SCOTUS crowns Trump king and sets fire to American democracy

"The President is now a king above the law...
"...With fear for our democracy, I dissent."
~ Sonya Sotomayor, in her dissent to July 1, 2024 SCOTUS ruling on presidential immunity

On July 1, 2024, the six members of the deeply corrupt Christofascist/Trumpist supermajority in the Supreme Court of the United States did what millions of us feared they would do: they presented a huge, sloppy gift-wrapped package of immunity to #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump to shield him from any real accountability for his many and serious crimes against American voters, American national security, and American democracy. Specifically, the Court ruled that a president has absolute immunity from criminal charges for any "official" act committed while in office, though not immunity from any "private" act.

Which even someone with only a rudimentary understanding of the United States Constitution and the law can see leaves far too much leeway for interpretation of "official" versus "private" acts. The fact that courts are forbidden from even considering a president's motive when determining whether an act is official or private makes the decision all the more insidious, and outrageous.

The dissenting opinion was written by Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. From the intro to that dissent:

Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency. It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law. Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for “bold and unhesitating action” by the President, the Court gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more. Because our Constitution does not shield a former President from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.

Chief Justice John Roberts engaged in furious gaslighting regarding the seriousness of the Trump v. United States decision, saying that the dissents "strike a tone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the Court actually does today." Don't believe a word of it. From a July 1 opinion piece in Slate.com by Mark Joseph Stern:

The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority fundamentally altered American democracy on Monday, awarding the president a sweeping and novel immunity when he weaponizes the power of his office for corrupt, violent, or treasonous purposes. This near-insurmountable shield against prosecution for crimes committed while in office upends the structure of the federal government, elevating the presidency to a king-like status high above the other branches. The immediate impact of the court’s sweeping decision will be devastating enough, allowing Donald Trump to evade accountability for the most destructive and criminal efforts he took to overturn the 2020 election. But the long-term impact is even more harrowing. It is unclear, after Monday’s decision, what constitutional checks remain to stop any president from assuming dangerous and monarchical powers that are anathema to representative government. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it in her terrified and terrifying dissent, “the President is now a king above the law.”

Trump v. United States, Monday’s decision, has no basis in the Constitution as written. Donald Trump brought the case as a delay tactic, an effort to run out the clock on his prosecution before the November election. Special counsel Jack Smith has charged the former president with a series of crimes related to his conspiracy to block the peaceful transition of power in 2020, culminating in the insurrection of Jan. 6. The indictment weaves a narrative of election subversion out of various actions the president took—many of which involved abuse of his office. In response, Trump raised a claim of “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for any “official act” he took before leaving the White House. The theory was, again, largely designed to stall the case, but also meant to shield him from the most damning charges if the case moved forward. First, the Supreme Court abetted his stalling strategy, taking up the appeal then sitting on it for months. Now it has rewarded his larger plan, too, cutting the legs from Smith’s indictment...

It's worth your time to read the entire piece, which, though billed as opinion, breaks down the facts quite well.

And if you want more specifics about why this SCOTUS decision is so frightening, read the July 2 analysis on Slate by the aforementioned Mr. Stern and Dahlia Lithwick, who were joined by Brown University professor of constitutional law and political theory Corey Brettschneider, author of the new book The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It. Here's the headline:

Can the President Send SEAL Team Six to Assassinate His Rival? After Monday, Yes.

That headline would most likely be poo-pooed by John Roberts too, but we already know that he's a gaslighting gasbag. Here's a snippet from the conversation:

Lithwick: Corey, the court is drawing all these lines, like “core functions” vs. “outer perimeter,” that make it sound like they’re solving a math problem. Can you help us understand what a sea change this actually is? Because this is not just a Donald Trump story. This is a separation-of-powers story and fundamentally a structural change to democracy as we understand it.

Corey Brettschneider: You know, the court claims that it has this method of originalism that requires us to look at the text of the Constitution as it was originally understood. So you would expect, in a monumental decision like this—granting immunity to a former president’s “official acts”—that the Constitution would say something about presidential immunity. But it doesn’t. There was a disagreement at the founding about this: John Adams, for instance, defended the idea that presidents are immune from prosecution, which suits his disposition toward an aggrandized idea of presidential power. On the other side, though, there was James Wilson; at the Pennsylvania ratifying convention, he said the thing that we thought defined our Constitution until Monday—that no person, not even a president, is above the law, and the president can be prosecuted.

So it’s not like there was some universal understanding of presidential immunity at the founding. There’s no textual evidence in the Constitution. The Framers just disagreed when they talked about this issue. So the idea that this is based on originalism is false. And the main precedent they do rely on, Nixon v. Fitzgerald, gets extended way beyond what it actually said. I’d argue Roberts is saying something contrary to what that case actually said. And we have stronger cases on the other side, like U.S. v. Nixon, which held that a president facing a criminal subpoena is not above the law. They may claim to respect precedent, but they’re not doing it. They may claim to respect text, but they aren’t. And they may claim to respect history, as if the Framers sort of agreed about this, but that’s not true either.

Of course Slate was far from the only media outlet to have a few words to say about the effects of the July 1 decision. The web is a veritable conflagration of reports and analyses about SCOTUS' latest attempts to burn down America and recreate it as Trumpistan.

As President Joe Biden said, echoing the words of Justice Sotomayor, "I dissent."

And speaking of President Biden, despite his historic respect for the rule of law, separation of powers, and the office of the presidency, lots of folks are suggesting, with various degrees of seriousness, that he should take full advantage of his current status as "king." But the reality is that SCOTUS only crowned Trump king, not Biden. As Heather Cox Richardson pointed out on her July 1, 2024 Substack:

...this extraordinary power grab does not mean President Joe Biden can do as he wishes. As legal commentator Asha Rangappa pointed out, the court gave itself the power to determine which actions can be prosecuted and which cannot by making itself the final arbiter of what is “official” and what is not. Thus any action a president takes is subject to review by the Supreme Court, and it is reasonable to assume that this particular court would not give a Democrat the same leeway it would give Trump. 

So, yeah... don't believe John Roberts. The SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity is very big deal, and it's truly awful, and the only way we can possibly delay, if not stop, a total fascist takeover of America is for all eligible and registered voters who still believe in American democracy and the rule of law to Vote Blue in November. Or as President Biden reminded us, “Now the American people will have to do what the court should have been willing to do and would not: Americans will have to render a judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior."

For now, as a Facebook friend of mine, journalist and author David Theis, wrote, "This will be my first 4th of July in mourning."

Let's take a few days to mourn, and then let's double down on our efforts to keep Trump out of the Oval Office forever.

The nightmare of a second Trump term: John Oliver nails it

I really hate to keep harping on this (well, no I don't), but anyone who remains unaware of what a profound peril a second Trump "presidential" term would be -- not only for American democracy and national security but also for democracy and security across the globe -- is either willfully blind, or has been in a coma for the past eight or nine years, or is hopelessly naive, or is profoundly stupid.

I wrote at length in November of 2023 about this, outlining the specific threats posed by Trump's own "Agenda 47" and an evil, well-funded, and well-organized Christofascist tool known as "Project 2025." And of course countless others who have a much broader reach and infinitely more knowledge, experience, and insight than I do have also been sounding alarms all over the place.

And yet... and yet... Mango Mussolini has a very good chance of oozing back into the Oval Office.

I know blogs are unexciting and even, many would argue, passe, or at least somewhat unfashionable. But videos are not. And the lovely and talented John Oliver, with his characteristic John Oliver-ness, really nailed the Trump 2.0 threat on a recent edition of Last Week Tonight. If the embedded video above doesn't work, here is the direct YouTube link.

It's worth your time to watch.

And if you're eligible and registered, it's very much worth your time to vote blue this November, from the White House all the way down-ballot. Staying home, or voting for a spoiler "presidential" candidate like anti-vax/conspiranoid loon RFK Jr., are not options -- unless, of course, you want to see American and Western democracy crushed by a lethal combination of evil, cynicism, and stupidity.

Please pay attention to the warnings. Someday, and much sooner than you might think, it may be too late.

The Healing America Summit 2024: alt-health, reich-wing politics, conspiranoia, and utter lunacy

 

I have written repeatedly on this Whirled about the unholy marriage between Scamworld and (reich-wing) politix, but the Healing America Summit -- which began May 16 and lasts through May 22, 2024 -- is not only serving up steaming piles of MAGA politix and Scamworld (particularly the alt-health sector of Scamworld), but also a hefty dose of conspiranoia and outright lunacy.

As we collectively and apprehensively grope our way through what millions of folks, for various reasons and with a wide range of emotions, view as the End Times, we can take profound (dis)comfort in knowing that there is no shortage of "experts" (i.e., grifters, scalawags, and scoundrels) offering to take us by the hand and the wallet to lead us out of fear and darkness and into their sales funnels. With increasing frequency, and more often than not under the auspices of a central grifter, these unsavory players are joining forces to pummel us with their propaganda.

There was, for example, The Truth [sic] About Cancer Live! convention back in October 2021, which featured Eric Trump and several alt-health/conspiracy crapitalists as speakers. And there's the ongoing ReAwaken America Tour, a conspiranoid Christofascist movement that was born in Oklahoma during the height of the pandemic, and has continued to spread its virulence in the years since.

And now we have the Healing America Summit, which began on May 16, 2024 and continues through May 22. The English-challenged web site says it all in the opening blurb:

USA & THE WORLD GOT CRAZY LIKE NEVER BEFORE AND WE ARE EXPERIENCING A CHALLENGING TIME!
Vaccines, Immigrants, Transhumanism, War, NWO... Bible Prophecies of End-Time & 5D consciousness rising...
The Summit offers you true science, real insider knowledge, natural medicine & Energy healing for YOU to SUCCEED in this time!
Join for FREE. www.HealingAmericaSummit.com

A smirking German huckster and "healer" named Michael König-Breuss is the host of this to-do. Here's what he tells us about himself on the Healing America Summit site:

Why do I organize this Healing America Summit?
I work as a spiritual healer like my grandfather. I knew in 2006 already, that „the mandatory vaccination with nano chips to track, manipulate or even switch of people“ will come. I saw presentations of this technique on TV already in 2014. I heard of plenty Pharma insiders how Pharma companies reduce people on purpose, how the money system is working, how Rockefeller / Rothschild are giving orders to politics in the USA & worldwide, how Chemtrails & Frequency manipulation is used and so on…. I always wanted to help people. With Covid it was enough and the Idea was born, to organize an Online-Summit to inform and wake up the people that are ready to be awakened. NOW it’s time to WAKE UP and take ACTION.

On a "Get To Know Michael" link, he adds more autobiographical details.

After living a life as spiritual Skiguide & Tourguide, I started 2006 as an energetic therapist – healer. Already my grandfather was a healer for over 40 Years, who helped even people in the hospital when Dr. couldn´t help anymore.

I am specialized expert in clearing – releasing peoples energy field of KARMA & foreign energy (old death experiences, fears, curse, black magic, demons…) and teacher for SOUL LANGUAGE – LIGHT LANGUAGE – TALKING IN TONGUES, probably the oldes [sic] Frequency healing technique on planet earth!

Since the COVID plan-demic started, I realized the ability, to significantly alleviate COVID-vaccination & COVID-testing sideffects. In the best case, i was able to eliminate them altogether.

Autum [sic] 2020 a client with migraine, aggression, depression, inner darkness, sucidal [sic] thought [sic] got a distance treatment of me via Zoom.

During the treatment I could see with my „inner eye“ a small black „Nano-Chip“ in her troght [sic]/ neck! Shocking in the first moment. But it could get taken out by SOULLANGUAGE ENERGY-HEALING work. After that happened, ALL her problems were gone in the same moment!

After that, I have helped many people with problems, that started AFTER PCR testing & COVID vaccination. These were people with enormously distressing physical, emotional and mental symptoms & problems. Depression, aggression, suicidal thoughts, headaches, migraines, foreign body feeling in the troat [sic] and whole body, unsuccessful clearing of throat, meaninglessness in life, inner darkness and restlessness, being cut off from the source, sweating, trembling and many more were symptoms that could be solved.

These things and the health problems associated with them were largely gone afterwards.

My endeavor is that with my help and gifts, people can be freed from their vaccination symptoms and can live “normally” again, AND realize the power of ENERGY, BELIEVE, HEALING & DIVINE POSSIBILITIES.

…and realize, that it seems to be a BIG plan of the divine, to wake us people UP! To get us MOVE FORWARD, UPWARD to our „true potential“.
From heart to heart,
Michael

With creds like that, you just know you're in good hands.

Of course we've heard it all before. Along with the hackneyed hype about energetic healing and other pseudo-mystical arts, plus the requisite conspiranoia about nano-chips and the NWO, the core of König-Breuss's message is simply a post-pandemic variation on the traditional New-Wage/McSpirituality theme about a bold new era of human possibility and evolution -- you know, the eternal dawning of the Age of Aquarius that the conspicuously enlightened have been yammering about for at least three generations. (As quoted above, one of the opening blurbs of the Healing America web site mentions "5D consciousness." Hmmm... 5D: fith dimension? Hey, wasn't it The Fifth Dimension that made a top-40 hit of the song from the musical Hair, "The Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In?")

My rhetorical question, and I've asked it many times, is this: When is the dawn finally going to give way to actual sunshine? Your guess is as good as mine, and my guess would be "never."

Meanwhile there's still bank to be made by promoting oneself as a wayshower or lightworker or truth-teller or savior or bearer of exclusive life-saving (mis)information. And don't think that König-Breuss isn't going to take full advantage of that.

Only the best people
The speaker lineup for the Healing America Summit includes everything from anti-vaxxers to intergalactic ambassadors to American reich-wing traitors. Here's what it says about this list of luminaries on the "summit" web site:

Your speaker [sic] are leading experts from around the WORLD.

Medical doctors, scientists, lawyers, US-Sheriff, US-General, TV-speakers, medical researchers, WHO-experts, pharma insiders, historical & political experts, healer, coaches, fitness influencer and more… They will tell YOU:

HOW the „BAD BOYS & GIRLS“ harm YOU day & night, mentally, emotionally & physically.

DETOXIFICATION possibilities of the COVID-Vaccine / PCR-Tests / Shedding by a MEDICAL WAY and on an ENERGY HEALING WAY.

The plan of the DARK SIDE, and the higher plan of the „DIVINE“ & EVERYBODY'S SOUL.

The „NEW NORMAL“ of the pharma lobby, big tec, NWO...

HOW YOUR „NEW NORMAL“ for YOU can look, if YOU take responsibility for YOUR OWN BODY, MIND, SPIRIT and SOUL!

SOLUTIONS if YOU like to learn and RISE ABOVE!

This "summit" first came onto my radar when, though officially blocked from doing so, I took a peek at the Facebook feed of one of the featured speakers, another German huckster/"healer" named Leonard Coldwell, whose English writing rivals that of Michael König-Breuss in its illiteracy. If you've been hanging around here for a few years you probably know Coldwell as a cancer quack, conspiracy loon, racist, and neo-Nazi who tried for years to kill this blog and even, at one point, tried to get some of his more fanatical followers to harm me. Coldwell's topic for the Healing America Summit is... well, let me let him tell you himself. (Spoiler: Apparently there are bad people out there who are trying to eliminate the entire human race.)

Dr. Leonard Coldwell
Founder of Instant Based Medicine System. Cancer healing expert

Worldwide Conspiracy to eliminate the Human Race - and what we can do about it

I do this work for 52 years and have the highest cancer cure rate in the world

25 mega best selling books in 29 languages. My own TV and Radio shows 26 Million listeners and regular viewers.

Before censorship my videos on Youtube had 2.3 Billion views. I as the Keynote Speaker on EVERY Health Freedom Expo

If you like to see some testimonial videos: [links]

...I just got off a life interview in Australia with Kate Kate Shemirani kateshemirani@tntradio.live

Attached my latest book the only Cancer Patient Cure – Confidential   900 Million books sold

Here's a link to a video. It's just a teaser, but in that teaser you get the gist of Quack-o Coldwell's "medical" wisdumb: he claims that medicine is a belief system rather than a science and that doctors even admit they don't know anything, with the implication being that he has all of the solutions that medicine can't offer. Meanwhile his interviewer and fellow countryman König-Breuss, is nodding and smirking in agreement. By the way, if you want to know the truth about Coldwell's "credentials," you'll find it in a concise form here, and in a more expanded form here (scroll down to the section with the sub-head, "Lenny's creds, such as they are"). [Spoiler: Coldwell is not a doctor, and never has been.]

Other speakers at the "summit" include:

Storm Dillenschneider [not to be confused with Stormy Daniels ~ CC]
Daughter of The Most High God, Mrs. Elite Universe 2024, stand Advocate against Fentanyl

Alas, Storm's lofty description on the home page is just a setup for disappointment. Her actual "bio" is essentially an announcement of her [2022] campaign for city council in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Boooooring. And apparently outdated; I seriously doubt that her speech at the Healing America Summit will have anything to do with a two-year-old political campaign in Lee's Summit.

More than likely her spiel will be political, though, as one of Storm's other credentials, which I had to go Googling (actually, Bing-ing) to find, is that she is a Trumpette and is apparently very involved with the movement to re-elect the Mango Mussolini -- which comes as no surprise whatsoever. On a May 15, 2024 Facebook post Storm shared a meme celebrating a dinner party that included Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. The lead blurb on the meme said, "I feel the Presidential air again, everytime [sic] I enter Mar-a-Lago. Could it be my ESP is confirming what we all expect to be true?"

I'm thinking that maybe the "Presidential" air is actually something she smelt rather than felt, but what do I know?

Christie Hutcherson
Women Fighting for America to help take back America

[Topic] Enemies at the Gate- Can america [sic] Survive the Coming Conflict?

Christie Hutcherson is the Founder, President, and Spokesperson for Women Fighting for America LLC. (WFFA). She is widely recognized as a geopolitical security expert and sought-after speaker with broad connections into the Freedom Movement. 100+ Border Ops Missions. 2,500+ Miles on the Border.

Christie is a front-line fighter for freedom. She is one of the only Americans who has traveled the entire 2,000 miles of the southern border and hundreds of miles of our forgotten northern border in her quest to save America. Christie has led 100 plus border missions establishing Women Fighting for America as a clear leader in exposing and fighting the corruption on our borders.

She has seen firsthand the devastation of illegal immigration, child and human trafficking, organ trafficking, massive amounts of lethal drugs entering the United States, and the atrocities committed by the transnational criminal organizations.

Support the Fight with Women Fighting for America and Christie Hutcherson!

Sounds like a bad case of Border Derangement Syndrome, Christie.

She helpfully concludes her blurb with Paypal/Stripe/Venmo links, which I will not share here. Those dumb enough to want to pour money into Christie's grift machine can look up the links themselves.

Eesha Patel
Galactic Embassador [sic] for the Galactic federation

[Topic] Galactic Experiences for Visionary Leaders

Eesha Patel specialises in the field of Galactic Consciousness. Eesha is here to facilitate the connection between humans and our Galactic Family.

A profound awakening and contact experience in 2015 set Eesha on a journey of exploring consciousness. In her current role as Galactic Ambassador, Eesha liaises with over 20 different galactic races, humanoid and non-humanoid, and facilitates these connections for visionary leaders and pioneers of the New Earth. Through her powerful interdimensional connections, Eesha lends her services of activation and channelling to assist other leaders in bringing through powerful visionary tools, techniques, and technologies for healing and our greater evolution.

Eesha’s vision is peaceful open contact with our galactic family by 2027 and her mission is to lead this global level awakening through her teaching, speaking, facilitation, and courses. Eesha’s galactic contact work has been featured in prominent media worldwide. Eesha Patel is available for mentoring, consultancy, and speaking. You can connect with Eesha Patel at eeshapatel dot con. [emphasis and intentional typo mine. ~ CC]

And no reich-wing/alt-health/alt-facts grift-fest would be complete without...

General Mike Flynn
Retired United States Army lieutenant general. 24th U.S. national security advisor of the Trump administration.

[Topic] We are in WW 3. Nobody will come to rescue us! No General, no white heads [??? ~ CC], no Trump. WE, the people need to change it!

Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th U.S. national security advisor^[3] for the first 22 days of the Trump administration.[Note to Mike: you forgot to take the Wikipedia footnote out. ~ CC]

Ret.  President @ Resilient Patriot LLC Special Assistant to the POTUS, National Security Advisor @ United Stat es Government Presidential Campaign National Security Advisor @ Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump Chairman and CEO @ FLYNN Intel Group INC. Director and Commander @ Defense Intelligence Agency / Joint Force Component Command, ISR Assistant Director of National Intelligence, Partner Engagement @ Office of the Director of National Intelligence Assistant Chief of Staff, G2 @ US Army Director of Intelligence @ International Security Assistance Forces Director of Intelligence @ The Joint Staff Director of Intelligence @ United States Central Command

Someone forgot to add "traitor," "insurrectionist," and "QAnon nut" to Flynn's credentials. Flynn, by the way, is a co-fonder of the ReAwaken America Tour mentioned above.

And that's just a very small sampling of the featured shriekers at this gathering of grifters. For the complete lineup, see here.

Now, if you are concerned about costs, or about the hassle of making travel and lodging arrangements, you needn't be. The Healing America Summit is 100 percent online -- all you have to do is sign up -- and, best of all, it's 100 percent free.

And worth every penny, no doubt.

Drowsy Don, what's that glower you have on

 

Drowsy Don
Lyrics © 2024 by Cosmic Connie
To the tune of "Delta Dawn," © 1971 by Larry Collins & Alex Harvey

Drowsy Don, what’s that glower you have on
Could it be the face of impotence and rage?
You’ve lived a life of crime and you should be servin’ time
We want to see the Orange Man in a cage.

He’s 78 and still acts like a baby
All the folks who are sane can see he’s crazy
He’s gettin’ worse and more dangerous by the day
Yet millions wanna just let him have his way.

In his younger days, he was a blowhard clown
Gettin' rich by cheating everyone in town
But now he's worse: a truly dangerous fool
A public menace and Christofascist tool.

Drowsy Don, what’s that glower you have on
Could it be the face of impotence and rage?
You’ve lived a life of crime and you should be servin’ time
We want to see the Orange Man in a cage.

[Alternate chorus]
Drowsy Don, what's that glower you have on
Could it be the scowl of one who's lost control?
And did I hear you fart, or even worse, was that a shart?
You've soiled your pants and soiled our nation's soul.

[Repeat chorus and/or alternate 3 or 4 times, or as many times as you want until you get bored or are booed off the stage.]

* * * * *

No doubt about it, the trial of the century (so far) is burning up the news media and providing unlimited fodder for comedians as well. While many legal experts apparently agree that a guilty verdict is likely, according to the New Yorker article linked to in the previous sentence, the case itself has also fueled heated debate among legal scholars and former prosecutors, even those who aren't Trump fans. And even if Trump is convicted, the judge will have discretion when deciding on a sentence, and despite the fantasies of so many anti-Trumpers, Orange Man in an orange jumpsuit is not at all a sure thing. My money is on him not seeing a moment of prison time. Besides, nothing in the US Constitution prevents a convicted felon from serving as president, presumably even from the clink.

In any case the Trump trial has made everything weirder than it already was, as the fabulous Salon.com columnist Brian Karem so eloquently expressed it in an April 18, 2024 essay.

I woke from my nap to see the beady little eyes of that orange-toned man on television in his ubiquitous white shirt, red tie and dark blue suit proclaiming his victimhood as his decades-long fleecing of America now has him cornered in a stuffy Manhattan courtroom while prospective jurors eye him like a caged orangutan that likes to fling its own feces at the crowd.

After one day in court, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman told us, Trump was essentially sleeping in the courtroom. As much as he wants to call Biden “Sleepy Joe,” he will forever be known as “Drowsy Don.” For the next month, Trump will sit like every other accused criminal in a court of law awaiting justice. Except he is making history as the first former president to be prosecuted for a felony.

Those prospective jurors not chosen to judge Trump spoke with reporters and told us of their interest in seeing a man who provokes visceral reactions, both good and bad, from so many people. Trump bathes in the chaos, drowns others with his bombast and, in a courtroom where he apparently cannot control his own actions, let alone anyone else’s, he is now seen stripped of pretense and floundering — when he’s not sleeping.

Trump remains larger than life to many, and the ripple effects of his extended stay on the public stage are still being felt and will continue long after he either expires of natural causes inside prison or while hugging his golden toilet bowl at Mar-a-Lago...

But Karem doesn't let the Biden administration off the hook, and he makes some good points.

Biden's administration, meanwhile, can’t seem to stop stumbling over itself. It's infamous for its dreadful staging of public events on the road and at the White House. The administration recently left the reporting pool out of an event where Biden essentially spoke to an empty room because of a staff mistake. A recent bilateral press conference in the Rose Garden was delayed because of technical problems. In Baltimore, Biden’s staged appearance to talk about the Key Bridge collapse was roundly criticized for looking more like a mayoral visit than a presidential visit. Reporters on the campaign trail complain often about the lack of professionalism among the advance staff. Reporters at the White House routinely complain about Biden’s staff ignoring them, ghosting them or trying to intimidate them into silence, while seemingly unable to handle even the simplest requests.

Monday, a Fox News reporter asked in the press briefing about inflation and the rising cost of gas. I followed with what should have been a softball. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, among others, has called inflation “greedflation” and noted that there is no economic reason for increased inflation. It’s simply price gouging by the very rich — the same people Biden has routinely said need to pay their “fair share of taxes.”

I asked the White House if the president blamed those he asked to pay their fair share for rising prices. Given the opportunity to speak directly to that issue, the administration merely explained that Republicans and Democrats “see things differently.” The country is blaming Biden for inflation and his staff can offer no response other than repeating that the job market remains strong.

They can’t hit the layups.

C'mon, Dark Brandon! Get on the stick and go on the offensive.

Karem's larger message is yet another warning that the continual craziness swirling around us threatens not only to normalize the crazy, but also to make the public increasingly numb to the deep dysfunction that Trump and Trumpism have seriously exacerbated. This is a warning that numerous others have issued as well over the past eight or nine years, and we need to pay attention.

The ever-present danger is that many voters will simply stop caring and that, bored or disgusted with the whole idea of the same two old guys facing off in the race to the White House, they will decide to just sit out this presidential election cycle, the idea being to wait until younger blood comes in. Presumably that will be in 2028 -- unless Mango Mussolini wins the 2024 race and his jackbooted Christofascist thugs cancel presidential elections altogether. It could happen. There's far too much at stake here just to sit it out.

For the time being, those who long to see Orange Man in a cage may have to satisfy themselves with imagining the courtroom as a cage -- which for him it assuredly is -- and with meming images of him alternately glowering and dozing off (and occasionally farting (or possibly worse)) day after day in court (after which he will continue, every day for as long as he is allowed, to fling feces at the entire justice system via his egregiously ill-named "Truth Social").

I know that waiting for justice that might possibly never come can be depressing. I feel your pain. So if you really need to cheer yourself up, take comfort in the notion that sociopathic, malignant-narcissist bullies like Trump hate losing control of the narrative -- a feat that this court case has already accomplished -- and that they hate, hate, HATE being ridiculed, and you can be assured that The Godfarter is paying attention to the ridicule. And don't forget the healing power of music. You can always break into a rousing rendition of "Drowsy Don." Make up your own lyrics to add to the fun. That's why I wrote it. You're welcome.

Trump grift Bible: Holy Week offer by wholly weak former president and Christofascist tool

 

The Trumpwood Bible, aka The God Bless The USA Bible, is not new; it has actually been around for a few years. But it has found a new and happy home in the Donald Trump grift machine, much to the delight of the Christofascists who are propping up Trump for their own benefit, and the outrage of pretty much everyone who is actually trying to follow the teachings of Christ.

By now you have surely heard of the so-called Trump Bible: a $60.00 tome endorsed and promoted by Cheeto Jeezus himself in conjunction with his close buddy and ally Lee Greenwood. Greenwood, of course, is best known for what to many folks is one of the world's worst songs, the performative-patriot anthem, "God Bless The USA." This Bible is not actually new -- see below, under, "A bad book finally finds a home" -- but the Trumpy promo campaign is new, and was strategically timed to coincide with Holy Week. (Well, technically, it's only Holy Week for non-Orthodox Christians; Orthodox Christians are going to be celebrating Easter on Cinco de Mayo this year.)

As ludicrous as the Trumpwood Bible itself is, even more ludicrous is the robotic promo vid by Mango Mussolini, who hilariously claims to be fighting hard for the Constitution every day. (Maybe he's fighting for the Constitution of Trumpistan, but not of the United States of America.) Here's a link where you can watch the Trump Bible video if you haven't already; I did have a YouTube link but it seems to be no longer valid.

I had a few thoughts when I first saw the social media posts and the promo vid about this grift Bible.

1. Compulsory prayer? Orange Overlord's Truth Social post said, "Let's Make America Pray Again." Does that mean that he thinks that prayer should be compulsory?
   
   Believe me, nobody needs to make Americans pray. Millions of Americans who do pray, and even many who don't normally do so, are sending heartfelt pleas to the Almighty that Trump is never allowed anywhere near the Oval Office again.
   
   
2. Christofascist dog whistle, anyone? In the video Cheeto Jeezus repeatedly says that the country needs to bring back religion, but in the same breath he says that we need to bring back CHRISTIANITY. He does mention "Judaeo-Christian values" one time in passing, but then again, this is the same guy who declared that the 2017 tiki-torch loons, who were marching in Charlottesville and shouting "Jews will not replace us!", were "very fine people."
   
   
3. Book design and readability questions. Even though I am an agnostic, I love books, and I actually do have "many Bibles" in my home, as Trump claims that he does. But I wonder about the "slim design" product that Cheeto Jeezus is holding in his little paws in the promo pics and video. I have Bibles of all sizes and formats, including ones that are even smaller than the book Trump is promoting, and that contain the entire text of the Old and New Testaments. They're printed on onionskin paper, as are many Bibles, and the font is teeny-tiny. So the fact that the Trumpwood Bible is advertised as being "large print" for easy reading seems a little odd, even if it is formatted in two columns as advertised.
   
   It's especially puzzling when you consider that the Trump/Greenwood tome also contains extras: the text of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights (which actually is a part of the Constitution, being the first 10 amendments), the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a "handwritten" version of the chorus to "God Bless The USA."
   
   How can it be so comprehensive in such a slender package, even with onionskin paper -- and yet still be "large print" and "easy to read?" I think they should show previews of some of the interior pages, a "search inside this book" feature like Amazon has, but that seems to be missing from the web site. (See below under "Dueling editions...")
   
   
4. The "Trusted King James Version edition." Given the profound dumbing-down and marginal literacy of so much of the American public, particularly the Trump base, I'm thinking that the KJV, "trusted" though it may be, is a poor choice if you're actually trying to reach people who may not be familiar with the Bible. Even much more literate folks have challenges with the archaic English in KJV. Do the sellers really hope to introduce new generations to the word-o-God with this version? Granted, the KJV is in the public domain, whereas many later translations are not. But there are more modern translations that are in the public domain, so more than likely the book's creators and promoters are banking on the probability that the ignoranti will embrace the outmoded language as being sacred and holy, even if they don't understand a word of it.
   
   
5. Yet another bald-faced lie about affiliations. No big shocker here. This is from the Q & A page on the GodBlessTheUSABible dot com web site.
   Q. Is any of the money from this Bible going to the Donald J. Trump campaign for President?
   A. No, GodBlessTheUSABible dot com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible dot com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.GodBlessTheUSABible dot com uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.
   
   But CIC Ventures is clearly a Trump company (Trumpany?). It's one of the players behind the gaudy gold sneakers, the low-tops, and the Trump golden toilet water. And it's also pretty clear that all proceeds will go, if not to Trump's political campaign, then to his legal fund. Anyone who genuinely believes this grift is totally apolitical is willfully blind or just not very bright, or both -- in other words, if I may state the painfully obvious, a member of Trump's base.

Many Christians are offended
There is, I must add, slightly reassuring evidence that the world hasn't turned totally upside down. Many Christians actually are offended by Trump's "blasphemous grift," as religious scholar and self-described "sane conservative" Tara Setmayer put it in a Xitter post.

Tara Setmayer @TaraSetmayer There’s NOTHING “holy” about selling Bibles “endorsed by Trump.” More blasphemous grift. Beware: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:24

Hmm. Matthew 24, verse 24. And this is 2024. Maybe that's a sign.

A March 29, 2924 piece in the Daily Kos has more about the blowback from the saner Christian world. And while there are legitimate reasons to criticize the Reverend Al Sharpton for some of his rhetoric and his personality, he does seem to speak for many mainstream Christians regarding the Trumpwood Bible.

Speaking to MSNBC, the Rev. Al Sharpton said that Trump’s scheme brought to mind the word “blasphemy.”

“I think that people ought to realize how offensive this is to those of us that really believe in the Bible,” said Sharpton. “He’s doing this during Holy Week. Tomorrow is Good Friday. Sunday is Easter. Of all of the times you want to hustle using the Bible, why would you do it during Holy Week, which is really a spit in the face of people that really believe in the Bible from a Christian point of view?”

Nevertheless, Lee Greenwood is all over the reich-wing media, staunchly defending his crass decision to partner with Trump. For instance, check out the Newsmax video embedded in a post by journalist Aaron Rupar.

A bad book finally finds a home
As you may also know by now, this Bible, though new to the Trumpian grift mill, is not actually new. Lee Greenwood had been struggling for years to launch his project, which was rejected by major Bible publishers. From USA Today, March 27, 2024:

A petition emerged in 2021 calling Greenwood’s Bible “a toxic mix that will exacerbate the challenges to American evangelicalism.” From there, a broader conversation ensued about the standards by which publishers print Bibles.

Gatekeeping in Bible publishing
Greenwood’s early business partner on the project, a Hermitage-based marketing firm called Elite Source Pro, initially reached a manufacturing agreement with the Nashville-based HarperCollins Christian Publishing to print the “God Bless The USA Bible.”

As part of that agreement, HarperCollins would publish the book but not sell or endorse it. But then HarperCollins reversed course, a major setback for Greenwood’s Bible.

The reversal by HarperCollins followed a decision by Zondervan — a publishing group under HarperCollins Christian Publishing and an official North American licensor for Bibles printed in the New International Version translation — to pass on the project. HarperCollins said the decision was unrelated to the petition or other public denunciations against Greenwood’s Bible...

A September 2021 piece in Slate has much more about the Greenwood Bible's struggles to get published, and the article also contains insightful info about some even more radical "patriotic" Bibles and their place in American politics and culture wars. Some of those Bibles, such as The American Patriot's Bible, published by Southern Baptist pastor Richard G. Lee in 2009, make Greenwood's project look remarkably subtle by comparison.

In any case, for decades evangelicals in general have been quite comfortable with the idea of marrying the Bible to American patriotism and the country's founding values -- but Trump caused some of them to rethink that notion, particularly after the deadly January 6, 2021 Trump-fueled insurrection.

Trump’s election changed how many more progressive evangelicals saw the idea, particularly after the researchers Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead published research highlighting the influence of Christian nationalism and connecting it to support for Trump. According to Whitehead, around half of all American adults are broadly in favor of thinking of America as a Christian nation, and a smaller segment of those Christians—about 20 percent of Americans overall—strongly advocate for the idea. Many faith leaders who noticed the ideology in their churches really began to worry after the Jan. 6 insurrection, when the rioters waved crosses and Christian protest signs. “We can’t unsee the Jesus signs next to Trump signs, the Confederate flag paraded, the broken windows, injured bodies and officers assaulted,” the Zondervan authors wrote in their public letter protesting the God Bless the USA Bible.

Publishing struggles and controversies aside, though, it looks like a happy ending now for Greenwood and Trump as they stroke each other off in public and proudly promote their Very Special Bible. Praise the Lard.

Dueling editions (spoiler: there WAS a cheaper version available, for a while)
[NOTE: This section was updated on April 2, 2024 to reflect the fact that the cheaper edition of this Bible no longer seems to be available. ~ CC]

On a whim I decided to pay a visit to Amazon a few days ago to see if the Trumpwood Bible was listed there, and if so, if it might have a "search inside this book" option. What I found was what seemed to be a print-on-demand "paperback" version for a mere $24.95, with a pub date of March 29, 2024, "available to ship within 1-2 days."

Notably, this edition was listed as being in the "patriotic" American Standard Version translation (which is also in the public domain), as opposed to the "trusted King James Version." On the Trumpwood $60.00 Bible sale site, however, there's this little bit in the FAQ

What translations are available?
The God Bless The USA Bible is produced in the trusted King James (KJV) translation. 

Please Note:
We do not offer additional translations at this time.

At the time I saw this listing, there had been no customer reviews yet for the $24.95 "paperback," but I promised to update this when I began seeing reviews. The point seems moot now, however, because this particular edition no longer seems to be listed on Amazon.

The author of this version of the Greenwood Bible was listed as American Bible Ministries (you'll just have to take my word on it, since the listing is no longer on Amazon). The link still works, but clicking it can be confusing because there are several other editions of Bible listed, none of which seem to indicate American Bible Ministries either as an author or a publisher.

This was the product description on Amazon:

The God Bless The USA Bible is the ONLY Bible inspired by America’s most recognized patriotic anthem, God Bless The USA.

This American Bible invites you to explore God's word anywhere, at any time with easy-to-read clear print and a slim design. This Bible will deliver an inspiring experience in the patriotic American Standard Version translation. This Bible is perfect to take with you to church, or to Bible study, and to your work and on your travels. Let the world know you by your acts. As a true American Bible it also features:

• Lyrics to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood
• The US Constitution
• The Bill of Rights
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Pledge of Allegiance

This Bible has a high quality cover made of imitation leather graphics achieving our discounted price.

Product details indicated that the book was a standard trade book size and was 418 pages long.

• ASIN: B0CZJ53NDL
• Publisher: Independently published (March 29, 2024)
• Language:English
• Paperback: 418 pages
• ISBN-13: 979-8321139240
• Item Weight: 1.55 pounds
• Dimensions: 6 x 0.95 x 9 inches

But there was no "search inside" feature available, only a flat image of the front cover, which looked just like the front cover for the $60.00 edition. You could zoom over that image but you could not search inside the book.

My original comment about the above was this: 'But hey, it's cheaper than $60.00. Even if the cover is fake leather, and this is not THE edition specifically endorsed by the Mango Messiah, and even if it apparently doesn't have a "handwritten" version of the chorus to "God Bless The USA"... hey, it's got all of those important patriotic Murican documents in it along with the word-o-god, and it's got the flag on the cover, so really, what's not to love?'

I guess the fact that it doesn't exist any more (if it ever did) is what's not to love.

So what happened? A hack? An AI-generated listing? Or did the book actually exist, but the greedy sellers and promoters of the $60 version discovered it and had the listing removed?

Your guess is as good as mine. All I can tell you is that currently, if you type the ISBN or ASIN (which I listed in the product details above) in your search engine, the top result is a link to the Amazon page -- but when you click that link you get a cute picture of a doggy (presumably one of the "dogs of Amazon") and the message, "SORRY, we couldn't find that page." If you type the ASIN or ISBN into Amazon's search engine, you'll get a message that says, "No results... Try checking your spelling or use more general terms."

So I guess you're stuck with the $60 version for now.

If only it were just funny.
On one level, the tawdry Trump tome is just another in a long line of comical Trump grifts like the tacky gold high-tops, overpriced low-tops, and Trump toilet water that caused a deluge of well-deserved ridicule just last month. In fact, the Bible is being marketed and sold by the same folks who are selling the footwear and eau d'ouche. (I should also note that as of this posting on March 30, 2024, the Trump GoFundMe grift that's run by a billionaire Scientologist couple, and that I cited in the shoe-and-stinkum post and in a previous one, has exceeded $2 million sucker bucks.)

Not surprisingly the Internet has been working overtime to entertain itself with snarks and snipes about the God Bless The USA Bible. Among zillions of other offerings, an author at Religion News Service named Tyler Huckabee wrote on March 27, 2024 that the Trump Bible is the Bible that America deserves.

America, alas, does not deserve the Gideon Bible. A free gift just sitting there for anybody who might want to read it? Well, that just seems like a slap in the face to all the hard-working Americans who had to pay good money to buy their own Bibles! Maybe the Americans who want to read the Bible should have thought of that sooner and planned ahead instead of sitting around waiting for the Gideons to bail them out. 

No, the Gideon Bible may be ubiquitous but it does not capture the true spirit of the United States. For that, we must turn to a new kind of Bible, and a very different kind of salesman. We must turn to Lee Greenwood. We must turn to the God Bless the USA Bible. We must turn to America’s favorite Christian, former/future(?) President, convicted criminal and attempted insurrectionist Donald Trump...

...It’s the literary adaptation of “In God We Trust” on the dollar bill. It is the perfect encapsulation of American Christianity. It is the inevitable climax of white evangelicalism.

And that brings us directly to the part that isn't so funny. For even though it's comic relief on one level, on another level the Trump Bible is part of a much larger and seriously menacing Christofascist movement. Trump himself is basically a Christofascist tool in ways he probably doesn't realize (even as the fictional Cersei Lannister in Game Of Thrones didn't realize until too late that she was a tool of very powerful religious zealots, the Faith Militant).

The fact that so many folks who consider themselves “Christians” are apparently not the least bit outraged by Cheeto Jeezus embracing comparisons of his struggles to those of Original Jeezus shows that Trumpism really is a cult.

As for the evangelical “leaders” who are giving Trump a pass, their true motives have been apparent for decades: for them it’s all about power and ego and money rather than the teachings of Christ. In their (unholy) book, the end -- creating an American theocracy/plutocracy -- justifies the means, and at the moment, Trump is one of their most powerful means.

The fact that conservative Christians share Trump's sense of persecution reinforces the alliance. In an October 2022 article on The New Republic site, author Brynn Tannehill wrote, 'Conservative Christians have a deep sense of victimhood and fear about a secular America and are willing to end democracy to prevent it. As [political commentator] David Frum noted, “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism, they will abandon democracy.”'

And we have all seen that Trump is an expert at playing the victim, and that he is all too willing to abandon democracy to achieve his own goals of remaining in power/getting back in power/staying in power indefinitely.

Looked at in this light it's not at all difficult to figure out why, despite their veneer of godliness and their willingness to judge almost anyone else who doesn't live up to their standards, the Christian reich leadership is more than willing to overlook Trump's "flaws." Rather than sanction him for his sins, they work overtime portraying him as an instrument of God who was sent to save America and the world from a host of imaginary enemies. They shamelessly stroke his ego and bask in his orange glow as they continually fuel, and and are fueled by, his messianic messaging.

We have to outvote the MAGAts and the Christofascists this November. It's going to be a long, hard campaign season, but American democracy and even world democracy depend upon the outcome in November.

In the meantime, we can expect more tacky Trump products -- not to mention more performative piety from Trump himself, whose lifelong creed, clearly, is, "Let us prey."

This post has been updated and amended since its original publication on March 30, 2024. ~ CC

Related
Donald Isn't the Only Trump Shilling Bibles: On the The Bulwark site, April 2, 2024, Bulwark political reporter Joe Perticone shared that Donald Trump Junior, aka DJTJ, aka Traitor Tot, has thrown his coke-addled support behind the We the People Bible. This Bible is considerably more pricey than Daddy's, retailing for $90. For the truly patriotic and/or faithful there are bundle options such as the "Liberty bundle" ($145) and the "Faith bundle" ($170).

Turns out this isn't new news; Traitor Tot has actually been touting this Bible since at least late 2022. But it's worth noting anyway.

Perticone's Bulwark article also offers an interesting history of other politically controversial Bibles in American public life, dating back to Thomas Jefferson's redacted Gospels, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. In more recent history, politically controversial Bibles have been various flavors of "patriotic" scripture that are closely tied to right-wing politics, so in this context, the Trump-endorsed Bibles aren't an aberration in and of themselves. And they wouldn't even be newsworthy but for the deeply amoral father and son's ludicrous posturing about embracing the values, religious or secular, upon which the United States of America was founded.

Cryin' and bitchin' from her upscale kitchen, Katie Britt was not a hit

 Katie Britt, psycho mom and rising star in the reich-wing whineosphere, delivered a melodramatic and menacing rebuttal to President Biden's powerful SOTU... and it earned her more jeers than cheers.

Hide the knives, kids, psycho mom is in the kitchen!

As you must surely be aware by now if you follow American politix at all, Alabama republican senator Katie Britt's histrionic, painfully hyper-enunciated, and alternately quavering/menacing State Of The Union rebuttal (aka the "Kitchen Ransom Video") has been ruthlessly mocked all over the media. It even caused shudders and cringes among a significant portion of the MAGAverse, according to, among numerous other sources, Ron Filipkowski, writing on Meidas Touch.com:

Britt's speech...weirdly alternated between bubbly cheerfulness, then concern, then fake anger, then fake outrage, sometimes all within the span of five seconds, leading many to compare her performance to someone auditioning for a high school play for the first time. Naturally, people on the Left were going to criticize her speech. But most surprising was right-wing reaction, where they simply couldn't hide their disappointment.

But to Katie Britt, the critics probably don't matter, since The Mango Monarch of MAGA, His Royal Majesty Donald John Trump, loved the speech.

It has been common practice for years to employ a "rising star" in the opposition party to deliver the counter-SOTU. But this year's choice raised eyebrows for more than one reason.

The rationale for Katie in the kitchen (and Katie at all, for that matter)
Many critics of Katie Britt's SOTU rebuttal focused on the setting of the dramatic diatribe -- her own kitchen -- noting that it was yet another example of not-so-subtle republican/Christofascist messaging that a woman's place is in the kitchen. Critics also noted that Britt is the quintessential young (or relatively young) Stepford Wife or Handmaid's Tale pick to convey the overarching message that Being A Mom and A Wife are by far the most important roles any woman can ever take on, and that Katie's mom-hood status makes her uniquely qualified to expound on how terrifyingly out-of-touch Joe "Bless his heart" Biden allegedly is, and how dangerous he is because his policies are ENDANGERING OUR CHILDREN.

All of those critical speculations are valid. But to me it seems clear that, apart from Kitchen Katie having earned the Mango Mussolini's all-important stamp of approval, the primary (though seriously misguided) intentions for choosing her in particular -- and for choosing her kitchen as the setting for her high-school drama tryout -- include the following:

1. "Kitchen table issues." This one should be pretty obvious. Katie declared right out of the chute that her speech was going to focus on the proverbial "kitchen table issues" -- those matters that are supposedly of utmost concern to ordinary struggling American families, and that they supposedly discuss around their humble kitchen tables during their humble family dinners. Accordingly, some genius(es) decided that the perfect way to convey Britt's supposed empathy with these struggling Americans would be for her to perch at what presumably was a table (it wasn't entirely clear to me) in her clearly upscale (not humble) kitchen. As Jake Johnson, in a March 8, 2024 piece on Common Dreams, put it:

Speaking in hushed tones and intermittently flashing a menacing smile, Britt—the former CEO of an Alabama corporate lobbying organization and the wife of a lobbyist—said from the comfort of her posh kitchen inside her 6,000-square-foot mansion that she understands and sympathizes with "what real families are facing.

Johnson also wrote:

Britt, who has been floated as a possible 2024 running mate for former President Donald Trump, characterized the GOP as the "party of hardworking parents and families"—neglecting to mention the trillions of dollars in tax breaks the party has funneled to the rich and large corporations in recent years while opposing programs such as the expanded child tax credit, which briefly slashed U.S. child poverty in half.

So... major misfire on the whole "kitchen table"/struggling families thing.

2. An appeal to the educated suburban woman/mom demos who currently oppose Trump. Some of Trump's allies caught on to this point right away and defended Britt's disastrous speech.

It would be so much easier for MAGA if we could just go back to the daze when women couldn't vote, but here we are. Although some analysts said that educated (white) suburban women helped deliver the White House to Trump in 2016, those demographics changed their minds during the course of his presidency, and by 2020 had largely turned against him. During the 2020 campaign Trump unsuccessfully begged them for their support, claiming to have "saved their suburbs," but overall they weren't buying it, and ultimately went for Biden.

For the 2024 campaign, Biden's lead over Trump among these demos has narrowed considerably, particularly among white suburban women, but clearly the Trump campaign is still laboring to win their support. And that seems to be a challenge. Consider the state of play in the swing state of Wisconsin, for instance. This is from a December 21, 2023 opinion piece in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Suburban women still hold some conservative views, especially when it comes to finances. They are more likely to agree with Republicans on tax and economic policy. But on all other issues the study explored, Democrats do a better job of matching the values of suburban women, especially on abortion, an issue which is currently consuming the political landscape in Wisconsin and which these women say will be a key deciding factor in 2024 and the state’s 2026 gubernatorial election.

But a major opening exists for kitchen table issues. Suburban women hear very little on Republican-proposed solutions to issues that are particularly relevant to their daily lives, like health care, mental health, and affordable child care, which leads them to trust Democrats more even if they have issues with the liberal approach.  

Yup, there's that mention of "kitchen table issues" again. Given all of these challenges to a total takeover of the hearts, minds, and souls of suburban mommies by Voldemoron, what better Trumpistan ambassador to Normal Momville could there be than a white suburban mommy?

Trouble is, it appears that the mommies aren't buying Kitchen Katie's message.

The idea is that Republicans are desperately trying to sell Republicans as pro-women or pro-mom, [Washington Post columnist Monica] Hesse wrote.

"The trouble," Hesse continued, "is that they are trying to sell it that way once a year, via a televised State of the Union rebuttal, rather than by selling it via policies and legislation. So much of the rest of the night revealed a contrast between what Britt’s party had done for women, and how women and mothers were actually living their lives."

Biden, by contrast, has actually worked to improve the lives of women and their families. So, repubs, good luck with peddling Kitchen Katie as "America's mom."

3. The image of youth/vitality/a new generation of leadership. Ahead of the president's SOTU and Kitchen Katie's rebuttal, Katie was relentlessly promoted (and didn't hesitate to brag about it during her speech) as the youngest woman ever to win a republican Senate seat. This seems to be a subtle but clear message about Joe Biden's advanced age allegedly being a disqualifying factor for the presidency. Never mind the advanced age -- not to mention the clearly abysmal physical condition and mental health -- of the only alternative to Biden in this election: Katie's Cheeto Jeezus Trump.

In the time since I first wrote the above, I've read numerous other comments that are congruent with my initial impressions; in fact Katie herself has since said that the kitchen setting was intended to hammer home that whole "kitchen table" message. But I'm leaving the list above intact even though after so many millions of words have been slung about the matter, it may seem that I am way behind the curve and am simply restating the painfully obvious.

Rising star, or just another red giant?
If the choice of Katie Britt as the "rising star" -- the one most qualified to rebut the SOTU -- was motivated in any way by an attempt to sweeten the horror that the Party Of Trump (aka the American Fascist Party) has become... or to make the republican party appear to be in tune with the needs of ordinary Americans as opposed to the super-rich... or even to foster that "big tent" image for which they've been striving for years (Katie isn't a person of color but she is a woman)... then, sorry, guys, it was a wash on all counts. And as discussed in Item number 2 above, the appeal to that all-important suburban women/mommies crowd was also a flop.

(By the way, in answer to the favored Trump-campaign question this election cycle, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" -- similar to the question that Katie asked as well at the end of her speech -- here's some perspective that contradicts the grim picture being peddled by MAGA.)

There's one point I want to make regarding republicans' largely tone-deaf approach to wooing the commoners: I absolutely do not wish to imply that being affluent or rich, even super-rich, is incompatible with compassion for those much less fortunate, or with a desire for equality and inclusiveness, or with a genuine wish to do good in the world. As I've said on this blog before, in my life I have known several "haves" who actually tried to make things better for the "have-nots" and the marginalized -- one example being right here in the Great State of Texas, the late Marvin Zindler.

But actions do still speak louder than words, even in these days of inordinately loud words, and while Katie and her republican colleagues, hot and heavy on the campaign trail, may talk a good game of genuine concern for the have-nots, their voting records speak much more loudly and clearly than their empty rhetoric.

Red whine goes so well with cheesiness
I will concede that at the moment it appears that Katie is a true rising star in the reich-wing whineopshere, though in this particular speech she labored to make it appear that she was whining on behalf of all Americans (at least the good, patriotic, godly ones) instead of whining about how she has been oppressed and repressed. Don't be fooled by that apparent altruism: remember that she is in lock-step now with the long-time Whiner In Chief, Trump himself, and is poised to become one of his proxies and possibly even his VP pick. And more than likely, at some point during the long campaign months ahead, she will not hesitate to break out a bottle of acidic red whine and raise a toast to her own brave suffering at the hands of the "fake news" and the "liberal media" and the Democrats and the commies and socialists and whatnot.

And speaking of whining, that insufferable quavery voice that dominated Britt's speech has been another topic of widespread speculation and mockery. Some have said it's totally tradwife, deliberately childlike and intended to convey a message of proper womanly submissiveness. That is not beyond the realm of possibility, of course, and it's likely that the delivery did appeal to tradwives and their manly-man husbands, but I have a different take on Katie's motives.

My impression wasn't that she was attempting to communicate submissiveness or weakness at all; rather, the whiny voice was simply part of her over-the-top histrionic attempt to tug on the heartstrings: authentic faux-emotion (fauxmotion?) at its cheesiest. To me her delivery called to mind those endless late-night mini-infomercials (animal rescue, child rescue, etc.) featuring a tremulous, constantly on-the-verge-of-tears female voiceover. I swear, I half-expected to hear Sarah McLachlan's 90s hit "Angel" in the background while Katie Britt quavered on (even though the song itself is probably far too heathen for Katie and her ilk).

It's not just the bad acting and Christofascist messaging; it's also the gaslighting and the hypocrisy
Apart from the delivery and location, there were other serious problems with Katie Britt's kitchen-table theatrics. To begin with, it was framed around a deep fear for the safety and well-being and indeed the future of "our children." This of course is a typical republican rhetorical tactic; they love to use children as political pawns. As many commentators have pointed out, however, if repubs were truly concerned for our children, they wouldn't be voting against legislation to help children and their families, or for legislation that sacrifices the welfare of kids and families to the endless demands of the ultra-wealthy. I mentioned that point myself toward the end of this July 2023 post about a schlocky hit summer movie, a highly fictionalized tale of child sex trafficking called Sound Of Freedom:

...a few folks on Twitter have pointed out the glaring hypocrisy of reich-wingers' sudden deep concern, inspired solely by Sound Of Freedom, about innocent little children -- brown children, at that!-- who are being so ruthlessly trafficked, a concern that seems incongruent with the general indifference of republicans/reich-wingers to the plight of children in general, particularly brown ones. Consider, for example:

• The gutting of child labor laws, mostly though not exclusively in red states (potentially allowing for more extensive exploitation of undocumented migrant children as well as those who are US citizens).
• Republicans' strategy of continuing to fight tooth and nail against common-sense gun safety measures, instead offering little more than "thoughts and prayers" after innocent little kids are mowed down at school by a maniac with an AR
• Republican opposition to safety-net programs that help children and their families
• Republican opposition to free-lunch programs for children
• Republican efforts to defund public schools
• Republican support of the horrifying treatment of migrant children and their families at the Texas border

I won't deny that Democrats use children and family issues as talking points too. But overall, they're the party that is actually trying to do something to help kids and parents.

Equally as glaring as the hypocrisy about her grave concern for children is Katie Britt's gaslighting and hypocrisy about the whole border/immigration issue. Her kitchen audition was a flagrant demonstration of Border Derangement Syndrome, the hysterical narrative that immigrants are "invading" the US from the Southern border and that they pose a serious existential threat to America.

It should come as no big shocker that several of Britt's statements about President Biden's border policies were exaggerations, misrepresentations, or distortions. In fact her most dramatic tale by far was downright deceitful, as discovered by journalist Jonathan M. Katz when he did a little bit of digging. (And here it may seem that I am burying the lede, given the huge amount of attention that this story has received since I first published this post, but I'll be damned if I'm going to rearrange this entire long screed just to seem more relevant.)

Katie tearfully told a tale about talking with a young woman who, beginning at the age of 12, had been "sex trafficked by the cartels." She'd been repeatedly raped over a period of years, sometimes many times a day. Katie said the woman told her that she had been put on "a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on-end." She immediately followed that by saying, "We wouldn't be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it's past time we started acting like it. President Biden's border crisis is a disgrace. It's despicable. And it's almost entirely preventable."

Context is everything, though. And what Psycho Mom neglected to mention was that even though the woman’s story is true, it all took place in Mexico, not the US, and it actually happened 20 years ago, when Biden wasn’t even VP, much less president. (And no, it wasn’t Obama’s fault either. George W Bush was in the White House at that time, not that it was his fault either.)

Accordingly, the entire narrative as presented by Katie was disingenuous at best, though it was most likely swallowed whole by the same crowd who embraced the aforementioned movie Sound Of Freedom as virtually a documentary.

When I initially amended this post to add this twist in the saga, I speculated, facetiously, that it was possible that Katie intended to say that the abduction and years of captivity and repeated rapes took place two decades ago in Mexico, but that her eyes were so filled with fake Tammy-Faye tears at that particular point in her diatribe that she couldn’t read the TelePrompter or the cue cards or whatever. In a more serious vein I wrote that it was even possible that she would claim that she was talking about a totally different sex trafficking/rape vic than the one named in Jonathan Katz's expose (a woman named Karla Jacinto Romero). But there have been developments since my initial speculations.

At the time I first wrote this, it appeared that up to that point Britt had not addressed the matter directly at all, choosing instead to let a spokesperson do the dirty work of dodging the question. And at first, that spokesperson, Sean Ross, refused to directly answer the question about the identity of the rape victim, and insisted that the story was not deceptive, basically because bad stuff is happening at the border and it's Biden's fault. (Here's a direct link to a Xitter post with screenshots of communications between journalist Kyle Whitmire and Katie's spokesdodger Sean Ross.)

Later, however, after Katz's Tik Tok about the issue went viral and other media jumped on it, the Washington Post apparently cornered Ross, and ultimately he admitted that the victim in Katie's story was in fact Karla Jacinto Romero. But he continued to insist, as he had done in initial responses to queries, that the story was not deceptive because bad stuff really is happening at the border, and it's Biden's fault.

After much more coverage about the matter, our stalwart kitchen queen finally spoke up in her own defense. From ABC News, March 10, 2024:

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Britt...said she didn't bring up Romero to intentionally blame Biden for what happened to her -- but rather to point to it as an example of the trafficking that is still going on.

"I very clearly said I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12, so I didn't say a teenager, I didn't say a young woman, a grown woman, a woman -- when she was trafficked when she was 12. And so listening to her story, she is a victim's right advocate who is telling this is what drug cartels are doing, this is how they're profiting off of women," Britt said. "And it is disgusting. And so I am hopeful that it brings some light to -- to it, and we can actually do something about human trafficking and that that's what the media actually decides to cover."

Oh, Katie. You know damn well that this was an attempted slam at Biden. You just got caught. And as for that garbled bit about the vic's age, that hasn't been the matter of controversy. The controversy is your deceptive use of the story itself.

Karla Romero has spoken up as well, and apparently she resents being used as a political pawn, either by United States or Mexican pols. From CNN, March 11, 2024:

[Jacinto] told CNN she was trafficked before Biden’s presidency and said legislators lack empathy when using the issue of human trafficking for political purposes.

“I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair,” Karla Jacinto told CNN on Sunday...

...Jacinto told CNN that Mexican politicians took advantage of her by using her story for political purposes and that it’s happened again in the United States.

From the perspective of Katie’s political standing, however, it’s probably all moot, since as noted above, her personal savior, Lard Cheeto Jeezus, was quite pleased with her audition.

Apart from Katie's shaky and altogether Trumpian relationship with the truth, there's her hypocrisy regarding the border. She was actually one of the republicans who helped negotiate a bipartisan border security deal -- and then, like most of her rethuglican colleagues, she voted against the bipartisan bill resulting from the negotiations because the Orange Overlord commanded it.

And while we're at it, let's not ignore Katie Britt's hypocrisy regarding women's health issues. From Ariel Messman-Rucker on Pride.com, March 8, 2024:

[Britt] also spent part of her excruciatingly long speech recounting the story of a woman who she claimed was raped at the border because of Biden's "senseless border policies" but failed to see the blatant hypocrisy in her statements considering she is vehemently pro-life and would deny a woman in that position the right to get an abortion.

Exactly. (Do read Ariel Messman-Rucker's entire piece, because it lists some of the most hilarious responses to Britt's performance.)

Finally and most egregiously, Katie Britt's speech was, obviously, a clear endorsement of Donald Trump, even though she never mentioned his name. Apparently the impending death of American democracy, and the rise of fascism within US borders, are of absolutely zero concern to her.

Is "republicunt" too strong a word to use here?

This post has been revised and expanded since initial publication on March 8, 2024.
~ CC