Tag: politics

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donald trump politics

Donald Trump made some bizarre claims about Bin Laden as ICE attacked Chicago

donald-trump-made-some-bizarre-claims-about-bin-laden-as-ice-attacked-chicago

This year has been one of the worst in America’s history. Donald Trump is a fascist authoritarian who has sent the military and militarized ICE agents into American cities. Trump is going to war with Americans, with ICE acting like a 21st century Gestapo. In Chicago, over the weekend, ICE used chemical agents on Americans, and Chicago police have been tear-gassed. ICE is using flash-bangs and zip-ties on American citizens. They’re pulling their weapons on unarmed civilians. None of this is about immigration. None of this is about the rule of law.

Meanwhile, every time Donald Trump opens his mouth, he sounds more and more demented. His mental decline has been profound in the past two years. Over the weekend, Trump went to the US Navy’s 250th anniversary event. He turned up an hour late, then tried to make the event into a MAGA rally. Keep in mind, these Naval officers have not received their paychecks because of the government shutdown. Trump then told a story about Osama bin Laden, 9/11 and Pete Hegseth.

Trump: “Please remember I wrote Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. And I said, ‘You gotta watch Osama bin Laden!’ … I gotta take a little credit.” pic.twitter.com/Ck4ODP1xQY

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 5, 2025

SOUTHSIDE CHICAGO — Windy City residents run off immigration agents to save a man mid-abduction at 63rd and Kostner Ave. pic.twitter.com/rhNnQ0TSLr

— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) October 5, 2025

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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donald trump Mike Johnson politics

Speaker Mike Johnson basically admits that Donald Trump is unhinged & unwell

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Rep. Madeleine Dean is a 66-year-old Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District. This week, Rep. Dean cornered the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and she tried to encourage him to speak out about Donald Trump’s demented and dangerous behavior. Dean cornered Johnson in the corridor, in full view of several journalists who recorded their encounter:

MADELEINE DEAN: The president is unhinged. He is unwell.

MIKE JOHNSON: A lot of folks on your side are too

DEAN: Oh my god, please. That performance in front of the generals?

MIKE JOHNSON: I didn’t see it

DEAN: It’s so dangerous! Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies… pic.twitter.com/WNvZRo638S

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2025

This was shown on MSNBC last night and the exchange has gone viral on social media. You can see that Speaker Johnson seemingly agrees with Dean’s assessment that Trump is “unwell.” She says: “The president is unhinged. He is unwell.” Johnson: “A lot of folks on your side are too, I don’t control him…” TOO!!! Dean also referenced Pete Hegseth and Trump’s pep rally with the generals, saying: “Oh my god, please. That performance in front of the generals?… It’s so dangerous! You know I serve on Foreign Affairs and Appropriations, it’s a collision of those two things. Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a president who is unwell.”

Props to Rep. Dean. Props to the Democrats getting in Republicans’ faces over this. The voters ensured that the Democrats have little to no power or authority, but maybe shaming Republicans to their ugly fascist faces will work. (Spoiler: it will not work, but it’s still interesting to see Johnson basically acknowledge that Dementia Don is unhinged and unwell.)

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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donald trump politics

The US government has shut down, with MAGA majorities in all branches of govt

the-us-government-has-shut-down,-with-maga-majorities-in-all-branches-of-govt

The government shutdown overnight for the first time since… Donald Trump’s last term. Elect rapist clowns, you get this circus. Republicans have control of the presidency, the House of Representatives (219-213) and the Senate (53-47). Donald Trump currently has a 43% approval rating and his authoritarian “policies” are widely unpopular. Republicans are simply incompetent, too incompetent to challenge a weak, unpopular, batsh-t crazy president. Too incompetent to actually run a functioning government.

The US government shut down on Wednesday, after congressional Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments unless they won a series of concessions centered on healthcare.

The GOP, which controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, repudiated their demands, setting off a legislative scramble that lasted into the hours before funding lapsed at midnight, when the Senate failed to advance both parties’ bills to keep funding going.

The shutdown is the first since a 35-day closure that began in December 2018 and extended into the new year, during Trump’s first term. It comes as Democrats look to regain their footing with voters, who re-elected Trump last year and relegated them to the minority in both chambers of Congress.

“Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s healthcare,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday evening, as it became clear a shutdown was inevitable.

Last month, House Republicans passed a bill that would fund the government through 21 November, but it requires the support of some Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the Senate. It failed to gain that support in votes held late on Tuesday, while Republicans also blocked a Democratic proposal to continue funding through October while also making an array of policy changes.

“Far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted to show down with the president, and so Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats’ partisan interests,” Senate majority leader John Thune said.

[From The Guardian]

Yeah… again, Republicans have the majority in both chambers of Congress. It’s not Democrats’ fault that the Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the House can’t whip votes to save their lives. If they want Senate Democrats to vote for any kind of Continuing Resolution, the Republicans have to make some concessions. That’s the way the bipartisan government works. In any case, the White House Office of Management and Budget blasted out an unhinged email across all agencies, blaming the shutdown on Democrats entirely. Morons.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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Bruce Springsteen donald trump politics

Bruce Springsteen: Trump is who the 25th Amendment and impeachment were for

bruce-springsteen:-trump-is-who-the-25th-amendment-and-impeachment-were-for




October is upon us, putting us that much closer to the release of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Ok, we’re still three weeks away from the Boss biopic that stars Jeremy Allen White as Bruce while he was making the album Nebraska, with Jeremy Strong as his manager Jon Landau, and newly-minted Emmy winner Stephen Graham as Bruce’s father during flashback scenes. It’s a funny quirk of fate that this role marks back-to-back years of Jeremy Strong playing mentors, particularly when you consider the two mentees: Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump. Last year Strong earned his first Oscar nomination for playing Roy Cohn who, among his many sins, trained a young Trump in the vitriolic, litigious playbook we’re suffering through today. I find Strong’s film connection to Bruce and Don funny (in the Greek tragedy sense of the word) given how diametrically opposed the men are. Well, one man and one tiny-fisted bigly baby. Bruce has been calling out the president’s crimes all year, and continued the trend in a new profile with Time magazine:

“I absolutely couldn’t care less what he thinks about me,” the rock legend told Time magazine in a story published Thursday. “He’s the living personification of what the 25th Amendment and impeachment were for. If Congress had any guts, he’d be consigned to the trash heap of history.”

The 20-time Grammy winner sounds like he’ll keep dishing it out to Trump and Co.

“If I’m going to stay true to who I’ve tried to be… I can’t give these guys a free pass,” Springsteen told Time. “A lot of people bought into his lies… He doesn’t care about the forgotten anybody but himself and the multibillionaires who stood behind him on Inauguration Day.”

“You have to face the fact that a good number of Americans are simply comfortable with his politics of power and dominance,” Springsteen.

The president and Springsteen won’t be dancing in the dark any time soon.

On the first date of his European tour in May, Springsteen said America “is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” He also asked democracy lovers to “raise your voices against the authoritarianism, and let freedom ring.”

Trump wrote back on Truth Social that Springsteen was “HIGHLY OVERRATED,” “dumb as a rock” and “a JERK” whose skin had “atrophied.” He also told the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer to “KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT.”

Despite his fervent opposition to Trump over the years, the “Born to Run” legend didn’t sing the praises of the Democratic Party in his Time interview.

“We’re desperately in need of an effective party, or for the Democratic Party to find someone who can speak to the majority of the nation,” he said. “There is a problem with the language that they’re using and the way they’re trying to reach people.”

[From HuffPost]

“He’s the living personification of what the 25th Amendment and impeachment were for. If Congress had any guts, he’d be consigned to the trash heap of history.” YASS, Bruce! Dementia Don was always going to be an impeached president — and becoming the first to merit it twice was no less than he deserved. But if these long, painful, soul-crushing eight months of a second term have shown us anything, it’s a portrait of a man in cognitive decline. When he’s not making stark raving mad rants at the august body of the United Nations General Assembly, he’s sending in the National Guard to Democratic Portland, Oregon… based on footage of riots that happened five years ago. At least that’s what Oregon Governor Tina Kotek strongly suspects after a phone call with the president over the weekend. If that isn’t 25th Amendment behavior, I don’t know what is. Bruce completely has Don’s number, and I hope he keeps letting it rip because we all know how much it rankles the dried out mango. Though I do disagree with Bruce on one point, the suggestion that Don only cares about “himself and the multibillionaires who stood behind him on Inauguration Day.” He doesn’t care about them either, just himself. A tale of two men: Bruce and Don, the Boss and the Loss.

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Unanue/Europa Press/Avalon, Mike Gray/Avalon, Getty, Backgrid

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Kamala Harris politics

Politico: Democrats are mad about Kamala Harris’s book & her book tour

politico:-democrats-are-mad-about-kamala-harris’s-book-&-her-book-tour

Kamala Harris’s book, 107 Days, came out this week. Various outlets published advanced excerpts, including The Atlantic – go here to read. I’ll admit that I have not sat down and read much from the book yet. I felt the same way in 2017 when Hillary Clinton published her first book after the 2016 election – it simply felt too raw and I didn’t have enough emotional distance from what happened in that election to read Hillary’s recollections. It’s the exact same feeling with Kamala’s book, I was watching it unfold in real time, I know exactly how badly she got screwed over, and I know exactly how badly Americans f–ked up by not electing Kamala president.

While I’m not consuming much from Kamala’s book, I 100% support her right to talk about all of it, from how Joe Biden’s staff treated her, to how she felt forced to dim her shine in service to President Biden, to how tough it was to run a national campaign in that short amount of time. We’re more than three years out from the next presidential election, if we’re even having those anymore. Now is actually the time for Kamala to tell her story. I genuinely hope the book prompts some self-reflection from the Obama bros in particular, as well as Biden’s senior staffers. Win or lose, Kamala’s candidacy should have been a major housecleaning moment for the Democratic party, but it doesn’t sound like any of that is actually happening. Not when some Democrats can run to Politico to bitch about how Kamala’s book is distracting from… something??

Kamala Harris’ media blitz is doing little to temper the frustration bubbling among Democrats over her retelling of the 2024 election. Over the last 24 hours, the former vice president insisted she isn’t burning bridges in her own party, rejected the idea that her infamous interview on “The View” tipped the 2024 election and didn’t rule out another run for political office.

“In an era where Democrats need all hands on deck in the fight to protect the country and the constitution from the lawlessness of the Trump administration, she had a real opportunity to be a critical voice in the resistance,” said Michael Hardaway, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “This book seems to be unhelpful and divisive in a way that makes it hard for her to be the face of the party as we look to the future.”

More than six months after her losing election — and with Harris now back in the spotlight — her book, “107 Days,” has reopened wounds in a party still divided over who or what is primarily to blame for their sweeping losses and President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Harris, for her part, argued on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday that though “there were many factors,” ultimately, “we just didn’t have enough time.”

It’s not the first time a political memoir has prompted eyerolls. Hillary Clinton’s book tour in 2017 triggered a collective groan among infuriated Democrats, including one top donor who told POLITICO at the time “she should just zip it.” Biden, struggling to sell his post-presidency legacy, is expected to release his own White House memoir. Democrats privately worry the parade of scab-picking, backward-looking books isn’t helping the party move on, especially as its brand sinks to new lows in public polling.

“At a time when people are looking for a vision and leadership … and want to see leaders rise to the level of threat facing the country, it’s pretty crazy she chose to write a gossip book that prioritizes the pettiness of her politics,” said an adviser to a potential 2028 candidate granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “It’s embarrassing for her, and for all Democrats, considering she was the leader of the party less than a year ago.”

[From Politico]

“…Has reopened wounds in a party still divided over who or what is primarily to blame for their sweeping losses…” The wounds weren’t closed, therefore Kamala isn’t “reopening” anything. Democrats were and are still bleeding, and I see Kamala’s book as a sort of political triage, and a necessary one at that. It’s wild to argue that Democrats are still fighting over the last election, and that’s why the literal Democratic presidential candidate shouldn’t put her two cents in about what went wrong and what Democrats could do better. Kamala understands that you have to actually assign blame to begin to figure out what went wrong – from what I’ve seen, she addresses some mistakes she made, and some of the mistakes the Biden administration made in how they used her. But she’s also just… telling the truth about a stagnated and outdated Democratic political class which is also to blame.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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Books George Takei politics

George Takei to serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week

george-takei-to-serve-as-honorary-chair-of-banned-books-week




The American Library Association (ALA) revealed all the way back in April the theme for this year’s Banned Books Week, happening the first full week of October: “Censorship Is So 1984. Read For Your Rights.” With our current government blatantly seeking to silence its critics (with schoolyard bully tactics), the theme could not be more prescient. The whole tradition of Banned Books Week began in 1982 in response to, you guessed, a huge uptick in books being challenged — the first step in the process to ban them. Methinks the people who bring forth these challenges are the very ones who could benefit the most from reading more books, as opposed to fewer. Now that BBW 2025 is nearly one week away, the ALA announced the celeb who will serve as this year’s honorary chair: George Takei!

Actor-activist George Takei’s next project is on behalf of a longtime passion — the right to read.

The American Library Association announced Monday that the 88-year-old Takei will serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week, which takes place Oct. 5-11. Libraries and bookstores around the country will highlight books that have been censored, from Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” to Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

“I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me,” said the “Star Trek” actor, who spent part of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

“Please stand with me in opposing censorship, so that we all can find ourselves — and each other — in books.”

Previous honorary chairs for Banned Books Week, established in 1982, include Ava DuVernay, LeVar Burton and Jason Reynolds.

Takei will share leadership with honorary youth chair Iris Mogus, a first-year student at the University of California, Santa Cruz who has been active for years in anti-banning campaigns.

[From ABC News]

Many of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 are the same as when longtime reading advocate LeVar Burton served as honorary chair a few years ago. Quelle surprise, the list heavily features stories by/for/about queer people and people of color. I do believe that racism, homophobia, and book banning and/or burning are the first three badges ultra right wing fascists need to earn to merit full Nazi scout status, so those who weren’t vacuumed away in the rapture this week can get busy with those bigoted tasks. Merde. The small-mindedness, yet outsized arrogance of thinking that something you personally don’t like (or understand) must be completely forbidden for all is just astounding. Like, you may have gleaned from a comment I made here or there, but I’m not particularly a sportsball fan. It’s not my thing. But I’m not out starting a crusade to BAN fill-in-the-blank ball games entirely! Why? Because I’m lazy! Because I recognize that there are all sorts of people and interests in this world. Good grief!

Anyway, much luck to George Takei in his honorary role. It’s quite the inauspicious year for reading — what with a president who doesn’t engage in the activity himself and who likely views books in the lump category of “non-gold interior decor props” — but that’s why Banned Books Week is more necessary than ever. As is reading for our rights!

Photos credit: BLW Clips/Backgrid, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon

Categories
donald trump politics

Donald Trump looked & sounded ‘stark raving mad’ at the United Nations

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Donald Trump hates many different parts about being president. I would think that he hates showing up to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, which is happening this week. But you know what? I bet he actually enjoys it – it’s a chance to make a horse’s ass out of himself on the global stage, in front of all of the visiting heads of state and international diplomats and dignitaries. Trump must feel like he’s in his element. Either that, or this weak, ugly, orange man feels angry that he’ll never be welcome in these circles, so he lashes out in the most obvious and pathetic way possible.

Early into his nearly hourlong remarks on Tuesday, Trump said the global body is “not even coming close to living up” to its potential.

“All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up,” the president said. “It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war. The only thing that solves war, and wars, is action.”

Trump’s wandering speech had no shortage of false claims and contradictions. He touted peace while telling drug cartels he would blow them “out of existence.” He questioned the purpose of the U.N.’s existence, but later in the morning told the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres that the U.S. “is behind the United Nations 100%.”

“I may disagree with it sometimes, but I am so behind it because the potential for peace at this institution is great,” he said.

While opening his speech, Trump told the room that the teleprompter wasn’t working, saying that whoever was operating it was “in big trouble.” He later mocked the U.N. for having a “bad escalator.”

Trump claimed he has “ended seven wars,” while the U.N. offered empty words. Trump, who is campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize, boasted how he — and not the U.N. — has been a key player in settling global conflicts. But Trump’s repeated claims of being a peacemaker are complicated. Some of the conflicts he has cited in the past have not been wars or have yet to end.

Trump said if Russia does not end its invasion of Ukraine, he is prepared to impose “a strong round of powerful tariffs.” He then told European nations to “step it up” and stop importing Russian oil.

Trump scolded representatives for their countries’ immigration policies, while upholding his mass deportation agenda in the U.S. as the best way to address the “crisis of uncontrolled migration.” This led the president to say, “I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.”

Trump described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” The U.S. president claimed that scientific predictions made by U.N. bodies were wrong and blasted wind farms and other renewable energy projects. He instead encouraged countries to buy fossil fuels from the U.S.

[From PBS]

Ol’ Dinosaur Butt thinks he ended seven wars? Which seven?? Name them. The Trojan War, the Peloponnesian War, the Troubles, the War of the Roses?? WHICH WARS? Honestly, I think much of this was the malfunctioning teleprompter, and because of that, Trump was just riffing. This is what his dementia-addled mind came up with while “riffing.” Journalists were appalled. So were our European and Asian allies. Days without Trump making America into a global laughingstock: Zero.

Also, his reference to the UN escalators is real – the escalators were turned off right when Donald and Melania stepped on them. He had to haul his own dinosaur butt up the stairs. The White House is demanding an investigation into whoever made Trump walk up stairs! UN sources insist that Trump’s own dumb people accidentally turned off the escalator AND f–ked up his teleprompter.

A U.N. official said the UN understands that someone from the president’s party who ran ahead of him inadvertently triggered the stop mechanism on the escalator. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the White House was operating the teleprompter for Trump. https://t.co/DZwqyWtYVn

— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) September 23, 2025

if you think Joe Biden on his worst day was in the same galaxy of cognitive decay as his successor, you’re as embarrassing as Trump is

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 23, 2025

A senior foreign diplomat posted at the UN texts me: “This man is stark, raving mad. Do Americans not see how embarrassing this is?”

— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) September 23, 2025

Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly in 2 minutes: pic.twitter.com/8zct5WxAcA

— The Recount (@therecount) September 23, 2025

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.