The Conversation -- June 9, 2025
Marie: The last day that was this sickening was January 6, 2021. Not since the 19th century has the United States seen an insurrection so dangerous to its principles and raisons d'être. I am not talking about the demonstrators and protesting people of the Los Angeles area, most of whom are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.
The New York Times' live updates are here. ~~~
~~~ Yesterday, the Washington Post liveblogged Trump's Hot War on California: “Hundreds of service members arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, part of the 2,000 California National Guard troops that ... Donald Trump has ordered into the city to intervene in protests against his administration’s immigration sweeps. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) condemned the move, which a military legal expert said was escalatory because the state did not request assistance but notably did not involve the president invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow service members under federal orders to perform law enforcement. The city was relatively calm Sunday compared to protests that began Friday after immigration raids in L.A. County swept up more than 100 detainees.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Yesterday's Los Angeles Times liveblog is here. Of course it's firewalled; I was able to call it up on a freebie, and I was able to update it once by refreshing the page. I don't know whether or not a nonsubscriber can get unlimited updates in this way. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Eric Thayer & Jake Offenhartz of the AP: “Members of the National Guard faced off with protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday, and tear gas was fired at a growing crowd that gathered outside a federal complex hours after the federal troops arrived in the city on ... Donald Trump’s orders. The confrontation broke out in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, as a group of demonstrators shouted insults at members of the guard lined shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields. There did not appear to be any arrests.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Tyrant Pounces. Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “It is the fight ... [Donald] Trump had been waiting for, a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his political agenda. In bypassing the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, to call in the National Guard to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration’s efforts to deport more migrants, Mr. Trump is now pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he is inflaming the situation for political gain. Local and state authorities had not sought help in dealing with the scattered protests that erupted after an immigration raid on Friday in the garment district. But Mr. Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country — setting in motion an aggressive federal response that in turn sparked new protests across the city. As more demonstrators took to the streets, the president wrote on social media that Los Angeles was being 'invaded and occupied' by 'violent, insurrectionist mobs,' and directed three of his top cabinet officials to take any actions necessary to 'liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.'” ~~~
~~~ Colin Meyn of the Hill: Donald “Trump told reporters on Sunday that he’s heading to Camp David to meet with military and other leaders, shortly before he posted a message online calling Los Angeles protesters an 'insurrectionist mob.' During a gaggle before boarding Air Force One, Trump would not rule out invoking the Insurrection Act, which could allow the military to be deployed domestically, but he suggested the protests against immigration raids were not yet an insurrection.... 'We’ll be meeting with a lot of people, including generals, as you know, and admirals.'... Shortly after the gaggle, Trump issued a statement on Truth Social claiming that 'violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations.' He said he directed relevant Cabinet officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 'to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: "And admirals"? Is the Navy about to conduct an amphibious landing of troops on Redondo Beach? Is the new D-Day to be Donald Day? Trump is an overgrown child playing "Battleship" and moving around tiny G.I. Joes. But he's using real soldiers against American civilians. And instead of the vice president's running around trying to garner the votes to invoke the 25th Amendment against a megalomaniac, JayDee & Drunk Pete and all are egging on the insanity. ~~~
~~~ To give you a better idea how "concerned" Trump really was about the "violent, insurrectionist mobs" and "Migrant Invasion," Heather Cox Richardson writes that shortly after calling out the National Guard, "he was at the UFC fight in Newark, New Jersey...." ~~~
~~~ Jacob Soboroff & Doha Madani of NBC News: “The Trump administration’s 'border czar' [Tom Homan] warned that immigration enforcement will continue 'every day' in Los Angeles, hinting that even elected officials could face arrest if they interfere with agents on the ground.... Homan has previously threatened arrest for anyone who obstructs immigration enforcement. When asked whether that would include Newsom or Bass, Homan did not rule it out. 'I’ll say it about anybody,' Homan said. 'You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.'” ~~~
~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said California will sue the Trump administration on Monday over its deployment of the National Guard to quell Los Angeles protests against federal immigration raids. In an interview Sunday evening on MSNBC, Newsom said the lawsuit would challenge Trump’s federalizing of the California National Guard without the state’s consent, a move with little precedent in U.S. history.... The governor [also] pointed to Trump’s Truth Social post earlier on Sunday, in which he said the National Guard had done a 'great job.' Newsom said the state forces had not even been deployed at the time. 'It’s Orwellian, simply lying to people, unconstitutional, illegal act, his mess. We’re trying to clean it up,' he added. Later in the interview, Newsom was asked about border czar Tom Homan’s comments indicating he would not rule out arresting Newsom or Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass if they interfered in his efforts. 'Come after me, arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy, you know? I don’t give a damn. But I care about my community...,' he continued.” ~~~
~~~ Brett Bachman of NOTUS: "Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials lined up on Sunday morning to support the president’s decision to activate 2,000 members of the California National Guard to Los Angeles as part of a crackdown on protests over immigration enforcement there.... On the Sunday political talk shows, GOP leaders unanimously backed Trump’s decision, blasting Newsom and other local officials for their failure to keep order as federal authorities conducted widespread immigration sweeps across the city. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem compared the L.A. protests to those that erupted after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, saying that Trump learned then not to trust state leaders like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Newsom.... House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday morning that he found nothing 'heavy handed' about the approach — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s threat to deploy U.S. Marine units onto U.S. streets as part of the administration’s response.... Sens. Markwayne Mullin and James Lankford, both Republicans, also appeared on television Sunday morning to voice their support for Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to L.A.” ~~~
~~~ Chris Mirasola in Lawfare explains the law behind what Trump is doing to California: "... Donald Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation mobilizing 2,000 National Guard personnel to respond to protests against ICE immigration raids in Los Angeles. This is not an invocation of the Insurrection Act. Instead, the president has relied on a far more limited (though also quite old) theory of inherent presidential authority known as the protective power. In tandem with this theory of constitutional authority, the president has also relied on an emergency statutory authority, 10 U.S.C. 12406, to mobilize National Guard personnel to undertake the duties authorized under the protective power." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ This Substack post by Steve Vladeck, also explaining Trump's “Presidential Memorandum,” has been cited by a number of commentators. ~~~
~~~ Here is Vice President Kamala Harris's response to Trump's deploying the National Guard against Los Angeles demonstrators. Thanks to RAS for the link.
~~~ New York Times Editors: Donald “Trump’s order on Saturday to [deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles is] both ahistoric and based on false pretenses and is already creating the very chaos it was purportedly designed to prevent. Mr. Trump invoked a rarely used provision of the U.S. Code on Armed Services that allows for the federal deployment of the National Guard if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States.' No such rebellion is underway. As the governor’s spokesman and others have noted, Americans in cities routinely cause more property damage after their sports teams win or lose.... 'To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States,' Mr. Trump wrote in an executive order.... Yet the closest this nation has come to such a definition of rebellion was when Mr. Trump’s own supporters (whom he incited, then mostly pardoned) sacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021.... Mr. Trump’s idea of law and order is strong-handed, disproportionate intervention that adds chaos, anxiety and risk to already tense situations.” ~~~
~~~ Marcy Wheeler: “It’s all a transparent confrontation used to invade a blue city. All this comes comes as the hours longshormen at LA ports work have dropped in half due to Trump’s trade war, and some of the workplaces ICE targeted were in the garment district, where actual manufacturing still occurs. In addition, Trump has promised to start cutting Federal grants to California, which led Gavin Newsom to point out that CA is a net donor to Federal taxes. This was a natural escalation stemming directly from Stephen Miller’s shrill tantrums demanding that ICE focus more on law-abiding undocumented people rather than the criminal aliens he lied about during the election.... This inital use of federal troops in a blue city should be understood as an effort to build pressure to help pass the bill. It should also be used as an example of the danger of passing the bill — the kind of authoritarianism that Miller intends to wield if the bill does pass.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ David Frum of the Atlantic: “Since Trump’s reelection, close observers of his presidency have feared a specific sequence of events that could play out ahead of midterm voting in 2026: Step 1: Use federal powers in ways to provoke some kind of made-for-TV disturbance — flames, smoke, loud noises, waving of foreign flags. Step 2: Invoke the disturbance to declare a state of emergency and deploy federal troops. Step 3: Seize control of local operations of government — policing in June 2025; voting in November 2026.... The methods Trump threatened in Los Angeles this weekend could be much more effective in November 2026 than the attempted civilian coup of January 2021.” Read the whole article; it isn't long. Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ See also laura h.'s comment yesterday on Tom Nichols' similar take on the Trumpists' playbook. ~~~
~~~ Update. This looks like a gift link to Nichols' column which I obtained from an outside source: “... Donald Trump is about to launch yet another assault on democracy, the Constitution, and American traditions of civil-military relations, this time in Los Angeles. Under a dubious legal rationale, he is activating 2,000 members of the National Guard to confront protests against actions by ICE, the immigration police who have used thuggish tactics against citizens and foreigners alike in the United States. By militarizing the situation in L.A., Trump is goading Americans more generally to take him on in the streets of their own cities, thus enabling his attacks on their constitutional freedoms. As I’ve listened to him and his advisers over the past several days, they seem almost eager for public violence that would justify the use of armed force against Americans.” Again, worth a full read. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that neither Frum nor Nichols is a sensationalist "sky-is-falling" liberal. Frum is a former speechwriter for Dubya, and Nichols has described himself as a "Never-Trump" conservative who taught at the Naval War College. They get Trump's tactics.
~~~ Steve M: "Right now, [Trump's] stormtroopers are deliberately provoking pro-immigrant protesters, which means that his administration is creating the unrest that his call-up of National Guard troops is meant to quell. Whether it was all planned this way or not, that's the formula that's working for Trump economically, and possibly in other areas: he stirs fears, then rides to the rescue, appearing to clean up a mess he made. [The 'clean-ups' improve Trump's poll numbers].... The Leninist slogan was 'The worse, the better.' The second Trump term has begun to operate on that principle. America isn't great again, and shows no signs of becoming great again, but the awfulness of current conditions appear to be why Trump's voters approve of what he's doing. See how hard he's fighting in the midst of all the chaos? He must really love us! But it's his chaos." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ David French of the New York Times: “... each new day brings us fresh evidence of a deeply troubling trend: America is no longer a stable country, and it is growing less stable by the day.” ~~~
~~~ Jesus Jimenez, et al., of the New York Times: “Three Democratic members of Congress from California and two from New York said over the weekend that they were barred from entering federal detention centers in their respective states to check on people who were detained in immigration raids or in protests against the raids. All five members — Representatives Maxine Waters, Jimmy Gomez and Norma Torres of California and Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez of New York — said that they should have been allowed to enter the buildings as members of Congress. The California representatives said they were turned away from the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Ms. Waters said on Sunday that she had tried to see David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union California, on Friday, after he was arrested and apparently injured while protesting the raids. Video of Ms. Waters outside the building showed a door being shut in her face as she said, 'I need to get in.'...
“Mr. Gomez said that as members of Congress, he and Ms. Torres have the right to oversee the well-being of those being detained and their conditions. He said that officers outside the building had sprayed an irritant into the air to deter them from approaching. 'This is really to prevent us from doing our jobs,' Mr. Gomez said. Ms. Torres said that it was 'unconscionable' that federal agents would spray an irritant at members of Congress. In New York, Mr. Espaillat and Ms. Velázquez said that they were barred on Sunday from entering an immigration detention facility on the 10th floor of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan to investigate reports of overcrowding, stifling heat and migrants sleeping on bathroom floors.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Now, I'm sure this has nothing to do with anything, but besides being Democrats, all five of these members of Congress are ethnic minorities. Just sayin'. ~~~
~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “Florida state Sen. Ileana Garcia (R), co-founder of Latinas for Trump, issued a sharp rebuke of ... [Donald] Trump on Sunday as his administration seeks to ramp up deportations and other actions against migrants without legal status. Garcia took particular issue with reported tactics in southern Florida, where immigration officials have allegedly been making arrests in immigration courts and taking other steps to target individuals otherwise in compliance with legal orders. 'This is not what we voted for,' Garcia wrote in a post on the social platform X. 'I have always supported Trump, @realDonaldTrump, through thick and thin. However, this is unacceptable and inhumane.... I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings — in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims — all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal,' she continued in her post, referring to White House homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah, Ms. Garcia, this is what you voted for. You're an elected official, so it's your job to be informed. The evidence that Trump is a racist xenophobe was overwhelming, yet you encouraged others to trust your judgment and vote for his hate and vengeance agenda. It's too late to save your career by denouncing Trump now.
More Anti-Immigrant Action. David Nakamura & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration on Monday will begin enforcing an expansive new travel ban for people from 19 countries, restrictions that come eight years after ... Donald Trump’s first attempt to impose a ban led to chaotic scenes at U.S. airports. Trump announced the new policy last week, fully banning travelers from a dozen countries and partially restricting those from another seven. Administration officials said the prohibitions are necessary to improve national security by targeting countries that have ties to terrorism, lack sufficient vetting for passports and have high rates of citizens who overstay their U.S. visas. Immigrant advocates said they do not anticipate the same level of mass protests that greeted Trump’s announcement of an immediate ban in January 2017 on travelers from some Muslim-majority countries. That decree led federal authorities at U.S. airports to detain people with valid visas who were traveling to the country when Trump made his announcement, prompting a flurry of lawsuits challenging the order. Two versions of the ban were halted by federal judges.”
Peter Baker of the New York Times: “Amid the fireworks of his spectacular breakup with Elon Musk last week was a striking admission by ... [Donald] Trump.... As he lashed out at Mr. Musk for disloyalty, Mr. Trump threatened to cut off the billionaire’s federal contracts in retaliation, effectively acknowledging ... that he looks at the government as his personal instrument for dispensing favors to friends and penalizing those who cross him. In the old days, that might have been cause for a corruption investigation. In the modern era, it’s just another Thursday. Mr. Trump has long since abandoned the kinds of rules and traditions that would constrain a president from employing the power of his office to personally steer federal contracts to allies and away from enemies. And even more remarkable, he has no hesitation about saying it out loud.... Mr. Trump’s second term so far has been a 139-day quest for 'retribution,' the word he used during his campaign, one that has bent, broke and busted through seemingly every boundary of the presidency. He has used the highest office in the land to take revenge against prosecutors, F.B.I. agents, law firms, news organizations, generals, Harvard University, former Biden administration officials and, yes, former Trump administration officials who have made it onto his enemies list.”
Olivia George of the Washington Post: “A video shared Saturday by the U.S. Army of tanks being transported to the nation’s capital for the Army’s upcoming 250th birthday parade showed one loaded on a flatcar with graffiti that appeared to read: 'Hang Fauci & Bill Gates.' The graffiti appeared on screen for only a few seconds in the 58-second video, shared to the Army’s X account and up for more than 24 hours, garnering more that 700,000 views. The Army removed it Sunday evening after inquires from The Washington Post. 'That statement does not align with Army values,' said Steve Warren, an Army spokesperson.... Warren said that he was not aware of the graffiti until reached for comment and added that he does not believe the flatcar in the video is owned by the Army.” MB: A screenshot of the video is so faint I can barely make out "Gates" and I really cannot read "Hang Fauci & Bill." I don't fault the Army for not seeing the graffiti before posting the video.
Trump, Making Sure Poor Kids Can't Go to College. Annie Nova & Jessica Dickler of CNBC, published by NBC News: “... the Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 calls for significant cuts to higher education funding, including reducing the maximum federal Pell Grant award to $5,710 a year from $7,395, as well as scaling back the federal work-study program.... Under Trump’s proposal, the maximum Pell Grant for the 2026-2027 academic year would be at its lowest level in more than a decade.... The proposed cuts would help pay for the landmark tax and spending bill Republicans in the U.S. Congress hope to enact. Roughly 40% of undergraduate students rely on Pell Grants, a type of federal aid available to low-income families who demonstrate financial need on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Work study funds, which are earned through part-time jobs, often help cover additional education expenses.... Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told CNBC[,] 'No kid’s education should be defunded to pay for giant tax giveaways for billionaires.'”
Judson Jones of the New York Times: Long-time “meteorologist ... John Morales of WTVJ in Miami said the Trump administration’s recent cuts to the National Weather Service could leave television forecasters like him 'flying blind' this hurricane season. 'We may not exactly know how strong a hurricane is before it reaches the coastline,' he warned. Clips of Mr. Morales’s comments have spread widely[.]... Grimly, he added: 'And I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can do that this year, because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.' He told of staffing shortages at the Weather Service’s Florida offices; 'From Tampa to Key West, including the Miami office, 20 to 40 percent understaffed,' he said. 'The quality of the forecast is being degraded' because of those cuts, he said.”
Revenge of the Luddites. Paul Krugman: "American scientific leadership and the prestige of our research universities are key pillars of U.S. power and prosperity. Corporate America certainly understands that our scientific and educational institutions contribute to its bottom line. So you might have expected even MAGA enthusiasts to be a bit cautious about killing this particular golden-egg-laying goose. You would have been wrong. Everything points to an effort to effectively destroy U.S. science — not gradually as part of a long-term plan, but over the next year or two.... As an open letter signed by thousands of scientists says, there are obvious parallels between what the Trumpists are trying to do and the corruption of science by past totalitarian regimes."
Faiz Siddiqui, et al., of the Washington Post: “As Musk departed, some of his top lieutenants were streaming out of government.... Meanwhile, Cabinet officials — some of whom had clashed with Musk — are moving to rehire workers who had been pushed out by DOGE. And while the group retains some clout, with DOGE staffers moving into permanent jobs in some agencies, unaffiliated political appointees in other departments have been forcing the cost-cutting group to back off.... Despite the exodus..., White House budget director Russell Vought is expected to pick up where Musk left off in cutting federal spending, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. An architect of Project 2025, a policy blueprint put together between Trump’s terms, Vought told a House hearing Wednesday that the Trump administration is eager to send more requests to eliminate previously appropriated funds as DOGE shifts from a consulting role to a position 'far more institutionalized' at OMB.”
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “ABC News has reportedly suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran over a deleted X post.... According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, ABC News said Sunday that Moran has been 'suspended pending further evaluation' following his post. 'The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism,' Moran wrote in the deleted post. 'Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller. It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end his his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.'” The New York Times story, by Michael Grynbaum, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al. Isabel Kershner & Ephrat Livni of the New York Times: “The Israeli Foreign Ministry said early on Monday morning that a Gaza-bound ship carrying a dozen pro-Palestinian activists and some aid had been diverted toward Israeli shores and that its passengers were expected to return to their home countries. Israel had vowed on Sunday to prevent the ship from reaching Gaza, saying its military would use “any means necessary” to stop it from breaching an Israeli naval blockade of the enclave. The civilian ship, called the Madleen, has been operating under the auspices of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international grass-roots campaign that opposes the nearly two-decade-old blockade of Gaza. The ship set sail from Sicily on June 1. The passengers included the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament.”
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Reader Comments (8)
Here is a comment I wrote late yesterday:
I know I'm beating a dead nag, but I can't over how ignorant Trump is. Linking to another story about Terry Moran brought Trump's amazing stupidity to my own obsessive little mind once again.
In the wee hours this morning, I linked to a Heather Cox Richardson post that retold the story of Trump's boasting to Moran during an April interview that he had ordered the Declaration of Independence to hang in the Oval Office. (Trump may think he has the original; he doesn't.)
Richardson writes that "Moran used Trump’s calling attention to the Declaration to ask a softball question. He asked Trump what the document that he had gone out of his way to hang in the Oval Office meant to him. Trump answered: 'Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country.'”
Here's what bugs me. Suppose you're a person who has no reason to know what's in the American Declaration of Independence. Maybe you come from, say, Indonesia or Belize. Wherever. Now suppose someone asks you, "What's the Declaration of Independence? Don't worry if you don't know; just make your best guess."
Under no circumstance are you going to say, "It's a declaration of unity and love and respect." (Even a thousand monkeys wouldn't type that.) You know what the word "independence" means, so you know a "Declaration of Independence" cannot be about unity and love. It's obviously about breaking up or breaking off from something or someone.
Why doesn't Trump know at least as much as a clueless person in Indonesia (or a thousand monkeys typing)? Why couldn't he make a more logical guess about what's in this foundational American document? I think the answer is -- Donald Trump is really stupid.
And here is Akhilleus' response:
Marie points out the stupidity of Fat Hitler’s response to a question about the meaning of the Declaration of Independence.
Yes. Trump is abysmally stupid about many things. But worse, in regards to our founding documents (the Declaration, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers), all of which is he is blindingly ignorant, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t give a single thought to any of them, and not just because he’s never read them (he hasn’t, and if he ever did skim them, he’d have zero comprehension about their meaning or import), it’s simply that he couldn’t care less about what’s in them or what they mean.
That random person from Indonesia would probably try to make a reasonable guess. Declaration of INDEPENDENCE? Hmmm…let’s see… it’s not about haircuts or pea soup, or peace, love, dove…maybe it’s about…the search for freedom? Independence?
For pretty much his entire life, this privileged blockhead has learned that he can just make shit up on the fly and no one will challenge him, so he doesn’t even bother with a reasonable guess. That would take effort, however minimal, and the great Donald has only time for himself, his money, other people’s money he might steal, and his narcissistic love of himself. So he just tosses out meaningless word salads.
Strikingly, the three words he comes up with are entirely anathema to him personally. Unity? Love? Respect? He loves himself, but hatred is much more his speed. His interest in unity is right up there with his concern for DEI. He is the great divider, the bringer of chaos and distrust. And respect? There likely has been fewer more disrespectful politicians in American history.
He clearly doesn’t even care if viewers or readers see through his bullshit. He—-doesn’t—care.
That’s it. But he gets away with it, time after time after time. So why should he fire up a single synapse not dedicated solely to his personal comfort, greed, desperate need for adulation, and constant search for revenge against perceived enemies?
The Declaration of Independence means less to fat Donald than the wrapper on his next Big Mac.
That particular copy of the Declaration means a lot to DiJiT. It's like the political/historical version of one of his club champion golf trophies. He doesn't need to read it to understand that it is important and impressive, and now it is HIS. Expect that he will seek to incorporate it into his "presidential papers" to hang in his "presidential library", even though that will never be built ... because he'll just keep the donations while "studying plans."
How is this for stupid?
Edward Helmore, in The Guardian, Eight US states seek to outlaw chemtrails
"Believers in chemtrails hold that the aircraft vapor trails that criss-cross skies across the globe every day are deliberately laden with toxins that are using commercial aircraft to spray them on people below, perhaps to enslave them to big pharma, or exert mind control, or sterilize people or even control the weather for nefarious motives....
'We are going to stop this crime,' the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, posted on X in August. Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a post before Hurricane Milton struck in October: 'Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.'"
Reflecting on the situation in Los Angeles, a Bluesky commenter posted this essay from last February by Rebecca Solnit
The She Made Him Do It Theory of Everything
"The rhetoric and logic of the abuse of power operates similarly at all scales, which is why I've found feminism such useful equipment for understanding authoritarians in public and political life. Because no matter what abusers take from their victims, they don't want to take the blame. And one of the prerogatives of power is to be in charge of blame, and abusers routinely exercise that power to make their own acts someone else's fault.
....
'She made him do it' operates in politics too. The most recent example is Trump's declaration that somehow Ukraine's President Zelensky was responsible for Russia's invasion of his country, declaring 'But he should never have let that war start.'
....
In mainstream discourse, it's become standard to blame the excesses of the right on liberals, the left, feminists, Black Lives Matter, affirmative action, environmental protection, and BIPOC and LGBTQ people. It's a way that the right is granted masculine prerogatives and the left feminine responsibilities for the right's behavior. It's also routine to blame the Democratic Party for what the Republican Party does. The two parties are unconsciously regarded as akin to a husband and wife in a traditional marriage in which it's the job of the wife to placate and soothe the husband and help him realize his goals or be held responsible for his outbursts and outrages.
And in the same way the diverse population left of center is supposed to make nice to the right or be responsible for when the right goes wrong. These stories amount to 'the left was so annoying about pronouns or liberals made people feel so guilty about plastic straws they had no choice but to get on board with the second coming of the Third Reich and the destruction of the planet.' "
Former Governor Noem cares about states rights (when Democrats are in office)
FH's still out on bail
Stairs are hard