Speaking of "Wow," RAS linked a post by digby republishing Kristi Noem's tweet, which Heather Cox Richardson mentioned in her letter linked below. It's the third tweet down in digby's post. You really should watch the video Noem posts all the way through. It shows you just what the Homeland Security Secretary thinks is appropriate action against Americans by agents who report to her. ~~~
~~~ And do take a look through digby's whole post. This is garbage digby says she pulled from the official White House account (including public responses) from just one 24-hour period. Your taxpayer dollars are funding this sludge.
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal of the criminal conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein. The court’s action ends Ms. Maxwell’s attempt to overturn her conviction, meaning her only chance of an early release from prison is likely to be clemency from ... [Donald] Trump, with whom she used to socialize in the Florida and New York party scenes.” MB: Still, Ghislaine's old friend Donnie will surely pardon her, when and if it serves his interests.
Ann Marimow & Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “When the nine justices of the Supreme Court return to their raised mahogany bench each year on the first Monday of October, it typically marks the end of a three-month stretch of rest and reflection. But this summer’s traditional recess was anything but a cooling-off period. Instead, the justices churned through emergency requests from the Trump administration that sharply divided the court along ideological lines, in a reflection of how much President Trump’s agenda has consumed their calendar. The president’s policies will have an even more central role in the term that begins on Monday, after the justices agreed to take three cases with broad consequences for his agenda. In November, they will hear arguments about the legality of Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs, a centerpiece of his trade strategy. In December, they will consider Mr. Trump’s efforts to wrest control of independent agencies, and in January, his attempt to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board. By the time the term ends in June, there could be others.”
Marie: This small farmer speaks with authority when she agrees with my wild guess (below) that Trump's farm bailout (which is still in the works) will go to Big Ag and not to small farmers. Thanks to RAS for the link.
Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Benjamin Mullin, et al., of the New York Times: “Paramount said on Monday that it was buying The Free Press, a digital news site founded as an alternative to traditional news organizations, and appointing its co-founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor in chief of CBS News. The purchase price was roughly $150 million in cash and Paramount stock.... A writer for The Nation, a progressive magazine, wrote that The Free Press publishes 'pro-establishment bilge' that allows wealthy Americans 'to pretend that they are actually besieged outsiders.'”
South Carolina. Miranda Jeyaretnam of Time: "Police are investigating the cause of a fire that burned down the home of South Carolina Circuit Court judge Diane Goodstein, who had reportedly received death threats for weeks related to her work.... Goodstein was reportedly not at home at the time of the fire, but at least three members of her family, including her husband, former Democratic state senator Arnold Goodstein, and their son, have been hospitalized with serious injuries.... Law enforcement has not disclosed whether the fire is being investigated as an arson attack.... Last month, Goodstein had temporarily blocked the state’s election commission from releasing its voter files to the Department of Justice, a decision that was openly criticized by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and later reversed by the state Supreme Court." Thanks to RAS for the lead.
Watch this someday when you get a chance, if only for the archived LBJ audio: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
⭐Cadet Bone Spurs Goes to War Against Americans.
We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. -- Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Illinois), in a statement ~~~
~~~ Trump Judge Stands Up to Trump. Again. Shawn Hubler, et al., of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Sunday night blocked the Trump administration from deploying hundreds of out-of-state National Guard troops to Oregon, even as ... [Donald] Trump turned to the Texas guard in a widening hunt for military forces to send to Democratic cities. The Trump administration had tried to send hundreds of California National Guard troops to Portland, Ore., while mustering hundreds more from Texas, despite a stern ruling from Judge Karin Immergut of U.S. District Court in Oregon just Saturday that sought to block military forces. Judge Immergut, an appointee of [Mr.] Trump, called an emergency hearing Sunday, then broadened her restraining order to cover 'the relocation, federalization or deployment of members of the National Guard of any state or the District of Columbia in the state of Oregon,' telling Justice Department lawyers that the president was 'in direct contravention' of her order.'
“The blizzard of moves by the Trump administration, from Texas to California, Illinois to Oregon, has left governors and the courts scrambling to keep pace. First, the administration tried to sidestep Judge Immergut by turning to California. Then the president ordered as many as 400 members of the Texas National Guard to deploy for 'federal protection missions' in Portland, Chicago and potentially other cities, according to a letter released by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, on Sunday night.... Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas fully backed the deployment.” The Oregon Public Broadcasting report is here. ~~~
~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal judge has, for the second time in two days, blocked ... Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Oregon, ruling that the administration appeared to defy her Saturday order that Trump lacked a legal basis for sending the military into Portland.... Within hours of [Judge Karin Immergut's Saturday] ruling, however, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of members of California’s National Guard to deploy to Portland and reached an agreement with Texas to send hundreds of that state’s National Guard troops to Chicago, Portland and other areas of the country. Almost 200 California Guard troops arrived or were expected in Portland on Sunday.... During an unusual Sunday night telephone hearing..., Immergut agreed with attorneys for California and Oregon, who said the new deployments appeared to be intended to outrun the court. She repeatedly pressed Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton about whether he believed the administration had complied with her order. 'You are missing the point,' she scolded, as Hamilton noted the judge’s Saturday order only applied to Oregon troops.” ~~~
~~~ Troy Brynelson & Alex Zielinski of Oregon Public Broadcasting: "Hours after a federal judge paused the Trump administration’s plans to deploy 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to Portland on Saturday, federal law enforcement officers escalated the tactics used on protesters in the city. Outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, federal officers pushed crowds of protesters hundreds of yards down city streets and fired tear gas, flash-bang grenades and pepper balls without any clear signs of provocation.... Federal officers were flanked by videographers, toting professional equipment.... They filmed from behind the lines of officers, capturing the show of force. At least two drones swept over the scenes.... By 10:30 p.m., the earlier crowd grouped in front of the ICE building appeared to have doubled in size." ~~~
~~~ AP: “... Donald Trump is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon after a judge temporarily blocked his administration from deploying that state’s guard to Portland, California’s governor said Sunday. Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged Sunday to fight the move in court. There was no official announcement from Washington that the California National Guard was being called up and sent to Oregon, just as was the case when Illinois’ governor made a similar announcement Saturday about troops in his state being activated. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said that 101 California National Guard members arrived in her state Saturday night by plane and more were on the way. Kotek said there has been no formal communication with the federal government about the deployment. 'This action appears to [be] intentional to circumvent yesterday’s ruling by a federal judge,' Kotek said Sunday. 'There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security. Oregon is our home, not a military target.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Steve Vladeck: “... Judge Karin Immergut’s remarkable ruling yesterday, granting a temporary restraining order against ... [Donald] Trump’s federalization of members of the Oregon National Guard ... has prompted a slew of claims this morning from the President’s advisers and outside supporters that federal courts, in general, lack the power to halt domestic deployments of the military.... [But] a key early precedent..., in my view, cuts entirely in the other direction — and that provides powerful evidence ... that the Founding-era understanding not only tolerated a robust judicial role in such cases, but, for a time, actually required one.... The modern-day Insurrection Act traces its lineage all the way back to a statute Congress enacted on May 2, 1792—which has often been referred to as the Calling Forth Act or First Militia Act. That statute was designed to carry into effect the Constitution’s grant of power to Congress, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 15, '[t]o provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.'... President Washington, in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion two years later, followed the statute’s mandates to the letter — obtaining the requisite judicial determination from Supreme Court Justice James Wilson (one of the six people to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution) before he sent troops to Western Pennsylvania to restore order.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: So instead of trying to claim Trump's own judicial appointee is a radical left-wing judge, Trump & the Trumpettes have decided that no judge has the authority to rule on matters of military deployment. Apparently, that is among the divine rights of the Mad King Donald, Commander in Chief of of Everybody and Everything. (One self-appointed "expert" adviser Vladeck cites: Stephen Miller, who is not now nor has he ever been a lawyer.) ~~~
~~~ Dan Froomkin of Press Watch, who reads the news closely, discovers an off-hand remark by Donald Trump "— in a brief moment of lucidity, perhaps —" that Froomkin finds "incredibly telling." That it is.
Melody Mercado of Block Club Chicago: "... Donald Trump is sending 300 National Guard troops to Chicago, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Saturday.... In a memo to Illinois National Guard leadership Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the troops could be called into service “effective immediately” and be used in the area for 60 days, according to the [Chicago] Tribune. The troops’ objective would be to guard ICE facilities in Illinois, the Tribune reported." ~~~
~~~ Carrie Shepherd of Axios: "Chicago experienced a chaotic — and violent — weekend of clashes between federal law enforcement and protesters, prompting ... [Donald] Trump to call up 300 National Guard members in Illinois on Saturday.... A man and woman allegedly used their vehicles Saturday morning to strike a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent's car and box in other agents' vehicles near 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue, according to a complaint by the U.S. Department of Justice. One of the agents then fired shots and struck one of the drivers, Marimar Martinez, who was later taken to a hospital and released.The feds charged Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz on Sunday with forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer. Both remain in custody pending federal court appearances." ~~~
~~~ Sophia Tareen of the AP: “Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital. Activists, residents and leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest city.... U.S. citizens, immigrants with legal status and children have been among those detained in increasingly brazen and aggressive encounters which pop up daily across neighborhoods in the city of 2.7 million and its many suburbs.” ~~~
~~~ Sonia Rao of the New York Times: “Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois blasted recent federal immigration enforcement efforts in Chicago on Sunday, dismissing assertions by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that the city was a 'war zone' and blaming federal agents for escalating a sense of conflict. 'The secretary doesn’t know what she’s talking about,' the governor said in an appearance on CNN’s 'State of the Union,' adding that Chicagoans were 'booing her on the street.' Mr. Pritzker singled out a late-night Border Patrol raid last week at an apartment building on Chicago’s South Side, when video taken by bystanders showed residents of the building restrained with zip ties. Federal agents were 'just picking up people who are brown and Black and then checking their credentials,' Mr. Pritzker said. He added: 'They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago if they’re not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the president said they were going to do.'” ~~~
~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “At 7:56 on Saturday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Noem posted a video that appeared to show the federal raid on a Chicago apartment building on September 30. The video used that raid to show a fantasy military-style invasion that misrepresented the actual event in which federal agents arrived with a Black Hawk helicopter and large vehicles and dragged the unarmed residents out of their beds. Agents took all but one of the residents outside in zip ties before trashing the apartments. Their targets included U.S. citizens and children, some of whom were separated from their parents and all of whom were terrified. Over the video, Noem commented: 'Chicago, we’re here for you.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I read Noem's comment as a warning: "Chicagoans, we're coming for you." ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman: “About that raid: It was reported in mainstream media, but didn’t get the screaming banner headlines it deserved.... ICE claimed that the building was targeted because it was 'known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua ... members and their associates' — that is, although ICE carried out the raid, it was supposedly about crime. And they arrested two suspected gang members, while also rounding up some undocumented immigrants. But they detained everyone in the building, smashed their doors, zip-tied their children, and ransacked their homes. This was a wildly disproportionate and illegal response, even if the raid had actually had anything to do with crime.... But ... this isn’t about crime. It’s about paranoid conspiracy theories and an attempt to dismantle democracy.... What all this suggests to me is that there will be many more incidents as bad or worse than the Chicago apartment raid. If you think I’m overreacting, remember: The alarmists have been right about Trump every step of the way.” ~~~
~~~ Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "They didn’t have warrants – just suspicions. It was a massive violation of these residents’ civil rights, as well as a major escalation in the Trump administration’s jack-booted campaign against undocumented immigrants.... And it should have been top news on websites and broadcasts across America, with screaming headlines about police-state tactics. But instead, it’s been largely ignored. The Associated Press and the Washington Post haven’t mentioned it at all, from what I can tell. The New York Times ran a timid article about immigration enforcement in Chicago generally. Luckily, one journalist covered it perfectly: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes." From Hayes' Thursday show: ~~~
Nokukhanya Musi & Gerald Imray of the AP: “A plane carrying a group of Southeast Asian migrants deported from the United States landed in the African nation of Eswatini early Monday, a lawyer for two of the deportees told The Associated Press. It is the latest deportation flight to Africa, where the U.S. has struck largely secretive agreements with at least five nations to take migrants under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program. Eswatini is already holding four men from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen in a maximum-security prison after they were deported by the U.S. in mid-July. Lawyers for those men say they’ve been detained without charge and denied access to legal counsel for nearly three months....
“Eswatini has said it has a deal with the U.S. to take up to 160 deportees. International rights group Human Rights Watch has said it has seen documents that show the U.S. will pay Eswatini $5.1 million as part of the agreement. The U.S. has said it wants to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Eswatini, a small kingdom bordering South Africa where the king holds absolute power and has been accused of clamping down on pro-democracy movements.”
~~~ Marie: I was wondering who the king of Eswatini was because I just don't see as much written about him as, say, King Charles III of the U.K. Besides holding "absolute power" & "clamping down on pro-democracy movements," the Google's AI sez, "King Mswati III is Africa's last absolute monarch. An old video of Eswatini's King Mswati III arriving in Abu Dhabi has drawn attention to the African monarch's extravagant lifestyle." That is to say, he sounds a lot like Donald Trump, who may not be an absolute monarch like Mswati but imagines that he is. Also, Trump is White. Alas, for these unfortunate people without a country, they find themselves jumping out of the frying pan (Trump's U.S.) & into the fire (Mswati's Eswatini).
“Uh, the Democrats Made Me Do It”??? Anushka Patil & Talya Minsberg of the New York Times: Donald “Trump remained focused on blaming Democrats and repeating his threats to carry out mass firings of federal
workers on Sunday, the fifth day of the government shutdown. Mr.
Trump, speaking at the White House before attending an event in
Virginia for the 250th anniversary of the Navy, insisted that Democrats
would be to blame if he moved forward with job reductions that could be
in the thousands. 'Anybody laid off, that’s because of the Democrats,' he said. Both sides appeared
entrenched: Speaker Mike Johnson, on NBC’s 'Meet the Press,' and Senator
Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, appearing on CBS’s 'Face the
Nation,' accused each other of not being 'serious' about ending the
shutdown. Representative Hakeem
Jeffries,the House minority leader, complained that Republicans and Mr.
Trump had 'gone radio silent' for at least a week.”
Like Trump, But Unlike Admirals, Sailors Don't Know How to Behave. Josh Boak & Ben Finley of the AP: “... Donald Trump did not let the government shutdown interfere with a stop in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday to salute the Navy as it celebrates its 250th anniversary — using his speech to praise both the Navy and himself. Trump delivered remarks that by his own recognition bordered on making it more like a campaign event, generating some cheers from the crowd before closing out with a recording of his theme song, 'YMCA' by Village People. 'Let’s face it, this is a rally,' Trump told the crowd of about 10,000 sailors in their dress-white uniforms.... The president spoke on a pier in between two towering Navy vessels, an aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship. The carrier displayed a Navy fighter jet, which had the words 'President Donald J. Trump “45-47’” printed on the fuselage right under the cockpit window. The Republican president criticized his political opponents and attacked Democratic lawmakers as the shutdown entered its fifth day, causing military personnel to work without pay until the government reopens. 'I want you to know that despite the current Democrat induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny. Don’t worry about it,' Trump said to cheers from the crowd.” ~~~
~~~ BUT One Trump Stunt Bombed. John Bowden of the Independent: “At one point he even attempted to convince the crowd of mostly cadets to boo 'Barack Hussein Obama' — his derisive way of referring to the 44th president, whose middle name became part of Trump’s own efforts to persuade Americans that Obama was not a natural-born citizen. The effort failed, but Trump did manage to elicit cheers at moments in the speech, while attacking Democrats on issues like immigration and wandering off into unrelated topics, like his proclamation attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America'.”
Trump Tries to Mitigate Part of His Tariff Mess -- With Your Tax Dollars. Alayna Treene & Bryan Mena of CNN: “American farmers are having a tough year, in no small part because of ... Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, the White House is gearing up to extend them a multi-billion-dollar bailout, sources tell CNN. Surging costs and foreign retaliation from tariffs have hurt the US agriculture industry — as have immigration-related labor shortages and plummeting commodity prices. Farm production expenses are estimated to reach $467.4 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department, up $12 billion from last year.... Trump’s policies have exacerbated [farmers'] woes, from the deportation of the industry’s key migrant workforce to renewed trade tensions between the United States and China. And for traditional American crops, such as soybeans, the situation has grown particularly precarious.... Over the past few weeks, the White House has held a series of interagency meetings with the Departments of Agriculture and Treasury as they attempt to finalize a relief package for US farmers....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is a double-whammy tax on middle-class Americans. First, we have to pay additional taxes/tariffs on imported goods we purchase; then we have to pay additional taxes to support farmers for the products they cannot export. Oh, and unless I miss my guess, the bulk of the "farmer" relief will not go to Farmer Brown but to Big Ag. Everything Trump does is wrong.
Meryl Kornfield & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is preparing a plan that will make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security disability payments, part of an overhaul of the federal safety net for poor, older and disabled people that could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits.... Currently, the Social Security Administration evaluates disability claims by considering age, work experience and education to determine if a person can adjust to other types of work. Older applicants, typically over 50, have a better chance of qualifying because age is treated as a limitation in adapting to many jobs. But now officials are considering eliminating age as a factor entirely or raising the threshold to age 60.... They also plan to modernize labor market data used to judge whether claimants can work, replacing an outdated jobs database that includes obsolete occupations like nut sorters and telephone quotation clerks, following a Washington Post investigation in 2022.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Innit odd how every Trump plan/proposal makes life harder for hundreds of thousands or even millions of ordinary or poor Americans and/or easier for him & a few other billionaire buddies? I am sad, of course, to learn that my years of training to be a nut sorter has been for naught. ~~~
~~~ Speaking of making life much tougher for ordinary Americans, here is Charles Gaba having fun with Wall Street Journal artwork. When you look at the numbers (and do multiply the premium increases by 12, because Gaba uses monthly figures for the insurance rates and annual figures for the families' income), it's not so funny. MB: This is what the shutdown is all about, so if it's inconveniencing you now, bear in mind that if Democrats can force Republicans to continue to subsidize health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, your inconvenience will be worth it. (But of course, when it comes to health insurance, I stand with Bernie.) (Also linked yesterday.)
⭐Kevin Carey in the Atlantic: “The Trump administration this week tried to make nine elite research universities an offer they can’t refuse. In exchange for vaguely defined funds, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, Vanderbilt, the University of Virginia, and others were asked to sign a nine-page 'Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education' that amounts to complete adoption of the MAGA higher-education agenda. If they don’t agree? 'The institution elects to forego federal benefits,' seemingly including federal contracts and access to student loans.... The document is breathtaking in its ambition, plainly illegal, and shot through with the tensions that mark Trumpism in its latest form.... The compact ... is only the ideological will of the president, offered with the logic and ethics of a mafia protection racket.... Universities that accept this bargain will be selling their souls for nothing but a promise of safety that will surely be broken in turn.” Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Calvin Woodward of the AP: “As part of a broader Trump directive..., the park service is under orders to review interpretive materials at all its historical properties and remove or alter descriptions that 'inappropriately disparage Americans past or living' or otherwise sully the American story. This comes as ... [Trump] has complained about institutions that go too deep, in his view, on 'how bad slavery was.' It’s too soon to know whether his directive is causing the arc of history to bend toward sanitized revisionism. There are at least scattered indications that the reviewers may be treading carefully.... At some parks, employees on the ground told the AP, brochures with references to 'enslavers' have been pulled for revision and everything is getting a hard look. Yet in the guided tour about [John] Brown’s raid [at Harpers Ferry], the story presented about slavery remains unflinching. And at Fort Pulaski National Monument outside Savannah, Georgia, a photo of a whipped yet dignified man with welts across his back still occupied its prominent spot on an exhibit in the visitors center during a recent visit. Its caption: 'The enforcement of the slave regime relied on violence.'”
~~~~~~~~~~
Iowa. A Great Imposter. Mitch Smith, et al., of the New York Times: In seeking a new superintendent, “Des Moines Public Schools needed a galvanizing leader who could meet a moment shaped by the aftermath of Covid and the racial justice movement of 2020. Ian Roberts’s application seemed almost too perfect. [And it was!] Dr. Roberts had spent most of his career in urban school systems, building a reputation as a charismatic, hands-on administrator. He wrote books, gave speeches and boasted of degrees from brand-name universities. His life story was also compelling: an immigrant from Guyana who competed in the Olympics and spoke bluntly about his experiences as a Black man in the United States.... Red flags would pop up: The district learned about a past brush with law enforcement and a misstatement on his résumé about where he had earned a doctorate. But Des Moines officials moved ahead to hire him. Two outside companies were involved in vetting Dr. Roberts, who told district officials and a state licensing board that he was a United States citizen.
“Nobody seemed to realize that he was lying, and that the man seeking to run Iowa’s largest school district was not allowed to work in this country.... The New York Times reviewed hundreds of pages of employment documents, court records and public statements about Dr. Roberts; exchanged texts with the detained superintendent...; and interviewed people who knew and worked with him over more than a quarter-century....” A Washington Post story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
France. Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu of France resigned on Monday less than 24 hours after forming his cabinet, catching the nation by surprise and making his government the shortest-lived in modern French history. President Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a one-sentence statement that Mr. Macron had accepted the resignation of Mr. Lecornu, which came amid turmoil over the composition of his cabinet, an uneasy coalition of centrists and conservatives. The resignation immediately ratcheted up pressure from opposition parties on the left and far-right that are pushing Mr. Macron to call snap parliamentary elections. Mr. Lecornu, a close ally of Mr. Macron, was appointed less than a month ago. He is the third prime minister to leave office in under a year, a near-unprecedented level of turmoil in France’s modern political history.” The AP's story is here.
Israel/Palestine, et al. Claire Parker & Abbie Cheeseman of the Washington Post: “ Israeli and Hamas officials were set to gather Monday in Egypt for high-stakes negotiations over a U.S.-backed plan to end the Gaza war, even as Israel continued to pummel the enclave with air and artillery strikes that, per Gaza Health Ministry data, continued to kill Palestinians at the same rate as before Hamas conditionally accepted the deal Friday.... Negotiations to end the two-year-long war were revived last month after Israel launched airstrikes targeting Hamas’s political leadership in the Qatari capital, Doha. Senior Hamas officials emerged from the attack unscathed, but Qatar and their Persian Gulf neighbors, outraged by the operation, leveraged their ties to ... Donald Trump to push for a ceasefire agreement that was acceptable to Arab states.” An AP story is here.
15 comments:
From Heather Cox:
“Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver wrote."
Their actions are not the only thing about these subhumans that makes me cringe.
I'd like to think that Eric Sevareid, who once memorably mocked the "between you and I generation," would be cringing, too. And I wish he were around to do his cringing on the air.
According to ABC7 Chicago News, the city of Chicago set a record this past summer
for tourism with 3.5 million hotel stays.
So Donald, if you're listening, you need to send more troops to Chicago to get
rid of those pesky tourists spending all that money on things not related to you and
your family of moochers.
Loyalty to the...Constitution?
MAGA brain rot
What they are seeing.
Kirk Affect
"The memos and legal justifications leaned heavily on the infrastructure and the statutes left behind from George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror. Trump administration aides and attorneys talked among themselves about how the Kirk slaying made it clear they needed a new “war on terror,”
In the earliest moments of Team Trump’s rapid-fire drafting process in mid-September 2025, administration officials say, names that kept coming up in the revenge-minded deliberations included: antifa, America’s disparate anti-fascist movement; the liberal-donation processor ActBlue; megadonor George Soros; the anti-Trump organizing group Indivisible; a variety of pro-immigration and Know Your Rights organizations; and the anti-war group CodePink, whose activists recently protested Trump at a restaurant. And, of course, administration officials couldn’t help themselves from brainstorming new ways to try to target the American trans community."
Thunberg
"Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags
Exclusive: Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water
Between Thursday and Friday, Israeli forces intercepted all the boats and arrested every crew member onboard. Most of them are being held at Ketziot, also known as Ansar III, a high-security prison in the Negev desert used primarily to detain Palestinian security prisoners, many of whom Israel accuses of involvement in militant or terrorist activities.
According to lawyers from the NGO Adalah, the rights of the crew members have been “systematically violated”, activists denied water, sanitation, medication and immediate access to their legal representatives “in clear breach of their fundamental rights to due process, impartial trial and legal representation”."
Farming Bailout - Family Farms vs Corporate Farms
It is the rich who are getting bailed out. They use the little poor farmer for propaganda and PR.
Fat Hitler, following a rare moment of being able to consider that his handlers might be conning him (as he tries to con the rest of the world), slips back into the comfort of his Louis XVI bubble even as those handlers continue their efforts to scam the demented old man. Here's part of how they do that, as reported by Oregon Public Media (linked above):
"Federal officers were flanked by videographers, toting professional equipment.... They filmed from behind the lines of officers, capturing the show of force. At least two drones swept over the scenes.... By 10:30 p.m., the earlier crowd grouped in front of the ICE building appeared to have doubled in size."
In order to make sure that the traitors to America get to control the narrative, someone (most likely Himmler Miller--couldn't be Cosplay Kristi, she's too stupid and arrogant to think that anyone would want to see anything other than her latest Bond villain get up) makes sure to carefully record and edit the attack on American citizens for later presentation to the Mad King. The plus here is that these raids attract even more attention from outraged and stunned citizens, all the better to make it seem like there actually is a need to beat their heads in.
My son is currently on a trip with a group of G&T students to Germany. One of their stops was Nuremberg. I sent him some clips of Leni Riefenstahl's infamous documentary, "Triumph of the Will", which presented a perfectly curated propaganda coup to both German citizens and the world. Using classic Teutonic iconography, the show begins with scenes of Hitler's plane, descending from the heavens, like a mythic god to "save" the nation from the "evil within", the same sort of trick now being tried on Americans.
Recognizing the importance of controlling the narrative and making sure to make the most of the propaganda bonanza of showing our very own Hitler how LETHAL "HIS" troops can be, just after his rambling fatness waddled in front of hundreds of military brass, Miller and the other ministers of propaganda, make sure they don't have to rely on networks to tell their tale of crazed, Democrat rioters destroying cities.
Hitler had his own propagandists, and Fat Hitler has his. But as Dan Froomkin has been reporting, our so-called "liberal media" is failing us badly at this turning point in American history.
As I was sending my son information about Nuremberg, I included clips of the trials held there after the war and all I could do was hope beyond hope that one day we will see treasonous pigs like Miller and Gnome and Fat Hitler sitting in the docks screaming about their innocence, as the gallows await them.
It is truly that bad.
Incitement
"Arson Destroys SC Home Of Judge Criticized By DOJ"
Right-wing Violence
"Accused killer stalker sent pizza & porn: Threatened NJ teen over Charlie Kirk"
Jonathan Chait, for The Atlantic, writes that Steven Miller Lays Out the Plan in Public
"Stephen Miller spent his weekend, as he is wont to do, describing American politics as if the nation were in the advanced stages of civil war and as if he were dictating a message while racing to a mountain hideout to escape bloodthirsty guerillas....Miller’s career was defined, in its early stages, by a fanatical hatred of immigration. Over time, as Miller has emerged as the chief architect of Trump’s second-term agenda, his worldview and Trump’s have blended together."
Annie Lowrey, for The Atlantic, on the economic uncertainty t**** is inflicting on the nation, writing The Everything Recession
"Donald Trump did not seem overly worried about the situation [the shutdown], calling it an “unprecedented opportunity” to throttle funds going to blue states and fire federal employees. The stock market surged higher and the bond market did not react. But up to 750,000 workers will be furloughed, losing out on $400 million in wages a day. Every week that the government remains closed will cut the annualized GDP growth rate by 0.1 percent this quarter, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics estimates. The White House forecasts that a month-long shutdown would lead to 43,000 Americans losing their job. The economy is already weakening in some important respects. Might this be enough to tip it into a recession?"
Bill Kristol in The Bulwark, urges Democrats (or other groups) to "organize daily hearings and forums on the Trump administration’s attempted authoritarian takeover. They could start tomorrow with a forum (it can be virtual, we’re in the modern age) for governors Newsom, Pritzker, and Kotek to explain what’s happening. Then, each day, the party or associated groups can provide occasions for current officials, former judges, ex-senior Justice Department personnel and retired military and defense officials, to explain to the country the dangers of what Trump is doing. These forums should be bipartisan, including retired judges appointed by Republican presidents and officials from previous GOP administrations—and, for that matter, from Trump’s first term.
This effort could build to a crescendo by October 18 "No Kings Day
Lipstick on a pig:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/opinion/anthony-kennedy-supreme-court.html
And it's his pig.
My comment to the Times:
Mr. Kennedy failed to notice that when there is a disproportionate allotment of money (i. e., power) in a system, equal justice is often a myth, whether carved on stone or not.
And he made that injustice far worse with his Citizens United decision which treated corporations as people.
Since then equal justice in America has become even more of a joke.
Gil Duran of Nerd Reich, says Curtis Yarvin is panicked "fearing retribution from a future Democratic administration". Duran quotes Yarvin "The second Trump revolution, like the first, is failing. It is failing because it deserves to fail. It is failing because it spends all its time patting itself on the back." and he wrote that "I feel that I personally have to start thinking realistically about how to flee the country."
(good - now take Thiel, Musk, all of them with you.)
Duran goes on:
"Yarvin, clearly feeling paranoid and pressured, has experienced significant reputational decline in recent months. Notably, he has become a target of mockery and scorn from fellow right-wingers who see his approach as a political dead end.
One big problem: At the heart of Yarvin’s ideology is a curious assertion that the USA is one big historical error and the world would have been better off if England had won the American Revolution. Such trolling arguments may please the ears of Peter Thiel and JD Vance, but they are a hard sell to the general American public (as any campaign intern knows).
Last month, notorious right-wing propagandist Chris Rufo tore into Yarvin on Twitter:
One of the problems with Curtis you eventually discover is that he’s high on his own supply.
"
oops link: Panic
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