Month: August 2025

Trump aspires to be like Putin

President Donald Trump (the title still makes my eyes cross) travels to Alyaska  (“Аляска”) or Alyeska today to meet with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Anchorage. Trump wants to make a deal for a ceasfire in Ukraine. We’ll be lucky if the man who embodies “the soft bigotry of low expectations” doesn’t trade away the 49th state.

After a virtual meeting with Trump on Wednesday, however, European leaders were cautiously optimistic that Trump’s meeting would not make things worse (BBC):

Still, in their statements European leaders restated the need for Kyiv to be involved in any final decision – betraying an underlying nervousness that Putin could ultimately persuade Trump to concede Ukrainian land in exchange for a ceasefire.

“It’s most important thing that Europe convinces Donald Trump that one can’t trust Russia,” said Poland’s Donald Tusk, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed the leaders had “made it clear that Ukraine must be at the table as soon as follow-up meetings take place”.

If the Russian side refused to make any concessions, “then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure”, Merz said.

S.V. Date writes:

As President Donald Trump heads to Alaska on Friday to meet with the KGB agent-turned-dictator for whom he has long held a fawning admiration, Russia experts worry that the big loser will be Ukraine, the neighbor Vladimir Putin invaded three and a half years ago.

“There’re lots of ways this can go wrong,” said Fiona Hill, a Russia analyst on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term. “I’m kind of worried about the fact that it’s supposed to be a one-on-one.”

More like one on one-quarter. For his part, Trump promised “very severe” consequences if Russia does not halt its war against Ukraine. In Trumpian terms, that’s likely untruthful hyperbole.

Trump is traveling to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage for the meeting with Putin, with the stated goal of ending the bloodshed caused by Russia’s invasion. It will be Trump’s first meeting with Putin, now widely considered a war criminal, since Trump returned to office in January. Putin would face arrest traveling to most countries and needed a waiver of U.S. sanctions to set foot on American soil.

Trump’s summit, though, was hastily scheduled with little groundwork, apart from meetings conducted by his friend from his New York real estate days, Steve Witkoff, whose last trip generated confusion after Witkoff apparently misunderstood Putin’s demands.

Regarding the Alaska meeting, Heather Cox Richardson concurs with Date, observing, “Putin generally cannot travel outside Russia because he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the theft of Ukrainian children. And yet Trump is welcoming him to the United States of America.”

Should Trump never face justice in the U.S., one can only hope that a future International Criminal Court indictment for his treatment of migrants will keep him from ever visiting the Trump-branded international golf resorts and hotels upon which he’s constructed his bloated self-image. The DOJ might never touch him. If only karma would.

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Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

“The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”

While holding a sign downtown with Vets For Peace on Tuesday, I met a 20-year-old mechanical engineering student interning for the summer from Michigan. He is barely getting by here because he’s paying $1,500 a month for a studio apartment. His prospects for the future dwindling, but he’s pressing on nonetheless. It sucks. So this is the 3×2 sign I prepped for the overpass protest the Visibility Brigade called for today at drive time. (I’m taking my cue on readability from Patrick Randall, the Freeway Blogger. He’s still out there.)

I may be alone but I will be there. Maybe in an oxford shirt.*

Let’s review:

Clicktivism and casual criticism in the face of fascism is not enough. Direct action is a necessity. If it pisses off some it will inspire others. We must build a community of opposition to the authoritarian overthrow of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law. For many, they will need their neighbors’ permission to take their first baby steps. Deeper commitment comes later. That’s the ladder of engagement.

I’m done calling these streetcorner displays protests. Protesting sounds too much like work. What they are is pop-up parties. (I bring a Bluetooth speaker and play a curated song list.) We want others to join. That’s how you build a movement. And God knows we need one.

“A movement must be public,” Derek Sivers told TED in 2010. Writing your congresscritter or calling your senator’s office every day as others urge is good, but it’s not public. Others don’t see you doing it. They have to see you doing it to feel they have permission to join in. Behold, here’s how a movment builds:

Remember: “The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”

Today is a good day to be that lone nut. Maybe you’ll find you aren’t alone.

* My button-down Oxfords have languished in the armoir since retirement. In this blue bubble of a town, people are accustomed to dismissing protesters as the usual gaggle of peaceniks for whom public protests are a way of life. In a crowd, I want to stand out: bright colors and Hawaiian shirts. On my own, I want to flip the narrative by presenting an image drivers here don’t expect to see. Would a tie be overkill?

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Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

James Fallows has written the definitive piece about what it really feels like to live in DC as only he can:

The purpose of this post is to say something about Washington, D.C. as a real place. Rather than as the political prop most recently weaponized by Donald Trump, in his ongoing effort to change the topic away from Jeffrey Epstein.

Donald Trump obviously does not know this city. According to press accounts, and to judge by his own rhetoric, Trump lurched into declaring a “public safety emergency” for DC based mainly on two pieces of evidence. One was the reported injury of the 19-year-old former Doge staffer Edward Coristine, generally known as “Big Balls,” in an alleged carjacking. The other was Trump’s alarm at seeing a homeless encampment while being driven from the White House to his own golf course in Northern Virginia.1

Most news reports have properly emphasized that Trump’s claim of a new crime wave in DC is the exact opposite of the truth. Crime has been going down, not up; and it is lower in DC than in at least a dozen other major US cities.

But many reports have also cut Trump some slack, by saying that it “feels like” DC is becoming more dangerous. Of course any crime is too much crime, any homeless encampment represents failures on many levels, and any encounter with a menacing person is alarming.

But let’s take a bigger and longer-term perspective on what it feels like in DC. A “feels” report is by definition subjective, and this one has all the limits of my personal experience. But that experience goes back a long way.

I urge you to read the whole thing for some much needed perspective on the “vibes.” It’s very illuminating:

He concludes with this:

A media watchword of the 2016 election was “but her emails!” A watchword of the 2024 election was “if the economy is ‘good,’ why does it ‘feel’ so bad.”

The effect in both cases was to shift discussion in a way that “normalized” Trump. Sure, he was a liar and a crook. But what about those emails! Sure, his tax and tariff plans would be disruptive. But things feel so bad now!

I’m not saying that this “normalizing” coverage changed the results last year. (It arguably did, in 2016.) I’m saying, don’t fall for this again.

And that life in our nation’s capital “feels” different from what you might have heard.

He is 100% right.

Maggie Haberman Says Pushing Back in Trump Risky for Dems: ‘There Is a Crime Problem Everywhere’

Trump’s blame game is BS. Of course.

The NY Times points something out that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else. D.C. is pretty much already run by the feds and they do a shitty job of it:

Yes, there is tension between the president’s portrayal of a crime-ridden capital and crime statistics that show that the city, while still struggling with violence, is growing safer. But the deeper conflict is this: between the conditions the president and congressional Republicans decry and the power the District has, on its own, to address them under the constraints of limited home rule.

“You’re berating me to fix certain things, and you want me to do it with one hand tied behind my back,” said Christina Henderson, a District of Columbia Council member. “And then when I’m unsuccessful, you seek to punish. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Just months ago, Republicans in Congress passed a bill funding the federal government that blocked the District from spending nearly a billion dollars of its own taxpayer money toward a city budget that Congress itself had already approved. The move set off a scramble to cover police salaries, school programs and public works — all investments in bettering the city. Amid the shortfall, the city had to shut down popular, high-tech public toilets — a program explicitly aimed at improving public order, quality of life and cleanliness.

Though Republicans in the Senate passed a funding fix in March, the House has yet to consider the legislation months later (the city has managed to renew the toilet contract by shuffling money).

The limits to the city’s power — or, rather, the federal government’s power over it — extend well beyond this year’s budget crisis. The District can’t invest in many of the city’s neglected public spaces because they’re owned and controlled by the National Park Service. It can’t fill judicial vacancies on D.C. courts; that’s Congress’s job. It can’t set priorities for which kinds of crimes to prosecute; that’s the role of the U.S. attorney, who is nominated by the president.

The District is further constrained in the revenue it can raise to fund services, both because of the vast federal footprint in town, which yields no property taxes, and because the Home Rule Act bars the District from taxing nonresident commuters who work in the city (as many states do).

This tracks with the way he deals with California as well. He blames California for failing to “rake the forests” — that are 90% controlled by the federal government.

It’s so much easier to blame his political enemies for his own failures and then use police and purse power to bring the hammer down on them.

🚨WTF!! JD Vance tells Stephen Miller’s wife Katie that his “favorite meme” is a photo of Usha, the Pope, and a couch referencing three things he f*cked since the pope died shortly after his visit.

JD Vance is a disgusting joke. pic.twitter.com/SzOssd4zd8

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 14, 2025

I can’t say I understand this “joke.” I assume it’s “three things JD’s fucked” (haha hilarious…) but what does the Pope have to do with it? Was there a meme that he had slept with him and then he died?

I’m perfectly prepared to admit that I’m missing something obvious. I don’t keep up with all the social media memes these days because life is short. But this one has me scratching my head because I thought the joke was that JD had sex with couches (and, obviously, his wife) — and killed the Pope. Wut???

It would be nice if someone on the news this morning mentioned this but I would assume that people are aware in their own lives? Or are the “vibes” so good that our news media can’t find the time to report it?

Wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, providing a potential sign that inflation is still a threat to the U.S. economy, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Thursday showed.

The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.

Huh. Who knew?

I suppose that’s the last legitimate BLS report we’ll get until Trump is out of office. And if the coverage today is any example I guess the press will just continue to report the “vibes” instead of reality anyway so…

By the way:

The latest Producer Price Index, which measures the average change in prices paid to producers, jumped 0.9% from June, lifting the annual rate to 3.3%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The PPI serves as a potential bellwether for the prices consumers may see in the months ahead.

“Producers are starting to feel the inflation fire heat,” Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, wrote Thursday. “It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs on to the backs of inflation-weary consumers.”

Thursday’s readings far exceeded economists’ expectations for prices would rise by just 0.2% in July and 2.4% annually.

And considering the PPI covers the domestic output of goods and services and excludes imports, the potential consumer price inflationary impact could be underestimated, noted Brian Bethune, an economist at Boston College.

I’m sure it is. Whether the “vibes” reflect reality is always up for grabs these days so who knows if it will be salient to the American people?

You do you

I wonder why people think Trump is in the clutches of Vladimir Putin? Could it be because he keeps saying things like this?

REPORTER: There's new reporting that Russians have hacked into computer systems that manage US federal courts documents. Do you plan to bring it up with Putin?

TRUMP: I guess I could. Are you surprised? They hack in — what's what they do pic.twitter.com/N6AectFbBZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2025

Sure, no problem. Russia just hacks our government computers. It’s fine. No need to interfere with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign.

Control

What James B. Greenberg offers this morning is not particularly new information. But as invisible wheels turn that have impact on our futures, perhaps a review is timely.

Greenberg reviews efforts by moneyed interests inside the U.S. to retool government “of the people, by the people, for the people” to our oligarchs’ specifications. Two Heritage-connected projects continue apace as a kind of oligarchic Matrix:

Two projects are moving in tandem: Project 2025, a detailed plan for consolidating executive power now guiding actions in Trump’s second term, and an Article V Convention of States, a rarely invoked constitutional mechanism that allows state legislatures to propose sweeping amendments without going through Congress. Both are funded by the same network and both are being advanced—quietly but deliberately [1][2].

The machinery is a closed loop. The donors fund the agenda. They pay for the marketing campaigns that frame it as “restoring liberty” or “protecting states’ rights.” They bankroll the lobbying efforts that push legislatures to pass resolutions calling for a convention. They also underwrite the legal and policy staff who draft the model legislation that those legislators introduce [3].

What they have built functions as a parallel polity—an unelected, unaccountable apparatus embedded inside the official government. It uses the laws, budgets, and offices of the state, but its loyalties run to private funders rather than the public. Once such a system takes root, it can outlast elections, sidestep oversight, and operate with a speed and discipline that formal democratic processes rarely match.

Because government by the plebs is too messy for them. Sharing political power with people beneath them is, well, beneath them. Nancy MacLean traced the history of the development of this Matrix in “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.“ Greenberg describes the plan as it exists today as a form of resource extraction:

This is not representative democracy. It is governance outsourced to private actors who are not elected, not bound by obligations to the public, and not required to reveal their actual interests. From a political ecology perspective, it mirrors the logic of resource extraction: public institutions are treated as a commons to be stripped of their value, repurposed for private gain, and left weakened for everyone else. The same extractive mindset that clear-cuts forests or privatizes water is now applied to the machinery of governance itself. Their reach is national, but their operations are granular, targeting county commissions, school boards, and statehouses with the precision of political campaign targeting.

The Heritage Foundation’s public face is policy research. Its real power lies in a coordinated political infrastructure. The State Policy Network, for example, links more than 50 state-based think tanks that act as delivery systems for the national agenda [3]. Each one produces studies, testifies in hearings, and mobilizes activists to create the appearance of grassroots momentum. This is the cultural work of legitimacy: the performance of democratic process—hearings, petitions, and votes—crafted to disguise the fact that the outcomes are prearranged and the scripts are written elsewhere. As in other systems of dominance, legitimacy is constructed through symbols and ritual, not by consent freely given.

In essence, a Matrix that doesn’t require artificial intelligence, yet means to maintain the illusion of free will and agency for people it means to control.

Morpheus tells Neo, “You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind.”

Like MacLean, Greenberg warns this is exactly the case:

The media’s near-silence is part of the story. These groups thrive in the shadows. The quieter the path, the less public attention, the easier it becomes to present outcomes as inevitable, even consensual. By the time the public notices, resolutions have passed, delegates chosen, and the framework for change already in place.

It’s trite, perhaps, but like Neo, an anagram for One, you are the ones who can break this Matrix and awaken the sleepers to the danger and to their own servitude.

Marcy Wheeler revealed last week a similar attempt by Team Trump “to hide that what Trump has claimed for eight years was an effort by Hillary to frame Trump was — is, still — a wildly successful attempt by SVR [Russian Foreign Intelligence Service] to frame Hillary.” It’s another example of actions occurring outside public view that have national, international, and personal impacts.

“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room” Morpheus tells Neo.

Not yet, but powers are working on it.

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Have you fought dicktatorship today?

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Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
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Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Will Americans roll over?

Americans do not take well to having their cities turned into East Berlin (Washington Post):

Tensions over President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal law enforcement erupted on a busy Northwest Washington street Wednesday night as a mix of local and federal authorities pulled over drivers for seat belt violations or broken taillights while nearly 100 onlookers chanted: “Go home, fascists.”

The checkpoint, which appeared to begin around 8 p.m., included more than 20 law enforcement officers, many wearing face coverings and vests labeled “HSI” — Homeland Security Investigations. Some vests indicated agents were with Enforcement and Removal Operations, a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that arrests and removes undocumented immigrants. They stopped dozens of cars at the busy intersection of 14th and W streets NW, in front of a popular chain bakery, a veterinary clinic and a high-end outdoor apparel store.

View on Threads

The federal deployment is as ridiculous as Trump’s hair and tanner, a “blending of autocracy and absurdity,” as Greg Sargent puts it. So was this “sub attack” by one of Trump’s “bloodthirsty criminals“:

The DC sandwich guy has been charged with assault for shouting at a CBP officer, throwing a sub into his chest, and then running off."I did it. I threw the sandwich," he said while he was being processed.

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) 2025-08-13T20:25:40.915Z

Oliver Willis snarks, “How do we know there wasn’t a second sandwich thrower on the knoll?”

But I’m somewhat irritated with The Lincoln Project’s stance on Trump’s takeover of D.C. The group is adamant that Trump’s action is yet another distraction from his Epstein files woes. It is. But Republicans do few things that are not at least twofers. The man who hid in the White House bunker when protesters flooded Lafayette Park has had a taste of indemnified autocratic power and he wants more. He will never be a member of exclusive Club Dicktator. But Trump is doing his best Charlie the Tuna for the world’s autocrats to prove that he’s worthy. Intimidating Americans is a bonus. That makes D.C. is a threefer.

 

 

View on Threads

 

Marcy Wheeler understands that the distraction narrative is the distraction. She writes, “the invasion of a second blue city is another step in a mostly pre-planned map for fascism, and Trump’s brief inability to redirect his online mob’s focus on Epstein merely created a speed bump in that march of fascism.”

Have a morning shot of Trae Crowder. He gets that too.

Trump Takes Over Washington D.C. pic.twitter.com/Vx2dZwfcwy

— Trae Crowder (@traecrowder) August 12, 2025

The Post story on neighborhood resistance concludes:

A group darted into a CVS store near the checkpoint and emerged with hastily made signs that read “Police checkpoint ahead” and “ICE,” then headed a few blocks south to warn people. Aspeakerblared “Ice Ice Baby” from the sidewalk. Some people shouted advice at the drivers, encouraging them to ask for badge numbers or remain silent.

“Sir, you don’t want to do this,” one woman shouted at law enforcement. “You do not want this role in history. You did this job to protect and serve. Look what they’re doing to you. This is the community.”

Police left the area around 10 p.m.

Do not go quietly.

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Have you fought dicktatorship today?

50501
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Trump: Since 1978 the Kennedy Center honors have been amongst the most prestigious awards. I wanted one, never able to get one. I would have taken it. I waited and waited and waited and I said to hell with it, I'll become chairman. I will give myself an honor. Next year we'll… pic.twitter.com/z5XXjBC6jt

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 13, 2025

Trump: Since 1978 the Kennedy Center honors have been amongst the most prestigious awards. I wanted one, never able to get one. I would have taken it. I waited and waited and waited and I said to hell with it, I’ll become chairman. I will give myself an honor. Next year we’ll honor Trump, okay?

Trump: The 2025 Kennedy center honors— I've been asked to host. I said I'm the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you will get much higher ratings. Do you believe what I have to do? I used to host The Apprentice finales and we did very well… pic.twitter.com/uB2u3jvnuk

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 13, 2025

Trump: The 2025 Kennedy center honors— I’ve been asked to host. I said I’m the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you will get much higher ratings. Do you believe what I have to do? I used to host The Apprentice finales and we did very well with that.

Trump: We'll redo the grass with the finest grasses. I know a lot about grass. I own a lot of golf courses. If you don't have good grass, you aren't in business very long. Lindsey graham. Good poll numbers, Lindsey, congratulations pic.twitter.com/coOCUhOZ2H

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 13, 2025

I hear Joe Biden is old.