Month: September 2025

He seems nice.

Just for context, here’s a story from just 6 months ago:

An elected leader once dubbed “The Punisher” was handed to The Hague to face trial for crimes against humanity over his brutal war on drugs, in a breathtaking reversal of fortune for a politician who once openly boasted about killing people and placing opponents on hit lists.

Rodrigo Duterte ran the Philippines for six turbulent years, during which he oversaw a brutal crackdown on drugs, openly threatened critics with death and tongue-lashed a host of global leaders from the Pope to former US President Barack Obama.

On Wednesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands confirmed the former Philippines leader was now in its custody.

A former prosecutor, congressman and mayor, Duterte built his no-holds-barred reputation in the southern Philippine city of Davao. He swept to the presidency in 2016 on a populist – and popular – promise to replicate the hardline tactics of his hometown and wage war against drugs and drug pushers across the Southeast Asian nation.

“All of you who are into drugs, you sons of b**ches, I will really kill you,” he told a huge crowd in one of his many characteristically profane-laced 2016 campaign speeches. “I have no patience, I have no middle ground. Either you kill me or I will kill you idiots.”

Once in power he unleashed what rights groups called “death squads” to eradicate drug pushers – many of the victims young men from impoverished shanty towns, shot by police and rogue gunmen as part of a campaign to target dealers.

Police data said 6,000 people were killed. Some rights groups say the death toll could be as high as 30,000 with innocents and bystanders often caught in the crossfire.

Duterte’s blood-soaked presidency ended in 2022. Three years later, only 8 policemen had been convicted for 5 of the victims killed in the war on drugs, according to court documents.

He seems nice too.

Here’s Trump from 2017 in a phone call with his buddy:

I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.

They maintained a close relationship, because they are both murderous tyrants. So, apparently, are JD Vance and Marco Rubio.

Anyway, the arrest of Duterte for his extrajudicial murders of alleged drug dealers should serve as a warning. What Trump is doing with his literal “war on drugs” is illegal and just like Duterte they aren’t even trying to hide it. Not that they care. We are a rogue superpower led by psychopaths so I would doubt Trump’s new “warrior” military would ever allow him to be arrested by anyone. Still, this case makes clear just how lawless Trump’s actions are.

in which Mike Johnson claims that Donald Trump was an FBI informant to take down Epstein pic.twitter.com/fe2WvhNDS2

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 5, 2025

Whitey Bulger was an FBI informant too. Just saying…

To be honest, I’m not sure if Johnson is saying Trump or Epstein was an informant. But let’s just say, either way, that this scandal has the Speaker of the House tied up in knots.

By the way, this is a Qanon thing. They all say Trump has been working “on the inside” to expose the pedophile ring.

Trump seems to distance himself from RFK Jr on vaccines pic.twitter.com/YYBmc07Ywu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 5, 2025

Trump was asked Friday during an Oval Office meeting about Kennedy’s vaccine mandate changes, which include limiting which children are eligible for vaccines.

“I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated,” Trump said of Kennedy’s vaccine mandates for children.

“They’re just, pure and simple — they work,” he added. “They’re not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used.”

Hmmm. Why would he do this?

Republican senators are sending clear signs of disapproval and unhappiness with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making it plain to President Trump that they want the administration to address the chaos Kennedy has caused by trying to rewrite the nation’s vaccine policies.

GOP senators have stopped short of calling on Kennedy to resign and haven’t yet said they regret voting for him in February, but they want him to back off efforts to change vaccine policy recommendations without sound scientific backing as the administration faces a growing public backlash.

Kennedy received an unusual admonishment from Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), an orthopedic surgeon, when he testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. “I support vaccines. I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” said Barrasso, the Senate’s No. 2-ranking Republican leader.

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” he said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”  Barrasso pointed to a national measles outbreak, the sudden ouster of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, and questions raised by the leadership of the National Institutes of Health over mRNA vaccines as raising troubling questions.

“Americans don’t know who to rely on,” he said. “If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined.” Barrasso said there “are real concerns” that safe, proven vaccines for serious diseases such as measles and hepatitis B could now be in jeopardy.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who attended the hearing, said Kennedy’s policy changes have made it tougher for people to get vaccines. He read aloud a social media post by conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who said his wife, who was diagnosed with cancer, couldn’t get a vaccine at CVS.

“I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines,” Cassidy bluntly told Kennedy.

Who knew that Republican Senators actually have some agency after all? Their opinions matter and Trump actually responds if they make them known. Imagine if they used this power for other purposes.

Asimov’s ashes turn over in his urn

Trump wants to replace doctors with AI to determine whether Medicare patients get the care they need.

A machine will have the ability to override a licensed doctor to deny care in order to increase profits. Make no mistake, this is a direct attack on Medicare. pic.twitter.com/umSTOtXz0d

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) September 5, 2025

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Have you fought dicktatorship today?

50501 
May Day Strong
No King’s One Million Rising movement
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

Saith Lord Trump

What is it good for? Say it again, y’all!

I can say with 100 percent confidence that somebody’s penis is not one millimeter longer for Donald Trump renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War without the approval of Congress. Seriously, what’s left of the man’s frontal lobes is titilated at the idea that his cult followers will smile, nod and roll over for their own debasement.

I’m pretty certain that 99% of the officers who walk past this sign are either going to roll their eyes or have to suppress a snicker pic.twitter.com/MKbH4Is0iW

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 5, 2025

A local guy, thirty-something, stopped his Outback on the overpass last night to berate me over my “retarded” sign reading “ARE YOUR GROCERIES CHEAPER?” Nothing on it mentions Trump, but it pushed his buttons. He knows. And he doesn’t enjoy being reminded what he was promised, voted for, and didn’t get.

“Donald Trump is the best president we’ve ever had,” he shouted. “Thank God for ICE.”

Wonder if he’d seen this report from Tennessee headed “YouTube sisters share $1 meals to help families survive soaring food prices”? A large box of Cheerios is well over $6.

“Sometimes things cost 4 times what they was a year ago…It’s awful. Everything just keeps going up… They’re not concerned with people like us. They said these tariffs are gonna bring prices down. They’re not.”

Circuses and no bread

Trump, the failson heir who’s obsessed for decades over the belief that the world is laughing at “us” plans a UFC cage match on the White House lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday. Happy Birthday, America!

“Lincoln Memorial Weigh-ins” + “Oval Office walkout” is bonkers

Just what the founders had in mind 😕 🇺🇸

Straight-up desecration pic.twitter.com/LDwoLtpLkY

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) September 6, 2025

The Hill:

A much-hyped cage match is on track to take place at the White House in June 2026, with fireworks and light shows, fighter weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial and fan activities spread across the National Mall.

A White House spokesperson confirmed the news to The Hill on Friday, following an initial report from The Wall Street Journal, but did not provide additional details.

That must be why Trump paved over the Rose Garden and installed “his own private club right outside the Oval Office.” So he can sell wrestling tickets.

Trump is using his second term to have a good laugh at his supporters’ expense.

GRAND OPENING: Rose Garden Club 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/VJe97CondZ

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 6, 2025

How much will MAGA tolerate of Trump humiliating their country before the entire planet while they eat dollar meals before saying, “Oh, hell no”?

* * * * *

Have you fought dicktatorship today?

50501 
May Day Strong
No King’s One Million Rising movement
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

"Hi, I’m a possum, and I’m not here to cause trouble. In fact, I help you more than you might realize. Every night, I can eat up to 2,000 ticks, along with other insects that spread dangerous diseases. I also help keep snake populations in check, even the venomous ones. My body… pic.twitter.com/BML1gYXC2J

— Mr PitBull (@MrPitbull07) August 31, 2025

“Hi, I’m a possum, and I’m not here to cause trouble. In fact, I help you more than you might realize. Every night, I can eat up to 2,000 ticks, along with other insects that spread dangerous diseases. I also help keep snake populations in check, even the venomous ones. My body is built tough… I can survive dozens of rattlesnake or coral snake bites, and yes, I even eat venomous snakes like they’re just another snack.

Maybe you don’t know, but my blood contains something unique that scientists have used to create treatments for snake bites. Without me, there would be more pests, more snakes, and fewer lifesaving cures for people. So if you see me, please don’t hurt me, let me raise my babies! We’re out here working quietly to make the world safer for all of us.”

I’ve come across possums with their babies walking down the sidewalk in Santa Monica and it always makes me smile. They look a little scary sometimes but they are peace-loving marsupials (the only ones in North America) and they do nothing but good. Welcome them!

I hate the “imagine if Joe Biden did this” trope, but Jesus H. Christ, imagine if Joe Biden did this!

President Donald Trump never told Congress about a disastrous 2019 intelligence mission targeting North Korea that turned deadly, The New York Times reported Friday. 

[…]

In 2018, SEAL Team 6 was charged with planting an electronic device that could intercept communications from the reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, amid high-level talks between the United States and North Korea. In early 2019, the SEALs set out toward North Korea in a nuclear submarine, and Trump gave the final go-ahead to proceed with the mission. 

After breaking off in mini-submarines and swimming to shore, the SEALs spotted a North Korean vessel close to the mini-subs. Unsure whether they’d been spotted, the SEALs opened fire, killing everyone on board. 

Upon inspection the SEALs found no weapons or uniforms on the boat, and determined that the two or three North Korean crew members had been civilians diving for shellfish, according to officials briefed on the mission. The bodies were pulled into the water, the mission was aborted, and the SEALs escaped unharmed.

A classified military review found that the killing of civilians was justified under the rules of engagement, but the Trump administration never told congressional committees overseeing military and intelligence about the operation, or the military review. 

The Biden administration eventually told Congress. I’m fairly sure that if the shoe had been on the other foot, Trump would have made it public. It was a massive fuck-up that could have resulted in disaster. Kim Jong Un is nuts, although I’m not sure anymore if he’s any crazier than Trump.

It sure makes you wonder about that boat they just blew out of the water, doesn’t it?

Remember last year when the job market was the best since the 1960s and that wages were rising and employees had more choices than ever? I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t because the media didn’t talk much about it because everyone was obsessed with eggs.

Well, it’s all over now anyway. Rolling Stone reports:

Donald Trump’s disastrous governance has successfully tanked America’s labor market.

The federal government released another weak jobs report Friday, after the previous poor jobs report resulted in Trump lashing out and firing the Commissioner of Labor Statistics. At the time, Trump baselessly claimed that the “Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

The latest jobs report found that the economy only added 22,000 jobs in August, meaning there are more unemployed people than there are jobs. The unemployment rate increased slightly from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent, the highest figure since 2021. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also revised down the numbers from June to show there was negative job growth for the first time since the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, as Bloomberg editor Joe Weisenthal noted.

The weak labor market is the culmination of Trump’s impulsive approach to economic policymaking. The president has repeatedly imposed new and shifting tariffs on imports from other countries, creating widespread economic uncertainty — at a time when Americans were already dealing with a brutal post-Covid economy and years of higher prices. (That brutal economy is exactly why Trump beat Kamala Harris last year.) 

For the time being, as the monthly job reports underscore a Trump economy that is far from the golden age that his 2024 campaign had vowed to immediately unleash, a top administration-wide priority on this matter appears to be just blaming others for the Trump’s economy, and hoping that enough of the American public buys it.

Howard Lutnick said today that the numbers are all cooked and Trump said yesterday that he’d believe it if the numbers were good otherwise the only ones that matter are the ones we’ll see next year.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Gorka: "We will find you and we will kill you. If you're a jihadi with American blood on your hand, if you're a cartel member bringing powdered death into America, you have declared war on us and we will turn you into red mist. It is that simple."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-05T00:38:49.016Z

That is Trump’s deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism.

Feeling safer?

That’s right. The man who is lobbying daily for the Nobel Peace Prize has renamed the DOD to the DOW. Why? Because he and all of his followers have deep, deep insecurity about the size of their … hands. The NY Times reports:

President Trump will sign an executive order on Friday renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the White House said, fulfilling the president’s pledge to realign the mission of the armed forces by reverting to a name used for over 150 years until shortly after World War II.

The measure, which has been expected for some time, underscores Mr. Trump’s efforts to reshape the military to align with his goals of projecting a more aggressive image by showcasing war-fighting capabilities.[…]

“We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” Mr. Trump said.

“Defense is too defensive,” he added. “And we want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too if we have to be.”

He’s very offensive. That’s certainly not a problem.

MAGA is intellectually folding in on itself. Trump ran as an isolationist who was going to focus on the “homeland” and not be involved in all those forever wars. He’s desperate to be praised as the “peace president” for “ending 7 wars” (which he cannot name) and demands that he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But he’s ordered military action against accused drug runners and has a huge deployment of Navy vessels sitting outside Venezuela in international waters where they ostentatiously blew up a speed boat without any legal justification, clearly trying to provoke a reaction by the government. The dissonance in all this — and now the renaming of the DOD to the War Department — is overwhelming.

I’ve always thought that Trump wanted to be a war president. He’s yearning to put on a uniform of some kind. But since he’s an imbecile and never had a clue about national security, he reflexively became “anti-war” in order to place himself against Bush and Obama and he trained his MAGA seals to believe it. But I don’t think he cares much about what they think anymore and believes he can say and do whatever he wants and they will follow. (Epstein is proving that may not be entirely true…)

He is a violent, hostile prick and always has been. He’s already declared war on the American people who refuse to lick his boots and those he’s declared his personal enemies. He’s even using troops in our cities. And he’s declared economic war on the entire world, making new enemies every day. He bombed Iran and now he’s going to use that big shiny military he’s so proud of to start a war in South America.

Of course he’s renamed in the Department of War. That’s what it is.