Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Ok, excuse me. But fuck you:

Blanche: "Many people in this room have done it as well. They're just as guilty as a lot of people on X. When you have reporters, when you have media just being overly critical and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, it shouldn't surprise us… pic.twitter.com/3QXVKZ9l6X

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 27, 2026

That may be the most grotesque statement coming from an Attorney general I’ve ever heard. he’s making Bondi look like a straight arrow by comparison. He is a dangerous man.

The American people and the press have a right to criticize our president all we want, and even “call him horrible names for no reason.” It’s called freedom of speech you cretin. This guy is worse than I originally thought although I should never assume anything but the worst with these people.

Blanche also extolled the virtues of the Big Beautiful Ballroom which is so far out of his lane as to be over a cliff. But then he is now the Justice Department’s acting head cheerleader as well as Attorney General, working overtime to prove to Dear Leader that he is deserving of the top stop permanently.

Paul Waldman ably dispatched that fatuous nonsense in a great piece at Public Notice today. An excerpt:

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has sprung into action. He sent a letter Sunday to the lawyer representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation, demanding that the group drop its lawsuit challenging the way the ballroom steamrolled over the normal process for such projects.

“Your lawsuit puts the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk,” Blanche wrote.

How we survived this long as a country without it is hard to fathom; the memory of the Founding Fathers will forever be tainted by their failure to include in the Constitution a ballroom provision.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

If you asked Trump and his movement to select one image to encapsulate everything important about him and his movement, it would be the photograph taken as he was led away from the stage in Butler, blood streaming down his face from a nick to his ear produced by the would-be assassin’s near miss.

Ever the showman, in that moment Trump knew all the cameras were on him, and he stopped to raise his fist to the crowd and shout (or at least mouth; the audio is unclear): “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

It’s impossible not to think of that image after Saturday, even if Trump’s exit from the dinner was rather less vigorous (he tripped and fell as Secret Service agents bodied him from the dais).

Immediately after Butler — and ever since — Trump and his supporters put that image everywhere. It hangs, poster-sized, in the Grand Foyer of the White House. The Treasury Department is considering putting it on a commemorative coin, without the blood but with the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” around the perimeter. You can buy a “Fight Fight Fight” Trump-branded watch for $499, with payment accepted in the president’s now nearly worthless meme coin.

The message of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” is not that political violence has become a national crisis, or even that it is wrong. Speaking to reporters after returning to the White House on Saturday evening, Trump himself didn’t say so; instead he characterized this latest incident as one more testament to his greatness.

“I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most … they’re the ones that they go after,” he said. “And I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.”

The message of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” is that violence must be met with more violence, and the moral valence of that violence is solely determined by the political affiliation of the perpetrators and victims.

Liberals being targeted is either no big deal or the subject of comedy. And then there’s this:

Violence committed by MAGA itself, on the other hand, is heroic. The January 6 insurrectionists all get pardons, their attempt to overthrow the government recast as a patriotic “day of love.” Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people and wounded a third in Kenosha, is invited to Mar-a-Lago and held up as an example for others to emulate. An army of masked thugs is sent into every corner of America and given free rein to treat those they encounter with maximum brutality. And when some of those thugs gun down Renée Good and then Alex Pretti in the street for the crime of standing up for their neighbors, the immediate response from the administration, before the details are known, is to call the killings not regrettable but the brave actions of heroes.

The idea that violence is good when directed at those we hold in contempt is a signature of this administration, at home and abroad. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth literally prays to God for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” and seems to take an almost erotic thrill at the killing, whether those being ripped to pieces by American missiles are Venezuelan fishermen (aka “narcoterrorists”) or whoever happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in Tehran.

They wallow in violence and love to threaten their enemies with it. This idea that they are solely victims of such behavior is gaslighting on a grand scale.

And Waldman gets it exactly right that Trump is thrilled that he has yet another narrative at hand to push his Christlike martyrdom and exhort his followers to recommit their fealty and exact vengeance in his name. I haven’t seen him and happy and energetic as he was at that press conference after the attack on Saturday night in months. These attempts give him life and nourish his empty moral center.

They’re finally getting serious:

Two of ​Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most formidable political rivals said on Sunday they were joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government ‌in the upcoming election expected later this year.

The former prime ministers – right-wing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid – issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and There is a Future.

The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. 

“We are standing here together for the sake of our children. The State of Israel must change direction,” Lapid said standing alongside Bennett at a joint news conference.

That was key in Hungary. Magyar won in no small part because the opposition fell in behind him instead of fighting among themselves. If Israel manages to do this and then hold Netanyahu accountable, there’s a chance that the country can begin the arduous, lengthy task of regaining its moral center.

It is impossible to list all the times he has wished violence on his enemies. It’s nothing but a mindfuck that they insist otherwise.

Counterpoint: Here’s Trump threatening violence, calling for his political enemies’ executions, celebrating the deaths of people he didn’t like, and otherwise casually promoting political violence. Also there was the small matter of Jan 6 and subsequent pardons for violent felons https://t.co/TvopcmnFx6 pic.twitter.com/B8jE1JCW6w

— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) April 27, 2026

A few more examples:

“I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

“We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections … The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”

“And I’ll tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.” — September, 12, 2020, in a Fox News interview, praising police for killing the antifa supporter Michael Reinoehl, who was accused of killing a right-wing protester

“I would bring back waterboarding. And I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”

“Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my guy!” –October 18, 2018, referring to then-Representative Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for physically assaulting a reporter

“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump—I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

“If I don’t get elected … it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”

“You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … and you say, ‘Who is the leaker? National security.’ And they say, ‘We’re not gonna tell you.’ They say, ‘That’s okay, you’re going to jail.’ And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say, ‘I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is!’”

“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

“Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. Shot.”

“It’ll be bedlam in the country. It’s a very bad thing. It’s a very bad precedent. As we said, it’s the opening of a Pandora’s box.” — January 9, 2024, to a group of reporters after a court hearing in which his team argued that presidential immunity should protect him from criminal prosecution for attempting to subvert the 2020 election

“If you had one really violent day … one rough hour—and I mean real rough—the word will get out, and it will end immediately.” — September 29, 2024, proposing a violent crackdown by police to deal with crime, during a rally in Pennsylvania

Those are just a few random examples on top of those in the video above. He’s an incredibly violent person and has consistently made threats against all of his perceived enemies. Everyone knows that. It’ was about a third of the country votes for when they pull the lever for him.

There are lefties like this moron who tried to shoot up the WHCD who want to commit violent acts. There always have been. But we’ve never had a president whose rhetoric is so consistently violent and provocative. And his cult knows this because they can hardly stop smirking when they try to portray his as the prince of peace and the left as a violent mob.

It’s a troll and it’s gross.

One of the lesser-known effects of the Trump administration’s commitment to mass deportations is the right’s newfound freedom to talk of expelling anyone of whom they disapprove. You’ll hear people casually talking about deporting New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, or Donald Trump suggesting that “the Squad” — the self-proclaimed group that includes Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, all women of color — should “go back” where they came from, despite the fact that three of the four were born in the United States. Even though Omar, who was born in Somalia, became a naturalized citizen when she was 17, Trump has said many times that she should be deported.

It has become commonplace to hear such threats in the political discourse on the right. Even former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, herself the daughter of immigrants, said in 2022 that Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., should be expelled from the country. (Warnock was born in Savannah, Georgia.)

Now the Trump administration is attempting to turn that rhetoric into action. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the Justice Department is targeting hundreds of citizens for denaturalization and deportation proceedings, informing offices all over the country that they will be assigning cases against specific individuals. While there is yet no word who those individuals are or what criteria might be used, we do know that cases can be brought against naturalized citizens who can be proved to have committed fraud in obtaining citizenship or, in some situations, have been convicted of crimes. These orders follow an edict issued by the administration establishing a quota of denaturalizing 100 to 200 people per month in 2026.

The Justice Department’s announcement came with a brag: They are “pursuing the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history.” In other words, they hope to beat the records set during the Red Scares. 

Such processes are not unprecedented. According to historian Patrick Weil, author of “The Sovereign Citizen: Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic,” more than 22,000 Americans had their citizenship revoked between 1906 and 1967. According to the journalist Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, most of the denaturalization procedures were administrative in nature, for commonplace schemes such as fraudulent marriage and the like, and the subjects were often even invited to reapply for citizenship. But many anarchists and communists, even members of the German Bund during World War II, were stripped of their citizenship and deported. 

One of the most famous cases involved Emma Goldman, the early 20th-century anarchist and activist who was stripped of her American citizenship and sent to the Soviet Union in 1919 under the previous year’s Alien Act, which allowed for the deportation of foreign anarchists. 

During the McCarthy Era, the government formalized some of the rules governing naturalization, requiring immigrants to prove their commitment to the Constitution and mandating no memberships of “subversive” organizations within the previous five years. Grounds for denaturalization and deportation included a naturalized citizen’s refusal to testify before a congressional committee about subversive activities. There was even a period when anyone who lived overseas for an extended period of time could have their citizenship taken away. In short, denaturalization could be trotted out for vague reasons at the whim of the government. It’s a wonder that historians and journalists have only been able to document about 22,000 cases. 

These proceedings more or less came to a halt in 1967, and Abrahamian points to a reason: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren. In the 1950s, the Court under Warren began to tighten the rules for denaturalization on the grounds that using it as punishment for certain acts was cruel and inhuman. With the interpretation of these decisions going back and forth for some time, the application of the guidelines was inconsistent until the Court finally acted with clarity in the 1967 case Afroyim v. Rusk. Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black found:

The Constitution…grants Congress no express power to strip people of their citizenship…In our country the people are sovereign and the Government cannot sever its relationship to the people by taking away their citizenship…we hold that the Fourteenth Amendment was designed to, and does protect every citizen of this Nation against a congressional forcible destruction of his citizenship, whatever his creed color or race. 

The Court was clear: Except in very rare cases, denaturalization and expatriation were taken off the table.  Until now.

The Court was clear: Except in very rare cases, denaturalization and expatriation were taken off the table. 

Until now.

While the Supreme Court looks likely to uphold birthright citizenship, it’s possible that when the next big citizenship case reaches the docket, the conservative majority would decide to overturn Afroyim. From a conservative tactical point of view, it makes sense; it’s an easy, less obvious way to split the baby and weaken the Fourteenth Amendment. And it’s not as if they care about precedent anymore.

The Justice Department’s target list is still obscure, but reports claim officials have identified at least 300 naturalized citizens. There is also action in Congress. But while it would be unlikely to pass with a Democratic House majority and would face the threat of a filibuster in the Senate, Trump could easily decide to pull out his pen and sign an executive order to serve as a wrecking ball. Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy, who is running for attorney general in the Lone Star State, has submitted a particularly grotesque piece of legislation that he dubbed the “MAMDANI Act,” which stands for Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists.

As the bill’s title suggests, it would ban immigration by many Muslims and socialists. Since communists are already covered under previous laws, “socialists” means people like Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who identify as Democratic Socialists. Belonging to the Democratic Socialists of America is mentioned specifically as a reason to deny a visa or green card application. In fact, you don’t have to claim any affiliation with socialism at all; all you have to do is “advocate the restructuring of economic and social relations to reduce class distinctions.” That would include pretty much all the entire Democratic Party and half of all Independents.

And guess what? The bill would strip any naturalized citizen who meets that criteria of his or her citizenship. Since it’s aimed at both Muslims and “Marxists,” it’s only logical to assume that the name “Ilhan Omar” can be read between the lines. (Mamdani also meets that criteria, but then again, he is already named outright in the bill’s title.)

This is straight-up McCarthyism, taken right out of the Red Scare playbook. Everything old is new again.

During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump gave an infamous speech in which he pledged “we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” What he really meant was, “I’m coming after anyone who doesn’t vote for me.” And they are implementing his promise one authoritarian measure at a time.

Salon

Props for the “aganda”

MAGA Republicans did not pause even for a news cycle to milk Saturday’s assassination attempt for maximum political advantage. The Boss had other ideas. Rather than use Saturday’s aborted attack to raise his polling from the toilet, Donald Trump pivoted immediately to promoting the gilded ballroom he wants built where the East Wing once stood.

MAGA took the cue to unleash propaganda. It’s a matter of national security!

“Come-bye“

Border collies are not this quick to respond.

The Guardian reports that the Department of Trump heard the whistle too:

The US Department of J (DoJ) has used the weekend shooting in Washington DC to pressure a preservation group to drop a lawsuit seeking to halt the construction of Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.

Several Trump administration officials, including the president, seized on the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to advance their case for the completion of the controversial $400m project, for which the White House’s East Wing was suddenly demolished, arguing the new ballroom was needed as a “safe space”.

On Sunday night, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, posted on social media a letter to lawyers representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) calling the trust’s lawsuit “frivolous”. It demanded that the organization voluntarily withdraw it or face a new dismissal motion from the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Brian Beutler comments at Off Message. Republicans’ “sudden enthusiasm for joining this particular political fight has less to do with any supposed threat to Trump than with resetting the game board after a series of recent defeats. Most pointedly, the gerrymandering race-to-the-bottom Trump kicked off in Texas last year.”

And Iran. And dormant land mines in the Epstein files. Remember them?

The GOP’s redistricting loss in Virginia is “a huge threat to their authoritarian project,” Beutler writes. So even though Trump pivoted from the WHCA attack, the GOP can use the ballroom to smack Democrats about the head and shoulders:

Now, I suspect they’d be clamoring for Trump’s ballroom today whether or not the Virginia referendum went well for Democrats. But knocking Democrats back on their heels is a huge ancillary benefit. I suspect (though I may be wrong!) that they will try to force votes to authorize Trump’s ballroom in short order, on a bet that frontline Democrats will splinter—fearful that Republicans will equate opposition to the ballroom with support for violence against Trump.

This would be yet another huge lie. But, if Democrats don’t embrace their fighting spirit quickly and refuse to be bullied, it will probably work as intended.

Besides, “A ballroom on White House grounds should not ever be the venue for a professional association’s annual gala. The White House press corps does not work for the White House.”

It’s not clear to me that the public so consumed with bearing the burdens of the Trump economy, and so pissed off over Trump’s Iran debacle, will even rise to the bait here. It’s Trump who’s compromised national security and people’s pocketbooks with his Persian Gulf misadventure. The public is more consumed with the costs of gas and food. Will they buy the transparently non-connection between the assassination attempt and the ballroom project? I think not.

“The ballroom talking point—echoed now by senators and the acting attorney general and all those braindead mouthpieces above—is the definition of a non-sequitur,” writes Beutler.

Any Democrat who allows themselves to be bullied into voting to authorize this monstrosity will be voting for corruption out of fear. They might tell themselves it’s a savvy, low-stakes maneuver, but they’ll quickly find they’re unable to explain themselves to their supporters.

My bet is that they won’t have to. Earlier in his commentary, Beutler advised Democrats to bask in the “feeling of strength” from their Virginia gerrymandering win and in “how good it feels to not simply roll over.” Let’s hope that they don’t.

Let Trump’s minions act like border collies this time.

Every statement is a Rorschach test

Americans of the Trump 2.0 era don’t need guns to have hair triggers. Digby already remarked on Donald Trump’s self-own Sunday night with Nora O’Donnell of “60 Minutes.” She quoted from the “manifesto” of Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting suspect: “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands in his crimes.”

Trump pounced, attacking O’Donnell for reading the line:

Trump: “I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people…I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.

O’Donnell: Oh you think he was referring to you?

“I’m not a pedophile,” Trump said, ignoring the question.

Everyone knows that the alleged attacker meant Trump without naming him. Including Trump. O’Donnell meant to bait him by quoting it. She got her sound bite.

But as I mentioned Friday, someone in this heated political environment will read partisan motive into any comment on current events even when no personalities, parties, programs or policies get named. Every statement is a Rorschach test. One person’s “Thank you for seeing me” is another’s thumb in the eye.

Of course, that’s exactly what Trump was hoping to give the assembled media on Saturday night before an aborted assassination thwarted his plans. He meant to get even for his roasting at the 2011 WHCA event. Getting even may be one of Trump’s few principles. Even if it takes 15 years.

Trump telegraphed his move. John Barron opines for the Australian Broadcasting Company:

Appearing back in the White House Press Briefing Room after the dinner and speech were cancelled on the orders of the Secret Service, Trump still dressed in black tie, suggested his speech would now have to be rewritten.

“I was all set to really rip it … and I said to my people this would be the most inappropriate speech ever made,” Trump said, before adding, “I don’t know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight, I think I’m probably going to be very nice … I’ll be very boring the next time.”

Trump meant to give it back to the press ten times worse. Oh, the disappointment!

The irony? “John Barron” is the pseudonym Trump once used on the phone with reporters to promote himself.

Trump gets even with people for not coming to his aid, as he told Charlie Rose in 1992. Now means to get even with NATO for not helping him attack Iran, despite NATO being a defensive alliance. NATO countries had no obligation to aid Trump.

I don’t know the gentleman below. Trump may not know “what Russia is planning for the Baltic states,” but the rest rings true. So watch for it:

Trump keeps saying “NATO wasn’t there when we needed them.” He says it like a grievance. He will keep saying it. Expect it at every rally between now and 2028.

Understand what he is actually doing. He is not venting. He is building a case.

Because he knows what Russia is planning for the Baltic states, and he is pre-loading the public argument for why Article 5 does not apply when that moment arrives.

“We asked, they refused.” That is the exit ramp. Simple. Memorable. Wrong, but effective.

Let me be precise about what is happening here.

Trump keeps saying “NATO wasn’t there when we needed them.” He says it like a grievance. He will keep saying it. Expect it at every rally between now and 2028.

Understand what he is actually doing. He is not venting. He is…

— Gandalv (@Microinteracti1) April 25, 2026

Trump has had it in for NATO since he first took office in 2017. Now he has another cudgel for getting even. He bides his time and never forgets.

(h/t NK)

O'Donnell: "The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read…He writes this quote…'I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands in his crimes.'"

Trump: "I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible… pic.twitter.com/yTAzeF711h

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) April 26, 2026

O’Donnell: “The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read…He writes this quote…’I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands in his crimes.'”

Trump: “I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people…I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.

O’Donnell: Oh you think he was referring to you?

Trump: Excuse me, I’m not a pedophile…I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones who were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things…You should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I’m not any of those things and I was never…You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace. Go ahead, let’s finish the interview. You’re disgraceful.”

“You think he was referring to you?” Lol. He’s so dim I don’t think he even realizes just how much he’d self-owned right there.

Trump has been singing kumbaaya all day, saying how much the press loved him last night and how beautiful it was and how he was going to be nice.

That lasted just long enough for a reporter to fail to properly suck his … toes and he went right back to his grotesquely rude behavior. She had every right to quiz him about what was in the fucking manifesto. It’s her job. His job is to act like a leader and a grown man instead of a nasty little boy. But he can’t.

The Salad Man:

It was chaos inside the Washington Hilton ballroom on Saturday night, but not for one man who stayed in his chair, picking at a burrata salad as the people around him ducked for cover.

Michael Glantz, a top agent at Creative Artists Agency and a guest at the White House correspondents’ dinner, said there was no way he was going to hit the deck like everybody else, even though he heard the gunfire from outside the ballroom.

In a brief interview on Sunday, Mr. Glantz said that he was unfazed by the commotion and that he wanted to see what was happening. “I’m a New Yorker,” he said. “We live with sirens and activity happening all the time. I wasn’t scared. There are hundreds of Secret Service agents hurtling themselves over tables and chairs, and I wanted to watch.”

The split screen was captured on CNN, and footage of Mr. Glantz quickly went viral on social media, where he was dubbed “the salad man.” “A lot of people said, ‘Why didn’t you get on the floor? Everybody else at your table and in the room was on the floor,’” Mr. Glantz said.

He was happy to explain: “First of all, I have a bad back. I couldn’t get on the floor, and if I did get on the floor, they’d have to bring in people to get me off the floor. And No. 2, I’m a hygiene freak. There was no freaking way I was getting in my new tux on the dirty Hilton floor. It was not happening.”

After listening to approximately 177 accounts from reporters about what they saw (the same thing we all saw) and how they held each others hands and watched the secret service run around grabbing their charges and hustling them out of the room this account was a breath of fresh air.

Lol.

Does anyone remember this? It just happened in February. I admit that I didn’t and that’s because the media has hardly mentioned it. It certainly hasn’t come up in any of the reporting of last night’s events as far as I know:

The 21-year-old man who was shot and killed after having entered Donald Trump’s Florida resort on Sunday – while carrying a shotgun – came from a North Carolina family of the president’s supporters and had reportedly become increasingly fixated on the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.

The focus of the FBI’s investigation into the intrusion attributed to Austin Tucker Martin is tightening on his movements and motives. Martin was confronted by Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy inside the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago and killed after he had raised a shotgun into the shooting position at about 1.30am on Sunday, law enforcement said.

Martin was a recent high school graduate who is believed to have driven down to Florida from his home in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon, obtaining the weapon en route. The New York Times reported that last year he set up his own company, Fresh Sky Illustrations, trading in original drawings of golf courses that were sold through golf course gift shops and on commission.

TMZ reported that Martin had grown increasingly obsessed with Epstein – a former friend of Trump and many other powerful people – after the recent release of files connected to the prosecution of the sex offender and disgraced financier. The website said that it had obtained a text message that he sent to a co-worker earlier in February.

According to TMZ, the text said: “I don’t know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable … Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it. Raise awareness.”

The illustrator came from Cameron, North Carolina, where his relatives described him as quiet and generally opposed to guns. Martin’s cousin told the Associated Press that the family was staunchly pro-Trump.

“We are big Trump supporters, all of us,” Braeden Fields said. “Everybody.”

Just thought I’d mention it since we are suddenly very, very concerned with all the violent left wing rhetoric that’s inspiring all the California commies to try to kill our leaders.

Obviously, this latest made a much bigger splash because it was at an event in DC with the president and his cabinet all there along with most of the political press corps who are now making the rounds to tell “their story” about what it was like when they had to dive under he table and while they were eating their salads. It’s really about them so naturally it’s much bigger than that earlier attempt by a man who was shot dead in Mar-a-lago.

The Village is still intact.

I don’t think anyone under the age of 70 knows who “Marshall” Matt Dillon was. People must have been scratching their heads wondering what he had against poor Matt Dillon the actor.

You can’t make this stuff up.