Week of Horrible
Robbed of Rob Reiner, Trump Stomp, Bondi Beach Mass Murder, Some Epstein Files & Some Held Back, Healthcare Attacked (again)

He concludes, simply:

In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson remembers Rob Reiner as she quotes a fictional talk from The American President, directed by Reiner in 1995.

In that piece, a President answers an opposing Senator known for underhanded attacks. In 1995, Reiner and scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin could not have had in mind what would become obvious today.

But we can guess how Heather Cox Richardson intends it now.

A President defines the essential quality:
For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was to a certain extent about character. And although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I’ve been here three years and three days. And I can tell you, without hesitation, being president of this country is entirely about character.

Who does this bring to mind?
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only, making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it.
 
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

The rendition is available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

Brian Beutler explains why Democrats should aggressively point out every instance in which Donald Trump says or does something vile, showing each instance as part of a pattern.

Brian sees this action by Democrats as more than smart politics. It is a moral and patriotic necessity:

Dave reacts with appropriate revulsion.

Other public figures, especially in Fox mode, join in praising the virtuous right, condemning the horrible left.

Then comes Trump.

Gene provides the initial stunned reactions from notable right‑wingers, distancing themselves from a no-class Trump.

Gene is skeptical at first. Until an update shows a few, not all, of those same notables in abrupt about-face, backing with enthusiasm as Trump doubles down.

Zero decency confirmed!

The reaction to his reaction is emphatic this time:

One of many examples has Hitler-loving Nick Fuentes momentarily becoming a more decent human being than is Donald Trump.

Et tu, FOX?

She documents the anger at the Trump gloat over the Reiners as expressed by Trump supporting celebrities, including emotional testimony by actor and right‑wing activist James Woods.

Memorable conclusion:
I’m sure, if you keep making fun of brutally murdered beloved American figures, everyone will forget that your nose is literally rotting off your face.

It looks bad, very bad, except for a very few.
(Any guesses about the income brackets of those few?).

AND

Americans know whom to blame.

I have the advantage of having been a volunteer a generation ago at the ER of the south campus of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, as it was then called. For 2 nights a week for a couple of years, it got to feel like holy ground, surrounded by care and courage.

The real heroes were the nurses. They took the welfare of those in pain, and often danger, as personal experience. It hurt them that those in pain often waited for hours, but those in danger had to be seen first. I saw tears at a patient’s death.

So I was glad that Max’s Dad included this:

When asked about 8 specific issues, they don’t care for Trump policies at all.

They desperately repeat the same prediction: that prosperity is just around the corner

A more detailed account is presented by Juliet in a 45‑minute entertaining podcast.

Acosta plays a clip of Trump engaging in a clearly racist rant about Representative Ilhan Omar as supporters cheer.

JIM ACOSTA:
And the major news media outlets out there, they’re– they really were not covering this today. They were “oh, he’s off message, oh, he’s off script again, and he doesn’t stick to the teleprompter.”
 
That’s not it, people! The President of the United States should not be nakedly racist like this. It’s insanity!

Turns out he’s taking credit for money already approved by Congress for their housing allowance. It’s money they would already be getting, but now Trump adds his signature as if it’s coming from him.
A scam

Robbing Peter to pay Paul Peter.

News Corpse suggests the cover‑up has to include more war crimes than the remote killing of shipwrecked survivors.

Sure enough I have the timeline, for at least the beginning of the word use, about right.

I was in my mid-thirties, more than half a lifetime ago, when I first heard of the first intifada. It was a more innocent time, before we knew to number them. So it was called, simply, The Intifada.

I recall thinking it was a bit unreasonable in its inception. A traffic accident involving the Israeli military killed some Palestinian workers, and the incident blew all out of proportion. Protests were widespread in Gaza, but with little violence beyond some children throwing stones. Kid stuff.

Then the Israeli response came across as beyond heavy-handed, going straight through to brutal. People died.

The 2^nd Intifada was highly organized, rockets fired at Israelis, suicide bombers, civilians targeted. It was put down with more Palestinians killed than Israelis by multiples. Tragedy all around, but tragedy pretty much caused by attacks on Jews.

Later, the term Intifada came up a lot in pro‑democracy uprisings around the Arab world. Hard not to sympathize at that point.

But now it’s mostly identified with uprisings against Israelis, and with attacks on Jews everywhere.

Infidel753 connects the slogan Globalize the Intifada with antisemitism, often violent, around the world. He particularly connects it to the brutal, massively murderous, attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia by an ISIS inspired father and son team.

Infidel begins:
“Globalize the intifada” has for some time been a popular slogan among Jew-haters of various stripes. The mayor-elect of the city with the largest Jewish population on Earth outside Israel has refused to condemn it. On Sunday we saw what that slogan looks like when converted into concrete action.

Trump as the Messiah:

 
Yep, somebody actually thought it was cute to have AI generate an image of Orange Jesus, in a creepy pose very reminiscent of Maoist Dear Leader posters, accompanied by the riotous claim that under his stewardship, hunger in America is at an all-time low.

There is more embarrassment, including Trump speechifying ineptly, Trumpers testifying ineptly, and a Fox personality broadcasting ineptly.

I have added my reaction in comments.

Dave takes us on a national tour of weird and hilarious celebrations around the country.

Julian Sanchez is reminded of artificial lives and empty values by an infamous White House event: