QOTD -- Destroying Things He Can't Possess Or Control

 

"... Although the Kennedy Center board insisted that only Trump’s name on the building would restore donations, in fact, the Washington Post reports that ticket sales and fundraising plunged when Trump added his name to the building in the first place.

"Nonetheless, Trump posted that he is the only one who can save it, 'because I have the ability to raise the money, and the ability to construct—that few others have. I also have the strength and power of the Presidency, which will be needed [to] do what must be done, and give it a strong shot at Greatness again!'

"As George Conway of the Bulwark noted, 'To destroy things he can’t possess or control is his essential nature.'

"It is also as if Trump is self-soothing by celebrating his core identity even as his incompetence and greed have driven the United States, and the world, into crisis..." -- Heather Cox Richardson, in her "Letters from an American" Substack yesterday, quoting in part George Conway.  That we have to deal with this petty vindictiveness as the Malignant Fascist's war on Iran causes pain throughout the world, and his ongoing threats to democracy quicken as the mid-term elections approach is beyond mind-numbing.

 

QOTD -- Trump's "Jesus Truth" v. Regular Truth

 

"... Trump posted a fake AI video [see "Skeets" below] about an imaginary interview immediately after 9/11, in which he described how he rushed down to Ground Zero with hundreds of construction workers the next day, and “worked long and hard” at the scene of the catastrophe, wasn’t any kind of news story. It’s certainly an interesting question, given that this incident by itself would have gotten Joe Biden impeached, if not removed immediately via the 25th amendment.  [snip]

"Without exaggeration I would be less surprised to learn that Julia Child was an All-Pro NFL defensive tackle in the 1950s than to find out that Donald Trump did something like this.

"The fact that Trump releases AI videos of this type illustrates once again a concept I’ve been turning over in my mind for awhile now, which is the idea of Jesus truth versus regular truth. That Donald Trump is incapable of an altruistic act of any kind is regular truth: That he heroically sacrificed his own safety and comfort through his personal labors at Ground Zero is Jesus Truth, which is to say that it’s something that’s not literally true, but is true in a deeper symbolic way. Trump is a Christ-like figure as a matter of Jesus Truth because that’s who he needs to be for the whole evangelical mythology built up around him to make any sense at all, so he is..." -- law professor Paul Campos, LGM, writing "More on Jesus Truth v. Regular Truth" about the pathological lying Malignant Fascist's decades- long fables of his selfless heroism on 9/11 and days following.  Were we not a democracy in decline, responsible people would have indeed removed him from office via the 25th Amendment -- hell, were we not a democracy in decline, he would never have been elected twice!

QOTD -- Truth And Reconciliation

 

"... We’ve learned from the unsuccessful attempts to hold Trump responsible for January 6 and from the unwillingness of the federal government to prosecute ICE agents that our existing judicial branch simply is not cut out to deal with that level of lawlessness. We need something dedicated explicitly, and only, to these efforts.

"Truth and reconciliation also requires a commitment to institutional reforms and reparations. Whoever is in power on the other side of the Trump era can’t go back to business as usual, can’t leave something like ICE fully intact and hope that moderate reforms do the trick and get rid of the bad apples. The whole structure is rotten to the core.

"Reparations will be necessary as well. Immigrant communities have been shattered. People have been deported, in violation of court orders, to countries they never lived in and have no connection to. The economic impact on Minneapolis, the epicenter of Metro Surge, ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Communities can’t simply pick themselves up by their bootstraps and move on. Money has to be redistributed from the bribe-fueled, corrupt government that Trump built, and given back to its victims..." -- Lisa Needham, in the "Public Notice" Substack, on "Justice for ICE’s victims requires truth and reconciliation."  ICE's deportation depredations have continued at warp speed with a lower profile but with just as much un-American thuggery as when they descended on major cities, Minneapolis being the epicenter early this year with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.  We're long past the "reform" stage and are in the "uproot the rotten organization and hold the guilty accountable" stage.

QOTD -- Flunking Trump

 

"... Trade is cooperation. A farmer gets a customer. A factory gets a component. A family gets a product. An American business gets a buyer abroad.

The trade war threw sand in all of it. It disrupted export markets. It disrupted supply chains. It disrupted investment. It disrupted relationships with allies. Then it added uncertainty and stirred.

A stronger America has more customers, more suppliers, more trusted partners, and more capacity to make the things it needs. This trade war has delivered fewer of every one of them..."-- economics professor Justin Wolfers, on his "Platypus Economics" Substack, summarizing his answer to the question "Did Trump’s Tariffs Achieve Trump’s Goals?"  Wolfers provided flunking grades to the Malignant Fascist based on the MF's own promises, i.e., that tariffs would 1) give America leverage for getting better trade deals;  2) that they would reduce the trade deficit;  3) that they would spark an industrial revival;  4) that they would strengthen national security; and 5) that they would raise revenue.  

The sub- literate MF's lack of understanding of basic economics, coupled with his self-interested, craven "advisors," have given us the tragic results that were predicted from the outset of his mad tariff dominance-display exercise.  What's left of his mind is fixed in the mercantilism of the 19th Century, while the rest of the world advances in the 21st.

QOTD -- Losing A Sense Of Who We Are

 

"... When we try to name everything after ourselves, we lose a sense of who we are. What is “America” if it is hollowed out as bluster, over and over again? Who are “Americans” if we serve as the brand name of one man’s flailing imperialism?

If we want some kind of self-definition, if we want to get through this self-made catastrophe, the words “United” and “States” are worth remembering, and stressing. They name our constitutional republic.

To have states is to have a form of politics that goes beyond the grasp of a single man. And to be united is to have a larger sense of the history and the future of the people. We lose that dignified sense of purpose when we allow power to remain in the hands of someone who understands neither unity nor statehood, who seeks only to divide us for personal profit, who cares nothing for the continued existence of our country, who senselessly alienates those who have been our loyal friends." -- Timothy Snyder, concluding an essay in his "Thinking About..." Substack on "Our Trade War Against Ourselves."  Snyder writes about the Malignant Fascist's insane trade war with Canada and the various inane byproducts ("Lake America"), and how it not only demonstrates that the MF has no understanding of how markets work, but that "... it is entirely possible to be both morally wrong and geopolitically weak. And his weakness becomes our weakness, his nihilism our national embarrassment, or really tragedy."  Good read.

QOTD -- Idiots In Charge

 

"... Our problem isn't lethality, you know. Our problem is, sometimes we put idiots in charge of things and they make big mistakes and will take this country to war for no good reason. And it's always guys like, you know, certainly Donald Trump who avoided military service. You know, Pete Hegseth, he's, I think, he's a little bit harder to explain. I think the reason is, he should know better. I think he missed something when he served on active duty and didn't really understand the fundamental nature of the U.S. military..."-- Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on the Malignant Fascist and Whiskey Pete Hegseth disrespecting the apolitical role of the U.S. military.  We have to count on the professionalism and adherence to the oath every servicemember swears to the Constitution in the coming years as the MF's regime becomes more aggressive in incorporating the military into its political agenda.

QOTD -- The Insidious MAHA Project

 

"... At the core of RFK’s engagement with public health has been his decades-long crusade against vaccinations. During the pandemic, he declared the Covid vaccine the 'deadliest vaccine ever made.' Upon becoming HHS secretary, he immediately fired all the members of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with people more in line with his dangerous quackery. If Kennedy Jr. has a defining belief, it is his claim that 'autism is caused by vaccines.' All the scientific evidence in the world (and in this case: the complete lack of evidence, despite a mountain of studies) will not shake him. Under his leadership, U.S. public health authorities are no longer allowed to state the undisputed scientific truth that vaccines *do not* cause autism; he has been working hard to channel massive public resources into finding / manufacturing 'evidence' for his conspiratorial nonsense.  [snip]

" ... Let us insist on approaching MAHA as what it really is: A form of rightwing extremism that fulfills a specific role in the larger far-right ecosystem and a political project driven by paranoid conspiracism. That story – how MAHA relates to MAGA, how it channels ambiguous anxieties and ties them to a genuinely extremist rightwing cause, how to situate it in the history of the Far Right and how it captures the defining sensibilities of today’s extremists, how its rise, just like that of Trumpism more generally, is itself the manifestation of severe pathologies of American political culture – is the one we need to investigate, the one worth telling. And that is the story that should make it abundantly clear why we must fight tooth and nail against any normalization of this insidious project and the people behind it." --  historian Thomas Zimmer, writing in his "Democracy Americana" Substack, on "The Assault on Public Health and the Self-Sabotage of a Nation."  Zimmer discusses the grievance-channeling by right-wing extremists engaging in anti-science conspiracy theories and quackery that has become the hallmark of the Malignant Fascist and Bobby Brainworm's public health policy-making.   It's indeed an assault and self-sabotage being carried out by the same extremists carrying out assaults and self-sabotage in every other phase of American life and governance in the MF's reign of error.

QOTD -- "Are You Better Off?"

 

The midterm elections are already upon us, and every Democrat and Independent running against a Republican should ask voters the question Ronald Reagan asked October 28, 1980, at the end of his televised debate against Jimmy Carter: Are you better off now than you were before this presidency?

Unless you’re very, very rich, the answer is obviously No, I’m worse off.  [snip]

My humble advice to Democratic candidates in the midterms: Don’t be distracted. Don’t take the bait and discuss socialism, “woke”ism, or anything else.

Just ask this simple question: Are you better off now than you were before this presidency? And explain how badly Trump and congressional Republicans have screwed average working people.

You’re better off than you were before the start of this presidency only if you’re a major investor in the stock market, a top corporate executive, or a beneficiary of Trump’s largesse to his billionaire backers.

But if you’re an average working American, you’re indubitably worse off. Hopefully, you’ll vote your economic interests November 3 and deposit Trump’s congressional lapdogs into the dustbin of history..." -- former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, in his Substack, on "What Every Democratic Candidate Should Be Saying."  There are few messages that seem to sink in better with voters than the one posed here.  Given what the corrupt, incompetent Malignant Fascist and his team of Epstein class oligarchs have done, and are doing, to our country (and Reich provides plenty of facts on that), it's a potent political punch.

QOTD -- Trump Hates The Troops & They Notice

 

"... The least surprising observation you can make about Trump is that he is an asshole and a cheapskate. Still, the president’s Iranian misadventure has fully exposed both his ineptitude as commander in chief and the consequences of this lack of care for military members and their families. As conditions on U.S. ships erode, the administration is finding itself in a media war with the concerned families of troops deployed to the region. Stockpiles of vital munitions are being burned through at an alarming rate. And for some reason, Trump has picked this moment to order a bizarre retrofitting of U.S. aircraft carriers, demanding that they be kitted out with obsolete steam catapults. (TNR contributor Brynn Tannehill has the lore drop you need if you’ve been confused by this story.)

"Public opinion about the war in Iran has been consistently awful for Trump, whose overall approval hit a low of 33 percent this week. As Parsi reports, those who are stuck on the front lines of this folly are not likely to disabuse their fellow Americans of this being anything but FUBAR. As one service member told him: “What people in the media don’t understand when they compare past conflicts to this one, is this operation has no morale behind it. That makes a world of difference to service members deployed to undesirable locations indefinitely.” Parsi thinks that the only thing left to do now is to “simply end” the war. But Trump is knee-deep in this big muddy, and there truly is no end in sight." -- Jason Linkins at The New Republic Substack, on "Trump Hates the Troops. The Troops Are Taking Notice."  The narcissistic-sociopath-in-chief can't let go for the same reason he can't let go when he loses an election, a court case, a business deal, etc.  His vastly overinflated sense of himself and of his place in history, his bubble-thin ego, his band of sycophants keeping that bubble constantly inflated with the breath of bullshit, his deep ignorance, means he will only continue a course through the kind of catastrophe only someone with his unique combination of failings can bungle into and not be able to leave. The servicemembers on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and their families offered a stark reminder of the Malignant Fascist's incompetence and sociopathy in the most clear way possible when he said that they had been on deployment "not nearly long enough."  He hates, and disrespects, the troops all right.

QOTD -- Fantasies

 

"... Trump, then, is at war with the world he has made. Alex Bruesewitz, working busily with the White House trolls, now churns out videos of Trump to prop up his image as the alpha male. Trump is the towering leader of 'Guardians of the World' with jets and warships bombing Iran; Trump is the 'Cosmic Commander: A New Era Begins Among the Stars'; Trump is a swashbuckler seizing an Iranian ship, crying, 'It’s Our Oil Tanker Now!'; Trump is a superhero with a red Superman cape rescuing George Washington falling off Mount Rushmore; Trump is dignified standing next to John F. Kennedy in front of the White House; Trump is Vegas Elvis in a rhinestone jumpsuit unbuttoned to display his muscled chest.

"The Iranians, for their part, have produced viral, AI-generated videos to portray Trump as a petulant and impotent Lego character. The Iranian Trump figure naps at the Resolute Desk, frantically launches missiles to hide his name in the Epstein files, and sweats playing dice in a casino. The Iranian portrayal of the little plastic toy is far more realistic than the White House fantasies..." --  Sidney Blumenthal / The New Republic Substack, writing on "Two Years Ago, They Revered Trump; Now, They Ridicule and Revile Him."  The AI slop that's generated for the MAGAt faithful to reassure them that the Malignant Fascist is still on his game (and aging backwards!) and is seen as the hero of mankind is playing to a much-diminished audience in a demographic that he could always count on:  the "manosphere" of self-deluded "alpha males" and incels (think "Proud Boys").  That's toxic for any would-be dictator / strongman, but with the MF's plummeting polls and the increasingly mocking and derisive zeitgeist, it's approaching fatal.

 

QOTD -- On Karoline Leavitt's Departure

 

"... She stood behind the seal of the White House wearing her little cross around her neck and became the glossy public mouth of an administration marinating in brutality, corruption, retribution, greed, deceit, autocracy, and spiritual putrefaction.

"She didn’t brief so much as infect, flicking that forked tongue across every steaming mound of bile that sloughed off Donald Trump and buffing, burnishing, bleaching, and bullshitting it into something she hoped Americans would swallow, transforming lying into liturgy, degradation into doctrine, indecency into catechism, until the grotesque sounded governmental simply because she said it beneath chandeliers with a seal behind her.

"She became an apologist for depravity, an acolyte of authoritarianism, a servile little lickspittle for sin, a lacquered lackey for a sexual reprobate whose appetites, abuses, lies, and grotesqueries were already smeared across decades of public history, and she fucking knew exactly who she was protecting. Goddamn right she knew..." -- a brief excerpt from political commentator and podcaster Jo Carducci (a.k.a., JoJoFromJerz), firing a well-deserved salvo on the departure of White House Spokesliar Karoline Leavitt, on her "Are you f'ng kidding me?" Substack.  The entirety of her masterpiece is a must read and should be saved for when, after a likely long future career in fascist propagandizing, she shuffles off this mortal coil and an obituary needs to be written.  By her sheer evil and moral vacuity (while displaying that cross around her neck every moment!), she will be remembered as The Worst White House Spokesliar in a long history of spokesliars (so far!).

(Photo:  via Getty Images)

QOTD -- "Pooping In The Beverage Cart"

 

"... Trump doesn’t deserve the respect of the office he holds, so it is fine to make jokes about him pooping in the beverage cart in the bed of the catering truck.

"Also, he is a coward who’s scared of everything, who’s building a bunker so he can hide from the fruits of his own late-stage emperor syphilis brain destruction of the world, so that is some context.

"Also, Trump is currently declaring that we’ve got Iran right where we want ‘em! That we are “low-keying” it with them, letting them run out of money while we don’t attack them, you betcha! Meanwhile Iran is explaining that it’s gonna just wait to negotiate with the US until there’s somebody in office who isn’t totally braindead, let’s pencil it in for 2029 or so..." -- Evan Hurst, in "Wonkette," writing about "Why Is The Airplane's Catering Truck Farting, Mommy? Because The President Is In It, Dear."  This story has so many legs on so many levels that it could become The Metaphor/ Meme of the Malignant Fascist's second go-around.  But we promise to move on ... eventually.

QOTD -- From World Power To Regional Bully?

 

"... Each member of the trio brings something valuable to the deal. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia has more money than Croesus and Turkey has the second-biggest standing army in Europe. This is a formidable team.

"This story has flown a bit under the radar, but anything involving war and peace in the Middle East clearly has potential to affect U.S. politics. For starters, Saudi Arabia no longer has to count on the U.S. for its defense. If Iran were to attack the Kingdom, the large, modern, and well-equipped Turkish army would be there for the Kingdom of Saud, backed up an implicit threat from Pakistan to go nuclear if things began looking bad. That won't make the U.S. irrelevant in the Middle East, but it does reduce its power. If Trump were to give MbS an order he didn't like and MbS disregarded it, Trump might say: 'I won't defend you anymore.' MbS can now reply: 'My friends will.'

"Fundamentally, the agreement says that an attack on one of them is an attack on all of them. The agreement also strengthens military cooperation among the three countries in other ways. Among these is work on a maritime defense coalition. Turkey is also a major producer of military equipment, which the other two countries could start buying instead of U.S. equipment. Clearly this pact is aimed at Iran, but it is also a warning to the U.S. that it is not the only game in town anymore.

"It is also a model for the E.U. If Trump pulls out of NATO, the members (which include Turkey) could also form a new defense pact. Japan, South Korea and other countries in Asia could also agree to form defense pacts. There could end up being half a dozen or more of them, the result of which would be a greatly reduced role for the U.S. in the world, something the next president would not be able to put back together. Trump would then have succeeded in his goal in changing the U.S. from a dominant world power to just another regional bully. That genie is not going back into the bottle." -- Andrew Tannenbaum, Electoral-vote.com, on the formidable new alliance between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.  Under the Malignant Fascist, any hope that America would continue to project power through its alliances is fading fast.  When that power was used to forward democracy and prosperity around the world, as it is not under the MF, it was clearly a good thing.  No longer.  Now it's every country, every bloc, for themselves in a world that is measurably less stable, less secure, less peaceful now that the MF is running his worldwide grift and extortion racket.  Sic effing transit gloria, America.

QOTD -- Who Gets To Be A Citizen

 

"... These newest Trump’s executive orders are little more than a performative stunt, a smack back from a narcissist who doesn’t like to be told no, even by the nation’s highest Court, which usually tells him yes. The EO’s seem unlikely to find much love from the lower courts, given the precedent from Barbara that they are obligated to apply. But we do live in the era of the unitary executive and a Supreme Court that panders to that theory, and sometimes to its current personification. So we will watch; we will see how the administration tries to implement its new policies and how the courts respond.

"The issue of who gets to be a citizen is too important to be left to the whims of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. This whole sordid affair exemplifies why we have laws and why it’s important to be a rule of law country. Trump is trying to change the rules that determine who can be an American to suit his own whims. That’s not how a democracy works. We believe in justice and fairness, not kings. No kings. Not on this issue or any other..." -- Joyce Vance, writing in her "Civil Discourse" Substack on the latest attempt by the Malignant Fascist to rewrite the Constitution's 14th Amendment birthright citizenship language via Executive Order.  No American who believes in the Constitution, and embraces the moral arc that's been running slowly, painfully through our history until the MF showed up, would ever want the likes of him and that ghoul Stephen "Pee Wee Goebbels" Miller deciding who is a citizen.  That's yet another issue that remains to be answered this November, along with whether we remain a democracy or not.

 

QOTD -- A Shameful Ending

 

"... This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6. That book is now closed. Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of presidential power—to buckle. The court cannot write a different ending..." -- U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta, concluding his Memorandum Opinion and Order, dismissing with prejudice the case of United States of America v. Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, et al.  Rhodes, of course, is the bastard who runs the un-American fascist militia Oath Keepers that played such a primary and violent role in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, as detailed in Mehta's memorandum.  The Malignant Fascist's "Justice" Department had moved to dismiss the original indictment against Rhodes and his fellow thug fascists, clearly at the behest of the MF, the then coup leader himself.  Mehta had no authority under law to deny the "Justice" Department's motion to dismiss the case.  But, Rhodes et al. were all just part of what the MF calls "a day of love," right?

QOTD -- Tanking

 

"... There is one exception to the general rule that presidents don’t have much control over gas prices: Donald Trump. He can’t bring them down, but he certainly sent them up.  [snip]

"There aren’t going to be too many voters who call themselves MAGA and will vote for Democrats because Trump made gas prices go up. But Democrats don’t need them to. It’s enough if the persuadable voters who believed Trump when he told them that he’d bring down the price of everything — including gas — are mad that he broke his promise and decide to send him and his party a message.

"In fact, if the Iran war drags on and gas prices stay high, this could wind up being as decisive a campaign issue as Trump’s misbegotten tariffs, his parade of idiotic construction projects, his rampaging incompetence, or his boundless corruption.

"Of all the ways a president could tank his political standing and sabotage his party’s chances of success in an upcoming election, few are as straightforward as directly causing an increase in the price of gasoline at the pump. Yet Trump has managed it. He truly is a president like no other." --  Paul Waldman, "Public Notice" Substack, on "Why Trump deserves all the blame for high gas prices."  Waldman notes that many experts believe if the  Malignant Fascist's bungled war with Iran doesn't end soon (and what would Iran's incentive be for that to happen?) gas prices could remain high for a prolonged period.  Elect clowns ...

 

QOTD -- Trump's Attack On The Smithsonian

 

"This is the story of a simple-minded, ill-read man who, handed the levers of power, thinks he knows best about American history and wants to control what every American understands about it. That would be troubling enough, but this obvious racist—whose agenda is fueled by his white supremacist views—also imagines he can dictate how we should love our country.

"The malevolence of which I speak is Donald Trump, of course. On Friday, he expanded his attack on the Smithsonian Institution and particularly the Museum of American History with another executive order ridiculously described as 'restoring trust.' His order demands that the much-trusted National Park Service install signs on the sidewalks and pathways leading to the museum; these should inform visitors that the museum’s exhibits 'should be renovated' and visitors should go elsewhere to find 'locations and resources for accurate information regarding America’s history.'  [snip]

"But this is what Trump does: He demeans experts and demonizes institutions he wants to control. Forget 'love of country.' Forget 'fostering unity.' Instead, we can expect more politicizing of respected nonpartisan institutions like the Smithsonian and the National Park Service—all for the purpose of rejecting the beautiful, complex and diverse history of our beloved country.

"This latest attack on our national memory is pitiful. It showcases Trump’s weakness. It reveals how a simple-minded authoritarian believes that he can deny us the truth and stunt our will. In 98 days, on Nov. 3, we can prove how wrong he is." -- writer Steven Beschloss, in his "America,America" Substack, on the simple-minded Malignant Fascist's "attack on our national memory," in an attempt to whitewash it into conformance with his and his party/ cult's white "Christian" nationalist ideology. 

QOTD -- White House Correspondents Association Fiasco

 

"... Just imagine if the reporters gathered in that room had gotten out of their seats and walked out on that maddening address to the nation. Millions of Americans would have been cheering in their living rooms. Instead the wide shots and cutaways of the crowd on hand told a far more depressing story, revealing not just the stunned and tortured looks of some of the finest journalists in the world, who missed a golden opportunity to stand up for what is arguably our most precious right guaranteed under the Constitution. People sat in their seats, defeated and depressed. It was agonizing to watch from home. But it was also clarifying. The event itself was an indictment of our news media. Our system of delivering information to the American people is badly broken.  [snip]

"The correct response, and I’m sorry to report that some of my friends in the press will never get this, was to take a stand - something, yes, most journalists are trained to avoid at all costs. That training, unfortunately, has led many of us, as a profession, down the wrong path. We are not supposed to take sides in a story, reporters say. We are here to report the news, they insist. My reply to that is, and always will be: there are not two sides to a story when it’s a matter of right versus wrong. And to put it mildly, a different kind of president calls for a different kind of playbook. Do we continue to just report on the destruction of our profession? Our democracy? Or could we try a new approach? A kind of journalism that understands the assignment - in an age of rising autocracy. Without journalism, there is no democracy. And without democracy, well… you see where I’m going here.

"Our democracy is only as strong as those willing to defend it. That includes the press. When courage could have been summoned at the White House correspondents dinner, a dangerous complicity took its place. Yes, democracy dies in darkness, but also in cowardice."  --  former CNN anchor Jim Acosta in his Substack piece "Democracy Dies In Cowardice Too," on the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner featuring the unhinged Malignant Fascist in full-blown anti-First Amendment rage.  Over 500 journalists had appealed to the WHCA to confront MF at the dinner, an appeal that was brushed off by outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang of CBS "News" (apparently angling to stay in Bari "Bad News" Weiss' good graces).  Instead, they platformed the biggest threat to press freedom in our history, and sat there stupefied and defeated. 

 

QOTD -- Defining How The Government Should Spend Tax Dollars

 

"... The second Trump administration is forcing the American people to define how they think the United States government should spend their tax dollars.

"Today Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced a proposal to expand Medicaid to all American children from birth to age 26. Kim noted that about 4.4 million children in the U.S. don’t have health insurance and 23 million are underinsured. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will make things worse.

"Joseph Choi of The Hill reported that Democratic senators Alex Padilla of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois are co-sponsoring the bill. The legislation proposing 'MediKids' has been endorsed by a range of organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“'Every child should have health care,' Kim said in a video. ''very child should have the ability to go to a doctor when they’re sick. Every child deserves to be healthy.' MediKids 'would automatically enroll every child in health care coverage at birth. Because the system we have right now isn’t working. Because healthy kids make healthy adults, and that makes for a healthier, stronger future for our country. Because, as a parent, you deserve to be able to provide care for your kids without worrying about going into debt, emptying your savings, or straining the family budget. And because…we all have a responsibility to care for each other.'”  -- Heather Cox Richardson, in her "Letters from an American" Substack, as part of her contrasting the Malignant Fascist's policies of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program cuts, withholding billions of Medicaid dollars from California and Minnesota, degradation and dismantling of our National Park System, and requesting $67 billion in addition to the low-balled $37.5 billion already spent on Operation Epic Fail.  This is the choice, as John Pavlovitz put it, between a party that defaults to cruelty versus one that defaults to compassion. 

 

QOTD -- Dividing Lines

 

John Pavlovitz discusses why America isn't politically divided, it's morally fractured.  Here's the heart of his observation:

The dividing lines in America have nothing to do with party affiliation anymore.

Just open up your phone, eavesdrop at the checkout line, or talk to your neighbor, and you’ll see the lines along which we now find ourselves:

One side celebrates innocent people being assassinated in front of their children, without due process.

One side rejoices in strangers going without food or medical care or housing, without knowing a single one of their stories.

One side applauds the bombing of foreign school children and the destruction of entire populations.

One side blindly despises other people for their gender identity, despite it having no impact on their lives whatsoever.

One side reduces an entire population to terrorists and drug dealers to justify their swift eradication.

One side conflates whiteness with righteousness.

One side defends the protection of pedophiles.

One side steadfastly worships a felonious, treasonous rapist.

And none of this is about politics; it’s about when faced with the suffering and injustice in our path, whether we will default to compassion or to cruelty...

Faced with these contrasts, millions of Americans will choose the "cruel side" former pastor Pavlovitz cites above, again and again.  He's written in the past about the necessity to ostracize them if America's to survive.  That's why it's always good to remember that while the Malignant Fascist is perhaps the purest manifestation of this moral evil in our history, it's dark ugliness certainly preceded him and will certainly outlast him as the "cruel side."