Esquire: Anti-government Lunatics Used to Be on the Fringe. Trump Has Allowed Them to Operate in the Open.

Pennsylvania police stopped one of these crazies from harming ‘No Kings’ protesters. But the wildness persists.

But because I had been reading and studying a lot about the militia movement, especially in the West and South, even before Tim McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Building—thanks there to the indefatigable David Neiwert, who has been on that beat for longer than most people—I knew that the wildness predated Obama’s rise to the presidency, that it was fed by lunatic conspiratorial beliefs and a fringe form of American Protestantism that had taken to guns and the woods at the same time.

In retrospect, what I sensed in 2012 was that this vague wildness was beginning to gain focus. It needed a target and, in the long view, Obama really was only a temp worker. The wildness was beginning to organize itself, and its target was the entire democratic-republican governmental system.

Now we have hundreds of these individual warriors floating around. The president pardoned a couple regiments of these people who attacked the U.S. Capitol. They have friends at court now. They have too many allies in the state and federal legislatures despite all the public mewling about “political violence” that is all the rage today. The wildness has taken on human form. It now has a coherent shape. We can see it plain. We can see it through the Kevlar.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a65102966/pennsylvania-police-stop-no-kings-protest-bomber

Also here:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/anti-government-lunatics-used-to-be-on-the-fringe-trump-has-allowed-them-to-operate-in-the-open/ar-AA1GYcF3

Esquire: Somehow Republicans Are Defending Kristi Noem After the Forceful Removal of Senator Alex Padilla

I thought assaulting someone holding federal office was a crime. Not anymore, apparently.

So, apparently we’re bum-rushing US senators now. From The Guardian:

In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service agents.“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla shouts, as he struggles to move past the men removing him from the premises. “Hands off!” he says at one point.Emerging afterward, Padilla, who is the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and border safety, said he and his colleagues had repeatedly asked DHS for more information on its “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” but had not received a response to his inquiries.

This tinhorn governor of a state where nobody lives, this puppy-murdering hack whose political career outside of MAGA World was as dead as Custer, now gets to sic her black-shirted thugs on the senior senator of a state that she and her criminal boss and all their attendant lords have been lying about, and about which she had flown to Los Angeles to lie about some more.

Dumbass in a ballcap says what? She just admitted they’re blowing up the town to get rid of the mayor and governor. If the courts ever get their teeth back, this gaffe will figure prominently in many filings.

Meanwhile, Padilla is hauled into a backroom and driven to the floor and handcuffed.

And not for nothing, but threatening and/or assaulting the holder of any federal office is a felony and could draw you five to ten in the pokey. And these goons are pretty identifiable.

And, of course, the administration’s prevarication mill went into full operation almost instantly. From The New Republic via Yahoo:

In posts on X, the official DHS account and Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement attempting to justify wrestling Padilla to the ground and handcuffing him. “Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” the statement read.

Tricia learned to lie like this at the AEI’s Leadership Institute.

But in a video of the altercation from Padilla’s office, the senator could be heard clearly identifying himself. “Hands off! I’m Senator Alex Padilla, and I have questions for the secretary,” said the California Democrat as a security guard pushed him out of the room.

It’s clear that the goons looked at him and just saw another angry brown face. And by their reactions, Tricia and her boss are similarly afflicted.

This is also all my bollocks. Noem knows who Padilla is and, if she doesn’t, she should, and he did identify himself. Third-rate hack with a fourth-rate alibi.

And what about Speaker Moses? What did you expect?

That sanctimonious sumbitch wants Padilla censured. And he spent the afternoon hiding. If he’s a Christian, I’m an Ostrogoth.

The day was not without its burlesque, however. In a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Maxwell Frost asked Chairman James (Jughead) Comer to issue a subpoena for Noem regarding the events of the day. Comer, of course, refused, probably because Padilla was not carrying Hunter Biden’s laptop at the time. And then we were off.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a65058840/senator-padilla-kristi-noem-james-comer-marjorie-taylor-greene

Esquire: Trump Has a New Scapegoat for His Inability to Enact Tariffs: Conservative Legal Puppeteer Leonard Leo

President mad again. President big mad again. President big mad on social media platform. President big mad at judges and at guy who recommended them. Very big mad, indeed.

“Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of ‘TRUMP?’”’ What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real ‘sleazebag’ named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court—I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own ‘thing.’ I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-has-a-new-scapegoat-for-his-inability-to-enact-tariffs-conservative-legal-puppeteer-leonard-leo/ar-AA1FNnl3

Another article:

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-calls-leonard-leo-sleazebag-judge-picks-tariff-ruling-2078800

Esquire: Trump’s Harvard Vendetta Just Sunk to a Ridiculous New Low

Watching a grifter who once ran his own fraudulent “university” try to devalue the institution would be funny if it weren’t so grotesque and tragic.

At this point, it’s just 300-plus years of institutional power against a jumped-up toddler who wants things his way and is willing to break them just so they’ll fit in his pocket. From The New York Times:

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda. The administration notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations.

The “sprawling records request” came from Secretary Kristi (Habeas? I hardly knew him!) [Bimbo #2] Noem of the Department of Homeland Security, which is wearing an even browner shirt than it wore at its creation. 

Of course, overseas, Harvard is one of America’s great selling points, certainly a more effective one than the current president of the United States, who’s done more damage to American prestige around the world than the Vietnam War ever did. A Harvard degree, especially at the graduate level, is still a valuable commodity, and to watch a grifter who once ran his own fraudulent “university” trying to devalue it would be funny if it weren’t so grotesque and tragic.

I, too, have mocked Harvard for its hubris and its conspicuous presence in America’s elites. It’s fun and, up until now, it has been harmless fun at that. But at least Harvard has earned its pride over three damn centuries of achievement. The president seeking to destroy it is a vainglorious bully dripping with fake and fraudulent gold. There is no other side to take except to hope Harvard stands for what it’s always said it stands for.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64855916/harvard-university-trump-kristi-noem-international-students-funding

Esquire: The White House Just Casually Floated a Move That Would Be Traitorous to the Very Idea of America

Despite what Trump advisor Stephen “Goebbels” Miller may believe, habeas corpus is a core legal right—not a revocable privilege.

The Constitution is clear and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus could be suspended in time of invasion,” said Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, White House aide, and now a confirmed traitor to the American idea. “So that’s an option we’re actively looking at.”

Unless every other elected official in this country stands up against even the consideration of this extremist pipe dream, there is no point of being a citizen of this country any more. It would be as empty a title as that of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Despite whatever is rattling around Miller’s febrile cabeza, habeas corpus is not a revocable privilege. It is a right guaranteed to everyone incarcerated. In calling it a “privilege” that “could be suspended” to suit the whims of his boss, “Goebbels” Miller proves himself to be a traitor not only to the American idea but also to the freaking Magna Carta (!), the 39th clause of which states, “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned … except by the lawful judgment of his equals and by the law of the land.” “Goebbels” Miller is proposing to reverse all English-speaking jurisprudence since 1215. I think if you find yourself on the wrong side of human rights from John Lackland, it’s time for us to be quite done with you.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64745130/stephen-miller-trump-habeas-corpus