For Republicans, the choice comes down to accepting corruption, treason, state-sanctioned violence, pedophilia, kidnapping, election interference, and global war or the fear of upsetting Trump and being primaried.

Yes, another stern press release from you should convince Trump.

Will the fake tough guys in ICE be conscripted to Iran for General Bonespurs’ trumped-up war to distract us from the Epstein files, or are they more comfortable killing nurses and blind men and imprisoning five-year-olds?

“Everyone, when there's war in the air, learns to live in a new element: falsehood. Everybody lies.”
“Tiger at the Gates,” by Jean Giraudoux

Somebody wake up Congress.

“Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell his way…,” said Kristi Noem. Oh, wait, that was Regan in “King Lear.”

RIP Neil Sedaka. A legend has passed. Born in Brooklyn. Singer, songwriter. Big in the early 60’s. Came back and resuscitated his career in the mid-70’s.

It Can Now Be Plainly Said: Trump Is Planning a November Coup d’État During the campaign, it was kind of hard to picture the specifics of how Trump might pull such a thing off. Alas, it’s getting less hypothetical by the week.

Great point here from @mjtoma.bsky.social: Trump effort to sabotage elections could get easier with right wing oligarchic control over big news organizations, which gives pro-Trump forces "effective control over how it is presented."
newrepublic.com/post/207138/...

In his SOTU rant the deranged, Lear-like Trump sought to reassure himself and his corrupt enablers with falsehoods about his own delusional importance. What will be left of the devastation after Trump and his party of sycophants and co-conspirators are gone?

We are in Dostoevsky territory now with Republicans and Trump and the Epstein files: When actions go unpunished, everything is permissible.

The Bard on Comer:
“He was not born to shame: Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit.”

YouTube video by Katie Phang New BOMBSHELL Reporting REVEALS Epstein’s DEEP DOJ TIES

New reporting from the Miami Herald on how Epstein used his power, money, & influence to “infiltrate the justice system.”

I do a deep dive into this incredible article, including eyebrow-raising relationships between the prosecutors and Epstein’s criminal defense team.

youtu.be/tYdj-JwxJjo?...

Donald Trump’s State of the Union Was Long and Wrong But at least the President thinks everything is going great.

“Trump’s default setting is triumphalism. He is never more animated than when he’s touting his own accomplishments, even if they are not actually his accomplishments…Trump had been hemorrhaging public support, for himself and his policies, in the weeks leading up to the speech.”

Is it too much to hope that Trump’s detestable and ongoing malfeasance will prompt any member of his cowardly party to defect, to confess a guilty conscience, and exit with Shylock’s words:
“I pray you give me leave to go from hence. I am not well.”

And by “lifted” he means “kicked off,” as Trump’s vile party cheers.
“In cruelty will I seek out my fame,” wrote Shakespeare in
“Henry VI, Part 2.”

Republicans “laying out a moral runway so wide, so depraved that if Trump is implicated in Epstein’s [crimes],” they can mitigate it. “This is how fascist cultures work.
Redefine the crime. Normalize the horror. They’re not just preparing for Trump to be named. They’re preparing to be okay with it.”

4 reasons why Trump is the worst possible president to declare a ‘war on fraud’ As one Democratic senator summarized, “Trump announcing a war on fraud is like a criminal announcing a war on crime.”

The president who announced a new “war on fraud” is the same president who
- ran a fraudulent charity
- ran a fraudulent “university”
- oversaw a business that was found to have engaged in systemic fraud
- pardoned a bunch of people convicted of fraud
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

“Trump has supercharged [DHS’s] role as a mass immigrant-expulsion operation that is unleashing violence toward U.S. citizens—and even killing them—while operating with near-total impunity among American populations, which Trump officials openly describe as a good thing.”

No Republican wants to be the first toady to stop applauding for Caligula as he grows increasingly unhinged.

Mike Lawler and Donald Trump shaking hands

The Mike Lawler on the left looks happy to shake the hand of his favorite President.

The Mike Lawler on the right looks like he just got caught on camera with a sexual predator.

I can’t think of a better visual representation of who he is:

A MAGA acolyte desperate to salvage his political future.

I fixed the lede for The New York Times:
The president invented a version of the United States that is growing, safe, and “winning.”

“A wild misstatement,” said Rachel Maddow. Otherwise known as a lie.

We’re in the “This Is Your Life” part of the rant.

I’m only watching to witness when the criminal degenerate veers off script from cringeworthy self-congratulation, shameless projection, and laughable fiction into incoherent rants and grievances. And when strangers tell him, “Sir…”

He’s now on to the part of the rant where people come up to him and say, “Sir…”

“Repeat offenders should be put behind bars.” Except for 34-time convicted felons.

Trump: “Surely we can all agree l no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms.”
Except for my first administration that put the children in cages at the southern border.

Trump crying “Shame!” is rich.

“I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom,” say Vance and Johnson. Or was it Lear?

“We have no money because of the Democrats.” What about the trillions of dollars you claim came from your tariffs?