The New York Times is liveblogging Trump-related disasters here. From the pinned item at 7:30 pm ET: Donald “Trump said on social media that Tehran’s official response to the latest American proposal in the negotiations to end the war was 'TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.' Mr. Trump did not offer any details about what the Iranian response, which its representatives had previously sent to Pakistani mediators, had contained.”
Marie: You will no doubt recall all those stories about how businessman Trump was always screwing contractors, refusing to pay everybody from the piano tuner to the pool guy because he arbitrarily declared they "didn't do a good job, and I don't pay for shoddy work." (As if Trump would know whether or not a piano was in tune.) He was such an untrustworthy businessman that he wound up a litigant in 3,500 lawsuits. Well, nothing has changed: ~~~
~~~ Scott McLendon of the Miami New Times: “From his foundry in Zanesville..., [Ohio, sculptor Alan] Cottrill has worked on hundreds of commissioned statues now standing across the country.... But never has a commission been as chaotic as the crypto bro-funded, gold-leafed, looksmaxxed Trump unveiled this week at Trump’s golf club, he says[:] 'This was a clusterfuck.'... Demands to nix the turkey neck and make the model skinnier, missed payments, and calls to install the statue last-minute — no Cottrill commission has been as complicated as the statue dubbed 'Don Colossus.'... When asked if [he] would ever work with the crypto bros or Trump’s team again..., [Cottrell] didn’t need to hear the full question before responding, 'Fuck no.'” Treat yourself to the whole story. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: If there's anybody sleazier than Trump (and I'm not saying there is), it's the bums who suck up to him.
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Punctuation. Heather Cox Richardson: “... Mothers’ Day' — with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural — ... started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced writer and reformer Julia Ward Howe that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society. The Civil War years taught naïve Americans what mass death meant in the modern era. Soldiers who had marched off to war with fantasies of heroism discovered that newly invented long-range weapons turned death into tortured anonymity. Men were trampled into blood-soaked mud, piled like cordwood in ditches, or withered into emaciated corpses after dysentery drained their lives away. The women who had watched their hale and healthy men march off to war were haunted by its results. They lost fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers. The men who did come home were scarred in both body and mind.” Read on. ~~~
~~~ AND There's This: ~~~
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| I have two mommies. I know where the apostrophe goes. |
It's 4:00 am here on the East Coast, and there's not a lick of news. IOW, my kind of day.
Marie: If I were a person who had an obsessive-compulsive need to stay up all night scrolling social media for violent AI clips that excited me, I'm sure I would try to hide these pathological impulses.
Robert Kagan in the Atlantic: “Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran ... can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be 'open,' as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran’s allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure.”
Matt Moret & Hugh Kellenberger of the New York Times Athletic: Donald “Trump's plan to turn East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., into a 'championship-level course' took a step forward Friday after half a dozen private and public entities reached a deal to overhaul the site. In a Friday night statement, the National Park Service said it will partner with National Links Trust, Fazio Design, First Tee of Greater Washington, D.C., Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholars Foundation to begin 'immediate renovations' of East Potomac, as well as Langston Golf Course and Rock Creek Park Golf. It said the group will turn them 'into the country’s premier public golf courses, while keeping them affordable and accessible for all.'... Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will oversee the project.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Despite the fact that I have a NYT subscription, I can't normally access Athletic articles that are linked on the Times' online front page. But this article, I could access, after dumping a pitch to subscribe to the Athletic.
Trump's Gold Card Visa Is a Scam. Meryl Kornfeld of the Washington Post: “Immigration attorney Michael Wildes has represented first lady Melania Trump and her parents, who are naturalized citizens. He has secured visas for Miss Universe titleholders when ... Donald Trump ran the pageant organization. He has done legal work for the Kushner family. But when he has received calls from potential clients interested in a gold card visa that Trump has touted for wealthy foreigners, he has told them there is little he can do because the program is legally dubious.... Immigration lawyers who have represented wealthy individuals are warning their clients against paying the $15,000 fee to apply for the $1 million or $2 million visa that Trump has advertised, citing the lack of a congressionally established visa, ongoing litigation against the visa program and uncertainty about the tax implications for their clients. Seven immigration attorneys who work with the sort of wealthy clientele that the gold card program is meant to attract told The Washington Post that they have either steered clients clear of applying for the gold card or declined to assist foreigners who have already applied, recommending instead that wealthy people consider established, legal methods of coming to the United States.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I suppose the refreshing part of this story is that Trump is as happy to scam rich people as he is to scam the average dimwitted MAGA sucker. Everything is always all about Trump. The rest of us are all suckers & losers.
Mike Stobbe of the AP: “In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.... 'The CDC is not even a player,' said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. 'I’ve never seen that before.'... To ... Donald Trump, 'We seem to have things under very good control,' as he told reporters Friday evening....
Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate. Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain’s Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a University of Nebraska quarantine center for evaluation and monitoring. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.... The CDC’s diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: In fairness to the CDC, they're probably doing about as well as your average banana republic health agency.
Ha Ha. Obama Derangement Syndrome Is Fun to Watch. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: President Barack “Obama is one of many prominent leaders trekking to Toronto for the 2026 Global Progress Action Summit. On Friday, [Canadian Prime Minister Mark] Carney posted a message welcoming the former president, writing: 'Welcome back to Canada, President @BarackObama. Thank you for joining us in Toronto for important conversations on how we can build a better and more just future — and empower more people to build with us.'... [Loomer responded in a social media post,] 'Why is Barack Hussein Obama meeting with world leaders while President Trump is in office? This is a coup.'” MB: I wish.
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Colorado. AP: “A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during takeoff, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate. The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, 'reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,' the airport’s official X account wrote. A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.” According to the pilot, the individual was “walking across the runway.” (Also linked yesterday.)
⭐Virginia. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “The whiplash for the Virginia Democrats running for Congress was swift and intense after the state Supreme Court struck down the new congressional map proposed in February to flip four Republican-held seats. With the stroke of a pen in Richmond, some campaigns effectively went poof, other candidates suddenly were in far tougher districts and one went from on the verge of dropping out to gearing up for a long-shot battle in a deep-red part of the state. Rarely have so many fully formed campaigns gone off the rails at once.” Quit crying in your craft beers, people. Jamelle Bouie has a plan: ~~~
~~~ Here. Is. The. Answer. Jamelle Bouie on the Virginia supreme court's decision to throw out the redistricting election. (If you don't have time to listen to all of Bouie's remarks, start at about 8 minutes in. But really.) Marie: Bouie's solution is kind of exciting -- AND he's right:
~~~ Bouie makes the same points in his New York Times column but not with the same step-by-step logical argument he makes in the video. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Russia. Paul Sonne of the New York Times: “About 352,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war against Ukraine through the end of 2025, according to a new estimate, underscoring the high cost that President Vladimir V. Putin is willing to bear to pursue his battlefield aims.The figure was released on Saturday — the day of Russia’s annual May 9 parade celebrating victory over Germany in World War II — by the exiled Russian media outlets Meduza and Mediazona. The number raises the prospect that about half a million soldiers in total have died on the Russian and Ukrainian sides.... The war has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.” (Also linked yesterday.)
12 comments:
Robert Kagan, in The Atlantic, writes that Washington can’t reverse or control the consequences of losing this war.
"Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran’s allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure."
Fat Hitler's golden statue a little less fat than the original
"But the artist behind it had choice words when asked about the two-year creation process. “This was a clusterfuck,” Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill tells New Times.
“I usually deal with people that have everything organized. From the start, this was chaos,” Cottrill says. “I have 400 life-size or larger statues around the country. The patron sets a date when they want it installed, and I have it installed on that date. And almost never, anytime whatsoever, does anyone miss a payment, because I always do what I say I’ll do, and the patron always does what they say they’re going to.”
That wasn’t the case with the 15-foot (22 feet when you include the platform) Trump statue. Demands to nix the turkey neck and make the model skinnier, missed payments, and calls to install the statue last-minute — no Cottrill commission has been as complicated as the statue dubbed “Don Colossus.”"
Fatty the Dealmaker goes to China and comes away empty handed
"Air Force One will land in Beijing on May 14. President Trump expects to land with leverage in his briefcase. He should think again.
On May 4, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent appeared on Fox News to plead with China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and relieve pressure on the international oil markets. While Bessent was busying himself on Fox News, China was busy making friends by supplying those in distress with much-needed oil and other commodities."
While Fat Hitler, Drunk Pete and their war-mongering cheerleaders strut around trying to look big and bad, but privately shitting their pants over what to do next, China has been calming moving pieces around the international chessboard just as Fatty is still learning how to play checkers (and failing at it).
"Sinopec and Sinochem have been reselling West African crude to refiners across Asia. On the gas side, Chinese majors have resold a record 1.31 million tons of LNG so far this year to the likes of South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and India. Beijing has been lending a hand to its Asian neighbors while the U.S. has been doing the opposite with its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The diplomatic dividend is exactly what one would expect: Seoul, Tokyo, and Jakarta have all sent Beijing a thank-you note and pivoted away from Uncle Sam."
Meanwhile, far away from MAGA fantasy land where the Dear Leader is worrying about reflecting pools, paint jobs on buildings, a throne room for himself, and golf courses with his name attached, actual world leaders are busy taking huge advantage of the Turd Reich's stupidity, ineptness, and clownish ignorance.
"The verdict is in. The Alliance of Democracies’ Democracy Perception Index, which was released on May 8, puts China’s net global perception at +7%. Meanwhile, the international perception of the U.S. has collapsed. Two years ago, it sat comfortably at +22%. Today, it has plunged to a dismal -16%. It is clear that Trump will be tiptoeing through the tulips with Xi and coming home empty-handed."
Too much winning. And yet, despite historic failure and the astonishing speed with which Fatty has destroyed America's standing in the world, the Supine Court, MAGA plants in the judiciary, and the Party of Traitors are conniving to ensure we get this sort of criminal incompetence for decades to come.
Citing a story on PBS, Oliver Kornetzke calls attention to the t**** administration quietly scaling back hunting restrictions in national parks, noting Yellowstone Goes to the Highest Bidder
"America 2026. Our national parks, the singular American institution that even our most cynical generations somehow managed to protect for over a century, are now officially open for hunting. And that is just the appetizer.
Hunting, mining, drilling, logging, grazing, road-building, every single extractive and polluting industry that has ever drooled over a piece of protected federal land is now lining up to finally carve their slice out of the last few remaining pieces of intact natural North American ecosystems this country still has left."
Wendy,
Re: the Kagan piece.
Robert Kagan is no pearl clutcher or bleeding heart liberal, he's been a hard nosed neocon his whole career, but obviously one with a brain, who left the Party of Traitors when Fat Hitler showed up to throw his blubber around. Unlike Rubio, who used to be a pretty standard neocon, Kagan decided that knuckling under to an authoritarian mental deficient was not worth the temporary opportunism of advancement by throwing all his convictions into the mud and kissing the Orange bottom.
Meanwhile, another failed leader, Vlad the Impaler is making noises about ending his war on Ukraine.
"With no victory in sight and no timeline for an end to the war, the mood in Russia is souring. On the battlefield, the picture is similarly grinding. Russian troops are near a standstill, with neither side appearing close to a breakthrough.
Advances have slowed in recent months, both armies showing signs of exhaustion and sustaining heavy casualties while continuing to strike each other’s energy infrastructure.
Putin, who has led Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left swathes of Ukraine in ruins and drained Russia’s economy. Russia’s relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the cold war."
Unlike the writer RAS mentioned yesterday who was concerned for poor Putie, the Guardian reporter here makes no bones about what a murdering tyrant he is.
Of course, Putin is demanding that everything be done according to his liking (big surprise) so these early indications of an end to this illegal war of aggression may not go anywhere. But if they do, you can be sure of who will try to take all the credit. "It's the 325th war I stopped this year! Where's my Nobel?"
Akhilleus -
He may be a neocon but the first essay I remember reading of Robert Kagan's was the one published in the Post in May 2016 and now available on the Brookings website - and still worth rereading This is how fascism comes to America
"This is how fascism comes to America, not with jackboots and salutes (although there have been salutes, and a whiff of violence) but with a television huckster, a phony billionaire, a textbook egomaniac “tapping into” popular resentments and insecurities, and with an entire national political party—out of ambition or blind party loyalty, or simply out of fear—falling into line behind him."
Wendy,
I remember that one. And that is why, I presume, Kagan decided to decamp from the party that was gleefully delivering fascism to our doorsteps and demanding that we thank them for it.
Interesting how the FF and his buddy Vlad mirror one another. Pronouncements for home consumption far removed from reality to cover the awfulness of the wars they began and can't win.
In their rush to defenestrate anyone able to do actual science, as opposed to toeing the party line of propaganda about how Fatty has brought us to a new golden age and shut up about any problems, the MAGAts have yet to destroy every outpost of scientific investigation and prediction.
NOAA, while it still exists, is calling this year for a Super El Niño.
Interestingly, in this article from the Weather Channel, the writer has to also call upon European forecast models, presumably because DOGE and the South African Chainsaw Monster, along with Fatty's "cost cutters" have shuttered so many US facilities.
This could be a very bad season.
"There have been 27 El Niños since 1950, with one happening on average every three to four years. The last one happened from summer 2023 into early spring 2024.
But this won't be your garden-variety, weak El Niño.
The majority of model forecasts now suggest there is at least a 50-50 chance this El Niño could become a "super El Niño," one in which ocean surface temperatures are at least 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average...Several model forecasts now suggest this El Niño could eventually top out at least 2.5 degrees above average by autumn, placing it among the most intense on record.
'Confidence is clearly shifting higher on potentially the biggest El Niño event since the 1870s,' wrote Paul Roundy, a University of Albany professor and El Niño expert, in a post on X Tuesday."
The article goes on to outline the potential disasters awaiting us.
Now what I want to know are two things. First, how they'll blame this on Joe Biden, and second, how much fun it will be to watch Fatty try to claim that this is all normal and we shouldn't worry about him because he'll have his ballroom-throne room-Führerbunker to hide in if things get really bad.
In the meantime, round up those meteorologists and earth scientists spreading this "fake news" and fire them all. The Dear Leader will tell us everything we need to know.
Hetan Shah
"This 1952 memo from the Pentagon UFO files is superb
There is no point preparing for aliens ‘because no one of consequence is going to take this rubbish seriously unless it happens. At that point, our policy will be determined in the traditional manner of grand panic.’ 🤣"
Jamelle Bouie's solution to standard PoT kowtowing to authoritarian, white supremacist ideology and sleazy right-wing double standards is perfect. The problem is, Democrats typically do not have the balls for anything like this. We like to play by the rules while the other side cheats at everything and beats the pants off us every time, even though we know they're doing it.
His point, that were this a referendum that went in Republicans' favor, and that the VA high court wouldn't think twice about letting it ride is not just salient, it's 100% true. And our problem now is that since Virginia has already appealed to the highest court of mendacity, slippery casuistry, and anti-democratic jiggery-pokery, Democrats will have a much harder time making the case that the lower court was in error, because once it gets to the Little Johnnie and the Dwarfs, that's it: game over. There is no way, in any possible universe that the majority will side with logic and rule of law if it gives hated Democrats an edge. They should have just said "Fuck no. We're going ahead with the will of the voters" but when do we ever do that? We are our own worst enemy. I'd almost say we deserve what we get, but I don't deserve that. Neither do any of us out here or the hundreds of millions of others who don't go along with Star Chamber fascist judges telling us to shut up and sit down because "We four have SPOKEN".
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