Week Kimmel Triumph, Kirk Funeral
Trump UN, Rant, Trump NYT Suit Dismissed, Epstein Files, Trump Unpopular, Rapture Unwrapped, Some Gospel Ain’t Poss‑pel

CalicoJack in The Psy of Life wants us to know what he actually said, and why Trump and Trumpers want us to believe something different.

Key actuality:
Kimmel barely even references Kirk’s murder other than to orient his remarks about Trump’s and Maga’s reaction to it. So, what was insensitive and inappropriate about it? For the life of me, I can’t find anything.

Key ethical preference:
Some of us think that telling the truth, especially in this age of super sized gaslighting, is important, respectful, educative, and constructive. The truth, no matter how painful to some people, does lead to dialogue in our communities.

Key opinion piece headline:
Like His Suspension, Kimmel’s Return Draws a Divided Reaction

Really?

NR makes the case that FCC Chair Brendan Carr, with his threat to put ABC affiliates out of business, is not the problem. It is the existence of the FCC itself.

James isn’t having it. The problem was, and remains, Brendan Carr and the guy he works for.

Key rebuttal:
National Review once understood it’s not the weapon but the person holding it. Our rights under the First Amendment will not be protected until Trump is removed from office.

Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit tells the tale of a completely legal, licensed, paperwork all filled out, permit signed and sealed, statue on the National Mall. The exhibit shows two figures: Trump holding hands with Epstein.

Days before the permit expires, the exhibit disappears, hauled away by authorities.

In protest, Comrade Misfit declares a national holiday:
Every day is now National Make Fun of Donald Trump Day.

She offers two new examples.

All very legal, all very corrupt.

News Corpse looks at that aspect of the dismissal of the Trump lawsuit against The New York Times. It shows what happens when the subject is not interested in offering an underhanded bribe and actually fights back.

With typical judicial restraint, using more polite words, the judge advised Trump lawyers that, in future litigation, they may want to submit legal arguments that are actually legal and have something to do with the litigation.

Journalist Arturo Dominguez investigates the money exchange on video as part of a larger scheme involving more, often larger, awards for ICE construction to unknown contractors, followed by mass arrests targeting dissent in order to fill the new centers.

She provides what is known about each coverup and the increasing likelihood desperately concealed secrets will tumble into the open.

An additional aspect:
There is another sign today that Trump and his loyalists have outkicked their coverage as they try to consolidate power.

We all guessed it:
…after public outcry, Kimmel’s show is back on the air.

The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

tengrain brings us a separate summary of the stunningly embarrassing Trump rant.

At The Moderate Voice Robert Levine points to an underreported aspect of Trump cutbacks. Slashes to scientific and medical research are already crushing what had been our advantage.

Key competition:
While Trump is reducing federal funding for scientific research, China is expanding its research in all scientific fields in addition to its military.

Key question:
You have to wonder where these ideas originate. It’s almost as if President Trump wants to damage the nation, taking it from the most powerful and desirable nation in the world to a middling power.

It does remind me of long, long ago High School reading about the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes who, in a deal to get into office, ended protections for those newly freed slaves, launching an era of KKK rule, lynchings, segregation, voting rights denial, and kidnappings under color of law with rental of resulting prisoners to farms, mines, and other businesses.

You may prefer a complete transcript (PDF).

Depends, I suppose on what compromises we’re talking about. Fortunately, some victories are so ingrained that they are already part of mainstream public mentality.

Still, the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes should offer us a cautionary tale.

Post authorization?
And by the way, even if you believe McCabe’s account, he’s not saying that Comey knew about the leak before it happened. He’s talking about it after the fact.

Key slipshod:
Right, and so she actually had to file this herself. Very unusual that the U.S. Attorney doesn’t have one of the line prosecutors signing off on this, working on this.
 
She had to literally alter, herself, some of the language in court, which is very unusual and shows you that she’s at this point kind of in this on her own in this U. S. Attorney’s Office.

• The Russian incursion into the airspace of Poland and Romania, NATO’s firm response, and Trump’s unexpected agreement.
• The rapture that wasn’t
• The Kimmel suspension that wasn’t (or at least wasn’t long)
• The recognition of a Palestinian state by several major countries.
  (Infidel regards it as a betrayal of principle, a reward of the vicious October 7 massacre.)

From Wikipedia:
The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, without regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available.

Among my friend’s long list of accusations: After the recent horrific murder of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska there was an outpouring of support for the murderer.

And this:
The murder of George Floyd was horrific, but the response of millions of people was to destroy, burn, loot, and even kill others because of this – even destroying livelihoods and taking lives of other people of color they were purportedly championing by this rioting.

That would be millions. Of rioters. Who were also arsonists. Looters. And murderers (so millions of murders?).

And, of course:
Today we have some people that cheer [sic] and celebrate [sic] the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a good, kind [sic] Christian man because of his politics. They falsely [sic] attribute racism and authoritarianism to him in order to justify their ghoulish behavior. They become far more upset about Jimmy Kimmel losing his job than the assassination of the butt [sic] of his sick [sic] “joke”.

Sick.
(Sorry Darrell)

My friend is happy that so many among us have repented, now joining in hatred against illegal immigrants (they are all, after all, vicious criminals), no longer celebrating homeless murderers, and turning away – at long last – from cheering for political assassination.

So there is hope for a few of us, after all, when the next rapture comes and goes.

An official Announcement:
DHS is launching Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham who was killed in Illinois by a criminal illegal alien who should have never been in our country. This operation will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago
   – Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin

Disaffected and it Feels So Good documents the arrest of hundreds, including US citizens, who are guilty of having the same skin color as the perpetrator of that horrible crime.

One typical case:
“This is the shortest report I’ve ever seen on anybody,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hoatling said, waving his pretrial report in her hand. “He has a criminal history of nothing. … There is no danger that I see to the community whatsoever.”

This week, my conservative friend Darrel Michaels (Yep, that same long time valued extremely conservative friend) comments on Dave’s site, accusing him of a both‑sides‑do‑it argument. Dave, of course, takes off the gloves (surgical gloves, I presume) and performs vivisection on my friend’s argument.

Key identity:
This is who these people are. It is what their churches are celebrating. It’s what drives their adoration of the very kinds of people the namesake of their faith would have the harshest words for.
 
They are putting their kids in ‘I am Charlie Kirk’ t-shirts and waging empty, hollow culture wars because it’s much easier to do that than to actually read the Sermon on the Mount with them and admit that the love, empathy, generosity, and hospitality of Jesus (things Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump fully reject) is the path their faith tradition calls them to.

Shocking though it may be, I express an opinion:

My imperfect take:
Previous incidents of Pilate’s extreme brutality not only terrorized ordinary citizens of Israel, but got an unusual response from Rome. Ruthlessly putting down a rebellion was one thing, but needlessly provoking resistance had to be stopped.
 
So the message to Pilate from the Emperor is fictional, but captures the tone: The next blood that is spilled in Palestine had better be your own.
 
Pilate was furious at the increasingly popular preacher. One incident in particular angered him.
 
Pilate loved demonstrating his dominance. One tactic during the annual Passover festivities was a Roman parade led by Pilate pushing through Jerusalem to show the gathered crowds that they had better bow to Rome. Each annual show of might was an ever bigger and better military celebration of Pilate-rule.
 
On one Passover, the irritating Jesus led a simultaneous counter-parade from the other side of the city on a donkey with loud cheers from the huge gathering. That was the final straw.
 
So Pilate coerced the compliant Temple leaders.
 
That is why I think the quote from Caiaphas is accurate, as he rebuked those who did not want to go along:
 
“You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
 
The rest was choreographed so Pilate could plausibly tell Rome that he had no choice but to execute Jesus.

And so, two millennia of persecution by Christians against Jews gets a scriptural start.

I suspect the commission of a satire.

An encouraging comment can’t hurt.