrors of drag queens and trans people.
Let's get right to it.
Here is R.J. May, state representative (former, that is) from South Carolina (you know, one of those "most dangerous states to live in" that Fatty is ignoring. RJ was elected by screaming about how much he loves a fat traitor in Washington and how much he loathes trans people, who, he claimed were all about infecting the moral upbringing of little children. Harrumph!
But, OOPS! RJ has a problem.
"May, a West Columbia Republican and founding member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, resigned his House seat earlier this month. He has pleaded not guilty to the 10 counts he faces of distributing child sexual abuse material, commonly referred to as child pornography, following his June arrest.
Jury selection is scheduled to take place Oct. 8, with opening arguments beginning the following day.
The trial was initially set to begin with jury selection Sept. 10, but public defender Jenny Smith asked for a delay because of the tremendous amount of data to go through,' she told a judge.
Prosecutors expect to spend six days building their case, in which they will accuse 38-year-old May of sending photos and videos of children being sexually abused over the course of five days in April 2024."
A huge amount of data being, no doubt, terabytes of kiddie porn on May's computer. Whew. Good thing he's all about saving kids from icky trans people!
https://scdailygazette.com/2025/08/20/trial-for-ex-sc-representative-pushed-back-to-october/
Next up....
Scott Soucek, "A fervent Trump supporter who said that he was casting his 2024 vote to fight child trafficking is now being charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography.
Scott Soucek of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, was arrested on July 24 and accused of accessing hundreds of child pornography images through a file-sharing system.
Soucek isn’t just a Trump booster himself: he’s also the husband of a leading Republican Party operative in the state."
A child predator who promises to get rid of child predators! How MAGA of him.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maga-champion-said-trump-fight-200336610.html">Scott Soucek
Next we have the lovely Ryan Walters, "Oklahoma’s culture-warrior superintendent of public instruction, is a self-avowed opponent of pornography in education—so much so that he’s accused schools of 'pushing pornography' for containing decidedly nonpornographic books like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
Now he’s under investigation after allegedly displaying a pornographic video on a TV in his office during the closed-door portion of a Board of Education meeting last week."
Oops! How'd those naked ladies get on my computer? Biden put them there! "Pushing pornography"? During a board meeting? What'll those MAGAts think of next? Maybe electing a rapist president?
Walters is rolling the standard Trump playbook, he did nothing, fake news, deep state, blah, blah, blah.
Yhttps://newrepublic.com/post/198495/maga-superintendent-oklahoma-ryan-walters-porn-investigation
And now....scintillating reports of drag queens and trans people doing illegal and highly immoral stuff against children....
Hmmm...What's that? Nothing? Hmmm....wonder why it's the creepy white MAGA guys who are always bagged with kiddie and other kinds of porn.
Must be a mistake.
For some reason, I often get a message disallowing html links to articles. The message says something about tags that aren't allowed, so I've added the links after each section. And oh, by the way, there are loads more right-wing, Trump loving pedophiles out there. I just used these three assholes as an example of the height of hypocrisy to which these pricks will go.
David Frum, in The Atlantic, Trump Is Sending a Terrifyingly Clear Message
"Every day, there’s a new movement away from the rule of law, toward arbitrary and corrupt personal rule. Among the fearful questions pressing upon the country: How does America ever turn back?
....
Beyond that [investigation and prosecution related to 1/6/21]—and unlike after Watergate or Teapot Dome—Congress passed no major reform legislation. It did not, for example, move to stop future presidents from directing Secret Service funds into their own pockets, or from ignoring conflicts-of-interest laws.
So James Dobson is dead...
What to say about that?
I will refrain from a well deserved f-bomb heavy Philippic and indictment of a truly evil POS. So let me just say, as a reminder to his followers, Et in Arcadia, ego. Or I suppose, more accurately, Et in Assholia, ego. Iuppiter te perdat!
El presidente dictador (ie, take your micropenis out the door) is reverting to TACO-dom as Chicago tells him to shove his federales up his fat ass.
The lesson Democrats need to take to heart is that this blubbery turd is a coward. Back his fat ass down and he will cave, then come up with some bullshit excuse for tucking tail. That doesn’t mean he won’t try something, but he will back off if he thinks the MAGAts will see him as weak if he loses in a head to head with a strong governor like Pritzker.
Fat Hitler sez “A year in solitary for burning the flag! No early exits!”
Oh, you mean like the early exits you arranged for violent murderous traitors?
An earlier (actual) Supreme Court has ruled that burning the flag is a first amendment issue and is not a criminal act.
The funniest thing is that no one desecrates the flag and what it stands for as often and with as much ghastly gusto as the Orange Blob. Ever see him try to sing the national anthem?
“Ohhh zay do you zeee…with some blah, blah, blah thing. What mmmm mmm mmm do the mmm mmmm mmm mmm thing..”
This fat pig is no more American than Stalin.
Forgot to add that the fascists running the present Court are no more American than Stalin either, and if Fatty gets this bullshit Egg-zecutive Order up to those tweakers, they may make it ten years in solitary for burning a flag they don’t give a watery bowel movement about.
@Akhilleus: Maybe I'm mistaken about something here, but I know this: presidents* can't make laws. So I don't see how a presidential edict can make it unlawful to burn the U.S. flag, even if the confederate Supremes overturn the Court earlier ruling that flag-burning is a First Amendment free-speech right.
Maybe Trump pulled the flag-burning thing out of Bush I's trash basket to deflect from some minor Epstein news today -- just as the waste basket was being sent off to the shop to be tarted up with some curlicue gold-colored appliques.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08/25/us/trump-news
The "cause" of the firing being mortgage fraud brings to mind a natural question about Goose and Gander.
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