Meanwhile, the typical American will pay a federal income tax rate of 14.5%

This is what a rigged system looks like.

[Via @itep.org]

The first rule for understanding what Trump says is: Trump wouldn’t bother to say it if it were true.

Having a boss like that could drive Pete to drink.

Yep, now Mike Walz supports a man he declared to be a war criminal, because now he's on Team Trump, where there are no principles or ethics, just loyalty, and where words are not used to convey facts or reasoning, just support for Dear Leader. Mike is an empty suit, bereft of morality.

Oh, I almost forgot, when you own all those things, our legal system treats you way better than the peons. In fact, unless the victims of your crimes are other rich people, there are no meaningful punishments for your crimes.

They figured it out that if you and your friends make a lot of money, then it is way way cheaper to own a political party, some Supreme Court justices, and MSM than it is to pay taxes. The bonus is that when you do that, notions of morality and decency are neither here nor there.

By any chance, was the heckler wearing vestments?

JD Vance attracts a good size of crowd if you have in mind an evening of Duck-Duck-Goose.

I'm more than ready for Jon Lovitz's compulsive liar character Tommy Flanagan to perform as Trump on SNL. Yeah, I was a ... a .. a Red Cross worker, that's the ticket.

If that was Trump as a Red Cross worker, he'd have been trying not to be killed by the IDF.

This rotten, lying, disgusting piece of shit has no business condemning others to death, but that’s what Republicans are allowing him to do, just to let Trump have his way. 🤬🤬🤬🤬

Reagan’s OMB Director:

Notice how the faster Levin makes up nonsense, the more shrill he gets? It is a Doppler effect — the faster he come at us with lies, the higher his pitch.

They are making up nonsense at a faster rate now.

As a negotiating style, it is only effective to the extent that people think he might do it. Even if folks only thought there was a 5% chance of that, it means that the GOP is comfy taking a 5% chance that the US destroys a civilization. Thus the GOP becomes a party of monsters.

I want to express a strong preference for my country not having a president who is a Bond villain.

Are there Sweet Pea tapes?

JD Maybelline went to the Ted Cruz school of charm. And it shows.

As long as MSM causes Trump almost no negative consequences for his lying, we can expect ever-increasing mendacity from Trump, Leavitt, et al.

So JD Maybelline's charms were lost on Hungarians. Who'd a thunk it?

Wow, Trump seems to be on a charm offensive to win over Greenland.

Vice President Maybelline was simply trying to paint a happy face on the situation, to accentuate its best features.

The doom loop is complicated now, because Netanyahu can also make bad decisions for Trump.

Threatening to destroy Iranian civilization then acting like America still holds the moral high ground is the geopolitical equivalent of burning someone's house down and calling it diplomacy. A ceasefire secured through cultural threats isn't strength. It's a warning about who we're becoming.

The short version of the coverage I saw of the day on my local NBC affiliate was: Great news -- Trump got a cease fire today!

Today was reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis (but this time the US is the bad guys), but the MSM I saw managed to normalize it.

If Trump isn't impeached, then Trump knows that threatening any manner of genocide he dreams up is thenceforth a privilege he gets. Anyone who thinks Trump will back off on his indecency hasn't been paying attention over the past decade. He'll do it again, but even worse.

A day of fearing that Trump will commit genocide in the name of our country is a day of trauma. My grandchildren are growing up with the evil and chaos of a madman who threatens atrocities as a strategy. A ruling party that loves their country doesn't unleash this kind of terror on it. Fuck the GOP.

Americans should learn from this that a vote for any Republican is a vote for someone who supports taking the world to the brink of devastation in a war of vanity. NEVER vote for a Republican -- we cannot have cowards in positions of authority.

Hypothetical questions do have a place in our conversations.

When House GOP voted not to take up the issue of the propriety of this war, they granted Trump the prerogative to destroy a civilization. Their only redemption lies in immediately coming back into session to invoke the 25th Amendment. Or are they OK with the atrocities Trump has promised?