This is Not a Great Sign

 

Trump: "When you go to a voting booth, and you do it the right way, and you go to a state that runs it properly, you go in -- they even asked me, they asked me for my license plate. I said, 'I don't know if I have it.' They said, 'Sir, you have to have it.' I was very impressed… pic.twitter.com/SVP1xAsdH0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2025

I guess there are other things (many!) I could have to say about yesterday's events, but I'm just singling this out here: Trump's brain was trying to grope after the term "driver's license", but it came up with the entirely different "license plate." It's just a word substitution in one sense, a misspeaking, but it feels like a sign of senility, 

Well, to me anyway. It's like when he seems to have wires crossed regarding "political asylum" and "mental asylums". Or when he insists he has to show his ID to buy groceries. He may be losing his mind or, and this is also really quite terrible--he never had much of a mind to lose. 

He thinks solar energy doesn't work at night. He thinks magnets won't work when wet. You can look those things up. Trump has never looked up anything, ever and it shows.

Now MAGA being MAGA, they might just insist this is the strength of Trump: he so muscular he can just wrench his license plate off the car and fold it up in his wallet. Ignoring that Trump says batshit things in all seriousness is worrying as hell.

That's how we got here, and literally millions of lives at any time could depend on Trump not being full-blown delusional. Yet here he is, doing "peace negotiations" with a mental deficit and a florid personality disorder. 

A Red Carpet for a War Criminal

 

Trump rolled out the red carpet for a war criminal. He did not make a deal. And Putin, formerly of the KGB, apparently amplified the echoes in Trump's nearly empty noggin, because that's what you do when your job isn't to make peace, but to make war by any means at hand. And Trump keeps making himself so handy. Does he really think this is how he gets a Nobel Prize? (Which, being a thirsty little bitch, Trump definitely is politicking for.)

The sad, simple answer is, yes. Trump is a narcissist, and even a failure gives him a supply of attention, which is his oxygen. And all the little toadies he has carefully cultivated to sit around him and applaud him for nearly hitting the potty will continue to applaud Trump even if they are up to their ankles in old man pee. 

As for Russia, they continue to show disrespect to our country, which Trump and his retinue appear to be too stupid to comprehend. (Or if they are capable of comprehending, are too immiserated in Trump's company to still be capable of shame.) 

It was a shambles, and I truly believe we have not heard all of the shambolics involved just yet. 

Agent Krasnov is Going to Russia?

 

Please don't embarrass him in front of his BOSS. He gets nervous and his tummy hurts. https://t.co/33XOFfMWb5

— Vixen Strangely (@VixenStrangely) August 11, 2025

Trump was a little late to his big press conference announcing he was going to use the military to occupy Washington, DC in order to liberate it, but that's OK--he all know the occupation is about his preoccupation with the idea of big city crime (homeless, people, ethnic people, fascist stuff) and to divert attention from his connections to Jeffrey Epstein (which is NOT going away). What fascinated me, of course, was that Krasnov seemed to think that Alaska was Russia. 

It's the kind of mistake any senile reprobate with no basic idea of geography could make quite accidentally twice, I guess. After all, Trump s still patting himself on the back for putting out the LA fires (which were already contained by the time he took office) by turning a big beautiful spigot nowhere near them, wasting a lot of water and doing nothing, on the general principle that water flows downhill. Because north is at the top of the map, you see. South would be downhill--that just science!

What I'm getting at is, he's just really dumb, but also? He may very well think Alaska is part of Russia if Putin says so. After all, it's just like Crimea. Putin called "dibs."  That counts for something, right? 

Alarming Signals

 

I don't know how long Pete Hegseth is planning on sticking around at Defense but maybe he shouldn't make it long?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.

Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.

Mr. Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defense Department employee, but she has traveled with him overseas and drawn criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.

Really. It's like there is some kind of huge problem in the Trump Administration where people have no sense whatsoever regarding how business should even be conducted. Starting right at the top, of course.

Some Mistake

 

He never misses an opportunity to not criticize Russia — even when they murder 35 people on Palm Sunday pic.twitter.com/G7zy6i22At

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) April 14, 2025

The Palm Sunday murder of civilian people in Ukraine was no accident, no mistake. It was purposeful, as has been every horrific step in the course of Russia's invasion. The vicious lie that the deaths are some mistake gives Russia an unearned grace, enables Putin, gives Trump and his bootlicker Witkoff space to pretend they are accomplishing anything by their idiotic path of continued appeasement. Trump refuses to learn and his emissary can't be taught.

And the little Trump fanclub is full of the weak and the bought and the braindead--I don't know what to make of this:

Except to say Russian influence is, as Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said in his 60 Minutes interview, everywhere in the US. But as for me, I can see clearly. This is Russia, once again for the umpteenth time, telling the world they aren't interested in peace. 

And Witlesskopf and Trump can't hear that.  If they could make peace happen, why, wouldn't they be heroes?

How About That OPSEC?

 

Look at that Murderer's Row in the above picture. You've got NSA Mike Waltz, who added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, you've got very pompous VP JD Vance, SECDEF Pete Hegseth. who let us know America USED to be foolish (whatever we look like now, he will probably have to face in the morning after he's slept it off a bit), Secretary of State Lil Marco (Alleged Adult) Rubio, DNI Tulsi We Don't Compromise Classified Intel Gabbard, and Steve Witlesskopf--who was using his cell phone to join in from Moscow where Putin was making him wait. 

Everyone on that chat should have known better than to be on that Signal chat. If they preferred Signal for some reason, it's hard not to think it was to avoid FOIA. So, they chose being potentially open to access by GRU (known to try to exploit apps like Signal by following people of interest) over institutional transparency. 

Russia Doesn't Want Peace/ Updated

 

⚡️ Ukraine accuses Russia of false flag attack on Sudzha gas metering station in Kursk Oblast.

Russian media earlier claimed Ukrainian forces had struck the key gas transit facility, which plays a crucial role in Russian gas exports to Europe.https://t.co/mFhLKRg9CZ

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 21, 2025

Europe knows it.  The US should know it. But Trump wants to talk about rare earth minerals and the operation of nuclear power plants because he's a greedy dullard. Putin doesn't only no want peace, but there is nothing in anything he has done this week that has actually suggested anything of the sort. 

In other news, US intelligence confirms that Ukraine troops are not surrounded in Kursk--a thing Trump keeps saying. So why does he say it?

Here's the scary thing--I think he doesn't exist in a world where facts matter. There is no strategy anywhere in here. It's all an old man's fantasy (two, if you also count Putin's imperialistic fantasies), and people are living and dying in it. 

*****

Trump's Ukraine/Russia Delusions Do Not Go Unnoticed

 

Ukraine: *exists*

Ukrainians: literally just sleeping in their beds at 4 AM.

Russia: invades, bombs,kills, destroys, rapes, lots, kidnaps

Trump: "You don't want to pick on somebody that's a lot larger than you."pic.twitter.com/R9uDjR487G

— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) March 14, 2025

Trump's kiss-up, punch down bully philosophy really shows in this nugget from Friday--but it's pure Kremlin propaganda. A few years ago, we were hearing from Tucker Carlson that Russia just wanted some space because they were feeling threatened by their neighbor, whom they already been at war with. In what way is Ukraine "picking on" Russia? By defending itself? By having done so successfully? 

But this is just a little bit of this week's weird double-speak--here's part of Trump's social media stupidity:

It's not actually true. At a point when, if there were about to be honest negotiations, it would be extremely important for this Administration to be clear on the intelligence regarding Ukraine's actual military situation--Trump has, essentially, got the matter fucked up. 

For obvious reasons (I think Russia has owned Trump for years and he made Tulsi flipping Gabbard his DNI) I think this is a horrible sign.

A TrumpWorld Cabinet of Curiosities

 

Pictures often are worth a thousand words--take a look at the picture above of Elon Musk, standing, not seated at the table, while Donald Trump is not even at the head of the table, but slumped, unnoticed by anyone, apparently drifting off to sleep. Just a podgy senior citizen with his hands in his lap, while everyone is listening to the real boss, who has not even bothered to put on a suit for the occasion but is dressed, as he generally is, like some close approximation an adolescent might make at adult clothing. He threw on a big-boy jacket over his play-clothes. 

It's not exactly The Last Supper, but what if I told you one of these folks assembled would betray Trump and every last one of them had eaten of his body and blood? 

We are getting on to a political Carnival. Lent for you, and Fat Tuesday for rich motherfuckers forever, so I felt like sprinkling a little Catholic consciousness over the above tableau. Also, I am very, very mean. 

I thought to myself when I perused Twitter's commentariat regarding the first cabinet meeting that what we were looking at was a Dunning-Kruger Group Therapy session where no one realized what their problem was and no one was getting any better. 

The "Riviera of the Middle East"

 

There's something hilariously ghoulish about Trump's desire to own Gaza. We've gone from MAGAs claiming he's for America First and against war, to him talking about re-taking the Panama Canal, Greenland, and maybe making Canada the "51st state"--and now he has dreams of turning Gaza, a place he says is associated with so much death--

And turning it into the "Riviera of the Middle East." 

That's right, we will have to first permanently relocate the people already in Gaza. Then remove all the rubble and rebuild. And of course there will need to be a military presence....

When Russia Has Shown You Who They Are

 

All the videos of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight showing the damage show holes in the wreckage have entry holes on the port side and exit holes on the starboard side, likely with a slight angle from below. pic.twitter.com/z4NxEapLWd

— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) December 25, 2024

Russia shot down that plane just like they shot down MH17 in 2014 and just like they shot down Korean flight 007 41 years ago. Soviet or Putin, we have a structure of murderousness and lying; and taking no responsibility for the loss of many human lives. 

Russia needs disinformation to exist, and this is why I deplore the idea that the structure for seeking out disinformation is being dismantled in the name of "free speech." Democracy can only exist with a well-informed public, yet US conservatives like the idea of a disinformed public softened up by foreign powers because they have so far benefitted from it. 

If I hadn't in the last 40 years of my political awareness seen a brilliant reason to not support the GOP ever--holy shit! Watergate, Iran/Contra and the yellow cake /WMD's lies are like tiddlers in comparison to any and every pretense that Russia is a reasonable honest nation we can do business with. We are absurdly weakened by such a stance. 

'Tis the Season in Pictures

 

A time for rebirth and renewed hope?  And a promise of protection?

The 25th consecutive day of protests in Georgia. The "Georgian Dream" might just be heading towards a "Romanian Christmas". pic.twitter.com/oNkhkwvZYq

— Daractenus (@Daractenus) December 22, 2024

This Looks Interesting

 

It has taken everything I have to NOT write another bitchy little post about the people who seem to have voted for Trump with all the intentionality and forethought of someone getting lotto scratchers at the gas stations, and while something deeply petty in me would love to go over the hapless folks whose web searches looked like "what is the ACA?"; "student loan forgiveness reversed?"; or "how to change my vote"--I can't. 

Sometimes things will just have to play out for people to really see what is happening. 

But in line with long-standing "Strangely Blogged" TrumpWorld traditions--this looks interesting. It seems like RU comms has gone to "everyone knows what we did and everyone knows what is expected of him."  Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that maybe Trump could wind up like JFK. Nothing threatening there, right?

Anyway, US intelligence was pretty quick this year letting us know about the podcaster payoffs and Russian-based bomb threats to voting sites. It feels like this year they were a little more--I dunno--in our face about it?  So are they just doing a little "friendly "propaganda? Or are they really implying that the incoming president is well and truly held by the short and curlies? 

I know a lot of intelligence professionals before the election thought for sure Trump was a unique national security threat.  But, like newspaper endorsements--things like that only sink through to an electorate that even reads. (Oh--I looped back to that again, didn't I?)

TWGB: The Bedminster Bore

 

Not that long ago, I watched some right-wing commentator on Bill Maher's show try to say that Trump was NOT a "country club Republican", and for some reason, no one told her that Trump owns the fucking country clubs. (Was it Batya Ungar-Sargon? I can't find the clip but it's hardly worth my time to keep looking for it.) He owns the country clubs. He is not a working-class hero. He stiffs working people whenever he can. 

He just sat down with fellow billionaire Elon Musk and talked about how unions were bad because working people would be paid more if they were unionized. And today, he stood in front of his country club in New Jersey with some prop groceries and...um...talked about Hillary Clinton's emails and calling Kamala Harris a communist. Because how long can someone talk about the economy when he's only talking about it to get elected?  He lied, as per usual, because it's what he does. 

It was a dumb snooze version of his stump speech that he fooled certain chosen journalists into turning up for. Low energy. Lower-case "t" Trump. 

We Support Our Allies

 

To make a connection that I've certainly made before, while Iran has launched Shaheds in the direction of Israel, those same weapons are used by Russia in Ukraine. I still see the connection of the particular date that Hamas made their horrific terrorist attack on Israel with a certain anniversary. My feeling about our support for Israel and Ukraine is that they are a part of the same war against western-style democracy, and we support our allies, even if we do not always agree with them. I don't think that's unreasonable. This is simply what we must do to demonstrate our word as a nation means something. 

President Biden has made clear that he supports our allies. Republicans, who have dithered and lied and used assorted rationales for holding up aid to Ukraine and Israel and Taiwan, now want to say things escalated, somehow, some way, because of something to do with this administration. 

I don't actually even beg their pardon to hear them repeat what they no doubt will--it's obscene. They have literally demonstrated the weakness of this country by way of their being hyperpartisan obstructionists standing in the way of progress because they see it as a "win" for Joe Biden. While our actual allies could and are suffering harm. 

Would You Believe---Russia?

 

For the first time, 60 Minutes is reporting that multiple sources say a senior official of the Department of Defense, was struck by the mysterious symptoms, coined Havana Syndrome, and sought medical treatment at last year's NATO Summit. https://t.co/RNG5twMYLn pic.twitter.com/CGUOoOewUG

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 1, 2024

This is the most believable and also weird story happening recently. It's probably too easy to dismiss vague symptoms of some unknown origin as being anything but a kind of mass hysteria, but because of the nature of who was experiencing the "syndrome" and so on, it being a Russian op feels both too on the nose and a little like: "Who else?" 

But it is also absurd--we aren't living in Cold War times anymore, right? Except that we never stopped being in one. We (the US, apparently) thought when the Soviet Union failed, our relationship had radically changed. But that isn't exactly what happened. 

The Signs of the Crocus

 

So, #ISIS posted a graphic body cam video of one of the terrorists. Which looks & sounds bona fide ISIS. Here’s the blurred out version. The original is under the link.

It was ISIS. https://t.co/42q0Fm7uKW#MoscowAttack pic.twitter.com/GScxXL9DS0

— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) March 24, 2024

The shocking thing about the kind of society Russia is, is that a horrific terrorist attack can take place in the heart of the country, where the government had been warned such an attack might be immanent by the US, where credit for the attack has been claimed, the sitting dictator fresh from his irrelevant and rigged election can decide to blame it on Ukraine, and such is the propaganda network, absolute chunderfucks will vomit out this unintelligence for actually--free. They don't even need to be paid to be conspicuously wrong about a grave thing. 

The intelligence all says it is ISIS. But what if these guys looked awfully white to be Muslims (I dunno, man--it's not like there's a reverse paper-bag test to get into ISIS)? What if they were headed towards Ukraine? What if your aunt had balls and you were a chimp--would that make her a monkey's uncle? Kremlin Supergenius Putin thinks maybe it could be Ukraine. 

If one wanted it to be enough, couldn't it be? 

TWGB: The Only Winning Move

 

The disqualification trial of Fulton County DA Fani Willis saw a decision that enabled the case to continue, as Willis stays on while her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, leaves the case--but we also learn that the judge in the Trial, Scott McAfee, faced threats and was concerned about getting security for his family. This is appalling, but not an unusual feature of TrumpWorld. McAfee, a conservative, will be treated by MAGA as having been somehow biased (I checked Twitter--they are GRUMBLING) when it is hard to objectively state what was uncovered in the trial more than a mere appearance of impropriety. 

He made as fair a decision as he could. He chided Willis for her conduct. It's not enough. 

From what I can tell, the lesson of TrumpWorld is similar to the lesson of playing "tic-tac-toe" in the 1983 movie WarGames--the only winning move is not to play. It means a little something different here though--it's the choice of game. You don't win at appeasing MAGA. You win only by doing your job. In other words--how about a nice came of chess?

Mike Pence knows this one. He just recently explained why he could not endorse Donald Trump, his old running mate, for president. Trump required him to do something illegal and unconstitutional to show his loyalty and he could not. In return, his life was threatened, and Trump to this day considers Pence "disloyal". It seems clear that to Trump's mind, you cannot serve two masters: the Constitution and Trump.  It also stands as a stark warning to other would-be GOP VP nominees--he will not be someone you serve with, just someone you serve. I can only ask what the conscience of a conservative has to say about that.

The Fine Red Line

 

I think it was an act of moral courage for Senator Schumer to express criticism of Israel PM Netanyahu and concern for the lives of innocent Palestinians. Leaving aside whether he was the best person to make this message because of his own Jewishness and long-standing support of Israel, that there needed to be daylight between what the United States supports and what Netanyahu's government is carrying out was a necessity, because OUR US government must be accountable. The ongoing suffering of people who had no choice in the horrific and malicious actions of 10/7 is inhumane. The idea of so much suffering on both sides without a clear path to reconciliation, and ultimately peace, feels unthinkable. 

There have been protests in Israel that suggest that many people do not feel like Netanyahu has done everything he can to get the hostages home and end the current war. Although Schumer called for elections what he did not do is imply who should win them--rather, he indicated that a referendum on the desires of the people in our democratic ally would settle what their vision is for the future of the Israeli state--without leaving it in the hands of someone who had done everything he could to prevent a two-state solution. 

Not My Circus, Not My Pontifex

 

The Pope says Ukraine should have the courage to raise a white flag and negotiate an end to the war.

"The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate.”

(First reported by… pic.twitter.com/Mpl8rQhcy9

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 9, 2024

As for me, I believe in the courage of telling Putin to go to Hell. To negotiate with evil is to grant it power. It does not save lives. It only tells them which lives are sacrificed today, and then there is tomorrow, and tomorrow....

The argument I have with the Pope here is the one I have with absolute pacifists anywhere: is there no noble stand, nothing you would fight for? Can you not distinguish invader from invaded? Why would you suppose that the laying down of arms against tyranny would result in an end to killing when the perpetrator--Putin's Russia, has again and again said they have no intention of stopping here? How is it on Ukraine to choose which people of theirs are fit to be martyrs for an illusory greater good?

Because the result of Putin winning isn't about territory, but the span of his influence, and the kind of government and repression he represents. It is about the lives of the people in that territory he holds and the future of their lives. The fight was started by Putin--he could have the courage of realizing that mass death for his ego is a sin. He could have the courage of backing down and reaping the whirlwind of his botched dictatorship. He could disengage now from Ukraine as Gorbachev did from Afghanistan, understanding that it would be a situation from which the bleeding would never end. 

It is the thing his great sin of imperialistic pride would not have him do--but what a conscience would dictate if he had one. 

Who thinks after any negotiation, the conflict would be over? How does Russia hold what it never should have obtained, with what violence? There is nothing in the ruined cities, the raped women, the kidnapped children, the promised enforcement of Russian culture and erasure of Ukrainian history that is not appalling. The negotiated future is just more violence, of a different and more insidious kind.

Go and chide the sinner, and don't ask the sinned against to fucking forgive in advance the horrors they would lay down their lives to save their loved ones from. 

We don't look at Pius XII in an un-admixed way. I would let the current pope consider very well the use of his pulpit. Humans are all fallible, some just need to demonstrate it less. He has a place from which to influence history. This is not that way. He would not be a peacemaker, only one who sanctions making a desert and calling it peace.