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Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Oh No

Published by digby on April 7, 2026

God help us:

Trump made it clear how much he is developing the roadmap hour-by-hour.

“To be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts. And a lot of this is instinct,” he said. (So much for the the traditional national security process.)

His instincts are telling him to do this:

Just Security writes about the consequences to such rhetorical atrocities. You would think that this would be of concern to the Republican Party, the erstwhile loyal defenders of the military:

While our Commander-in-Chief threatens to “obliterate” “each and every one of their electric generating plants,” U.S. military commanders have been approving strike packages, wrestling with how to transform Trump’s dangerous bombast into lawful targets. 

Asking our military professionals—lawyers and commanders alike—to grapple with the president’s erratic behavior is enormously consequential.  U.S. military commanders have sworn to obey the Constitution and only those orders from their superiors that are lawful.  Threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” and to show “no quarter, no mercy” are plainly illegal.  Trump’s outrageous statements gravely threaten our military professionals’ bedrock moral and legal principles, ones enshrined in the law of war that they’ve been trained to follow their entire careers.  

We write to highlight that the Commander-in-Chief’s dangerous rhetoric  places our service members in an intolerable position in several respects.  

  • First, such threats undermine U.S. legitimacy and global standing, as they demonstrate a rejection of binding international agreements and core commitments to the laws of war. Indeed, the U.S. military doubled down on its commitment to the law of war following Vietnam War-era atrocities, requiring our Armed Forces to follow the law regardless how any conflict is characterized. An operation that followed through on Trump’s rhetoric would be one of infamy in the history of modern warfare. 
  • Second, they pose a significant risk of moral and psychic injury for servicemembers.  National soul-searching regarding how Americans fight followed the long U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in which both civilian casualties and detainee abuse undermined strategic objectives and weighed heavily on soldiers’ consciences long after the fighting stopped.  This reflection led to initiatives such as the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation program and new laws regarding detention and interrogation practices, strengthening U.S. commitment to fighting honorably and effectively through adherence to the law.   
  • Finally, the public record of intent to commit war crimes puts soldiers at risk of later liability. In any future war crimes or U.C.M.J. investigation—for which there may be no statute of limitations—their actions will be judged based on the reasonably available information at the time of the strikes.  See, e.g., Executive Summary of the Investigation of the Alleged Civilian Casualty Incident in the al Jadidah District, Mosul, May 8, 2017.  Long after the Secretary of Defense receives his anticipated pardon from the president, it is not unlikely that both his and Trump’s expressly stated intent to commit acts that amount to clear war crimes and to dispense with “stupid rules of engagement” may be considered evidence of notice and scienter on the part of servicemembers’ during any future congressional or criminal investigations.  

The U.S. military trains to fight with precision and lethality according to the law of war – precision meaning attacking only lawful military objectives while doing our utmost to protect innocent civilians caught up in the fight. The legal hurdle to convert a civilian object such as a power plant into a lawful military objective is a high one because the United States and its allies vigorously rejected “total war” after the massive suffering endured by millions during World War II.  What President Trump threatens is exactly that, from a civilian targeting perspective – total war against Iran, a complete rejection of the legal limits the United States has incorporated into the law governing U.S. military operations for both pragmatic and moral reasons.

Trump does not care about civilians, no matter how much he brays about “peace.” He is a sadist. All you have to do is read that post to know that.

And, by the way:

By all accounts then, the law of war prohibits “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population.” It is difficult to read President Trump’s egregious threats of great destruction as anything but intending to spread terror, making it even more incumbent on U.S. military professionals to ensure strikes are limited in their impact on the Iranian people.To be sure, as stated above, individual components of Iranian civilian infrastructure may indeed constitute lawful military targets under specific circumstances in which they contribute to the enemy’s military action and their destruction would provide a definite military advantage.

That said, the damning public rhetoric surrounding these planned strikes against all power plants in an undifferentiated manner casts the legitimacy and legality of such an operation in serious doubt, to say the least.  We urge military decisionmakers within the chain of command to think long-term, trust their training, and remember their oaths. American military professionals must remind their chain of command that the United States is not like Iran or Russia: our country is great because it adheres to the law of war and emerges victorious because of such adherence, not in spite of it. That might be said of all sorts of operations. Surely, here, the mass devastation on a civilian population makes where to draw the line excruciatingly clear.

Yeah, I don’t think the Trump administration is concerned with all that folderol:

REPORTER: ‘How would it not be a war crime to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants?’

TRUMP: ‘They’re animals.’

Update —

Behind the scenes: Trump might be the most hawkish person in the top echelons of his administration on Iran, according to a U.S. source who spoke to him several times in recent days.

  • “The president is the most bloodthirsty, like a mad dog,” another U.S. administration official said, downplaying stories that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Secretary of State Marco Rubio were egging him on. “Those guys sound like the doves compared to the president.”
  • Trump has started sounding out advisers and confidants about the plan to strike power plants and bridges by asking them, “What do you think of Infrastructure Day?”

Breaking it down: Trump’s negotiating team —Vice President JD Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — thinks he should try to get a deal now if possible.

  • Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and political allies like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are urging Trump not to agree to a ceasefire unless Iran makes concessions that currently appear unlikely, like reopening the Strait of Hormuz or relinquishing all highly enriched uranium.

Oy.

Not A Dime’s Worth Of Difference?

Published by digby on April 7, 2026

Came across this on social media and it’s very well done. I have no idea who wrote it, unfortunately. And while I might quibble with the characterization of some of the progressive politics, it’s mostly on the money:

I don’t want to hear any more bullshit about “both parties are the same.” No, they absolutely are not.

I’m not here to say Democrats are perfect — far from it — but they are not the same. Last I checked, in my lifetime, no Democratic president has started a large-scale war in the Middle East like George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump all have. Sure, Democrats have ordered military strikes and other operations — but nothing on the scale of what Republicans have done when controlling the White House.

Name the last Republican who inherited a sinking economy or a recession from their Democratic predecessor. On the flip side, name the last Democrat who inherited a strong, growing economy from a Republican predecessor.

Clinton inherited a weak economy from George H. W. Bush.
Obama inherited the worst economic crash since the Great Depression from George W. Bush.
Biden inherited a pandemic that had been botched as horribly as a president could botch it from Trump.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush inherited a historically strong economy and a balanced budget from Clinton.
From Obama, Trump inherited a strong economy in the midst of a historic streak of private-sector job growth.
And from Biden, he inherited a growing (though still fragile) economy that, a year later, is worse by nearly every major economic metric than it was when he took office.

In my lifetime, not once has a Democrat entered the White House without a massive mess to clean up from the Republican who occupied the office before them.

Was Obamacare perfect? No — and it was never meant to be. It was a stepping stone to be built upon and improved. But guess what, it’s a hell of a lot better than anything Republicans have ever proposed to provide more Americans with better and more affordable health care — because they’ve never introduced anything. Meanwhile, Democrats dating back to the 1990s have been trying to make health care better for all Americans, including conservatives, whether or not MAGA wants to believe that.

I dare any Republican voter to tell me any major policy or platform their party has backed in the past 20–30 years that has made Americans’ lives better. What policy proposals — other than “get a job and stop doing drugs” — have Republicans put forth to help end the homelessness crisis, fight drug addiction, or help the most vulnerable among us live better lives?

True, Biden was bad on the border and border security — but at least Democrats don’t vilify human beings as “animals” and “monsters” like Republicans do. We can have discussions about how best to secure our border and manage immigration without dehumanizing people — most of whom are just poor individuals trying to make a better life for themselves and their families.

On guns: Most Democrats want sensible reforms aimed at reducing gun violence. It’s not an effort to remove someone’s “right to bear arms” — it’s about addressing the epidemic of mass shootings and overall gun violence. Yet, to Republicans, guns have nothing to do with gun violence. Nothing at all. It’s just “mental health,” of which they’ve also done absolutely nothing to combat.

Name a Democrat who came into office and immediately started a crypto business auctioning private dinners with undisclosed guest lists to their largest investors. Well, Trump did that. His family’s net worth has grown by over $2 billion since he came into office. By comparison, if you combined the total net worth of the Obamas and Bidens, it’s about 2–3% of just the net gains Trump has seen since returning to the White House.

Even if you want to go to the “extremes” of Bernie Sanders or AOC on the left, what do they really want? Combat climate change because it’s real, whether or not Republicans want to believe it. Tax the richest among us so they pay their fair share, reducing the burden on the poor and middle class — which includes tens of millions of conservative voters. They want universal health care, which every other major nation on Earth already has. That’s largely their platform. Some of their ideas I don’t fully agree with, but the intentions are rooted in real issues we need to solve; it’s just a matter of pragmatic implementation on how to tackle these challenges. On the other hand, Republicans openly deny science, have no health care plan, and keep giving the richest more tax breaks — adding trillions to the national debt that the poor and middle class will ultimately pay.

Even on religious rights: Democrats want everyone in this country to have as much — or as little — religion in their lives as they choose. Want to go to church seven days a week? Go for it. Don’t want to believe in anything? That’s fine too. Republicans, on the other hand, want to shove their religion down everyone’s throat — not just any religion — their religion. They want it in government, in schools, and to allow businesses to discriminate based on religious beliefs — as long as it’s against anyone but Christians. They want laws that force religious views into private businesses. They want to force their religion into everyone’s lives. One party wants people to live as they choose privately. The other wants to force its warped theocratic views on the entire country. That is not the same.

Last I checked, Hillary Clinton conceded the 2016 election, and Kamala Harris admitted she lost her 2024 campaign. Yet in 2026, Trump still refuses to admit he lost the 2020 election. More and more Republicans claim “it was rigged” anytime they lose. One party concedes when they lose — the other doesn’t. Also, name one thing Republicans have pushed for to make voting easier for Americans. They’ve passed strict new voting laws, closed polling locations on Election Day, and shortened early voting windows.

Democrats, meanwhile, want automatic voter registration, longer early voting periods, and better access to polling locations to reduce wait times. One party makes it harder to vote — the other tries to make it easier for all voters — Democrats and Republicans alike. The list goes on and on. I could write a whole book on this.

At the end of the day, the idea that “both parties are the same” is complete bullshit. Democrats aren’t perfect — but Republicans operate on a whole other level of corruption, unethical behavior, anti-science rhetoric, religious fanaticism, and hypocrisy that doesn’t exist among the vast majority of Democrats.

Democrats have never elected a batshit crazy, imbecilic huckster who fomented a coup and treats all racial and ethnic minorities like second class cities and women like prey. That should count for something too.

I agree that the Democrats are intensely frustrating when they miss opportunities to issue the coup the grace when it’s offered and too often fail to understand how to speak to the average citizen in ways they can understand. There’s plenty to criticize. But the idea that they are no better than Republicans is completely absurd. The GOP isn’t even a political party anymore. It is an unreconstructed Christo-fascist cult. There is literally no choice between them if you are even slightly living in reality.

Harry Enten had this yesterday that has the wing nuts all experiencing thrills up the leg.

Ok. Maybe this will turn out to be a banner year for the GOP because Democrats don’t like their own party. At this point nothing would surprise me. But Democrats have been winning everything in the off year and special elections and all the individual candidates are doing better than their GOP rivals in the polls. Independents are breaking heavily for the Democrats across the board.

Democrats are not cultists who love their party no matter what and they’re frustrated that they were unable to hang on to power in 2024. But those same polls show that Democratic voters are highly motivated to vote (much more than Republicans) and are outraged by the GOP and Trump.

Enten needs to be reminded of something called negative partisanship, when partisans are more motivated by their antipathy to the other party than by loyalty to their own. Right now that’s outweighing everything.

And yes, voters do need to be reminded that the Democrats actually aren’t all bad and tend to deliver far more than the Republicans ever could. They will always do a much better job for average people even if they are imperfect and fall short of our expectations.

Trump’s Favorite Thing

Published by digby on April 7, 2026

Much has been said over the past few weeks about what motivated Donald Trump to go to war with Iran. Since he has given more than half a dozen different explanations, and sometimes in the same day, there’s no way of knowing for sure. With few restraints on his ambitions in his second term, the president has seemingly become convinced of his own omnipotence.

He has also thrown in his lot with Israel and certain Gulf states for ideological and financial reasons. (In the case of Israel, there are also theological considerations at play.) But Trump has another motive that he’s never tried to hide. In fact, he’s been saying it explicitly for the better part of 40 years: “We should take the oil.” 

Like his devotion to tariffs, Trump latched onto the notion when he was first creating his image as a brilliant businessman with political opinions that, for some reason, journalists thought the public would be interested in hearing. They were all shallow, guy-at-the-end-of-the-bar observations that generally reflected very little knowledge of the complexity of the issues and the potential ramifications. One of them was the idea that the United States should seize the world’s oil for itself.

Trump himself has been circulating a 1987 interview he did with Barbara Walters. He had given a speech before a rotary club in New Hampshire in which he posed the question, “Why couldn’t we go in and take over some of [Iran’s] oil?” When Walters asked how he thought such a thing could be done — “Would you send in the Marines, start a war?” — he replied, “Let ‘em have Iran, you take their oil.” And when she pressed him further, he made a recommendation. “The next time Iran attacks this country, go in and grab one of their big oil installations and keep it.”

He offered the same argument during an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley in 2011. After Trump claimed the U.S. could determine the oil prices set by OPEC — “We need one thing: brain power,” he explained — he used Libya as an example in an exchange with Crowley that’s worth looking at in full:  

Trump: You know, if somebody said, ‘What would be your theory or what would you do in terms of Libya,’ I’d do one thing, Trump said. Either I go in and take the oil or I don’t go in at all. We can’t be the policeman for the world.

Crowley: You’d just take their oil? 

Trump: Absolutely. I’d take the oil. I’d give them plenty so they can live very happily. I would take the oil. You know, in the old days —

Crowley: Well, wait. We can’t go —

Trump: Candy — Candy, in the old days, when you have a war and you win, that nation’s yours. [America] is a laughingstock throughout the world. It’s being ripped off by every country.

That same year he released another of his ghostwritten books called “Time to Get Tough,” which had, you guessed it, a chapter called “Take The Oil.”

Over the years Trump has said the same thing about Syria and Venezuela, while touting the fact that the United States itself has recently once again achieved oil and gas independence. His threats to annex Canada and Mexico are at least partially informed by the fact that they are oil rich nations as well. (Interestingly, he has not been quite as aggressive about seizing the fields of oil powerhouses Russia and Saudi Arabia.) Just last week the president told the Financial Times, “to be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.” 

To the extent he has ever had any ideology other than “strength” and “tariffs,” Donald Trump has believed that the U.S. should use the global energy supply as leverage to dominate the rest of the planet. It sounds like something a James Bond — or cartoon — villain would come up with, but there it is. 

Trump, though, isn’t the only problem here. As Iran created nearly five decades of hostility following the 1979-81 hostage crisis and threatened Israel and other nations in the Middle East, much of conservative Washington became enamored with the idea that with the U.S. as the world’s largest oil and gas producer, it would be immune from the disruption of global energy supplies. More recently, many Republicans have assumed that since the markets were only temporarily rocked by Trump’s Venezuelan operation and the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, they could be managed. This was a huge mistake. 

As Brahma Chellaney pointed out in The Hill, “this logic rested on a profound miscalculation that energy systems are linear, predictable and ultimately subordinate to American power. They are not.” The consequences of Trump and Netanyahu’s war of choice in Iran, he pointed out, have been enormous.

“Energy is not just another commodity,” Chellaney wrote. “It is the foundation of modern economic life. When energy prices rise sharply, food prices follow. Natural gas is essential for fertilizer production, while oil powers agricultural machinery, irrigation and transport. The result is a cascading effect: an energy shock becomes a food shock and, for many societies, a political shock, hitting the most vulnerable countries hardest.”

Trump’s idea was that if the U.S could simply “take the oil” of Venezuela and Iran — which alone account for a significant percentage of the world’s oil reserves — without disrupting the global economy, the U.S. could dominate the world by leveraging the global energy markets. It has not worked. 

The result of this miscalculation may very well be catastrophic. As the consequences of his actions become increasingly clear, Donald Trump seems to be losing his grip. Just as his decades-long belief in the efficacy of coercive tariffs have proven to be illusory, so has his naive theory about seizing the oil. Iran is not rolling over as the president assumed it would, and the economic fallout that every previous administration understood was likely from such an undertaking is already happening. 

“Just take the oil” was an insane idea to begin with, and it’s why you don’t make that guy at the end of the bar the president of the most powerful country in the world. And maybe it’s also why the media shouldn’t elevate loud-mouthed hype artists like Trump in the first place. 

A “Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight”

Published by Tom Sullivan on April 7, 2026

Enough sane-washing. He’s Gen. Jack Ripper mad.

Sunday headline in The Guardian.

Shades of Ender’s Game (2013). Except Ender Wiggin had a conscience. Donald Trump does not:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station in Iran on Tuesday, and Iranian officials urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants, as U.S. President Donald Trump warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran does not meet his latest deadline for the Islamic Republic to agree to a deal that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. also struck military targets on the Iranian oil hub of Kharg Island, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack marked the second time the island was targeted. Earlier in the war, American forces struck air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base there, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.

Associated Press headline this morning.

“He’s threatening nuclear war with the kind of language they’d use to promote a special episode of Celebrity Apprentice,” writes historian Kevin Kruse.

No more whistling past the graveyard, members of Congress, members of the press. Treat this lunatic as a lunatic.

This is a far simpler answer than people would like to believe. Trump issues the order via the National Military Command Center to the commander of Strategic Command, and then STRATCOM carries it out directly. There is no second vote, no veto, no check-and-balance.

— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T14:09:07.576Z

I fantasize that someone high up in the military chain of command stands up and refuses Trump’s orders, and one after another, others stand up to join her/him like at the end of Spartacus (1960). But then I’ve seen too many movies where people behave like heroes.

Update: Paul Krugman weighs in. I agree. Today would be a good day for members of Congress to march en masse down Pennsylvania Ave. and stage a sit-in outside the White House gates. Talk is cheap.

Our Darkest Hour by Paul Krugman

The civilization we destroy may be our own

Read on Substack

MAGAs Know

Published by Tom Sullivan on April 7, 2026

They really hate being reminded

Sign Guy has seen a noticeable uptick over the last three weeks in middle fingers on the surface streets and overpasses. Since Day 1 of this project, any oblique reminder that Dear Leader is failing to live up to his, um, potential has elicited the bird. The clear winner was last fall when ARE YOUR GROCERIES CHEAPER? drew three different middle fingers out of three windows of one car. At each Sign Guy appearance, there’s always at least one.

But then on Feb. 28, the America First president, the “I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop the wars” president, the peace president, obsessed as he is with winning a Nobel Peace Prize, launched an illegal, unprovoked and costly war against Iran. In part, to distract from his name appearing tens of thousands of times in the still incompletely released Epstein files. With the Strait of Hormuz closed and domestic gas prices soaring above $4/gallon, the MAGAs have become more visibly agitated by any reminder that Dear Leader sold them out. Almost as if the more insane he becomes, the more easily triggered they are.

Last night’s 90-min. rush hour appearance with the sign above drew 11 middle fingers out of nine cars, plus a thumbs-down and someone directing a tactical strobe light at the overpass out the windshield. One of those middle fingers was an oversized cardboard cutout held out the driver’s window. MAGAs really hate bad puns.

TikTok’s Texas Trey, “a reformed Republican” who went from “religious conservative to lefty liberal,” served MAGAs their betrayal straight up over the weekend.

“What you got was conned,” he tells them calmly. “And you’re too fucking embarrassed to admit it.”

@thetexastrey

It’s the truth. Adapted from a meme I saw on Insta. #texastrey #coachtreyspeaks #realtalk #conartist #scam

♬ original sound – Texas Trey

“He’s insane,” says Texas Trey in a Monday video in response to Trump’s threats to utterly destroy Iran. “And I guess the only real question at this point is just how far we’re gonna let him go.”

@thetexastrey

He literally said that in a press conference today when a reporter asked about it, and went on and on about how they want us to do that. #texastrey #coachtreyspeaks #realtalk #iranwar #insane

♬ original sound – Texas Trey

Meanwhile, Democrats on Capitol Hill persist in not publicly and loudly demanding that Trump’s cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him. Yes, Trump’s coterie of sycophants will be painting targets on their backs for MAGA cultists if they do. But in backing Trump’s Iran war, both he and they have painted targets on the backs of U.S. service members. As Trump himself callously told the widow of a slain Special Operations soldier, “knew what he was signing up for.” So did Marco Rubio and the rest. Do. Your. Jobs.

Democrats too. A trio of university students asked me last week what more I want to see from Democrats. Less talk, more action. March down Pennsylvania and hold a sit-in outside the White House gates.

The Legacy Project Priority

Published by digby on April 6, 2026

He was carrying that around the Easter Egg Roll.

It appears that Trump is writing the legal briefs for the White House now. This one,. protesting the halting of his ballroom construction is either written by a MAGA intern or the man himself:

It goes on. You can read the rest of it here if you want to bother. It’s not really worth it. He’s crudely trying to make the case that his stupid ballroom is a matter of national security.

This is truly all he really cares about. The war in Iran is raging, the world economy is in free fall and yesterday, he took what they called a “ceremoniously slow” presidential motorcade tour around Memorial Circle—close to the Arlington Memorial Bridge, where he hopes to build an arch honoring himself, according to pool reports.

Today:

Nope, not kidding:

A group of Vietnam War veterans and a retired architectural historian have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block construction of a proposed monument near Arlington National Cemetery.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges President Trump’s plans for “Independence Arch,” a 250-foot structure proposed for Memorial Circle.

The plaintiffs, represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, call the proposed plan a “vanity project” that would disrupt one of Washington’s most symbolically charged sightlines between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, a view designed to evoke national unity after the Civil War.

This is the monstrosity:

It is very likely that he’s going to be stopped from building this one. But it’s sadly possible that he’s going to be allowed to build that hideous ballroom if only to cover up the gaping hole he created when he illegally destroyed the East Wing.

Little Trumps

Published by Tom Sullivan on April 6, 2026

Authoritarians can’t see when they’re acting like fools

Fairhope, Alabama officer reaches for giant penis.

We stopped through coastal Fairhope, AL on the way home from Netroots-New Orleans last summer to check out the fantasy castles and the hermit house (and to have some right fine coffee at the Kind Cafe; and they mean kind). Fairhope is known as an arts community, but it’s still Alabama. So yesterday, a friend and I had just shared frustrations over Democrats being stuck in policies, framings, and campaign practices from decades past when this story from Fairhope popped up in The Intercept.

At Fairhope’s recent No Kings rally, a grandmother showed up in a 7-foot-tall inflatable penis costume she’d bought at a Halloween costume store. Renea Gamble, 62, an ASL interpreter, was arrested by officer Andrew Babb, a corporal with the Fairhope Police. The arrest is captured on his body cam:

Talking to a colleague over his two-way radio after the encounter, Babb described what happened. Gamble was dressed “like a freakin’ weiner,” he says on the tape, so he ordered her to remove the costume. She refused, invoking her First Amendment rights.

“I said, ‘That’s not freedom of speech,’” Babb continues. “‘This is a family town and being dressed like that is not going to be tolerated.’”

Gamble asks Babb twice if she is being detained. He ignores her and continues his scolding.

“If I’m not being detained, I’m gonna go ahead and leave,” Gamble says. Babb tackles and handcuffs her, etc., etc. Video captures police trying to stuff a handcuffed , 7-foot inflatable penis into a squad car. Virality ensued.

Gamble was jailed briefly for “disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, then released on a $500 bond.”

Now, that’s the sort of charge against a grandmother that might simply be dropped to avoid further embarrassment. But this is Alabama.

Instead, the city of Fairhope doubled down. Rather than dropping the case, the city attorney slapped Gamble with additional charges earlier this year: disturbing the peace and giving a false name to law enforcement. Her trial, first set to take place months ago, has been delayed multiple times. It is now set for April 15.

Let’s go back to people not recognizing how times have changed. One might think that in the age of cell phones and body cameras, that a police officer, indignant or not, might stop and think twice about creating a stooge scene of arresting a costumed grandmother in his upscale tourist town. You know, and avoid making himself and his department the butt of jokes on TikTok or on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” But no.

The Intercept adds:

A progressive Fairhope-based political cartoonist held a caption contest for his rendering of the arrest. In December, a Mobile-based talk radio station held a listener poll to choose its annual Alabamian of the Year, with “Inflatable Fairhope Protest Penis” receiving the most votes.

Lord help us:

At a time when Trump and his allies have escalated attacks on dissent — prosecuting protesters as terrorists and punishing free speech — Gamble’s misdemeanor charges in small-town Alabama seem relatively minor. A conviction would most likely to result in a fine and a suspended sentence, according to her lawyer, David Gespass, a veteran civil rights attorney who has spent decades representing people abused by police — and who called the whole thing “absurd.”

Nonetheless, Gespass did not expect the prosecution to get this far. “One would have thought at some point somebody would have decided to dismiss the case,” he said.

And save Fairhope, nicknamed “Mayberry on the Bay,” further embarrassment and national ridicule. But authoritarians gonna authoritarian.

Meanwhile, the claim that the Fairhope Police Department is the arbiter of family values has been met with a wave of scorn and derision. Babb, a K-9 officer who regularly represents the police force at community events, brought a flood of criticism to the department’s social media accounts after Gamble’s arrest.

Welcome to the 21st century, Officer Babb.

Lies And More Lies

Published by digby on April 6, 2026

You literally cannot believe anything our government says, whether it’s guidance from the CDC, national security, economic numbers or policing. The latest example of their deception and incompetence via the NY Times:

Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating.

That version of events began unraveling when prosecutors dropped felony charges against the injured man, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, and one of his housemates, Alfredo A. Aljorna, who had fled from immigration agents.

Yet video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times, raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart.

The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel.

The federal government had access to that video within hours of the shooting on Jan. 14, the Minneapolis police chief said. Yet prosecutors did not watch the footage, an official said, until nearly three weeks after they filed charges against the two men.

They just lie, relentlessly and aggressively, and don’t even really try to hide it.

In this case they did eventually drop the charges, no doubt because they knew that two agents had lied and would be run out of court if they tried to press them. The victims await word if they might qualify for a program that would grant them a visa to stay in the country because they have cooperated with a law enforcement investigation. Somehow, I doubt that’s very likely.

This was a famous incident that got national attention. But there have been thousands of similar altercations that didn’t involve deadly force, just beatings and torture, which have gone unreported. And it isn’t over. ICE is still rampaging through the streets but they’ve calmed down just enough to evoke boredom by the press as it chased the newest atrocity. The beat goes on.

Nightmare Fuel

Published by digby on April 6, 2026

Timothy Snyder:

Is this likely? I kind of doubt it, to be honest. They aren’t that good. But could it happen? Sure. At this point, I think anything could.

Read the whole thing. He outlines all the historical parallels, none of which are perfectly represented in our current situation but which all have familiar elements. He concludes:

Trump is weak, but weakness only matters if it is treated as vulnerability and pushed towards defeat. He will try to make his weak position strong, which will expose further vulnerabilities that have to be seen and exploited. All of his policies make him vulnerable; the war in particular makes him vulnerable; and any gambit to exploit that war should make him and his party easy to defeat and discredit his authoritarian movement forever.

A coup attempt is not at all unthinkable; Trump has done it before, and he makes it very clear that he is thinking about it now. When we think about it now, about how it might take shape, we make it less likely; indeed, we deter it. Knowledge of history can change the future. If we remember what history shows us is possible, we can prevent a coup from succeeding — and turn any such attempt against its instigator.

For The Children

Published by digby on April 6, 2026

At the White House Easter Egg Roll today:

Trump: “We are obliterating their country, and they just don’t want to say ‘uncle.’ But they will. And if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges, no power plants, no anything. I won’t go further because there are other things that are worse than those two, and we might have — well, if I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil. Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Harry said, ‘100% support'”

That’s the most pathetic thing he says these days. Clinging to that ridiculous poll that said his cult still loves him. But at this point it’s all he’s got.

He said that we sent guns to the opposition in Iran but the wrong people got them.

I am so tired…