Month: December 2025

The “peace president” accepted a very special honor last week. Having been denied the Nobel Peace Prize he so desperately covets, Donald Trump was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, which was invented only last month by global soccer czar Gianni Infantino. The prize is a large trophy accompanied by a medal that made Trump so excited he snatched it from the box like a furtive five-year-old with a box of chocolates and put it on himself. Infantino, who is president of FIFA and one of the newer members of Trump’s admiring entourage (for some reason, he showed up a few weeks ago at a ceremony for the Gaza peace process), showered Trump with meaningless praise, saying, “You definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained — in your way — but you obtained it in an incredible way…”

He did not elaborate on exactly what actions he had in mind, but before the ceremony Trump had to pretend that he didn’t know he was receiving the prize and was asked whether that might conflict with a possible military strike against Venezuela. He replied that he had settled eight wars and that a ninth was coming, “which nobody’s ever done before.” He added, “I really want to save lives, I don’t need prizes, I need to save lives and I’ve saved millions and millions of lives and that’s really what I want to do.” He didn’t mention the killings in missile strikes on Caribbean fishing boats. Presumably, those lives aren’t among the “millions” he says he’s saved.

The optics of this silly flattery by FIFA, juxtaposed with the burgeoning Pentagon scandal, in which it appears that Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are overseeing a policy of repeated war crimes against people in small boats thousands of miles from U.S. shores, was stark. Members of Congress emerged from a briefing with the Navy admiral in charge of the Sept. 2 strike, in which two survivors were summarily executed as they floated on broken pieces of a small speedboat. Legislators looked ashen and somber, and one of their number, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., declared it “one of the most troubling things” he’d ever witnessed.

Some Republicans, however, such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, seemed highly aroused by these same images, reveling in the gruesome deaths of what seemed to be low-level local operators, probably paid a few hundred dollars to take their cargo from Venezuela to a Caribbean island, whence it may be shipped to Europe. Hegseth himself gave a fiery speech in California the next day, promising that the U.S. intended to continue the killing and telling the audience:

These narcoterrorists are the al-Qaida of our hemisphere, and we are hunting them with the same sophistication and precision that we hunted al-Qaida. We are tracking them, we are killing them, and we will keep killing them so long as they are poisoning our people with narcotics so lethal that they’re tantamount to chemical weapons.

It’s estimated that 42 million Americans have used cocaine, the drug that is most likely being trafficked to Europe from Venezuela. (If that many people have ingested chemical weapons, we have bigger problems.) Fentanyl, which is a genuinely deadly drug, is almost all trafficked over the southern border — and usually imported by Americans. Will Team Trump be executing those “narcoterrorists” too? Cotton says no, but there’s no logical reason why they should stop, given their current rationale.

As the president performed his “Trump dance” and the Village People delievered “YMCA” at the FIFA prize event, the U.S. military struck another boat, killing four more people. The strange dissonance became even more jarring when the administration finally released its long-awaited “National Security Strategy.” Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir makes short work of that embarrassing document:

It’s a long-term, deep-horizon manifesto for the reactionary-revolutionary Red Caesar regime dreamed of by [Stephen] Miller, [JD] Vance and the bro-genius billionaires. It imagines unilateral U.S. domination of the Western Hemisphere — the Monroe Doctrine, but with drones and AI — a Crusader-style reconquest of secular Europe by the white right, and a chummy division of the rest of the world into old-school spheres of influence, involving Russia, China, the Saudi monarchy and whoever else gets invited.

Meanwhile, here at home, Trump continues his war against all immigrants. He is now engaging in rank racism, calling Somali immigrants “garbage” and threatening to revoke the citizenship of anyone he finds distasteful, which by pure coincidence seems to mean all people of color. He is banning half the world’s population from entering the U.S. and virtually ending the asylum process for everyone except white South Africans. The sight of masked, armed secret police in unmarked vehicles brutally assaulting anyone they choose on streets all across America is straight out of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Romania. The language he uses is hostile, cruel, vulgar and degrading.

As the president performed his “Trump dance” and the Village People delievered “YMCA” at the FIFA prize event, the U.S. military struck another boat, killing four more people.

Now consider the absurdity of Trump’s insistence that he’s a prince of peace and just cares about “saving lives, millions of lives.” He actually said, “As president, my highest aspiration is to bring peace and stability to the world.” Sycophants are knocking each other over to give him prizes and kiss his ring, telling him exactly what he wants to hear. But the bigger question is whether anyone’s actually buying it?

This inconsistency has always been present in the MAGA coalition but until recently it hasn’t been quite as obvious. It’s not clear that his base is happy about it. Trump has always sold himself as a strongman, and his bizarre phony machismo has had inexplicable appeal for his followers. Now he’s falling asleep in public, spending most of his time redecorating and partying, and otherwise looking weaker every day. His paeans to peace strike a discordant note with the people who love him best for his nasty, smart-ass cracks and strong-arm tactics. Meanwhile the minority of old-style Republicans who would love for him to stop acting like a nasty schoolyard bully aren’t happy either, since they still hope he may behave like a serious president.The Pece

There hasn’t been any specific polling on this weird MAGA-world contradiction. But if you believe the overall numbers, Trump is now unpopular with a majority across all issues, even those that have traditionally been his strength. His approval ratings are now in the high 30s and low 40s. Independents are abandoning him in droves.

Mind you, the hardcore base is sticking with Trump so far because, like their idol, they can never admit they were wrong. But even they are starting to feel the dissonance of hearing this feeble, elderly man yammering about peace amid daily news footage of grotesque attacks on immigrants, boat strikes and increasingly bellicose warmongering. Some who took him seriously about America First isolationism are ready to abandon ship.

Whether this ends up truly splitting the Republican base remains to be seen. But this fault line in the coalition is widening by the day. No wonder so many GOP members of Congress are retiring next year. Who wants to stay around for the ugly implosion that’s just about to happen?

Salon

The hide-your-parents stage is here. You’re next.

The family of a deported Babson College student raised a public stink after her Nov. 20 arrest at Logan Airport. First, let’s review from last week:

Any Lucia López Belloza was flying home from Boston to surprise her parents for Thanksgiving. Instead, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested her (The Guardian):

She was allowed a phone call to her parents, who contacted a lawyer. The next day, a federal judge issued an emergency order barring her removal from the US for at least 72 hours until her case could be reviewed.

But the next morning, she was shackled at her wrists, ankles and waist and deported to her native Honduras, a country which she left at the age of seven and of which she has virtually no memory.

After all the press her arrrest received, immigration agents targeted her parents in Austin, Texas. (I’m assuming that the Sunday mentioned below is Nov. 30, the aftrenoon the New York Times ran this interview with her father, and not yesterday.) The Times ran this followup on Dec. 7 (gift link):

On Sunday, immigration agents appeared at the family home of a recently deported college student in Austin, Texas, according to the family and their lawyer.

The agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles, and one agent in a green vest marked E.R.O. — Enforcement and Removal Operations — rushed toward the student’s father, Francis López, as he washed his car, Mr. López said. He ran into his backyard and closed a latched gate. The agent forced open the gate and proceeded to enter the backyard.

Mr. López entered his house and locked the back door, he said. After about two hours, the agents left, without ever trying to communicate with the family or knocking on the door.

Rep. Greg Casar (D) represents the López family’s district. He said on Sunday that the government meant to send a message:

“To be clear, the Trump administration is targeting a college student’s family because that college student spoke out about the unjust way that she was treated by the federal government,” Mr. Casar said.

Jacob Soboroff of MS Now interviewed Any Lucia Lopez Belloza. The video ran on Dec. 4.

Author Madiba Dennie announced on Bluesky, “aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage.” That was October 10. Now we are at the hide-your-parents stage. Soon we will be at the hide-yourselves stage. If the budding 2nd American Revolution Will Bunch teased on Sunday does not materialize and soon, it’s not a matter of if but when.

Unsubtle Hint: This is not a private fight.

* * * * *

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

And it walks, talks, and acts like it

The America right has long harbored a soft-focused yearning for the good old days when white men were dominant, women were docile homemakers, the “negroes” knew their place, cars had no seat belts, and TVs were black-and-white and topped with “rabbit ears.”

I’ve been thinking regularly about the sign above. After the Roe decision, American women had reason to think their reproduction was their business. Now that Roe has been overturned by the Roberts court, the left might be tempted to view the intervening years with nostalgia similar to the right’s 1950s fantasy.

The postwar years in general look like the good old days now that the world is again fighting fascism. The sign above has so many applications.

View on Threads

Melissa Ryan considers the Trump administration’s open xenophobia and racism and recalls a time when Americans frowned on anyone who expressed theirs publicly:

For me, the most troubling aspect of Trump’s attacks on Somali-Americans is how acceptable it’s become for the president of the United States and members of Congress to speak this way, and how much we’ve desensitized ourselves to it. There used to be a political cost for racist rhetoric and words intended to incite. I think a lot about former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s resignation in 2002 over divisive remarks praising Strom Thurmond and how his words cost him one of the most powerful roles in Congress. And on Bluesky, writer Jamelle Bouie made the point that even President Richard Nixon, who certainly held racist views, knew that it wasn’t acceptable to air them publicly or from the White House. This kind of rhetoric was considered unacceptable for decades, but since the emergence of Donald Trump as a candidate, that’s changed.

It’s not that Trump or his supporters being racist is new or shocking. It’s the amount of power they’ve amassed and how comfortable they are with attacking entire communities with incitement that will result in threats and violence. Instead of being shamed, Trump and MAGA are routinely rewarded for the hate, harassment, and harm they spread, with little concern for the people and communities who bear the brunt of the constant abuse.

Ah, the good old days of Nixon.

There was a time in this country

Paul Krugman fondly recalls a time when America stood for freedom:

There was a time, not so long ago, when America was the leader of the free world. It was the first among equals within an alliance of nations bound together by shared values — above all a commitment to democracy and civil liberties. From London to Berlin to Tokyo, in the aftermath of genocide and the utter devastation of World War II, America – as Ronald Reagan put it – was the shining city on the hill. We should never forget that Americans played the pivotal roles in the Nuremberg trials, upholding the rule of law in an impartial and transparent manner in the trials of those who had committed unspeakable atrocities and acts of war. “Ich bin ein Berliner,” declared John F. Kennedy in Berlin, as East Germany tried to trap its own people behind the Berlin Wall.

MAGA, however, doesn’t want to be part of that world. In fact, it doesn’t want a world of democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law to exist. The Trump administration has become especially hostile to Europe, precisely because the Europeans are trying to hold on to the values MAGA is trying to destroy at home.

[…]

The language is astonishing. Europe, the document warns, faces “the stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” Why? Because “it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European.” I don’t know why they bothered with the euphemism: “non-European” clearly means “nonwhite.”

Conservatives (before they self-radicalized) have been gnawing perceived threats nonwhite to their “civilization” like an old bone for decades. They once urged Europeans to fuck their way out of civilizational erasure.

I wrote this in response to Mark Steyn’s “It’s the Demography, Stupid” in the Wall Street Journal back in 2006:

… the Christian world risks being eventually overrun because of “our lack of civilizational confidence.” (The cure for which is, no doubt, civilizational Viagra.) Americans are not afraid enough of the urgent threat posed by Muslim children and must retaliate by stockpiling more of our own.

To plagiarize a quote from a review of one of nuclear-alarmist Jonathan Schell’s old books, “I shudder to think how I’ve failed. I shudder for Mark Steyn, for all the time he’s spent banging away at his typewriter instead of banging away elsewhere.”

But when they’re not banging away to fill their quivers these days, Trump, MAGA, and Christian white nationalists have decided to screw Europeans. If they won’t defend their civilization against the nonwhite hordes, why should we? America first!

“Europe is much closer to being Reagan’s shining city on the hill than Trump’s America,” Krugman acknowledges. It faces a threat from its own resurgent neo-fascist political parties:

Yet, on the whole, Europe is dealing with its economic and social strains without giving up on its core values. For example, the recent Dutch elections, while not a decisive victory for the center, did at least push the far right out of government.

And America itself is not yet lost. Many, and I believe most, Americans still believe in our foundational values of freedom and democracy. For the time being power lies in the hands of people who hate those foundational values — and hate Europe because it still clings to those values. But we can still turn this around and claw our way back to being who we should be.

I get the nostalgia. I can’t believe we still have to protest this fascist shit either.

* * * * *

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

Looks like they’re chickening out:

Multiple Republican lawmakers and aides have told me that an exodus of House Republicans is likely in the coming weeks—one estimate puts the number as high as 20 new announcements—with most retirements expected from members in safe Republican seats and thus unlikely to imperil the majority (the political environment or Trump could do that). Twenty-three of the 39 House members who have already announced plans to retire or run for other offices are Republicans, on track to easily surpass the number of exits during the last Congress, when 21 Republicans were among the 45 House members who left at the end of their terms.

[…]

Following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the G.O.P. has been aimless and lacking an agenda. They’re fighting over healthcare, they can’t agree on an affordability message (let alone an affordability plan), and many feel an increased, if familiar, lack of respect from the White House. Speaker Mike Johnson isn’t helping, as he hands congressional power to the president and makes the Article I branch of government ever more irrelevant—a concession that has apparently dawned on many only recently.

Meanwhile, legislative productivity continues to decline. It had already hit a record low last Congress, when just 274 bills were signed into law, the lowest number since GovTrack started keeping tabs in 1973. But this Congress is on course to be less productive still, having so far gotten only 46 bills signed into law.

I really doubt they care about their lack of legislative achievements. They are just hanging at being potted plants. They should have known that’s what they signed on for but I guess it’s getting boring. And many of them have probably made enough contacts to cash in and get in on the Big GOP Grift before Trump finally walks into the sunset.

Also, they loathe Mike Johnson which I think we can all relate to. Good riddance.

The good news is that the Democrats are losing mainly the ancient mariners and opening up their safe blue seats for a new generation which is very necessary.

Trump’s New National Security Strategy appears to be written in Trump Truth Social style with equal parts pompous bluster, internal contradictions and ignorant incoherence, setting forth policies pretty much guaranteed to confuse the rest of the world and allow Trump and his minions to fatten their wallets and pursue whatever long held fantasies of world domination they choose. This is to be done all while the United States declares itself “America First” which, as always, really means America Above All (or Uber Alles in the original German). It is a terrifying document and we are seeing the fruits of the philosophy (to the extent there is one) that guides it.

It begins with the standard bootlicking we’ve come out expect from any utterance out of this administration testifying to Trump’s unrivaled genius and magical peace-making skills such as his ability to “surgically extinguish embers of division between nuclear-capable nations and violent wars caused by centuries-long hatred.” (Did I mention the purple prose?) Beyond the tribute and accolades for Dear Leader, which takes up big chunks of the document, it divides up the world into sections that were clearly drafted, or at least influenced, by Trump’s top deputy Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice president JD Vance and Trump himself.

Miller is the top xenophobe of the administration and the disdain for all foreigners is obvious throughout the document, particularly in the sections about mass migration, a human condition since time began and most recently due to climate change and political upheaval. Let’s just say the U.S. under Trump is against it and believes that it must be stopped by any means necessary. There is very little in the document suggesting that there might be any possible way to mitigate these migrations with “soft-power” (such as USAID or Voice of America) which the administration is working overtime to destroy as quickly as possible. They think all problems can be overcome with “deals” and violence.

Rubio is in charge of the new “Monroe Doctrine” which is a colonial wish list he apparently wants to fulfill. JD Vance’s antipathy to Europe is on full display while Trump’s burning desire to suck up to Russia and “do deals” with China reveals America’s new quasi-alliance with both countries.

As Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir puts it in this excellent analysis:

We can’t exactly call it surprising that this overwrought Trumpian manifesto vows to go all-in on “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” by encouraging the rise of “patriotic European parties” eager to celebrate their nations’ “individual character and history.” Or that the attitude expressed toward Russia, China and the oil-based monarchies of the Middle East amounts to a shrug emoji: Really far away! Not our problem! Live and let live! Ukraine-Shmukraine!

Or rather, it’s only surprising in the sense that whenever we think the Trump administration can’t outdo itself in overt bigotry, outright lies or vainglorious self-destruction, we turn out to be wrong. One could observe that Trump’s apparent plan to give Vladimir Putin almost everything he wants, Neville Chamberlain-style, in order to end the Ukraine war isn’t working too well, and that JD Vance and Elon Musk’s efforts to meddle in European elections on behalf of the xenophobic far right have at least partly backfired. None of that means, mind you, that this alternately idiotic and delusional document — described in that Economist editorial, using an enjoyable Anglo-idiom, as “a dog’s breakfast” — is not dangerous.

It’s terrifying. Our only hope is that their manifest incompetence keeps things from hurtling totally out of control.

Trump thought he’d bought himself another House seat:

President Trump on Sunday offered more insight into his decision to pardon Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and his wife Imelda, who were both indicted last year on bribery charges, but criticized the former congressman for opting to run as a Democrat in 2026.

“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison – And probably still do!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like,” the president continued. “Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

He’s not just doing it for money or vengeance. He’s using his pardon power for rank partisan benefit as well. I guess that figures.

Every last Republican who continues to lick his boots must be laughed at if they ever even breathe a word about corruption in the future.

At the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony at the White House:

Trump: Gary Player. 90 years old, still plays. Shot a 70 with me the other day. Incredible. You think Biden could do that? I don't think so. Can’t lift the club. pic.twitter.com/GRIZ4h5QO0

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025

He just has to be a snotty little 12 year old asshole. And his people love him for it.

.@POTUS on hosting tomorrow's 48th Kennedy Center Honors: "We've never had a President hosting the awards before. This is a first. I'm sure they'll give me great reviews… If I can't beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don't think I should be President." 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Gsfrmc3py1

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

Right. One of the president of the United States’ most important duties is hosting awards shows. It’s right there in the oath.

Trump: The board of trustees has been amazing. It's got to be the hottest board. The supreme court is pretty hot. The supreme court, the U.S. Senate, the NFL owners committee. pic.twitter.com/GtRvYpWc0A

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025

Wat, what? The NFL Owners Committee? And what’s with his stupid “hottest” catch phrase?

Trump: The Truman administration with cheap tile. Now we have it done in beautiful marble. It is all beautiful. People said, oh, why is he wasting time? It is saving the heritage of this country. pic.twitter.com/j7pASBzlQg

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025

No it’s not. He’s turning America’s heritage into a cheap, gaudy, whore house.

Trump: They want to have crime, it is a crazy thing. Chicago… We'll at some point just go in and do it the way we want. We won't have any crime in Chicago. We'll stop it everywhere. pic.twitter.com/AZ1GznnkFo

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025

Very interesting topic for the Kennedy Center Honors. Just don’t say he has dementia or anything…

Trump: When I walk through the white house, young women say thank you very much. pic.twitter.com/fw38luIzfY

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025

Sure they do.

Trump has the “FIFA peace prize” sitting on his desk in the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/IpqkCWe5lU

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) December 7, 2025

I won’t even say what that hideous prize looks like. Or the strange dildo-like object next to it.

What is happening????

The richest man in the world gets a little slap and he’s super duper mad about it:

Elon Musk’s X was hit with a $140 million fine on Friday over alleged breaches of Europe’s Digital Services Act, the online safety law meant to protect the digital space by cracking down on illegal or potentially harmful content, in a move rejected by Musk and officials in the Trump administration in which he used to serve.

The fine stems from an investigation, launched in 2023, into X’s potential liability under the rules, which took effect about the same time Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, saying he wanted to promote free speech.

The European Commission cited X for its blue check-mark system, which allows users to subscribe to a tier of the platform that grants them a badge that had previously signified the person had been vetted and approved by X’s moderators. Musk’s management team put the new system into effect shortly after taking over, as Musk decried what he called a “lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark.” […]

Musk said Friday that X aimed to “democratize verification.”

There were more reasons as well having to do with advertising.

Look who’s stepping in to defend their boy:

Vice President JD Vance sharply criticized the decision in advance of the announcement, casting it as a fine “for not engaging in censorship.”

“The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” he posted on X Thursday night. Musk soon responded, “Much appreciated.” Vance, Musk and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr criticized the decision on Friday, taking to X to accuse Europe of “fining a successful U.S. tech company for being a successful U.S. tech company” and attacking what he called the continent’s “suffocating regulations.” Musk reposted Carr’s criticism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the fine “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.” “Absolutely,” Musk said on X, quoting Rubio’s comment.

Later Friday, Musk slammed the decision in a series of posts, pinning one to the top of his profile that read: “Freedom of speech is the bedrock democracy.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also jumped to X’s defense, alleging the DSA “is designed to stifle free speech and American tech companies.”

“We have made our position clear to our counterparts in Europe,” he added.

Mr. free speech not only wants to censor people he wants to prosecute them for speech he doesn’t like:

 [F]ollowing the shooting of two National Guard members in D.C., Musk declared that “Falsely labeling non-violent people as ‘fascist’ or ‘Nazi’ should be treated as incitement to murder.”

They are looking for any excuse to split with Europe, even suggesting that we won’t defend them against Russia unless they bow down to Elon Musk:

“The nations of Europe cannot look to the US for their own security at the same time they affirmatively undermine the security of the US itself through the (unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative) EU,” Christopher Landau said on social media platform X on Saturday.

Prominent U.S. officials criticized Brussels after the European Commission slapped X with a €120 million penalty for breaching EU transparency rules earlier this week. Billionaire X owner Elon Musk, a major backer of U.S. President Donald Trump and the wider MAGA movement, threatened retaliation and called to “abolish the EU.”

Maybe it’s just trash talk, I don’t know. But these people are so extreme and so drunk with power I don’t think it’s wise to just discount what they are saying.

What’s really hiding in those files?

The Epstein files. I still wonder if what Donald Trump fears most that Epstein investigation documents will reveal is money laundering by him and his friends. I could be all wrong. But we’ll know in two weeks (Dec.19). Or will we?

Rep. Sean Casten (D) of Illinois (IL-6) elaborates on a New York Times story (gift link) on how cryptocurrency enables money laundering.

When the House and Senate marked up stablecoin legislation, we raised all of these concerns – their anonymity, their nearly perfect design for money laundering. All the barn doors were left wide open. It’s used for crime because that is its purpose. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t…

— Sean Casten (@seancasten.bsky.social) 2025-12-07T14:03:35.182Z

The term “stablecoin” itself is misleading. These aren’t coins nor are they stable. They are a bit of computer code that you can buy for a dollar and gives the owner title to a dollar but can be infinitely and instantly transferred to any computer on the planet.

If you want to understand the problem with that, go watch literally any movie about money laundering. The bad guys need to transfer money but our banking system tracks dollar transfers. So they buy jewelry, or gold bars, or German bearer bonds and physically sneak that bulky thing through customs.

Beverly Hills Cop, remember?

If you felt sorry for all the work our criminals went through, I would challenge you to come up with a BETTER work around than stablecoins. Click a button, transfer the code, sell your code for dollars, presto: money laundered.

I say they aren’t stable because for all of that to work, the issuers of the stablecoin have to have a robust, audited reserve of dollars to pay out when a claim comes in and the GOP blocked all our amendments to require audits and hold reserves in insured accounts. BUT…

Having sent a crappy bill to the Senate the Senate – per tradition – made our bill worse by adding a provision that says that in the event of a run on a bank holding stablecoin deposits, those deposits have a senior claim, above those of law abiding citizens in insured accounts.

IOW, rather than make stablecoins stable, the bill makes their inherent instability contagious, shifting their risk onto the larger banking system. It’s a direct wealth transfer from law abiding Americans to criminals.

You knew Casten would get there.

Going back to the movie references. It’s as if Chief Bogomil fired Axel Foley and then directed Taggart and Rosewood to force the Beverly Hills Savings & Loan to buy the drugs directly from Victor Maitland with customer deposits.

— Sean Casten (@seancasten.bsky.social) 2025-12-07T14:26:17.665Z

But it’s not a movie. There is a real life Victor Maitland here, who does not give a damn about the stability of the banking system but loves being able to facilitate money laundering. His kids are also in on the action. www.reuters.com/investigatio…

— Sean Casten (@seancasten.bsky.social) 2025-12-07T14:32:39.136Z

Before I wrap, let’s rebut a couple of the cryptobro nonsense that’s sure to pop up in the replies: 1) “You can’t use crypto to do blockchain” is not true as long as the system allows for anonymity, “mixers” (aka, digital money laundries) and chain-hopping.

(2) “regulators shouldn’t stop innovation”. There is no objection to innovation within the law. Innovation outside of the law is what Walter White did when he came up with blue meth. It ain’t good if it ain’t legal.

(3) “there are legitimate use cases for digital money”. OK fine. But with a HUGE caveat:

If industry and their legislative advocates refuse to craft rules so that crypto isn’t just a way to arbitrage existing money laundering rules while destabilizing our banks, one must conclude that the illicit “side hustle” is whole point.

All of which is to say that the problems flagged in that NYT article are not only predictable, but were predicted. They are on the record in our Congressional debates.

But Victor Maitland’s allies made the world easier for the world’s drug and child traffickers, terrorists and weapons smugglers with their eyes wide open. It’s going to get much worse until we have majorities who act more like Axel Foley and less like (pre-Breaking Bad) Jonathan Banks. /fin

— Sean Casten (@seancasten.bsky.social) 2025-12-07T14:50:00.374Z

Trump may or may not have fondled some of Epstein’s younger-side girls. He certainly has enough accusers among women. But abusing women has always seemed to be a Trump side hustle. Making money by crook is his principal obsession. Evidence is out there that he may have long used real estate to launder money for Russians.

Trump looked sideways at crypto at first. He prefers physical buildings he can point to and slap his name on. Then he flipped, or a switch did in his head. With cryptocurrencies he could make more with less of a paper trail. And here we are.

* * * * *

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

Didja get any onya?

“Trump’s latest anti-immigration push echoes the nativism of the 1920s,” reads the headline over Karen Tumulty’s report this Pearl Harbor anniversary:

Somalis are “garbage,” and “we don’t want them in our country.” Migration from “all Third World countries” should be halted. Any foreign national deemed “noncompatible with Western civilization” must be deported.

His faculties visibly decaying, President Trump’s recent nativist rhetoric adds to past slurs that immigrants from “shithole countries” are “poisoning the blood” of our country, etc.

Those around Trump have joined in the nativist fervor. The president’s comments about Somalis, made during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, had Vice President JD Vance banging the table in approval. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it an “epic moment.”

Former CUNY journalism professor, Jeff Jarvis, considers the Tumulty’s treatment of Trump, homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, Leavitt, et al. too tame, “Calling it nativism and calling on the history of the ’20s gets closer, but it should be noted that this is reaching a Nazi pitch.”

Careful where you point that thing

Tokyo Rose Garden (Leavitt) and DHS just got a clapback from the Washington Post in another Sunday story. Smears sometimes have a way of blowing back.

ICE in November arrested and began deportation efforts for Bruna Ferreira. Brazilian by birth, Ferreira is the mother of Leavitt’s 11-year-old nephew (Karoline Leavitt is his godmother; Ferreira is estranged from Leavitt’s brother Michael). She arrived in the U.S. as a child and overstayed her visa and is, in theory, legally protected and working under the DACA program.

DHS spokesliar Tricia McLaughlin launched her standard smear campaign. DHS called Ferreira an absentee mother with a previous arrest for “battery” and a “criminal.” The Post makes clear this morning that overstaying a visa is a civil violation. If that makes Ferreira a criminal, then anyone who’s ever received a parking ticket is as well.

But DHS was spitting into the wind when it smeared Ferreira. The Post did some digging:

Ferreira’s legal status had long been a point of contention in her relationship with Michael Leavitt. After they broke up, Ferreira said in court records that Michael Leavitt had in the past threatened to try to get her deported.

In the text messages, Michael Leavitt denied seeking to have Ferreira deported.

“I had no involvement in her being picked up by ice,” he wrote Wednesday to The Post. “I have no control over that and had no involvement in that whatsoever.”

What goes around

Tokyo Rose Garden might have called off the dogs attacking her godson’s mother, but failed to:

Michael Leavitt is from a close-knit family with deep roots in New Hampshire. He also had legal issues: He was charged twice in New Hampshire with underage alcohol possession, resulting in a fine and then a guilty plea to a downgraded town ordinance violation.

In 2009, at 19, he was found guilty of drunken driving and fined $620. In 2011, Miami Beach police arrested him for disorderly conduct, alleging that he and another man were fighting in the middle of the street, stopping traffic. The charges were dropped, court records show.

Leavitt said he has been the more consistent and responsible parent in his son’s life and accused The Post in a text message of “trying to use this whole situation to push a narrative to smear me.”

What goes around comes around:

In court, Ferreira and Leavitt traded allegations of abuse and neglect. In April 2015, Leavitt sought primary custody of their son in a New Hampshire court, alleging that Ferreira had pushed Leavitt during an argument when the couple took a trip to Florida. He said she returned home without him, collected their son from his grandparents, and threatened to take him with her to Brazil.

Ferreira denied the claims and in court filings accused Leavitt of abuse, saying on the day of her baby shower he had drunkenly pushed her, punched walls and broken doors. After he won the $1 million, she alleged in court that he cheated on her and gambled away thousands of dollars. Ferreira’s lawyer said in a May 2015 court filing that Leavitt also “threatened to contact Immigration in an effort to have her deported.”

[…]

In April 2020, Ferreira returned to court alleging Michael Leavitt owed her thousands of dollars in child support and was refusing to let her spend time with her son. She also wrote that Michael Leavitt had “used intimidation” based on her “immigration status” to discourage her from visiting the boy. Leavitt denied the allegations in court records.

There is a lot of he-said, she-said in the Post report, as things go in joint custody cases. It seems Ferreira struggled to get on her feet after the separation and her life is now more stable. Or it was until ICE snatched her last month.

@tmz

🚨Exclusive: Never-before-seen footage shows the moment ICE agents arrested a woman with family ties to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. FULL STORY AT THE LINK IN BIO!

♬ original sound – TMZ

Here’s hoping that the Leavitts enjoy their “epic” White Christmas.

* * * * *

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