This is not good.

Back outside the White House. Today the perimeter has been pushed back another half block. Federal law enforcement of some kind, but they won’t identify themselves, and all insignias and name plates have been removed. pic.twitter.com/q5dmdMgkLV

— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) June 3, 2020

Word is they’re required to identify. Without insignia and names they could be anybody – Proud Boys, KKK, Stephen Miller’s private army, anybody.

Oh hey it turns out Trump didn’t go to the bunker to hide from the meany protesters, he went to inspect it. Because that’s what presidents do: they inspect the various rooms in the White House. They inspect for rat turds, for termite damage, for mold, for leaks, for fire hazards, for slippery bits, for toxins, for toadstools growing up through the floor, for rust, for stains, for splinters, for spills, for scratching by cats or weasels or gerbils, for bats, for spiders, for sour milk, for canned goods that have passed their “best by” date, for light bulb failures, for crooked blinds, for ugly curtains…frankly it’s a never-ending job.

During an interview with Fox News radio host Brian

Robert Kagan in the Post:

Anyone concerned about the state of America’s democracy ought to have been troubled Monday at the sight of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, striding behind Donald Trump during his presidential show of force at Lafayette Square. Dressed in combat fatigues and walking with Attorney General William P. Barr, national security adviser Robert O’Brien and others, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer did more than make himself part of the tableau of Trump’s photo op and campaign commercial. Milley gave tangible meaning to the president’s threat to deploy the U.S. military to put down “domestic terror” in the United States.

Why combat fatigues forgodsake? Why on earth? … Read the rest

Another one quits:

A Department of Defense adviser has resigned, effective immediately, from the military’s science board, citing what he believed to be a violation of conduct from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

In his resignation letter to Esper, which was obtained by The Washington Post, James Miller Jr., who served as the US undersecretary of defense for policy from 2012 to 2014, recalled that he swore an oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and “to bear true faith and allegiance to the same,” similar to what the defense secretary had done before he took office.

“On Monday, June 1, 2020, I believe that you violated that oath,” Miller wrote to

George Will has torn a long painful strip off Bunkie. It’s a good read.

… this weak person’s idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath has proven that the phrase malignant buffoon is not an oxymoron.

…The president’s provocations — his coarsening of public discourse that lowers the threshold for acting out by people as mentally crippled as he — do not excuse the violent few. They must be punished. He must be removed.

Social causation is difficult to demonstrate, particularly between one person’s words and other persons’ deeds. However: The person voters hired in 2016 to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on Like an awkward impulse buy.

Many plays by Shakespeare and writers of his time are profoundly political (European visitors were shocked at what the English companies got away with, for you simply could not be so political in any other European country), and if the director does not recognise this, or seeks to foist on plays some obvious contemporary ‘relevance’ that has nothing to do with the issues that are addressed in the plays, then that is a recipe for rendering the plays as dead as doornails. European (non-Anglophone) productions of Shakespeare, and particularly Kosintsev’s great film versions, often recognise the politics of the plays far better than most Anglo-Saxon productions do. … Read the rest

And speaking of popes and the Catholic church…

Seven months pregnant, Manuela, a mother of two, said she miscarried at her modest home in rural El Salvador. But the police, and a judge, didn’t believe her. They charged and convicted her for aggravated homicide, sentencing her to 30 years in prison.

But Manuela only served two of those years. In 2010, she died alone in a hospital of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a disease her lawyers say caused her to miscarry. 

More than 140 women have been charged under El Salvador’s total ban on abortion since 1998, incarcerated for up to 35 years in some of the world’s most notorious prisons. Like Manuela, many say they never had an abortion, but

Even Catholic archbishops don’t want Trump polluting their sites.

President Trump drew fresh criticism from religious leaders on Tuesday when he and first lady Melania Trump visited a shrine to Pope John Paul II in Washington, D.C.

The trip to to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine drew a sharp response from Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who said, “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles.”

They do have some principles in common, like the subordination of women for instance.

The visit took place less than 24 hours after an Episcopal bishop said the president had used the

Yes, I know The Hitler pic is photoshopped.
So is this. pic.twitter.com/f4LiMgr83G

— D Villella ❄️ (@dvillella) June 2, 2020

… Read the rest

Via Casey Rae on Facebook:

He says it’s a poster that was for sale at the Holocaust museum in DC.… Read the rest

Yesterday was a bad day for the Cuomo Brothers. New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum. The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces. Likewise, Fredo’s ratings are down 50%!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020

NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Don’t make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020

SILENT MAJORITY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020

New York City put on an 11:00 P.M. CURFEW last night. No wonder they

Erm…what?

I’m as baffled as the people who jump up shouting “What are you doing?!”

The Post and Courier talked to him afterwards:

“I am not your enemy,” Givionne “Gee” Jordan Jr. told the officers. “All of you are my family.”

Emotion caught his voice. Other protesters crouched over him, their hands on his shoulders as he spoke. “I love each and every one of you. I want to understand all of you. I want to. I would love to see the best side of everyone here.”

So, naturally, they arrested him.

In an interview with The Post and Courier, Jordan, a 23-year-old Charleston resident, said he spent the night in the county jail. He was charged with

One part of the picture:

A Twitter account that tweeted a call to violence and claimed to be representing the position of “Antifa” was in fact created by a known white supremacist group, Twitter said Monday. The company removed the account.

Before it emerged the account was run by white supremacists, Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s son, pointed his 2.8 million Instagram followers to the account as an example how dangerous Antifa is.

…

The revelation of the account comes as President Donald Trump increasingly blames left-wing activists for violence occurring at protests across America.

Trump and Fox News and the Matt Gaetz types and all their fans.

The phenomenon of people on the right creating fake Antifa

Some commentary and information.

BREAKING: Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has a message for Trump “on behalf of the police chiefs of this country: please, if you don’t have something constructive to say, keep your mouth shut.” Wow. Absolutely. More of this. From everyone.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) June 1, 2020

So Putin helped draft his speech, the tear-gassing & photo op today. Got it. https://t.co/4u0977sKae

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) June 2, 2020

It is all very Putin, isn’t it.

Yesterday, our monstrous, despicable president assaulted Americans engaged in peaceful protest for a photo op. He could be reelected.

I wrote a few mean texts four years ago and have been rained down with insults and attacks ever since.

Oh yes, the guts. So much the guts.

Hard to imagine any other @POTUS having the guts to walk out of the White House like this: @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/R9Da6W7Hhb

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) June 2, 2020

After the path has been cleared by violent men gassing citizens? How does that take guts?

Such bravery. pic.twitter.com/TOqDETavza

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) June 2, 2020

Also –

Here is one:https://t.co/jG0fY50rLy

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 2, 2020

… Read the rest

The Post on Trump’s fascist overture:

President Trump began mulling a visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday morning, after spending the night devouring cable news coverage of protests across the country, including in front of the White House.

The historic church had been damaged by fire, and Trump was eager to show that the nation’s capital — and especially his own downtown swath of it — was under control.

Not, be it noted, that the nation’s president gave a rat’s ass about the casual murder of a black suspect by a white cop, but that the nation’s president’s neighborhood was under control. How to demonstrate that? Well, as luck would have it, there were protesters just … Read the rest

This. This is a coup move.

CBP personnel have deployed to the National Capital Region to assist law enforcement partners. These “protests” have devolved into chaos & acts of domestic terrorism by groups of radicals & agitators. @CBP is answering the call and will work to keep DC safe. pic.twitter.com/QLueFkgaPO

— CBP Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) June 1, 2020

… Read the rest

The Guardian Live reports:

Trump is predictably painting a picture of violent protests, focusing on “professional anarchists” and “Antifa”.

He says “we are ending the riots and lawlessness” and “innocent people have been savagely beaten”.

The president has threatened to send in military if governors don’t act. He said he also encouraged governors to bring in the National Guard, which many states have already done.

He’s not allowed to send in the military…unless he invokes the Insurrection Act. We don’t want him doing that.

While he was threatening martial law –

In a startling scene, police are using teargas to disperse crowds of protesters near the White House while Trump is speaking in the Rose Garden.

Tear gassing and

Bad bad bad bad.

In five years covering Trump, I haven't seen an hour like the past one:
-Trump declares self "president of law and order"
-Trump mobilizes military
-Military police fire tear gas at peaceful protesters to clear street in front of St. John's
-Trump visits St John's for photo opp

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) June 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1267605821438988289 https://twitter.com/jonlovett/status/1267594910191902720

Gov Cuomo on CNN on Trump's police and military imposed walk to church: "It was shameful."

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 1, 2020

I'm surprised that bible didn't burst into fucking flames

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) June 1, 2020

… Read the rest

Holy shit. Trump just had protesters gassed so that he could have a photo op with the gassing.

Police fired tear gas at peaceful demonstrators outside the White House Monday, just moments before President Trump addressed the nation about violent protests that have unfolded across the country over the killing of black men by police.

[Black people actually. Breonna Taylor was a woman.]

Sooner after his address, Trump used the path cleared by police to walk to St. John’s Church, which had sustained fire damage during protests the night before.

During his address from the Rose Garden, said he was dispatching “thousands and thousands” of armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting and looting