The above quote is oft-attributed to Albert Einstein, but apparently, he never said it. Nonetheless, if Einstein had suffered a press conference with Idiot of War, Pete Hegseth — the topic of today’s article — he would have said it and probably would have served up some other choice words about said Idiot of War.

We start with a history lesson. On November 23, 1942, the German 6th Army was surrounded at Stalingrad. Just days before, the Soviet Red Army pulled off one of the most spectacular encirclements in military history. The Germans, now trapped, freezing, and starving, had to make a decision: break out or stand their ground and fight. They chose the latter and the result was the death of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers with only about six thousand ever making it back to their homeland years later.

Although some would say the loss at Stalingrad was the decisive turning point of World War II that ensured German defeat, economists would disagree and tell you that Germany’s loss was all but guaranteed a year before when America entered the war. What many would agree on is that it was a psychological game changer. So how did it all happen? Stupidity, of course! And a partial physical embodiment of that stupidity in the winter of ‘42 was Hermann Goering.

Many of you know that Goering was one of Nazi Germany’s most evil henchmen and promoters of the Holocaust. But when he wasn’t aiding and abetting the murder of tens of millions of innocents or stealing Europe’s great treasures from occupied lands, he was purportedly commanding Germany’s air force: the Luftwaffe.

So back to Stalingrad. When a decision needed to be made as to what to do, Goering looked Hitler in the eyes and said words to the effect, “Don’t worry Adi, I got this.” And by “I got this”, he meant that he could, through his air force alone, sustain the encircled frozen, starving, and exhausted German forces. Mind you, everyone knew this was total bullshit at the time. Hitler, the generals, and simple mathematics. Probably, Goering too. But ignorance is a choice and the result had severe — and beneficial to the free world — consequences.

I retell this story for a simple reason. First, a few days ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the march of folly that was Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. The Journal retold how his intelligence chiefs and others all but assured Trump that notwithstanding the promises of Bibi, his Idiot of War Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine, the Iranians would put up a fight that the U.S. and its allies in the region weren’t prepared to handle.

And what were these folks focused on? For years, American war-game planners and intelligence analysts played out the scenarios. And in painstaking detail, these smartest people in the room types predicted what Iran would do if the U.S. chose a military confrontation: close the Straits of Hormuz through the use of cheap weapons, lean on proxy forces, and turn the fight into an asymmetric one that $80 million attack jets would be rendered useless. Importantly, these people emphasized that this murderous regime had been at the war with the West for over forty years, was well-prepared, and would not go down because some of their stuff or people got blown up.

However, all of this was ignored because Idiot of War Hegseth told Trump that U.S. forces could do more pushups and pullups than their Iranian counterparts. Ok, maybe he didn’t say exactly that, but I’m sure it was something just as dumb knowing the speaker and audience of one. Where we are now is well-reported, but I’ll sum it up here: The analysts? Right. A multi-trillion dollar fighting force gathering rust (or barnacles?) because it cannot solve the riddle of $10,000 drones and cheap missiles. Our stockpile of high-tech weapons depleted. A complete stalemate with no smart people on our side negotiating an end to the conflict. And most importantly, the men and women who volunteer to serve in our military unnecessarily and lethally being put in harm’s way.

I guess some would be willing to accept this sad state of affairs if the Trump Regime was at least working on providing Americans affordable healthcare, education, housing, and beef. But, we all know that ain’t happening, which explains why this war is so deeply unpopular no matter who you ask. Again, ignorance is a choice, but in this instance, it’s us taking the hit.

I’m stating the obvious when I say that we are long on firepower (to the tune of about $20 trillion and counting on military spending over the past 26 years), but short on people who know what to do with it. If the Trump Administration were a car buyer, he’d be walking out of a car dealership in South Florida bragging to friends that he negotiated his way into a great deal on a winter package.

Which leads me to the second reason I talk about Goering and Stalingrad. Last night, as I was doomscrolling through cute dog and “My Mom asks if this is AI?” videos on Instagram, I saw an article reporting that Idiot of War Hegseth was contemplating a presidential run. I threw up in my mouth and laughed at the same time when I read this.

Hegseth denies that he has such aspirations, which is unsurprising because that’s the rote answer one usually gives when asked if they are running. But whether it’s true or not, that this could even be reported is mind-blowing. That someone so in over his skis, whose only qualifications for the job are his loyalty to his dear Führer Trump and shared stupidity and cruelty, could be mentioned in the same words as “president of the United States” is mind-blowing now that Trump has proven — again — just how bad of an idea this is.

Karl Marx said "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." It’s bad enough when we talk about JD Vance as a possible candidate in ‘28 for Republicans. But, putting Hegseth in the possibility pool truly lowers the bar to the point that you’d need a shovel to dig yourself out of the mix. That’s when you truly hit Farce Level 10. You’d think we’d hit rock bottom with Convicted Felon Donald Trump and his two terms, but I guess Republicans are suckers for punishment and Idiot of War Hegseth running for president is the inevitable mutation of MAGA.

— Jonathan Swift, 18^th Century Irish Satirist

At the heart of MAGA is the cruelty and idiotic belief system of one man. He tells MAGA what it needs to follow and they blindly go along with it. To Hell with reason and logic. And it’s this cruelty and anti-intellectualism that I reject. So why am I quoting Swift? Well, from time to time, I think of all of us as that “true genius” surrounded by Trump and his minions.

Since the beginning of this second Trump Regime, what’s enraged me are the group I have often called The Enablers. People who on paper would seem to be a bulwark against this dunce and his movement. But instead, these enablers will say and do anything to be a part of this administration…American democracy, norms, and its people be damned. Honestly, who knew what was holding us back from absolute madness in the first Trump Administration was the decency of…Mike Pence and William Barr?

But worse than being bootlickers, many of these enablers are also fools. I’m not getting over my skis when I say we have a federal government being run by card-carrying members of the galactically stupid. I’ve written a few thousand words about the idiots in the Justice Department: The Fool of the North, i.e., the US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, Daniel Rosen and Pammy Jo with the Bad Hair. But today we focus on another member of these incompetent sycophants: Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Now I admit, I know little about farming with some knowledge coming from what my husband tells me when reminiscing about his college experience driving past cornfields on I-57 to his Big Ten school. And he grew up in the Chicago suburbs so he doesn’t know much about farming either. If Rollins wants to tell me she knows more about planting seasons, fertilizer, or seeds, sure, she’s got me there. But I do know a few things about Econ 101 and this wondrous thing called The Internet, and in this regard, I’m here to tell you what Rollins is shoveling stinks worse than manure. She may know how to plant things, but in cult service of Convicted Felon Donald Trump, Brooke wants to pretend like her alternate universe economics will never face scrutiny.

Sidenote: I’m often asked where I go to do research for my reporting. One of the main research tools I use is called Ground News. Ground News shows me how stories are being covered from different political perspectives, and it highlights “blindspots” where only left-wing or right-wing media is covering a story.

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What am I talking about? Beef. As in, where’s the American beef?

This past week, Trump announced the Regime would allow up to 300,000 METRIC TONS (which is about 661.4 MILLION POUNDS) of foreign ground beef, tariff-free into our country for the next 90 days. He refuses to say from which country this flood of mystery meat will be coming. He also refuses to say which American company has committed to selling this foreign beef “at 25 percent below current market prices."

Trump falsely claimed that he closed this black box of a deal because beef prices soared under Biden all while the American cattle herd “fell to its smallest size in modern history” on his watch. And Brooke Rollins jumped on that bullshit bandwagon and also blamed Biden for some nonexistent war on cattle. LIES.

Now, I hear you when you say, “Katie, there’s a thousand horrible things going on right now, so why are we talking about beef?” Because Dear Reader, Donald and Brooke are this week’s Exhibit A on why we must confront this administration on every lie. Put simply, we give no quarter to their gaslighting and lies of convenience.

So let’s take this nonsense apart, piece by piece. And a shout-out to Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast for doing a show almost a year ago about rising beef prices; as soon as I heard the story this week, I immediately re-listened to that episode to confirm that they’re all – no surprise – full of crap.

First, the herd. Yes, the U.S. cattle herd is at its smallest size in more than 50 years. But this isn’t about presidential politics. Instead, the culprits are simpler: years of drought, wildfire, and massive increases in feed, land, fuel, and veterinary costs. Over time, this reality has made it difficult to near impossible for independent ranchers in this country to operate successfully.

But that’s not all. As is the case in most industries, big corporations just hammer the little guy. In this instance, four companies control a significant percentage of U.S. beef processing capacity. This concentration allows these companies to set the price for what they will pay ranchers on one hand and what they charge grocery chains for meat on the other. Yes, the prices these processors pay ranchers is increasing. But if the ranchers’ input costs are also increasing, they’re still left treading water. Bottom-line: if you wanted to have an honest conversation about what ails the industry, processor consolidation and market transparency would be at the top of the list. But we all know that doesn’t happen in this era of corrupt big money politics.

Second, rising prices and the timing of this announcement. As we all know, Trump was elected a second time based on the fraudulent representation that he would lower prices on day one. And once he got into office? Well, the prices, they continued to rise. When it comes to beef, it’s important to remind everyone that Trump has already dipped his fat, ugly toes in the beef pond. In February, Trump signed a proclamation allowing for the importation of 80,000 metric tons of Argentine beef on favorable terms on the theory that it would lower prices for American families. At that time, the ranchers objected to this maneuver because importing more beef wouldn’t rebuild the American herd or address why ranchers were getting crushed in the first place. And we can’t forget the $20 BILLION Argentinian Great Beef Bailout of 2025. How did that help American farmers?

Several months later, the number has jumped from 80,000 metric tons to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef. And why? This brings me to the 90-day clock. It doesn’t take an economist to tell you that this timing has nothing to do with market dynamics, but instead, the November midterms are – you guessed it – about 90 days away. So even though Trump will tell you he “loves” America’s cattle farmers, the fact of the matter is he will stick it to these folks if it means votes at the ballot box.

Third, let’s delve into prices some more, particularly the criminal dunces running this show. I’m stating the obvious when I say that Convicted Felon Donald Trump has spent his entire second term manufacturing supply shocks to the domestic economy on a routine basis. Since 2025, we have suffered Trump’s stupid tariff tantrum that raised costs on the inputs that ranchers and processors depend on. And now we have an unending, illegal, very expensive war with Iran that has rattled global markets and supply chains at exactly the moment market participants could least absorb it.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that the problem is metastasizing. “Blame Joe Biden”? That may be the Trump Regime’s favorite chorus to sing, but they can’t crap on the rug and blame the dog for it. Frankly, I’m surprised things haven’t unraveled more quickly. But that’s a testament to the resiliency of our economy in the face of these idiotic losers and their actions.

Justin Tupper, president of the United States Cattlemen’s Association declared, “You don’t put America first by putting U.S. cattle producers last.” Colin Woodall, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President, said that “flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd.” While one agricultural industry insider said, “It’s going to just piss off farmers and ranchers.”

Cheaper beef – even if temporary – is a good thing. But, as is the case in all things Trump, he doesn’t get to set the house on fire and then demand credit for showing up with a thimble of water to try and put the fire out. I've got a beef with the corruption and the grift so I’m raising the steaks and demanding we cull the herd and get rid of Trump and the Republicans in November!

I wanted to hear from Joyce about the latest, extremely rare moves in two different federal courts to peel back the fiercely protected secrecy and confidentiality surrounding grand jury proceedings. In the bullshit criminal prosecution of Don Lemon, Virginia Fort, and others in Minnesota, the presiding judge ordered the Trump DOJ to turn over to her for in camera review, all of the Government’s materials it used in its presentment of the two different indictments. And in New York, a judge ordered the unsealing of the documents in the civil lawsuit brought by the late Virginia Giuffre in 2015 against Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation. That includes the materials provided to the SDNY by Virginia’s lawyers for use in its grand jury presentation for the indictment against Jeffrey Epstein.

As I often say, there is a very real presumption of IRREGULARITY now when it comes to the Trump Department of (In)Justice and that is showing across the country.

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• Judge Sullivan: When did the process commence for the DOJ to begin its translation and review of the foreign-language documents contained within the Epstein Files?

• Andrew Block: [Turning red, stammering, hemming and hawing, and eventually failing to answer the Court thereby confirming what we all suspected, which was the DOJ has not even begun the process of translating and reviewing the foreign-language documents.]

• Judge Sullivan: How many pages of these documents are we talking about?

• Andrew Block: I don’t have a number.

• Judge Sullivan: But you knew this was going to be discussed today. You’re at the podium as counsel for the Attorney General.

• Andrew Block: Our briefing is still our position and it hasn’t changed.

• Judge Sullivan: The Government’s position then is you’re just not going to comply [with my court order]?

• Andrew Block: Your order isn’t a final order [and some other gobbledygook that wasn’t responsive to the judge’s question.]

• Judge Sullivan: You have nothing else to add?

• Andrew Block: No, judge.

Recall: On June 26, 2026, Judge Sullivan entered an order granting my Motion for Preliminary Injunction, directing Todd Blanche to:

As of today, August 15, 2026, that hasn’t happened. And consider that language as compared to some of the other areas of that preliminary injunction order: the court didn’t give Blanche an “out” to explain why he couldn’t do the translations; the court ordered him to “immediately initiate review and production.”

I have made it clear that my work as an investigative journalist relies on those foreign-language documents being translated and produced. Jeffrey Epstein, with the assistance of a complex network of recruiters, enablers, facilitators, co-conspirators, employees, and others operated a multi-decade, multinational child sex trafficking ring. His ownership of residences in France, especially, and his direct involvement with modeling agencies gave him and his associates the necessary cover to cross international borders with children under the guise of the modeling business. It gave him and his associates the necessary cover to lure minors from their home countries with empty promises of supermodel futures, wealth, and success; to abuse them; to manipulate them; to control them; to violate them.

Jeffrey Epstein’s well-publicized personal and professional relationship with Jean-Luc Brunel is just one aspect of the Epstein Files that makes those foreign-language documents critically necessary to investigate and review. Brunel was a modeling scout in the late 1970s and he co-founded Karin Models in Paris in 1977. He was considered one of the leading model agents in Paris and eventually opened a U.S. branch called Karin Models of America with the financial backing of Jeffrey Epstein. That office became known as MC2 Model Management.

Just last week, the French publication, Le Monde, reported that Epstein not only used Paris as an abuse epicenter, but he would also do so in the luxury coastal town of Saint-Tropez. And he wasn’t alone in his crimes. American journalist, Michael Gross, documented the abuse in his 1995 book, Model, The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women: “Brunel ‘was the guy flying all the girls from Karins for the weekend to St.-Tropez. [He and his friends] were very well known in Paris for roaming the clubs. They would invite girls and put drugs in their drinks. Everybody knew that they were creeps.’” Brunel denied these allegations before his death by alleged suicide by hanging in a French prison in 2022 while under investigation on suspicion of the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation.

French law enforcement at the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence Against Persons issued an investigative report in December of 2020 stating that “Jean-Luc Brunel used the modeling agencies where he had worked to gain easy access to vulnerable young girls whom he could abuse as he wished. This very likely allowed him, primarily, to provide the benefit of this access to his professional and personal associate, Jeffrey Epstein.”

And let’s not forget Ghislaine Maxwell’s own direct culpability in the trafficking ring. Per the late Virginia Giuffre’s testimony as cited in the 2020 investigative report by French police, Virginia identified Saint-Tropez as one of the locations where Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to the French owner of a hotel chain. Another victim interviewed by Le Monde alleged that she was raped by Epstein in his New York home in 2001. She first met Epstein at a party in Saint-Tropez when she was just 16 or 17 years old. Maxwell, who was also present at this party, manipulated this young woman and steered her to Epstein. The victim explained that in Saint-Tropez: “There were recruiters in the hotels, often funny and charismatic people, intermediaries who organized parties with celebrities present and who sent 14- or 15-year-old girls to them... Saint-Tropez could never have survived without that veneer. That’s what the town was selling.”

Epstein and one of his main recruiters, Daniel Siad, communicated extensively about his success in securing girls to introduce to Epstein. The two referenced in their exchanges how “most or many of the girls are eitehr [sic] gone to st tropez or holiday.” Siad, who was under investigation by Paris prosecutors for rape and human trafficking including for his association and work with Epstein, was recently found dead in his home in a Parisian suburb and his death is under investigation.

Another modeling recruiter and possibly one that worked with Epstein, Ramsey Elkholy, emailed Epstein stating a Latvian model, Marta, would be in Saint-Tropez and was looking to meet people. Epstein replied: “There are many interesting people there. you can give her my email.”

Why is the Trump Department of Justice participating in an active concealment and cover-up? Why won’t the “top cop” of the country, Todd Blanche, release the Epstein Files redacted in compliance with the federal law passed months ago? Where is the cooperation between American authorities and French authorities in investigating these leads? Instead of spending 9 hours with Ghislaine Maxwell cosplaying as a prosecutor and then secretly transferring her to a Club Fed to eat gourmet cheese and play with puppies, maybe Todd Blanche should be translating and reviewing those foreign-language documents in the Epstein Files and identifying more perpetrators, co-conspirators, and criminals for purposes of prosecution. Isn’t that his job?

But, Blanche doesn’t represent the people of the United States. He remains the personal lawyer for Convicted Felon Donald Trump. His loyalty is to one man and one man only. Blanche pays lip-service to the survivors and makes empty promises of justice. But, we’ve clocked him and what he’s all about from the very beginning. And that’s why I’m aggressively pursuing my lawsuit against Blanche because as Judge Sullivan stated during that Status Hearing: “The public and the victims have the right to know what the hell is going on.”

Tune in and listen to what Scott discovered and what we can do about it, including Democrats reclaiming the majority in November so that real oversight and investigation can be done into this grift and graft and corruption.

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Sometimes courage can look like a woman dressed in a feathered and sequined gown, blowing kisses to a room full of Nazi officers, with military secrets pinned inside her underwear. That, my friends, was Josephine Baker. During one of the darkest moments in history, she made a choice most people never have to make and she made it with the whole world watching her for entirely different reasons.

Josephine Baker was born into poverty in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906. With little schooling and while living in rat-infested hovels, she had no consistent support system. She reportedly married for the first time at the age of 13(!) and grew up a black girl in Jim Crow America, which meant she grew up knowing exactly what it felt like to be denied basic dignity and civil rights before she ever set foot on a stage. By her teenage years, Baker was performing in Vaudeville and by age 19, she had already left America for Paris, a city that embraced her as a star in a way her own country never would.

In Paris, she was an absolute sensation. The French called her “The Black Venus” and “The Black Pearl.” Eventually, she became so famous, she was known simply as “La Baker.”

Here’s the thing about that kind of fame and privilege: it could have been her whole story. Baker could have just rested on her laurels and not stepped up when it counted the most. But, she refused to stay on the sidelines and she ended up volunteering for one of the most dangerous roles she would ever play.

When the Nazis marched into France, Josephine Baker didn’t flee. She became a French citizen in 1937 out of loyalty to the country that had given her a professional and personal home. Then, in 1939, Jacques Abtey, the head of French military intelligence, approached Baker to recruit her to be a spy. Without hesitation, she said yes: “France made me what I am. The Parisians gave me their hearts, and I am ready to give them my life.”

In a 1973 interview with Ebony magazine, Baker explained that she loved her adopted country of France, but she said: the “overriding consideration, the thing that drove me as strongly as did patriotism, was my violent hatred of discrimination in any form. The Nazis were racists. They were bigots. I despised that sort of thing and was determined that they must be defeated.”

Despite her willingness to be a spy, the idea of Josephine Baker, specifically, in that role was wild. Spies are supposed to disappear into a crowd. To be discreet and to go unnoticed. But, Josephine Baker couldn’t just disappear because she was one of the most recognized faces in the world. So French intelligence turned what otherwise would have been a liability into an asset: nobody would suspect the world’s most famous entertainer at the time of smuggling secrets.

She used her celebrity to work every room that mattered. She went to diplomatic parties in the Japanese and Italian embassies and at dinners with high-ranking Axis officials, quietly absorbing intel on troop movements and military installations. Then, while under the guise of touring and performing, Baker moved that info across borders in ways that sound like fiction, except it wasn’t: notes in invisible ink on her sheet music and secrets pinned as notes to her bra with a safety pin. She riskily bet that her fame as an international star would make border guards too starstruck to try to search her body.

Baker was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the Women’s Auxiliary of the Free French Air Force. Former President of France and the leader of the Free French cause, Charles de Gaulle, awarded her the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance with rosette, among France’s most prestigious decorations for wartime service and resistance. France honored her as a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, and in 2021, the country did something it had never done before: it inducted her into the Panthéon, the resting place reserved for the nation’s most honored dead. She was the first Black woman ever to be honored in that way.

Here’s the myth Josephine Baker destroyed: the idea that resistance requires a certain kind of person. Someone trained for it. Someone with nothing left to lose. Someone who “looks” the part.

Sound familiar? It should. I’ve written here at Substack about the same myth that Joan of Arc destroyed centuries earlier: a French teenage peasant girl with no military training and no title, who ended up commanding armies because she refused to accept that leadership belonged only to men born into it. Nobody looked at either Josephine Baker or Joan of Arc and saw a soldier or a spy. That was precisely the point. Joan and Josephine both understood something we still get wrong about heroism: it isn’t granted by the people who already hold the power. It’s taken by the people willing to act like they already have the right to it, and let history catch up later.

Baker had everything to lose. A career built entirely on being seen, being adored, being untouchable. She could have stayed silent and played it safe; after all, plenty of famous people did exactly that, then and now. Instead, she looked at what fascism was doing to the world and decided her own comfort didn’t eclipse what was right.

Adversity doesn’t wait for you to feel qualified to face it. It shows up uninvited, and you either meet it or you don’t. Baker met it in sequins, glamour, and stage lights, turning the very thing that made her vulnerable — her visibility — into a weapon against the people trying to erase entire groups of human beings.

Let’s not skip past the irony here, because that’s the whole point. This was a black woman raised in a country that lynched people who looked like her, denied her the right to vote, to drink from the same water fountain as whites, to be treated as fully human under its own laws. America never earned her loyalty. And yet she risked her life for democracy anyway and not the version of it America had shown her, but the idea of democracy itself…the belief that people are entitled to self-determination and dignity no matter what a government has told them they’re worth. Joséphine Baker fought for a freedom her own country refused to extend to her. That kind of conviction is bigger than any one nation’s failures, including the one she was born into.

Baker didn’t stop when the war ended. She came back to America, a country that was still virulently racist. So, she fought that fight, too. She refused to perform before segregated audiences. She protested in the streets and participated in civil rights demonstrations. And, in 1963, while dressed in her French Resistance uniform adorned with all of her medals, she stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington. One of the only women asked to speak that day, Baker spoke to the crowd of more than 250,000 people for over 20 minutes, shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Every single one of us gets a smaller version of Josephine Baker’s choice, more often than we’d like to admit: to speak up or to stay quiet. To risk something or protect our comfort. To use the platform we have or let it sit there, uncomfortably silent. You don't need permission to be brave. You don't need to look like a hero to act like one. We all have a part to play in defending our democracy against the tyranny of today.

Mary and I also speak bluntly about the need to focus on the important issues and to reduce the intraparty conflict. What are your thoughts on how quick folks are to slap labels on candidates within the Democratic Party? Share them below.

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This deal is NOT a done deal and with the lawsuit brought by the State Attorneys General to block the merger, the legal issues won’t be resolved until at least March of 2027, which poses a very big and very real financial penalty on Paramount to the tune of more than $1.2 billion.

We will watch what the United Kingdom does in its own investigation into the merger terms. In the meantime, check out www.blockthemerger.com for more info and details.

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I’m grateful that Joyce and I were able to law-geek out on the legal issues that Thom Tillis and John Cornyn think they actually tackled with Blanche, despite the REALITY which is they DIDN’T extract any concessions from Blanche or Trump.

I am also quite pleased that I was able to figure out Screen Share on Substack Live so thanks for bearing with me on that journey tonight.

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Today was supposed to start with the Senate Judiciary Committee taking up the vote on whether Acting AG Todd Blanche’s nomination by Convicted Felon Donald Trump to become THE Attorney General would advance out of Committee to a full Senate vote. But, alas, poor Blanche must wait to hear his fate as the Committee has decided to postpone the vote. Why? Because Blanche is still having to joust with Senators Cornyn and (maybe?) Tillis.

Frankly, NO SENATOR should vote “yes” on Blanche for a litany of reasons, all of which reflect Blanche’s lack of fitness, integrity, and competence for the permanent gig, but I guess loyalty to Trump means ignoring decency and norms. Let’s see if Cornyn and Tillis stay the course and vote NO. It only takes ONE Republican Senator on Senate Judiciary to peel off to block Blanche.

Also, today is the day for Blanche to appear before Judge Sullivan in my lawsuit to produce specific unredacted emails and documents AND to bring with him proof to support his claims that the redactions are legit. I am waiting, just like you, with bated breath. Let’s see what happens this afternoon. Deadline per court order is 3 pm ET!

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During the Senate Watergate Committee’s investigation into the break-in of the DNC headquarters, former White House counsel, John Dean, testified that he suspected Nixon had a secret recording system. The Committee then asked Deputy Assistant to the President, Alexander Butterfield, in a closed-door meeting if he knew if such a system existed. His answer: “I’m sorry you asked…But, yes, there was a taping system that taped all presidential conversations.” Three days later, Butterfield testified on live TV and confirmed the existence of Nixon’s secret recording system.

On July 23rd, in 1973, Nixon refused to produce these tapes to Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox. What’s incredible is that he didn’t deny their existence or their authenticity. He didn’t argue that they had been manipulated or altered in any way. Nixon simply insisted that because he was the President of the United States, he, alone, could decide whether prosecutors and the courts were entitled to listen to the tapes.

That wasn’t unitary executive theory on steroids. That was just obstruction of justice.

Now, at first blush, Nixon’s legal defense sounded like it could pass for plausible: he argued that presidents require the ability to conduct confidential conversations. He expressed the concern that advisers could not speak candidly if every Oval Office discussion risked becoming tomorrow’s headline. Executive privilege was not merely convenient; it was essential to the presidency, itself.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. A president should, and I submit, must, receive candid advice. In some ways, confidentiality is often indispensable to governing. But, the Constitution doesn’t recognize a president’s unilateral authority to decide whether EVIDENCE relevant to a criminal investigation remains forever beyond the reach of the courts.

Sidenote: I’m often asked where I go to do research for my reporting. One of the main research tools I use is called Ground News. Ground News shows me how stories are being covered from different political perspectives, and it highlights “blindspots” where only left-wing or right-wing media is covering a story.

Ground News has been a great sponsor of my YouTube channel, and they’re now sponsoring this post as well. I worked out a deal with them: if you go to ground.news/phang, you can get 40% off Ground News’ top-tier Vantage plan, which gives you unlimited access to all the research tools I use.

Ground News is subscriber-funded, so they don’t rely on ads that could introduce bias.

By subscribing, you support both our channel and their independent team working to keep the media transparent.

Now back to where I left off.

The Framers had already fought one king. They had no interest in creating another, just with a different title. So they designed a government in which ambition would check ambition, where courts could review executive power, and where no public official, regardless of rank, possessed the authority to place himself beyond the law’s reach.

Those principles had a head-on collision when the US Supreme Court decided United States v. Nixon. Writing for a unanimous court, Chief Justice Warren Burger (a Nixon appointee, no less) recognized that executive privilege exists. But, he also recognized that there’s something even more fundamental and decent at play: the fair administration of criminal justice outweighs a generalized claim of presidential secrecy. When evidence is needed in a criminal prosecution, the President doesn’t get the last word, the judiciary does.

US v. Nixon remains one of the clearest affirmations of the rule of law in our constitutional history. Eight Supreme Court justices, appointed by Republican presidents and one appointed by a Democratic president, reached precisely the same conclusion. They didn’t ask whether producing the tapes would embarrass President Richard Nixon, cripple his presidency, or reshape the balance of power.

They asked one question: Is the President above the law? And their answer was unanimous: No.

It’s worth noting that the irony here borders on being Shakespearean: Nixon wasn’t trying to suppress conversations secretly intercepted by political enemies. He was trying to suppress his own recordings created by his own White House, using a system he personally ordered installed. The tapes were intended to preserve history on his terms. What Nixon couldn’t deal with was once those recordings became evidence in a criminal investigation, history no longer belonged to him. It belonged to the American people and to justice.

Without the tapes, Watergate might have remained an endless political shouting match, with accusations answered by denials and denials answered by accusations. The recordings changed that because evidence has this remarkable way of ruining carefully crafted and often-false narratives.

Evidence doesn’t vote. It has no party registration, no campaign consultants, and no social media strategy. Evidence simply exists, stubbornly and beautifully indifferent to the ambitions of the powerful. That is precisely why obstruction of justice is so dangerous.

Obstruction is not merely an effort to delay an investigation. It’s an attempt to control reality itself by deciding which facts the justice system is permitted to discover. Once the subject of an investigation acquires the power to determine what evidence judges may examine, the rule of law ceases to be a principle. It becomes a privilege granted by the very people it’s supposed to restrain.

Half a century later, SCOTUS, in Trump v. United States, took a different track in recognizing substantial presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. That decision does not overrule United States v. Nixon, nor does it hold that a president may ignore a lawful subpoena or conceal evidence. The two cases answer technically different legal questions: Nixon concerns access to evidence, while Trump concerns criminal liability and immunity for same.

But, together they illuminate an unmistakable shift in constitutional thinking. The Nixon Court viewed the presidency through the lens of accountability, insisting that the demands of criminal justice could outweigh claims of executive secrecy. The Court in Trump viewed the presidency through the lens of institutional protection, concluding that broad immunity is necessary to preserve executive independence.

One Court asked how to ensure that presidents remain answerable to the law. The other asked how to ensure that the law does not unduly burden the presidency. That kind of constitutional evolution is striking and alarming.

Richard Nixon ultimately surrendered the tapes only because a unanimous Supreme Court ordered him to do so. Days later, the evidence spoke more eloquently than any lawyer ever could. His political support collapsed and his presidency soon followed.

The enduring lesson of Watergate was never about tape recorders; it was about accountability. Because in the end, the most powerful words are not “executive privilege.” They’re “the evidence speaks for itself.”

Every time I hear the beginning of that unforgettable piano riff, I stop what I’m doing to listen. And as the years have gone by, I find myself paying less attention to the melody and more attention to the lyrics. Bruce Hornsby wasn’t simply describing injustice; he was exposing one of the most dangerous responses to it: RESIGNATION.

“That's just the way it is”

It’s a phrase we’ve all heard. Sometimes we’ve even said it ourselves. Perhaps you’ve said the phrase with a small shrug of your shoulders. At first blush, it sounds harmless enough until you realize how often those words have been used to justify the unjustifiable.

Segregation? That’s just the way it is.

Women don't have equal rights? That’s just the way it is.

People of color prevented from voting? That’s just the way it is.

Discrimination in housing, employment, education? That’s just the way it is.

History is littered with examples of people accepting the wrongs of inequality simply because it had become familiar and the usual. But familiarity has never made injustice acceptable. It just made it easier to ignore.

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I love you. I don’t say that with blind devotion nor do I say it for purposes of performative patriotism because it’s your birthday. I truly mean it.

I’m telling you this because I’m reading articles about how so many people doubt you. So I want you to hear directly from me why you’re so great and why I will always fight for you.

So where do I begin? Let’s start with your food. Honestly, America? It’s unhinged. And I mean that as the highest compliment possible.

Your airports — places of chaos and anxiety — can smell like heaven because somewhere there is an Auntie Anne’s pretzel calling out to the hurried masses yearning for their flight to just be on time for once. Dripping with enough butter to shorten a human’s life expectancy. And if you get that side of - I think it’s cheese because the label says it’s cheese - cheese sauce? Now you’re talking, baby.

But wait…is that a Cinnabon I see by the dawn’s early light? Oh, there’s nothing modest about that thing; it’s the size of a truck tire. Indeed, one marvels that our country has created a menu item that can cover an adult’s daily caloric needs in one sitting. Let the French have their boulangeries; we have a rotating fleet of warm dough vendors operating adjacent to a Hudson News and a charging station.^[i]

America, I love that you don’t do anything small. Other countries have regular-sized things. You look at regular-sized things and ask: “But what if it were much, MUCH bigger?” Our sodas come in sizes that require the bottom of the cup to be markedly smaller just so it can fit in our already oversized cupholder in our already oversized car. Heck, you exhibit your love for all things large in all kinds of ways. Your movies, for example. Their budgets are now nearing the size of the annual GDP for a small island nation. And say what you want about Tom Cruise, but I’ll tell you what: that man makes sure you are ENTERTAINED. I watch the first two minutes of a Top Gun film, and I’m picturing myself in aviator glasses and a leather bomber jacket, launching off a carrier somewhere in the ocean – call sign “Widowmaker” – to take on an unknown enemy.

I love baseball. With all due respect to football, baseball is quintessentially you, America. It’s not the fastest sport; it deliberately operates at a leisurely pace. A manager will walk to the mound, exchange a few words, and then walk back to the dugout without the 30,000 people in attendance thinking that was strange.

But baseball actually captures something else about you: your eternal optimism. Every spring begins with each team and its fanbase believing this year will be different. Yet, come August, disappointment likely takes over. But you know what? There’s always next year. And this process will repeat for years, if not decades. Don’t believe me? I watched my husband cry early in the morning in November 2016, as the Cubs finally broke the curse and won the World Series. He kept screaming, “You were wrong, Zadie Max! They ain’t bums!”^[ii] Bottom-line, you’re always looking to tomorrow and unafraid to reinvent yourself along the way.

But let’s get serious, America. I love that somewhere right now, there is a young person sketching out a business idea on a napkin at breakfast, incorporating a company by lunchtime, opening a bank account in the afternoon and waking up tomorrow to embark on a dream. Think about that for a moment. For most of human history, starting a business required permission: from a king, a guild, or someone else in authority. Don’t believe me? When I left MSNBC, all I had was the burning ember of something bigger than me. A year later, I’d like to think that WE are building an army of people that have got your back, America.

I love that your music tells the story of your progress sometimes better than a history book. Don’t believe me? Your song — “The Star-Spangled Banner” — was written by Francis Scott Key, a man who owned slaves and who actively opposed efforts to end slavery. He opposed abolition and favored the idea of colonization. But he watched the battle at Fort McHenry from a ship and then wrote a poem that became your theme song.

And, in 1983, Marvin Gaye walked up to the microphone at the NBA All-Star Game and sang your song in a way nobody had ever heard before. He didn’t just perform it; he transformed it and made it all his own. He took the words of a slaveowner and wrapped them into something that was uniquely…Marvin Gaye:^[iii]

And then the incomparable legend, Whitney Houston, stood before 70,000 plus people at the Super Bowl in January 1991, lifted a microphone, and sang those same words with such a breathtaking, otherworldly power that her performance became the standard by which all others are judged.^[iv] And although many have come close, no one has ever surpassed her:

But talent aside, what matters is that although the song never changed, you sure did, America. The descendants of a race of people that were enslaved took a song written by a slave owner and made it all their own. Whitney Houston and Marvin Gaye picked up those words and sang something so powerful that the original author became a footnote. Thank you, America, for your willingness to change for the better.

And that brings me to what I love about you the most: I love what is the real driver of your exceptionalism. It’s not your geography, Constitution, or resources. Yes, those things matter, but it’s not the real answer. The real answer is that you are a nation largely built by the world’s outcasts. Think about who’s come here: it’s not the comfortable ones or the people who already had a seat at the table or a fancy title or family name that meant something. Squeezed out, starved out, or persecuted out. These people showed up with little else than the clothes on their backs and a fiery determination to prove the old world wrong.

And remember what you said to them? "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” THAT is a radical proposition, America. At bottom, you didn’t weigh them down with a thousand years of history about where they came from and why they weren’t acceptable. Don’t believe me? Well, I remind you about my own family, how you graciously accepted us, and gave us the chance to do great things. I will never forget that about you, America. It’s your greatest quality.

Yes, America, you’ve got some flaws. But honestly, it’s not you; it’s us. Beyond our sometimes tacky confidence that borders on the irrational, you have so much to offer the rest of the world. We need to do a better job of sharing that and not the ugliness we’ve seen over the past few years.

So on your 250^th birthday — did I tell you that you still look so youthful!? — I just want to remind you that you are loved, America. Because despite the noise, the arguments, and the imperfections, I know you are the greatest ongoing democratic experiment in human history. I still believe in your promise and your unwavering dedication to what we can be.

^[i] I know there are many other food items that can be mentioned. But, for now, I’ll give a shout-out to a few honorable mentions that didn’t make the final cut: Fried Oreos, the Monte Cristo sandwich at Bennigan’s, and the entire menu at The Cheesecake Factory.

^[ii] The backstory, as told by my husband: My grandfather, Max (about 5’6’’ and weighing 110 pounds), was an unbelievably tough man who grew up in the Russian Empire before coming to the United States at the age of twelve. He came to America to escape the pogroms and the viciousness of that part of the world. But because of where he grew up, he had no illusions about people and never put much stock in words such as “hope” or “optimism.” Anyway, in 1989, the Cubs had a magical season. Jerome Walton was electric, Mark Grace’s swing was a natural wonder of the world, and the pitching staff was elite. It was early October and we took my grandfather out for Mexican food because, even though he was a curmudgeonly 91-year-old Russian Jew, he loved quesadillas (no joke). Dinner ran a bit late, so on the drive home, we turned on the radio to listen to Game 1 of the playoff series between the Cubs and the San Francisco Giants. We were playing at Wrigley with Greg Maddux, the greatest modern-era pitcher, and it was a night game, so the crowd was electric. And then Will Clark just ANNIHILATED us. By the top of the fourth inning, he already hit a double and a homer. But then he stepped up to the plate, got down to business and crushed a grand slam (I’m still unsure if the ball ever landed). It was such a punch in the face that twelve-year-old me began to tear up. My grandfather immediately pulled the car over on Milwaukee Avenue (yes, he still drove at 91), turned off the radio, looked at me and said, “Jonathan, they are bums and will never win anything. I didn’t cry at twelve. Grow up.” We then proceeded to drive home in silence, my father and I too afraid to say another word to him. I am almost fifty years old and still remember that night like it was yesterday.

^[iii] One of my favorite comments in the YouTube video I linked is: “The National Anthem smoked a cigarette after Marvin was done making love to it.”

^[iv] Yes, I know she lip-synched the song – and so did Marvin Gaye – because there were concerns about potential audio problems during a live performance. I don’t know about Marvin Gaye, but the story about Whitney Houston is that she pre-taped in ONE TAKE. And the fact that they both lip-synched the song doesn’t change how life-altering their performances were.

SCOTUS did right by E. Jean in rejecting Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s attempts to have the highest court in the land hear his bullshit appeal of the $5 million judgment against him for his sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean.

In this video, Joyce and I explain the outcome and the other case E. Jean won against Trump and its current status.

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