Republican Stupidity

Yesterday, Piggy posted this on his garbage social media site:

Today, he posted a plaintive plea for help that is badly concealed in lies and bravado:

The “Many Countries” claim in the first sentence sounds like a fictitious Canadian girlfriend to me. I’m no geopolitical strategist, but I doubt China is going to ride to Piggy’s rescue, and it doesn’t seem likely the U.S. allies he’s spent more than a year abusing will either.

Trump is on his own, and the incompetent psychopaths who work for him are in charge of the war effort all by themselves. He was warned, according to the Wall Street Journal (gift link):

WASHINGTON—Before the U.S. went to war, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told President Trump that an American attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Caine said in several briefings that U.S. officials had long believed Iran would deploy mines, drones and missiles to close the world’s most vital shipping lane, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Trump acknowledged the risk, these people said, but moved forward with the most consequential foreign-policy decision of his two presidencies. He told his team that Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait—and even if Iran tried, the U.S. military could handle it.

Now, two weeks into the war, Iran’s leaders have refused to back down, and the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as Tehran’s most potent leverage point.

An unpopular, narcissistic autocrat will naturally lean into exercising prerogative powers abroad when constrained at home. He needs a shot of domination like late-stage Hugh Hefner needed boner pills. And while Trump is still capable of inflicting plenty of misery at home, he’s stymied on the domestic front to an unprecedented degree, considering that his party controls the executive and legislative branches.

If Trump’s domestic control wasn’t collapsing, the Epstein Files Transparency Act would never have passed, Bovino would still be strutting around Minneapolis like a bantam rooster in a Nazi great coat, Noem would still occupy a luxury fuck palace in the sky with Lewandowski, and the primary feud between the Texas GOP U.S. Senate candidates would be over.

It’s going to be a rough ride, but not just for us. The “how it’s going” part sucks for the bad people too.

***

The New York Times published an interview by Lulu Garcia-Navarro with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker today. Here’s a gift link. A few excerpts:

What do you make of the moniker “the billionaire class” that has become very popular, especially on the left? Do you think all billionaires should be lumped together?

You asked the question upfront, that I seem to be sensitive about wealth. And it’s in part because of a question like the one you just asked. I know that there are people who just want to lump everybody who is wealthy together and say that they are evil or they’re fighting against them. All I can say is, that’s not true of me, and it’s not true of a number of people I know…

I hear you using the words “torn” and “challenged.” I know that this must be, as it is for many Jews, an incredibly difficult conversation to have. You used to be on the board of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group, and you’ve since distanced yourself from them. And last August, you also endorsed a Senate effort to block U.S. arms sales to Israel. You said it sends “the right kind of a message.” It made me wonder if you’re undergoing a personal evolution.

Well, I abandoned AIPAC more than a dozen years ago. It was an organization that had at one time been bipartisan in nature and really all about preserving a strong relationship between the United States and Israel. But about a dozen years ago, the organization began to lean much more to the right and much more pro-Trump, who had then become a candidate for president, and that disturbed me greatly. AIPAC back then was not a PAC, I might add. It was a public affairs council; it didn’t have a political action committee that was giving money to candidates. But the organization became political. They created a super PAC. They began to get involved in elections directly and choosing to support candidates who were MAGA and right-wing and Trumpy. I just didn’t want anything to do with that…

We’re kind of dancing around this central thing, which I feel compelled to ask you, which is that you are often mentioned as a potential 2028 candidate for president. What are you weighing as you’re making that decision?

I’m not weighing that decision. I know you find that surprising, but I’m running for re-election as governor. That’s what I’m focused on. Listen, I’m proud and pleased that people think that my leadership is something that would put me on the stage as a potential presidential candidate. The reasons that people are doing that have more to do with the conviction that I have offered on the subject of stepping between Donald Trump and the people of my state and protecting people and speaking out and being unafraid. I wish more Democratic politicians were doing that right now, and more politicians in general. I wish Republicans would get religion about standing by the law and the Constitution. So I guess that’s why people have considered me as a potential candidate.

I don’t know a lot about Gov. Pritzker, but he seems like a stand-up guy.

Open thread.

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