unraveling

28.Aug.2025

The debasement Olympics

Not sure how it slipped by Jeff Bezos, but WaPo's account of Dear Leader soaking up 3 hours of flattery for bizarro reality TV would expose the shameful embarrassment of it, if we were still doing "shame" or "embarrassment." We don't actually need analysts to recognize that it "resembled assemblies in authoritarian states." We're a shithole country now, thanks to Donald Trump's pathetically insatiable ego and his increasingly demented psychopathy.

"Trump claimed personal credit for what he portrayed as far-reaching changes in the everyday lives of Americans during his seven months in office, as his subordinates stumbled over one another to sing his praises."

He certainly deserves a lot of "credit" for "far-reaching changes." Let's roll out the banners featuring his grossly larger than life face on federal buildings as a paean to his greatness! The Labor Secretary said how honored she was to "unveil" one yesterday, and all the other putzes better giddy up with theirs.

Jamelle Bouie sized up the scene earlier this week, with our worst-ever president declaring to his cabinet “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States.” And none of them so much as clearing their throats.

Heather Cox Richardson's Aug. 27 Letter from an American has a wide-ranging snapshot of how far down into the swamp we are, with National Guard troops "spreading mulch around the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin and picking up trash" after Congress and the president have been working to defund and break the city's home rule. The National Park Service "used to have 200 people assigned to the thousands of acres of gardens and trees in the capital. Now it has 20."

It's hard to summarize her work, or even pull highlights; my mind spins reading through the multiple items of things being broken, looted, exfiltrated. Such as the Social Security database, the CFPB, CPB, FEMA, the CDC, firefighting.

But the private prison industry is booming.

27.Aug.2025

I'd rather not have a dictator

In her latest Letter from an American, Heather Cox Richardson uses "fulsome" in what is for me (and in the American Heritage's opinion) the correct, current usage. Take your pick between

1. Excessively flattering or insincerely earnest
2. Disgusting or offensive

(which are not mutually exclusive). In the usage note following the 3rd definition, AH says the original meaning of "copious, abundant," still hangs around, in spite of being deprecated by "many educated speakers" and "a large majority of the[ir] Usage Panel." Many lawyers of my acquaintance have shown affection for it as a full-intensifier; some have heeded my efforts to dissuade them. There's also "utilize" when plain old "use" will do. The Wikipedia entry for "obfuscation" recites the "humorous fumblerule" to "eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation" (I'd found the first memorable a long time ago, not sure I'd heard the second half of that), delighting me with fumblerule. Also, who remembered that Mark Twain's Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses' rule fourteen was "eschew surplusage"? I did not.)

Isn't it nice to be distracted by studying the charming delicacies of effete verbosity? As opposed to, say, the subject of HCR's letter:

Today, for the second time in as many days, President Donald J. Trump suggested that Americans want a dictator. In a meeting in the Cabinet Room that lasted more than three hours, during which he listened to the fulsome praise of his cabinet officers and kept his hands below the table, seemingly to hide the bad bruising on his right hand, Trump said: “The line is that I'm a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that's the case, I'd rather have a dictator.’”

Maybe they were big, powerful people with tears in their eyes. Or maybe "many" just comprised the stink-eyed Stephen Miller and the permanently star-struck contortionist Pam Bondi.

"With Trump underwater on all his key issues and his job approval rating dismal, the administration appears to be trying to create support for Trump by insisting that the U.S. is mired in crime and he alone can solve the problem. The administration’s solution is not to fund violence prevention programs and local law enforcement—two methods proven to work—but instead to use the power of the government to terrorize communities.

"There is a frantic feel to that effort, as if they feel they must convince Americans to fear crime more than they fear rising grocery prices or having to take their children past police checkpoints on their way to school...."

Speaking of Nosferatu, he was on Hannity's show to foment a party-based civil war, with deliberate misusage and casual slander, promoting his personal vendetta against honesty, decency, and yes, The American Way.

Miller asserted to Hannity that the “Democrat Party [sic] does not fight for, care about, or represent American citizens. It is an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization…. The Democrat Party, Sean, that exists today,” he said, “it disgusts me.”

The feeling is mutual, Steve.

HCR's letter goes on to additional topics, all in orbit about the first American president to turn himself into a dictator. Extending his war on "blue" cities by goading the governor of Illinois; attempting to fire a governor of the Federal Reserve Board (based on a cocked-up allegation), on the way to taking over an independent institution essential to our prosperity; and continuing the unlawful persecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (also with cocked-up allegations). You should read it all, and maybe follow some of her links as well.

There's a ray of sunshine in the happy final item, which I will leave undescribed to encourage you to take the jump.

26.Aug.2025

Yesterday in WTF

That's "What the Fascism?!" The NYT "top news" headlines summarize three of who knows how many prongs there were yesterday:

• Trump, in a Move With Little Precedent, Says He Is Firing a Fed Governor
• Trump Orders Major Expansion of National Guard's Role in Law Enforcement
• Trump Repeatedly Praises North Korea’s Dictator in Meeting With South’s President

There is a crime emergency going on, that's for sure. The lead paragaph in the first story notes the purported "firing" was "a legally dubious maneuver," and the story goes on with the most precious of gaslit irony that the pretext is Lisa Cook's alleged "falsified records to obtain favorable terms on a mortgage." Sounds a lot like the Trump Organization M.O. doesn't it? Also, alleged , as in "we're just making this up as we go," and acting like what we say is proof enough.

Than an EO to "direct[] the creation of specialized Guard units to quell civil disturbances in each state and seeks civilian volunteers to assist federal agents in Washington." Call for volunteers, omg. We expect all the civil disturbances needing quelling will be in blue states or cities, and especially around election time.

Don Demento "heaped praise on the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and stressed their positive relationship." They're big, big pals.

19.Aug.2025

Foggy mountain breakdown

I'm old enough to remember the end of Ronald Reagan's second term when it was starting to become obvious he wasn't all there. His handlers covered it well, and his long-time skill at acting helped him through. Snopes in 2018 (updated 6 years later) says the question whether he had Alzeimer's disease while in office remains "unproven." He won in 1980 when he was just 69 years old. ("Just," ha ha.) He was almost 78 when he handed the reins to his veep, and Iran-Contra fixer. The guy who's in office now just turned 79, and he is definitely not as sharp as a tack. I'm also old enough to have taken a couple of those cognitive tests that grampa likes to say he "aced." I remembered "Pen, Ball, Dog" and drew 10:45 on a blank clock face.

Don John was never as good an actor as Reagan, and what passes for intelligence in him is a talent for grifting. (Or as he put it in one of his accusation-as-confession "truths," CHEATS AT LEVELS NEVER SEEND BEFORE, and mirabile dictu, no one in the GOP seems to care any more. He's cheating for them. They imagine.

On Friday, the US military was on its knees in Alaska, rolling out a red carpet for Russian war criminal and dictator, Vladimir Putin. Trump clapped for him when he strolled out on it, like a child meeting his celebrity hero.

He did not easy-peasy, in less than 24 hours end the war in Ukraine. Nor did he get an agreement for a cease-fire, which he'd previously insisted was a "must." And there were no consequences. That is, no negative consequences for the fêted war criminal, who is the talk of the town back home for the P.R. coup.

Heather Cox Richardson's yesterdaily starts with the latest DOPUS memes, the Epstein investigation information that hasn't been released, and Russia Today "troll[ing] Trump's “peace through strength” boast this morning by posting a video of an armored vehicle first going slowly on a road and then dramatically speeding up. The vehicle was flying both Russian and U.S. flags." The attack on mail-in voting, the abetting of gerrymandering, and the disregard for the Constitution, the economic repercussions from the whack tariff trade war and the One Big Billionaire Bonanza ontinue apace.

Last but not least, the meeting with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who wisely brought along reinforcements: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. My emphasis added:

"That so many foreign leaders dropped everything to rush to Washington, D.C., after Trump’s meeting with Putin on Friday indicated their alarm. The leaders reiterated that Putin started the war and could stop it at any time, and pressed Trump to back a ceasefire.

"At today’s meetings, Trump repeated Russian talking points, complained about how poorly he is treated, said he had ended six wars ["Mostly False", of course], insisted that voting in the U.S. is full of fraud, and suggested he would cancel the 2028 elections. By the late afternoon, the president was unable to recognize President Stubb, who was sitting directly across the table from him. “President Stubb of Finland,” Trump said. Looking around, Trump continued: “And he’s uh, he’s somebody that, where are we here? Huh? Where? Where?” Stubb said, “I’m right here.” Trump focused on him and answered: “Oh. You look better than I’ve ever seen you look.”

In the middle of the meeting with eight world leaders (for whom there was no red carpet, btw), DOPUS "paused" and made a forty minute phone call to the war criminal Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

You can't hardly make this up.

18.Aug.2025

Keep your eye on the ball

As DOPUS roils the news cycle with false claims about voting fraud, and history, and wanders off into the bushes where Vladimir Putin lured him (mainly because ANYTHING TO KEEP THE EPSTEIN FILES OFF THE FRONT PAGE, you know?), Joyce Vance reminds us of a couple salient facts. For the folks in the back:

• THE 2020 ELECTION WAS FAIR, AND DONALD TRUMP LOST.
• THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT MAIL-IN VOTING IS LINKED TO FRAUD.
• WE ARE NOT THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD USING MAIL-IN VOTING. (Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia, Switzerland use it.)
• And in the "every accusation is a confession" department, DONALD TRUMP CHEATS (at everything) AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE.

There's also the not-small matter that his threat to issue an Executive Order to tell all the States how to run their elections, after which "they must do" what he says, is total b.s.

"Congress sets the date and the time for national elections, but all other matters are reserved to the states, and each state runs its own elections with its own rules."

And,

"It’s ironic that he put this out there the same day Newsmax agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $67 million to settle their defamation lawsuit for lying about the machines."

Fox News infamously folded to Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million. OANN settled with Smartmatic, but managed to keep their deal "confidential." "Smartmatic also has active lawsuits against Fox News and the conservative outlet Newsmax over similar complaints."

16.Aug.2025

The art of no deal

Remember the promise, if we would only elect Don John president again:

"I will end that war in one day, it'll take 24 hours. It would be easy. That deal would be easy."

When he did get to be president, of course he didn't, and as ever, he said he was "joking." (If he'd said "because I'm a joke," that would've been true, at least.)

Trump is so outmanned (and worried about Putin's leverage on him being revealed) that he didn't bring his own translator to the meeting in Alaska yesterday. He relied on Putin's translator. This keeps the USA's record from having the particulars, while Russia gets anything and everything it needs from what was said. Putin could probably discuss everything in English if he cared to. Trump doesn't have a clue.

Amy Siskind noted that the German newspaper Bild reported a misunderstanding of Russia’s stance on Ukraine by Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff may have provided the initial impetus for Friday’s half-assed summit, "according to a European official and two former U.S. officials. Witkoff came away thinking that Russia was proposing a “peaceful withdrawal” of its troops from two regions of Ukraine, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — in fact, though, Putin was demanding that Ukraine pull its forces out of those regions, the sources said."

Ruth Ben-Ghiat called The Make Russia Great Again "Summit" "a spectacle to legitimize Kremlin geopolitical aspirations in Europe and beyond."

"U.S. headlines are flattering Vladimir Putin by focusing on his power, while neglecting to mention that Russia is a failed state and a kleptocracy. More precisely, Russia is a failed state because it is a kleptocracy: Putin’s massive corruption and plunder of state agencies and institutions did not spare the Russian military, which was initially in such a sorry shape that it became necessary to import North Korean soldiers to have bodies on the ground in Ukraine. Why is Russian kleptocracy not mentioned?...

"Clapping for Putin on the tarmac, and allowing him to ride in the presidential limo, with no translator or aides present, is unprecedented. I read this as proclaiming to the world that Putin has total access to Trump and there is no presidential space that is off-limits to him....

"It was predictable that no “breakthrough” happened in Alaska, because ending the war was never the point of this spectacle. Rather, this “summit” was about the breaking of taboos, in this case, the welcoming onto American territory of Putin, who has an International Criminal Court arrest warrant out for him for war crimes in Ukraine."

Hey, guess who else is working to set up a failed state kleptocracy! Meanwhile, in the opsec realm (apart from whoops, did I leave those documents in the hotel printer?), Karl J Martin assures us that the Russians didn't leave empty-handed:

"Putin and staff landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson aboard an Il-96-300PU - supported by a Tu-204 - which between them can carry about maybe 20 tons' worth of surveillance and signals intelligence gear and which were just invited to fly right through strategically vital US airspace and land on an Air Force base hosting ALCOM and NORAD command centers, key to US early warning and defense in the Arctic."

Not to put too fine a point on it, Trump's Alaska gambit was a massive failure "And Putin's greatest success." In the embed video by Marcy Wheeler on what leverage Putin has over Trump: "All three of Trump's spies [Patel, Gabbard, Ratcliffe] are in on a secret with Putin's spies," and have been since 2016.

Just as a little side-show, Putin played DOPUS like a fiddle from top to bottom, as told by the mark himself, with an "exclusive" for his pal Hannity on Fox News:

"Vladimir Putin said something- one of the most interesting things. He said 'your election was rigged because you have mail in voting. It's impossible to have mail in voting & have honest elections.' He said that to me because we talked about 2020. He said, 'you won that election by so much.'"

Oh, Donny! Getting "honest elections" tips from Putin, seriously? Max Kennerly:

"Hard to tell which happened:

"1) Putin didn't say this, he wouldn't make the embarrassing error of "no country has mail-in voting" when many countries like Germany and UK allow it for all voters.

"2) Putin really did tell Trump this knowing Trump would repeat it and humiliate the U.S. even more."

Fair day

Yesterday was our turn to spend not quite 3 hours at the Democrats' booth at the Western Idaho Fair. We went a little early, got in on opening day for the price of 3 cans of food (one extra for good luck) instead of the $11 per senior retail admission, so that was nice. Parking was only mildly horrid, but more pleasant than having to ride our tandem back up the bench at about 6pm on a hot day.

In about an hour, I can get my fill of "the fair," which includes the top item on Jeanette's list, a visit to the small animal house, to see the chickens. (And a few other fowl, and you could look at the rabbits, but we didn't.) Then we go look at some of the photography, which is always interesting, and fun.

After we'd admired "King Charles the Great" in his cage, and were wandering the aisles, we found his 4H owner had taken him out to give him a soothing embrace. (That room full of chickens, one honky gander, some turkeys, and so on, and those tiny cages have got to be hella stressful for the birds.) She invited us to pet him, and we did, and I asked if I could take her picture with her bird, and she said "sure," then gave me a smile of pure joy. (He won that gorgeous ribbon, which I can't read from my photo. Best in show? He was the best looking rooster we saw.)

12.Aug.2025

How it started / how it's going

We're now almost 45 years since the watershed election of 1980, when the world seemed to be unravelling. That was before the signal year in the title of George Orwell's novel, but the new decade would bring lots of reasons to turn him into an adjective. James Watt as Secretary of the Interior, and Anne Gorsuch in charge of the EPA were two that stood out for me, as leading a program of deliberate sabotage of federal stewardship. Idaho's great Senator Frank Church was turned out of office in favor of a bounder and carpetbagger, Steve Symms.

It didn't get much attention back then, but the first "Mandate for Leadership" from the Heritage Foundation came out as "a 20-volume, 3,000-page publication" with "more than 2,000 individual suggestions to move the federal government in a conservative direction." It included "an explicit plan for reshaping public discourse on civil rights issues" and recommended the Justice Department "halt its affirmative action policies to remedy past discrimination against women and other minorities."

All that "conservatism" kept festering and mutating, and Mandate IX became known as Project 2025, which is turning out more awful than it sounded (and it sounded pretty bad). Turns out the whole "unitary executive" idea was a template for fascist government, and here we are.

The economic inflection point that turned the "post-war" economic (and demographic) boom into a trend toward oligarchy happened with Reagan. And this, described by Peter Birkenhead on Facebook yesterday (and shared to my attenton by Rebecca Solnit):

“…people who are sleeping on the grates…the homeless…are homeless, you might say, by choice.” - Ronald Reagan

By the end of Reagan’s two terms in office federal assistance to local governments had been cut by 60 percent. Reagan eliminated general revenue sharing to cities, slashed funding for public service jobs and job training, almost dismantled federally funded legal services for the poor, cut the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program and reduced funds for public transit. The only “urban” program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways—which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities.

These cutbacks had a disastrous effect on cities with high levels of poverty and limited property tax bases, many of which depended on federal aid. In 1980 federal dollars accounted for 22 percent of big city budgets. By the end of Reagan’s second term, federal aid was only 6 percent.

The most dramatic cut in domestic spending during the Reagan years was for low-income housing subsidies. Reagan appointed a housing task force dominated by politically connected developers, landlords and bankers. In 1982 the task force released a report that called for “free and deregulated” markets as an alternative to government assistance – advice Reagan followed. In his first year in office Reagan halved the budget for public housing and Section 8.

Homelessness increased exponentially, and has never returned to its pre-Reagan numbers.

And this, about the Ministry of Plenty from former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, today:

"The independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is vital. If politicized, it can't be trusted as a source of information. Who did Trump just put in charge of the agency? E.J. Antoni — chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and contributor to Project 2025."

11.Aug.2025

Meanwhile, in the District of Columbia

The biggest single violent criminal event in DC history was masterminded by and on behalf of Trump who is himself, of course, a convicted felon. The police he today said he would protect and empower were the primary victims of the mass attack he incited.

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) August 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM

A teenage 4channer was beat up by two 15 year olds in DC, which was spotted and quickly stopped by nearby police. He told his friends, the richest man in the world and the Vice President of the United States, that he was pummeled by a dozen adult Romanians. A week later, Trump federalized DC police.

— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) August 11, 2025 at 9:09 AM

Rrrussia!

In a live presser today, with his top bobbling headed quislings at his side (Hegseth is left-hand man, and Bondi his right-hand woman), over a fatuous Fox "News" title bar, TRUMP RE-ESTABLISHING LAW, ORDER, PUBLIC SAFETY (alas poor Irony, I knew him Horatio), our DOPUS read this with sleepy eyes: "this is a tragic emergency," gaslighting lies about crime in the nation's capital. (Give the FN chyron operator credit: "HOMICIDES IN DC ARE DOWN 12% THIS YEAR" is scrolling by.)

It's so awful, you know, and he alone can fix it. (Stop me if you've heard this one before.) Then he went off-script and spoke direct from the shriveled heart that loves a strong man (wishes it was in one) and overflows with loathing.

"And it's embarrassing for me to be up here, you know I'm going to see Putin– I'm going to Russia! On Friday."

But he isn't going to Russia, you know. He's going to Alaska, which the USA bought from Russia a hundred and fifty-eight years ago, and made the 49th state when Don John was 12 years old. Given what a putz he is at making deals, there was some joking that omg, he's going to give Alaska back, but seriously?

He's going to Alaska, and he said (very excitedly) "I'm going to Russia!" Then back to the incessant whining and revulsion that animates him.

"I don't like being up here talking about how unsafe, and how dirty and disgusting this– once beautiful capital was– with graffiti all over the walls..."

Hearing him say "dirty" makes you feel soiled yourself.

Protest is a form of rebellion against authority

First amendment? What first amendment? Joyce Vance's latest "The Week Ahead" starts with the bench trail set for today in the court of Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California "to determine whether Donald Trump's deployment of the military to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act by using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes."

She quotes the +rump executive order authorizing the use of federalized National Guard troops and regular military to aid in putting down anti-ICE protests, saying that the protests “constitute[d] a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

"If the Supreme Court were to give Trump the legal authority to do this in LA—the case is sure to reach the justices regardless of how Judge Breyer rules—he would be able to do the same thing anywhere else in the country. That makes this case an enormously significant test balloon. The issue at stake is the power of the presidency, which Trump continuously seeks to expand into a full-blown unitary executive with few, if any, checks and balances."

The trial is happening just as "Trump has been amping up a multi-agency federal law enforcement presence in D.C.," cocked up because "Big Balls" got himself beat up by younger teenagers and CRIME WAVE that doesn't actually exist, but what is truth, anyway, and mostly, ANYTHING BUT TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES.

Then the topic of "making women second-class citizens," lit up by SecDef Pete Hegseth's X-promo of christofascist Doug Wilson's "Crusade for Domination in the Age of Trump." (No, seriously.) Knowing more than I care to about Wilson already, I'd just rolled my eyes when that started flickering in the news feed, but Vance piqued my interest with this amazing quote from Wilson:

“Women are the kind of people people come out of,” Wilson says, before adding, “it doesn’t take any talent.”

The kind of people.

"Other religious leaders in Wilson’s orbit join in to explain to reporters that the man is the head of the household and the wife’s job is to submit. Then they delve into their belief that women shouldn’t be able to vote, with one pastor saying he supports repeal of the 19th Amendment."

I wonder if any women might turn out to protest that?

If you're new to the Doug Wilson schtick, Judd Legum's Popular Information has you covered. Headline highlights: "Wilson argues that slavery benefited blacks and whites and was "based on mutual affection"; "Wilson's unsettling views on women and sex," where "unsettling" means execrable; and "Wilson supports recriminalizing homosexuality."

10.Aug.2025

Down a lazy river

The Democrats may be controlling the weather (how would we know, with the National Weather Service sabotaged for +rumpian Sharpie spite?), but the Corps of Engineers are still controlling the floodgates. Out here in the arid west, of course, but who knew? Also in Ohio.

Our replacement president-in-waiting, and former sad hillbilly had his 41st birthday early this month. To celebrate, he and the fam went kayaking (or was it canoeing? This snapshot on Reddit looks like punting) on the Little Miami River, in Ohio. Somebody in opsec (the story goes) decided the Little Miami was a bit too little, and juiced it up by opening the spigot on the Caesar Creek dam. Fifteen hundredths of a foot is not quite two inches; it's likely no one on the reservoir even noticed. On the other hand, if you were kayaking (or was it canoeing?) on Caesar Creek below the dam, you definitely notice it going from under 5 feet, to 7 foot two.

The official story is that it was for "the safety of Secret Service personnel," according to Snopes, after the Guardian's report included an anonymous source's claim that it was also to create "ideal kayaking conditions."

Finally, there's a post-Watergate scandal that has an actual gate involved. Little Caesar Creek-gate, let's say.

9.Aug.2025

Remember to breathe when your head is above water

That was the unforgettable (good) advice from my boatman, Clancy Reese, as I slipped into the lower Salmon to swim through a modest little rapid with his blessing. Also from experience, I can tell you, you can't just inhale, inhale, inhale when you breathe. You have to exhale just as much as you inhale. Seems obvious, but not always in the moment. ICYMI, Clancy inspired me to write what strikes me today as one of the best paragraphs ever on the blog, for the wrap back there in Oct. 2013.

Those were the good old days, eh? Today's inhale, inhale, inhale is in the form of tabs I've opened, but might not read before bookmarking into the oblivion of my (mostly) unread stack. (This list-making tricked me into actually reading some of them.)

• As Trump slashed weather agency, his appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing forecasts (PBS, July 9, 2025)
• The Fires Next Time (Josh Marshal, TPM, Aug. 8) "What I would like to hear more clearly is that with this or that criminal or unconstitutional action, the next time Democrats control the government the actions will be reversed and those who acted criminally will be prosecuted."
• What can the FBI do in Texas redistricting fight? Not much, experts say. (WaPo, today)
• That inference from when there was a semblance of law. But as Asha Rangappa notes (today), The FBI As We Knew It is Gone.
• Jacob Knutson, on Democracy Docket today: How Trump’s Acting U.S. Attorneys Are Driving the DOJ’s Partisan Turn. (The opening anecdote, about Alina Habba is mind-blowing. Her time-limited appointment was up last month; but "federal judges in New Jersey voted to oust her and instead chose a veteran prosecutor to replace her," but a "multistep maneuver" has her still in office.)
• Beau Baumann, on substack yesterday: Judges as Chaos Agents.
• Danielle Moodie's "DAM Digest," today: The New American Dream: Why Leaving Feels Like the Only Way to Live It.
• Olivia of Troye's Saturday Morning Covfefe: 5 Things with Olivia has more than five; stick with it to the closer, ONE THING FOR YOUR SOUL.
• Matt Sledge on The Intercept_, today: Donald Trump Is Mostly a Crypto Billionaire Now, Group Says. “The more the President’s wealth depends on anonymous investors around the world with hidden agendas, the greater the risk.”
• Jeff Tiedrich's everyone is entitled to my own opinion blog is a fun drop-in from time to time. Today's offering: this week in stupid: buffalo: 1, hunter: 0, and so much more...
• Clark Corbin, Idaho Capital Sun, yesterday: Idaho Gov. Brad Little authorizes National Guard to support ICE. Up to 14 of them, huh. "Providing clerical and administrative resources." ICE arrests in Idaho are up a whopping 800% so far this year. There were 41 during the first half of 2024; there have been 368 through July this year.
• Steven Beschloss' America, America news gets right to the nut of it today: Can We Stop Supporting Sociopathic Leaders?
• Aaron Rupar and Thor Benson, on Public Notice today (just a teaser before the paywall, sigh): The sordid origin of 'America First,' explained by a historian. "They were not keen on fighting Nazis." (That sent me off to Wikipedia's Burton K. Wheeler entry.)
• A "free" item on Public Notice, Stephen Robinson, yesterday: Trump's Confederacy rises again; "The Lost Cause doesn't seem all that lost anymore."

From the last item, it seems that the execrable Pete Hegseth's treason revival is going to include the National Park Service reinstalling Albert Pike's statue, a mile east of the White House.

"A founding member of the anti-Catholic Know Nothing Party, Pike was an enslaver and white supremacist who wanted free Black people expelled from Arkansas, where he lived. He signed a circular along with 11 other men declaring that "the evil is the existence among us of a class of free colored persons,” as this threatened the hold enslavers had on their human property.

"Pike didn’t serve in the Confederate Army [as one of its generals] for long before resigning in July 1862 after he was accused of committing war crimes against Union soldiers. He was later charged with insubordination and treason, but successfully appealed to President Andrew Johnson for a pardon in 1865."

Nothing to see here, just history's rewrite rhyming like crazy.

"This embrace of Lost Cause propaganda is more than just a quirk. It’s MAGA policy. The perversion of Civil War history is of a piece with the Big Lie about the 2020 election, which Trump still insists he won, and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

"The straightforward explanation for Trump’s Confederacy fetish is that he’s a virulent racist who would’ve enslaved people himself. If you think that’s hyperbolic, just listen to what he said earlier this week. During a phone interview Tuesday on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Trump argued that undocumented farm workers, primarily of Hispanic descent, are “naturally” suited for backbreaking farm labor, contrasting them with “people that live in the inner city” (that is, Black people) who “are not doing that work.”

That Russia, Russia, Russia thing

It's hard to read Heather Cox Richardson's Aug. 8 Letter to an American without concluding that our aging and increasingly demented president is about to capitulate to Russia's strongman, bigly, yet again. Will there be another "no notes" translator for him, and no read-out? A press con stand-up after the private tête-à-tête to rival the 2018 debacle in Helsinki?

Our story so far is bleakly sordid, from the Republican Party's 2016 platform being rejiggered by fool of oligarchs and "volunteer" campaign manager Paul Manafort; to that "perfect phone call" that earned him his first impeachment (and would have got him convicted as well, were the rump Republican Party not replete with quislings); to the ongoing influence campaign that helped (at least) tip the scales and bring us to the Trump II that should have never benn. Occam's razor doesn't say he's from Manchuria, but he might as well be.

"Trump announced this afternoon that he intends to meet with Putin on August 15 in Alaska.

"Putin generally cannot travel outside Russia because he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the theft of Ukrainian children. And yet Trump is welcoming him to the United States of America.

"This welcome gives Putin the huge gift of letting him touch down on U.S. soil after he invaded Ukraine in defiance of the policy established after World War II to prevent another such devastating war. In 1945 the United Nations charter declared that “[a]ll Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” The United States was the key guarantor of this principle until Trump took office."

Mr. Let's Make a Deal is said to be preparing to "hammer out an agreement that will force Ukraine to cede to Russia its land currently occupied by Russian troops, as well as Crimea." Without bothering with the participation of Ukraine's president.

Putin has been working on the long game to expand his empire for more than a decade, oblivious to how many Russian and Ukrainian lives are sacrificed. Our president thinks he's playing checkers.

7.Aug.2025

"Help track down," and then what?

The New York Times sent me "breaking news" (which can go in a lot of different directions these days) that Senator John Cornyn Says F.B.I. Will Help Find Texas Lawmakers Who Left State, to break the state legislature's quorum and prevent the majority GOP from gerrymandering that state's congressional districts even worse than they are now. (Republicans are running very scared about midterms, for a host of good reasons, and are more than willing to bend and break rules to retain their illegitimate hold on power.)

"The senator said the agency had agreed to help locate Democratic state legislators who departed to try to block a vote on congressional maps," it says in the dek... And then what? The Democrats haven't committed a crime of any sort, let alone a federal crime.

Oh, but the senator has cocked something up! He's "concerned," he said in his letter to the FBI director on Tuesday "that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses."

How droll that "bribery" or "other public corruption offenses" should be brought up by one of Donald J. Trump's personal quislings. In his sincerely closing, Cornyn wrote (my emphasis added):

"I am encouraged by the strong leadership from Governor Abbott on this matter. Governor Abbott and Texas state law enforcement officers are doing what they can within the confines of the law, but federal help may be necessary. These legislators have committed potential criminal acts in their rush to avoid their constitutional responsibilities and must be fully investigated and held accountable. I urge you to work with Texas public officials to provide them the support they need."

Federal help may be necessary to go beyond the confines of the law, in other words. Harrassment? Terrorizing? Kidnapping? Do we think Kash Patel will trouble himself with legalities?

3.Aug.2025

His every accusation a confession

In firing the bearer of bad tidings for his supposed economic miracle, Donold troothed

“In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

Because, given the chance, that is certainly what he would have done. Cook the books. Make stuff up. Fabricate numbers. It's what he is doing for any economic numbers in the future, which we will no longer be able to trust. Everyone willing to state inconvenient facts will have been fired.

Meanwhile, the gaslighting. “The good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!” The market, which has been more bouyant than it has reason to be (IMHO) took a whack: DJIA off 1.23%, S&P 500 down 1.60%, Nasdaq Composite 2.24%. Heather Cox Richardson's Aug. 1 Letter describes some of the other thrashing attempts the president has been trying to change the subject of the Epstein files and what they have to say about +rump's long career as a sexual predator, and pedophile. Fire the Fed! Moving nuclear submarines into play! And shuffling Ghislaine Maxwell "from the Florida prison where she was being held while she served a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking to a new minimum-security prison camp in Texas." The last step before saying whatever she needs to save to get a pardon, or maybe escaping, who knows?

Joyce Vance has the whole "Truth" (so to speak), and the punchline:

"The message to every single government employee is clear. If the numbers, the outcomes, or anything else look bad for Trump, fudge it or risk losing your job. It’s all about personal loyalty, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Still, this is 1984-level stuff.

"[Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika] McEntarfer is an economist, a data person, with a Ph.D. The New York Times reported that she had broad bipartisan support when the Senate confirmed her to the position in 2024 in an 86-8 vote, which included yeas from then-Senators JD Vance and Marco Rubio. She had worked in the Census Bureau during both Republican and Democratic administrations for 20 years before going to Treasury. That’s not the resume of an ideologue. But Trump doesn’t care about people who’ve worked hard to build their careers as public servants. He just wants to look good, whether he’s doing good or not. So McEntarfer had to go."

HCR's closing note send me to The Hill, and Chris Truax's opinion piece, Trump’s mental decline is undeniable — so what now?

"Once you have seen that Donald Trump is confabulating, it cannot be unseen — and all sorts of other mildly disturbing incidents suddenly fall into place."

Confabulating, as in, just making stuff up.

"Confabulation isn’t misremembering a date or forgetting something. The mistakes of memory we are all subject to become confabulation when people remember false information in vivid detail — detail so vivid and complete that people who don’t know otherwise often believe what they are hearing is true.

"In older people, confabulation is one of the clearest early signs of dementia...."

1.Aug.2025

Defy, delay, deflect

Joyce Vance: Trump's Complaint About One Judge Is An Attack On The Entire Judiciary. "The Constitution didn't give the president the power to attack other branches of government. But that's what Trump is doing."

Because it is working so bloody well for him, eh. I mean, the Supreme Court declared presidents are immune from obeying the law, a decision that I'm certain will rank with the very worst in the history of the republic. Not just a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card, it's a NEVER EVEN GO TO JAIL IN THE FIRST PLACE.

That's after a New York state jury found him guilty of 34 felonies in May, 2024, and the 34-time felon declared the United States "a corrupt country" and vowed to appeal the verdict which he called "this scam," but I'm sure he must have also called it a "hoax." (With his diminishing mental capacity, 4 letter, one syllable words work best for him.)

The Roy Cohn strategy of "never admit, never apologize, always attack" remains in effect. (With his expanding authoritarian power, and utterly supine Republican majorities in Congress, he's expanded to eliminating facts and firing anyone with the temerity to state ones he doesn't like.

In the case Joyce Vance details at the link above, the judge under attack by +rump and his quislings in the Department of Justice is beyond the reach of his firing, and the attempted intimidation by a call for censure will be (we can hope, but certainly should be) laughed out of court by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Sri Srinivasan.

raveling

Tom von Alten