Welcome to another of our irregularly scheduled, random, contrarian musings on the idiocracy of our times.
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There was no decent interval this time. Actually, no interval of any kind, as Republicans fell into line last week — not merely defending Donald Trump after his conviction on 34 felony charges, but also embracing his threats of revenge and retribution. We’ll get to my latest piece in The Atlantic in a moment.
But, first, the obligatory dog pictures.
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The boys are ready for summer.
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Eli and Auggie settle in for a movie night.
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And, two years ago today, one of the last pictures of Pete, who stayed on the move to the very end. (I’ll have more about Pete later this week.)
Think of last Friday as a bookend to the transformation of the GOP.
Back in October 2016, after the Access Hollywood tape was made public, many Republicans paused and took a deep breath. Then, some of them—such as Senator Mike Lee of Utah—decided to openly abandon their party’s nominee. I remember texting Reince Priebus, then the chair of the Republican National Committee. “I am the guy trying to fix this!” he wrote. “I am in tears over this.”
Within a few hours, House Speaker Paul Ryan withdrew his invitation to Trump to appear at a joint appearance the next day in Wisconsin. For a moment, it seemed like a turning point. But it wasn’t, at least not in the way I thought it would be. In the end, most of the Republicans returned after a few days of fruitless soul-searching.
This time, there was no hesitation. Republicans fell seamlessly in line last week, not merely defending Trump after his conviction on 34 felony charges but also embracing his threats of retribution. Seemingly prewritten statements of unwavering, fervent support were issued within minutes. The GOP presumptive nominee had just been found guilty of paying hush money to a porn star and covering it up, and not a single prominent Republican withdrew their endorsement….
[Right-wing] influencers echoed and amplified Trump’s defiant calls for payback. Trump, of course, has made locking up his opponents a central theme of his campaigns and has repeatedly threatened to use another presidential term to retaliate against his critics, his opponents, and the media. Thus far, it has been tempting to dismiss all of this as Trump’s peculiar and personal animus. But it’s now clear that he has a substantial constituency for his campaign of vengeance. In fact, his base is demanding it. As Ali Breland reports in The Atlantic, the MAGA internet is seething with threats of violence and retaliation—not just at the fringes, but from well-known right-wing media outlets as well.
Indeed, the Trumpian echo chamber is amplifying the threats. When Trump posted on Truth Social that Judge Juan Merchan was “HIGHLY CONFLICTED,” reports Reuters, one of his followers responded by posting a picture of a hangman's platform and noose with the comment: “TREASONOUS MOBSTER OF THE JUSTICES SYSTEM!!”
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh insisted: “Donald Trump should make and publish a list of ten high ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office. First on the list should be Joe Biden. Second should be Joe Biden's crackhead son.”
The Federalist’s Sean Davis struck the same theme: “In 2024, I want to see lists of which Democrat officials are going to be put in prison. This is what happens when you cross the Rubicon.” Specifically, Davis called for Texas prosecutors to indict both Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland — “tomorrow” — for their ongoing criminal human trafficking conspiracy across the border and into the state of Texas, in direct contravention of state law.”
John Yoo, the former Bush administration lawyer best known for his legal justifications of torture, writes in National Review that the Trump trials mean that “Republicans will have to bring charges against Democratic officers, even presidents.”
Former GOP senate aid Mike Davis, who has been mentioned as a possible attorney general under Trump 2.0. , laid out the new litmus tests: “Dear Republicans: If your response to Biden’s Republic-ending lawfare against Trump is: 1. We must respect the process and/or 2. We are too principled to retaliate, please do two things: 1. Fuck off 2. Leave the party. You are too weak, stupid, and dangerous to keep around.”
And then there is Mike Lee.
Back in 2016, Lee was so appalled by the Access Hollywood tape that he recorded a video asking Trump to step aside as the Republican nominee. Lee said that if someone had spoken to any of the women in his family the way Trump had spoken, “I wouldn’t hire that person, wouldn’t want to be associated with that person,” and most important, “I certainly don’t think I would feel comfortable hiring that person to be the leader of the free world.”
On Friday, Lee declared that his fealty to Trump was now so unbreakable that “strongly worded statements” were “not enough.” “Those who turned our judicial system into a political cudgel must be held accountable,” he declared, as he joined seven other GOP senators in refusing to cooperate with “any Democrat legislative priorities or nominations.”
The bottom-line: the Trumpified GOP has signed up for his Revenge Presidency.
Prominent Republicans have not only made their peace with Trump’s character; they have also made his revenge tour the centerpiece of their agenda. If Trump wins and enacts his campaign of retribution from office, do not expect any resistance from the GOP establishment. They will be cheering it on.
Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of Donald Trump’s scheme to subvert the 2020 election, has been charged with felony forgery in Wisconsin, court records show.
“The anxiety is massive,” Victoria Nuland, who served until recently as undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department, told me. Like other diplomats in the Biden administration, she has spent the three-plus years since Trump unwillingly left office working to restabilize America’s relationship with its allies.
“Foreign counterparts would say it to me straight up,” Nuland recalled. “‘The first Trump election—maybe people didn’t understand who he was, or it was an accident. A second election of Trump? We’ll never trust you again.’”
Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules is Plandemic for election truthers. For the non-insane, it’s a hilarious mockumentary. Not that D’Souza cares what the non-insane think: He has discovered that there are enough suckers out there to keep him laughing all the way to the bank.
Released by the Salem Media Group, 2000 Mules aspires to be a work of serious investigative reporting which will rock the foundations of American democracy. In reality, 2000 Mules is an investigative documentary in roughly the same way Reno 911 was a hard-hitting look at real-life police work. Though that doesn't mean that D’Souza’s cash-grab won't further pollute the political system. For instance, Kari Lake, who can't wait to get elected governor of Arizona so she can jail her political opponents, is championing the film—which ends with a plea for law enforcement to take up D'Souza's cause.
WASHINGTON — Conservative gadfly Dinesh D’Souza’s film and book “2000 Mules,” which pushes false conspiracies about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, has been removed from distribution by its executive producer and publisher, according to an announcement Friday.
Salem Media Group’s announcement that it had yanked D’Souza’s film and book also apologized to Mark Andrews, a Georgia man falsely accused in “2000 Mules” of ballot stuffing
A top executive at The Epoch Times, a right-wing media company, has been arrested and charged with laundering at least $67 million in stolen money through company accounts in a multiyear scheme to lift financial returns.
A federal grand jury indicted Weidong Guan, also known as Bill Guan, on one count of money laundering, as well as two counts of bank fraud. The accusations say he lied to a financial institution about the source of the cash, some of which was allegedly pilfered through fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits. The money increased The Epoch Times’s revenue by nearly 400 percent in just one year, according to the Justice Department.
MAGA congresswoman and professional attention-seekerMarjorie Taylor Greene turned Dr. Anthony Fauci’s House testimony into a freak show on Monday when she pointedly refused to call the former White House chief medical adviser “doctor” and demanded he be prosecuted for “crimes against humanity.”
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What I’ve been watching (an update)
Best show on TV right now… and I really can’t recommend it highly enough: “Trying” on Apple TV.
“Trying” is showing “Ted Lasso” how it’s done, as this Apple TV Plus original is doing a remarkable job of keeping a consistently high-quality level across multiple seasons.
If you’ve never watched “Trying” let me give you a quick sales pitch to convince you to give this very simple, but seriously charming, comedy a watch.
"Trying" centers on Nikki Newman (Esther Smith) and Jason Ross (Rafe Spall), a young(ish) couple living in London, England who desperately want to start a family of their own. After struggling to conceive naturally, they decide to try adoption. This kicks off a whole series of comedic situations as they attempt to navigate the complex process of proving they are capable of raising a small human — to both the authorities and themselves.
It’s a very basic setup, and while later seasons do shift to cover slightly different ground, there are no dramatic twists or intense melodrama to be found across any of the seasons. “Trying” isn’t that kind of show. Instead, it’s the television equivalent of a warm hug. I’ve rewatched the first three seasons multiple times as it’s so comforting and it makes for a great mood-booster after a draining day.
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Also, because it seems so timely… “Godzilla - Minus One.” On Netflix.
I would like to note that Trump renamed the Democratic P art as the Democrat Party. Do not fall into the Kool Aid.
Second, the well-educated elite within Congress know what they are doing is wrong legally, morally and in every other way. My conclusion is that they can not get a job outside of Congress, and will therefore do anything to be re-elected. Pride goes before a fall. I will be waiting.
I hope someone will point out the lengths Joe Biden is going to in order not to weaponize the justice system where his own son is concerned—no talk of pardons, no talk of firing a special prosecutor…
Oh I love seeing Auggie and Eli…and of course Pete…thanks
Thank you for the writing and the dogs.
I would like to note that Trump renamed the Democratic P art as the Democrat Party. Do not fall into the Kool Aid.
Second, the well-educated elite within Congress know what they are doing is wrong legally, morally and in every other way. My conclusion is that they can not get a job outside of Congress, and will therefore do anything to be re-elected. Pride goes before a fall. I will be waiting.
I hope someone will point out the lengths Joe Biden is going to in order not to weaponize the justice system where his own son is concerned—no talk of pardons, no talk of firing a special prosecutor…