Week of Trump Thumped and Bumped
Bad Bunny, Racist Video, Legal Lumps, Vance Booed, Bondi Bungles, ICE Iced, Epstein Victims Voice

Scottie’s personal experiences in learning the language parallel my own. My attempt was interrupted by a serious car accident, but there is no certainty that I would ever have become fluent.

Like Scottie, I never felt tempted to demand that others speak English for my benefit.

Scottie brings us Jon Stewart on the MAGA fury over the presentation. It’s a half hour, but watchable in fragments:

…Trump has lost every culture war.

Key example:
Democrats did not select the Super Bowl half-time headliner. But Republicans sensed they could win a culture war against the left anyhow, on the grounds that Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican and performs in Spanish. That’s it. That was the entire thrust of their manufactured grievance.

Before answering, he goes to history to find those in our past who asked and tried to answer exactly that.

Subheading summarizes:
MAGA Americans have a Bunny living rent-free in their heads.
(We’ll just call it BDS: Bunny Derangement Syndrome.)

And, of course, we can find living examples of kids growing up to reject parental prejudices.

Sadly, it seems Donald Trump never got to that growing up part.

Andy Borowitz takes leave from his usual satire to chronicle how Donald Trump has carried on a family tradition of rank bigotry, racism, and hatred.

Daddy Trump, Fred, goes way back. Donald joined effortlessly as President of the Trump real estate firm, denying rentals to any but pure Whites. Of course, someone eventually sued.

Donald began what became another tradition:
Countersuing, the Trumps unleashed their lawyer, Roy Cohn, the disgraced (and, eventually, disbarred) former aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy. Cohn advanced the Trumps’ claim that they were discriminating not against Blacks but against undesirable “welfare recipients.” A judge dismissed the Trumps’ countersuit. (The tradition of judges tossing baseless Trump lawsuits continues to this day.)

Trump’s enthusiasm for family tradition seemed to grow, as he ran full page ads demanding the conviction of 5 kids falsely accused of rape.

The campaign succeeded and the 5 spent time in prison until DNA evidence and the eventual confession of the real culprit resulted in their freedom.

And, of course, there came to be yet another tradition:

From Wikipedia:
While she has not held a formal advisory role in the White House she is known to have given advice to President Trump on foreign policy, but is perhaps best known for being a “loyalty enforcer”^[65] of the president,^[64] so much so that her name has been used as a verb — “Loomered”, meaning to be, fired, or damaged in some way by its namesake, for alleged disloyalty.^[66][g]

PZ Myers points to one of her more recent pronouncements…

…and goes through the trouble of slicing and dicing her racist points.

Joe reviews press coverage, outrage from both political parties, and social media reaction.

He quotes The New York Times on a larger Trump pattern:
The clip was in line with Mr. Trump’s history of making degrading remarks about people of color, women and immigrants, and he has for years singled out the Obamas. Across Mr. Trump’s administration, racist images and slogans have become common on government websites and accounts, with the White House, Labor Department and Homeland Security Department all having promoted posts that echo white supremacist messaging.

A few don’t buy the weird explanation:

Of course, I have a response:

…as a Grand Jury refuses to indict well known military veterans who point out the law:

Military personnel have a duty to refuse to follow orders they know to be illegal.

This little gem makes it on the list as he wraps up:

Disaffected and it Feels So Good uses the experience as a starting point in an informed and entertaining analysis of an unstable financial instrument based on nothing but vibes.

In her educational experiment, an $8,300 investment becomes $34.59.

Final Question from Jake Tapper:
You were asked about a child rape sex ring. Why would we talk about the Dow?

Bondi kept her back to them.

tengrain begins with this:

Even with that, the views are another disaster for Trump and those around him, especially when combined with ICE abuses, and a host of legal setbacks.

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

He begins:
Donald Trump will not be president forever. That fact alone is a kind of oxygen. That fact alone gives us hope.
 
Whether he leaves office on January 20, 2029, or earlier due to forces beyond his control, his departure should mark the end of an era defined by contempt for democratic norms, cruelty dressed up as policy, and a personality cult that treated the Constitution as a suggestion. What must not follow is the familiar script Washington always reaches for: calls for unity, pleas to “heal,” and a quiet agreement to look forward rather than reckon with what was done.

Co-conspirators:
Trump did not act alone. He was surrounded by officials, lawyers, and ideologues who translated his impulses into action. People like Pam Bondi, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Russell Vought, and Robert Kennedy Jr. did not stumble into their roles. They chose alignment. They lent credibility, legal cover, and institutional power to an agenda that repeatedly tested the limits of the law. Lock them up.

Ted goes on to summarizes what Democrats are demanding before funding DHS.

Instead, they should find ways to join the resistance.

He has suggestions.

As participants pressed her on the need to abolish ICE on moral grounds, she acknowledged the need for reforms, but opposed abolition:

That is surprising, coming from one who must be aware that immigration enforcement was handled capably, and fairly, by other agencies before the Department of Homeland Security was formed in response to the 9/11 attack in 2001.
She also added this, with some indignation:

Julian Sanchez takes on that angry response.

Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson looks at the details, and isn’t having it:

Yeah, that’ll reduce those long lines on voting day.

More detailed information is presented by Juliet in an hour long entertaining podcast.

…and the subsequent resignation of its CEO:

On ex-CEO Will Lewis:
Lewis is nothing more than a rat leaving a sinking ship, but he’s not mentioning that he was hired to drill holes in the hull.

Headlined judgment:
You’d Be Dumb to Hire This Guy to Run a Fruit Stand

My own interpretation of his reasoning is that:

• His posted opinions usually range well beyond politics.
• When he does touch on politics, he is not partisan, willing to criticize either or both sides.

In both respects he reminds me of the late great Kevin Drum (I do mourn our profound loss of this great individual to long term illness). Still, I regarded Kevin as a political blogger.

Infidel’s main characteristic is his blunt, well-informed, carefully researched opinions.
That would include his self-description. However he sees himself, I am grateful for most everything he writes.

First example:
Step One is to make a reservation at a nice restaurant for a sophisticated and romantic time such as 8 p.m. That will be for Valentine’s Day 2027. For this year, you’re WAY too late to get a romantic time slot, but the restaurant might be able to squeeze you in for the 4:45 p.m. “Total Loser” seating. Make sure the restaurant has a Special Valentine’s Day Menu, meaning the management has tripled the prices and replaced all the identifiable foods such as cheeseburgers with dishes that look like this: