In private conversations Trump has begun thinking of himself less as a peer of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and more as the equal of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon. (Caligula and the fictitious Ubu Roi seem a more appropriate comparison for the delusional Trump.)

Hegseth going with the Eric Stratton “Animal House” defense: “I’m not going to sit here and let you badmouth the United States of America.”

Mob Boss Sets Goons on Enemies “So many of these Trump operatives act as if this is the last administration that’s ever going to be there and they’re going to keep winning elections. I think what goes around comes around and that they should be very fearful of losing their licenses to practice law.”

An “era of extreme gerrymandering” just began out of nowhere.

“For the Supreme Court of the United States, this week’s decision is pure arrogance and delusion, at best a form of criminally negligent homicide against the post-1960s multicultural democracy that has been the project of modern America.”

Good ol MAGA Mike Lawler…

No lackey wants to be caught not cheering for Caligula. (Trump’s right-hand sycophant Mike Lawler, isn’t wearing the red tie.)

“The [Supreme] Court’s decision is consonant with the philosophy, articulated by James Jackson Kilpatrick in his earlier days, that the state is oppressive when it interferes with the right to discriminate, and respects liberty when it allows discrimination.”

Comer: House Republicans are “divided” over whether [Trump] should pardon Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in the Epstein investigation. “What possible reason could members of Congress have for approving a pardon for someone who has lied under oath and has already said she knows nothing?”

“Iran has made a proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz but Trump, [reportedly], is ‘dissatisfied’ with the plan, because ‘accepting it could appear to deny Mr. Trump a victory.’ Indeed: Claiming victory tends to be hard when you’ve lost, badly.”

This is 2026, not 1826. Shameful. The court has “created an insurmountable barrier to black voters who are seeking to have their voice and their representation, not just in Congress…but in the political sphere,” said Sherrilyn Ifill.

The 10-19 Mets tried this strategy during their 12-game losing streak, telling their opponents to cry “uncle” and give up.

You’re not blockading me; I’m blockading you.

The daily fight against racists and proud, ignorant fascists, against craven, complicit, sycophantic Republicans, is infuriating and exhausting.

Smith to Hegseth: “I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.” “The Taming of the Shrew”

Eagerly awaiting the day when Trump is gone and Blanche, like the defeated Talbot in “Henry VI, Part 1,” acknowledges his humiliating abasement with “The shame hereof will make me hide my head.”

The Supreme Court just stabbed democracy in the back — and 6 justices did it with a smile. Today's ruling doesn't just weaken the Voting Rights Act. It guts it. And if you're not furious right now, you're not paying attention. Reform the Court. Now. Before there's nothing left to protect.

“At an official event this week, the acting attorney general [Blanche] offered such sycophantic praise for the president he seemed to be auditioning to star in a Trump campaign ad.” “And in obsequious fondness crowd to his presence,“ says Angelo in “Measure for Measure.”

“The moral, intellectual, emotional collapse of the Republican Party is in a way a bigger story than Trump. The celebration of a guy…who has led, more or less single-handedly, on his own decisions, his own judgment, he has led America into one of our worst strategic defeats in our history.”

It’s the culmination of the life’s work of Roberts and Alito, who have shown persistent resistance to the idea of the U.S. as a multiracial democracy, and a brazen willingness to reject Congress’ judgment that fair representation for minority voters sometimes requires race-conscious legislation.”

“Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.” “Timon of Athens”

Note: Of the Supreme Court Justices, only Trump’s six were invited to the state dinner.

It took far less time for DOJ to redact and whitewash what it did not erase in the Epstein files.

“86 47” is grounds for prosecution but threatening to destroy a country’s civilization is cool.

The Bard to the spineless Blanche: “Makest thou this shame thy pastime?”

But it’s Democrats who need to tone down the rhetoric?!

“The mind growing once corrupt they turn to vicious forms.” “Henry VIII”

“He was not born to shame: Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit.” “Romeo and Juliet”

Wouldn't it have been fun if Charles, in closing, had repeated to Trump what Elizabeth I said to another deformed degenerate, Shakespeare’s Richard III: "God grant that we may never have need of you!"

AOC reads to Zeldin internal emails she obtained from the EPA about a meeting he had with the Bayer CEO on glyphosate, and asks him, "Do you understand the conflict of interest that is before the American people right now?"

The convicted sexual assaulter and 34-time convicted felon who incited an attack on the Capitol has described his political opponents as “garbage, scum, demonic, animals,” yet Caliban Leavitt blames violence on “a systemic demonization of Trump and his supporters by Democrats and the media.”

“Lurking underneath this [Jamie Raskin/Dana Bash] exchange is a more subtle set of revelations about the media’s tolerance for Trump’s (incivility alert!) fascism, and about the options that Democrats could exercise for shaming the press over that failing—ones they typically fail to utilize.”

“Superpower Suicide” is a concept to help understand the approach of the Trump regime to the rest of the world. We are fighting a war for no reason we can name, losing it, and covering our defeat with genocidal and apocalyptic propaganda. snyder.substack.com/p/superpower...

The White House press corps too often treats its beat like trade magazine “reporters”: a buddy-buddy relationship that celebrates and amplifies the feel-good messages the White House wants to disseminate.

Submit and unite? “On what submissive message art thou sent?” asks Charles, the feckless French ruler, of the unity-seeking messenger, the English lord William Lucy, in “Henry VI, Part 1.” “Submission,“ he is told. “I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta'en and to survey the bodies of the dead.”

“As Trump sees it, Americans gathering peacefully in communities nationwide to denounce his abuses necessarily creates conditions for political violence. It reflects Trump’s apparent belief that the proper response to an incident such as the one on Saturday night is to take steps to stifle dissent.”

Memo to Democrats: Do not obey in advance. “An armed man…got close enough for Trump to play martyr and for his retinue of hangers-on to promote a new White House message: Trump needs his palace ballroom expedited, for national-security reasons. This position is stupid on the merits.”

The DOJ violates the Epstein Files Transparency Act on the daily. So I'm suing Todd Blanche. As a journalist, I cannot report accurately on the Epstein Files if I cannot even read them. I am represented by @brendanballou.bsky.social & we seek to hold the DOJ accountable for its noncompliance.

Nixon: “I am not a crook.” Trump: “I’m not a rapist.”

“For now against himself he sounds this doom, that through the length of times he stands disgraced.” “The Rape of Lucrece”

Leavitt “had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her.” “1984,” by George Orwell

Trump as victim as marketing pitch for new ballroom: “Pardon me, or strike me, if you please; I cannot be much lower.” “Pericles” #ShakespeareSunday

Lawler to Trump: “Bound me in servitude.” “Pericles” #ShakespeareSunday

“In obsequious fondness crowd to his presence.” “Measure for Measure” #ShakespeareSunday

Actual journalist killed for her work vs stenographers who were in the same building as something dangerous.

Mike Lawler’s screen test to serve as Trump toady share.google/hiShfR3rPesN...

The worst Irish goodbye ever

And then the suspect was shot and immediately cremated.

Oz: “And the name uppermost in your affection, Mr. President? Five letters. Foreign. Compromat. Turn over your card quickly and show the camera the name you most fear before the Secret Service announces the fake assassination.”

This is a parody, right? Trump toady celebrating Trump as first amendment championsl. It doesn’t take a mentalist to read the room: Ho hum. Another fake assassination attempt to portray Trump as victim.