I take it Trump made an absolute, colossal ass of himself in front of the United Nations today. I didn’t watch, although I hope there’s a transcript. This is from the New York Times:
Boasting about his own record and at one point questioning whether the U.N. served a purpose, Mr. Trump sought to portray himself as the only leader who could solve the world’s problems. “I’m really good at this stuff,” he said. “Your countries are going to hell.”
As the General Assembly convened on its 80th anniversary with wars raging in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, Mr. Trump also claimed that he had resolved conflicts around the world while the U.N. had done nothing. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them,” Mr. Trump said.
But he also frequently veered off script.
The mess above was scripted?
He warned darkly that a “double-headed monster” of illegal migration and a shift to renewable energy, and called climate change the “greatest con job” ever perpetrated on the world. He accused environmentalists of wanting to “kill all the cows,” personally insulted the Muslim mayor of London and falsely claimed that Muslims in the West are planning to institute Shariah law.
While taking credit for ending conflicts between Israel and Iran, Cambodia and Thailand, and Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mr. Trump again blamed his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden, for Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine, a frozen war that has proved intractable.
Here’s the personal insult to the Mayor of London:
“I look at London where you have a terrible mayor, a terrible, terrible mayor,” the president said. “It’s been so changed, so changed. Now they want to go to Shariah law, but you’re in a different country; you can’t do that.”
And on and on. I’ll wait for a transcript. I’m sure there’s a video, but I won’t be watching it. He might as well have been wearing a T-shirt saying “I’m an ignorant pile of shit.”
Update — just saw this. OMG.
Trump literally uses his UN Speech to slam the UN for not hiring him years ago to do renovations of the UN. I’m serious. This is the moron pretending to be President
— Dean Obeidallah (@deanobeidallah.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 11:06 AM
And then, of course, yesterday the guy who told us to drink bleach to get rid of Covid is telling pregnant women to not take Tylenol because it gives their babies autism, a totally unproven claim from Brain Worm Man. Even women with fevers should just “tough it out,” he says. Fever during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, has been linked to serious birth defects such as spina bifida and can also cause miscarriages. But, hey, autism, right? WHO and the EU have stepped up and said Trump is wrong, don’t listen to him. I’m wondering if the Tylenol company will sue. See also Trump Tells Pregnant Women to ‘Fight Like Hell’ Not to Take Tylenol at The Atlantic.
Speaking of The Atlantic, David Frum has an interesting proposal in Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time. Trump is frantically trying to consolidate as much power as he can as fast as he can, Frum says, before his public support gets sucked into a black hole. I’m not sure Trump is actually aware of how unpopular he’s becoming, but the people around him may be noticing.
The issue is this: Trump is surrounded and supported by two kinds of people. Some of them are True Believers who really think he’s a god-king. And the others are opportunists who got on the golden escalator purely to cash in. And, Frum says, it may be just a matter of time before the opportunities start to bail.
“In the United States, such people now have to make a difficult calculation: Do the present benefits of submitting to Trump’s will outweigh the future hazards?” Frum writes. In particular, Frum addresses Pam Bondi:
As Bondi makes her daily decisions about whether to abuse her powers to please Trump, she has to begin with one big political assessment: Will Trump ultimately retain the power to reward and punish her? It’s not just about keeping her present job. On the one hand, people in Trump’s favor can make a lot of money from their proximity to power. On the other, Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, served 19 months in prison for his crimes during Watergate. If Trump’s hold on power loosens, Bondi could share Mitchell’s fate.
I’m guessing Bondi will go down with the ship, so to speak. She seems to me to be so corrupted that corruption is all she’s got. But Frum isn’t the only person I’ve seen pairing John Mitchell and Bondi in the same sentence lately. It’s on people’s minds. It might be on her mind. Or not. I’m not holding my breath waiting for someone in the Cabinet to break with the boss, but at some point some congressional Republicans may see a brighter future if they create some distance from Trump. The question is, how long is that going to take?
And then there’s the looming budget shutdown. I see that Trump canceled a meeting with Schumer and Jeffries to discuss it. The Dems want to keep pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans and reverse the Medicaid cuts in the Big Ugly Bill, among other things, and I appreciate that. Still, this is risky business. I’m going to defer to Marcy Wheeler on this one.
One more thing — I don’t often link to my Patheos religion column here, but some of you might like this one, especially if the names Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg ring any bells. The Beat Zen Movement: When Zen Became Cool.
The house of cards is collapsing. It's amazing to watch the earth beneath their feet turn to quicksand. Players are quickly changing their robes and trying to find another costume.
I saw a video of MTG openly admitting that Fox News was propaganda for their side. Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson have been speaking out against Trump, they know that the SS Republican Party is steering directly toward the iceberg. The base is utterly confused, and beginning to wake up from the Kool-Aid.
The really stupid fools – like Mike Johnson – are caught, not knowing what to do.
But many of the more nimble ones will utterly change sides. And try to scrub much of their history. In a year or two, we're all going to wonder what the h*ll happened? And a lot of it will be gone from the internet.
"Sharia Law" is so 2010
I will not believe that the hard-right right wing coalition is falling apart until I see "medicare for all" signs replacing Maga merch everywhere. The wingers drew 90k people to a propaganda rally in Glendale, Az this weekend and cheered hatred for everyone that does not sate their narcissism. The fat lady got bariatric surgery.
You're going to wait awhile for "Medicare for all" (which I think is coming).
It's enough for me, at this point, to see the fracturing among the right, the stadium emptying out as Trump spoke, the former allies speaking out against Trump and so on.
The 90K people were there primarily to honor their fallen hero. A huge chunk of them were revolted – to varying degrees – by turning a solemn occasion into a greed and hate fest.
I'm reminded of a passage from the Meyers-Briggs personality types. Two people – an "S" sensory type and an "N" intuitive type are riding in an airplane. The "N" looks out the window, and sees the destination airport below, and concludes "We're Home!". The "S" won't conclude this until the wheels have touched the ground, and the plane rolls to a stop. One isn't type isn't better than the other, it's just different ways of seeing the same situation.
Hmm, true. However, to continue the simile, I think the plane is in a holding pattern over DFW and the connecting flight is nowhere to be seen… the connecting flight being some kind of national detente with a consensus based on a non-toxic ideology structuring real public policy where the benefits are not limited to billionaires. The 90k that spent their 100-degree Sunday in traffic and at a stadium are still entirely devoted to the magic of maga and I do not see any set of ideas presented by, umm, the opposition party that will lead them to desire detente. A new nuttier and oranger leader will appear that they will drool over because hating a moron is not a political program.
The ideas from the opposition to counter the billionaires are going to take awhile to materialize.
The first thing is to demolish the opposition sufficiently to clear the public space so new things can form. Here's few data points:
– Trump is dying and is more unhinged with each day. Heather Cox Richardson noted that he's not really (capable of) holding high level meetings anymore.
– JD Vance is a weasel who lacks the gravitas and skill to be the mafia boss Trump is. Nobody is going to listen to him.
– The Epstein files are going to come out, and destroy a lot of people, especially Trump. Evangelicals are waking up. Left wing Christians like James Talerico (of Texas) are becoming bolder and outspoken.
– The Project 2025 platform is extremely unpopular. Unless the Dems prevail this budget cycle, enormous hikes in medical premiums are going to destroy the red base. That, plus Trump's tariffs are hurting his own base. Badly.
– A lot of Republicans are retiring. They – along w Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, MTG, and L Boebert can see the writing on the wall.
This means the Dems have a great chance at breaking the Rs monopoly in 2026. When this happens, the investigations will begin and so will resignations and eventual prison time.
And, I would argue, a Democratic president in 2028. That's when the ball will really get rolling. When we'll start to see a well articulatged rebuttal to rule by and for the rich.
https://neuburger.substack.com/p/weve-just-crowned-a-king-what-next
Yes, very good data points that are hard to disregard… perhaps in times of normal politics these might be prescient. I just live in a sh%t hole where the locals are not unlike the Taliban in warship of violence and disdain for secular facts. That is my daily grind and I do not see a reason for any hope of change,… only potential Tim McVeighs who hate "government" and relish their own righteousness. A "D" in any kind of power is just a challenge to wreck more things that make their enemy feel security.
https://balloon-juice.com/2025/09/25/what-if-it-all-works-out/
I'm really glad to see the "what if it all works out" video. To me, there is just abounding evidence that this is what's happening.
All the shadow material in this country's psyche is coming out and and is demanding to be dealt with. It is and should be making people sick. And we're not done yet.
Living in a red state sh$thole, I'm sure you see the internet as a lifeline to sanity. All of this social technology, including the ability for anyone to take pictures + movies and share them with millions, is part of what's accelerating the demise of fascism in the US. The truth cannot be hidden anymore. Ruth Ben-Ghiat pointed out that the whole life and death cycle of fascism is compressed in the US. What took decades in other countries is happening in years or months.
I don't know. I've been burned so many times from believing online hopium/copium. I know I've been living in a bubble.
I saw this yesterday:
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2025/09/consultants-are-killing-democratic.html?utm_source=heymistermix.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pulling-punches-and-pivoting
The mad King.
This is how empires end.
The fool thinks he "has the cards". Meanwhile the entire world is pulling away from the US, and China appears to be "winning" on so many fronts.
"He accused environmentalists of wanting to “kill all the cows,”
Of course he has a personal stake in that; they're where his hamberders come from.
Another week of our fearless leader displaying his powers of infallibility, even to the United Nations. Too bad these powers do not extend to pronunciation of the active ingredient of a common pain killer. Somehow, he managed a triple-fail on acetaminophen. His type of political correctness is only guaranteed accurate to words under ten letters, and number facts to single digits. That entitled him to his infallibility discount of 900 to 800%. Fearless leader continues to play with a shorter and shorter deck. Still well regarded by the true believers of course. Nothing is daft to them.
"Somehow, he managed a triple-fail on acetaminophen"
Yes and our side really said nothing about that. They don't understand political opportunism, they should have been out immediately saying: don't take medical advise about the dangers of acetaminophen from a man who can't pronounce acetaminophen. This country is full of stupid people but they do respond to mockery, our side needs to understand that and put it into practice.
He didn't just stumble over acetaminophen. He got measles and mumps on the MMR vaccine, but paused, clearly stumped, over how to pronounce rubella. In talking about the new guidance on use of acetaminophen during pregnancy there was another pause at a word (contraindicated perhaps?) that he glossed as "not good".
IDK what may be happening with Presidential Pardons. You and I would get the pardons before breaking the law, but anyone with a pardon can only and at worst, be fired. Trump can't threaten to withhold a pardon for disloyalty. Anyone with a pardon has no incentive not to tell the truth later on. In fact, I don't think a pardon can apply to perjury committed in the future.
At the moment, the orgy of illegality is like a party at Epstein's island. Everyone is doing it and it feels fantastic. Later, consideration of issues like, 'What if she talks?' surface in your mind. Possible consequences are not that far off, Investigations by the House can start in 18 months if Democrats win the majority. Referrals to a real DOJ with evidence and transcripts in 2029. But the realization that you need a get-out-of-jail card will hit, maybe before the 2026 election if polls show the House is lost. The possible deluge of requests for pardons from Trump will remind him that he's at the helm of a ship that all the rats think is sinking. This may inspire benevolence from Trump, gratitude for the crimes they committed in Trump's name at his instruction. Or he may see it as a mob boss who sees a lineup of potential snitches who should be silenced.
It's true and appropriate to observe that Trump is greedy and vindictive, But he's obsessed with how history will remember him. I think that ship has sailed, but Trump will not accept that he presided over, caused, and owns the disaster we're seeing, and will get worse. So Trump will try to cling to power as the only way of controlling the narrative in the future. By future, I mean beyond 2029.
I'm not certain how "stuff" will play out but the House That Trump Built is none too stable. If FL they build to withstand high winds – in CA, earthquakes. When a real DOJ starts asking questions, things will come apart at the seams.
This may inspire benevolence from Trump, gratitude for the crimes they committed in Trump's name at his instruction.
Are you feeling all right?
It was snark. The people who have committed crimes for Trump did so with enthusiasm, reveling in the fun of rape and plunder. Embedded in the request for a pardon, is the suggestion that the reign of Trump is nearing an end. That Trump's orcs fear accountability, means Trump will face accountability.
Ginsberg and Kerouac beat quite a path, no pun intended. Later day American authors of note such as Charles Bukowski and Hunter Thompson are seen by some to continue on that path along with authors concerned with the environment and all life forms dependent upon it. Yes, even very simple and often ignored ones, some human but mostly life forms with quite a longer history on this planet than us.
Our link to all life is quite important and human's relationship and harmony with it is an essential part of human life. This relationship was part of the American culture before "Western Civilization" made its "discovery" of this part of the earth with its exiting human inhabitants. This supposed civilization did consider the existing human inhabitants as having souls, but defective ones in need of conversion at best. As for all the rest of the life forms, they had even less respect except for what could be exploited. They failed to notice the existing inhabitants saw souls of importance in much of the life around them also, and souls with equal if not greater importance that theirs. Most forgot this part of human civilization which lived on in Zen and even in some Christian Theology in Western Civilization at one point in time. A lot of infectious diseases made the trip to the "new world" but not these ideas. They had to be rediscovered in America from Eastern Civilizations. Only later did some of us find similar ideas had been here all along in the native inhabitants. Others still think only some elite humans of the right religious affiliation have souls of value. They may even see other "alien" humans as poison to their own survival. They exterminate them in boats off of Venezuela as bad souls one must infer.
Anyway, I did and still do appreciate this branch of American authors, and the giant moral holes they saw in the United States in their day. They still exist and may be getting larger. Then the United States was known then as a country obsessed with sex and strange religions. Now it seems more controlled by perverted sex and strange and immoral religions. Not a good trend line.
So, to some fine writing of this day. Credit the editorial staff of the NYT.
Ah yes, "the illusion of dominance" get created when a harmony with all life forms is needed.
He may have intended to say "double-headed monster," but I'm pretty sure I heard him say "double-tailed monster." That's an even more terrifying kind of monster, eh?
How many of these opportunists haven't yet committed crimes for Trump?
People on our side keep pointing out the very many things that the whole lot of them in the administration are doing that clearly exceed their legal authority. Official immunity only protects govt officials from civil and criminal responsibility for the results of their acts insofar as those acts did not exceed their legal authority. How many people have died as the result of actions that exceeded these folk's legal authority?
Frum clearly does not want to take the logic here out to its inescapable conclusion, but you can bet these opportunists have already thought this through. Trump has to remain president forever or the whole lot of them will be up on murder charges. It's too late for them to bail.
Well today is the 25th and that damn Rapture didn't happen apparently, all the assholes are still here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5BhicYduC8&list=RDj5BhicYduC8&start_radio=1
New blues hit – His Escalator Don't Go Up No More. What is the story behind this "malfunction"?
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