Tried to balance gun deaths and gun rights, died by gunshot

If you pay any attention to the news you’ve already heard. An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reported that conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a Utah college event. He was 31. This article goes into more detail than I would prefer. It does say that before the shot rang out Kirk, taking questions from the audience, was talking about mass shootings. He said that there had been “too many” mass shooters that had been transgender. Kirk was a darling of the conservative movement. At age 18 he founded Turning Point USA to better talk to college kids about conservative principles. One thing he did was challenge students to debate him – which I thought was a bit unfair because he was a decade older and had used that time to hone his conservative arguments. Few of the youth could keep up with that and the conservative debate style of conflating ideas. I feel for the students at this event, I hear there were about 3,000 of them, who watched Kirk be assassinated. Definitely traumatizing. Walter Einenkel of Kos gathered together many of the reactions to Kirk’s killing. It seems liberals condemned gun violence and conservatives blamed liberals. Alix Breeden of Kos reported that Speaker Mike Johnson asked the House for a moment of silence for Kirk and his family. Right after that Republicans started shouting at Democrats. Michel Martin and Steve Inskeep of NPR discussed why Kirk was so loved by conservatives. They included some of Kirk’s statements over the years. He had millions of followers on his social media platforms. He was praised for drawing young people to conservatism. Some young people liked that he said what they thought they couldn’t. Others saw his views offensive and hateful. Some of his views: He didn’t like that London has and New York likely will have Muslim mayors. He said transgender people are not real. He claimed Kamala Harris was vice president because she was the DEI candidate. And Kirk’s big quote that is getting a lot of repetition, considering how he died:

I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.

I wonder what he thought his God-given rights are and why a gun is needed to protect them. NPR reporter Stephen Fowler said:

It is impossible to overstate the importance of Kirk to an entire generation of young conservatives, and to Republican politicians that benefited from those young conservatives showing up to vote. You could call him many things, an influencer, grassroots organizer, business executive, author, radio show host, an all-around avatar for politically active online and offline Gen Z Americans. When he was 18, just months before President Obama was reelected, he cofounded the group Turning Point USA as this sort of college campus free speech nonprofit.

Fowler added Kirk created Turning Point to “try and save Western civilization.” (From what, I ask.) Those debate he held, not just with students, became content for his media. I’m sure the purpose was see how I destroyed their flimsy arguments! Martin also spoke to Kyle Spencer, a journalist and author of the book, Raising Them Right: The Untold Story About America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement And Its Plot For Power. I’ll let you read it. Kos of Kos discussed the killing and the reaction to it.

If it were up to [progressives], gun violence wouldn’t only matter when conservative royalty is killed. It would also matter when Democratic legislators are murdered, and especially when schoolchildren are slaughtered. But it’s not just the guns. It’s the climate that President Donald Trump and his allies have built. Scholars call it “eliminationist rhetoric”: the idea that political opponents aren’t simply wrong, but evil, dangerous, and must be eradicated. It’s language that leaves no room for disagreement or coexistence, only destruction.

He then had an example of the recent eliminationist rhetoric, what conservatives have been saying since the shooting. Democracy has always been about disagreement. It’s messy and loud. But when one side decides disagreement is intolerable, bloodshed happens. See: Civil War.

Kirk’s family and his children didn’t deserve this. No child who loses a parent to gun violence deserves it. No parent who loses a child to it deserves it. And that is why liberal policies—like universal background checks and bans on weapons of war—would save lives. Maybe they even would have saved Kirk’s. But instead, the right is already escalating... So stop blaming liberals. We hate this shooting as much as conservatives do. The difference is we hate all the other shootings, too.

After Kirk’s death Gaslit Nation posted about it. I haven’t listened to the 20 minutes of audio, so don’t know the details of the argument. However, the printed introduction suggests that Kirk had called for the release of the Epstein files and his assassination was a way to shut him up. Since this was posted the killer has been caught (or turned himself in?), as was reported in the news. The killer is still alive (so many end up dead by police) so maybe he will say why he did it. In Thursday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Mike Cerulli that includes a joint statement by the Young Democrats of Connecticut and the Connecticut Young Republicans both condemning Kirk’s killing. I’m pleased to see this show of unity. Dworkin also quoted Steven Beschloss of America, America. I’m not quoting all that Dworkin did so I can leave out a description of the shooting.

But I’m also thinking about all the people in attendance for this public event and all those who watched the video: Political violence has many victims, including those who have the misfortune to witness it. This latest act of violence adds to the terrible trauma that pervades our society. I dread the ripple effects, even while we should all urge restraint rather than fanning the flames.

ABC News reported that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer forced a vote on the release of the Epstein files. It was as an amendment to a defense spending bill. The purpose was to get Republicans on record as for the release or as being part of the coverup. The amendment failed 51-49, which I believe is along party lines, with Republicans rejecting it. In the comments Jesse Duquette listed some of Kirk’s awful comments. I won’t list all of them. This is just a taste of how bad he was.

Black women do not have the processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot. I can’t stand the word “empathy.” I think empathy is a made-up new age term, and it does a lot of damage. LGBTQ is a social contagion. We need armed militias to prevent the diminishing and decreasing of white demographics.

Mark Sumner tweeted:

Everything about Charlie Kirk’s death deserves condemnation. Nothing about Charlie Kirk’s life deserves praise. Even the most egregious death does not elevate his insidious philosophy or hateful actions. That shouldn’t be difficult.

That sums it up for me quite well. In today’s roundup Dworkin quoted Cliff Schecter of BlueAmp

In the end, the way to stop this disease—that by numbers as high as 90% Americans support passing measures to end— is actually pretty easy. Because the two political parties have made it simple for us to do the math. One party post-Newtown, the Democratic Party, voted 97% in favor of key measures to stop this sick blight on our society. While the other, Republicans, voted 97% against these common sense reforms (yes, it really is this symmetrical). So to summarize: Vote every single f---ing cowardly, cruel, corrupt Republican out of office. And we’ll put a stop to this child-killing virus.

In the comments a meme posted by exlrrp shows Kirk and the words, “If guns make us so safe, why am I dead?” There are also a lot of cartoons and memes about Kirk’s comment that a few deaths are a rational trade to keep the Second Amendment. Another meme posted by exlrrp shows the introduction of an article (where it was published was not included):

Donald Trump hints at assassination of Hillary Clinton by gun rights supporters. Republican presidential nominee says ‘second amendment people’ could stop Democrat choosing undesirable supreme court justices if she is elected. David Smith, Wed 10 Aug 2016.

The meme continues:

By the way I can pinpoint the exact moment political violence began to be normalized again in the United States.

Now for something different, though this isn’t great. Lisa Needham of Kos reported that the nasty guy’s Food and Drug Administration sent letters to 100 pharmaceutical companies. The letters accuse them of misleading advertising to consumers and demanding compliance. These appear to be form letters and don’t say which ads and how they are misleading, which drugs are involved, and which regulations are being violated. Wrote Needham:

Trump’s attack has nothing to do with actual, genuine concerns about deceptive advertising. Rather, this is about forcing pharmaceutical companies to treat Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s conspiracy theories as if they were science. ... What these fact-free letters are really about is signaling to pharmaceutical companies that they are in for the same treatment as universities and media companies: vague, unsupported assertions of wrongdoing that can only be resolved by giving the administration millions of dollars. And that sure doesn’t look like science.

Needham also wrote about the state of the Internal Revenue service. The nasty guy’s team has made sure it works for only rich people. The Treasury Department is rolling back Biden era rules about prosecuting people and companies for using shady tax shelters. Also, the agency no longer has enough people to delve into the complex audits that rich people file. They can expect smooth sailing. For those who aren’t rich, taxpayer assistance has gotten much harder due to cuts in agents. Also, remaining employees are illegally sharing tax data with the Department of Homeland Security. Alix Breeden of Kos reported that a US District judge gave and order saying Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook can keep her job while the court case plays out. The case is the nasty guy is trying to fire her “for cause,” that she did something illegal on the job. The judge said the nasty guy offered no proof that she was “executing her duties unfaithfully or ineffectively.” What this is really about is the nasty guy wanting to break the independence of the Fed, to get rid of members who refuse to do his bidding.

No recordings, no paperwork, no oversight

Eli Hager, in an article for ProPublica posted on Daily Kos, reported the full story of what happened when the Department of Government Efficiency (remember DOGE?) came to the Social Security Administration. Much of that story comes from Leland Dudek, who was the SSA administrator for about four months last winter and spring. The story opens with Dudek posting a scroll 4 feet by 20 feet on the wall. In tiny print and diagrams it describes what SSA does. But that’s not yet entirely reflected in the agency’s computer systems. The SSA is 90 years old. It’s software dates back to the 1980s and has more than 60 million lines of code. Many things are still done on paper. It has been talking of upgrades for two decades without it happening. So when DOGE called for efficiency and the elimination of waste and promised IT whiz kids to make it happen Dudek thought great, bring it on. Except the other part DOGE called for was the elimination of fraud. And that was much louder than all other goals. Every little discrepancy these green kids found was taken as fraud and blown into a scandal – see the stories of 120 year old people turned into dead people still collecting SS.

They could have worked to modernize Social Security’s legacy software, the current and former staffers say. They could have tried to streamline the stupefying volume of documentation that many Social Security beneficiaries have to provide. They could have built search tools to help staff navigate the agency’s 60,000 pages of policies. (New hires often need at least three years to master the nuances of even one type of case.) They could have done something about wait times for disability claims and appeals, which often take over a year. They did none of these things.

Every time Dudek tried to work around his bosses, which were people at the White House, he would get a call reminding him what he was really supposed to be doing, which was not to make the SSA better. He realized the problem wasn’t the DOGE kids, it was the senior leaders. One example was the SSA Office of Transformation, which had been starting the work of modernizing the SSA systems. He was told the office was wasteful and to cut it. So he started acting the part that the White House wanted, while trying to push what would actually help the SSA. About all that did was make him unemployable after he was forced out. And the turmoil frightened many of the people who depend on their SS checks. It also made their experience working SSA agents on the phone and in person worse. The only good thing is that SS benefits are still being paid. So far. Maria Godoy of NPR discussed the release of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy. It has 100 recommendations for improving children’s health. Some of the points are good, things like promoting exercise and fitness and teaching good nutrition. But there are also not good things, such as studying the root causes of autism (which aren’t the things he wants to prove) and producing a new vaccine framework (when there is nothing wrong with the old one). There are also loopholes, such as calling on the reduction of unsafe food additives while letting food companies determine the safety and while specifying no penalties for using additives known to be harmful. And there are contradictions, such as calling for fresh local produce in schools after the administration canceled the program that did just that. Leila Fadel of NPR continued the conversation with Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. Popkin said yes, children’s health is bad. An example is the type of diabetes usually only seen in older adults is now seen in children and teens. But this list does nothing to fix that bad health. “It’s all promises but no teeth.” It’s all about “research, exploration, consideration, but nothing about any regulation or law to mandate change.” Nothing will happen, or at least nothing after Kennedy leaves office.

And you can see that, really, that the food and agriculture sectors that really profit highly from the ultra-processed food they're selling to our children and killing them at the same time, really have gotten to the government so that they had nothing in this document that will lead to any meaningful regulation, law or guideline that will improve America's health.

One thing that would help the health of children is money ffor school food programs that pay for eliminating ultra-processed foods and regulation to require it. But that won’t happen. Alix Breeden of Kos adds a bit more:

According to Marion Nestle, New York University professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health, the report doesn’t have much substance. “The report seems to twist itself into knots to make it clear that it will not be infringing upon food companies,” Nestle said in an email to NBC News. “MAHA has so much bipartisan support. This was the time to regulate food marketing to kids — not ‘explore.’” She went on to say that the report is “short of specifics and weak on regulatory actions,” echoing a similar sentiment from professionals when the preliminary report leaked.

At the bottom of the article is a quote from Kennedy:

We had lots of guns when we were kids. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so. And nobody was walking into schools and shooting people. There are many things that could explain this. One is the dependence on psychiatric drugs.

I’m pretty sure my student handbook for high school said that a student caught with a gun at school would be expelled. I never saw a gun at school (or anywhere else, though I didn’t go into the town gun shop because my family didn’t hunt). I never heard of a bring your gun to school day. So I rate his first two sentences as false. That bit about nobody shooting people in schools is true. We didn’t practice lockdowns and didn’t need to. But at the time the rate of gun ownership was quite low. At the ending of this quote is Kennedy trying to link psychiatric drugs given to students with school gun deaths? The kids aren’t doing the killing. Fadel spoke to reporter Adrian Florido about the recent Supreme Court order that lifted the temporary order that banned ICE from doing aggressive immigration sweeps in Los Angeles. The order was brief, unsigned, and included no reasoning, meaning it was from the shadow docket. The order means ICE can resume targeting people based solely on skin color, accent, and occupation; what the ACLU called blatant racial profiling. Florido said:

In a concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh cited an estimate that 10% of LA's population is undocumented and said race can be relevant when agents are determining whether they suspect someone is in the country illegally. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent. And she wrote, quote, “we should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish and appears to work a low-wage job.”

A reminder that Sotomayor is Latina. There is an underlying court case. The lower court said these sweeps cannot happen while the case proceeds. The Supremes said the sweeps can. And the order will probably affect what ICE does in Chicago and other cities. Fadel and Steve Inskeep then spoke to Sarah Isgur, editor of SCOTUSblog, who recently interviewed Justice Amy Coney Barrett about the shadow docket. A Supreme Court case takes time to read through the briefings, hold oral arguments, and write the opinions. That takes several months to a year or two. The purpose of the emergency (shadow) docket is what should the law be between now and when the case is officially decided. Even so this can have permanent effects that can not reversed even if the eventual decision goes the other way. An example is a person deported now. Other examples are everything the nasty guy does through executive order, such as whether he can fire the head of the Federal Trade Commission. A problem is the orders are not explained and they usually (almost always?) favor the nasty guy. These orders leave lower courts caught between previous Supreme precedents and what these order say. This post includes a bit of that Barrett interview. She admits the emergency docket does not allow the justices to think about the issue, there is less information, and no time for reasoned opinions. Isgur says these nine people don’t really know how to handle the emergency docket and with the start of their term next month they’re going to be hit with a lot of cases coming from all those executive orders, cases like can the president invoke tariffs or fire a Federal Reserve governor. Another issue is what should be the status quo. The emergency docket is supposed to protect the status quo while the case is being decided. Is the status quo what was in effect before the president took office? Or, as the nasty guy’s team claims (and has Biden’s team claimed before them), since he is voted in by the people and is there only four years should his orders be status quo? Lisa Needham of Kos added her take on the Supreme Court orders.

The now familiar 6-3 lineup at the United States Supreme Court just threw out decades of settled law so that President Donald Trump’s roving bands of masked federal agents in Los Angeles can engage in a little light racial profiling, as a treat, and can continue scooping up people based on nothing more than looking Latino, speaking Spanish, and working at a low-wage job like a car wash. You know the drill. A lower-court judge wrote a detailed, thoughtful, lengthy opinion about how this practice was 100% racial profiling and ordered the government to stop doing it. The Trump administration ran to the Supreme Court to say that the world would crumble if they couldn’t racially profile brown people in Los Angeles right away, and the Supreme Court obliged by staying the lower court’s order. That stay prevents the lower court’s order from going into effect, so federal agents can continue this straight-up racist, unconstitutional behavior. ... Does arresting or detaining people for no reason at all violate the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that probable cause is required to search or seize someone? It sure does! If a police officer wants to stop someone on the street and search them, they have to have a level of reasonable suspicion about that particular person, such as believing they are armed and about to commit a crime. Law enforcement officers have to be able to justify stopping specific people based on specific concerns rather than being able to stop whole groups of people based on shared characteristics. ... Justice Sonia Sotomayor pulled no punches, even refusing to engage in the faux-civility of the tradition of saying “I respectfully dissent.” Nope, here it is just “I dissent.” While that may seem like a nerdy, legalistic, tiny thing to focus on, in the context of how the justices communicate with one another through their opinions, it’s Sotomayor saying the actions and reasoning—or lack thereof—of her colleagues are not worthy of respect.

Needham also reported some of the ICE ways of doing business have changed for the worse. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says ICE agents are facing assaults (what the rest of us would consider freedom of speech). Filming of ICE agents isn’t allowed. No Supreme Court ruling has said one way or the other, though numerous state courts have rules that is a protected right. ICE agents used to be required to document the specific person they want to arrest, giving lots of details, and getting supervisor approval. Now they just arrest who they please. DHS is blocking members of Congress from doing their ICE facility oversight duties without prior approval, while the law says approval can’t be required. And DHS has shut down the oversight office, freezing 500 civil rights cases.

No recordings, no paperwork, no oversight. DHS is systematically eliminating every way we have to keep tabs on law enforcement to ensure that Trump’s immigration crackdown, no matter how illegal or violent, can’t be stopped.

In Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Politico:

The justices, who apparently divided 6-3 along ideological lines, put on hold a federal district judge’s order that reined in what critics called “roving” raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That judge had found the tactics were likely unconstitutional because agents were detaining people without probable cause at car washes, bus stops and Home Depot parking lots based on stereotypes. The high court’s majority offered no explanation for its decision to grant the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to block the district judge’s order. However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately in support of the decision, saying it was reasonable to briefly question people who meet multiple “common sense” criteria for possible illegal presence — including employment in day labor or construction, and limited English proficiency.

That little bit about “common sense” is partly why Sotomayor lost respect for the decision. In the comments Matt Davies posted a cartoon titled “Supreme Court guide to use of race in admission:” Over the entrance to a university is “Not OK.” Over the doors of an ICE detention van is “OK.” David Wolfe tweeted, “Children are born perfect without the need for toxic injections. Once vaccinated, the brain and body are harmed forever.” Dr. Neil Stone, infectious diseases doctor, responded, “Before vaccines, 1 in 5 kids never made it to their first birthday.” I add: What’s the evidence that the brain and body of an infant are harmed? Every vaccine must document they aren’t harmful to the vast number of people who take them. Acyn tweeted a quote from the vice nasty, “The bad news is...one of the pollsters once told me, anger usually wins midterm elections and because we done so much of what we said we are going to do, people are angry.” Gavin Newsom responded: “JD Vance admits he policies are wildly unpopular on national television.” In the comments of Wednesday’s roundup is a meme by Dan Pfeiffer,

There are only two possibilities – John Roberts is so afraid of a constitutional crisis that he will give Trump everything he wants, or Roberts is 100% in on the MAGA project to destroy our democracy.

Or both? Way down in the comments is a cartoon by the Naked Pastor. Under a banner saying these are the “Lost sayings of Jesus” Jesus is talking to a group of women. “Beware when men write something and claim it is inspired by God, for then you can’t dispute it.”

Another novel about correcting the past

My Sunday movie was Strictly Ballroom. This was Baz Luhrmann’s first firm, released in 1992. This movie was recommended several years ago by a pioneering handbell person – pioneering in that she and her handbell team played in a jazz style at a time when handbells were almost entirely in churches, schools, and community groups that put on concerts of the traditional handbell repertoire. Yes, that story is important. The movie is fiction and centers on Scott Hastings. He’s the son of Shirley and Doug who run a dance studio in Australia. Scott is considered the likely winner of the next ballroom dance competition. Ballroom dance competitions have prescribed dances done in specified ways. The score (as implied by the movie) is based on how well the couple does the designated steps and what individual flair they bring. Scott is getting bored with it, so adds his own steps, confusing his partner and losing a preliminary contest. His mother is furious. Fran, a beginner, volunteers to be Scott’s new partner. She wants to dance his way. She catches on quite quickly. Of course, the new pairing faces a great deal of pressure from Mom and the leadership in the ballroom dance community who are very much in support of tradition. Though we know where this is going getting there is quite delightful, with a lot of beautiful dancing. I enjoyed this one. The handbell pioneer was right – the ways handbells had been done was restrictive, though few recognized there were alternatives. Now in my handbell performance group we have a much broader style of repertoire to choose from. We’ve even done jazz style pieces, though fully written out, not improvised. I finished the book To Turn the Tide by S. M. Stirling. It’s a time travel novel, similar to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain and the series of Conrad Stargard novels by Leo Frankowski I wrote about in May, in which the protagonist is thrust back in time and makes changes in the technology and society. There are, of course, many other examples of this type of story. In this story college professor and retired military Arthur and grad students Mark (neurodivergent), Filipa (Korean lesbian), Paula (Black), and Jeremy are sent back to Vindobona of 165 CE. This is the height of the Roman Empire and the town is where Vienna would eventually be built. They are sent back just as the nukes start flying at the start of WWIII. They know the world of their originating time and the machine that sent them back are gone. Ancient Rome is the research specialty of all of them, so they aren’t completely clueless of the society they’re dumped into (though their Latin sounds way to scholarly). They are also sent back with a ton of equipment (yep, a literal metric ton), including books about modern technology, a pile of coins appropriate to the time (so they’re comparatively rich) but looking way too new, medication, and their cell phones with solar chargers. They can’t call, but pocket computers are mighty helpful. My first beef is there is a guy who saw the war coming and prepared for the jump back in time, both assembling the ton of equipment and leading the development of the time machine. But the team sent back seemed tricked into the trip rather than being trained into the venture. In an afterward the author confirms they were tricked. But I’m puzzled about why. They didn’t want to leave families? They didn’t believe that war was coming? Once in 165 CE their riches and knowledge quickly get them a sponsor and a work space. They introduce what they call Type A inventions – things the locals had the technology to build but never had the idea. That included the wheelbarrow, spinning wheel, threshing machine, stirrups (not being a horse person I had no idea how important stirrups are), and paper. And gunpowder. That last one is important because the barbarians on the other side of the Danube River will attack in a year or so (according to our history) and the war will go on for 14 years. That’s quite similar to Conrad of the Frankowski books needing to get Poland ready for the Mongol hordes. Arthur quickly adopts the name Artorius. His battle skills and the innovations of the team quickly draw the attention of Emperor Marcus Arelius, who in this portrayal is quite smart and astute. My second beef with the story is the author portrays the many battle scenes in much more detail than I liked. The damage a projectile propelled by gunpowder can do to a human body doesn’t need to be repeated so much. I mostly enjoyed the tale and its telling. I got into it enough that I found a map of the Roman world. But… The rest of this section contains spoilers. Here is the big beef with the story. The implication (perhaps explicitly stated) is the purpose of going back to the height of the Roman Empire is so those from the 21st century can change the course of history so that WWIII and its nuclear devastation doesn’t happen. In my opinion this goal isn’t achieved. Or the author thinks what his characters do will achieve it and I strongly disagree with him. What I expected – why I bought the book – was the Artorius and his colleagues would start spreading the ideas of equality, democracy, and other ideas about building up inclusion and peace, even if they had to fight a few battles before the ideas took hold. I expected they would boost the wealth of the “barbarians” beyond their borders so there would be less desire to invade and more desire to keep valuable trade flowing – which is what the European Union has accomplished since WWII. The answer the author provides is the opposite: conquest. He seems to think extending the Empire will also extend Pax Romana. But we in the 21st century, if we pay any attention to history, know well the costs of conquest and colonialism. Rome might fare well and protect itself. But the peoples who were pushed aside (and killed) to allow Rome’s peace would not agree. Just ask the indigenous peoples across the world. Putting all this into terms I’ve been using a lot lately... That WWIII happened because one or more countries said I’m better than you, so I will retaliate to your insults. Each country is scrambling to establish themselves in the social hierarchy. And it escalates from there. I believe that all evil is because of trying to enforce the hierarchy. In the same way Rome is declaring itself to be better, higher in position, than the peoples around it. Rome may have legitimate reasons for its claim (though that might be because we have a history of Rome, and not nearly so much history of the Germanic tribes). But enforcing the hierarchy in the 2nd century will do nothing to reduce the hierarchy of the 21st. The author, of course, recommends the sequels. So far, only one sequel is in print. And to me its plot comes across as silly. At the same time the team was sent from Vienna to Vindabona a Chinese team was also sent back to 165 CE. And they fight with the implication that civilization is in peril. So, no, I’m not going to read the second or third books in the series to see if the author eventually comes around to what I think needs to happen in the 2nd century to make for a peaceful 21st. Last week I wrote about the International Association of Genocide Scholars declaring that what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide. My friend and debate partner, after praising recent posts, responded:

Wikipedia says the International Association of Genocide Scholars has "over 500 members", but let's work with your figure of 500. Then about 120 of its members showed their inability to differentiate between genocide and warfare against militarized facilities, about 20 correctly disagreed with the mistaken 120 – and the other roughly 360 members (the vast majority) had something better to do with their time.

Demolition at the White House with no oversight

Kos of Daily Kos wrote about the scam PACs of the 2024 election cycle. These are groups that sent emails and texts that screamed, “Donate! Help us defeat...” They raked in $678 million and less than $11 million went to Democratic candidates or the party. “This is theft—pure and simple—bleeding the progressive movement dry while the right builds real power.” These PACs did spend some money on campaigns – on political ads. Kos calls them “grossly inefficient.” Better to spend the money on voter registration and door-knocking. The main point is Democrats will have a hard time winning while these organizations still exist. Better that we citizens donate directly to candidates. That got me wondering. Did the Democratic Party know about these groups? Did they let them stay in operation? Think they were doing good work? Try to shut them down? Or were they really Republican organizations pretending to be progressive to suck money out of the progressive cause? Yeah, that last bit sounds all “deep state” and conspiracy minded, but since this is about Republicans who have proved how willing they are to ruthlessly cheat I wouldn’t be surprised if is was true. Kos also wrote about the latest from Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican. In response to Zohran Mamdani doing quite well running for New York mayor as a Democratic Socialist, Scott introduced a resolution in the Senate declaring socialism to be the greatest threat to the nation. He claims “it is a proven path to tyranny, starvation, and death.” Scandinavia would disagree. Their socialist democracies are doing quite well, thank you. It seems the nasty guy would also disagree. Maybe not in words, but in actions. He has been doing quite a lot to interfere with capitalism. He’s demanded the purge of DEI programs, bullied executives, and demanded an ownership stake in Intel. Maybe Scott should have a chat with the nasty guy? Emily Singer of Kos wrote that about the jobs numbers released on Friday. The June numbers were revised downward to a loss of 13,000 jobs. July numbers were revised up a bit (I had heard early reports elsewhere that the July revision was also down). And in August a measly 22,000 jobs were added. A month ago the jobs numbers were bad enough the nasty guy fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This month he posted about – Jeffrey Epstein. Lisa Needham of Kos reported that the nasty guy is ready to start work on his ballroom. The first part is demolition of some parts of the East and West Wings. The nasty guy named Will Scharf to be the head of the National Capital Planning Commission, the organization that oversees and approves changes to the White House. And Scharf says the NCPC has no jurisdiction over the demolition process. Mighty convenient. I previously wrote the nasty guy said it would be paid for through donations – as in another way to bribe him. Needham concluded:

So, let’s recap. We don’t get to know anything about the demolition of the White House, because there is no oversight and no approval process. And we don’t know anything about what the ballroom will actually look like, because there are no building plans yet. Then we don’t get to know anything about the contractor [who is named] because they didn’t have to go through an approval process. And we don’t know how it is being paid for. All we really do know is that, because Trump is involved, it is going to be tacky as hell.

Singer reported that recent comments from Robert Kennedy Jr. imply he is laying the groundwork so he can limit the access to mifepristone, one of the two medical abortion drugs. Sister sent me a link to an article in Smithsonian Magazine, written by Brandon Tensley. It is a short article about Frank Kameny. He was an astronomer with the Army Map Service, but fired because he was gay. This was a part of the Lavender Scare of the 1950s when being gay was considered a governmental security risk because gay men could be blackmailed. He appealed his firing all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear his case. A year before Stonewall he coined the slogan “Gay Is Good.” He was an early activist in the LGBTQ struggle for equality. He played a big role in getting the American Psychiatric Association to say homosexuality was not a mental illness. I had heard much of that before. There is a bit I didn’t know. Kameny kept notebooks. Two of them are now in the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History. Included in the notebooks is information about what bars and restaurants he had been to were gay-friendly. What Kameny intended to do with those recommendations is not known. Since he didn’t publish them perhaps they were only for the use of himself and friends. However, this article speculates if he had published them they would have been the first LGBTQ equivalent of the Green Book which black travelers used to avoid discriminatory businesses during Jim Crow.

Drowning out their voices with an Air Force flyover

Kos of Daily Kos reported that the MAGA faithful do have limits. When the nasty guy posts to his Truth Social account there are a lot of responses that praise him for whatever he said. But this time not. The nasty guy posted that prices are way down. The faithful, who can see that prices at the grocery store, gas pump, rent bill, and insurance bill are still quite high, actually disagreed with him. That means Democrats have an opening in proclaiming the nasty guy lied and his policies are doing the opposite of what he said. But Democrats actually have to walk through that opening – and then actually have to enact policies to lower prices (or boost pay). So far they haven’t been good at either. Oliver Willis of Kos reported that survivors of Epstein’s sexual abuse are speaking out, demanding the nasty guy end the coverup. They appeared on NBC’s Today show and ABC’s Good Morning America. They called on Congress to release the files. Democrats are on their side, Republicans say a release isn’t necessary. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos added that the survivors also held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol, calling for the release of the files. The nasty guy ordered an Air Force flyover to drown out their voices. Alix Breeden of Kos reported more than a thousand current and former Health and Human Services employees signed a letter demanding Robert F Kennedy Jr. resign as secretary. The letter says his actions compromise the health of the nation. The public version of the letter (and I imagine the copy given to RFK) did not list the names. The copies given to Congress did. RFK went before a senate committee yesterday. The reports I’ve read and heard have only given snippets of the three hour grilling. One such report is by Walter Einenkel of Kos. Congressional Republicans did not give Kennedy an easy time, though I heard that Republicans refused the Democratic demand that Kennedy give an oath that he’s telling the truth, and subject to perjury if he doesn’t. Breeden reported that about the only people still on his side are the two that count – the nasty guy and vice nasty. Yes, impeachment of cabinet secretaries is a thing, but not likely in this Congress. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin has a lot of quotes about Kennedy’s grilling, including this tweet from Larry Sabato:

I’ve watched 100s of congressional hearings over 55 years. Rarely if ever have I seen a witness so thoroughly destroyed as RFK Jr has been today.

There’s also an example that Kennedy lied, showing why Republicans didn’t want him under oath. In the comments are a few good memes and cartoons. One posted by paulpro, author unknown, shows three soldiers picking up litter in DC. One says, “Who would have guessed that some much of the trash we picked up in D.C. would be shredded paper with the name Epstein on them.” A tweet by Mickey Lenin commented on the jobs report released today: “Job growth missed expectations with only 22K created and nearly every sector losing jobs except healthcare. As an added bonus, June and July job numbers were revised lower yet again. Ketchup Alert Level 3.” A tweet by Tim Stevens discussed news I heard on NPR, though Stevens linked to one on BBC:

American Government to global automakers: We’ll make your cars impossibly expensive with tariffs unless you build them in the U.S. Also the American Government: Build a factory here and we’ll arrest the workers you bring in to get it operational.

From a tweet by Will Sommer: “Interesting: James O’Keefe put out a video today showing a DOJ official saying any Republicans would be edited out of the Epstein files.” The Naked Pastor posted a cartoon of Jesus holding a sign that says, “Free watermelon,” as he thinks, “I can’t believe I have to speak in code about an active genocide just so I don’t offend the very people who claim to follow me!”

Republicans need to watch more Sesame Street to learn to share

In today’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos Chitown Kev quoted Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley of the New York Times discussing a response to the nasty guy’s demands that the Smithsonian museums remove displays he doesn’t like:

The Smithsonian offered the first indication on Wednesday afternoon when Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian’s secretary, sent a letter to the staff indicating that the institution had agreed to set up a team to review turning over materials to the White House, as requested, but to do so as an autonomous institution. “I take my responsibility to steward the institution on behalf of the American people very seriously,” the letter to staff said, adding, “Our independence is paramount.” [...] While complimenting Mr. Trump’s “admiration and regard for the Smithsonian,” Mr. Bunch told the staff that his response to the White House, sent in a letter on Tuesday, had reiterated the institution’s intention to rigorously review its content for inappropriate partisanship. But he said it would be the Smithsonian, not the executive branch, that would direct the effort. “Our own review of content to ensure our programming is nonpartisan and factual is ongoing, and it is consistent with our authority over our programming and content,” Mr. Bunch wrote in his letter to the staff.

Those bits about “inappropriate partisanship” and “nonpartisan and factual” along with “not the executive branch” mean to me that the Smithsonian will not bend the knee to the nasty guy. Paul Krugman wrote:

Donald Trump loves emergencies. He has been in office less than 8 months, but has already formally declared 9 national emergencies, as well as a “crime emergency” in Washington DC. He’s probably about to use similar claims about an urban crime emergency to send the National Guard into Chicago — which, as Jeff Asher notes, “has likely had fewer shootings this year than any year since 1965 or 1966.” As far as I can tell, so far all of Trump’s claims about emergency have been false excuses for power grabs. There is no national crime wave demanding military action — America’s big cities are, on average, safer than they’ve been since the 1960s. There is no economic emergency to justify the highest tariffs in 90 years — Trump himself keeps insisting that the U.S. economy is doing great. Given this pattern, the scariest words in the English language right now may be “Trump officials declare that we are facing a national emergency.” So I got a sinking feeling when I saw Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, saying that the administration may soon declare a national housing emergency.

What does one do to relieve a “housing emergency”? With the nasty guy supplying the solution I don’t want to find out. I can imagine it being (and would be horrified if it was) making more housing available by throwing immigrants out of their homes so white people could move in. The only (humane) relief I can see is building more housing. From the federal government side that means proving ways to encourage builders to build (I’ll leave the details to those who know). But that’s not what the nasty guy and Congressional Republicans are promoting. Also, there is that bit about the nasty guy saying the economy is doing great while also justifying tariffs because there is an economic emergency. The left side of his mouth doesn’t know what the right side is saying. In the comments a meme posted by exlrrp plays into the speculation that the nasty guy isn’t well:

Trump goes 2 full days without an impeachable offense, and we all just assume he’s dead.

Another meme posted by exlrrp, original author not given.

“Why should coal miners pay for PBS”? This was an actual question asked by the Trump administration yesterday. Obviously a blatantly stupid question. We have questions too. Why should a poor black family in Detroit pay for the president to go golfing? Why should a single mother of 3 who’s working two jobs in Louisianan be denied health-care so that the CEO Aetna can get a tax-break? Why is the guy washing dishes in Baton Rouge paying for the President’s wife’s secret service protection so she can live comfortably in NYC? We could do this all day. But here’s the real question in the Trump administration and the Republicans who empower him need to answer: Do you have a heart? Did no one teach you to care about your neighbors? Do you know what “empathy” means? Did no one ever teach you to “share” when you were in kindergarten? Have you never heard the phrase “do unto others”? I can’t think of a group of people who need to watch Sesame Street MORE than the Republican Party. Perhaps they would learn some common decency.

A third meme posted by exlrrp, this one from Allenanalysis:

The Trump White House is threatening Republican lawmakers – saying if they sign Congressman Thomas Massie’s petition to release the Epstein files, it’ll be treated as a “hostile act.” That’s not how innocent people act. That’s how coverups get enforced.

Chitown Kev quoted the first tweet in a thread by Michael Harriot, black historian. I found the whole thread on Treadreader. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson mentioned land built by slaves. Sen. Ted Cruz asked “Which slaves built Chicago?” Which is enough to get Harriot started. Slavery was first brought to Illinois to work the salt mines (yeah, I didn’t know Illinois had salt mines, though I’ve visited the salt mines below Detroit). When Illinois became a state, it was declared free – with the exception of the salt mines. Blacks quickly learned to avoid being enslaved and forced into the mines they needed to move to Chicago. A third of the state’s revenue came from the salt mines. That money was channeled into building the biggest railroad, the Illinois Central. George Pullman got the idea of a hotel on wheels, the Pullman train cars. That prompted the developing the Chicago neighborhood of Pullman. Many leaders of the civil rights movement, such as Thurgood Marshall, were Pullman Porters. So, yeah, the money to build Chicago and turn it into a railroad hub came from slave labor. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported on what Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, said on the House floor. He refers to CRAs, Congressional Review Acts, a tool to overturn agency rules, such as California’s Clean Air Act waivers.

It's unclear to me when Republicans are going to stop complaining and actually do something to address the challenges that face our country. They spend more time talking about Joe Biden than they do about reducing costs. Every sentence from that side of the aisle: Biden, a verb, an adjective, and more coal—that's essentially the sum total of every sentence. I know that more of my colleagues are going to come to the floor here to engage in debate on, I don't know—how many CRAs are they putting on the floor today? Three. Four. Five? All we do around here is CRAs. So I encourage them, as they're watching, to please when you come to the floor, maybe spend some time talking about your affirmative vision for the country, and not so much time talking about the prior president

.

The Constitution was written to frustrate ambition

Jasciu of the Daily Kos community started a post with:

For nearly two and a half centuries, the American experiment has endured by virtue of its capacity to restrain power. The Constitution was less a blueprint for efficiency than for frustration: ambition checking ambition, institutions restraining one another, power fractured and parceled out to preserve liberty. Yet over the last century, one of the most profound threats to this equilibrium has crept in largely unchallenged. Two entities—the political party and the modern corporation—have come to wield a quiet dominance over the electoral system, the judiciary, and the regulatory state, placing organized selfish power at the very heart of our republic.

They propose an amendment to the US Constitution to remedy the problem. I won’t quote the whole text, but here are the main points. No political party shall administer elections. Elections shall be conducted by nonpartisan bodies. No political party shall control or influence the nomination of judges. [Michigan Supreme Court justices are nominated by the parties, then run as “nonpartisan.”] Corporations are not persons with political rights. They shall not finance elections. Corporations shall not have control over regulatory agencies. The author does recognize the difficulty, close to impossibility, of getting this amendment approved in the current political climate. Commenters added other needed amendments or sections of broader amendments. From iyouwemeus: A corporation shall not be equated with a natural person or citizen. Money shall not be considered speech. Money to influence any part of government shall be transparent and controlled by law. A corporation owning more than one type of media outlet shall provide balanced and truthful news and free political advertising. Bots generated by AI shall not be equated to a natural person and shall be identified. From btfjd: Abolish the filibuster. Increase the size of the Supreme Court. From dfhamel: The filibuster must be active – a senator actually talking on the Senate floor. Rules for the House that don’t change when the party in power changes. Supreme Court Justices, Department of Justice leadership, and FBI leadership must be independent from the president. Instead of appointed by the president they should voted on by the people after a vigorous vetting system. I would add more: Congressional and state legislature districts shall be drawn by citizen redistricting commissions representing the political parties and citizen diversity. The right to vote shall not be denied. Ryan Krugman, in an article for Inside Climate News posted on Kos, wrote that there is a Make Billionaires Pay march planned for September 20 in New York City, which is during the United Nations General Assembly when many world leaders will be in town. They will be protesting more than inequality; they also have demands for climate and social justice. Billionaires are targeted because they are pushing and profiting off the climate crisis. They even profit off the people displaced by the climate crisis by those people being caught in low-wage work. They also profit by being in the detention business. The climate movement is getting good at building solidarity with other social movements. That includes being involved in the Black Lives Matter protests. In Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Mike Lofgren of Salon. Here’s a bit of the quote:

If you pay attention to the details, America is rapidly transforming from a service state — one that provides education, health care, infrastructure and parks to its citizens — into a carceral state that punishes and imprisons them.

Kev added:

I’ll say it again: Trump imagined designing a wall to keep people output wall can function to keep people in as well. It’s the reason why the metaphor always seemed ominous to me.

Here’s also a portion of the quote by Lorenzo Tondo of The Guardian:

Out of the International Association of Genocide Scholars’s (IAGS) 500 members, 28% took part in the vote. Of those who voted, 86% supported the resolution. The resolution states that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in article II of the United Nations convention for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (1948).” ... The resolution said the IAGS recognised that “since the horrific Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which itself constitutes international crimes”, the government of Israel had engaged in systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, homes and commercial buildings, of Gaza.

From Paul Sonne of the New York Times:

Now, Mr. Putin’s fortunes have changed — and so has the world. Nowhere was that more apparent in recent days than in Tianjin, China, where leaders from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian security grouping, met on Monday alongside heads of state from other countries. Mr. Putin used his stage to publicly blame the West for the war in Ukraine. He gleefully held hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and erupted in laughs as the pair joined in a huddle with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Leaders from Iran, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkey and Vietnam glad-handed Mr. Putin in private meetings that ran past midnight.[...] The elephant in the room was President Trump, who has helped end Mr. Putin’s isolation, both by welcoming him to U.S. soil for the first time in a decade and by clashing with leaders from Brazil, India and South Africa, pushing them closer to Mr. Putin. Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Modi has unraveled as New Delhi has resisted pressure from Washington to credit the U.S. leader with ending the military conflict between India and Pakistan. Mr. Trump has piled tariffs on India in response, singling out New Delhi for buying Russian oil.

In the comments is a cartoon by Bill Bramhall. It shows RFK Jr. pushing a woman off the roof of a building renamed “Department of Health and Human Sacrifices.” Chacal suggests perhaps that could be shortened to “Department of Health and Harm.” A meme posted by exlrrp and from funny snarky joke shows a perky woman holding a teacup saying in response to the nasty guy’s lack of public appearances and speculation of his health:

I can’t believe it’s already is-he-dead-yet season. I still have my holy-s***-he’s gonna-start-WWIII decorations up.

In today’s roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Jeff Tiedrich’s personal blog.

Let me state right up top that I didn’t believe any of this past weekend’s rumors that Dear Leader had shuffled off this mortal coil. But clearly, something is very wrong with Donny, and it’s being covered up — and because it’s this White House, staffed by the most incompetent clownf***ers ever to have f***ed clowns, it’s being covered up in the most inept manner possible.

On the same topic, in the comments exlrrp posted a meme with the words, “Have we been seeing Trump lately, or is it his doppleganger?” Beside a photo of the nasty guy is a woman with a very similar face and hair style.

Cleaning up DC – with a litter bag

Chloris of the Daily Kos community wrote that the nasty guy hasn’t been seen much in the last few days and there is a lot of speculation about his health. But this isn’t about his health, rather about what may happen if he is no longer able to carry out his duties (or has died). Some thoughts both from the author and from commenters. The powers will prop him up as long as possible. They won’t want to lose their power. If he dies MAGA will demand a state funeral (while the rest of us dance in the streets). What if he’s comatose? Will invoking the 25th Amendment fracture MAGA? What policies would change is speculation. Tax cuts to billionaires would stay. Would the nasty guy’s hatred for windmills remain? What happens to Tariffs? Ukraine? The vice nasty has changed positions so many times there’s no way to guess how he’ll act if he gets into the Oval Office. Will Republicans follow (fear) him as they did the nasty guy? He can still do a lot of damage. Reportedly, Stephen Miller, the author of the current deportation system and a lot of other racist policy, doesn’t get along with the vice nasty. Will he be booted? Most of Mainstream Media is owned by rich guys and that won’t change. But independent media is springing up. MAGA is devoted to the man. If he goes will they stay home in future elections? Will the rest of us stay engaged once he’s gone? Republicans will still be there and in power. If he dies MAGA will claim the “deep state” offed him. And the big question: How can the rest of us plan to take advantage of the situation? Oliver Willis of Kos wrote that the “military invasion is cleaning up DC” – as in collecting litter in the National Mall. But safety vests over camo fatigues kinda defeats the purpose of one or the other. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported California Gov. Gavin Newsom had a response to the nasty guy’s threat of sending troops to Los Angeles and other big cities because crime was so bad. Newsom said:

Mississippi leads the nation as the No. 1 murder state in America. I imagine this, in particular, may resonate with the President of the United States. It's got a murder rate that’s 180%—180%—higher than Los Angeles. It’s interesting, L.A. has more people—these are all per capita numbers. Perhaps the president could deploy the National Guard in every corner of Mississippi. The murder rate is out of control there. Carnage. ... If the president is sincere about the issue of crime and violence, there's no question in my mind that he'll likely be sending the troops into Louisiana, Mississippi, to address the just the unconscionable wave of violence that continues to plague those states.

Hot stuff learns compassion, a Kurosawa film

I saw the second of two Akira Kurosawa movies at the Detroit Film Theater this afternoon. I wrote about the first one yesterday. This one is Red Beard, released in 1965 with a story set in mid 1800s Japan. It again features Toshiro Mifune, though not as the central character. That central character is Dr. Noboru Yasumoto. He’s just finished his medical training and thinks he’s hot stuff. He thought he was going to be the personal physician to the Shogun, but instead he is sent to a clinic that treats poor people and has little money to do it. The doctor who greets him, the guy he will replace, says it is a terrible place to work and the guy in charge, Dr. Niide, otherwise known as Red Beard because of the reddish color of his beard (not that one can tell in a black and white movie), is an inflexible dictator. This is the role Mifune plays. Dr. Yasumoto can’t leave so tries to go on strike – refusing to eat or work and refusing to wear the clinic uniform – but that doesn’t last long. Red Beard explains that the problem is poverty and many of the people who come to the clinic are sick because of their poverty. Dr. Yasumoto begins to hear the patient’s stories and becomes more deeply involved in their care. He sees Red Beard is much more compassionate than he first believed. Yeah, we know where this is going and it earns its conclusion. The guy who played Dr. Yasumoto did a fine job. The pace of the movie (3 hours long) allow his face to show a broad range of emotions. Mifune is quite good too, as are all the other actors, even the young boy. I was also impressed with the cinematography, the way scenes were framed and lit. There are many scenes that include Dr. Yasumoto off to the side, observing the action. I quite enjoyed this one and recommend it. I appreciate how compassionate its story is. This movie is on several streaming services.

Your thoughts and prayers stink with the blood of innocents

I went down to the Detroit Film Theater this afternoon for the first of two movies. They are finishing up an Akira Kurosawa series, showing eight of the director’s 30 feature length films, newly restored. I intend to see another tomorrow. Today’s film was Sanjuro, filmed in 1962 and starring Toshiro Mifune, one of Kurosawa’s favorite actors. Nine young samurai of a clan have gathered in a room because the clan’s superintendent has done something to the chamberlain (I didn’t figure all that out). This is some sort of corruption, which is not good for the samurai image. One of the nine is the chamberlain’s nephew, so there is a family tie involved too. In comes Mifune’s character to join the group. He quickly shows he’s quite a fighter (of opponents, not the group), earning their respect. He then shows he is much better at anticipating the opponents and prevents these young men from doing stupid things. When not actually in battle he has a lazy, carefree way about him, not at all concerned about how a samurai is supposed to act. Of course, there are lots of complications along the way. At one point they rescue a mother and daughter. The mother admonishes Mifune to be less violent, to kill fewer people, preferably none. They also rescue a servant of the opposing side. They stuff him in a closet. Every so often he emerges to say something, then decides he had better get back in the closet. So a bit of humor, some violence, and a lot of intrigue. An enjoyable afternoon. I’m way behind in my reading. On Monday Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy and his Attorney General Pam Bondi have issued an executive order that bans burning the American flag without violating the 1989 Supreme Court decision that said flag burning is protected as free speech. At least that’s what they claim. They say if flag burning discriminates against or violates the rights of a citizen they will be prosecuted. But free speech never violates another’s rights (though slander and libel do). So how this will get around free speech rights is a mystery. Except that none of the Supreme Court members who decided that 1989 case are around anymore. Even if the Supremes strike it down, it does serve as red meat to the base. And accusing immigrants as the ones doing the flag burnings just adds a bit of juice to the meat. A week ago Needham reported that a district judge ordered that Alligator Alcatraz (more accurately called Alligator Auschwitz) must no longer receive new detainees and be closed and dismantled within 60 days. The reason was it was constructed so quickly the required environmental study was not done. We’ll take any reason we can get. Oliver Willis of Kos writes a column titled Explaining the Right. Two weeks ago the topic was Why conservatives think American cities are hellscapes. Quotes from his answer:

The conservative movement loves to connect fear of crime to rhetoric about racial minorities. It preys on deep-seated bigotry and motivates conservative voters to get out and vote, all as a way to stop the “other” from gaining control and allowing the spread of crime. ... By invoking crime, particularly at a moment of political vulnerability, he understands that he is activating long-simmering conservative resentments. By raising the idea of a crime wave occurring in cities with large Black populations, the tensions raised within the MAGA movement about Epstein can be eased, at least temporarily. ... Right-wing lawmakers and media have sold conservative voters on a false narrative for so long that those voters truly believe Trump and his cohorts are fighting crime—even as they continue to cover up for an accused sex trafficker and pedophile.

Alix Breeden of Kos gives and update on the continuing saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He was the guy mistakenly sent to the notorious El Salvador prison and the nasty guy claimed he was unable to undo the deportation. Abrego Garcia is back in America. He was detained (I don’t remember the details), released, had three days with his family before being detained again. The administration is annoyed he won’t plead guilty to their fake charges of human trafficking and is threatening to send him to Uganda (which would send him to El Salvador). Abrego Garcia’s legal team is trying to stop deportation and get his case before a court. I am behind in reading the top level articles on Kos, but I’m up to date in reading the pundit roundups. The roundup for today, assembled by Greg Dworkin, included a couple responses to a tweet by The Bulwark:

Vance on undermining the Federal Reserve: "I don't think we allow  bureaucrats to make decisions about monetary policy and interest rates without any input from the people that were elected to serve the American people...POTUS is much better able to make these determinations."

Justin Wolfers responded:

They're now saying it out loud: The Administration's goal is to undo the political independence that Congress granted the Fed, so that the President can directly set rates.

Jessica Riedl also responded:

Political Economy 101: Putting politicians directly in charge of monetary policy would be a pandering, inflationary disaster - as nearly every developed nation long ago learned, often painfully.

In the comments Jesse Duquette posted a cartoon showing 98% of mass shooters are straight men and MAGA snores. 57% are straight white men and MAGA snores. 0.13% of mass shooters are trans and MAGA screams “They’re evil! Put ‘em in camps!” Muriel Vieux posted a poem she first posted January 22, 2023 and, alas, has plenty of reason to post again. The poem is titled “Thoughts and Prayers.” I’ll repeat just a couple of the six verses.

Keep your thoughts away from us They stink with the blood of innocents Keep your prayers in your coffers No God wants to honor them What thoughts are you sending anyways? The ones twisted by your greed and indecency? Is there a return address attached? So we can send them back to you?

David Roberts tweeted a link to an article in Psypost. The article’s title and part of its description:

Trump supporters report higher levels of psychopathy, manipulativeness, callousness, and narcissism. Support for Donald Trump is linked to darker personality traits, including psychopathy and decreased empathy, new research finds.

A comment by wmpmacm (no source for his statistics are given):

Homeschooling is on the rise precisely because of the fear people have of the gun violence in this country. So if you want to know who is really afraid of being shot, look no further than the Conservative Christian Gun Owners who know very well who gets killed — their kids in school. This is why they hide their kids behind closed doors. Religion has absolutely nothing to do with it!

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos included a video as his sanity break. It is less than three minutes and shows some of the things Darth Vader has to put up with on a daily basis such as: Being asked about his weekend plans. Recognizing that the Force can’t help with a slow elevator. I saw sheet music for a song from the musical Godspell that I didn’t recognize, the song Beautiful City. That prompted me to look it up online and listen. I see it wasn’t in the original stage production, but new for the movie. That prompted me to listen to all of the songs. I chose a recording from the 2000 Off-Broadway revival, which I didn’t know had happened. There are, of course, many differences with the CD I have of the original production and, of course, a different cast. Godspell came out when in was in high school. It was a big deal at the time. I saw a live production when it came to town. It has had a special place in my life.

Prioritize joy. Dictators want you to feel afraid.

Max Burns, a Daily Kos contributor, discussed the huge amount of government (as in our) money the nasty guy is throwing at AI companies. He is also working to ease AI regulation.

There’s just one problem: A new report from MIT found that over 95% of AI companies fail without providing a dime of return to investors or the public. That report drove a massive AI stock sell-off this week, and tech guru Erik Gordon predicts investors’ financial pain is just beginning.

That financial pain might include your pension plan. AI stocks surged over the summer, mostly because of all this government money. But the bubble seems about the burst. In the meantime AI CEOs are rewarding themselves lavish pay increases and bonuses. Why not skim off this taxpayer money while it flows freely? The nasty guy’s interest isn’t so much in the technology, but in bringing all these rich dudes into his sphere of influence. The rich dudes want easing of regulations so they can build their huge resource devouring data centers wherever they want, damn the environmental consequences. Though AI is much in the news and lots of people have tried it (sometimes to comical results) it is still speculative and unproven. If (when) the smaller companies fail, that could trigger a cascade of tech bankruptcies. Only the companies the nasty guy is throwing money at seem immune. The rich tech bros will be fine. The losers will be those whose pension fund took a big hit, those who aren’t already at least millionaires. Amanda Becker, in an article for The 19th posted on Kos, wrote about the Free DC movement founded by four women. It is the latest chapter in the generations-long fight to allow the district to govern itself and have representation in Congress. Alas, both parties have blocked that effort. Becker discusses that history. Free DC, the latest effort, is of course in response to the nasty guy posting troops in the city. It is a people-led campaign. They have working groups and hold events open to the public. They have constituency groups for college students, parents, and government workers. They have 38,000 followers, above the 25,000 that represent the 3.5% that researchers say are needed to overcome a dictator. All this in response to “overpolicing and autocracy.” Three principles are effective in taking on autocrats: show solidarity, take up space, and prioritize joy. The last one is important because a dictator’s biggest weapon is to make the people feel afraid. Thom Hartmann, an independent radio pundit and member of the Kos community, has run a contest for the entire 22 years of his radio program. His prize is an autographed book.

Name even one single piece of legislation from the past 40+ years (since Reagan) that was: — authored by Republicans, — principally co-sponsored by Republicans, — passed Congress with a Republican majority, — signed by a Republican president, — and benefited average working people or the poor more than it did the GOP’s donor class.

Nobody has collected the prize.

They run for public office because it can make them rich, introduce them to people who’ll help them get richer, and might even improve their sex life.

They get into office “because they’ve convinced enough people that wrecking the plane is the same thing as piloting it.” This explains: Letting America be the only country where the leading cause of childhood deaths is bullets so they can take billions from the gun industry. Killing off government programs to pay for tax gifts to billionaires. Supporting monopolies that rip off customers. Refusing to fix health insurance or student debt. Deregulating polluters when we’re being hit with climate change. Causing millions of unnecessary deaths while insurance and medical executive become billionaires. Gutting unions. Destroying public schools. Ending free or low-cost college because bankers make big profits from student debt. They don’t hate Social Security and Medicare because they are “socialist,” but because they are paid with tax dollars and Republicans and their billionaires hate paying their share of taxes. They don’t do these things just because of racism, though they are racist and their racist language brings them voters.

The reason Republicans work so hard to keep Black and brown people down is because they subscribe to a weird economic theory that “requires” an underclass who do most of the hard work for very little money. Thus, morbidly rich Republican “donors” — being part of the overclass — can reap the benefits of increased corporate profits while keeping their taxes low so they can stuff the extra cash into their money bins.

It isn’t about conservatism, which used to mean “cautiously” improving society. Now the only thing they conserve is their bank accounts. Their only interest in the culture wars is that it brings in more voters. Their only interest in guns is it brings in “male voters who are insecure about their own masculinity.” They say queer people are “coming for your kids” because that brings in voters. But see the leading cause of childhood death above. They don’t care about immigrants stealing jobs from Americans. Their backers like having workers they can underpay. Even though there is a law against hiring undocumented workers, the white owners never go to jail.

All Republican politicians care about is money. Greed is their principle animating force, and is what binds them to their morbidly rich donors.

I have a slightly different take on this. Yes, the accumulation of money is a driving force for Republicans. It is also about and may be more about the power (which Hartmann mentions), prestige, and a high place in the social hierarchy that money can deliver. When someone strives for a high place in the hierarchy they emphasize their lofty position by oppressing those below them. And all those policies that Hartmann says put money in Republican hands also oppress those low in the hierarchy. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin has quotes about Robert Kennedy Jr and his degradation of the national health, gun culture, and the latest power grab by the nasty guy. And this tweet by Annie For Truth:

When Trump says, “I know nothing about it.” He knows everything about it. When Trump says, “I know everything about it.” He knows nothing about it.

In the comments there are several memes and cartoons about the mass shooting in Minneapolis. Jesse Duquette posted a cartoon of a boy talking to a man with a briefcase. The man could be a politician or an investor of or executive at a gun manufacturer. The boy says, “If third graders can get used to the constant threat of murder, so can you.” Tina Smith tweeted:

“Do not offer thoughts and prayers as you systemically enable such tragedies. Do not claim prayers are sufficient when children die as they pray. Do not pretend you do not understand.” — Lydia, 16, Minneapolis

Other commenters wish Democrats were as direct. I also saw a Bible verse that is appropriate:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others." Matthew 6:5

Several days ago the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain announced a change to its logo. The new design did away with the old man sitting beside a barrel. The outrage was so strong the company changed it back. In response to the shooting paulpro posted a meme that says, “I need Cracker Barrel logo change level outrage about school shootings.” Laugh About It cartoons posted one it knows is not funny. It shows the White House and says a strategy session is in progress. A voice says, “Another mass shooting? Great! That’s today’s distraction from Epstein.”

He can't sue, cheat, bribe, or con his way out of death

I finished the book You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. It’s a gay romance. The setting is New York City in 1960. Mark, 28, nominally works for the Chronicle newspaper but hasn’t done much actual work since his lover William died 18 months before. The paper doesn’t pay him but does allow him to use a desk. The lack of pay isn’t an issue because William left him lots of money. Eddie, 22, is a Major League Baseball player. He had a great rookie year, then was traded to an expansion team, the New York Robins. His fielding stayed good but his hitting dropped to almost zero. The title is in part because baseball streaks and slumps are frequently attributed to good or bad luck. Mark and Eddie meet because Mark’s editor proposes he do a weekly “diary” of Eddie, of what life in the big leagues is like. Eddie appreciates that Mark is someone who is interested in Eddie the person, rather than Eddie the kid who can’t hit the ball. Since this is 1960 Eddie can’t be seen as gay. He’d lose his job. Mark is tired of being William’s secret and wants to live openly. But Mark seems more concerned about Eddie’s reputation than Eddie is. The formula for a romance novel, straight or gay, is the couple falls in love, they hit a difficulty, and they overcome it. Homophobia is the difficulty and at the time it isn’t easily overcome. I enjoyed it, though I see again that many romance novels don’t have a lot of depth. Lobachevsky of the Daily Kos community wrote:

At 79, Donald Trump isn't just showing physical signs of decline—he's exhibiting the psychological collapse of a malignant narcissist confronting his own mortality. And that makes him more dangerous than ever.

Lobachevsky lists physical evidence of the bruises on the nasty guy’s hands and the announced diagnoses of chronic venous insufficiency. The psychological evidence is him telling Fox News he is trying to get to heaven. He’s “fixated on legacy, mortality, and divine judgment—classic signs of what psychologists call ‘narcissistic mortification.’” The nasty guy has a textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder. When “narcissists confront mortality—the one thing they can't control, sue, or bribe their way out of—the psychological impact is devastating.” Since he can’t escape death he lashes out at everything else.

His inner circle knows it. That's why they're sprinting to consolidate power before Trump's decline makes it impossible. When desperate men feel humiliated and terrified, they don't go quietly. They try to burn everything down.

History shows (though other dictators and countries are not named) that a leader in psychological collapse drags their country down with them, creating a political crisis for millions. Lobachevsky lists his sources at the end: The Independent, BBC, TIME, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and PsyPost. Lobachevsky also linked to a thread on X, which I found on Thread Reader. It is by Andrew Wortman, a psychologist. A bit of it:

For Trump, the trigger is being faced with his own mortality. He can’t sue death. He can’t cheat it, bribe it, or con his way out of it. It’s inescapable. And for the first time in his life, he’s powerless — and the panic shows in every crazed rant/wild attempt to project control. That’s why you see him suddenly fixated on things like getting in to heaven (LMAO NEVER going to happen, Don), legacy, and being remembered. Humiliation is the narcissist’s deepest wound — and nothing humiliates more than colliding with the truth that you can’t escape the end. The Epstein files serve to make this terror far worse. Not only do they expose what he’s spent 30+ years concealing, but if they surface after he’s gone, he can’t spin them. The thought of being defined by that humiliation — with no power to control the narrative — is devastating.

Stephanie Armour for KFF Health News in an article posted on Kos, reported that Robert Kennedy Jr. is targeting the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Because vaccine makers were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to afford lawsuits against them, Congress created the VICF in 1988. A vaccine can harm people through anaphylaxis – a life-threatening allergic reaction – and in other ways. If the vaccine maker got sued for every harm they couldn’t afford to make the vaccine. The VICP, funded by a small tax, steps in to pay the injured. They work from a list of injuries that each vaccine is known to cause. Watchers are sure that Kennedy is laying the groundwork to overload the VICP. He announced a massive study to identify the cause of autism (which I wrote about recently). He fired the boards at the CDC and HHS that approve vaccines and replaced them with people who believe the conspiracies he promotes. He has revoked recommendations for vaccines. He has killed grants to develop more mRNA vaccines. And he wants to add autism to the list of known vaccine harms, though science had debunked the claim. The rising number of autism cases would bankrupt the VICP. No VICP and companies can’t afford to make vaccines.

“Make no mistake, this is a revolution that will change the face of public health policy,” Tony Lyons, president of MAHA Action, said in a statement. “Americans are demanding radical transparency and gold standard science.”

No, Americans are not demanding radical transparency. They’re pretty much ignoring where vaccines come from. Keep me well and I’m good. No, this is not “gold standard science.” High quality science proves that vaccines are generally safe and highly effective. Both parts of that statement hide the true intent. Yes, it will change the face of public health policy because preventable diseases, or some new disease, will cause a great deal more death and disability than they need to. Oliver Willis of Kos writes a regular column Explaining the Right the title of which begins “Why Republicans...” Sometimes I like his answer, sometimes I think he doesn’t really explain his point. The one from last Saturday is titled, Why Republicans keep saying slavery was great. You can guess that this is one that I think doesn’t quite make it. Willis gives several examples over the years in which Republicans praise slavery or say it wasn’t all that bad. Then he wrote:

Conservative politics has for decades been focused on pushing white voters with racist sympathies to vote red. This has led the GOP to emphasize that group’s grievances, including praise for the Confederacy and made-up issues like “white genocide.” Arguing that slavery wasn’t all bad or at a minimum arguing that there was something positive about keeping millions of Black people as property fits within that morally bankrupt paradigm. Conservative leaders and Republican voters have made it clear for a long time that they prefer fairy tale narratives about America’s past over the truth—because that truth could expose the legacy of white supremacy.

While all that is true I think there is a more basic reason for their praise of slavery. As supremacists they need to oppress people to give value to their own lives. They praise slavery because they want to reinstitute slavery. In Wednesday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Jordan Weissmann of The Argument:

Trump’s monetary policy preferences seem like a recipe for higher inflation. The president has berated Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, urging him to lower interest rates, despite the central bank’s concerns that the administration’s tariffs could put upward pressure on consumer prices. He seems to be doing so in part out of a desire to lower mortgage costs and give the economy a jolt. But Trump has also made it clear he thinks the Fed should lower rates in order to keep federal borrowing costs low. “If they were doing their job properly, our Country would be saving Trillions of Dollars in Interest Cost,” he recently posted on Truth Social. That’s the sort of thing that makes economists’ and central bankers’ blood run cold: After all, once you’re keeping interest rates low in order to make borrowing cheap for the government, you can’t use them to keep prices in check. The technical term for this sad state of affairs is “fiscal dominance,” and it’s the kind of thing that can lead to much higher long-term inflation and potentially a rapid spiral.

In the comments is a meme posted by paulpro. It shows a young man booting a rich guy holding a sack of money. The meme says, “Refugees didn’t take away affordable housing. Rich landlords and greedy politicians did.” A cartoon by Naked Pastor marks the recent death of James Dobson. It shows two men with coffee and one says, “Actually, James Dobson helped me embrace being gay because I figured God could not possibly that heartless and cruel just for being who I am.” In today’s roundup Chitown Kev quoted several pundits discussing the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans and significantly damaged much of the surrounding area. Eighteen months after Katrina I went on a weeklong work mission to Biloxi, Mississippi to put a roof on a house still being restored. One of Kev’s quotes was by Mark Bonner and Matthew Sanders of the New York Times:

Today, New Orleans is smaller, poorer and more unequal than before the storm. It hasn’t rebuilt a durable middle class, and lacks basic services and a major economic engine outside of its storied tourism industry. The core problem was the inability to turn abundant resources into a clear vision backed by political will. Federal dollars were funneled into a maze of state agencies and local governments with clashing priorities, vague metrics and near-zero accountability. Billions went to contractors and government consultants services such as schools, transit, health care and housing were neglected. For example, one firm, ICF International, received nearly $1 billion to administer Road Home, the oft-criticized state program to rebuild houses. The focus of the effort became replacing what was lost, not building something stronger and better. For example, public funds poured into several flood-prone neighborhoods below sea level, while smarter plans reimagining New Orleans as a modern, sustainable, water-resilient city remain neglected. Countless ribbon cuttings gave an impression of vigorous recovery, belying the reality that they failed to lay the foundation for long-term growth. [...] Today New Orleans ranks near the bottom among major U.S. cites for G.D.P. per capita and is one of the nation’s weakest employment markets. Its population is roughly 23 percent smaller than it was in 2000, with about 37 percent fewer Black residents. Economic output per person lags the national average, and while the city has seen modest recent job gains, job growth remains uneven and slow overall.

Yesterday there was another mass shooting, this time the shooter shot through the windows of a church to strike children inside. Two children died. Fourteen more children and three adults went to the hospital and all are expected to recover, though they’ll have to deal with trauma. In the comments are two items related to the shooting. Dennis Gorlis posted a cartoon showing children with their school backpacks at the Gate of Heaven. St. Peter says, “They just loved their guns more, that’s all.” Denise Oliver Velez posted an excerpt from the NYT article. It says the shooter was a transgender female. At her death she was 23. At 17 she applied to change her name from Robert to Robin. It also said:

On social media, some conservative activists have seized on the shooter’s gender identity to broadly portray transgender people as violent or mentally ill. The police did not provide any motive for the attack, but Ms. Westman’s extensive social media history was a contradictory catalog of anger and grievance. In seemingly stream-of-consciousness videos that she posted, she fixated on guns, violence and school shooters. She displayed her own cache of weapons, bullets and what appear to be explosive devices, scrawled with antisemitic and racist language and threats against President Donald Trump. The videos also show pages from a diary, with long entries describing self hatred, violence against children, and a desire to inflict harm on herself.

As has been noted many times before, when a white guy commits a horrific act he is described as a “lone wolf.” But when a black man or woman or, as is this case, a transgender person does it, they are portrayed as a representative of their kind who are described as all being similarly violent or mentally ill. And here we are again. Yes, Robin was mentally ill. But that does not imply anyone like her is or is not.

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.”