Donald Trump Archives - Page 4 of 56

July rambling: Paleolithic emotions

Bergman, Francis, Laine, Lehrer, Mangione, Osbourne

“The real problem of humanity is as follows: we have Paleolithic emotions, Medieval institutions, and godlike technology.”
– E.O.Wilson

Conspiratorialism and neoliberalism: If “there is no such thing as society,” then all evil must be the fault of evil individuals.

Gang Databases: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Why Nations Fail

Humans vs the alternative – Sharp Little Pencil

What will we call Iceland when all the ice is gone?

Inside the Silicon Valley push to breed super-babies

The mislabeled energy drink that could give you a DUI … or worse.

20 Best Countries For Work-Life Balance—And U.S. Isn’t On It

Investors snap up a growing share of US homes as traditional buyers struggle to afford one

Why Your Voice Sounds Different to You Than to Others

Why you shouldn’t visit Las Vegas

Ryne Sandberg, a baseball Hall of Fame player primarily for the Chicago Cubs, dies at 65

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, actor, musician, director, and producer, dies at 54

Michael Ochs, Pop Culture’s Preeminent Photo Archivist, Dies at 82

Vince Calandra, ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ Talent Booker Who Helped Bring on The Beatles, Dies at 91

Hulk Hogan, Wrestling Icon, Dies at 71

How a fake astronaut fooled the world, broke women’s hearts, and landed in jail

A toddler tells a joke.

A history of… pizza

Now I Know: The Smell of Time Passing? and The Number That’s Illegal to Share and Do Not Fry This At Home and Getting Divorced Over an Illegal Hyphen? and The Burger With a Side of Insensitivity

Two steps back

Report Details 400+ Attacks on Science in First 6 Months of 2.0

RFK Jr. Reportedly Planning to Fire All U.S. Preventive Services Task Force members and replace them with members of his choosing

Treasury Sec Admits ‘Backdoor’ Scheme to Privatize Social Security

EPA deepens environmental rollback with delays, deregulation, and industry favoritism

Delays and dysfunction: How FEMA overhaul failed Texas flood victims

FCC abandons the future

Memo allows federal workers to persuade coworkers that their religion is ‘correct’

‘Extra Cruel’: Regime Ends Job Program for Seniors as Work Requirements Loom

Mass Firings at Department of Education Are Already Harming US Students

By Refusing to Show Faces or Badges, ICE Opens Door to Vigilante Impersonators

‘We Had to Eat Like Dogs’: Report Details ‘Abusive Practices’ at Florida Immigrant Prisons

‘License to Kill’: New Report Finds Higher Homicide Rates in ‘Stand Your Ground’ States

Venezuelan Little League team denied entry into the US amid travel ban

Doctors in Elected Office Are Turning Their Backs on Science

Republicans keep voting for bad bills to suck up

The worst chief justice of all time

Make team names racist again

“Unitary Executive” is a euphemism for Tyrant

Fight back

WATCH: “How Can YOU Defend Our Democracy?” Panel discussion with Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor Lauren DesRosiers, and Corey Dukes. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) writes: “Refuse to normalize what is happening to our country — because it is not normal. We must stay in touch with our outrage and refuse to accept the idea that the deluge of unconstitutional, horrific actions is our new normal. What is happening is not normal, and we can’t accept it as such.”

ACTION: Stop Palantir’s mass surveillance dragnet targeting immigrants. FOTUS’s billionaire mega-donor, Peter Thiel, is profiting from the violence. The Thiel-founded big-tech company Palantir has a $30 million contract with ICE to surveil and track immigrants so it’s easier for the regime to raid workplaces, schools, and homes. And that’s only one of Palantir’s contracts — in all, the company has received at least $113 million of taxpayer money since January.

ACTION: Not only is extremist adviser Stephen Miller pushing an inhumane immigration policy, but he is also buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in the company the government is contracting with to carry out the very policies he advocates. He is the driving force behind some of the most harmful anti-immigrant measures in modern U.S. history. Support Rep. Robert Garcia’s call to investigate Miller’s misconduct, and demand that every member of the House Oversight Committee join him.

MUSIC OBITS

Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist who helped write “The Way We Were,” dies at 99

Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97. Songs and lyrics, with all copyrights permanently and irrevocably relinquished since 2007. LOC interview (2015). Full Copenhagen Performance. The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel. Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and The Vatican Rag and Silent E and The Element Song– Tom Lehrer

Cleo Laine, who boasted a four-octave range, has died at 97. Send In The Clowns – Cleo Laine

Connie Francis, Whose Ballads Dominated ’60s Pop Music, Dies at 87.

From 1958 to 1964, she was the most popular female singer in the United States, selling 40 million records. (Musical links within)

Chuck Mangione, Grammy-winning jazz musician and composer, dies aged 84. Celebrated flugelhorn and trumpet player released over 30 albums and sold millions of records throughout his career. Feels So Good and Land Of Make Believe – Chuck Magione

Ozzy Osbourne, ‘Prince of Darkness’ Turned Reality TV Star, Dies at 76

Paranoid -Black Sabbath

Coverville 1543: The Ozzy Osbourne Tribute

MORE MUSIC

The Day I Saw An Angel Fly – Sharp Little Pencil

Lachian Dances by Leoš Janáček

Coverville 1541: The Jack White Cover Story II and 1542: This Day in Covers: July 17, 2025

Jolanta and Fotographia– Peter Sprague

My Misery – Jake Wesley Rogers

Your Summer Playlist, Courtesy of the Internet Archive: Anchored by the expansive Grateful Dead collection, our Live Music Archive features nearly 300,000 items for endless, easy, summer listening. Search for your favorite artist or discover someone new.

K-Chuck Radio: The First Cut Is The Deepest

Daniel Leaves by Bill Conti from The Karate Kid Part II

Coldplay: Tiny Desk Concert (March 9, 2020)

How to fight against major label abuse of content ID systems on YouTube (Rick Beato), and Why We Won’t Back Down (Professor of Rock), and a Lawyer Reacts

It’s a distraction?

MLK, Hillary, Barack HUSSEIN Obama

I’ve been musing over how much people rush to suggest that it’s a distraction when FOTUS does something in light of his current crisis regarding Jeffrey Epstein or his previous crises. A is a distraction for B, B is a distraction for C. Maybe some of it is distraction, but so much is also on brand.

ITEM: Over his family’s objections, the regime released records about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The files had been sealed since 1977, when the FBI turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). They were scheduled to be released in 2027. But know that the records were specifically from COINTELPRO, the FBI program (1956-1971) designed “to discredit and neutralize organizations considered subversive to U.S. political stability. It was covert and often used extralegal means to criminalize various forms of political struggle.”

Distraction? Maybe. On brand: Absolutely; trying to tear down a black American icon because he is too DEI. Incidentally, on Juneteenth, he took the opportunity to say that America has “too many non-working holidays.”

ITEM: Attorney General Bondi announced that the DOJ has released additional documents from the FBI’s investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Distraction?: Almost certainly; isn’t that a rerun? On brand? Definitely! In 2016, then-Republican candidate insisted that her use of a private server had been criminal and made “Lock her up!” a chant at his rallies.

BHO

ITEM: FOTUS also attacked former president Barack Obama, claiming that he and Hillary “tried to rig the [2016] election, and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is getting back on FOTUS’ good side, after her Iran intel ‘betrayal,’ by calling for their prosecution for participating in a ‘treasonous conspiracy’ against FOTUS for indicating that Russian operatives had worked on his behalf during the 2016 presidential election.

Distraction? Obama believes so, but I think not. FOTUS’s continued insistence that he ‘won’ the 2020 election and suggesting that they ‘rigged’ 2016 proves the ‘truth.’ This would ‘justify’ the Jan 6 insurrection as merely righting a wrong, and pardoning the insurrectionists as fair. On brand: From his 2011 ‘birther’ claims against Obama on, he’s obsessed with outdoing the black guy. He can count on his media sycophants to buy in. Red State: Tulsi Gabbard Posts Russiagate Evidence Obama Had Been Fearing. Gabbard to Newsmax: New Docs Will Refute Obama’s ‘Coup’ Denial. It’s all part of the retribution campaign, “this time with aides more inclined to carry out his wishes.” Not to mention an obsequious Congress.

Quid pro quo

ITEM: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that under AG Pam Bondi’s direction, he had talked to the lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of grooming victims for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Blanche wrote that he anticipated meeting with Maxwell in the coming days.

Distraction? I don’t think so. There’s more than a slight chance that Maxwell will somehow immunize FOTUS in exchange for reducing her prison sentence or even a pardon, despite FOTUS’s obvious relationship with Epstein. On brand: 100%.This week, the White House account posted on X an image of FOTUS in front of American flags, eagles, and fireworks with the caption: “I was the hunted—NOW I’M THE HUNTER.”

Oh, you might want to read this background on the Epstein files: She Exposed Epstein and Shares MAGA’s Anger -the reporter (Julie K. Brown) who took down Jeffrey Epstein on what’s still hidden (NYT). Also, watch The Epstein File Fiasco (Legal Eagle).

ITEM: In railing against Joe Biden, FOTUS complains about 46’s competence. Yet 47 does his own word salads. For instance, recently speaking in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, FOTUS claimed that his late uncle John Trump taught Unabomber Ted Kaczynski at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then claimed that he quizzed his uncle about his supposed student. This did not happen.

Distraction? I don’t know what to make of these ramblings – he does it a LOT – where he tells a demonstrably false story, with no obvious takeaway. And he was doing this in 2024, before the election Distraction? Maybe. Or dementia?

July rambling: the Sin of Condemnation

The 1934 National Firearms Act unconstitutional?

The Stones in Our Hands: Misreading John 8 and the Sin of Condemnation

‘Motherhood Should Come With a Warning Label’

CBS News’ John Dickerson Takes on Paramount Settlement: “Can You Hold Power to Account After Paying It Millions?” (especially from 36:45) Dan Rather calls it “a Sell-Out to Extortion.” Steve Kroft tells Jon Stewart that it was a “shakedown.”

“The regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons; at the very time, we need a much better understanding of it,” said one environmentalist. “This is so reckless and dangerous.”

A 2024 report published by Texas A&M University found that extreme rainfall events in the state have already increased by about 10 percent due to climate change. That number could double in the coming decades, reaching a 20 percent increase compared to a century ago.

Deep cuts erode the foundations of the US public health system, end progress, and threaten worse to come.

Kelly has links, including the sad closing of the Ontario Science Centre, which my family LOVED when we went to Toronto in 2011.

VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer released a viral video about race in America in 2020, just after George Floyd was killed. If anything, it’s more relevant now.

Meet the Moon Mammoths, the baseball mascot masterminded by John Oliver’s show

Now I Know: The Bovine Unity of Milk and Glue? and Brunch: Because We Like the Party and Why the National Animal of Scotland is… Wait, Really? and This Airport SUX

Leading to the semiquincentennial

Full interview: Ken Burns on “Face the Nation” about his new film on the American Revolution and the importance of telling the story of American history.

July 4th in the Face of Fascism: Moral resources for Americans who know we’ve been betrayed – Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

“If fireworks ring hollow, you’re not alone. Light a candle instead.”

HCR: The MAGA Ideology That Brought Us to This Moment. It’s Our Job to Make Sure People Know the Truth

I am the man on Fifth Avenue.

Americans Have Never Been Less Proud of Their Country

Retired Supreme Court justice gripes about the hot mess he helped create

“While the lighthouse shining the way is admittedly hard to make out through the cruel fog that envelopes us, it is out there, sturdy upon the shore, and still blazing brightly. We must trust that we will rediscover its guiding power and, together, steer this ship safely home. We’ll do it together, and in our strong and welcome company, we will find the courage and conviction we need.” – Jay Kuo

Purblind bunny boiler

Heather Cox Richardson: “Within hours of [FOTUS] signing the [OBUB] into law, Gun Owners Of America and… other pro-gun organizations filed a lawsuit claiming the measure makes the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) unconstitutional. That law regulated machine guns and short-barrel guns by imposing a tax on them and making owners register their weapons. The Supreme Court upheld that law as a tax law. The budget reconciliation bill ended those taxes and thus, the plaintiffs’ claim, the constitutional justification for the law.”

10 Charts to Understand the 900-Page Budget Bill

GOP budget bill would give top 1% over $1 trillion in tax breaks, analysis finds. It will steal from the poor and give to the rich.

FOTUS/DOGE foreign aid cuts could cause 14 million deaths by 2030, study warns

The trolling is coming from inside the White House

Cold as ICE

A surge in ICE detentions of those with no criminal record, despite stated priorities. Still, “as a result of the agency’s stonewalling, the Guardian, alongside the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, last week filed a lawsuit against ICE for unlawfully withholding documents that represent a clear and overwhelming matter of public interest.”

FOTUS ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding

He only has ICE for you. And: ICE Agents Deserve No Privacy. Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.

MUSIC

Lou Harrison’s Pacifika Rondo

Coverville 1539: Carly Simon Cover Story and 1540: The Blondie Cover Story III

Mockingbird – Weavers Gallery

Chorale and Shaker Dance by John Zdechlik

Another Day of Sun, the opening number from La La Land.

Sit Down, John from 1776

Weird Al Medley (A CAPELLA) White & Nerdy, Party in the CIA, Like A Surgeon, Tacky, Eat It – Jared Halley

Sussudio – Phil Collins

The Longest Time – Boyz II Men and Billy Joel

June rambling: the rich get richer

it’s cruelty, plain and simple

How the rich get richer: Evade taxation, grease trillion-dollar tax breaks, jack interest rates, then seize depressed assets

Air Traffic Control and Med Spas: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Edmund White, pioneer of gay literature, dies at 85

Loretta Swit, Maj. Margaret Houlihan of TV’s ‘MAS*H,’ Dies at 87

Frederick Forsyth, Author of ‘The Day of the Jackal,’ Dies at 86

Valerie Mahaffey, Actress on ‘Northern Exposure,’ ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Young Sheldon,’ Dies at 71. I loved her on The Powers That Be.

Alf Claussen, Emmy-Winning Composer for ‘The Simpsons,’ Dies at 84

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Crisis, Kindness, and Change; interview with Katie Couric; she was also on CBS Sunday Morning

The Hidden History of the Nazi U-Boats That Prowled the Gulf Coast

Ben Franklin’s Project

10 States With the Most Expensive Toll Roads

Ursa Incommodus

Lin-Manuel Miranda teaches us some of the slang terms used on Broadway.

Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger AWARD

Andy Huggins, king of the one-liners. A comedian older than I am…

The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch

Pocket Watch From Lake Michigan’s Deadliest Shipwreck Returned After 165 Years

500 days since Mark Evanier broke his ankle (I LOVE the picker-upper)

Follow the rule of adjective order!

How to eat a burrito

Now I Know: Can a Flying Potato Read This Email? and The Ancient Roman Pee Tax and The Great Bread Squeezing Crime Spree of the Late 1990s and Why a Boy Brought a Microwave to School

Bunny boiler

It’s Time to Admit the US Constitution Has Failed

Hegseth Lays Out a Case for Troop Deployments in ‘Any Jurisdiction in the Country’ cf. Hitler’s Enabling Act, the ‘Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.’ From the Atlantic: Hitler Used a Bogus Crisis of ‘Public Order’ to Make Himself Dictator. “The first paragraph [of the decree] suspended civil liberties, providing Hitler the means to suppress political opposition in advance of the upcoming elections on March 5 [1933]. The second paragraph gave Hitler the power to trample states’ rights: ‘If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.'”

Gabbard is considering ways to revamp FOTUS’s intelligence briefing. One idea is to make the briefing, which, according to his schedule, he has been taking less often than his predecessors, into a video that resembles Fox News.

Shiny new AI contradicts EPA chief’s do-nothing climate change stance

RFK Jr. Ousts All of CDC’s Vaccine Advisors. “Citing studies that don’t exist is NOT an ‘error.’ It is lying.”

The gutting of medical research. There are nearly 2,500 NIH grants that have ended or been delayed.

‘Completely Unworkable’: Sculpture Experts Say $34 Million Statue Garden Has Major Problems.

Kennedy Center hopes coupons will fix the toxic takeover

Borowitz satire: Travel Ban Unnecessary After Rest of World Shows Zero Interest in Coming to S***hole Country

Big, Ugly Bill

From my Congressman, Paul Tonko:

The GOP’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” is a historic transfer of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest — providing $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations while slashing essential services and raising costs for those who can least afford them.

Independent researchers at the University of Pennsylvania estimate that the GOP budget will cost the poorest households more than $1,000 per year, even as the wealthiest 0.1% reap an annual windfall of more than $389,000.

And according to the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) most recent projections, their plan would strip health insurance from 16 million Americans while adding $2.4 trillion to the deficit. This isn’t “fiscal responsibility” — it’s cruelty, plain and simple.

John Green

John explains how $20 per person per year has helped save 91 million human lives since 2000.

Truthout

Bill Will Lead to 51,000 Preventable Deaths Each Year and Would Limit Investigations Into Abuse, Neglect of Disabled People. Annual cuts to Medicaid would average $70 billion, roughly the same amount the wealthy will save in tax cuts.

MUSIC

Symphony No. 5 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Arthur Hamilton, “Cry Me a River” Songwriter, Dies at 98; Cry Me A River – Julie London

Green Fields Of France – Dropkick Murphys.

Handel’s Op. 6

In My Room – Julien Neel

You Won’t Dig My Grave -Josh Ritter

Love – OK Go

K-Chuck Radio: The Musical Legacy of Terry Knight and the Pack

Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears for Fears

Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by John Williams

Have A Nice Day– World Order

Good Lovin’ – the Olympics

Coverville 1536: Covering Our Tracks Back To June 1985

Whistle While You Work from the live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

For Your Eyes Only – Sheena Easton

The Scott Joplin Problem

Billboard Presents 24 Hours with “Weird Al” Yankovic

Hamilton Original Broadway Cast: Where Are They Now?

American Seditionist Day is coming!

a fourth term?

Congress has introduced legislation to make June 14 a holiday honoring FOTUS. I so agree. June 14 should be American Seditionist Day!

Think about it. He ran for president in 2016 and won despite having less than a majority vote. His second impeachment came after the insurrection he fomented on January 6, 2021. This occurred after he lost the 2020 election, a fact he continues to deny. In its infinite wisdom, the Senate failed to convict because he was no longer in office, and they saw no point.

In light of the January 6 committee reports and various indictments against him, he did the only thing he could: he ran for President AGAIN, won the Republican nomination easily, and was elected with a plurality, not majority, of the vote, in 2024. He was convicted in one trial but would serve no consequential punishment because, by then, he was President-elect.

I came across a Substack article, Comparing Trump and Hitler’s Tactics During Their First Weeks in Office, by Rabbi Jonathan Kligler. “Both pretended to be populists in order to stir the passions of their base. Both were considered to be buffoons by those that saw through their lies, but both were woefully underestimated by their opponents…. Once in power, both immediately took dramatic action to consolidate their power with complete disdain for democratic rules and norms.

“Both had previously attempted violent overthrows of their democratically-elected governments… When those violent attempts failed to secure power, both plotted to secure their power through legal means, the better to enact a bloodless coup d’etat.

If at first…

“Upon securing power, Hitler and Trump each claimed overwhelming electoral mandates to transform their governments, despite neither having won a majority of the vote. They both immediately moved to purge their governments of anyone they considered insufficiently loyal. They weaponized their judiciaries and law enforcement agencies to terrorize and punish their opponents.

“They took advantage of paralyzed and supine legislatures to usurp power…” Indeed. He’s inspired people in Congress to go after, even threaten impeachment, of “activist” judges, who are merely putting on the Constitutional brakes on spending freezes that Congress – Article I Congress – usually fails to do.

“On his first day in office, Trump granted clemency to every person charged or convicted for their role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, calling them patriots.” He has suggested offering the perpetrators compensation.

And now, FOTUS says: “I’ll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election, was totally rigged. So it’s actually sort of a fourth term in a certain way. I just don’t want the credit for the second because [former President Joe] Biden was so bad, he did such a bad job, and I think that’s one of the reasons that I’m popular, if you want to know the truth.”

What he is telegraphing is that he has no intention of ceding power on January 20, 2029, and may find a backdoor way of staying around.

He is a consequential President, wrecking international trade markets, debasing the US around the world, and shredding the social safety net.

So, FOTUS is president again, despite his many crimes, a remarkable political feat that deserves recognition. Happy American Seditionist Day is coming! In honor of the holiday, I shall heretofore refer to him as the Seditionist!