Putin, Insurrect, Tough Trump, Bret, Durham, GOP, Racism, Submersible

MY sci-fi opinion is finally proven!
 

  • So Putin pal or former pal Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops may or may not be moving toward Moscow in what may or may not be an insurrection in Russia.
     
    In Political Wire, Taegan Goddard links us to what little is, as yet, known about what may or may not be turmoil in Putin’s Russia.
     
  • Something was brewing in KremlinLand, even before current mystery moves. In Hackwhackers, fighting among Putin elites already seemed to be a possible good omen for Ukraine.
     
    Key tradeoff:
    If military leaders can be blamed for Russia’s poor performance in Ukraine, it diverts from Putin’s responsibility for his initial, catastrophic mistake with the invasion. Playing factions off against another may help Putin in the short term, but not if he hopes to defeat Ukraine
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors shows mr Trump bragging to Bret Baier on Fox about how tough he was with Putin on Ukraine. Donald plays both parts of a telephone argument, with his Putin side and his brave tough Presidential side getting very angry.
     
    tengrain is definitely amused, although seeming much more than skeptical.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony watches Fox host Bret Baier skewer Donald Trump who then unravels.
     
  • News Corpse takes notes as Bret Baier gets Donald Trump to admit to having documents he denied having, and had tried to hide from authorities.
     
    Donald’s main reason? He had been too busy to remove his personal things that happened to be mixed in.
     
    Key editorial comment:
    Well, golfing, watching himself on TV, posting hundreds of comments online, and those cult rallies, do take up time. Furthermore, his complaint that there were “many things” in the boxes that were personal really amount to only wearable items (“Golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes“).
     
    Key observation from MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace:
    …he’s so addled he’s talking about stuffing his pants in with his desk stuff. I mean, that’s not a good look either. Why were his pants in with his papers? He sounds like a crazy hoarder.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson pictures lawyer reactions to the Trump interview:

  • Tommy Christopher tries to grade Bret Baier’s non-aggression pact with Donald Trump after Bret gets praised for Donald’s inadvertent, but serious, admissions of criminality.
     
    Tommy includes the good and the bad, but comes down hard on the ugly:
     
    Key ugly:
    Baier’s errors are fundamental and serious, and should not be waved away because the net result is positive.
     
    Key example, out of many:
    Would Jake Tapper have said “I’m not going to belabor this?”
     
  • In the Borowitz Report, Fox apologizes for a regrettable flirtation with accuracy.
     
    Key satiric nonquote:
    In a statement, Rupert Murdoch criticized the Fox personality Bret Baier for “disseminating information that was recklessly and unforgivably true.”

  • MadMikesAmerica brings another piece of satiric speculation on why Donald Trump seems so frustrated about classified documents. Has to do with what only he now knows about UFOs.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger finds a bit of wisdom with Mary Trump. Republicans are not afraid of Donald. They follow him for a more basic reason.
     
    My view before voters transformed President Trump into Citizen Trump:
    MAGA folk want the old days back, when they didn’t have to disguise their feelings with polite words.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life examines the delusions that have transmuted today’s Republican party into a Trump subsidiary. There are slight but real signs that those fantasies are weakening.
     
  • YellowDog Granny has a few graphic thoughts about Donald Trump and Donald Trump Republicans.
     
  • Donald explains to Bret that Hunter Biden is getting light treatment while he, Trump, is a target. MAGA folk agree.
     
    Vixen Strangely, at Strangely Blogged, starts with this:

    Then backs that up with evidence and logic.

  • In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson translates into standard English the Hunter Biden facts, charges, and Republican reaction.
     
    Key two tier:
    Roger Sollenberger, a senior political writer for the Daily Beast, explained that “Roger Stone and his wife settled a $2 million unpaid taxes civil case with DOJ last year—they weren’t charged criminally, unlike Hunter Biden, so they didn’t even get probation.”
     
  • John Durham was assigned by the Trump administration to investigate the investigators. He was to find and prosecute those who found and prosecuted collusion between the Trump campaign and Putin’s Russia, then report back.
     
    Mr. Durham went to Congress to report on his report. Republican members were gleeful in their anticipation.
     
    The Palmer Report pointed to last month’s hearing. It went went poorly for Mr. Durham, but Republicans anticipated that new hearings beginning last week would make up for it.
     
    Those became even more humilating for Republicans. Democrats simply asked about the numerous prosecutions and confessions of Trump associates. Mr. Durham didn’t seem to know much about what what actually happened and, even worse, supported Mueller’s conclusions.
     
    Mr. Trump watched the hearings, and thought they went wonderfully for him. Um… they didn’t.
     
    In fact, Republicans themselves finally erupted in fury, attacking their witness for failing to find some Democrat, any Democrat, to charge with crimes:

  • driftglass points out the brutality of the dismantling of Special Counsel John Durham
     
    Mr Durham wilted, seemingly befuddled by simple questions from Democrats during a congressional hearing.
     
    But was it as horrible as the continuous memory lapses of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in 2006? He was questioned about the very real weaponization of the Justice Department during the Bush years.
     
  • Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez pretty much nail’s the current state of today’s Republican party:

  • PZ Myers perceives a strategic flaw in debating with glib conservatives who make things up as they go along.
     
    Key basic point:
    Refusing to debate an ideologue does not prove you’re wrong. That’s not how logic works.
     
  • When reading Dave Dubya’s Freedom Rants, you don’t really need a decoder ring to figure out the actual platform of the radical Right.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has a few pictured, thousand-worth, thoughts on cats, dogs, cattle, Lauren Boebert, and understanding the US Constitution.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara is an enthusiastic patriot in a somewhat narrow sense. He celebrated Juneteenth this week with an acknowledgment of slavery as an unfortunate aberation of an otherwise glorious American history. With that sad exception, the American dream was accomplished in 1776.
     
    Key damn shame:
    It’s a damn shame that it took almost a Century for the promises of the Declaration of Independence to reach all Americans of African descent. But it did, finally erasing America’s most glaring birth defect.
     
    Another view by an iconic American:
    We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
     
    My own thought:
    America has been great, not in fact, but in trajectory. While the moral universe bends in Dr. King’s long, long arc toward justice, America has moved in jagged jumps back and forth. Overall, hard won gains have predominated amid brutal sacrifice.
     
    Patriots have no need to whitewash the past or particularly want it back.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz sees Juneteenth as a reminder that America is not there yet.
     
  • Frances Langum tracks the Fox producer who posted online remarks that were too sexist and racist for Fox. He was fired…
     
    AND was immediately hired for Charlie Kirk’s radio show.
     
    Key expertise during segment on the submersible vessel tragedy:
    Kirk described Neff as “our resident submarine expert,” and a chyron identified Neff as “The Charlie Kirk Show Submarine expert.”
     
  • Infidel753 looks through the Titan submersible tragedy, researches details, and finds some important lessons.
     
    Key cause:
    Much of the reason for this seems to have been standard libertarian disdain for regulation.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good is notably unsympathetic to Justice Samuel Alito’s logic about accepting air travel.
     
    Key excuse:
    I was asked whether I would like to fly there in a seat that, as far as I am aware, would have otherwise been vacant. It was my understanding that this would not impose any extra cost on Mr. Singer.
     
    Of course, I have a thought:
  • Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group are on it, as a U.S. District Court judge not only delivers a trans rights verdict, but has judicially tough words for the DeSantis side.
     

    You may prefer listening in podcast form.
     
  • Scotties Playtime has a story that begins as a really bad dream that is halted by a watch alarm. Then it becomes a more real account of a gay child subjected to abuse so severe and continuous that, years later, his adult dreams about it trigger extreme heart arrhythmia.
     
  • At The Moderate Voice, David Robertson examines the sins of the Evangelical church, applying religious standards to actual behavior.
     
    Key application:
    The sins of the evangelicals will result in the evangelicals going to Hell. At least that is what the logic of evangelicals dictates.
     
    By “the logic of evangelicals” I mean the logic of evangelicals that I have seen expressed on Twitter
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the news as a far-right Christian movement is coming to get the enemies of God.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook provides a visual critique of the Biblical God with God’s list of things to do.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is asked whether he has a conscience, feels convictions, or possesses any emotions at all.
     
    Key answer:
    Simply put, I am a conscious human being with a conscience who is an atheist and a humanist. I strive every day to be a kind, loving, thoughtful, helpful person; one who desires to leave a better world for his progeny.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL suggests that you might be an artist without realizing it.
     
  • The Strategic Studies Book Club takes a brief glance at the philosopher Charles Peirce and what he wrote on how language predetermines much of logic, meaning, and thought.
     
  • Max’s Dad goes concerting and super likes what is left of Three Dog Night.
     
    Key positive:
    …a 90-minute set of hit after hit after hit. Led by 80-year-old Danny Hutton, the lone remaining original Dog , the band began with Family of Man and never let up.
     
  • Sci-fi author John Scalzi has a new gadget:
    I took my new M2 iPad Pro with its Magic Keyboard to see if it was a suitable laptop replacement for a short trip.
     
    He returns with thoughts.
     
  • In The Onion, an alarming study finds that most US students cannot name all 50 numbers.
     
  • Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) interviews a well known sex symbol
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 learns why patience is important:
     
  • SilverAppleQueen goes poetic about love, loss, drinking, drugs, and depression. Beautiful downer.
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress posts a helpful quiz that will help you determine whether your nausea is caused by coffee or the raging intensity of the human experience.
     
  • Dave Columbo on who to call with complaints:
     

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2 thoughts on “Putin, Insurrect, Tough Trump, Bret, Durham, GOP, Racism, Submersible”

  1. you’re definitely an artist when it comes to putting these all together & molding them into coherence — who knew Trump would prove to be a presidential hoarder, on top of the rest of his horribleness…

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