Infamous Conduct

Provokes Notice

Despite all immediate indications to the contrary, Donald John Trump is not an act of God or a force of nature. He is an old, corrupt businessman running a lucrative side gig as the 47^th president of these barely United States of America. Self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement are the only things he ever has been good at doing.

Practice makes both perfect and permanent.

On 22 June 25, he intermeddled in a Middle Eastern conflict to boost his brand while salving his wounded ego about resistance to his failing implementation of the Project 2025 playbook and ridicule of his poorly attended birthday parade.

Give credit where it is due. The Guy turned a lousy birthday party into a standing ovation.

As the old song goes, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”

For now.

CONGRESS: Not Doing the Work of the People

Axios reports that, on 24 June 25, House Democrats overwhelmingly joined with their Republican colleagues to defeat a resolution calling for impeachment of Donald John Trump for:

1. Disregarding the Separation of Powers; and,

2. Devolving American Democracy into Authoritarianism by Unconstitutionally Usurping Congress’s Power to Declare War.

The vote to table the motion was 344 to 79.

Credit. Syracuse.com

128 Democrats voted to defeat the measure.

79 Democrats voted to bring the motion to the floor.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were among the 128 turncoats.

Congress actively and blatantly is betraying its institutional purpose. It is failing its Article One duties to balance the other two coequal branches of our bold experiment in self-governance. It currently is haggling over a fiscally disastrous budget monstrous in intent.

THE SUPREME COURT: The Law of the Brand

Donald the Devious is playing the refs with great success.

The International Legal and Business Services reports that, on 23 June 25, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) responded to an emergency appeal from the Trump administration for immediate relief from an adverse lower court ruling.

The Court received the plea on its shadow docket. By a vote of 6-3 the Court decided the point in dispute in favor of the executive branch

Credit. CT News Junkie

Previously, nonlegal residents were traditionally entitled to due process in immigration court and were removed to their country of origin. This finding marks the eleventh time SCOTUS sided with the government in the past two months. It allows the administration to continue the process of swift removals of migrants to countries other than their homelands without a chance to challenge the deportations. The reasoning behind the ruling was not explained.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused the 6-justice partisan majority of “rewarding lawlessness.” She issued a fiery 19-page dissent opinion paper, stating, in part:

“Even if the orders in question had been mistaken, the government had a duty to obey them until they were ‘reversed by orderly and proper proceedings…That principle is a bedrock of the rule of law. The government’s misconduct threatens it to its core.”

Credit. Daily Kos

Separately, on the same day and in a sobering display of priorities and fairness, the Court agreed to hear and rule regarding appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were cut off by prison guards in violation of his religious beliefs.

Go figure.

We have forfeited the law of the land to the Heritage Foundation in principle and Mitch McConnell in practice. We own this Court’s blatant allegiance to brand over precedent.

My sister captures the Court’s image problem when she suggests:

SCOTUS has judged their way into irrelevancy. They are just a mouthpiece. They have diluted their powers voluntarily to greed. It is to the point that we know they are going to judge incorrectly.

The Court took these odd and troubling actions on the third anniversary of the disastrous Dobbs decision. Those opposed to that decision never will forget the glee with which Samuel Aledo leaked it and the vile tone of his formal defense of the flawed reasoning behind the disenfranchising vote.

Credit. Ann Telnaes

THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE BRANCH: All Hail the Conquering Bully

In 2018, Mr. Big Stuff demanded that the 32 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) increase their defense funding or risk losing United States membership in and support of the organization, its principles, and the notion of protecting its members from hostile military action by non-member nations.

In 2025, Putin’s Patsy put Europe at risk when he withheld funds appropriated by Congress for the purpose of continuing U.S. support for Ukraine in its 11-year-old war against Russian invasion.

The next meeting of the 32 members of NATO is scheduled to occur on 24 and 25 June 25 at The Hague in the Netherlands. Donald John Trump is attending, representing the United States of America. His poor conduct during, and abrupt departure from, the 57^th annual G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta on 15 and 16 June 25 caused NATO organizers to shorten their meeting to two days and commit beforehand to a 5% mutual defense fund to accommodate and appease the guy backing Putin’s ambition to reconstitute the Russian Empire at Europe’s expense.

Arrangements for, and attendance at, the event got a little bit looser when our Mad King bombed three purported uranium enrichment sites in Iran on 21 June 25. Japan and South Korea decided not to attend the summit, due to concerns about the consequences of Operation Midnight Hammer in their region.

Trump the Terrible demands obedience. He yearns for respect. On his way to the Netherlands, the Great Negotiator made public a most unfortunate private message from Secretary-General Mark Rutte, saying “Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe and the world. You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done.”

Credit. Patrick Chappette

The fawning was purposeful and effective. Other than stating that Article 5 was not necessarily binding on him or the nation whose history and reputation he routinely despoils, Trump the Tempestuous behaved nicely two whole days in a row.

The Great Disrupter returns to his uneasy throne in momentary control and triumph.

Manifesto

The French philosopher Albert Camus wrote that William Cuthbert Faulkner successfully imported classical tragedy into the 20th century through his "interminably unwinding spiral of words and sentences that conducts the speaker to the abyss of sufferings buried in the past".^[91]

His works were dark in tone, filled with flawed characters.

Yet his speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm on 10 Dec 50 rings through to us today as the flag of conviction to which Resistance 2.0 pays true and abiding allegiance.

“I decline to accept the end of man…I believe man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”

Hope ain’t so hard when it is the only viable option other than surrender to the unacceptable.

Integrity has a better flavor than remorse.

Good trouble has more power and better shelf life than oppression.

Humanity generally and America specifically have stared into the abyss of chaos more than once and even within live memory.

These days of betrayal and infamy are hard to stomach.

We the People unhappy with the results and consequences of Election 2024 are just going to have to continue to eat the vegetables of resolve and persistent peaceful protest to qualify for dessert--a favorable midterm election result.

Anthem

Rise up. Resist. Prevail.

Credit. Redbubble

1. Demand your elected representatives resume their Article One duties and exercise their constitutional powers immediately. Require them to:

· Dump the Big Bad Bill and the SAVE Act.

· Justify a vote against the most recently proposed articles of impeachment. Get on board with efforts to remove Mr. Big from public office now and forevermore.

· Regain control of the purse.

· Reverse the force and remedy the effect of each illegal executive order, memorandum, proclamation, and/or social media order issued by the sitting president.

· Scare corrupt Supreme Court justices silly.

2. Continue to exercise the power of your person. Organize and hold new and larger peaceful public protests on and after 01 July, o4 July, and 17 July 25. Give the Mad King and his troops of terror no rest or comfort. Continue to punish Musk and harass DOGE.

3. Continue to use the power of your purse to damage the brand and bottom line of organizations abandoning DEI commitments.

Dismantle and defeat Trump 2.0 and its cruel and clumsy implementation of the Project 2025 playbook.

Go, team, go.