Two Nations Under Trump. Sam Stein of the Bulwark on how Donald Trump partied the night away with burlesque dancers at what was billed as a Gatsby-style Halloween party while his goons pulled a gun on some Chicagoans & bashed in one man's head: ~~~
~~~ This is a graphic illustration of what Elissa Slotkin was talking about in the speech embedded below.
Thanks to Akhilleus for linking this Lincoln Project ad. Commentary below: ~~~
As RAS points out this morning, this speech by conservo-Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Michigan) is chilling: "... I believe that Trump is ready to bring the full weight of the federal government against Americans he perceives as enemies because he [wants to make sure] that he and his ilk never have to give up power." The meat of her speech begins at about 1:16 min. in: ~~~
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It's Another Article II Day. Trump can do whatever he wants.
What they’re saying is anytime the president uses drones or any standoff weapon against someone who cannot shoot back, it’s not hostilities. It’s a wild claim of executive authority. -- Brian Finucane, former State Department lawyer ~~~
~~~ Murder. Charlie Savage & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “The Justice Department told Congress this week that ... [Donald] Trump could lawfully continue his lethal military strikes on people suspected of smuggling drugs at sea, notwithstanding a time limit for congressionally unauthorized deployments of armed forces into 'hostilities.' In a briefing, the official who leads the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, T. Elliot Gaiser, said the administration did not think the operation rose to the kind of 'hostilities' covered by the 60-day limit, a key part of a 1973 law called the War Powers Resolution.... In a statement provided by the White House, an unnamed senior administration official said that American service members were not in danger because the boats suspected of smuggling drugs were mostly being struck by drones far from naval ships carrying U.S. forces....
“The stance that the operation does not count as 'hostilities' because the people on the boats could not shoot back builds on a precedent established by President Barack Obama during the 2011 NATO air war over Libya, to significant disagreement at the time in Congress and within Mr. Obama’s own legal team. The War Powers Resolution says that a president who unilaterally deploys U.S. forces into hostilities 'shall terminate' the operation after 60 days if Congress has not authorized it by then. But the legislation left the term 'hostilities' vague.” ~~~
~~~ Aamer Madhani of the AP: “The U.S. military has carried out another lethal strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Saturday. Hegseth in a social media posting said the vessel was operated by a U.S.-designated terrorist organization but did not name which group was targeted. He said three people were killed in the strike. It’s at least the 15th such strike carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific since early September.... The U.S. military has now killed at least 64 people in the strikes.”
Bully. Pranav Baskar of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Saturday threatened Nigeria with potential military action and said the United States might cut off aid, accusing the West African country’s government of failing to protect Christians. Mr. Trump said in a post on social media that he was instructing the Pentagon 'to prepare for possible action' to wipe out 'Islamic Terrorists' in the country. 'If we attack,' he wrote, 'it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!' Later on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to the president’s post with: 'Yes sir.' The Pentagon, he said, was 'preparing for action.'” The AP story is here.
Starve Children. Tony Romm of the New York Times: “As the federal shutdown stretched into its fifth week, imperiling the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, Vice President JD Vance insisted that there was little the White House could do to help.... In fact, the administration had billions of dollars at its disposal — more, by its own admission, than it needed to sustain food stamps.... It was only after a federal judge intervened that ... [Donald] Trump signaled he could use the money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.... The saga has laid bare the shutdown strategy at the White House, where Mr. Trump has been willing to shield only some Americans from the harms of a fiscal standoff that he has made no effort to resolve.... He has found new and untested ways to spare certain Americans, like the military, from the pain of the government closure, while claiming he has no power to help others.... The result is a shutdown ... that has posed disparate and debilitating risks for those unlucky enough to depend on the many functions of government that Mr. Trump has long aspired to cut.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Nice to see the NYT is at last willing to use its front page to call out the cruel, lying bastards Don & JayDee. ~~~
~~~Tony Romm of the New York Times: Wherein Judge John J. McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island explains to Trump how the government can fund SNAP coffers right away. “The SNAP reserve totals about $5 billion, less than the roughly $8 billion needed to pay full SNAP benefits each month.... [The judge] said the government 'must make' a partial payment by Wednesday, but he also encouraged federal officials to explore the use of a second source of money that might allow it to pay SNAP benefits more quickly and in full. He pointed specifically to a pot of funds at the Agriculture Department largely composed of tariff revenue, which the government had used earlier in the shutdown to preserve another federal nutrition program. The judge said that the two funding sources, combined, could reduce any delay in delivering SNAP benefits, and alleviate 'irreparable harm' facing families....”
Target. Zachary Leeman of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump is targeting a new late night host in Seth Meyers, a man whose coverage of him, the president suggested, could be 'illegal.'”
Hide. Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s aides have promised transparency about the funding of a new ballroom, but the White House withheld the identities of several donors to the project, including some with business before the administration, The New York Times found. A list released last month by the White House of more than three dozen donors omitted donation amounts, as well as the names of several individuals and companies that collectively have billions of dollars riding on the outcome of administration policy decisions. The rush of major business interests to fund a pet project of Mr. Trump’s has reinforced a perception in corporate America that the ballroom is a way to curry favor with, or seek protection from, a president who has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to use the levers of government to help allies and punish foes.
“Among the donors not disclosed by the White House are a pair of health care companies seeking to protect or expand Medicare reimbursement for their products, as well as the Wall Street powerhouse BlackRock, whose bid to acquire a stake in Panama Canal ports has been supported by Mr. Trump amid opposition from China. Another is Jeff Yass, a major investor in TikTok’s parent company who could benefit from a Trump-backed deal to keep the social media app up and running in the United States.”
Mismanage Justice Department. Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump is dialing up pressure on the Justice Department to freshly scrutinize ballots from the 2020 election, raising tensions with administration officials who think their time is better spent examining voter lists for future elections. In recent private meetings, public comments and social media posts, Trump has renewed demands that members of his administration find fraud in the five-year-old defeat that he never accepted. He recently hired at the White House a lawyer who worked on contesting the 2020 results. Administration officials and allies have asked to inspect voting equipment in Colorado and Missouri. Others are seeking mail ballots from Atlanta in 2020....”
Wreck the U.S. & World Economy. Ana Swanson & Alexandra Steven of the New York Times look at how Trump's erratic tariff changes have affected businesses & may now help China, thanks to his latest "deal" with Xi.
Toss Constitution. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has ... been thinking about a third term for years. 'We’re going to win four more years in the White House,' he said in 2020. 'And then after that, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably — based on the way we were treated — we are probably entitled to another four after that.' And earlier this year, he told NBC News that he wasn’t 'joking' about serving a third term. 'There are methods which you could do it,' he said.... Allies of the president insist that there is a plan — a loophole — that might allow Trump to circumvent the Constitution and serve another four years or more.... [This] treats the Constitution as a language game whose meaning depends less on the text, structure, history and purpose of the document and more on whether you can use the fundamental indeterminacy of language to brute-force your preferred outcome.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So unbeknownst to us, there's a 28th Amendment to the Constitution: "The President may ignore, disregard, override and violate any and all provisions of this Constitution based on the way he is treated." This is entirely consistent, for instance, with Saturday's Very Presidential* Tweet re: Seth Meyers: "NO TALENT, NO RATINGS, 100% ANTI TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL!!!” The First Amendment does not apply to anyone who "mistreats" the President* (or has "no ratings"???).
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Federal prosecutors’ offices in New York, California and Virginia — to name just a few — have felt the effects of Mr. Trump’s desire to root out those he believes have been disloyal and to wield the criminal justice system against his enemies. But nowhere, perhaps, has the impact been as palpable as the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is deeply enmeshed in the workings of the government and has long attracted Mr. Trump’s vengeance for having filed criminal cases against him and his allies. The office is in crisis, distrustful of its leadership and demoralized by waves of dismissals, demotions and resignations that have slashed its head count by as much as a third since Mr. Trump returned to the White House....” Feuer goes into some detail about all that has gone wrong in the D.C. office.
David McAfee of the Raw Story: "FBI Director Kash Patel has fired a man who he believes is responsible for media reports showing Patel used his FBI jet to fly to see his girlfriend sing at an event, according to reports.'The FBI forced out a senior official overseeing aviation shortly after Director Kash Patel grew outraged about revelations of his publicly-available jet logs indicating he’d flown to see his musician girlfriend perform, said three people familiar with the situation,' according to [Bloomberg Law]. 'Steven Palmer, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, became the third head of the critical incident response group — which includes FBI pilots — to be fired or removed in Patel’s short regime, adding to a year filled with retributive terminations.'"
Toljaso. David McAfee of the Raw Story: "Former President Barack Obama on Saturday sounded off against ... Donald Trump in a speech endorsing [Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger]. 'It is not as if we didn't see some of this coming. I will admit it is worse than even I expected, but I did warn you all. I did,' Obama said. 'You can run the tape. And by the way, he warned you too, because he said what he was gonna do.... Now, nine months later, you have got to ask yourself, has any of that gotten better? Is the economy working better for you? It sure has gotten better for Trump and his family.'"
Marie: And here I was complaining yesterday about how Senate Democrats don't know how to recruit quality candidates. Oh, shame on me: ~~~
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New Jersey, Virginia Governor's Races. Alex Isenstadt of Axios: Donald "Trump's political operation is digging into its massive war chest to bankroll a multimillion-dollar voter turnout effort in the final days of the New Jersey and Virginia governor races...." ~~~
~~~ New Jersey Governor's Race. Tracey Tully & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “Former President Barack Obama urged a crowd of thousands gathered at a campaign rally in New Jersey on Saturday night to reject ... [Donald] Trump’s vision for America and to instead support a 'leader who understands the mission.' 'You’ve got a candidate for governor who is a proven fighter, someone who will work for you every single day,' Mr. Obama said of Representative Mikie Sherrill, the Democrat running for governor against Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican endorsed by Mr. Trump.... The event, at a community college in Newark, showcased Democratic unity — and a few jitters — as the neck-and-neck race enters its final stretch.... Three of the five Democrats Ms. Sherrill beat in June to win the party nomination were present, including Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark, who offered a rousing address that, much like Mr. Obama’s, framed Tuesday’s election as a stark choice between freedom and tyranny. 'This is about defending New Jersey from Donald Trump,' he said.” ~~~
~~~ New York City Mayoral Race. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: “Former President Barack Obama called New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Saturday, praising his campaign and offering to be a 'sounding board' into the future.... Mr. Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election on Tuesday. They talked about the challenges of staffing a new administration and building an apparatus capable of delivering on Mr. Mamdani’s agenda of affordability in the city, the people said. The former president’s outreach on the eve of what has been a contentious election is notable, given how divided the Democratic establishment has been over Mr. Mamdani and the role that Mr. Obama still plays in the party.” The link appears to be a gift link. A CBS News report is here.
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France. Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: “Two more suspects have been charged in last month’s daytime heist at the Louvre Museum, according to French authorities. A 37-year-old man has been charged with organized robbery and conspiracy to commit organized robbery and a 38-year-old woman as an accomplice, Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement. The woman, from the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, appeared before a judge on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse, the French newswire. Both suspects remain in custody. They have denied involvement, Beccuau said.”
20 comments:
So lemme get this straight…attacking a foreign nation, using military force to kill people Fatty doesn’t like is “Sweet”?
And not for nothing, but isn’t it interesting that the only time Christianity has any real meaning for the Orange Monster and Drunk Pete, is when they can use it as an excuse to kill people.
How very Crusaderish of them.
As I said the other day, “Fuck Fetterman”. Now he’s even adopted that Trump photo op thing, the stoopid grin and the thumbs up gesture. No hoodie when you’re hanging with Nazi royalty? Just mail a red MAGA hat to your head already and be done with it. Fucking Manchin clone.
Not “mail”, nail. Bipartisanship is only a good thing if the other side isn’t composed of rat bastard, murdering, lawless, anti-American, constitution burning Nazi fucks.
So wait…who was it that said Fat Hitler could continue blithely blowing up anyone he doesn’t like anywhere in the world, and he’s not in violation of any laws or ethical or moral behavior even if he knows nothing about who these people are or what they’re doing?
Oh…the JUSTICE Department said so? The TRUMP JUSTICE Department? Well, why didn’t you say so? Here I was thinking he got that advice from a bunch of unqualified boot-licking hacks who got their law degree from some fly by night mail order, DIY law school run by some MAGA twerp who lives in his mom’s basement and directs underground slasher movies in his spare time.
I guess it’s okay then.
Sermon In yesterday's paper. Part I
Last weekend my little (I hear her protesting, “I’m not little!”) granddaughter’s peculiar approach to watching television reminded me of the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s observation that nature abhors a vacuum.
For some reason, she was fascinated by the ads. When she heard the ads come on, she’d run to the television from another room, watch them intently and then leave. What they meant to her was unclear. She couldn’t tell me, but something about those ads obviously met a need, if only a desire to fill her headspace with flashing images.
When Aristotle proposed the principle that explains how vacuum cleaners work or why sucking on a straw immersed in a milkshake can be so satisfying, he was not talking about people. But he could have been.
People don’t like emptiness either.
Our stomachs sure don’t, and for many, silence insists on noise to fill it. Loneliness often demands company. Realtors “stage” empty houses with rented furniture because buyers find them more attractive than empty ones, and a blank page or screen invites words.
In that sense, most of what people do is fill holes. Our businesses thrive on identifying or creating a need; then selling something to fill it.
Seeing my granddaughter watching those flashy ads made me wonder what she and her cohort will be filling their heads with as they grow. No doubt, her head will be filled with something. Advertisers, influencers, politicians, all employing the far reach of social media, will happily fill it. And with the loss of so many things we no longer consider important, we’re creating more open territory in our heads for them to occupy.
We used to value reading, for instance, but students’ reading scores, after taking a hit during Covid, have since gotten worse. The recent National Center for Educational Statistics shows an even further decline in reading scores in the last few years, with over one-third of high school seniors now reading below proficiency levels (abcnews.com).
Can’t or would rather not, reading of all kinds is being left by the wayside. Americans spent forty percent less time reading for pleasure now than they did twenty years ago (abcnews.com). The trend for nine-year-olds is even more worrying. From 2012 to 2022 the percentage of nine-year-olds who read for pleasure dropped from 53 to 39 (arts.gov). These numbers parallel the overall decline in reading proficiency and the loss in newspaper readership over the same period.
The absence of reading and the mental skills that go with it leave a lot of empty space we already fill with social media, streamed entertainment, computer videos and games, watching and betting on sports, and by incessant texting, little of which focuses on the nuts and bolts of our daily lives. Instead, they distract us from them.
Then, there’s this:
Today’s college students show less interest in language, history, philosophy, and the arts than their predecessors did. In 1965, fifteen percent of college undergraduates majored in one of the Humanities. Now those majors comprise less than nine percent, and humanities departments are shrinking (wikipedia.org). If we don’t value general knowledge, learn how to read and think critically, follow and express complicated thought, and understand that worth can be measured in ways other than the size of our bank accounts, we miss much of what it means to be human.
Maybe equally vital to the nation’s future, wide reading, critical thinking skills, and a firm grasp of history and general science inoculates us against the lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories common in the media. They serve as the brain’s antibodies against blind belief.
Part II
In only this last month, we’ve been asked to swallow even more “vagrant opinions,” as Mark Twain described opinions lacking “visible means of support.” Among the many: Tylenol taken by pregnant women causes autism. The sixty-one people so far killed in international waters by the Trump administration were all drug smugglers (factcheck.org) The White House’s East Wing will not be affected by construction of a massive ballroom. (It won’t be now; the East Wing is entirely gone). Democrats are shutting down the government to provide health care and insurance to illegal immigrants (usatoday.com). Reagan thought all tariffs were great (forbes.com). Trump said he doesn’t know Changpeng Zhao, the crypto currency businessman he just pardoned, although the Trump family crypto business has direct financial ties to Mr. Changpeng’s (cnbc.com).
I wouldn’t expect my granddaughter to sort all this out at her young age. But I dearly hope her adult head will not be so empty she allows such nonsense to fill it.
I wonder if he got his Trumpanzee Justice Department that says he can blow up any random people in a boat he feels like to weigh in on the legality of telling mean jokes at FH's expense.
Seems this may be a relevant speech by "Elissa Slotkin just laid out in the most straightforward terms in a public speech exactly how and why Donald Trump is a violent lawless authoritarian, who has no intention of giving up power. That a U.S. senator is saying this seems like a news story." She mentions that like many psychopaths that Fat Hitler is ramping up his terror and violence.
From Digby
"Brian Beutler published what he thinks is the best speech given in recent times by a nation’s leader. It happens to be from French president Emmanuel Macron in Germany:
We are under attack from outside. We are under attack from enemies of democracy. We need to recognize this.… When propagandists from authoritarian regimes attack our public spaces and social networks with disinformation, we are under threat from outside. When authoritarian regimes come to spread their messages, we are threatened from outside. But we would be very naive not to see that from within, we are turning against ourselves…."
Don't Eat Me
James Fell's clap backs for a good laugh. The James Webb line is particularly clever.
Not all Christians get protection this administration.
"The Trump administration is deporting Iranian asylum-seekers, including Christians, to Iran under a new agreement — even though administration officials have slammed the country as a restrictive regime that sponsors terror attacks, persecutes religious minorities and executes prisoners who are forced to confess to crimes under torture."
@RAS: Yes, that line about the James Webb telescope is definitely worth stealing. I can hear myself saying it now.
The link RAS posted to the James Fell site (a good one) reminded me to pull this one
back out again.
The Nazis are still with us. They've take over the White House.
You all thought Fatty would name that new shithole ballroom thing after himself? He's not that greedy. He's added his old pal's name as well.
The Trump-Epstein Memorial Ballroom
Just the place for your middle school beauty pageants!
https://youtu.be/BbiXMQwBEaA?si=BpmL3XzM5MkVxVMi
Thanks for Elissa's serious chat. I have sent it out to kids and other people-- everyone should hear it.
And, Jesus, that photo of Fatlips Lara and Fetterman the Foolish-- it is to vomit.
@Akhilleus: Your Epstein Ballroom got me to thinking about disgusting things. Trump owned Miss Teen USA from 1996 to 2015; he had part ownership in its "parent" company until 2015, too, but his partner NBC cut ties with him as a result of Trump's comments about Mexicans being rapists & drug dealers, etc.
Before that, Trump had a business arrangement with the owner of a "modeling" agency called Elite Model Management that ran a very dodgy "beauty contest," where girls as young as 14 had to have dinner & attend other social events with Trump & the agency's owner John Casablancas. Casablancas, like Trump, also had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
For instance, according to Google's Art Intel, "In 1990, Casablancas' agency sent a teenage model to a residential address on New York's Upper East Side for a 'casting call' with a 'photographer' who was Jeffrey Epstein. A subsequent lawsuit alleged Epstein sexually assaulted the 15-year-old girl during this meeting," AND "Epstein and Casablancas were both present as guests at a 'Calendar Girl' competition hosted by Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1992, which featured 28 women."
That is, the connections among Trump, Casblancas & Epstein are all tied up in these hundreds of underage girls.
So I would guess that what's alleged in those Epstein files is that Trump & Epstein were using the Miss Teen USA pageant to traffic girls. Or that Trump allowed Epstein access to the girls for the purpose of trafficking them. Something like that. Trump may be right to worry that trafficking young girls -- i.e., just what the Pizzagate conspiracy theorists were bizarrely accusing Hillary Clinton of doing -- will be that bridge too far for his fundamentalist Christian page.
In the meantime, there are federal agents who know what's in those files. Pam Bondi & Kash Patel know, too. That should be job security for Blondie & Kash; if not, then an amazing golden parachute.
The cruelty is the point aftrer all....As seen on Bluesky, Catherine Rampell writes that "The USDA sent an email to grocery stores telling them they are prohibited from offering special discounts to customers affected by the SNAP funding lapse. No discounts for struggling customers!!!
As seen on Threads, a SNL clip of t****'s Ballroom Planning
Neighbors
"Christine Payne has lived, along with her husband Jimmy, in Georgetown for six years and her small but pointed decoration has more than a veiled message to her neighbor Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“My son has autism, and a neighbor is very active in anti-vaccines,” Payne said. “So it was also in reflection to that.” Along with pumpkins and a Halloween themed “Welcome” sign on the door, Payne has a skeleton displayed in her window.
The skeleton in a child-sized chair, holding a sign that says, “Wish I had taken my vaccine.” “There is a small bottle of Tylenol also next to his feet because we’re very concerned about it affecting children,” Payne said."
Marie,
So here's what Francis Bacon (and pretty much all the other empiricist philosophers) would say about Trump's obsession with young naked girls. Look at the evidence. What kind of epistemic knowledge can you glean from empirical observation?
Fatty's KKK dad hands him hundreds of millions of dollars. Fatty finagles to get his hands on most of dear old dad's cash several years before Fred kicks (1999). So what's almost the first thing he does with all that money?
He buys his way into ownership of the Miss Teen USA beauty pageant. Seriously? This is his goal in life? To be able to wander into backstage dressing rooms to see naked 14 and 15 year old girls? He was FIFTY years old! WTF. Sure, he was busy losing millions in other failed enterprises, but he kept holding on to this for years. YEARS. Why? Oh yeah, he was also best buds with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Then he gets involved with a "modeling agency"? If you're one of the Empiricist philosophers (or just a reasonably observant bystander), you have to say this sort of thing indicates a serious obsession. It ain't just a hobby, but even if it were, what the hell kind of hobby is that?
The guy has been a fucking pervert his entire adult life. He loved talking about how he'd like to be banging his daughter. Stampeding through dressing rooms with young naked girls? Bragging about grabbing pussies. Sexually assaulting and raping random women? Who does that?
Let's poll the philosophers:
Bacon: Perv
Hume: Perv
Locke: disgusting perv and hater of democracy
Bishop Berkeley: God puts all these thoughts of the world in our heads, but he must have been on a break when he made Trump: pervert
And Descartes? Nudae puellae, ergo, pervertere
Yeah, what he said.
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