Trump Tries for Some Distraction from Jeffry Epstein

The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The release involves an estimated 200,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

The Pedo President is so desperate to get people to stop talking about him and Epstein. So, yes, this release is no coincidence.

If We Are a Just Nation, One Day, The People Running These Places Will Be In Jail, Themselves

Starting with Discount Goebbels, himself, Stephen Miller.

Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities.
...
Degrading treatment by guards is commonplace in all three jails, the groups say. At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were made to use toilets in full view of men being held there, and were denied access to gender-appropriate care, showers, or adequate food.

The jail was so far beyond capacity, some transferring detainees reported, that they were held for more than 24 hours in a bus in the parking lot. Men and women were confined together, and unshackled only when they needed to use the single toilet, which quickly became clogged.
...
When the group was finally admitted into the facility, they said, many spent up to 12 days crammed into a frigid intake room they christened la hielera – the ice box – with no bedding or warm clothing, sleeping instead on the cold concrete floor.

ICE is showing itself to be just an evil organization, committng human rights abuses willy-nilly, with a percentage of the population cheering them on.

We are not much different than the good little Germans who turned their backs on what was happening in the 1930s.

The Paper That Should Have Been

QOTD

The United States is run by a pedophile gangster whose campaign was funded by a nazi drug addict.

Your Sunday Morning Rotor Noise

A Mosquito Air:

To roughly quote what a long-gone friend once said about the J-3, it'll fly fast enough and high enough to kill you.

Trump to World: Go Somewhere Else

The Addled Autocrat had tacked on an additional $250 fee for visas.

The message is clear: If you want to visit the U.S. and you need a visa to do so, go somewhere else.

(In the main, visas are not required for citizens of majority-white countries.)

Current EVs May Be Worthless in Five Years

Li-ion batteries may be obsolete in the near future. If solid state batteries pan out, current EVs are going to be junk.

Caturday

One escaped from the meme-posting queue.

Because It's Friday

A live-steam show:

The Craven Broadcasting Company Bends Its Knee, Again

CBS is canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape and removing from air one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.

Thursday’s announcement followed Colbert’s criticism on Monday of a settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story.
...
In his Monday monologue, Colbert said he was “offended” by the $16 million settlement reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media needs the Trump administration’s approval. He said the technical name in legal circles for the deal was “big fat bribe.”

So, CBS cancels the number-one show in its timeslot and says that it's a "business decision".... yeah, right. Tell me another one. Things haven't changed at that cowardly network since they canceled the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

The Administration of the Syphilitic Felon has been politicizing the supposedly independent FCC; CBS is so afraid that the World's Oldest Toddler will have a fit of pique and mess with the Paramount-Skydance deal because he doesn't like what Colbert says each night.

Look for Comedy Central to engage in similar acts of political purity to try and stave off the childish wrath of the Demented Führer.

Also, this:

The #1 way to explain America working properly is by saying “comedians can make fun of he President on TV.” A good way to explain fascism is “the President forces companies to fire those comedians as a condition of allowing them to conduct business.”

— Ken Tremendous (@kentremendous.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 9:07 PM

They might as well run the local news at 11 (or 10), play the National Anthem, show the T-38 flying to a recitation of "High Flight" and then go dark until it's time for the farm report at 4am.

The Far Right Hits the Bottom of the Well of Dumbness and Begins Digging

An “anti-government militia” called ‘Veterans on Patrol’ told News 9 on Tuesday that it is “targeting” Oklahoma weather radars, days after an individual vandalized News 9’s weather radar.
...
"They can embed their technology and civilian infrastructure in every home and every household utilizing the phones and their network towers to not only control the weather, modify the weather, but they can [target] individuals,” [Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, the founder of Veterans On Patrol] stated.

It takes a real special level of stupid to believe that bilge.

Extruding These Down, Here

Desperate for Distraction, Trump Ed.

Trump bleats about sugar in Coke, Newsom the Tool nailed it:

Krasnov the Demented is also muttering about firing Jerome Powell (Fed Chair) and blaming the guy who appointed him.

It would appear that the Old Orange Pedo is so eager to move the conversation away from his long friendship with Epstein that he's about to crash the markets. Whether or not he has Ka$h Patel's goons covering up his cavorting with underage girls is a question.

DoJ-- No Ethics Zone

When one remembers that Pam Bondi took a $25,000 bribe campaign contribution from Trump and then dropped an investigation into Trump U., it should be no surprise that the last thing she wants is people in her office who believe in ethics.

Trump's Goons

As Rodney Balko lays it out, we're past the point of discussing the militarization of the police. Now, we're at the point of discussing whether or not the cops are going to be loyal to their oath, to the Constitution, or if they are going to throw that all aside and swear fealty to Donald Trump.

I believe that, in much of the country, that debate is also over. They are backstopped by a supine Supreme Court that uses the shadow docket to approve of whatever Trump does without once having to sign their names to it. The Republicans in Congress have lined up to suck the Orange Mushroom Dick.

The guardrails are down. Maybe we can re-erect them in 2026 and 2028.

But no matter how we repair things, we will always have those repaired cracks in our national psyche. No matter how we fix things, the rest of the world will always know that our dedication to freedom and liberty and civil rights is thin.

And, in the meantime, as Trump wrecks our trade relationships with his TACO tariffs, the rest of the world is adjusting to trading with each other and cutting out out the United States.

Meanwhile, stand by for a market crash.

The Epstein Missing Minute

It's closer to three minutes.

I'd just like to point out how weird it is that places with hundreds or even thousands of reporters — the NYT, WaPo, CBS, NBC, AP, etc. — are all getting pummeled on every major story by the dozen computerboys at Wired. To fumble the bag this consistently is, at some point, cowardice and a choice.

[image or embed]

— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 4:54 PM

BadTux has an explanation for a missing minute, but I don't know if it works for three minutes.

The journalistic question is why is a small news organization like Wired beating the big guys on this.

Tenting These Down, Here

The Onion Nails It, Again

Facing mounting backlash from his MAGA base over his perceived ties to the Jeffrey Epstein case, President Donald Trump reportedly encouraged his supporters Monday to simply move on from society’s widespread disdain for pedophilia.

The world is in a place where sarcasm is almost indistinguishable from reality.

Exhibit 1: The Trumpers in the House are blocking release of the Epstein files.

Heh. Heh.

The best copyright violation and takedown demand letter, ever:

Question About Foreign Relation

If we've managed to piss off the Canadians this much, do we have any friends left?

The Epstein Popcorn Franchise

MAGA may be tearing itself apart between loyalty to the Orange Blob and the Epstein conspiracy theorists.

This is what I've never understood: How could all the MAGA conspiracy theorists who have been bleating about Epstein for the last decade or so not know that Trump was his asshole buddy for 25 years? How could they have expected that Epstein's buddy-boy would expose everything?

Prince Andrew is reportedly preparing to dust off his passport after an FBI memo confirmed the agency has closed its investigation into his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
...
The memo states no further charges will be laid in connection with the Epstein case, apart from those already brought against the disgraced financier's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and related offences.

Ka$h Patel, who for years was beating the drums about the Epstein Conspiracy, has apparently joined in. Or so it would seem.

Aux barricades, mes amis !

Today is Bastille Day, the French National Day.

A version that is more familiar to American audiences:

Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé
Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras.
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes !

Aux armes citoyens
Formez vos bataillons
Marchons, marchons
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons

(Full translation, which makes The Star-Spangled Banner look pacifistic.)

The Bastille was torn down very soon afterwards. Very little of it survives. The key to the fortress was given by Marquis de Lafayette to President Washington. It is on display at Mount Vernon.

And next year, we may have to do this for reals.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

I seem to be moving backwards through the Navy's VP aircraft. Here is a PV-2 Harpoon.

I screwed up the timing of last week's post (again). You can see it here.

Caturday

Elliott is comfy.

A Putin Ally in the State Dept.

How did this clown even get in the door?

Senior State Department staffer Darren Beattie, a passionate Putin supporter behind the move to dismantle a key agency fighting Russian propaganda, is married to a Russian woman whose uncle is a longtime Kremlin ally, according to The Telegraph.

Yulia Kirillova grew up in Moscow, studied abroad in North America, and married Beattie in 2021 in Florida. She moved to D.C. in January. Her uncle Sergei Cherniko is a drinks magnate who had an estimated net worth of $150 million in 2005. That year, he served in Russia’s ministry of natural resources and was then deputy governor of Siberia’s Nenets region. Cherniko later served in Putin’s civic chamber from 2008 to 2010.

The relationship raises even greater scrutiny around Beattie’s April decision to eliminate the Global Engagement Center, a State Department office tasked with dealing with Russian disinformation campaigns. Beattie has been a staunch supporter of Putin, setting himself apart from the traditional conservative right in Bannon-esque fashion.

I cannot think of a single president, other than this one, who would have hired somebody with such close ties to Putin to do anything more than pick up trash on the C&O Canal. He should be residing in a Federal pridon, awaiting a trade to Russia.

Because It's Friday

Swiss cog railway:

A vertical boiler is pretty old-school, but I can see some real advantages on the steep grades of a cog railway.

Trump is an Ignorant Piece of Shit

U.S. President Donald Trump’s praise of the “beautiful” English of Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai drew confusion Thursday in the English-speaking African country and umbrage over what many considered condescending remarks.

“Such good English,” Trump said to Boakai during an event at the White House, with visible surprise. “Such beautiful English.”

Although English has been the official language of Liberia since the country’s founding in the 1800s, Trump asked Boakai where he had learned to speak the language “so beautifully,” and continued as Boakai murmured a response. “Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia?”

I don't understand how n even slightly competent president would go into a meeting with another nation's leader without some briefing. But Trump doesn't think he needs briefing, that he's the smartest guy in the room. So he goes in and, if the president of Liberia didn't have a dark skin, Trump wouldn't have known that Liberia is in Africa.

The Orange Führer's arrogance and condescension was on full display, all mixed into a toxic stew with a base stock of ignorance.

People, Especially Conservatives, Are Dumb as Rocks

It was known in 1965 that carbon dioxide was warming the globe. That was back when some subtle tweaks to things could have avoided the mess we are falling into.

We're probably now at the point of no return. Glaciers and ice caps are melting and disappearing as the atmosphere warms up. It's possible that most of the coastal cities will be underwater within the lifetimes of kids alive today.

Nobody can say that we didn't see it coming. Our generations, and the couple before us, will be reviled for centuries. They won't care about antibiotics or robotics or cyber-shit or space exploration or any of that shit. No, they will remember us as the clueless imbeciles who had all the information that we needed to avert the catastrophe and we, instead, buried our heads in the sand.

The only slightly positive thing about it could be that destroying the environment will be the final nail in the coffin of conservatism.

Trump's Brazil Tariff is Clearly Illegal

Not that Republicans would give a fuck. They don't care about the law anymore. They are a fascist party.

It's clearly illegal because the Old Syphilitic Sociopath-in-Chief is slapping his tariffs based on an economic emergency (which doesn't exist in the first place).

There is no economic emergency with Brazil. The US has a trade surprlus with them. The trariff on Brazil is because the Brazilians are prosecuting his friend and fellow wannabee dictator for plotting a coup.

Trump wants to do something and the Republicans fall on their bellies to debase themselves.

ICEstapo - Dumb as Fuck

You don't stand on the row crops, you fucking incel morons.

G'wan and Cry me a River; ICEstapo Ed.

Apparently, morale is slipping in the ICEstapo. Some of the agents fear that the agency is morphing into living up to the caricature of them as an out-of-control goon squad.

Well, if you guys don't like the fact that you're no longer chasing down terrorists or drug smugglers or child pornographers, and, instead, are rounding up farm workers and day laborers with no days off in order to meet the quotas imposted by Discount Goebbels, then fucking quit. It's not as though your career options are either shoving people into boxcars or serving on the Russian front. There are oodles of local law enforcement agencies which have been crying out for new people to fill their ranks. I can think of at least one small state that has over 300 fewer stae troopers than is authorized. They are by no means the only department looking for new hires.

Don't whine about how hard it is to be an ICEstapo agent. This is still a free-ish country, go find another job. Or you can suck it up and tell your grandchildren in the 2050s how heroic you were, wearing facemasks, carrying machineguns and rounding up people working low-wage farm jobs or roofing in the Florida sun or working the third ship in meatpacking plants in order to provide for their families.

Dachau Barbie Fucked With Texas

The FEMA response to the flooding in Texas was delayed for days because Noem couldn't be bothered to sign off on it.

As monstrous floodwaters surged across central Texas late last week, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency leapt into action, preparing to deploy critical search and rescue teams and life-saving resources, like they have in countless past disasters.

But almost instantly, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles, four officials inside the agency told CNN.

As CNN has previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — whose department oversees FEMA — recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.

For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially “pennies,” requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures
...
In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN.

But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN..

So what was occupying ICE Ice Barbie while central Texas was flooding? She was fucking around on Instagram with proposals for her official portrait as the SD governor.

Goobing These Down, Here

Only thing that would be better is if a truck hauling porta-potties was in the next lane.

Coup Plotters of a Feather, Stick Together, PlusMAGA Hates Superman

President Donald Trump singled out Brazil for import taxes of 50% on Wednesday for its treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, showing that personal grudges rather than simple economics are a driving force in the U.S. leader’s use of tariffs.

Trump avoided his standard form letter with Brazil, specifically tying his tariffs to the trial of Bolsonaro, who is charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss. Trump has described Bolsonaro as a friend and hosted the former Brazilian president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020.

Of course the Premier J6 Plotter is looking out for other coup plotters. One might also presume that if the former leader of another country is accused of rape, that our Sexual-Offender-in-Chief will put tariffs on that country.

Meanwhile, the MAGA Right is getting into a frenzy over Superman because he's an immigrant. Maybe those white-sheet-wearing snowflakes ought to get a fucking clue. Being an alien has been Superman's origin story since Action Comics #1, but the MAGA-lunatics love to forget everything that contradicts their Fox-News-generated worldview.

Shall we recap? Kal-El is an illegal immigrant/refugee from another planet, he came here without a visa, he snuck over the border, and he stands for truth, justice, and the American way.

Of course the Right hates him.

Taxing These Down, Here