September 2, 2025

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: Donald “Trump had nothing on his public schedule for three days last week. He is often sporting a large, purple bruise on his right hand, which he sometimes slathers with makeup. His ankles are swollen. He is the oldest person to be elected president.... Mr. Trump’s critics have speculated about his health for as long as he has been in national politics. And for his part, he has long declined to explain when and why he has sought out medical care, whether he was suffering from Covid or undergoing routine procedures. But there had never been a conspiracy wave as feverish as this one.... When asked by a reporter [-- MB: Peter Doocy of Fox 'News'! --] how he first learned that he was dead, Mr. Trump said that he was not aware of the rumors that he had died. Then he started speaking about those rumors at length, saying he had done media appearances, gone golfing at his Virginia club and posted prolifically on his social media site.”

Timothy Snyder contrasts Trump with Ramses II: “We are living through a regime in which there is no creativity between the boasting and the vanity. It is not that Trump is building great things and boasting about them, and that only time will reveal the inherent tragedy of human achievement. He is bragging about destroying what others have created.... In the present circumstances, the future of the United States cannot be taken for granted.... Trump and Vance ... can push the Constitutional regime of the United States past the breaking point. But they lack an alternative to replace it. They want fascism, and they don’t mind death of others, but they do not want to take responsibility for the death.” Thanks to RAS for the link. Worth reading the entire essay. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Snyder argues that the antidote to what he calls "sadopopulism" is resistance. But it takes more than that. It takes, I think, spurning the "rugged individual" as the American ideal and replacing him with the social intellectual. The country was founded under the guidance of intellectuals. But even the most thoughtful, liberal founders were narrow-minded, self-interested White men who treated and thought of everyone who was unlike them -- women, minorities, poor people -- as inferior to them. "Remember the ladies.... That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute...." Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John in March 1776. John's response: "I cannot but laugh." These misogynists did not even believe in the idea they most famously espoused, "that all men are created equal." 

It was to this elite Tyranny that the rugged individual responded. That tension between the elite and the self-sufficient common man persists to this day. But like the elite founders, the Western hero represents but one "type," and the rest of us remain marginal. Fortunately, there are sociopolitical intellectuals who embrace others: Jamie Raskin & Jon Ossoff, for instance. Until the average American learns to honor, admire and try to emulate these sociopolitical intellectuals over hardy men who fend for themselves (and for no or few others), we will continue down the path to doomsday. 

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal judge has declared ... Donald Trump’s use of military troops in Los Angeles illegal, barring the Pentagon from using National Guard members and Marines from performing police functions, like arrests and crowd control. In a 52-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer warned that Trump appears intent on 'creating a national police force with the President as its chief.'... Breyer, a Clinton appointee based in San Francisco, concluded that Trump’s LA deployment — an operation overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — violated a longstanding law meant to prevent domestic law enforcement by the military: the Posse Comitatus Act. His decision followed a four-day trial last month that included testimony from the Pentagon officials overseeing the troop deployment in Los Angeles.” MB: Judge Breyer is the brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

RAS reminds us of those pleasant days of yore when David Letterman used to occasionally invite one of Rupert's customers to play "Trump or Monkey?" ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: In fairness to yesteryear's guests, it is no easier now to tell which is which -- no matter how much of the picture is revealed -- especially when Trump says things. 

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The Big Grifter's Biggest Grift. Eric Garcia of the Independent: “... Donald Trump and his family amassed as much as $6 billion on paper after their crypto venture opened trading for a new digital currency, The Wall Street Journal reported.The Trump family launched the new cryptocurrency called WLFI on Monday in the crypto equivalent of an initial public offering. Before now, people who had bought the currency, which is from World Liberty Financial, had not been able to trade the tokens. The Trump family holds about a quarter of all the tokens in existence. Trump’s three sons – Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Barron Trump – are co-founders of World Liberty, while the president is named as a 'Co-Founder Emeritus.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll admit that not knowing the meaning of "emeritus" is hardly the most egregious offense here, but let us agree that it is impossible to be a "co-founder emeritus." 

Garrett Graff: “... Washington and social media have spent Labor Day weekend in a frenzy over Donald Trump’s health. The president, who seems like he can’t stomach staying out of the public eye and spotlight for even a few hours, had no public appearances on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday — nor any over the long weekend.... To me, there are six clear reasons we should be talking about this more than we are and why the press corps should be digging more deeply and more seriously around this topic: 1) The bruised hands.... 2) The pattern changes.... 3) The years of lies.... 4) Trump’s obviously diminished capacity.... 5) The Swollen Ankles.... 6) The Biden Precedent.” Read through. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

    ~~~ This Is Fishy. Andrew Holleran of the Spun, republished by Yahoo! News: Donald "Trump, 79, took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to [post] a photo of himself fist-bumping the former NFL head coach [Jon Gruden].... 'Great playing Golf with Jon Gruden — A really nice guy, and true character!' ... Trump posted on Sunday, August 31.... But social media users have noticed that Gruden was wearing the same outfit [and playing at the same course] in an Instagram post dated Aug. 23." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't have a conspiracy theory for you. But I will say that a public figure doesn't post a week-old snap of himself implying it was a newly-taken photo -- unless he's hiding what he looks like now. I'm sure some of you thought I was going wacky when I suggested Friday that we were playing a game of "Where's Dumbo?" because Trump hadn't been seen for a couple of days. Well, a couple of days has expanded to five days, & Dumbo is still MIA. ~~~ 

     ~~~ BTW, a photographer with a long-range lens did take a photo of Trump this weekend. You can see how that turned out. The photo on the right is what Old Joe Biden looked like this weekend. Joe has cancer. Who looks healthier and more mentally sharp? BUT the MSM isn't covering Disappearing Dumbo.

 

Tony Romm & Anna Swanson of the New York Times: Donald “Trump spent the weekend decrying a court decision that invalidated his most punishing global tariffs, and suggested he would soon take his fight to tax imports to the Supreme Court.... 'Without Tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated,' Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday.... A loss at the Supreme Court related to the emergency powers would severely undercut Mr. Trump’s hand when it comes to imposing tariffs. It could also undermine the centerpiece of his economic strategy to force companies to invest in the United States. While Mr. Trump has other tariff tools at his disposal, they are more limited than the emergency powers that he has invoked to impose levies of between 10 percent and 50 percent on countries across the globe.” ~~~

~~~ How Embarrassing! Paul Krugman: "Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, has argued that this ruling should not stand because it would embarrass the United States. (Actually, it would mainly embarrass Bessent and his boss.)... But honestly, there are so many embarrassing things going on now that one more would hardly make a difference. [Yesterday, the White House put out a claim that the tariffs had yielded $8 trillion in revenue.] Raising $8 trillion in tariff revenue would be quite a trick, given that total U.S. imports last year were only $3.3 trillion.... Trump ... may imagine that the world admires him the way his hangers-on pretend to. The truth, however, is that the world sees him as a dangerous buffoon. Dangerous because he runs America, an economic and military superpower, and has a fanatically supportive domestic base. A buffoon because he’s almost surreally vain, insecure and ignorant. Given that reality, we really shouldn’t worry that a legal setback on tariffs will embarrass the administration, causing it to lose the world’s respect. Trump already has no respect left to lose."

Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past. Io Dodds of the Independent: "... Donald Trump has said he would be open to bringing back 'insane asylums' to imprison people with 'serious mental illness'. In an interview with the Daily Caller published on Monday, the president said that forcing more people into long-term psychiatric institutions would help make America's streets safer.... 'Well, they used to have them, and you never saw people like we had,' Trump said. 'They released them all into society because they couldn’t afford it. You know, it’s massively expensive.... But we had, they were all over New York. I remember when I was growing up... they released them into society, and that’s what you have. It’s a rough, it’s a rough situation.' He added: 'You can’t have these people walking around... so dangerous, so dangerous. And they can live to be 85 years old.'"

Tara Suter of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Monday demanded drugmakers 'justify' the success of their treatments for COVID-19 amid turmoil in his administration over vaccines and other health issues. 'It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree!' the president said in a post on Truth Social. 'With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,' the president continued.... 'I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???' Trump wrote Monday. 'They go off to the next “hunt” and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work.'... Trump in his Monday social media post touted the effectiveness of Operation Warp Speed, the push during his first term to speed up vaccine development and distribution during the pandemic.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Since he's so inarticulate AND devious, it's hard to know what Trump is up to here. But he might be trying to convince RFKJ that Covid vaccines work. More on the CDC linked below.

Trump to Award Medal of Freedom to Disgraced Sidekick. AP: “... Donald Trump said Monday he will award former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, two days after his longtime political ally was seriously injured in a car crash. The decision places the award on a man once lauded for leading New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later sanctioned by courts and disbarred for amplifying false claims about the 2020 election. Giuliani was also criminally charged in two states; he has denied wrongdoing. Trump in a statement on social media called Giuliani the 'greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot.'” The New York Times story is here. MB: I imagine Rudy would rather have the money Trump owes him than a medal Trump has so cheapened by giving it lowlifes like Rush Limbaugh & Devin Nunes. ~~~

~~~ Katherine Rosman & Michael Rothfeld of the New York Times: “Rudolph W. Giuliani was released from the hospital on Monday afternoon after a car crash in Manchester, N.H., on Saturday night, according to his security chief and a friend.... Mr. Giuliani, 81, intended to recuperate in Manchester but did not specify where....” The Independent's story is here. The articles have more details about the accident than have been appeared in articles previously linked here. For more details on Rudy's “alleged girlfriend” who may be the Manchester caregiver, the Independent has a story here.

Thanks, Trump! Paul Sonne of the New York Times: “Eurasian leaders eagerly met ... [Vladimir Putin] at a summit this week, as ... [Donald] Trump has helped ease his isolation over the war in Ukraine.... Mr. Putin used his stage ... in Tianjin, China, where leaders from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ... met on Monday ... to publicly blame the West for the war in Ukraine. He gleefully held hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and erupted in laughs as the pair joined in a huddle with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Leaders from Iran, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkey and Vietnam glad-handed Mr. Putin in private meetings that ran past midnight.... The elephant in the room was President Trump, who has helped end Mr. Putin’s isolation, both by welcoming him to U.S. soil for the first time in a decade and by clashing with leaders from Brazil, India and South Africa, pushing them closer to Mr. Putin.”

David Chen of the New York Times: “The image of red-state governors mustering uniformed troops for duty in blue-state cities has left many Americans with the foreboding sense of a nation dangerously divided, perhaps even drifting toward open conflict. Mr. Trump denied statistical reality last week when he was asked whether he might send federal forces into high-crime cities in Republican-led states. 'Sure,' he said, 'but there aren’t that many.' There are that many: Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis and Nashville; Houston; Little Rock, Ark.; Salt Lake City; and Shreveport, La., all have crime rates comparable to Washington’s, according to F.B.I. statistics.... Jeffrey A. Butts ... of the ... John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, noted that even in Washington, federal resources are not actually being targeted where they would make the most difference, in high-crime neighborhoods far from the photogenic monuments and government buildings where National Guard troops are patrolling.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s crackdown on crime in Washington has been propelled, in part, by an aggressive clampdown on guns, with city and federal officials confiscating around 150 weapons since the president declared a crime emergency in the capital nearly three weeks ago.... The shift toward gun enforcement — and publicizing the aggressive street sweeps — marks an abrupt departure for an administration that has courted Second Amendment maximalists and sharply downgraded federal firearms enforcement....  A New York Times review of about 1,000 arrests suggested only a slight increase in the overall number of arrests compared with the period before the surge, but pointed to a major increase in federal firearms prosecutions.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, I get it. The population of D.C. is about 43 percent Black, and Trump probably thinks the percentage of Blacks is higher. The administration doesn't want to clamp down on guns; it wants to clamp down on Black people with guns. Update: Oh, as Akhilleus wrote in yesterday's Comments, "The more accurate description of what’s happening is The administration doesn't want to clamp down on guns; it wants to clamp down on Black people. Period." (Also linked yesterday.)

This is literally the largest act of union busting in American history. There’s not another time when that many people lost their union. -- Mike Podhorzer of the AFL-CIO ~~~ 

~~~ Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “More than 445,000 federal employees saw their union protections disappear in August, as agencies moved to comply with an executive order ... [Donald] Trump signed earlier this year that called for ignoring collective bargaining contracts with nearly one million workers. The termination of protections followed an Aug. 1 appeals court ruling on legal challenges to Mr. Trump’s directive. The order, signed in late March, directed 22 agencies to ignore contracts for employees in specific unions. Last Thursday, Mr. Trump signed a second executive order stripping union rights from thousands of other employees at six additional agencies.... The American Federation of Government Employees has filed more than a dozen lawsuits related to the federal work force. The White House has likened this to a declaration of 'war.'.... The attack on public sector labor unions is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to assert more control of the federal work force and make it easier to fire civil servants. The president has also crippled several independent boards that adjudicate employment disputes....” The link appears to be a gift link.

Marie: Yesterday, I said a Trumpian "Gaza Riviera" plan that has been floating around the White House sounded like a war crime to me. I'm not the only one who thinks so ~~~ 

     ~~~ Peter Beaumont & Alice Speri of the Guardian: “A plan circulating in the White House to develop the 'Gaza Riviera' as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an 'insane' attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population.... Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls 'temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population' – a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.... The prospectus seem to reflect Donald Trump’s previously stated ambition to 'clean out' Gaza and redevelop it.... Philip Grant ...  of Trial International, a human rights group based in Switzerland..., [said]..., 'This is a blueprint for mass deportation, marketed as development. The outcome? A textbook case of international crimes on an unimaginable scale: forcible population transfer, demographic engineering, and collective punishment.'... According to the Boston Consulting Group, quoted by the Post, work on the document was not approved and two senior partners who led the financial planning had been fired.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post report, also linked here yesterday, is here. 

They're All Corrupt. Josh Marshall of TPM discovers that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's sons, who head up investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald (which Howard used to run), have been betting on -- i.e., investing in -- what I might call "tariff refund futures": "I’ll pay you $2 million right now for the right to collect the refund if courts ever end up deciding the tariffs were illegal." Marshall: "In mid-July, according to WIRED, Cantor was buying up the rights to your potential tariff refund at between 20 and 30 cents per dollar.... Lutnick can’t be certain what’s in a judge’s mind.... But he’ll have lots of visibility into what the government’s lawyers think, how they rate their odds of success, what their arguments will be. On top of that, given the immense corruption of the current Supreme Court I would put say there’s at least a 50%-50% shot that Trump and thus Lutnick will gets signals from one or more of the Justices about how the Court will rule. Any way you look at this it’s corrupt as hell.... What’s not clear is how much of this stuff the Lutnick Boys have actually purchased." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In the post linked above, Krugman also alludes to Cantor Fitzgerald's investment in tariff refund futures. 

William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky & Mandy K. Cohen in a New York Times op-ed: “We have each had the honor and privilege of serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, either in a permanent or acting capacity, dating back to 1977.... What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen.... Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven 'treatments' while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs..., citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage.... This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Florida. Io Dodds of the Independent: "At least four protesters who were arrested for daubing chalk on the former site of the Pulse memorial crosswalk in Orlando, Florida, have since been released without charge — raising the question of why they were arrested in the first place. Orestes Sebastian Suarez, 29, Maryjane East, 25, Donavon Short, 26, and Zane Aparicio, 39, have each been booked by the Florida Highway Patrol on charges of defacing a traffic device over the last few days, according to The Orlando Sentinel. Yet as of Monday, every single one had been released without any pending charges. 'To be threatened with something so extreme as a felony charge for protesting and showing love to your fellow human — it’s just insane in my opinion, Suarez told local broadcaster WESH 2. County prosecutors and the Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to questions from The Independent about why charges were dropped, or why they were filed in the first place, given that chalk can easily be washed away by rain."

New York. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: “Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who has been one of Congress’s leading liberal voices for three decades, will not seek re-election next year, heeding a call for generational change roiling his party. The decision will mark the close of a 34-year congressional career that put Mr. Nadler at the center of major civil rights battles and three presidential impeachments. It will also almost certainly touch off a crowded primary fight over a rare open Democratic seat in the heart of Manhattan. In a recent interview in his downtown Manhattan office, Mr. Nadler, 78, said he hesitated to step aside when he believes that ... [Donald] Trump is threatening the foundations of democracy. But he said he had been persuaded it was time for a changing of the guard. 'Watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that,' Mr. Nadler said, adding that a younger successor 'can maybe do better, can maybe help us more.'” The link appears to be a gift link. Politico's report is here.

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Sam McNeil & Valentina Petrova of the AP: “A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming over Bulgaria in a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson said Monday. The plane landed safely at Plovdiv airport in central Bulgaria and von der Leyen will continue her planned tour of the European Union’s eastern frontline nations, said commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà.... The incident with von der Leyen’s plane is the latest in a series involving suspected Russian electronic interference with GPS satellite navigation. For months, countries bordering Russia — including Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — have warned of increased electronic activity interfering with flights, ships and drones.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel/Palestine. Molly Quell of the AP: “The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide said Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The determination by the International Association of Genocide Scholars — which has around 500 members worldwide, including a number of Holocaust experts — could serve to further isolate Israel in global public opinion and adds to a growing chorus of organizations that have used the term for Israel’s actions in Gaza. Israel rejects the accusation and called the resolution an 'embarrassment to the legal profession.' 'Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,' according to group’s resolution, which was supported by 86% of those who voted. The organization did not release the specifics of the voting.”