There is no incentive for them to end their criminality

A couple days ago I wrote of the fund the nasty guy (well, his Department of Justice) set up to award money to the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. I wrote about the many ethics problems of the fund. Of course, that’s not the end of the story. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday and had to face intense grilling from Democrats. Blanche sidestepped and did the usual muddying of the issues. And, as Einenkel concluded:

If you’re keeping score, Blanche declined to rule out payments for people convicted of assaulting law enforcement, political donors, and insurrectionists accused of sexually abusing children.

Oliver Willis of Kos reported Rep. Dan Goldman of New York told CNN on Monday night that creating the slush fund is an impeachable offense. He said when Democrats take back the House the fund will be one of many intensive investigations. Other Democrats criticized the fund. Lisa Needham of Kos reported the DoJ added an addendum to the Settlement Agreement, which is really an order. The “settlement” is between the nasty guy and the IRS because an IRS contractor revealed some aspects of the nasty guy’s tax returns. The settlement was not reviewed by a judge and is a “settlement” is in name only with the purpose of obscuring what is going on. On to the addendum. That’s also skeezy because the original agreement left a loophole to allow things to be added. This isn’t just any little thing.

Instead, we just got Blanche dashing off a single paragraph that, on behalf of the United States government, provided an entirely new waiver that says the IRS will never audit, investigate, penalize, or prosecute Trump and others for anything at all, known or unknown, for anything that happened prior to May 18, 2026. ... That sweet forever freedom from prosecution no longer just applies to the plaintiffs in Trump’s sham lawsuit: Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization. Now, it applies to “Plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals (including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly), or parties including trusts, parent, sister, or related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries.” Yeah, that’s a lot more people, and a lot more protection.

A tweet by Ronald Brownstein included a tweet by Acyn of Meidas Touch. Acyn included a video of (Josh?) Shapiro, governor (of Pennsylvania?) and quoted a bit of the video:

Somehow, he can’t find the money to pay for healthcare, but he can steal from you to pay off the criminals who stormed the Capitol.

Brownstein added:

One of what will be many many examples of how easily Trump’s move to funnel taxpayer money to J6 rioters will fold into the core Democratic message for 2026.

Oliver Willis of Kos reported:

Two of the police officers who responded to the pro-Trump Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are now suing the administration after it revealed plans for a taxpayer financed slush fund to reward insurrectionists and other Trump allies. D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn filed suit on Wednesday. The suit seeks to block the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created after Trump dropped his suit against the IRS and “negotiated” with his own officials to create the $1.7 billion slush fund. In the suit the officers allege that the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so.”

In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman writing in his own Substack:

At this point Trump and his MAGA minions have stolen so much, committed so many crimes — not just theft but taking America to war illegally, abusing ICE detainees, and much more — that if and when they lose power many of them will face personal ruin at best, years of jail time at worst. This would happen even if they stopped committing more crimes. So there’s no incentive for them to end their criminality, or to end the attempts to bribe others to go along. Either they succeed in destroying America as we know it, or they won’t. And until that’s resolved, they may as well engage in even more corruption and criminal acts.

Sherrilyn Ifill of her own Substack wrote:

It is by now widely understood that the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, and protection from state interference with citizenship rights. The Amendment incorporates the concept of equality – racial equality – into our Constitution for the first time. In so doing the 14th brings our Constitution into harmony with the core principle of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” The drafting and ratification of the 14th Amendment constituted a stunningly ambitious act of constitutional repair and reconciliation. […] Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s grotesque scheme to reward January 6th insurrectionists with payouts from the federal treasury completes the Trump administration’s section-by-section effort to violate the 14th Amendment. Section 4 of the Amendment bars the United States from paying money to those who participated in insurrection. Congress, the branch of government empowered by Section 5 of the Amendment to enforce the 14th Amendment’s guarantees, must block this blatantly unconstitutional scheme from moving forward.”

Thom Hartmann of the Kos community and independent pundit quoted a friend. If the nasty guy is funneling my tax money to people who attacked the Capitol, why am I paying my taxes? Why not cheat as so many acquaintances have? Hartmann added an explanation:

By the way, the entire frame — picked up and dutifully repeated by the corporate media — was a lie. Trump’s lawsuit was about to be thrown out by a skeptical judge, so he simply killed it. There’s no “settlement.” No “in exchange” for dropping the suit, none of that. Instead, Trump wants us to think that, but in reality — as Rachel Maddow pointed out — Trump is just forcing us taxpayers to give him a $1.776 billion slush fund.

I’ve heard NPR repeat the frame that the slush fund was a settlement. Hartmann added that nasty junior has created venture firms that have contracts with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. So in addition to being routed to an insurrectionist slush fund a man’s tax money is being routed to the private fortune of the nasty guy’s son. More corruption. The corruption and dismantling of democracy is happening while the nasty guy is breaking our alliances that kept the free world safe since 1945. And that is happening while Russia and China are cooperating in military efforts. How to stop all this? The mess deserves more than a shrug and can’t wait until 2029 or even 2027.

House and Senate Democrats should be holding shadow hearings right now, on the record, with witnesses named and a documentary record being built in real time, so that the day the gavel changes hands there is no two-year Merrick Garland-style delay while everyone studies their shoes. And the Blue states’ attorneys general, who answer to their own voters and not to Todd Blanche, should be opening criminal inquiries into the Trump organization’s conduct under state law, where no federal addendum and no presidential pardon can reach. Letitia James already showed in New York that state fraud statutes have teeth. There’s no reason the attorneys general of at least a dozen blue states couldn’t be coordinating that work this afternoon.

Hartmann says to call your senators and representative and tell them you want hearings on corruption, and do it now, not next year. Emily Singer of Kos reported Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary to a guy endorsed by the nasty guy. The reason the endorsement didn’t go to Massie is he led the charge to release the Epstein files and voted against the One Big Brutal Bill. Massie’s lost came just after Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his primary. He had also displeased the nasty guy by voting to convict him in the 2021 impeachment trial. The nasty guy has also endorsed Ken Paxton over Texas Sen. John Cornyn, pretty much assuring Cornyn will soon lose his primary runoff. Add to that the five Republican state lawmakers in Indiana who lost primaries because they refused to go along with a mid-decade gerrymander. All that shows how much the nasty guy still controls his voters. Republicans who risk defying him could also be removed. These lawmakers have hurt feelings and have nothing more to lose. They could be problematic for the nasty guy. For example, Cassidy has flipped his vote on the war powers resolution Democrats have been bringing up repeatedly to stop the war in Iran. Kos of Kos wrote the nasty guy is winning the wrong battles.

But forcing Republicans into total submission comes with a cost. Every GOP candidate will now carry the weight of Trump’s 38% approval rating and disastrous economic numbers. There’s no room left for distance, nuance, or independence. Trump is making every contest on the ballot about himself, and Republicans can’t win that choice. After Democrats retake one or both chambers of Congress this November, Trump will discover that less-MAGA Republican lawmakers, however much he may hate them, are more useful as allies than as enemies.

The more a candidate grovels to the nasty guy the easier a Democrat can win. An Associated Press article posted on Kos announced the death of Barney Frank. He was 86. He served in the House for 32 years, first elected in 1980, representing Boston suburbs. He was able to get a lot done because he recognized what could be accomplished and didn’t turn things that couldn’t be done into a litmus test. He was a pioneer of LGBTQ rights and in 1987 voluntarily came out as gay, rather than being outed. He is also well known for his work in response to the 2007 economic collapse, in what became the Dodd-Frank Act that enhanced consumer protections and strengthened banks. Alas, the nasty guy has worked to undo many of the Act’s provisions, saying they were too onerous. Having an unashamed gay guy in Congress way back in 1987 is pretty cool!

He's a cheater of wives, at golf, and Americans out of votes

Alex Samuels of Daily Kos discussed a poll that asked whether gerrymandering should be legal. Of all US adult citizens 9% said yes, 69% said no. Even Republicans don’t like it – 14% yes, 57% no. Some of this is definitely in response to the Texas Republican attempt to create a more severe gerrymander to squeeze out five more seats. And driving the perception that gerrymandering is bad is one of the jobs of the Democrats who broke quorum in Texas. The longer they stay away the more attention they bring to the Republican power grab and the better chance of boosting national outrage against gerrymandering. Samuels also discussed the more seats Republicans try to squeeze out the smaller their margin will be in each one. That means there is the possibility of holding an election that is a referendum on the guy in the Oval Office and a blue wave could swamp what they think are safe seats. But another problem is an erosion of trust in democracy. A YouGov poll found a third of Americans are unsure whether their state districts are fair and a bit more than a third know they are unfair. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported on the comments of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. He is hosting many of the Democrats who broke quorum in Texas. Pritzker said:

It's a big ugly bill. It's hyper unpopular in Texas, among people in Texas and across the country. And he knows he's going to lose the Congress in 2026. That's why he's going to his allies and hoping that they can save him,” Pritzker said. “And we've all got to stand up against this. This is, it's cheating. Donald Trump is a cheater. He cheats on his wives. He cheats on golf, and now he's trying to cheat the American people out of their votes.

Back in 2016 the question was: Is the nasty guy a white supremacist? The answer was: I can’t tell you – but white supremacists sure think he is. Oliver Willis of Kos discussed an update of that question. Is the nasty guy a Nazi? Actual Nazis sure think he is. Alas, that support from the top has come with a rise in white supremacist violence. In 2020, 13% of extreme demonstrations and violent acts involved white nationalists. Just four years later, in 2024 almost 80% of such events involved white nationalists. Emily Singer of Kos wrote that the gaudy ballroom the nasty guy plans to start building next month is illegal. Major changes to the White House (beyond hanging gaudy gold plated stuff all over the place) need to have the approval of the National Capital Planning Commission. Approval can take years because the commission verifies the changes don’t compromise the historic building. Doubling the footprint would definitely do that. Because the nasty guy says construction begins next month we know he didn’t submit the plans for review. Though the nasty guy has committed many vile crimes he has never been held accountable for any of them. He has also stacked many courts, especially the Supreme Court, to make sure he never will be. So why would the illegality of his ballroom plans stop him? In Monday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted tweets by Justin Wolfers. I’m looking at the second and third of those tweets:

I was just in Japan for two weeks, and learned a lot from talking Japanese policy wonks about the "strategic ambiguity" at the heart of the US-Japan trade deal, and what this reveals is – and isn't – in a number of the President's "deals." I should have been clearer: Both sides (implicitly) agree not to write down any deal. They understand Trump will fill the silence with outlandish claims, delivering him a political win. And our trading partners are obliged to deliver nothing, giving them the economic win.

In the comments is a cartoon that needs a bit of explanation. Recently, the DOGE whiz kid known as “Big Balls” (there’s a real name somewhere) was allegedly the victim of a carjacking. The details don’t matter. It was that incident, or at least the report of that incident, that prompted the nasty guy to claim DC is a crime infested hellhole only he can clean up. He federalized the DC Police and pulled in the National Guard to make DC safe again, even though the DC crime rate has been falling and is the lowest in 30 years (as various news organizations have been reminding us). The cartoon is by Jesse Duquette. The title is “‘Big Balls’ is a false flag.” The caption says:

Step One: Have a dutiful stooge take part in a staged event Step Two: Used staged event as pretext for militarized takeover of a city Step Three: Cory Booker probably gives a long speech while Chuck Schumer writes a strongly worded letter Step Four: Onto the next city Step Five: Repeat

Willis reported on Monday that because of the nasty guy’s infatuation with the safety of DC the FBI has assigned 120 agents for night patrols in DC. They are pulled from other duties that would have more consequence over safety. On Sunday night at lest two dozen agents were on the scene of a minor traffic accident between a car and moped. Actual police handled it just fine. Washington Post writer Drew Harwell posted a video of armed agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration patrolling the National Mall. He called it “tremendously goofy.” DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has been keeping her cool. It is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.” And: “I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard.” And all of this looks like a big diversion from the Epstein files. In Tuesday’s roundup Chtown Kev quoted Mark Jacob of his Stop the Presses Substack and his interview of retired journalism professor Jay Rosen.

JACOB: Can’t the media become much more aggressive than anything you’ve suggested here? Can’t headlines start with the words “Trump lies”? Wouldn’t a confrontational approach be better for the media — and the public — than the current practice of amplifying the lies and correcting them quietly while the independent press dies of 1,000 cuts? ROSEN: Calling things by their right names is a hugely important use of the First Amendment, a case of “use it or lose it.” The press has to be aggressive, yes, and in multiple ways: digging for information, asking blunt questions (when they are good questions) even if that might endanger a reporter’s future access. Aggressive, too, in warning the Republic that its democracy is under attack, and bringing attention to that warning by use of every media platform available. There’s also a kind of aggression in dispensing with refuge-seeking behavior in journalism — in contrast with truth-seeking. [...] I want false claims to be declared false. Clearly and provably. By journalists who are themselves evidence-based. If the best description of what they know is there’s no evidence of that, then say it: “There is no evidence.” If a provably false claim is knowingly used to whip up resentment against a marginal group, there is every reason to call it a lie in tomorrow’s newspaper. What I care most about is that false claims get presented as false. Is that true? Did that really happen?

In the comments are several good memes and cartoons. Rep. Adriano Espaillat quoted some of the nasty guy’s announcement that he was taking over DC.

And we are getting rid of the slums, too. We’re getting rid of them. It’s not politically correct. We’re getting rid of the slums where they live.

I note he doesn’t say how he will be getting rid of the slums and what he will do with the residents. Though the urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 60s come to mind, where black neighborhoods in many large cities (including Detroit) were replaced with freeways that allowed white residents to flee to the suburbs and still work in Detroit. Espaillat responded to the nasty guy:

Using military force against an impoverished civilian population is the act of a dictator, not a president. Donald Trump’s actions to declare a public safety emergency against individuals experiencing homelessness and personally attacking them is vile and inhumane.

A meme posted by exlrrp shows the words of Chef José Andres:

Donald Trump, you didn’t have the power to call the National Guard on January 6... But now you do?

Dobber included a tweet by Will Chamberlain.

I bought my family to DC for the Cherry Blossom festival. The first thing I saw when I exited the L’Enfant Plaza Metro was a gang of youths driving ATVs down the street, one of whom was doing a wheelie. So forgive me if I doubt that crime is down.

keptsimple responded:

Bragging about being a giant pussy is integral to the conservative mindset.

I add: Youths driving ATVs and doing wheelies is not a crime. Only a giant pussy would infer that those actions mean they are also criminal. A tweet by Acyn:

Baltimore Mayor Scott response on Trump: I think it’s very notable that each and every one of the cities called out by the President has a black mayor, and most of those cities are seeing historic lows in violent crime.

A cartoon posted by paulpro and created by Sandeep Adhwaryu shows two extremely thin people sitting in front of the rubble of Gaza. One says: “Do we get a Nobel Peace Prize for starving quietly without troubling their conscience?” In today’s roundup Dworkin included a tweet by Mark Hertling:

For the record, our division commander BANNED things called “presence patrols” in Iraq. “If you don’t have a specific task & purpose, your ‘presence’ doesn’t do anything.” National Guard stating they are now doing presence patrols in DC. A complete waste of soldier’s time & effort.

At the top of the comments LJ Slater posted a cartoon by Slyngstad. At the top it says, “Trump calls in National Guard and takes control of DC Police to deal with crime.” In the center is a drawing of the Capitol attack. Below that are the words, “Oh wait, sorry wrong cartoon...” A tweet by ramseyfay33 shows a woman in a selfie. She’s along the Reflecting Pool with the Lincoln Memorial in the background. There are very few people about. She wrote. “Checking in from the front lines of the downtown DC war zone. There are baby ducks and a lady tap dancing. Send in the Guard!” Fiona Webster posted a cartoon by Carolyn Crampton. It shows two young witches on either side of a crystal ball. In the ball is an image of a man with a glum expression. One witch says, “I see Chief Justice John Roberts weighing his oath of to the Constitution against blackmail threats from the face-eating-leopard party.” Way down in the comments paulpro posted a meme by Lainey Molnar. It shows a woman with an infant and behind her is an outline of a man. The caption says, “I wish we said ‘children of absentee fathers’ instead of ‘single mothers’, because how is the parent who stayed the problem?”

Feeding government into the wood chipper

Back in December when I thought about Musk being appointed to head a Department of Government Efficiency to recommend how to cut government spending, I figured he would draw up a list of government services, how much they spend now, how much he thinks they should spend, and he would hand that list to the nasty guy and Congress. I did not think he and his crew would barge into government offices, declare the department closed, tap into or remove computers, fire employees, and leave a lot of chaos. I did not think he would do it with acquiescence or permission of the department heads and cabinet members. I did not expect Republicans in Congress to essentially say, Hmm... Oh well. In the news over the last week... Emily Singer of Daily Kos reported that on Monday Musk announced he (not the nasty guy or Congress) is shutting down the United States Agency for International Development, USAID. The website is offline, employees were told not to report to work. USAID is funded by Congress, so not spending the money as Congress directed is illegal. The agency is critical in many global health efforts around the world – in monitoring diseases and supplying medications. This is as mpox and bird flu are on the rise. Stopping these programs leaves people without lifesaving drugs and medical care. An example is the 6.5 million people who get HIV medications. Another news source said that current HIV meds keep the virus at undetectable levels, but that does not mean gone. Stop the meds, even for a short time, and the virus grows again, this time as a more resistant strain. Even a pause in the regimen can result in a death sentence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said all of USAID’s program need to be evaluated so they advance the interests of the US. A healthy world is in the interest of the US. Doing this aid work is also in national interest because China and Russia are eager to step in and be nice to countries the US is abandoning. Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted an ABC News story that said USAID is critical for getting aid into Gaza. That aid is central to the ceasefire bargain. Shutting down USAID raises the risk that the ceasefire deal with collapse. Considering the nasty guy has been talking about a Gaza Riviera, this might be the intended outcome. An Associated Press article posted on Kos gives more details. Including this (“They” being DOGE):

They have ordered a spending stop that has paralyzed U.S.-funded aid and development work around the world, gutted the senior leadership and workforce with furloughs and firings, and closed Washington headquarters to staffers Monday. Lawmakers said the agency’s computer servers were carted away. “Spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk boasted on X. The mass removal of thousands of staffers overseas and in Washington would doom billions of dollars in projects in some 120 countries, including security assistance to partners such as Ukraine as well as development work for clean water, job training and education, including for schoolgirls under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Yes, USAID is more than health. USAID overseas workers are now scrambling. How do we get back to the states? What about children in school? Do we have time to do the paperwork for pets? Morgan Stephens of Kos reported DOGE has hit the CIA. The entire workforce has received buyout offers.

The CIA collects, analyzes, and disseminates information on economic, military, and political developments abroad to protect national security.

So much for national security. Completely shutting down the CIA doesn’t seem to be the goal here, just shake it up and slim it down. Get rid of a lot of experience. Make it a lot less effective.

Trump’s moves aren’t just reckless, they’re potentially catastrophic for America’s national security at a time when its global security is becoming increasingly more fragile. As the CIA thins out its ranks, U.S. enemies are undoubtedly watching and celebrating.

Singer reported:

After illegally axing USAID and drafting plans to do the same with the Department of Education, President Donald Trump and his unelected co-president, Elon Musk, have now set their sights on decimating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal scientific agency that helps forecast the weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, and manages the protection of marine life. "Hearing reports that Musk’s cronies are targeting NOAA—infiltrating key systems & locking out career employees," Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote on X. "NOAA is vital for weather forecasting, scientific research & more. Their critical work saves lives. My team and I are looking into this & we will not stand for it."

There are a couple reasons why the nasty guy and Musk would want to decimate NOAA. The big one is it is instrumental in doing and keeping track of research into global warming. The bonus is with NOAA gone weather forecasting can be taken over by a for-profit company and the forecast you use to plan your day would then depend on how much you are willing to pay for it. NOAA provides it for free. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that many Republicans are just fine with all this government destruction. They’re glad American tax dollars will be spent only on the interests of the American people (not that they have a clue – unless their definition of “American people” is the billionaires). They’re pleased that Musk is finding so much waste to eliminate (a billionaire’s “waste” is a poor person’s living allowance). They hesitate to deny Lutheran Family Services is a money-laundering operation. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted a tweet by Loren DeJong Schulman:

You say: they shutdown USAID. You mean: they illegally broke in to a secure facility over a weekend, hijacked sensitive data on vulnerable people and US businesses, destroyed property Americans paid for, cut off resources for hungry families, and fired Americans.

In the comments SanAntonioKrust included a tweet from Acyn of a clip of Rachel Maddow, who says:

I think it's pretty obvious now that they are using DEI as just a pretext. They're giving everything that, you know, unfashionable boogeyman label to try to avoid people in general, realizing that what they're really doing is just wrecking the US government.

Way down in the comments is a cartoon showing a MAGA couple at the grocery store:

Wife: They cut our Social Security and Medicare! Trump’s tariff have cause massive inflation! Remember when we were upset about the price of eggs? Husband: It’s getting more and more expensive to own the libs!

In another roundup Chitown Kev quoted Ross Andersen of The Atlantic. I will summarize it by saying we’re in deep trouble if DOGE decides it can take its chainsaws to the National Nuclear Security Administration. Down in the comments is a cartoon by Mike Luckovich based on the announcement by Waffle House that it is adding 50 cents for each egg in an order to offset high egg prices. The cartoon shows a Waffle House. On one side is a patron with a newspaper headline, “Trump attacks Democracy not high food prices.” On the other side a patron is giving his order, “Do you serve Eggs Benedict... Arnold?” In the comments of a third pundit roundup is a meme by Aaron Rupar:

Draw your own conclusions, but Donald Trump is not behaving like a leader who expects democratic accountability for himself or his party next year or in 2028.

In the comments of a fourth roundup exlrrp is a photo of a person painting over a wall that displayed the words, such as Fairness, Initiative, Respect, Constitution, and more. The caption says:

Trump’s had them paint over a mural about fairness and compassion at the F.B.I. Academy at Quantico. All of these values must now be hidden from society under the new Nazi regime.

Added by exlrrp: “OK: Looks like: (checks notes) fairness, leadership, compassion, diversity, integrity, and stability are just too woke for the FBI.” A ways further down exlrrp posted a meme:

Frustration is knowing that the agenda is not hidden anymore and yet the sheep are still obeying.

As part of a series on explaining the right, Oliver Willis of Kos discussed why the right wants small government. Commenters seemed to agree that Willis got to the how, but not the why. They added their own answers. The answers (some posed by more than one person): Racism. Limit taxes and regulations on corporations. Only a federal government can stand up to the crimes of a big corporation, so they want a government incapable of that. They want to eliminate anything that doesn’t support them at the top of the social hierarchy. Others disputed that Republicans want a small government. The big plans the MAGA crowd want (doing deportations, imposing tariffs, and much more) require a big government. It just won’t be doing things for the common people. Another rejected the idea business people want the government to run like a business – no business operates this way. Two Americas included a couple quotes on the role of government. The first is from Franklin Roosevelt’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention of 1936. The whole quote is long. Here’s the first paragraph:

An old English judge once said: “Necessitous men are not free men.” Liberty requires opportunity to make a living – a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

The other is by Abraham Lincoln from about 1854. Here are the first and last paragraphs:

The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves—in their separate, and individual capacities. ... From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government.

The power of the Justice Department, FBI, IRS, and CIA

My weekend movie came Saturday afternoon in a showing of Hugo at the Detroit Film Theater. When the film first came out in 2011 it didn’t sound interesting. When I encountered it again a few months ago it sounded intriguing. And when I saw it on the DFT calendar I had to see it. This is one of Martin Scorsese’s films and is set in 1931. The title character is Hugo Cabret, twelve years old. He learned how to fix mechanical things from his father, who also showed him an automaton, a mechanical person, created to write. But his father died before they got it working. Hugo’s uncle takes him to the train station where the uncle lives and tends the clocks. After teaching Hugo how to do it the uncle disappears. So the boy now tends the clocks while living in the maintenance spaces of the station and swiping food from the various vendors. His nemesis is the station inspector, who has sent orphan boys to the orphanage. He also gets on the wrong side of the toy vendor, whose mechanical toys enchant him. Even so, he manages to befriend Isabelle, the toy vendor’s ward, who is ready for adventure. Hugo gets the automaton working, hoping it would write out a message from his father. Instead it draws an image of the Man in the Moon with a spaceship hitting one eye. This is a famous image (one I had seen before) from the movie A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès who made fantastical movies before World War I. Of course, that sets Isabelle and Hugo on that adventure to discover how all this ties together. Along the way there is a flashback to watching Méliès make his films. So part of the story is an homage to that early filmmaker and early films in general. Since this story mostly takes place in a train station there are frequently crowds. Hugo and Isabelle of course get caught in them at critical moments. I became impressed at how well the crowd scenes were done. I quite enjoyed this film and recommend it. This was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Actor Asa Butterfield, who played Hugo, did a marvelous job. I may have to see the mini Georges Méliès festival the DFT will host at the end of March. The IMDb trivia page for this movie says it is based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick that came out in 2007. Another bit of trivia is the movie was filmed in 3D, though the version I saw was not. IMDb also has a page on Butterfield, who has maintained his acting career and is now 27. Kos of Daily Kos wonders if the nasty guy’s infatuation with Greenland and his desire to invade it is based on how huge Greenland looks on a typical Mercator Projection map. A Mercator map was great for 18th century navigation. But there are big problems when it is used in modern life. Yeah, it makes Google Maps easier. But the farther from the equator a country is the larger it appears. And since much of the world’s land is significantly north of the equator countries in the global south looks much smaller in comparison. @neilrkaye created a Mercator map that also shows the true size of countries. In a Mercator map Russia looks huge (which is why Putin love Mercator maps). But Russia is actually smaller than Africa. Canada looks much bigger than the US, but they’re actually almost the same size. I found the site MapPorn, which, is one I may have visit frequently. Posted in the last couple days is one the compares the size of Greenland to other areas of earth. The US is 4.5 times bigger than Greenland, South America is 8 times bigger, Africa is 14 times bigger (though a Mercator projection shows them about the same size), India is 1.5 times bigger. When trying to represent a sphere with a rectangle something is going to be distorted, usually shape or size or both. Another Greenlander has responded to the nasty guy’s claim on the country. Emily Singer of Kos reported Pipaluk Lynge-Rasmussen, a member of the Greenland Parliament, talked to Politico Europe in response to nasty junior flying there and posing with locals to show they were in favor of the nasty guy taking over. She said the event was staged and a sham. She also said their natives are similar to Alaska’s Inuits and the Greenlanders have seen how America treats the Inuits. So no thanks. The nasty guy’s hush money case was in the news this past week. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported the Supreme Court narrowly decided the nasty guy could be sentenced on Friday. The case went to the Supremes because his team said the appeals should be allowed to play out during the transition, meaning he wouldn’t be sentenced before getting presidential immunity. So, on Friday the sentence was handed down. Singer reported the details. The case is from New York and is about the 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money. There could have been jail time, a hefty fine, or simple probation. But Judge Juan Merchan said there was only one lawful sentence, that of “unconditional discharge.” Singer wrote:

The fact that Trump is escaping pretty much unscathed from the legal jeopardy he found himself in is a miscarriage of justice. He was able to escape accountability both because of an unprecedented decision by the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court, which dragged its feet before ultimately ruling in July that Trump was immune from anything deemed an “official act” in office.

There was also foot-dragging by other judges in other courts and by the nasty guy team delaying other cases long enough that he was able to avoid them by being voted back to the White House. This post includes a cartoon by Clay Bennett that shows the nasty guy in prison clothes digging himself out and surfacing in the Oval Office. The way I understand the situation is that a judge or jury may convict a person of a crime, but that conviction isn’t official until the sentencing. So while there was no jail time, fine, or even probation the sentencing says yes, the nasty guy is a felon. He is officially the first felon in the Oval Office. Last week I had lunch with my friend and debate partner. He said surely the judge could have ordered probation. He was hoping for the prospect of the nasty guy having to check in with a parole officer once a month, even if it was through Zoom from the Oval Office. I like his idea. Scott Detrow and Domenico Montanaro of NPR talked to Law Professor Kim Wehle of the University of Baltimore on issues related to the case. First, the Constitution does give immunity to members of Congress. So it’s authors knew about immunity. The Constitution does not give immunity to the president. So when the Supremes said he does have immunity they invented it out of nothing and rewrote a portion of the Constitution. And that essentially turns the president into a king. Of a second issue Wehle said:

Well, law, at the end of the day, is about incentives and disincentives. We have laws and constraints to disincentivize bad behavior, but those constraints don't mean anything if there's no consequences. So the Supreme Court, through this process, has removed any consequences for committing crimes using official power. That's the scary stuff, right? It's not the unofficial private power that is going to lead to some real abuses against individuals. It's the power of the Justice Department. It's the power of the FBI, the IRS, the CIA, the military. It's the stuff that Donald Trump will have at his fingertips that no one else on the planet has. That's the power that needs to be disincentivized to abuse, and that's gone. So we really are moving into a new era of American history and American law.

A third issue: Special prosecutor Jack Smith has been working to get some or all of his report on the nasty guy’s classified document’s case made public. From the effort the nasty guy’s lawyers are putting into blocking release means there is more information and it is likely highly damaging. The big question in that case is about the empty folders that supposedly had contained classified data. “Who got it? Is there a threat to national security that was created in that scenario?” After that discussion was recorded Jack Smith resigned. Singer reported House Republicans have posted a list of federal programs they want to trim or cut. Some of what’s in the list: Letting current subsidies for Obamacare expire. Require work requirement to receive Medicaid, even though many who are cut because of the rule are working. Cut food stamps by redefining what a healthy diet is and how much it costs. Yes, the cuts will make life harder for low income workers and people in poverty. The purpose of the cuts is tax breaks for billionaires. Republicans want to use the budget reconciliation process, which can’t be filibustered and thus cuts Democrats out of the process. However, using that process means the legislation must be budget neutral – tax cuts must be matched by spending cuts. And, on their own, these tax cuts would explode the national debt.

Meanwhile, the document Republicans are circulating that outlines the possible budget cuts is Orwellian as heck, labeling cuts to food stamps as "ending cradle-to-grave dependence;" cuts to Medicaid as "making Medicaid work for the most vulnerable;" and cuts to Obamacare as "reimagining the Affordable Care Act." Apparently to Republicans, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.

All that reminds me that the rich don’t measure the greatness by the size of their net worth, but by the difference between that and the (perhaps negative) net worth of those low in the social hierarchy. It isn’t enough to have over $400 billion (as Musk does). They also need to take away the scant resources of those in poverty. Oliver Willis of Kos reported a coalition of over 17,000 doctors sent a letter to the Senate, asking them to not approve Robert Kennedy’s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Committee to Protect Health Care said in its letter that Kennedy is “not only unqualified to lead this essential agency—he is actively dangerous.” The group describes Trump’s decision to nominate him as “an affront to the principles of public health, the tireless dedication of medical professionals, and the trust that millions of Americans place in the health care system.” Chief among the group’s concerns about Kennedy are his years promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines and his activism against vaccination. The letter describes Kennedy’s support for these unscientific notions as “direct threat to the safety of our patients and the public at large.”

Maybe it is men who should be excluded from combat

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reports that Pete Hegseth, the nasty guy’s choice for Secretary of Defense, said earlier this month that women in the military should not be in combat roles. This opens a debate that was thought to be put to rest almost a decade ago. Hegseth insists the military lowered standards to allow women into the elite combat roles. The various branches of the military insist that’s not the case. Hegseth responded that opening positions to women means the standards were changed. The article includes responses from various politicians on both sides and from military personnel. Sen. Tammy Duckworth: “Where do you think I lost my legs, in a bar fight?” Also:

“Who’s going to replace them? Men? And we’re having trouble recruiting men into the Army right now,” said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who works with the Service Women’s Action Network.

Kathleen Taylor Logan contributed an op-ed for last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press. She served in Iraq with an infantry unit. She says maybe it is men who should be excluded from combat. Over the last few decades the military has underachieved – stalemated, mismanaged, and outright lost – while in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And it was led by men. The military needs to move beyond the male-dominated command structures. Women tend to bring empathy to engagements that can deescalate a crisis. They have shown they can channel aggression effectively when needed. They can maintain adaptability and precision while demonstrating the same grit and ferocity. Strategic aggression and calculated restraint that woman often show is essential. Male dominated units have been implicated in atrocities against civilians. The military has been plagued by sexual harassment and assault with disturbing lack of accountability. If those same failures were attributed to women they would have been pulled from combat long ago. Teams led by women and gender-diverse people have shown exceptional leadership, strategy, and teamwork. They tend to outperform teams led only by men. Clinging to traditional gender norms is not a good way to achieve peace and security in the 21st century. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Benjamin Mazer of The Atlantic wrote about Robert Kennedy nominated for Health and Human Services, Marty Makary for Food and Drug Administration, and Jay Bhattacharya expect for National Institutes of Health.

These men have each advocated for changes to the systems and structures of public health. But what unites them all—and what legitimizes them in the eyes of this next administration—is a lasting rage over COVID.

Down in the comments exlrrp posted some good memes. The first is a photo of the sign at Grace Methodist Church: “Be sure to bring up politics at Thanksgiving. It’s going to save you money on Christmas gifts. Follow us for more holiday tips.” Further down in the comments exlrrp posted a cartoon (author not identified) showing a student struggling to scale huge steps. Nearby is a student whose way is eased by much smaller steps made of stacks of $1000 bills. Guy Venables drew a cartoon in response to Storm Bert that caused a great deal of flooding in southern Wales. It shows two workmen in boots with a mop and shovel. One says, “Right, well that’s got that flood cleared up. Same time next month?” Emily Singer of Kos reported:

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday moved to dismiss the charges against Donald Trump both for trying to steal the 2020 election and for mishandling classified documents, meaning that—for now—Trump will almost certainly avoid consequences for his illegal actions while in office. Smith cited an opinion written in 2000 from the Office of Legal Counsel that says sitting presidents cannot be indicted or prosecuted. However, Smith said he wants the cases dismissed without prejudice, which would mean these cases could resume once Trump is no longer president. His term expires in 2029.

I heard the dismissal was granted not long after being filed. The classified documents case has two other defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Their case continues, though the nasty guy could pardon them. Yes, other cases are still around. The nasty guy was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Sentencing in that case has been delayed by the election. He faces charges in Georgia in his attempt to get the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to make him the winner in 2020. This is a state case, so he can’t force it to be dropped and can’t pardon himself if convicted. Even so, the judge might decide to follow the federal precedent of not prosecuting an Oval Office occupant. Yes, he ran out the clock. How depressing. Another pundit roundup for Kos, this one by Greg Dworkin, included a quote by Glenn Thrush, who quoted Mike Lee. First, Lee:

All that has changed is that Trump won the election And now Jack Smith is moving to dismiss Isn’t that tantamount to an admission that this was just politicized lawfare from the beginning?

And Thrush:

They would have pursued the case if not stopped by SCOTUS. All of our reporting (and that of others) indicates that Smith and DOJ believe -- right now -- that Trump committed crimes and failing to prosecute him represents a threat to rule of law.

In the comments is a cartoon by Michael de Adder. It shows Speaker Johnson peeking under the door of an occupied woman’s bathroom stall saying, “We’re just making sure there are no weirdos in the woman’s bathroom.” And more memes posted by exlrrp. One by Jen:

I have never once, in my 45 years of living, been harassed in a bathroom by a trans female. However, I have been harassed by a man walking down the street minding my own business many, many, many times. Gender neutral bathrooms aren’t the problem.

One showing Elon Musk:

Imagine you get to a point of wealth so surreal that you can literally solve world hunger. You can eliminate hunger at a planetary scale. And instead, you say, “nah, Imma focus on making life harder for trans people.”

And one by Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD:

I’m frankly disgusted by all of the “RFK Jr. might acshually have good ideas except for vaccines” hot takes. Being an anti-vaxxer is automatically disqualifying for any leadership role related to healthcare, because it is the hallmark of a person who neither understand science nor respects the work of trained scientists. It is a marker of a gargantuan, untamed arrogance.”

The nasty guy has threatened to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, as he did during his first term. This is a historic treaty signed by almost every country pledging to reduce emissions. Two weeks ago Singer reported that Darren Woods, CEO of oil giant Exxon Mobil pushed back, saying, “We need a global system for managing global emissions.”

The fact that an oil company is telling Trump not to make a disastrous decision that would negatively impact the climate is almost hard to fathom. However, Woods told CNBC on Tuesday that Exxon made investments in technologies to lower emissions, and that those investments are reliant on federal tax credits that Biden signed into law. “There needs to be an incentive to reward those investments and generate a return,” Woods told CNBC. “If we find that those incentives dissipate or go away entirely, then that would definitely change our investment plans.”

Yeah, that’s how much Woods actually cares about the environment. Meteor Blades, a Kos Emeritus, wrote about the current state of the climate. His post was written during the COP 29 conference in Baku Azerbaijan. At the top of the post is a chart showing as of September, 2024 is the warmest year since 1850, a bit higher than 2023. Comments further down add that this is the first full year in which the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C was breached. The chart is followed by a series of quotes. Climatologist Michael E. Mann said the US is poised to become authoritarian, ruled by plutocrats and fossil fuel interests, a petrostate. Jesse Jenkins said that the nasty guy can only slow, not stop the clean energy transition. And Bill McKibbin said:

“Clearly we are not magically resistant to authoritarianism—indeed we’ve now embraced a flavor of it. And clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered. For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others—and that some parts of this big nation will demonstrate what’s still possible. And that many of us can join in a genuinely global citizens’ fight for rapid action.”

Beyond that Blades wrote about various organizations saying how bad the climate has gotten and will get worse. We may soon hit tipping points with accelerated change. That will risk violent conflict, which will undermine cooperation, leading to more climate change. There are also comments about how the nasty guy has declared he will make it worse. Blades ended with a quote from Rebecca Solnit. Here’s part of it:

They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

The idea of caring for the country is difficult for him to fathom

I finished the novel The Prospects by KT Hoffman. It is the story of Gene, who is transgender and gay. The story opens at the start of his second season with the Beaverton Beavers, a Triple-A minor league team under the Major League Baseball Portland Lumberjacks (yes, this is fiction). Gene used to be teammate and friend with Luis back when they were both playing for Stanford University, though Gene is annoyed that when Luis left school early to the majors Gene was forgotten. Luis wasn’t in the majors for very long before starting his own journey through the minor leagues. Now he has an emotional support dog. Gene was glad he faced Luis only a few times during the year when their teams played each other. But then Luis was traded to the Beavers. And given Gene’s position of shortstop. Yeah, we know where this is headed. The book’s cover is a big clue. But minor leagues, especially Triple-A, are known for people leaving – being called up to the majors, being traded to another team, being sent down to an even lower level, or seeing it is time to end a career. Can a relationship last when notice of a move can come just hours before it happens? Gene is well supported by the coach, Stephanie Baker, a lesbian. He’s also offered essentially free housing by team captain Vince and his husband. Gene feels comfortable with his teammates seeing him naked in the locker room. All that makes Gene feel he’s found a home with the Beavers. Yeah, that much support for a trans/gay athlete in professional sports is still a fantasy, but a guy can dream it could happen soon. I’m thankful to Hoffman, who is trans and gay, for providing a glimpse into that dream. Michael Lewis wrote the book The Fifth Risk, about how the federal government works. I think the fifth risk is the one nobody is even looking for. Calanbo of the Daily Kos community wrote about the book and what Lewis is planning next. Lewis, who wrote the books Moneyball and The Big Short, went to various federal agencies and asked them to tell him what they do as if he was part of an incoming presidential administration. What he learned from those conversations became The Fifth Risk. Calanbo shared some of what Lewis wrote about for the Departments of Commerce (including weather reporting), the Department of Energy (its primary job is maintain the nuclear stockpile), and Department of Agriculture (including the administration of SNAP benefits). All of these departments have dedicated employees who make them better at serving and protecting the people. Calanbo also discussed how America shifted from a government where every job was a patronage job, to one where most of the workers are dedicated careerists. The impetus for that change was President James Garfield being assassinated in 1881 by a guy who didn’t get a patronage job. Calanbo wrote:

Without understanding how our government works, without knowing what these agencies do, it may be difficult for people to understand how damaging Project 2025 would be. Our federal workforce over decades has become professionalized, with advancement based on merit, not patronage, and consequently less susceptible to corruption and abuse.

What Lewis is planning next is to guide a series of articles to appear in the Washington Post on every Tuesday from next week to election day. The six writers involved have gone into some part of the federal government to learn about it in the same way Lewis did for this book. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Zeynep Tufekci of the New York Times discussing the listeria outbreak originating in a Boar’s Head meat plant that has killed a few and sickened many.

It’s easy for companies to complain about excessive regulation, but consumers shouldn’t forget how hard it is to keep mass-produced food safe. Your food is kept safe quietly, day after day, because of extensive regulations born of experience and science. Eagle-eyed inspectors who notice even the tiniest bit of misplaced raw meat can save lives. As this tragic listeria outbreak reminds us, regulations don’t work without accountability. When companies shirk their responsibilities, swift consequences should kick in, before someone dies or falls ill. Reports by the U.S.D.A. so far show there were no enforcement actions against Boar’s Head in the past year, despite these reports. It is unclear what penalties, if any, the company will face. Whatever they are, one can only hope they will deter other failures.

Don’t call them regulations. Call them consumer (or environmental) protections. Kos of Kos wrote the nasty guy is changing his tune on IVF and abortion. Perhaps it is because he’s trying to align himself with what women want? Hard to tell. But we can see the effect of his words. He probably isn’t attracting pro-choice women, considering the way Harris has been hammering the reason why Roe was overturned was because of the nasty guy. And by changing his tune he is pissing off anti-abortion activists. They had already felt unease with the nasty guy’s performative position or “strategic ambiguity.” But his recent proclamations go much further and allies are starting to back away. Wrote Kos:

Trump is in a tough place now: He can’t backtrack without admitting he was wrong, nor would he be able to easily rebuild trust with evangelical anti-abortion voters even if he did. Yet he can’t move forward as a pro-choice champion without further angering and alienating the most committed foot soldiers of the conservative movement. And he did it all for what? Is there a single pro-choice voter who is going to trust Trump on abortion and choose him over Vice President Kamala Harris? He gains zero by trying to pander to a pro-choice constituency that’s long lost. This is just more evidence that Trump’s instincts have abandoned him.

As for the nasty guy’s declaration he wants insurance to cover IVF – Joan McCarter of Kos reported that Democrats have a plan for that. Now that their party’s head is for IVF perhaps Senate Republicans will vote for it? If not, this is a way for Democrats to get Republican opposition on the record through a vote. McCarter reported that actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt explained the nasty guy’s tax plans quite quickly. Gordon-Leavitt would benefit nicely from what the nasty guy proposes, but says no thanks. Wrote McCarter, referencing University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School:

“Do you want to talk about who’s going to really help most Americans? It’s Kamala,” Gordon-Levitt says in his video. And he’s right, according to Wharton. That bottom quintile of earners would see $2,355 in tax relief, and those in the middle, $2,165. The top 0.1% who would get a $376,910 gift from Trump, but would have to pay an additional $167,255 in Harris’ plan.

I’ve been avoiding talking about the nasty guy’s disgraceful attempt to use the graves of fallen soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery as a campaign photo op, which is illegal. John Harwood tweeted quotes from New York Magazine that sums it up well:

“Trump doesn’t actually care about the country.” “The whole idea of caring about the country is difficult for him to fathom.” “He believes in the gangster ethos that all people are selfish and those who claim to uphold higher values are merely hypocrites.”

This matches my understanding that a person fully invested in maintaining the social hierarchy, which the nasty guy is, that person assumes everyone else is as fully invested. They don’t understand that some people may not care about the hierarchy at all. An Associated Press article posted to Kos discusses what’s going on with special counsel Jack Smith refiling indictments against the nasty guy in the case of interference in the 2020 election. The new allegations are in response to the Supreme Court granting presidents immunity for official actions. Smith carefully rewrote his indictments to conform to the ruling, leaving out the parts that might be considered official actions (like consulting with the Department of Justice, though it was to convince them to help with his insurrection). This AP article explains what is now in the indictment and what is next for the case. Alas, there will be a lot of wrangling over whether each bit is also an official act – or no it isn’t. And that will delay the trial until well after the election. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, has several quotes from journalist Molly Ivins, who was good at lampooning the Texas Legislature and Republicans in general. Though Ivins died 17 years ago her comments are annoyingly still relevant. Here’s a comment from July 1994.

Jimmy Carter was a president the press just never cottoned to. Like the senators during the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings, they just didn’t get it. Actually it was pretty simple. Jimmy Carter has been out of office for thirteen years now. And every day for thirteen years, that man has gone out and behaved like a good Christian—for no money. Because that's who he is, and that's what he always was. But that was too simple for Power Town.

Again, the press was (and, alas, still is) strong supporters of the social hierarchy and Jimmy Carter wasn’t (and still isn’t). They didn’t understand that some people ignored or tried to subvert the hierarchy. When I wrote that Robert F Kennedy Jr. suspended his race for president I said I didn’t have sources ready. Since then I came across one, if you need it.

If other democracies can hold their leaders accountable...

I saw two documentaries this weekend, both a part of the Freep Film Fest (Freep is the nickname of the Detroit Free Press newspaper). Thankfully, I could stream both of them at home. The first was: Ignore the Noise: The Transformation of the Detroit Riverfront. It is just under an hour long. For much of Detroit’s 300 year history (it was founded in 1701) the river was all about commerce and it was essentially the back door to companies along the river. Except for Belle Isle the public didn’t have access to the river. As Detroit fell on harder times after the middle of the 19th century there were attempts to use the riverfront as a way to revitalize the city. The first of those was the Renaissance Center, built in the mid 1970s. It is the tallest building in the city. But it was built with a bunker mentality as a place for white suburbanites, not black Detroiters. And though it was right on the river it didn’t provide access to the river. Then General Motors bought the RenCen (this movie doesn’t say they bought it from rival Ford). GM needed more space for its headquarters. One of the early things GM did was to create the Wintergarden, a glass-enclosed atrium to connect the complex to the river and to improve access from the atrium’s doors to the river. That was part of talk to improve public access to the river from “bridge to bridge” – the four miles from the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor and the bridge to Belle Isle. Another step happened in the 1990s when President Bill Clinton designated the Detroit River an American Heritage River. I think this was the only urban river to get the designation. That provided grant money. Then Windsor got a casino and Detroit was in a tizzy watching so much gambling money go across the river. Detroit had voted down casinos (I think three times) but then Detroit had all the problem gamblers of a nearby casino but none of the revenue. So another vote was held and casinos were approved. There was talk of putting the three casinos on the riverfront. Thankfully, that was abandoned when planners realized it would not increase public access to the river. The next prompt for action was Detroit’s 300th birthday in 2001. There was a fleet of Tall Ships, old sailing ships, that came up the river. Planners saw clearly the only public access was Hart Plaza. People lined the river anyway, even if they had to go through private property to get there. The Detroit River Conservancy was created in 2002 to revitalize the riverfront. It was created separate from the mayor’s office. They raised money with a few key grants. They were responsible for stringing together each piece of property on the riverfront. Some parcels had apartments and the conservancy said you really want to lease your riverfront to the city for free for 99 years, don’t you. A later apartment building went up and could advertise as life on the riverwalk. Another task was cleaning the industrial waste and remains. That included the silos of three cement companies. There was talk for a while about keeping one set of silos and painting murals on the sides. They’re all gone now. That separation from city government turned out to be important when Detroit was the hardest hit city during the foreclosure crisis. Again when Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who had been a big help with the riverwalk, was convicted of embezzling (I was surprised he appears in the film – and not just in old news clips). A third hit was GM’s bankruptcy and a forth was Detroit’s bankruptcy. If the riverwalk was under the control of the city government the project would have been abandoned, rather than delayed. The riverwalk is not complete all the way from downtown to the Ambassador Bridge. It is complete to the Belle Isle bridge, though some of the land near the bridge hasn’t been developed yet. I’ve walked a section of it and it is quite nice. And people – both city and suburban – use it. This is a Detroit success. Just days after watching this film I heard the news that GM will move its headquarters out of the RenCen into the old Hudson site where the second tallest building in the city is being built. This was the site of the largest Hudson Department Store, a huge place. I never made it inside (I didn’t grow up in the Detroit area) and the one time I tried I discovered they closed at 5:30. Lots of ideas were floated for reuse, but in 1998 it was imploded. Then the site sat empty for 20 years. The second move is The Riot Report. The movie begins with the 1967 riots – rebellions – in several, maybe more than 20, major cities, including Detroit. We see images of rioting, police response, fire and destruction in Newark, then Detroit. The March on Washington was four years before. This was a big event in the struggle for equal rights. And President Lyndon Johnson was leading on it, with his Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Great Society initiatives. He said it isn’t enough to open gates. All should have the ability to walk through those open gates. But every action had a backlash (in this case a “whitelash”). That included Barry Goldwater, who was the Republican candidate for president in 1964 and quite conservative. His claim was Johnson was fueling the unrest. Blacks were saying we have had enough of the systems that oppress us. Whites were saying you have made gains, why wasn’t that enough? The 1960s were still part of the black Great Migration from the south to the north. Cities were getting higher percentages of blacks. But the reporters discussing the black experience were white, male, and middle class. The Los Angeles Watts rebellion happened in 1965. Several more cities were hit in 1966. One voice in this movie said “riot” was not a good word because it means destruction without reason. When the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots were commemorated in 2017 the word rebellion was decided to be a better fit. I’ll try to use it. Whites had sympathy for blacks in the south for resisting Jim Crow. But whites turned against blacks when they rebelled. There was lots of fear of blacks moving into white neighborhoods and their violence coming with them. In 1966 conservatives followed Goldwater’s playbook. When the rebellions happened in 1967 Johnson was in a political trap. He saw a commission to investigate the rebellions was a way out. Of course, many said, sure, another commission. That’s a way out, not to solve the problems. Johnson created the commission on civil disorders to figure out why it happened. He required members of the commission to be supporters of the Civil Rights act and the Vietnam war. The 11 members included politicians, business people, a woman, and two black men. One of them was from the NAACP. It was named the Kerner Commission for the chairman, Otto Kerner, governor of Illinois. Some thought Johnson could pull strings to get what he wanted out of them. That’s not what happened. Johnson essentially had three questions he wanted the commission to answer about the rebellions: What happened? Why did it happen? How can we prevent it from happening again? Some members wanted to look at root causes. Others wanted only to support police in how to crush the next uprising. Those wanting to look at causes prevailed. So the commission toured the country, visiting the cities where there had been rebellions. They sent teams to these cities to listen, then write reports of what they found. Sure, they talked to white people. They spent more time talking to black people. They saw the terrible living conditions. They saw the faces of the people who lived in those conditions. This was quite amazing for the 1960s. The black people said they knew how to protest Jim Crow with civil disobedience. But the rules of segregation in the North were not written into laws. They didn’t know how to protest something unwritten through civil disobedience. They had to protest in the streets. Youth saw the Civil Rights law has passed, yet their lives hadn’t changed. They had nothing to lose. Black people understood police were there to protect white interests. And whites didn’t want black people around. So the primary purpose of police was to patrol the boundary between white and black neighborhoods and keep blacks docile. They were frequently brutal. Their purpose was to remind black people: We’re in control. You’re supposed to be afraid of us. One would think that if the war on poverty wasn’t working the police would try something new. Instead, they doubled down. The situation was waiting for a spark. And the police had plenty of opportunities to provide it. They did so by overreacting. One solution was to integrate police (fifty years later we see how well that went). Some witnesses to the commission, such as J. Edgar Hoover, blamed the riots on outside agitators and Communists. They said our blacks wouldn’t behave this way. But the commission saw no Communists. When the report was published the reason for the rebellions was clear: white racism. The report said it that plainly. Black people were not crazy, they had good reason to act the way they did. The report indicted institutions and systemic power that supported that racism. It said racism threatened America. It proposed solutions to correct institutions. It was a report for white America to read, learn from, and act on. Failure to act would mean continued black rebellion. Other solutions included guaranteed basic income, open housing, and new jobs. It would cost about the same as what Johnson was spending in Vietnam. The report was published in paperback and sold widely. There were lots of media coverage of the report. The blurb for this movie seemed to imply it was buried. No, it wasn’t. It was in the hands of the public. When the report was published Johnson was in a box. Conservatives would not accept the conclusion. But Johnson couldn’t reject it without annoying liberals. So he refused to receive it. As for all those fine proposals Johnson claimed he didn’t have the money the proposals said should be spent. Congress said we’re waiting for bills to come from the president (a fine passive-aggressive stance) and Johnson offered none. Vietnam threatened Johnson’s Great Society initiatives. His presidency would be known, not for the good he did, but for Vietnam and riots. He had formed the commission to enhance his presidency. Instead, the report sunk it. In 1968 Johnson declared he would not run again. In a way, Johnson was right about not having money for what the report recommended. White people didn’t want to pay taxes to help rioting blacks. When Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 rebellions flared again. Many blacks thought King’s efforts to end racism through non-violence hadn’t worked. The predictions of the Kerner report were fulfilled. A couple things came from the Kerner report. There was a fair housing law passed in 1968, but it was toothless. Also, news reporting as diversified. Black people reported on black people. Robert F Kennedy ran in 1968 saying he would take the Kerner report seriously. He was assassinated. Nixon (famous for his racist Southern Strategy) rejected it. He claimed Johnson’s programs had failed (when they hadn’t gone far enough or hadn’t even been tried). He said rioters should not be rewarded. Time to stop these programs. He ran on a war on crime, which made all the things blacks were rebelling against worse. The Kerner report was dead. The Kerner report is still relevant. As the nasty guy’s first criminal trial gets underway Charles Jay of the Daily Kos community asks:

While this might be unprecedented in U.S. history, other democracies, including France, South Korea, and Israel have charged, convicted, and even jailed former presidents and prime ministers. So why are we having such a hard time wrapping our head around this as a country?

Jay reminds us that President Harding was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal and escaped being implicated by dying. And Nixon avoided indictment and trial by being pardoned by Gerald Ford. Jay then lists the Republican politicians who dismiss the nasty guy’s trial and proclaim the American people are rallying behind him (well, some are). Israel’s Netanyahu has so far avoided a trial, but Israeli President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were convicted. In France former presidents Jacques Chirac and Micolas Sarkozy were convicted. In South Korea four former presidents and one still in office were convicted. Another committed suicide while under investigation. In Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was convicted, through is sentence was reduced to probation. In Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro is being investigated for plotting a coup carried out by his supporters. He has been banned from running for office until 2030. We wish the US Senate had done the same for the nasty guy in 2021. Jay concluded: “If other democracies can hold their leaders accountable, there’s no reason why we can’t do the same.” Jay also wrote “Tax cuts for the rich are a bad deal for corporate elites—and everyone else.” But that’s not quite the sense of Jay’s article. That can be more accurately described as: Supporting a fascist regime because they’re willing to cut taxes and overturn consumer protections is bad for corporations and their owners. First, some of the other things the nasty guy has said he would do would crash the economy and make the workforce problems worse by deporting workers. Second, a fascist regime will eventually come from them for insufficient loyalty. See Disney and DeathSantis as the most famous such situation. An Associated Press article posted to Kos on Tax Day discussed the difference between the tax policies of the two major candidates for president.

“For 36 years, I was listed as the poorest man in Congress,” Biden told donors in California in February. “Not a joke.” In 2015, Trump declared as part of his candidacy, “I'm really rich.”

Biden releases his tax forms. The nasty guy has refused. Biden will make sure the 2017 tax giveaway will expire next year. He’s talked about raising other taxes on the wealthy while pledging those earning $400K or less will not pay more taxes. He talks about tax fairness. The nasty guy talks to billionaires about how much he will cut their taxes. I don’t think he talked about taxes paid by the middle class or poor people. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Richard Stengel of The Atlantic writing about paywalls. More than 75% of America’s leading media are behind paywalls. Almost 80% of Americans ignore paywalled sites and seek out free media.

Paywalls create a two-tiered system: credible, fact-based information for people who are willing to pay for it, and murkier, less-reliable information for everyone else. Simply put, paywalls get in the way of informing the public, which is the mission of journalism. And they get in the way of the public being informed, which is the foundation of democracy. It is a terrible time for the press to be failing at reaching people, during an election in which democracy is on the line. There’s a simple, temporary solution: Publications should suspend their paywalls for all 2024 election coverage and all information that is beneficial to voters. Democracy does not die in darkness—it dies behind paywalls.

In the comments of another roundup are some good cartoons. One by Bill Bramhall shows a TV news host saying, “A court decision upholding a 1692 law banning witches is causing problems for Republicans.” A cartoon posted by Fiona Webster and written by Adam Zygus shows Lady Liberty getting an ultrasound by a doctor with the nametag SCOTUS. On the screen is a fetus labeled “Trumpism.” The doctor says, “This baby will likely kill you, but you’re legally required to carry it to full term...” Kos user exlrrp posted a meme that shows a crowd of red hats and says, “They will never admit he’s guilty, because that will mean he’s made fools of them all.” In the comments of a third roundup is a cartoon by Drew Sheneman showing a woman with a sign reading, “My Body My Choice.” An elephant tells her, “If you wanted rights you should have been a corporation or an embryo.” Irena Buzarewicz posted a cartoon by Grant Snider showing the hierarchy of humor. From the top: Paradox, Dark humor, Self-deprecation, Slapstick, Modern art, Irony, Illogical humor, Scatological humor, Logical humor, Impractical joke, Practical joke, Double entendre, Puns, Dumb jokes, Cats. Your ranking may be different. Ellis Rosen posted a cartoon of a corner of an art museum. There are four images of the same woman, one has white horizontal lines through it, another shows a small image on a big canvas, a third shows an upside down image too big for the canvas, and the last shows the bottom of the image all crumpled. The docent tells patrons, “In this series, the artist is in dialogue with her printer.” Irena Buzarewicz posted a cartoon by Dave Coverly showing a king looking down on a mob with pitchforks and torches. An aide says, “Oh, you don’t need to fight them – you just need to convince the pitchfork people that the torch people want to take away their pitchforks.” As part of Mark Sumner’s seven less reported stories for Kos he discussed a walkability score put out by Walk Score. There is also a nature score put out by the Washington Post. I tried it for my address. I live in generic suburbia, though next to a park. My home’s walkability score is 4 our of 100, as in almost all errands require a car. I’ve mentioned this problem of suburbia. I also got a bikeable score of 55 because there is some bike infrastructure. No public transit score was given. It listed nearby parks, but didn’t include the one I actually live next to. I would think my nature score would be decent because I live next to a park. But that’s behind the WaPo paywall. I tried the address of my friend and debate partner. He got a walk score of 99, a walker’s paradise, a transit score of 65, and a bike score of 94, a biker’s paradise. I doubt his nature score would be as good as mine.

Both incoherent and irreconcilable with reality

With the removal of McCarthy as Speaker I didn’t have time to delve into the week’s other big story – the nasty guy’s trial for fraud. Last Sunday, the day before that trial got started Heather Vogell of ProPublica, in an article posted on Daily Kos, reported Judge Arthur Engoron granted a summary judgment (no actual trial) in favor of the state of New York that the nasty guy organization executives (meaning him and his sons) engaged in persistent fraud by submitting false and misleading Statements of Financial Condition. Based on that ruling Engoron canceled certificates, which are needed to legally operate in the state. Which means his real estate empire is in peril. Of course, the ruling will be appealed. On Monday Laura Clawson of Kos reported the nasty guy trial for fraud got underway. This is separate but related to Engoron’s ruling above. I don’t know the distinctions. This is a bench trial (no jury) and is a civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The result won’t be a prison term, but a fine and James is asking for $250 million. Amazingly the nasty guy actually attended. He didn’t have to and hasn’t attended many of his other court hearings. The nasty guy and his sons of course complained about the judge, the AG, and everyone else of being unfair to him, that it’s all a politically motivated witch hunt to interfere with the election – the same blather he’s been saying for a long time. Hunter of Kos reported that during the lunch break on the first day of the trial (which will last several weeks) the nasty guy emerged from the courtroom and performed an eight minute rant before the cameras. Hunter included video of the whole rant (but why would you want to watch?) and transcriptions of excerpts. In response to one excerpt Hunter wrote:

Members of Trump's base have regularly taken this "fight" language as permission to mount harassment campaigns and death threats against Trump's enemies of the moment, whether they be public figures or private citizens.

Mid afternoon on Monday Kerry Eleveld of Kos posted with a title that serves as a sufficient summary, “Facing potential financial ruin in civil trial, Trump asks his followers to bail him out.” An Associated Press article posted on Kos on Tuesday reported the nasty guy was there again in person. I’ll let the article work through the details of the legal wrangling. Also on Tuesday Mark Sumner of Kos discussed the ranting over this not being a jury trial. Did his lawyers fail to request it? Was the request denied? I read later this type of trial doesn’t get a jury. Sumner wrote:

Trump attorney Alina Habba also complained that Trump wanted a jury. However, when she raised this issue to Engoron, she got back a simple reply: Trump’s legal team had never requested a jury trial. The general assumption has been that this was a screwup on the part of a legal team that has—so far, at least—failed to impress. But it could also be a strategy designed to give Trump what he’s always looking for: someone to attack. ... Keeping the focus on Engoron (with the occasional shot at James), Trump gets to play his favorite role: victim of a system that is always unfair to poor Donald Trump, America’s only honest man. Painting himself as completely beset by radical Democrats, deranged prosecutors, and a legal system isn’t what Trump does in court. It’s what he does every day. It’s also not so different from what he’s done through thousands of other lawsuits. Trump has enormous experience in bullying judges, belittling prosecutors, and evading charges. This is just the latest. The “no jury” bit is just another excuse for him to pound the table when he cries about how this was all so unfair. But hey, it could also be a screwup. And honestly, when it comes to the result of the trial this time, it’s not likely to matter.

An AP article on Wednesday reported the nasty guy was there in person again. There was more of what he does every day, though this time there’s a bit of reporting about one of the witnesses, one of the organization’s accountants. Also, the judge imposed a limited gag order requiring “all participants in the trial not to hurl personal attacks at court staffers.” This was in response to the nasty guy being nasty to one of the clerks. He took that post down. Lisa Rubin, in a thread on Thread Reader App, explains why the nasty guy is taking so much interest in this case he showed up in person.

Part of it is image. Trump’s self concept and public persona alike rest on his King of All Real Estate construct. Although the Attorney General has already exposed how much of it is a fiction, the trial will methodically unspool his legend, witness by email by letter. But it’s more than that. The remedies the AG is seeking — which Trump himself acknowledges constitutes a sort of “corporate death penalty” — are the only ones he can’t campaign away.

He also can’t pardon himself if he managed to get back to the White House. And if he loses he (and his sons) could lose his real estate empire and be barred from doing business in New York. All that could be worse than prison. On Monday, during that first day of the fraud trial, Sumner wrote that when the nasty guy has been speaking lately his words are getting “both incoherent and irreconcilable with reality.” He has examples. The other part of Sumner’s post is how much effort is being spent documenting every one of Biden’s gaffes – did you hear he’s 80? – and how little effort is being spent documenting how disconnected from reality nasty guy’s rants have become. The articles about Biden’s blunders are almost formulaic. But...

What the articles never get around to mentioning is that there is a fundamental difference between Biden making an error or a verbal gaffe, and Trump weaving a whole narrative—complete with people calling him “sir,” crazy whales, or killer batteries—that has no relationship to reality. Failing to highlight that difference isn’t just bad journalism; it’s intentionally bad journalism designed to create a false equivalence. And that’s being generous.

Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community has an example of the reverse. A week ago Biden gave one of the most important speeches of his presidency. He gave...

a fierce defense of democracy, the Constitution, and American values—all while name-checking Donald Trump and the extreme MAGA movement that threatens the basic foundations of our republic. ... You’d think the current president (rightly) calling out his top political rival for being a power-mad, wannabe tinpot dictator who disdains the Constitution would merit searing, front-page coverage across the legacy media. But you’d be wrong.

The speech didn’t make the front page of either the New York Times or Washington Post. Pennyfarthing quoted a tweet from Jeff Sharlet:

Yes, @washingtonpost, “Democracy Dies in the Darkness.” You know where else it can wither? A3, inside, which is where you buried the fiercest, highest stakes pro-democracy speech I’ve heard from a president in my lifetime.

Pennyfarthing then quoted a good chunk of the speech. Biden said the world is watching the chaos in our government:

Think about this: The first meeting I attended of the G7—the seven wealthiest nations in the world—in Europe, the NATO meeting, I sat down—it was in ... January, after being elected—so late January, early February—and it was in England. And I sat down, and I said, “America is back.” And Macron looked at me, and he said, “Mr. President, for how long—for how long?”

NYT does have some good stuff. Hunter discussed an NYT report that looked at Win It Back, a conservative anti-Donald Trump PAC, and their testing of 40 ads in hopes of finding one that would prompt his base to abandon him.

"All attempts to undermine [Trump’s] conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective," writes McIntosh. "Even when you show video to Republican primary voters — with complete context — of President Trump saying something otherwise objectionable to primary voters, they find a way to rationalize and dismiss it." We’ve been saying this for years, but now $6 million in research hammers it home: Republican voters do not care what Trump says, what he does, or whether he makes an ass of himself on the world stage. Republicanism is a cult.

Hunter then ponders what might work.

Republicans are drawn to Trump because his public performances are seen as enraging non-Republicans and "elites." But if anti-Trump Republicans portray him as a laughingstock? Maybe that’ll have traction. Show the man as he appears on the golf course, not in his suit and tie. Mock him for being revealed as a business failure. Have former members of his administration who now oppose him laugh on camera as they tell viewers that he should be on “Dancing with the Stars,” not in the White House. Show him instead as a weak and pitiful figure whose best days have passed him by, a man who can't keep up with his own lies—an object of derision. Mock him so viciously that Trump's shallow, lib-owning base voters feel like suckers. If ads like these were prolonged enough, Republican voters might not be able to brush them off so easily.

A bit more on McCarthy’s removal. Clawson noted that the nasty guy could have helped McCarthy and didn’t. A good word from him might have swayed enough votes. Yeah, he was sitting in a courtroom while the House drama was going on. But between the vote to keep the government open and the call for McCarthy’s removal the nasty guy did post to his social media. But that didn’t include anything about McCarthy. And when, during the trial, he was asked about McCarthy he ignored the question. Yeah, the House has a Speaker Pro Tempore in Patrick McHenry. About all he’s done so far is retaliate against Democrats. As for actual House business – like a possible government shutdown in mid November – he’s not touching it. Yet. That means Republicans are consumed by palace intrigue over who will be the next Speaker. Two guys have declared they’re candidates. One is Jim Jordan, the guy running the Biden impeachment inquiry and seems to be best at jumping in front of cameras to bellow about Biden. The other is Steve Scalise, current Majority Leader with lots of contacts with other members. But he’s getting treatment for cancer. And... “Neither of the two have proven interested in or capable of compromise with Democrats.” Both are much more likely to blame Democrats. The best outcome would be for moderate Republicans to form an alliance with Democrats. Yeah, that ain’t happening because “none of the Republicans ... have been willing to buck their party, even when they could easily team up with Democrats and create a big enough bloc to have influence.” Even Republicans from districts Biden won are trashing Democrats. Yeah, trashing Democrats. Hunter reported Rep. Nick Langworthy, vice chair of the National Republicans Congressional Committee even added the idea that George Soros and liberal dark money caused McCarthy’s removal.

It only stands to reason, then, that Matt Gaetz is an enormous, caucus-sabotaging asshole because George Soros made him do it. No doubt liberal dark money was behind every far-right Republican extremist's vote to oust the party's leader.

Hunter described what that accusation represents.

It's just as accurate to note that the omnipresent Republican obsession with finding out-group scapegoats for every news event—everything from natural disasters to pathetic intraparty slap-fights—is yet another hallmark of authoritarianism in general and fascism specifically. The party can never fail. It can never have corrupt elements and can never be wrong when it declares that an ideological policy prescription will solve a particular problem. If an indictment comes down, it is because the party's enemies have engineered it. If the party's enacted policies only worsen what they were intended to solve, it is because the party's enemies secretly sabotaged the country to make the party look bad. And of course, if the party is plagued with rabid extremists and flat-out incompetents who themselves keep the party from accomplishing any of the things it promises, or who even flub things so badly that the party can do nothing at all, it is the party's secret enemies who are behind that, too, working with unknown "elites" to trick the party into its own self-destruction. ... You heard it from Langworthy first: Matt Gaetz is secretly in league with the liberal elites.