ITALIANS REJECT MELONI'S POWERGRAB ON THE JUDICIARY

 

This interested me because Trump celebrated Meloni's election as a sign of Italy's embracing of the far right.

Is Trump paying attention to what just happened in Italy and the referendum on giving Meloni more control over the judicial system?

Italians Reject Judicial Overhaul, Undermining Meloni 

Some 54 percent of voters spurned a government plan to change how jurists are supervised. It presented Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with her biggest domestic challenge since her election in 2022. 

AND THIS:

 "BREAKING: Italians REJECT their right-wing PM's powergrab in a referendum, a stunning revolt against a Trump ally everyone thought had iron-clad support.

In a referendum demanding PM Giorgia Meloni have more personal control of the judicial system she basically labeled as too woke, she lost with 54 percent of the vote, with an unexpectedly high turnout surging to 59 percent.

This is a truly historic and crushing political defeat, as it changes the entire political landscape -- a once untouchable leader may now lose her position in government.

This was not just a policy difference. It was a direct rejection of her leadership.

She lost badly in major cities. Rome voted 57 percent "No". Milan 54 percent. Naples delivered a devastating 71 percent rejection.

In Naples, judges and prosecutors celebrated in the streets, singing Bella Ciao, the anti fascist anthem. Protesters flooded Rome chanting resign, resign.

Meloni had framed this as an historic opportunity to change Italy. She warned of more negligent judges and criminals being freed. Voters didn’t buy it.

The backlash is immediate. Matteo Renzi called her a lame duck and said even her own followers will now start to doubt her. Elly Schlein said we will beat her in the next general election. Giuseppe Conte declared a new political season has begun.

Meloni aligned herself with Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Italy, and tied her agenda to fear and division. Italians rejected it outright.

Her grip on power is slipping. The myth of her invincibility is over. And now the opposition knows she can be beaten." --U.S. Democratic Socialists

TRUMP: VILE AND PREDICTABLY DERANGED

 

THANK YOU

 

To all of you who expressed your condolences on the passing of my beloved sister, Jo.

It's been a rough two weeks, and I appreciate your kind words that eased the pain of losing her.

Your solicitude is very much appreciated.

Life and blogging will resume this week.

My best regards to you all,

S.K.

A True American Hero

 

Michael Jochum:

A True American Hero

There are moments when the measure of a man is revealed not in what he says, but in what he refuses to say… and there are other moments when the measure of another man is revealed by the vile, small, indecent things he cannot help but say. The death of Robert Mueller gives us both, in stark, painful contrast.

Robert Mueller spent more than fifty years in service to this country, quietly, methodically, without spectacle, without ego. A Marine who bled in Vietnam. A prosecutor who went after mob bosses and dictators. A public servant who stepped into the smoking wreckage of 9/11 just days into his tenure as FBI Director and helped reshape an agency to confront a new kind of global threat. This was not a man chasing headlines. This was a man carrying responsibility.

He was, by every credible account, exactly what this country claims to value: disciplined, principled, relentless in his pursuit of truth, and allergic to anything that smelled like self-promotion. They called him a “straight arrow,” and not as a cliché, but as a warning, because men like that don’t bend. They don’t perform. They don’t kneel to power. They do the work, and they let the work speak.

And when the moment came, when the country needed someone to look directly into the darkness of foreign interference, corruption, and a presidency entangled in both, Mueller did exactly what he had always done. He followed the facts. He built the case. Thirty-four indictments. Guilty pleas. A documented effort by a hostile foreign power to influence an American election. And perhaps most damning of all, a report that stopped just short of prosecution, not because the evidence wasn’t there, but because the guardrails of our system, those fragile, breakable things, failed to hold.

He did his job.

But he did it in a country that, at that moment, did not have the courage to finish it.

And that is the tragedy that now hangs over his legacy, not failure, but restraint. Not incompetence, but a system that lacked the backbone to act on what he uncovered. Mueller stood there, holding the truth in his hands, and too many people in power simply looked away.

So when I read Donald Trump’s reaction to Mueller’s death, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” I don’t feel shock anymore. I feel recognition. Because that sentence tells you everything you need to know about the difference between an American hero and an American zero.

A hero serves something larger than himself. A hero sacrifices, endures, and holds the line even when no one is watching. A hero carries the weight of duty with humility.

A zero lashes out. A zero mocks the dead. A zero measures every human interaction by grievance, ego, and personal loyalty. A zero cannot comprehend integrity, because integrity has never once been part of his internal vocabulary.

Mueller never responded to Trump’s insults when he was alive. Not once. He didn’t tweet. He didn’t rant. He didn’t perform outrage for the cameras. He did what men of substance do, he stayed focused on the mission, even as the circus roared around him.

And now, even in death, he maintains that dignity… while the man who spent years trying to discredit him reduces himself yet again to something smaller than small.

History has a way of sorting these things out. It takes time, but it is ruthless in its clarity. When the noise fades, when the lies collapse under their own weight, what remains are the men who stood for something real, and the men who stood only for themselves.

Robert Mueller will be remembered as a man who served his country with honor, courage, and an almost stubborn devotion to the truth.

Donald Trump will be remembered as a man who, even at the moment of another’s death, could not rise above his own bitterness long enough to show a single ounce of humanity.

That’s not politics.

That’s character.

And in the end, that’s the only ledger that matters.

—Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

This is America!

 

In a recent discussion on reparations, a Jesus-loving Christian posted the following:

“Our Constitution provides for reimbursement when people’s property is taken. The republic took property (freed slaves) at the point of a rifle. They were never compensated. If any reparations are due, it’s to those who were dispossessed of their property.”

Stop for a moment and think about this statement. There was no pushback, no disagreement. Perhaps people simply didn’t want to alienate a friend or criticize his or her views.

But this is how racism continues to reside and fester in the United States.

I’ve asked my conservative friends many times to name specific viewpoints or actions from conservative or MAGA supporters that they would consider “extreme.”

To date, I’ve never received a response.

Not to statements like the one above. Not to cartoons depicting President Obama tending watermelon gardens at the White House. Not to caricatures portraying a former president and first lady as apes.

Apparently, none of these rise to the level of “extreme” for many on the right or among MAGA supporters. There seems to be either an inability or an unwillingness to critically address the proverbial bad apples within their own circles.

I’ve seen this before.

Today, many on the right are critical of former President George W. Bush for U.S. involvement in the Iraq War. But at the time, voicing criticism of that war often resulted in being labeled un-American. Just look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks.

Sound familiar?

I even had friends who were privately critical of the war explain their reluctance to speak publicly, saying they didn’t want to give the “left” fodder to criticize the president. I’ve heard similar sentiments more recently in relation to President Trump.

Progressives and other Democrats, by contrast, have often been willing to publicly criticize their own leaders. Many Democrats spoke out against President Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. Others questioned President Obama’s focus on the Affordable Care Act during his first term. Still others criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the handling of border issues during President Biden’s administration.

For some reason, the GOP, its MAGA base, and many conservatives seem reluctant to call out extremism, racism, Nazi support and more within their own ranks. Unless and until this group steps up and does so, it is hard to imagine America being able to move forward anytime soon.

IN MEMORIAM

I lost my sister and best friend, Jo, today.

Here we are in the late 1990s.

She was everything to me.

P.E. will be down for a while.

Me on the left, and Jo

 

This is the Hour of Lead – 

Remembered, if outlived, 

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – 

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go – 

--Emily Dickenson

The birds they sang At the break of day 

Start again I heard them say 

Don't dwell on what has passed away 

Or what is yet to be 

Ah, the wars they will be fought again 

The holy dove, she will be caught again 

Bought and sold, and bought again 

The dove is never free 

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack, a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in  

--Leonard Cohen

 

Trump's War

 

"The chairman of the American Conservative Union is defending lethal airstrikes that killed scores of Iranian schoolgirls over the weekend, acknowledging they would still be alive if the U.S. and Israel had not attacked Iran — but arguing they would “be alive in a burqa.” 

Matt Schlapp made the staggering comment during Wednesday’s episode of “Piers Morgan: Uncensored,” where discussion of the now-ongoing Iran war eventually turned to the airstrikes on a girls school that killed up to 175 people Saturday, mostly children under 12."

And this witheringly vapid press secretary:

Reporter: "On the Iranian school, why did President Trump say yesterday that Iran may have tomahawk missiles when there are only three US allies, plus the US, that have those missiles?"

 Leavitt: "The president has a right to share his opinions with the American public…"

(Opinions are not facts. Trump often doesn't know what he's talking about -- hardly the sort of person a country would want while waging war against a Middle East country.)

Thomas Friedman, NYTimes:

"Trump has been all over the map when talking about the morning after in Iran — and saying truly ridiculous and often contradictory things that reveal a commander in chief who is just making it up as he goes along. 

One day it’s regime change, one day not; one day he doesn’t care about Iran’s future, the next day he will have a say in choosing the country’s next leader; one day he’s open to negotiations, the next day he is demanding “unconditional surrender.” 

 I thought the Middle East analyst Hussein Ibish summed up the Trump strategy in Iran concisely when he wrote: 'It goes like this: The U.S. and Israel bomb and destroy assets. Then (fill in the blank) Iranians will secure (fill in the blank) political change that will achieve (fill in the blank) U.S. war aims.' ” 

 Would you invest in a company whose leader, without warning, embarked on a radically new business strategy and then, in the next week, described its goals in five different ways? That is a flashing red light."

***************************

Trump mocked Gold Star families and dishonored the late Senator John McCain for having been taken prisoner in Viet Nam, and he called soldiers who were maimed or killed "losers and suckers." That's the CiC conducting this war. He wore his idiotic gold and white baseball cap during a dignified transfer and demonstrated how clueless and undignified he is. 

This is a POTUS who picked a troop of unqualified cabinet members and who has accusations about him of pedophilia -- protecting a pedo, Maxwell, and engaging in such acts himself. What could possibly go wrong? 

Not only is there no endgame, there is no understanding of who we are attacking. Trump won't be able to lie his way out of this because the economic aftershocks are going to be real.

TRUMP ON TRUTH SOCIAL, AUGUST 2024

 

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

“Whenever a kings sees that his people are about to revolt, he starts a war.” —Napoleon Bonaparte 

SATURDAY NIGHT MUSIC

 

I don't know why, but this song was on my mind all week:

A Champion MMA wrestler is now head of Homeland Security.

 

President Trump fired his embattled homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on Thursday and announced plans to replace her with Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, after she was grilled by Republican lawmakers this week at congressional hearings on a variety of topics, including her knowledge of a lucrative advertising contract. 

Mr. Trump announced the change on social media, along with a new, and previously nonexistent, role for Ms. Noem: special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, which he said would be a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere.

SENATOR MARK KELLY

 

"Takeaways from Hegseth’s press conference this morning: 

1. There is no strategic goal. He said this isn’t about 'regime change' despite the President saying otherwise, repeatedly. That means they can't explain how all of this makes Americans safer in the end. 

2. He said 'This will end on the President’s choosing,' and provided no real timeline. That reinforces that there is no plan and no strategic goal, just a 79 year old man who spends too much time in a ballroom in Florida deciding when to stop this. 

3. Hegseth suggested the Commander-in-Chief is setting the operational tempo — which is really high right now, putting a lot of stress on our troops and systems. Donald Trump, despite what he may believe, doesn’t have the capacity to make these types of operational decisions that have real consequences for commanders and servicemembers. 

 4. And finally, going into a conflict of this scale with no strategy and a wishy-washy end state often leads to a less than optimal outcome, starting with the potential for continued escalation and a long, bloody conflict. Americans want leaders who focus on improving their lives, not starting more wars. 

It’s clear to me and everyone else who is paying attention that this President needs to be reined in, but that’s not going to come from this Secretary of Defense, who has tough sounding talking points but little else to offer the American people or our servicemembers."

HOW MANY AMERICANS KNOW ABOUT THIS?

 

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” 

Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military 

 

 A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

 From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). 

 The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.8 The MRFF is keeping the complainants anonymous to prevent retribution by the Defense Department. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to my request for comment. 

 One complainant identified themselves as a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in a unit currently outside the Iran combat zone but in Ready-Support status, deployable at any time. The NCO said they were Christian and emailed the MRFF on behalf of 15 troops, including at least 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew.  

The NCO wrote to the MRFF that their commander “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

*******************************

This is wholly unAmerican, anti-Constitutional, and WRONG! This is another example of the Trump administration disregarding the Constitution and establishing a national religion.

Whether America is considered a Christian country is a subject of debate, as it has a historically Christian heritage and a majority Christian population (around 69% as of 2024), but it is not officially a Christian state. 

The U.S. Constitution establishes a secular government, prohibiting the establishment of an official religion and guaranteeing religious freedom for all. 

While many Americans identify as Christians and the nation’s founding was influenced by Protestant traditions, the government is officially neutral on religious matters, separating church and state. 

Debate exists regarding the founders' intentions; while many were Christians, others were deists, and the Constitution does not invoke God or Christianity, instead deriving authority from "We the People".

The Founding Fathers did not establish Christianity as America's official religion. While many founders were Christians, they designed a secular federal government through the Constitution, which prohibits religious tests for office (Article VI) and forbids Congress from establishing a state religion (First Amendment). 

The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli explicitly stated that the U.S. government was not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.

HE'S NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD:

 

Trump during a press conference on Iran: 

 “See that nice drape?…In about 1.5 years you’re gonna see a very very beautiful building...I picked those drapes. I always liked gold. I believe it will be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world."

 

Politico:  "Majority of Americans oppose Trump’s Iran strikes, per new polling. 

Several polls conducted in the wake of the U.S. attacks in Iran found the military operation broadly unpopular.

"The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That happens in war." --Trump

Hegseth today:  "The U.S. war on Iran will continue on Trump’s terms, with more troops on the way and more casualties expected, and no timeline or exit strategy, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Monday, as the military announced the fourth U.S. service member killed."

Trump promised no wars with him as POTUS.

Trump bombed Iran and removed its leaders. 

We are now at war with Iran.

 PBS News: The U.S.-Israel attack on Iran was "not the limited strike that was considered by the president or his aides, nor was this even limited to Iran's nuclear or missile program," PBS News' Nick Schifrin says. 

It's "a war to overthrow the Iranian regime — and not quick," he added. President Donald Trump said Saturday the mission could take days or weeks. "There's no guarantee of success, and there's no knowing what will happen after that," Schifrin said.

Hegseth leaves door open for boots on the ground in Iran 

Hegseth: "Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force ... no stupid rules of engagement." 

Hegseth Promises to “Finish” a War Nobody Asked Him to Start 

Hegseth strutted to the microphone yesterday like he was auditioning for World’s Most Clueless Commander in Chief and declared: “We didn’t start this war, but under Trump, we are finishing it.” 

 “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984

 

***************************

"Pentagon briefers acknowledged to congressional staff in a briefing Sunday that Iran was not planning to strike US forces or bases in the Middle East unless Israel attacked Iran first, undercutting the administration's argument Saturday that Tehran was planning to potentially strike the US preemptively and posed an imminent threat, according to multiple people who attended the briefing."

******************************

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s response to the strikes on Iran: 

“As yet another preemptive war is begun in the Middle East, John Quincy Adam’s words of wisdom still ring true:

“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.”

Like most Americans I have sympathy for the plight of the Iranian people and all subjected people around the globe, from North Korea to Tibet.

But as Adam’s wrote, America:  “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

The Constitution conferred the power to declare or initiate war to Congress for a reason, to make war less likely.  

Madison wrote that “the Executive Branch is the branch most prone to war, therefore, the Constitution, with studied care, delegated the war power to the legislature.”

As with all war, my first and purest instinct is wish Americans soldiers safety and success in their mission.  

But my oath of office is to the Constitution, so with studied care, I must oppose another Presidential war.”

I'LL JUST LEAVE THIS REPORT HERE FOR EVERYONE TO DIGEST.

 

March 1, 2026, 12:19 p.m. ET 

"From the moment he announced an extensive military attack against Iran by posting an edited social media video at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, President Trump made clear that he would be taking a different tone and approach than his wartime predecessors.

 Mr. Trump did not scramble back to the White House from Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, to oversee the U.S. and Israeli strikes. He did not deliver a televised address informing the public of the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was the nation’s supreme leader for nearly four decades. 

 Instead, the president capped an extraordinary day of U.S. aggression abroad by attending a glitzy fund-raising dinner at his club.

 On Sunday, Mr. Trump had yet to make a public appearance or emerge from his private club. He had no events on his public schedule besides his return to Washington later in the day."

[snip] 

"The president did not let the bombing of Iran upend his schedule, including his plans to attend a fund-raising dinner to support MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC. 

 Ms. Leavitt said Saturday that Mr. Trump had no intention of breaking that commitment. The fund-raiser, she said, was 'more important than ever.' ”

I remember this from the 2024 election:

War with Iran?

 

NYTimes:

As they made their public case for another American military campaign against Iran, President Trump and his aides asserted that Iran had restarted its nuclear program, had enough available nuclear material to build a bomb within days and was developing long-range missiles that will soon be capable of hitting the United States.

 All three of these claims are either false or unproven.

American and European government officials, international weapons monitoring groups and reports from American intelligence agencies give a far different picture of the urgency of the Iran threat than the one the White House presented in the days leading up to Saturday’s strikes.

 Iran has taken steps to dig out the nuclear facilities hit during strikes last June by Israel and the United States, and it has resumed work at some sites long known to American spy agencies. But the officials said that there isn’t evidence that Iran has made active efforts to resume enriching uranium or trying to build a mechanism to detonate a bomb.

 The stockpiles of uranium that Iran has already enriched remain buried after last year’s strikes, making it nearly impossible for Iran to build a bomb “within days.”

NOTE: This is what Iran has reported and the NYTimes passed on. Whether or not it is true remains to be to be proved: 

The Other 98%:

“The "president of peace" just launched his newest war,  and within hours, bombs buried more than 50 schoolgirls under rubble. This is heartwrenching.

On Saturday morning, an airstrike flattened the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, a city in Iran's southern Hormozgan province. The girls inside were between seven and twelve years old. Around 170 students were in the building when it was hit. 

Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency now reports at least 63 students killed and another 60 injured. Sixty-three children. In a school. On a Saturday morning.

This is what "freedom" looks like, apparently. Trump told the Washington Post his only concern is "freedom for the people" of Iran. In a video on Truth Social, he urged Iranians to "take over your government" once the bombing stops, as if you can liberate a people by massacring their children in math class.

The administration named this operation "Epic Fury." That's not a military codename. That's a Call of Duty expansion pack. And the real-world body count is already staggering.

Foreign policy analysts have warned that unlike the limited strikes the U.S. carried out against Iranian nuclear sites last June, a broader conflict with Tehran could drag on for years. We've heard this story before. Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. The playbook never changes,  only the flag on the coffins.

Remember: this is the man who built his entire political brand on being "America First" and opposing foreign wars, who campaigned in 2024 promising to "stop the endless wars." 

Now he's bombing elementary schools and calling it a noble mission.

CONGRESS QUESTIONED THE WRONG FIRST LADY!

 

Hillary Clinton calls House Oversight questioning 'repetitive' in 6 hour deposition 

"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent more than six hours in a closed-door deposition Thursday, facing questions from the House Oversight Committee. 

The Republican-led committee subpoenaed Clinton, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to appear in its investigation into convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein." 

 The former president will take questions Friday from the committee.

In a short press conference following the deposition, Hillary Clinton said she wished the proceedings had been public and that she and her attorneys have asked for transcripts and videos to be available as soon as possible."

**************************

Hillary Clinton was never close friends for years as was the current FLOTUS, Melania Trump. Melania and her husband partied for decades with the two pedophiles, Epstein and Maxwell, NOT Hillary Clinton.

Why hasn't Melania been subpoenaed to appear before Congress?

It is obvious to anyone paying attention that Congress is in on the coverup as is the DoJ. How stupid was it to grill Hillary Clinton who had no relationship with Maxwell and NOT Melania who was close friends with the pedophile?

We have the most corrupt and lawless administration in modern history.