Whatever this young woman is doing with Trump at midnight, I hope he's paying well.
#10 | POSTED BY CLOWNSHACK

JFK and Bush 1 were both capable of appreciating war's realities well beyond the comic book phase, each having served in one and seen action and its consequences. As JFK wrote in a letter soon after his PT boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and he worked at rescuing his crew:

Between Trump's insanity, FIFA's greed, gooberish MAGAts on parade with their weaponry, and the general impression of the US as loaded to the gills with loons, buffoons, and human baboons, this is definitely one of those "Yah, but ... " destinations.

"Reading about this swindle, I found myself wondering why it rankled me so much," writes Andrew Egger. "After all, this is hardly the first time Trump and his family have cashed in on his cult of personality to part his superfans from their cash. Indeed, for many MAGA superfans, being endlessly shaken down for cash via a blizzard of unbelievably sleazy campaign-solicitation texts and emails has become a defining feature of their digital lives. And that's to say nothing of Trump's crypto projects, Trump's NFTs, Trump's guitars, Trump's sneakers, Trump's watches - I could go on."

Or maybe it just strikes me as so sordid because of the political landscape in which it's unfolding. Donald Trump, who swept back into office last year with approval ratings in the 50s and an unprecedented political coalition at his back, has been hemorrhaging voters ever since. His second-term approval has never been lower"in fact, it hit another new low just today. Pretty much every voter outside his cult has already headed for the hills. And yet that stubborn 35ish percent of the electorate remains, eyes screwed shut, fingers wedged in their ears, unhappy with the state of the economy, unhappy with the state of the country, unhappy with the state of the world"but still convinced beyond all reason or persuasion that their political messiah, Donald Trump, is about to turn it all around.

This is remarkable, unprecedented political loyalty. Without it, Trump could never have gotten back to where he is today"and he'd certainly be in no position to shake down the sheikhs. And how does his family repay this loyalty? By selling his poor dumb true believers a vaporware phone.

"I have all the cards," says American president, a convicted felon, serial fraudster, fabulist, pathological liar, and six-times bankrupt who ran four casinos into the ground.

Problem is, nobody's playing cards, Donnie, nobody but you.

Further:

"The only other way to approach this is to recognise that Iran will have some control, but that the main passage will be operated by an allied coalition which will guarantee free movement of ships without fees. I think that's a preferable approach. But at this moment in time, Iran has a gun to our head with the closure of the Strait. Somehow, we've got to find a way to make sure that that gun is not there.

"The reality is, we always knew that Iran would ultimately close the Strait of Hormuz, and we should have had a plan. We missed that opportunity. As long as the Strait remains closed, as long as they continue to put tremendous pressure on the US and the world economy, we're not going to get anywhere because they have the leverage."

I am in agreement with ANTON at #8 and that led to a bit from Wislawa Szymborska's poem "Soliloquy for Cassandra," Homer's Trojan priestess in the Iliad whose warning prophesies go ignored, thanks to Apollo's curse.

Here I am, Cassandra.
And this is my city under ashes.
And these are my prophet's staff and ribbons.
And this is my head full of doubts.

Trump long ago demonstrated he can serve up an endless smorgasbord of sh*t sandwiches to the entire Republican Party and they have been so conditioned by their own servitude that they simply mutter, "Please, sirrr, may we have another?" Now we have reached the part where Trump rubs everybody's noses in his corruption, gleefully offering up the yuge, steaming, stinking platter, grinning vacuously and saying, "Whattaya gonna do aboudit, huh?"

That's it, the Trump family, Republican Party, and MAGA ethos rolled into a single motto:

I
REALLY
DON'T
CARE
DO U?

"Decimated" - a favorite word of the regime's gauleiters and other toadies when they fantasize about its performance in Iran - does not mean what the aiders and abetters think it means.

Why, oh, why would (Acting) Attorney General & Trump Personal Attorney Todd "Thank you - I LOVE YOU, SIR!" Blanche roll over for his master on this?

A settlement in the coming days would fly in the face of efforts by the federal judge overseeing the case, Kathleen Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama in the Southern District of Florida, to try and manage the conflict of interest in the case. Not only has she requested briefings from Mr. Trump's lawyers and the government by next week, she has appointed a group of six well-respected lawyers not otherwise involved in the case to provide her with their views on whether Mr. Trump's lawsuit is legitimate.

A settlement in the coming days would fly in the face of efforts by the federal judge overseeing the case, Kathleen Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama in the Southern District of Florida, to try and manage the conflict of interest in the case. Not only has she requested briefings from Mr. Trump's lawyers and the government by next week, she has appointed a group of six well-respected lawyers not otherwise involved in the case to provide her with their views on whether Mr. Trump's lawsuit is legitimate.

She would not likely be able to prevent Mr. Trump from simply withdrawing the suit and coming to a private agreement with the federal government. Even if the judge were to ultimately find that the settlement was collusive or reached in bad faith, she would likely be hamstrung in any effort to stop money or other benefits from changing hands.

Former government lawyers and experts see a clear defense to Mr. Trump's suit, and do not see it as one the Justice Department would typically settle on its merits.

And ...

Military intelligence agencies have also reported, based on information from multiple collection streams including satellite imagery and other surveillance technologies, that Iran has regained access to roughly 90 percent of its underground missile storage and launch facilities nationwide, which are now assessed to be "partially or fully operational," the people with knowledge of the assessments said.

The findings undercut months of public assurances from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have told Americans that the Iranian military was "decimated" and "no longer" a threat.

He was, indeed, a bitchy curmudgeon. Not a film historian, but one helluva entertaining review writer (providing you were not on the being reviewed end). From his review of Oldboy: "What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs." He broke some walls and popped a few balloons. Well done and thank you.

What's that got to do with The Ballroom?

I assume the Republicans are aiding and abetting a rolling coup, and that screwing with the midterm elections is a given. I assure any reader this is far, far worse than anything that went on with Nixon.

Why should Old Yeller care or even bother to pretend he cares about the welfare of the American people?

Impeachments, felony convictions, bankruptcies, an attempted coup, and ... not only was he elected to the presidency, he was elected again to that office.

And never, along the way, has he shown any interest in the welfare of the American people.

Why start now?

Indeed, Coriolanus. And afterwards JFK was more careful when it came to accepting assurances of the sort that left him famously observing, "Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan." For example, his skepticism during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Recall, he made damn sure that at the end of the day he had tapes.)

Yup, Coriolanus, remember it well. Along the way, a German barber I encountered ages ago in AZ had served on the "Eastern Front" in a "special group" until captured at Stalingrad. He was released in the 1950s from some Far Eastern gulag and told he could find he own way home. An Austrian friend's father ended up with the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad. As the ring tightened, he wrote letters home with detailed accounts of imaginary meals because he was starving to death. Then nothing. Later, after the war, the family was told by one of his mates the guy was killed, by another captured. In the early 1050s my friend accompanied his mother to Vienna's main train station whenever the radio announced another batch of repatriated POWs chugging in from the East on the off-chance his dad might be among them. His father never appeared. (Soviet POWs in German hands had almost no chance at all.)

Is Vanky still chumming Chinese waters?

Having lent a powerful hand in making "it"- the fascist slow-motion coup now gathering a real head of steam, thanks to SCOTUS - what it is, John Roberts has the gall to tell us "It is what it is."

Immolating yourself for MAGAFuehrer is showing ultimate love for MAGAFuehrer.
The reward?
Zip, nada, ugatz.
Suckers and losers, one and all.

Thanks to Roberts and his ideological compatriots, next year the Republican Party will be able to fully and joyously celebrate the bicentennial of the Compromise of 1877, whereby it sold out Blacks, ended Reconstruction, and ushered in Jim Crow.

Happy 250th!