It's a Joke. Until It's Not.

Oct 02, 2025

Let’s start with an apology. I actually thought that this picture was an AI-generated fake, because surely, surely the president would not be so juvenile as to trot out “Trump 2028” hats at a high-stakes meeting with the Congressional Democratic leadership.

Surely, even the snickering chodes of his presidency would be content merely to bump knuckles as they chortled over that sort of a troll. But actually, do it? Pull out a jokey (?) symbol of his willingness to defy the constitution to trigger the libs? In the Oval Office?

On the historic desk where Elon Musk’s legendary child, X Æ A-Xii Musk once left his golden nasal tribute to the president?

But, of course, he did. And I deeply regret my naivete.

Happy Thursday.

Note to readers: If all of this seems like a bad dream and feels as if everything is accelerating, you’re not alone. And you’ve come to the right place: This is your daily reminder that you are not the crazy ones.

Are you not entertained?

The hats were, a joke, right? Until they’re not.

We’ve seen this pattern before: It’s a joke, he doesn’t mean it. Take him seriously not literally. Maybe it’s not a bad idea. Actually, it’s a great idea and if you’re not on board you are a cuck and RINO.

I talked about the hats last night with Katie Couric:

Think about the question I ask at the end: If Trump does, in fact, say he’s running for a third term, name one Republican who would stand up and tell him no?

Anyone? Anyone?

The Pain is the Point

Speaking of the shutdown: “Trump Uses Shutdown to Maximize Pain for Democrats and Move Forward With Layoffs” - The New York Times

The Trump administration took steps on Wednesday to maximize the pain of the government shutdown, halting billions of dollars in funds for Democratic-led states while readying a plan to lay off potentially droves of civil servants imminently.

The moves by the White House appeared both unprecedented and punitive, underscoring the risks of a fiscal stalemate that had no end in sight. It also evinced how President Trump might try to leverage the government-wide closure to achieve his agenda, slash the budget and exact revenge on his political enemies.
In a series of social media posts, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, said the administration had paused or moved to cancel the delivery of about $26 billion in previously approved funds across a range of programs, describing the money as wasteful or in need of further review.

Because, of course.

Why Aren’t We Listening More to the Pope?

If you haven’t been paying very close attention you might have missed some recent comments from the American Pope, who has been saying some rather pointed things about the American Emperor.

Via Christopher Hale, Pope Leo XIV said this week:

“Someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro‑life,” he told the reporters.
“Someone who says I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants… I don’t know if that’s pro‑life.”

The pope also had some thoughts about Trump’s new ‘Department of War”:

Asked about Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s boast that he wanted a military focused on “lethality,” Leo replied that such talk is “worrying.”
He noted that even the title “Minister of War” suggests a troubling acceptance of violence and prayed that it was merely a stylistic quirk rather than a substantive shift.

He spoke before this week’s performance at Quantico, where Hegseth declared:

A few months ago, I was at the White House when President Trump announced his ‘liberation day’ for America’s trade policy. It was a landmark day. Well, today is another liberation day, the liberation of America’s warriors,” Hegseth said.
“You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct, don’t necessarily belong always in polite society,” he added.

As previously noted, the generals and admirals sat stone-faced as Hegseth spoke.

Die for Qatar?

Another story we shouldn’t gloss over. Trump got his fancy jet… and, in return, Qatar is getting (checks notes) Article 5-like security guarantees from the United States. (Nota Bene: Not even Israel has that kind of pledge.)

Trump signs executive order vowing to defend Qatar

The order cites the two countries’ “close cooperation” and “shared interest,” vowing to “guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the state of Qatar against external attack.”
“The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty or critical infrastructure of the state of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States,” the order says.
“In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the state of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”

The move is generating a good deal of blowback from the right: “Conservatives Rage Over Trump Defense Pledge to Qatar”:

A number of conservatives were more than a little miffed by the announcement of the defense pact in light of the longstanding accusations Qatar aids and abets Islamic terrorism, as well as its dismal human rights record.
“Our new protectorate, Qatar,” mused Fox News’ Mark Levin. “If the leadership of Hamas in Qatar is killed by Israel, are we going to war with Israel? Wouldn’t it have been better to condition any military defense of Qatar on some basic requirements? For example: turnover the Hamas leaders; no more funding of terrorists worldwide: no more funding of Marxist-Islamist groups in the United States. This is the bare minimum.”

Jane Goodall Remembered

From my wife, J.F. Riordan’s, Substack newsletter:

When I heard of Jane Goodall’s passing, my first thought was: now I’ll never meet her. She was one of the few famous people on earth whose presence I wanted to be in. I knew of her for her work, not her celebrity, but it wasn’t just her work I admired.
It was her goodness, her energy, and her spirit; and because she was that rare thing: a scientist with faith. Science and love met somewhere within her soul and made it possible for her to change the scientific world’s stubborn insistence that you can’t study animals if you name them; that animals are not sentient beings with individual thoughts, feelings, needs, and longings.
The chimpanzees, it turns out, were wiser than the scientific establishment of the time, and returned Ms. Goodall’s gentle respect with acceptance and love. We have all seen the video of a chimpanzee holding her in a long embrace of farewell and gratitude. It is impossible to see this unmoved, or to come away believing anything but that the chimp’s action was animated by something more profound than instinct. I suspect that most of us also come away accepting that animals have souls, even though this idea is still rejected by most of the Christian religious community. I see this blindness as a stubborn refusal to accept our responsibility and stewardship for God’s creation. If we don’t care for what we don’t value then we can carelessly use animals without regard for them as individuals, flinging them away without so much as a twinge. Jane Goodall’s deep knowledge and love shone from her, lighting her face when she spoke, and animated her campaign to protect the chimps’ native habitats and end animal testing laboratories.

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