Stonewalls fall when the weight of lies exceeds the mortar of loyalty.
Trump’s meltdown over Epstein isn’t just political miscalculation. It’s spiritual decay surfacing. For years, he sold the fantasy that everyone else was hiding something—while he floated untouched on clouds of conspiracy, draped in martyrdom and spray tan.
But now the curtain flutters, and who’s back there? Not Soros. Not Hillary. Not lizard people.
Just Trump.
Trump and Epstein.
Trump and silence.
Trump and the men who smiled through it all.
There is no great reckoning coming from within MAGA. The movement can’t repent what it sanctified. But the rest of us? We still have a choice: whether to keep pretending this is about politics—or admit this is about power without conscience.
To be more cynical about Biden's motivations for his response to Gaza, his top priority was placating various factions. It's what Robert Gates described as what drove his foreign policy throughout his career. It also is what led to the policies that most tanked the Democratic Party in 2024.
His border policy was driven by his impulse to placate the immigrants' rights wing of the Party. His trans policy was driven by his impulse to placate the trans-rights activists. His Afghanistan withdrawal was driven by his impulse to placate those who bought into the notion of "forever wars."
I will never forgive rural America and uneducated cishet white men for this. After all this, they STILL support Trump by huge margins. For them, pedophilia and even sex trafficking are clearly not that big of a deal. They are absolute human filth and need to pay.
No pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell. She procured young girls for Jeffrey Epstein and his clients to sexually abuse. Those victims have never received justice.
According to Donald Trump, "the worst scum on earth" are James Comey, Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, and the autopen. I'm not sure what the autopen ever did to Trump, but the first three are "the worst scum on earth" because they hurt his feelings, and evidently he believes that is far worse than any injury that Maxwell or Epstein did to 14-year-old girls, or "the nubiles" as Maxwell put it.
That ascription of evil is about as revealing of a pathologically selfish moral code as anything else he has ever said. It's bewildering to me that any educated person could still defend someone who thinks that way.
About the topic in Andrew's piece, the scarcity of American media attention to the starvation of the Gazan population is met by the topic dominating the news cycles in what is left of the free world now that America has chosen to opt out. Last week, for the first significant time, a coalition of the vast majority of the remaining countries of the free "western" world (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and most of Europe), who up to six months ago were joined at the hip with America, came together to issue a public rebuke of Israel for starving the Gazans by not allowing free access of food aid. As always, this aid is sourced from a variety of organizations within these very countries, not only from the U.S. (as hard at it is to believe, Trump lied about this). What is of interest, is this public rebuke, strengthened by a few European powers re-emphasizing it a couple days later, has led to what seems to be a response on Israel's part to allow more aid in. This can be taken as a token of hope for those of us who still believe in doing what is right for humanity in general, and not just for their own tribe. Perhaps enough countries can still remain united outside of the unwilling United States and hopefully, eventually, be a fourth world power so that the good guys can still be a significant moral voice in the outcome of humanity.
Thom Hartmann has a brilliant idea about the Democrats, it’s time for the people to rise up and replace the old guard. Except for Bernie would be my caveat.
See Thom’s Substack for a summary of how the Tea Party cast out their leadership from the bottom up. It’s time for Democrats to take a page from their strategy.
Trump's way forward is very simple and very deadly.
Ghislane Maxwell "spills the beans" on a number of plausible Democrats. She can claim she was threatened and in fear of her life so she did not say anything before.
Trump hails her as having helped in draining the swamp, and pardons her, including for her just committed perjury.
The MAGA rejoices. Mona Charen wrote "They had visions of a client list containing names like Chuck Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, George Clooney, and Hillary Clinton (as well as Bill, of course)" -- they get a good number of these if not all.
The MAGA have no objection to Trump's pardon of Maxwell because they got the goods that they wanted.
By the time the dust settles, the whole charade of grand juries, indictments and finally prosecutors dropping their cases because they are absurd, Trump will long be gone. In the meantime, his popularity with the MAGA will grow and grow.
I feel like I'm suffering a terminal case of cognitive dissonance here. I've been reading Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz and, although I knew Bill Kristol was a neo con, I did not remember that he championed Clarence Thomas, became Dan Quayle's chief of staff and considered Sarah Palin "his heartthrob." And NOW we're supposed to accept his analysis and counsel? But this is not really about Kristol. It's about the fact that a great many people and organizations who are involved in paying for, promoting, working for and running campaigns KNOW how stupid, incompetent and craven---and, therefore, dangerous, their candidates are---and they still persist---essentially destroying our democracy in the process. We're here because of them---and this bucket of slop contains multitudes.
We can chortle and roll our eyes about all of Trump's ridiculous lies, but I see little evidence that the Democrats, the media, or the wider opposition to Trump has any strategy to deal with the next waves of toxic lies. What happens if we're told that Maxwell provided testimony that gets Trump off the hook while giving us a set of diversionary lies about other coverups and culprits? What happens if the Trump "Justice" Department and the FBI doctor documents in their possession or produce fakes? What happens when the 2026 campaign rolls around and the GOP fills the airwaves with blatant lies about Medicaid, SNAP, the ACA insurance plans/subsidies? They say one thing, the Democrats and media say something else, the public shrugs their shoulders and believes the side they already want to believe.
No, I'm not a conspiracy theory fan, but what I'm saying here doesn't seem improbable to me, given the plain lies (January 6 etc.) that Trump has gotten large sections of the public and his entire political party to believe or to pretend to believe over the last decade. And, now his megaphone is hooked up to the entire apparatus of a subservient government.
The foundation of Trumpism is denying and inverting the most obvious facts about Trump: holding a congenital liar to be a bold truth-teller, an aggressively selfish narcissist to be a self-sacrificing Tribune of the People, a habitual cheat to be a slayer of corruption, a sleazy creep to be a champion of Christianity. and an admirer of despots to be a restorer of American values.
January 6 was one of the most heavily documented crimes in history - filmed and even boasted about by many of the participants themselves, and much of the incitement was done by Trump out in the open. The Trumpist effort to turn the story upside down and rewrite it as a crime against Trump and MAGA-land was sickening enough. More dismaying is that so much of the public decided that Trump should get away with it, and everything else.
It seems clear that it is Trump himself who has cast about trying to change the subject away from his involvement in Epstein's crimes and who is responsible for the failure to do so. He has the patience of a full-diapered infant so when his first gambit didn't change the subject he tried a different tactic and that all failed. It seems certain that Trump has been calling the shots, insisting that his minions try first this then that tactic to change the subject, all of which has only lead to greater focus and scrutiny by the media and bigger problems for his Republican defenders, many of whom got elected or appointed due to a promise to finally expose the "Deep State" protecting the satanic pedophile ring of the Q prophecy.
It is delicious to see this conspiracy come back to bite Trump in the ass.
Who knows? Hope springs eternal ! I can only be accountable to myself, so I am writing and calling twice a day.
Stonewalls fall when the weight of lies exceeds the mortar of loyalty.
Trump’s meltdown over Epstein isn’t just political miscalculation. It’s spiritual decay surfacing. For years, he sold the fantasy that everyone else was hiding something—while he floated untouched on clouds of conspiracy, draped in martyrdom and spray tan.
But now the curtain flutters, and who’s back there? Not Soros. Not Hillary. Not lizard people.
Just Trump.
Trump and Epstein.
Trump and silence.
Trump and the men who smiled through it all.
There is no great reckoning coming from within MAGA. The movement can’t repent what it sanctified. But the rest of us? We still have a choice: whether to keep pretending this is about politics—or admit this is about power without conscience.
And it always has been.
One more thing we need to call the dickwad rethuglicans not to approve Bove for judge! He isn’t fit! trump 🫏kisser!
202 225 3121 or 202 224 3121
Call any member of congress!
Tell friends! Need to stop the Rethuglikkkans. All the money they took for their votes!
Question?? Who writes the Quick Hits portion of this Newsletter?
To be more cynical about Biden's motivations for his response to Gaza, his top priority was placating various factions. It's what Robert Gates described as what drove his foreign policy throughout his career. It also is what led to the policies that most tanked the Democratic Party in 2024.
His border policy was driven by his impulse to placate the immigrants' rights wing of the Party. His trans policy was driven by his impulse to placate the trans-rights activists. His Afghanistan withdrawal was driven by his impulse to placate those who bought into the notion of "forever wars."
My fantasy is to see Felon Trump in a place that is full of people, and they are laughing at him, and he has no place to hide!
I will never forgive rural America and uneducated cishet white men for this. After all this, they STILL support Trump by huge margins. For them, pedophilia and even sex trafficking are clearly not that big of a deal. They are absolute human filth and need to pay.
No pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell. She procured young girls for Jeffrey Epstein and his clients to sexually abuse. Those victims have never received justice.
According to Donald Trump, "the worst scum on earth" are James Comey, Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, and the autopen. I'm not sure what the autopen ever did to Trump, but the first three are "the worst scum on earth" because they hurt his feelings, and evidently he believes that is far worse than any injury that Maxwell or Epstein did to 14-year-old girls, or "the nubiles" as Maxwell put it.
That ascription of evil is about as revealing of a pathologically selfish moral code as anything else he has ever said. It's bewildering to me that any educated person could still defend someone who thinks that way.
About the topic in Andrew's piece, the scarcity of American media attention to the starvation of the Gazan population is met by the topic dominating the news cycles in what is left of the free world now that America has chosen to opt out. Last week, for the first significant time, a coalition of the vast majority of the remaining countries of the free "western" world (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and most of Europe), who up to six months ago were joined at the hip with America, came together to issue a public rebuke of Israel for starving the Gazans by not allowing free access of food aid. As always, this aid is sourced from a variety of organizations within these very countries, not only from the U.S. (as hard at it is to believe, Trump lied about this). What is of interest, is this public rebuke, strengthened by a few European powers re-emphasizing it a couple days later, has led to what seems to be a response on Israel's part to allow more aid in. This can be taken as a token of hope for those of us who still believe in doing what is right for humanity in general, and not just for their own tribe. Perhaps enough countries can still remain united outside of the unwilling United States and hopefully, eventually, be a fourth world power so that the good guys can still be a significant moral voice in the outcome of humanity.
Thom Hartmann has a brilliant idea about the Democrats, it’s time for the people to rise up and replace the old guard. Except for Bernie would be my caveat.
See Thom’s Substack for a summary of how the Tea Party cast out their leadership from the bottom up. It’s time for Democrats to take a page from their strategy.
Don’t deep six AOC in the firing. She is a breath of fresh air to this stale party.
Trump's way forward is very simple and very deadly.
Ghislane Maxwell "spills the beans" on a number of plausible Democrats. She can claim she was threatened and in fear of her life so she did not say anything before.
Trump hails her as having helped in draining the swamp, and pardons her, including for her just committed perjury.
The MAGA rejoices. Mona Charen wrote "They had visions of a client list containing names like Chuck Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, George Clooney, and Hillary Clinton (as well as Bill, of course)" -- they get a good number of these if not all.
The MAGA have no objection to Trump's pardon of Maxwell because they got the goods that they wanted.
By the time the dust settles, the whole charade of grand juries, indictments and finally prosecutors dropping their cases because they are absurd, Trump will long be gone. In the meantime, his popularity with the MAGA will grow and grow.
I'd ask the question would people with a large audience like Joe Rogan go along with that?
Because I doubt it.
Okay. You have just given us the worst nightmare. Steven King could have not done better!
I am told that a few thousand people had the same idea, expressed in the comments on the Washington Post website.
Arum: must have missed those comments. Nice to be in good company.
I feel like I'm suffering a terminal case of cognitive dissonance here. I've been reading Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz and, although I knew Bill Kristol was a neo con, I did not remember that he championed Clarence Thomas, became Dan Quayle's chief of staff and considered Sarah Palin "his heartthrob." And NOW we're supposed to accept his analysis and counsel? But this is not really about Kristol. It's about the fact that a great many people and organizations who are involved in paying for, promoting, working for and running campaigns KNOW how stupid, incompetent and craven---and, therefore, dangerous, their candidates are---and they still persist---essentially destroying our democracy in the process. We're here because of them---and this bucket of slop contains multitudes.
Maybe we could have a president who costs us less on golfing jaunts and doesn't cheat while he's out there.
Is there any Democrat whose strategy to win Florida is to focus on deflating antagonism on Calle Ocho more than among enthusiasm on Douth Beach to 11?
We can chortle and roll our eyes about all of Trump's ridiculous lies, but I see little evidence that the Democrats, the media, or the wider opposition to Trump has any strategy to deal with the next waves of toxic lies. What happens if we're told that Maxwell provided testimony that gets Trump off the hook while giving us a set of diversionary lies about other coverups and culprits? What happens if the Trump "Justice" Department and the FBI doctor documents in their possession or produce fakes? What happens when the 2026 campaign rolls around and the GOP fills the airwaves with blatant lies about Medicaid, SNAP, the ACA insurance plans/subsidies? They say one thing, the Democrats and media say something else, the public shrugs their shoulders and believes the side they already want to believe.
No, I'm not a conspiracy theory fan, but what I'm saying here doesn't seem improbable to me, given the plain lies (January 6 etc.) that Trump has gotten large sections of the public and his entire political party to believe or to pretend to believe over the last decade. And, now his megaphone is hooked up to the entire apparatus of a subservient government.
The foundation of Trumpism is denying and inverting the most obvious facts about Trump: holding a congenital liar to be a bold truth-teller, an aggressively selfish narcissist to be a self-sacrificing Tribune of the People, a habitual cheat to be a slayer of corruption, a sleazy creep to be a champion of Christianity. and an admirer of despots to be a restorer of American values.
January 6 was one of the most heavily documented crimes in history - filmed and even boasted about by many of the participants themselves, and much of the incitement was done by Trump out in the open. The Trumpist effort to turn the story upside down and rewrite it as a crime against Trump and MAGA-land was sickening enough. More dismaying is that so much of the public decided that Trump should get away with it, and everything else.
This.
It seems clear that it is Trump himself who has cast about trying to change the subject away from his involvement in Epstein's crimes and who is responsible for the failure to do so. He has the patience of a full-diapered infant so when his first gambit didn't change the subject he tried a different tactic and that all failed. It seems certain that Trump has been calling the shots, insisting that his minions try first this then that tactic to change the subject, all of which has only lead to greater focus and scrutiny by the media and bigger problems for his Republican defenders, many of whom got elected or appointed due to a promise to finally expose the "Deep State" protecting the satanic pedophile ring of the Q prophecy.
It is delicious to see this conspiracy come back to bite Trump in the ass.