You must save us from the thing we did, because it was stupid, so you need to let it happen!

The guy in charge of national security is using “national security” he’s endangered to get his own way.

Meanwhile, in Cloud-Cuckoo Land, we have this particular spectacle.

DOJ raises 'national security' concerns in legal fight over Trump ballroom

A federal judge is considering an injunction to halt contstruction.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-raises-national-security-concerns-legal-fight-trump/story

So, it looks like these are the steps.

“We plan to build a ball room. We are the Unitary Executive and so can do whatever we want.”
“We didn’t have to wait for anyone to give us permission to build a ball room, so we started the project anyway, but we promise we’ll go through all the proper reviews and approvals before actually building anything.”
“Oh, also, we’re going to fire all the people who might have said no to us, and replace them with people who will say yes to us.”
“We have to get this done quickly and build the building that the architect left the project about because that was the plan all along.”
“What? You want us to wait so proper approvals can be gotten and possible violations of rules can be litigated? How can we possibly do that? We’ve torn a huge hole into the White House, and also demolished all the critical underground infrastructure, assuming we’d be able to rebuild it instantly. So you can’t stop the project now because it will be a Horrible National Security Problem!”

So .. are we talking about incompetence? Or a semi-competent scam, planned this way all along?

The one thing you can’t call it is a good-faith execution of a nationally significant capital project.

Which, actually, was damned stupid, because, in principle, everyone agrees that the White House could use better, larger-scale entertainment facilities. The one element of truth here from Trump is that every president for the past few decades has wanted to do something better than renting big tents to put on the lawn. This could have been handled as a collaborative project, following the procedures, and serving as an example of good will and unified action to the betterment of the nation.

But that might require compromise. It might require a tacit acknowledgement that Trump cannot do whatever he wants. It more show that the President needs to adhere to (gasp) procedures, to (eek!) work and play with others, and rely on collaboration to achieve nifty things.

None of which Trump would ever dream of doing. Because he’s The Omnipotent Tinpot Dictator type, and following the rules and collaborating and compromising is something only wusses do.

The bottom line is, now we are told that a project that was rushed past all the guard rails, with assurances that there was all the time in the world, now must be rushed to conclusion because Trump’s own actions have made the current situation (according to them) such that the nation is unsafe.

Run that by again. According to the Trump administration itself, we are currently unsafe because they too-quickly dismantled critical infrastructure that the country needed, because they wanted to do it faster than they knew they would be allowed to do otherwise.

Hell of a President, Donald.

Another day, another array of infuriating, stupid, and/or evil shenanigans

It’s the shotgun approach to disheartening, disengaging, and deadening the electorate.

There is a technique exercised by folk trying to deflect criticism, or confuse potential critics, or shift attention from particular wrongdoings, or even just turn off people so much they stop paying attention because it’s so bewildering, or so maddening, or so apparently-unstoppable.

It’s a technique that, knowingly or not, the Trump Regime is practicing in spades.

Day to day, it’s nigh-impossible to focus on the latest shenanigans from Trump and/or his coterie of lickspittles and proto-fascists. It’s shock-and-awe, news cycle style, where bright lights and loud noises are going off in too many directions, and changing from day to day, so that what seemed awful yesterday is forgotten tomorrow.

Just a few instances, from the relatively small to the profoundly dangerous.

National Park Service Incites Anger By Quietly Removing Banned Signs From Civil War Site

The NPS Has Removed Climate Change Signs From A Civil War Landmark

www.thetravel.com/national-park-service-removes-banned-signs-from-civil-war-site/

Trump’s ostrich-head-in-the-sand approach to climate change has the NPS removing signs from the Ft Sumter site warning that rising sea levels could destroy the location. Can’t have people thinking all those re-opened coal plants might do any harm, can we?

New York school violated civil rights law by changing name from ‘Thunderbirds’ to ‘T-Birds,’ US says

BOHEMIA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York school district is “erasing its Native American heritage” and violating civil rightBOHEMIA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York school district is “erasing its Native American heritage” and violating civil rights law by changing its team name from the “Thunderbirds” to the “T-Birds,” federal education officials say.s law by changing its team name from the “Thunderbirds” to the “T-Birds,” federal education officials say.

apnews.com/article/native-american-school-mascots-names-new-york-8f9135ac28e1c82838d9bc6cf1993b39

The long effort to get schools to stop frivolously using Native American symbols or stereotypes is now being actively opposed by the Trump Regime as somehow violating Native American rights. Bring back the “Redskins,” I guess.

UK PM, others outraged at Trump's comments downplaying NATO allies' role during Afghanistan war

Prince Harry and the British Prime Minister slammed Trump over his comments.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/uk-pm-outraged-trumps-comments-downplaying-nato-allies/story

Donald seems to get particular joy in insulting people who don’t kowtow to him properly. What better way than offending our allies and their war dead, after they joined with the US post-911 in the only Article 5 action NATO has ever taken.

He backed off today, at least regarding UK troops. It’s unclear if he simply wants to further fragment NATO unity, or because he wants to keep the UK cooperating on trade deals.

DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death

A judge refused an FBI warrant that proposed investigating dead Minnesota mom for suspected assault on an officer.

www.ms.now/news/doj-sought-to-probe-renee-good-for-criminal-liability-even-after-her-death-sources

First the Trump Regime yoinked investigation around Good’s killing to the FBI. Then they dropped it, trying instead to investigate Good (who is dead) as being criminally liable. That led to still more DoJ / FBI folk resigning in protest.

But, hey, who cares, since the DoJ leadership has declared, by fiat, that Good was absolutely guilty (ignore any other interpretations of the videos taken of her shooting), and so why bother with investigating the death? That would be a waste of good whitewash, by God!

Meanwhile, the latest DHS shooting (of Alex Pretti) won’t even go to the FBI — the DHS (which did the shooting) will investigate the matter itself. Gee, wonder how that will turn out?

And that’s all just a fraction of what the Regime has done in the last day or two. Who knows what they’ll do tomorrow to distract from those misdeeds, malpractice, and crimes?

And so it goes.

Oh, by the way, Donald, where are those remaining Epstein Files?

The Toddler-in-Chief

Watching a toddler throw a tantrum is sometimes amusing, often aggravating. When the toddler controls a massive military, it becomes terrifying

Another day, another example of Donald Trump shrieking his displeasure for not being given things he thinks should be his.

“I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize!” he cries out. “You Norwegians are all poopy-heads!”

“I deserve Greenland!” he screams. “You Danes are all poopy-heads!”

Never mind in all this that (a) the nation of Norway doesn’t give out the Nobel Prizes, or that (b) Norway and Denmark are long-term allies of the US, or that (c) the population of Greenland does not want to be owned by Donald Trump.

Nope. Donald wants it. Therefore Donald should have it. Therefore anyone stopping him from having what he wants should be shouted at, bullied, threatened, and punished.

(Note that giving Donald what he wants is no guarantee that won’t happen either. His quid pro quo log has a very short expiry date.)

Today’s installment:

Trump links Greenland threat to Nobel Peace Prize snub, EU prepares to retaliate

U.S. President Donald Trump has linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought "purely of Peace" as the row over the island threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe.

www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-tells-norway-he-no-longer-feels-obligation-think-only-peace-2026-01-19/

Yes, see, for Donald, “peace” is only valuable if it gets him what he thinks he deserves. Like, say, a Nobel Peace Prize. If Norway doesn’t give him one, then obviously there’s no point in being “peaceful.”

(Again, the Norwegian government doesn’t give out the Nobel Peace Prize. But Donald, being Donald, assumes that if they really wanted to play ball with him, the Norwegian government would lean on the Nobel Committee to do so, or threaten their funding, or pass a law requiring they give him one, etc. Because that’s what government is for.)

Not that Donald has been “peaceful” during his reign. Venezuela certainly doesn’t think so. Iran certainly doesn’t think so. Any of the number of places we’ve bombed or droned don’t think so.

But Donald thinks so because, in his mind (as whispered to him by folk like Stephen Miller), if there was a possibility of a war and he said that he didn’t want it to happen, then if it didn’t happen it didn’t happen because of him. Thus his ever-changing, usually-but-not-always-growing tallies of wars he’s “stopped.” It’s magical thinking in its most twisted fashion.

The result, according to his text to Norway’s PM:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.

Aside from the ridiculous claim that he “thinks purely of Peace,” the idea that not getting a Nobel Peace Prize means he should stop doing so demonstrates how trivial his commitment to “Peace” was.

Oh, and by the way, until Europe forces Denmark to hand over Greenland to him, he’ll keep imposing more and bigger tariffs. Because that’s how you’d expect a toddler to react. “Gimme what I want, or you’ll be sorry!”

Greenland has become emblematic of the Trump Regime’s sickness

When bullying is presented as, not just okay, but a moral imperative.

Something that started as a “ha ha, doesn’t he say the darnedest things?” moment years ago — the idea of the US taking over Greenland — is becoming more and more a sign of how out-of-control and downright un-American Donald Trump and his coterie of yes-men and evil genius-wannabes have become.

Let’s start here:

Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back US controlling Greenland

resident Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital.

www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-01-17/trump-threatens-tariffs-us-control-greenland-20432348.html

Trump is a bully. If he has power over you, he will wield it. If he thinks bribes will work, he’ll offer them. If he thinks threats will work, he’ll instantly pivot and issue them. There is no principle involved, except for force.

Here we see the next step. First he muses out loud about what shiny thing he’d like to have. Then he says he hopes someone will give it to him. Then he starts issuing threats.

Trump loves tariffs (so far — there’s a vague chance that SCOTUS might actually grow a pair and say that his arbitrary imposition of them is illegal, but we’ll see). The (appear, to him) to give him money, and it lets him punish people by taking their money, so it’s a win-win for him.

There’s a significant escalation, of course, between tariffs as a means of balancing asserted economic imbalances, and tariffs as a coercion to back his latest whims.

Trump doesn’t care. Either he’ll get what he wants (support for absconding with Greenland), or he’ll get (as he sees it) a bunch more money, punish those who didn’t say nice things about his policy, and still move forward to abscond with Greenland.

If he can do it, he will. If he can’t — well, who’s ever to say he can’t?

Which brings us next to this little gem.

Miller amid Greenland push: Nations not entitled to territories ‘they cannot defend’

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Friday doubled down on the Trump administration’s argument that acquiring Greenland is “essential” for U.S. national security.

thehill.com/policy/international/5694105-stephen-miller-greenland-acquisition-defense/

Stephen Miller is sort of the eminence grise of the Trump Regime — or maybe its toxic dump, always lurking in the background and leaching poisons into the surrounding land and water. Trump listens to what he has to say to an appalling degree.

In this case, he clearly expounds on his guiding principle which lines up perfectly with his boss: If we can take it, we will take it, and, in fact, we should take it. Or, framed another way, Might Makes Right.

Now, I am not so naive as to think that this attitude is not unique to Miller, or to this moment in American history. The US has always had voices whispering, “Take it! Do it! You’re powerful! You’re proud! It should be yours! Take it!”

But, at the very least, Miller, and Trump, and the rest of the gang of imperialists, have shifted to saying the quiet part out loud. If we want it, we can take it. If we can take it, we should take it.

He added that because Denmark “cannot defend” Greenland, citing weaknesses in their military and economy, that it should not have claims to the land. “To control a territory, you have to be able to defend a territory, improve a territory, inhabit a territory,” Miller said. “Denmark has failed at every single one of these tests.”

If a land is not covered with mines and factories and highways, clearly it’s being neglected, and therefore should be taken.

If a land is not bristling with fortresses and air bases, clearly it’s not being defended, and therefore should be taken.

(Never mind that Greenland has existed in its current state for many, many decades, and during much warmer conflict between the US and the Soviet Union, and yet was never invaded by the Russians, nor annexed by the US. We had more military bases there — but, remarkably, that’s not currently seen as an option now.)

The president’s political adviser claimed the U.S. was already on the hook to spend “hundreds of billions of dollars” to defend Denmark as a NATO ally. “It’s a raw deal, it’s an unfair deal, and most importantly, it’s unfair to the American taxpayer, who has subsidized all of Europe’s defense for generations now,” he told “Hannity.”

If we do something for them, they are morally obligated to give us stuff. Which is a remarkable moral stance as well.

But this is how the US government — at least the Unitary Executive — works. Kindness, compassion, even fairness — those are for wusses. Only force — threatened, then used — garners respect and obedience and profit. Why should respect and obedience and profit be given? Because we say so.

Bullying is not an uncommon human trait, sadly enough. The difference here is that the bullies themselves are asserting it as a moral imperative. They have (as they have demonstrated clearly over the last decade-plus) no shame. They will baldly point the gun, say hand me your wallet, take it, and laugh.

It certainly plays well with the The US is the greatest country on Earth, so we should be in charge crowd of jingoists that we always seem to be afflicted with — and who never question what “greatest” means beyond just “powerful”? The questions before us are, will everyone else actually recognize the dangers of the Regime’s actions and motivations … and will we actually get a chance to correct it?

Blaming the Victim for January 6

Winston Smith has a new corner office in the West Wing.

It’s classic abusive and abuse-enabling behavior. Blame the victim. “Look what you made me do to you!” “She shouldn’t have been dressed that way.” “Doing something stupid like that means you can’t complain about what happens to you.”

Now it’s top White House policy, as part of their Orwellian rewriting of history.

White House rewrites January 6 history and blames police for deadly attack on 5-year anniversary | CNN Politics

The White House rolled out a new website Tuesday with a full-blown recast of the historical record of January 6, 2021, hailing the pro-Trump mob who stormed the US Capitol five years ago as “peaceful protesters” who were provoked by law enforcement.

www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/politics/white-house-january-6-website

Trump Administration Posts False Jan. 6 Narrative on Riot’s 5th Anniversary

A new web page on the official White House site blames the Capitol Police and Democrats for the pro-Trump mob riot, absolving the president of responsibility and calling participants “innocent.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/us/politics/trump-white-house-jan-6-website.html

You see, the January 6 violent assault on the US Capitol was nothing of the kind. It was a peaceful protest by mere innocents and patriots who were righteously upset about how Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. Those guys beating up Capitol Police? They were the real victims here. Capitol police hospitalized, dead of heart attacks, suffering PTSD? They were the real criminals. Folks breaking into the building, smashing windows, threatening government officials? It’s all Nancy Pelosi’s fault.

Don’t believe your memory. Don’t believe the still-extant (for now) video recordings and photographs and eyewitness testimony from even Republicans who have since changed their stories. Believe only what the White House tells you.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Like It Never Happened

Those who forget history can blame the people who try to erase it.

In March 2022, Congress passed a law, mandating a bronze plaque be put in the Capitol in honor of the Capitol Police who were attacked by and fought with the rioters during the January 6, 2021 Trumpist mob violence there.

Five years after the attack, four years after the law was passed, nobody (officially) knows what’s happened to the plaque — only that it’s not actually on display, and there’s been no official unveiling by Speaker Mike Johnson — who, lest we forget, was one of the challengers of the 2020 election results.

This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It’s nowhere to be found at the Capitol

Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy is nowhere to be found.

apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-jan-6-anniversary-police-plaque-f6fd39b437c339fa9ff477318a7d36e2

Such a plaque would (presumably) be seen as an indirect slap at the Dear Leader, and thus would run the risk of offending him, which GOP congresscritters seem to fear more than anything.

Legally mandated plaque, expressing thanks to Capitol Police

The plaque reads:

On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.

There are in fact folk who would very much like it to be forgotten. And are seeing to it that it is.

“We are in the hands of an adolescent”

The US is at the mercy of an immature, asocial, egotistical, angry, ruthless being of terrifying power.

In the first-season Star Trek (TOS) episode “Charlie X,” the Enterprise takes onboard a castaway teenager, Charlie Evans (played with lovely creepiness by Robert Walker, Jr). Long story short, it turns out the disembodied-nigh-god inhabitants of the planet he’d been marooned on as an infant had given him nigh-god powers over reality to help him survive — powers that, in the hands of an unsocialized, hormone-ridden, stereotypical teenager makes him an existential menace.

And, as that is becoming clearer — that Charlie can and will, with the power of his mind, control the ship, make things and people disappear (or change them into iguanas, or steal their faces), break bones, compel people to speak or be silent — Spock says to Kirk the line in the title of this post.

The US is in a Charlie X moment.

We have an elected president who does pretty much whatever he wants. If he has the people willing to do it, it gets done. If they aren’t willing, he fires them until he gets some who are. Law? He’s the president — law is something he uses as a weapon, not is hampered by as a restriction.

When you’re nigh-omnipotent, who can tell you no?
Ego-driven monuments and building renamings? Sure.
Enrich himself, his companies, his family? Naturally!
Lie, hyperbolize, exaggerate, without any apparent sense of shame, double down when corrected, and never, ever, admit you were incorrect? Sounds like a plan!
Militarize law and immigration enforcement? Sounds fun! Shit on international allies? Why not?
Throw decorum, tradition, civility, politeness, and norms out the window as irrelevant wussiness that keep him from doing whatever he wants to do? Tradition and politeness are for wussies!
Roll back a century of social and legal advancement, and securing of civil rights, by anyone who’s not a white Christian man? Hold my nuggets …
Look to fire anyone he doesn’t like, whether he has authority or not, and disassemble the civil service that was put in to keep government from operating on the spoils system? Gilded Age, baby!
Engage in wide-spread wielding of the Justice Department, et al., as weapons of vengeance? Damn straight.
Call for the imprisonment, banishment, or execution of his political enemies? Naturally!
Pander to any conservative wish list that comes from a person or group who sufficiently kow-tows and/or donates? Outstanding!

Declare anyone, or anywhere, he wants as “terrorists” or a “terrorist organization,” which he can then use his expansive “emergency” powers (granted to the President by successive generations of Congress) to outlaw, imprison, shoot, or bomb?

Who’s gonna stop me?

Ultimately, that’s Charlie X’s line — once he learns that he doesn’t have to follow the rules, that he doesn’t have to put up with Kirk’s advice, then orders. Who can stop him?

Who going to stop our nigh-omnipotent adolescent?

Not the Courts — not, ultimately, when he’s got a hand-picked Supreme Court majority that believes that the Executive gets to execute pretty much anything it wants, and that stare decisis is for suckers.

Not Congress — his GOP allies are either wildly enthused about how their ideological G-spots are being scratched, or else terrified of being primaried by his MAGA machine and its multi-billionaire backers. The only pushback from them has come where he’s bumped against their prerogatives, and even there it’s been hit or miss.

His Democratic opponents, meanwhile seem to feel that if they squawk nicely-worded protests and make pro forma (but always fragile) moves to provide a bit of publicity-worthy friction to his advance — well, that’s all they can be expected to do, amirite?

Did I mention Charlie doesn’t have good boundary awareness with women?

Trump’s often compared to a senile old man, and anyone who claims to not see his cognitive decline is, at the most charitable, simply not looking / wishfully thinking. But the comparison to an adolescent seems also compelling. An adolescent who has always lived a life of entitled privilege. An adolescent who has always bought or legally evaded any significant consequences to his actions, from stiffing contractors to fomenting mob violence. An adolescent raised by an abusive father to never apologize, never compromise, always go for the throat, that losers are anyone who doesn’t win everything, and losers should be curb-stomped to make sure they learn their lesson. An adolescent raised in “the power of positive thinking” — that you can make your own reality, your own truth, if you stick by it, deny anything that denies it, double down on it when in trouble, and never, ever, admit you were wrong.

An adolescent who is now arguably the most powerful person on earth, surrounded by minions who eagerly do whatever he wants and who stroke his ego that anything he wants is the right thing to do, while also surrounded by ego-stroking villains who see his willfulness and willingness to do whatever he wants can be steered to their own ideological ends, leaving him to think it was all his own idea.

And then, today …

And today he announced that he’d (a) kidnapped the leader of a foreign nation, and his wife, to be shipped back to America for a “fair” trial (note the word “fair” was never actually used; “show” may be a better word), and (b) meanwhile, the US would be running the country, with “boots on the ground,” so as to (c) build a new, democratic, and American-allied country, because that always works and was never criticized or run against by the guy now doing it, and (d) by the way, it’s open season for American (with priority) oil companies to move in and take over the petroleum resources there.

As a bonus, our Sect’y of State was out there ~~winning hearts and minds~~ telling the leadership of Cuba that they might be next.

Don’t be me wrong — Maduro is a piece of work. He’s a petty dictator who’s relished using American hostility as a way to leverage dictatorial power in his own country, and who’s arguably at best turned a blind eye to narcotics cartels shipping goods to a (ever-willing-to-consume) US. If he’d fallen over dead with a brain aneurism, I wouldn’t be mourning his passage.

This whole thing is quite different.

The US President, after saber-rattling and threats for quite a long time, decided to simply declare drug smugglers as an invading military force, and therefore subject to military force in return. Not surprisingly, the US Navy and Air Force and whomever else he wanted to show off were pretty effective at blowing up (what he said, with no evidence given, how dare you question his integrity?) narcotics boats. But not so effective that they couldn’t commit a few text book war crimes — denied, then angrily quasi-justified, then just handwaved off.

That got enough applause (or acquiescence) from the usual suspects to move on to declaring a shipping embargo on Venezuela. It wasn’t all that well-enforced, I’ve seen reported, but it did make for some big publicity moments, which was even more important to show Trump how big and powerful he was.

But no immediate craven surrender by Maduro was forthcoming, and our adolescent is an impatient adolescent — and one that really gets off on compensating for something by the size of his military. This is the guy who was jealous of all those military parades in other countries, so got one for his birthday. This is the guy who wants everyone to be cowed by his hand-designed battleships. This is the guy who’s happy to throw his “America First” isolationist campaign principles out the window in order to, yes, potentially start a foreign war (It’s not foreign, its on a continent named after our country!) with boots on the ground (such big boots! shoot to kill!) to do some hopefully-favorable nation-building (after attacking the very of nation-building for the last decade or more) (but I can do it right!).

I mean, this comes across as someone ~~sending Trump an article~~ buttonholing Trump at a Mar-a-Lago party and waxing lyrical about how in the ~~Gilded~~ Golden Age* the US used to invade Latin American countries all the time, overthrowing governments to put in friendly puppets, and installing American companies to extract everything they could.
*Though not just in the 19th or early 20th Century, of course.

Of course, that’s why so many people in Latin America still think the US is an imperialistic power, driven by money and ego to attack them as it pleases. That’s why a lot of countries, no matter how much we have, at times, helped them, mistrust at best and hate at worst the US. And Trump seems determined to prove them right — indeed, to double down by not only doing this, but making it clear he has the personal right to do it because he can.

And for all the people warning about how this will drag the US’ reputation and any moral high ground it carries around the world down into the mud? He doesn’t care. Moral high grounds are for wimps. The US owns the Western Hemisphere, so it can do anything it wants there — just watch! As for the rest of the world, they’re all shit-hole or doomed or ego-stroking countries, so who cares about them. Letting Russia and China do what they will? As long as he looks good (put up another triumphal arch!), it sounds to Trump like a fabulous plan.

The follow-up with Cuba is meant to tell the entire world — from Cuba, to Greenland, to Iran, to the UK — that, if they don’t say nice things and give nice concessions, the nigh-omnipotent adolescent in charge of the US military machine might invade their place next.

Nice country you got here — shame if the Marines were to invade it.

Is that the might-makes-right, organized crime approach to foreign relations that we really want to represent as the norm for us, or for our enemies (who will be ever-growing in number?

Stray thoughts that my writing above might provoke (or that come to mind, since it’s been quite some time since I spoke broadly about Trump).

He was elected President

He sure was. None of that makes the above justified, or legally or morally defensible. People wanting a dictator doesn’t make having a dictator any more legal.

Yeah, but he’s better than Biden or Harris!

Even if so, see above.

He’s making America great again!

Only in a Hobbesian “nasty, brutish, and short” war of all-against-all sort of way. Which is not likely to end well for anyone, including America.

That said, I don’t think Trump cares about the long-term reality. He wants a strong/great America because he wants to be the Dear Leader of a strong/great America. It’s about him, not us. Sure, he’d love it if people put in statues and monuments and triumphal arches to him for centuries to come — but he’s much more into them doing it now, while he’s around to bask in the adulation.

If it all goes to shit the moment he’s dead? I don’t think he gives a damn.

What about the US invasion of Panama?

Yes, one could argue that 1989 attack to arrest Noriega and end his dictatorship had the same justification (or, on the other hand, lack of it) as Trump’s actions in Venezuela. One could handwave about how Panama had formally declared war on the US, that American citizens (in the Canal Zone) were in danger, or that the Panamanian Defense Force had killed an American Marine, but that’s not much.

But even so … so? I’m not sure a 37-year-ago precedent — and not a particularly admirable one at that — means much.

It’s all just Trump Derangement Syndrome!

I’m old enough to remember when Democrats dismissed wild, weird conspiracy theories about Clinton(s), Obama, and Biden as “Derangement Syndromes,” which seemed quite credible, given the utter craziness about what was being said (e.g., Pizzagate, Operation: Jade Helm, etc.).

Trump, of course, is always happy to project what he and his are doing onto others — thus now everything is dismissed as “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (no matter what sort of criticism or concern it is).

Indeed, the TDS label is just what Trump likes, because he can just say it, rather than countering arguments being made against his actions and plans. It’s a lovely ad hominem — one of his favorite things.

If it’s worthwhile, I don’t think this invasion was a Wag-the-Dog to distract from the Epstein Files. Or from the economy. I might be convinced that he’s looking for a topic for that big triumphal arch he’s having built in Washington for the 250th of American Independence (irony is not Trump’s strong suit).

I do think that the minor reason for all this is that Maduro didn’t bow down to him when he demanded it (adolescents want respect, earned or not), and the major reason is that he wants to be a War Leader and ride in a parade, and maybe make sure that it’s his name on that triumphal arch (adolescents love ego strokes).

Oh, he’s just joking about Subject X

This is commonly said by Trump’s enablers when he says something particularly grotesque, hurtful, threatening, or a bit cray-cray.

Never mind that some jokes just aren’t funny or appropriate, given his position. If I had my family over to your house and, on your way out, said, “Hope your granny doesn’t slip and break her hip and die a painful, lingering death,” would it become “okay” if the rest of my family (not me, of course) insisted it was just a joke, ha, ha, ha, he’s so high-spirited and outspoken …

For that matter, is there a single thing that Trump has joked about doing that, when he came to it, he didn’t actually do? Sometimes its to stroke his own ego, sometimes because its what he wanted, and/or sometimes because he knew it would outrage his impotent opposition. But way too many of those jokes have turned into a twisted, Joker-like reality.

Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon

At best, Trump is President for another three years. He’s hinted enough times that he wants a third term, of course. Is he that to:

encourage folks to figure out a legal way to bypass the Constitution?
see how much popular support the idea draws (either as a way to make it happen or because of the ego stroking it provides)?
get off on making his opponents angry?
normalize the topic so that when he does it (emergency powers!) people won’t be shocked?

But even if he doesn’t make a grab at that brass ring (and if he does, do you think the other two branches, under his control, will really stop him, given their acquiescence and support to date?), he’s still around for three years (since we know, because he’s told us, he’s in Perfect Health, Much Better Than Has Every Been Seen Before).

How much more damage will he do in three years?

How much more pollution and climate damage and opening up of wilderness to mineral extraction? How many more civil rights will he take from how many more people? How much will he Make America White Again? How much damage will he do to our national reputation, or our national norms, or our national identity, or even the idea of us being a nation any more?

And that all assumes that we don’t get President Vance taking office in 2029.

Sitting back and trusting that things will snap back to “normal” in three years, if we just hold on … doesn’t seem like a smart idea. A lot of damage, pain, and death stands in the balance.

We’re in the hands of an adolescent. What are we going to do about it?

Charlie gets taken away (hopefully not returning four years later).

The Enterprise is only saved because the disembodied-nigh-gods realize their mistake and come to take Charlie away where he cannot hurt anyone, even if it means that he’ll be isolated from humanity for the rest of his life. In his case, it’s a tragic ending to the story.

In our case … I don’t think can’t count on that sort of divine intervention.

It’s annoying to think that I wrote a post with the same title — and about the same person — almost nine years ago.

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Pete Hegseth has made it clear that being a tin-pot performative military leader is his top priority

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yoinked top military leaders from around the world, at a cost of millions of dollars, for a short “pep talk” meeting at Quantico.

Trump, not wanting anyone to seem more important than he was, decided to come along so he could get a bunch of important people saluting him, because that’s like pure crack for a guy like him. We’ll circle back to him later.

But let’s look at Hegseth’s comments, as reported. This is the guy who runs the Defense Department (yes, the Congressionally mandated name is Defense, not War, no matter how many “Hi, My Department Is …” stickers Hegseth slaps on his suit coat).

(None of which has prevented him from changing both the website from defense.gov to war.gov, or the banner atop the website to read Department of War, of course. The Trump regime is always happy to skirt, or outright break, the law when it comes to pursuing its whims.)

The department’s mission is (still, officially):

To provide the military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of our country.

Which sounds pretty cool. Deterring war is good. Providing security is good.

Hegseth (along with, one presumes, his boss) doesn’t think that’s good enough. His rhetoric is nothing about protection, and even “security” tends to get short shrift. His person mission statements are full of words like “kill” and “violence” and “lethality”.

On the one hand, sure, being willing and able to kill, through violent and lethal means, is always a part of what the military does and should be able to do. But it’s the essence of the language here that feels important. It’s trying to be bad-ass. It’s trying to be macho. It’s trying to be, not the calm, assured, even friendly guy at the bar that you can tell you don’t want to mess with, or even the quiet one who exudes a sense of danger, but the loud, blustery, loud, yelling, bullying one who challenges anyone who looks at him cross-eyed and loves to shove folks around.

Sort of like Trump’s governing style, and just as buffoon-like.

Anyway, back to Hegseth’s How to Alienate Friends and Intimidate People seminar.

No more ‘woke’ in the US military: key takeaways from Pete Hegseth’s speech

Pentagon chief railed against diversity and fat-shamed the troops as he directed his generals to fall in line – or quit

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/30/pete-hegseth-speech-takeaways

Let’s start from the top.

“We became ‘the woke department’,” Hegseth said in an address that seemed to designed to be as incendiary as possible. “Not any more. We’re done with that shit.”

For some folk, such as Trump, “woke” feels like a generic insult, a bit of political speech to target opponents with. Sure, it comes backed with more than a whiff of remembering the good ol’ days when it was okay to discriminate against women, Blacks, the disabled, people from other countries or religions, etc. without getting into trouble. But a lot of it feels like just trying to find a convenient label to hang onto the other side, like “tax and spend liberal” or “jacobite” were in the past.

Not Hegseth. He clearly projects a visceral loathing for what he terms to be “woke.” For him, that seems to mean any policy or philosophy that detracts from turning every member of the armed forces into a Robocop-like killing machine. He not only sees no value in diversity, he thinks it is a menace because it disrupts regimentation and makes his toy soldiers all look different. He can’t imagine a woman or a Black man or a Sikh being as good a violent, lethal, killer as he wants them to be, because his focus (as we will see) is as much on how they look as how they act.

Toy soldiers should all look and act the same.

Nor is diversity in thought to be encouraged; indeed, it’s to be stamped out. There is room for only the chain of command, with Pete up at the top (well, under Donald), and everyone below in lock-step obedience to orders. Concerns, dissent, differing opinions, counter-suggestions: all are a sign of weakness. Only obedience is of value.

“For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons – based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,” said Hegseth, who fired Gen CQ Brown, an African American, as chair of the joint chiefs of staff in February, and has dispensed with the services of several high-ranking female personnel.

The shibboleth of quotas-mean-hiring-inferior-people is firmly fixed in Hegseth’s head. Having been in corporate America my entire career, and for a long patch as a hiring manager, I can confidently assert that diversity goals and encouragement in the hiring process was not about “Hire some women, no matter whether they are qualified,” but more “Why are all your applicants / hirees white guys — are you looking in an array of places, and are you discriminating in your processes?”

Hegseth says he wants promotions among “uniform leaders” to ignore race, gender, or any other factor than the factors he thinks are important. The thought that there might be value in having someone who doesn’t fit the traditional mold (white guys!) never enters his mind. Nor does he value any inspirational value such promotions might provide to others.

Nope. Anyone who doesn’t fit into the nice ranks of identical toy soldiers is clearly a “quota hire.”

Hegseth boasted of “remov[ing] the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department”.
He added: “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions, no more debris.”

Not surprisingly, “climate change” is dismissed as garbage. So much for deterrence of war or protection of national security in the face of the economic and population disruptions already occurring due to climate change. I have no idea whether Hegseth actually knows anything about climate change, only that it’s part of “politically correct and toxic ideological garbage” that has “infected” the DoD.

Purity — that’s what’s important. No “garbage.” No “toxicity” (hold that thought). No “delusions.” No “debris.” Everything clean and tidy and orderly and fitting some mythic Pattonesque vision of conformity and unity, with the sole focus on killing the other guy better and faster and more thoroughly.

Also not surprisingly, Hegeseth considers gender issues a “delusion” (to be dismissed with the oh-so-un-macho disdain for “dudes in dresses”). Nor is any “identity” of value to him other than identity as “lean, mean, killing machines.”

“Fat troops are tiring to look at,” Hegseth said, as he ordered commanders to crack down on a lack of physical fitness. “It’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops.”

There’s this ongoing weird note of personal disgust for things that take away from what Hegseth considers the real mission of the DoD. “Fat” troops are “tiring.” Not “sub-optimal” or “concerning” or “not the best that we can be,” but an insulting “tiring.”

Hegseth is apparently a big believer in sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, though:

Commanders were not excepted from Hegseth’s purge on the overweight. He lamented having to see “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading commands around the country and the world”.

On the one hand, this seems fair, right? If we don’t want “fat” troops, then leading by example is important. Never mind that other “leading by example” considerations are disdained by Hegseth as quote hires and the like. The war on fat soldiers is mission-critical.

But once you get beyond seeing “fat” generals as (one presumes) “tiring,” so what? Unless you expect those generals to be out there digging trenches and charging the enemy and needing to do 250 pull-ups for some mission, what’s the value here? Performative slimming?

And what about the Commander-in-Chief? Is it “tiring” seeing his weight issues? Since I don’t expect Trump to lead the charge up San Juan Hill, I don’t see that as an issue. But I don’t expect that of anyone of general or admiral rank, or even much below.

I don’t have a problem per se with a lean, fit military (even if a lot of military jobs have little to do with actual combat). But forcing a lean, fit military because someone finds it “tiring” to see overweight soldiers seems a bit weird. It feels more like pushing for how folk look than how they are called to act.

It also raises concerns about what standards are necessary, and what standards are used as weapons.

“Would you want [your child] serving with fat or unfit or undertrained troops? Or alongside people who can’t make basic standards? Or in a unit where standards were lowered so certain types of troops could make it in? In a unit where leaders were promoted for reasons other than merit, performance and war-fighting? The answer’s not just no, it’s hell no.”

Ah. We pivot from “fat” being a problem to “basic standards” being lowered and promotions being given for folk who are unworthy — worthiness being defined by meeting those basic standards.

Which means those standards can be weaponized. Don’t like women in combat — or in the military at all? Keep raising physical standards — regardless of what they need to be — so that you can exclude most women (to the degree that women’s average upper body strength, what is usually being tested, tends to be lower than men’s average upper body strength). Then when you have a much smaller number of women in the military, you can complain about how it’s operationally disruptive to meet all their different needs, and so you have no choice but to exclude them from combat roles, or (since everyone is now no longer allowed to be “fat,” which means that everyone is expected to be able to be in combat), maybe all roles whatsoever.

The first question is not whether a given person can meet a particular standard. The first question is, what does the standard actually need to be?

The same is true for that statement about promotions being given out for “reasons other than merit, performance and war-fighting.” What are the standards for meriting a promotion? What performance standards and areas are you talking about? What constitutes promotion standards for war-fighting? And are you crafting those standards towards the mission? Or to other, exclusionary ends, to create a military that looks like some ideal you’re carrying around in your head?

“No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression,” the clean-shaven war secretary declared. “We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards and adhere to standards.”
“We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans, but unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refuse to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards.
“The era of unprofessional appearance is over,” he declared. “No more beardos.”

To hear Hegseth talk, you’d think that grooming standards have been non-existent, that there’s been some outbreak of soldiery with long beards, pony-tails, and dirty fingernails. Certainly it sounds like our national security is being threatened by (to use Hegseth’s disdainful terms) “superficial individual expression” and “unprofessional appearance” and “beardos.”

This is where we get into that tin-pot general marching around toy soldiers concept again. Because Hegseth has made it clear that not adhering to even more strict grooming standards is somehow damaging to our “war-fighting” ability.

How?

I mean, I haven’t heard anyone saying, “well, if you have a beard, then the beard hairs can get caught in your M250 machine gun and jam it.” Or “If your hair extends over your ears then you can’t properly wear headphones while piloting your chopper” or anything like that.

Nope. It just looks “unprofessional,” all for the sake of “superficial individual expression.” Because individual expression is a menace, even if we dismiss it as “superficial.” It somehow violates the “warrior ethos” (whatever that is), harms discipline, and reduces the ability to effectively war-fight.

Somehow.

The military is always leaning on uniformity (heck, they wear uniforms), but it’s also something that rightfully gets poked fun at when taken to extremes. While having soldiers out in the field wearing jeans and personal t-shirts has some clear problems, having a bit longer hair, or a beard, or some other “superficial individual expression” does nothing to affect the ability to point a gun and shoot it. Nor does it arguably make soldiers less likely to obey orders or have each others’ backs, or love their country.

But it does make the troops look somehow sloppy, and, if your focus is on the optics of being ultra-lethal, ultra-violent, ultra-war-fightable, then utter uniformity is a great way to impress people while on parade. The Soviets knew that. The Germans knew that. Every army that puts on a big parade for their leaders knows that.

If your focus is on the optics.

It’s also useful if you have an ideal as to what a soldier should look like. The problem being, that’s a great way to incorporate personal, idiosyncratic standards. Soldiers should be this tall. Their hair should be this long. Their cheeks should be this smooth. And maybe their skin should be this color. And their external plumbing should be this configuration.

I mean, hair length standards are arbitrary, based on personal taste or prejudice. Why not other prejudices?

Especially when demanding clean-cut faces has its greatest impact on Black male soldiers who are more likely (60% of the population) than white ones to suffer from PFB, which causes painful ingrown hairs when going clean-shaven. Military policy has been to allow medical waivers to allow neat but present beards where needed. New military policy, disdainfully articulated by Hegseth at this meeting, is to kick people out of the military if they need such waivers for over a year. Sure, that means its more likely you’re kicking out Black soldiers than white soldiers, and for something that has no connection to merit, performance, or war-fighting … but does have something with what kind of faces you want to see in the ranks.

Besides, worrying about whether a policy affects Blacks more than whites is “woke,” amirite?

The first of Hegseth’s 10 Department of War directives seemed to make it explicit that he viewed the military as a man’s world. “[E]ach service will ensure that every requirement for every combat [member of service] for every designated combat arms position returns to the highest male standard only,” he said.

Not “the” or “a single” standard. The “male” standard. No discussion of whether that standard is proper or at the needed level. The important part is the “male” standard.

But this is not meant to exclude women. Kind of, anyway:

“This is not about preventing women from serving,” he said “We very much value the impact of female troops. Our female officers and NCOs are the absolute best in the world. But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender-neutral.
“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result, so be it … We’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”

And if you set the bar high enough, you can get rid of all the slimy girls and avoid the girl cooties and make your toy soldiers look even more uniform. Win-win!

All of this, never minding, that Black and female enlistments to the military have been growing in proportion to white male enlistments. Or that the military has been having problems recruiting as many people as they want in the first place. Let’s come up with policies that we know will impact those populations (but not actually improve war-fighting capacity) so that they leave or are kicked out. That’s the ticket.

But, again, we shouldn’t worry about that, because worrying about how a policy (meaningful or not) impacts women vs. men is “woke,” and we shan’t have any of that around here.

“Leading war fighters toward the goals of high, gender-neutral and uncompromising standards in order to forge a cohesive, formidable and lethal Department of War is not toxic,” he said, complaining that words like “bullying”, “hazing” and “toxic” had been “weaponised and bastardised” and had had the effect of undermining commanders’ authority.
“That’s why today at my direction, we’re undertaking a full review of the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying, and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second-guessing.”

I.e., officers and NCOs are tired of being punished for making sexist remarks about female “war-fighters,” or allowing or engaging in abuse of recruits and active serving military in order to “toughen them up,” so we’re going to stop doing that.

I’m sure that will improve recruitment, too.

But that’s part of this whole idea of being macho as the attitude necessary for having the best “war-fighters.” Yelling, bullying, hazing, being toxic — that’s what the current civilian leadership is, pretending to be alpha male bundles of testosterone, so that’s what military leadership should be even more. After all, everyone loves the scenes where Drill Instructors yell at recruits and make them do degrading tasks because that’s the only way to break them (“spare the rod and spoil the child”). If we can’t break them, then how can we send them into US cities to break up protest marches? How can we look at the camera and menacingly tell our “enemies” (whoever they are today) “FOFA” in a manner that elicits more laughter than fear.

“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. But if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said. “We will thank you for your service.”

Which sounds more like the talk you give to employees after a hostile takeover, not what you say to all of your top general officers across your military. Dissent is dishonorable, apparently. But “respect” is also a word foreign to the Trump regime.

So, welcome to your new military, when crafting toy soldiers who look good takes priority over effective leadership (unless it’s leadership that is effecting the new policies); where diversity is a dirty word and policies that discriminate are ignored because of standards designed to discriminate; and where anyone who doesn’t like it is dishonorable, woke, or otherwise unfit.

Good luck, Pete, with providing the military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of our country. But I’m sure they’ll look good parading in front of reviewing stands for the President.

UPDATE: I said I would circle back to Trump’s performance there, what it was of it. After a slow ramble (tiring!) to the stage, he gave a slow, rambling address as well, complaining about ugly ships in the US Navy (and how “we should maybe start thinking about battleships”). He complained about Joe Biden and auto-pens. He complained about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize (yet).

But, good news, of course: he also mentioned how US cities would make great “training ground” for troops, because we are “under invasion from within.”

He encouraged the audience of all the top brass to applaud him and cheer at what he was saying (they didn’t, because that’s the tradition; the military shouldn’t be cheering for or booing against the civilian leadership).

It was truly inspiring.

The Charlie Kirk halo effect continues to expand

The government is threatening media outlets that criticize them. Those outlets are bending knee to those threats.

First people who said positive, celebratory things about Charlie Kirk’s death were targeted by the Right.

Then people who noted that Charlie Kirk shouldn’t have been killed, because killing is wrong, but that, besides that, he was an asshole who said terrible things, were targeted.

Now people who note that Charlie Kirk shouldn’t have been killed, but that the MAGA Right was exploiting his death to (without basis) villify the Left as being responsible for it, were targeted.

And, in all cases, it was just described as retaliation for “comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk.”

Cowardly Disney Caves To Brendan Carr’s Bogus Censorial Threats, Pulling Jimmy Kimmel

There are multiple ways into this story, but almost all of the reporting on what’s happened claims that Disney pulled talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” over comments that Kimmel mad…

www.techdirt.com/2025/09/17/cowardly-disney-caves-to-brendan-carrs-bogus-censorial-threats-pulling-jimmy-kimmel/

What sort of awful things did Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk, reprehensibly celebrating his killing as a good thing?

None. He didn’t do that. He didn’t say anything positive about the killing (he called it murder), and he didn’t even say anything negative about Kirk.

Here is (for the moment) the video of Kimmel’s monologue that landed him in hot water:

He critiqued the MAGA Right about how they were handling the killing (2:03):

We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and put everything they can to score political points from it.

He critiqued Trump on making a bizarro pivot (on actual news video) from how he was holding up in his grief about Charlie Kirk’s death, to bragging about construction on his Big, Beautiful Ballroom (2:26):

I think very good, and by the way you can see over there all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House which is something they’ve been trying to get for 150 years and it’s gonna be a beauty.

Much of the rest of the monologue was poking fun at Trump about a number of other things, which is doubtless why Trump regularly insists on sharing with us his belief that Jimmy Kimmel is not at all funny, even though the ratings say, yeah, he’s pretty funny.

But none of it was celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, suggesting he brought on his death, or even saying anything mean about Charlie Kirk.

But that halo effect keeps getting bigger, and Disney/ABC heard Trump’s head of the FCC, self-proclaimed “First Amendment warrior” Brendan Carr, suggest that ABC’s broadcast license might be yanked over this, or the licenses of ABC affiliates, unless they pulled Kimmel off the air …

I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

and

There’s action we can take on licensed broadcasters. And, frankly, it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast or Disney and say, listen, we are going to preempt, we’re not going to run Kimmel any more until you straighten this out because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.

… and so the biggest affiliates (Sinclair and Nexstar) leaned on Disney/ABC, and Disney/ABC pulled Kimmel off the air.

They didn’t pull him off the air for supporting political violence. They didn’t pull him off the air because he was saying things not supported by the First Amendment.

They pulled him off the air because the US Government threatened them with financial losses if they didn’t. And because, frankly, Nextstar and Sinclair are pretty conservative organizations (remember how Sinclair used to dictate “news” items to its affiliates to read on-air?) who have been eagerly sucking up to Trump, and so this gave them a semi-legit way to leverage Trump’s favor. Even if, based on SCOTUS rulings even within the last year, it’s clear that such an action by the FCC could not stand up, it was easier for Disney/ABC to bow down.

Which will make the next time that much easier, too.

You know, I’m old enough to remember how Americans — especially conservative, Republican Americans — used to deride the Soviet dictatorships for being so sensitive to comedians making fun of their government and leaders. “We have freedom!” they would say. “They have insecure tyranny!”

The derision is on the other foot now.

UPDATE: Carr now says that this was all so terrible of Kimmel because he “appeared to mislead the public” about the background of the Charlie Kirk murderer.

That’s still protected speech.
Kimmel’s comments were plausibly true.
Even if they weren’t, Jimmy Kimmel is a comedian and commentator, not a news reporter.
Charlie Kirk spewed falsehoods and misleading hate speech on a daily basis, and nobody on the Right ever suggested his speech should be suppressed.
Threatening the power of the FCC to yoink broadcast licenses because someone being broadcast by them says something even “misleading” as a political comment — is regulation of political speech, censorship, and a crystal clear violation of the First Amendment.

And YOU get a defamation suit, and YOU get a defamation suit …

Trump is, once again, out to silence critics by suing them for massive damages.

Trump has expanded one front (“the guy with the most money always wins”) of his multi-front war on non-kowtowing media by suing the New York Times for (cue Dr. Evil) $15, accusing them of defaming him.

Donald Trump files $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times

President Donald Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and four of its journalists on Monday, according to court documents.

www.npr.org

What horrible, scurrilous, utterly unfounded, brazenly lying, callously malicious thing did the NYT say?

They said he built his fortune and rep, in part, through fraud.
They printed an interview with retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, his former chief-of-staff, who warned Trump met the definition of fascist.
They credited producer Mark Burnett, not Trump, for the success of The Apprentice.

I suspect it’s that last one that stings Donald most.

The suit is a huge laugh, and is almost a dictionary definition of a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), designed to quell criticism by suing the snot out of anyone who criticizes. In such a suit, the smaller, less-well-funded party (the defendant) has to bankrupt themselves trying to defend the case, or else nearly bankrupt themselves settling and then publicly taking back everything the accuser didn’t like. It’s commonly used by big businesses to silence locals who speak out against their operations or projects. Trump has turned it into a personal weapon against those he doesn’t like.

In this case, though the NYT is a huge corporation, the Dear Leader’s deep pockets seem similarly limitless, especially since any number of wealthy backers (or, worse, already-impoverished-but-fanatical MAGA folk) will be happy to help pay into a Donald Trump Legal Defense Fund.

Indeed, the “smart” thing for the Times to do would be to settle, as so many other targets of Trump’s private and public judicial threats have done. We know how vindictive he can be to anyone who fails to show the level of respect he demands. He will gleefully pursue this suit to the bitter end — and beyond.

On the other hand, maybe the Democratic Party can sue Trump for defamation, based on the assertion in the filing that “Today, the Times is a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democrat Party.” I know a lot of Democrats who instead consider the NYT a namby-pamby centrist rag, so eager to seem impartial and above the fray that they both-sides the most ridiculous things. Not even the Dems are inept enough to run a propaganda operation that way, and implying they are is, thus, defamation.

Or maybe I can sue Trump for defamation. After all, he regularly posts things like this:

[blah blah blah mindless drivel blah blah] your Favorite President (ME!)

I find it deeply offensive that someone would accuse me of holding Trump (HIM!) as my Favorite President. Indeed, I believe this clearly and maliciously defames my intelligence, sanity, morality, taste, and patriotism.

I’m pretty sure I have a case. All I’m lacking is a herd of lickspittle attorneys and the implicit power of the US Government.

Charlie Kirk should be forgotten, not lionized

Killing people is bad. “Nil nisi bonum” is also bad.

Charlie Kirk should not have been killed because killing humans is, as a rule, wrong and evil. There are arguable exceptions for that — self-defense against an immediately dangerous threat being the most accepted — but even then, killing should be taken seriously and not celebrated.

But that doesn’t mean he deserves (more than any other murder victim) a moment of prayer on the US House floor, or to have the US VP escort his body home on Air Force 2, or to be given Presidential Medals. Charlie Kirk was sorry, maliciouis, bellicose excuse for a human, and his message of grievance, contempt, and hatred will not be missed (if only because others will continue to shriek it).

Kirk hated — and would gleefully have seen unequalized, ghettoized, jailed, committed, or killed — racial and ethnic minorities, Jews and other non-Christians, LGBTQ folk, and more. His speech was hate speech, plain and simple, full of wishes for violence and oppression of those he loathed. Ironically, the use of violence to silence his opponents would be right on brand for him (another indicator of why it’s wrong).

Charlie Kirk should not have been killed, but he should, in any rational, civilized, and sane society have been ostracized. He deserves to sink into the silent cess pit of forgotten demagogues.

Quotations on Elections and Character

Time for my quadrennial quoting of folk who have something to say about the US elections

I maintain a website of quotations, so once every four years or so I dip into the grab bag there for other people’s profound words about elections and voting and the like.

This year I had two classes of quotes I picked: ones about character (and, just to be clear, Donald Trump’s lack of anything that can be considered the sort of character you want to have in a US President, or even your McDonalds’ fry wrangler), and ones about voting and participation (and why it’s important).

Here’s what I had to say, cleverly covered up by other people saying it.

Character, and What We Do/Don’t Want in a President’s

If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something wrong against your interest.

¶ Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.

¶ Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
(Attributed)

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

¶ Henry Wallace (1888-1965) American politician, journalist, farmer, businessman
“The Danger of American Fascism,” New York Times (1944-04-09)

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions — without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch.

¶ Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-01-06), “State of the Union [Four Freedoms Speech],” Washington, D. C.

Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, “His color is not mine,” or “His beliefs are strange and different,” in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears created this Nation.

¶ Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.

Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.

¶ Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
Interview with Edgar Puryear (1963-02-15)

A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.

¶ John Paul Stevens (1920-2019) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1975-2010)
Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) [dissenting]

Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

¶ John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
(Attributed)

If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled “subordinates,” then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.

¶ Dee W. Hock (b. 1929) American businessman
“Unit of One Anniversary Handbook,” Fast Company (1997-02-28)

The best foreign policy is to live our daily lives in honesty, decency, and integrity; at home, making our own land a more fitting habitation for free men; and abroad, joining with those of like mind and heart, to make of the world a place where all men can dwell in peace.

¶ Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Inaugural Gabriel Silver lecture, Columbia University (1950-03-23)

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us — recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:
First, were we truly men of courage — with the courage to stand up to one’s enemies — and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one’s associates — the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?
Secondly, were we truly men of judgment — with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past — of our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others — with enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it.
Third, were we truly men of integrity — men who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in us — men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?
Finally, were we truly men of dedication — with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?
Courage — judgment — integrity — dedication — these are the historic qualities […] which, with God’s help […] will characterize our Government’s conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.

¶ John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech (1961-01-09), Massachusetts legislature, Boston

You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.

¶ Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-28), “Faith in Liberalism,” State Committee of the Liberal Party, New York City

You see the thing you have to remember. When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one-gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency, and you’ve got to keep yourself separate from that in your mind. If you can’t keep the two separate, yourself and the Presidency, you’re in all kinds of trouble.

¶ Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, ch. 15 (1973)

Dishonor in public life has a double poison. When people are dishonorable in private business, they injure only those with whom they deal or their own chances in the next world. But when there is a lack of honor in Government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

¶ Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Speech (1951-08-30), “Concerning Honor in Public Life,” Iowa Centennial Celebration (national radio broadcast), Des Moines

The only way of really finding out a man’s true character is to play golf with him. In no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself.

¶ P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) Anglo-American humorist, playwright and lyricist [Pelham Grenville Wodehouse]
“Ordeal by Golf,” Collier’s Magazine (1919-12-06)

Precisely in trifles, wherein a man is off his guard, does he show his character, and then we are often able at our leisure to observe in small actions or mere mannerisms the boundless egoism which has not the slightest regard for others and in matters of importance does not afterwards deny itself, although it is disguised. We should never miss such an opportunity. If in the petty affairs and circumstances of everyday life, in the things to which the de minimis lex non curat applies, a man acts inconsiderately, seeking merely his own advantage or convenience to the disadvantage of others; if he appropriates that which exists for everybody; then we may be sure that there is no justice in his heart, but that he would be a scoundrel even on a large scale if his hands were not tied by law and authority; we should not trust him across our threshold. Indeed, whoever boldly breaks the laws of his own circle will also break those of the State whenever he can do so without risk.

¶ Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 1, “Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life [Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit],” ch. 4 “Counsels and Maxims [Paränesen und Maximen],” § 3.29 (1851) [tr. Payne (1974)]

Something of a person’s character may be discovered by observing when and how he smiles. Some people never smile; they grin.

¶ Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, vol. 2 (1862)

We can have no better clue to a man’s character than the company he keeps.

¶ Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Discourses on Livy, Book 3, ch. 34 (1517) [tr. Thomson (1883)]

Voting and Democracy and Participation and Elections

Build movements. Vote with your values, but vote strategically. Voting isn’t a Valentine. It’s a chess move.

¶ Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961) American writer, historian, activist
Facebook (2016-10-17)

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. And when a nation has to fight for its freedom, it can only hope to win if it possesses certain qualities: honesty, courage, loyalty, vision and self-sacrifice. If it does not possess them, it has only itself to blame if it loses its freedom.

¶ W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
Strictly Personal, § 30 (1941)

Of course I vote! If you’re a woman, or a person of color, or a person who doesn’t own property, or even a white male who doesn’t belong to the nobility, centuries of struggle and many deaths have bought you the right to vote. I vote to keep faith with peasant rebels and suffragist hunger strikers and civil rights workers braving the lynch mobs of the South, if for no other reason. But there is another reason — because who we vote for has an enormous impact on real peoples’ lives.

¶ Starhawk (b. 1951) American writer, activist, feminist theologian [b. Miriam Simos]
Blog post (2016-11-07), “Pre-Election Day Thoughts”

Monarchy is like a sleek craft, it sails along well until some bumbling captain runs it into the rocks. Democracy, on the other hand, is like a raft. It never goes down but, dammit, your feet are always wet.

¶ Fisher Ames (1758-1808) American politician, orator
(Attributed)

The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.

¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1859-09-16), Columbus, Ohio

Another point of disagreement [with Lesser Evil Voting] is not factual but involves the ethical/moral principle […] sometimes referred to as the “politics of moral witness.” Generally associated with the religious left, secular leftists implicitly invoke it when they reject LEV on the grounds that “a lesser of two evils is still evil.” Leaving aside the obvious rejoinder that this is exactly the point of lesser evil voting — i.e. to do less evil, what needs to be challenged is the assumption that voting should be seen a form of individual self-expression rather than as an act to be judged on its likely consequences. […] The basic moral principle at stake is simple: not only must we take responsibility for our actions, but the consequences of our actions for others are a far more important consideration than feeling good about ourselves.

¶ Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) American linguist and activist
“An Eight Point Brief for LEV (Lesser Evil Voting)” (2016-06-15) [with John Halle]

Bad officials are elected by good people who do not vote.

¶ George Jean Nathan (1892-1958) American editor and critic
(Attributed)

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government is to live under the government of worse men.

¶ Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Republic, Book 1, 347c

Plato quote

I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure. I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. Nor do most people — all the people who believe advertisements, and think in catchwords and spread rumours. The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.

¶ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Essay (1943-08-27), “Equality,” The Spectator

CALVIN: When I grow up, I’m not going to read the newspaper and I’m not going to follow complex issues and I’m not going to vote. That way I can complain when the government doesn’t represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn’t work and justify my further lack of participation.
HOBBES: An ingeniously self-fulfilling plan.
CALVIN: It’s a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1992-05-18)

Calvin and Hobbes comic

Catering to the torches and pitchforks encourages more torches and pitchforks

And weakening the rule of law out of fear doesn’t make anyone any safer

Timothy Snyder has a good piece here on the dangers involved in the “commentariat” pushing SCOTUS to a “pitchfork” ruling on Colorado ‘s pushing Trump off the ballot. By saying Colorado Supreme Court should be overruled because its ruling is “divisive” or will “inflame” the January 6th folk who were carrying around virtual torches and pitchforks, the politicos and pundits on both sides of the aisle would fundamentally weaken the rule of law … and simply encourage the folk waving pitchforks to wave them more, knowing they will get their way.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-pitchfork-ruling

The Pitchfork Ruling

The Trap the Commentariat Sets for the Court

snyder.substack.com/p/the-pitchfork-ruling

The Pro-Active Pardon

Haley and DeSantis belittle the rule of law by preemptively declaring they would pardon Trump were they elected President

Is it must me, or is there something deeply unserious about both Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis pledging they would, of course, pardon Trump of any federal convictions. Regardless of any further evidence. Regardless of what judges and/or juries decide.

Sure, DeSantis insists it’s just akin of Ford pardoning Nixon to help “re-unite a divided country.” Except, pardoning Trump wouldn’t reunite anything. For Trump opponents it would be seen as complete and utter politics. For Trump, and his mob, it would be taken as an exoneration. And Trump would be stirring up the next insurrection, unabashed and emboldened.

Ford could barely get away with pardoning Nixon — and, in fact, it sank his chances of a second term — because he was respected and liked going into the job, and wasn’t seen as being part of Nixon’s corrupt coterie. He was deeply criticized for poor judgment in pardoning Nixon, but it wasn’t seen as as partisan corruption. That would hardly apply to either Haley or DeSantis doing the same thing for Trump — especially, in the circumstances they describe, he would already be convicted, something Nixon never was.

Do I really think that Haley and DeSantis think Trump shouldn’t be punished for what he did, or that they are seeking some sort of cleansing national unity? Of course not. At the most obvious, they are hoping to garner presidential votes by appealing to the Trumpist mob. More likely, they simply want to tee themselves up as being part of the MAGA movement that, however the election in November turns out, will propel them to future power.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/31/desantis-haley-pledge-pardon-trump-if-hes-convicted/

Lindsey folds. Again.

Lindsey Graham deserves to either be remembered forever, or forgotten forever.

As Lindsey Graham takes the last, squishy bits of spine he had left, carefully places it in Ziplok bag, and leaves it in the back of Trump ‘s fridge, somewhere between 2003 KFC leftovers and a container of Putin’s favorite borscht.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4383307-graham-backtracks-on-earlier-jan-6-criticism-of-trump-it-depends-on-what-the-conduct-is/

Graham backtracks on earlier Jan. 6 criticism of Trump: ‘It depends on what the conduct is’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday appeared to backtrack on earlier criticism of former President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 and suggested instead that his presidential immunity defense was “a l…

thehill.com/homenews/senate/4383307-graham-backtracks-on-earlier-jan-6-criticism-of-trump-it-depends-on-what-the-conduct-is/

Trump just likes being mean to people

Trump’s rule: If you don’t have something nice to say about someone, say it even louder.

I find it difficult to believe that Trump has particular feelings, one way or the other, over care and treatment of transgender kids, except that it makes a convenient cudgel for him to rile up the troops.

“DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left. No wonder he gets loudly booed in Ohio every time I introduce him at Rallies, but I won’t be introducing him any more. I’m finished with this ‘stiff.’ What was he thinking.”

I mean, DeWine is about as reliably Right as you can find. But after taking the time to look at what the Ohio lege’s gender-affirming health care ban would do, he took a principled stand and said, “No, this is going to hurt people.”

Which just teed him up for Trump’s criticism because, hey, hurting people is what Donald is all about.

https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4382804-trump-hits-ohio-governor-over-veto-on-proposed-gender-affirming-health-care-ban/

Trump hits Ohio governor over veto on proposed gender-affirming health care ban

Former President Trump went after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for vetoing a proposed ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender minors Saturday. “DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left,” Trum…

thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4382804-trump-hits-ohio-governor-over-veto-on-proposed-gender-affirming-health-care-ban/

“Presidential Immunity for me but not for thee”

Trump says that if he doesn’t get full immunity, he’ll prosecute Biden without it. “Merry Christmas”

Short Trump: “Presidents get total immunity. But only me. Biden I will totally prosecute for shit.”

What an asshole.

“Trump rails against special counsel Jack Smith in Christmas Eve posts”

The former president said Biden would be prosecuted without presidential immunity for the way he handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and his handling of the U.S. southern border.
Trump said in another post that Smith is one of Biden’s “misfits and thugs” who are going after him “at levels of persecution never seen before in our country.”
“It’s called election interference. Merry Christmas!” Trump said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4376510-trump-rails-against-special-counsel-jack-smith-in-christmas-eve-posts/

Trump rails against special counsel Jack Smith in Christmas Eve posts

Former President Trump railed against special counsel Jack Smith again in Christmas Eve posts on his Truth Social account. Trump claimed in one Truth Social post that he is “fully entitled” t…

thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4376510-trump-rails-against-special-counsel-jack-smith-in-christmas-eve-posts/

The Unbearable GOPness of Being Earl

Earl is the recipient of more GOP awards than you can imagine. Also, he’s a deadbeat.

Some time in the shadows of the past … the Republican Party decided I was Earl.

I am not, in fact, Earl. But, based on my mobile phone number, receiving texts, they think I am. Oddly enough, they also think I live in the ZIP code where I work.

After a week or two of getting 5-6 texts a day, I set the texting number to spam, so it didn’t show up in my notifications … but it continued to download, and when I upgraded my phone, the spam setting got lost, meaning I was subject to a flood of Earl texts.

Looking at them this time around, they’re actually kind of fascinating. Yes, I have gotten enough Democratic Party texts to realize that this is not just a GOP thang. But on reviewing them in bulk, a few fascinating trends still stand out:

MONEY. The important thing is getting money. Not swaying Earl to particular partisan positions, or rooting for (or against) particular people, but getting Earl to send the GOP … MONEY.
But, for the most part, that’s not done by appealing to Earl as a recruit in ideological beliefs. It’s done by making Earl part of the team … the few … the chosen … the elite.
There’s lots of urgency, though. Earl must donate right now or else he, and the country, but most importantly he, will lose something important.
There’s a fair amount of shaming that goes on. When Earl doesn’t answer the call, the disappointment, the sadness, the bewildered loss, is palpable.
On the other hand, there’s plenty of carrot to go with the shaming stick. No matter what Earl does (or, in this case, doesn’t) donate, the GOP is always willing to honor him for purported past glory and as someone really important to the cause.

In short, it’s a campaign very little about politics, and very much about tribes, and the shame of not supporting the tribe, or the righteous and acknowledged joy of doing so.

Bear in mind, Earl’s texts have been coming to my phone for months, 4-5 times a day. Unless he’s giving through other paths, he hasn’t been a Loyal, Stalwart Supporter from this firehose. But the algorithm throws out carrots and sticks regardless of what Earl does. Earl is just a cog in the Great Money Machine that is the Republican Base.

Here is the saga of Earl over the course of January, with links and other identifying markers (except the name!) scrubbed.

Ronna McDaniel: Happy New Year from everyone at the Republican National Committee!
May 2023 be a year filled with blessings & good fortune.

One of a passing few messages without a link to send money.

You’ve been given a 30 MINUTE EXTENSION to activate your 5000% IMPACT INCREASE! What are you waiting for?? CLAIM: (link)

Only 30 minutes more to give money? Noooooo!

Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

Wow! A Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase! I’ve always wanted to make an impact …

In recognition of all you’ve done for the GOP, please accept this GOP Golden Elephant! It even comes with a 300% IMPACT INCREASE: (link)

Oh, no! I lost my 5000% impact increase. Oh, wait, three hours later …

Your 5000% IMPACT INCREASE was just extended. Claim it NOW & help CRUSH our Extended End-of-Year Goal! Act NOW >> (link)
You’ve been granted access to our 2023 Platform Audit before almost ANY OTHER PATRIOT. Make your voice HEARD >> (link)

I guarantee that, after I audit the platform, the party will ask me for money.

Earl, YOU’VE BEEN UPGRADED! To confirm your Republican Diamond Club Status, press HERE >> (link)

Republican Diamond Status! Wow! I wonder what it takes to actually confirm that …?

Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

Again?

We CRUSHED our End-of-Year fundraising goal! To show our gratitude, we’ve EXTENDED your 5000% IMPACT until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. ACT: (link)

Hey, I’m back to 5000% Impact!

OFFER EXTENDED! There’s still time to claim your 5000% impact increase & help CRUSH our Extended End-of-Year Goal. Act: (link)
INFORMATION REQUESTED: Your response to the Republican Verification Canvass will represent the ENTIRE (ZIPcode) area! Answer: (link)

I find it interesting that the GOP thinks I (Earl) live in the ZIP code of where my office is. It is, indeed, a fairly high-income and likely Republican population. Which makes it a bit weird that I (Earl) will get to represent the entire ZIP code’s population in myh answers to the Republican Verification Caucus.

Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)

Only one hour! Eek!

You’ve been given a 30 MINUTE EXTENSION to activate your 5000% IMPACT INCREASE! What are you waiting for?? CLAIM: (link)

Wait, that’s a bigger impact, but a different time of increase, but it isn’t part of a Lifetime Achievement Award. I feel so confused!

DON’T MISS OUT! We need YOU to take the Presidential Preference Poll & help select our NEXT Republican Presidential nominee. ACT >> (link)

Are you suggesting that the national party actually selects the candidate, not the state primaries and caucuses? Weird!

EXTENDED OFFER: Claim 5000% IMPACT on ALL contributions to prepare the Republican Party for 2023! DEADLINE: MIDNIGHT >> (link)

My 5000% is back! But with a new, even closer deadline!

In recognition of all you’ve done for the GOP, please accept this GOP Golden Elephant! It even comes with a 300% IMPACT INCREASE: (link)

Another GOP Golden Elephant? Or is this the same one? Is it 300% of 5000%, or is this a different offer? It’s all coming too fast (or too slowly, every 3 hours or so).

Your 5000% IMPACT INCREASE was just extended. Claim it NOW & help CRUSH our Extended End-of-Year Goal! Act NOW >> (link)
FINAL REMINDER
Your Republican Advisory Board offer will be REVOKED unless you ACT >> (link)

Oh, no! I will be thrown out of the tribe!

You won! The GOP selected you to receive a 5000%-IMPACT extension! We only give out a few per month! Active for 30 MIN. CLAIM PRIZE: (link)

I feel very special. One of the very few to get that 5000% Impact Extension Prizes!

CHOSEN, Earl. The Republican Party chose you for a personal 5000%-IMPACT Extension. Are you going to claim it? Donate NOW: (link)

At last, an actual call to Donate.

We trust that YOUR opinions represent the ENTIRE (ZIP code) area! Take the 2023 Republican Platform Audit NOW >> (link)

I suspect MY opinions, in fact, do not.

ATTENTION CANDIDATE: Complete the GOP’s Official Survey to join the Republican Advisory Board. DEADLINE: MIDNIGHT TONIGHT >> (link)

The Republican Advisory Board? I will be able to advise Republicans if I just complete an Official Survey? Wow!

You’ve been given a 30 MINUTE EXTENSION to activate your 5000% IMPACT INCREASE! What are you waiting for??
CLAIM: (link)

What, in fact, am I waiting for?

You didn’t respond to our last text. We selected the BEST PATRIOTS for a 50X-IMPACT Extension. You’re the last 1 remaining! Donate: (link)

Oh my God! Of all the BEST PATRIOTS, I am (and I am sure I can believe this) the only one who didn’t respond to that 50X (or 5000%, whichever sound more impressive) impact extension. The shame of it!

Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

But even if I didn’t give any money from this number for many, many months, I get a Lifetime Achievement ( and all-important Impact Increase) … this feels like a mixed message.

Is this still Earl’s number? You STILL haven’t told us. Who do you want to see in the White House?
Respond HERE>> (link)

Oh, no! They’re onto me!

Membership Pending: Complete the GOP’s Official Survey & secure 1 of the last remaining spots on the Republican Advisory Board. >> (link)

But I’m still being offered one of the last remaining spots!

PLEASE CONFIRM
To accept your GOP Gold Club Membership, press HERE >> (link)
ABBOTT OR BIDEN: Who do YOU think is handling the border crisis better? Tell us HERE >> (link)

Ooooh. Tough call. I’m sure that Earl would be a much more impartial observer of this than me.

You’ve been given a 30 MINUTE EXTENSION to activate your 5000% IMPACT INCREASE! What are you waiting for?? CLAIM: (link)
Take the Congressional Agenda Survey & tell us what Republicans should focus on! 1 HR.
Act NOW >> (link)
You are officially invited to join the Republican Diamond Club. Claim your membership HERE >> (link)

My cup runneth over.

This is your opportunity to provide the GOP with critical insight into YOUR AREA! Complete the 2023 Platform Audit HERE: (link)
Better late than never! Welcome Biden to the border for the FIRST time by signing our Southern Border Postcard! Add your name NOW: (link)
INFORMATION REQUESTED: Your response to the Republican Verification Canvass will represent the ENTIRE (ZIP code) area! Answer NOW: (link)
As a respected conservative leader, we need to hear from YOU. Fill out your Republican Sample Ballot NOW: (link)
Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)
Looking to make a HUGE difference for the Republican Party? Join the GOP Gold Club before your invitation EXPIRES: (link)

Audits! Post cards! Sample ballots! Lifetime Achievement Awards! Gold Club invites! Who can possibly deserve all this attention?

Is it time to end Biden’s FAILED POLICIES & secure our southern border? 1 HR to respond. Take the poll NOW >> (link)

I suspect this may not be a broadly representative poll.

Border numbers are in, and the crisis is continuing to spiral out of control! Is it time to END THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS? Vote NOW >> (link)

Gosh, if the crisis is continuing to spiral out of control … well, yeah, I guess it’s time to end the crisis.

Earl, it’s time to fill out your Republican Sample Ballot. You can do that HERE >> (link)
Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

I am, in fact, a winner! The GOP texts tell me so!

Are you awake, Earl? We chose YOU to join the Republican Advisory Board, but you FAILED to accept the spot! Hurry & claim: (link)

I feel so ashamed!

Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)

Wait, I’m down to only a 250% increase! Oh, no!

We are sending results from the Presidential Preference Poll to GOP leaders in 1 HR. Can I include your name, Earl?
Act: (link)

Wow … the GOP leaders will see my name? Wow!

This is SAD! We selected YOU to complete our 2023 Audit, but you NEVER RESPONDED. Take the Platform Audit NOW >> (link)

I feel so ashamed. The GOP doesn’t love me any more.

Earl, YOU’VE BEEN UPGRADED! To confirm your Republican Diamond Club Status, press HERE >> (link)

The GOP loves me again!

As a respected conservative leader, we need to hear from YOU. Fill out your Republican Sample Ballot NOW: (link)

That feels a bit blunt.

Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in your area & never responded! Fill out your Republican sample Ballot: (link)

OMG, I was SELECTED but never responded! What madness seized me?

Your Congressional Agenda Survey is ENCLOSED. We need your response in 1 HR! Complete HERE: (link)
Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

They love me.

IS YOUR PHONE OFF? You were HAND-SELECTED to represent the (ZIP code) area & NEVER RESPONDED! Take the 2023 Platform Audit NOW: (link)

They love me not.

LEVEL UP!
You’ve reached ELITE company by qualifying for the Republican Diamond Club! Join NOW >> (link)

They love me.

We’re sending results from the Presidential Preference Poll to GOP leaders in 1 HR. Can I include your name, Earl?
Act: (link)

Again, my name!

This is SAD! We selected YOU to complete our 2023 Audit, but you NEVER RESPONDED. Take the Platform Audit NOW >> (link)

I am ashamed!

You satisfied all the criteria for an RNC MERIT BADGE! Accept your award, and 200% INCREASE, before it EXPIRES >> (link)
Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)
As a respected conservative leader, we need to hear from YOU.
Fill out your Republican Sample Ballot NOW: (link)
Earl, YOU’VE BEEN UPGRADED!
To confirm your Republican Diamond Club Status, Press HERE >> (link)
We chose YOU! As our BEST PATRIOT, we want you to represent your area & take the Congressional Agenda Survey. Take it NOW >> (link)

Ha! Even though I never responded to the 2023 Audit (SAD!), I got a merit badge, a Lifetime Achievement Award, a Sample Ballot, A Diamond Club Status, and was chosen as a BEST PATRIOT! So there, 2023 Audit!

MISSING INFORMATION: Your response to the Republican Verification Canvass will represent the ENTIRE (zip code) area! Complete NOW: (link)

This is SAD! We selected YOU to complete our 2023 Audit, but you NEVER RESPONDED. Take the Platform Audit NOW >> (link)

Wait, has the 2023 Audit seized control of GOP opinion of me?

Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

Nope! I won! HA!

Should gas stoves be BANNED!?! 1 HR to take the official GOP Poll.
Act NOW >> (link)

So is this policy decision to be based on … polls? Let’s take a survey on the speed limit, too!

But, credit where credit is due, this is an actual policy question. Wow!

Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in your area & never responded! Fill out your Republican sample Ballot: (link)
Are you awake, Earl? We chose YOU to join the Republican Advisory Board, but you FAILED to accept the spot! Hurry & claim: (link)

They’re onto me!

Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)

I get an increase? Wow! Such a gift for my lifetime achievement!

We are sending results from the Presidential Preference Poll to GOP leaders in 1 HOUR. Can I include your name, Earl? Act: (link)
Did Biden LIE about the “misplaced” classified documents? Poll closes in 1 HR! Vote NOW >> (link)

I’m sure that poll will be considered very important.

And the award goes to … YOU, Earl! Accept your GOP Golden Elephant HERE >> (link)
This is the HIGHEST rank the Republican Party can bestow, Earl. Accept your RNC Merit Badge HERE >> (link)

The HIGHEST rank!

INFORMATION REQUESTED: Your response to the Republican Verification Canvass will represent the ENTIRE (zip code) area! Answer NOW: (link)

Wow!

This is SAD! We selected YOU to complete our 2023 Audit, but you NEVER RESPONDED. Take the Platform Audit NOW >> (link)

Oh, no!

Jim Jordan has announced plans to investigate Big Tech’s COLLUSION with the Biden Administration. Sign the petition NOW & SUPPORT >> (link)

I’m sure that Jim Jordan will base his strategy on what Earl has to say.

Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in CO & never responded! Take the Republican Verification Canvass: (link)

Oh no!

You satisfied all the criteria for an RNC MERIT BADGE! Accept your award, and 200% INCREASE, before it EXPIRES >> (link)

Tell me more about those rigorous criteria!

The (ZIP code) area will be KEY to taking back the White House. Will you take the Presidential Preference Poll? 1 HR: (link)
Conservatives are working to EXPOSE the Radical Left & need your help. Sign up for the Republican Diamond Club before it’s too late! (link)
Are you awake, Earl??
We chose YOU to join the Republican Advisory Board, but you FAILED to accept your spot! CLAIM >> (link)
This is the HIGHEST rank the Republican Party can bestow, Earl. Accept your RNC Merit Badge HERE >> (link)
INFORMATION REQUESTED: Your response to the Republican Verification Canvass will represent the ENTIRE (zip code) area! Answer NOW: (link)
Earl, we’ve never done this for anyone. We reopened the Patriot Life Membership list for the next 20MIN. Claim your spot: (link)

“20MIN!”

The results you provide us will play an important role in our CO strategy. Help stop the Democrats’ agenda! >> (link)
We’ve texted you SO MANY TIMES! Please, Earl, we NEED your name on our Petition to FIGHT Big Tech COLLUSION!
Sign HERE: (link)
Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)

There are those mixed messages again.

Have a drink on us! Celebrate America & the GOP by showing off these elegant GOP Whiskey Glasses! There’s a limited supply, so ACT: (link)

There’s actually been a remarkable lack of swag solicitation until this text. Kind of weird that the GOP is pushing drinking as their gauge of elegance.

MISSING INFORMATION: Your response to the Republican Verification Canvass will represent the ENTIRE (ZIP code) area! Complete NOW: (link)

Wow. so not asking many people, I guess.

We’ve texted you SO MANY TIMES! Please, Earl, we NEED your name on our Petition to FIGHT Big Tech COLLUSION! Sign HERE: (link)
Should gas stoves be BANNED!?! 1 HR to take the official GOP Poll. Act NOW >> (link)
Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)
HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO ASK? Submit your Republican Sample Ballot! We’ve asked you SO MANY TIMES!
Act NOW >> (link)

But will you ever stop asking?

Do you want Pres. Trump to return to Facebook & Twitter? Vote NOW >> (link)

Wait, I get a vote on that? Has someone told Zuck and Elon?

To: Your GOP Nominee
From: Earl
Happy Valentine’s Day!
*Autograph your name HERE -> (link)

Wait … how do you know who my choice of nominee is?

Republican leaders have selected YOU for our Lifetime Achievement Award! Your award even comes with a 250% INCREASE! 1 HR to ACCEPT: (link)

Can I get a list of those leaders?

This is SAD! We selected YOU to complete our 2023 Audit, but you NEVER RESPONDED. Take the Platform Audit NOW >> (link)
This is the HIGHEST rank the Republican Party can bestow, Earl. Accept your RNC Merit Badge HERE >> (link)

Mixed messages, Ronna.

Earl, we’ve never done this for anyone. We just reopened the Patriot Life Membership list for the next 20MIN. Claim: (link)

Never done it for anyone!

Guess what Earl?? YOU WON! Accept your Lifetime Achievement Award & Impact Increase NOW >> (link)

Understandable how I won such an award, since you also reopened the Patriot Life Membership list!

Republicans MUST achieve success in 2024! Support the BRAND-NEW Take Back the White House Fund! Donate NOW >> (link)

This message seems positively pedestrian.

We’ve texted you SO MANY TIMES! Please, Earl, we NEED your name on our Petition to FIGHT Big Tech COLLUSION! Sign HERE: (link)
Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in your area & never responded! Fill out your Republican sample Ballot: (link)

Oh, no!

This is the HIGHEST rank the Republican Party can bestow, Earl. Accept your RNC Merit Badge HERE >> (link)
This MUST be wrong, right? We have you marked as “Not Listed” for holding Big Tech ACCOUNTABLE. If this is wrong, fix it here: (link)
GOOD NEWS: A spot opened up & you’re officially invited to become a Patriot Life Member. Claim offer NOW >> (link)
Are you awake, Earl??
We chose YOU to join the Republican Advisory Board, but you FAILED to accept your spot! CLAIM: (link)

Getting whiplash here. Am I a disgusting, unawake (un-Woke?!) layabout, or am I a recipient of a Merit Badge, an invitation to be a Patriot Life Member (filling that rare open spot!), and an invitation to join the Republican Advisory Board?

FIRST Democrats wanted to BAN your gas-powered vehicles, NOW they want to BAN your gas stove.
Had enough? ACT: (link)

And those disgusting Democrats managed to do those things without actually doing them! The nerve!

Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in CO & never responded! Take the Republican Verification Canvass: (link)
We’ve texted you SO MANY TIMES! Please, Earl, we NEED your name on our Petition to FIGHT Big Tech COLLUSION! Sign HERE: (link)
You were nominated over almost ANY OTHER PATRIOT in CO for the GOP Golden Elephant! Why haven’t you accepted? CLAIM >> (link)
This is SAD! We selected YOU to complete our 2023 Audit, but you NEVER RESPONDED. Take the Platform Audit NOW >> (link)

I feel so ashamed, because you wanted me so badly and I never called.

The RNC Award Committee selected YOU for our highly coveted GOP Golden Elephant! Claim your benefits HERE: (link)

All is forgiven!

Ronna McDaniel: I’m proud to share I was re-elected to run the RNC for another cycle! Will you help build momentum for 2024? ACT >> (link)

Why is it you’ve lost momentum, Ronna?

Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in your area & never responded! Fill out your Republican sample Ballot: (link)
Earl! Where’s your response to the Presidential Preference Poll?? Complete HERE: (link)

Uh-oh!

You’ve been PRE-SELECTED! Claim your 600% INCREASE & help CRUSH our End-of-Month Goal! 1 HR >> (link)

Well, if you’re only going to offer a 600% Increase, rather than a 2000% Increase like earlier this month, why should I pay any attention to you?

You were nominated over almost ANY OTHER PATRIOT in CO for the GOP Golden Elephant! Why haven’t you accepted? CLAIM >> (link)
HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO ASK? Submit your Republican Sample Ballot! We’ve asked you SO MANY TIMES!
Act NOW >> (link)

I’m beginning to think you’re onto me!

We’ve RARELY do this, Earl. You’ve been CHOSEN to become 1 of the FIRST to receive the GOP’s 600% IMPACT Offer.
Claim: (link)

I’m not sure it’s all that rare, to be honest, looking at your history over the course of the month.

Are you awake, Earl? We chose YOU to join the Republican Advisory Board, but you FAILED to accept your spot! Claim NOW: (link)

Oh, no! Will they still have a quorum?

NOTICE: The GOP upped your impact to 650% for 1 HOUR. Don’t share. This special link is for you only, Earl. Donate: (link)

Oooh … I get my own, special, unique link, which is incremented one tick from the link on the previous text message.

Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in CO & never responded! Take the Republican Verification Canvass: (link)

How exactly would I have represented them?

For the FIRST TIME in 2023: We’re activating an End-of-Month IMPACT INCREASE!
Find out how much: (link)

Yes, it’s incredible how at the end of the first month in 2023, you are activating an end-of-month fundraising thing for the first time in 2023!

Earl, we never do this for anyone. We just reopened the Patriot Life Membership list for the next 20MIN. Claim your spot: (link)

“20MIN!”

We just released our FINAL LIST of Lifetime Achievement Award Nominees! See if you made the cut >> (link)

I’ll betcha I did, if I donate something.

You were nominated over almost ANY OTHER PATRIOT in CO for the GOP Golden Elephant! Why haven’t you accepted?
CLAIM >> (link)

Does it come with an actual elephant? Because that would be awesome.

Earl, Our End-of-Month goal is CRUCIAL to taking back the White House. EVERY CENT counts. Will you chip in? 700% Impact: (link)

That is a remarkably mundane fund-raising request.

HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO ASK? Submit your Republican Sample Ballot! We’ve asked you SO MANY TIMES! Act NOW >> (link)
You’re in the 95th percentile of ALL our supporters. Will you keep your TOP spot? Contribute ASAP for a 700% IMPACT! HURRY >> (link)

Oh, no! I might lose my top spot of contributors! Eeek!

Earl, we never do this for anyone. We just reopened the Patriot Life Membership list for the next 20MIN. Claim your spot: (link)

Didn’t you just do that a few days ago?

Make your FIRST EVER contribution of 2023 & help Republicans keep pace so we can CRUSH our fundraising goal. Act NOW >> (link)

So it’s good (for certain values of “good”) to know that the texts aren’t completely random, but that there’s some tracking of contributions going on.

We’ve authorized a 750% IMPACT for the NEXT HR to help CRUSH our End-of-Month goal! This offer is for YOU, Earl.
Claim: (link)

Where’s that 2000% one? I know you can do it, GOP!

Earl! Where is your response to the Presidential Preference Poll??
Complete HERE: (link)
This is the HIGHEST rank the Republican Party can bestow, Earl. Accept your RNC Merit Badge HERE >> (link)
Is something wrong? You were SELECTED to represent the GOP in your area & never responded! Fill out your Republican sample Ballot: (link)

And again with the mixed messages.

One final note. The link on each text was slightly different, incrementing alphabetically (/aca, /acb, /acc, /acd …). Thus, if Earl clicked on a given text, the GOP would know which one made him actually click.

I’m sure there’s nothing they’d do with that information.

At any rate, while I suppose I should feel faintly guilty for keeping Earl from his Very Important Texts and Opportunities to Accept Rewards and Respond to Surveys and Give Money … I can’t also help feeling that Earl might be a bit more relaxed without the GOP sending his text messages every 3-4 hours.

Until he sends them money and gives them his actual mobile number.

Yes, Putin is acting because he sees weakness. But …

… it’s not the weakness that the GOP is nattering about

After decades of on-again, off-again muttering, Vladimir Putin has sent his Russia (and his Belarus) to invade his neighbor, Ukraine. There are a lot of internal reasons for him to be doing this — NATO expansion is not one of them, but his own sense of mortality and history more likely are — but the result is arguably the largest military operation on European soil since the end of WW2. And it’s a conflict that will not only mean blood and suffering in the Ukraine, but further weaken the bonds of the international order and trigger further wars, if not in Europe then elsewhere.

One of the most amazing elements of the whole tragic affair so far, though, has been this sort of thing:

House GOP weakness tweet — Stay classy and patriotic, House GOP

I mean, clearly, the era of “partisanship stops at the water’s edge” is long over (if it ever really existed), but the Republican Party’s eagerness to score whatever political points they can, in any way, under any circumstances, has reached new depths.

(Not to mention nonsensical ones: how is the President, leaving the podium and exiting the room, after briefing the press, a sign of weakness? But, following the rules of the Big Lie, the GOP simply repeats its Trump-led mantra of “Sleepy Joe” and pretends it’s being witty.)

As the situation around Ukraine worsened, the GOP had a single message: that Vladimir Putin was moving in his perceived national self-interests (which Fox folk like Tucker Carlson say seem perfectly legit to them!) because Joe Biden’s “weakness” was taunting him on. Or, put another way: This never happened under Donald Trump’s presidency! Putin respected Trump’s strength and resolve, and would never have dared do such a thing! Biden’s weak! Trump is strong! [insert sounds of beating on chest here]

trump putin strong — Trump strong! Trump smash!

Leave aside for a moment the lack of merits as to Putin’s casus belli here (which many in the GOP and GOP-adjacent seem to be flirting with simply accepting, out of some slavish devotion to Putin as a Strong Man who is anti-“woke” and pro-Christian and anti-LGBTQ and pro-“family” and therefore rings all those chimes for the far Right). Leave aside that, even if Joe Biden had literally invited Russia to invade Ukraine, invading another sovereign nation is Not Cool, and is still an action that Putin — who has previously invaded other parts of Ukraine, not to mention Georgia — still decided to do, on his own initiative. Leave aside a degree of American hypocrisy about sovereignty and flimsy justifications for invasion.

Did Joe Biden’s “weakness” contribute to Putin’s terrible (or, if you listen to Donald Trump, “clever”) decision to invade Ukraine?

Yes. But not the way yahoos like Trump and Cruz and Tucker will have you believe.

But Putin didn’t invade while Trump was Prez. That shows Putin doesn’t respect Biden!

Is it actually a bad thing that a murderous, anti-democracy autocrat, someone who beats, jails, assassinates, or disappears his opponents and critics while retaining supreme power for decades, on behalf of himself and his kleptocratic buddies, doesn’t respect the sort of person Joe Biden is?

That actually strikes me as a good thing.

Well, what I mean is that Putin respected Trump’s strength and resolve!

Hardly. Putin got nearly anything he wanted from Trump. Trump went along with the fait accompli of Crimea annexation. Trump did his darnedest to roll back those “worthless” sanctions that had been placed on Putin’s regime because of them. Trump weakened Ukraine’s defenses, removing a GOP plank to send arms to Ukraine, and then delaying and leveraging arms shipments to get the Ukraine government to politically damage Joe Biden (you might recall there was an impeachment about it and everything). Trump weakened NATO, trying to recast it as a transactional, mercenary arrangement, downplaying the value of that alliance and, in fact, of any alliances, and casting doubt that, if another NATO country were attacked, he’d actually fulfill US Article 5 obligations to step in. Trump showed over and over again, from Iraq to Syria to Afghanistan that he’d pull troops out of anywhere because he wasn’t interested in world order or commitments or principle, only in his own ego and what made him look good. Trump raised Putin’s image on the world stage, calling him strong and smart and ruthless and powerful. Meanwhile, at home, Trump divided America, taking partisan gaps and wrenching them further open with a crowbar.

Why on Earth would Vladimir Putin ever endanger that? After investing in monkeywrenching the 2016 presidential election and, to his great surprise, being rewarded with a Donald Trump winning the damned, thing, why would he ever do anything that might antagonize or weaken his greatest global ally, witting or unwitting?

No, no, Putin knew Trump was strong and resolute and would strike out at anyone who crossed the US. He’d never admit it, but he feared Donald Trump.

If Putin feared Trump, it was to this degree: Trump is, even if you have him accurately pegged as an unprincipled narcissist, unpredictable and savage. Crossing him too publicly, in a way that offended his ego, affected his support, endangered his chance of being carved into Mount Rushmore, was to risk not only an ALL CAPS EARLY MORNING TWITTER SCREED!!!!!! but possibly something even more damaging.

Does anyone doubt that Trump would be willing to threaten — if not carry out — lobbing nukes if he took it into his head (and his sycophants suggested it was a good way to look strong)? A man who was so bound up in his pride that he was willing to sit by while a violent mob stormed the US Capitol on his behalf, and seriously considered deploying the military to overthrow the 2020 election?

Yeah, even a bad guy fears a crazy desperado with a gun. That’s still not a good thing.

TrumpPutinlotofkillers.JPGimgmax660 — Not a real photo but part of a real quote.

But Biden is clearly weak. He didn’t prevent the invasion of Ukraine. Putin knew Sleepy Joe’s weakness would let him do whatever he wanted.

It’s worth noting that those who make this argument are extraordinarily vague about what should have been done to prevent Putin’s act of war. They simply wave their hand and say that it would never have happened under Trump, without even bothering to suggest what Trump would have done to stop it.

(They don’t have to because, of course, it’s not a rational argument.)

But there is one nugget of truth, at the last, in their accusation.

Joe Biden is weak.

Because America is weak.

McCarthy & McConnell — Party over Nation

Joe Biden is hobbled by the profound partisan divisions in the US, divisions led by a GOP that is still dominated by Trump and Trumpism, and who are more interested in pulling down Joe Biden than in stopping Vladimir Putin. Putin knows this. Indeed, he’s actually done what he can to engineer the whole situation.

What are the chances that the US will stand firm and united in doing what it can to stop, mitigate, or punish Putin’s actions? Zero. Nobody is actually going to suggest sending in US troops. That leaves economic and political retribution, and the effect of that will take years, even assuming it is maintained for that long. And the GOP will be right there, unwilling to offer realistic solutions, just claiming that Biden “lost” Ukraine (or even that Russia was justified in their actions and that Biden was a loser anyway for not realizing that).

Putin, whatever his reasons for invading Ukraine, has to have seen this as the perfect moment, not because Joe Biden is a weak man, but because he oversees a government that is weakened by internal division, by an opposition party that sees Biden as their real target and Putin, if not an ally, then a tool to use against him. Which makes them tools in Putin’s hand for long-term success.

And if the GOP hamstring Biden from systemic, sustained action against Putin, and manage to put Trump (or whoever is the Trumpiest candidate they can agree upon) in the White House in three-plus years, will that person simply do what Trump did, shrug and work to lift any remaining sanctions? Write off NATO as a bad and expensive idea and let it shift for its own?

What will that weakness encourage Putin to do next? What will it encourage the rest of Europe to do to appease him?

What will it encourage China to do?

What will it encourage any nation around the world who see a richer, weaker neighbor, and knows we’re lurching backwards a century or more, to an era of “spheres of influence” and “might makes right.”

The GOP is correct in saying that Putin is emboldened by weakness.

But they’re the source of it. And the consequences will extend long beyond the Russian conquest of the Ukraine.

The sublime bullshit of “a growing sense of regret”

So NOW the GOP is sad that they didn’t “contain” Trump. Sort of.

After four years of tolerating Donald Trump’s behavior, rhetoric, and vindictive, transactional nature, in exchange for an all-you-can approve buffet of judges, tax breaks, and executive orders … suddenly GOP leadership finds it has a case of buyer’s remorse.

Kinda-sorta.

One Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss his conversations with GOP colleagues acknowledged GOP lawmakers should have served as a stronger check on the president over the past four years.
“We should have done more to push back, both against his rhetoric and some of the things he did legislatively,” said the lawmaker. “The mistake we made is that we always thought he was going to get better. We thought that once he got the nomination and then once he got a Cabinet, he was going to get better, he was going to be more presidential.”

Okay, that gets you up to February of 2017. Where have you been the last four years?

But now there’s a sense among a growing number of GOP lawmakers that Trump may have inflicted long-term damage on their party, an anxiety heightened by the debacle of a pro-Trump mob storming and occupying the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday as Congress was meeting to finalize Biden’s election as the nation’s 46th president.
“There’s more concern about the long-term damage to the party than losing two Senate seats in Georgia,” the GOP senator said.

Oh, so the concern isn’t the actual damage Trump has done to the nation, to minorities, to women, to LGBTQ folk, to the environment and climate, to our natural resources, to education, to our standing and alliances abroad, to the social contract, to our health care, to our health, to all these things over the past four years … it’s concern about how that might hurt the Republican party.

Cry me a freaking river.

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity said Trump had inflicted serious damage on his party.

Such concern … that it can only be passed on via anonymous Senators.

Dear Senator Whitefeather: you know how you start to heal/fix the damage to the party? By actually standing up in public and talking about it, not whispering in a parking structure to a reporter from The Hill.

“Every time you think the president has done everything he could possibly do to fuck things up, then he comes out with a tweet, like the election was invalid and the one in Georgia would be invalid,” said the lawmaker, referring to Trump’s tweets Friday declaring the runoff elections to be “illegal and invalid.”

Big talk from someone supposedly in one of the highest offices of the land … afraid to lend their name and face to their words.

The feelings of remorse are only now being expressed privately after Republican senators spent much of the past four years dodging questions about Trump’s controversial tweets, statements and decisions.

They still are dodging.

As to what actual public defiance of Trump has looked like, well, we have this sad example raised up as an exception:

There were exceptions though, such as when Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said Trump appeared “unsympathetic” after peaceful protesters were pepper sprayed in front of the White House in June so the president could pose with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Oh, yes. Clucked tongues and mildly “concerned” rebukes from Susan Collins have been soooooo effective in restraining Trump.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday said Trump had “tarnished” his legacy by not condemning Wednesday’s “debacle” at the Capitol.
Graham defended his support for Trump over the past four years as being driven by constituents at home who wanted him to work with the president.

“My constituents made me do it” would be more meaningful, Lindsey, if you hadn’t not just worked with him, but become his most outspoken supporter and enabler. Or maybe reading a bit of Burke would be in order.

“The reason I’ve been close to the president is I think he’s done tremendous things for this country. I think the judges he’s nominated have been outstanding choices,” he said. But he said “it breaks my heart that my friend, a president of consequence, were to allow yesterday to happen, and it will be a major part of his presidency.”
“It was a self-inflicted wound, it was going too far,” he added.

Just note that Lindsey actually seems to love all the stuff Trump did. It was just this last froth of post-election paranoia and delusion, leading up to violence in Lindsey’s sacred workplace, that went a bit “too far” and will “tarnish” Trump’s rep.

Asked if he should have spoken out more when Trump crossed the line during his four years in office, Graham acknowledged he could have but also deflected blame on the media for not covering the president more fairly. […] “Could I have done better? Yes. The question: Could you have done better? Could those of you who cover the White House done better? You need to ask yourself that,” he told reporters.

Yes, if only the media had covered Trump “better” and more fairly, he wouldn’t have been driven to incite a riot.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) on Wednesday said Trump’s rhetoric created a political headwind for Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), who both lost races that GOP senators had expected them to win. […] “When your most effective argument is you’re going to be a check and balance against a Biden/Pelosi/Schumer agenda but you can’t acknowledge that Biden won, it puts you in a really difficult position,” he later explained.

Again, the regret is not anything Trump did regarding policy, but how he hurt the GOP by hurting them in the Georgia run-offs. And, indirectly, how Trump is now talking about trying to defeat Thune in his next primary.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who has been a strong Trump ally during his first term …

“First term.”

… late on Wednesday said he does “think the president bears some responsibility” for the violence and chaos on Capitol Hill, which disrupted the Electoral College vote count. “I do think the president bears some responsibility. Certainly, he bears responsibility for his own actions and his own words, and today in watching his speech, I have to admit I gasped,” Cramer said.

A tip of the hat to Sen. Kramer for speaking out loud and laying “some responsibility” on Trump.

Though, to be fair, Cramer — who’s frequently called Trump the “best President of his life” — doesn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

What really seems to be frustrating Cramer is that the events at the end of Trump’s term in office will overshadow the accomplishments on tax policy, energy and agriculture regulation, and foreign policy that he’s proud to have helped the president enact. “As Republicans distance themselves from Donald Trump, the person we have to hold onto his ideas,” Cramer said.

No regrets over policy, just that Donald turned out to be, um, unstable.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), another staunch Trump ally, said he later spoke with Pence, whom he described as furious over the president’s treatment. “I’ve known Mike Pence forever,” Inhofe told the Tulsa World. “I’ve never seen Pence as angry as he was today.”

Ah. We’re regretful and upset because … Donald was mean to his normally-fawning VP. Well, hold the presses.

Inhofe also said that Trump should have done more to stop the rioting. “He’s only put out one statement that I’m aware of,” he said. “This was really a riot. He should have shown more disdain for the rioters. I don’t want to say he should have apologized — that’s not exactly accurate — but he should have expressed more disdain.”

Not apologize but … “express more disdain.”

For all there may be shock, regrets, and (for the most part mild) criticism, Republican politicians remain terrified of Donald Trump — thus the anonymous quotes above.

National Republicans interviewed by The Hill said Trump may have permanently alienated millions of center-right voters who were disgusted by Wednesday’s ugly scene.
But they acknowledged that the president retains enormous political power at the moment, a dynamic that was on full display when a majority of House Republicans voted to throw out Arizona’s Electoral College results hours after their evacuation.
“Trump has less power now, but he could still probably win a primary today, so does he really have less power?” asked former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele.

Yesh, they really think he could still win a primary. Which says more about the rest of the GOP political class than it does about Donald Trump. Regardless, since they think he would win a primary — their only criterion for power and, thus, permission to criticize — they are still treading lightly.

Some pointed to the president’s fervent base of supporters outside of Washington to make the case that Trump’s influence would continue to dominate the party for years to come — as well as the House votes on the Electoral College. The president reportedly received a warm reception Thursday morning when he briefly called into a Republican National Committee members meeting.
Some Republicans argued that people have short-term memories and that the transactional nature of politics would give Trump space to rebuild his image and throw his weight around either as a candidate in 2024 or as a kingmaker in GOP primaries.

So the principled thing to do is … speak off the record, keep your head down, and not publicly criticize Trump. It appears that “regret” isn’t all that strong an emotion.

But the violence in Washington, one former Trump campaign official said, “caused him to lose even loyal supporters.” “Trump is a lonely man today,” the person said.

But not so lonely the anonymous official was willing to go on the record about it.

One Republican operative said that the events drastically diminished Trump’s hold on the party, describing the current dynamic as an “emperor with no clothes” moment because GOP lawmakers are publicly pushing back on Trump at a time when he can’t even respond on social media in usual form. The person expected Republicans to be more willing to publicly push back against Trump going forward, especially if he urges primaries against sitting GOP officials.
Still, the GOP operative acknowledged the potential for Trump to split the party and characterized it as “dangerous,” observing that even if Trump only keeps a grip on 20 percent of GOP voters, Republicans who break with Trump would lose general elections even if they make inroads with independents. […] Republicans undeniably benefit from the enthusiasm Trump generates, particularly in rural parts of the country where the GOP must maximize turnout to be competitive.

So, again, even if Trump’s power plummets to only holding onto a fraction of the GOP, they are so close to losing outright against the Dems that they politically can’t afford to offend him.

I guess that qualifies as “regrets.”

But not, apparently, enough “regrets” to actually do anything differently.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Friday dismissed calls to impeach President Trump in the wake of riots inside the U.S. Capitol, signaling that the effort will ultimately fall short. […] “You don’t have the time for it to happen, even if there was a reason. So there’s no reason to debate this except just pure politics,” Blunt added. […] Blunt added in a separate interview with KSHB, another Missouri TV station, that impeaching Trump was “not going to happen.”
[…] Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) accused Democrats of throwing politics into the aftermath of the Capitol attacks, adding that impeachment “would not only be unsuccessful in the Senate but would be a dangerous precedent for the future of the presidency.”
[…] Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who dropped his plans to support challenges to the Electoral College after the attacks, said calls for impeachment are “unhelpful.” “We’re 13 days away from inauguration. This is not the time to keep taking the temperature up. So let’s stand together and govern for the next 13 days,” Daines told a Montana TV station.

Yeah, GOP Senators might have “regrets” over how they failed to “restrain” Trump from damaging their party (if not the nation) … but they certainly have no intention of doing anything about the next few weeks of his increasingly erratic behavior, or back down over the long haul as long as they think Trump may run again, let alone if kicking him and his mob to the curb might mean (gasp) “lost” elections.

I mean, clearly, it’s too late now. If only they’d had another opportunity, even over the last year, to exercise some restraint over Trump.

Oh, well. I’m sure they’ve learned their lesson for when the next mob-darling authoritarian pops up in the party. Right?

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