History comes at you fast in Trump 2.0. Kind of leaves you breathless, your head spinning, you nauseated, and you wondering what to focus on. The Editor’s Floor at Ye Olde Blogge is lined with some great ideas that could be blog articles, social media posts, and snarky observations. Here we try to publish some of them just so they are not completely lost. Some of these have gotten a bit longer than intended. It is my sincerest wish that you enjoy them for their amusing presentation and cringe worthy content.
New Litmus Test
In some astonishing and eye-opening reporting in a time of astonishing and eye-opening events, we learn that Kash Patel declared to his FBI department heads in their first meeting after his appointment, “I don’t read.”
El Grand Narcisista famously doesn’t read, Maddog Greene and Boobert both complained about being expected to read documents as long as ten pages in a day. One assumes that Pam “$20,000 Same As In Town” Bondi reads because she has a law degree and license, one has to wonder about Krisiti Cosplay Noem and even RFK, Jr.
Perhaps we need a litmus test for our elected and appointed government officials. Perhaps they should all not only be able to read but actually read when it is required and needed.
Don’t Call Me A Liar
I LOVE this video clip of Pam “$20,000 Same As In Town” Bondi decrying being called out for either her incompetence or down right duplicity. I know, buffering, but still, it is well worth the wait.
I love her attempt to hide behind, “It was BEFORE I was confirmed,” as if she has no compelling interest to understand important cases that occurred before she assumed office.
The Lesson for Bondi and the Rest of Us
The lesson from this questioning is clear. When you’re being lied to, call it out in no uncertain terms. And, if you don’t like being called a liar, maybe, try not lying.
The Noem Corollary to Try Not Lying
If Bondi is disingenuous, the Noem is just plain clueless. Can you imagine. The woman has no pride or shame. It is all self-aggrandizing ego with her. Look how good I look in my plastic surgery and cosplaying outfits! Look how tough I sound holding my guns and calling people names. I’m getting my millions, bitches, so bite me, amirite?
Social Media: Yes, and… Versus Yes, but…
Social Media stands the improv trope, “Yes, and…” on its head. In improv when someone starts a bit, you go along with it by adding to it. The purpose is to keep the bit moving forward instead of tussling over what you’re doing. It helps keep the sketch coherent and promotes synergy. Often, even a “bad” idea can be rescued by exrending it into something funny.
In social media, ir isn’t yes and, though, it is yes, but. It’s purpose is to upstage, humiliate, and create controversy all in the hopes of producing likes, shares, and follows. There is no attempt to build. It is only destruction for the purpose of self aggrandizement.
The Dumbroe Doctrine
Whether Trump’s misadventures in hemispheric hegemony are an attempt to distract from the Epstein files, fulfill some obligation he has to Putin, or extend his grift to oil and mineral extraction both remains to be seen and mayhaps doesn’t matter.
First, notice how diffuse our attention is now. We have five major controversies to be outraged over and worried about:
- The Epstein files and their release
- The expiration of the ACA subsidies
- The murder of Renee Good by ICE and the continuing ICE roundups of undocumented people and legal people alike.
- The bumbling “invasion” of Venezuela
- The dismantling of NATO and the international rules based world order by threatening Greenland
Which ones have the least amount of energy around them? Epstein and the ACA subsidies. While it doesn’t mean that we can’t pressure them on both issues, it demonstrates the effectiveness of Trump’s distract and delay tactics.
History Repeats Itself
Let me know what you think about these items and perhaps supply some of your own in the comments!
Image Attribution
This image was found on On Words and Up Words using a Creative Commons search.
The Psy of Life 
I like the idea of a test….civics and reading scores….Blondi is a joke she will bend over for Donny anytime and anywhere….Noem kills puppies that is all I need to know. Minneapolis is why we have the 2nd amendment….let’s use it. chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
We cannot use the Second Amendment. They are looking for an excuse to use the Insurrection Act and completely divide the country. Lots of good people would die in such a scenario.
I’ve been impressed by the training and discipline of the Minnesota protesters to stick to their non-violent roots. MLK and Gandhi would both be proud.
Jack
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I just hope that it is more successful than the past…..we were outraged before and protested only for it to return while we were playing Zelda….keeping the pressure up is important and that has been lacking. chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
I still can’t believe that people freely voted to return Trump to the White House. Either we as a group are extremely stupid and out of touch or they cheated. I lean towards the cheating part. However, we’re following the Trump 1.0 timeline: Outrage at the nincompoopery and corruption in year one, backlash in midterms, cooling in year three, overreach in year four leads to more outrage and back lash. Unfortunately, the establishment Dems in Congress are too namby-pamby to take advantage of it and lack vision for what the country could be.
The whole situation is galling. The only comfort I take is in the protests – size and energy of protests drive election turn out, science fact. I’m just hoping for a dark horse Obama, Clinton, or Carter type candidate that can capture the public imagination.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I think cheating was part of it but I also believe that Americans are a lot more racists than they want to admit. We need a firebrand not a corporate stooge. chuq
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Dog whistle politics work for a reason and that reason is internalized racism. It activates those racist views without directly confronting them. It is the thought that we need the police and safe borders without acknowledging that we need police to protect white people from People of Color and to keep People of Color out of the States.
We are in a moment of ethnic cleansing unlike anything we’ve seen before.
Jack
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A real shame…..time to restate the opening of the DoI. chuq
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RE: Litmus Test – How about we make them take the SAT and achieve some minimum score, on paper, not online, and without a cell phone.
Noem was admitting (probably accidentally) that they don’t want us to trust the government, or anybody else. POST-TRUTH — and, everybody informing on everybody like in East Germany comes easy when nobody trusts anybody.
At least in 1928 the Republicans promised a whole chicken, and now it’s just one piece. Inflation?
Maybe 5 Calls aren’t enough?
Considering the latest horror out of Minneapolis, and the multiple videos coming just hours after the event showing the ICE version to be a complete fabrication and lie, I have to wonder: Do those ICE Goons not understand that all those watchers are recording, or are they so sure of their own immunity that they don’t care. Also, this last one is an old, old script. Cops pile on somebody. Somebody shouts, “GUN”. Bang bang.
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Howdy Bob!
Like you said, it’s post-truth and pre pardon. They don’t have to care about the videos. MAGA will believe what they are told, or at least that’s what the theory says. And, Trump will pardon the ICE agents like he did the 6 January Insurrectionists.
I wish people believed that calling their Congress people worked and would actually do it. It will influence their decisions, especially about funding ICE and releasing the Epstein files. Five Calls is about as good as we’re going to get. They’ve got the system down.
Given the latest horror out of Minneapolis, I don’t know what the solution is other than to keep doing what we’re doing and leave our guns at home.
Huzzah!
Jack
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There’s a song, “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town” (Johnny Cash). I Seem to have got it mixed up with “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling” from High Noon.
The idea that an armed population is a polite population only ever worked for a segment of population, the landed nobility, who were in feudal systems a military hierarchy and allowed to go armed, but they also had elaborate ruled of politeness and rank, and the custom of dueling to settle grievances. Arming the common folk has generally been regarded as inviting instability or worse.
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Like everything else that is promoted by the conservative side, it serves the oligarchs’ interests best and first. An armed population just promotes chaos social disintegration, which keeps us too disorganized and distracted and fearful to challenge the oligarchs. It encourages us to invest in a police state and accept the monetary hierarchy that you can only have what you can directly pay for yourself, like private security and gated communities.
Huzzah!
Jack
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And, politically, you get to talk about crime always getting worse because of some “out” group. Also, we have Kash Patel saying the 2nd Amendment does not apply to everybody, just a click or two short of “disarm the libs”.
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Like all other Republican “rules” and national laws, the only thing that counts is the interpretation that benefits Republicans. If it helps the GOP to enforce a law, then they do. If the benefit is from ignoring, bending, or breaking the law, then they do. Why would gun laws and the Second Amendment be any different?
Huzzah!
Jack
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Yep, “Freedom for us, and rules for them.”
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What’s the line attributed to nearly every authoritarian since World War II, “Everything for my friends, the law for my opponents?” Something like that.
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Yes. For a fine example, there is this performance: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/29/nx-s1-5692868/sen-ron-johnson-addresses-federal-immigration-operations-in-minneapolis
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