Trump, 79, appears to have forgotten that he was president on Jan 6, 2021
— J. Emory Parker ???? (@jaspar.bsky.social) October 12, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Trump seems to be struggling with linear time. It’s dementia, I tell you.
A lot has happened the last couple of days. They indicted Letitia James, as expected. See The Justice Department’s Dangerously Weak Case Against Letitia James by Molly Roberts at Lawfare. This is the most detailed explanation of what’s going on with the DoJ and James I’ve seen. The indictment alleges that James violated a mortgage rider on a property she purchased in Virginia. But per Molly Roberts the rider doesn’t appear to apply to her actual mortgage.
See also Kilmar Abrego’s court victory could end Trump’s reign of retaliation by Nick Akerman at The Hill. A Memphis federal district court judge has decided that — in response to Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss for vindictive and selective prosecution — he is entitled to discovery and an evidentiary court hearing. And this could have an impact on Trump’s vindictive cases against Comey, James, and everyone else on his list he hasn’t gotten to yet.
Then after days of threatening the wholesale firing of federal employees in response to the shutdown — which never made any sense, but whatever — the Regime really truly started laying people off. No fooling this time. There was a mass firing of CDC employees. And then this morning the headlines are telling us that a lot of the people just fired have been re-hired already. Just like like last spring, when Elon Musk and his Lost Boys were merrily decimating government agencies they knew nothing about. Oh, you mean those people we fired actually did essential things? Who knew?
A few days ago the White House was saying that federal workers wouldn’t get back pay for days they didn’t work during the shutdown. That went over so badly even Republicans in Congress spoke out against it. So if they do fire people and claim “Democrats are making us do this,” will that work any better? Especially when it looks just like what they did very openly last spring, when there was no shutdown? The Regime is now saying a lot of workers got the “you’re fired” email by mistake, because of a “coding error.” It still looks like incompetence.
And I take it that Trump realized not paying the troops was not working for them, and Trump called for paying the troops. But Mike Johnson still isn’t calling the House back, to protect Trump from release of the Epstein files.
On to the military occupation of Portland and Chicago. Here’s the latest from war-ravaged Portland:
Oh, the humanity.
In Chicago, about three days ago a federal judge put a temporary restraining order on bringing troops into Illinois. Then yesterday a federal appeals court said the Trump administration cannot deploy the National Guard in Illinois. The administration can federalize the Guard, and the Guard already in Illinois don’t have to go home. But they cannot be deployed. So what did those Texas Guard troops do in Chicago today? AI tells me the U.S. Northern Command confirmed they are “conducting planning and training” but not operations. Your tax dollars not at work.
In repones to all this, Trump says he is “considering” invoking the Insurrection Act.” Courts could block that also, I understand.
I often reflect on how fortunate we are that 47 is 79 and decrepit, with one foot in the grave, instead of 59 and vigorous. Most countries take decades to get rid of a dictator. Depending on how hard we work, we could catch some good breaks, we need them.
When Trump dies, I predict a resurrection of a song from 'The Wizard of Oz' blasted over the airwaves and boom-boxes and setting share records on social media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPIdRJlzERo
The dynamic, as I see it, has three major forces in play. First is public opinion, most critically in elections. (But you can't understate the importance of nonviolent demonstrations of opposition, supported by fact,) Second is the military – this is raw force, which may be exerted or withheld on behalf of or in opposition to a leader who exerts power in violation of the Constitution. Last is the Judiciary (state and federal.) Some legally sound decisions have kept the Republic alive this long – other foul decisions have done drastic injury to the body politic.
Currently, the administration has determined that there are geographically defined areas where opposition to the regime can exert sufficient political force to cost Trump the House in a year. That would empower Democrats to conduct investigations which expose facts about the criminality of the Trump regime. IMO, they know that if they lose the House, everything is at risk. But because cities are fixed targets, Trump wants to take control of LA, NYC, Chicago, Portland, and other locations with the temerity to defy Trump and organize to take the House. The panic is so severe that Trump is openly calling for gerrymandering and every form of election-rigging he can get away with. Even this may not be enough, so fantasies of crime are the excuse to send National Guard troops into specific locations of political resistance.
A major question is what the courts will allow. Trump is losing at the federal and federal appellate levels. IMO, Trump is not confident the USSC will sustain a belief that imaginary insurrections justify putting soldiers out to intimidate residents by odd coincidence, where political opposition is strongest. My guess is that Trump wants to know what the courts will allow and under what circumstances. (When Trump tried the Muslim Ban in Jan 2017, the courts struck it down repeatedly – a working version, the third attempt, was issued in September, 2017.) Trump needs a working formula to use troops to swing the election in a year.
In an attempt to refute accusations of an outright coup, Trump has suggested he will follow rulings by the USSC but reserves the authority to ignore lower federal courts. (Which is unconstitutional.) Trump will use this convoluted reasoning to completely ignore the courts by NOT appealing from an appellate court to the USSC if Trump thinks the USSC will sustain the lower court. I find it interesting that Trump is threatening to use the Insurrection Act, but not doing it. Has he been advised that, absent real violence against troops, the USSC won't recognize a guy in an inflatable frog costume to be an insurrection?
The legitimacy of the USSC is in question. It's not just the overt corruption, but bad rulings by the Supreme Court that are contradictions of the text and the clear intent of the Constitution, with centuries of precedent to guide the court, may doom the conservative majority. We can not leave a conservative, call it a confederate, majority in control of the USSC for decades to overturn just and Constitutional legislation that will be passed when the regime fails. Impeachment of judges for bad decisions is difficult, bordering on impossible. The size of the court is not fixed in the Constitution. A straight majority in Congress could expand the size of the court and confirm four new justices, castrating the conservative five by creating a majority of six justices who can read the Constitution and implement the post-Civil War version of the Constitution with liberty and justice for all.
Going back to the military, they are a wild card. IMO, there are far more senior officers committed to the Constitution than Trump suspects. Those officers are praying that the country will right itself in three years without military command having to refuse illegal orders, or worse, carry them out, doing lethal harm to unarmed US civilians. Trump wants the USSC to place the entire US military under his PERSONAL control to preserve his personal power. (There's not much of anything more clearly in violation of the intent of the founders.) If Trump had the political environment of Hitler or Stalin, he could have any general executed if suspected of personal disloyalty. There's no mechanism for that in the US military. Any senior officer has enough time in to retire on a pension, with his honor intact. That's the worst Trump can actually do to an officer in the military and it's gonna stink like elephant defication piled high in the hot sun if thousands of officers refuse illegal orders.
I don't think Trump has the cards to win. But I am betting on the integrity of the US citizen and US military officers. My apologies for being long-winded if anybody read this far.
Be as long as you like. 🙂
It's not just unconstitutional, like, "the President doesn't have the authority to impose taxes without Congressional authority." It's flat out illegal, like "the President can't punch you in the face." When a federal judge makes a ruling, that is the law. The President is supposed to see that the law is executed faithfully. Not obeying a lower court's decision or order is a perfect example of bad faith.
Right now, of course, Republicans say that the President certainly can punch you in the face, because the city and state won't arrest the President, and the Feds can't. So, yes, the President can punch you in the face, kick you in the groin, or shoot you on Fifth Avenue, because there is no legal authority that will tell him not to, or attempt to punish him for doing so.
That's why the Constitution demands the President see that the law is executed faithfully, and why it matters so much when he doesn't.
Or "Leticia" as he spelled it in his truthsocial "public announcement" (whoops, "private message").
As I pig, I am ashamed for my species when tRump along with his cohorts and enablers of shameless pigs literally take a dump on the world.
The world has some good news today. The hostages were released to Israel and about 2000 Palestinians were released. The disgusting news is that Trump took a victory lap (which is fine) and he dissed Obama and Biden while on the international stage. He also suggested Israel drop criminal charges against Bibi. Which is also out of bounds unless you have moved from King of the US to Emperor of the World.
There's sort of a ceasefire in place. Bibi is not making any sounds like he's open to Palestinian autonomy ever. So, yes, hostages were released and that's good. But there will be no peace in Gaza or Israel without a path to a two-state solution. Not short of genocide. If peace negotiations include Europe and the Middle East, Palestinians would be represented. If Trump pretends he will broker peace and he's functioning as Bibi's mouthpiece, there will be no peace, and nobody should be considered for any credit.
I'm not saying this will happen. I'm also not confident that anyeone will explain the significance to Trump. But it's enough to make one go, "Hmmmmm."
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/13/world/madagascar-president-leaves-country-gen-z-protests-intl
1/6 was an attempted insurrection. It might now need to be differentiated from what is now being called insurrections which are not even close. They abuse the word the way abuse was abused, overusing it to the point of meaningless. We now need another word for what was once abuse as it is watered down to impotence.
Spanish has advantages over English as a language, one of which is having adjectives follow the noun. It just modifies the word better. 1/6 was an insurrection at insurrection act power implementation level insurrection, yet that was avoided. The courts were supposed to get to the bottom of it and the Senate was errant in not convicting on the following impeachment. The ones behind the insurrection are as hidden today as are those who engaged in Epstein's pedophilia empire. So much to cover up, so little honesty and admission of what was really going on. The evidence lacking claims of FBI incitement the greatest indicator of lingering guilt and continuation of cover-up of the truth the perpetrators cannot handle.
Which is the biggest mess, the rubble heap in Gaza and the West Bank or the hidden reality behind the Epstein crimes and the insurrection of 1/6. So far, the clean-up crews for all of this are nowhere to be seen. To ignore and deny them will only allow them to fester and grow. Mistakes only value are in the learning of the real reasons for the error, not by fixing the blame where it does not belong. Those that made this messes need start cleaning them up not covering them up. It is their only hope of redemption.
Have faith that the cleanup is coming. Apex predators like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu won't be around forever. Secrets will be coming out. Gislaine Maxwell and Vladimir Putin have the goods on Trump.
I imagine Maxwell, sitting in her cushy Club Fed redoubt, is getting impatient about that pardon she tried to negotiate, and is thinking "it's time for another demonstration of my power over DJT".
The red hats are waking up. When their health insurance premiums skyrocket next year, the lefties who have been calling out the regime for decades will need to step aside for the newly awakened angry mob. All revolutions need a name, and "The Purple Revolution" seems to be the top contender at this time.
The Republican Party is in a hostage situation. Only a few of them have the courage right now to break with their leader. When Trump goes away, it will be up for grabs, a free for all, with MTG thinking why not her for President in 2028, among many others.
You hint at an opportunity that's being squandered. The 'insurrection' in Portland is being openly led by a guy in an inflatable frog costume with zero violence. There's great video of demonstratos being married on the site of protests, and other goofy nonviolent participants.. (The guy with bagpipes in a kilt on a unicycle.)
Now take the claims of an insurrection, violence, fires, boarded-up buildings… It's only the ICE facility that's boarded up. The rest of Portland is lovely. Contrast Portland – is it really IS – with a real insurrection, J6. There's video and headlines to describe the injuries to police, violent threats, gallows, and the narrow escape of Congress from the mob. Close with the pardons for ALL the insurrectionists, including the most violent on Trump's first day in office.
Insurrection? Let the GOP use the word.
AOC gets it: These people do this, because deep inside, they feel and know how small they are. From the comments: ICE = It's a Criminal Enterprise.