POKING AROUND ON THE SECOND WEEKEND OF THE NINTH MONTH

This is the second weekend of Month Nine of Donald Trump’s war of revenge against Anericans who failed throughout his life to recognize his innate greatness. We have 403 days to end this. Yes, things are going from bad to worse, but each action by Trump is proof of his weakness and fear of us.

This morning, Trump announced he is sending troops into Portland, Oregon, “to protect ICE operations,” stating he is greenlighting them to use “full force, if necessary.” He wrote on Liers Anti-Social: “At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” (FACT CHECK: Portland is NOT “war rvaged.”)Further details about the president’s actions were not immediately clear — including what legal authority the president would rely on to authorize “full force” of the military in Oregon. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said her team has been “provided no information on the reason or purpose of any military mission,” and that her office is reaching out to the administration for more information. Portland officials, including Mayor Keith Wilson, warned of an influx of federal agents throughout the city in a press conference Friday night, saying: “We did not ask for them to come. They are here without clear precedent or purpose. We have seen that their presence harms commerce and prosperity and opportunity in other cities like Washington, D.C.” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged the city’s residents on Friday to “say we are not going to take the bait.” “This is the ‘don’t take the bait press conference. Our responsibility is to, yes express our views, yes to protest. But best done at a distance from these federal troops, wherever they might be and whatever they are doing. Because their goal is to create an engagement. An engagement that will lead to conflict. There is no national security threat in Portland. Our communities are safe and calm. I ask Oregonians to stay calm and enjoy a beautiful fall day.”

Trump’s assault on us continues: Trump suggested Friday that additional legal actions might be forthcoming against other political figures. When asked outside the White House who the next person on his “list” is following the indictment of Comey, Trump said: “It’s not a list, but I think they’ll be others. I mean, they’re corrupt. These were corrupt radical left Democrats.” Trump and others in his administration have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks that they plan to prosecute Democrats and those on the left they see as corrupt or who have incited political violence. (FACT CHECK: nobody on the left has done any of this.) He also posted a seven-minute video of comments he made in the Oval Office about “many, many people,” a “group of Democrats,” who should suffer “severe consequences” for having committed “treason” in undermining his first presidency and rigging the 2020 elections. He cited Comey as one, but also “all the rest of them,” including the last two Democratic presidents.

Trump lost it at his old nemesis James Comey in an early morning Truth Social rant following the former FBI director’s indictment. “Whether you like Corrupt James Comey or not, and I can’t imagine too many people liking him, HE LIED! It is not a complex lie, it’s a very simple, but IMPORTANT one. There is no way he can explain his way out of it. He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start.” Trump, who began ranting about Comey before 7 a.m. ET on Friday, continued his tirade against his old nemesis. “He left himself ZERO margin of error on a big and important answer to a question. He just got unexpectedly caught. James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey was a destroyer of lives. He knew exactly what he was saying, and that it was a very serious and far reaching lie for which a very big price must be paid. JAMES COMEY IS A DIRTY COP. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” Yes, this is what prejudicial pretrial publicity looks like.

Thursday, DOJ sued six more states, saying they are illegally blocking the agency’s wide- ranging effort to scrutinize detailed voter data. DOJ also accused the states of failing to respond sufficiently to questions about the procedures they take to maintain voter rolls as states called the department’s request for voters’ personal information unprecedented and illegal, and vowed to fight it. The lawsuits targeted California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, after it sued Oregon and Maine last week. DOJ has said it is mounting a nationwide effort to ensure states comply with federal requirements to maintain voter rolls.

Trump has warned that matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup could be pulled from U.S. cities he deems “unsafe”. The U.S. will stage 78 of the 104 matches across 11 cities, from New York to Los Angeles. “It will be safe for the World Cup. If I think it isn’t safe, we’ll move it into a different city. If any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup, or for the Olympics, but for the World Cup in particular, because they’re playing in so many cities, we won’t allow it to go. We’ll move it around a little bit.”

I don’t know about you, but this morning I am in severe need of some more Oregon Coast peacefulness:

AG Pam Bondi has begun transferring people whose death penalties were previously commuted by former President Joe Biden to the Florence, Colorado Supermax prison known for “maximum sensory deprivation and human isolation,” according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Bondi declared: “We have begun transferring the monsters Biden commuted to Supermax prisons, where they will spend the rest of their lives in conditions that match their egregious crimes,” Bondi said. A transfer this week includes eight of the 37 people whose death sentences were commuted by Biden. Others who received commutations - their sentences altered to life without parole - are expected to be transferred in the coming months. Previously, the ACLU and other organizations had sued on behalf of some of these individuals to contest such transfers, citing concerns that they were “unconstitutional” and “vindictive.” Last winter, Trump railed against Biden’s commutations, though his administration isn’t able to entirely overturn them. Trump had sought to convince states to bring new death penalty cases against people who received clemency, but was unsuccessful.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Friday it will resume airing Jimmy Kimmel Live!, ending a preemption that drew criticism from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders. The decision follows a week of public backlash and a shooting incident at an ABC station in Sacramento that Sinclair cited as underscoring the need for responsible broadcasting. The company said its move was independent of government influence. None of their demands to institute control of AB

c as David Ellison has imposed on CBS have been adopted. The possibility of “no football this weekend for you” (which no one will confirm but you know it was said) reminds me of Samuel Johnson’s famous quote: “Nothing so composes the mind as the knowledge one is to be hanged in a fornight.”

They’re all scum: A former South Carolina state lawmaker who prosecutors say used the screen name “joebidennnn69” has agreed to plead guilty to distributing child sexual abuse material. RJ May, 38, signed court papers Friday to change his plea just weeks before his trial was set to begin. Prosecutors say May exchanged more than 200 explicit files of toddlers and young children on the Kik social media app during several days in spring 2024. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each of five counts, must register as a sex offender and could be fined up to $250,000.

Kakistocracy II suffered two legal defeats within hours on Friday, with a federal judge in Rhode Island ruling the president’s executive order on “gender ideology” can’t be applied to National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grantees. Separately in California, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges affirmed the administration must hand over documents related to the firing of federal workers. In Rhode Island, Judge William Smith ruled that the January 20 executive order titled “Defending woman from gender ideology extremism” couldn’t be applied to those given grants by the NEA. The executive order said the U.S. government only recognizes two genders, male and female, and stated federal funds “shall not be used to promote gender ideology.” In his conclusion, Judge Smith said the NEA rejecting grant applicants that “promote gender ideology” would violate the First Amendment . A panel of Ninth Circuit judges in California ruled 2-1 to affirm a lower court decision demanding Maladministration II hand over documents related to the firing of thousands of federal workers. In April, a coalition of labor groups, non-profits, cities and a Texas county sued the federal government arguing job cuts imposed by Trump were outside his authority and needed Congressional approval. Writing for the majority in the Ninth Circuit, Judge William Fletcher said: “We nowhere find clear error by the district court nor a clear entitlement to relief on the part of the government. Our denial of mandamus accords with the longstanding presumption that district courts have broad latitude to control discovery matters. Far from abusing its discretion, the district court has exercised care and restraint in managing discovery, affording ‘careful consideration’ to the government’s assertion of privilege.”

There’s additional information on cosplaying “SecDef” Kegstand’s in-person meeting next Tuesday at Quantico with the top leadership of the U.S. military worldwide. It will be a high- level meeting on military standards and the “warrior ethos.” Sources said that the gathering in Quantico would be “an eyeball-to-eyeball kind of conversation” between Hegseth and those now under his command. The directive, issued without explanation, had prompted confusion and logistical upheaval among military commands already engaged in global operations. Military experts and lawmakers commented on the unusual move, noting that meetings are often now conducted by secure phone or video lines. Retired general Ben Hodges posted on Xtter, likening the surprise assembly to a historical authoritarian maneuver: “July 1935 German generals were called to a surprise assembly in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the Weimar constitution was void and that they would be required to swear a personal oath to the Führer. Most generals took the new oath to keep their positions.” Kegstand reposed the message and replied “Cool story, general.” As it turns out, the reality is the kind of drivel only a moron like Kegstand could come up with. He wants all those generals as “backdrop” for the video recording of the speech he’s going to give, touting fitness and the “warrior ethos,” which will then get replay by Whitey’s House to all the Kakistocracy nerds of MAGA. Back in 1962, writing of the trial of Holocaust facilitator Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt wrote that in all ways his life portrayed “the banality of evil.” There was nothing dramatic about Eichmann; he was just a piece of shit. There’s nothing dramatic about “SecDef” Kegstand; yes, he’s an egomaniac, but in the end his mind is so filled with drivel that he is the perfect modern example of The Banality of Evil. He’s just a worthless piece of shit, who’s in a position where we have to pay attention to his bullshit.

Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy said Friday he does not believe the administration can build a case against former FBI Director James Comey. “I don’t think there’s a case,” McCarthy said during a Friday appearance on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria.” He said much of the evidence is less about Russiagate than “premised on something that’s not true” regarding interactions between Comey and his then-FBI Deputy Andrew McCabe. “McCabe said that Comey authorized him to leak to The Wall Street Journal,” according to McCarthy. “If you look closely at what McCabe said, what McCabe said was that he directed a leak to The Wall Street Journal and told Comey about it after the fact,” he told host Maria Bartiromo. “So it’s true that Comey never authorized it in the sense of OKing it before it happened. I don’t see how they can make that case.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who was confirmed in 2021 to the Alexandria, Va.-based federal court will preside over the Comey trial. Judge Nachmanoff was a magistrate judge in the same district for six years and before that a federal public defender in the court for 13 years. Trump suggested Friday morning that Comey caught a break with the assignment of Nachmanoff. “He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start.” Yes, Dilbert, keep making as many prejudicial pre-trial publicity statements as you want. They each torpedo you even more.

Trump’s special persecutor Lindsey Halligan previously served as his personal lawyer and had been working as a low-ranking White House official until just last week; she was tasked with leading a White House review of Smithsonian Institution museum exhibits to ensure “alignment” with Trump’s executive orders. She signed a letter instructing eight of the Smithsonian’s museums — including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of the American Indian — to replace exhibits that include “divisive or ideologically driven” material with “unifying, historically accurate” content. She answered critics, saying in an August interview with Fux Snooze: The fact our country was involved in slavery is awful — no one thinks otherwise. But what I saw when I was going through the museum, personally, was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”

Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez granted a preliminary injunction preventing “the repatriation or removal of any Plaintiff Child without a valid voluntary departure order or removal order issued by an immigration judge.” She criticized the government’s argument it was sending the children back to reunite them with their parents, writing it was “dangerously unclear” whether the plan would realize this outcome. “The foundation of Defendants’ argument for their authority to transport Plaintiffs out of the United States is that Defendants are reuniting Plaintiff Children with parents abroad, but counsel could not identify a single instance of coordination between a parent and any government - American or Guatemalan. Altogether, whether Plaintiffs would actually be reunited with a parent upon being transported out of the United States is dangerously unclear.” She wrote that while the government insisted that Guatemalan officials had requested the return of the children in the case, a report from Guatemala’s attorney general found many of the families of 115 adolescents in the U.S. did not do so. “Fifty families stated that they would accept their children upon their return, but ‘with the caveat that none of them was requesting their return, indicating their desire to consider first the viability of the children staying in the United States,’” Márquez wrote. Another 59 families, she continued, “expressed annoyance at being contacted and were not willing to be assessed to determine their suitability as a home for their children.” Márquez previously issued a temporary restraining order over Labor Day weekend, preventing the government from removing 57 children from Guatemala and 12 from Honduras.

Kakistocracy II ordered federal authorities to ignore new legislation in California banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks to conceal their identity on Friday. “Governor Newsom is confused about his role under the U.S. Constitution,” Bill Essayli, cosplaying as the failed U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California who cannot get juries to support his bullshit cases against opponents. “He oversees California, not federal agencies. He should review the Supremacy Clause. California’s law to ‘unmask’ federal agents is unconstitutional, as the state lacks jurisdiction to interfere with federal law enforcement. I have directed federal agencies to disregard this state law and adhere to federal law and agency policies.” Essayli wrote that any official or individual who attempts to impede or interfere with operations will be prosecuted by his office - probably with as much success as his office has had with California juries since Kakistocracy II began its assault on California.

There’s no more Major American Media you can fully trust. Places like That’s Another Fine Mess are what’s left, and we need your help to survive. Please consider joining That’s Another Fine Mess. Right now, fewer than 10 percent of readers pay to read this newsletter. That’s fine; you really can’t save democracy behind a paywall. But if you think this has any value, please consider supporting my work. It’s only $7/month (21 cents/day) or $70/year (saving $14). Thank you for your support at this incredibly important time.

Comments are for paid subscribers.