Week of Marching
Trump Birthday Fizzle, Nationwide Protest, Big Beautiful Bummer Hated, Israel Fights Iran so Trump Golfs

Key beginning (a somewhat spoiler):
It was so bad even some tanks called in sick.
It was so bad North Korea sent a sympathy card.

And there are more outstandingly awful details.

Including interesting reactions:
I mean,
Et tu, Pūté?

One common subtext to current protests, unidentified people (presumably ICE), masked, with guns:
A point of personal danger affecting …well… pretty much everyone.

Key advice for Flag Day (That would be today, folks!)
Regardless, keep the protests peaceful. Don’t give Trump and his minions a reason to resort to violence, and don’t give the public watching on television at home a reason to fear the protests.
 
I know it’s fun to burn cars and commit senseless vandalism. “It’s just property.” I know you want to fly the Mexican flag to celebrate the ethnic pride of the marchers. But it won’t be fun when J.D. Vance or Donald Trump Jr. is elected president, and you certainly won’t be celebrating.

Key truth:
Protests, “perades”, assassinations, manhunts, US Senators mocking political assassinations, and it ended with a declaration of war by a mad King on blue cities while ignoring the Red States and their field workers, meat plant workers and construction workers. This is America today. Within 72 hours all hell breaks loose and this is an everyday occurrence nowadays in President Chaos’s world.

Key chaos example:
There is open warfare here in Omaha as the Omaha Police Department has warned the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department to stay in their own lane. Seems like our Sheriff, a short little man always dressed in tactical gear, can’t mind his own business. They came into Omaha and killed a kid, they participated in the ICE raids, and they are always willing to stick their nose in business they don’t belong. The OPD has had enough.

Key quote (Matt Walsh: on immigration as an evil plot)
The deeper goal is to reshape America demographically. It is to make America less white, less European by descent. It is ultimately about the destruction of Western civilization.

He begins with the openly expressed objective of liberating citizens from themselves and their choices for elected office:

Key Context:
Sayed Nasar worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and was arrested following an immigration court hearing in San Diego on June 12.

Shamelessly stolen from Scotties Playtime:

tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has the latest Republican plan (As I read him):

Key proposal:
The administration has gone further and wants to yank American citizenship from some people who don’t have at least one U.S. citizen or legal resident parent.

Key prediction:
You can see it a mile away. The 14th Amendment settled all of this, of course, but it’s a question of who will enforce it.
 
The Roberts Court will not.

And, of course:

North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz points to the Minnesota shootings as clear, unambiguous evidence of MAGA America’s Moral Brokenness.

Key decency:
It is the kind of heinous violation of humanity that should have generated bipartisan outrage and condemnation; an act of violence that disgusted all decent human beings.

Key problem:
The problem is, the MAGA movement is inherently indecent.
 
In the hours following the shootings, social media soon filled with Trump supporters’ attempts to somehow paint the assassin as a Democrat, despite a clear body of evidence of his party affiliation, religious beliefs, voting history, and motivation. As of this writing, they are refusing to take down their posts, with many doubling down on the spin efforts. Republican lawmakers have chosen to add to the online firestorm by using their platforms to amplify disinformation, or in the case of Utah Senator Mike Lee, poke fun at the carnage.

Key sickness:
MAGAs are so morally broken that they can’t even bring themselves to condemn the shootings of Democratic politicians in their homes, violations of safety and security, which have left two children orphaned, two families devastated, and an entire community reeling.

It seems the shooter has to be a liberal because liberal media are hiding the facts.

Responsible media typically do not publish manifestos written by murderous extremists for good reason. It would encourage other publicity seeking would be assassins to carry out their deadly fantasies.

But the good pastor knows otherwise:
Every time they have a shooting, they determine not to let people know what was written. I always suspect that it reveals the fact that the person was whack.
 
And, and, and, it doesn’t reflect well on the leftwing media, ’cause they champion their cause so well.

So it’s all a conspiracy.

Pastor Wallnau reflects on other shootings ascribed to Christian extremists:

Key commonality:
What they have in common is Christianity does give you a sound mind if it’s done right.

Ummmm.

So Christianity gives you a solid grasp of reality. And media and police are in a combined, consistent conspiracy to trick you, right?

What about all the evidence pointing to a Christian MAGA extremist:
A man with a gun who knows that God is on his side?

Looking around nervously…
That’s what they want you to think.

That is, until they are told what is in it.
Then they really really hate it.

Key changes in significance:
In 1865, Juneteenth was a celebration of freedom and the war’s end. In 1866 it was a celebration of the enshrinement of freedom in the U.S. Constitution after the Thirteenth Amendment had been ratified. In 1867, Juneteenth was a celebration of the freedom of Black men to vote, the very real power of having a say in the government under which they lived.

Key opponents:
…those determined to preserve a government that discriminates between Americans according to race, gender, religion, ability…

Key resistance rationale:
They have also insisted, as former Confederates did in the late 1860s, that any laws protecting the equal rights of minorities discriminate against the white majority.

Key modern version:
In 2025, as the Trump administration echoes those people, celebrations of Juneteenth are being cut back or even canceled.

Key message:
To make sure people can still get the real story of Juneteenth and why it matters, my team produced this short video:

So Dave is asked a question:

And he provides an answer

Mike’s lawyers have a defense that, to a layperson (which is to say me), might seem tenuous. Their clients can’t be sued for just repeating statements rather than making up falsehoods themselves. Defamation by third parties isn’t really their fault.

PZ Myers kinda, sorta, gloats as poor Mike takes the stand, loses his temper and pretty much sets himself on fire, restating his false claims with more vehemence.

Yikes!
Thinking Jack Nicholson: (Did you order the Code Red?!!)

Well, there goes another $2.3 million dollars!

Brian’s article, to which he links, is partially behind a paywall.
He generously posts one example that illustrates his point.

Key operation:
Despite franchise fatigue with Marvel and Star Wars, U.S. and Israeli producers are releasing a big-budget reboot of the blockbuster property.

Key parallel:
The dominant theme is democratic systems and free societies against totalitarian ideologies, the latter usually with a religious component. Ukraine, Israel, India, and Taiwan are vigorous democracies which mostly respect the kinds of personal freedoms that Americans have traditionally valued.

Key rights opposition:
The rights that women have enjoyed for a full generation are being rolled back by Christian nationalists to support authoritarianism. A cultish form of Christianity to pave the way for the oligarchs to form an authoritarian government with Trump as the figurehead.
 
Everything from no-fault divorce to abortion to women having a bank account runs afoul of Christian nationalism and Evangelicalism.

Instead, she had to stay and scold her cat, who pretty much hid in plain sight.