Chief Justice Takes Up Ballroom Dancing. Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Friday allowed work to continue on the White House ballroom in the short term, issuing a stay that gives the court time to weigh an emergency appeal in a lawsuit challenging the project. The action pauses a Friday deadline imposed by an appeals court to halt construction while the court challenge plays out. The appeals court concluded earlier this month that the controversial 90,000-square-foot addition to the executive mansion probably requires congressional approval to continue. It’s unclear how long Roberts’s administrative stay will last, but typically such holds remain in effect for a few days to give the court time to fully consider the underlying appeal.”
One thing we know about bullies: they can't take mild or even vaguely implied criticism: ~~~
(1) Nitwit-in-Chief Strikes Again. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has opened a new front in his campaign to intimidate political foes, threatening a prominent liberal think tank with a $5 billion defamation lawsuit over a report concluding that his deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country has had little effect on reducing violent crime. The threats against the think tank, the Center for American Progress, were Mr. Trump’s latest effort to use the legal system to punish critics for voicing unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment. And while it is unclear how far any suit the president might ultimately file will get in court, it could force the organization to spend money fighting it off and make it even more of a target of his allies and supporters. On Monday, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, Alejandro Brito, wrote a letter to the center warning that he would file the suit if the group did not fully retract the report, which was published on its website on July 13. The letter, viewed by The New York Times, was addressed to the group’s president and chief executive, Neera Tanden, a longtime Democratic official who served as a senior adviser to President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and to several of its board members. Mr. Brito claimed that the report about the National Guard was full of malicious and false statements. He gave Ms. Tanden and members of her board until 5 p.m. on Friday to retract it and apologize to Mr. Trump.” The link is a gift link.
(2) Pete Fires the Press. Scott Nover & Liam Scott of the Washington Post: “The Pentagon on Friday fired the publisher and the editor in chief of Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper funded by the Department of Defense that has long enjoyed editorial independence from the government, according to the publication’s outgoing editor in chief. The Defense Department sent a separation notice to publisher Max Lederer, who announced his retirement this week, telling staff in a parting note he had disagreed with decisions from Pentagon top brass.Under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the publication’s independence has come under threat during the second Trump administration as top Pentagon leaders have derided the newspaper as 'woke.' Erik Slavin, the editor in chief, said he and reporter Lara Korte also received separation notices Friday. Slavin said he and Korte were fired for participating in a CBS News interview, during which he said censorship of the military newspaper crossed a red line.”
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “A luxury jet from Qatar. A pair of leopards from Saudi Arabia. And now, the latest foreign gifts to arrive in ... Washington are 'exquisitely crafted' gazebos, courtesy of the president of Uzbekistan. The Uzbek gazebos will be exhibited in West Potomac Park, the site of Mr. Trump’s planned National Garden of American Heroes.... In June, the United States and Uzbekistan accelerated negotiations toward a trade and investment deal.... The United States committed to providing 'favorable consideration' in tariff actions for Uzbek industrial goods and agricultural products. Last year, Mr. Trump and [President Shavkat] Mirziyoyev announced what they said was $32 billion in bilateral commercial deals. The United States also supports Uzbekistan in its World Trade Organization accession process.” The link is a gift link.
Perry Stein & Alexei Koseff of the Washington Post: “Federal law enforcement officials seized electronic devices belonging to former congressman Eric Swalwell (D-California) as part of an investigation of sexual assault allegations against him.... Swalwell has not been charged with any crimes. Publicly available court papers confirm the seizure of an iPhone and laptop from Swalwell, but do not detail why they were taken.” What? No press conference, Kash?
Jalen Beckford of Politico: “Former twice acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California Andrew Haden was found dead this week in the downtown San Diego federal building that houses the prosecutors’ office, officials confirmed Friday. Authorities said no foul play is suspected.”
Suppress the Vote. See RAS's link below on getting on that Chick-fil-A Christian voting calendar. Then see Patrick's response. His last line is a truism of near-Biblical gravitas.
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Anton Troianovski & Alan Rappeport ;of the New York Times: Donald “Trump this week promised an 'economic D-Day' against Iran, a 'crushing' operation to 'cripple' Iran. The U.S. clampdown is formidable, a combination of wartime destruction, a naval blockade and sanctions that have already put the Iranian economy under more pressure than its regime has experienced in decades.... Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to reassure investors worried about the pressure campaign on Iran on Thursday, declaring that a resumption of 'large-scale' fighting was unlikely.... Between the lines of the administration’s threats was a signal that Mr. Bessent made as clear as ever on Thursday: Mr. Trump does not want to go back to war right now.... Mr. Trump is stuck in a conflict with limited leverage, a demonstrated vulnerability and an emboldened adversary. Even as Iran reels from shortages and inflation, Mr. Trump is likely to increasingly feel the pressure of the approaching midterm elections in the shadow of an unpopular war and high gas prices. It is a dangerous combination, experts say, that could prompt Iran to sense American weakness and lash out.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of yesterday's thread. He's a bit more blunt than the Times reporters. Meanwhile, Washington Post reporters come pretty close to calling Trump an angry baby. ~~~
Another Consequence of Trump's Middle East Debacle. Pranav Baskar & of the New York Times: “Somali pirates hijacked a suspected Iranian shadow fleet tanker off the coast of Yemen on Thursday, amid what experts say is the biggest surge in piracy in the region in more than a decade. The oil tanker, the SIBU 1, flies an Eritrean flag.... The tanker has routinely ferried fuel to an oil terminal in the Yemeni port of Ras Isa that is controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.... SIBU 1 was the second ship hijacked by Somali pirates in a span of four days, according to officials in Somalia. Days earlier, a Cameroon-flagged cargo vessel carrying weapons was seized off the coast of the semiautonomous Somali region of Puntland, said ... the director ... of ... ports in the neighboring Galmadug State. Years after a global naval campaign largely curbed the scourge of piracy, experts worry that the conflict in Iran — along with other factors ... — is setting the stage for a comeback.” The link is a gift link.
Marie: Trump has caused trouble the world over. But are we too quick to blame him? Isn't it all really the fault of the Norwegian Nobel Committee??
John IsmayNew York Times
: “The beleaguered aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln ... began its journey home to San Diego on Thursday after nine months of deployment. Another carrier, the Japan-based George Washington, has taken the Lincoln’s place.... The Abraham Lincoln departed San Diego on Nov. 21 of last year, and has spent the entirety of those 272 days at sea, save for a brief stop in Guam in December and one in Oman to take on supplies. Thousands of sailors aboard the ship have not had any days off to rest, and now have a roughly 13,000-mile voyage home, which could take four to five weeks.” The link is a gift link.& of NBC News: "Navy leadership is discussing renaming a Navy aircraft carrier after ... Donald Trump.... The ship, which is still under construction, has been set to be named the USS Doris Miller in honor of an enlisted sailor who famously staffed an anti-aircraft gun during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during World War II despite not having been trained on the weapon. Miller, a mess attendant, grabbed the gun during the attack and is credited with shooting down at least one Japanese plane and dragging wounded U.S. sailors to safety. Miller was the first Black service member to receive the Navy Cross — the Navy’s second-highest honor.... The USS Doris Miller would be the first aircraft carrier named after a Black and an enlisted sailor. The decision and the announcement to name the carrier after Miller were made during Trump’s first term.... Two officials said that Miller is now under consideration for the Medal of Honor but that it has not been approved by the White House. Destroyers are often named after Medal of Honor recipients, but aircraft carriers are usually named after presidents." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah well. I can think of a reason to name a naval vessel after a draft-dodging living president* who has made life miserable for sailors (and wants to make it worse) instead of after a heroic Black sailor. That reason: naked racism.
What doth it profit a man if he sell[s] his soul and can't even manipulate the 30-year? -- Paul Krugman ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman: Treasury Secretary Scott “Bessent routinely makes assertions about the state of the economy that are manifestly, glaringly untrue.... He doesn’t mind sounding like a fool and a liar to the financial markets and to the American public as long as it pleases Dear Leader.... Which brings me to Bessent’s most recent interventionist move: An attempt to reverse the recent spike in U.S. long-term interest rates by buying back 30-year Treasury bonds.... This is just a swap of longer-term government debt for shorter-term, riskier government debt. It does nothing to resolve the underlying U.S. fiscal problems that caused the spike in the 30-year debt. Some analysts call Bessent’s strategy 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.' But it’s actually worse than that. [AND] The maneuver is failing: 30-year yields fell briefly on Wednesday, when the policy was announced, but bounced back on Thursday and were higher as I write this than they were a week ago — clear proof that you can’t gaslight the bond market.”
Dustin Volz of the New York Times: “The White House in recent weeks has made public a steady drip of previously classified intelligence about foreign threats to elections and other matters, offering ... [Donald] Trump and his allies ammunition for baseless conspiracy theories about potential vote rigging. But one crucial document has not been among the releases, despite a congressional requirement for it to be: the assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies of foreign meddling efforts during the 2024 election.... The 2020 version of the assessment, released during the early weeks of the Biden administration, highlighted Russia’s efforts to boost Mr. Trump, Iran’s push to harm his candidacy and analytic judgments about actions China considered but largely refrained from taking. It also included a dissenting minority view that China took 'at least some steps' intended to undermine Mr. Trump. The omission of the report on the 2024 election shows the highly selective nature of the Trump White House’s approach to declassification.... Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior intelligence official at the C.I.A. and National Security Agency..., said ... that[, in general,] the president’s declassification decisions had 'gone largely unchecked while appearing to be driven primarily by political and revenge agendas.'” The link is a gift link.
Laura Barrón-López& Vaughn Hillyard of MS NOW: “Election officials across the country are war-gaming every move they think ... Donald Trump might make to interfere in the midterm elections — scenarios that range from ordering federal agents to seize ballots and voting machines to sending immigration agents to polling locations.... Said a senior Republican election official..., 'We’re just not creative or devious enough to come up with what might be coming.' As the president continues to spread lies about the 2020 election, the Justice Department is dispatching 1,000 monitors to watch midterm voting, and his most loyal MAGA-sphere allies are calling a federal election takeover necessary because, as one put it, 'we’re in a revolution right now.' Earlier this year, Trump said 'we shouldn’t even have an election' and expressed regret for not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in 2020. More recently, he left the door open to declaring a national emergency to gain control over the elections this November. Five top election officials in different states told MS NOW that state officials and election administrators are in active conversations with local law enforcement, state attorneys general and legal advisers about how to respond if federal agents attempt to raid a polling site and seize ballots or machines — breaking the chain of custody for ballots and potentially throwing an election’s results into doubt.” ~~~
~~~ Yunior Rivas of Democracy Docket: “The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sued the Department of Justice Thursday, seeking records about any plans to seize ballots, voting machines or other election materials before the 2026 midterms are certified. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses DOJ of violating the Freedom of Information Act by failing to turn over records the DNC requested in February. Those requests sought information about any 'planned, anticipated, or potential' inspection or seizure of election materials beginning 30 days before a federal election and continuing through certification. Nearly five months later, the DNC says it has received no responsive records. The FBI initially closed one request as too vague. The DNC appealed, but says the agency never issued a substantive response. A parallel request sent to DOJ’s Criminal Division was routed to other components, including the Civil Rights Division, but the DNC says those offices also have not produced records.”
DHS (More or Less) Admits to Releasing Fake Report on Noncitizen Voting. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “A month after the Trump administration declared without evidence that thousands of noncitizens had illegally registered to vote in Nevada, officials with the Department of Homeland Security were unable to substantiate the claim. The administration claimed to have identified 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in four states, including an exact number of 15,903 in Nevada. But during a meeting last week with state election administrators, Homeland Security officials said they had identified just 185 potential noncitizens in the state so far.... But the list the Homeland Security Department shared with Nevada is incomplete — it doesn’t even include names — and is nearly impossible to verify....
“Unproven claims that large numbers of noncitizens have voted in elections have been at the core of ... [Donald] Trump’s political message and central to his justification to enact the SAVE America Act, which would require people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.... 'We are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security,' Mr. Trump said [in July], implying falsely that the government had found solid evidence.... Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pointedly threatened local election officials with prison time if they did not comply with the administration’s efforts to change election policies.... In the meeting last week, Homeland Security effectively admitted that its initial claim had not been substantiated.” The link is a gift link. An MS NOW story is here. ~~~
~~~ Joyce Vance on Substack on a Different Fake Illegal Voting Report: “On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced a Department of Commerce 'report' that claims more than 24,000 noncitizens illegally voted in the 2020 election. That sounds bad, right?... Lauren Groh-Wargo, the president and CEO of Fair Fight..., [says of the 'report']: 'This is a bald-faced lie.' Marc Elias called the report 'dodgy,' and his Democracy Docket explained that 'the analysis the president cites relies on an incomplete commercial voter file and record-matching methods that raise serious concerns about the accuracy of its conclusions.' NPR reported that the supposed 'Census Bureau report' wasn’t actually produced by Census Bureau staff and 'has ties to a Trump-aligned think tank.'... It’s a fabrication, and we need to be prepared to say so.” MB: The NPR report also was linked here yesterday.
Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times reviews former Trump fixer Michael Cohen's telephone interview of Donald Trump. It was boring. Most “of the conversation consisted of [Trump's] essentially popping in the same cassette tape that he pops in every day to repeat the same lines he says about the successful war with Iran, and the rockin’ economy, and the crazy Democrats, and the good poll numbers, and the many other lines he says to anyone, anywhere.” The link is a gift link. Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Lucy Campbell of the Guardian writes an overview of the shifting shifty Trump/Cohen relationship. “In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Cohen said he had applied for a pardon from Trump after an initial request for clemency was denied by Joe Biden.”
Marie: The Daily Beast (firewalled) has released two full love letters Natalie Harp wrote to Donald Trump in 2023. A link to copies of the original letters is here, but you have to have maintained your X file to read them on X. I was able to read them (even though I didn't bother) by blowing up the linked page to 150% (I have a fairly large computer screen). An argument can be made that these private letters, which were written when neither Trump nor Natalie was a public employee, are none of our damned business. On the other hand, we are paying Harp's salary now (it's $150,000/year [NYT gift link]) plus benefits!* and she is a big part of the reason the POTUS* doesn't know WTF is going on. So I'll just use her current employment arrangement to rationalize whatever prurient invasion of privacy I'm promoting here.
*Luxury travel in catering cart, SUV trunk.
Arelis Hernandez of the Washington Post: “The first deportation flight to Haiti since the Trump administration ended humanitarian protections for 350,000 people living in the United States landed Thursday in the Caribbean nation, and activists say immigration arrests are beginning to ramp up. The flight carrying 170 people, ranging in age from 19 to 71, landed in Cap-Haitien, on the northern coast of Haiti. Commercial flights from the U.S. have been blocked from landing in the Caribbean nation’s primary airport in the capital of Port-au-Prince due to gang activity and reports of aircraft being struck by gunfire.... The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end humanitarian protections for Haitians in June, and in early August a federal judge took the final step in allowing the Trump administration to terminate the benefit for Haitians.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So Republicans who run all three branches of the U.S. government find it acceptable to return people to a country so unsafe planes can't land in its major airport because of gang violence and gunfire? The entire GOP and all of its' "leaders" are morally-bankrupt racists. They're disgusting.
 |
| Yes, he's corrupt, but he's so damned cheerful about it. |
~~~ “This Series Is Brought to You by Corporations I Regulate.” Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: “In a new reality road trip series starring the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy..., he, his wife, their nine children and their son-in-law, Michael Alfonso, a candidate in Wisconsin for Congress, visit American tourist meccas in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. The scenes featuring companies in those stops resemble corporate promotional cameos more than a vacation reel. And the companies are among the major sponsors whose money covered the series’ production and much of its stars’ travel costs. The segments have fueled ethical concerns among Mr. Duffy’s critics, who question whether those sponsors — most of them transportation companies subject to Transportation Department oversight — received perks in exchange for helping fund the secretary’s trip.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you explore the YouTubes, you will find the six episodes in the series. The first episode, which reportedly (I didn't watch) features the Dear Leader, is here. Below is a short, three-month-old "Good Morning America" report on the Duffys' road trip; actually, trips with an "s" -- they taped them over a number of different weekends & vacation times. The GMA segment features some critics' objections to the Road Trip to Corruption: ~~~
Amy Brittain & Joyce Lee of the Washington Post review officials' investigations of the injury to the 2-year-old daughter of Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio): “The Washington Post reviewed video-recorded police interviews, court documents and law enforcement records to assemble an account of how the months-long investigations by the local police department and the county child welfare agency ultimately failed to identify a perpetrator. The account shows that investigators scrutinized a five-day period when the child was shuttling between her parents’ homes. In the days that followed, Miller became increasingly insistent that his ex-wife had caused the broken collarbone, while she raised suspicions about him and also the child’s nanny, the records show.”
Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “A jury in Alabama found the New York Times liable for defamation in a lawsuit brought by Kai Spears, a former University of Alabama men’s basketball player who the newspaper erroneously reported was present at the scene of a deadly shooting. Spears sued the Times in 2023, alleging libel and false light, an invasion of privacy that his lawyers said caused him 'severe emotional distress, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.' After a nine-day federal trial in Tuscaloosa, a jury sided with Spears and ordered the Times to pay $9.25 million in damages.” The New York Times report is here; the link is a gift link.
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California House Special Election. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: “Aisha Wahab, a progressive Democratic state senator, defeated Melissa Hernandez, a moderate Democrat, in a special election to replace Eric Swalwell in California, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Swalwell abruptly resigned in April amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Ms. Wahab was widely seen as the front-runner to represent California’s 14th Congressional District, after she won the June primary for the race with 43 percent of the vote. But this week’s election results were far tighter, and the race was too close to call for two days as local officials continued to count ballots until Thursday. In the closing days of the race, several super PACs — including two with ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — spent millions on advertisements on television and social media targeting the district’s voters in the suburbs east of San Francisco.... Ms. Wahab will now serve the remainder of Mr. Swalwell’s term, which ends in January. She and Ms. Hernandez will compete against each other again in November for a full two-year term.” The link is a gift link. Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course Democrats will have to get Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in Wahab, and Bible Mike really does not like to seat Democrats.
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U.K. Chris Osuh of the Guardian & Agencies: “Nathan Cofnas, the academic who made plagiarism allegations against Prof Jason Arday before his death, has been suspended by a university. Arday, 41, resigned from his role at the University of Cambridge this month after coverage of Cofnas’s accusations of plagiarism. The allegations, which were not proven in any formal investigation, triggered questions about Arday’s achievements. There has been stiff criticism of Cambridge over its handling of the affair, but also of the coverage by some media. The university’s chancellor, Chris Smith, described it as a 'racist feeding frenzy'. Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, was found dead in Battersea, south London, on Friday.” ~~~
~~~ Imran Mullah of the Middle East Eye: “Key claims made by Jason Arday, who was the subject of a relentless media campaign over many aspects of his work and life and who was found dead on Friday, appear to be true, a Middle East Eye analysis has found. These include the Cambridge University professor's claim that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days for charity and that he played semi-professional football, which both became central talking points in recent attacks on the late academic. Certain other claims the sociologist made, which were widely denounced as false, have not been proven untrue, or appear more complex than some media discourse has suggested.” MB: I'm not familiar with the Middle East Eye; here's the Wikipedia page on it.
17 comments:
ProPublica
"Measles Used to Be in Our Rearview Mirror. Now Cases Are Reaching Record Highs.
In other parts of the world that have let their guard down to vaccine-preventable diseases, long-forgotten scourges have roared back and killed and disabled children."
Military Secrets
"More than 150 wallets on Polymarket International may have traded on inside U.S. military information, attracting copycat bets and raising concerns that the market could broadcast signals exploitable by foreign adversaries, according to research published on Thursday.
The analysis by the nonprofit research group Anti-Corruption Data Collective, first reported by Reuters, sheds new light on likely military insider trading on the prediction market and the broader risks such activity may pose.".
We Should All Follow Christian Chicken's Lead
"Chick-fil-A isn’t open on Sundays, so polls shouldn’t be either. That was one reason a GOP county board member in North Carolina offered for scaling back weekend voting during a heated North Carolina State Board of Elections meeting Thursday.
The state board gathered to sort through changes to 20 early voting plans that county-level officials were unable to decide unanimously. That included nixing campus poll sites or, in this case, the ability to cast ballots on Sunday, which devolved into a debate over Christianity and fast food chicken.
“I do not support these companies that are employing people on Sunday to make another dollar. I like how Chick-fil-A has done it, and I wish more companies would do that,” Anson County’s Matt Longworth (R) said in his impassioned plea to the board."
Republicans' War On the Planet
"Potatoes ‘boil’ in the ground as record heatwave sweeps across swathes of Asia
South Korean farmers are suffering in record heat, as Hong Kong reports its highest ever temperature and Japan swelters through newly designated ‘cruelly hot’ days"
Cruelty Is The Point
"Earlier this week Tim talked about a family currently being held in an American internment camp in Texas. Freddys Padilla Revilla, Edgarianny Cortez Gervis, and their 7-year-old daughter came to America from Venezuela legally. They went through the system, settled in Texas, and worked legally.
When they learned that Edgarianny was pregnant this summer, they decided to go back to Venezuela. They saw the writing on the wall. So they went through all the proper government channels to execute a “self-deportation.” Because even leaving the American immigration system is a mess."
ICE arrested them instead. Now,
"This father, his pregnant wife, and their daughter have been held in an American prison camp ever since. Edgarianny has no access to prenatal care. Their daughter barely eats and has told her parents she wants to die."
As seen on Lawrence O'Donnell last night, Treasure Secretary scott bessent said "We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand." Real journalists should not be asking why oil prices are so high. They should be asking while gas prices are so low, to which the correct answer is that the administration* has drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserves to their lowest level in 40 years, to the point that there are serious concerns some of the caverns will collapse.
The administration* is doing everything on all fronts to degrade our standing in the world. Economic, diplomatic, and military leadership is all being flushed down the toilet.
Chicken fil a and Sunday retail: I lived in DC for most of my minority. Next door in Maryland they had longstanding "blue laws" prohibiting almost all retail sales on Sundays. Those laws were repealed in 1987. While they existed, Maryland. retailers lost more than a day's custom to neighboring states. The laws made no sense in an area between DC and Philadelphia where a high percentage of shoppers' work schedules made weekend shopping days necessary, at a time when few retailers stayed open late.
Getting rid of those laws was a popular demand for ever since I can remember.Still, it took years. Today, when you go shopping to brick and mortar in MD, you can see that Sunday is an important shopping day for people who appear that they hold weekday jobs from which it may be hard to get weekday time off (many immigrants in the local economy are so employed.)
Those are the same people who find Sunday voting most convenient, and the GOP assumes most are card-carrying communist democrat progressive wobblies. So it isn't really about honoring the Lord's day ... which can also be Friday or Saturday for a few other denominations.
They never stop trying to chill the vote, nor to be hypocritical about it.
From a story linked above:
The Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to end humanitarian protection.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
There are so many truly horrific things slithering out from the crime-ridden slag of corruption from this so-called administration and the craven beasts on the Supine Court that it would be an hourly chore to keep track of it all, never mind creating a top ten of the worst of the worst, but this sentence (and its a sentence in more than one way) encapsulates the blithe, cavalier inhumanity that informs the American right wing. '
If you don't look like us, go to the same church, vote like us, think like us, do what we say, and bow before an obese dotard, we will make sure your like is a horror show.
I get that altruism isn't a thing with the MAGAts (never mind the Supines), but humanitarian protection ain't necessarily altruism, it's basic human decency. But just like using Chik-fil-A's holier than thou Christianism as a hypocritical example to stifle voting rights, the MAGA Christians who place themselves above non-church goers for their wonderfulness, routinely applaud the most appallingly inhuman actions of Fat Hitler and the holy rollers on the Swine Court.
Life, not like. Fingers not working so well today.
The Spin Cycle.
Yesterday, the news was full of stories about the national debt as it careens over $40 trillion. and as Fat Hitler gets set to pork us for $2 trillion alone just this year. Love that bit of information that reminded us that the Orange Monster was livid about Obama's administration raising the deficit $400 something billion in one year, when he does that in a month.
But here's the thing. Yes, this is some truly bad news, not just the figure, but how we got there. And as I heard and read multiple times yesterday, this is unsustainable. But by now, a day later, those warnings are spinning out into space. The news cycle is a spin cycle. The news gets spun and the information is spun out and put away. I haven't read a single syllable of concern (or even ConcernTM) for the deficit. No surprise there, since any hint of worry from the running dog lackeys of the neo-fascist totalitarian horde would result in a 2am Untruth Antisocial screeching reprimand from....Natalie, maybe?
But you know when they WILL be ConcernedTM about the deficit?
When a Democrat is in the White House. Same as it's ever been.
Oops...need to proof these things a little better. I meant to say that I heard not a word about the DEBT (not so much the deficit, which is a different thing, even though I seemed to use them interchangeably) from any PoT pols in Congress.
Yes, we could do something about it. How about repealing those appalling tax cuts for the wealthy? How about we don't need a Pentagon budget in the trillions? How about making sure corporations pay their fair share? No, none of this will reduce a $40 trillion debt overnight, but it's a start. The only thing that would really bring things into line in a much more sustainable way is to reject the current system of capitalism (like that's gonna happen).
Nonetheless, even before a Democrat takes the oath of office (which hasn't been honored EVER by the current occupant), the Traitors will be all up in arms about what we're gonna do about the national debt. Better deport more brown people! Cut social programs! More money for the "Job Creators", kill Social Security. They won't shut up about it then. And who will get the blame for the additional trillions added on to the debt over the previous four years?
Biden. Of course.
I read last night about the imminent change in the name of a new aircraft carrier with which the Navy had planned to honor Doris Miller, a decorated war hero who manned a .50 cal machine gun while under heavy fire from Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor and who saved the lives of other sailors wounded that day. He died a year later when his ship was torpedoed. Instead, obsequious toadies are planning on kicking Miller to the curb and instead honoring a craven, cowardly draft dodger who refers to those serving their country in uniform as "losers". who just days ago jammed his lard ass into an airport food cart in a gutless display of pusillanimity, at the same time hanging others out to dry, allowing them to possibly face death in order to save his own yellow skin.
There are many words one could muster to describe such a decision. One would be obscene.
Is there no point at which this disgusting child in the Oval Office will be satisfied with having his name splashed across every surface in sight? Why not just rename the country after this creeping waddling, crawling crud of a politician and be done with it?
The family of Doris Miller has already been informed that he is to be honored for his selfless duty to his country, but never mind that now. They're just black people. Who are they and who is Miller, compared to the Dear Leader?
Google says that the Doris Miller carrier won't be commissioned until 2034 as of right now so hopefully Fat Hitler isn't around to see The Doris Miller Aircraft Carrier's maiden voyage, but I hope the next Democratic president sends him a newspaper headline of them putting it's rightful name back on it while he sits in his jail cell.
RAS,
Yeah, and these new "Trump Class" battleships shouldn't be ready much before that either, so if there are any Pentagon people with balls bigger than BB's, maybe they can delay the huge expense of developing mid-20th century ships that would be visited as curiosities of a moron president by Americans in the 22nd century (that is, if the US still exists by then). Seriously, why are there no smart people in the military who can go to this fat fuck and say "Look, there hasn't been a consequential military engagement during wartime involving battleships since 19 fucking 43. Are you high? Ukraine is sinking hundred million dollar Russian battle cruisers with $2,000 drones. This is insane."
But what maybe the next round of Navy vessels, after. Fatty kicks the bucket, will be Hegseth Class WARships, all running on Jack Daniels.
Fat Hitler bludgeoned construction crews to tear up his new helipad project and fix it (because it was fucked up from the get-go, standard Trump Planning). Why? He wants EVER so much to impress Chinese President Xi when he comes for his visit in September. Fatty wants to show off for another dictator he admires almost more than his fat face in a gold spray painted mirror.
He is dying to show Xi his stoopid helipad. He thinks it will impress the Chinese. The Chinese can boast some of the most impressive construction feats in the world. The recently completed Huajiang Canyon bridge is part of a major roadway construction project. It’s a 2 mile suspension bridge 2,000 ft off the canyon floor and they did it in 3 1/2 years. They're building their own Panama Canal (only bigger, longer, and more technologically sophisticated, and 81 miles long). They started in 2022 and will finish later this year. Think Xi will ooh and ahh over Fatty’s little drink coaster in his backyard?
He is such fucking embarrassment. "Look! President Xi! I have a helipad! Aren't you impressed? And guess what? It's made of GRANITE! Granite is HARD! It won't leak. What a good boy am I!"
Xi will have to work hard to stifle a yawn and then pat Grandpa Goofy on the back and say "Nice job, Donald. A granite coaster. Good work. Very nice."
Meanwhile, China is blasting full speed ahead into the future with renewable energy projects and the best and most affordable EV's in the world, EV's which won't explode on contact, like Elon Musk's 100 thousand dollar shitbox cranky cars. And while China makes enormous headway by treating science like it's important, Fatty is dragging us back to steam powered catapults and 19th century military hardware and making sure that renewable energy is treated like witchcraft in the dark ages.
But yeah, that granite drink coaster is nice.
China built the longest and highest suspension bridge in the world over a 2,000 ft canyon in 3 1/2 years. Fatty won't be able to figure out how to fix a reflecting pool in 3 1/2 years. Nations around the world who think highly of the US diminish in number by the hour. Maybe by the minute.
You want to check out a short video of some of the most impressive construction projects in the world, all happening in China, here it is. Fatty can't even fix potholes and these guys are moving rivers and mountains.
Swine Court chief swine, Little Johnny Roberts sez the nation truly needs a whorehouse dance hall! Let Fatty continue building one!
According the NY Times:
"The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed President Trump to continue construction of a White House ballroom. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., acting on his own, issued a one-sentence placeholder that gives the justices more time to fully consider if construction can proceed."
Of course, we all know what this means. It will take two years for the swine to decide and by then, Fatty's bordello ballroom will be almost finished, even if it's a pile of spray painted gold fecal matter. Oh well, since it's almost finished, there's nothing we can do, even if the construction is illegal, unethical, and an abomination. Our work here is done. Now, what else can we fuck up?
The shitstorm continues apace.
Eric (besieged by) the Red
We should count our blessings that the allegations against Eric Swalwell came out when they did. He would have been a serious candidate for president in 2028 (if the Fat Fascist doesn't halt the voting).
News of his being bearded stopped by agents of the Federal Ballsuckers of IdiotKash who then grabbed his electronic devices may have some justification, or it may not. Fatty is a revenge monster and Swalwell was a regular hurler of rotten tomatoes at his obese person. Nonetheless, the original allegations were enough to cause him to drop out. Were he still in the running, or had he gone on for another six months or so and built up a sizable lead for 2028, such allegations would seriously hurt the party's chances of keeping another traitor from the White House.
Also important to note that Democrats, en masse, insisted that Swalwell resign. Party of Traitors hacks do no such thing when one of theirs is outed as a disgusting prick.
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