Senior, Jr.

Conversations with right-wing family, and observations on political extremes.

[truthdogg]

When Chief Justice Roberts said he would “call balls and strikes,” it was a power grab disguised as minimalism.

He was announcing right there that his Court would rule as they pleased on individual cases, not in a way that could be broadly interpreted by lower courts.

This approach means that any difficult questions of law must be brought back to SCOTUS to rule on individually. It puts all power over legislation or executive orders in their hands, and when combined with “Originalism,” it means that the law has no fixed meaning, as long as it can be brought to this Supreme Court.

Yesterday’s ruling on birthright citizenship showed that at least three conservative justices are willing to ignore the plainest and clearest constitutional language imaginable so that they can rule however they please. Again, there was no attempt by Alito, Thomas & Gorsuch to create a broad interpretation of law, or to be consistent with past rulings. This was simply an all-new interpretation based on their own ideas and that of the Trump Administration.

It was an attempt by these three, with concurrence by Kavanaugh, to call a strike where one did not exist. Their fantasy about what the founders might have wanted the amendment to mean was apparently enough for them to make this argument without shame.

[truthdogg]

If the event is called “America250,” it’s been in planning for the past ten years by a bipartisan commission, expertly organized and with money allocated. That’s the US celebration that Trump has been busy cancelling.

It it’s called “Freedom250,” it’s a Trump scam to enrich himself and his cronies, and to glorify himself. Avoid it at all costs; that’s the patriotic thing to do. And it will suck anyway.

We were robbed of a genuine celebration of the country by this loser. I’m thankful to the foreign tourists celebrating being at the World Cup, because that’s about all the positive vibes we’re going to get.

[truthdogg]

It Is So Easy To Not Do This

Please forward this to Nate Bargatze, Alexis Ohanian, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and so many other “nice” white guys.

Kamau Bell is right about this.

If your friend is nice to you, but associates with fascists, your friend is not a good person and even worse thinks you’re ok with fascists, too. Dump them or start reviewing this list for yourself.

[truthdogg]

History will not look on the USA kindly.

Other countries often have dictators they can blame for their wars of choice and aggression. We Americans have just kept voting for this behavior over and over again.

[truthdogg]

Raising Epstein from the dead was certainly a, um, choice.

As were the attacking figures coming from the sky. This is one of the most deliberately demonic images I’ve ever seen. At this point it’s like he’s trolling his supporters to see what they’ll tolerate.

[truthdogg]

US & Israeli bombs have killed an estimated two thousand people in Iran so far. The idea that Iranians want US & Israeli attacks on their infrastructure would be laughable if not so grimly serious.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party have somehow managed to take one of the world’s absolute worst regimes—one that literally uses cranes to hang gay men in gruesome public spectacles, one that kills young women who allow the sun to shine on their hair then bills their families for the bullets—and made people across the globe root for these monsters to win.

This is one of the biggest failures in international diplomacy and global relations the US has ever committed. It rivals that of Abu Ghraib or My Lai, not in visceral brutality but in its abject stupidity, made worse because it cannot be dismissed as the actions of a few deranged individuals. It is the official policy of the United States, and its implementation by a foul collection of pedophiles and sexual abusers has meant that there was never any moral high ground to lose.

From the moment of the first attacks, the undeniable evidence of Trump’s sickening abuse of women and girls immediately framed his wanton decision to bomb another nation as that of a cornered rapist pedophile attempting to change the subject. That is the inevitable narrative not only in the US, but around the world, and the expected result of putting such a person in office. “Rapist pedophiles lashing out” is now the basic way the entire US government is perceived globally, by everyone from the common person on the street to diplomats and presidents.

And the worst part is that it’s not even wrong. This administration fills its appointments based on loyalty, following the classic authoritarian approach that the unqualified are the most loyal, and that the compromised can be controlled. That has led to an entire government comprised of podcasters and activists who spend meetings competing for the title of biggest sycophantic suckup instead of raising issues and solving problems. The only problem they seek to address is how to tighten their grip.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have been voted into oblivion by a populace obsessed with humiliation and vengeance, who see Walter White and Tony Soprano as heroes to emulate instead of the cautionary tales that they were meant to be. The letter above is one of the few things they can do, and even that stays hidden from the public by a media bent on seeking approval and focused on its bottom line.

[truthdogg]

The Ships That Weren't There How the US Navy decommissioned its only purpose-built minesweepers seven weeks before starting a war where min

By Michele Walker-Harmon

The Strait of Hormuz, where those four ships had been stationed for 35 years, now contains an unknown number of Iranian naval mines.

The ships that existed to clear them are being scrapped.

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Any military is only as good as its leadership. Trump & Hegseth appear determined to destroy the capabilities of the US armed forces. By firing capable & experienced commanders, by decommissioning needed ships, by pushing religious missions onto troops, and by stating illegal wars with no strategy for how to complete them.

Every day Trump is president, Americans are measurably less safe.

[truthdogg]

Iran may have needed help to move forward, but there’s simply no way that any govt supported by the US & Israel will ever be seen as legitimate.

If this govt is in fact toppled we are only setting Iran up for decades of war & even greater oppression. Even the Trump Admin has said that if Khamenei were to fall he’d be replaced by worse.

A competent multinational coalition working on behalf of Iranians at massive expense for many years might be able to help make a transition to a peaceful govt. That isn’t remotely what we have here.

It’s mind boggling that anyone imagines Trump could be successful with this. He lashes out, then moves on. It’s what he’s done his entire life.

The Iranian people deserve far, far better than what is about to happen there.

[depsidase]

[truthdogg]

Repeat after me: THIS IS CONSERVATISM.

US conservatism—yes, including fiscal conservatism—has one primary goal, and that is to conserve and enforce the existing social hierarchy.

Note that fiscal conservatives never introduce policy for balancing budgets or saving money. Ever. Instead they focus on cuts that undermine the economy to the benefit of their wealthiest donors.

Consistently for over a century, their focus has been on killing programs that benefit the public in some way, or that save costs by pooling resources. They push for privatization, which always results in higher costs after implementation. They push for deregulation, which costs all of us in the form of monopolistic price gouging, reduced competition, physical injuries, and even deaths. They push for shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor.

“Fiscally conservative” does not mean “fiscally responsible.” Strike that from your vocabulary. It’s a dangerous and destructive lie.

[truthdogg]

Decree banning the use of blackletter font, 1941

For general notice I announce the following by order of the Führer:

It is false to regard or describe the so-called Gothic typeface as a German typeface. In reality the so-called Gothic typeface consists of Schwabacher-Jewish letters.

Just as they later came to own the newspapers, the Jews living in Germany also owned the printing presses when the printing of books was introduced and thus came about the strong influx into Germany of Schwabacher-Jewish letters.

Today the Führer, in a discussion with Herr Reichsleiter Amann [Reich Leader for the Press] and the printing company owner Herr Adolf Muller, decided that Antiqua [Roman] type is henceforth to be designated as the standard typeface. Gradually, all printed matter should be converted to this standard typeface. As soon as possible in regard to school textbooks, only the standard script will be taught in village and elementary schools.

The use of Schwabacher-Jewish letters by authorities will in future cease; certificates of appointment for officials, stree signs, and the like, will in future only be produced in standard lettering.

By order of the Führer, Herr Reichsleiter Amann will first change over to the standard script those newspapers and magazines that already have foreign circulation or whose foreign circulation is desired.

sga. M. Bormann

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rubio-stages-font-coup-times-new-roman-ousts-calibri-2025-12-09/

If you’ve ever thought that the Trump Administration is scapegoating diversity in much the same way the Nazis scapegoated Jewish people, they’re even copying them in mundane items like font choices.

(Also it’s interesting & odd that the Nazi decree still uses blackletter on the stationery.)

[truthdogg]

An old post, but evergreen.

This is what conservatism does. It seeks to hold on to privilege and power, and attacks any convenient group on the margins if it may help them reinforce the status quo.

[truthdogg]

We always knew the Trump DOJ coverup would be sloppy. But this is on a new level of sloppiness.

Donald Trump is a disgusting and abusive pedophile. At this point, I simply do not and cannot believe anyone who claims not to know it.

While the deaths of people around the world due to his incompetence and venality must not be ignored, this is the primary thing he will be remembered for. It will be what schoolchildren learn first, what colors every mention of his name. When future scholars dive into the unprecedented corruption, incompetence and theft of his administration, his perversions and the people who enabled and covered them up will loom over every study.

[dreamilypurpleoutcast]

[truthdogg]

This is what happens when one side’s goal is to have everyone bow to them, while the other side’s goal is to have everyone be treated equally.

The double standard isn’t hypocrisy, it’s built in to the politics. It’s the whole story.

The right isn’t simply using a double standard to get what they want. They want the double standard to be how they run the country.

[truthdogg]

The first tiny release of overly-redacted Epstein documents and Trump’s lackeys add in an unrelated publicly-available photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross. This gives Trump the distraction point that Bill Clinton is in the files, so when Trump is found he can publicly dismiss it.

However, this photo was easily findable as being unrelated. It seems that the larger goal here may be to make sure nothing the DOJ releases can truly be trusted.

Remember that authoritarians revel in easily debunked lies. It is a flex on opponents that they can do it, which their most engaged supporters (the hard MAGA) love. But those lies are still believed by other supporters (the mild MAGA) who desperately want to think they haven’t been conned and support what the authoritarian does.

These are the people who will quickly dismiss the whole tranche of documents now, and say “you don’t believe all that stuff, do you? Biden had those files so long that they have to be a mess.”

There’s no nuance or investigation with these folks. The files are either all believable or all fake. Their brains can’t handle the idea that the original files themselves can be investigated and analyzed so that the insertions or removals can be found. One obvious fake document and mild MAGA won’t believe anything in the entire release.

Edit to add: The only real saving grace here is that the Trump DOJ is so bad at this. That won’t affect the current political discussions much, but it does create a trail of illegal behavior for a prosecutor or impeachment coordinator to follow. Eventually the narrative of truth can win out; the question becomes how long it will take before it can happen.

This is what’s happening as of now, 12/20/25:

[truthdogg]

Mike Johnson Implies All No Kings Protesters Are Murderers

The Republican House speaker had a deranged defense of Donald Trump’s AI poop video response to the No Kings protests.

“Speaker Johnson, you say that the Democrats had a ‘Hate America’ rally, but what does it say that the president of the United States over the weekend released a video of him pooping on the American people?” The Independent’s Eric Garcia asked Johnson at his Monday press conference.

Johnson chuckled. “The president uses social media to make a point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that. He is using satire to make a point,” Johnson replied. “He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents, and that’s what these people are doing.”

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For Johnson’s comments to make the least bit of sense, we first have to assume he believes that President Trump is already king. This fits, of course, with the creepy deference that Johnson displays toward Trump, as well as the White House’s tweets from the weekend showing Trump in a crown.

It also implies that Johnson believes the guillotine (or its modern equivalent) is the only way that the Trump family intends to leave office.

Of course, in the next breath, Johnson explains the anti-American action Trump would take if he was king, which is to shut down any message of disagreement or protest against him: “If President Trump was a king, he would’ve closed the national parks and the National Mall so they couldn’t have had the rally out here,” Johnson said.

None of this should be ignored. Johnson may sound deranged to us, but his comments likely make sense to his supporters.

[truthdogg]

Trump suggests US will buy Argentine beef to bring down prices for American consumers

President Donald Trump says the United States could purchase Argentinian beef in an attempt to bring down prices for American consumers.

This guy will never, ever put American farmers first.

He has destroyed the US market for soybean exports. Now he’s going to do his damnedest to destroy the market US cattle as well.

Businessmen who have served as president have consistently been notoriously bad for the economy. (The only notable exception to this is Truman, but he was a small business owner, not a large company executive.)

Donald Trump is the perfect example of the worst sort of businessman to lead a large organization of any kind — someone who has bankrupted companies over and over but always emerges with more money for himself. It’s unsurprising that such a person has run us into a ditch faster than Hoover. It remains to be seen if that ditch will be as deep, but I’m not optimistic about our chances.

[truthdogg]

I want to see the Portland and Chicago protesters wear inflatable Epstein costumes.

But then again that might mean that our news media will show even LESS video from those cities than they’re showing now.