Week of Distraction Efforts
Epstein, Summitry, Epstein, ICE Attacks, Epstein, Tackle Immigrants, Epstein, Invade DC, Epstein, Gerrymander

Dave Dubya responds with what some might regard as skepticism.

Key sarcasm:
Peace in our time. If only Biden would cease his imperialist aggression and order Putin’s military to withdraw from Ukraine.

My memory of recent history has become a little hazy. Age, I suppose.

I thought Putin invaded Ukraine in 2016, in the closing months of the Obama administration.

My aging memory has Obama responding with planned sanctions. And didn’t the first draft of the Republican Party platform condemn the invasion?

I have visions of Trump after descending from on high on his golden escalator.

As candidate in 2016, I have been thinking all these years that Trump ordered that the condemnation be deleted from the Republican platform.
Then, as President, I have Trump quickly cancelling the sanctions.

Or do I have it all wrong?

Trump rides privately in a limo with Putin, and later comes out of last week’s summit mumbling Putin talking points.
So now it’s back to TACO !

Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has a question our trustworthy media seems to miss: What does Putin have on Trump?.

Then, right after, Trump meets with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy. This time, they are joined by more than half a dozen European leaders who want to push back on Trump’s sellout to Putin.
Here’s one big reason.

She includes a reminder:

To be fair, Vixen was writing before this week’s Zelenskyy/EU/Trump meeting, so it’s possible Trump has been given some new backbone concerning Putin… (ha‑ha‑ha, just kidding!)

In Nan’s Notebook, Nan notices something more that I (and pretty much everyone else) missed. There was a marked difference in speed and agility as Putin and Trump approached each other. It was stride versus stumble.

Key schmooze (as related by Trump to Hannity):
Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said ‘I’ve never seen anybody do so much so fast.’ He said, ‘your country is, like, hot as a pistol,’ and a year ago he thought it was dead. Everybody thought it was dead.

Key previous boast (Interviewed by WSJ in June)
Our country is hot as a pistol,’ Trump said in a brief interview. ‘Six months ago, our country was cold as ice. It was dead.’

Key possible conclusions:
There are only two possible responses to that comment. Either it was an invention of Trump’s overactive and conceit-riddled imagination, or Putin was fluffing him to get a favorable reaction.

In the absence of Putin repeatedly calling him Sir with tears in his eyes, I’ll go with an accurate Putin quote with Trump getting played with well‑researched flattery, especially since Trump neglected to thank Hannity and the FOX audience for their attention to this matter.

Key Headline:
Hey MAGA America, Trump is Putin You On

Oh my.

The message itself presents a serious lesson with clarity. Trump is not to be trusted.

Key self-identity:
When an American President stands alongside a murderous dictator and declares to trust that man more than our public servants across the aisle, more than our nation’s Press, he’s stepped out into the stark light of day and revealed himself.
 
When he is more willing to collaborate with one of our greatest adversaries, a man guilty of poisonings and murders for hire and war crimes, than with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy or Democrats in Congress, he’s declared who he is.

Then, separately, spells it out:

This will stand this week as my own personal favorite:

Key promise (Hannity)
Now, I know if, you know, the liberal media, etcetera, etcetera, you would probably, you know, “Oh, tell us about, you know, Jeffrey Epstein.”
 
And I’m like, okay. If I hear that name one more time, my head’s going to explode.

Key advice (to Sean):
Trump is all over the Epstein files. He allegedly allowed coerced 13-year-olds to perform topless lap dances for him.
 
THAT should make your head explode.

Juliet has a different thought.
Instead of conceding that they spent far too much time, energy and focus on a commercial no one cared about, Fox News personalities portrayed the poll as validation for their excessive coverage.

There was lots of horrified Fox coverage of the now famed felonious assault with a dangerous sandwich.

Key Juliett headline:
Some Heroes Don’t Wear Capes – They Throw Sandwiches

Meanwhile, the number of mentions in published Fox transcripts of Trump’s Epstein problems ranged from zero to zero.

For those not easily able to invest an hour, Juliet provides a well written version

Key testimony (at 3:45):
Now, just listen to one formerly enslaved man describe what slavery is like in his own words.
 
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what I’d rather do? If I thought that I’d ever be a slave again, I take a gun and just end it all right away because you’re nothing but a dog. You’re not a thing but a dog.

Dave Columbo reduces Scott, and presumably Trump, to quivering bits of jelly.

Also shown: Biting, scathing sarcasm can be pretty funny.

It is manifest currently in Texas efforts, at the direction of Trump, to eliminate as much minority representation as possible in Congress.

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

California is responding by asking voters for that state’s own redistricting to take an equivalent number of seats from Republicans.

Our friend Infidel presents a cogent argument against the whole idea and ably defends his stand here.

Jess Piper sees a necessity:
Usually, I am no fan of gerrymandering by either party, but I am tired of fighting with one hand tied behind my back. Tired of bringing balloons to a gun fight. Tired of playing by the rules when one party stopped doing that decades ago.
 
The fact that Trump has to bully Missouri Republicans into gerrymandering is a huge tell. It’s only one district. He’s fighting for one district because he knows he is underwater and it may come down to one district in ‘26.

Infidel753 sees political gerrymandering as a matter of unwavering principle. If you are pro-democracy, you are against it. period. No exceptions.

He is not alone. He mentions former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is helping to lead the fight against California joining the mid‑decade move.

Infidel sees those of us who disagree with Arnold as an unpersuadable activist fringe.

I am reminded of the late Republican Senator Everett Dirksen, delivering an especially harsh denunciation. He stopped in mid-sentence and looked up from his written notes in puzzlement:
Do you know whom they’re talking about?
They’re talking about ME!.

Key MAGA craving:
“He fights.”
 
“At least he fights.”
 
He may be imperfect, but he fights.
 
Turns out that’s all they ever wanted.

Key recommendation:
I would like Democrats to speed run a sane version of this revival story. We’ll be better off if their leaders experience an epiphany now, rather than after losing another election on the basis of the kitchen-table delusion.

Key issue:
Grandma and grandpa are running Congress.
 
That certainly appears to be the case if you are a Democrat.

Key example:
Most members concluded 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was too radical and supported too many policies in sync with most Americans. In essence, they adhered to an “older is better” and an “with age comes wisdom” philosophy.

Key flawed approach:
Some critics of younger members, including Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Maxwell Frost, and Zohran Mamdani, and others argue they are “too aggressive” or should “wait for their turn” to pursue certain positions.

Key solution:
Young, energetic, vibrant and talented democratic leaders are ready to move in, move up and begin doing the massive amount of work that needs to be done. They cannot afford to “wait” and the “turn” that is needed is a sharp, decibel-screeching U-turn to turn the nation around — now!

I dunno.

While age is often a factor in a decline of vibrant energy, it is not itself the determinant Professor Watson imagines.

Democrats in recent years have seemed to adopt a low energy strategy, thinking that hunkering down and quietly doing a good job will produce a national mandate.
As a party we have forgotten that a vital component of leadership is effective communication.

That candidate is a fighter is more important to most voters than the latest 12 bullet point program. A well-informed, productive fighter is even better, but the emphasis for voters is whether the candidate will fight.

I draw a lesson of sorts from my own grandfather.
He would threaten us, teasing, Am I going to have to SPEAK to you children?
He would follow up with If you’re not careful, you may find yourself SPOKEN to!

Of course, we kids would laugh. Yeah, speak to us, Grandpa!!

When Senator Chuck Schumer, a few months ago, boasted that he had sent Trump a very strong letter, it reminded me of my late grandfather.

One difference: My grandfather knew he was joking.

Trumpers who object seem unaware of their self-own.

Key principle:
Bullies do not like mockery. It throws them off their game, and when we point and laugh at them they make mistakes trying to recover their mojo.

Key tactic (tengrain quotes Dan Pfeiffer)
If you want to make Trump suffer politically for a historic diplomatic debacle, paint him as a clown—not a Russian agent (even if it’s hard to tell the difference).

My president is claiming an improving economy.
The public is not buying it.

They don’t seem to be buying Trump himself, as his approval drops to a new low, and Republicans seem to suffer along with him.

Later, Urwitz urged Democrats to manipulate newly elected Trump like the toddler he is, with praise and rewards.

driftglass has a counter-idea that strikes me as better: Raise expectations.

Maybe treat Republicans as responsible for their own actions:
Kind of like in the real adult world.

M Dad doesn’t like:

the new migrant camp in McCook:
The workers, many of them undocumented, who make the farm economy go, will be sitting in a camp while crops rot in the fields, raising prices and forcing MAGAts to come up with some cockamamie excuse to blame Biden.

closing the hospital in McCook:
As a bleeding heart libtard, aka a decent person, I really don’t want anybody, including the Maga cult, to get their health care cancelled by a truly despicable administration of cruelty and hate. Despite the news reports of residents of McCook poo pooing the hospital closure as not Trumps fault, again, it’s a self-administered disaster caused by about 85% of the Curtis County residents.

former Governor Kristi Noem:
Noem is so cute in her cosplay uniform of the day, in this case it’s probably a whip carrying warden on a horse, that she named this monstrosity, Cornhusker Clink. Ooooooo Im so overwhelmed by something named after our extreme mediocrity of a football team that I cannot breathe. Cue the screaming Beatles fans.

current Governor Jim Pillen:
Pillen will do anything for his orange master, including telling the skeptics they need to get onboard the Trump Train and critics don’t know what they are talking about. Pillen, who has a difficult time swearing in new National Guard members at halftime of a football game (ahhh he was hammered), is obsessed with Trump.

The basic local problem is Republican obstruction. Republicans insist the county must cut costs.

Cutting services is out.
But even the current county executive, Farrow, is running out of places to cut the budget. Does Waukesha County cut the sheriff’s budget even further? Eliminate parks? Let the roads decay to unnavigable conditions?

The only tax counties are allowed is a sales tax. So it seems like the choice is to slash services or raise the county sales tax enough to avoid the pain of closing everything down.

But Republicans have a better idea. The same idea they always seem to have.

The alternative:
When Farrow finally did decide to propose a county sales tax, with some of that money going to local communities, Republicans from one end of the county to the other collapsed in pain like Nosferatu being exposed to the sunlight. “Not that! Anything but that! Cut out waste, fraud and abuse!”

Public meetings are held. Alternatives are discussed and rejected. The cut‑waste‑fraud‑abuse folks are too busy to attend, and perhaps explain where all that waste and fraud is to be found.

It’s a good piece. An honest piece. One worth reading.

And it contains one of the most irritating aspects of most of what James writes.
He continually forces me, and those like me, to reexamine our views of conservatives.

One especially stood out for me.

Senator Jeff Sessions(R-AL) on the KKK
I used to think they were okay, until I learned they were pot smokers.

The plan seems to be to stop efforts to keep Earth habitable and instead focus on moving humanity into space. M Bouffant seems skeptical.

As Michael sees it, that likelihood is more probable because Trump is increasingly, and accurately, seen as weak in the face of dictators.

Key trust issue:
The wild card is Trump. He’s not a strategist. He’s not a reader. He’s not a thinker. He’s a man who scribbles all caps nonsense on Truth Social first and asks questions later. In a moment of crisis — when seconds matter — do we trust that?

Those for whom audio is impractical will find a complete transcript (PDF) offered as an alternative.

He wants us to pray for Putin, whom he sees as a new hope for the world. It seems God appeared to him as the good Pastor was playing with his trains, and gave him new wisdom.

Key insight on Putin (From God):
There is a seed of Christ in that man that is going to begin to come alive!

Well… As Pastor Kunnerman has explained in all humility, he is a prophet.
So there is that.

The Christian in question apparently has never read a Biblical Proverb with which Bruce is familiar enough to quote.

Vincent has what could be considered a third religious alternative.