Marie: I'm a bit late with this, but it bears reading anyway: ~~~
~~~ Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: “The Norse arrived [in Vinland, now Newfoundland,] in the year 1000, give or take a decade — half a millennium before a certain other European explorer first landed in the Bahamas. So why, on Monday, does the United States observe Columbus Day? Christopher Columbus never set foot on the North American continent. It wasn’t until after his death that Juan Ponce de León became the first European to reach what is now the United States. 'Columbus had better PR,' says John Steinberg, an archeologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston.... The Genoan navigator also benefited from a strong Italian American lobby, during a period when Italian immigrants to the United States were subjected to sometimes violent discrimination.” The link is a gift link.
Anyone who, for any reason — treason, stupidity, or money — wants to weaken Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression is clearly acting against their own nation, the security of their own state, and its sovereignty. -- Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, Monday, in a not-so-subtle rebuke of another Donald ~~~
Few U.S. politicians, including Democrats, have been courageous enough to be so blunt. -- Marie
~~~ Marc Santora & Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: “With Russia intensifying efforts to destabilize European nations that support Ukraine, NATO’s top military commander on Monday detailed a blueprint to deter Moscow in the event of outright war, a concept he summarized as 'block, blunt and break.' The commander, Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich of the U.S. Air Force, said the alliance does not view a military confrontation with Russia as “imminent or inevitable,” despite Russian sabotage, arson, cyberattacks and disinformation aimed at rattling European resolve and severing weapons supply lines to Ukraine. But in that environment, the general said he had made a deliberate decision to publicly disclose the core of NATO’s classified war plan — known as its 'theory of victory' — to bolster confidence across 32 allied countries. 'What I want to do is assure the one billion citizens of our alliance that we’ve got this,' General Grynkewich said on Monday at the Warsaw Security Forum. 'We know what we need to do. We know how we would do it.'
“Yet even as the American four-star commander stressed that NATO’s ultimate defense rests on unity, stark geopolitical contradictions echoed through the conference hall.... [Donald] Trump’s decision to unilaterally ease sanctions on the Kremlin in order to purchase Russian diesel fuel highlighted a jarring disconnect between NATO’s military planning and European support for Ukraine, and the White House’s transactional diplomacy and hostility toward Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.... The tension was evident earlier in the day when Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland warned that the defense of Ukraine and the security of NATO are inextricably tied.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Constant Méheut of the New York Times: “On Friday..., [Donald] Trump sided with Russia [against Ukraine].... The diesel agreement, if it goes ahead, could send some $4 billion of American money into the Russian economy, energy experts said. A halt to refinery strikes, if Ukraine accedes to one, could be much more valuable to the Kremlin.... Ukraine is expected to get nothing in exchange, even as the American president demands an end to Kyiv’s refinery attacks, its most potent tool for depriving the Russian war machine of income. Moscow remains free to continue hitting Ukrainian ports, steel factories, warehouses, power plants and data centers, a campaign that is gradually pushing Ukraine’s economy toward a breaking point. Such attacks destroy nearly $10 billion in business assets each year, Ukraine’s economy minister has said.... Should Kyiv be forced to halt its refinery strikes, Russia’s advantage in the two countries’ contest to starve the other of money will only grow....
“Mr. Trump, who lifted sanctions to allow Russia to sell the fuel to the United States, struck an economic deal with Mr. Putin even as Russian attacks have driven civilian casualties in Ukraine to what the United Nations called a 'new horrifying level.' More than 100 Ukrainian civilians were killed in the past week alone.... The diesel deal is another sign of Mr. Trump’s willingness to tip the scales toward Russia, the aggressor in the conflict.” The link is a gift link. MB: Even as the Times does not fault Trump for siding with Russia, at least they're laying bare what he's doing. Let's hope Times readers are smart enough to know how anti-American and anti-Democratic (oh, and illegal) this is.
If at first you don't succeed in court, blow off the judge's order. ~~~
~~~ Scott Nover, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge issued a temporary order Sunday blocking the Trump administration from airing taxpayer-funded campaign-style television commercials. But the administration blew past a Sunday evening deadline and ran two of the ads into the early hours of Monday, advertising data from AdImpact shows. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon in Manhattan wrote in an order Sunday that the administration must “cancel or cause to be cancelled” any ads from airing or dissemination, including those that were scheduled to air Sunday evening. Her decision came after the Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing Saturday that the ads would 'not continue' past Sunday and that it had no plans to purchase additional ad spaces past that date.”
One Way the Trump Mafiosoligarchy Works. Anatoly Kurmanaev & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “When [Donald] Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, married a Turkish businessman last month, the lavish ceremony cemented their status as a MAGA power couple. Ms. Habba, 42, a longtime Trump loyalist, and Turhan Mildon, a 29-year-old investor, hosted some of Washington’s most powerful people, including Attorney General Todd Blanche, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, and Will Scharf, the White House counsel. It was a striking official entry into Trumpworld for Mr. Mildon, who nearly a year ago faced the loss of his extensive business interests in Venezuela because of his ties to the inner circle of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader who was captured by U.S. commandos in January. It also put a new focus on the intermingling of personal relationships and foreign policy in the Trump era, in this case highlighting a battle for wealth and influence involving well-connected people in both Caracas and Washington seeking to use access to Mr. Trump to their benefit.” The link is a gift link. Read on to see how Mildon hit a bad patch & how his fortunes improved because he married Habba.
Maine. Oregon. No, Maine. John Yoon of the New York Times: “A Republican super PAC trying to influence a crucial Senate race in Maine spent thousands of dollars running an attack ad in the wrong Portland, targeting voters thousands of miles away in Oregon. An ad funded by the super PAC, Defending Main Street, assailing Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee in Maine, was shown to more than a million viewers in Oregon and over 300,000 others in Washington State from Thursday to Sunday, according to Google’s advertising data. The super PAC’s chief financial officer, Sarah Chamberlain, pinned the blunder, which cost $25,900, entirely on its ad-buying vendor, Cross Screen Media. She added that the vendor had pulled the ads, which ran on YouTube, and began a new campaign targeting Mr. Jackson in Maine..” The link is a gift link.
It took a judge, not a woodman, to spare those trees (but > 500 trees were felled first): ~~~
~~~ Rick Maese of the Washington Post: “A federal judge ordered the Trump administration Monday morning to stop cutting down trees at East Potomac Golf Links after preservationists asserted that more than 500 were felled Saturday and 'hundreds more' were slated for removal. U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes halted all tree removal — including work described as routine maintenance — until 7 a.m. Tuesday or until she issues another order. She scheduled a hearing for Monday morning on the plaintiffs’ request for a 14-day restraining order.” ~~~
~~~ Maese doesn't say so, but Judge Reyes was furious:
~~~ Update: Maese amended his lede. It's now, “A 'furious' federal judge excoriated the Trump administration Monday morning for cutting down hundreds of trees at East Potomac Golf Links, the historic course eyed for redevelopment by ... Donald Trump, telling government lawyers they had cost their credibility by ignoring her repeated warnings to give notice before work continued.”
Here's an update on a story linked earlier: ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “Federal agents executed a search warrant at the home of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Monday, according to three people briefed on the matter, the kind of investigative step the Justice Department has long shied away from so close to an election. The court-approved search of her Washington-area home comes after Department of Homeland Security officials said in recent months that they were investigating Ms. Omar, a Democrat, over her family’s immigration paperwork. More recently, some federal investigators have also sought to investigate other issues, such as Ms. Omar’s finances, campaign funds and interactions with a foreign citizen, as The New York Times previously reported.... The search warrant, executed 22 days before Election Day, lists a series of potential immigration crimes under investigation, including false statements and fraud in immigration paperwork, as well as a general conspiracy charge, according to a person familiar with the document.” The link is a gift link.
Marie: Here's another reason that a government that allows people to become billionaires is obscenely undemocratic: ~~~
~~~ Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “Elon Musk has quietly funneled more than $276 million into Republican groups and his super PAC since the start of July, building a huge turnout operation to help the party battle headwinds in the midterm elections. The staggering amount of money makes Mr. Musk, the richest person in the world, by far the largest known donor in the midterms. Representatives for Mr. Musk supplied the previously unreported figures on his political giving to The New York Times before a federal filing deadline on Thursday. In an effort to save Republicans’ Senate majority, he gave a total of $158 million this summer to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing the party’s candidates for the chamber, according to his team. In sum, that is one of the largest political donations in American history, and more than the group’s Democratic rival raised from all of its donors that quarter.”
Pennsylvania. Rachel Roubein & Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: “A 39-year-old woman from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, who had been diagnosed with measles has died, according to the local coroner’s office, marking the sixth such death reported since the state’s outbreak began this year. This is the county’s first measles-associated death in “many years” of a patient who had 'a recent history' of having contracted the highly contagious disease, the coroner’s office wrote in a Facebook post, adding that it meets the state health department’s definition of a measles-associated death. The woman had several underlying health conditions and had a 'past diagnosis of measles with treatment.'”
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Little Boy is not only dangling Fat Man like a plump marionette, he is holding him over a hot cauldron and cutting the strings one-by-one.
Barak Ravid of Axios: Donald "Trump claimed Sunday that Russia and Ukraine agreed to an 'energy ceasefire' and will halt attacks on each other's energy facilities.... 'Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!; Trump wrote on Truth Social.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells Axios the announcement 'was news for me. But if Russians agree to an energy ceasefire, Ukraine will agree.'... Trump made a similar announcement last month, but neither party confirmed that there was a deal. Both Russia and Ukraine continued attacking energy infrastructure." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ SO THEN. Patrick Reevell of ABC News: "Russia has attacked a power plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv despite ... Donald Trump’s statement earlier Sunday that both sides had agreed to an "energy ceasefire," according to Ukrainian officials. A local official told ABC News the thermal power plant CHP-5 was struck at least twice, causing a fire. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a statement confirmed Russia had attacked the plant, as well as another in Kyiv, saying it had taken place after Trump's announcement.... Zelenskyy was surprised by Trump's announcement and only learned about it from social media, a senior source in Ukraine's presidential office told ABC News. Ukraine, however, was ready to accept it immediately if Russia agrees, Zelenskyy said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Brendan Ruberry of Semafor: "The US threatened to halt arms sales to Europe for use in Ukraine unless Kyiv stopped striking Russian refineries, the Financial Times reported, accelerating a stunning deterioration in ties between the allies." MB: If Trump knew how to plan ahead, he would be organizing a May Day celebration right now with hordes of precision-goose-stepping troops & vintage MIGs flying overhead. He's a traitor. ~~~
~~~ Kevin Freking of the AP, published by Yahoo! News: "A bipartisan group of six senators on Sunday called for ... Donald Trump's administration to 'immediately reverse course' on a plan to purchase diesel from Russia as part of an effort to lower high fuel prices. Trump shocked lawmakers when he announced on social media Friday that he struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call.... Four Republican senators and two Democratic senators signed onto the statement released Sunday in protesting the deal. They said the administration failed to consult with Congress or submit any explanation to justify its decision as required by statute.... The Republican senators who signed onto the statement are Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah. The Democratic senators are Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Cheyanne Daniels of Politico: “Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday denounced ... Donald Trump’s energy deal with Russia, warning that the agreement could place American lives at risk — and that the president may be breaking the law. Speaking to NBC’s Kristen Welker on 'Meet the Press,' the North Carolina Republican warned that the president’s deal may violate a 2022 law passed by Congress that banned Russian oil imports unless specific conditions were met, including a full Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.... Tillis on Sunday insisted the blame for high diesel costs lies with the Iran war and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'If President Trump wants to end the strain on energy supplies, No. 1, get things right in Iran and, No. 2, recognize that it was Vladimir Putin, not Zelenskyy, who started this war,' Tillis said. 'It’s Vladimir Putin who owns the responsibility for energy prices coming from that part of the world.... People in the Department of Defense and our intelligence operations really need to beat a path to the president’s office and say, “Look, this guy [Putin] has a murderous rap sheet. He cannot be trusted.” I guarantee you, at the first opportunity Putin has to embarrass or undermine President Trump, he will.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'll readily concede that Trump is too stupid to know Putin suckered him into this supposed deal, but Trump was a willing mark because he thought it would help him with voters to pretend he had made a brilliant pact to bring down the costs of diesel and thus the costs of all transported consumer goods. So if Putin pulled the wool over Trump's eyes, he did so by serving up to Trump a yarn to Trump could use to deceive Americans. Update: Now read Krugman: ~~~
~~~⭐Paul Krugman Does the Math: "... the big news on U.S. foreign policy was that Trump announced that he was buying 300,000 tons of Russian diesel. He’s not allowed to do this: Sanctions preventing purchase of Russian oil are law, not a choice on Trump’s part. But under Trump laws are suggestions at most, so it might happen anyway.... Being a nerdy economist, my first printable reaction to the announcement was, 300,000 tons??? That’s a bit over 2 million barrels. America consumes approximately 4 million barrels of distillates — diesel (mostly) and heating oil — every day. So Trump is betraying an embattled democracy, demonstrating our faithlessness to the whole world, seriously damaging whatever is left of America’s leadership in the world, for the sake of maybe 12 hours’ worth of diesel.... I would strongly guess that they didn’t do the math, that 300,000 tons sounded like a lot to them and that they had no idea that it was trivial for an economy the size of America’s. I might add that this is general issue with Trump: he often touts trivial policies as major achievement, and it often seems obvious that he has no idea how big America and the world are." ~~~
~~~ Marie: For days, "experts" have been saying that 300K tons "wasn't much." Krugman is the first person I've read who nail down just how little "not much" is in terms of U.S. consumption. ~~~
~~~ Clea Caulcutt of Politico: “The United Kingdom, Germany and Poland have reaffirmed their support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after ... Donald Trump said the country needed a new leader. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X...'I have assured [Zelenskyy] that he can count on Poland’s and Europe’s full solidarity with the Ukrainian nation.'... German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also reaffirmed his country’s support for Zelenskyy Sunday, while calling for greater pressure on Moscow to return to peace talks.... 'We stand with Ukraine. We stand with President Zelenskyy,' British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC Sunday morning.... On Saturday, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke with Zelenskyy and reiterated Britain’s “complete solidarity,” Downing Street said.” ~~~
Phillips O'Brien: "Poor Donald Trump. For the last 21 months he had to do a great deal of lying. He had to pretend at times that he really cared about the people dying in the Russo-Ukraine War, that he really wanted a deal that was good for Ukraine, that he was getting frustrated with Vladimir Putin, and that he even liked Volodymyr Zelensky.... Donald Trump has been serially disloyal and unfaithful to every person in his life, except for Vladimir Putin.... He ... hung a picture of himself next to Putin very prominently in the White House (above a picture of himself with a granddaughter).... Now, the lying is over. Donald..., and by extension the government of the United States of America, is Vladimir Putin’s friend and partner. He will help Putin, protect Putin, and do what he can to get the best possible deal for Vladimir Putin.... The American people can no longer deny that the USA is run by a Russian useful idiot or agent of influence...." More on the Russia/Ukraine war linked at the bottom of the page.
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump’s comments mocking his own fans at a rally in Tennessee on Saturday left critics truly stunned. Speaking at a rally in Clarksville, TN, the president called out his followers — accusing them of blindly supporting him no matter what he says. 'It’s amazing,' Trump told his audience. 'When you stand up here, it’s just like…the love. I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. “Oh, I love you so—” It’s true.'... Here is a sampling of the reaction on social media[.]” MB: At some level, Trump must understand that his only fans are nincompoops & grifters -- and grifters' attachment to him is purely transactional. "The quality," as some used to dub the upper- and near-upper-crust can't stand him, and he knows it. That's why he can't stand it when he isn't getting undeserved awards like the Nobel Peace Prize and when the New York Times accurate reports his most recent fiasco or swindle. That's "the quality" not "respecting" him. (Also linked yesterday.)
John McWhorter of the New York Times: “In his second term, [Donald Trump] has used significantly more profanity in public than in his first, according to an analysis by The Washington Post in May.... Some have argued that the uptick in Trump’s lexical filth is a symptom of cognitive decline, a disinhibition suggestive of dementia. I doubt it. The increase in his use of profanity is what you would expect, given how language works.... Profanity is all about escalation.... Trump’s public speech retraces the evolution of popular profanity over the past hundred years.” The link is a gift link.
Ha! Gene Johnson of the Independent: "A federal judge issued an order Sunday night requiring ... Donald Trump to halt all remaining television advertisements funded with millions of dollars in taxpayer money, despite administration statements that the broadcast campaign was already ending. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ruled in New York for a coalition, including the nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause, that challenged the broadcasts as an unlawful expenditure of public funds. Under the temporary restraining order, the administration was directed to cancel any remaining commercials, including those scheduled to air Sunday evening." ~~~
~~~ Chris Geidner has more, including a copy of Judge Rochon's order.
Trump's Press Secretary Pick Is a Crazy Lady. Judd Legum of Popular Information: “Katie Zacharia, who was appointed White House press secretary by ... [Donald] Trump on Friday, repeatedly promoted the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy on social media, accusing elites from the Democratic Party and Hollywood of sexually trafficking children and eating people.... Zacharia also posted openly about QAnon, the related conspiracy that contends Trump is secretly fighting a Satanic, cannibalistic, child-abusing cabal made up of elites in the Democratic Party, Hollywood, and 'the deep state.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
Matt Shuham of the Guardian: “Federal agents searched Representative Ilhan Omar’s home Monday morning as part of a criminal investigation, according to reports in the Associated Press and Fox News that cited a statement from the department of justice. A video posted by Fox showed what appeared to be law enforcement in HSI jackets at what Fox News said was Omar’s Washington DC residence. 'Today in the Washington, DC area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,' a DoJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital. It was unclear what the nature of the warrant was.... Fox News reported based on unnamed sources familiar with the matter that agents were examining the immigration paperwork that the congresswoman’s father filled out when she was a child. Donald Trump and key allies have accused Omar of fraud related to her family’s immigration history, fantasizing openly about denaturalizing her and expelling her from the country.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See his commentary below.
Finya Swai of the Hill: “Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin stood behind the Trump administration’s decision to livestream the military execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, despite growing bipartisan criticism over the plan.... Pressed on why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would move to broadcast the execution, Mullin pointed to ... [Donald] Trump’s leadership.'I follow President Trump. He’s a commander in chief of the country, and he does a phenomenal job,' Mullin said. 'He leads this country with a very, very, very direct, forward, straight hand, and he’s restoring American values.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Steve Vladeck on Substack: “Not that long ago, it was a likely bet that a majority of the justices would find a live-streamed, public execution to be inconsistent with the 'evolving standards of decency' that had provided the yardstick for what the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibits. But ever since Justice Kennedy retired, the Court has embraced a more static, 1791-oriented conception of which punishments are — and aren’t — constitutional. The fact that we as a society have moved away from public executions (and the reasons why we’ve done so) would have mattered a lot for that earlier doctrinal understanding. That it wouldn’t mean nearly so much today is, in my view, a pretty telling indictment of this entirely recent jurisprudential shift. ”
Miriam Waldvogel & Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department’s antitrust investigation into five major television networks is the latest, and one of the starkest, escalations yet of the administration’s approach toward taking action against the news media — and rests on thin legal grounds, according to experts on media and antitrust law interviewed Sunday.... In its statement Saturday, the Justice Department said that 'group boycotts among commercial competitors' can violate federal antitrust laws. But legal experts reacted with considerable skepticism to the reported investigation. 'Any objective analysis of what’s happened here would not require any kind of an investigation whatsoever,' said Bill Baer, who led antitrust enforcement at the Justice Department during the Obama administration. 'It looks like total retaliation.'... William Kovacic, a law professor ... who was appointed by George W. Bush as Federal Trade Commission chairman in 2008, said the antitrust basis for the probe is 'feeble.'”
AP, published by the Guardian: “Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, are considering firing US ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after a series of reports alleging she has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens. A senior US official said Sunday that Trump and Rubio are 'extremely pissed off' by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct and would likely decide on what action to take this week after Monday’s federal holiday. The official ... said Rubio had been particularly angry, not least because he visited Athens just last week and Guilfoyle attended most, if not all, of his events and greeted him on his arrival with a bear hug as the allegations swirled. In a series of stories, the Wall Street Journal has reported questionable conduct by Guilfoyle, including an alleged threat to a host country official, accepting improper gifts and services and offering to use her influence inside the administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.”
When Team Mullin isn't shooting people driving vehicles, ~~~
~~~ the boys are running over people with their own vehicles. ~~~
~~~ Tony Atkins of ABC 7 (Los Angeles) News: "Surveillance video obtained by our Houston sister station, ABC13 shows the moment an unmarked SUV carrying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ran over a man during a pursuit at a shopping center in Texas on Saturday. The video out of west Harris County shows a white pickup truck stopping along Clay Road, facing oncoming traffic. Two men get out of the truck. One runs toward Highway 6, while the other, identified by ICE as Miguel Parra-Hernandez, runs through a shopping center parking lot. Moments later, a dark, unmarked SUV turns into the parking lot and runs over Parra-Hernandez.... [According to a witness, Parra-Hernandez cried,] '"Ah! Ah! Ah! You broke my leg! You broke my leg!'"... ICE said agents ... claimed Parra-Hernandez ran in front of their vehicle and was struck. However, the surveillance video appears to show the SUV veering left through empty parking spaces before running over Parra-Hernandez." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's the surveillance video, obtained by ABC 7 (Chicago) News. Looks like attempted vehicular homicide to me. You decide: ~~~
~~~ (Marie BTW: Shouldn't we expect Cabinet officials whose first (and essentially only) language is English to form sentences that do not begin, "We wasn't aware...."?)
Whatever Happened to the DOGE Boys? They Are Profiting Off the Government They Were Hired to Undo. Faiz Siddiqui, et al., of the Washington Post: “A Washington Post analysis found that roughly two dozen former DOGE staffers have parlayed their government experience into relevant private-sector jobs or investments — becoming founders, securing CEO positions or senior executive roles, amassing large stakes in start-ups looking to win government contracts or approvals, or taking the skills developed at DOGE to the private sector.... They have built a cottage industry of ambitious but largely untested businesses, often helmed by inexperienced founders, sometimes drawing initial valuations in the billions of dollars.... The start-ups include a host of firms focused on cybersecurity and defense technology, as well as ventures dedicated to helping businesses across America deploy artificial intelligence tools.... Despite DOGE’s shaky track record on trimming the federal budget, the private sector has come to see experience with the group as a valuable commodity, said Jeff Hauser ... of the Revolving Door Project....”
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “Serving in public office in the United States is dangerous. From state and local government to Congress, an unending river of violent threats is washing through the mailboxes, offices, voice mail and texts of those who govern the nation. Thousands of public servants are living, working and, in the final weeks of election season, campaigning in a state of fear. And it’s getting worse, officeholders said in dozens of interviews.... Some threats were vague; some were frighteningly specific. They promised torture, stabbing, rape and murder. They aimed at Republicans and Democrats alike, and at a range of officeholders from county clerks to United States senators. They targeted spouses, parents, siblings and children. At least 44 governors, as well as their staff and families, have been subjected to violent threats over the past two years.... Actual violence also spiked during that period: assassination attempts against Donald Trump, the killing of Charlie Kirk, the assassination of a legislative leader and her husband in Minnesota, the firebombing of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in Pennsylvania. For many elected officials, the escalation is a grim testament to the toxicity of violent rhetoric and how it can shake the country’s democratic institutions.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course it's getting worse. We have a president* who regularly uses violent language (threatening "annihilation" of an entire ancient civilization for instance) and imagery (A.I. slop of himself as various genres of supermen physically bashing "enemies") and violence itself (war against Iran, kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, killing of immigrants, their supporters and people who "look like" immigrants, cage fights in "celebration" of U.S. independence). And we have a secretary of defense who plans to livestream a state-sanctioned murder by firing squad. Our entire culture is far too violence-oriented. Trump's machismo obsession as well as the gun fetishists on the Supreme Court and elsewhere in the government and in the public arena are only exacerbating that.
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South Carolina Senate Race. Laura Beveridge of the Washington Post: “Sen. Darline Graham (R-South Carolina) clashed Sunday night with Democrat Annie Andrews in their only scheduled debate for the red state’s unexpectedly competitive Senate race. Graham, who was appointed to fill the seat of her brother, Lindsey Graham, after he died in July, stood by ... Donald Trump, who elevated her from obscurity, and cast Andrews as a 'radical liberal.' Andrews, a pediatrician, presented the incumbent as unqualified and tried to appeal to independents and Republican voters she needs to win in a GOP stronghold, which last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1998. In September, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election prognosticator, shifted the race’s rating from 'Solid' to 'Likely' Republican. Republicans have increased spending to protect Graham, and Trump recently weighed in by attacking Andrews using an anti-transgender slur.... Here are our takeaways.”
Texas Senate Race. You Knew This Would Happen. Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “A spokesperson for Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) raged at MAGA influencers Sunday for promoting the wild theory that instead of being off the campaign trail due to the flu, he was locked inside a mental hospital in Ohio. The hospital Talarico was accused of being at later confirmed the progressive lawmaker had never received treatment from the facility. Talarico’s opponent, AG Ken Paxton (R-TX) began sewing the seeds of doubt about Talarico’s illness, which was blown up earlier in the day by MAGA influencer Nick Sortor. Sortor posted Sunday, 'Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week The ‘flu’ thing was a BIG FAT LIE.'... MAGA went wild with Sortor’s post.... In related news, Talarico has a healthy lead on Paxton in most polls tracked by The New York Times.” ~~~
~~~ Rosa Flores & Erum Salam of MS NOW: “James Talarico ... on Sunday dismissed GOP conspiracy theories about his flu-induced absence from the campaign trail.... 'I had the flu,' he said in an exclusive interview with MS NOW. 'This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s wild that someone can just post something on the internet and then the media just runs with it.' He dismissed the brouhaha ... and issued a fresh challenge to his GOP rival, Ken Paxton, who spent the better part of 10 days fueling wild speculation about Talarico’s whereabouts while the Democrat recovered from his illness. 'He asked for proof of life from me. I’m asking proof of spine from him,' Talarico told MS NOW, referring to his repeated invitations to Paxton to debate him publicly in a race that is stunningly tight in deep-red Texas. 'I’ve heard credible reports that Ken Paxton has a serious medical condition that causes clinical level of cowardice,' Talarico joked during his first nationally televised interview since returning to the campaign trail.”
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Middle East. Euan Ward & Vivian Nereim of the New York Times: “The Saudi and Yemeni capitals were rocked by new strikes on Sunday, a day after the Iran-backed Houthi militia carried out a devastating attack on the Saudi capital’s airport, the kingdom’s deadliest attack in over a decade. Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, said on social media that an “unidentified projectile” had struck the airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, causing a fire on Sunday. The Saudi civil aviation authority said early Monday that one person, a Pakistani resident, was killed and 11 injured in the latest strike at the airport, King Khalid International. The attack also caused damage that was still being assessed, it said. In Yemen, Houthi-run media reported on Sunday that Saudi aircraft had struck the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. The Houthi-run health ministry said that a child had also been killed in a strike on a residential building in the capital. Saudi airstrikes have killed 91 people since Sept. 3, mostly women and children, according to Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the ministry.” The link is a gift link.
Ukraine/Russia. Evan Hill, et al., of the Washington Post: Ukraine's drone attacks on a well-fortified refinery near Moscow in mid-June “were part of a concerted Ukrainian campaign to damage and destroy Russian refineries and other energy infrastructure, a strategy that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said is aimed at bringing the years-long war closer to an end. The result is the worst fuel crisis in the country since the Soviet Union’s collapse. Major gas companies have limited the amount of fuel customers can buy, and the price of gasoline and diesel have both risen about 20 percent since the beginning of the year, contributing to nationwide inflation. The military campaign has achieved such disruption in part by targeting critical refinery parts, notably the desalting and distillation units, that sanctions have made increasingly hard to repair....
“The strikes on refineries have been aided by rapid advances in drone production and intelligence from allies that helps Ukraine plan and execute the attacks, the experts and officials said. At least two-thirds of the 36 major Russian refineries tracked by market analysis firm S&P Global Energy were hit between April 1 and Aug. 31, some as many as five times, at a rate of one strike every three days, according to a Post analysis of a subset of Ukrainian strikes. ”
28 comments:
Fat Hitler thugs raid Ilhan Omar's home
The Authoritarian State is here right now.
"Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) Washington, D.C., home has been raided by agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Fox News Digital reported on Monday morning.
'Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice,' a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital."
Of course, the reason will turn out to be some astonishingly bullshit made up lie.
"It’s not yet known whether Omar was in the home at the time of the raid.
Omar has been a target of President Donald Trump and his allies for years, with MAGA influencers such as Laura Loomer calling on Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar just last month."
Oh well, if a psycho like Laura Looney and toilet salesman Mullin say "GET RID OF HER!" it must be done.
He's not even trying to hide the fact that his fascist regime is fully weaponized against his enemies. This is no longer a democratic republic, it is a full on authoritarian state.
Cheap chiselers, the lot of them....
So not only don't MAGA crooks pay for their own cookies, while going after clients for late payments, the richest MAGAt in the world demands that he get free lunches. Then when the contractor asks to be paid, the South African Chainswaw maniac tells him to fuck off.
"Darryl Bell, owner of the Stateline Road Smokehouse restaurant, had entered into an agreement with Elmo Musk's SpaceX, in which he would cater one meal a month for the company's 425 employees, for just over $35,000 a meal. To be able to do that, Bell bought a lot of new equipment, figuring he would break even after two meals.
However, even though he's provided two meals for the company, he hasn't received a penny from them, which goes against the agreement that they had to pay Bell within 30 days.
A couple of weeks before Bell was supposed to cater the third meal, he started pressing for payment so he could pay off his vendors and his staff, some of whom had worked 14 hours on what should have been their day off. When Bell wondered if he needed to get a lawyer involved, the company abruptly canceled the remaining meals that Bell was to prepare for them."
The way to become the richest prick in the world is to not pay your bills. Fatty shows everyone the way and the maggots all follow suit.
The law is what we say it is...
Fatty's ludicrous attack on networks that stopped covering his lies for a couple of days after he banned CNN, Politico, and MS Now from the White House has a bit of a logic problem (never seen that before though, have we?).
So you may recall when the ban went into effect, Fat Hitler and his goons at Injustice all sniffed "Oh, well, it's not a First Amendment violation, you can still cover his highness from afar...."
Okay. If that was good enough for CNN, Politico, and MS Now, then how is it against the law for other networks to do just that?
Nope. Now there's some kind of invented anti-trust bushwa they're pushing. The thing is, this will almost certainly be laughed out of any real court, but if it gets to the Swine Court? Well, that's not a real court anymore, is it?
The reason we'll see church watch parties for the coming barbaric livestream...
If anyone is curious about how so-called Christians are frothing at the mouth to watch a man in a wheelchair being executed, it's important to remember that when you substitute the screeds of a fat gangster and a faux tough guy girly-man, both fresh out of their makeup chairs, for the teachings of Jesus, well....you get what you get.
Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice has a collection of stories about poor unlovable Ken Paxton and the many leaks that show how stupid and awful he is.
MAGA Faithful
So many books to ban, so little time...
"PEN America today reported nearly 12,000 book bans in public schools nationwide during the 2025-2026 school year—the largest number in a single year. New state censorship laws accounted for much of the increase, coupled with the use of artificial intelligence to remove books en masse including popular manga series and other graphic novels.
In a report released to coincide with Banned Books Week, the latest accounting of book bans increased to 34,000 instances since PEN America began documenting the spreading book censorship crisis in schools in 2021."
So, wow. Hooray for that, right? Especially for book hating MAGAts. Oh! But look, all you book burners in ?Texas, you just took over the top spot!
"Texas recorded the largest number of book bans during the 2025-2026 school year (over 8,100), surpassing Florida (over 3,200), due to the impact of a censorial Texas law, SB13, which bans broad categories of books in schools. Florida had been No. 1 for three consecutive years."
Something to be proud of. I guess.
And one of the top books banned...."Patricia McCormick’s 2006 award-winning young adult novel Sold, which tells the fictional story of a teenager from Nepal who is sold into sexual slavery, was No. 1 among the most frequently banned books during the school year. The most banned author for the second year in a row was Stephen King."
We can't have anyone reading books about sex trafficking, after all it might remind them of Jeffrey Espstein's best buddy....oops!
Impeach-a-thon
"Most of these guys are doing high crimes and misdemeanors. A bunch of them are involved in waging an illegal, unauthorized war.
Congress' investigatory powers are at their *peak* in an impeachment context.
So impeach, impeach, impeach."
Cory Doctorow - Billionaires
"There are many ways in which every billionaire is a policy failure, but the most corrosive and destructive way in which billionaires are policy failures is this: billionaires, despite being unelected and unaccountable, possess the power to control – and ruin – millions of peoples' lives.
We let the most greedy, most ruthless people among us pursue their toddler's quest for an unthwarted life to the expense of any semblance of competent administration,
At some level, people get this. They understand that AI and billionaireism are intimately connected – that the reason the sector is on track to lose about a trillion dollars this year is that for billionaires, a trillion bucks is a small price to pay for an unthwartable life."
The eternally confused
This looks more anecdotal than confirmed at this point, but could be interesting if proven true.
"People have praised Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky for destroying Russian “bot farms” right before the US midterm elections.
Last week, Ukraine continued to take direct action against Russia’s invasion and attacks on its data centres by striking three data centres owned by Russian tech giant Yandex with drones.
Since their destruction, social media user anecdotes seem to suggest that the activity of Russian bots on platforms such as X/Twitter are down."
And as a follow-up to RAS's post about the unthwartable billionaire tech bro class....
AI overlords KNOW bad shit is on the way...and they're ready...to cover their asses.
"AI insiders believe a major AI-related incident could happen within the next six to 12 months. They anticipate a large-scale event such as a cyberattack that could disrupt access to financial services, the internet, or even electricity and water.
Whether it’s AI going rogue or hackers using the technology to carry out an attack, the companies behind the tech expect to shoulder much of the blame if something goes wrong, and they need to know how they’ll spin the fallout if that’s the case."
In other words, the AI overlords--who KNOW we're looking at potentially life threatening situations if their coded progeny go rogue and maybe shut off the lights to half the country or drop a tiny nuke somewhere their shills in Congress and the Blight House won't blame them and they'll have a hand in crafting any legislation meant to curb their excesses, meaning excesses will be curbed only on paper.
They cannot be thwarted. That wouldn't be tech-bro cool, would it?
Wait....according to MAGAts, James Talarico was in the nut house? NOT taking a couple of days off because of the flu? Because that sounds SO much more likely.
C'mon, MAGAts, have some creativity for once, okay? The nut house? Surely you can do better than that. Look, a few years ago, youse guys were all up in arms (and I do mean arms...armed arms) about a pizza shop in DC that had kiddie sex slaves looked up in the basement controlled by Hillary Clinton and half the Democrats in Washington. Now THAT's creative. Cuckoo, but creative, even better cuz the place didn't even have a basement.
So what else could Talarico been doing? How about having sex with transgendered aliens, while watching re-runs of "Murphy Brown"? Or maybe he was putting the finishing touches on a machine that would automatically do sex changes on kindergarten kiddies without anyone knowing about it, ya know, until they got home and had a new thingie, or were missing one. EVIL!
The worst thing about this sort of bullshit is that plenty of morons buy into this crap. And then, of course, the corporate media feels the need to dutifully report the lies which gives them even more credibility. Unfortunately, Democrats and progressives aren't nearly so creative. Otherwise they could spread the rumor that Trump was stabbing a democratic ally in the back for 12 hours worth of diesel fuel. Wow! Who'd believe that shit, right?
@Akhilleus: The "investigation" into Ilan Omar's citizenship -- a part of Trump's retribution campaign, of course -- got me to thinking about Trump's adoption of the birther conspiracy.
I'm a little slow. For the first time, I put together four pieces of information I've known for a decade: (1)(a) Trump is an extremely jealous, insecure person, and (1)(b) he is extremely jealous of Barack Obama; (2) reports of Obama's ancestry came out (as it has for most presidents) about the time -- or shortly before -- he was elected president; (3) Trump's only U.S.-born ancestor was his father (although for at least a decade, Trump has falsely claimed that his father was born in Germany -- which would make Donald Trump an anchor baby, I guess); and (4) Trump thinks "good genes" are defining status symbols (he must be smart because his uncle was smart).
I'll bet when Trump found out that Obama's first known ancestor came to the U.S. in 1629 and that Obama has thousands of "American" ancestors, Trump was beside himself. I mean, here was this "Nee-gro" Moose-lum person who had way "more American genes" than Trump.
So Trump had to do something about it. He put on his tinfoil hat and decided to "prove" that, despite Obama's America-rich gene pool, he wasn't a real American at all. Trump didn't invent the birther movement, but he espoused it. Because, again, he was jealous of Obama.
RAS,
The nub of the Doctorow: "...the smallest government you can have is determined by the size of the largest corporation and the wealth of the richest billionaire you're willing to tolerate."
Thanks.,
Marie,
All good points about Fatty's absolute need to feel superior to people he believes might be better than him. Add to this his fear and hatred of women of color. No one who is truly superior in some way feels the need to constantly try and degrade and humiliate others. His innate racism makes him terrifically hateful of women like Letitia James who successfully prosecuted him. Racist, fearful, paranoid, misogynistic, vengeful...but someone whose sycophantic lackeys aid and abet his worst impulses.
MAGA's president.
"you're going to end up in a depression. These people are incompetent""
The Vibes - Craft Edition
Trump Savings
"The cost of many everyday items would have declined last year and early this year without President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to the New York Federal Reserve. The cost of 67 categories of goods was 2.9 percentage points higher as of February thanks to tariffs, according to a paper from a team of researchers at the central bank’s New York arm. Without the levies, the team found that prices for the products they studied would have pulled back by almost 1%."
Today's Waldman:
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/the-public-doesnt-want-hegseths-snuff
Meanness is the point, and violence is often the means.
Okay, let’s say for the sake of arguMAGA that Texas’s James Talarico spent a few days in the nut house. First, no one who is truly disturbed is released after 48 or even 72 hours. But let’s say some Texas authority decided he was disturbed enough to require a few days observation. We’re talking about a teacher, a solidly decent Everyman seminarian who supports healthcare access for every American and who stands up to the wealthy overlords, racists, misogynists, and grifters.
If that’s considered crazy, what do we call a rapacious, adulterous, lying creep for whom bribes are mother’s milk and who pardons child molesters and lives the high life on the public’s dime, who owns millions of dollars of real estate, weirdly, on a much more modest salary?
If Talarico is disturbed, Paxton must be considered criminally insane.
The other day I mentioned that Army regs require that the condemned be given an opportunity to voice his last words. This was followed by a question of what would happen if Hasan yelled “Allahu Akbar!”
Well, Fatty Whisperer, Laura Looney, has the MAGA-Trumpy answer: tape his mouth shut so he can’t exercise his right to a final word, per US Army regulations.
Because if we're gonna go full depraved, sadistic barbarity, why not just pull the guy’s tongue out? Drunk Pete would probably approve, although he would never do it himself, despite the likelihood of mad MAGA torture points.
Might muss his makeup.
But muzzling Hasan in his wheelchair prior to him being shot offers a certain, je ne sais quoi regarding a disallowed appeal to Allah.
Now just imagine some Muslim court of last resort taping shut the mouth of an American who wanted to say “Praise Jesus” before being executed.
Looney would demand that country be nuked and paved.
Fatty would agree—If he wasn’t such a whiny coward—about the only thing we have operating in our favor.
Close Enough
"A Republican political group accidentally spent nearly $25,000 running ads to help Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in Portland.
Portland, Oregon, that is. Not Portland, Maine. The ad was made by Defending Main Street SuperPAC Inc., which is linked to the center-right Republican Main Street Partnership. It goes after Maine Democratic nominee Troy Jackson as a tax-hiker, labeling him “taxin’ Troy Jackson.”"
Jonathan Lemire & Simon Shuster, for The Atlantic, on The newest scapegoat
"Trump’s inability to bring the Iran war to a close has left him incensed but also oddly paralyzed, two people close to him told us. One of them, an adviser, said that Trump “is used to snapping his fingers and having the whole world—Republicans, world leaders, the media—come to attention, and he is losing his mind that Iran won’t listen.” Iran has resumed menacing oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and the average price of diesel in the United States has crossed the $6-a-gallon mark, raising the cost of goods that travel the nation’s highways on trucks.
....
A U.S. president siding with the Kremlin is quite an October surprise. But in just the past few days, Trump appears to have fully turned against Ukraine.
....
[t****] has overruled the objections of some in his own party by inviting Putin to this winter’s G20 summit, which the United States is hosting at a Trump-owned golf course in Doral, just outside Miami.
If Putin accepts the invitation to that December meeting, it would be the first time he has attended a multilateral summit in a Western country since his invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky has said he’ll be there, and is hoping to meet with Putin to negotiate the end of the war. Trump has mentioned to advisers, one of them told us, that he’d like both sides to arrive to Doral ready to make a deal, so he can then preside over a peacemaking summit. Maybe then, Trump has suggested, he can finally win that Nobel."
RAS,
As geographically braindead as the PoT blowhards are supporting Susan (Concerned™) Collins are, she just might pull off a win in Maine despite the fact that her "concerned--but not really" votes have been instrumental in shoving us back into the dark ages. Of course, the legacy media will always be on the side of the treasonous MAGAts just as they go after Democrats who take positions antithetical to authoritarian fascism.
A coward and a liar right to the end
"President Donald Trump denied having any involvement with or prior knowledge of federal agents' search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's home despite his frequent verbal attacks on the Democratic Minnesota congresswoman.
"Well, I understand they're looking at her very carefully. I've always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me," Trump told reporters on Oct. 12 as he departed the White House to head to Youngstown, Ohio, for a campaign rally.
Homeland Security Investigations agents raided the Democrat's DC-area residence early on Oct. 12. The purpose of the search wasn't immediately clear, but top Trump administration officials have long accused the Minnesota lawmaker, who was born in Somalia and immigrated to the United States as a child refugee, of immigration fraud, which she denies."
Really? Found to be by whom? Stephen Miller?
Omar was 12 when she came to the US in 1995. Unlike the Fat Fascist, who has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree and has been found legally liable for sexual assault (RAPE). He has also been also faced "four counts in Washington, D.C. related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and 13 felony counts in Georgia in connection to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in that state—though both cases have been stalled by legal challenges.
Trump’s other criminal case—40 felony counts in Florida for allegedly hoarding classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them—was dismissed by a federal judge [not a real judge though] in July [of 2025] over concerns with the prosecutor's appointment. The Justice Department has appealed the judge’s ruling." The prosecutor (Jack Smith) found irrefutable evidence of Fatty's guilt regarding those charges, which were dropped because he was elected dictator a second time.
But okay, let's go after Ilhan Omar and lie about your involvement. This is like the Wicked Queen saying she had nothing to do with Snow White's coma (the difference being that the Wicked Queen had better makeup than the Orange Monster, though I'm sure he'd take that claim to court.
But if you're gonna attack someone you despise, send your goons to her home, at least have the balls to admit it.
He doesn't. He never does. He doesn't just grab pussies, he is one.
I mean to say that unlike the Fat Fascist, Omar has never been convicted of so much as spitting on the sidewalk while he is a known felon and rapist.
Akhilleus,
Someone might have known about it.
"Stephen Miller’s podcaster wife had to double back after overplaying her hand.
Katie Miller quickly deleted a post on X gloating over the ICE raid on Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Monday, seemingly realizing that her comment was not a great look. “Promise made, promise kept,” Miller, 35, wrote in a now-deleted post.
The phrase “promises made, promises kept” is commonly used by the Trump administration to tout its achievements."
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