SOTU AFTERMATH

In his dreams

According to those who watched so the rest of us didn’t have to (Thank you for your service), Trump spent the State Of The Union delivering a commercial for why the American people should elect Democrats in November. He repeated his usual lies about lowering prescription drug prices, housing, and the Dow reaching 50,000. He lied about bringing down inflation, and those parts of the address were more of the same old stuff. What was missing fromthe ramble-on was any talk about affordability. He ignored the most important issue that matters to voters. He keeps telling Americans that the high costs they are facing aren’t real, but people are feeling it every single time they go to the store or pay a bill. He tried to gaslight America with his State Of The Union and it was the best thing that could have happened to Democrats on the way to the midterm election. Stephanie Ruhle provided some sobering context when she pointed out that Trump and his criminal family will take in over a billion dollars this next year. Overall, as is true every time he opens that anus under his nose, what came out was “happy horseshit.”

There is one thing Trump did that I have to thoroughly agree with (the only time that will ever happen): he awarded my friend Royce Williams a totally-deserved Medal of Honor (action above and beyond the call of duty) for his long-kept-secret 7:1 battle against seven Russian-flown MiG-15s in November 1952, during which he shot down four while flying an overmatched F9F-5 Panther, then landed his shot-up airplane on the carrier in the middle of a Siberian blizzard at 170 mph (because he couldn’t control it under that speed) and caught the three wire. Royce is now 100 years old, and has been deserving that medal for 74 years. I was the writer who first told his story, and I worked for 10 years with my late friend Rear Admiral Don Shelton to convince the Navy to change the “official history cover story” and take notice of reality. All we could manage was upgrading the original Silver Star award to a Navy Cross. (For those who would like to know the whole story, it’s Chapter One of “Holding The Line.”) Unfortunately, Trump had to enshittify the award ceremony by having Melanoma hang it around Royce’s neck like it was some gameshow prize. The award of the MoH is entirely political - no matter what anyone tells you - as this one demonstrates. “Dirtbag Darryl” Issa got behind it last year because Royce is a thorough MAGA - for which I have forgiven him. Royce probably thinks the ceremony was just fine and I will keep my mouth shut out of respect the next time I see him. Fun fact: Royce is so competitive that - when he retired and a friend suggested he take up gardening - he became a World Champion Bonsai gardener; visiting him is a trip to Kyoto in the back yard. Trump actually gets all the facts right in his introduction:

I didn’t waste my time listening to Dilbert’s lies at the SOTU, but overall, the reviews say he really underperformed. Josh Marshall noted in his live coverage that Trump had low energy until he got to tariffs, and in the middle of his riffs about them, he dropped back to low energy. “He seemed to be saying that the foreign countries are so happy they’ll just voluntarily keep paying the tariffs.” He got really rattled when people didn’t applaud his “applause lines.” The more it happened, with no one standing to applaud, the more it bothered him. Good. This is another fail, which is all he’s getting nowadays. Joyce Vance reported Trump never acknowledged or even looked at the Epstein survivors who were in the audience. She called the speech “long and boring. Mediocre is a good way to characterize it... If you weren’t already in Trump’s camp, it’s unlikely you are now... Instead, he seemed to luxuriate in the spotlight like a show-off kid with a captive audience.” Only Justices Roberts, Kagan, Kavanaugh, and Barrett showed up. Entering the House chamber, Trump shook hands perfunctorily with Roberts, Kagan and Kavanaugh, and had no response to Barrett, who he has complained about all week since she voted with the majority to take away his toy.

Monday, the TrumpDOJ filed a lawsuit against New Jersey and Gov. Mikie Sherrill over a recent executive order that bans ICE from state property without a judicial warrant. TrumpDOJ wrote that Sherrill is aiming to “intentionally obstruct” federal law enforcement and thwart federal immigration law. The lawsuit reads, “Such blatant disregard for federal laws that have been on the books for over three decades is not merely a political statement, but is instead deliberate action that jeopardizes the public safety of all Americans.” Sherrill’s executive order coincided with a portal launched by the New Jersey attorney general’s office where residents can upload reports about ICE officials violating the law. At a press conference, Sherrill said: “I think what the federal government needs to be focused on right now instead of attacking states like New Jersey working to keep people safe is actually training their ICE agents with some modicum of training, like any law enforcement officer in the state of New Jersey would have, so they can operate better and more safely.” The court challenge on Sherrill’s newest executive action follows four other legal complaints filed by Maladministration II. “Attorney General” Bondi said New Jersey’s “sanctuary policies will not stand” in a Tuesday statement. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said the TrumpDOJ’s legal challenge was “pointless,” adding that Sherrill will continue to “ensure the safety of our state’s immigrant communities.”

America’s top Roman Catholic leaders issued a sharply worded statement condemning the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement as “detrimental to human rights” and urging policy changes. The statement, released Tuesday—the day President Donald Trump, 79, is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address, which is expected to partly focus on his hard-line immigration agenda—emphasized that the clergy was “concerned” about “recent and ongoing immigration enforcement activities against individuals and families who are without legal status in our country.” The signers, who included bishops from states that border Mexico and Canada, as well as Rhode Island and Kentucky, outlined eight policy recommendations that would help “to create an immigration system which ensures public safety, protects human rights, encourages economic growth and justice, and upholds our heritage as a nation of immigrants.” The call for change comes as polls show that 58 percent of Americans believe the president has gone “too far” with his deportation policies.

Trump hosted the US Men’s Olympic hockey team in the Oval Office on Tuesday, joking that he would take one of the players’ gold medals. “Absolutely, I’ll put it on. I’m not giving it back,” Trump joked to winger Matthew Tkachuk. Following the men’s team victory, the president lamented during a phone call with the team about having to invite the women’s team to the White House, which also won gold at the Olympics. After they laughed at his misogynist attack on the Women’s Hockey Team that had performed as well if not better than they had (What? You can’t take a joke? Not that kind), I decided the bunch of them have lived down to what I usually expect from white male jockstraps. I got over that much oafish stupidity by the time I quit the varsity swim team 64 years ago. When they walked into the SOTU wearing their USA sweaters with their medals around their necks, they diminished both the medals and their achievement by their willingness to be performing seals in such a scene. When he announced that goalie Connor Hellebuyck would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom - an honor noirmally bestowed for a lifetime of achievement - Tom Nichols said “...this time it was given as if the young athlete had chosen the right door and found a new car.” The Presidential Medal of Freedom has been thoroughly desmirched by Trump awarding it to the likes of a scumbag like Rush Limpdick. He destroys the value of anything he touches, another example of ETTD.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Maladministration II is considering issuing an executive order requiring banks to collect citizenship information from customers. It is part of the administration’s broader push to crack down on illegal immigration and would require banks to verify customers’ passports and other legal documents to maintain their accounts. The Trump administration said no executive order has been finalized yet. One avenue the administration is considering is having the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which enforces the U.S.’s anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing laws, collect the information.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter told the TrumpDOJ that Maladministration II could not “open, access, review, or otherwise examine any of” Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s “seized data.” He wrote in the filing, “The government seized all of Ms. Natanson’s work product, documentary material, and devices, terminating her access to the confidential sources she developed and to all the tools she needs as a working journalist. The government’s proposed remedy - that she simply buy a new phone and laptop, set up new accounts, and start from scratch - is unjust and unreasonable. The Court’s genuine hope is that this search was conducted - as the government contends - to gather evidence of a crime in a single case, not to collect information about confidential sources from a reporter who has published articles critical of the administration. The Court further hopes the record ultimately bears out the government’s representations.”

According to Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey data released this week, 30% of Americans qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers, and American women are just as likely as American men to hold Christian nationalist views. Melissa Deckman, the chief executive of PRRI, said the percentage of Americans who adhere to Christian nationalist views has remained steady since PRRI started collecting this data in 2022, but the movement’s influence has grown in politics and culture. She said: “I think we’re talking about Christian nationalism more and more in part because the MAGA movement has essentially taken over the leadership of the party. Even compared to Trump’s first term, you’re seeing a big difference in who Trump has brought with him back into office.” 56% of Republicans qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers, compared with 25% of Independents and 17% of Democrats (!), according to PRRI. Christian nationalist views are more prevalent in Southern and Midwestern states, where there is also a larger proportion of Republican elected officials in state legislatures.

Rep. Ilhan Omar loudly heckled Trump as he made a number of divisive comments about Somali immigrants during the State of the Union address. Omar could be heard calling Trump a liar as the president said he would ignite a “war on fraud” he pinned on the Somali immigrant community. When Trump said, “When it comes to the corruption that is plundering America, there has been no more stunning example than Minnesota—where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. The Somali pirates who ransack Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA.” The comments sparked an outburst from Omar, who was heard calling Trump a liar as she shouted back in the chamber. You fat old motherfucker, you are the living embodiment of bribery, corruption and lawlessness.

In a filing Tuesday, SECDRUNK Kegstand is appealing an order barring punishment for Sen. Mark Kelly after a video in which Kelly and other Democrats pushed for service members to reject unlawful orders.the Defense Department said it was appealing an earlier ruling from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halting the Pentagon’s efforts to censure Kelly and lower his retirement rank to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Kelly shot back at Tuesday’s move by the Pentagon on the social platform X, saying that “these guys don’t know when to quit. A federal judge told Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth that they violated my constitutional rights and chilled the free speech of millions of retired veterans. There is only one reason to appeal that ruling: to keep trampling on the free speech rights of retired veterans and silence dissent. I went to war to defend Americans’ constitutional rights and I won’t back down from this fight, no matter how far they want to take it.”

A federal judge called out Maladministration II in a new court order on Tuesday over a claim it made about someone detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Harmanjot Singh was arrested by ICE officers in December during a routine immigration check-up. He has since filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order preventing his deportation from the U.S., which the federal court in the Western District of Louisiana denied on Tuesday. Buried in the order was a footnote that called out the administration’s sloppiness in the case, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported. “The Respondents did attach a document to their Response purporting to show minor convictions for marijuana possession in 2009. The petitioner was four years old at the time, and the Respondent indicated that the document was supplied by ICE and likely presumed to relate to the Petitioner because the individual had the same name, despite differences in birthdate, birthplace, parents’ names and immigration status. This sloppiness further validates the court’s concerns about the procedures utilized by the Respondents depriving people present in the United States of their liberty.”

Finally, Tom Morello will reunite with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on their upcoming “Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour.” The Rage Against the Machine guitarist will join Bruce and the E Street Band on every tour date, sitting in for several songs each night Morello previously toured as a guest member of The E Street Band from 2012-2015, and has also collaborated with Springsteen in the studio, appearing on Wrecking Ball and High Hopes, while Springsteen returned the favor on Morello’s solo album The Atlas Underground Fire. Most recently, the two teamed up last month for the “Defend Minnesota: A Concert of Solidarity and Resistance.” Springsteen has framed his “Land of Hope & Dreams Tour” as a musical rebuke of the Trump administration. The first leg, which launched in Europe in 2025, featured some of the musician’s most politically-charged material, including “Murder Incorporated,” “Youngstown,” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” alongside impassioned onstage speeches about the state of American democracy. “After Bruce joined me last month in Minneapolis for our ‘Defend Minnesota’ charity concert, I was reminded how important our platform is, and how crucial the resistance work is that our music can do together at this dangerous historical juncture,” stated Morello.

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.” - Abraham Lincoln

Photo: KarenRN

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