No foreign government believes a word he says. Foreign leaders will say the right things to avoid a tantrum, but none of them are going to think, "let's get the Americans on board with [fill in the blank]." They're looking out for themselves and understanding we're no longer reliable partners in anything.
Judge Jeanine is going to start producing reports on American citizens. And Trump will go on TV and read those reports, slowly, inaccurately, slurring his words and then, I'm guessing, nothing will happen.
The people I worry about are Hegseth, because he has no idea what he's doing, and Miller because he does. No one's even slowing Miller down. Homan is still out there doing his bidding and the ICE guys are getting, hard as it is to believe, more brazen. There are only two things, in my view, that make a Democratic blowout this fall critical: ICE and the Supreme Court. Without that, ICE will continue doing what it's doing and Habba or Cannon or one of those other flunkies will be on the Supreme Court.
Andrew writes, "It’s Trump’s summer of reruns, his summer of lost causes."
Let us hope fervently for that summer to be followed by his winter of discontent. Profound, bleak, pervasive and all-consuming discontent. And let that be followed by a miserable spring.
CLR, I assume you include House and Senate hearings investigating Trump regime crimes and corruption. They should start on January Third and end on January 19, 2029. Personally, I want Trump's "Winter od Discontent" to be as miserable as possible. It only seems fair, considering the misery he has inflicted on this country in the last year and a half.
"But as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth now routinely freezes elected Democrats out of classified briefings"...
This is your periodic reminder that Hegseth is carrying water for the biggest insider threat to our national security in our lifetimes. This is also a periodic reminder that in a sane, functioning country, there's no way in hell Hegseth would have been in a position to freeze anyone out of classified briefings because Hegseth would never be cleared to begin with.
I'm SOOOOOOO tired of the right wing acting like immature little babies when it comes to our national security. They are literally incompetent and feckless.
I think the MAGAe view national security in a visual sense, meaning they get off on footage of blowing shit up. The boring stuff -- good OpSec, safeguarding secrets, making sure the wrong people don't get cleared -- doesn't titillate the MAGAe at all.
That's bc they don't watch the movies where actual national security matters are covered. The only movies they watch are along the Rambo variety so they think that is what there is to war fighting. Details are for nerds and nerds are liberals.
Perhaps the cognitive dissonance between teaching small children the virtue of truthfulness at home and her "easy, cheerful dishonesty" at work became too much. Naw. She had to bury her conscience so deep, never to be heard from again, to take the job in the first place.
That was so offensive. Sally Hucks and McEnany did the same. If what they say they believe is true, they will hear about that at some point. (Luke 6:46; also Matthew 25:31-46).
I assume she is of the mind set that the ends justify the means. Kind of how jihadist under cover are allowed to drink alcohol and participate in other activities that go against Islamic beliefs. Whatever she had to do to provide cover for Trump was worth it bc in her 28 year old brain he was the best thing for the country.
I see her going to work with Erika Kirk where they can both tell young women and teenage girls that the most important thing they can do with their lives is be stay at home moms.
Trump claimed that the alternative aircraft he boarded after secretly leaving Air Force One in Turkey faced a "greater risk" and was the plane adversaries "would be more likely to go for".
My wife brought up an interesting theory about Leavitt's departure. Does anyone know if she was one of the ones left on AF-1 when Trump sneaked off? As a new mom...I'm not so sure she would appreciate that Trump left her on the jet. Not only that...that incident made it all the more real about the risk she was accepting by being around the POTUS on AF-1 with Trump.
It makes the abrupt timing and announcement of her departure make a lot more sense.
I have seen it reported that she was one of the ones “left behind.” Ironically.
But, they weren’t in any danger anyway because it was all a concocted story by Israel. We’re hearing that a lot, too. But, if that’s the case it’s hard to understand secreting Trump away in the Mobile McDonald’s.
It’s so confusing. At least it’s a break from the Reflecting Swamp.
To Leavitt...it wouldn't matter the origin of the story...it would matter what Trump did after hearing it. It would appear that she was one of the ones left behind. That sends a pretty strong message.
I thought the same. Washington Post reported Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino were in the catering truck with him, and that’s pretty telling for everyone left behind.
Normally Trump is use to walking away with his consultancy fee after he messes everything up. That's why you don't want a stupid businessman running your nation. Trump has nobody to run out on but America.
Karoline Leavitt's abrupt departure is interesting. Makes me wonder if Trump's escalating scary tantrums are more than she wants to handle. Cheerfully lying for him is one thing, but putting up with a demented old man's paranoid and delusional tantrums are another. I also think the Air Force One debacle may have told her much about her place in Trump's universe. Unlike Natalie Harp, Dan Scavino and Walt Nauta, who went with Trump in the catering truck, she was on the decoy plane with 'Lil' Marco and every other White House staffer not deemed worthy of life saving.
I'd resign too if I had two young children who needed a mother and knew my boss thought I was expendable.....but the personal valet, the human printer, and the caddie were not.
"Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that she had convened an unusual special grand jury in Washington, with the possible aim of releasing investigation reports on subjects against whom “prosecutors do not find enough evidence to bring the person to trial.”"
Another innovation in moral squalor. Think of the possibilities. Apparently this special grand jury is for the purpose of letting Trump cling to the claim that the reflecting pool vandalism is real. This method could be used to give election denialism a boost. They may not be able to gin up any evidence that Maduro was part of the 2020 election "theft." But having a trained attorney lead around some grand jurors in a one-sided proceeding might well produce a politically useful report.
Submitting charges was the fig leaf that there was evidence for trial. Releasing investigation reports is just smearing people's reputation. Straight to the fraud, more efficiently and less waste.
166 years ago, when America was consumed with racial hatred, insurrection and war, an angry, morally outraged abolitionist and poet, Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was the beginning of the Civil War. Northern liberals, led by Abraham Lincoln knew they were fighting a virtuous war to save the soul of America and end the scourge of slavery.
Today it is past time we keep seeking the reasons why the abomination of Trump and MAGA are running loose in America. These people are evil and they must be stopped. It is time for us to get MAGA out of power and save the soul of America.
Read The Battle Hymn lyrics and take courage in your anger.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,[16]
Gosh, I’ll miss seeing Karoline Leavitt, all dressed up in her chic right wing costume, hair and makeup perfectly done, huge golden cross hanging there for everyone to see, while she blatantly lies for her “dear leader”, and blames everything on Democrats and Joe Biden. I also loved seeing her on podcasts, where she extolled the virtues of being a “Christian” trad wife and mother, while leaving her husband and children for someone else to care for, so she could have a career breaking commandments like “thou shall not bear false witness”. The hypocrisy of the right wing is astounding and endless. (And before I get blasted, I’m not against any mother having a job outside of the home. I’m just against these women who love to tell others how they should live their lives, while doing themselves exactly what they’re preaching against).
Karoline out? Oh, please, let's see Katie Miller or Kari Lake in her place. And let's take bets on which SNL cast member will take them on! MUST SEE TV
Looks liked Karoline Leavitt has aged out of her job. She's 28, which is 84 in Epstein years.
Are you certain she hadn’t just reached diaper changing capacity?
Well she did get diaper changing experience with DJT
This made me laugh! So true!
"Fully depreciated"
Perfect.
ZING!
[rimshot]
Is that in dog years?
Maybe she realized she wouldn't make the cut on who would be taken off the decoy plane.
Re: "...frittering away his last days of trifecta power flogging his incompetent lackeys..."
A lovely turn of phrase, Andrew, and a mental image I will cherish through the day.
But DJT still gets more dangerous. ( with an unbending congress)
I agree, but I still wonder...
No foreign government believes a word he says. Foreign leaders will say the right things to avoid a tantrum, but none of them are going to think, "let's get the Americans on board with [fill in the blank]." They're looking out for themselves and understanding we're no longer reliable partners in anything.
Judge Jeanine is going to start producing reports on American citizens. And Trump will go on TV and read those reports, slowly, inaccurately, slurring his words and then, I'm guessing, nothing will happen.
The people I worry about are Hegseth, because he has no idea what he's doing, and Miller because he does. No one's even slowing Miller down. Homan is still out there doing his bidding and the ICE guys are getting, hard as it is to believe, more brazen. There are only two things, in my view, that make a Democratic blowout this fall critical: ICE and the Supreme Court. Without that, ICE will continue doing what it's doing and Habba or Cannon or one of those other flunkies will be on the Supreme Court.
Andrew writes, "It’s Trump’s summer of reruns, his summer of lost causes."
Let us hope fervently for that summer to be followed by his winter of discontent. Profound, bleak, pervasive and all-consuming discontent. And let that be followed by a miserable spring.
CLR, I assume you include House and Senate hearings investigating Trump regime crimes and corruption. They should start on January Third and end on January 19, 2029. Personally, I want Trump's "Winter od Discontent" to be as miserable as possible. It only seems fair, considering the misery he has inflicted on this country in the last year and a half.
More like 10 years!! :P
"Winter is coming". And DJT is the night king. (a fat one)
The winter of his bigly discontent. HA HA.
"But as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth now routinely freezes elected Democrats out of classified briefings"...
This is your periodic reminder that Hegseth is carrying water for the biggest insider threat to our national security in our lifetimes. This is also a periodic reminder that in a sane, functioning country, there's no way in hell Hegseth would have been in a position to freeze anyone out of classified briefings because Hegseth would never be cleared to begin with.
Carry on.
I'm SOOOOOOO tired of the right wing acting like immature little babies when it comes to our national security. They are literally incompetent and feckless.
I think the MAGAe view national security in a visual sense, meaning they get off on footage of blowing shit up. The boring stuff -- good OpSec, safeguarding secrets, making sure the wrong people don't get cleared -- doesn't titillate the MAGAe at all.
That's bc they don't watch the movies where actual national security matters are covered. The only movies they watch are along the Rambo variety so they think that is what there is to war fighting. Details are for nerds and nerds are liberals.
Tim - playing 1st person shooter video games not Stratego
How do we know you are the real Tim, and not Tim's comment-bot?
You don't. 😈
Maybe we're all bots.
wiredog - we’re all bozos on this bus 🤪
And is the real Tim even human?
Shorter Karoline Leavitt: I have two young children at home, I don't need a third. 😀
Perhaps the cognitive dissonance between teaching small children the virtue of truthfulness at home and her "easy, cheerful dishonesty" at work became too much. Naw. She had to bury her conscience so deep, never to be heard from again, to take the job in the first place.
The cross dangling from her neck always got me... .Does she not know the commandment pertaining to lying?
That was so offensive. Sally Hucks and McEnany did the same. If what they say they believe is true, they will hear about that at some point. (Luke 6:46; also Matthew 25:31-46).
Carolyn - Joe Pesci before the judge in Cousin Vinnie: “oh, you MEANT that?”
I assume she is of the mind set that the ends justify the means. Kind of how jihadist under cover are allowed to drink alcohol and participate in other activities that go against Islamic beliefs. Whatever she had to do to provide cover for Trump was worth it bc in her 28 year old brain he was the best thing for the country.
Nope, along with the others.
She has a third in her boss.
She'll be running for office in '28. She knows we need her...
I see her going to work with Erika Kirk where they can both tell young women and teenage girls that the most important thing they can do with their lives is be stay at home moms.
Like any bully, Trump is also a coward.
Trump claimed that the alternative aircraft he boarded after secretly leaving Air Force One in Turkey faced a "greater risk" and was the plane adversaries "would be more likely to go for".
Sure, little Donnie.
He also thought being a playboy in the 70’s was his personal Vietnam after dodging the draft.
With venereal diseases being the enemy . . .
My wife brought up an interesting theory about Leavitt's departure. Does anyone know if she was one of the ones left on AF-1 when Trump sneaked off? As a new mom...I'm not so sure she would appreciate that Trump left her on the jet. Not only that...that incident made it all the more real about the risk she was accepting by being around the POTUS on AF-1 with Trump.
It makes the abrupt timing and announcement of her departure make a lot more sense.
I thought the same thing. It'd be one thing if he'd told her, paraphrasing Bane, "No, they expect one of us at the wreckage, sister."
But that's not what happened. He sneaked off in a box labeled "Orange Chicken" and she sat there clueless of the danger. Not cool, man. Not cool.
Maybe, but she was really upset about that, she wouldn't hang around as Trump's "advisor", whatever the hell that means.
It could mean that I want to be on the team...just not on the jet...
It means she gets a taxpayer-funded paycheck.
I have seen it reported that she was one of the ones “left behind.” Ironically.
But, they weren’t in any danger anyway because it was all a concocted story by Israel. We’re hearing that a lot, too. But, if that’s the case it’s hard to understand secreting Trump away in the Mobile McDonald’s.
It’s so confusing. At least it’s a break from the Reflecting Swamp.
To Leavitt...it wouldn't matter the origin of the story...it would matter what Trump did after hearing it. It would appear that she was one of the ones left behind. That sends a pretty strong message.
I think this was in the works for a bit and my guess is that being used as a decoy did not bring this about. Cultists are fanatical followers.
I thought the same. Washington Post reported Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino were in the catering truck with him, and that’s pretty telling for everyone left behind.
I heard that they lured Trump into it by leaving a trail of Big Macs right up to and inside the catering truck.
with fries and ketchup
Like Rubio. "Yes, Marco, you are chopped liver."
They are about the same size.
AFd1 exactly where we are. Ok maybe 100...
"Where a leader chooses to be when conditions are dangerous sends a message."
Amen!
Doesn't resonate with DJT.
Normally Trump is use to walking away with his consultancy fee after he messes everything up. That's why you don't want a stupid businessman running your nation. Trump has nobody to run out on but America.
And no daddy to bail him out.
Karoline Leavitt's abrupt departure is interesting. Makes me wonder if Trump's escalating scary tantrums are more than she wants to handle. Cheerfully lying for him is one thing, but putting up with a demented old man's paranoid and delusional tantrums are another. I also think the Air Force One debacle may have told her much about her place in Trump's universe. Unlike Natalie Harp, Dan Scavino and Walt Nauta, who went with Trump in the catering truck, she was on the decoy plane with 'Lil' Marco and every other White House staffer not deemed worthy of life saving.
I'd resign too if I had two young children who needed a mother and knew my boss thought I was expendable.....but the personal valet, the human printer, and the caddie were not.
Just yet one more example of how Trump only cares about himself, if people would choose to see.
Excellent piece, General Hertling.
I assume you intended to put "just" in quotes in the sentence "There were just American soldiers, far from their families, at war on Thanksgiving."
"Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that she had convened an unusual special grand jury in Washington, with the possible aim of releasing investigation reports on subjects against whom “prosecutors do not find enough evidence to bring the person to trial.”"
Another innovation in moral squalor. Think of the possibilities. Apparently this special grand jury is for the purpose of letting Trump cling to the claim that the reflecting pool vandalism is real. This method could be used to give election denialism a boost. They may not be able to gin up any evidence that Maduro was part of the 2020 election "theft." But having a trained attorney lead around some grand jurors in a one-sided proceeding might well produce a politically useful report.
"A preponderance of the evidence suggests [insert whatever grievance Trump has]..."
Submitting charges was the fig leaf that there was evidence for trial. Releasing investigation reports is just smearing people's reputation. Straight to the fraud, more efficiently and less waste.
166 years ago, when America was consumed with racial hatred, insurrection and war, an angry, morally outraged abolitionist and poet, Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was the beginning of the Civil War. Northern liberals, led by Abraham Lincoln knew they were fighting a virtuous war to save the soul of America and end the scourge of slavery.
Today it is past time we keep seeking the reasons why the abomination of Trump and MAGA are running loose in America. These people are evil and they must be stopped. It is time for us to get MAGA out of power and save the soul of America.
Read The Battle Hymn lyrics and take courage in your anger.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,[16]
While God is marching on.
Maybe Trump should get Pirro to arrest the asshole who knocked down the East Wing and has left a big hole in the ground at the People's House instead.
Gosh, I’ll miss seeing Karoline Leavitt, all dressed up in her chic right wing costume, hair and makeup perfectly done, huge golden cross hanging there for everyone to see, while she blatantly lies for her “dear leader”, and blames everything on Democrats and Joe Biden. I also loved seeing her on podcasts, where she extolled the virtues of being a “Christian” trad wife and mother, while leaving her husband and children for someone else to care for, so she could have a career breaking commandments like “thou shall not bear false witness”. The hypocrisy of the right wing is astounding and endless. (And before I get blasted, I’m not against any mother having a job outside of the home. I’m just against these women who love to tell others how they should live their lives, while doing themselves exactly what they’re preaching against).
Karoline out? Oh, please, let's see Katie Miller or Kari Lake in her place. And let's take bets on which SNL cast member will take them on! MUST SEE TV
miller's bitter half has 4 little tadpoles at home. If foodtruckfatty didn't give a sh!t about her husband being on the decoy...