I have come to bury Charlie Kirk, not to praise him.

In the days since the murder of Charlie Kirk, I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading about this guy. I knew the name, but not much about him other than he was an ally of President Felon. To understand the divergent outcry, I started digging deeper into his statements, his declarations, and his positions on a whole lotta topics. What I came away with was a strange portrait of a guy who was intent on playing to whatever audience was in the house. 

He professed to be observant of Shabbat in the "Jewish way," but I have no idea what that even means. I've been doing it every week for about 73 years and I'm not sure what that means. Last January, he told an even audience he observed a "tech free sabbath" because as pastor friend told him it would reduce anxiety.

Every Friday night, I keep a Jewish Sabbath; I turn off my phone, Friday night to Saturday night. The world cannot reach me, and I get nothing from the world. It will bless you infinitely."

Of course, he also made it very clear that "Jewish" biblical commandments did not apply to Christians. Okay. I get that. Still, his periodic philojudaic statements do not necessarily reflect an acceptance for Jews to live their own lives. As a Christian Nationalist, Kirk believe that the United States should be inwardly AND outwardly Christian, reflecting and observing Christian biblical interpretations. 

As reported in the NY TImes:

Mr. Kirk also accused Jewish philanthropists of fomenting anti-whiteness by supporting liberal antiracism causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The philosophical foundation of anti-whiteness has been largely financed by Jewish donors in the country,” he said on his show in 2023.

Not long after, he accused Jews of controlling “not just the colleges — it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it."

One can love Israel because it's necessary for the rapture to occur without loving Jews. As a Christian Nationalist, it's pretty evident that there is a dichotomy between the two and Charlie Kirk was clearly in the evangelical rapture camp. What he needs from us is not Shabbat halacha or even Torah for that matter. He needs us to be in Israel so the second coming can happen. That's it, folks. We are expendable after that. He no more loves Jews than he loves Black pilots....and he's made his opinion of Black pilots pretty clear. 

I may not have agreed with Charlie Kirk on a whole raft of issues, but exercising his right to free speech in the public forum is not something with which I can take issue. His dialogue with the attendees at his rally was, apparently, open and an excellent exchange of ideas. But even if he had been shouting, which he was not, he did not deserve to be gunned down. He had every right to be heard, and the kid that shot him must face prosecution and punishment accordingly. Justice must be served.

But that justice cannot and must not be usurped by pathological partisanship. Within hours after the shooting, President Felon declared he would punish Kirk's critics. An article in the Washington Post reported:

President Donald Trump, following the death of GOP activist and close friend Charlie Kirk, vowed to unleash the weight of his administration onto those he said contributed to an environment of “radical left political violence.”

 

How that might translate into policy has remained unclear, as the president and his aides have spent part of the last two days grieving while strategizing their next steps.

 

Trump invoked Kirk’s memory to urge supporters to refrain from retaliatory violence. But he also indicated a desire to not just punish the killer, but also to tackle what the president and his staff described as a movement bent on the destruction of the American way of life. 

 

“The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy,” Trump said Friday morning on Fox News.

According to NBC News, other high ranking government officials are being dragged into the net of retribution:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told his staff to identify any members of the military who have mocked or condoned the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk so that they can be punished, two defense officials told NBC News. 

Several service members have been relieved from their jobs because of such posts, the officials said, adding that Hegseth’s directive also pertains to others associated with the Defense Department. It’s unclear exactly how many people have been disciplined.

Hegseth and other senior Pentagon leaders posted messages on X this week calling on the public to report any posts that could be interpreted as negative about Kirk or unsympathetic about his murder.

I think this is worth noting.

The White House ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff for Charlie Kirk, something was was not done when Melissa Hortman, Minnesota Speaker of the House, was assassinated with her husband and their dog at the front door of their home. According to FOX News, he was too busy that playing golf with GOP leaders in preparation for his budget bill. And he posted on his Truth Social page:

********

UPDATE: THE PRESIDENT DENIES BEING FAMILIAR WITH THE ASSASSINATION OF MELISSA HORTMAN:

Trump at first says he is ‘not familiar’ with Minnesota Democrat’s assassination

********

The differences in President Felon's response to the murders is terrifying. It demonstrates not simply an unwillingness to recognize all lawmakers as contributors to our government on many levels, instead, he reaffirms the creeping obsession he has with obtaining authoritarian control. Ever the opportunist, President Felon and his staff are using the death of Kirk as a opening to undermine the first amendment. This is yet another attempt to remove a plank from the platform of American democracy. Individuals across the country are being fired for comments made about the death of someone not even elected to office, someone whose opinions differ in fundamental ways from Kirk's. Why are his opinions to be held up as sacrosanct?

No, no one should be celebrating. But nowhere in our Constitution is there a clause for the existence of thought police. Just like nowhere in the Constitution is the president given the power to deploy armed forces at will. 

And no, I do not believe for a single moment that Charlie Kirk should be given the hero treatment by our government. Feckless President Felon and J.D. Bedbug can like him all they want. But he was not an elected official. Not even Martin Luther King had a state funeral because Lester Maddox refused to allow it: 

A state funeral or lying in state was refused to King by then-governor of Georgia Lester Maddox, who had considered King an "enemy of the country" and had stationed 64 riot-helmeted state troopers at the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta to protect state property.               Wikipedia

Flown home to Arizona on Air Force Two with the Vice President Bedbug, the memorial service is scheduled to be held at State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. President Felon and his associates plan to be in attendance. 

Just bury the guy with  all the pomp and circumstance his church allows. Since he was a religious figure, bury him that way. He doesn't need civil beatification to meet his God. And we don't need to spend any more tax money on it, either. 

Somehow, still, this all feels like a desecration of our Constitution. Not that I care, but it still feels weird. Like our government has been taken over by aliens. 

Maybe that's the part we're not yet seeing clearly.

Meanwhile, back at the gold-flocked White House, The administration has ordered the removal of exhibits, including photographs from National Park sites. This removal, according to officials 

is in line with President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing the Interior Department to eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people. 

Following Trump’s order, Interior Department officials issued policies ordering agency employees to report any information, including signage and gift shop items, that might be out of compliance. Trump officials also launched an effort asking park visitors to report offending material, but they mostly received criticisms of the administration and praise for the parks.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Removing the documentation 

does not make the truth go away.

It simply reminds the world

of your cowardice.

Slated to be removed:
“The Scourged Back”
escaped slave Peter Gordon, Louisiana, 1863.
National Gallery of Art 

Oh, for G-d's Sake....Stop Drinking Hamas Kool-Aid

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Pash, Sarah Mendelson,
Yaakov Pinto, Rabbi Israel Matzner
Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, Rabbi Yosef David

I lost my editor today. She is very ill, and I knew this day would come. But that's not the whole reason I lost her. She is angry with me because I don't simply condemn Israel to its core over Gaza.  Today. When 6 people were gunned down at a bus stop in Jerusalem. When 6 people were minding their own business when terrorists fired into the crowd

Of course, the NYT headline read "Gunmen Attack Bus Stop in Jerusalem, Killing at Least 6;" G-d forbid they should call them terrorists because, after all, it happened in Israel. If a bunch of guys shot up a bus stop in Peoria, you damn well better believe they would've immediately been labelled terrorists, domestic or otherwise. But wait! There's more. The NYT goes on to say:

The Israeli police described the shooting as a terrorist attack and said that the perpetrators had been killed at the scene.

Excuse me??????? Described ???????? What? Did they think it was some unruly teenagers?

This is the double standard in the media. Had this happened ANYWHERE in the world except Israel, it would've immediately been labelled terrorist. 

The civilian deaths in Gaza are tragic. The death of children is hard to fathom. Yet, it really isn't. Their deaths underscore the arc of the human shield. They are meant to die, and their deaths are meant to cause outrage and anger. Hamas had more than enough room in the hundreds of miles of tunnels to protect most of their civilians, but the chose to put them directly in harm's way. And when their own bombs fell on their own civilians, they made sure to take no responsibility for those deaths....remember Al-Ahli Arab Hospital? 

When your charter calls for the dismantling of an entire country and executing the population of said country, why would you think said country would go, "Okay. We'll just march into the sea for you." ?

If only Israel had Hamas's PR machine.

If you drink the Kool-Aid, you do more damage to Palestinians than Israelis. If you insist on chanting FREE PALESTINE!, do the Palestinians a favor and add the real, second part of that sentiment: FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS. Give those people a fighting change to actually have a state. Unless you rid them of the yoke, the oxen will never be free. 

In today's, MORNING MUSINGS, Peter Himmelman puts today's terrorist attack into harsh perspective:

This “oppressor versus oppressed” binary makes Israel automatically the villain. The narrative requires it: Israel strong, Hamas weak. Once you’ve accepted that framing, the facts no longer matter. And here is where the human cost comes in. I have seen the images from Gaza—children torn apart, families buried. The kind of horror no parent, no human being, should ever have to witness. Anyone who claims those lives don’t matter has cut away their own humanity. 

Yet, to see those deaths and leap to the word “genocide” is to compound the tragedy with a lie. When you declare that Zionists are Nazis, you are saying my mother, my late father and sister, my other siblings, my wife, my children, my grandchildren—you are calling nearly everyone I know and love a Nazi. You may revel in the irony of calling Jews Nazis. To you it feels clever. To me, it is sickening. It shows your ignorance, your gullibility, and your malice. 

Because I’ve seen the other images too; the ones you never mention. October 7th. Hamas slaughtering, raping, burning people alive. Hostages dragged into tunnels, some barely alive, others fully murdered. And still, marches in Western capitals waving Hamas flags, demanding ceasefire before a single hostage was freed. Hamas is not a liberation movement. It is a death cult steeped in radical Islamist ideology that seeks not peace, but the eradication of Israel and the murder of Jews. That day, as today, showed us exactly what we are up against. 

And here is the brutal irony: supporting Hamas does not “save” Gaza—it destroys it. Every rocket fired from a schoolyard, every tunnel dug beneath a hospital, every hostage still held prevents any chance of rebuilding. Gaza cannot be restored so long as Hamas remains, because Hamas thrives on ruin. It needs suffering as its currency. Those who excuse or endorse it are not allies of the Palestinian people. They are accomplices in ensuring that the rubble remains rubble.

When you boycott Israel, Israeli products, Israeli artists, scientists, engineers, and medical research, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. None of that helps the world, much less the Gazans who live beneath the thumb of a regime that sees them only as cannon fodder.  It doesn't get them food or jobs or housing or clean water. You are simply enabling the leaders to take the money and run...usually to Dubai where they live is opulence while Gazan children starve. It's nothing more than performative activism that is all show and absolutely no action. All those celebrities and musicians who preach this non-active performative activism are doing nothing to help the people of Gaza. If anything, you are supporting the very regime that continues to enslave them. 

Look, when Europe was done trying to kill us, they sent us to a barren strip of sand no one wanted to settle. But like Br'er Rabbit in the briar patch, this is exactly where we wanted to go. It's our home. Before you know it, the desert is green, industry is booming, and Israel, that little strip of land, is thriving. So instead of saying, "Hey! How did you do that?" our neighbors attacked with the intent to destroy. It didn't work in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, two intifadas, 2008, 2012, 2014, or on October 7th, 2023. Offered a state 5 times since 1948, they have never accepted the offer of statehood. Why do you think that is? Because it meant Israel would continue to exist. 

I've said it often enough in this space: the government of Israel is not perfect and Israelis are as unhappy with the prosecution of this war as everyone else. They want the hostages, alive or dead, to be returned. They want the missiles to stop. Everyone is tired of racing to shelters. Israelis are no more interested in war than anyone else, but it's tough to stand down when you are constantly under attack. 

Just like all Americans in this melting pot of a country, everyone has a vested interest in American democracy...or so we all hope.. Same in Israel, a smaller but no less diverse democracy. Most of all, Israelis, whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, Baháʼí, Buddhist, Rastafarian, or pastafarian...they all want one thing: to be left in peace to live their lives. 

Photo by Sharon Waxman

In a few weeks, I will be in Israel. One of the things we are planning is a trip to the Nova site. It's not that I want to go; I feel that I must go. Just like the World Trade Center site, I never want to go, but I do because it's my cousins' grave site. I may not have known anyone who died there or in the kibbutzim, but they are also my family. Each one has had a profound impact on my life, my psyche. I will go and I will grieve for the lives mowed down by terrorists. 

If anyone is to blame for all the deaths...Israeli or Palestinians....it's Hamas. They attacked. They raped. The executed children in front of parents and grandparents. They used their own children as shields. They stole humanitarian aid to feed their fighters and left the civilians without sustenance. The Palestinian people are caught in the middle of a war they probably don't want either....but what choice do they have? Just remember, all those dead bodies would probably be alive had Hamas not attacked on October 7th. 

If you really wanna free Palestine.....Free Palestine from Hamas. That is the only chance those people have. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

It's getting to be cemetery visit time again.

Jewish tradition tells us people die twice:

once when they leave their body

and again when people no longer say their name.

Talk about your family...the live ones and the ones who are gone.

From generation to generation, pass on that which makes you unique.

Oh, What A Tangled Web

Tough week for Chief O'Hara

Like most Americans, I have a lotta rocks rattling around my head these days. The murder of children in prayer in the church of Annunciation School has rocked the Twin Cities in new and horrible ways. That Robin Westman was in transition only shifted blame calling to a new low, implying that all trans people are mentally ill. Really? How about the guy who shot in a crowd standing on a sidewalk the night before? From ABC NEWS:

A gunman opened fire with a high-velocity rifle at a group standing on a sidewalk in Minneapolis on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring six others, police said.

At least one of the seven victims appears to have been the target of the shooting, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, who called the incident "deeply troubling."

That shoot has all but disappeared into the mists, and I don't even think he's been apprehended. It took a whole lotta hunting around to even find this from KARE-11

A man and woman are accused of being accomplices in a deadly south Minneapolis shooting last week, in which the gunman has not been arrested. 

Ryan Timothy Quinn, 33, and Tiffany Lynn Marie Martindale, 30, have both been charged with the felony of aiding an offender to avoid arrest in connection with the shooting that left one person dead and six more injured.

Funny thing about all this. Minneapolis, the city of George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Annunciation School is not even on the list of most violent cities in the US. Stay with me here. 

On August 11th, Newsweek published a list of the 30 most violent cities in the US. Thankfully, both Minneapolis and Saint Paul are absent from the list. But the list is worth mentioning. Notice that of the 30 cities, 9 are in blue states, and one is in a purple state. Washington, D.C. is not on that list. All the other cities are in deeply red states, yet President Felon has not ordered National Guard troops to any of those cities, but he has fingered #16-Chicago and #26-Baltimore as his next targets. Why is that?

Maybe it's because he doesn't want to risk upsetting his devotees? Or is he worried about managing the midterm elections in states he's less likely to win?

Defending our cities from crime,
weeds, and trash.

Or maybe, he just needs really, really expensive groundskeepers and trash collectors he doesn't have to pay? Maybe he'll be sending them over to his golf courses next. It doesn't much matter, but using the National Guard as groundskeepers and trash collectors is obscene. Who the hell do you think is paying for this? While government programs are slashed, burned, and ripped away from locations that are desperate for help, this is another colossal waste of capital. 

Is it possible the deployment of troops, Guard or federal, is a slow move toward manipulating the midterms?  But wait! There are other ways to undermine a nation. No matter how you dice up the optics, this is a power grab.

But it's not just the deployment of troops that undercut the sense of security and safety. It's financial and it hits the middle class directly. Cuts in renewable energy and transportation projects that are already underway and headed toward completion ultimately cost the government more than it saves. Thousands of workers are laid off. They lose that great golden egg of health insurance. Food security becomes an issue when you cannot buy groceries. In her Substack, Letters From An American, Heather Cox Richardson writes:

Another cut last week sums up the repercussions of the administration’s attack on renewable energy. On August 22 the Interior Department suddenly and without explanation stopped construction of a wind farm off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island that was 80% complete and was set to be finished early next year. As Matthew Daly of the Associated Press noted yesterday, Revolution Wind was the region’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. It was designed to power more than 350,000 homes, provide jobs in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and enable Rhode Island to meet its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2033.

The Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut expressed their dismay at the decision, noting that Revolution Wind employed more than 1,000 local union workers and is part of a $20 billion investment in “American energy generation, port infrastructure, supply chain, and domestic shipbuilding and manufacturing across over 40 states” by Ørsted, a Danish multinational company.

“Stopping this fully permitted, important project without a clear stated reason not only seriously undermines the state’s efforts to work towards a carbon neutral energy supply but equally important it sends a message to investors from all over the world that they may want to rethink investing in America. The message resulting from the President’s action is a lack of trust, uncertainty, and lack of predictability,” they wrote.

Connecticut governor Ned Lamont and Rhode Island governor Dan McKee, both Democrats, are working together to save the project. In a statement, Lamont said: “We are working closely with Rhode Island to save this project because it represents exactly the kind of investment that reduces energy costs, strengthens regional production, and builds a more secure energy future—the very goals President Trump claims to support but undermines with this decision.”

“It’s an attack on our jobs,” McKee said. “It’s an attack on our energy. It’s an attack on our families and their ability to pay the bills.”

Taking a page from Hitler's playbook, deny your population a way to earn a living and they will become desperate to feed their families and keep them sheltered. Denying Jews the ability to work made it infinitely easier to herd them into ghettos and concentration camps. Deny an entire political population the ability to earn a living and over time, they, too, will cave. 

Vote for me, and I will employ you.

This is one of the oldest ploys in the book, right up there with free ice cream at lunch; when you put families at risk, people will do whatever is needed to protect their own.

Sounds a bit draconian? Sure. But look around you. It's already happening. Although North Carolina is technically a red state, their AG is bright blue.  He's suing FEMA on behalf of his state:

I’m suing FEMA.

Why?

Because they illegally cancelled more than $200 million that was headed to North Carolina for water and sewer upgrades.

It was basically a flood preparation fund. Congress created it, funded it, and told FEMA to run it.

Before FEMA pulled the plug, they had approved over 60 projects across our state - mostly moving pump stations and sewer lines to higher ground.

A few examples:

• $22.5m for Salisbury to move a pump station. The city already spent $3m of its own funds getting started.
• $5.9m for Gastonia to move sewer lines out of the floodplain.
• $4m for Mt. Pleasant to improve drainage in the town center, which regularly floods and damages businesses.

And then there’s the Hillsborough pump station, where I spoke yesterday. It was set to receive $6m to move to higher ground. Also cancelled by FEMA.

But here’s the thing:

Three weeks ago, a tropical storm hit. The nearby river rose 24 feet and submerged the entire station. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage poured into the river.

I spotlighted this pump station because it’s a perfect example of why this funding matters - and what happens when it’s taken away.

Most people agree that keeping drinking water flowing and sewage contained is a legitimate use of public dollars. I appreciate that Sen. Tillis and Rep. Edwards have also urged FEMA to reverse course.

Heck, President Trump signed this program into law in his first term. He wanted it.

So we’re going to court, along with a number of AGs, and I’ll report back.

There is no way in hell that I do NOT believe this is scheduled manipulation. This is an attempt to restrict potable water for a large portion of North Carolina. There's a pattern of municipal control being established. It's easy to roll in troops with trucks of clean water and then call yourself a savior. Nothing happens unless there is something in it for Feckless President Felon. 

Without FEMA and other government agency assistance, come hurricane season, people will become violently desperate for aid and relief. What better way to cement your image as hero than to provide it...with strings. There are always strings. 

I used to think he was simply blind to the needs of the poorest states in the Union. Now, I think he knows exactly what he's doing. Voter suppression and disenfranchisement are useful tools with this administration. The push for paper ballots only, cessation of early voting, understaffed and undersupplied voter sites are all methods of stopping voters from casting ballots. The MAGA corps operates under the idea that they can control the outcome of any election if they can prevent voters from exercising their right to vote, and to some degree this is true. The attempts to overthrow the last two presidential elections point to that very issue. And if you think the MAGA GOP is not learning how to master electoral manipulation from those last two events, guess again. 

Scare enough people and they will elect the status quo. Feckless President Felon and his cabal are counting on that. 

Meanwhile, back at the Himalayas....

Someone is upset because President Felon claims to have negotiated the India/Pakistan ceasefire. That someone, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had a terse call with the former Nobel Peace Prize Would-be Candidate. From the New York Times:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was losing patience with President Trump.

Mr. Trump had been saying — repeatedly, publicly, exuberantly — that he had “solved” the military conflict between India and Pakistan, a dispute that dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr. Trump was making it out to be.

During a phone call on June 17, Mr. Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation. He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr. Modi should do the same.

The Indian leader bristled. He told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan.

Mr. Trump largely brushed off Mr. Modi’s comments, but the disagreement — and Mr. Modi’s refusal to engage on the Nobel — has played an outsize role in the souring relationship between the two leaders, whose once-close ties go back to Mr. Trump’s first term.

Now, I guess plan B is to bring peace by removing all of the Palestinians from Gaza to make it into the Riviera of the Middle East. 

The leaked image from the Great Trust proposal 

The plan even has a name: GREAT TRUST- Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust. And who, exactly, do you think benefits the most from this scheme? It ain't the US and it sure as hell ain't the Israelis. Just think of it as a bigger golf course and enterprise destined to bankruptcy.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you had a lovely holiday weekend, thank all those pesky labor unions. 

No, they're not perfect, but they did a helluva a good job protecting We, the People.

More Stuff That Pisses Me Off

I used to believe in the strength of the Constitution. I used to believe that people who ran for office believed in the sacredness of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the ability of each branch of government to do its job for We, the People. Sure, I knew there were crooked politicians because that's  the nature of the beast. I was cogent while Nixon was president, and I'll admit, the resignations of both Spiro Agnew and Tricky Dick rattled me, but in my pea brain, I held on to the notion that more elected officials were committed to the good and welfare of We, the People than were crooked.

Well, that ship has sailed. 

A few things occurred this past week that have set my teeth on edge. 

Back in July of 2024, the Grifter-in-Chief told an audience of Christian evangelicals:

Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.

"I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote,

A year later. President Felon continues to remind us he cannot win an election without "assistance." In order to facilitate GOP control of congress, Texas is gerrymandering the state in such a way that can give five more districts to the GOP. I bet you didn't know there was a name for this: competitive authoritarianism.  A pro-democracy group called Civic Nebraska  really provided the best explanation:

Competitive authoritarianism refers to a system in which elections are still held, courts still convene, and newspapers still publish, but the very structures meant to ensure fairness, accountability, and civic participation are systematically hollowed out from within. In a competitive authoritarian regime, the surface-level features of democracy remain intact, but their integrity has been corroded.

Read that last line again. That kinda sums up what we are seeing and experiencing right now, dontcha think? 

And if the measure is successful in Texas you can bet your sweet butt other states will follow. 

Gov. Newsom

Therefore is it no surprise that Governor Newsom of California is sending a question to the voters asking if they should reapportion the state's congressional districts. From Newsweek:

California Democrats' ability to do so may hinge on the outcome of a ballot measure Newsom announced last week that would allow a new map drafted by legislators to temporarily replace the boundaries drawn up by the state's independent redistricting committee following the 2020 census.If the ballot measure is successful, it could neutralize efforts from Texas Republicans. But if it fails, Republicans may be able to net several seats in not only Texas, but also other GOP states like Indiana and Missouri.  A new poll from Newsom's pollster, reported by Axios, suggests a majority of voters are prepared to support the ballot measure. 

The poll, conducted by David Binder, showed that 57 percent of California voters are in support of the proposal. Only 35 percent were opposed to it, while 8 percent remained undecided. 

Among Democrats, the ballot measure had 84 percent support, while only 13 percent opposed it. Among Republicans, 79 percent were opposed, the poll found, according to Axios.

Gerrymandering has always been an issue, but this is raising it to an entirely new level. One can almost see the guts of American democracy....or what we thought was American democracy slowly seeping onto the floor. The redistricting is not the simply window dressing for congressional domination; it speaks to a broader coalition to alter our democratic process. 

Hegseth

Continuing along the line of increasingly aberrant behavior originating in the White House, President Felon has, on several occasions, referred to uniquely unqualified Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of War. Last time I looked, that wasn't a cabinet position, but that didn't stop President Felon from using the sobriquet, which leads a number of sources to report that he plans to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War. Of course, his statement in the Oval Office on Monday lends credence to this:

I don’t want to be defense only. We want offense too.

Well, he's already pretty offensive, but this adds a new layer to the playbook he seems to be using. From Politico:

[When] “we won World War I, World War II, it was called the Department of War. And to me, that’s really what it is,” Trump said at a press event with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. “Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”

Thereby implying success at wars went down the tubes with the name change and by changing it back, the world is suddenly gonna think he is more powerful with bigger balls? Nah, I don't think so. At least not with Hegseth leading any sort of charge. 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

And speaking of name changes, watch for The Kennedy Center to no longer be The Kennedy Center. According to NPR:

Republicans recently voted, as part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill," to dedicate $257 million towards improving the Kennedy Center, but to withhold significant funds unless the building's opera house is re-named after first lady Melania Trump.

JFK's grandson, Jack Schlossberg posted this on social media:

The Trump Administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression. He uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear. But this isn't about the arts. Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK , with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn't. But there's hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

First LA, then Washington D.C, now President Felon has his beady eyes on Chicago. Baltimore is in his sights as well. I'm thinking that Minneapolis-St. Paul can't be too far down the list. For a guy who claims he's trying to get the Nobel Peace Prize as well as the golden ticket to heaven, this is not the way to go. Dispatching armed National Guard troops into cities is not a normal power of the president. The state governor is the only one who can do that. 

From the New York Times:

President Trump directed the Defense Department on Monday to take a larger role in domestic law enforcement, including by “quelling civil disturbances,” as he threatens to broaden deployments of the National Guard in cities run by his political enemies.

The executive order, released by the White House on Monday morning, also formalizes the creation of specially trained National Guard units in the District of Columbia and all 50 states that can be mobilized quickly for “ensuring the public safety and order.”

This is a direct contradiction to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The Brennan Center for Justice has a pretty good explanation. You can read the whole thing, and it is worth reading, but for brevity's sake, this is a good explanation of what happened during the summer of 2020:

In the summer of 2020, President Trump deployed the DC National Guard into Washington to police mostly peaceful protests against law enforcement brutality and racism. Simultaneously, over the objections of DC’s mayor, the administration asked state governors to deploy their own Guard personnel into Washington in Title 32 status, and 11 governors did so. Although these out-of-state forces were nominally under their governors’ control, it was later revealed that they were reporting up through the DC Guard’s chain of command for “coordination” purposes. That meant they were ultimately taking orders from the president. In this way, the Trump administration brought a large, federally controlled military force into Washington and used it for civilian law enforcement, all while skipping over the procedures in the Insurrection Act and evading the political costs of invoking it. That is exactly what the Posse Comitatus Act is meant to prevent.  

Moreover, the deployment of non-federalized, out-of-state Guard forces into a jurisdiction without its consent represents another threat to the Posse Comitatus Act. When operating in Title 32 status, Guard forces are exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act because they are under state command and control. A key part of that control is the governor’s right to decline a particular federal mission. That right is meaningless if the president can simply approach a different governor and ask her to deploy her state’s Guard into the unwilling governor’s state. In this scenario, the cooperating governor becomes a fig leaf for the president to use the military as a police force anywhere in the country, free from the constraints of the Posse Comitatus Act.

In  the case of troops dispatched to LA earlier this year, President Felon invoked Section 12406 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code that allows him to call up the Guard under certain circumstances. California state officials immediately filed a legal challenge to the deployment which a federal judge ruled as illegal before an appeals court blocked the ruling. While Washington D.C. is a federal district, don't expect the other cities to just sit there. 

The last thing I'm gonna mention is the Justice Department. The amount of money being wasted on retribution against President Felon's "political enemies," is disgusting. The amount spent on this shit could be feeding children and caring for Veterans who are being screwed left and right. 

Never in my wildest imagination did I believe We, the People, could elect a grifter who put power and pockets above all else. And what's worse, We, the People, elected him twice...but with a strong economy between the two elections. We are rapidly becoming a banana republic with a doddering old fool as titular tinpot dictator. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I'm meeting with the lawyer and the finance guy next week

to make sure my ducks are in a row. 

It's a good thing to do.