Right. Also, the reflecting pool was probably permanently damaged by Trump himself who drove his multi-ton motorcade through it and for "reasons" the mass media won't cover this part of the story.
It is quite possible that motorcade cracked some of the concrete. But concrete cracks, so I imagine there are lots of cracks in it. It’s built on fill over a former swampy area. I doubt it had a pile foundation.
At least for an in-ground pool in the swamp (I'm from New Orleans), the concrete is more stable when the pool is full, creating balancing pressure against the "fluid" soil.
And his ouster was another case of the utter ineptitude of the Democratic Party machine. What could Franken have accomplished if Gillebrand hadn't run him out of office? And on the silliest of pretenses in order to make herself look good to her constituents?
He would be fighting tooth and nail right now if he was in Congress because he had true intelligence and integrity. He was making the corporate Dems look bad so he had to go. They would rather live in a fascist dictatorship then give up their bribes, so here we are.
I'm sure mine is a minority opinion, but I'm proud to say I vote for a party (Democrats) that applies a purity test to its representatives.
It broke my heart when the Franken story came out, but I supported his decision to step down under pressure. He's a good man, but that isn't all the criteria for holding office at the highest levels. It matters very much to me as a woman voter (and a very old one at that) to be able to support candidates who do not now and never did think it was funny, hilarious even, to belittle women.
Franken wasn't just "a good man," he was a competent senator who did his homework, reading the bills when he came home at night, and researching the real stats behind any legislative assertions. (Sheldon Whitehouse is the closest example of the Serious Grownup Senator that we have.)
I'm an old guy too and I don't resist your thoughts here. My thought though is that Gillebrand's charges were spurious and never really really delved into. And, I believe, she did it in order to enhance her own election in her district. She seems to have an Ouroboros view of what the party is for. Al, being the guy he is, simply got out at a time where such controversy was counter productive for the party and exited the stage. But this is an area where honest and collegial disagreement is likely.
Franken was a lion of the Senate and the leader we needed there. Gillibrand, I think, had presidential aspirations that would never survive a comparison between herself and Franken.
He had too much integrity as a politician and that made him a threat, so the corporatists found a way to use that against him. He couldn't be bought so they manufactured a narrative to force him out instead. The party betraying Franken still makes me sick to this day.
Really? I think it was just misplaced ideological zeal and fear of not meeting some standard of behavior. But I'm not in Gillibrand's and others heads to know their motivation. Talking to people yesterday about how we miss the Giant of the Senate.
Gillibrand saw Franken as a rival for a future presidential run so she jumped on the push to have him leave the Senate. Every sane, smart person knew the photo from the USO trip was a gag and that the woman who complained was a rightwinger looking for her 15 minutes. The women who came out of the weeds and said he hugged them during photos on the campaign trail - all asked for photo with him and posed with their husbands for the photos. It was all a BS frame up and the minute he resigned at idiot Gillibrand’s insistence- the women disappeared back into the rightwing rathole and w the Dems were stuck with Gillibrand from redneck upstate NY state.
"We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow."
—Al Franken, Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right
I've really come to appreciate the distinction among the many ·types· of lies, which are produced by varying motivations.
Trump, for example, is a complete ·fabulist·, spouting whatever ·bullshit· to steer or deflect the intercourse. Then there's lying out of fear of the boss, or lying to make yourself look better, or lying because you want to make the object of your affection happy (any of which could be in the form of "lies of omission").
Don't blame the entire military for the dishonesty and/or incompetence of some of its members. At least, not yet. Hegseth is working hard to make the entire military leadership incompetent.
Military lies often come in the form: Just say what mission you've accomplished, and ignore pointing out that it didn't really change things or everything reverted after you did it, or it wasn't what needed to be done. This is basically how we were spinning our wheels in Afghanistan for so long:
And the core problem is 60 million registered Republicans who still approve of everything Trump does and justifies with lying including leading a lawless fascist autocracy that promotes white Christian male supremacy and hates women blacks and immigrants. Democracy won’t exist unless Democrats after getting elected in 2028 enforce the law against insurrection to arrest prosecute convict and imprison Trump members of his administration Republicans in Congress six justices on the Supreme Court and billionaire oligarchs to get super majority control of the government to fund solutions to affordability including Medicare for All by taxing corporations (at 50%) and billionaires (2% annual wealth tax + 90% income tax that includes capital gains) and then passing legislation that ends Citizens United and many other bad things Republicans and oligarchs created.
Another core problem is that liberal men do not want to share political power with women. The forward progress of democracy stopped when US did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. USA has been authoritarian since the 1980s. The Princeton study in 2014 just confirmed that.
And it's been longstanding DOJ policy that they are not supposed to charge anyone unless they have in hand evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that will stand up on appeal. Obviously, Pirro did not follow this policy.
I would like to know what she told the grand jury to obtain an indictment, even with the low standard of probable cause. Also, what they told a grand jury to obtain an indictment of James Comey for posting a photograph of seashells.
The Comey indictment is based on two distinct falsehoods. One is that 8647 means "kill"; it does not. The other is that, even if it did mean "kill," it is not, as the indictment claims, a threat (a "true threat," to use the legal terminology). It is an expression of opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment.
Hearn's lawyers also wanted to know what she told the grand jury. Since the only witness contradicted an essential claim, they were likely to find out if the case proceeded, thereby exposing potential prosecutorial misconduct.
But not before innocent citizens suffered the trauma of felony charges, and taxpayer money was wasted. We taxpayers may be on the hook for more money if the defendants file claims for damages, as was suggested by Hearn's attorney.
I'm dying to know whether it was Trump who had given standing orders to arrest and pin the blame on anyone who approached the Reflecting Pool. Or if it was Trumpian underlings doing it on their own initiative to suck up to the boss.
My guess is it’s the latter. It was astonishing they tried to pin it on a white 68 year old male former Olympian. That’s not the demographic they prefer to blame.
They weren't waiting on a particular demographic; they just grabbed the first guy who touched the water. That leads me to believe that someone relatively high up gave the order.
They arrested at least four people. (On June 22, Trump claimed five people had been arrested; on June 23 he claimed six people had been arrested; four arrests have been identified by the media.)
There were multiple officers involved in each arrest, and as you say there is no indication that the officers were targeting a particular demographic. So somebody in a supervisory position gave an order to arrest people, but it could have been a fairly low level individual. I doubt it was Trump because Trump has no filter. If he had ordered the arrests, or even been informed about them on June 20, I don’t think he would have remained silent until June 22.
Krugman’s point that people in the Administration lie to each other is worth repeating. Doug Burgum is sticking to the lie that the reflecting pool was vandalized. I suspect that Pirro actually believed the vandalism lie, and was genuinely upset that she was put in the position of having filed bogus charges without knowing they were bogus. Pirro is willing to file cases for political reasons, but apparently the reflecting pool cases were too transparently bogus even for her.
Pirro likely fingered the incompetent contractor--and Burgum--for fear of losing her law license, and other legal profession penalties if she persisted in an indefensible prosecution. Penalties that a Presidential pardon cannot protect her from.
In short, she refused Trump's orders to send an innocent man to jail for 10 years, to protect herself. She wasn't willing to take a profession-destroying bullet for Mr. Trump. At least not over something as inane as his imaginary reflecting pool vandals.
That's how the MAGA courts roll as well, especially the Supreme Court. Decide the political result you want in advance and then create some of the most laughable legal logic to support it.
A good leader tries to surround him or herself with people that are better and brighter than they are - for obvious reasons. Trump not only does not do that but, because of his NPD, is literally incapable of doing that. The stupidist and most dangerous appointment to leader in history.
And Trump truly believes he is the best brightest and most charming human on the planet so he wouldn’t be able to find advisors or a cabinet that is even passable. SO he just has sycophants
And this also supports why the opposite is such a disaster. When everything is run on fear and distrust, of course it is going to be a total disaster, an epic failure. That was always going to eventually happen. What’s shocking to me is that they are all so totally, in thrall, inept, in fear that it is unraveling so quickly.
"they are part of the same story — what happens when a government operates entirely in bad faith, never telling the truth about what it is doing or why. Inevitably, officials in such a government don’t merely lie to the public: they lie to each other too"
Exactly. Trump will not let anyone else make decisions, because he thinks he knows everything. Then, when he makes (so many) shitty decisions, he blames all the people who tried to stop him (or maybe not, for fear they'd be fired) for his own failures.
I'm pretty sure that's the definition of a circular firing squad.
I don’t think Trump “wants” to know everything. He works differently.
Instead he lives in a fantasy world where if he gets an idea it instantly becomes his reality. A fixed reality that cannot be altered — regardless of evidence or facts or anything. He’s instantly locked on it.
His (false) reality then becomes all others reality (in his mind).
He’s been doing it so long it’s just a natural for him.
Notice how when he defends his fantasies he follows up with “…and everyone else knows this too!”
It matters not to him that maybe no one believes it (the slashed liner in the reflecting pool), the moment he dreamt up the ridiculous idea it became a basic law of physics to him.
No need to discuss it; it’s fact.
Follow this with his total inability to back down, admit wrongs or apologize for anything (emphasis on “anything”) on his part and you have the real Donald Trump.
Now we need to explain why all congressional Republicans go along with this madness!
they quaked with fear on J6 and yet support the orange ego because they fear losing $ and their cushy congressional seats though most are rich to begin with
GOP voters appear to need no explanations, no information, no verification of absurd statements and are happy as a clam with outright lies. As long as someone is getting hurt who is not me.
Again, the entire conservative movement is based on lies. Welfare queens, voter fraud, the tax cuts will pay for themselves, trickle down economics, all lies. When your movement is based on lies, you get liars. They go along because they believe the lies too. Or they’re just there for the grift and the hate.
Ultimately we may have to believe that this sorry state of affairs is due to 'The Apprentice'. They showed tRump living this glitzy lifestyle... which he would never have been able to maintain had it not been for his ability to con and defraud investors... Well, he played on the wealth envy of the MAGAts and they put his sorry ass in the Oval Office twice.
I suspect that wealth envy played a part - but his loudly and publicly endorsing and encouraging the motivating 'principles' of Christian Nationalism may have played the major part.
The MAGA base is large but is still a minority. That means the only way they win is that eligible voters who know better simply choose to stay home on Election Day. In 2016 that was people who supported Bernie or those who for whatever reason simply didn’t like HRC or the Dems didn’t check every box on their wish list. Last time it was Biden choosing to run when he clearly was not able and then the fact people simply couldn’t handle voting for a well qualified woman of color. Until the majority are willing to compromise and vote recognizing progress is incremental we end up with tRumpian catastrophe.
MAGA Christian Nationalists are bone-achingly, sincerely stupid and conscientiously ignorant - but anyone who doesn't vote when the choice is between "unpalatable" and "death by Bunga Bunga" are not all that distant..
I picture Xi and Chinese ministers privately pointing and laughing. Then publicly they tell the Chinese people that democracy doesn’t work because it doesn’t prevent wholly incompetent people from taking office. This gets them off the hook with their Chinese public for their own misadventures.
The big difference between Trump and standard conservatism is how large the lies are and their scope. The Right has always run on lies - wealth trickles down, tax cuts pay for themselves, government regulations are bad, markets regulate themselves, etc.
I forget the exact quote, but conservatism has been described as the age-old quest to justify selfishness. When it inevitably fails to deliver on its promises, it’s never the fault of conservatism - it’s the fault of the people who failed to carry out ‘true’ conservatism. “It can never fail - it can only be failed.”
It’s not just faith-based government - it’s government of bad faith, zombie lies on steroids. And the cruelty is always the point.
Conservatives believe the good of the one (themselves) outweighs the good of the many. Liberals believe the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. Conservatives generally won’t sacrifice their comfort to come to the aid of others, and in fact frequently demonize others. Liberals generally are the reverse. Our brains are wired differently.
What I fear is with 5000 NGs in DC until 2027 at $3 Billion, ICE acting as Storm Troopers, Concentration Camps @$38 billion with a capacity of 100000 persons. If we have elections in Nov, Ds win big, trump's law suits fail, he declares martial law, the NG and ICE roundup Ds to fill the CCs ? I fear that is the goal. Yeah, that can't happen here.
We must repeal the exception in the 13th Amendment. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. except as a punishment for crime . . . shall exist within the United States. . . ."
What? You want to abolish imprisonment for a crime? No. There are some people who -- though they certainly deserve due process and unbiased treatment by the legal system -- do deserve to be incarcerated due to having committed a violent or abusive crime.
No, I didn't say that. I oppose slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime; I do not oppose incarceration. But there are efforts to abolish imprisonment entirely, which I take seriously, although they have not entirely persuaded me. I am persuaded that there should be no imprisonment for non-violent crimes (except maybe for politicians who abuse the public trust and for extreme cases like Bernie Madoff). And I think that, apart from confinement, imprisonment should not result in the denial of any rights and should be in as comfortable environment as possible. This is because the object of incarceration should be to protect the rest of us, not to punish or to seek vengeance.
I object to your claim that anyone "deserves" to be incarcerated. Some people should be incarcerated to protect the rest of us, but who are we to decide what they "deserve"? For that reason, I opposed sentences of life without parole. When a person reaches an age that he is no longer a danger to the rest of us, he should be released.
To oppose incarceration for non-violent crimes does not mean to want to allow non-violent criminals to get away with it. With imagination, we can come up with punishments that serve as effective deterrents. Too many people seem to think that prison is the only punishment we can impose.
Trump and Hegseth approached Iran like a pair of pubescent boys with a stash of fireworks on the fourth of July ... recklessly blowing the stash before the sun set.
Meanwhile David still has lots of cheap rocks to throw at 'Goliath' who is still too foolish to bend at the waist and pick up his own.
Sorry to be mixing metaphors so early in the day ...
It's all like a bad horror novel. Except it's real life and quite literally the well-being of everyone on the planet is at stake. And all of this in service to . . . what? One man's insatiable ego?
There seem to be about 3 or 4 men wrecking the planet. Lots of other lower-level men hurting their countries, but 3 or 4 men are wrecking things for 9 billion people. It’s unbelievable.
Later today we get the “jobs report”. We can’t trust it. So, why does Bloomberg say this? “A too-strong reading may get interpreted as a hot labor market that’s fanning inflation and adding to concern the Fed needs to raise interest rates. Conversely, a weaker-than-expected report would soothe those worries.” We are living in a fantasy bubble. What could go wrong?
Paul has stated in earlier articles that there are too many people involved in the creation of the jobs report for it to be falsified. The only problem with it is that many people will just pay attention to what Trump says about it, rather than what the report actually says.
Uh huh. The BLS alone is responsible for analyzing and compiling all of the data and writing the final report, as well as collecting payroll data. Lots of room for converting reality into Trump lies.
The thing that "kills me" is that even after 12 years of Tr "popularity" (he did win both male and female white voters all three times even though he was well known for being a vile liar and a fraudster for decades before that), there has not been a well-researched, heartfelt accounting of why Americans supported him so consistently for so long. It's literally as if all our deep-thinking sociologists are on another planet. How and why did this happen? When a nation undergoes a trauma, at least it generally tries to come out of it with a narrative that clarifies "what happened." We literally do not have that. Without it, how do we progress? Although it's good that we have term limits and/or he will die soon, that isn't the answer we really need.
No, actually it couldn't. The majority of "non-votrrs" are completely disconnected from actual information on which to make competent political judgments. They are overwhelmingly on the dangerous left side of the Normal Curve of inherent intelligence, so their "conclusions" are divorced from objective reality.
Don't lament their non-participation. It may be their one expression of wisdom.
History tells us that plagues disrupt and change social systems in big ways, sometimes permanently. When Covid shut us down, I told friends we were about to see a move toward dictatorships. And of course I was told I was nuts. I think Trumpism and the rise of rightwing groups in so many democracies is the social disruption and the trauma behind it is Covid.
Except Erdogan in Turkey and Modi in India predate Covid by several years. They were the canaries in the coal mine. Stagnation and corruption in India under the Congress Party helps somewhat in explaining the shift to Modi, but the trauma of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai profoundly shifted the country just as 9/11 did here. Those terrorist attacks were far more successful in obtaining their objectives than has been acknowledged.
The Trump regime's lying, even among themselves, has another name: Stalinism. That's when the government puts more effort into portraying an image of competence than to actually be competent. But the truth always comes out eventually, and the damage is always greater than it would have been if the regime had actually pursued competence and not lied about it.
"[...] that they aren’t simply a vindictive prosecution of one of Trump’s perceived enemies." It's not even that David Hearn is a perceived enemy, he is just being used as a prop to support a lie that allows Trump to 1) live in denial of his own failure, and 2) sell that denial to the public. All of this while being willing to put away a perfectly innocent man for up to 10 years. Thank goodness for the courts, the last bulwark of what used to be America.
Al Franken nailed it years ago “lies and the lying liars.”
Right. Also, the reflecting pool was probably permanently damaged by Trump himself who drove his multi-ton motorcade through it and for "reasons" the mass media won't cover this part of the story.
It is quite possible that motorcade cracked some of the concrete. But concrete cracks, so I imagine there are lots of cracks in it. It’s built on fill over a former swampy area. I doubt it had a pile foundation.
At least for an in-ground pool in the swamp (I'm from New Orleans), the concrete is more stable when the pool is full, creating balancing pressure against the "fluid" soil.
And his ouster was another case of the utter ineptitude of the Democratic Party machine. What could Franken have accomplished if Gillebrand hadn't run him out of office? And on the silliest of pretenses in order to make herself look good to her constituents?
He would be fighting tooth and nail right now if he was in Congress because he had true intelligence and integrity. He was making the corporate Dems look bad so he had to go. They would rather live in a fascist dictatorship then give up their bribes, so here we are.
Yep.
I'm sure mine is a minority opinion, but I'm proud to say I vote for a party (Democrats) that applies a purity test to its representatives.
It broke my heart when the Franken story came out, but I supported his decision to step down under pressure. He's a good man, but that isn't all the criteria for holding office at the highest levels. It matters very much to me as a woman voter (and a very old one at that) to be able to support candidates who do not now and never did think it was funny, hilarious even, to belittle women.
Franken wasn't just "a good man," he was a competent senator who did his homework, reading the bills when he came home at night, and researching the real stats behind any legislative assertions. (Sheldon Whitehouse is the closest example of the Serious Grownup Senator that we have.)
I'm an old guy too and I don't resist your thoughts here. My thought though is that Gillebrand's charges were spurious and never really really delved into. And, I believe, she did it in order to enhance her own election in her district. She seems to have an Ouroboros view of what the party is for. Al, being the guy he is, simply got out at a time where such controversy was counter productive for the party and exited the stage. But this is an area where honest and collegial disagreement is likely.
Franken got screwed.
yep
Franken was a lion of the Senate and the leader we needed there. Gillibrand, I think, had presidential aspirations that would never survive a comparison between herself and Franken.
Hear, hear!!
Great book, and he was an outstanding senator..
He had too much integrity as a politician and that made him a threat, so the corporatists found a way to use that against him. He couldn't be bought so they manufactured a narrative to force him out instead. The party betraying Franken still makes me sick to this day.
Me too..
Really? I think it was just misplaced ideological zeal and fear of not meeting some standard of behavior. But I'm not in Gillibrand's and others heads to know their motivation. Talking to people yesterday about how we miss the Giant of the Senate.
Gillibrand saw Franken as a rival for a future presidential run so she jumped on the push to have him leave the Senate. Every sane, smart person knew the photo from the USO trip was a gag and that the woman who complained was a rightwinger looking for her 15 minutes. The women who came out of the weeds and said he hugged them during photos on the campaign trail - all asked for photo with him and posed with their husbands for the photos. It was all a BS frame up and the minute he resigned at idiot Gillibrand’s insistence- the women disappeared back into the rightwing rathole and w the Dems were stuck with Gillibrand from redneck upstate NY state.
Al Franken was thrown under the bus.
You are dead-on right! I thought at the time that Franken was an obstacle to Gillibrand's presidential ambitions, and that's why he had to go.
Thanks, perhaps so. I see she did seek the nomination in 2020. of course it wasn’t Gillibrand alone who managed to force him out.
Hear, hear!!
One of my favorite excerpts:
"We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow."
—Al Franken, Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right
All lies. All the time.
I've really come to appreciate the distinction among the many ·types· of lies, which are produced by varying motivations.
Trump, for example, is a complete ·fabulist·, spouting whatever ·bullshit· to steer or deflect the intercourse. Then there's lying out of fear of the boss, or lying to make yourself look better, or lying because you want to make the object of your affection happy (any of which could be in the form of "lies of omission").
Don't blame the entire military for the dishonesty and/or incompetence of some of its members. At least, not yet. Hegseth is working hard to make the entire military leadership incompetent.
No Republicans in the Judicial, Executive or Legislative branches accede to their oaths of office.
Military lies often come in the form: Just say what mission you've accomplished, and ignore pointing out that it didn't really change things or everything reverted after you did it, or it wasn't what needed to be done. This is basically how we were spinning our wheels in Afghanistan for so long:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan_Papers
The biggest lie is the myth the Republican have not been waging class warfare against the workers of America for the last 45 years.
True. But I think the Reagan Administrations was a bit of a tipping point so I went with 45 years.
True, except it's been longer than 45 years.
Along with racial, gender, and religious..
And the core problem is 60 million registered Republicans who still approve of everything Trump does and justifies with lying including leading a lawless fascist autocracy that promotes white Christian male supremacy and hates women blacks and immigrants. Democracy won’t exist unless Democrats after getting elected in 2028 enforce the law against insurrection to arrest prosecute convict and imprison Trump members of his administration Republicans in Congress six justices on the Supreme Court and billionaire oligarchs to get super majority control of the government to fund solutions to affordability including Medicare for All by taxing corporations (at 50%) and billionaires (2% annual wealth tax + 90% income tax that includes capital gains) and then passing legislation that ends Citizens United and many other bad things Republicans and oligarchs created.
Another core problem is that liberal men do not want to share political power with women. The forward progress of democracy stopped when US did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. USA has been authoritarian since the 1980s. The Princeton study in 2014 just confirmed that.
Totally agree
And there's no question which side won the class war.
No lie there.
It is notable that the DOJ got its procedure in relation to David Hearn back to front - first it charged him, then it went looking for evidence.
You give DOJ too much credit to say that it went looking for evidence. It knew from the start that none existed.
At no time in his life has Trump ever let the facts get in the way of his lies and narcissism. This is what narcissists do.
Exactly so. Trump was embarrassed that his much touted renovation of the reflecting pool was such a disaster. He wanted a scapegoat.
Good point.
And it's been longstanding DOJ policy that they are not supposed to charge anyone unless they have in hand evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that will stand up on appeal. Obviously, Pirro did not follow this policy.
I would like to know what she told the grand jury to obtain an indictment, even with the low standard of probable cause. Also, what they told a grand jury to obtain an indictment of James Comey for posting a photograph of seashells.
The Comey indictment is based on two distinct falsehoods. One is that 8647 means "kill"; it does not. The other is that, even if it did mean "kill," it is not, as the indictment claims, a threat (a "true threat," to use the legal terminology). It is an expression of opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment.
Hearn's lawyers also wanted to know what she told the grand jury. Since the only witness contradicted an essential claim, they were likely to find out if the case proceeded, thereby exposing potential prosecutorial misconduct.
The case was dead either way.
But not before innocent citizens suffered the trauma of felony charges, and taxpayer money was wasted. We taxpayers may be on the hook for more money if the defendants file claims for damages, as was suggested by Hearn's attorney.
I'm dying to know whether it was Trump who had given standing orders to arrest and pin the blame on anyone who approached the Reflecting Pool. Or if it was Trumpian underlings doing it on their own initiative to suck up to the boss.
My guess is it’s the latter. It was astonishing they tried to pin it on a white 68 year old male former Olympian. That’s not the demographic they prefer to blame.
They weren't waiting on a particular demographic; they just grabbed the first guy who touched the water. That leads me to believe that someone relatively high up gave the order.
They arrested at least four people. (On June 22, Trump claimed five people had been arrested; on June 23 he claimed six people had been arrested; four arrests have been identified by the media.)
There were multiple officers involved in each arrest, and as you say there is no indication that the officers were targeting a particular demographic. So somebody in a supervisory position gave an order to arrest people, but it could have been a fairly low level individual. I doubt it was Trump because Trump has no filter. If he had ordered the arrests, or even been informed about them on June 20, I don’t think he would have remained silent until June 22.
Krugman’s point that people in the Administration lie to each other is worth repeating. Doug Burgum is sticking to the lie that the reflecting pool was vandalized. I suspect that Pirro actually believed the vandalism lie, and was genuinely upset that she was put in the position of having filed bogus charges without knowing they were bogus. Pirro is willing to file cases for political reasons, but apparently the reflecting pool cases were too transparently bogus even for her.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/03/nx-s1-5918001/reflecting-pool-vandalism-charges-dropped
Pirro likely fingered the incompetent contractor--and Burgum--for fear of losing her law license, and other legal profession penalties if she persisted in an indefensible prosecution. Penalties that a Presidential pardon cannot protect her from.
In short, she refused Trump's orders to send an innocent man to jail for 10 years, to protect herself. She wasn't willing to take a profession-destroying bullet for Mr. Trump. At least not over something as inane as his imaginary reflecting pool vandals.
Their standard operating procedure when their driving force is to appease a revenge driven megalomaniac
That's how the MAGA courts roll as well, especially the Supreme Court. Decide the political result you want in advance and then create some of the most laughable legal logic to support it.
A good leader tries to surround him or herself with people that are better and brighter than they are - for obvious reasons. Trump not only does not do that but, because of his NPD, is literally incapable of doing that. The stupidist and most dangerous appointment to leader in history.
A case in point is hegseth. There's an old saying, fanatics are dangerous and religious fanatics are the most dangerous of all.
i think we're lucky trump hates
animals. Otherwise he may have appointed his horse a senator.
Frankly, at this point a horse would be a less inept and dangerous choice.
The "stable genius?"
So you're saying Trump has Caligulitis?
And Trump truly believes he is the best brightest and most charming human on the planet so he wouldn’t be able to find advisors or a cabinet that is even passable. SO he just has sycophants
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. Niccolo Machiavelli
And this also supports why the opposite is such a disaster. When everything is run on fear and distrust, of course it is going to be a total disaster, an epic failure. That was always going to eventually happen. What’s shocking to me is that they are all so totally, in thrall, inept, in fear that it is unraveling so quickly.
Trump government incompetence is its only saving grace.
"they are part of the same story — what happens when a government operates entirely in bad faith, never telling the truth about what it is doing or why. Inevitably, officials in such a government don’t merely lie to the public: they lie to each other too"
Exactly. Trump will not let anyone else make decisions, because he thinks he knows everything. Then, when he makes (so many) shitty decisions, he blames all the people who tried to stop him (or maybe not, for fear they'd be fired) for his own failures.
I'm pretty sure that's the definition of a circular firing squad.
I don’t think Trump “wants” to know everything. He works differently.
Instead he lives in a fantasy world where if he gets an idea it instantly becomes his reality. A fixed reality that cannot be altered — regardless of evidence or facts or anything. He’s instantly locked on it.
His (false) reality then becomes all others reality (in his mind).
He’s been doing it so long it’s just a natural for him.
Notice how when he defends his fantasies he follows up with “…and everyone else knows this too!”
It matters not to him that maybe no one believes it (the slashed liner in the reflecting pool), the moment he dreamt up the ridiculous idea it became a basic law of physics to him.
No need to discuss it; it’s fact.
Follow this with his total inability to back down, admit wrongs or apologize for anything (emphasis on “anything”) on his part and you have the real Donald Trump.
Now we need to explain why all congressional Republicans go along with this madness!
I am unable to sort that one out.
"Now we need to explain why all congressional Republicans go along with this madness!"
Fear and greed.
they quaked with fear on J6 and yet support the orange ego because they fear losing $ and their cushy congressional seats though most are rich to begin with
GOP voters appear to need no explanations, no information, no verification of absurd statements and are happy as a clam with outright lies. As long as someone is getting hurt who is not me.
Again, the entire conservative movement is based on lies. Welfare queens, voter fraud, the tax cuts will pay for themselves, trickle down economics, all lies. When your movement is based on lies, you get liars. They go along because they believe the lies too. Or they’re just there for the grift and the hate.
Dirk you’ve encapsulated his little pea brain for sure! Ugh
"Now we need to explain why all congressional Republicans go along with this madness!"
Or maybe we just unelect them all in November and let them sort it out for themselves.
Ultimately we may have to believe that this sorry state of affairs is due to 'The Apprentice'. They showed tRump living this glitzy lifestyle... which he would never have been able to maintain had it not been for his ability to con and defraud investors... Well, he played on the wealth envy of the MAGAts and they put his sorry ass in the Oval Office twice.
I suspect that wealth envy played a part - but his loudly and publicly endorsing and encouraging the motivating 'principles' of Christian Nationalism may have played the major part.
But they are only in office because the MAGA base is willing to believe seemingly endless lies and vote them into power.
The MAGA base is large but is still a minority. That means the only way they win is that eligible voters who know better simply choose to stay home on Election Day. In 2016 that was people who supported Bernie or those who for whatever reason simply didn’t like HRC or the Dems didn’t check every box on their wish list. Last time it was Biden choosing to run when he clearly was not able and then the fact people simply couldn’t handle voting for a well qualified woman of color. Until the majority are willing to compromise and vote recognizing progress is incremental we end up with tRumpian catastrophe.
I pray yet again that Dems will not election suicide by huffing off when ALL other dems dont chant in unison with them on all topics like maga.
Hear, hear!!
MAGA Christian Nationalists are bone-achingly, sincerely stupid and conscientiously ignorant - but anyone who doesn't vote when the choice is between "unpalatable" and "death by Bunga Bunga" are not all that distant..
The misogynistic males. There are a lot of them.
Getting yourself and others to laugh at him certainly helps. Ridicule is an excellent weapon against those who desire power over others.
Agreed. And getting yourself and others to laugh at him really helps too. He's what I call rich in material.
I picture Xi and Chinese ministers privately pointing and laughing. Then publicly they tell the Chinese people that democracy doesn’t work because it doesn’t prevent wholly incompetent people from taking office. This gets them off the hook with their Chinese public for their own misadventures.
The big difference between Trump and standard conservatism is how large the lies are and their scope. The Right has always run on lies - wealth trickles down, tax cuts pay for themselves, government regulations are bad, markets regulate themselves, etc.
I forget the exact quote, but conservatism has been described as the age-old quest to justify selfishness. When it inevitably fails to deliver on its promises, it’s never the fault of conservatism - it’s the fault of the people who failed to carry out ‘true’ conservatism. “It can never fail - it can only be failed.”
It’s not just faith-based government - it’s government of bad faith, zombie lies on steroids. And the cruelty is always the point.
GOPus delendus est.
Conservatives believe the good of the one (themselves) outweighs the good of the many. Liberals believe the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. Conservatives generally won’t sacrifice their comfort to come to the aid of others, and in fact frequently demonize others. Liberals generally are the reverse. Our brains are wired differently.
The cavil about failed implementation is not unique to conservatives; ideological communists have said same or similar for close a century.
I believe it’s J K Galbraith you’re quoting but it might be someone before him.
Hear, hear!!
What I fear is with 5000 NGs in DC until 2027 at $3 Billion, ICE acting as Storm Troopers, Concentration Camps @$38 billion with a capacity of 100000 persons. If we have elections in Nov, Ds win big, trump's law suits fail, he declares martial law, the NG and ICE roundup Ds to fill the CCs ? I fear that is the goal. Yeah, that can't happen here.
What about cracking down on forced labour in the USA done by prisoners?
Remember tRump's go -to mantra is accuse others of what he is doing.
edit: fixed just who was doing what to whom.
We must repeal the exception in the 13th Amendment. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. except as a punishment for crime . . . shall exist within the United States. . . ."
and the electoral college
What? You want to abolish imprisonment for a crime? No. There are some people who -- though they certainly deserve due process and unbiased treatment by the legal system -- do deserve to be incarcerated due to having committed a violent or abusive crime.
No, I didn't say that. I oppose slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime; I do not oppose incarceration. But there are efforts to abolish imprisonment entirely, which I take seriously, although they have not entirely persuaded me. I am persuaded that there should be no imprisonment for non-violent crimes (except maybe for politicians who abuse the public trust and for extreme cases like Bernie Madoff). And I think that, apart from confinement, imprisonment should not result in the denial of any rights and should be in as comfortable environment as possible. This is because the object of incarceration should be to protect the rest of us, not to punish or to seek vengeance.
I object to your claim that anyone "deserves" to be incarcerated. Some people should be incarcerated to protect the rest of us, but who are we to decide what they "deserve"? For that reason, I opposed sentences of life without parole. When a person reaches an age that he is no longer a danger to the rest of us, he should be released.
To oppose incarceration for non-violent crimes does not mean to want to allow non-violent criminals to get away with it. With imagination, we can come up with punishments that serve as effective deterrents. Too many people seem to think that prison is the only punishment we can impose.
Somehow that didn't prevent the establishment of the draft in the 60s.
In 1918, the Supreme Court held that the draft is not involuntary servitude, even though it obviously is.
Trump and Hegseth approached Iran like a pair of pubescent boys with a stash of fireworks on the fourth of July ... recklessly blowing the stash before the sun set.
Meanwhile David still has lots of cheap rocks to throw at 'Goliath' who is still too foolish to bend at the waist and pick up his own.
Sorry to be mixing metaphors so early in the day ...
🤣
It's all like a bad horror novel. Except it's real life and quite literally the well-being of everyone on the planet is at stake. And all of this in service to . . . what? One man's insatiable ego?
It’s in the service of wealthy (mostly) white men and their supporters, who want the patriarchy to go on forever
Never underestimate the rage of mediocre white men who think their primacy is being threatened. It’s why we have Don in the White House.
And the greedy psychophants who scuttle along to get their pieces of pie.
There seem to be about 3 or 4 men wrecking the planet. Lots of other lower-level men hurting their countries, but 3 or 4 men are wrecking things for 9 billion people. It’s unbelievable.
One can only be disgusted by the actions of this administration and the Supreme Court which has given the Liar-in-chief so much power.
Later today we get the “jobs report”. We can’t trust it. So, why does Bloomberg say this? “A too-strong reading may get interpreted as a hot labor market that’s fanning inflation and adding to concern the Fed needs to raise interest rates. Conversely, a weaker-than-expected report would soothe those worries.” We are living in a fantasy bubble. What could go wrong?
Paul has stated in earlier articles that there are too many people involved in the creation of the jobs report for it to be falsified. The only problem with it is that many people will just pay attention to what Trump says about it, rather than what the report actually says.
Uh huh. The BLS alone is responsible for analyzing and compiling all of the data and writing the final report, as well as collecting payroll data. Lots of room for converting reality into Trump lies.
The thing that "kills me" is that even after 12 years of Tr "popularity" (he did win both male and female white voters all three times even though he was well known for being a vile liar and a fraudster for decades before that), there has not been a well-researched, heartfelt accounting of why Americans supported him so consistently for so long. It's literally as if all our deep-thinking sociologists are on another planet. How and why did this happen? When a nation undergoes a trauma, at least it generally tries to come out of it with a narrative that clarifies "what happened." We literally do not have that. Without it, how do we progress? Although it's good that we have term limits and/or he will die soon, that isn't the answer we really need.
Dorothy Black
Could an answer be, most of US DONT VOTE?
That is not a new phenomenon. And if the average voter is clueless, just imagine the depth of thinking that goes on within the non-voting crew.
got to keep many of them on Fox, working 3 jobs, and lots of sports on TV, too tired and bored to follow politics = 1984
No, actually it couldn't. The majority of "non-votrrs" are completely disconnected from actual information on which to make competent political judgments. They are overwhelmingly on the dangerous left side of the Normal Curve of inherent intelligence, so their "conclusions" are divorced from objective reality.
Don't lament their non-participation. It may be their one expression of wisdom.
History tells us that plagues disrupt and change social systems in big ways, sometimes permanently. When Covid shut us down, I told friends we were about to see a move toward dictatorships. And of course I was told I was nuts. I think Trumpism and the rise of rightwing groups in so many democracies is the social disruption and the trauma behind it is Covid.
Except Erdogan in Turkey and Modi in India predate Covid by several years. They were the canaries in the coal mine. Stagnation and corruption in India under the Congress Party helps somewhat in explaining the shift to Modi, but the trauma of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai profoundly shifted the country just as 9/11 did here. Those terrorist attacks were far more successful in obtaining their objectives than has been acknowledged.
As you know, Trump pre-dated covid. And after denying its seriousness, he even got really sick from it.
The Trump regime's lying, even among themselves, has another name: Stalinism. That's when the government puts more effort into portraying an image of competence than to actually be competent. But the truth always comes out eventually, and the damage is always greater than it would have been if the regime had actually pursued competence and not lied about it.
So which side is actually communist, hmm?
The new presumption is of banality.
"[...] that they aren’t simply a vindictive prosecution of one of Trump’s perceived enemies." It's not even that David Hearn is a perceived enemy, he is just being used as a prop to support a lie that allows Trump to 1) live in denial of his own failure, and 2) sell that denial to the public. All of this while being willing to put away a perfectly innocent man for up to 10 years. Thank goodness for the courts, the last bulwark of what used to be America.
One of the defining features of the psychopath is pathological lying. Would you expect anything different from Trump?