January 6, 2026

This is absolutely insane stuff from the official White House website.

It's a certifiably bonkers alternative-facts "narrative" about January 6th which repeats the lies about the "stolen election," blames Capitol Police for the violence and chastises Mike Pence for not overturning the results, and insists Ashli Babbitt was "murdered."

https://x.com/atrupar/status/2008610375491874886

See for yourself, if you must:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/

May these traitorous bastards burn in hell for what they've done to our country.

December 10, 2025

Perhaps we should tap the brakes on wanting to label Trump with any specific age-related diagnosis?

Besides the fact that most of us are not mental health or neurological health experts, I also fear that the desire to diagnose Trump with any specific age related neurocognitive condition (whether it be Alzheimer's or any other dementia related condition) runs the risk of letting the man off too easy for what constitutes a lifetime of dysfunctional behavior on his part in the private and public spheres.

To be fair, Trump is a 79 year old man and like any person of that age is not immune from suffering from at least a certain degree of decline when it comes to speech, motor movements and energy levels. To be fully fair, I said the same thing about President Biden when criticisms were launched against him--he was an old man who talked slower and walked slower than he used to. On the other hand, I honestly believe there was (and still is) no decline in President Biden's basic mental acuity or ability to perform his duties in office, and I still feel that--subsequent prostate cancer diagnosis notwithstanding--there was no reason that he needed to step aside (as he was basically forced by others to do.)

When you heard a speech by President Biden, there was no evidence whatsoever that he lacked the intelligence and the wit behind the words being delivered, no matter how much slower he talked or walked.

But Trump, on the other hand, has never been particularly intelligent, witty, or talented. He has never been an eloquent orator or communicator by any means. As long as he has been in the public sphere, he has demonstrated all the traits of a malignant narcissistic personality intent on both raising himself up and demonizing others around him as much as possible.

His reputation in business was not earned through any talent on his part but rather in good thanks to his father and those around him, until it was cemented onto him.

As President, there has never been a Golden Age of Trump (not counting his White House redecoration efforts.) He has never proposed any significant policy or campaign to better the lives of the people he governs (tax cuts to the rich are not policy). In his first term in office, he inherited a rising economy from President Obama and basically surfed on it until he hit the brick wall that was COVID, and all things then fell apart for him. His worst impulses during the first term were kept in check at times by guardrails--people who had served in the public sphere for years and knew proper behavior and etiquette. But when he lost it all in November 2020, those guardrails got pushed aside as he attempted to overturn his electoral loss and encouraged violent behavior from his base, ultimately resulting at the scene at the Capitol on January 6th.

In his second term, those guardrails have been completely purged and jettisoned, and he is now surrounded only by loyalists who encourage his worst impulses. His cruelty is his own; while he lacks the intellectual tools or wherewithal to create specific policy implementations, he has always been willing to designate that nitty-gritty to others (whether it be Elon Musk, Stephen Miller or other subordinates.) This does not mean he is those persons' puppet or that he does not know or care about what they are doing in his name; rather, they are willing partners with each other in their cruelty on the American people.

At no time has he ever actually had an interest in serving the public as President in terms of how those duties have traditionally been seen in this democratic country; rather, to him the Presidency is simply an excuse for self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment in the way that foreign despots and autocrats have used their power.

So what we see now is by no means a diminished or incapacitated Trump, but rather the rawest version of the man that he has always been, only with signs of expected age-related decline for a person of his age.

This is not to say that he does not, in fact, have Alzheimer's or some other sort of age-related neurological dementia. This is not to say that he might not drop dead within months.

Both of those things are still very much in the realm of possibility.

It's also very much in the realm of possibility that there's been very little actual decline in Trump at all, and all this is just the manifestation of a guardrail-less, uncensored Trump in the purest (and stupidest) of forms.

But until those things are actually known to be true--and we don't know those to be true--all we know to be dealing with is simply Trump being Trump; that is, a stupid, narcissistic, malicious, vindictive man hellbent on power and glory for himself.

And that certainly is bad enough a situation for us and the immediate future and survival of our country.

December 8, 2025

BREAKING NEWS: Trump rescinds Cuellar clemency, citing "totally illegal" pardon

Angry at what he perceived to be insufficient gratitude, President Donald Trump announced today he is now rescinding his own pardon he awarded Congressman Henry Cuellar, with specific instructions that the Texas Democrat “immediately be remanded to the custody of the Department of Justice, where he will be returned to his prison and serve out the remainder of his sentence.”

In March 2024, Cuellar was indicted on federal charges of money laundering, bribery and conspiracy, but was granted a pardon by Trump last week; as of the time of his pardon, Cuellar had not yet been convicted, sentenced or even gone to trial on those charges.

Cuellar did express gratitude for Trump’s pardon but then announced he would be running for re-election as a Democrat as opposed to switching parties, a move that infuriated the President and caused him to take the unprecedented move of revoking what was previously deemed to be a “full and unconditional pardon” of Cuellar.

As grounds for the revocation, Trump cited his alleged use of the so-called Autopen on Cuellar’s pardon document as reason to declare it null and void.

“Maybe if Representative Cellular had been lucky enough to have been pardoned under Sleepy Joe Biden, who loved to use the Autopen so, so much, maybe things would have been different for him,” Trump told reporters gathered at the Oval Office earlier today. “Unfortunately for him, he’s dealing with a different President, a President who knows that any document that uses the Autopen has no effect whatsoever.”

Trump has previously decried his predecessor’s use of Autopen on various documents and has even threatened to declare all of President Joe Biden’s actions null and void on such grounds, alleging that there was no proof that the former President had knowingly signed any such documents while in office.

“Try enforcing a mortgage or a car loan with anything other than your own in-person signature,” Trump continued. “You can’t do it. It can’t be done. Everyone knows that for a document to be fully legal, it has to be signed with your own hand and with an actual pen or thick sharpie marker. Or a quill, which many of our founding fathers used. Quills. They don’t teach that to our children in schools anymore, that our founding fathers used to write with quills. Not pens, but quills. Which people don’t realize are actually just big feathers. I guess quills aren’t just woke or politically correct enough these days. But that’s going to change now, believe me. We’re all going to be using quills again soon.”

“I’ll tell you this, though,” Trump added. “If I knew Representative Cellar was going to do the right thing and immediately express his undevoted loyalty to Trump, instead of that Autopen I would have used that real pen to sign his pardon. Or a quill, even.”

The President then proceeded to justify to reporters his revocation of Cuellar’s pardon on other grounds, including his own mental awareness of the pardon.

“I’m sure you all saw me pictures of me napping during that recent Cabinet meeting,” Trump said. “And it was a wonderful nap. I’d even say it was the perfect nap. But maybe that’s when I decided to pardon Representative Cooler. When I was sleeping. It was a sleep pardon.”

“But everyone knows you can’t enforce a sleep pardon,” Trump continued to explain. “Because think of it—everyone sleeps. So technically, anyone could attempt to pardon anyone in their sleep, and that would mean chaos. Only I can pardon people. That’s not just me who says that. It’s in the rule book. You can look it up. It says right here that sleep pardons are just not as good as real pardons.”

The President then proceeded to hold up what appeared to be a black planning notebook with the words “Presidential Rules of Pardoning People” crudely written on masking tape affixed to its cover and waived it around in front of the media.

Meanwhile, Representative Cuellar appeared fully resigned to his fate and had reportedly already packed his bags for an undetermined prison sentence at an unspecified location.

“Am I disappointed?” Cuellar asked. “Certainly, I am. But for an ever-brief moment, I learned the one thing a person needed to gain the respect of Donald Trump, and that one thing was to be charged with multiple felonies. And at least I’ll have that, I suppose.”

DETAILS AT ELEVEN.

November 4, 2025

To answer Orrex's daily question:

October 10, 2025

BREAKING NEWS: White House designates Bigfoot as a domestic terrorist organization

Citing violence and civil unrest in cities such as Portland and Chicago, the Trump administration designated the legendary cryptid creature Bigfoot—also known as Sasquatch—as the “number one domestic terrorism threat today for the American people.”

The decision was announced at a joint press conference this morning attended by Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and several conservative social media influencers.

“Let there be no mistake about it,” Attorney General Bondi said. “These Bigfoot, er, Bigfeet?—and honestly, we haven’t yet decided on the proper nomenclature—that roam the forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest are the sole reason that cities like Portland are the lawless hellscapes that you see on the news.”

“You may think Bigfoot are shy, harmless and evasive creatures that merely wish to be left alone in nature,” Secretary Noem added. “That is anything but the truth. These are vicious, bloodthirsty monsters that hate traditional American values and will tear your head off the very moment they see you.”

Less clear was how the purported existence of Bigfoot had any impact whatsoever on crime rates or civil unrest, but FBI Director Patel offered his own personal theory.

“For years, the people of Portland have lived with tales of Bigfoot lurking high in the hills above their city,” Patel explained. “That type of daily psychological terror the public has been subjected to has had an undeniable impact on the collective psyche, causing many people to snap and act out in the most violent and unlawful of ways.”

The administration officials provided testimonials from people who claim to have been victims of Bigfoot.

“I have been attacked by Bigfoot on a near daily basis,” conservative blogger Andy Ngo told the gathered media. “There isn’t a morning where I haven’t stepped outside my door only to see those beady little eyes staring right back at me, waiting to chase me, maul me, dox me, try to devour me and otherwise have its way with me. All simply because I have dared to speak out about the growing evils of socialism in America.”

Besides the Sasquatch creatures themselves, the Trump administration also seeks to target those who in their words “harbor support or sympathy for the Bigfoot population in America, or who hold views similar to that of Bigfoot.”

“Those who are Bigfoot-oriented in this country, take note,” Bondi warned. “This includes hikers. Naturalists. Anyone over 6 foot 6. Men with unruly back hair. Subaru Outback drivers. Harry and the Hendersons star John Lithgow. Tread very carefully, because the Department of Justice will be watching you every single step you make.”

Administration officials also stated that Bigfoot’s reach extended far beyond Portland and the Pacific Northwest.

“We have a strong belief that much of the violence you see in Chicago can be attributed to the Big Muddy Monster lurking in Illinois,” Patel said. “The Skunk Ape of the Florida Everglades, the Ohio Grassman, Momo the Monster…there isn’t a square mile left in this beautiful country that isn’t threatened by the hairy reach of these terrifying, abominable creatures.”

Even more concerning, officials claimed, was that Bigfoot may not simply be a domestic phenomenon but rather tied to a larger, global organization.

“Strong evidence suggests that Bigfoot may be connected to a group of apelike creatures originating out of Central Asia known as The Yeti,” Noem stated. “Not to be confused with the camping supply company, of course. Which is lovely.”

In the meantime, Trump officials vowed to crack down on all Bigfoot-related activities and did not rule out expanding its efforts to other well-known cryptids.

“The Jersey Devil, El Chupacabra, Mothmen, the Flatwoods Monster, Big Goose—your day of reckoning is coming, too,” Bondi warned. “Any shadowy creature of the dark that dares to strike fear into the hearts of ordinary God-loving Americans will be defeated at all possible costs. For this is the very reason that the Department of Justice still exists in this country today.”

DETAILS AT ELEVEN.

October 6, 2025

It's a bit of a miracle that the fallout from the Kent State massacre wasn't bigger

Yes, the death toll was only four people--and we seem to have mass shootings with that type of casualty count at least every month these days--but it was four unarmed protesters. Shot dead by members of the military.

While I know there was instant reaction during the time, I'm a bit surprised it wasn't more significant and didn't lead to more escalating civil unrest. Consider that we all learned that one of the precipitating events of the American Revolution was the 1770 Boston Massacre, which had a death toll of 5.

For anyone who was around at the time, is there any explanation how public reaction to the shootings was more or less contained to a peaceful one?

I was not alive when the Kent State massacre took place. I do remember watching the Vietnam documentary by Ken Burns a few years back and sitting in stunned silence as they described the events that occurred, followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Ohio" playing over the end credits.

I worry we are working ourselves up to another similar deadly confrontation in Chicago, Portland or some other location, and I fear the fallout to that will somehow be much, much worse.

September 10, 2025

I wrote this piece for DU back in May 2024 while President Biden was still in office.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218949261

It was an alternate history fiction piece, imagining what the global situation in 2024 would have been like if Trump had been elected to a second term back in 2020.

Mostly it dealt with the impact on Ukraine--Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine did take place as it did in 2022. Under that scenario, Trump had attempted to negotiate a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that involved Ukraine ceding large parts of its territory in exchange for an end in violence; however, Russia soon ignored the ceasefire and moved into more Ukrainian land.

But I mentioned other things, too.

Sporadic attacks by Russia into NATO countries like Poland.

Deputization of the National Guard into US cities.

Talk of a third Trump term in office.

Don't ask me for the next set of Powerball numbers, however, because I won't be able to tell you.

The thing about predicting the future is that it's actually rather easy...when the future is very predictable.

August 21, 2025

BREAKING NEWS: Russia agrees to direct bilateral talks with former Ukrainian leader Yanukovych

In what the White House has hailed as a “major breakthrough” in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced he has agreed to direct, one-on-one negotiations with the individual who they believe to be Ukraine’s “true and legitimate sovereign leader.”

That individual happens to be none other Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian President who left office in 2014 and fled to Russia after massive protests against him erupted throughout the country due to claims of his rampant corruption and subservience to Moscow’s heavy influence.

The Kremlin all but ruled out any chance that Putin would engage in any direct talks with Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Zelenskyy is the fruit of the poisonous tree,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement issued to the press. “He is the bastard child of Western powers who eleven years ago engaged in an illegal coup of Ukraine’s last true leadership and installed their own puppet to act in accordance with their own whims and desires.”

Zelenskyy was democratically elected Ukraine’s president in 2019, five years after the events of what has commonly been referred to as the Maidan Revolution took place. He succeeded Petro Poroshenko, who came to office in May 2014 in elections that were likewise deemed fair and democratic by international observers.

Yanukovych himself was elected in 2010, but soon fell into disfavor with the Ukrainian people after allegations of corruption swirled. During his time in office it is believed he and his allies may have pocketed up to $37 billion from the nation’s treasury.

In 2013, Yanukovych spurned a proposed trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer relations with Russia. Large protests against Yanukovych in Kyiv’s Independence Square erupted as a result. The protests were initially peaceful, but Yanukovych ultimately sought to crack down on the movement with his Berkut special police force.

Undeterred by Yanukovych’s violent crackdown, the protests continued through February 2014. A night of sniper shootings left over 100 people dead on the square, all while Yanukovych was already reportedly packing up his belongings at his luxurious suburban Kyiv estate. Yanukovych left Kyiv by helicopter the night of February 22, 2014, ultimately landing in Russia where the Kremlin had granted him asylum.

He has not left Russia or returned to Ukraine since.

Four days after Yanukovych abdicated power, Russian military under secret cover seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, later annexing it as its own territory. Shortly thereafter, separatist forces in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions—heavily supplemented and supported by the Russian military—began an armed conflict against the Ukrainian government. That conflict in Ukraine’s eastern regions simmered all the way up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Yanukovych—now residing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don—was asked to comment on the developments and whether he’d agree to Moscow’s offer.

“Sure, why not?” Yanukovych reportedly said. “It is not like I have much else going on at the moment. It will probably be a lot of fun, to be honest.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration—fresh off a summit with Putin in Alaska as well as a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington—has enthusiastically viewed Putin’s offer to meet with Yanukovych as a positive step towards ending the years-long conflict.

“It’s a great thing, a wonderful, beautiful thing,” President Donald Trump said to a group of gathered reporters. “I honestly don’t care who Putin meets with, so long as it stops this terrible, horrible war that was started by Biden and Zelenskyy, and it would never have ever started if I were President. I can tell you that now.”

DETAILS AT ELEVEN.

August 15, 2025

Two different presidents, two very different stories about their experiences with the homeless

First, here's the current guy:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/10/trump-homeless-golf-course-washington-dc

And then there's the guy we were lucky enough to have in office for four years (the story is from 2018):

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/17/594421324/joe-biden-and-a-homeless-veteran-have-a-very-human-moment





Could the difference in basic, decent humanity between these two men be any greater? Could the difference between what is right and what is wrong be any more clear?

Last night, Donald Trump used the FBI--the FBI!--to evict homeless people living in the streets.

Both of these men profess to be Christian. One certainly seems to take his faith to heart. The other one most definitely does not.

But maybe Donald Trump was out golfing the Sunday where they talked about the Good Samaritan?

July 26, 2025

I've had 8 Presidents during my lifetime, 4 of them Democrats.

Each of the 4 Democrats has a specific attribute I admired about them.

I was too young to remember Carter but my dad absolutely loved him. I found him to be the most decent and honest President of my lifetime (and possibly even in our history.)

Clinton had some flaws both politically and personally but I am absolutely fascinated by him. He is brilliant, has a magical way of connecting with people and has this ability to explain complex topics in a simple, straightforward way like no other. He was the best pure politician of my lifetime and probably my favorite president of my lifetime.

Obama was probably objectively the “best” president of my lifetime. He had a level of gravitas and calm leadership that rose above all others, and history will certainly remember him the most.

Biden was probably the most personal and human president of my lifetime. He had a natural empathy to him above all others which was exactly what we needed coming out of the twin horrors of Covid and Trump. He’ll also be considered one of the best one-term presidents in history when all is said and done.

As for the rest…

Bush Sr. was probably the “least worst.” Mainly because there was only 4 years of him. And he signed the ADA into law, which was cool.

Reagan and Bush Jr. were both terrible shit shows as President. The best I could say about them is at least they had some basic elemental understanding as how to act as President and not be so completely blind as to their elected role.

Then there’s Trump. I won’t say more because words cannot accurately describe the horror of the man as President.