Feeling overwhelmed by the torrent of bad news? You are not alone. Keeping up with the nonstop barrage of bluster and bullshit that makes up the news cycle is exhausting. That’s why I’m stressing quality over quantity. Was that an ironic aside? Discuss amongst yourselves.
This post is an attempt to play catch-up. We begin by noting the passing of Robert Redford. He was one of the last true movie stars as well as an artistic visionary as the founder of the Sundance Institute in 1981. I’ll have more about Redford in this week’s Saturday Odds & Sods including a Redford movie dozen.
Now that we’ve paid tribute to a fine actor who was an even better human being, let’s move on to the bluster and bullshit promised in the post title.
It looked as if Crazy Eyes Kash Patel’s job was in jeopardy after his bizarre performance on the Charlie Kirk investigation. Then he went before the Senate Judiciary Committee and went off on Adam Schiff:
WOW — a screaming Patel crashes out in response to Schiff's questions about Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and calls him "the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate" and "an utter coward" and "political buffoon"
In a word: Projection.
This outburst may have saved Patel’s job because lies and baseless charges are the Trump regime’s jam. I still think Kash looks like an escapee from a psych ward. Why? He’s got these, that’s why:
Speaking of whiny and petulant jerks:
JON KARL: What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she's gonna go after hate speech? A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speechTRUMP: We'll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. You have a lot of hate in your hate. Maybe they'll have to go after you.
You have a lot of hate in your hate? What language is that? Beats the hell outta me. I don’t speak bluster and bullshit…
Let’s give the floor to Rodney Crowell who knows from hate:
Corruption is back in the news with a gobsmacking NYT expose of grifting and double dealing by Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff. He’s also Trump’s partner in a crypto scam. They’ll both benefit from this Emirati grift.
Authoritarianism inevitably results in this level of corruption. The patrimonialism, it burns.
It remains unclear when troops will be dispatched by the Trump regime to more American cities. Memphis appears to be next on the list. It will be the first blue city in a red state targeted. There’s a plan in place for Louisiana but when the trigger will be pulled is up to The Clownfish DBA Jeff Landry. Stay tuned.
For a few days, Team Trump seemed to have abandoned their plans for Chicago. They’re back to muttering about it, which fucked up this post title possibility: Who’s Afraid Of JB Pritzker?
Governor Pritzker understands the moment. He knows that appeasement never works and that the whole National Guard thing is a sign of weakness, not strength.
Repeat after me: It’s about intimidation, not crime.
Comparisons between Team Trump and Team Hitler are apt but overused. There are other models of dictatorship including that of Argentina under Juan Peron:
“When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant corruption, and crippling poverty. Peronism became a cautionary tale of how not to manage an economy.
President Donald Trump seems to have misunderstood the lesson. His second term has begun to follow the Peronist playbook of import substitution, emergency declarations, personal dealmaking, fiscal and monetary recklessness, and unprecedented government control over private enterprise. And, as with Argentina’s Peronism, much of U.S.”
The author of the Peron piece is Scott Lincicome, a fellow at the Cato Institute, which, like the Wall Street Journal, wasn’t known for criticizing Republicans before the Insult Comedian returned to power. Now Lincicome calls Trump the American Peron. It’s not a compliment.
At least Trump doesn’t have his own personal Evita to perfect the Peron analogy.
Let’s give the floor to the late Sinead O’Connor:
Remember when Americans called countries like Brazil Banana Republics? The shoe is on the other foot now that Brazil has tried and convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro for his coup attempt. Our clownish president got away with it but it’s a Bozo no-no in Brazil.
Viva Brazil.
That is all.
The last word goes to Frank Sinatra:
🇺🇸🤗 Seventy-one years ago, I was born in a healthy democracy. I was raised by parents who taught me the importance of a healthy democracy. I went through public education (all the way to an MA) in a healthy democracy. And on and on in a democracy of healthy ups and downs.
😢 I am now depressed/horrified that I may die in an incompetently-run, hate-filled, economically-destroyed, battle-scarred shooting gallery of a failed state!
🤨 I’ll keeping fighting it and protesting it and speaking out, but I’m now feeling the fight will take longer than my lifespan will allow and I’ll never know the ending! ☹️
I understand. I think we’ll get it back but as to when I don’t know. All I have is gold comfort, alas, but I get it.