trump's Vengeance Becomes a Whimper

In the ongoing saga of trump's damage upon our nation's Reflecting Pool in Washington DC, the sound and fury of trump accusing others of vandalizing what he wrecked has signified nothing.

The key target of trump's ire - a retired Olympian arrested for destruction of property when all he did was touch the already-peeling paint job on the pool - had the charges dismissed in court today (via staff with NPR):

Federal prosecutors have moved to dismiss the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn, saying instead that damage to the pool was "the result of botched installation and not vandalism."

The botched installation by the by is what got all the experts shouting months ago.

Earlier this month, Hearn, 67, pleaded not guilty to a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool. Hearn has repeatedly said that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity last month. But the government alleged he had ripped a piece of sealant at the bottom of the reflecting pool after it had undergone a $14-million renovation.

"This was a deliberate act to damage the reflecting pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore and have witnessed," U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro previously said of Hearn's actions.

Pirro - more of a media hack than a practicing lawyer - had spent weeks in front of cameras claiming she had proof, insisting this was all vandalism... and now has to answer to the reality she exaggerated if not outright lied about all this the whole time. Pirro was in court claiming Hearn "forcefully pulled" huge chunks of material from the pool and now the Justice Department lawyers are saying "uh well..."

In a filing late Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. switched course, saying it had relied on initial reports provided by the Department of the Interior (DOI) and U.S. Park Police (USPP).

Friday's filing reads: "It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents ... indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings ("AIC") and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026."

After the renovation was completed, the pool's blue lining began peeling off in chunks and algae blooms turned the waters a murky green. The project has been widely criticized as a waste of taxpayer money.

Lawyers for Hearn responded to Friday's decision in a statement, saying the Trump administration owes Hearn an apology for a case that should have never been brought.

There were others whom Pirro charged with similar accusations who deserve to have their cases dropped as well. 

This all happened for several reasons.

One: trump can never admit he makes mistakes, he can never be in the wrong. he couldn't blame the bad paint job on the guy he personally paid to do this shoddy work, and he couldn't admit that painting the Reflecting Pool was a bad idea; so he has to blame it all on "vandals" and enemies to soothe his spoiled ego.

Two: trump has to make examples of those he deems enemies, by threatening to sue or actually suing others who can't afford the excessive legal fees and emotional stress of facing criminal (or civil) charges. he's aided by a Far Right conservative army of lackeys who ascribe to the philosophy of "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." Punching down at everyone not of their tribe is what they live for, and it's turned a legal institution like the Justice Department into a mob of MAGA bullies.

These lawsuits and criminal filings may go nowhere, but it wastes his victims' time and financial well-being. And it sends a message - which any mobster like trump enjoys doing - to others not to get in his way or make him look ridiculous.

This is where Hearn needs to follow the example of E. Jean Carroll. She was a victim of trump, she called him out, he tried to ruin and defame her, she fought back. And she won in court, securing both a legal payment and confirming the court's ruling that trump is a goddamned sex offender.

Hearn and the others wrongfully charged for vandalizing something trump already ruined need to fight back. trump will never apologize like the lawyers demand (again, trump will never admit he's wrong). trump needs to get sued in civil court for his acts of defamation towards Hearn and others. Granted, it won't go anywhere while he's still in office - the Jones v Clinton ruling applied to matters before Clinton entered office - but it'll be waiting for him the second he's kicked out (thank you 22nd Amendment). Hearn's lawyers should also pursue going after the Justice Department hacks - Pirro especially - for prosecutorial misconduct, to push back against the Roy Cohn wannabes eager to please trump.

Marcy Wheeler over at Emptywheel shared this tidbit, something even she didn't know about until today:

Lastly, in a filing I had not seen reported before, Hearn revealed that after a witness testified that there was no way to attribute the damage to Hearn, given all the pre-existing damage, DOJ sent him or her back to the grand jury to falsely claim they had proof Hearn had done $1,000 of damage.

Presenting false testimony to a grand jury ought to count for SOMETHING towards misconduct, for God's sake. Every Justice lawyer on this fiasco from Pirro on down needs to face their own criminal charges, see how they like it.

The Only Truth That Is Also A Fact: The Republicans Are Beyond Saving

Over on Bluesky I reposted this skeet, because it spells out in easy terms why the Republicans cannot be redeemed.

This is an apt descriptions of Republicans now.

[image or embed]

— migas7.bsky.social (@migas7.bsky.social) July 25, 2026 at 10:11 AM

In case the embed fails

The modern Republican Party defends no virtue, performs no service to others, provides no leadership to our nation in any way.

In every respect, the Republican Party is still dead as a functioning political force. It is now an occupying army, treating other Americans - other humans - as targets for their greed, fear, and hate. Anyone in that party that can claim any rational capability cannot be turned around as a force for good: They have had a DECADE of trumpism to walk away, deny any support of such criminality... and they refused. They are too beholden to "owning the libs" that they cannot break from a corrupt, destructive faction.

This is why I've been screaming to the nation FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN. There is nothing there to vote for, only against (against Blacks, against women, against Latinos, against gays/lesbians/trans, against fiscal sanity, against vaccines, against foreign allies, against holding any person of power/wealth accountable for their crimes).

I'm not taking crazy pills. The Republican downward spiral has been going on for decades now, and it's dragging the United States - and the world - down with it.

Just stop pandering to any Right-leaning faction you think you can appeal to. The Republicans killed the better angels of their nature ages ago. They'll just waste your time (and take your money). Just stop that. There's millions of Democratic and Independent voters to reach for to get them motivated to vote. There's millions more who aren't even registered to vote - and who can - that the Dems and other center-Left forces need to reach to get them in enough numbers to drive the corrupt GOP out of power at the state and federal levels.

Those are the Americans we need to stand up for the nation. Go talk to them, get them on board. Save the true Republic, Dems.

The Ongoing Monotony of the Same trump Traumas

Jason Linkins over at the New Republic pretty much describes the mood most of us are in heading into the 2026 midterms: 

Times have changed. Whereas TNR’s Matt Ford once famously compared Trump’s first term to the episode of Battlestar Galactica where the Cylons attack every 33 minutes, its second iteration has become a dull monotony. Just about everything this White House does is rooted in the president’s desire to get revenge on his perceived enemies, his quest for self-aggrandizement, and the extreme limitations that arise when your best days—from a pure cognition standpoint—are well behind you. Nowadays, there are only really seven types of Trump story, and they’re all bad.

Linkins notes each of trump's calamities, starting with tariffs:

Of all the kindnesses that the Supreme Court has bestowed on Trump, its February decision to strike down the president’s retaliatory tariffs stands out as advice that should have been heeded: “Hey, don’t do this, you are screwing up the economy.” Trump forsook this wise counsel and continues to wake up on random mornings with the yen for imposing tariffs willy-nilly. This week he imposed 50 percent tariffs on a slew of Canadian goods because our neighbors to the north had the temerity to fight back in the trade war Trump started. He followed that up with an announcement that he was going to put a ten percent tariff on 80 other nations. It’s always impossible to gauge whether Trump intends to stick with a tariff fight. After all, it’s in this arena that “Trump Always Chickens Out” was born...

trump would back down from some of the tariff plans he intended to unleash since April 2025 from time to time, but he keeps going back to imposing tariffs because he genuinely believes tariffs work for him. trump revels in the idea of trade wars because he thinks they're "easy to win". And it fits so well into his mob-boss world-view of extorting everybody else to pay up.

trump doesn't care how unpopular his trade wars are, nor does he care about how unpopular his real wars are, such as the ongoing nightmare involving Iran as Linkins notes:

...Trump’s decision to wade into an unwinnable foreign war after limply cosplaying as The One Guy Smart Enough to Do That was born from the fact that he’s a dumb asshole who needed a distraction from a cratering economy and the daily effluvia of the Epstein news cycle. But even I thought that the backslappery that arose from the Memorandum Of Understanding that briefly put an end to hostilities might be a sign that the administration understood it had a much-needed off-ramp. Color me naïve: We’re now back in the big muddy, talking about war crimes and taking over Kharg Island, as the president recoils from public inquiry and his congressional allies fret about their political futures. The only question left is the one asked by TNR contributor Joe Cirincione: Can Trump lose the same war twice?

trump of course will never admit he's losing. trump will - unfortunately - keep repeating the same mistakes, because he's convinced only the suckers among the armed forces will pay the price for him.

The other major trauma point for Americans has been trump's - and the Far Right's - war on immigrants, with reemerging signs of ICE violence across more of our communities:

Too many members of the media treated the exile of Greg Bovino and Kristi Noem as a credible sign that the administration had overreached in its violent assault on American cities. But the White House’s bloodthirsty deportation machine suffered little if any lull, and ICE is back to its wanton ways, with new high-profile killings at the hand of Trump’s goons in Texas, Florida, and Maine—the latter of which may prove to regalvanize support for Senator Susan Collins’s future Democratic opponent. As TNR’s Melissa Gira Grant reminds us, the violence is a feature, not a bug. And now, Trump’s FBI has decided to turn a blind eye to investigating those responsible. Far from a drawdown, this looks like the administration is giving carte blanche to the agency to kill at will.

Another growing trumpian scandal is the most obvious and yet the one nobody is in any current position to do anything about it: trump's open graft and money-grabbing in clear violation of the Emoluments Clause and a hundred other laws against insider trading, fraud, and foreign influence:

Trump spent last year becoming a world-class kleptocrat, on the back of self-dealing exploits too numerous to recount (though I did offer readers what I thought were the worst of the bunch). Estimates as to how much his bread got buttered by all the grift and graft are nearly as varied. The New York Times totaled up about $1.4 billion in takings, but this is the low end—financial disclosures released at the end of June put the total at $2.2 billion, while Democratic researchers on the House Oversight Committee estimate that this figure rises to “$9.7 billion when the value of Trump’s digital assets is factored in” to the equation. Regardless, Trump is still lining his pockets, with new schemes including Kazakh tungsten, Pentagon baksheesh, and what appears to be a pay-to-pardon scheme.

Leading into Linkins' next trauma of note: trump's threats to derail democracy altogether this midterms.

When Trump isn’t trying to steal your money, he’s well-nigh obsessed with stealing your vote, a subject that was supposed to serve as the (very) loose framework for his recent prime-time ramble. The president’s monomaniacal desire to see the SAVE Act—his signature voter suppression bill—pass muster has peppered the headlines with updates on the latest weird scheme to somehow enact it over the objections of all the Democratic lawmakers and not a few of their GOP colleagues. Not long ago, Trump was trying to sneak it through the reconciliation process; now Republicans have backdoored voter ID restrictions into a congressional stock-trading-ban bill. It’s clear that Trump would love to rig the upcoming midterms, though it’s not clear how he will accomplish this...

With all of those ongoing acts of criminality and madness, the next one Linkins mentions seems the most frivolous but is in fact one of the more serious and soul-breaking things trump is doing to our nation: Fucking with our monuments and national landmarks.

Millions now living may not recall that it was once possible to go several years without thinking about the Reflecting Pool. Thanks to Trump, we’re now getting daily updates about algal blooms, phantasmal vandalism, and dubious criminal cases that only show how the administration’s Stasi-like authoritarianism can be extended almost everywhere. The real vandal, as TNR’s Michael Tomasky wrote, is Trump, whose desperate efforts to leave a mark in D.C. have led to a demolished East Wing, a hollowed-out Kennedy Center, and an Oval Office decorated with Temu (note: the KMart to Amazon's Target, if you understand the reference) gold wall appliqués...

That's not even going into the unwanted triumphal arch trump wants erected - not for any given war or national accomplishment, but for trump's twisted ego - and the horrors trump wants to inflict on our museums like the Smithsonian. This is stuff that affects the mental psyche / awareness of many Americans, and trump's playing with all that to mess with our heads (and he knows it, he revels in that kind of sadism).

All leading up to the seventh trauma trump's administration is inflicting upon the American people: literal sickness.

Trump’s second term isn’t without its success stories—if you are the measles virus, anyway. As Axios reported this week, the “U.S. measles case count for this year has surged past last year’s total and now stands at 2,295—a level that hasn’t been seen in 35 years, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker that compiles state and local health data.” This news comes hard on the heels of another public health crisis that also serves as a metaphor for the Trump presidency: the record number of cyclospora infection cases that have turned this into Explosive Diarrhea Summer. This is part and parcel of the long tail of DOGE’s effort to denude the government of its public health capabilities; we see this manifesting in our struggle to contain New World screwworm at home and Ebola abroad. And let’s remember: In the event of a Covid-style pandemic, the adults who were in the room during Trump’s first term have been replaced by quacks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who make the titular character from “Storm”—Tim Minchin’s seminal song about pseudoscience—look like C. Everett Koop.

When the 2024 election turned for trump, a lot of observers knew he was going to bring in the worst of the worst to demolish federal agencies from within, and his hiring of known anti-vaccinations kook RFK Junior was seen as a prelude to this current wave of viral and parasitic infections decimating America. Well, look upon Kennedy's works, America: Along with measles - which is a serious childhood calamity causing deaths and long-term health woes - we're coping with EXPLOSIVE diarrhea (lemme share the Josh Johnson standup routine to give you an idea how to say "EXPLOSIVE" properly).

Everything Linkins mentions, it's literally the crap a lot of us have had to deal with since 2024 2016: the absolute utter nightmare of an idiotic bully ruining our world on his whims on a daily basis. This is why I complain about being unable to blog every day: Sometimes, there's too much of this shit to cope.

If there's any good news, there is a simple solution to all of this: This is a midterms year, and in spite of trump's (and Republicans') efforts to suppress the vote or skew the results there are good odds that a large voter turnout for Democrats - a Blue Wave larger than the one we saw in 2018 - will flip the US House control away from a Republican Party unwilling to enforce the checks and balances of the Legislative branch. The Senate is iffy at this moment, but if the polling gets worse for Republicans the seats for Ohio, Iowa, Maine - even Texas, Alabama, and Florida - could be in play.

This all depends on voter turnout: Every registered Democrat showing up at the polls this November, casting votes in anger against the daily nightmares our nation's been enduring; Every registered Independent showing and refusing to give Republicans any relief; and Enough registered Republicans deciding to either not show up, or flipping their votes to favor Dems out of frustration of all the damage their own party has inflicted on them.

There is hope. We as a nation must act to protect and promote that hope.

Voters, for the LOVE OF GOD, OUR FAMILIES, AND AMERICA: Throw the Republican bums out. It is THE ONLY WAY TO HOLD trump ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE DAMAGE DONE.

Hiding From the Reality of trump's Unwanted War

Update: Hello to everyone from Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up! Thanks to Batocchio as always sharing this blog. I should note that since this article posted, the Defense Department did update their casualties report to try and justify what they did (hiding it under a generic "Overseas Operations" tag) as well as expand the number of wounded from Iranian strikes. This is messier than the GOP wants to admit. /rage

As every con artist is a bad liar, the trump administration is trying to hide the reality their war against Iran is getting our troops killed (via Robert Mackey at The Guardian (US)):

The Pentagon’s official online list of service members killed in the ongoing Iran war does not include the four soldiers who died during renewed fighting over the weekend, despite the fact that their names were included in a Pentagon press release on the formal transfer of their remains back to the United States on Wednesday.

A review of the current list on the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System website shows that, despite having been last updated on Wednesday, the number of US military personnel killed during Operation Epic Fury, the Pentagon’s name for the US-Israeli war on Iran that Donald Trump launched on 28 February, remains at 14...

According to a New York Times report, the Pentagon website listed 18 American service members as having been killed during the war on Iran on Wednesday, but was changed on Thursday to exclude three service members killed last Friday, Saturday and Sunday as Iran retaliated for new US strikes with an attack on a base used by US forces in Jordan. The list also excluded a fourth soldier who was killed during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone at Erbil airbase in Iraq...

Three military officials told the Times that “one reason behind the change was that the Trump administration decided to remove four service members killed this past weekend from the list … because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April”.

A Pentagon spokesperson disputed that contention, telling the Times that the decreased total of service members killed was due to “temporary data disruptions” that would be quickly fixed.

The Pentagon did not immediately return the Guardian’s request for comment.

trump and his lackeys want to pretend that his "cease-fire" back in April - much like all the other failed "peace deals" - was the end of military operations against Iran... in spite of the reality that we're still essentially fighting the same damn war. This is because trump and crew are avoiding the legal restrictions of the War Powers Act - which requires them to petition Congress for authorization for any prolonged military action - so they can pretend the ongoing war are brand new military actions.

This is insane. The entire goddamn planet knows this is all one big war instigated by trump's ego and fueled by Netanyahu's ambitions. trump is dodging any accountability - anything that should reign in an illegal presidency - and daring the Republicans in Congress to do something to stop him (they won't).

This is why every voter needs to get out the vote this midterms and kick every Republican congresscritter from the House and Senate from office. Elect a Democratic supermajority as best as possible in Congress to bring goddamn trump to heel.

Before he sends more of our troops into harm's way and ignore their deaths like he's doing now.

Him, Angry at the World

This hasn't been a good week for anyone's mental health, with the most unstable of us in donald trump erupting towards the non-stop war - yes, that "peace proposal" he signed last month WAS a complete sham - he's got going with Iran (via Chandelis Duster at NPR):

The U.S. military has confirmed that three service members have been killed since Friday, following the escalation between the U.S. and Iran.

Two were killed in action when Iran launched missile and drone attacks in Jordan, according to U.S Central Command.

On Sunday, U.S. Central Command said the remains of an unidentified person had been found at the site of an attack in Jordan...

The U.S. military said it had launched new airstrikes against Iran on Saturday evening, at the direction of President Trump, in retaliation for Friday's attack.

"The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night," the U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted on social media...

The U.S. and Iran have widened the scope of targets in the latest strikes and the escalation has led to broader concerns that there could be an all-out war amid the fighting for control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has closed the strait and the U.S. military said it has reinstated a naval blockade of Iran.

This isn't going to be the end of it. trump wants total subjugation over Iran and control of the Strait, and those are things Iran's hardline leadership will never gift him.

Adding to that is trump's lashing out at Canada over a massive wildfire that's polluting much of the northeastern United States, leading to trump reviving his failed tariff wars as though punishing our neighboring nation would stop the fires (via Sophie Brams at The Hill):

President Trump threatened on Friday to impose additional tariffs on Canada, accusing the country’s government of “willful negligence” in its handling of massive wildfires that have wafted heavy smoke and worsened air quality in parts of the Midwest and East Coast.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post...

(Prime Minister) Carney brushed off the criticism during a news conference in London, Ont. on Thursday, while also taking a subtle jab at the Trump administration’s environmental and energy policies.

“Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States,” Carney told reporters in French, according to The Canadian Press. 

The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, also showed frustration with U.S. politicians’ comments in a press conference on Friday afternoon, stating that Canadian rescue teams helped fight wildfires in California last year, but have not received any help from the U.S.

“I truly believe the Americans are good neighbors,” Ford said. “If there are some politicians out there chirping away, well maybe what you should do other than complain is send support, send help.”

trump is not interested in fighting fires. trump is more interested in starting fires; in bullying nations with tariffs until they give him what he wants (more money and more control).

And it hasn't helped our nation's global standing as trump is picking fights with European allies like Italy (I'm siding with PM Meloni, there is no way she wanted to get a picture with that orange shitgibbon) and Spain (threatening to cut off all trade with the nation over disputes with defense spending, all the while refusing to get out of the way of the celebration photos at the World Cup final as Spain men's team won it all).

trump is angry, frustrated, lashing out. he isn't winning the way he thought he could - using tariffs, wars, and threats of wars - and he's showing signs of running out of time. he's overseeing insanely unpopular acts and mishandling local crises, some of them created by his own failures or the failings of his lackeys. trump's polling numbers are the worst they've ever been - no matter how hard he and his lackeys lie about the numbers - with no sign of the public mood improving on its own.

trump isn't leading, he's whining. Even as he vacuums up billions of dollars in open acts of corruption, he's unhappy because he can't be any other way.

And the rest of us have to suffer for that.

ICE Thuggery In OUR Streets, What the Hell America

This is all you need to know: ICE thugs have gone back to killing people in the streets.

This happened in Houston last week (via Lekan Oyekanmi, Jack Brook, and Jeffrey Collins with AP News shared through PBS Newshour):

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who lived in the U.S. for decades, as the homebuilder drove his construction crew to a Houston job site.

His death set off protests in Texas' largest city and calls from Democrats and Salgado Araujo 's family for an independent investigation. The shooting on Tuesday in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood is at least the eighth death during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said federal officers were looking for someone else when they attempted to stop Salgado Araujo's vehicle. DHS said Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and that an officer opened fire in self-defense.

Subsequent video releases of nearby surveillance cameras established that ICE and DHS agents are lying about the "self defense" part: none of them were in front of the van, they were the ones who pursued and attacked, and none of the agents endured any kind of harm.

This is who they killed: an innocent man going to work to feed his family.

Just a reminder: ICE and DHS under trump and Stephen Miller and every other racist MOFO in their administration are NOT going after "the worst of the worst," they're going after workers, families, innocent people many of whom are going through the legal process of immigrating to the U.S.

GODDAMN trump's THUGS.

And this just happened in Maine yesterday (via Patrick Whittle, Leah Willingham, and Jack Brook at AP News):

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, the second time in a week that ICE has used deadly force and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed in Biddeford as a 26-year-old native of Colombia. The Colombian Embassy said it was in contact with U.S. authorities about the Colombian national’s death and “is providing the necessary consular assistance to his family.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said in a post on X that agents were surveilling an address for a person with a final order of removal from the country. When ICE tried to stop a vehicle driven by someone coming from that address, the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the department said.

Prior to the brief ICE statement on the incident, Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland. The agents involved didn’t have body cameras, he said...

Subsequent video releases of neighborhood witnesses established that ICE and DHS agents are lying about the "self defense" part: There is no evidence the driver was trying to ram anybody, and the ICE thugs kept shooting after the car stopped. It doesn't help that the victim's three year old daughter was in the car, caught in the crossfire and witnessing something no child should ever see.

You should also notice how these federal officers did not wear the mandated body cameras in both situations. All that money in their budgets, all these months of operations, and they're STILL claiming they can't afford them or buy any yet? Christ, you can buy them off Amazon and get them shipped to you two days minimum, shipped in a day if you pay extra for Prime service. They don't want to record the real damage they're inflicting on innocent lives, they don't want anything to contradict their hideous Narrative justifying their violence.

JFC, Homeland Security is lying out of their collective ass here.

NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY. None of this is about going after the "worst of the worst." These racist fucksticks are going after workers, families, innocent people many of whom are going through the legal process of immigrating to the U.S.

GODDAMN trump's THUGS.

Abolish ICE. Murder, torture, and criminal conspiracy charges for the whole lot of them. Send them to the deep pit of Hell where the REAL Worst of the Worst deserve to go.

The Legacy of a Man Desperate for Relevance

Update: thanks again to Steve In Manhattan for including this article at Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up this morning. Keep on raging.

Lot of crazy political stuff to write about, but this bit of news overnight dominated today's thoughts: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, longtime figure among the Republican leadership, died at the age of 71.

He did not leave behind a good or kind legacy: He attacked immigration policies, tried to end asylum laws, fought to end "sanctuary cities," and committed to other Far Right stances against women and minorities much like any other Republican blowhard.

This was a man who wanted to be the most important person in the room... and never could (via Mark Liebovich, at the Atlantic):

Senator Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly last night, was a pivotal citizen of the Washington conversation. He loved being in the mix, slapping bipartisan backs off camera, and then, when the lights came on, cracking wise, weighing in, and, yes, currying favor with a certain Audience of One.

What could be more fitting, then, for Graham—unable to be a participant on this fateful Sunday morning—to actually become the only thing better: the main topic of the news. He died as he lived...

It is perfectly on the nose that Graham’s departure would occur just a few hours before he was supposed to appear on Meet the Press. It would have been his 64th appearance on America’s longest-running public-affairs program. In the Meet the Press greenroom there used to be a prominent photo of Graham yapping away alongside his Senate sidekick, John McCain. McCain, for his part, appeared 73 times on Meet the Press, more than any other guest in history—something McCain was especially proud of.

In early 2019, a few months after McCain died, Graham joked to me that his main goal in his remaining time on God’s green Earth (or God’s greenroom) was to beat McCain’s record. He never will...

“Try to be relevant,” Graham told me in that same 2019 conversation when I asked how he became such a relentless and essential lapdog to Trump (okay, I didn’t use quite those words). This was an ongoing mystery around Washington, especially given how critical of Trump Graham had been when he (briefly) ran for president against him in 2016...

Graham was always a first-class political shape-shifter, easily darting between the smarty-pants of Official Washington and the bare-knuckled MAGA Populists of South Carolina. This dynamic extended to the on- and off-camera Lindseys: One minute, he would be chumming it up with a Democratic colleague before their “hit,” and then, when the lights came on, he would be breathing partisan fire on behalf of the White House or Trump’s supporters back home...

It is a pity - in some way - that all of that glad-handing and back-patting - and ass-kissing - never really translated into anything substantive, especially considering how trump as president undid every foreign policy objective or ignored every policy suggestion that Graham tried to support.

Anne Applebaum (also at the Atlantic) took note of how Graham identified how dangerous trump could be as president... and accepted him anyways as his lord and master:

When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.”

When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak.

But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. Graham went out of his way to telegraph his closeness to the president. He played golf with Trump, made excuses for him on television, and supported him as he slowly destroyed the alliances that Graham had defended all his life, even as he undermined the institutions of democracy at home. In 2021, Graham refused to vote to convict Trump, even after he assaulted the Capitol and tried to reverse the results of the election...

The simplest thing to say about Lindsey Graham is that he sold his soul to donald trump and he sold it cheap. Whatever morals or personal values he held, he gave it up for access to power and retaining relevancy within a political party that spiraled downward into its own hell of racism, greed, and incompetency. Anything Graham could have stood for got flattened, and he never showed any sign of regret for what he'd lost.

That can be said for any of the Republican leadership that could have chosen integrity over dishonor, that is if any of the aging-out Republican leaders are still alive. We need actual proof of life regarding Mitch, you cowards.

Sharing Videos from Vegas and the Grand Canyon

So, still recovering from the trip west to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon as my birthday trip, and I remembered I had shot a number of videos on my smartphone alongside using my Canon EOS Rebel T6 camera for more detailed shots.

Spend the last couple days uploading them to my YouTube channel (as the Blogger video upload never works for me) so let me see if I can share the videos I got from the trip:

Taken from the pedestrian bridge between Treasure Island Casino and the Pallazo above the famous Las Vegas Strip. The hotel I stayed at - Best Western Casino Royale Plus - is to the south of the Venetian you see with that canal filled with gondolas. Across the street they are building a new Hard Rock Casino... in the shape of a giant guitar. Further down the road at the curve is Caesar's Palace. When I turn the phone northward, you'll see Treasure Island's pirate sails and... I have no idea what that flying saucer is associated with.

The famous Bellagio Fountains. They don't constantly run shows - at least not at that time of day - so you kind of wait around for them to start something and grab the smartphone to record. Was halfway through "Uptown Funk" when I finally got the camera running.

That Thursday May 7th was dedicated to going out to the Grand Canyon, and once we got to the Hualapai tribe's west side of the canyon the tour guide started directing our attention to certain things... such as the Eagle Point rock formation.

So here's my selfie at Eagle Point. I do apologize for the ugly guy hogging the forefront.

The Hualapai consider the eagle formation sacred and part of their origin myth, of a great spirit god becoming a giant eagle to lift up the people from a deadly flood. That part of the park contains a number of other historic elements, I think I shared them on the previous blog article with the pictures. 

I planned ahead for the selfie stick for several reasons: Above all, handling any risky over-the-cliff type shots to get a good idea of how steep and how deep the canyon walls go. And yeah, they deep.

Even with the selfie stick, the tribal security people still warned me I was too close. I guess they've had one too many selfie sticks go over... along with far too many people who get too close to the edge period. TEN FEET BACK, kiddos.

At the Guano Point rock formation, I found shade on one side of the hill, and took a long moment - long minutes - just sitting there admiring the view and awed by the peaceful environs. Away from cities, from traffic, from most noise (other than a tour helicopter flying by every 15 minutes)... It was incredible.

They have a tourist eatery at Guano Point where you can sit and eat/drink a lunch... and after walking 6100 steps - based on a walking app my workplace had us use last year for an exercise challenge - for about 5 miles or so... I really needed the sitdown.

The road taking us to the tribal land also crossed into the Mojave Desert, which is apparently the only place where Joshua Trees grow in the entire world. And NO, we were nowhere near THAT particular Joshua Tree (which sadly died in 2000: there is a tribute marker there now). 

Still, I couldn't resist the temptation to belt out the chorus to "Where The Streets Have No Name."

I did get a video clip of the Hoover Dam as we swung by on our way back to Vegas, but part of me wonders if that violates any national security concerns.

On Friday, my big "Roam Around Vegas" day, I had gotten the e-bike rental and started scooting around to see about finding a local gift item I could get for my twin brother for our birthday. Along the way I spotted the Sphere, the latest glowy attraction along the Strip. There's not much else to it, during the daylight and at an angle where you can't see it in full. It had to be a more spectacular sight at night.

And that was it for videos I uploaded for the trip. About an hour after riding the e-bike circling to the Pinball Hall of Fame and the Famous Las Vegas Sign, I got into that accident en route to Omega Mart and that kind of ended most of my visit (there was a Friday night show of Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere I couldn't cancel, but you're not allowed to record the show and I couldn't video myself walking into the theater while handling crutches. I did get a few photos of the stage before the show started).

I may return to Las Vegas someday, if only to complete some of the things I missed doing. Maybe when they finish building the As ballpark and the Tampa Bay Rays have a road trip there, that could be a good excuse to go.

Pop Goes a Weasel?

I admit, if there is any kind of crazy political drama, I am there with the popcorn.

via GIPHY

Over in the UK, the drama kicked up a notch with Reform Racist leader Nigel Farage trying to wiggle his way out of a financial scandal by resigning and re-running for his seat (via Daniel Boffey at the Guardian (UK)):

Flanked by Union Jack flags, with a spectacular view of the City of London behind him, Nigel Farage said he had “never been angrier”. In an address that was billed as a “statement on my future in public life”, the leader of Reform UK, the rightwing, anti-immigration party that remains ahead in most national polls but which has been dipping recently, said he would not tolerate any more of it.

“It seems to me that the establishment have now decided that they can’t beat us fairly, so they’ve chosen to use foul means,” Farage said.

He was referring to the Guardian’s revelation that he had received an undeclared £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne as well as the more recent allegations – not denied – that Farage had also taken undeclared funding for his staffing, security and housing from George Cottrell, a convicted criminal and Gloucester-born aristocrat.

Parliament is investigating whether the £5m gift, made to Farage within 12 months of him becoming an MP in summer 2024, could reasonably be thought by others to relate to his “parliamentary or political activities” and was therefore in need of being declared. He denies it. There is pressure for the authorities to look into the Cottrell money too on the same grounds.

But this sort of scrutiny of the evidence by independent professionals was not at all Farage’s preferred solution, it transpired. Instead, Farage was going to resign as the member of parliament for Clacton, a faded seaside town in Essex, and then seek re-election all over again. “I have decided that the people of Clacton will be the judges of my actions,” he said. “This will be a people versus the establishment byelection...”

From what I'm gathering about British politics, Farage's move to force a by-election will delay the criminal investigations but not end them. It's frustrating that there doesn't seem to be a criminal penalty for the financial evasions he's allegedly done, but that seems to be a problem across a lot of republican monarchies...

Should the parliamentary investigation subsequently find against Farage, the worst sanction for him could be another byelection should 10% of the constituency sign a petition seeking one. Would there be an appetite for a second byelection given that he had won the first? Does he limit the damage by forcing the issue now? Perhaps. Much, though, depends on whether Farage, an undoubtedly skilled communicator, can convince the British public, and not just those in Clacton, that this is not just a cynical ploy.

Farage was quick to close down one line of attack by offering to cover the costs of the byelection. But the other political parties have not been slow in calling out Farage’s announcement as what Keir Starmer described as a “desperate stunt”.

“It’s obvious why he is doing it,” the prime minister said. “He is up to his neck in sleaze. Politics should be about improving the lives of millions of people, not about personal gain, not about hiding dodgy donations, and I think the public will see this for exactly what it is.”

A good amount of political punditry is looking at Farage's actions as a ploy to avoid accountability. There's also the factor of how Farage seems eager to use this by-election to "debate" his opponents to make them look bad not just in that district but at the national level.

In response, it's looking like the major parties are avoiding that trap, refusing to run other candidates and force Farage to stand alone at the podium forced to answer questions about his financials instead of railing against immigrants (again). 

The governing Labour party, the Conservative official opposition and other rival parties, including the Lib Dems and Restore, the party further to Reform’s right, which was founded by Rupert Lowe MP, one of Reform’s MPs until a nasty falling out with Farage, have all ruled out standing in the byelection.

“We are not going to participate in a Reform-sponsored media circus over the summer months that is designed to puff up Farage’s ego and deflect away from wholly fair questions over why he has concealed such vast and irregular financial donations,” said Lowe.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said his party was “calling on all parties to stand aside and refuse to give oxygen to Farage’s vanity project”. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said her party would not participate in any byelection triggered as a result of “the standards investigation into Nigel Farage’s fishy finances”.

It doesn't give Farage much of an opportunity to punch at other parties if he's up there alone. Well, almost alone.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the comedian Jon Harvey, also known as Count Binface, offered his candidacy as a unifying force. “Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and Greens: I demand you stand down in Clacton,” Count Binface wrote. “I will be a unity candidate and pledge to build at least one affordable house. Nigel Farage says he wants The People versus the Establishment. So be it. Leave him to me.”

It should be noted that Farage only won Clacton in 2024 with 46 percent, a bit below a solid majority of voters. It should also be noted that election cycle displayed a lot of anger towards the Conversative Tories who had been in power for almost 14 years, mismanaging the United Kingdom with failed austerity measures as well as bolluxing up Brexit. There is a serious question if Farage's win percentage came from a lot of angry Tory voters punishing their party back then, and if they'll be in the mood to support Farage now he's had a year of his own failures to perform to disillusion them.

Checking the website MPDataUK, their summary lists him as of today (July 8th) casting "169 votes from 537 eligible divisions, representing a participation rate of 31.47%, and ranks last among Reform UK MPs in voting participation." He shows up more often for debates, but still ranks (570th of 650 MPs) in the bottom 10 percent for participation. He's rarely shown up for the Q&As - the open floor debates where the opposition party can rip into the PM, and get ripped in return - and I don't know if Parliament has a committee breakdown like the US Congress but I'm sure Farage doesn't show up for those either.

Farage is clearly a "leader" who enjoys the perks of office but refuses to do the actual JOB.

As much as Clacton being a "safe" district, Farage is running a high risk of exposing himself - especially these financial scandals - at the worst possible time.

He's also running the risk of the one thing a national-level party leader has to avoid: the risk of getting humiliated. If it's just a campaign between Farage and Count Binface... well, Binface as a relatively silly candidate can cause genuine harm. Not only by avoiding the debates that Farage would want - because Binface isn't representing the major parties, Farage can't hammer him as an "Establishment" figure - but by mocking Farage on the debates that Farage can't answer back without revealing his hypocrisy.

The recent tradition in the UK for Raving Looney candidates - under the general term of "novelty" or "joke" candidates - can arguably trace their origins back to a proud monarchial tradition of the Court Jester. Before democracies and republics rose up to challenge unitary rule of an elite, the courts would employ house entertainers granted the privilege to perform and mock about current events and personages without punishment (it was viewed as a means of keeping the mighty humbled). As the need for jesters declined, the importance of outside critics rose to where we see newspaper cartoonists and stand-up comedians fulfilling the jester's privilege for the citizenry to enjoy.

Count Binface - along with the other Looneys - is the direct descendant of the jester. (This might explain why few novelty candidates - well, except for the Libertarians - ever appear in US elections, as we've been a democratic republican system from the beginning: Our political commentary comes through the history of minstrels and stand-ups to this day. I digress) As a jester on the stage next to Farage, Binface has the opportunity to directly mock and satirize someone who is serious about his anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-"nice to people" stances.

This is Great Britain, sir. As much as they have stiff upper lips and "Keep Calm And Carry On" as their mantras, they also treat sarcasm as a deadly weapon in that country.

Farage might not even survive.

Prepare for Count Binface. The kingdom - nay, the world - awaits.

It's Official: trump is a Jinx

Here at You Might Notice A Trend, one of the themes this blog goes by is "oh yeah, notice how these things trend towards an obvious conclusion."

So when the same bad thing happens over and over involving the WORST HUMAN BEING CURRENTLY ALIVE donald trump, I have to sit up and take notice. Especially when it's something we can't avoid like sports.

I mean, I've made it clear since the beginning how I hate trump for ruining the up-and-coming USFL sports league back in the 1980s, and how he took away a good franchise in the Tampa Bay Bandits (rage rage rage). There are reasons why the established team sports leagues never allowed a "billionaire" like trump to buy any of the franchises up for sale (or for expansion), and one of them is trump is a goddamn walking disaster area capable of wrecking leagues for his own twisted needs.

It's been documented that for all of trump's desire to be associated with A-List celebrities among the actors and athletes, trump himself is a bane to most sports fans and they will boo him at every opportunity he shows up to try and get the glory rubbing onto him.

This problem came to a head this year when the New York Knicks - playing for a city trump repeatedly insulted as a hellhole and fled for Florida years ago - broke through a decades-long drought to play for the NBA Finals, raising the hopes of the Big Apple's sports fans for a title win at home.

And then the Knicks' owner - someone almost as reviled as trump, who just happens to be on good terms with trump as well - invited trump to Game Three of the best-of-four series where the Knicks were already up 2-0 (and angling for the coveted sweep) over the San Antonio Spurs.

It wasn't so much how everyone knew the fans - hardcore New Yawkers who learned long ago how racist and evil trump is - were going to boo him. It quickly became a concern that trump was going to jinx the home team for Game Three.

And yes, it turned out he did (via Will Weissert at AP News):

If President Donald Trump is coming to the game, bet on the visiting team.

You’ll usually be in the money — at least if recent history holds.

The New York Knicks, after two straight wins in the finals against the San Antonio Spurs, lost at home 115-111 on Monday night with Trump, a longtime fan of the Big Apple’s NBA team (personal note: I doubt it. Real fans show up when the team loses during the season, and trump noticeably rarely did), in a luxury suite at Madison Square Garden.

He similarly may have had a jinxing role for MLB’s Washington Nationals during his first term, when the home team lost Game 5 of the World Series to the Houston Astros 7-1.

In November, the president was on hand when the NFL’s Washington Commanders hosted the Detroit Lions, and the visitors romped 44-22. And he was front and center at Bethpage Black when Europe topped the U.S. golf team in last fall’s Ryder Cup.

It’s a glaring irony for a president fanatical about sports but also especially obsessed with winning...

Again, trump wants to bask in other people's success and claim it for his own. Thing is, in person he turns into the worst kind of motivation or spiritual support for the teams - or stars - he claims to love.

It could be that he doesn't really love them: trump only loves himself.

So here we are in the final rounds of the international team sport event bigger than anything else, the 2026 World Cup getting hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States (because this year FIFA enlarged the competing teams from 32 to 48, and in many ways that move proved a huge success). As an automatic invite, the US men's team were actually considered a serious challenger to reach the final four with a deep roster and solid talent against the likes of France, Spain, and/or Argentina (the ones the experts predicted to play for the title). The team did pretty well against Bosnia & Herzegovina, winning 2-0... but top player Folarin Balogun got hit with a Red Card penalty for causing injury to one of the Bosnian players.

To most observers, Balogun's action may have been worth a Yellow Card (a lesser penalty) but not the Red. The Red Card meant he had to sit out the next game, which was a quarterfinal match against a pretty solid Belgium team. It could have meant disaster for the US squad.

And then trump intervened.

he bragged later how he was able to get on the phone to the FIFA president Infantino to "appeal" the decision and let Balogun play (via Becky Sullivan and Kristin Wright at NPR):

President Trump spoke to Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, about a red card and one-game suspension given to the star striker of the U.S. men's national soccer team. 

Then, on Sunday, in an extremely unusual move, FIFA's Disciplinary Committee announced that it would delay Folarin Balogun's one-game red card ban for a probationary period of one year. 

The change allows him to play in any remaining games in the World Cup — including Monday's crucial Round of 16 match against Belgium. 

In a brief statement, the FIFA committee did not give a reason for hitting pause on the suspension. Balogun's probationary period will be revoked and the one-game suspension enforced if he commits "another infringement of a similar nature and gravity," FIFA said.

Thing is, there wasn't any appeal system in place to override the ruling in the first place. FIFA seemed to be making things up as they went along the more other people openly confronted them about this. 

It didn't end the controversy: It made things worse. And it highlighted the overall corruption of FIFA - especially Infantino - when it comes to pandering to world leaders over questionable (if not criminal) actions. The outrage spread everywhere (via Kyle Bonn with Sporting News, but accessed via Yahoo!):

The U.S. striker was, by most accounts, wrongly sent off for serious foul play on the hour mark of their 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32. It's not the first time a referee has made a poor decision, and it certainly won't be the last.

It would have left Balogun suspended for the following game: their upcoming Round of 16 match against Belgium, one in which the two teams are believed to be evenly matched. Balogun's absence would surely be felt.

FIFA could have left it there. An injustice, sure, but one that is somewhat commonplace in sport. It would have been a subplot to the game, but not the overarching narrative. A potential excuse after a possible defeat, maybe, but the U.S. has the players to make up for it.

Then, the snowball began rolling down the hill.

Without an appeal process — as most competitions feature — written into the World Cup regulations, FIFA had to get creative. Well... it didn't have to, but it decided to, after a phone call from U.S. president and Gianni Infantino's buddy Donald Trump that has muddied the whole situation even further.

FIFA's supposedly independent disciplinary committee decided to suspend Balogun's one-game ban, essentially giving him probation. Instead of publishing the justification for this decision, no matter how farcical, FIFA simply cited Article 27 of its disciplinary regulations. In simple terms, this rule states that FIFA's judicial body can fully or partially suspended a disciplinary punishment, without necessarily needing to say why...

Beyond just the sporting consequences of this mockery is emotional harm. What has been a magical run from the 2026 World Cup host nation has been sapped almost entirely of its charm, replaced by questions of unprecedented favoritism and icky vibes of backroom deals. A potential Round of 16 victory that had promised to lift the sport of soccer to unparalleled heights in this country now threatens to be dismissed as a joke regardless of the result.

The whole thing has become one massive distraction from a game that should have been the scene of immeasurable fanfare. At this point, no plausible outcome will benefit anyone involved...

This is, sadly, one of trump's things, baby: Turn every happy event into something about him, and watch it turn into hate and sorrow.

This World Cup had a lot of bad vibes going in, considering how trump's thuggish Homeland Security was threatening to go after tourists and players alike. Instead, for weeks that early rounds had been going, this Cup has been an almost magical affair with fans enjoying the experience, the gameplay enticing, and certain teams - Cabo Verde in particular - rising to the moment to become legends of the sport.

And trump - aided by his buddy Infantino - ruined all of that.

Of course the second that news reported trump intervened with overturning Balogun's penalty, nearly every observer on social media noted trump had now 'jinxed' the men's team going into Monday's match. 

It turned out getting Balogun back on the field didn't help them at all, as the US team collapsed 4-1 against a very motivated, very angry Belgian squad. trump's big "win" to get FIFA to bend the knee was for naught, the rest of the world gets to mock him (and us) for his folly, and the entire American side of the sport now has to sit there in the misery of losing out.

trump is not really a winner. he cheats where he can, lies about when he loses, bullies everyone into complying, and makes everyone else around him miserable to make himself happy.

It's no wonder he's a jinx to everyone else out there.

As a Personal Note: Need to Read More of This Montesquieu Guy

For all that I've read about the foundations of the American political experiment that is our Constitution... why is it only NOW am I hearing about this guy? Robert A Ballingall over at Crooks & Liars wrote a big article on Montesquieu's contributions to the Founders' political philosophy:

How are people in the U.S. to make sense of these trends? As Americans celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, how faithful is the U.S. today to its founding principles? I’m a political philosophy scholar who studies constitutional government. In my view, an especially helpful approach to answering such questions is to revisit the towering but neglected influence of the French philosopher Montesquieu on the founding of this country...

On the separation of powers, Montesquieu was, in James Madison’s words, “the oracle who is always consulted and cited.” Of all authors cited in political writings published by Americans between 1760 and 1805, none was more frequently mentioned. He loomed so large that “American republican ideologues could recite the central points of Montesquieu’s doctrine as if it had been a catechism,” according to historian Forrest McDonald.

Montesquieu was especially celebrated for his account of how and why political power needs to be separated into branches. But behind this now familiar idea was another that is less remembered: Montesquieu’s theory of liberty inspired the founders’ own understandings of this core concept of American politics...

For all that I've been told about Locke, and Mill, and that other guy, nobody's talked about Montesquieu until now.

Dammit now I got more homework to finish.

Four For the Fourth: Once More Unto the Breach... in New Brunswick

Often I use this 4th of July blogfest to offer up a clip from the film 1776. And I don't know if I've shared this one about the New Brunswick Letter that General Washington (drum roll) sent to Congress about the situation with morale:

"Oh good God..." - John Adams in real life, arguably every day of his life.

Later on, this conversation probably happened in real life as well.

Adams: Wake up, Franklin, you're going to New Brunswick!

Franklin: (nodding off) Like hell I am. What for?

Hopkins: The whoring and the drinking!

(Franklin immediately gets up and marches off right behind Adams and Chase)

Four for the Fourth: Friends

The big intermission between this blog and the previous one today is because my friends were hosting a 4th of July party at their place, so I had driven over - it's a two-hour drive from where I am in Florida - along with an offering of baked bean casserole (beans, BBQ sauce, fried onion pieces, sharp cheddar cheese) - one of the few things I can cook half-well - to be with them and others for a few hours.

As much as the 4th of July can be this huge deal of fireworks and parades and evil presidents trying to take over our nation's capital with gaudy tasteless displays of faux Americana, what it should be - what it ought to be - is a day of getting together with friends and family and just hang out. 

As much as we're celebrating the birth of this nation - this United States forged from thirteen British colonies throwing off the yoke of overseas empire - with a Declaration of Independence that is now a cornerstone of the ideals of liberty and justice across the world, we should be doing it with people we cherish (and defend if need be). The best freedom we should celebrate is the freedom to be joyful in the small moments.

And as much as baked beans can go well with grilled hot dogs and burgers, or with a chicken nugget platter with a side of cole slaw and potato salad, I think I overdid it because there were a lot of leftover baked beans, next time use just ONE can okay Paul? Sheesh. 

Anyway, please don't use firecrackers or noisy fireworks tonight, so that our dogs, cats, and other pets are not terrified by the noise, thank you.

Four for the Fourth: Electric Nebraska

So a few years back on that 4th of July, I did a review of the major album releases from Bruce Springsteen. Of note was the entry for his dark classic Nebraska:

The recording history for this album took on legendary status: Springsteen recorded a bunch of new songs onto a single recorder, planning to have the E Street re-do them into more rounded rock-n-roll numbers similar to Darkness and River. Thing was, when they did record the "electric" version of most of those songs, Bruce realized the original solo takes were the better versions and decided to release a cleaned-up set of songs from that. Several of the songs recorded from this period would end up as full E Street songs on Born In the USA, meaning there are at least nine known unreleased songs as well as the full-band versions of several of these songs in the vault that fans would love to hear some day. 

I should note Bruce and the E Streeters perform a hard-rock version of "Johnny 99" which they did at the 2023 Tampa show, but compared to the original sparse version, I gotta go with the sparse. An up-tempo song about a guy wanting to be on death row just isn't a toe-tapper. Otherwise, drummer Max Weinberg is on record claiming the "Electric Nebraska" kills it...

And then in 2025, Springsteen released another boxed set - Tracks II - of previously unreleased materials as a follow-up to an earlier release of B-sides and alternate versions across his career up until the 1990s. This time, for Tracks II - how much unreleased stuff does this boy have? - he had organized most of the songs into thematic works as separate albums (it helped him that a lot of those works were for unreleased film soundtracks or concept efforts like a Southwestern Latino-themed set).

So of course, considering the time period involved, a good number of reporters asked Bruce "oh hey does this include the famous Electric Nebraska?"

And Bruce answered "Nah, I don't believe we really kept the master tapes of that Nebraska session, sorry guys."

Only for a few weeks later Bruce calling those reporters back and going "You know, we never really checked that broom closet until now..." and admitted they found it.

And then will little fanfare that October - because I didn't even know about it until this year, dammit I need to keep up on things - Springsteen released the Nebraska 82: Expanded Edition containing not only the full band version (Disc 2) but also the nine unreleased demo songs (Disc 1) alongside a live performance in Red Bank NJ of the songs (Disc 3), and a remastered version of the original 1982 album (Disc 4).

Okay, so the remastered disc I don't really need to hear (tosses disc four over shoulder). GOTTA PLAY DISCS 1 AND 2 TO HEAR HISTORY, SON!

Of the Outtakes on Disc 1, realizing that some of these tunes appeared later for Born in the USA gives you an idea of how Springsteen can go in different directions with just one song. "Pink Cadillac" in particular originally played as a slow moody song of seduction in the outtake, instead of the faster-paced toe-tapping dance version that got released as a B-side for radio play. The song "Born In the USA" is more Punk-oriented than bombastic Arena Rock, "Working on the Highway" with different lyrics and mood, and "Downbound Train" more Country than Jersey Bar. You can see songs like "Big Paycheck" (you can hear Roy Orbison's influence on that one) that could have been hits if they got the E Street effort.

Epic Song(s): Born in the USA (Demo), The Big Paycheck, Working on the Highway
Great Song(s): Child Bride, On the Prowl
Good Song(s): Downbound Train, Pink Cadillac

As for Disc 2... the main event, the ELECTRIC version...

The title song "Nebraska" opening the album doesn't sound too different from the released demo, only with a deeper studio sound and background instrumentals completing the mood. Nothing really changes here... 

"Atlantic City" sounds like a proper E Street song, more up-tempo, with Bruce singing with more range than the whispered despair on the original. If you recall Springsteen's appearance on MTV's Unplugged with a Plugged electric show that included this song, it sounds much like that.

"Mansion On a Hill" echoes some of the moodier elements of the earlier River album, otherwise still sounds the same as the original. 

"Johnny 99" sounds a lot like the live version I heard in Tampa back in 2023, and I can kind of hear the punk rage underlying the lyrics better than in the demo release. Still, playing it as an upbeat Jersey Bar dancefloor tune creates a dissonance that's hard to accept (did it really need that piano?). 

It does lead right into a harder-rocking "Downbound Train" that goes full thrash punk, good God. Of the versions of that song - the Outtake, the 1984 BitUSA release, the Electric Nebraska - the Outtake version is the more coherent although the slower moodier 1984 version feels more apt.

I was expecting "Open All Night" - my personal fave from the original release - to sound just as up-tempo as the original release, only with the full band kicking it to another level, and it did not disappoint. Still like the demo version a bit better, depending on the mood.

Shocking here is this version of "Born In the USA" as a hard-rocking song but without the bombast that we heard in 1984. Retaining the punk flavor - and open anger - of the Outtake version on Disc 1, this would have kicked the teeth in of the likes of Ronald Reagan and other conservatives who misheard the chorus as patriotic instead of damning. Kinda thinking Bruce should have kept this version with the 1984 release.

Closing out is the dark song "Reason to Believe" and you can hear Bruce trying to come to terms with a lot of anger issues that seemed to be haunting him that year. Where the original release had the sparse despair hovering in the background, the electric version is a bit more in-your-face about it.

Overall, the Electric Nebraska is a clear Yang to the original's Yin: the band version complements the darkness in the sparse demo version, being more "radio friendly" in most respects but exposing the same raw lyrics and anger that powers both takes. If you had to go back in time to change anything, I would have argued releasing the Electric version of "Born In the USA": Even though it may not become the radio hit the 1984 release became, it would have at least gotten all the Right Wingers to stop mishearing the damn thing. 

Epic Song(s): Atlantic City, Open All Night, Born In the USA (Electric)
Great Song(s): Reason to Believe
Good Song(s): Mansion on a Hill, Johnny 99 (Electric)

Now, if you want me to do a review of the Tracks II albums... let me know. (muttering to self: I still gotta work on a Led Zeppelin review...)

Four for the Fourth: A Warning

I've gotten into the habit of multi-blogging on the 4th of July, but I think this is the first time I've ever posted a FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STAY SAFE entry.

Specifically, anyone in the Washington DC area. You might not want to even leave your homes this afternoon / evening because donald trump is set on hosting the most dangerous 4th of July event the nation's capital has ever seen (via Julia Ornedo at the Daily Beast):

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and CNN medical analyst, urged the cancellation of Trump’s Washington, D.C. rally for America’s 250th birthday, citing sweltering temperatures that could put attendees at risk.

“The same way the outdoor inauguration was canceled last year because of the cold, the rally on the Mall this July 4 should be canceled because of the intense heat (> 100 degrees),” he wrote in an X post on Thursday.

“Dangerous weather and large crowds is a bad combination,” Reiner warned. The doctor has been one of the few medical experts to demand answers about the 80-year-old president’s health, citing his Oval Office slumps and odd examination schedule.

Last year, Trump moved his inauguration indoors, claming it was due to dangerously cold temperatures in the nation’s capital.

This time, however, Trump appears bent on keeping the party going despite forecasts showing that this year’s July 4th weekend could be the hottest ever in parts of the country. An extreme heat warning is in effect for D.C. until July 5, with the National Weather Service forecasting daily temperatures that could exceed 100 degrees at times.

Heat stroke is nothing to laugh at, kids. We've already seen the effects of that on the general population because on the 3rd they had to close down trump's maligned State Fair on the Mall (video if I can embed it from AP News no I can't gotta embed the YouTube version):

I think I've mentioned I've been to DC during summers before: family trips in late July or August, and one trip to visit my brother and see the 4th celebrations in-person (when it rained and stayed muggy all night). I know how hot it can get up there, due to the natural geography (swampland with big rivers adding to humidity) and the heat reflection of all that pavement/concrete buildings.

The increase of temp extremes due to climate change - the global warming - is surely contributing to the conditions in DC, and it's something the event organizers up there should have considered planning for this major holiday (allowing for large coolers to carry more drinks, setting up more tents for shade and fans)... except planning and organizing are clearly things trump and his buddies never do well, so in that regards everyone showing up is going to suffer for it.

Making things worse is how trump wants to show off tonight as he turns the nation's birthday into his own personal partisan rally. he's ordered a "parade" of military aircraft starting early in the afternoon well into the early evening, creating noise pollution and stress for everyone across the city. After all that comes trump's planned speech (depending on if he's prepared to suffer heat stroke 30 minutes into it) and then a massive fireworks show at 11:00pm... which is far too late in the night for anyone to stay up and watch (most fireworks across our cities start at sundown and run for an hour, wrapping up by 9:30pm at the latest).

That fireworks show is another major health risk for the locals (via Alex Guillén, Miranda Willson and Ariel Wittenberg at Politico):

The National Park Service on Saturday will launch over 850,000 fireworks into the skies of Washington, bathing the capital in patriotic blasts of light for the nation’s 250th birthday.

Then comes the fallout.

Scientists have well documented the soot and heavy metal pollution that can spike severely in the wake of pyrotechnic displays, and the world-record-setting number of fireworks lined up for July 4 will mean an equally large jump in pollution, according to experts and internal NPS documents reviewed by POLITICO.

There are no indications that the administration plans to suggest masking or other personal protection for revelers viewing the fireworks from the nation’s front lawn. And the Environmental Protection Agency said tracking the air quality impacts of the fireworks isn’t their jurisdiction...

Last year, according to the park service, Washington’s display set off just 7,000 fireworks. Multiplying that by 120 could also deposit into the Potomac River water pollutants like perchlorates and heavy metals, the effects of which on humans and the environment are still not well understood by scientists...

This year’s festivities will coincide with a severe drought in Washington and 100-degree temperatures Thursday through Saturday. Washington-based utility DC Water is coordinating with the federal government to ensure there’s water available in the event of fires, as residents are known to set fireworks of their own...

The drought means that pollutants may linger longer in the Potomac than they would under normal conditions, said Tyler Frankel, an associate environmental science professor at the University of Mary Washington. Contaminants can easily get trapped in the river near Theodore Roosevelt Island due to “tidal slosh,” a phenomenon where the water flows both upstream and downstream, Frankel said...

There is a serious likelihood much of the DC metro - stretching into northern Virginia - is going to turn into a toxic health zone for the next few days, if not longer. And part of me wonders if the high humidity is going to trap things in the air or water in ways that can make it worse.

The other concern is all those explosive fireworks: There are always risks handling those things, and nearly every year there's a report of a town's firework show going awry when error trips the timing or direction of the fireworks and it causes physical harm to handlers/attendees/entire city blocks. Multiplying the number of fireworks a hundred-fold increases the risks of something going wrong, and that disaster being bigger than it needs to be. 

It needs to be said every 4th of July weekend to STAY SAFE EVERYONE. But this year it's a necessity to say FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, AVOID OUR OWN NATION'S CAPITAL THIS 4TH.

Fuck you, trump, for ruining all of this.

Always the Dollars, Always the Fcking Dollars with trump: 4th of July Edition

The 4th of July celebration that trump hijacked for himself was never about celebrating America, it was about trump and his buddies milking it for every penny they could get (via Josh Kovensky at Talking Points Memo): 

I visited the Great American State Fair on several days over the past week. Yes, it’s empty. Security is extremely tight, with no clear reason as to why. Federal marshals, Oklahoma state troopers, and others roam the area, providing a mini-museum of cops. The mini-arch is as half-assed as everyone says it is.

But President Trump’s Freedom250 project and the Great American State Fair is really a corruption story. And, in true MAGA fashion, there’s no real effort to hide the graft here: it’s all playing out in front of you. The fair itself showcases different forms of the rampant conflicts of interest and grifting that is coming to define the second Trump administration. On MAHA Monday, I stopped by the “Freedom stage” and listened as a doctor who runs a network of clinics pitched a top administration official on having Medicare and Medicaid cover a controversial scan that his business offers. It was hot, so I went inside an air-conditioned tent; firms funded by Don Jr. had booths on display. Government contractors like Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and others had exhibits in the tents and around the area. A Truth Social representative tried to sell me on creating an account with a video service that the president’s company is launching. 

People have compared the fair to a Potemkin Village. But my experience was more akin to stumbling upon a scam, more like Fyre Festival combined with a turbocharged form of D.C. pay-to-play. It’s eerie: the fair is mostly empty. The parts that are supposed to be for visitors are either falling apart or dramatically fail to deliver. The only real activity appears to come from large businesses using the fair as a vehicle to gain favor with the president.

Congress originally created a bipartisan America250 commission in 2016. Planning started under the first Trump administration, and continued through the Biden years. In 2024, former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush agreed to serve as the Commission’s national co-chairs.

When Trump took office a second time, he first installed a 25-year-old former Fox News producer, Ariel Abergel, and Trump campaign officials to direct it. The commission fired Abergel in September, in part over his efforts to make the celebration about Trump rather than the country’s 250th birthday. In December, Trump dispensed with the bipartisan commission entirely: he announced Freedom 250. It’s a limited liability company that exists within a congressionally chartered nonprofit, the National Park Foundation. It’s the official fundraiser for the National Parks Service. 

In November, Trump added his campaign co-manager, Chris LaCivita, to the nonprofit’s board. At one point, he reportedly asked Congress to give America250 $150 million instead of $100 million; the extra $50 million was to go to the White House. Per a report from House Democrats, Freedom250 ended up capturing the majority of the funding.

Every bit of those details deserve note. What had been a bipartisan affair turned into another trump grift.

Follow the money - Old Vulcan Proverb

Freedom 250 reportedly offers personal access to the president for those who contribute $1 million or more; $500,000 gets you “V.I.P. access.”

With any access buying, the direction of travel is often unclear from the outside. Is a firm or person purchasing a way in? Is the company there in order to maintain access? Or, in this case, are they only present in response to an existing tie to the Trump administration...

There was another, uniquely Trumpian, example of this kind of messiness. On MAHA Monday, I went to the “Freedom Stage,” where Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Dr. Mehmet Oz was interviewing a psychiatrist named Dr. Daniel Amen.

It was over 90 degrees and sunny outside during this interview, in which Amen showed a slideshow to a small crowd of people that featured the brain scans of people suffering from various forms of mental illness. The pitch, Amen said, was that these scans could diagnose psychiatric disorders. At the end of the presentation, he and Oz produced a blender and made “brain healthy hot chocolate” in the sweltering heat.

Around halfway through, Amen mentioned to Oz that “CMS should start covering scans,” telling him, “I bet I could save you billions of dollars. This is the MAHA moment.”

It wasn't a public forum on health, it was a goddamn late-night informercial.

As for Dr. Amen, Kavosky noted "Amen also runs a network of clinics that offer the scans, known by their acronym SPECT, for people experiencing a range of psychiatric and relational issues. It’s controversial: the American Psychiatric Association found in 2012 that this kind of neuroimaging impacted neither diagnosis nor treatment."

And we're paying this alleged quack with taxpayer money.

It’s not clear exactly how much money went from the federal government to the fair.

The National Park Foundation received a $68.3 million grant from the Department of the Interior for “semiquincentennial events.” Beyond that, it’s not clear how much money went to the fair...

It’s hard to overstate the mismatch between the tens of millions of dollars that have gone to Freedom 250 and the result on the ground (Freedom 250 is putting on other events around the country). American flags branded on a white Freedom 250 background appear to have been made out of a thick pillowcase material. The canvas that covers the tents sags; air conditioning barely works to keep the inside areas cool.

At one point, I strayed into a concessions tent. There, I found a woman who had spent $5 on a bottle of water before staff realized that they had run out. The customer was becoming increasingly irate as the staff refused to provide a refund.

This is all JAC. Just Another Con.

When sanity regains control of the federal government, every single one of these grifters deserve jail. Even if trump tries to pardon them beforehand, fuck the rules (why not? trump and his Far Right buddies do) and jail 'em anyway. This is criminal bullshit and we're stuck paying the bills for it.

And in the meantime, the tacky and cheap way it was all put together is going to get people hurt or killed. Look at this:

Whatever glue they used to put it together is melting in the heat wave. Gods help the people stuck in the middle of this.