Lots of news of late, but it seems as if it’s deja vu all over again. Many readers have expressed their burn out on stupid and/or unlawful stuff Trump does, which is understandable given his proclivities. Then again, there are so many legal issues wrapped up in Trump’s actions that it’s hard, if not impossible, to ignore his weekly daily hourly disruption of law and norms to suit his impetuous whims.

Even so, it can get boring and tedious to read about it almost every day. I know that I’m tired of writing about Trump. So it struck me as an opportunity to learn what’s on other people’s minds.

What’s on your minds, dear readers?

*Tuesday Talk rules apply, but keep it rational and civil, please. Please don’t make me regret this.

With some regularity, I get quote-twitted by a fellow named Kurt Schlichter, who has amassed a significant following on the twitters. He’s done it a few times in the past few days, this being his latest effort.

Patriots do a lot of things, none of which Scott has done. Wanting foreigners who hate us to come here to try to destroy us is not one of the things patriots do. https://t.co/ELA9xuZPXx

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) August 29, 2026

After Kurt has his say, there tends to be a swarm of his followers, whether bots or real, in my replies, offering such insightful comments as these. Continue reading →

Laura Loomer, the dear confidante of a president and long time flaming nutjob, ratted out Milo Yiannopoulos, the one-time provocateur and Trump supporter turned bitter and irrelevant, for having overstayed his visa.

Laura Loomer—another right-wing provocateur, although one still on the side of MAGA faithfuls—has claimed credit for alerting authorities to him; The Telegraph, meanwhile, reports that Yiannopoulos’ “visa status is understood to have been brought to attention after he fell out of favour with senior officials over his increasingly hostile remarks.” While it is unwise to take Loomer’s words at face value, it is a reminder, at a minimum, that culture is in the eye of the beholder.

For many, schadenfreude made it hard to muster any sympathy for Milo’s plight. After all, as a card-carrying member of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party, there was something poetic about Milo getting nabbed by ICE. Continue reading →

Friends, today we celebrate the life of the Queen of East Tennessee, the closest thing any of our redneck asses got to a saint, and one of the Greatest Living Americans, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean who passed this week at the age of eighty following a brief battle with cancer.

You’ll have to excuse me on this one. The whole state is basically in mourning right now. It’s almost as if every Tennesseean lost their favorite granny.

Born in rural Sevier County, Tennessee, Parton grew up in a one room cabin with eleven other siblings and her father, who was a farmer. Parton wrote her first song at age five in 1951 called “Little Tiny Tassel Top.” Her singing and songwriting prowess was such that five years later she was performing on Knoxville’s Cas Walker show regularly. By 1959 she made her debut at the legendary Grand Ole Opry introduced by none other than Johnny Cash. Continue reading →

As predicted by pretty much anyone with the slightest grasp of legal procedure, Judge Indira Talwani granted a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the United States Postal Service’s new rules that would have enabled it to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots for the midterm elections. Sure, the Supreme Court issued its ruling that the prior TRO was premature as it wouldn’t be ripe until final rules were issued, which ironically came the day after the final rules were issued. It was a monumental waste of time, resources and angst, but it gave Trump a day of crowing about his great victory.

The following day, Judge Talwani vacated her other stay based upon the Supreme Court ruling, as new motions were filed now that the final rule was in place. And as day follows night, the judge granted the stay. Continue reading →

More than 223 people have been murdered in the open waters off South America by the United States military under orders of Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. When I call it murder, that’s because none of these people have been proven to be drug smugglers or have been given the opportunity to defend themselves from accusations. Even if it turned out that they were drug smugglers, as claimed, and even if it turned out that they were bringing drugs to the United States, a dubious proposition, the penalty for smuggling drugs is not summary execution.

President Trump doesn’t care. Hegseth doesn’t care. The MAGA faithful don’t care. But most disturbingly, the Southern Command of the United States doesn’t care. Continue reading →

Remember when President Donald J. Trump announced his intention to demolish the East Wing of the White House in order to build his ballroom? Of course not, because it didn’t happen. One day, it was just gone, demolished, because that was what he wanted to do. After all, Trump was the president, and the president doesn’t have to ask permission. The president is the Executive, and the Executive gets to execute any damn thing he pleases.

Is the Kennedy Center next?

The Trump administration is, for the first time, threatening the demolition of the Kennedy Center if the arts institution isn’t allowed to follow its plans for the site, including adding President Donald Trump’s name to the front of the building.

Continue reading →

Even the New York Times headline suggests that the Supreme Court somehow approved of Trump’s Executive Order requiring the creation of lists of federally “approved” citizens and prioritizing the prosecution of state officials who fail to comply.

Court Allows Trump to Pursue Mail Voting Limits, for Now

SCOTUSblog was even worse.

Continue reading →

Reality TV star cum Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy misunderstood. After Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected tariff negotiations that would lead to a trade war, he thought he meant a real war with guns and bombs, and so he opined that Canada would certainly lose because it doesn’t have a military.

Sean Duffy on Canada: “It’s a country that doesn’t have a military … they have record high euthanasia rates. And so to think that they’re gonna go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war with the US, I think it’s foolish on their part.” pic.twitter.com/YfMwn6KovY

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 23, 2026

Carney made clear at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the old world order was no longer viable. Continue reading →

According to the New York Times, there are 250 workers working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. This isn’t how government projects are done,* except for the ballroom. At the outset, it was supposed to cost $200 million, paid for by donations by companies that stood to benefit from Trump. It’s now projected to cost $600 million, which will be paid by taxpayers.

Neither the demolition of the East Wing, the construction itself, nor the use of public funds was approved by Congress. And worst of all, it is being built to suit Trump’s “aesthetic,” his love of gold and grandiosity better suited for the excesses of Versailles than the humility of the White House. Versailles was built for a king. The White House was built for a president. This distinction is lost on Trump. Continue reading →