From mathematical logic we learn that from a contradiction you can prove anything. The same may hold true for politics.

INTENTIONALLY OBTUSE OR JUST CLUELESS. The NYT weighs in on the knotty problem of why late night comedians have become politicized. They ask, how did these establishment figures become so political? Huh? How about the implacable reality of our country plunging headlong into fascism?

THE WORD SALAD PRESIDENT. Incoherence would be a blessing. Nonsense is what we got.

DO THEY HAVE A DIFFERENT IDEA? Clearly, Pam Bondi and I have differing ideas of what we mean by an independent Justice Department. But it seems we also have differing ideas about the meaning of the word “independent.” Do words have any meaning anymore?

IS STATING THE OBVIOUS A CRIME? SHOULD STATING THE OBVIOUS BE PUNISHED? Ask Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. The Bill of Rights prohibits the government from curbing free speech. But it does not prohibit corporations. OK. What if the government tells corporations to curb free speech? What then?

HEAR, HEAR. Justic Sotomayor: "We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish and appears to work a low wage job." Why not arreat people who look like Supreme Court Justices who take bribes?

INCURABLE DISEASE? Recent studies have shown that listening to RFK Jr. causes autism.

FAILURE TO STATE THE OBVIOUS. If there was a flat-earth "theorist" testifying before Congress, would the NYT provide the headline, "Grilled by the Senate, Kennedy defends flat earth moves." The issue isn't Kennedy's defense of idiocy, it's the NYT mollycoddling an idiot. Please guys show some spine.

A SINCERE APOLOGY. I wrote "what happens when crime goes unpunished..." I should have written "what happens when crime is rewarded..." Yes, indeed. The situation is much worse than what I at first imagined.

What if Occam's Razor was used on Buridan's Ass? Would the ass be well fed?

Can we depend on the Supreme Court to do the wrong thing? Let's see what they do with the Voting Rights Act. (After all hasn't our racist president decided that racism isn't a problem in this country?)

Is it possible to erase 200 years of progress…? Ask the Trump Administration. They’re actively trying to set back the clock.

A NEW VERSION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT. Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press… unless such freedoms permit a disagreement with the opinions of the President of the United States.

Let's replace the meritocracy with the idiocracy. Idiocracy, ship of fools, confederacy of dunces, take your pick... Trump's Cabinet picks tells us a lot about who he really is. Sadly enough, a fool, a craven fool.

Let's make the world safe for mediocre white people.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CRIME IS NOT PUNISHED? This is what happens. Lawlessness. An inversion of accepted values. Anarchy. Chaos.

Two criminals meet in Alaska to congratulate each other on not being in prison.

TRUMP IS INSANE. Why is no one willing to say that Trump is insane?

Truth is non-negotiable.

OF ALL HIS CRIMES... The assault on truth is by far the worst. It is an assault on reason itself. "On a huge hill, / Cragged and steep, Truth stands, and he that will / Reach her, about must and about must go, / And what the hill’s suddenness resists, win so." (John Donne)

TRUMP'S WAR ON TRUTH. KILL THE MESSENGER. Erika McEntarfer bites the dust. Her crime? Producing factual information about jobs and the economy. "Trump unleashed his fury about weakness in the labor market, saying without evidence that the data were rigged and firing the Dep't. of Labor official..."

A GRIM JOKE. The way to combat anti-Semitism is not to cut funding to Harvard...

EXTORTION. The "first" time around it led to impeachment. "I would like you to do us a favor." Withholding mandated funds for Ukraine in exchange for dirt on the Bidens. Now, it's ubiquitous. Universities, law firms, tariffs, you name it. Time to call it what it is. EXTORTION, EXTORTION, EXTORTION.

The Dunning-Kruger Presidency.

I thought the Alien and Sedition Act was done in by Thomas Jefferson. Not so fast. It lives on in the Presidency of Donald Trump. Seditious libel in particular. Now, it calls for extortion. Just sue. The government pays for it; others bear the cost. Alas, where is Jefferson when we really need him?

Originalism has been used to deny women their right to bodily autonomy, to prevent limitations on the accessibility of weapons… it is selectively invoked to prevent social progress…

Originalism is the last refuge of scoundrels. It can be used to justify a host of regressive policies.

I feel like I live in a foreign country. This is not America.

Science is a DEI hire.

DEPRESSING NEWS. A ZIRCON AS BIG AS THE RITZ. The Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, Nunavik, Quebec. “Evidence of very early life in these sedimentary rocks...increases the probability that life is common and widespread in the universe.” Given what life has become, should we be encouraged?

Can someone please explain to me why the anti-DEI crusade is not a simple example of racism? It's all well and to the good to say that all people should be treated as equal, but what if some people haven't been. Shouldn't we do something to address the injustice?

Isn't it time to revisit Dred Scott? I mean isn't it time to celebrate it as an anti-DEI decision of the Supreme Court?

Why be a pessimist when you can just crawl under the bed and start sucking your thumb?

Mortgaging America's future. It's worth it, no? How else can we pay for concentration camps, a police state, and the further empowerment of the rich? Remember, universal health care should only be for people who can afford it.

First, get rid of the JCPOA, Obama's negotiated settlement with Iran. Second, move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Third, encourage Israeli settllers in the West Bank. See if you can guess what happens next... Become Netanyahu's bitch. And then call anybody who challenges him an anti-Semite.

Who do I dislike the most? Alito for depriving women of their rights? Or Thomas for being an all around fascist? Or Gorsuch for undermining the administrative state? No. For me, it’s Roberts, the seeming patrician with a spine of jello. Congratulations for gutting the Voting Rights Act.

Good thing the Supreme Court was not in session over the weekend. They could have abolished the judiciary.

The Supreme Court used to be concerned with expanding rights, now it’s about contracting them.

OK. OK. Maybe no one really liked Obama's attempts to negotiate limitations on Iran's attempts to enrich uranium, but when Trump scuttled them, claiming that he would impose a better deal, it has taken a decade to find out what that better deal might be -- yes, that's right, it's WAR.

Why is it that the course of history is inevitably chosen by madmen?

SADDENED BY THE DEATH OF ALFRED BRENDEL. Matchless Beethoven among many other things. And the Piano/Cello Sonatas with his son Adrian are great.

ONCE AGAIN DISAPPOINTED WITH THE NEWS. Did journalists really believe that the U.S. wasn't involved with the Israeli attacks on Iran? Trump is as good at keeping a secret as Hegseth. NOT.

TRUMP IS IN COMPETITION WITH HIMSELF. Is he the most fascistic president or just the most incompetent president? Well, he could be both.

Why are people upset that Trump will not agree to uphold the Constitution when he’s doing everything he can to undermine it? The Framers included a pledge to uphold the Constitution but no pledge not to ignore it. An oversight?

NOT SURPRISING BUT STILL HORRIFYING. www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...

TO ALL OF THOSE WHO IMAGINE A HAPPY ENDING TO ALL OF THIS, PLEASE ALLOW ME TO QUOTE SHAKESPEARE. "Since the affairs of men still rest incertain (the Bard's spelling), let's reason with the worst that may befall. Julius Caesar, Act V, Scene 1.

MY BINARY THEORY. Given two people, we come to the conclusion one is OK and the other is an asshole. Inevitably there comes a time when it flips. The one you thought was OK turns out to be an asshole; the other is OK. Now, here's my theory. Always consider the possibility that both are assholes.

TRUMP WOULD BE PLEASED. When LaGrange heard Lavoisier had been guillotined said, "It did not take more than a second for his head to fall, but perhaps hundreds of years will not be long enough to recreate another one like it." The court that condemned him said, "The people have no need of science."

The picture was taken by an extraordinary portrait photographer, Nafis Azad.

Working on the op. 69.