Do they keep Trump wrapped around their necks?

I’m a fan of the film music programs on WRCJ, the Detroit public radio station for classical and jazz music. So I’ve heard music by film composer Max Steiner. I heard of a recommended biography of him and eventually bought it and just now finished reading it. The book is Music by Max Steiner, the Epic Life of Hollywood’s Most Influential Composer by Steven C. Smith. Steiner was born in Vienna in 1888 to a musical and entrepreneurial family – his grandfather owned a theater and convinced Johann Strauss to try writing operettas. One result is Die Fledermaus. Steiner made big strides in music while young. When Vienna wasn’t working out he went to London, then Broadway, where he served as a conductor of musicals. Shortly after movies added sound he went to Hollywood. At the time movies with sound tended to have generic music that did little more than set the mood. Steiner revolutionized all that. He wrote music specific to the movie – themes for the major characters with the way they are combined and varied as a way to tell more of the story than dialogue can (an idea from opera composer Richard Wagner). He pioneered the click-track to synchronize the music to the film. A lot (maybe most) of the film composers working in the last 90 years are doing things the way Steiner did them. A big difference is modern composers write on computer and Steiner wrote with pencil and paper. Alas, many film producers put their composers through a tough schedule – limited time to write the music and record it. Yes, there are teams of orchestrators, the people who take the main guy’s basic outlines and turn them into performable sheet music. But the days are still long. Steiner would composer much of the day and lead a recording session much of the night. And while he was thick in the midst of one movie a producer frequently said, Max, you’re the only one who can rescue this film and we need it done quickly. Steiner’s first big success is King Kong, released in 1933. It decisively showed a score written specifically for a movie can make a huge difference in how the action and characters are perceived. In this case the stop-action motion of the great ape looked silly without Steiner’s pounding score. But Steiner could also turn the viewer’s opinion towards a bit of sympathy for the beast. His other famous scores are Gone With The Wind of 1939 and Casablanca of 1942. He continued to write for films into the mid 1960s. While the book is fascinating (to me), it is also long – 400 pages. I didn’t think I needed to know that much detail about the movies he scored – and the book doesn’t cover every movie. Another issue I have with the book is the basic problem of describing music with words. It would say Steiner used this particular melodic fragment to mean this with this effect on the movie. For some of the scores I could find the some of the music on YouTube, but that rarely showed the music with the scene described in the book – unless I wanted to watch the whole movie (and GWTW is about 4 hours long – I saw it decades ago and once was enough). The book also described Steiner’s personal life. The royalty organization ASCAP wouldn’t handle movie music (that changed in the 1960s), so Steiner seemed perpetually poor, even though the studios paid him well. Enjoying gambling and not being a good manager of money contributed to that. His intense hours meant he went through four wives and his son didn’t get what he needed most – a dad he could talk to. I enjoyed the book and learned about composing for movies. But I would recommend it only to those with a great love of music for film. The Republican midterm convention – sorry, nasty guy rally – ended yesterday. Of course, I avoided it. Also of course, some of his worst statements end up in the news, even on NPR. Emily Singer of Daily Kos reported on the item that got the most airtime. The nasty guy said if Republicans kept the House and Senate he would send every adult $5,000. So vote Republican. Yeah, there are all kinds of problems with that promise. Congress has to approve the money and enough members likely won’t, if it ever came for a vote. The total cost would be well over $1 trillion (I’ve heard up to $1.3 trillion). So much money dumped into the economy would boost inflation. And the national debt. And the big problems: Bribing voters is illegal. But that doesn’t stop him. He has made promises of payouts before and rarely followed through. And voters are noticing. So don’t let this promise influence your vote. Kos of Kos discussed what might happen after the election.

President Donald Trump may have lost his ability to punish Republicans in primaries. But he hasn’t lost his ability to punish them in general elections. That’s the extraordinary dynamic now taking shape: Trump is herding his party toward an electoral catastrophe, yet increasingly lacks the political leverage to keep Republicans from eventually turning on him. ... So, Republicans will have a decision to make: Do they keep Trump wrapped around their neck heading into 2028, or do they rip off the Band-Aid, join Democrats in impeaching him, and spend the next several years hoping America forgets their complicity in the Trump disaster? I’m going to sit way out on this limb and predict that this is exactly what will happen, and that we will have a President JD Vance before 2028.

The Houthis of Yemen are threatening to close the southern end of the Red Sea, requiring ships between Asia and Europe to take the long way around Africa. The nasty guy claims the Iranians are just waiting for the midterms to be over before caving to his demands. More likely they’ll settle with the next president. Both of these closures will continue to raise prices and perhaps lead to a big energy mess.

Trump took a promising Biden economy and trashed it for no reason at all. All of it has been entirely, and unnecessarily, his fault. And Republicans have enabled him every step of the way. At some point, Republicans will have to decide: When do they cut their losses and begin rebuilding in a post-MAGA world? If it’s between a raving lunatic in the White House, and JD Vance, it doesn’t seem like a tough call.

Democrats probably won’t try to impeach without a path to actual conviction. Republicans may give them that. I’ve heard elsewhere that impeachment can’t be off the table. If the nasty guy, terrible as he is, isn’t impeached, we’ll have worse. Alas, a candidate for worse is the current vice nasty. In contrast to the way Democrats are acting right now... MaryAEnglish of the Kos community wrote about the far right German party AfD doing way too well in a state election and the comments by Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who called it as he saw it. The AfD has been using the term “remigration” and Merz properly called it ethnic cleansing. Then he said:

If those working in Germany have to leave the country again because you are championing ‘remigration’, then the skilled trades in Germany will no longer be able to function: not a single care home will remain open, not a single hospital in Germany will remain operational, and not a single restaurant in Germany will be able to stay in business.

Now if Democrats would be so bold.

The rules of capitalism don’t force their different choices

This morning I ate breakfast to the news that the US Military, under orders from the nasty guy, swooped into Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro, taking him into US custody to stand trial for drug related crimes. I haven’t paid much attention to the new since and switched radio stations to avoid his speech and the analysis of it. I’m sure you can find plenty of details at your favorite news source (at least one with a strong acquaintance with truth). So I won’t go into details. I’ll only say the nasty guy has pulled America to the low level of Russia by invading another country without military provocation. In the comments of today’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos are lots of tweets with images and videos of the US operation. Among those is a meme posted by Mel Ankoly:

If we elect Trump, we will be at war within 6 months. -- Kamala Harris

Gosh, off by only five months! This roundup is by Greg Dworkin who quoted a New York Times opinion piece about the January 6 Capitol attack. That day the rioters and nasty guy lost and it was seen as a turning point.

That day was indeed a turning point, but not the one it first seemed to be. It was a turning point toward a version of Mr. Trump who is even more lawless than the one who governed the country in his first term. It heralded a culture of political unaccountability, in which people who violently attacked Congress and beat police officers escaped without lasting consequence. The politicians and pundits who had egged on the attack with their lies escaped, as well. The aftermath of Jan. 6 made the Republican Party even more feckless, beholden to one man and willing to pervert reality to serve his interests. Once Mr. Trump won election again in 2024, despite his role in encouraging the riot and his many distortions about it, it emboldened him to govern in defiance of the Constitution, without regard for the truth and with malice toward those who stand up to his abuses

. Democrats could have gone a long way to bolster democracy by prosecuting the nasty guy for his various crimes (many more than just instigating that riot). And they didn’t. Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan of their Substack quoted a bit of Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration speech as he starts his term as governor of New York City.

What we achieve together will reach across the five boroughs and it will resonate far beyond. There are many who will be watching. They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again.

Back in the comments are a couple cartoons by Toonerman, both having to do with the alleged theft by Somali child care companies that prompted the nasty guy to cut funding for all child care providers. The first one:

Right-wing YouTube influencer Nick Shirly took a guy named Dave and a video camera on a snowy, cold day to Minneapolis and attempted to walk into Somali run daycare centers without any challenge. Two grown men with a camera wanting to take video of other people’s children. Sounds like perverts to me.

And the second

Minnesotan Aimee Bick – founder of Feeding the Future and ring leader of a massive fraud and theft operation was found guilty of stealing $250 million of federal COVID relief funds and pocketing millions herself. She is NOT SOMALIAN. You can tell because of her accent. But you won’t hear Trump or his fascist friend mention Aimee... because she’s white!”

In Friday’s pundit roundup Dworkin Paul Waldman of Public Notice discussing the nasty guy building monuments to himself.

It goes beyond an exercise in branding. Trump is seeking a physical legacy, a collection of signs and structures that will pay eternal tribute to his greatness. Which is why it is so important — and why it will be so rewarding — for the next Democratic president to tear it all down and smash it to bits. This isn’t just about petty revenge, even if there is undoubtedly some of that going on here. Emerging from this dark period in our history will require a sweeping, comprehensive strategy of repudiation and repair, one that encompasses the substantive, the procedural, and the symbolic. Fortunately, removing the physical remnants of Trumpism will be much simpler than reconstituting the federal workforce or rebuilding our security alliances.

In the comments there is a tweet by End Wokeness:

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “We’ll replace rugged individualism with collectivism.”

Rotimi Adeoye responded:

For people who have a problem with this statement, maybe before you start pearl-clutching ask why rugged individualism clearly isn’t resonating anymore—so much so that someone like Zohran, who openly criticizes it, could get elected in the first place.

A cartoon posted by LEastsound and created by Benjamin Slyngstad. It shows the nasty guy falling asleep while on either side...

Marco Rubio Suck-up of State: No one has ever slept through a meeting like you, sir. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Beer: You are truly leading the war on wokeness, Mr. Presideint.

Karmadog tweeted, showing the net worth of several people:

Donald Trump $5.4B Elon Musk, co-chair of DOGE, $300+B Warren Stephens, Ambassador to UK, $3.3B Charles Kushner, Ambassador to France (and father of Jared), $2.9B Linda McMahon, Education Secretary, $2.6B Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary, $2B If #oligarchy is too strange a word, how about we call them: Yacht Nazis!

Rep. Andy Ogles tweeted an image of a soldier ready for the Crusades with the caption, “We must stand and reaffirm that this is a Christian Nation. This is a battle of good vs evil.” Greg Nunziata responded:

It’s not necessarily a good thing, but it is an interesting thing, that protestant MAGA types love to appropriate Catholic history and iconography.

Christopher Hale tweeted:

Pope Leo XIV ended 2025 with a fierce warning: “Stop using religion to conquer markets and justify violence.” He followed that warning with a challenge: stop fearing strangers — and start welcoming them as neighbors.

Aaron Rupar tweeted the Nick Shirly video (well, I think it is, I didn’t watch it), adding:

uhhh yeah I can see why these childcare properties weren't eager to let in some rando dudes asking "where are the kids?"

Andrew Lawrence added:

like 75% of dem messaging right now should be “the party led by epsteins best friend is breaking into pre-k childcare centers so they can record your toddlers and put the videos on internet”

Mark Sumner Kos staff emeritus wrote about why Warmart is bad and Costco is good. This is a time where I wish my blogging skills (and maybe blogging tools) allowed me to do a side-to-side comparison. I’ll have to put one below the other. Before I get to that, both are highly successful companies (though it looks like Costco outperformed Walmart in the stock market). Both are pursuing their individual business plans without government coercion. They have just followed very different strategies. Walmart: + Has 10,700 stores including supercenters and Sam’s Clubs, founded in 1962. + Each supercenter has about 300 employees, they earn an hourly wage of $14-$19 an hour. + Stingy with benefits. + It tops the list of largest employers whose workers receive Medicaid and SNAP. + When Walmart moves into a community it depresses wages, which can drain the local talent. + A store manager can be paid $500,000 with assistants earning almost as much. The pay gap between the bottom and top is high. + Turnover can reach as high as 75% when similar companies might see 60% turnover. + Climbing the company ladder is the only way to improve one’s pay. It is difficult and fiercely competitive but with no corporate assistance for improvement. + They are ruthless with suppliers, demanding extremely low prices for shelf space in their stores. + They undercut every local retailer until the nearby town is hollowed out. Then it raises prices. + One supercenter can have 120K to 150K products. Customers see Walmart as their only shopping destination. + Their profits come from squeezing suppliers. + Walmart can so thoroughly hollow out the economics of a region it has to close stores for low performance. Costco: + Has 914 Costco Warehouses. It grew out of Price Club in 1983. + Each store has about 350-500 employees. Starting wage is $21 an hour and the average is $31. + Generous with benefits. + Costco employees don’t need Medicaid and SNAP. + When Costco moves into a community it can raise wages and strengthen local economies. + A Costco store manager earns $150,000 a year. The CEO earns $13 million in salary and stock options. The pay gap between the bottom and top is low. + The pay is high enough employees have to jump to another industry or get a college degree to do better. Annual turnover is below 6%. + There is an extensive employee development program. It does quite well from employees suggesting improvements. It saves on recruiting and basic training of new hires. + They serve as a supplement and supplier to local retail stores. They provide items others can’t and can provide items in bulk that other retailers can buy. A consumer may not buy a bulk package of rice, but a restaurant and school system does. + A Costco Warehouse has about 4,000 items and few of them are there consistently. Costco is only one place where its customers shop. + Their profits come from their memberships which have a renewable rate of 90%. + Costco doesn’t need to close stores, though it has replaced some of its earlier and smaller stores. Again, no one, including government, is forcing either company to follow their business strategy. The rules of capitalism aren’t forcing them either. They made choices they way they did because they want to. I see it as Walmart striving for the top of the social hierarchy – the managers and owners want to be high in the hierarchy and everyone else – employees and local economy – is oppressed to make their position look better. In contrast Costco works in community. We’re all in this together, we’re all equal. We’ll provide a service to help you in providing yours.

Remember that part about how the average Walmart supercenter has about 25% fewer employees than the average Costco Warehouse? Those fewer employees have to deal with 30 times as many items, more frequent restocking, and do it while getting less pay and fewer benefits. They work harder for less. By design. For stores that damage their local economy, and which are much more likely to simply pack up and leave. That's all a choice.

For the record, I shop at neither, though both are within four miles. I avoid Walmart because of their rapacious policies. I avoid Costco because as a family of one their membership fee and their emphasis on bulk items, which I would have a hard time storing or using before they spoil, is a bit much. I also wouldn’t want to wait in the long Costco gas lines.

If I can clothe the naked and don't am I not a robber?

I finished the book Joseph and His Friend by Bayard Taylor, first published in 1870. I bought it in a modern reprint because it was described as early gay literature and has a cover photo of two men, one with his hand on the other’s shoulder. The introduction describes it as the first gay novel, almost 60 years before Radclyfffe Hall published The Well of Loneliness about lesbians in 1928. The story is about Joseph (of course), age 22 and owner of a farm in Pennsylvania. His parents are gone, so his aunt lives with him to take care of the house while he and a hired man do the farm work. His friends begin to hold social events at each other’s homes. At one of these he meets Julia, who is from the city (which city isn’t mentioned). For a while the tone seems to be country good, city bad. Soon Joseph and Julia are engaged. I’ll pause at this point to say the story was pretty good and enjoyable. But it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The rest of this review will contain spoilers. Starting with: Joseph and Julia get married. So if this is a gay story we have to deal with the wife. That seems possible because Julia reveals another side of herself. During the visit to the country she talked about the insincerity of the city social life. But after the wedding and when development begins to come to the country she quickly brings city social standing ideas to the country. She wants her home to be a splendid showcase to impress the neighbors, a very city thing (and social hierarchy thing). She is aided in this effort because her father is a speculator, always having some investment plan going (in reading about his plans I kept thinking I would never let this guy invest my money) and she is counting on Joseph’s future profits. Joseph begins to despise her. Step one of bypassing the wife seems to be going well. Step two then would be acquiring the friend of the title. That is Philip, who rescues Joseph after an accident. They become quick friends (without actually describing how that happens). And then... nothing. Well, nothing more. Joseph and Philip kiss once and hold hands once. They talk about obeying a higher law and mention manly love. At a critical time Philip does a great deal to help Joseph. But they never do anything to make me think the relationship has passed beyond best friends. They don’t even move in together. So I dispute this is a gay novel. I think the photo on the cover is misleading because the central relationship of the story isn’t between Joseph and Philip, it’s the change in relationship between Joseph and Julia. And nothing between Joseph and Philip has any bearing on it. So, a decent and enjoyable story. It’s just not a gay story. But in 1870 a gay story would have been difficult to get into print. My Sunday movie was Sublime, a 2022 release from Argentina. Manuel and Felipe have been best friends since they were young children. They’re now 16 and have formed a band with Mauro and Fran. Manu writes many of their songs. Manu and his girlfriend Azul are beginning to explore their sexuality, but Azul senses he’s not all that into it. Manu begins to understand the one he is into is Felipe. But that feels scary to Manu. Will professing his feelings destroy their friendship? Will it break up the band as they are preparing for their first big gig? Will Felipe feel the same way? Is Manu okay with Felipe not feeling the same way? This was an enjoyable movie, but not a great one. One reason is I became annoyed with how much the camera focused on the back of Manu’s neck leaving the scene visible over Manu’s shoulders out of focus. Last Sunday Kos of Daily Kos wrote that Democrats were about to cave on the shutdown and get very little for it. The government shutdown started because Democrats saw it as a chance to force concessions from Republicans. The concession this time was to restore subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums, without which they would likely double or more. It has been the longest shutdown. In caving the Democrats got a promise of a vote on ACA subsidies in the Senate. Defeating it will be easy. Johnson said if it got to the House he’ll never bring it up for a vote. So all that will do is to identify which Republican senators voted no, a handy tool for next year’s election. Something, but a small something. The surrender is perplexing because the shutdown was hurting Republicans and the nasty guy cited it as a reason why Democrats won big in the recent election. On Monday Oliver Willis of Kos included several senators explaining why they voted to end the shutdown. One said the shutdown wasn’t accomplishing its goals and gave the nasty guy more power to withhold SNAP benefits. Another said there are Republicans willing to support ACA subsidies, ignoring the long Republican history of doing the opposite. Not convincing. Several months ago Niece said because of the cuts in food inspectors she was considering doing her grocery shopping in Canada. In Michigan that’s a viable alternative, though not easy. She hasn’t said if she’s actually doing that. Annie Waldman and Brandon Roberts, in an article written for ProPublica and posted on Kos, reported that there is such a thing as American inspectors at foreign food facilities and due to steep staffing cuts they are doing a lot less inspecting. This is at a time when the US is at its highest dependence on foreign food. Food safety laws are a lot more lax in many other counties. This article mentions a few bad cases. But if a facility wants to sell to America they must follow the demands of American inspectors. Who are cutting back on inspecting. So, Niece, check up on how well Canadian inspectors in other countries are doing their jobs. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that the Supreme Court will allow the nasty guy to continue a policy of blocking transgender and nonbinary people from choosing passport sex markers. The ruling is through the emergency docket and lasts until the case is later heard. The order is not signed, though the three liberal justices dissented with Ketanji Brown Jackson writing the dissent. The conservatives said the government is confirming a historical fact (of being assigned a gender at birth) “without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.” Wrong, said the liberals. When a passport marker doesn’t match the appearance of the person there is “increased violence, harassment, and discrimination.”

Transgender and nonbinary people who sued over the policy have reported being sexually assaulted, strip-searched and accused of presenting fake documents at airport security checks, [Jackson] wrote.

Sex markers appeared in passports in the mid 1970s. In 2021 Biden removed documentation requirements for changing a marker and allowed nonbinary people to use an X marker. The Supremes aren’t all bad (though these days are close to it). Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Tuesday Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted an article from NBC News. When marriage equality was granted by the Supremes Kim Davis, a county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky denied marriage licenses to same sex couples. She served six days in jail. This year, seeing a much more conservative Court and knowing that Clarence Thomas said he wanted to review marriage equality, Davis filed suit to give the Court that chance. After losing appeals in the 6th Circuit Court she turned to the Supremes. They refused to hear the case. A week ago, after the election, Kos wrote that the big gerrymandering effort might backfire on Republicans. Four of the new districts in Texas are Hispanic-majority. In the 2024 election they shifted strongly to the nasty guy. In the 2025 election they shifted strongly away from him. Republicans look like they assumed the shift would be permanent. In yesterday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Russell Berman and Jonathan Lemire of The Atlantic about why Democrats caved on the shutdown.

“I came to the conclusion that they were not going to cave on that red line,” Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, one of five Democrats who flipped his vote yesterday after previously backing the shutdown, told us by phone this afternoon. He acknowledged that many of his colleagues disagreed. But when he would press them on whether they believed that Republicans might come around on health care, they could not say. “There really was no evidence to suggest that they would.” ... But even though polling had swung in the Democrats’ favor, it was not enough to move the president or GOP leaders in Congress.

As I had heard put another way: The nasty guy is so much enjoying forcing the poor and working poor to go hungry to ever think he was going to give in, no matter what predictions on next year’s elections say. There are several other quotes about Democrats and Chuck Schumer. In the comments Captain Frogbert posted a quote from Saint Basil of Caesarea, (330-379 c.e.). Here’s a bit of it:

Now, someone who takes a man who is clothed and renders him naked would be termed a robber; but when someone fails to clothe the naked, while he is able to do this, is such a man deserving of any other appellation? The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry; the coat, which you guard in your locked storage-chests, belongs to the naked; the footwear mouldering in your closet belongs to those without shoes. The silver that you keep hidden in a safe place belongs to the one in need. Thus, however many are those whom you could have provided for, so many are those whom you wrong.

Captain Frogbert added a meme, also by St. Basil:

Hell can’t be made attractive, so the devil makes attractive the road that leads there.

Drew Sheneman posted a cartoon on Kos showing an elephant holding a sign saying “Food Aid” with a line through it. He asks Jesus, “Quick question, do I still have to feed the poor if my Christianity is purely performative?”

Flattery inflation

Last night I went to the Ringwald Theatre, housed in the Affirmations LGBTQ center in Ferndale to see the play Silver Foxes. The show is about three senior gay men coming to terms with their advancing age. Charlie was discharged from the Army when being gay was automatic grounds for dismissal. He used to be lovers with Ben, who lives in Charlie’s house in Palm Springs and is HIV positive and amazed he’s still alive. There is also their friend Cedric who lives in a senior home but has to be closeted there. Also a frequent visitor in the house is a young man about a third their ages who is the lover of another senior man. Charlie and the rest can’t remember his name and refer to him as the Twink. The seniors talk about their lives, the advances in gay rights, and their refusal to give up those rights. A comment about Anita Bryant getting a cake in the face goes right over the Twink’s head (that actor said working on the show was quite an education in gay history). Cedric had worked as a hairdresser in Hollywood and was able to dish. There is talk about how much time they may have left and what they want to do with it. The play was written by James Berg and Stan Zimmerman. The latter was in the theater and talked to the audience a while afterward. He had been a writer on shows such as the Golden Girls and Gilmore Girls. He said that some of the incidents related in the play come from gay men he knew. I quite enjoyed and recommend the play. It is funny and has many touching moments. The show will be presented twice more, Sunday afternoon and Monday evening. Zimmerman said a sequel is about to start rehearsal (somewhere else) and a sequel to that is being discussed. I finished the book On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. The lessons are about how to act when a tyrannical state is arising around you. It’s a small book and a quick read. I’d like to mention all twenty lessons with their short explanations, but that could easily reproduce the book. So I’ll mention only a few. 1. Do not obey in advance. Many people adapt to the demands of tyranny with little prompting or thought. 7. If you must carry a weapon as part of your job be ready to say no. Most of those who did the killing in the Holocaust did it not out of conviction, but it avoid drawing attention. 8. Stand out. When you do others will follow your example. 10. Believe in truth. Truth dies through lying; endless repetition of lies; an embrace of contradictions; and misplaced faith (“I alone can solve it”). 11. Investigate. Figure out things for yourself. Read long-form articles rather than ones offering quick takes. Support sites that investigate. 12. Greet those around you to maintain community. 18. Tyrants create crises and use them to justify taking away rights. Don’t offer your freedom in hopes of getting security. 19. Know the difference between a nationalist and a patriot. A nationalist wants power. A patriot wants what is best for all. I highly recommend this small book. In Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman who explained flattery inflation discussed by scientist Xavier Marquez and Henry Farrell:

Here’s how it works. The ruler’s lackeys and courtiers believe that they must praise him to the skies, proving their loyalty by offering paeans to his wisdom, character, and golf game. And they must continually up the ante… [...] ...a similar process of self-reinforcement applies to telling lies that serve the autocrat’s ego. Call it “mendacity inflation.” Trump insists that he’s overwhelmingly popular and that only a lunatic fringe disapproves of his presidency. Well, to show loyalty his hangers-on must go further, declaring that grandmothers and parents pushing prams down 7th Avenue are illegal aliens and violent criminals. The humiliating absurdity is a feature, not a bug. Simply lying about demonstrators isn’t enough; to prove their MAGA mettle people in Trump’s orbit must tell lies that are grotesque and ridiculous.

Michael Goldberg of the New York Times discussed the video the nasty guy posted that shows him dumping poop on protesters.

What’s curious, then, is not Trump’s eagerness to degrade us, but his uncontrollable urge to defile himself and his office. Most national leaders, after all, do not willingly associate themselves with diarrhea. Scatological attacks are usually the province of outsiders trying to cut the powerful down to size... Perhaps the most puzzling thing about the second Trump administration has been its attacks on pillars of American strength that pose no challenge to its ideology. It was predictable that the White House would gut support for the humanities, but not that it would defund pediatric cancer research. I expected it to try to eliminate the Department of Education, but not to deliberately wreck the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps communities in both red and blue states when they’re beset by disasters.

That puzzle isn’t so puzzling to me. Those high in the social hierarchy, especially one like that nasty guy whose ego is so wounded, will use every means available to oppress those below them. And wrecking FEMA so that it can’t help people after devastation oppresses people quite nicely. In Wednesday’s roundup Greg Dworkin quoted the Wall Street Journal that reported the Treasury Department, across from the now demolished East Wing of the White House has told its employees not to share photos of the demolition because they could “potentially reveal sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details.” They’re worried about confidential structural details of a building being demolished? Sure. John Stoehr of The Editorial Board discussing the No Kings rallies.

But let’s not lose sight of what has been accomplished. On the one hand, Trump is confessing to the allegations of illegitimacy against him. Protesters said he is not a king. Then he said, in effect, Oh yeah? Watch me. That alone is worth celebrating, as it affects people who have doubts about Trump, but don’t yet trust the opposition. No Kings drew about 5 million people in June. This time, it added a couple million more. Next time, perhaps, a couple million more than that. On the other hand, however, is something deeper and more powerful. The president and his party want the American people to believe that the Republicans – and the Republicans alone – are the real arbiters of reality. Critics do not have the liberty to interpret facts independently. They do not have the right to express beliefs according to guaranteed liberties. Only Republicans have the true authority to define America. With one voice, more than 7 million Americans said no.

Way down in the comments paulpro posted a cartoon by Naish showing a young person in a cafeteria line with a tray with a steaming bowl on it. The person says, “Yuck! How long are you gonna serve us slop?!” The servers are revealed to be Google, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X and one says, “How long will you keep taking it?” In the comments of Friday’s roundup is a meme posted by exlrrp. It shows a MAGA guy saying, “Illegal immigrants don’t deserve due process! Send them all to El Salvador prisons!” A scholar responds, “How do you know they are illegal without due process?” The MAGA man thinks about that then turns into a sheep, saying, “Because the government said they are.” In the comments of today’s roundup is a meme posted by exlrrp showing a skeleton sitting by a window and saying, “Me waiting to finally get one of those checks from George Soros that MAGA has been talking about for years.” Below the cartoons The Geogre discussed an article by Igor Volsky at The New Republic titled “If Dems Won’t Tax Billionaires After This, What Are They Even Doing?” From Volsky:

The sequence of events over the past few months reads like a case study in how oligarchy actually works in America. First, billionaires passed legislation to enrich themselves. Then they shut down the government to avoid helping working Americans afford health care—a system those same billionaires profit from. And now, they’re trying to leverage the shutdown to fire thousands of workers who protect vulnerable Americans while gutting programs millions of families depend on. This is a moment that demands a response. If Democrats can’t run on a unified platform that centralizes and prioritizes taxing the ultrawealthy in order to dismantle their stranglehold on our government, then they need to get out of the way for people who will. ... Let’s start with the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—a piece of legislation that delivers more than 70 percent of its benefits to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026. The richest 1 percent will receive an average net tax cut of $66,000—at a cost of $1 trillion. Meanwhile, the bill would result in 14 million more Americans becoming uninsured by 2034, with more than $1 trillion in cuts coming from Medicaid alone—the largest cuts in the program’s history, and a stunning transfer of wealth, almost dollar for dollar, from the poorest Americans to the richest. ... Billionaires have used the power that comes with their extreme wealth to capture our government and bend it toward a single purpose, enriching themselves at everyone else’s expense. And if Democrats won’t confront that reality now, when will they?

The Geogre added that 73% support raising taxes on billionaires. The Geogre doesn’t agree with everything Volsky wrote. Volsky commented that nasty guy says he is cutting programs and personnel of programs that Democrats want, which would deepen the pain of the left. The Geogre says that’s a misdirection.

To the degree that the Republicans can hide their attacks on the poor and “minorities” (an absurd idea by itself, “minorities”) by calling them attacks on “Democrats,” they can hoodwink the victims of their attacks into cheering for their own suffering. Like the poor white southerners who applauded right-to-work laws because “they’ll hurt the Blacks,” the labeling of cuts in infrastructure, education, environment, and services for food, entitlements, and the safety net as “Democrat programs” is a lie that will work. It’s false consciousness.

Kos community member revrick2 mentioned a few items from a Facebook post by Andrew Kerr, an architect with more than 20 years experience. From the stated square feet of 90,000 and budget of $300 million the cost per square foot would be $3,333. But even a price of $1,000 per square foot is astronomically high. A ballroom usually allows for 20 square feet per person. Stated occupancy is 999 people, or 20K square feet. Add in 10K for support functions and 10K for lobby, both generous, that’s only 40K square feet. What’s the other 50K square feet for? The renderings of the interior show that 20K square feet. The renderings of the exterior are 90K square feet. They don’t match. James Tate tweeted a cartoon drawn in 1906 by William Balfour Ker. It shows a ballroom filled with gowns and tuxes. Below are people oppressed by the ballroom floor. There is a fist that has punched up through the floor to the consternation of those in the ballroom.

We need candidates that flex the empathy muscle

Paul Waldman, in his Substack The Cross Section, discussed why the Democratic Party fears its best candidates. At the top of the article is a photo of Mallory McMorrow running to be the candidate for the US Senate race in Michigan and who is in this situation. She’s a great candidate (I like what she’s done in the Michigan Senate) and described as “young, smart, charismatic, adept at social media.” McMorrow will likely be up against Rep. Haley Stevens. She’s a four-term member of the House from a reasonably safe district and has proven she can win. She doesn’t make voters excited, but doesn’t make them angry. I rebut the comment that Stevens proving she can win makes her a better candidate. McMorrow is currently in the Senate, which means she has also won. A difference is that Stevens is in Washington and McMorrow is in Lansing. The Democratic Party impulse is to clear the field for their preferred candidate by telling McMorrow to hold off until Stevens decides. What the party should do is let all candidates run in the primary and let voters decide. Primaries are good (though not perfect) in showing who is better. Yeah, I know, the voters might decide to approve a candidate that can’t win in the general, and if they do they’ll get to Washington and stir things up too much. The party rewards insiders and discourages innovation. The want to protect their highest-ranking (also known as stodgiest) members. Another young star in the party is Zohran Mamdani, running for mayor of New York. He’s got fresh ideas and is charismatic. And the Democratic establishment is wavering on endorsing him because, as Waldman says, they’re cowards and Mamdani scares them. The mayoral candidate represents a future that doesn’t have a place for the old guard. That cowardice is why so many voters say Democrats are weak. The party “sees the best candidates as a threat and not an opportunity.” Amanda Becker, in an article for The 19th posted on Daily Kos, wrote about Kat Abughazaleh, who is running for the US House from Chicago. She appears to be a punk-rock candidate that the Democratic party in Washington is afraid of.

“This is not just about me getting into Congress — I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life,” Abughazaleh told them of her campaign. “I’m 26 and this is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, it is the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. How do people do this for decades and decades? The conclusion I’ve come to is that they stop doing it right. And what we need right now is representatives that talk to people, that listen to them, that flex empathy like a muscle, and then leave this job … for the next generation.” When Abughazaleh launched her bid to represent Illinois’ 9th District on March 24, her 26th birthday, she joined a growing cohort of young Democrats who have concluded the stakes for democracy are so high — and the party’s old guard is so reluctant to give up power — that they need to push their way into the political arena, even if they are met with resistance. ... Abughazaleh’s campaign slogan is a question: “What if we didn’t suck?” The “we” are Democrats. In a direct-to-camera launch video, she says, “Donald Trump and Elon Musk are dismantling our country piece by piece and so many Democrats seem content to just sit back and let them. So I say it’s time to drop the excuses and grow a f---ing spine.” ... At a Pride Month event, Abughazaleh gave anti-LBGTQ+ protesters the middle finger during a clash, prompting outrage online from the political right. “Yes, I did flip off some bigots for telling children they’d go to hell and, no, I’m not going to apologize,” she said in a video response. The campaign designed a “Kat isn’t sorry” t-shirt with her image, middle finger raised. The shirt urges people to “stand up for trans kids.”

Thinking about these two candidates reminds me I have also long believed the billionaires who are directing the Republican Party also control the Democratic Party. Democrats say great things and did wonderful stuff during the Biden years. But they didn’t do and are not doing things to protect democracy – especially voter rights and banning gerrymandering. Biden also installed Merrick Garland as his Attorney General, which many rightly saw as a guy who would do as little as politically required to prosecute the nasty guy to get him off the stage prior to the 2024 campaign. Democrats, under the control of billionaires, did not and are not interfering with the push to end democracy. I frequently talk about Republicans as doing everything to maintain themselves near the top of the social hierarchy, behind only the rich, who control them. But Democrats also believe in the hierarchy and put their position in their own hierarchy above the needs of the party, the country, and the working and poor people they say they champion. I’m very hopeful for these renegade Democratic candidates will shake up the party – if we have a 2026 election.

Get the right headline and intimidate the right people

Recently I wrote of the observation that a month had gone by and there had been no release from the Justice Department interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein. And now they have. An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reports that a release has now happened. And... It’s about what you would expect from someone being interviewed by the people who work for the guy who could pardon her. Beyond that nothing made the news. Two weeks ago Alex Samuels of Kos reported that three White House officials sent a letter to the Smithsonian saying the museums must embody enduring American values to comply with the March executive order on “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Everything is to be scrutinized. This is part of a broader effort to redefine American history. Alas, the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents has agreed to a full review of their museums. Also alas, the list of targeted museums include the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian. A great deal of African American history is about slavery. A great deal of American Indian history is about how white people took over their land. I hope Smithsonian leaders are documenting their current exhibits so they can be restored after the nasty guy and his ideological successors are no longer in control. A week ago Emily Singer of Kos reported the nasty guy said he will force the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC to remove exhibits that are too “woke” – a term conservatives can’t define (and maybe they want a term that can contain anything they want it to contain). Included in that is a demand to remove exhibits that talk about how bad slavery was. He decried the museums don’t feature American success stories. Yes, slavery was bad and cruel. It is a stain on US history no matter what the nasty guy says. Its effects are still felt today in black economic and educational inequalities. And yes, the Smithsonian does feature success stories. Another of his executive orders declared the story of slavery was “corrosive ideology” and books about slavery should be removed from Smithsonian museums and the national park system.

Trump during his first run for office declared that he “loves the poorly educated.” Now, he’s trying to ensure everyone in the U.S. is poorly educated, taught only his false and whitewashed view of history.

In the pundit roundup for last week Thursday for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Joseph Gedeon of The Guardian:

The document, based on public submissions shared with the administration, points to what it says are problematic exhibits at seven different museums, including a Benjamin Franklin exhibit that links his scientific achievements to his ownership of enslaved people and a film about George Floyd’s murder that it says mischaracterizes the police. “President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable,” a White House official said. “Until we get info from the Smithsonian in response to our letter, we can’t verify the numbers of artifacts that have been removed because the Smithsonian has removed them on their own.” The seven museums that have so far been flagged for review include the National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Latino, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of African Art, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Museum of Asian Art. The administration argues exhibits at these museums focus excessively on oppression rather than American achievements. At the National Museum of American History, the document flagged the ¡Presente! Latino history exhibition for allegedly promoting an “anti-American agenda” by examining colonization effects and depicting the US as stealing territory from Mexico in 1848.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times discussed the nasty guy ordering the National Guard to patrol DC, that the military sent to Los Angeles only gave the White House video for its social media accounts, that the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was sound and fury with no result, and that Putin’s visit to Alaska was an embarrassment with nothing to show.

Even his most dangerous actions — his plans to investigate his political rivals and turn the force of the national government against them — seem to fizzle out. It’s as if the point is to get the right headline and hope that it intimidates the right targets.

In the comments are several cartoons on the claim that slavery wasn’t so bad. Almost two weeks ago Lisa Needham of Kos reported the military personnel in DC has started to hold traffic safety checkpoints. This looks like an expansion of the immigration crackdown.

Must just be some crazy coincidence that what was supposed to be a checkpoint for things like busted taillights was staffed by overzealous masked federal agents with the power to detain immigrants.

Yeah, the traffic safety checkpoints are likely illegal. Needham then considers various scenarios in which checkpoints are legal and how this situation doesn’t fit any of them. Whatever the legal justification these checkpoints aren’t making DC residents safer. Last Friday Needham reported the siege of DC was taken up a step – the occupying troops will be carrying guns. Because this is a siege of course eventually they would be carrying guns. This time the administration didn’t bother to say why the guns were now necessary. Needham wrote, “The only reason to arm the troops in D.C. is to continue to treat the residents of the nation’s capital like federal subjects to be, well, subjugated.” Also last week Oliver Willis of Kos asked an important question. With all these troops in DC where are the Democrats? They’ve been way too silent.

The disparity between the two parties’ responses has reinforced a problem that has been apparent since Trump won the election in 2024. The Democrats have been caught flat-footed again and again, unable to respond to many of Trump’s provocations—even while the public has made clear they aren’t aligned with his priorities. ... Showing up when the nation’s capital is under siege would probably go a long way toward letting the nation know that the Democratic Party gives a damn.

In Tuesday’s pundit roundup Kev quoted Paul Krugman discussing the nasty guy’s efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, who is black. She allegedly got two home mortgages and declared both were for a primary residence. No actual accusation has been made, and certainly no evidence has been released, but the possibility is enough for the nasty guy to try to fire her.

I am not going to lead with a discussion of what Cook may or may not have done. That would be playing Trump’s game. Clearly, he’s just looking for a pretext to fire someone who isn’t a loyalist — and who happens, surprise, to be a black woman. If you write about politics and imagine that Trump cares about mortgage fraud — or for that matter believe anything Trump officials say about the affair without independent confirmation — you should find a different profession. Maybe you should go into agricultural field work, to help offset the labor shortages created by Trump’s deportations. The real story here isn’t about Cook, or mortgages. It’s about the way the Trump administration is weaponizing government against political opponents, critics, or anyone it finds inconvenient. You should think about the attack on Cook in the same context as mortgage fraud accusations made against California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Or you should look at the attacks on Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, over the cost of renovations at the Fed’s headquarters. Or the still mysterious raid on the house of John Bolton, who at one time was Trump’s national security adviser. The message here clearly isn’t “Don’t commit fraud,” which would be laughable coming from Donald Trump, of all people. Nor, despite what some commentators have said, is it all about revenge — although Trump is, indeed, a remarkably vindictive person. But mainly it’s about intimidation: “If you get in our way we will ruin your life.”

In the comments are a big bunch of memes and cartoons to share. A cartoon posted by paulpro and written by Mike Stanfill shows a man responding to a voice:

Voice: If I offered you $100 to press a button that would ruin the life of a random stranger, would you do it? Man: Uhhh... No? Voice: What if I gave you a hundred thousand dollars to press that button? Would you press it then? Man: Hmmm. Yes. Yes, I would. Voice: In that case, congratulations! You’re hired!

In that last frame we seen the voice is an official at an ICE recruitment center. Another cartoon posted by paulpro is by J S Cuneo and shows seven ICE agents pulling a man from his truck. Each is commenting how the action is making him hard. A meme posted by exlrrp is with a few talking about the nasty guy’s efforts to ban wind turbines:

As you’re stung by rising electricity bill, remember the Trump admin is shadow banning virtually all new wind and solar and forcing us to pay to keep old, inefficient coal plants online. We’re paying for stupid.

In among memes posted by exlrrp about Gavin Newsom’s big moment mocking the nasty guy is one from Newsom himself of a flag giving a new definition of MAGA: “Make America Gavin Again.” Dawn Xiana Moon posted “62% of younger deaths wouldn’t have happened in any other wealthy country.” Then she quoted from Vice:

Zoom out, and the picture gets clearer. As Futurism’s Joe Wilkins points out, America’s excess death problem stretches back to 1980, the year Ronald Reagan took office and rolled out a red carpet for neoliberalism. His policies slashed social programs, deregulated industries, gutted worker protections, and handed power to corporations on a platter. Nearly every administration after has been maintaining or hastening Reagan’s destruction ever since. The result is a shredded safety net, skyrocketing inequality, and a healthcare system that bankrupts people for getting sick. Millennials and Gen Z are the first generations raised entirely under this tattered economic system that cares more about profits than people. They came of age with fewer stable jobs, unaffordable homes, and decaying public services.

Another cartoon posted by paulpro and created by DaveWhamond shows Kristi Noem of Homeland Security at the southern border wall with aides discussing a recent effort at the wall.

Noem: We painted the wall black because the sun will make it too hot to touch. Aide 1: Genius! Let’s hope they don’t find out about gloves! Aide 2: Or nighttime... Or that we only painted our side.

Ellis Rosen posted a cartoon showing a boxing announcer indicating a stern older man. “And in this corner, still undefeated, Frank’s long held beliefs!” The final cartoon is posted by paulpro and is by Guy Parsons. It refers to the recent Press killings in Gaza. The cartoon shows four people wearing “Press” vests honoring a shrouded body with a “Press” vest on it. Beside it is a quote from Edward Snowdon, “When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime you are being ruled by criminals.”

A scam on a massive level that was incredibly successful

I haven’t discussed an episode of Gaslit Nation since just before the new year. I get notices of each new episode then think I would rather read the transcript than spend at least 45 minutes listening. Yes, the ability to take notes and quote passages does have a lot to do with my preference. But a transcript comes a few days later and my usual source for blogging (Daily Kos) gives me plenty of material to write about. So I don’t get back to Gaslit Nation. It’s time for a break from Kos. The Gaslit Nation transcripts page shows 20 entries. So my first task was to decide, from a list that goes back to the inauguration, which one to write about today. I chose a recent one, a summary episode: How We Got Here, excerpts from seven episodes stretching back to 2021, a “best of” montage put together by host Andrea Chalupa, that explain how we got into this mess. This transcript page has links to the original episodes for more detail. Up first is Ari Berman, investigative journalist of Mother Jones and author of the book Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It. He was a guest on Gaslit Nation in June 2021 and April 2024 Berman starts with the compromises made when the Constitution was written. The big thing was to get it passed, to have a guiding document for the nation. The first compromise was the makeup of the Senate. James Madison was opposed to two senators from every state because he thought states with a minority of the population to thwart the will of the states with a majority of the population. Which is what has happened. The second was the Electoral College. Many framers wanted direct election of the president. But others thought the people could be duped or weren’t well enough informed for that type of decision (hmm, sounds familiar). Also, small states and slave states (key point there) wanted protection. That reminds me of Elie Mystal’s point that the Constitution was written by slavers. The greater point is there were compromises between democratic and anti-democratic forces (there still are).

What we see over and over again is that the constitution that was created was a product of these compromises, and often what happened is the compromises would favor smaller states or would favor slave states, or it would favor wealthy white property owners. So over and over, these privileged minorities were getting preferential treatment in ways that would hurt this much larger and more diverse majority. And I think that's what sparked and laid the groundwork for minority rule to become a reality across the US society and across the US history.

Jump to 2010 and the Republican reaction to the election of Barack Obama. Wisconsin, a great example of the progressive movement, was converted to minority rule through gerrymandering and voting restrictions. Republicans went after labor unions, the primary support of the Democratic Party. Wisconsin became a national model of how to convert a progressive stronghold into minority rule and autocracy. I wrote about Elie Mystal’s book Allow Me to Retort just a few days ago. He is the Justice Correspondent for The Nation and he has another book out, this one Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. He was on Gaslit Nation in February this year. Mystal said that Biden gets credit for good policies and programs. But Biden failed at the most important thing he needed to do. Alas, part of that was he didn’t recognize that thing. That thing was to roll back the voting rights restrictions implemented by John Roberts and the Supreme Court in 2013. The Court had implemented those rules because Republicans recognized the election of Obama as the first black president meant the black people had enough power to elect one of their own. The restrictions were to make voting harder so that could never happen again. That voter suppression was what made the nasty guy’s first term possible. So Biden missed job one listed above. He also missed job two: making sure the nasty guy couldn’t run again. Democrats had a chance to secure the guardrails – and didn’t. We’re paying for that now and will be for a very long time. Mystal does a great job of summarizing my view of Biden. Great policies, but not doing the two most important things he needed to do. Back to Berman. Voter suppression had been going on long before the nasty guy’s big lie weaponized it in 2021. But since then the effort has gotten more intense. Republicans are still working to pass voter suppression laws. Now there is a related effort to overturn election results. That was tried after the 2020 election. Republicans are now working to make that succeed in the future by trying to control how elections are run and managed. In Georgia the state election board can now take over local election boards. Where there are Republicans willing to stand up to the nasty guy they are getting primaried, so the party is in lockstep with the nasty guy. This is what happens in authoritarian countries. Stephen Ujlaki created the film Bad Faith about Christian Nationalism. He was on Gaslit Nation in April 2024. Ujlaki talked about Colin Weyrich who had worked for Goldwater in 1964 and co-founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973. He was the one who decided the Republicans should cultivate the Evangelicals, who had stayed away from politics since the Scopes trial of the late 1920s humiliated them. Evangelical leaders were told they would get wealth and political influence if they told their followers that Republicans were the party of God and Democrats were the party of the devil. Many of those followers still believe that. One thing the leaders wanted was protection for their segregated Christian academies. But the rallying cry wasn’t racism, but rights of the unborn. Being against abortion was long a Catholic position, but not Evangelical. But after that deal with Republicans abortion was the reason why the followers were told they needed to vote. Said Ujlaki:

It's a scam on a massive level that was incredibly successful, both the rallying cry and the divisiveness in the country that it caused.

Nancy MacLean is the author of Democracy in Chains, about how powerful plutocrats developed anti-democracy networks to hold the US hostage. She was on Gaslit Nation in June of 2022. The dumbing down of the American public, the huge number of people who believe things easily disproven, began with the ending the Fairness Doctrine of broadcasting in 1986. That doctrine required accuracy and balance on the public airwaves. Its end opened the way for conservative talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News. The industry of disinformation became very profitable. Jesse Eisinger is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist at ProPublica. He wrote the book, The Chicken S--- Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives (the real title doesn’t have dashes). He was on Gaslit Nation in December 2023. In the early 1970s conservatives noticed liberals controlled the institutions of the economy, government, and culture. Pretty much the power in the country. Louis Powell wrote his famous Memorandum, which earned him a seat on the Supreme Court. That Memo was a conservative call to arms. Wealthy people built the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, and a few more while the Koch Brothers built their vast network. The right still claims the left controls the culture when they are actually the ones in control. The left needs to emphasize anti-trust efforts (there is a conservative anti-trust faction). But their efforts are blocked by judges. First, conservative judges did the blocking, but now Obama and Biden judges are also blocking anti-trust efforts. We need a decades long revision in legal thinking. There is the American Constitution Society, the liberal counterpart to the Federalist Society (I didn’t know they existed!). Caroline Frederickson, head of the ACS, admitted (back in 2023) they had made a big mistake – they had vetted judges on social issues like abortion, not economic ones. They hadn’t thought to ask about anti-trust, labor reforms, and regulation attitudes. MacLean talked about the Koch brothers. David ran as a candidate of the Libertarian Party in 1980. The platform was no public schools, no national parks, no postal service. It did include providing for national defense, ensuring the rule of law, and guaranteeing social order and very little else. The overwhelming majority of people rejected that platform. So David and Charles created their network to use disinformation to make their ideas more acceptable. Koch money and influence helped the Federalist Society capture our courts, especially the Supreme Court. On January 6th, 2021 the 147 members of the House and seven of eight members of the Senate who refused to certify that Biden won were all funded by Koch money. Efforts to gerrymander, suppress votes, and change how elections are run are also funded by Koch money. It’s a stealth strategy to rewrite rules of governance, even the Constitution, to return our government to what it was about 1900. At that time workers had no rights and no voice. There was no Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Only a tiny minority want this vision, which is why disinformation is so central and systematic. Social Security is so widely popular the disinformation on it included the stability of it and dividing current recipients from tax payers by saying it won’t be there when the youngsters need it. Koch money was also behind the Tea Party that appeared in 2009 in response to Obama’s election. They worked to control state legislatures in 2010 and succeeded in 28 states. Those legislatures attacked liberal laws, lying about why that was necessary. They also highly gerrymandered their states and pushed voter suppression masked as preventing voter fraud. Eisinger said that in the 1980s Democrats were crushed by Reagan and became afraid of economic reform. That was their start of no longer being the party of the working class. MacLean said Reagan was good at communicating: “Government is the problem,” and “Welfare Queen.” Though he made a lot of radical changes he did nothing close to what the Koch network wanted. When Reagan understood the cuts he asked for would cut Social Security and benefits for veterans and farmers, his base, he backed off. He didn’t cut spending, but still cut taxes. Between Reagan and Bush II the Koch brothers realized they can’t depend on elected officials. To remain popular enough to get elected again candidates couldn’t be as extreme as the Koch people wanted. That’s why the Kochs turned to disinformation. Anne Nelson is a journalist who has covered a few countries. She also wrote the book Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right. She was on Gaslit Nation in May 2024 to discuss Project 2025. She said:

Institution Project 2025 is a document that was released under the auspices of the Heritage Foundation a few months ago in late 2023. And it is a blueprint for the way that the radical right wing of the Republican Party plans to transform American flawed but functional democracy into a complete dictatorship. That's the short answer, but it goes into 900 pages of detailed information about exactly how they're going to do that throughout virtually every possible branch of the government.

One example from Project 2025 is about climate. The point, as Nelson describes it, is to “burn as many fossil fuels as quickly as possible because the priority is the profit for the profit stream for the fossil fuels industry.” To do that the document says to pull out of climate accords, remove energy ratings from appliances, even remove the Migratory Bird Act. Other parts of it talk about lowering all taxes on the wealthy. Allow fundamentalists to turn the country into a theocracy. Reverse marriage equality. Remove all rights from trans people (and the rest of the LGBTQ community). Challenge the right to birth control. And, the big one, concentrate government power in the White House, including control of the Department of Justice and turning the FBI into secret police. Take over the State Department so cronies become ambassadors able to cut deals at will. Replace all federal workers with loyalists without checking for education or competence. Nelson’s appearance in Gaslit Nation was before the election. I note that because of this comment from her:

Well, I don't think that Trump can win without the support of a hundred plus organizations who signed on to Project 2025.

These are the groups that met with the nasty guy in June 2016 offering money and campaign support. In return they wanted him to stack the federal judiciary, from the Supreme Court on down. Of these hundred groups, about half got funding from the Koch network. That and other funding sources has billions of dollars behind it.

No use for robust public corruption investigations

I finished the book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. I’m contrasting it with the book The Cross-Time Engineer, by Leo Frankowski and the rest of the eight books in his Conrad Stargard series. Twain’s book, published in 1889, is about Hank from that time who gets a blow to the head and wakes up 528. A couple days later he uses a solar eclipse to save his life and establish himself as a magician to rival Merlin. Not many people in the 19th century know the dates of eclipses thirteen centuries before. Hank becomes The Boss, top aide to King Arthur. Frankowski’s book was published almost 100 years later in 1986. It is essentially a remake of Twain’s story. Conrad, a young engineer in Poland, is transported back to 1231. Once he realizes what has happened to him he sees he has a huge task – Mongols will destroy Poland in ten years. In time travel stories the question is whether or not to change history and in what way. There is a subgenre featuring time police. If the goal is to change history, does the change take hold by the end of the tale and we understand it will persist, firmly altering the history we know? In Twain’s tale, the basics of Arthur’s legend are there – Guenevere, Launcelot, Morgan le Fey, Mordred have their usual roles. The Round Table and its knights are there but Twain says nothing about what made the table special. Instead, Hank declares his disgust with kings – nobility in general – and church officials who fill the heads of commoners with superstitions to keep the nobility in power. Hank tries to work the system to bring about a republic, a society of equals. Since he is second only to Arthur he tries to sell that idea. Over four years he develops schools and the basics of 19th century industry, which soon includes the telephone and guns. But when Hank goes out in public he is still expected to wear armor, which gives Twain a chance to rant about how uncomfortable it was. I was disappointed that Twain didn’t show how Hank caused that industry to come into being. But Twain wasn’t an engineer and went with his strengths, portraying the injustices humans perpetrate on each other. But he recognizes the superstitions the people grew up with will not be overcome. That’s one reason for the schools. Causing that industry to come into being is exactly what the Frankowski books are all about, which is why I was disappointed it wasn’t in Twain’s book. Conrad builds one concept onto another, first the basics of industry and schooling, then modernizing Polish society, especially the military so it can repel the Mongols. Every so often I fantasize about how I would go about things (minus the military part) if I was in Conrad’s position. I enjoyed Twain’s book and appreciate his defense of democracy and the equality of humans. The first five of of Frankowski’s stories were printed from 1986 to 1990. I enjoyed them very much when they came out. The sixth book came out in 1998. I was annoyed enough with the ending that I was done with Frankowski’s stories. So I didn’t read the prequel (that explains the time machine) that came out in 2002 or the final book that appeared in 2005. From online reviews I didn’t miss much. I might have a different opinion of the whole series if I read them today because Conrad’s dealings with women isn’t the best. Fandango at Home lists three Connecticut Yankee movies. One featuring Will Rogers came out in 1931. Another stars Bing Crosby in a musical version released in 1949. The third was released in 1989 and it is a black woman who goes back in time. Alas, none appear to be highly rated. Wikipedia has a long list of adaptations as movies (the first in 1921), TV movies and series, cartoons, stage shows, and other books. Frankowski’s books aren’t in the list. Long ago I saw a scene from the Bing Crosby version and today I watched the trailer. I don’t think I want to see this story as a musical. Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported on a surprising ruling from the Supreme Court. The case is out of Oklahoma and is about whether the Catholic Church can run a public charter school and have it teach Catholicism. Yes, that’s a violation of the separation of Church and State. So the decision should be simple. But we’re talking about a very conservative Supreme Court. The first surprise is that Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case. This is a Court becoming known for justices not recusing themselves even when the outside world can see a clear conflict of interest. Justices don’t have to give a reason for a recusal, but Barrett likely did it because she taught at Notre Dame University and their religious liberty clinic represented the case before the court. The second surprise was that the decision was deadlocked at 4-4, not the expected 5-3. When deadlocked the Court doesn’t need to give its reasoning and doesn’t have to tell how justices voted. Even so, oral arguments suggest Chief Justice Roberts voted with the liberals. So the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling stands, which said the Catholic Church cannot run a public school. Don’t consider the issue dead. The Catholic Church will try again, perhaps through another state. This next time they won’t ask Notre Dame to represent them. Or... Needham reported that Republicans are proposing a federal voucher system. It would allow federal money to be spent on religious schools (see Church and State above) which would pull money from public schools. These schools discriminate against LGBTQ student and don’t have services for learning challenged or disabled students. For conservatives, all that is a big win. The proposed system would demand participation from states that have laws or constitutions that prohibit funding church related schools. Also, the funding proposed, $5 billion a year for four years, won’t be nearly enough for the expected demand. Voucher money is mostly claimed by parents who have already been sending students to private schools (showing they can afford them) or homeschooling them. Which means the money not going to public schools affects poorer students. Conservatives like to proclaim vouchers give parents a choice, meaning the parents would choose the better schools. But these schools are shown to mostly be a lot worse than public schools. Kos of Kos reported Senate Republicans voted to strip California’s right to set its own vehicle emission standards. That’s bad because it is hostile to the climate and defiant of states’ rights. If it gets any further than the Senate it will be tied up in courts for years. Kos found good news in the move – for Republicans to get their way they gutted the filibuster. The filibuster, requiring a supermajority of 60 vote, is anti-democracy. And it has a long history of being used in racist ways. Also, even though at the moment Democrats could use the filibuster to stop some things Republicans want to do, most of the time the filibuster hurts Democrats. That’s because the Senate gives more power to smaller states, which lately are strongly Republican. Also, Republicans have carved out filibuster exceptions whenever it suited their agenda. So why were Democrats clinging to it (see Joe Manchin)? As for the current situation:

Yes, it means Republicans can pass bad laws when they’re in charge, but that’s democracy. Let the public see what happens when they put the GOP in power. Let Democrats offer a clear alternative. No more hiding behind obscure rules, no more excuses.

Several Democrats warned that when they’re in power again they have a lot of bills they want to pass and will be glad Republicans can’t stop them. Needham does a weekly column on how the nasty guy is trying to weaponize the justice system and the people fighting back. In her column from a week ago this is her last bit:

Can’t get in trouble for corruption if you stop investigating corruption. The FBI is shuttering its public corruption squad. You’d think an administration so committed to pretending to be rooting out fraud and firing traitorous deep state federal employees would want to keep the team that was responsible for those things. But the public corruption squad, working with special counsel Jack Smith, is the unit that investigated Trump’s many crimes. In this instance, the squad wasn’t likely shut down simply because it hurt Trump’s feelings. An administration that is 100% committed to its own graft and enabling the graft of others has no use for robust public corruption investigations. After all, that would greatly interfere with Trump’s effort to turn the government into his own personal corruption machine.

In a separate post from this past Tuesday Needham discussed the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell that was filed in response to DOGE forcibly dismantling the United States Institute of Peace. The USIP isn’t a government agency, but a nonprofit corporation. Yet, DOGE showed up with with the DC Metro Police and the FBI to break in. Howell’s ruling listed a lot of reasons why this DOGE action was unlawful. But it didn’t put a stop to the destruction. The administration obeying this order is doubtful. From their point of view the longer they drag this out (with appeals to Circuit Courts and Supremes) the more likely the USIP can’t be put back together. It has already been damaged. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Billy Binion reacting to the nasty guy’s announcement of a 25% tariff on Apple iPhones not manufactured in America:

You will not be able to afford an iPhone. You will own 2 dolls. You will work in a factory. And you will be happy about it. That is actually the MAGA platform right now. What a wild time to be alive.

Down in the comments Carol *Resister Sister* posted a cartoon by Clay Bennett. It shows a car with several bumper stickers saying “Equality” with a rainbow background, “Climate Change,” “Gun Control Now,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Abortion Rights,” “Harris 2024.” The car has been stopped by the Department of Justice. The caption says, “Driving while Democrat.” The Naked Pastor posted a cartoon showing Jesus visiting the nasty guy. Jesus says, “Hey, I have an idea! Why not use your power for the good of all?” The nasty guy says, “Get behind me, Satan!” The caption says, “The problem is, unwise people often think the evil they are doing is actually good.” Bill in Portland, Maine, in yesterday’s Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary.

"Another wildly destructive day in Washington D.C. They pulled another all-nighter in the House, where they passed Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' And, man oh man, if this is the beautiful bill, I'd hate to see the ugly one. I'm not sure which part of the bill is the most beautiful: the part where we take food from hungry kids, or the devastating effect it'll have on college education, or the trillions of dollars it'll add to our national debt, or the almost 700-billion dollars in cuts to Medicaid. Either way, say goodbye to Grandma." —Jimmy Kimmel "If something is beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight." —Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who voted against the bill "How weird is it that the ‘news’ is selling you a book about news they should have told you was news a year ago for free? It's just fun to watch them continue to push the book in light of this difficult news [of Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis], but to actually frame this difficult news as even more of a reason to buy this book. ... Some observers might think, do these CNN people work on commission? Like, why are they hawking this f---ing thing? Is this a Girl Scout cookie situation? Whoever sells the most Tapper books gets a Schwinn?" —Jon Stewart, on CNN's disgusting 24/7 infomercial'ing of Jake Tapper's Biden hit job

How will I know I’m special if I don’t have all this?

I had written about the meeting between the nasty guy and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The nasty guy kept pushing the racist lie of white genocide in South Africa and Ramaphosa tried to refute it. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos wrote that the video and paper images the nasty guy used as evidence were not at all what he claimed they were. A field of white crosses was a protest, not a burial ground. Another image was from Congo, not South Africa. And so forth. No, I’m not surprised. Lisa Needham of Kos wrote that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy was getting mighty annoyed with Department of Justice lawyers. The reason was that the lawyers didn’t give deportees enough time to challenge their deportation. Then the lawyers refused to say which country the were sent to. South Sudan? Djibouti? Or maybe it was Narnia or Atlantis. Sending people to South Sudan is quite bad because the State Department says to avoid it because of armed conflict. DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin said the crimes of these deportees are so uniquely dangerous that no other country would accept them. To that Needham wrote:

Show your work, Tricia. If these are the worst criminals in the world, surely you can easily prove that.

Emily Singer of Kos discussed a new poll by Civiqs for Kos. It shows that 46% of voters say that “bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. is more important than keeping prices low.” But 66% don’t want to be those factory workers. Only 5% said they already work in a factory. That poll was done because Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been saying when manufacturing returns to the US workers would be glad to do the jobs. So what happens if manufacturing is brought onshore but nobody (or not enough people) want the jobs? Are Republicans trying to make life for the poor so difficult they’d be glad to take these jobs? Speaking of which, Singer reported that the One Big Beautiful Bill (I’ve replaced the third word with “ugly” and Singer used “cruel” though I think the best substitute is “brutal”) passed the House by one vote. It now goes to the Senate, where there is Republican opposition. But don’t be surprised if fealty to the nasty guy gets it passed anyway. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Michael Podhorzer of Weekend Reading:

The current backlash against Trump is exactly the outcome we’d expect to see if my long-standing argument is true: that America has an anti-MAGA majority, but not necessarily a pro-Democratic one. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the reality of American politics today is not a “realignment,” wherein the views and values of most ordinary Americans have become fundamentally more aligned with the views of MAGA Republicans. Rather it’s been a “dealignment” from both parties. Voters, increasingly distrustful of institutions and clamoring for substantial change that neither party is delivering, have punished incumbent parties in nine of the past ten elections—a D-R-D-R presidential alternation pattern unseen in over a century.

From Monica Hesse of the Washington Post discussing the nasty guy’s claim of white genocide in South Africa:

“Dead White farmers” was a bizarre fixation in what should have been a serious meeting. In three words, he invented a genocide. And then he spent the rest of the hour creating a different problem. Because every time he insisted that the mainstream media refused to cover the genocide of dead White farmers, he sowed more distrust in journalism. To the point that now, every time an article on the topic doesn’t appear, that in itself will become evidence for this genocide that is not actually happening. So if you came to this column because you Googled “dead White farmers,” here is your mainstream media coverage of the issue. I’m so sorry.

Harry Enten tweeted in response to Musk’s announcement that he will no longer donate to politics:

Why's Musk edging out of politics? Because he's political kryptonite. His net favorable plummeted: +24 pts to -19 pts. (It fell by 126 pts with Dems!) Musk crushed Tesla's popularity (-20 pt net favorable). Trump was done with him (100% drop in Truth Social posts about Musk).

I’m not sure how favorability can fall 126 points. I thought the scale maxed out at 100. In the comments is a cartoon by Dennis Goris. It shows the Capitol dome surrounded by the words:

We remember the poor and sick. As it is written. In the bill. Let us prey.

The caption: “From the book of big and beautiful” Nick Anderson posted a cartoon showing a pregnant woman with “Waste” on her forehead, a child with “Fraud” and an old woman with “Abuse.” The nasty guy, holding a sharpie, says “I told you we could make big spending cuts!” Thom Hartmann of the Kos community and an independent pundit started a discussion with a quote Neil deGrasse Tyson made this week.

If a foreign adversary snuck into our Federal budget and cut science research and education the way we’re cutting it ourselves — strategically undermining America’s long-term health, wealth, and security — we would likely consider it an act of war.

Almost two-thirds of Americans can’t afford life necessities. Income for the bottom 60% of Americans declined from 2001 to 2023. Before the pandemic a family earning $75,000 could afford half the homes on the market, now they can afford only 20% of homes. Hartmann talked about the Santa scam. Republicans claimed they were better than the Democratic social safety net by bestowing tax breaks. That was followed by declaring the national debt was a big problem, forcing Democrats to end social programs. The same scam is now being used to hollow out the American government. From the start of the nation until Reagan the federal government was consistent at paying off the national debt, which had only grown through war. The Revolutionary War was paid off in the 1830s. The Civil War was paid off by the end of the 19th century. Paying down WWI was interrupted by the Great Depression, but there was only $17 billion remaining. The debt from WWII was 106% of GDP, but was steadily paid down until Reagan took office. The national debt under Reagan rose by $2.4 trillion. That boosted the economy, masking Reagan’s faults and this plan’s faults. Hartmann said that Jude Wanniski came up with a “Two Santas” plan. As Hartmann described it, quoting Wanniski:

Force the Democrats to “shoot their Santa [of programs like Social Security and Medicaid] in the face.” Whenever a Republican is in the White House, Wanniski argued, Republicans should run up the debt as hard and fast as possible, so when a Democrat is in the White House they can squeal about “the debt our children will inherit! Oh, the humanity!”

Republicans have followed that plan for 44 years. Hartmann included a chart showing the national debt falling after WWII until 1981. It rose under Reagan/Bush I, fell a bit under Clinton, rose again under Bush II, then slowed under Obama, before rising quickly under the nasty guy. Biden’s efforts aren’t shown. By the chart, if Reagan hasn’t slashed taxes and balanced the budget we would have paid off WWII about year 2000. So the entire national debt since then is because of Reagan and Bush tax cuts (and now nasty guy cuts) and the illegal wars of Bush II. This tactic transferred about $50 trillion from the poor to the rich. In 1980 the middle class was about two-thirds of the population and did it on one paycheck. Now about 47% of Americans are middle class and require two paychecks to stay there. So that Big Brutal Bill is damaging education, changed the promotion of democracy to the embrace of dictators, and gutted the social safety net. I had written that the national debt is unsustainable. The reason is the national debt has passed the GDP, the total value of the American economy. I did an online search and found the GDP of America is just under $28 trillion and the national debt is above $36 trillion and the Brutal Bill could push it up to $40 trillion. Then Hartmann gets to his question. Why are Republicans doing this? Did Putin or Xi tell the nasty guy to do it? (Quite possibly.) Greed? Because democracy is outdated? And why is the media saying so little about this? I was a bit surprised that Hartmann keeps saying nobody knows. Commenters to the article give a good try at answering the question: Greed. Power. Commenter mozartsister explained what I had also developed on my own.

I’ve said this before, but my ultimate light bulb moment was when my rich friend took me to lunch in the mahogany-clad dining room at his country club, where the waitress greeting him by name. He said, sweeping his arm around the room, “How will I know I’m special if I don’t have all this?” It was power, it was stuff, but above all it was the deepest need imaginable to prove yourself superior to and more deserving than others. To me, those are the two fundamental belief systems: his, which I think of as authoritarianism, which categorizes people into groups, hierarchies, of more or less worth. And mine, which I think of as humanism, in which all people (and all living beings, actually) fundamentally have innate dignity and worth, i.e. all humans are equal on an existential level. Looking at things this way has been very useful for me in explaining a lot of what’s going on, from white supremacy to dismantling democracy to the Silicon Valley tech bros. Capitalism is based on the “deserving” worldview; democracy is based in the “equality” worldview. They could be more compatible than they are, but I’m not holding out a lot of hope lately.

Fear and chaos v. indecision and inaction

My big handbell event last Friday and Saturday went very well. The great music was a welcome balm. My Sunday movie was Bringing Up Baby from 1938. I found this one on a list of the best 100 movies of all time. It is a comedy and is on a few lists of best comedies. The title suggests something about the comedic hazards of raising a child. But Baby isn’t human. And is presumed dangerous. Cary Grant plays the befuddled and staid David, a professor who is missing just one bone from a huge dinosaur skeleton he is assembling for a museum. He is to marry Alice, his assistant, the next day but she wants the ceremony, then wants to get right back to work, no honeymoon or other entanglements allowed. David is off to see Mr. Peabody who represents a rich client ready to donate a million dollars to the museum. He encounters Susan, played by Katherine Hepburn, who bulldozes her way into the situation and his life. Her manner easily flusters him. Many times she seems to intentionally misunderstand him, but doesn’t give him a moment to correct what she’s saying. Once she gets to know him a bit she wants him to help her with Baby. A ways into the story she admits she is going to marry him, though he doesn’t know that yet. The story is about keeping track of Baby, making sure that big donation will still happen through all the complications, plus all the ways she connives to get him to help her so she has time to convince him he loves her. I got tired of her bulldozing ways, though still enjoyed the movie. Mark Sumner, staff emeritus of Daily Kos, discussed the low approval rating of the nasty guy and Republicans, prompting Democrats to gleefully anticipate the 2026 midterm elections and the chance to take back the House and perhaps even the Senate. Republicans should be scared. Sumner says there is currently one problem with that scenario. There is a group with a lower approval rating than the nasty guy and that is ... Democrats. Voters hate what the nasty guy is doing and the support given to him by Congressional Republicans. But they’re not looking for Democrats for help.

Trump is causing fear and chaos. People don’t like that. But you know what the public really hates? Indecision and inaction. That's what they see right now from the Democratic Party. ... Democratic leadership needs to be out there, not just marching with the protestors but leading the protests. They need to be pushing their way into social media and traditional media, shouting down Trump's actions and the support of Congressional Republicans in the strongest possible terms. They need to be angry. They need to be aggressive. They need to be, what's that term? Fired up and ready to go. ... Trump is historically unpopular. He's going to get more unpopular as prices rise, jobs decline, and people realize they've all been taken for a ride. We're even seeing something this cycle that we didn't see in 2018: A large number of Trump voters waking up to their mistake and looking for an alternative. Democrats better give them that alternative soon. Or someone will.

The news out of Canada is that the liberal party won more seats than any other party in their Parliamentary election, just three seats short of a majority. Just three months ago the conservative party had a big lead. Then the nasty guy started threatening them and imposed tariffs on them. The conservative leader Pierre Poliviere was being compared to the nasty guy and he didn’t even win his own seat. Anonymous tweeted, “Trump is the first US president to lose a Canadian election.” That brought a lot of comments in reply. Such as one from CK14. It includes a cartoon of the nasty guy firing a slingshot at China’s Xi, which bounces off his head. Behind Xi is a catapult with a hefty boulder in it. The caption says:

Xi to Trump: America will be a great Chinese province. We can hammer out the deal soon. I can assure you that your new title ‘Governor Trump’ will be well received by the world community. Your neighbor Canada is already on board w/this proposal. See you soon Gov Trump. Yes, we can work w/a peasant.

Last Friday Emily Singer of Kos reported that Judge Hannah Dugan of Milwaukee was arrested by the FBI and charged with obstructing the nasty guy’s efforts to deport Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant. The charging document says she had been advised of the warrant for the arrest of Flores Ruiz. But when government agents came to her courtroom she had already escorted Flores Ruiz out the jury door, which allowed him to leave the building safely. As with any warrant issued by this Department of Justice one has good reason to be very skeptical about its truthfulness. Wrote Singer:

The arrest of Dugan is a terrifying escalation of President Donald Trump's war on immigrants and his abuse of executive power to punish political enemies and go after the judicial branch. ... “This administration’s willingness to weaponize federal law enforcement is shocking and this arrest has all the hallmarks of overreach. Federal law enforcement coming into a community and arresting a judge is a serious matter and would require a high legal bar,” Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin said in a statement.

RETIII of the Kos community discussed on Monday that the Supreme Court said people being deported needed to have due process, a chance for their side of the story to be heard. This decision was in response to deportations to El Salvador, where deportees were not allowed to plead their case. So a deportation case was brought before federal judge David Briones in Texas. His decision was an elaboration on “This Court takes clear offense to [the Government] wasting judicial resources to admit to the Court that it has no evidence.” An excerpt:

Respondents and the Government based the entirety of their case on multiple levels of hearsay, hidden within declarations of declarants who have no personal knowledge about the facts they are attesting to.

The respondents were not the ones who interviewed the petitioner, not the ones who captured her “confession,” not the ones who collected the highly classified “intelligence” they refused to share with the court, and not the ones who interviewed law enforcement who had identified the petitioner. They couldn’t even identify the people who had done those steps. All that comes down to: There is no evidence. Wrote RETIII:

So, that is what you get from the Trump Administration when due process is enforced, and it is why the Trump Administration has fought so hard to avoid its obligations under the Constitution.

On Monday News Corpse of the Kos community reported that after the nasty guy and his administration have wrongfully deported legal residents to El Salvador’s gulag and arrested a judge, press secretary Karoline Leavitt took all this another step in an exchange with Peter Doocy of Fox News.

DOOCY: Would you ever arrest a federal judge or even a Supreme Court justice? LEAVITT: I'd refer you to the DOJ for individuals they are looking at ... anyone who is breaking the law or obstructing federal law enforcement officials is putting themselves at risk of being prosecuted, absolutely

Yeah, she is saying the FBI or the US Marshals or somebody might possibly arrest a Supreme Court Justice. First, justices aren’t prosecuted, they’re impeached and tried by the Senate. I have a bizarre image of a judge tasked with conducting a trial of a justice. Especially on charges brought by the nasty guy’s DOJ. Second, I would study very carefully whose definition of obstructing or breaking the law is being used. News Corpse takes my second point one more step:

By the logic that Leavitt is employing, a Democratic Justice Department could arrest Clarence Thomas for taking millions of dollars in gifts (bribes?) from wealthy defendants who have cases before the Court. They could arrest Samuel Alito for ruling that Trump has "immunity" from the crimes he commits, because that ruling would facilitate obstruction of justice. In both of those examples there is far more justification for taking legal action against the Justices than anything that Trump or Leavitt have alleged. These remarks by Leavitt are among the steps being taken by the Trump regime to turn America into a full fledged dictatorship.

Oliver Willis of Kos discussed why conservatives blame the “deep state” for everything.

In reality, it is a catchall phrase for failure. ... Republicans bring up the “deep state” when they can’t get the job done. To them, when they lose elections, it isn’t because voters rejected them—no, it’s because the “deep state” manipulated voting machines and stuffed ballot boxes. To them, when Trump mishandles the response to a pandemic, it isn’t his fault for underestimating the virus or attacking safety procedures—no, it’s because of the “deep state.” And to them, when the defense secretary blabs about military maneuvers on an unsecured app, the fact that the public knows about it is the dastardly work of the “deep state.” Conservatives refuse to take responsibility for their failures. It’s easier for them to blame the “deep state” and rile up the most diehard followers to fight an invisible force supposedly making everything so terrible. Then the right can coast along without needing to change their behavior. After all, “the deep state” did it.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Thomas Edsall of the New York Times:

Public opinion has turned against him, the economy is faltering, the Supreme Court has ordered him to stand down, his tariffs have backfired and such conservative mainstays as National Review and The Wall Street Journal are questioning his judgment. How does a stymied autocrat deal with defeat? As the opposition gains strength, frustrating the nation’s commander in chief, how will Trump respond? It is unthinkable to imagine him graciously acknowledging defeat, changing direction and moving on. [...] As Trump’s armor begins to crack, you have to wonder: Who is more dangerous — a triumphant Trump or a wounded Trump?

To which I add: This is not a reason to let the nasty guy be triumphant or to stop trying to wound him. Instead, it is a call to be ready for whatever nastiness he pulls. In another pundit roundup Greg Dworkin quoted the Nevada Independent that reported in the first three months of 2025 visitors to Law Vegas fell by 7% compared to 2024. February showed a 12% drop, but that was because Las Vegas hosted the Super Bowl in 2024. Much of the 8% drop in March is attributed to declines in international travel. Dworkin included a tweet by Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people:

Autocorrect has become our worst enema.

Down in the comments exlrrp posted a few memes: First:

Bezos killed the Post’s Kamala endorsement and caved on tariffs as soon a Trump commented. Imagine being that rich and still being such a sniveling coward.

Second, also about Bezos: “Trump bullied me. Now I’m afraid to show what you will pay for tariffs.” Third:

The nasty guy on the phone: My tariffs aren’t working. Tech support guy: Have you tried turning them on and off again?

Much further down exlrrp posted a meme with a quote from RFK Jr.: “There was no autism diagnosed before 1930.” A reply: “Pluto wasn’t discovered until 1930, but I’m pretty sure it was there the whole time.” Mike Luckovich posted a cartoon on Kos:

Left side: We need assault weapons to protect against a tyrannical government! Right side: We need assault weapons to protect a tyrannical government!

In the comments of a third pundit roundup exlrrp posted more memes. First, with images of ICE agents:

If what you’re doing requires hiding your identity, breaking laws, ignoring court orders, and defying the Constitution then you’re the bad guys. This isn’t “law enforcement.” It’s state sponsored kidnapping.

Second: a meme created from a couple tweets:

EssenViews: ICE can now enter your home without a warrant to look for migrants, DOJ memo says. SetPixels: 2nd Amendment ppl are being real quite right now. This is the tyranny you were always talking about.

Third:

Headline: NRA accidentally forgets to rise up against tyrannical government. Subhead: An Embarrassed National Rival Association says it totally forgot to do the one thing it has been saying for years it is solely there to do.

I wondered if this was actual or fake news. So I did a search. Some of the hits are recent and some are from 2020. And from the descriptions I think this is snark, though accurate. I watched another video by the band OK GO. It was posted to YouTube 3 months ago, so it seems to be in the same time period of the Love video (the one with the mirrors) I wrote about last week. This one is called A Stone Only Rolls Downhill. As with their other videos I don’t care much for the music, but the videos are amazing. This one features rows of cell phones. The images on the phones are synchronized so that a person (or just an arm) smoothly moves from one phone to the next. There are images of phones inside images of phones, all marvelously mind-bending. Of course, there is also a video explaining how they made the final product. They mention the more than a thousand individual video bits they put together for the final video.