There is no longer any doubt I guess someone at the beach must have called Mrs Alito the c-word too. The NY Times reports: Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs. This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms. Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google street view image from late August also shows the flag.
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Trump’s foreign policy henchmen are going around the world sabotaging America I’m pretty sure that this “visit” with Netanyahu was to simply reassure him that if he can just hold out until January 20, 2025 Trump will take care of him: Three former U.S. foreign policy officials in Donald Trump’s administration met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other public figures in Israel on Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The delegation was comprised of Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser, as well as former Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates John Rakolta and former Ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen, said the person, who requested anonymity as the trip’s itinerary was not public. In addition to Netanyahu, the delegation met Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and several other Israeli officials, the person said. Among the main goals of the trip was to obtain a better understanding of Israel’s complex domestic political situation, said the person familiar with the visit.
I wondered why there were no anti-Trump protesters appearing at these red-tie costumed clown shows. I guess they finally showed up today: I only recognized a couple of the people who showed up today so they’re really scarping the bottom of the D-list now. No Tim Scott yet. No DeSantis. No Marge. Ex-felon Bernie Kerik was there and the former head of the NY Hells Angels were there, though. And they were all dressed the same, came into the room late again, lined up right behind Trump and made a scene. Is it some sort of weird intimidation tactic to scare the jury??? It is fucking weird. Downright creepy.
Hookay. We’ve finally gotten to the full-on ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Füh·rer portion of our program. The AP reports: A video posted to Donald Trump’s account on his social media network Monday included references to a “unified Reich” among hypothetical news headlines if he wins the election in November. The headline appears among messages flashing across the screen such as “Trump wins!!” and “Economy booms!” Other headlines appear to be references to World War I. The word “Reich” is often largely associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, though the references in the video Trump shared appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern pan-German nation, unifying smaller states into a single Reich, or empire, in 1871. The 30-second video appeared on Trump’s account at a time when the presumptive Republican nominee for president, while seeking to portray President Joe Biden as soft on antisemitism, has himself repeatedly faced criticism for using language and rhetoric associated with Nazi Germany.
Texas woman disavows her distrust of public schools The subhead perfectly summarizes the ProPublica report from Texas: Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member, has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on after finding no evidence that students were being indoctrinated by the district’s curriculum. Her defiance has brought her backlash. The co-host of a local far-right talk show had guzzled gallons of Kool-Aid. She was positive that public schools were cesspools of anti-whatever indoctination that promoted a “twisted worldview.” Then she got herself elected to prove it and to shut it all down. Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.
“If you’re not pissing ’em off, you’re not doing it right” Joe Biden’s strongest performances pissed off Republicans big time. One was his September 1, 2022 speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. “On the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” called out “MAGA Republicans” for their anti-American beliefs and behaviors. Did it turn the November 2022 red wave into a red ripple? Maybe. A second performance was Biden’s State of the Union speech on March 7. It was “Fiery Biden” (Washington Post). And “In-Your-Face Biden” (New York Times). Republicans were pissed. Viewers approved. Digby (March 8): Biden came out swinging and knocked the Republicans so far back on their heels that they had to completely abandon the image of him they’ve been building since 2020 — that he’s so old and feeble that he can’t even feed himself — and instead whimper like a bunch of little old ladies that he offensively aggressive. More than not looking feeble, Biden looked like a leader in command. Biden needs more of that.
Haha. He’s constantly batting back memes these days. “I don’t use a teleprompter!” “I don’t sleep during the trial!” Calling Giuliani’s lawyer Robert Costello to the stand would be legal malpractice if it weren’t for the fact that it was probably because Trump demanded it. The cross examination today was just brutal. Basically the prosecutors just read all of Costello’s emails to Cohen in which he was clearly trying to keep him from turning on Trump when he very briefly became the “back channel” between Rudy Giuliani (Trump) and Cohen. The whole thing sounbds like nothing short of an episode of the Sopranos. He first met Cohen in person and told him how close he was with Giuliani, which Cohen denied on the stand. The prosecutor Susan Hoffinger made him look at the email he sent two days later: “I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very very useful to you.”“Doesn’t that mean you mentioned that to him at the first meeting?” Hoffinger asked. “No,” Costello absurdly answered.
Israel takes another step down the road to becoming an official rogue state: Israeli officials seized broadcasting equipment belonging to the Associated Press on Tuesday, arguing it was used to illegally provide a live feed to Al Jazeera, whose Jerusalem bureau was shuttered by officials earlier this month following the passage of a new foreign broadcast law. Press advocates have warned that the law creates a dangerous precedent for censoring independent news outlets in the region amid the ongoing war with Hamas. Israeli lawmakers passed the measure last month, empowering Israel’s communications minister to take action against any foreign media network that it says poses a national security risk.
Anyone who is “looking at that” is someone who is contemplating taking away the right to contraception. For years people like me have been raising the alarm about birth control. All you have to do is read what the anti-abortion extremists have been saying. They will take it step by step (they say that too) and now that they got Roe v. Wade overturned they know that it works. They will not stop. Abortion and phony sexual morality are among the most important organizing principles of the right. Trump being their exalted leader, an adjudicated rapist and admitted sexual assaulter, five children with three different women, shows (just as it does with the plethora of other cult leaders, religious and otherwise) that patriarchy is the real basis of it. I suspect that Trump is going to come up with a “solution” on birth control that will look very much like his answer to the abortion problem. He will endorse “states’ rights” and say that’s what everyone has always wanted and he will deliver it.
The Horror This excellent piece by Radly Balko at his newsletter on Trump’s fascist immigration is sobering. Like him, I don’t think people are taking this seriously enough. It’s a nightmare in the making and a percolating international crisis when most of the rest of the world rises up in horror at the most powerful nation on earth enacting a massive policy of ethnic cleansing. Some excerpts: Trump has made 15 million deportations a central part of his 2024 campaign. And he’s stepped up the dehumanizing of immigrants he’ll need to get a significant portion of the country on board. Even if Trump gets distracted, it’s likely he’ll put Stephen Miller in charge of the plan. Miller is the only non-relative senior staffer who served the entirety of the first Trump term. And Miller won’t be distracted. Ridding the country of non-white immigrants has been a core part of his identity for his entire life. Miller himself has long made clear that the distinction that matters most to him is not between “legal” and “illegal,” but between white and non-white immigrants.