Month: November 2025

Laureen Hobbs: The Ecumenical Liberation Army is an ultra left sect, creating political confusion with wildcat violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts – which the Communist Party does not endorse. The American masses are not yet ready for open revolt. We would not want to produce a television show celebrating historically deviational terrorism.

Diana Christensen: Miss Hobbs, I’m offering you an hour of prime time television every week, into which you can stick whatever propaganda that you want.

– from Network (1976), written by Paddy Chayefsky

I suppose one could describe The French 75, a likewise fictional radical group that figures prominently in Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling action-thriller/sociopolitical satire One Battle After Another as “an ultra left sect, creating political confusion with wildcat violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts”.

In an audacious, pulse-pounding opening sequence, the group, led by charismatic firebrand Perfida Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor, in a fearless performance) conducts a pre-dawn raid on San Diego’s Otey Mesa Detention Center, with the intention of freeing the immigrant detainees. Here we are also introduced to Perfida’s decidedly less disciplined compatriot and lover “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio), the group’s explosives specialist.

As a parting shot, Perfida humiliates the facility’s steely-eyed, reactionary military commander, Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) ordering him to “get it up” while holding him at gunpoint. Final insult: she confiscates his service weapon and his hat. Palpably seething from the emasculation (despite being oddly aroused by the experience), he fixes her with a hateful stare and vows (like countless screen villains before him) that (in so many words) “we shall meet again”.

When they do meet again, Lockjaw (who is now heading up a special unit tasked with taking the French 75 down) literally gets her cornered as she is planting an explosive device in a bathroom stall. However, instead of arresting her, he tells her she can carry on with her group’s activities…as long she agrees to meet him for a motel room rendezvous. A dedicated revolutionary to the core, Perfida fights her rising gorge and appears to shrug it off as the cost of doing business.

Perfida’s steadfast commitment to the cause over all else is further evidenced after she gives birth to a daughter (at one point while she’s still with child, Pat confides to a group member that “it’s almost like she doesn’t even know she’s pregnant”). Pat (who also goes by the nickname “Rocketman”) is beginning to favor the pull of the nesting instinct over participating in the couple’s ever more risky political actions. He tries to gently persuade Perfida to do same, but to no avail.

And so Perfida abandons Pat and baby Charlene to continue the fight. Her streak ends when a bank robbery goes sideways and she fatally shoots a guard. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say she exits the narrative at this point.

Flash-forward to present-day. Pat and his now (precocious) 16 year-old daughter (Chase Infiniti) have gone underground, living off-the-grid in a rural California burg with the assumed names “Bob” and “Willa”, respectively. Perhaps understandably, Bob lives in a constant state of anxiety and paranoia. He self-medicates by staying baked most of the time.

Inevitably, that day every ex-radical in hiding dreads comes to pass-The Man is at the door, and Bob has to get his ass out of Dodge, posthaste. The Man, in this case, is the family’s old nemesis, Steven J. Lockjaw (now a full bird colonel). Unfortunately, this happens while Willa is out with her friends. Bob reluctantly has to leave without her. With help from his “sensei” Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro) Bob is eventually able to escape Lockjaw’s clutches and hits the road to find his daughter.

It’s tempting to call Anderson’s film “one chase after another”, as it doesn’t seem to pause very often for a breather in the course of its substantial 162-minute running time. Upon a second viewing (which I enjoyed even more than the first) I detected more nuance. After all, Anderson isn’t exactly revered as a premier “action director”.

While the chase scenes are expertly choreographed, breathtakingly filmed (in vintage VistaVision, no less) and genuinely exciting, it’s the little details that I love; e.g. DiCaprio toking up and reciting along with the dialog as he watches The Battle of Algiers (I also found myself laughing a lot more during the second viewing).

That’s not the only cinematic touchstone here; Anderson’s film evokes the anarchic political spirit of late 60s/early 70s films like Punishment Park, The Strawberry Statement, Zabriskie Point, and Getting Straight. The third act strongly recalls “long chase” classics like Vanishing Point and The Sugarland Express (especially with DP Michael Baumen’s expansive framing).

Anderson adapted his screenplay from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, but he has obviously updated a number of elements to reflect America in 2025 (even viewers who only casually follow politics will  pick up on that right out of the gate). I referenced Sidney Lumet’s Network at the top of my review; Anderson’s film has a very similar streak of dark satire at its core. There’s also a whiff of Dr. Strangelove; “Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw” feels like a nod to  “Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper”.

The cast is uniformly excellent, but DiCaprio and Penn are truly at the peak of their powers here. Penn, in particular has created one of the most unique heavies in recent memory; an amalgam of Colonel Kilgore and every jumped-up, overcompensating Greg Bovino with Little Man Syndrome currently prowling America’s cities whilst invested with the power of the state.

Even if you choose to eschew any political subtext, One Battle After Another can certainly be enjoyed as a piece of pure, exhilarating film making for grownups, and is the best film I’ve seen in 2025.

(Currently in theaters and available for PPV rental).

Previous posts with related themes:

Monkey Warfare

The Baader-Meinhof Complex

Che

Judas and the Black Messiah

404 Terror

Medium Cool

The Trial of the Chicago 7

More reviews at Den of Cinema

The New York Times reports on the reaction to the big sell-out:

Leaders of some of the world’s most powerful countries pushed back on demands that Ukraine cede territory and limit the size of its army included in President Trump’s latest proposal to end the war with Russia. But they said they believed the plan provided a basis for further negotiations, according to a joint statement released after they met in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The proposal, a 28-point plan, calls for Ukrainian concessions already largely rejected by the country’s president and allies. Mr. Trump has given President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine until next week to agree to the plan, backing him into a seemingly lose-lose scenario as he faces the risk of losing crucial American support if he does not accept it.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, will head to Geneva on Sunday, where they are expected to meet senior Ukrainian officials to discuss Kyiv’s response to the American proposal, a U.S. official said Saturday.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s allies in Europe and across the globe now face increased pressure to show they can get Ukraine the economic and military support it needs to continue battling Russia without U.S. support.

Mr. Trump’s plan “includes important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace,” said the statement, adopted by the leaders of 11 nations — including Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Canada — and the European Union.

President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Saturday that while he commended America’s efforts to strike a peace deal, “What is at stake is Ukrainian sovereignty and European security.”

He said European countries would work with the Ukrainians over the next two days to create a plan for the way forward.

Thomas “suck on this” Friedman gives it the “Neville Chamberlain Prize”

Anne Applebaum writes (gift link):

The 28-point peace plan that the United States and Russia want to impose on Ukraine and Europe is misnamed. It is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.

The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine, and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund and spends most of his time making business deals. The revelation of their plan this week shocked European leaders, who are now paying almost all of the military costs of the war, as well as the Ukrainians, who were not sure whether to take this latest plan seriously until they were told to agree to it by Thanksgiving or lose all further U.S. support. Even if the plan falls apart, this arrogant and confusing ultimatum, coming only days after the State Department authorized the sale of anti-missile technology to Ukraine, will do permanent damage to America’s reputation as a reliable ally, not only in Europe but around the world.

The central points of the plan reflect long-standing Russian demands. The United States would recognize Russian rule over Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk—all of which are part of Ukraine. Russia would, in practice, be allowed to keep territory it has conquered in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. In all of these occupation zones, Russian forces have carried out arrests, torture, and mass repression of Ukrainian citizens, and because Russia would not be held accountable for war crimes, they could continue to do so with impunity. Ukraine would withdraw from the part of Donetsk that it still controls—a heavily reinforced and mined territory whose loss would open up central Ukraine to a future attack.

Not only would this plan cede territory, people, and assets to Russia; it also seems deliberately designed to weaken Ukraine, politically and militarily, so that Russia would find it easier to invade again a year from now, or 10 years from now. According to a version of the text that appeared in the Financial Times yesterday, the plan does state that “Ukraine’s sovereignty would be confirmed.” But it then imposes severe restrictions on Ukrainian sovereignty: Ukraine must “enshrine in its constitution” a promise to never join NATO. Ukraine must shrink the size of its armed forces to 600,000, down from 900,000. Ukraine may not host foreign troops on its soil. Ukraine must hold new elections within 100 days, a demand not made of Russia, a dictatorship that has not held free elections for more than two decades.

In return, the plan states that Ukraine “would receive security guarantees.” But it does not describe what those guarantees would be, and there is no reason to believe that President Donald Trump would ever abide by them. Russia would also “enshrine in law its policy of non-aggression towards Europe and Ukraine,” a bizarre and meaningless statement, given that Russia currently has a policy of permanent aggression not only toward Ukraine but also toward Europe and has, anyway, repeatedly violated promises before. The United States would lift sanctions on Russia, losing any existing leverage over President Vladimir Putin; invite Russia to rejoin the G8; and reintegrate Russia into the world economy. Awkward wording, evident throughout the document, suggests that at least some of it was originally written in Russian.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Here’s a tired Trump barely defending the plan:

Q: Is this your final offer to Ukraine?

TRUMP: No. One way or the other we have to get it ended. He can continue to fight his little heart out. pic.twitter.com/SDh8cKrUVs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 22, 2025

Update — WTF?

U.S. lawmakers attempted Saturday to reverse days of confusion around a leaked peace plan for Ukraine, saying Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured them the document does not represent the Trump administration’s position.

Rubio called the bipartisan delegation to the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday afternoon, they said, while en route to Geneva for talks with Ukrainian officials. He described the plan as a Russian proposal, they said, and not a U.S. initiative.

“He made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan. It is a proposal that was received, and as an intermediary, we have made arrangements to share it — and we did not release it. It was leaked.”’

Their comments, at a Halifax press conference, amounted to a massive U-turn for an episode that has dominated the news this week and fueled a mad diplomatic scramble. The release of the plan has prompted questions in Kyiv, European capitals and Washington about whether the U.S. was backing a Kremlin-friendly plan.

Rubio told lawmakers that he was unaware of any plans by President Donald Trump to cut off intelligence sharing or military assistance if Ukraine rejected the terms.

Update II-

This is nuts.

It seems like only yesterday that the right was having a full blown hysterical meltdown over people allegedly “celebrating” Charlie Kirk’s death, often by simply posting his own words on social media. Hundreds them lost their jobs and had their lives upended.

We got endless lectures about “the left” causing violence with its rhetoric and radicalizing of allegedly millions of antifa warriors planning a war against the peaceful right.

Yeah.

The following is grotesquely profane so be careful with the sound up:

Trump called for my arrest, prosecution, and execution.

Almost immediately, the threats exploded—against me and my office.

All Americans must condemn this political violence.

Listen to some of the actual threats we’ve received: pic.twitter.com/SV9NuxakpQ

— Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) November 21, 2025

It’s possible that one of Trump’s lackeys wrote that to perk him up but he may very well be self-soothing after a rough couple of weeks.

I mean, he almost certainly saw this one and so did his cult:

A Fox News poll conducted November 14–17 among 1,005 registered voters found that 76 percent now rate the U.S. economy negatively under Trump 

That’s worse than the 70 percent negative view at the end of former President Joe Biden’s term.  

By a nearly two-to-one margin, voters blame Trump more than Biden for the current economic climate (62 percent vs 32 percent).  

Economic pessimism remained highest among voters under 45, non-college graduates, lower-income, Hispanic, and Black voters. 

Aaaand:

According to an AP-NORC poll of 1,143 adults, 33 percent of Americans now approve of Trump’s management of the federal government, down from 43 percent eight months earlier. 

Some 33 percent said they approved of the way Trump was handling the economy, with 67 percent disapproving.  

I’m sure a few hours on the golf course and a nice Mar-a-lago party full of lovely ladies telling him what a great man he is will perk him right up.

Rick Perlstein shared a piece on Facebook noting:

Check out this brilliant guy’s entire Facebook page (Part 2). Best I can tell from the information provided he… is someone who works at Goodwill in Holland, Michigan. Elite institutions fail us. Ordinary people will save us.

He’s right about this guy’s writing. It’s excellent. And his analysis of the Mamdani-Trump meeting is spot on:

Thirty Minutes in the Lion’s Den: The Interview Trump Thought He Controlled

by Bruce Fanger

White Rose USA — November

There’s a strange thing that happens when you watch the full thirty-minute interview instead of the clipped version the internet tosses around. The edges soften. The masks slip. And you start to see the actual geometry of the interaction — where power sits, where insecurity leaks, where the tone changes, where the truth speaks by accident. The viral clip makes it look like a moment. The full meeting reveals a dynamic.

This wasn’t a showdown. It wasn’t a humiliation. It wasn’t a triumph for either man. It was something far more revealing: a case study in how a bully behaves when he can’t rely on fear, and how a principled politician behaves when he refuses the role of the victim.

The meeting begins as all Trump meetings do — with noise.

The first five minutes are pure Trump: monologues disguised as greetings, numbers inflated beyond physics, scattered recollections of the 1980s like the era froze and preserved him in amber. You can practically hear his brain flipping through its greatest hits, trying to set the tone: This is my room. My chair. My story.

But Mamdani doesn’t react to any of it.

And that is the first hinge of the meeting.

A man like Trump needs emotional feedback to function. Fear works. Flattery works. Even anger works. Mamdani gives him nothing. He sits there with the calm of someone who refuses to let the other person set the emotional tempo. It’s a small thing, but with Trump, it’s enough to break the cycle.

Then comes the shift — the “gracious Trump” phase.

People mistake this for maturity or diplomacy. It’s not. It’s a reflex Trump only deploys when he can’t dominate the room. The tone goes soft, the eyebrows lift, the compliments come out in forced, syrupy bursts.

“You’re doing great work.”

“New York is lucky to have you.”

“You’re a very smart guy.”

It sounds statesmanlike until you remember the same man called him a communist threat two weeks earlier. What’s happening here isn’t respect — it’s adaptation. A chameleon trying to match the color of the wall.

Trump is gracious when graciousness benefits Trump.

As Mamdani shifts to policy, Trump drifts into autobiography.

This is the most telling stretch — minutes twelve to eighteen. Mamdani tries to talk like a mayor-elect:

transit

housing

Rikers

federal cooperation

immigrant protections

Real issues, real stakes, real governance.

Trump responds by vanishing into his own mythology. Crime statistics from memory that don’t exist. Grievances about prosecutors. Stories from “the old days.” Complaints about how unfairly he’s been treated.

It’s not sabotage — it’s incapacity.

Mamdani is speaking a civic language Trump’s brain can’t decode.

They aren’t having the same conversation.

They aren’t even on the same continent.

Then comes the moment everyone’s dissecting — the “fascistic tendencies” line.

And yes, it happened in the room, not after. Mamdani doesn’t weaponize the word. He doesn’t turn it into a headline. He does something more dangerous: he analytically names the pattern.

Immigrant raids.

Political retribution.

Targeting dissent.

Erosion of checks and balances.

Threats against the judiciary.

He lays out the evidence and names the behavior: fascistic tendencies.

Trump nods and smiles like someone being told he has an excellent golf swing.

It’s not bravado. It’s not denial.

It’s something almost sadder: he doesn’t understand the language of critique unless it’s blunt and emotional. Mamdani moved the discussion into the realm of political analysis, and Trump’s instincts don’t live there. So he simply… accepts it. Not because he agrees, but because he can’t absorb what the words actually mean.

The last ten minutes are the clearest portrait of Trump’s psyche.

Once Mamdani refuses to bend, Trump compensates by overcorrecting into flattery:

“You’re going to surprise people.”

“I feel very comfortable with you.”

“We’re going to get along great.”

It’s dominance disguised as benevolence. When Trump can’t conquer, he tries to adopt. He folds the other person into his narrative: You and I are the same. We’re allies. You approve of me. I approve of you.

It’s a kind of political camouflage — digest the threat by complimenting it.

Mamdani doesn’t take the bait.

He doesn’t fight.

He doesn’t flatter.

He just continues speaking plainly.

Which leaves Trump in the one position he hates most:

performing civility for an audience that isn’t fooled.

What the meeting really showed

The full interview isn’t about Mamdani calling Trump a fascist.

It’s not about Trump pretending to be gracious.

It’s not about a progressive mayor meeting an authoritarian president.

What the meeting showed is simpler and more damning:

Trump is only powerful when the room fears him.

Take the fear away, and he becomes oddly gentle, strangely polite, and completely unable to dominate the conversation.

People think tyrants rage because they’re strong.

But the truth is they only rage when they know the room will absorb it.

Mamdani didn’t absorb it.

So Trump didn’t rage.

He folded.

Nicely. Neatly.

Like a man who knows the cameras are watching and doesn’t want the world to see what he looks like when the mask cracks.

And if there’s a lesson here for the rest of the country, it’s this:

Fear is the oxygen of authoritarianism.

Take it away, and even a strongman starts to sound like a man.

That’s the lesson if we can remember it. And Perlstein is right in that regard too. Ordinary citizens all over the country seem to know this. It’s the elites who are folding like a bunch of wet origami swans.

I have thought often of an incident from 2016 when Trump was speaking before a Black woman’s group (I can’t remember specifically what it was) about education. He started to do what he always does, rambling on about how immigrants were ruing the country and crime and Muslims (2016 was a much bigger focus on that) and the leader of the group, a tall, imposing Black woman, came up and calmly said something like “no, that’s not what we do here” and he immediately shrank back and nodded quickly saying “oh, ok …” smiled and continued with his prepared speech.

It was early in the campaign and he clearly had no experience speaking to small groups. But it was a behavior that I recognized from other bullies I’ve dealt with in my life. They are all bluster and blarney but when someone calmly resists they pivot to being accommodating, trying to turn their adversary into an ally. The process is exactly as Fanger outlines in his piece above. More people should try it.

It’s funny. I just wrote about Marjorie Taylor Greene a couple of days ago. I said I thought she was the avatar of the One True MAGA. Well, she resigned last night:

“I’ve always represented the common American man and woman as a member of the House of Representatives which is why I’ve always been despised in Washington DC and never fit in.

Americans are used by the Political Industrial Complex of both Political Parties, election cycle after election cycle, in order to elect whichever side can convince Americans to hate the other side more.

And the results are always the same.

No matter which way the political pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman.

The debt goes higher.

Corporate and global interests remain Washington’s sweethearts.

American jobs continue to be replaced whether it’s by illegal labor or legal labor by visas or just shipped overseas. Small businesses continue to be swallowed by big corporations.

Americans’ hard earned tax dollars always fund foreign wars, foreign aid, and foreign interests. The spending power of the dollar continues to decline.

The average American family can no longer survive on a single bread winner’s income as both parents must work in order to simply survive.

And today, many in my children’s generation feel hopeless for their future and don’t think they will ever realize the American dream, which breaks my heart.

I ran for Congress in 2020 and have fought every single day believing that Make America Great Again meant America First. I have one of the most conservative voting records in Congress defending the 1st amendment, 2nd amendment, unborn babies because I believe God creates life at conception, strong safe borders, I’ve fought against Covid tyrannical insanity and mandated mass vaccinations, and I’ve never voted to fund foreign wars.

However with almost one year into our majority, the legislature has been mostly sidelined, we endured an 8 week shut down wrongly resulting in the House not working for the entire time, and we are entering campaign season which means all courage leaves and only safe campaign re-election mode is turned on.

During the longest shutdown in our nation’s history, I raged against my own Speaker and my own party for refusing to proactively work diligently to pass a plan to save American healthcare and protect Americans from outrageous overpriced and unaffordable health insurance policies. The House should have been in session working everyday to fix this disaster, but instead America was forced fed disgusting political drama once again from both sides of the aisle.

My bills which reflect many of President Trump’s Executive Orders like calling for a new census counting Americans only to draw new districts, making English the official language of the U.S., making it a felony to medically trans a minor, and other bills like eliminating capital gains taxes on the sale of your home and eliminating H1-B visas just sit collecting dust. That’s how it is for most members of Congress’s bills, the Speaker never brings them to the floor for a vote.

Many common Americans are no longer easily convinced by paid political propaganda spokespersons and consultants on TV and paid shills on social media obediently serving with cult-like conviction to force others to swallow the political party talking points.

Because they know how much credit card debt they have, they know how much their own bills have gone up over the past 5 years, they actually do their own grocery shopping and know food cost too much, their rent has increasingly gone up, they have been outbid by corporate asset managers too many times when they put in an offer to buy a house, they have been laid off after being forced to train their visa holding replacement, the college degree they were told to earn only left them in debt with no big six figure salary, they see more homeless people than ever on their own community streets, they can’t afford health insurance or practically any insurance, and they just aren’t stupid.

These are the people I represent and love because that is who all of my family and friends are, common Americans.

I have been blessed to represent the 14th district of Georgia for 5 years, which is filled with some of the most wonderful kind hearted God fearing patriotic hard working people you will ever meet. Good regular common Americans.

I’ve worked hard to bring tax payer dollars back home to help district needs, I impeached Biden’s Secretary of Homeland after watching my constituents die as he facilitated the dangerous open border invasion into America, and led the effort to defund hard left politically biased NPR, PBS, and the corrupt USAID as the Chair of the DOGE Subcommittee.

I have fought harder than almost any other elected Republican to elect Donald Trump and Republicans to power, traveling the country for years, spending millions of my own money, missing precious time with my family that I can never get back, and showing up in places like outside the New York Courthouse in Collect Pond Park against a raging leftist mob as Trump faced Democrat lawfare. Meanwhile most of the Establishment Republicans, who secretly hate him and who stabbed him in the back and never defended him against anything, have all been welcomed in after the election.

And I will never forget the day I had to leave my mother’s side as my father had brain surgery to remove cancerous tumors in order to fly to Washington D.C. to defend President Trump and vote NO against the Democrat’s second impeachment in 2021. My poor father and my poor mother, it was way too much.

Through it all, I never changed or went back on my campaign promises and only disagreed in a few areas like my stance against H1-Bs replacing American jobs, Al state moratoriums, debt for life 50 year mortgage scams, standing strongly against all involvement in foreign wars, and demanding the release of the Epstein files. Other than that my voting record has been solidly with my party and the President.

Loyalty should be a two way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest because our job title is literally, “Representative.”

America First should mean America First and only Americans First, with no other foreign country ever being attached to America First in our halls of government.

Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for.

However, while yes hurtful, my heart remains filled with joy, my life is filled with happiness, and my true convictions remain unchanged because my self worth is not defined by a man, but instead by God who created everything in existence.

You see, I have never valued power, titles, or attention in spite of all the wrong assumptions about me. I do not cling to those things because they are meaningless and empty traps that hold too many people in Washington. I believe in term limits and do not think Congress should be a lifelong career or an assisted living facility.

My only goal and desire has ever been to hold the Republican Party accountable for the promises it makes to the American people and put America First, and I have fought against Democrat’s damaging policies like the Green New Deal, wide open deadly unsafe border policies, and the trans agenda on children and against women.

With that has brought years of nonstop never ending personal attacks, death threats, lawfare, ridiculous slander and lies about me, that most people could never withstand even for a day.

It has been unfair and wrong, not only to me and especially my family, but to my district as well.

I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms. And in turn, be expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me.

It’s all so absurd and completely unserious. I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.

If I am cast aside by MAGA Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well.

There is no ‘plan to save the world’ or insane 4D chess game being played.

When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington’s machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it.

Until then I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to a new path ahead.“

I have no idea what’s “really” going on with her. But it’s clear to me that MAGA just isn’t fun anymore.

I would bet she’s not the only one who thinks so.

Guess who?

While you were watching the Trump-Mamdani love-fest and the MTG resignation video last night (Politico):

Texas’ redrawn GOP-friendly congressional districts are back, for now.

Justice Samuel Alito temporarily restored the state’s new map — expected to net Republicans up to five seats in the 2026 midterms — while the Supreme Court weighs a lower court’s decision to toss that map altogether.

Alito’s move allowing Texas officials to continue to prepare for primary elections under the new map came just after the state asked the Supreme Court for an urgent ruling to revive the redistricting plan adopted at the urging of President Donald Trump.

The emergency appeal filed Friday evening urged the high court to put a hold on a lower court’s decision Tuesday that found racial considerations likely unconstitutionally tinged the new map.

I’m gonna need a mental-health break after this week.

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement 
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
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

Who’s driving the clown car?

Who is actually running Donald Tump’s White House amidst his Learish decline that has been on display for months? “He is acting like a man who is cornered, terrified, and irrational,” Tom Nichols writes in The Atlantic. Perhaps the man who famously has no real friends feels he needs one.

So Trump’s beaming press availability on Friday after his meeting with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was unexpected and completely out of character. It was further proof that the once and future god-emperor of Mar-a-Lago is a chocolate mess. (Those of a certain age know the reference.) The usual Trump > Fox > Trump propaganda loop has broken down or else Trump is so addled that he’s not watching. Tokyo Rose Garden (Karoline Leavitt) is going to snap her own neck in how fast she’ll have to pivot from calling Mamdani a communist to his being Trump’s new best friend.

“South Park” writers will be working nights. Satan will be so-o-o-o jealous.

Now add to the list of Trump’s Epstein distractions, his 28-point peace proposal for Ukraine and Russia. Ponder this observation on Trump’s peace plan from The Guardian:

Some of the phrases in the US’s “peace proposal” for Ukraine appear to have been originally written in Russian. In several places the language would work in Russian but seems distinctly odd in English.

The third point of the 28-point plan reads: “It is expected that Russia will not invade neighbouring countries and Nato will not expand further.”

“It is expected” is a clunky passive construction in English. The Russian version – ожидается or ozhidayetsya – makes more sense and is a familiar verb form.

Other Russianisms that appear to have crept into the text include неоднозначности (ambiguities) and “закрепить” (to enshrine).

The White House has acknowledged Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s envoy, wrote the proposal together with Donald Trump’s special representative Steve Witkoff. The pair hammered out the text during a meeting in Miami.

Ukraine and its European partners were excluded from the drafting process.

PeskovKremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insists that Ukraine negotiate now or it risks losing even more territory. Bold talk for a government that’s been stymied in gaining ground through force of arms. Russia has suffered heavy combat casualties in Ukraine.

The Guardian continues:

The full details are not clear but the key tenets of the 28-point deal – reported first by Axios, the FT and the New York Times – are believed to include a demand for Ukraine to cede the rest of the Russian-occupied eastern Donbas region, cut its armed forces by half and reduce or altogether abandon certain types of weaponry, particularly long-range missiles that could hit targets in Russia.

That would mean Ukraine voluntarily handing over areas of its territory to Russia that Moscow has been unable to take by force.

Kyiv would also be expected to agree to reducing or halting US military assistance. Any future deployment of western troops to Ukraine – as envisaged by the Franco-British-led “coalition of the willing” – would also be banned.

As part of the deal, Ukraine and Europe could get some US security guarantees against future Russian aggression, although no details were reported of what this could entail.

BBC:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Kyiv risks losing US support over a White House plan on how to end the war with Russia.

Addressing the nation on Friday, Zelensky said Ukraine “might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner”, adding that “today is one of the most difficult moments in our history”.

One thing Zelensky doesn’t risk losing is Trump’s mind. Trump lost that some time ago.

Zelensky remains focused:

“We’re not making loud statements,” he went on, “we’ll be calmly working with America and all the partners… offering alternatives” to the proposed peace plan.

Zelensky also said he had been reassured of continuous support during a phone call with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

(h/t DJ)

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement 
50501 
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Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
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Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
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Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Yes, baby rhinos are adorable:

The Cincinnati Zoo:

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s month-old baby eastern black rhino will be called “Ajani Joe”!  Almost 300 people purchased shower gifts for the baby rhino for the chance to choose his name and an invitation to attend the Rhino Baby Shower, sponsored by Rhino Wipe. Martha Wolf was the winner, and her name choice was announced this morning during the shower.

“My father’s name is Joe and I wanted to honor him but also to choose a name that was of African origin, since that’s the black rhino’s native land,” said Wolf.  “Ajani means ‘he who wins the struggle’.  My dad has been a rock recently as my mom’s primary caretaker, and I hope the little rhino will be strong like him!”

Ajani Joe’s keepers describe him as spunky and curious.  He has been venturing outside and exploring his yard with confidence.  He is not on a set schedule, but visitors may catch a glimpse of him jumping and playing while his protective mom, Seyia, keeps a watchful eye.

“This little guy is an important ambassador for his species.  Eastern black rhinos are critically endangered, and he is the first of his kind born this year in North America. Only eight others, including his brother, were born in the three years prior.”

Eastern black rhinos, native to Eastern and Central Africa, have two large horns made of keratin that they use for defense, intimidation, and feeding. An adult can weigh anywhere between 1,760 and 3,080 pounds, and newborns (calves) weigh between 73 – 121 pounds. The species is critically endangered due to poaching and habitat loss.  Only an estimated 5

Here’s another one, also born in Ohio in September:

Nobody’s ever seen anything like it …

Oh my…

Trump frickin' loves this guy lmao pic.twitter.com/GeAZ84N6ou

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Trump is now defending Mamdani in response to loaded questions from Fox News. incredible scenes pic.twitter.com/Fob604bSpU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Q: Stefanik has called Mamdani a 'jihadist.' Do you think you're standing next to a jihadist right now?

TRUMP: No, I don't. I met with a man who's a very rational person pic.twitter.com/DrdUFhwNHX

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Q: would you feel comfortable living in NYC under a Mamdani administration ?

TRUMP: I would. I really would. pic.twitter.com/1RdkClaW7H

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Q: would you feel comfortable living in NYC under a Mamdani administration ?

TRUMP: I would. I really would. pic.twitter.com/1RdkClaW7H

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Mamdani, meanwhile, is the much more skilled politician — mainly because he isn’t a very stupid, psychologically damaged weirdo:

Q: Just days ago you referred to Trump as a 'despot' and accused him of having a fascist agenda. Are you planning to retract any of these remarks?

MAMDANI: We are both very clear on our positions and our views and what I really appreciate about the president is our meeting… pic.twitter.com/BYktWVbkog

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Q: Just days ago you referred to Trump as a ‘despot’ and accused him of having a fascist agenda. Are you planning to retract any of these remarks?

MAMDANI: We are both very clear on our positions and our views and what I really appreciate about the president is our meeting focused not on places of disagreement but the shared purpose we have

TRUMP: I’ve been called much worse than a despot

He loves him a star and always wants to be run with the winners, no matter who they are.

I’ll be looking forward to seeing how MAGA deals with this.

Update — lol