Skeets Of The Day

 

Remembering --

 

25 years ago, terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people, including 2,753 New Yorkers. As we remember that terrible day, let us also remember the first responders, office workers and strangers who ran toward danger to help each other.

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— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) September 11, 2026 at 6:06 AM

 

The Epstein-Trump files coverup / confronting Blanche --

 

Garcia: There’s a group of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors that are here in Dallas. And the survivors are saying that they are also disgusted that Todd Blanche is out there giving speeches while refusing criminal convictions, while refusing to release the rest of the files.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 12:46 PM

 

Operation Epic Quagmire / ad for Dems /  diesel over $6 / Houthis advance --

good thirty second ad for any dem

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— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 4:35 PM

 

BREAKING: U.S. diesel prices soar to a new record of over $6 a gallon, deepening the strain for hauling everyday goods.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 11, 2026 at 4:44 AM

 

The Houthi seizure of Mocha threatens global trade routes, severs vital supply lines, and displaces thousands in Yemen.

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— Al Jazeera English (@aljazeera.com) September 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM

 

Trump's mid-term message:  "cheat like hell!" / it's a  sick cult, not a party --

Trump: "Please right your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can't even breath. That I will go out with my family, my friends, I'll do it any way - I don't care if I'm registered or not, I'm going to try to cheat like hell..."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 10, 2026 at 10:32 PM

 

Wow -- RNC video: "On June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker,' so God gave us Trump." It only gets more unhinged and culty from there.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 10, 2026 at 8:26 PM

 

somebody at the RNC yells death threats toward Abdul El-Sayed and Talarico as Cruz attacks them

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 10, 2026 at 6:15 PM

 

It's not a real political party, folks It just isn't

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— Seth Abramson (@sethabramson.bsky.social) September 11, 2026 at 1:01 AM

 

Trump's loathsome, repulsive behavior, part infinity --

 

Look at this loathsome repulsive creature yelling at a reporter. In addition to the fact that he’s the worst president in US history, he’s one of the worst human beings on planet earth. His supporters have a very serious defect in their character.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 11, 2026 at 6:09 AM

 

JD Vance, Vice Racist --

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— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) September 10, 2026 at 9:53 PM

 

A question we think we know the answer to --

 

i once again ask what sort of contraption Trump is wearing around his ass

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 10, 2026 at 2:07 PM

 

Your November duty (Happy Friday!) --

 

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— Miaganga (@miaganga.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 8:58 AM

 

 

Weekend Music -- The Rising

 

 9/11.  Bruce Springsteen.  "The Rising."

Spirits above and behind me
Faces gone, black eyes burnin’ bright
May their precious blood forever bind me
Lord as I stand before your fiery light

9/11 Twenty-Five Years Later

 

Twenty-five years after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City, Flight 93, and the Pentagon, Americans are remembering that awful day, September 11, 2001, and honoring those who perished, including those first responders who served so courageously:

Ground Zero commemoration

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial 

A Day of National Service

Tunnels to Towers

Washington, DC events

Pretty much every hamlet, town, and city in America will be holding an event commemorating the 25th anniversary. You can always, as we plan to do, spend at least part of the day in reflection on how our lives  were forever changed on that day.

(Photo: via 9/11 Memorial & Museum)

Today's Cartoons

 

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(David Rowe, Financial Review, Australia)

(Bart van Leeuwen, Oedipoes.com, Netherlands)

(Patrick Chappatte, The Boston Globe)

(Benjamin Slyngstad, @slyngstad_cartoons)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)

(Jonathan Brown, caglecartoons.com)

(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(Peter Kuper, gocomics.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Mike Konopacki, The Capital Times, Madison, WI)

(Jon Adams, The New Yorker)

QOTD -- How Terrorism Wins

 

"... Do not let terrorists who hold state power tell you how to react to terrorism.

"Do not be provoked, do not enter the mental world of the terrorist, foreign or domestic; think for yourself. And do that thinking in the future: not as a reaction to some orchestrated horror, theirs or ours or anyone’s; not amidst a cloying nostalgia in which we were always right because only others can do wrong; but in the hope that we can make this quarter century better than the last.

"Commemoration is a singular chance to reflect. Americans in power will try to use this anniversary to that everything happened exactly as it had to, and that we should bow our heads rather than use them.

"We went along twenty-five years ago. We should not do so again. Thinking about the last quarter century, we can choose to think differently.

"And what we failed to do then we can do now. We can think of our security as part of our freedom, as our education and our health and ability to realize our best selves. We can turn from sources of energy that kill to sources of power that enliven. We can love our country but recognize that our only homeland is a common one, the earth itself." -- Timothy Snyder, writing from Kiev, concluding his "Thinking About..." Substack essay, "Helping The Terrorists Win." Professor Snyder traces the response to terrorism from 9/11 to today, and all the wrong-headed ways we lashed out, often creating more problems and "helping the terrorists win."  Perhaps if we see and understand the broader implications of our past actions, we can someday learn to do what's most effective and positive for ourselves and our planet.  A typically thoughtful piece, well worth the read.

Skeets Of The Day

Operation Epic Quagmire: Iran escalating, oil prices surge -- 

 

Page One. @wsj.com

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 7:00 AM

 

The price of U.S. crude oil rose above $100 for the first time Thursday since May with no end in sight in the Iran war.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 10, 2026 at 9:15 AM

The Briber-in-Chief -- 

Sounds like something a man convicted of multiple felony fraud counts would do

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— Brandi Buchman (@brandibuchman.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 6:34 AM

 

Aside from the blatant illegality here, you’ll get this right after your tariff dividend, your freedom dividend, Trump’s health care plan, and your $2 gas

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— Angry (@angrystaffer.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 11:11 PM

More on the "Trump-a-Loser" convention -- 

Trump’s sweaty breathless freak out in Dallas is the most desperate performance yet from America’s failed, corrupt, fading lame duck president and his rapidly diminishing base of followers.

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 7:08 AM

 

The Party wanted you to not believe what you saw with your own eyes—that an octogenarian repeatedly falling asleep in the Oval Office was actually a champion pole vaulter clearing bars 20 feet high.

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— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 10:38 PM

 

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— WokeMooseAndSquirrel🌊🫏 (@wokemoosensquirrel.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 9:33 PM

 

The withheld Epstein files almost certainly answer that question

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— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 10:12 AM

Grindr outage reports are surging in Dallas on Day 1 of the Republican midterm convention

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— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 6:58 PM

 

The unhinged Malignant Fascist undermines environmental rules for data centers -- 

The Republican Party makes false promises and creates fake culture war distractions because they don’t want you to pay attention to things like this.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 7:40 AM

The constant companion and her daycare client -- 

First to drink the Kool-Aid, first to ask for seconds.

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— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@sundaedivine.lol) September 10, 2026 at 6:35 AM

 

 

Trump Offers Bribe To Vote Republican

Continuing in his efforts to rig the mid-term elections, the corrupt and demented Malignant Fascist promised to give every adult $5,000 if the Republicans keep control of the House and Senate.  He made the bogus bribe offer at his "Trump-a-loser" convention in Dallas last night.  From the Associated Press:

"President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.

The dubious promise would most likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.

“'f the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,' Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. 'It will be called the Trump Dividend.'

He likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing 'our tremendous strength and success economically.'

Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance appeared to try to walk back Trump’s proposal — at least in part — by suggesting the dividend payments would not go to the wealthy. Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures." (our emphasis)

Some rubes will believe this pathological liar, whose promises are rarely kept, but we expect all but the most deluded will not.  It also appears to violate Federal campaign laws which prohibits the use of bribery to gain votes, but this convicted felon couldn't care less if it means saving his orange hide. 

Alarming Warnings On AI Development

 

The warnings on AI development have suddenly started coming from inside the house, and are alarming:

OpenAI and Anthropic researchers are ramping up calls for an AI slowdown and warning of existential risks to humanity after the resignation of a researcher at Anthropic fueled fresh scrutiny.

The concerns started after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said Tuesday that he was quitting the company as he accused Anthropic and rival OpenAI of “gambling with our lives.” He added that those building AI believed that it could “kill us all by the end of the decade.” Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment lead, responded that he expects there is a more than 10% chance of that happening.

Since then, several employees at both AI labs have come out in support of calls to slow the pace of AI development as they stressed the risks of the technology. The public warnings are the culmination of growing concern globally about the capability of AI, following numerous cyberattacks and security incidents in recent months by rogue models developed by both OpenAI and Anthropic.

“In my personal capacity, I also think we need to slow down,” Julie Steele, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff who works on the safety team, said late on Wednesday in a post on X in response to Coxon’s warnings. 

Anthropic researcher Samuel Marks said that “AI developers believe their technology could cause human extinction (or similarly bad outcomes),” in an X post on Wednesday. “This could happen in the next few years. In general, the more senior the employee, the more concerned they are.”

Anthropic was the first lab to publish a framework dedicated to mitigating “catastrophic risks from AI models,” a spokesperson told CNBC when asked about the comments from employees on social media.

“We have always been transparent that AI will bring both enormous benefits and unprecedented risks,” an Anthropic spokesperson said, adding that the company was building models with “some of the strongest safeguards in the industry.” [snip]

Many of the biggest AI safety fears revolve around advanced models getting increasingly capable at improving their own performance, a technique known as recursive self-improvement, or RSI.

“It’s hard to overstate how dangerous speeding towards RSI is,” said Jasmine Wang, an OpenAI researcher working on alignment, on Wednesday evening.

“There is not yet a viable scientific plan to solve risks from recursively self-improving AI. Please look up!” said Anna Wang, who works on AGI safety and alignment at Anthropic.

OpenAI’s chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said Saturday that he has a “strong expectation” that the speed of progress in AI could be sustained into recursive self-improvement.

“If AI development continues along its current path, the systems we’ll see in the next few years are likely to represent further capability jumps of equal or larger magnitude, and to increasingly drive their own development,” he said in a company blog post.

“This is a time that calls for extreme caution,” Pachocki added. “I am concerned no one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence.”

Paul Christiano, who was formerly head of safety at the U.S. Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), said recent development of AI capabilities led him to “believe there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term.” OpenAI announced Wednesday that Christiano is joining the board of OpenAI Foundation.

Concerns around the capability of AI models have ramped up in recent months. The announcement of Anthropic’s Mythos model, which it touted as having advanced cyber capabilities, in April whipped up a frenzy of panic among financial institutions globally.

In July, OpenAI said its models were responsible for a cyber incident on another company, while Anthropic’s Claude models were also responsible for cybersecurity incidents, including in one case where Mythos created fake identities to fool humans.

Roughly 1,400 AI researchers, from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google DeepMind, published an open letter in July urging the U.S. government to develop the tools necessary to support an effort to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

While chiefs of AI labs have increasingly publicly called for more rules and standards around the development of models, huge competition between companies developing the tech is spurring rapid advances.  (our emphasis)

We've always had just enough human intelligence to sow the seeds of our own destruction.  Unfortunately today, instead of a bright and nimble central federal government ready to address the issue, we have a demented moron Malignant Fascist who sees the future of AI in terms of beating China to the punch (and, of course, being able to post AI slop portraying him as an immortal hero).  Congress, with its large AI / tech know-nothing contingent, may slowly be getting on the case.  Meanwhile, the oligarch tech bros are pleading with everyone else to solve their problem because they're too competitively greedy to stop it on their own for now.

(Image: SciTechDaily.com)

 

QOTD -- "Self-Medication From A Sundowning President"

 

The wonderful Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, writing in Substack, about the crazed and ignorant Malignant Fascists's trade war on Canada:

'There have been many trade conflicts in history, some of them more destructive than the US-Canada fight. But I don’t think there has ever been a dispute this stupid.

Bear in mind that this crisis is entirely gratuitous. Canada has done nothing wrong. Even if one buys into Trumpian nonsense about how every nation that sells us more than it buys is ripping us off, Canada isn’t a villain. Last year Canada did run a modest trade surplus with the United States in goods, but more than half of this imbalance was offset by a U.S. surplus in services. Overall trade between our nations was almost balanced.

So what is this about? Clearly, we’re looking at a symptom of deranged Trump syndrome. As Trump’s failures, from soaring fuel prices to plunging approval, multiply, he is doubling down on his disrespect for and attempted bullying of our northern neighbor and former ally. That is, you should think of this conflict not as something reflecting U.S. national interests, but as a form of self-medication from a sundowning president." (our emphasis)

Almost all of what animates the sick, narcissistic Malignant Fascist is his insatiable need to be praised and liked, regardless of whether the interests of the U.S. are at stake. When he's rejected, he lashes out in a fit of narcissistic wounding.  He's a national security threat, but no one in his MAGAt cult will call for his removal. 

 

Today's Cartoons

 

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(Clay Jones, gocomics.com)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Pedro Molina, Tribune Content Agency)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Canada)

(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com; context here)

(Nick Anderson, The Contrarian)

(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune; context here)

(Patrick Blower, @blowercartoons, UK)

(Niall Maher, @nialljmaher)

Skeets Of The Day

 

The Epstein-Trump files coverup / missing pages / follow the money --

NPR published a stunning report on serial numbers and discovery logs that do not line up with what the Justice Department has posted online. Some of the missing materials relate to allegations involving Trump! The department declined to explain the discrepancies! www.mediaite.com/opinion/epst...

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— WomenRiseUp2026 (@womenriseup2026.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 9:14 PM

 

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— Miaganga (@miaganga.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 6:46 PM

 

Operation Epic Quagmire / the price we pay, the profits Trump makes  --

 

Oil back over $100 a barrel. This is all on Trump and GOP!! Nov 3 election could not come soon enough to destroy the GOP!! Gas now up 40% to $4.22. Diesel is at a record of nearly $6.00.

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— Dean Obeidallah (@deanobeidallah.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 7:04 AM

 

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US. overnight took its steepest jump since May, climbing seven cents to $4.22, AAA reported. The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. two days before Trump and Netanyahu attacked Iran was $2.98. #EndlessWars #EndlessTradeWars #EndlessChaos

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— Ken Bazinet (@kenbazinet.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 4:52 AM

 

Trump's oil investments have gained millions during Iran war as his accounts keep trading

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— CNBC (@cnbc.com) September 9, 2026 at 6:46 AM

 

Trump's despicable 9/11 lies, and the sanewashing --

 

1. This week is the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Trump is marking the occasion by describing his role in heroic terms, claiming he personally went to Ground Zero with an army of construction workers to aid recovery efforts. It is all a fantasy.

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— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:32 AM

 

2. As the years have passed, Trump's account of the day has become even more dramatic and implausible. We review the actual facts in today's Popular Information:

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— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:32 AM

 

Ah, yes. 9/11. The day New Yorkers famously can’t remember where they were, what they were doing, or what exactly the weather was.

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— Julie Goldberg (@juliegoldberg.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 7:53 AM

 

This is what Trump did on 9/11.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 11:48 AM

 

No sense of skepticism in this headline or social media post, unless you think quotation marks do the trick. I don't. Why are major media so lame in the face of the most blatant liar in American political history? It's either cowardice or complicity, or both.

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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:14 AM

 

Who did show up at Ground Zero?  --

 

You know who actually did show up at Ground Zero? Canadian emergency rescue crews.

— Andrew Weinstein (@andrewjweinstein.com) September 8, 2026 at 7:12 PM

 

The Republican War on Women, cont. --

The next phase in the abortion wars may come down to one question: Will federal courts allow the rights of red states to enforce bans to override the rights of blue states to protect access? The 5th Circuit hears a pivotal case today that could provide an answer. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...

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— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@alicemiranda.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:00 AM

 

Moscow Mitch, where are you? --

 

🔥😂🔥😂

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— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 6:09 PM

 

 

Mid-Week Song

 

It's been almost 5 years since Grammy-winning The War on Drugs released their fifth studio album. Yesterday, they released a new, anthemic single "Who's That" from their much anticipated upcoming sixth album, featuring a gritty lead singer Adam Granduciel singing and playing a powerful guitar break while seeming to walk LA's streets at night, reflecting on depression and a relationship. Glad they're back. Enjoy.

 

Stooges Witkoff, Kushner Likely Compromised

When the bungling pro-Putin team of Steve "Witless" Witkoff and Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner arrived in Moscow for their friendly meeting with war criminal Vladimir Putin, they foolishly accepted a ride in a Russian government vehicle.  That likely insured that information on their phones was downloaded by Russian intelligence services without them knowing it.  Maj. Gen. Randy Manner discussed it on CNN:

"'It's important for your listeners to understand that the Russians have the ability that, if you get within a certain number of feet of a device that would be included in that vehicle, they can take everything off of your phone and copy it without you even knowing it. All your contacts, all your messages, all your emails — everything — can then belong to the Russians.

So, for them to fall victim to such a ludicrous, unbelievable situation, to accept a Russian vehicle that shows the ignorance and lack of knowledge in general about how sophisticated the Russians are.'" (our emphasis)

Think of the treasure trove the Russians likely obtained: e-mails, browsing histories, personal phone numbers, videos, even document files.  These two idiots go to Moscow thinking that Russia's really our friend, if only we could work up some business deals and get Ukraine to capitulate.  Putin must be thrilled whenever he sees these two coming, knowing that their incompetence and gullibility is a gift to his regime. 

 

Trump's Crazy Summer

 

Jimmy Kimmel is back from summer vacation for his 4,000th show and, after some thanks for guest hosts, reviews the summer's craziness, starting and ending with the Malignant Fascist -- all the best and worst Malignant Fascist moments that he missed.  Great, hilarious quips.

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!