Category: Trump impeachment

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Jerk Release Program — Child rapist 20 year sentence reduced

Jerk Release Program

Child rapist 20 year sentence reduced

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 12th, 2025

Just days after Trump’s corrupt lawyer/slash DoJ assistant attorney general met privately with convicted child sex felon Ghislaine Maxwell, then serving twenty years for child rape and child sex trafficking, she got moved to Club Fed, a luxurious minimum security prison reserved only for the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful criminals.

Now Maxwell’s on a work release program. The sort of thing someone gets if they get a speeding ticket and can’t pay the fine.

Frankly, I don’t expect her to live long, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Someone’s going to kill her—one of her nearly a thousand victims, perhaps, or relatives of same. Or one of millions of Americans who feel death is about the correct penalty for child rapists.

Or, of course, at the orders of Donald Trump. There’s a saying, attributed to Arabia, that goes, “It is unwise to know the secrets of a king.” And Maxwell has known Trump extremely well for many decades; there cannot be any possible doubt in her mind as to what a loathsome and vicious creature Trump is, and she also no doubt suspects he had something to do with the death of her partner, Jeffrey Epstein. I’m sure Trump would love to order her murdered.

I have absolutely no doubt that she has tons of evidence of her exploits, and Trump’s role in them, stashed away somewhere very safe and secure, held in abeyance by a “dead man’s switch.” She probably told Todd Blanche, Trump’s fixer, that someone, somewhere, had the files and other evidence, and they would remain hidden only for as long as she stayed alive.

It wouldn’t have worked with the Biden administration because there wouldn’t have been any evidence to incriminate them. While there were doubtless some Democratic politicians who availed themselves of her young charges, none had the power to entrap the US government into such a sleazy and sordid deal as the one Maxwell was able to wrangle with the once-proud Department of Justice. Yes, Clinton is on a lot of people’s lists of perpetrators involved with all this, but he’s been out of office for twenty-five years. There’s very few Democrats who won’t agree that if he was involved, then they should throw his ass in jail, too.

I suspect Trump effectively put the National Capitol under martial law because he knew this work-release was coming, and he wanted to try to distract the public. I think he has very badly miscalculated, based just on the initial responses I’ve seen on line.

Trump’s relations with his cult following were already badly strained before this. Most were betrayed by his flip-flop on the Epstein files, and this is going to blow that deep unease sky-high. It comes at a time when the general public is deeply fed up and disgusted with his incompetence, his cruelty, and his obvious lack of interest in anything other than scamming more money.

The military are deeply unhappy with him. Many suspect—correctly—that he doesn’t have the national interest in mind, and regard this week’s meeting with Putin with serious apprehension. His stunt of imposing federal troops on Washington DC on the transparently false excuse of a crime wave is going to result in American soldiers being taunted and booed by their fellow Americans. Further threats to deploy troops in New York and Chicago, following the fiasco in Los Angeles, have further angered military leadership.

And with the on-again off-again tariffs finally in place, and the farm labor force effectively scared out of the fields, the economy is going to take a huge hit and prices are going to explode. People who were whining about 12% inflation in 2016 better brace for 20% inflation starting now.

The possibility that Trump may be brought down by a coup is increasing to levels not seen in America since the crisis of 1933. That was a time when the economy was in utter collapse, and nearly a third of states were using scrip and barter, because they didn’t expect the dollar to be around for much longer.

People were pissed at the incompetence and lack of willingness by the Hoover administration to fix the economy back then, and it was several years, and one half-assed coup attempt, and a strong economic recovery on the strength of the New Deal, before the government was out of the woods.

Now, we face similar factors, combined with a deep and rapidly growing moral disgust with the government. Trump is every bit as incompetent and ineffectual as the hapless Hoover was, but at least people respected Hoover as a human being. Trump is moral filth, and his followers are now realizing it, and they, and an appalled military, realize that Congress and the Court are too compromised by the moral rot and cowardice to solve the matter.

Trump must go, or America dies. There’s no middle road any more.

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Donald Has Always Been a Pig — He’s only getting worse as his mind crumbles

Donald Has Always Been a Pig

He’s only getting worse as his mind crumbles

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 20th 2025

Back on October 14, 2016, just four weeks before the American voters lost their minds and elected Donald Trump president, Time Magazine reported this:

‘CNN uncovered a 2004 interview with Donald Trump and Howard Stern in which the two men discuss Lohan, who was 18 at the time. The men talk about Lohan’s appearance and how “wrecked” and “troubled” she was at the time. Stern asked Trump, “Can you imagine the sex with this troubled teen?” Obviously, Trump could. He responded, “She’s probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women, you know, deeply, deeply troubled, they’re always the best in bed?”’

Lohan was 18 at the time Trump said that, going on to complain about her freckles, which he apparently found unattractive.

Oddly, Lohan was supporter of Trump in the early days of the new administration, telling a British outlet, “I don’t agree with his policies and the things that he’s doing, but at the end of the day he is the president right now, so what’s the point in picking on someone instead of just seeing what they’re capable of or not capable of?” However, aside from some mild trolling in 2017 that Trump might want to talk to the website Lohan was shilling for—lawyers.com—she hasn’t spoken about him since.

The same CNN article went on to disclose another statement by Trump that partially previews one of Trump’s more bizarre statements in 2025: that he wanted to strip Rosie O’Donnell of her citizenship.

“In a later interview with Stern in February 2007, Trump, then best known for NBC reality show The Apprentice, also made derogatory remarks about longtime nemesis Rosie O’Donnell.

“I’d pay a lot of money for that not to happen,” Trump responded to Stern asking whether he would reconcile with Rosie O’Donnell if she performed a sex act on him. “That’s one of the most unattractive people,” he said.”

As support for Trump continues to crumble amongst his once-adoring fans, I’m hearing, more and more, “We had no idea…” No idea he was dishonest. No idea he was authoritarian. No idea he was a chauvinistic pig. No idea he was a thief. No idea he was the monster he really is.

The other day on Facebook, I wrote to one person who was astounded that a contractor refused to do business after seeing a Trump sign on the property, “It’s no longer ‘just politics’; if you still support Trump at this point, it speaks to what sort of person you are, your principles, your decency.” I was nice enough to refrain from pointing out that the Trumpkins on the Supreme Court had upheld the right of business owners to refuse to do business because of sexual preference, or political opinion.

I have no use for the “no idea” people. We’ve known for many, many years exactly what Trump was. He is not only the most hated man in America, but he may just be the most hated man in American history. There’s a coffee cup design that’s popular right now: shows a jaundiced-looking cat above the caption, “Is He Dead Yet?” Nobody ever needs to ask to whom the cat is referring. Hint: It isn’t Jon Arbuckle.

I’ve had people tell me with a perfectly straight face that before Trump entered politics, he was wildly popular and beloved by all, and he sacrificed all that to serve the people. No, really.

Clear back in 1987—yes, 38 years ago!–Trump was cannon fodder for notable comic strips such as Bloom County (Berkeley Breathed) and Doonesbury (Garry Trudeau). I’ve included a couple of copyright violations here, for which I hope to propitiate by linking to Trudeau’s marvelous collection, “Yuge!: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump (Volume 37)”

1987. That was before Trump’s disgraceful calls for the executions of the Central Park Five and before when Trump repeated that demand after the five had been exonerated. That was before Marla Maples, and the squalor of his life revealed. It was before 9/11, before he mocked a disabled reporter, before he raped E. Jean Carroll, and before he became America’s maddest, most vicious, and possibly final President.

In a more recent 1991 sequence, Trudeau had his vacuous TV personality/reporter Roland Hedley interviewing on-the-street New Yorkers about Trump’s hoped-for financial demise. “Curious locals have gathered on the street!” he intones. “Tell me, sir—what will you miss about The Donald’s lifestyle?” Interviewee One replies “Hard to say. There so much that’s repellent about the guy, the boasting, the piggish consumption, the squalid personal life…” Interviewee two interrupts, “How about the hideous décor of his casinos?” “Nah,” One replies, “Who cares about décor? His squalid personal life was the most offensive thing about him!” “It was not! The worst was the hideous décor!” The crowd breaks out in a “Tastes great!” “Less filling!”-type chant while Roland grins at the viewpoint and says, “New Yawkers! They never agree! What are you gonna do, Peter?”

In one panel, the crowd is shouting “JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!” and Roland says, “Peter, the excitement is palpable here tonight…”

Donald Trump is a morally bankrupt pig, and he always has been. If you don’t believe that, you are either a massive fool or there is something very deeply wrong with you.

And he’s only gotten worse, and is a greater danger to all of us.

If you think it’s still “just politics” I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. You’re disgusting.

And if you are unlucky enough to know such a person, get them a copy of Trudeau’s collection. Watching them read it will make it worth the fourteen bucks!

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After July 3rd, 2025 — Comes the independence movement

After July 3rd, 2025

Comes the independence movement

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 4th, 2025

Between the infiltration of fascists on the Supreme Court (name the traitors: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney-Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh) and in Congress (too many to name, but almost unanimously Republicans, and willingness to either commit or bow to treason almost unanimous amongst those Republicans), there was only one result possible. The United States of America never stood a chance.

The passage of the hideous, ironically named “One Big Beautiful Bill” is the capstone to the collapse of America. Yes, it is cruel, vicious, and designed to punish the poor and weaken the middle class into insolvency. It increases the already hideously disproportionate disparity of wealth and power of the top 1% to levels that far exceed those of pre-revolutionary France or Russia. That comes at the cost of a trillion for health care for the people, hundreds of billions more to feed the poor, and education. It will make the US a scientific, intellectual and educational backwater. It will, in time, eliminate accessible health care for most of the population, and weaken and degrade public, secular schools into irrelevance.

But the very worst part is that it erects the most efficient and oppressive police state in the history of the world. It provides more funding for the hated and vicious ICE secret police force than the US Marines get. Coupled with Elon Musk’s vast, comprehensive data theft of virtually every government record on everyone in America, it makes for a vast and omnipresent police state that would make Josef Stalin groan with envy.

Even now, I see people, mostly Democrats, chirping that the Republicans have really fucked up this time, and how we’ll make them pay in the off-terms next year. These people are fools: the Republicans have absolutely no intention of holding free and fair elections. None.

Some people take hope that the bill just signed into law delays some of the worst, most rapacious elements of the shredding of the social safety net until after November 2026, and point to that as a sign the Republicans are nervous about those elections.

Nonsense. They just want to hold what will be utterly fraudulent and meaningless elections to make sure their apparatus of control is rock solid and that they need never worry about any election going forward.

Oh, there will be an election. It will even look fairly convincing, in that Republicans will at least lackadaisically campaign, and if the people controlling the vote count are even half-way competent, the results will all fall into a convincing 10 point range for most of the Republicans. There may come a time when they can run unopposed and win 99% of the vote, like in the Soviet Union, but for now they have to pretend there’s still a United States and it is still a democracy of the people. As long as people can PRETEND the country is still theirs, they are less likely to rise up, you see. To that end, Republicans will wave many flags and pound a few Bibles in order to keep their believers glassy-eyed.

But they don’t intend to allow the people to have a meaningful voice. The bill Trump just signed had an approval rating of just 29% during the final hours of debate. No bill still pending before Congress was ever more unpopular. Ever. And when you have people like Joni Ernst sneering “We all have to die sometime” to people complaining that their children can’t get necessary medical care, or the psychotically racist Laura Loomer talking about deporting all 65 million native Latinos with a grin from the president, you know they have stopped pretending. Trump spent yesterday complaining about how farmers were at the mercy of “Shylock” bankers and crowing that he was going to throw a trashy UFC bloodfest on the White House lawn. They’ve quit pretending. They can’t be arsed giving a shit. They’ve won, and they know it.

But they still fear us. They know that if the people withdraw consent, and simply and peacefully refuse to cooperate, they cannot maintain power. The Soviet Union, the most efficiently oppressive regime in history, fell with hardly a shot being fired simply because the citizenry of the USSR withheld their support and peacefully resisted.

I’ve said before that once-a-month demonstrations aren’t going to cut it. People are going to have to go out every day and protest, and there’s certainly no shortage of things people can protest. The worthless corporate media will largely ignore it, but the internet is building its own fourth estate. Corporate news is rapidly falling into the same niche as Pravda and Izvestiya did in the Soviet Union and RT does today.

The government will make it harder and harder to defy. They may make demonstrating illegal, and even defiance of any sort. Who’s gonna stop them? Clarence Thomas? Mike Johnson? The law will be what they say it is, and it won’t be there to protect you.

But there are hundreds of ways to resist. They still need you, and even though they’ll never admit it, they need the support of the people in general.

Make Trump supporters feel unloved. Don’t miss an opportunity to discuss the failings and deceptions of the Trump regime. Make Trump supporters doubters, and eventually adversaries. When dealing with officials, drag your feet in every way possible. Do it legally, do it peacefully, but do it. And if they try to outlaw resistance, find less obvious ways of resisting, but never stop resisting. The apparatchiks of the Trump regime are human, and will slowly succumb to social pressure. Make them feel unloved.

Trump is a dying man. He isn’t plausible as the face of the fascist revolution now, and it’s only going to get more and more strained as his mind, never much to begin with, erodes. While we don’t know who will replace him, he won’t have whatever cult following Trump still retains at that point, so keep the pressure on, and make it unceasing. Most of Trump’s closest clique are weak and amazingly stupid opportunists, and they will make a lot of mistakes. Make them pay.

This regime can be brought down in ways in which the founders of the United States would approve. But be prepared to be stubborn and unyielding. Make them feel unloved.

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The End of America — Supreme Court shuts down judicial review

The End of America

Supreme Court shuts down judicial review

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

June 27th 2025

The Supreme Court just destroyed the independent judiciary in the United States, eliminating the one legal recourse available to defy Trump’s capricious and tyrannical executive orders. The decision putatively rests on the issue of whether birthright citizenship is a constitutional right or not (it is, no matter what the bigots on the right claim). Instead, it focused on whether lower courts can rule on the constitutionality or the legality of presidential executive orders or not. By the usual six to three margin, this badly-compromised court ruled that they, and only they, can determine if any rule or law is constitutional or not.

Trump is crowing that it’s a ‘monumental victory’ for him. Why wouldn’t he? Basically, any executive order he writes has the force of law now, unless the Supreme Court says otherwise: and his six pets on the court aren’t going to do that, are they?

While the landmark Supreme Court case of Marbury vs. Madison established the principle of judicial review in 1803, the power of lower courts to rule on the constitutionality of law actually predates it, dating back to Hayburn’s Case, in 1792, in which Congress denied pensions to a “meritorious and unfortunate clafs of citizens.” The ruling found that Congress acted improperly, and that the law was ex officio in all 15 states.

Amy Coney Barrett, revealing her deep lack of understanding of the law, wrote “universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts,” ignoring the obvious constitutional fact that such authority is neither Congress’ right to give nor deny. That was understood in 1792, and codified by the only authority that could do so: the courts themselves.

The fascists on the court grant “the government’s applications for a partial stay of the injunctions entered below, but only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue.”

With the dishonest and cowardly smirk that is the bedrock of fascism, the court allowed a stay of thirty days before Trump can begin throwing birthright citizens into his death camps overseas, but made it clear the Supreme Court was the only place the stay could be lifted—and the court won’t reconvene until October.

No court can strike down a law or executive order, no matter how cruel, illegal or capricious it might be—and we already know where the Trump regime stands on that, don’t we?

It means ALL disputes that have a constitutional basis can only be decided by the Supreme Court. And back in the days when all nine justices were acting in good faith to uphold the Constitution, they already faced a workload that limited their ability to respond in a country that turns out tens of thousands of new laws every year, state by state, or a capricious and irrational president who signs executive orders that are whimsical and recklessly disregard the rights of those affected.

The right wing supermajority on the court can simply deny cert, (refuse to take up) any challenge to any executive order or act of legislature, no matter how badly it hurts people. And they will. They’ve essentially ruled that they have absolute authority to abrogate their authority absolutely.

Without meaningful right of appeal, how long do you suppose it will be before Pam Bondi urges Trump to sign an XO mandating five years in prison and $100,000 fine for referring to Trump as TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out? Don’t laugh: Bondi has already made a threat along those lines. So you defy the XO and the local sheriff comes around and arrests you. The local court isn’t going to rule the law is stupid and unconstitutional. And you called Trump “TACO” out loud in front of witnesses, so pleading innocent isn’t going to help you. Superior courts cannot rule thusly. Only the Supreme Court can hear your appeal on constitutional grounds. And they don’t want to hear a bunch of whines from convicted criminals, do they?

So basically, the United States of America has come to a close. And what is coming has already made clear that it’s is going to be closer in tone and spirit to Nazi Germany than to your usual grubby little dictatorship.

I’m doomed. Many of you reading this will be, too. But the only thing worse would be to simply kneel and remain silent and hope it delays the fall of the ax. I‘m going to keep on writing these until they come for me.

If you want America back, you’re going to have to fight for it.

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One Big Beautiful Bukkake — Plutocrats Plan Our Gangbang

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

May 26th, 2025

While everyone has been distracted by Trump’s demented and often Naziesque antics, the true fascist mien (cough) of the GOP has been revealed for all to see. Donald is just using his often-cartoonish viciousness and cruelty to keep his most mindless followers hooting in joy as the GOP contemplates its long-held dream of raping America to death.

The House passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (so named by Donnie, who knows how to engage the most stupid people around) by only one vote. I wish I could say that the handful of Republicans who opposed it did so on some sort of moral or ethical principles, but the sad fact is they hate the bill because it doesn’t go far enough. They’re worried about the estimated $4.3T in debt it will add to the existing GOP-created flood of red ink. But rather than eliminate the estimated $4T tax cut that would go to the billionaires, they want to completely eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

You? Oh, your taxes would go up. Not a lot, but then, forty years of Reaganomics hasn’t left you with much to tax, has it?

One estimate is that 99% of the tax cuts would go to those making more than $4M a year, while people making $17,000 or less would see a tax increase of $1,000 a year. You don’t mind giving up your health care and pension so Bezos can send another bevy of trophy wives into the stratosphere in a giant phallus, do you? Sure, just as long as it owns the libs.

Nobody really knows how many nasties are hidden in the bill. Here’s the ones we’ve found so far.

It extends the “state of emergency” Trump declared over the wholly imaginary Venezuelan invasion of the United States. This means among other things that he can unilaterally declare martial law, and delay or even cancel elections.

The bill has a provision to federalize elections (they are mandated to the states by the Constitution) which means that Trump’s utter corrupt and politicized Department of Justice under Kristi Noem would have complete control over who could vote, how they could vote, and even eliminate the secret ballot in the name of fighting “voter fraud.”

It completely neuters the courts, mandating that the administration can ignore any court edict for up to a year, and protecting all members of the administration from contempt of court rulings—the one weapon the courts have to enforce compliance. There has never been a country without a strong, independent judiciary that was worth a shit, and America would be no exception.

Back when I was a kid, they used to teach about the “Spoils System” wherein new administrations could replace government functionaries with their own people. Needless to say, massive corruption and incompetence was built into such a system, and the Pendleton Law was passed in 1883 creating a non-politicized civil service.

This bill would restore the spoils system. Good luck getting that permit you need if you voted for the wrong guy in the last election! Need a copy of your birth certificate? Don’t forget to bribe!

Protests and protesters could be tracked and penalized, no matter how peaceful and legitimate. Freedom of speech becomes an empty mockery. It includes individual lawful protest. This essay, completely legal and legitimate in May of 2025, could put me in prison next year. Ex Post Facto wouldn’t exist under Trump. He already has a track record of punishing people for actions that were lawful at the time—many still are lawful, but that doesn’t stop Trump.

ICE, already America’s Gestapo, would see its budget increase by twelve-fold to $43B a year by 2029. By then they will probably have run out of undocumented people to throw in the Gulags and will be branching out to arrest anyone with brown skin or a last name ending in a vowel.

Mind you, most of this has no foundation in US law, and much of it is flat out unconstitutional. But no worries: the courts won’t be allowed to stop it. Read back to see the shit status of countries without a meaningful court system.

As is widely noted, the bill would absolutely devastate all social safety net programs (the ones that Elon and his Randroid thugs haven’t already destroyed, like Meals on Wheels or the Weather Service). It’s no exaggeration to say that starvation would become a serious problem in America.

For the second time in a week, some right winger decided to refute our fears about the bill by citing AI: in this instance, Elon Musk’s apartheid joke of an AI, Grok. I’m still laughing.

That “One Big Beautiful Bill”? No worries. Elon’s bastard cyberchild has a simple answer: it doesn’t exist. And I quote: Existence of “One Big Beautiful Bill”: There is no record in my knowledge of a bill by this name or with these specific provisions being proposed or debated in the U.S. Congress as of my last update.

Oh, well. I guess I need to go back and unwrite this sucker. Would Elon lie to me?

Elon isn’t the only one pretending it isn’t really there. The bill holds off most of the very worst provisions until 2029, after the next (and possibly final) presidential election.

Now, it won’t survive the Senate, which means that the whole thing is still a long way from becoming law. I predict the next budget bill will be yet another Continuing Resolution, which is a polite way of saying “Let’s hang the country very slowly.” We’re not dead yet, in other words.

But for anyone who cares to look, it’s a naked look at what the plutocrats who control the GOP have in mind for us. If enough of this monster passes, there’s no turning back.

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AI Caramba — What you ask AI matters, too

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

May 21st, 2025

 

One right wing user on Facebook, annoyed by warnings of a Nazi takeover of the United States, posted the following:

Well, that’s the first time someone has made an appeal to authority to try to demonstrate that America isn’t falling into Nazism, but then, these are unusual times. And it’s also the first time I’ve had someone use an AI (A-One to any Trumper reading this) as that “authority.”

I joked that at least he didn’t use Musk’s AI and have it go off on an unrelated rant about an imaginary “white genocide” in South Africa. But then I thought, why not go to that same AI (perplexity.ai) and ask it “Does the Trump administration show Nazi tendencies?”

I gave the response below, but want to say at this time that I have never used and will never use AI in my writing, whether fiction, non-fiction, or reviews. If I cite AI, I will link the source, clearly identify it as AI, and note any problems I spot in the cite.

The response was surprising, not because it gave any response that was unexpected (“Hitler had dogs as pets, Trump has them as wives”) but because it was balanced (without falling into the trap of “bothsidesism”), accurate, and informative. I was impressed. It also clearly denoted opinion opposed to simple assertion of fact.

So here’s the perplexity.ai response to the question,

“Key Parallels and Differences Identified by Experts

  • Authoritarian and Anti-Democratic Practices
    The Trump administration has been repeatedly criticized for authoritarian tactics, including undermining the rule of law, suppressing dissent, and attacking democratic institutions. Amnesty International noted the use of government power to silence opposition, erode checks and balances, and foster a climate of fear and division
  • Dehumanizing Rhetoric
    Trump’s language about immigrants and political opponents has drawn direct comparisons to Nazi and fascist rhetoric. He has referred to immigrants as “vermin,” “animals,” and “poisoning the blood of our country,” echoing language used by Adolf Hitler and other fascist leaders to dehumanize targeted groups
  • Such rhetoric has been condemned by historians and scholars as a hallmark of fascist and Nazi propaganda.
  • Targeting of Minorities and Marginalized Groups
    Policies and executive actions under Trump have targeted immigrants, racial minorities, LGBTQIA+ communities, and others, leading to accusations of fostering white supremacy and systemic discrimination

The administration’s embrace of far-right groups and failure to unequivocally condemn white supremacist violence further fueled these concerns

  • Attacks on Press and Free Speech
    The administration’s pattern of undermining press freedom, threatening journalists, and cracking down on protestors—especially those supporting marginalized groups—has been cited as reminiscent of repressive regimes, including the Nazis
  • Use of Fascist and Nazi-Era Language
    Trump’s public statements, such as pledging to “root out” internal enemies and referencing “bad genes,” have been compared to Nazi rhetoric about racial purity and the need to eliminate internal threats

His calls for the “remigration” of undocumented immigrants also echo language used in European far-right and ethnic cleansing movements

  • Encouragement of Paramilitary and Militia Groups
    While the U.S. lacks Nazi-style stormtroopers, Trump’s friendly stance toward groups like the Proud Boys and his encouragement of the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault have been seen as attempts to threaten constitutional order using extralegal force, drawing a parallel to the Nazi reliance on paramilitary violence to intimidate opponents

     

  • Notable Criticisms and Cautions
  • Historical Uniqueness of Nazi Evil
    Even critics such as Al Gore emphasize that the Nazi regime was “uniquely evil,” and direct comparisons should be made with caution
  • The scale of Nazi crimes, especially the Holocaust, is not matched by the Trump administration, and most experts stress the importance of recognizing this distinction.
  • Debate Among Historians and Scholars
    While some scholars see strong echoes of fascist and Nazi tendencies in Trump’s rhetoric and policies, others argue that these are more about antagonizing political opponents or reflect broader trends in right-wing populism rather than a direct replication of Nazism

End of AI response.

Well, there you have it. I might normally have one of two reasons for citing an AI response, let alone quoting it at length. Either I would because it was absolutely ridiculous (“Water does not freeze at 26F; it freezes at 32F”) or, as in this case, because it actually did a good job.

So be assured that if I didn’t cite AI, then what you are reading is my own original ridiculous drivel.

Promise.

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Leveling Out? — Hints of a Seismic Shift

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

May 19th 2025

There’s a word I’m hearing more and more, not just from Democrats and Independents, but from Republicans, judges, army personnel, and even some in MAGAland. That word is “overreach.”

The “gift” from Qatar may have been the tipping point. It was blatant corruption, a vast and ridiculous gift that was so ludicrous that even people totally undismayed by the criminality and avarice of Trump realized what a fool the man truly is.

Never mind that the interior of the plane resembles an Ed Wood notion of what a 1920s Turkish bordello must have looked like. We’re used to that particular aesthetic from Trump, after all. It is quite literally a flying albatross, weighed down with dross and easily brought down with a drone with a good laser on board. An albadross, if you will.

In fact, it’s a white elephant. It was originally commissioned in 2012 by the Qatari Royal family and delivered in 2015. The Qatari regime quickly realized it was a gaudy turkey, and gifted it to King Abdullah II of Jordan. The king flew it for a bit, and then returned it. Since 2020, the Qataris had been trying to find a sucker to unload it on. Low mileage, at least: it has only logged about 25,000 air hours, a minuscule amount compared to any commercial 747.

Estimates on the cost of bringing it up to the standards of Air Force One range from $350 million to $one billion, and certainly would not be ready before 2029. One of the many rationales that Trump gave for accepting this thing was that he was mad at Boeing because the new Air Force One already commissioned won’t be ready until 2029. Apparently he was so annoyed at Boeing over that that the day after accepting Qatar’s Golden Turkey Award, he signed off on an agreement between Boeing and Qatar to deliver $89 billion in planes over the next 15 years. I’m sure the board of directors at Boeing were heartbroken to hear this.

That same day he made a deal with Saudi Arabia, that according to The Hill, “includes a $142 billion defense and security deal that equips Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art war equipment provided by dozens of U.S. firms. The equipment includes air and missile defense and air force and space advancements.” I’m sure this was met with considerable interest in the Knesset.

One oddity in the $600 billion deal, touted as an invest-in-America thing, was the arrangement to sell 500,000 advanced Intel AI chips. The Saudis already had a vast program to develop AI technology going, and most of the chips appear to be going to the technology-poor United Arab Emirates. It’s widely suspected the chips might go to China, and possibly Iran, as relations between Iran and the desert kingdoms has thawed considerably in the past year. One more thing to keep the thoroughly sandbagged Netanyahu up at night.

Nobody has explained why the plane needs to be brought up to AF1 specs given that Trump is supposed to be out of office by 2029. Maybe the administration thinks Donald Trump Jr. will be president. But for right now, the whole damn thing has to be taken apart to make sure the Qataris didn’t load it up with spyware, or other little malevolencies that might result in headlines like “AF1 unexpectedly loses power over Israel, crashes into Knesset.” What a coincidence.

Whatever wet dreams Donald might have had of flying in royal grandeur over an undeserving world aren’t going to happen soon, especially if Congress grows a backbone and forbids the gift—which they have the power to do.

And Trump would have to redo that silly interior, which is designed explicitly for the tastes of the Qatari royal family. Not a US flag or Big Mac in sight. Like most white elephants, it suffers from being tailored to a specific taste. A retired but still very popular basketball star is trying to unload his estate at 10% of original asking price because he had his name, face, and jersey number plastered all over it, and for most people “23” is just another number.

Trump has always been mocked by his non-admirers, for his venality, his grandiosity, his feeble grasp of policy, and his over the top and often demented “truths.” But now even Donald’s followers are beginning to suspect that he is, in fact, a living embodiment of that Qatar plane: gaudy, ridiculous, non-functional, and widely regarded as a white elephant.

Support for Trump is eroding, rapidly outside of the GOP, but now, critically, within the GOP itself. Most of what Trump is doing is stuff nobody signed on for outside of the fascists behind Project 2025, and even the Heritage Foundation libertarians are beginning to realize the stories about Donald’s dementia and erratic behavior weren’t just rumors but could pull him—and them—down.

A lot of people, myself included, have drawn parallels between Trump and Hitler, comparisons invited by Trump himself, who openly adopts strategies of the vile German leader. But while Trump may recognize Hitler’s strategic genius, he doesn’t have that strategic genius, and is in reality just a poor Xerox of the German dictator. Even Hitler would shake his head sadly at his greatest fan. Hitler, at least, had enough sense to go mad after he consolidated power. Trump doesn’t and that might be his downfall.

 

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“Present the Body” — Yes. Mayors, too

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

May 10th 2025

On his podcast the other day, a right winger calling himself “DC Draino” (his parents, somewhat more sane, named him Rogan O’Handley) urged Steve Bannon to consider that eventually Donald Trump would have to suspend habeas corpus. Bannon has no formal role in the Trump administration, but like so many ‘positions’ in the incoherent world of Donald Trump, title, or lack thereof, has little to do with power and influence in this junta. Bannon has considerable power and influence, and didn’t seem to find suspending habeas corpus objectionable.

Nor did the White House mouthpiece: “I have not heard such discussions take place, but I can assure you that the President and the entire administration are certainly open to all legal and constitutional remedies to ensure we can continue with the promise of deporting illegal criminals on our nation’s border,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Well, the ‘legal and constitutional remedies’ that Baghdad Barbie envisioned is mentioned in the Constitution, as follows: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Since this appears in Article One, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives,” this is a power of Congress and not the administration.

The administration has proffered the fantasy that Venezuela is invading, or fostering an invasion of the United States through a criminal cartel called Tren de Aragua. A dozen courts have determined that this rationale has no basis in law or reality, but the Trump junta is still pushing it as ‘fact.’ Leavitt is lying.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for the crime of standing on public property outside of an ICE facility talking peacefully with two congressional representatives opposing the illegal incarceration of people in defiance of habeas corpus. They argued briefly with ICE thugs a few minutes earlier but had peacefully retreated. The mayor was singled out (a progressive Democrat, he had opposed the building of the facility on zoning issues and is running for Governor of New Jersey this fall). Nobody else was arrested or even asked to leave.

Trump’s gestapo may have realized they overstepped, and the mayor was released a couple of hours later, and he reported he was treated with respect during his incarceration although undeniably a prisoner.

Alina Habba, Trump’s personal mouthpiece and acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, claimed Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. … He has been taken into custody.”

In true Pravda form, DHS flak Tricia McLaughlin said, “Today, as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center, a group of protestors [sic], including two members of US Congress, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.” Video shows that the arrest was clearly made on public property, the mayor and his fellow Bastille-stormers having already obeyed warnings and backed off.

Apparently ICE is so fragile that two middle aged congressionals exchanging sharp words with heavily armed guards is considered a “storming.” God help the poor wee bastards if someone flips them the bird. Although if Congressionals were doing this storming, why did they arrest the mayor instead? Wasn’t his role more along the lines of a brief shower, rather than a storm?

Over 200 court decisions have found Trump’s executive orders pertaining to arrests of immigrants or firing of federal employees and cutting of allocated budgets to be illegal, or at the very least, overreach. He has, in total, five decisions that didn’t just slap him flat.

Trump is becoming more erratic and less coherent by the day. Any other president displaying the behavioral and cognitive symptoms Trump has would have either been convinced to step down or face a 25th Amendment process to remove him from office.

But Trump is just the puppet. It’s the powerful extremist movements backing him that are the real danger: the fascistic Heritage Foundation and its dream of corporate takeover of America, the racist and nationalist neo-Nazis like Steve Bannon, and the religious nutjobs who want a vicious theocracy. They are the ones behind this, and they are the ones pulling the strings of the increasingly befuddled and pathetic Trump. He doesn’t even know if he is supposed to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.

We are now very rapidly approaching the point where the administration has become outlaw—it has already begun arresting judges and threatening members of congress for the crime of opposing them. It is ignoring, sometimes blatantly, 200 court decisions against it. And it is still quite literally tearing apart the fabric of USA governance, leaving the people with no representation and totally at the mercy of incredibly rapacious and corrupt criminals.

I still maintain hope of a peaceful and democratic solution to all this. Anything else will be a horror show. But we are now at the point where anyone who has taken an oath to obey the Constitution must oppose these people, and prepare for the eventuality that it may have to be “by any means necessary.”

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Donnie XOs the Constitution — His Mentis is non Compos

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

May 4th 2025

Donald Trump gave the clearest indication yet that he is totally unfit for office when asked by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, Mr. President?” An obviously confused Trump replied, “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.” Like any good mob boss, he’s going to refuse to answer under advice of counsel and in accordance with the fifth amendment.

The thing is that you don’t need a lawyer to determine this particular presidential duty. The Constitution mandates the oath of office, as follows:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

As for the oath itself, it can’t possibly be clearer. “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Yup. That pretty much covers it. There are parts of the Constitution that are unclear, or at least open to interpretation, but this ain’t one of them. I went looking for cases involving the oath of office, and all I could find were some lower case decisions that allowed that a bible wasn’t required for the oath of office. Nobody has ever tried to contest that the oath was unclear or open to interpretation.

And it isn’t. And yes, Donnie has taken that oath. Twice.

He did show a few moments of mental clarity during the interview, admitting that the Constitution doesn’t permit him to run again after this term of office, and that invading Canada probably wasn’t a good idea.

But asked about the rights of immigrants he’s persecuting, he replied, “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the supreme court said. What you said is not what I heard the supreme court said. They have a different interpretation.” The decision was 9-0, which seems pretty clear. And this is the guy who wants to mandate that English be the official language of the United States. The court—even Slappy and little Scalia—admit that non-citizens have the right to due process. Again, per the Constitution:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

He’s still fantasizing about invading Greenland. Military invasion, at that. Well, Greenland only has about 56,000 people, about the size of Arcadia, California. Even with Elon Musk running the show, the mighty US military could probably invade Arcadia. Holding it might be another matter. The US spent nearly a quarter century in Afghanistan before writing it off as a bad job.

But Greenland has friends. It’s been a part of Denmark since 1814, and even though autonomous, is considered part of a NATO member. And NATO has one bedrock principle: attack any member nation, and it’s considered an act of war against all of them. That’s an area three times the size of the United States, with a combined $25 trillion economy, and a military budget about 65% of the US—and not as heavily afflicted with waste, fraud and abuse like the US one is. The US would be in the position of fighting Germany, only Germany would have the UK, France, and Canada on their side. Along with a bunch of other countries with a long history of FAFO.

So talk of invading Greenland is sheer lunacy.

Donald’s list of executive orders (which do NOT have the force of law, despite what Donnie thinks) are grandiose, ridiculous, incomprehensible and even cruel. One example is the one mandating English as the official language of the United States. Am I violating that directive by talking about Los Angeles? That’s Spanish. Terre Haute? (French). Illinois? (Illini tribe).

If I use the words color or honor in this essay, is that wrong? After all, the English spelling of those words is ‘colour’ and ‘honour.’ We would need a whole new set of characters for our numbers, because those are all Arabic. Would we have to write upper-case ‘q’ as ‘2’ like the English do? Pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as “Zed”?

If I get arrested and deported to President Bukkake’s Summertime Playground Gulag for the Woke and Non-white, is my lawyer in trouble for filing a writ of habeas corpus? That’s Latin, you know.

Most cookbooks would have to be banned.

We would have to throw out all our legal texts, and nearly all of our scientific and medical texts. (OK, Trump and his MAGAts would probably approve of that last bit.)

Finally, I would have to stop saying ‘finally.’ Usually the most welcome word in my essays according to readers, it happens to be French.

And on that note, I say, au revoir!

 

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Why Dictators Stop Being Great — They Fall; Hitler, Stalin…Trump

‪Bryan Zepp Jamieson

April 27th 2025

“It’s easy to be cynical about public opinion, but scholars of authoritarianism are pretty clear that there’s a serious difference in what an autocrat polling at 80% and what one polling at 40% can do. Not obeying in advance includes not surrendering to specious narratives of omnipotence.”

Tim Marchman‬, ‪@timmarchman.bsky.social‬

Perhaps the most reassuring item in the news this week was that Trump is cratering in all the polls. Overall, his approval rating is minus 10 (45-55) and he’s underwater on all policy elements, including immigration. Apparently throwing out American toddlers with cancer is, even for the most rabid haters in MAGA, a bit much.

Marchman is absolutely correct about the role public opinion can play in the rise and fall of despots. People don’t like to admit it, but Hitler was immensely popular in the 1930s, not just in Germany, but in the United States as well.

In Germany, once he had established power, Hitler’s mesmeric sway over the German people was almost unbounded. The huge cheering crowds were totally unfeigned, and the girls blowing kisses and flowers at the fuhrer doubtlessly fantasied about having his babies. Absurd as it may seem, the brown-eyed mousy-haired little man, so similar to a famed American comedian of the time, was seen as the exemplar racialist dream. After all, he saved the economy. He beat inflation. He made Germany great again. He rid the country of enemies, foreign and domestic, real and imagined. (Does any of this sound familiar?)

It wasn’t until the tide turned against Germany following D-Day and the Russian resurgence that his popularity began to crack. Like all despots, he banned polls and independent news, but he couldn’t stop people from gossiping and whispering about the empty shelves, the strange lack of neighbors, the lack of any news from overseas, and of course the huge number of families with war dead.

Hitler knew the limits to his support, no matter how propped up it was by propaganda and news control. There was a reason all of his death camps were built outside of Germany and in the occupied territories. His work camps, hardly any less atrocious, were portrayed as happy, productive, genial places with smiling parents watching healthy children playing in the sun.

Hitler had extraordinary influence and popularity in the UK and the US prior to the start of the war. Ken Burns did a three part six-hour documentary about it in 2022, The US and the Holocaust. One example he noted was that after Charlie Chaplin did The Great Dictator, pressure from Germany ensured that America made no more films disparaging Germany and its fuhrer until hostilities actually broke out.

American plutocrats in 1933, envious of Germany’s apparent rise from the depths of the Great Depression and admiring of Hitler’s approach to undesirables, actually staged an abortive attempt to overthrow FDR and replace him with General Smedley Butler. It was aptly known as the Wall Street Putsch.

Despite the fact that Butler had voted for FDR and hated capitalism, American plutocrats, who were no smarter or more loyal than our present bunch, felt he would reverse all the proposed New Deal stuff and return America to the capitalist greatness that had ruined it in the first place. (Trump likes to rhapsodize about the “good old days” of the Gilded Age, from post-Civil War until Teddy Roosevelt, a “golden era” that saw two major depressions, thousands of bank failures, and an appalling standard of living for 95% of Americans.)

Accounts vary on how close the plotters (which included the same prominent families that support Trump today) came to actually pulling this off. Close enough that the NY Times tried to pretend it never happened, anyway. If there had been polls in those days, Hitler probably would have polled better than FDR, at least amongst people wealthy enough to have telephones. (A presidential preference poll a few years later proved catastrophically wrong because it solicited opinions only from those who had phones.)

People don’t like to admit it, but Stalin was also immensely popular in the USSR. Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn has a passage in “The Gulag Archipelago” about how the inmates in the prison containing Solzhenitsyn erupted in an outpouring of utter grief at the loss of the leader and father of the working class. Most of those weeping had been unjustly imprisoned for anywhere from ten to twenty-five years by Stalin, for trivial or non-existent “Anti-Soviet Agitation” charges. One such mourner was a man who had been practicing his signature on a copy of Pravda and was impolitic enough to write one of his autographs across an image of Stalin. Ten years in the Gulag for that. Yes, he mourned the loss of his Great Leader.

But the USSR provides a perfect example of just how important the “consent of the governed” can be. It fell, in 1990, the most repressive and brutal regime in modern history, with nary a shot being fired. People were simply fed up, and en masse, the citizenry took away their support.

America has several advantages. First, the dictatorship of both Germany and the USSR arose at a time when both nations were in horrible condition, with widespread corruption, hunger, and humiliation. All the stuff Fox News likes to pretend America was suffering from under Joe Biden, only of course it wasn’t. Second, we have polls, and enough of a free press that we don’t have to take the word of Katherine Leavitt (Baghdad Barbie) as to how well-loved Trump is. And if Hitler and the Soviets were incompetent, capricious, and cruel, Trump is just as bad, only he lacks the wit to hide his mistakes. Finally, the same weakness that allowed Americans to stumble blindly into a Trump dictatorship is also their greatest strength: they have no history of living under dictatorial regimes, and even before it gets off the ground, a majority of Americans want to end it.

Trump wants to end Wikipedia. He is trying to end a free media. He is arresting judges. He doesn’t like stories about how he’s throwing American children with cancer into his El Salvador death camp.

But even if he manages to still those voices, people will talk. And notice the privations, the loss, the ‘disappeared’ and the vicious cruelty that dictatorial regimes always employ.

With a free press, the end will come quicker.

Stay informed.

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