#the bulwark

[contemplatingoutlander]

MAGA Hates This Holiday

In their version of our history, everything was always perfect.

Celebrate Juneteenth. Annoy MAGA.

by William Kristol

Today is Juneteenth, a holiday long celebrated, especially by black Americans, to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. In 2021, Congress, recognizing that the end of slavery was an event worthy of formal recognition by the whole nation, established it as a federal holiday for all Americans. The holiday’s name refers to June 19, 1865, the day when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 ordering the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

In the midst of this year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the commemoration of Juneteenth can have special resonance. But not for the Trump administration, which, so far as I can tell, has not deigned to acknowledge the holiday this year. [....] One understands why Trumpists choose to neglect Juneteenth. After all, Trump’s vice president claimed earlier this week at a campaign event in New York that “they’ve become anti-white in the Democratic party.” If you’re... the party that wants to foster and exploit white grievance, then you have little interest in calling attention to a holiday that is a reminder of the terrible injustices caused by fantasies of white supremacy.

But beyond this, Juneteenth isn’t a holiday that fits into the cartoonishly whitewashed Trumpist view of American history. [....] Struggling with complicated truths... is not a Trumpist thing. To some degree, it has often not been an American thing. As Kevin Levin, who writes the newsletter Civil War Memory, put it this week,

For generations, the history of slavery and emancipation has been minimized, distorted, or simply written out of the national narrative by white Americans. The story of Juneteenth survived because Black families carried it forward, year after year, while the broader culture looked away or invented comforting fictions in its place.

Trump and Vance are not interested in challenging any of those comforting fictions. [....] But the rest of us can do what the Trump administration won’t do. We can engage in a struggle with complicated truths that makes possible a truer and deeper celebration of our history.

As Levin writes,

Juneteenth is a federal holiday now. It belongs to the country, which I understand to mean that it belongs to all of us . . . because the story of how four million people moved from slavery to freedom is the central drama of this nation’s history.

So many millions of Americans will commemorate Juneteenth, in local and civic celebrations across the country, even as Trump and Vance ignore the holiday [....]

[drdoktormd]

A humble sampling of my collection of chessmen.

[tomorrowusa]

Nazi fashionista Greg Bovino was on CNN this morning conducting an unconvincing session of Orwellian disinformation.

Sam Stein at The Bulwark patiently scrapes away Bovino's bullshit.

The murder of Alex Pretti is nothing less than an execution conducted by employees of the Trump administration.

It was GOP senators who confirmed Trump's unqualified appointees at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. We can put a leash on Trump by tossing his apologists and lickspittles out of Congress in November.

[saywhat-politics]

Trump Derangement Syndrome

[gamer2002]

Right wingers losing their mind: calling employers to fire an employee for publicly celebrating murder

Left wingers losing their mind: burning down the entire workplace of the employer and employee due to an unrelated to them event

[uboat53]

Trump Has Revealed MAGA’s Anti-Christian Nature

It’s time for sincere believers to pull the wool from their eyes and see the truth about the president and his followers.

"THE PAST FEW DAYS HAVE FEATURED the vice president of the United States lecturing the pope on morality and church doctrine; Sean Hannity making it official that he worships at the Church of Trump; Pete Hegseth quoting made-up verses from Pulp Fiction as if they were actual scripture; and Trump styling himself as Jesus Christ. A few years ago, one might have wondered how these acts of contempt toward Christianity would go down with the religious right, but after 10 years of cultishness, it would be foolish to expect many defections.

Still, as someone who came up in the conservative movement, I find it a bit dizzying to watch people who used to venerate religious leaders of all stripes now smack-talk the pope and commit what some have characterized as blasphemy. … If Vance is careful when he talks about matters of public policy, I shudder to imagine what a cavalier Vance would say. Was his flat endorsement of the lie that Trump won the 2020 election an example of Vance being careful? Was his false allegation that illegal Haitian immigrants (they were legal) were eating people’s pets in Springfield measured and cautious? Was his embrace of authoritarian Viktor Orbán prudent? What about his repeated claim that tariffs would make people “much better off”—was that carefully researched? His admission that he created false, incendiary stories in order to drag a reluctant media to report on immigration: careful commentary?

Beyond that, even as he was chastising the pope for sloppiness about matters of doctrine, he was actively misrepresenting what the pontiff said—in other words, being exceedingly sloppy with facts. Vance taunted, “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps?” Contra Vance, Leo did not say that God is never on the side of those who fight wars. As Bishop James Massa of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine explained,

A constant tenet of that thousand-year [just war] tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword “in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308). That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

Vance might want to brush up on his catechism. Even if Vance had been right about just war doctrine instead of flat wrong, the eagerness to spar with the pope—it bears repeating: the head of the entire Catholic Church—is utterly Trumpian. Thou shalt have no gods before Trump. Centuries of moral teaching are as nothing if they contradict the wishes of the cult leader.

One of the sad revelations of our time, ably chronicled by Peter Wehner, Tim Alberta, David French, Russell Moore, and many others, is the shallowness of many Christians’ professed faith. I’m Jewish, but I’ve long admired the commitment of serious Christians. I will never forget visiting a facility run by Christian volunteers for abandoned babies exposed to drugs in the womb. These babies needed round-the-clock care of the most grueling nature—not just changing diapers, but adjusting feeding tubes, oxygen masks, and more. The people who worked there did it because they truly honored every human being. They believed that each child, no matter how handicapped, was made in the image and likeness of God. They took to heart the commandment to do “for the least of these.”

Of course, religious belief can also be perverted to enable cruelty and even atrocities. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the sex abuse scandals of recent years, churches, synagogues, and mosques have spawned crimes, betrayals, and lies. “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made,” as Immanuel Kant put it.

But the particular sacrilege that late stage Trumpism has adopted must be tearing at some hearts. From Trump’s declaration that unlike Erika Kirk, he doesn’t forgive his enemies, to his crude attacks on the pope as “weak on crime,” to his insane AI rendering of himself as Jesus, he seems to be deliberately testing Christians’ forbearance. Above all, his threat to commit war crimes by deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in Iran (bridges, power plants) and culminating in the maniacal vow to destroy Iranian civilization in one night ought to have produced a recoil in any nation with a conscience.

Time to consider that he might be a false prophet—if people can distinguish truth from falsehood anymore."

[madewithonerib]

there sure are a lot of things going wrong in this world; i guess when in doubt do as the animals do, just saw a bunch of penguins cliff jumping, looks painful but also exhilarating.. i mean i wonder why Peter Schiff was yelling during his guest spot on FOX, wasn't he super cool with the deficit collapsing the dollar before when Tom was chatting with him: What's changed? Will Tom give Pete a chance to explain his new pov in another segment.. & all this hub-bub in the press reminds us of how the Administration kept trying to distract the American public from focusing on its demands for the Epstein files, but now that the Administration is giving them these files it seems like the same playbook is being used..in higher & higher stakes.

Freedom is eroding, so is democracy where ppl are silenced & prohibited from even recording what is transpiring on the ground—like the internet blackout in Iran after riots broke out. C01: Reddit ~2009-2012 were better days. C02: Trump just wants headlines. He doesn't care that all of his high profile arrests get thrown out.

[11:03] lol Stephen's accent is hilarious "yes my y is different than his..not so much Y-M-C-A, as WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!????!?!????!?" I should say, it would be better if you could tone down on the contempt, it's getting a bit in the way of the delivery of the joke & also the enjoyment..I mean I'm a fan of comedy but I also like documentaries & ppl being kind—also don't think Melania was doing anything wrong, she is part of history & the Bezos didn't have to but they did, spare no expense :D

on a related note... here is a medical condition i liken to being dead inside

Buckle Up, There Are MORE Crazy Epstein Emails | The Bulwark 1.61m subscribers

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Cops Join Trump’s War on the Press

Journalists are being targeted for doing their jobs in covering protests.

Bill Lueders for The Bulwark:

ON JUNE 9, PHOTOJOURNALIST MICHAEL NIGRO was shot in the head by Los Angeles police while covering a protest against U.S. immigration cruelty in front of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building. Fortunately for him, Nigro was wearing a helmet, which deflected the blow from what he believed to be a “less lethal” crowd-control munition. “It felt very very intentional,” Nigro told NPR, suggesting the goal was to create “a chilling effect to convince us to go away and not document” the protest taking place. He noted that both sides of his helmet had tags that said “PRESS”—his protective vest was even more prominently labeled—and he was carrying two professional-grade cameras.

What happened to Nigro is not an anomaly. Police in Los Angeles and elsewhere seem to be singling out members of the media for exclusion, arrest, detention, and the use of force. The Los Angeles Press Club and the investigative reporting site Status Coup filed a lawsuit on June 16 in the Central District of California alleging that officers at recent demonstrations have been targeting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. In court, they presented thirty-five examples of police either barring reporters from public areas or using force on them such as Nigro experienced. “Being a journalist in Los Angeles is now a dangerous profession,” states the lawsuit, which named the city of Los Angeles and its chief of police as defendants. “LAPD unlawfully used force and the threat of force against Plaintiffs, their members and other journalists to intimidate them and interfere with their constitutional right to document public events as the press.” The complaint notes that the Los Angeles Police Department “has a long history . . . of using excessive force against journalists at protests,” citing violent police actions against the press during the Democratic National Convention in 2000. Similar accusations were made against the LAPD at various points over the following two decades, including during the 2020 protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

In response to those latter reports, the California legislature enacted new laws in 2021 and 2022 to protect the rights of journalists covering protests in that state. The lawsuit called the department’s conduct during last month’s protests “a brazen refusal to abide by the Constitution and state law.”

What makes the matter more remarkable is that, on July 10, a federal district court agreed, essentially. Judge Hernán Vera of the Central District of California ordered the LAPD to stop obstructing, detaining, assaulting, and using “nonlethal” ammunition against journalists covering protests, as well as to stop limiting journalists’ movements unless circumstances make it absolutely necessary to do so. He imposed a two-week restraining order against the department, which may be extended after a preliminary injunction hearing set for July 24. [...]

MANY MORE SUCH INCIDENTS have been documented elsewhere. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, lists more than 50 assaults on the press that took place in June. Most happened in Los Angeles, where President Donald Trump sent hundreds of active-duty Marines and thousands of National Guard soldiers—many of whom hated and objected to their deployment—over the objections of the city’s mayor and state’s governor. Militarism may not necessarily cause police brutality and the targeting of journalists, but it surely does nothing to prevent it. What’s happening, evidently, is that a troubling number of law enforcement offices view press coverage of public protests as a threat, rather than a protected legal and constitutional right. Emboldened by Trump’s nonstop slander of the Fourth Estate, they feel justified in treating the press as enemies of the people. And again, all that stands in the way of their succeeding is the power of the courts, should anyone still be paying attention to that branch of government.

[...] What’s certain is that the protests will continue, and so will the attacks by police on the journalists whose job it is to cover them. That’s because a lawless president is an open invitation to law-breaking police.

Bill Lueders wrote in The Bulwark on how police departments are enlisting themselves into Donald Trump’s war on the press by endangering and suppressing press freedoms at coverage of protests.