The Police State Comes To Minneapolis

              

            Made in the USSA - by Mr. Fish

The murder of Renee Good, that young mother in Minneapolis – and it WAS murder – ought to be the final awakening for even the most MAGAfied, the most propaganda-blinded Trump worshippers. Especially those who consider themselves patriots. Or Christian. Not just because of the horror of it, per se, or what is says about the thugs Trump – and it IS on Trump – is hiring to carry out his plan of intimidation and forced submission. As sad as it is to think of her young child now motherless, what’s even more portentous for the county Trump has made no longer great, are the government-sponsored lies that followed.

When Kristi Noem lied so brazenly about it, calling the woman a “domestic terrorist” who ran over the officer, which she clearly didn’t, even saying the murderous agent was hospitalized for injuries (Trump did, too), it doesn’t matter if she knew there was video of the assassination. If she did, she wouldn’t have cared. Like Trump, and Vance, and Bondi, and Patel, and Miller, and Bannon, and Fox “news,” and Newsmax, and Karoline Leavitt, and professional liars like Ted Cruz and most Congressional Republicans, she knows that decades of relentless indoctrination have, as intended, created millions of endumbed worshippers who permit getting away with whatever anti-democracy actions and lies they choose.

When reporters showed Trump the video that made a liar out of him, he retracted nothing. (tinyurl.com/sawtruth)

What American with even an ounce of decency could see what happened and not feel sick? Who could fail to acknowledge, finally, that what Trump and his rudderless political party are creating is a police state, modeled after every despotic government the world has seen. That’s NOT unwarranted hyperbole. It’s as clear as climate change and the Trump-enabled measles epidemic working its way through our county.

Trump just told the New York Times that the only thing restraining him is his “own morality,” not any law or body. This, from the most amoral man ever to occupy the White House. (gift article: tinyurl.com/nolaw4him) 

That submission to tyranny has characterized so much of human history is something to ponder and to fear. Why do so many of our species so readily submit to domination, happy to be released from responsibility? Whatever the explanation, it’s about to eliminate 250 years of democratic governance here.

There was a time when we could look at the rise of Hitler in Germany, for one example, and think we’re immune to it. That the greatness of America makes her better. That, unlike us, those Germans were uniquely prone to following dictatorial orders, willing to brutalize fellow humans, or, at least, to say nothing. If the Minnesota murder and our government’s response don’t put the lie to that myth and convince a majority of remaining Trump supporters of what’s happening, history’s repeat will become permanent.

The murder in Minnesota and brutalization by ICE and Trump’s weaponized National Guard in his hated Democrat-run cities everywhere, rounding up citizens and non-citizens alike, holding them in inhumane “detention” facilities or deporting them, in some cases to brutal gulags – these are only the most obvious examples of Trumpic totalitarianism. As is the acceptance of them by so-called conservatives.

Consider the takeover of news media by Trump’s billionaire pals, installing stooges to manage and control what we hear and read. Banning the teaching of history, censoring the words of history’s great thinkers. Even Plato. This is what governmental suppression looks like, the hallmarks of despotic autocracy, population control by thought police. Already enthralled, half the country doesn’t seem to care.

Like history’s worst dictators, Trump is creating and MAGA is rejoicing in a cult of personality. His visage hanging from the windows of government buildings, his name plastered above John F. Kennedy’s in the center for the arts about which Trump couldn’t care less. That awful, grandiose ballroomic paean to narcissism, the announced triumphal arch, which, if it gets built, will surely have his name on it, too.

Such self-created idolatry is typical of North Korea and Russia. In Italy, the architectural vestiges of Mussolini’s rule are everywhere, even including engraved years beginning at Day One of his takeover. I don’t wish il Duce’s fate on Trump, though. I want to see him live long enough to watch his self-adoring monuments torn down. If reason returns.

After Minneapolis, everyone can see we’re being lied to every day by Trump and the people he hired for their willingness to do it. Excuse my righteous indignation, but the death of that mother and the disgusting lies that have followed, the silence among so many Congressional Republicans, the acquiescence of MAGA, and the defense of it from what amounts to state media are too much to bear. If 2026 isn’t the year in which Trump’s and his collaborators’ attacks on American values are rejected by Republicans and MAGA, it’ll be beyond recovery.

El Jefe

 

On “Taxi,” the TV comedy starring Danny Devito, among others, and Christopher Lloyd, who played the brain-burned character Jim, there was an episode showing Jim as a brilliant student at Harvard, cajoled into trying a “special” brownie. One bite, and he morphed into the skew-faced idiot he was on the show.

For some reason, I thought of that after Trump announced his invasion of Venezuela. A taste of power, and he went mad. Because Trump was never a brilliant student anywhere, the analogy fails. Still, in his second term as “president,” he’s been nibbling power bit by bit, and finally swallowed it whole. Also, one who’s already mad can’t “go” mad. The analogy fails there, too. So never mind. Clearly, though, Trump is deliriously stoned on power.

The military operation was well-planned and brilliantly executed. How well thought out were the consequences and follow-up is suggested by the shallowness of Pete Hegseth resurrecting his Fox “news” and only qualification roots, crowing, “They effed around and found out.” The preening, testosteronical emanations that dominated the news conference all but made light of the seriousness of what happened. It confirmed, however, that it was never about drugs, obvious from the persisting lies that boats blown up and people killed by Trump were heading to the US bearing fentanyl.

Still more revelatory about the lack of long-term planning are contradictory statements, mostly from Trump and Secretary of State/National Security Advisor/Viceroy of Venezuela Marco Rubio. “We’re running the country,” quoth the Ravin’. “We’re working with their government,” says Marco. Which raises the question: what does it mean to “run” a country, a phrase Trump loves to spout referring to what he does to the US, and believes he’ll be doing to Venezuela. Here’s an experienced general, describing how failure derives from such chaos.

Running a country requires having people downstream to carry out plans. And more people, further downstream, willing and able to do the actual work. By firing competent people and hiring sycophantic yes-ones, Trump made inroads (but not roads) here at home. Stephen Miller and Russell Vought tell him what to do, he orders morally bereft lackeys, like Bondi, Patel, Hegseth, Noem, et nauseati, to carry it out. Trump’s monarchy has eliminated and/or ignored Constitutional checks, so it’s been working very well. Not for you and me, of course. But, for him and his spawn’s and cronies’ bank accounts, it’s been magical.

Neither Trump, who, between golfing and posting social-media jeremiads, hasn’t the time, nor Rubio, who hasn’t the downstream cooperants, can “run” Venezuela. Trump could have turned to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, but, too bad for her, she won “his” Nobel Peace Prize. Vice-President Delcy Rodriquez, a Maduro acolyte, initially responded to the kidnapping by demanding Maduro’s return and promising that no one would be allowed to steal their resources. To which Trump replied, aping Al Capone, “If she doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” As this was never about drugs, neither was it about creating democracy. Was Tucker Carlson wrong, too? 

The “peace president” has become the bully of the Western Hemisphere, threatening whomever and taking whatever he wants. Some see this as dangerous dereliction; others – MAGA and Foxoid media, predictably – see it as USA! chant-worthy. I’m among the former, given the license this has provided our adversaries to do the same, one of which already has. Which might explain Trump’s antecedent defense of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: tilling his own soilage.

If the outcomes of Trump’s adventurism are unknowable (recall Bush’s Iraq invasion, about which V.P Cheney promised we’d be greeted as liberators and SecDef Rumsfeld said it’d be over in days), some are predictable. First, Trump’s dismissal of alternative energy in deference to fossil fuelers will continue, accelerating climate change, probably irreversibly; and, second, if American oil companies do return to Venezuela, rebuild its oil infrastructure, and resume pumping and selling the oil, Trump will cash in with a pre-arranged personal cut of the profits. It’s the only consistent aspect of his foreign policy. He admitted to working with oil companies, but not Congress, in advance of the invasion. 

How on board they are with the risk and expense is unclear, but Trump offered up US taxpayers to foot the costs.

Trump considers the oil underneath Venezuela “ours.” By any law, it never was; but it’s true that American oil companies once harvested it as if it were, taking from Venezuela billions in profits, making it unsurprising that the country would eventually take back control. Or, as Trump says, steal it. To evaluate that characterization, it’s worth knowing the history. Here’s one source. And another.

Maduro is a bad guy. Considering what Trump has done, and if he follows through on his threats to other sovereign countries, how does Trump compare? Opinions will vary.

Good Cop

         (This column is only relevant locally)

Everett’s Chief of Police, John DeRousse, has retired, effective by the time you read this. He’ll be missed, but the newly-chosen chief, Robert Goetz is a good guy, too. Happily, John will remain in Everett, because his new job, with Providence Health Systems, means he won’t be moving away. I say “happily” because, ever since he arrived on the scene, as a K-9 cop Sergeant, he’s been a neighbor and a friend. I know Chief Goetz will carry on John’s high standard, because I’ve spent time with him, too. But John (he’ll hate reading this) is extraordinary.

Recently, he talked me into becoming a member of the Chief’s Advisory Board. Even before that, because he is who he is, I’d thought Everett has an excellent Police Department, due to his leadership as Chief, Dan Templeman’s before him, and like Robert Goetz will provide in the future. The department has been imbued with the ethic that its role is to serve its citizens, inclusive and respectful, not power-mad. It shows.

The Chief’s Advisory Board, to which I’d never have been appointed were it not for my friendship with neighbor John, consists of a wide range of people, all of whom, except me, are deeply involved in the community: clergy, youth out-reachers, community organizers, to name a few. They're much younger than me, too. I guess I represent the pre-dementia demographic. (I think it’s “pre.”) Other than writing columns, I don’t contribute to the community. The others do. It’s a stretch to call my columns contributions. I think it’s “pre.”

A recent mayoral candidate made a centerpiece of his campaign the lack of full police staffing. I'd guess he knew the reason, which is that Chief DeRousse refused to hire any but excellent candidates. In fact, they get hundreds of applicants, from which, based on their impressively high standards, they select around three percent. Of late, the slots are almost completely filled. They reject the sort of people who, based on what we see of them in the news daily, join ICE because they like brutalizing people and/or because of big signing bonuses. Everett pays well, but gives no bonus for joining. Their hires are chosen to serve.

As a member of the Board, I’ve learned about two police programs that, in other hands, have been controversial in some communities. In fact, one has been in the news, locally: the “Flock” system of reading license plates. In Mukilteo, it was discovered that the feds were hacking into the system and collecting its data, unauthorized. Mukilteo leadership stopped it. In Everett, stealing information never happened because they’d preemptively built in safeguards.

Since the advent of Flock, vehicle thefts here have dropped by around seventy percent. Plates are scanned for outstanding warrants, etc., and when no issues are found, the data is erased. I don’t find it threatening.

The other potentially controversial program is their newly introduced use of drones, which would rightly be a concern if they were flying around for general surveillance. But they’re not. They engage only in response to 911 or other emergency calls. Because they can arrive at a scene faster than a patrol car, and, if, for example, the operator’s assessment is that it’s safe for the cars not to scream through the streets to get there, it’s a safety issue. That’s happened a few times. They’ve also been used to locate a confused, elderly man who’d wandered off.

The technology is impressive: very high-resolution cameras, heat-detection (which led to locating that wanderer), and around 45 minutes of flight time. When the batteries run low, the drones automatically return to base. If needed, another can be launched. They’re not autonomous; they are operated by specially-trained officers. Used that way, I don't see a downside.

I suppose no police department, including Everett’s, is perfect. Though I haven’t heard of any, over time, there might be incidents that arouse suspicion or backlash. If so, I believe they’ll be rare. Knowing ex-Chief DeRousse, and having discussed policing with him long before he became chief, I can say, unequivocally, that the department’s commitment to community responsibility is profound. And, because bleeding-heart liberals like me are hardly known as advocates for police, you can take it from me. Also, Trumpofoxian mis- and disinformation notwithstanding, even liberals enjoy feeling safe and appreciate good cops. Many of whom, training as a trauma surgeon, I encountered in emergency rooms.

Compared to the other members, I know I don’t belong on the Chief’s Advisory Board, but John was persuasive and hard to say no to. I plan to turn in my badge soon (we don’t have badges), but we’ve been promised an in-person tutorial on the drones. I want to see that. Meanwhile, if any reader has issues with the police, they can let me know and I’ll pass them along.

Moon Man

 

Image created by ChatGPT, prompted: create image of Trump's face on the moon.

“Fly me to the trump and let me play among the stars...”

“Trump river, wider than a mile...”

“Would you like to swing on a star, carry trumpbeams home in a jar” (“Or would you rather be a trump? A trump is an animal that lies all the time, too many to fit into a rhyme. He struts and he poses and he does a dumb dance; He goes backstage where they’re wearing no pants. So if you want to turn the world into a dump; you could grow up to be a trump.”) 

“Trumplight becomes you, it goes with your hair...”

“Shine on, shine on harvest trump...”

Building on universal enthusiasm for rebranding the Kennedy Center in his honor, Trump, we believe, is set to announce renaming humanity’s all-time favorite nighttime sky object, too. No longer the moon. Trump.

And who’s better at shining on than Trump? His speech last week to that part of the nation that still believes his lies outdid all his previous ones; not in terms of lies and made-up facts, by which measure they’re all the same, but in brevity, rapidity, and decibels. He shouted the golden oldies and came up with new material, too. Check these links. They should be required reading for MAGA.

Normal human beings -- and there’s the problem – would hesitate to tell lies so easily debunked. They might even blush, look down at their feet. Not Trump. His lies are a steady stream without so much as a second’s hesitation or compunction. The only questions about his absurd lies are whether he believes them, and, if not, why his disciples do. Trumpists lack any curiosity about and desire for truth, accepting as gospel his every word.

“One year ago,” he lied, “We were absolutely dead. (Ed note: by what criteria?) But now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. (Ed note: by what criteria?)” According to Trump, every world leader tells him that. Another lie, more likely than not; but it’s certainly true that world leaders recognize Trump’s pathetic need for praise and easy manipulation when he gets it. So maybe not.

There also could be some truth to the “hottest” claim, if not now, soon. For reasons buried deep in his psyche, Trump is deliberately making climate change not only worse, by banning offshore windfarms while allowing offshore drilling and disincentivizing the use of electric vehicles, solar power, and more, but, by closing the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado, he’s making its effects less traceable and solutions more elusive. It’s perverse, destructive stupidity, willfully ignored and effectively facilitated by Republican representatives of the Americans most directly endangered by it. 

Trump’s woeful naming spree just traveled back to the 1940s, the last time the US built a battleship, after which their obsolescence and vulnerabilities, especially in the last few decades, became increasingly clear. That’s of no concern to Trump, who, as he’s told us, knows more about war than all generals and admirals combined. If it weren’t for his miraculously disappearing bone spurs and five deferments, which, unlike me and millions of others, tragically kept him from serving, he’d know even more.

So, he announced, he’s authorized a new category of battleships, to be referred to as “Trump class.” Maybe a few feeble Republicans in Congress will awaken from ten years of torpor to prevent spending the billions the ships would cost, recognizing there’s no reason to build them except to feed Trump’s pathological, almost pitiful neediness.

I assume we agree that “Trump class” is an oxymoron. Those two words don’t belong, ever, in the same sentence.

There is some irony here: as anxious as Trump is to have his name plastered everywhere and to build oversize, tasteless structures to display it, he’s uncharacteristically reluctant to have it appear anywhere near the so-called Epstein files. He and his personal law firm, for the last year doing business under another oxymoronic title, The Department of Justice, aren’t hiding their contempt for the law and the public, brazenly redacting, withholding, and disappearing major parts of those documents which they so reluctantly released to Congress. Nor can they hide the indisputable inference: he’s guilty as hell. (Saying so makes me, by the DOJ’s Trumpophilic definition, a domestic terrorist.)

There’s good news, though: I, winner of the “Fred’s auto parts and bakery great peace of writing” award, sleuthed a telling portion of the missing files. Read and report back.

Since the season of good cheer is upon us, I’ll not mention the deliciousness of Republican Congressdwellers subpoenaing Special Counsel Jack Smith but refusing his request to testify in public. He has the goods on Trump, and they know it. 

Rather, in the holiday spirit, I hope everyone had a merry Trumpmas, happy Trumpukkah, a meaningful Trumpzaa, and, belatedly, a satisfying Trumpwali. Together, let us prepare to face twenty-trumpty-six.

Resident Evil

 

Disgusting. Vile. Nauseating. Monstrous. Odious. Malignant. Evil.

No word fully encapsulates the psychopathic abomination that is Trump, nor is there any combination of them that conveys what I felt upon reading his horrid statement about the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner. Would that every American felt the same. Within the thirty trillion cells in his body, not one mitochondrion contains an atom of humanity. No strand of DNA is coded for empathy, or kindness, or decency. Over half of voters chose someone else in the last election. They knew it. Those who cast in with him are left to ignore or excuse it. Or, God help us, applaud it. Much as they might prefer to, they can’t deny it.

Read his words if you must:

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

It’s clear he didn’t mean “sad” or “peace.”

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column that referred to Trump as an “a$$#ole.” It’s definitionally true, but I chose not to send it in: too offensive, maybe, even for me. I posted the commentary on my blog, though. I’d have included the word in the above list, but I hate to be repetitive. 

Trump insinuated that the Reiners deserved to be killed; that it happened because of Rob’s public – and accurate – criticisms. So anxious to obnox was he that he spewed before it was known that the killer was their son. In doing so, in blaming it on Rob’s remonstrations, he assumed the killer was a Trump supporter, murderously enraged by insults to Dear Leader. Remarkable: Believing it was his people who did it, unsubtly excusing it, implicitly allowing for more. He has, after all, demanded the death of many of his perceived enemies. And he knows the death threats and attacks that his words engender among his cultists. He is truly, deeply, sick.

Only someone as pernicious as Trump wouldn’t have predicted the assassin was a person very close. Only someone as sycophantic as Senator Tom Cotton would say this after the murders of Australian Jews celebrating the first night of Hanukkah: 

 " ... you had a man of Pakistani descent and a son who had been born in Australia and yet had not seemed to assimilate into their culture. It's another reminder about why birthright citizenship is not a good idea."

That kind of nonsequiturian exploitation and spineless surrender is why Trump gets away with every law he breaks, every bribe and grift by which he enriches himself and his family: He surrounds himself with amoral enablers. His dismissive comments about the murdered Brown students – “things happen” – were on brand, too. He brings shame to us all. MAGA is becoming a murder cult.

Although he welcomes notorious antisemites, I don’t connect Trump to the murders on Bondi (no relation, except in horror) Beach. But I note: the murderers, it’s reported, were ISIS sympathizers. ISIS is evidently responsible for the recent murder of two American servicemen in Libya. Trump bragged repeatedly about “eliminating” ISIS. The brave man who stopped one of the shooters is Muslim. He had to know it was Jews being targeted, because it was an open ceremony. Trump’s and MAGA’s hate for Muslims is as unfounded as his lies about a booming economy.

Which is another truth: despite Trump firing people who produce the numbers, we’ve just learned about rising unemployment and that jobs have not increased under Trump for nearly all of his second term; that inflation continues; that, likely due to his ill-conceived and mismanaged tariffs, blue-collar jobs are declining. And yet, expecting his Foxified, incurious acolytes to believe, Trump continues to lie that the economy is the best since Hammurabi coded. Amidst widespread economic failure, it’s all he has: gaslighting or blaming President Joe Biden, who left him with rising employment and declining inflation.

For now, we’re stuck with Trump, the most venal person ever to occupy the office. If Democrats can overcome Republican election-rigging and retake Congress, he can, to some degree, be held in check. If ever again there’s a Democratic president, Trump’s name should be expunged from every federal building and his narcissistic construction projects pulverized.

We can’t forget what he’s done, though, lest it ever befall us again. 

I Got Yer Peace Prize Right Here

 

One thing I have in common with Trump is avoiding the spotlight. So it was with reluctance that I divulged receiving an opinion columnist’s highest honor, The Fred’s Auto Parts and Bakery’s first-ever “Best Peace of Writing Prize.” Since the revelation, people come up to me with tears in their eyes, saying, “Sir, it’s way honorier than the Pulitzer or the Nobel assuming there’s one for writing.” 

Embossed in real-looking gold with the inscription “The Least Biased And Most Cheerful Writer Since The Invention Of Cuneiform In Mesopotamia,” the medal (it’s quite large) was accompanied by a trophy in the shape of a carburetor made to look like a biscuit. The sign on Fred’s business will now read “The Sid Schwab Fred’s Auto Parts and Bakery for Columnists Not To Be Confused With Communists.” The font will be understated and tasteful. 

I can see my birthday becoming a holiday during which banks will be closed except for bitcoin deposits, and shoppers will receive a three percent discount on auto parts and a free donut hole if they buy a dozen crullers, making them very affordable and not a hoax. Admission to national parks will be complimentary for people bringing a copy of my book. 

Because I’m not a self-promoter, I was relieved when my news was pushed to back pages by Trump receiving soccer’s first-ever, not made-up, totally legit “peace prize.” It was awarded between murders at sea and before invading South America, so it’s as deserved as anything he deserves. Like Trump, I’m six-foot-thirteen, so, rather than having to bend, we each placed our medallions over our own heads, which for sure wasn’t weird. Also so no one had time to retract the award.

Ha, ha. Nothing like cutting-edge humor to undarken days like these. Because Trump accepting a fake peace prize and heralding it like the greatest honor given to anyone anywhere ever wasn’t laughable. Or pathetic. Or like a four-year-old with a plastic light saber, telling everyone he’s Luke Skywalker. But maybe it is. Around the world, except among rightwing media, people are ridiculing him. (Trump, not the four-year-old, but who can tell the difference?) 

The accompanying trophy is seriously creepy. 

What’s unfunny and beyond despicable for a “president” of the United States or any decent human is Trump’s declaration that Somalis are “garbage.” Really, MAGA, is that what you voted for? Do you not see how he stains America? Or do you approve of such obscene racism? If not, what will you do about it?

I’ve worked with Somali personnel in operating rooms and seen the honors Somali graduates from our schools have received. They’re good people and, for what they’ve overcome to be here, admirable.

Like my parody but not parody, Trump designated his birthday a national holiday during which admission to national parks will be free. At the same time, he rescinded free entry on MLK, Jr Day and Juneteenth. His disgusting bigotry surpasses that of any US official, ever, including Orville Faubus, Strom Thurman, George Wallace, and David Duke. Garbage? It seeps, stinking, daily, from the White House. The real “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is inside his head. And the heads of people who accept it.

Marco “Me, a sycophant?” Rubio, announcing the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace with the straightest of faces and brownest of noses, described Trump as “the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.” No kidding. He did. Not Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase; not FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s Civil Rights Act; not GHW Bush’s START treaty; definitely not Obama’s Paris Accords or Affordable Care Act or Iran nuclear agreement that Trump rescinded, eventually to bomb them. So, on what evidence? Trump’s Middle East peace deal? Ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? His healthcare plan? Price-lowering tariffs requiring bailouts for farmers? Which “deals,” economic, geopolitical, or otherwise, lasted more than a month or accomplished what he promised?

But don’t worry, MAGAs. Even as the country shows signs of realizing the damage Trump and his handlers are doing at home and across the seas, SCOTUS’s Subversive Six will keep Trump’s party in charge, no matter its lawless incompetence. Texas’s grievous mid-term gerrymandering is peachy, they said, because it’s "likely to succeed on the merits of its claim," reasoning that the lower court (Warning: empty your mouth of liquid) "failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith.” Right. If there’s a state whose politicians legislate in good faith, it’s Texas.

Such fact-inverting scale-thumbing recalls the Citizens United decision in which Anthony Kennedy wrote that unlimited campaign contributions “do not create corruption or the appearance of corruption.” And John Roberts, gleefully gutting the Voting Rights Act, declaring the end of racism in the US.

Trump and his carefully chosen, ideological Justi are determined to turn our republic, one year shy of its 250th anniversary, into an authoritarian kleptocracy in which fair voting no longer exists and electoral outcomes are pre-determined by a handful of oligarchical stealers of our national treasure.

And that there is some Fred’s Auto Parts prize-worthy writing if ever there was.

Killing Us All

It’s reported that, by direct order of Secretary of Indefensible Pete Hegseth, two men who survived bombing of their allegedly drug-bearing boat, clinging to wreckage, were murdered by a second flight. “Kill them all,” he’s said to have said. By any definition, that’s a war crime, and it was done in our name.

It tracks directly to Trump, who chose for SecDef an unqualified, weekend Fox “news” host with a history of alcohol and other kinds of abuse. Hegseth, whose expectation at Fox was to lie as per their business model, now a member of an administration headed by a pathological liar and filled from there down with no one deserving of trust, denies the claim.

Something, something, Brooklyn Bridge.

When two survivors of another attack were captured, they were sent home immediately. At that time, some wondered if it was because victims aren’t the “narco-terrorists” Trump claims, and he wants no one to find out. We must wonder the same in this case, where survivors were silenced at sea. Will we ever find out? Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said they “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts ...” Senator Susan Collins is, no doubt, “disturbed.”

“Vigorous oversight.” Probably a strongly-worded letter to someone, too. What should happen is impeachment and removal, passing unanimously, followed by a trip to The Hague, care of the International Criminal Court. In times long past, when the Republican Party hadn’t yet given over to Trump and the people orchestrating his anti-constitutional authoritarianism, it might have.

Just following orders, Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley was the one who aye-ayed the second strike. True to no-responsibility form, Trump and Hegseth are pretending he acted alone, surely a disgusting lie. No admiral would have ordered that on his own. “I stand behind his decision,” Hegseth back-stabbed. Military officers now understand the cowardly amorality of their leaders and how deeply at risk that puts them.

For the pilot who executed the order (and the survivors), down the chain, on a limb, one might manage some sympathy. Given the squelching, by Trumpseth, of generals and admirals of conscience, he might have felt that if he refused he’d be incarcerated and never heard from again. Maybe not, though. Serving Hegseth, he might be that special warrior, the buff, obedient, beardless, not fat gay or trans, MAGA-loving, cold-blooded soldier the preening, posturing, publicity-seeking Hegseth demands.

When six members of Congress, who’d served in the military or intelligence services, produced a video reminding service members that not only were they not required to follow illegal orders, they were obligated by law to refuse, no specifics were mentioned. Maybe they’d heard what was coming. Doesn’t matter. What they said was independently true, part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Like all truth, their video was met with outrage by Trump, his servile media, and MAGA mouthpieces everywhere. “Sedition,” he called it, punishable by death. In his receding mind, any disagreement with His Majesty is sedition. Weaponized by Trump like Bondi’s DOJ and Patel’s FBI, Hegseth’s DOD announced an investigation into military hero Senator Mark Kelley, one of the Scrupulous Six, threatening court-martial. For stating the obvious, for upholding the law. For saying what Hegseth, himself, said nine years earlier. How loathsome can they go?

Sedition means inciting action against one’s country. When its leaders neither obey nor acknowledge its own laws, the meaning inverts. In the American Revolution, there were patriots and loyalists. Now, by continuing to support Trump’s manifest corruption and criminality, loyalty becomes sedition. Silence compounds it.

It's not only war crimes. Trump just granted clemency (out of kinship?) to a billion-dollar fraudster who’d served only a few days of a seven-year sentence. Worse, he pardoned former Honduran “president” Hernandez, serving 45 years in an American prison for trafficking 400 tons of cocaine into our country. (Wasn’t trafficking Trump’s justification for assassinating Venezuelans?) Having turned the White House into bribe-acquisition central, he must be expecting bounteous payoffs. The only question is, “How much?”

Which is also the question for residual MAGAs: How much more of Trump’s lawless governance can you stand? How much before you return to reality and rejoin our democratic, constitutional republic?

Like Putin’s Russia, Trump’s America has become a murderous kleptocracy in which law means nothing and family Trump and their favored billionaires amass even more wealth. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s “peace” plan for Ukraine hands its illegally-seized land to Russia and its minerals to Putin and the US, while Trump-friendly Russian and American oligarchs further enrich themselves rebuilding the country. 

Meanwhile, Trump, making unfulfilled promises and giving himself opposite-day names, all but laughing at the needs of unwealthy Americans while lifting a middle finger to them, decorates the White House like a brothel and replaces its East Wing with a garish, tastelessly massive, gilded-age ballroom.

Don’t worry about inflation or healthcare. If you have the money, you can dance there.

Of "Presidents" And Pigs

Item: Flying high at around 30,000 feet last week, Trump said to a woman reporter who dared ask a non-fawning question, “Quiet, piggy.” She’s hardly the first lady reporter he’s insulted, but this was the most contemptible example of his sadistic misogyny. 

Item: The White House quietly replaced suspiciously identical signatures on several of Trump’s recent pardons, after being busted by alert internet sleuths. This, after harping on the rumor that President Joe Biden used autopens in signing some of his pardons, and going so far as to replace Biden’s picture in the White House with one of an autopen. 

Item: When President Barack Obama gave a halting bow to Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and when President Joe Biden fist-bumped Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump, along with every rightwing media screamer, went nuts. As predictable as MAGA hypocrisy, there came no such outrage for the next item:

Item: After lavishly welcoming MBS with a red carpet, flyovers, and other grovelsome behaviors, Trump, asked about MBS’s role in the gruesome murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence has tied directly to MBS, Trump all but excused it, saying, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman... Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” THINGS HAPPEN! Unbelievable. He went on to give away our most sophisticated military technology in exchange for vague investment promises and not-vaguely enriching Trump’s family businesses. 

Item: Several members of Congress, all of them having served in the military or CIA, created a video reminding current service members that not only are they not required to follow illegal orders, it’s their duty by law and oath to refuse. Because it is, indeed, the law, this ought to have been non-controversial. Trump, because of what he is, called it sedition punishable by death. One or two Republican senators pushed back, mildly, while MAGA media echoed Trump vociferously, because of course they did.

Item: After months of fish-flopping, Trump swallowed the hook and officially threw Ukraine into the hands of Putin, the man holding the pole. Why? Because, according to Trump, Ukraine’s President Zelensky hasn’t shown proper gratitude. Which is Trump-speak for failing to blandish, not to enrich him. For lack of insincere but predictably successful fluffery offered by world leaders Trump envies, he will abandon a gallant democracy fighting for its life against a war criminal’s invasion. According to several senators, Marko Rubio admitted Russia wrote the terms of the “peace” deal. 

This recent deluge of disgust brought to mind the most applicable word, about which an entire book has been written, a scholarly treatise by a professor of philosophy, highly relevant to the times. It’s safe to assume the word held purchase with nearly all Americans and, perhaps even more so, people paying attention across the globe. It need not be said, of course, that the itemized behaviors caused not a ripple of revulsion among the dwindling number of his supporters.

Because the book is public, published, and cited by others, and because it was made into a documentary film by the same name, I present its title, unexpurgated.

The book is “Assholes: A Theory.” 

I’ll not further test readers’ nor this newspaper’s tolerance by using the word so nakedly again. Out of consideration, it’ll appear, henceforth, as “a$$#ole.” And if that isn’t nice enough to pass muster, I invite substituting the word with “orifice” as you read. Because, as if it hadn’t been obvious since well before he entered politics (it most certainly was), the “president” of The United States of America is one.

I feel sure I’m not alone in saying, out loud, after seeing the “Quiet, piggy” clip, “What a total a$$#ole!” What Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography applies also to a$$#ole. Hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.” A$$#oles are arrogant, pushy, condescending, undeservedly self-important, bullies, and hold high opinions of themselves. They have low opinions of everyone else and treat them that way. It fits to a DJT.

My unbiased observation, along with those of mental and behavioral health professionals, political scientists, historians, and non-propagandized ordinary people, is that Trump has always fit the descriptions of sociopath, pathological narcissist and liar; a dangerous adorer of tyrants who feels entitled to ignore the law and decency. But, acknowledging my memory ain’t what it used to, this may be the first time I’ve added “a$$#ole” to the list.

Some observers, even some non-Foxified ones, might find one or more of the preceding descriptors controversial. But “a$$#ole” is inclusive and, for Trump, glove-like. It’s the face of America, or other body part, that Trump presents to the world, and us along with it. For love of country, we should all feel ashamed.

I’ve said enough. But it’s been an honest reaction to recent events and, perhaps, an explanation for my TDS, as in Trump Descriptive Syndrome.

Filed Under

Now what? For months, calling it a hoax, his word for facts, Trump did everything he could to prevent release of the Epstein files. Yet suddenly he asked Congress to vote to release them, which it did, 427–1. The Senate did, too, unanimously. Realizing it was going to happen regardless, was he trying to make it look like his idea? Have they been edited to his satisfaction, parts mysteriously missing?

The Platonic ideal of kind-heartedness, Trump is thinking only of innocents whose names might be found there. That's why he ordered Attorney Private, Pam of the dangerous diamond, to investigate Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and others. To clear their names, reconfirming previous FBI investigations that found no chargeable offenses. Not adding himself to the target list was the unintentional omission of a busy man. He has history and buildings to remake and arches to build, bitcoin and watches to sell.

Previous Attorneys General, the rank when deserved, would have demurred, saying, "I demur." But that's the stuff pipes dream of. For Trump, his word is his Bondi. Unlike Jim Jordan's and James Comer's accusations against President Joe Biden (they just forgot to bring charges for the ghastly crimes they uncovered), rumors of Trump's weaponization are meritless. If you see it, your eyes are lying. "You got it, Boss," said Pam. "Also, sorry about that ring thing."

I'm not one for conspiracy theories. I doubt Hillary Clinton operated a child sex trafficking operation in the basement of a pizza joint that didn't have a basement, even though Q said so. I'm pretty sure Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, although, admittedly, I wasn't there. I try to reject theories presented without evidence, which is why I suspect nothing nefarious in the timing of Jeffrey Epstein's suicide in prison. Not even after reading his words: "I am the one who can take him down." Or reading his brother's statement that Brother Jeff "had the goods" on Trump.

Notice I didn't put the s-word in quotation marks. That wouldn't be right. Reading those emails and texts from Mr. Epstein and contemplating his subsequent "suicide" triggers no alarms, not even learning that it occurred while two guards happened to be on break and that three minutes of the security tapes from that time are missing. Just one of those things. Innocent coincidence. Stiff happens.

Likewise, I harbor no suspicion about Ivana, Trump's first of several wives, falling down stairs to her death right before her scheduled testimony about his finances. I get it. She was nervous. It makes a person clumsy. Same with the suicide of Virginia Giuffre, who, as stated in recently released emails, spent hours at Chez Epstein with Trump. Nothing to do with her testimony about seeing Trump, or not, with Mister E, doing things, or not. Conspiracies aren't me. I went to medical school. You'll never catch me impugning a "president's" integrity or honesty.

There. I was trying out niceness, as suggested ever so gently by certain readers. If Trump participated in Epstein's pedophilia, would it matter? Not to them. After all, his amorality and sociopathy, the rape charges, his scams and cheating workers and alleged money laundering for Mafiosi were well-known before his first election. Before the second, his incompetent management of the pandemic, his self-dealing and racism and divisive nastiness, his pathological lust for vengeance for perceived wrongs, were unambiguous. MAGA didn't care. It can't be ignored, so it must be those things that earned their votes. Holy Mike Johnson, on a first-name basis with God, said it's a hoax, that questioning Trump's morality is just Democrats' nasty politics.

Houses are burning, fire is spreading, about to destroy the whole village. Awoke people bang on neighbors' doors, trying to rouse the occupants. From their windows, a few old men shout, "Hey, we're trying to sleep here. Stop banging. Sing us a lullaby." It's a brilliant analogy, right? Trumpists accuse truth-tellers of derangement-based, unwarranted alarmism. Smelling smoke, seeing their clothes smoldering, they don them anyway.

Apt or not, the point is that, even in this exceptionally enlightened corner of our variably-hued country, there are people who are unconstitutionally unable to acknowledge the corruption, the anti-American implications of the Trump regime, even as it incinerates the parchment on which we were founded. It worries me. Doors will require banging for decades, as occupants refuse to awaken.

Democrats SNAP To It

 

I have mixed feelings about the seven Senate Democrats and one Independent who gave in to pressure to reopen the government. It’s always Democrats who do it, and Republicans count on it. Because when people are hurting, Democrats care. In the case of SNAP, aka “food stamps,” Republican Congress-squatters not only didn’t care but delighted in knowing “moochers” weren’t getting them. How they see suffering of ordinary people is the most reliable way to predict a legislator’s party affiliation: If they care, D. If they don’t, R. Maybe some readers can think of exceptions.

The votes happened just as courts had ordered Trump to fully fund SNAP, and while he was trying hard not to, including threatening states that were providing their own funding. This, after the cerulean outcomes of last week’s elections ought to have made those senators realize they had leverage: voters turning against Trump. Including football fans. Had he continued to deny funding despite court orders, millions more would regret and reverse their prior votes.

So, considering future outcomes, Democrats’ capitulation was a self-inflicted foot-shot, a case of premature retraculation. And it allowed Republicans to pretend Democrats were the problem all along. Because lying is what he does, Holy Mike Johnson, in constant contact with God, was quick to say so.

The more blatant the lie, the more Trump and his abettors know it’ll be believed by MAGAs and promoted by their media cartel. The truth about Democrats’ till-now refusal to flinch is the opposite of what Trump and his cadre would have you believe. The loss of SNAP benefits seems to have been what broke backbones, despite rightwing lies.

Here’s a typical one, from Newsmax: “Fifty-nine percent of all illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer are not even Americans.” That grotesquely false statement flooded MAGA media.

The truth, as reported in an excellent, receipts-bringing NYT article, which I have munificently gifted to readers, is that “nearly 90 percent of SNAP recipients are native-born American citizens and 96 percent were citizens.” Of those that were neither, nearly all were included under rules extant both under Biden and Trump. Adding homeless people, certain veterans, and young people aging out of foster care happened under Biden, following the above-mentioned “D if they care” rule. Even so, the numbers are small.

And here’s Trump, speaking in tongues to Republican senators, as reported in the linked NYT article: “I will say about SNAP benefits, so when I was president, we had $7 billion worth and now they have many times that because these benefits were given to anybody that asked. And they’re up to, I hear, just many times, $47 billion ... Biden went totally crazy, gave it to anybody that would ask, gave it to people that were able-bodied, had no problem.” Those statements, the numbers he spouted, are 99% false. The 1% truth consists of the words “to” and “so.”

Wise people, non-FoxoMAGAified ones, know that anything Trump says is a lie unless proved true. Which might have happened, once or twice.

I sympathize with those eight senators who joined the Republicans. There was suffering out there and they could end it. But, assuming their concerns were for the effects on food and travel, among others, the deal they agreed to is vaporous. A dubious promise from Republicans to allow a vote on continuing the expiring ACA tax credits, which, if it happens, is unlikely to get R votes, because there’s nothing they hate more than Obamacare. And it’d die in the House.

The agreement reopens the government for two-and-a-half months, restores full funding for SNAP, and reverses Trump’s layoffs of government employees. So it’s not nothing. It is, in fact, good. But, for the issue over which Democrats stood firm for weeks, maintaining ACA subsidies, they got only an empty promise. However -- and maybe it’s the point – ballooning premiums will be a powerful campaign issue. That seems like a Republican foot-shot. As will voters remembering how cruelly Trump fought against funding SNAP. We’ll see. Dishonest spin, like vote suppression and not caring, is an enterprise in which MAGA excels.

Another important revelation, though obvious since Day One of Day One Two, is the message Trump sent to his supporters this week: “Lie for me and join in my criminal activities, political or otherwise, and I’ll take care of you. More elections are coming. So go forth and subvert.” The latest example is pardoning everyone who abetted his fake-elector scheme and other transgressions in trying to overturn a fraud-free, decisive election defeat. Like he did for January 6 criminals, too, many of whom, because they’re criminals, have continued to crime.  To his corrupt DOJ, Trump added, as “senior advisor,” one who called on rioters to “kill cops.”

This is Trump, and those are his people. Consider it when next you vote.

Corrupted Absolutely

 

It was inevitable. Once Trump realized he had our Republican-led Congress underthumbed, that six servile Supremes would give him a double-oh license to abuse power any way he chose, and that our helplessly MAGAfied co-citizens would weep with joy as he stuck it to the libs, he abandoned yet another campaign lie: namely, that he’d be a “Peace President.”

Why stop at impoverishing the poor and indicting truth-tellers? Or, based on lies, sending troops to American cities to create violence that hadn’t existed till then? For Trump, unchecked abuse at home evolved to threatening Venezuela, and to extra-judicial maritime murder, about which he said, in his uniquely presidential phrasing, “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be, like, dead. OK.”

Trump has provided no evidence that the people he’s killing were smuggling drugs or headed to America, and, since he knew where they were, he could have captured them. Yet, when two unexpectedly survived, they were sent home immediately. Why? Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA) said she was told in a Pentagon briefing “that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes” and that was part of the reason why the administration has not sought to detain or prosecute survivors, “because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.” Meanwhile, corpses are washing up on Trinidad’s beaches. 

It’s unlikely that the Venezuelan boats were carrying fentanyl. What decent American can countenance their country becoming an outlaw nation, flouting our own and international laws? Or, in the case of MAGA, thrill to it?

Reviled in NYC in his younger years, for his corruption, amorality, and ostentatious preening, mocked by social elites into whose circles he so desperately wanted to be received, ridiculed in the tabloids, and, reportedly, having complicated relationships with his parents, the roots of his psychopathy are evident; assuming his kind is made, not born. Unrestrained by laws created to protect against it, cheered on by Republicans who know better and MAGAs who don’t, Trump’s autocratic “presidency” will only get more damaging.

Occupying the Oval Office, which, as of this writing, is defiled but not yet demolished, is a dangerous man behaving dangerously. And whereas it’s unsurprising that, among several billion humans, there are some such men, it’s incomprehensible that there are millions of Americans who are blind to the harm that's sure to affect them, too.

My Christian friends find it inexplicable that anyone who calls themself Christian can continue to support Trump. Likewise, anyone who considers themself a patriotic American, which, at minimum, ought to mean people who value our Constitution and the rule of law. Who think free and fair elections and democracy are worth protecting; who know lies when they see them.

And so it is that Trump, who knows nothing of history nor cares to learn, has ordered the resumption of nuclear testing, undoing decades of disaster-averting, diplomatic achievement. It will restart an expensive and dangerous arms race, a fact understood by everyone but Trump, who longs to be seen as the potential destroyer of worlds, before whom the world shudders in fear. 

Also the destroyer of truth. And decency. No president in our history has said anything about a predecessor comparable to what Trump has about President Joe Biden: “He is a CRIMINAL AND SHOULD BE IN JAIL. A MAJOR LOWLIFE AND FAILURE. An ugly person, both inside and out! I beat him badly, and love watching him squirm now.” The first three sentences were spoken while looking into a mirror. The last is the lie he tells himself – a defining MAGA belief -- followed by the only truth he’s ever revealed.

The “president” of what was once the greatest and closest to honorable country on Earth, is a hateful, dishonest, rapacious man; a nascent dictator, embarrassing us in the eyes of the world; incapable of empathy for any but himself; a man who, while ignoring people out of work and a court order to fund SNAP benefits, flaunts an ostentatiously remodeled bathroom and hosts a gilded-age party for his wealthy pals at his “you’ll never belong” club. That’s who he is.

Consider this a plea to honorable people who voted for Trump thinking they’d be getting some sort of greatness and not just his promised retribution, to recall that, in a democracy, leadership requires far more than what they’re getting. Honesty, for one, and respectability, generosity, inclusion. A plea to demand more of their party – and of themselves – than defending the indefensible. Surely there are enough of them to vote America back to pre-Trump greatness.

In Tuesday’s elections, in which Democrats won up and down ballots everywhere, hope glimmers. Republican ventriloquist dummies with Trump’s hand up ... there, are claiming election fraud. Maybe, though, the less-dummied will sense that challenging him now requires less courage than before.

Because He Can

Maybe you’ve heard this joke, which, out of respect for readers, I’ll tidy up: Why do dogs lick their dangly parts? Answer: Because they can.

It perfectly describes Trump’s every action: He does what he does not only because he can, but, metaphorically, also that other thing. Paradoxically, there’s not a lick of forethought or coherence evident in any of it.

At last, in his attention-needy, approval-deficient life, he can do whatever he wants, to whomever and whatever he chooses. It’s nearly absolute power, granted not by voters, a majority of whom disagree with almost everything he’s done, and certainly not the Constitution, but by craven Republican Congress-dwellers and a cynically selected, ideologically predictable, Constitution-rewriting Supreme Court.

We’ve just returned from New York City, where our niece is a tenured professor of immunology at NYU. She runs an internationally recognized lab in which she’s made far-reaching, health-related discoveries. Back when our government recognized the value of science and the importance of the US leading the world, she had several post-doctoral fellows working with her. Now, due to Trump’s funding cuts and punitive immigration flexes, including charging outrageous prices for H-1 visas, because he can, she has only one. To another, whom she described as a “dream candidate,” she offered a job, only to have him choose a better future in China.

Another applicant she’d have loved to hire decided to stay in China. Trump’s no-sightedness harms America’s status in the world, which, if sanity ever returns to governance, will take years to restore. He doesn’t care. Because he can’t.

Because he could, this narcissistic man-child tore down a third of the White House, to be replaced with a grandiose monstrosity of a ballroom which will dwarf the People’s House, making permanent his embarrassing presence there. Because he lies, we should assume his promise not to name it after himself is false. The destruction, which he’d said wouldn’t happen, was completed before permits or final plans, much less authorization by the National Capital Planning Commission, members of which, along with members of the Commission on Fine Arts, he replaced with sycophantic allies. Why? To ensure approval of his ballroom and self-referential Triumphal Arch. And because he can.

Last week, Trump’s Department of Definitely-not-Peace awarded a huge contract to the drone manufacturer “Unusual Machines.” Heard of it? Don Junior has, because he’s an “adviser” to the company (cf: Burisma/Hunter/outrage/Congressional investigations/impeachment threats) and owns millions of dollars of stock in it, the value of which spiked after the deal was announced. It’s astounding, definitional conflict of interest and self-dealing, which Trump knows he needn’t hide. Likewise, his pardon of Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, the crypto giant helping Trump, et spawn, enrich themselves while robbing vulnerable MAGAs with their bitcoin scams. He’ll get away with it. Because, between his prostrate hirelings and cowardly Congress, he can.

We’ve also learned that, so desperate was he to demonstrate unchallenged omnipotence, by sending people, illegally, to an inhumane El Salvadorian gulag, he sacrificed several MS-13 informants in return for its President Bukele agreeing to incarcerate his victims. Murdering claimed but unproven drug-runners on international waters is in the same category of illegality and inhumanity.

Commanding an unprincipled Attorney General, Trump got former Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted. Unlike the previously listed transgressions, this one could become amusing. Congressmen Gym Jordan and James Comey have demanded that Smith appear before their Overlooking-Trump Committees. Asking only that the hearings be public, Smith has agreed. Will they let voters see what he had on Trump?

Taking another lick at authoritarianism: Sending “election monitors” to blue states, homes of proven fraud-free elections. The clear purpose is to justify his perseverating, pathological election lies.

Because our Trump-owned Congress will do whatever he demands, they handed ICE more taxpayer money than the FBI and CIA combined, so Trump can have a personal, Constitution-ignoring army. So wanton is their resulting hiring spree, they’ve selected people with criminal histories, including drug use, robbery, and battery. Which, seeing ICE brutality, are probably attractive qualities. Additionally, they’ve been given tools banned from government by President Joe Biden, re-allowed by Trump, to spy on any and all citizens. He can do that, too, unimpeded.

There’s more, of course. It’s reported he’s demanding the DOJ pay him $230 million in taxpayer (your) money as restitution for the indignity of being properly tried and rightfully convicted of multiple felonies, including sexual assault. Ever the defender of Biblical virtue, Holy Mike Johnson, wholly pliant, doesn’t object. Trump’s personal lawyers and other embodiments of amorality in the DOJ are in charge of the decision to pay. If they won’t, he’s in position to order it. Because he can.

Trump’s lust for power and vengeance has been obvious for years. And now, revealing its claim on “law and order” and “family values” always to have been Trump-level lies, today’s Republican Party is handing it all to him. Because, thanks to SCOTUS-approved gerrymandering and vote suppression, they can.

Rallying 'Round The Flags

Around four thousand people showed up to our Everett “No Kings” rally, including, unexpectedly, Governor Ferguson. He’s a good speaker. My favorite sign: “No Faux King way, Donald.” And thank you to the people who recognized me somehow and urged me to continue writing. I guess I will.

Seven million people, it’s estimated, participated in rallies around the country. Like Everett’s, there was peace, fellowship, American flags, and humor, along with properly serious concern demanded by the threats we all face – even MAGA, yet to recognize it – from Trump and the presidents over him, Stephen Miller and Russell Vought.

What, if anything, did this massive, much bigger than last time, nationwide turnout accomplish? Maybe it won’t immediately bend the arc of history toward justice. But it’s not nothing that those patriotic rallies showed what a profligate liar is Holy Mike Johnson, who speaks directly with God in Heaven but will, if the Ten Commandments mean anything, spend eternity elsewhere, alongside Trump. “Hate America,” he called the rallies, which were, demonstrably, the opposite. There's nothing more pro-America than "No Kings." It was, after all, the story of America's birth.

It must have infuriated every high-level Republican, including Trump and his aforementioned manipulators, that there was virtually no violence. Smarmy, condescending Mike, trusting trusters to trust trustingly, attempted to dismiss it all, but ended up embarrassing himself. One sad lady wrote online that she showed up somewhere in her MAGA hat, hoping to provoke post-worthy video of nasty reactions but was, instead, ignored. In Portland, filming the results for propaganda in Noemansland, ICE agitated the crowd until there were a few arrests. 

Trump, whose ig-Nobel Mideast ceasefire lasted less than a week, and whose lies include not damaging the White House with his self-aggrandizing, bloated blight of a ballroom, lowered to the occasion by posting an AI-generated video of himself flying a fighter jet, wearing a crown (take that, libs!), dumping excrement on protesting Americans. MAGA, no doubt, found it hilarious and affirming: the “president” of their prayers, heir to sacrifices patriotic Americans have made since our founding to preserve America’s most treasured values. A “president” they believe to be sent by God, evacuating his bowels on Constitutional rights. But that’s why they love him.

To marchers in the millions, and millions of other unFoxified Americans, though, it confirms what an infantile, mortifying, unfit leader MAGA has saddled us with. And reinforces the importance of saying so. Meanwhile, seeing their lies falsified in real time, rightwing media filled the air with actual b.s. 

An entire book could be written about the last couple of weeks. If it weren't already taken, it should be titled “The Book of Revelation.” For it was revealed that there are still good people in our country, committed to defying Trump’s burgeoning autocracy. And we were shown what a puerile, unwell man he is. Not that most of us didn’t already know.

Also revealed was how far our morally-deficient Vice President will go to defend “Young Republicans” who exchanged hundreds of vile, racist, antisemitic messages.  Rejecting the opportunity to say there’s no place for that in his party, Vance passed them off as young kids joking around, characterizing objections to their Trumpified hate as “pearl clutching.” Those “kids” were in their thirties. Some had had leadership roles in what remains of the Republican Party. Without doubt, they reflect what Trump’s party currently encompasses and excuses. Do they represent its future, too? Against accumulating evidence, all of America must hope not.

After those Vancy-pants deplorables were dragged into the light, there was revelation and irony in Trump’s crucifixated spokesblond claiming Democrats cater to Hamas terrorists, illegals, and criminals. Same with Trump commuting the sentence of fellow felon, election denier and mulitplicitous scammer, George Santos. They’re brothers in harms.

Lie and commit violence for Trump, get commutations and pardons. Tell the truth about him, get indicted, as it is foretold: “... behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison...” (Revelation 2:10)

For those who hadn’t yet borne witness, last week also saw Trump’s obeisance to Putin reconfirmed. After a phone call between the two, having previously announced his intention to send more Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Taco Trump low-tailed it back to no missiles and Russia keeping the territory it stole. Then he treated Ukraine’s President Zelensky even worse than last time. Because of an un-arted deal, his announced meeting with Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban might not happen; but Trump’s envy of dictators’ unrestrained power and his, uh, flexibility in their presence remain undisguisable.

Having no positive agenda except for rewarding their affluent sponsors and harming everyone else by cutting needed “Democratic” projects, Trump, Vance, Johnson, and all other congressional Republicans know they have no compelling response to the spirit of the “No Kings” marchers and the millions of others who agree with them. So they lie and threaten. 

In time, lies are revealed and threats are withstood. Last Saturday, seven million Americans showed they aren’t among the deceived. It’s a hopeful start.