Week of Shutdown, Shut up about Pedophiles, Lecture Generals on Manliness
Americans Trash Trump, Epstein Files, Trump Unpopular, Rapture Only Postponed

Anyone who can guess who they blame gets to stay after class and clean the erasers.

Key novel approach:
I often report what I hear to you, reader, so you understand what people in the heartland say matters to them.
 
I tell you these things because I think the consultant class misses issues important to regular people. I think the Ann Selzers of the world have gut premonitions, while strategists give folks $100 and then lock them in rooms with screens persuading them to watch ads and messaging material to find the “right” message.
 
They could just talk to voters — wild idea, I know.

How Trump describes Portland:

And how Portland experiences Portland:

Which raises the terrible possibility that maybe Trump is untruthful.

Crushing an urban insurrection:
The horrors of war will show those damn Portlanders who’s really in charge around here. They’ll rue the day they installed those bike lanes when American tanks roll right over them to crush the resistance.

James may be subject to investigation for his possible commission of a satire.

Hard to know which is worse. (Okay, okay. Kavanaugh is worse.)

Justice Brett Kavanaugh:
As for stops of those individuals who are legally in the country, the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U. S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.

According to testimony, promptly often means after a few days in jail.

My favorite (Out of many excellent examples):
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) is outraged that Gov. Gavin Newsom referred to Stephen Miller as a fascist. (After all, it’s surely just a wild coincidence that Miller’s toxic, threatening speech at the “memorial service” for Saint Charlie had distinct echoes of Goebbels in it.) He’s so outraged that people would call Republicans fascists that he wants to arrest them for it.

One obvious observation: Trump is preparing them, and us, for the Shoot to Kill order.

Nan’s Notebook finds a pithy comment online that could explain why the audience pretty much sat on their hands.

Key rip-off:
“The summoning of the nation’s generals, the insistence on loyalty, the unhinged rhetoric—I had all of that,” the North Korean dictator added. “The only thing I didn’t have was the weird drunk guy with all the makeup.”

Key invisible insurgence:
In response to Trump’s announcement that he was directing Secretary Hegseth to send troops, authorized to use full force, to Portland, Senator Wyden—who has led the push to force the Treasury to turn over Epstein-related Treasury records of at least $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions to Senate investigators—posted a video of the ICE facility Trump claims is under siege. There were no people there at all.

The post from Senator Wyden to which Heather Cox Richardson refers:

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

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won a majority of votes, but not by enough to get into office. Trump very narrowly won enough states to get the Electoral College votes.

Most any factor can be said to have put Trump into his wafer-thin win. But none is more clearly identifiable, more clearly documented than James Comey.

Comey’s FBI investigated but‑her‑emails accusations and came up empty. She had done nothing wrong, nothing even exceptional, in following long accepted practices.

Poor James got more jittery than if he’d had gallons of caffeine boosted coffee, scared of the reaction of already volatile Republican legislators. As in She’s guilty of NOTHING?!!

So James Comey, Director of the FBI, broke all Justice Department guidelines and publicly scolded Clinton.

And her majority, high enough to win, suddenly went low enough to lose.

As Trump FBI Director, Comey did not squelch investigations into Trump’s connections with Russian behind‑the‑scenes campaign for Trump in 2016. So he became a Trump enemy and was fired.

Now Comey is being charged with lying to Congress about an authorization pretty much everyone agrees he didn’t make in advance to release information about investigations. So the story is he may have authorized the information release after it was released. About as bogus as bogus can get.

Brian Beutler explains why some of us oppose Trump’s abuse of the judicial system, but still don’t exactly admire Comey.

Juliet at Decoding Fox News begins her description this way:

Last week Fox News had three stories to tell – former FBI director James Comey would finally face justice for a crime the network couldn’t explain; Donald J. Trump was nearly murdered by a malfunctioning escalator at the U.N. and American cities were being overrun with mobs of blue-haired, transgender, Antifa activists backed by left-wing billionaires.

The details are even more spectacular, with screaming tantrums, dark leftist conspiracies, and praise for Trump’s brilliant UN speech.

Juliet also shows us the top-tilt with this (Thank you, Juliet!):

Basic fact check practice for some journalists:

There are things government can do about it, but Trump and company don’t see it as high priority.

Apparently, a lot of Trump fans, including Trump’s biggest fan (that would be Trump), are furious that Bad Bunny will headline halftime at the Super Bowl.

The objections seem to focus on his specialty of Spanish rap, that he is from Puerto Rico, that he doesn’t like Trump, that he is for gay rights, that he doesn’t care for ICE, that he is generally in favor of immigration. Some are outraged that he appeared in drag in one of his music videos.

The objections seem wafer thin to me. They evaporate in the face of American traditions:

Puerto Rico is part of the US, a fact that escapes some Trumpers.
Many Americans speak Spanish, one reason his music is so popular in RapLand.
Most Americans don’t like Trump, don’t like ICE, and are generally pro‑immigration.
He was dressed as a woman in a music video to re-enact, in protest, common incidents of sexual harassment against women. He supports women’s rights, and speaks against sexual violence.

So what’s the problem?

North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz suggests a simple answer.

Key unstated issues:
Let’s just say it’s a pigmentation issue, with a side order of MAGA cultism and a dash of homophobia thrown in.

Key compelling logic:
You’re an old faggot who will burn even hotter for being a scoffer.

Seems the prophecy was good, but there was a date mix up because of bad math (a sort of cosmic flight delay).

Key motivation query:
Is it simply they are terrified of after they die and are convinced that their forcing others to follow their church doctrines will get their god to give them more benefits in heaven…

Key rejection:
By rejecting religions and teachers, I get closer to soul and ready to accept a kind of god. Not in the sense of a Lord or a Goddess that demands my worship, but a kind of fairness and purpose to life, and help in getting through it, so that events are never random.

Key question:
Why try to eff the ineffable?