American officials are rushing to finalize details ahead of Friday’s summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska, with both logistical and geopolitical issues still unsettled four days ahead of the momentous sit-down.
As of Monday, no venue for the summit had been announced. Administration officials were still making their way to Alaska — selected for its centrality to Washington and Moscow — to scope out where, exactly, the US and Russian presidents would meet.
Officials were also working to clarify the contours of the two men’s expected discussion, which Trump hopes can yield significant progress toward ending the war in Ukraine.
The uncertainty surrounding the summit as the week opened underscored the extraordinary moment Trump finds himself in seven months into his second term. After entering office hoping to leverage his relationship with Putin to end the Ukraine war, only to become disillusioned by the Russian leader’s duplicity, Trump is now embarking on the biggest test yet of his long-held faith in face-to-face diplomacy.
[…]
A number of questions hang over the preparations.
One is whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be invited. He wasn’t mentioned when Trump announced the meeting last week. The White House hasn’t ruled out including him in Alaska, but officials said their priority was organizing the Trump-Putin one-on-one.
“If he thinks that that is the best scenario to invite Zelensky, then he will do that,” the US ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The meeting’s happening on Friday. There’s time to make that decision.”
Ukrainian officials made clear Zelensky was prepared to travel to Alaska if invited by Trump. But they also acknowledged much would hinge on how the Trump-Putin meeting unfolds.
“We have shown that he is ready to be anywhere to advance the agenda of peace. So, if needed, President Zelensky, of course, will be present at the meetings. We have been very open about it, but let’s see how this will go,” the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said on CBS.
Another question was what, precisely, Putin put on the table during his meeting with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff last week to convince the US the time was right for a meeting between the leaders. While exact details of his proposal remained hazy, it was clear that major land concessions on the part of the Ukrainians would be central to his plan.
On both fronts, European leaders have been anxiously awaiting more details from the United States. The way they understand it, the plan put forward by Putin would give Moscow control of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region, which Russia partially occupies. The fate of the two other regions that have been in Putin’s sights, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, remained unclear, as did the status of US security guarantees going forward.
Trump’s aides believe it’s important to have buy-in from European nations on the president’s peace efforts, and spent much of the weekend explaining Trump’s objectives while hearing out concerns about how Putin might approach the session.
At a meeting in the English countryside on Saturday, Vice President JD Vance listened as several national security advisers from major European nations spelled out the parameters they believed must be upheld in peace talks with Putin.
Atop their list was the importance of implanting a ceasefire before any further ideas are discussed — a mandate Putin has repeatedly rejected in the past.
The Europeans have also pressed for reciprocity in any land concessions, positing that if Ukraine cedes territory in the eastern Donbas region, Russia must also pull back its occupation in other parts of Ukraine.
[…]
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said he planned to speak with Trump on Sunday, reiterated the European position that any discussions on Ukrainian territory must involve Ukraine and Europe.
“We hope and assume that the government of Ukraine, that President Zelensky, will be involved in this meeting,” Merz said in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD, adding later: “We cannot accept that territorial issues between Russia and America are discussed or even decided over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians.”
[continues]
in other news
Aug 11, 2025 #lastweektonight
John Oliver discusses the Trump administration’s promise to deport one million immigrants, what the follow through on that promise looks like in practice, what the actual rules are about masked police arresting civilians across the country, and some stuff about filmmaker Dean Cain. It’s ok, you can Google him, we don’t expect you to recognize the name.
well, Dodo’s DC purge may be another way to meet stephen miller’s 3000 a day goal, at least for today: https://www.huffpost.com/
Trump Vows To Evict Homeless From Washington, Official Says National Guard May Be Deployed
The U.S. military is preparing for the activation of hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday.
[…]
There are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness on any given night in the city of about 700,000, says the Community Partnership, an organization working to reduce homelessness in D.C.
Elon Musk’s Tesla applies to supply electricity to households in Great Britain
US carmaker makes move for licence that would allow it to provide energy to domestic and business premises
Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.
The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.
This would enable Tesla, which also runs an energy supply business in the US, to provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales as soon as next year. It can take Ofgem up to nine months to assess an application.
The business is expected to be branded Tesla Electric and could focus on supplying electricity to consumers who own Tesla products such as cars or batteries.
[…]
Tesla has sold many home storage batteries called Powerwalls that can be charged by solar power or from the grid at off-peak times to UK households. It also sells home chargers for electric car
The company effectively revealed its aim to sell electricity to homes two years ago when it posted a job listing looking for a head of operations. It took its first step into the British energy market in 2020 when it was granted a licence to be an electricity generator.
Tesla already has an electricity supplier in Texas, where it launched household supply deals in 2022. It allows Tesla owners to charge their cars cheaply and pays them for selling surplus solar power or electricity stored in its home batteries back to the grid.
Attribution: Meeting in Alaska by Jeff Koterba, patreon.com/jeffreykoterba
[After 31 years as the cartoonist for Nebraska’s largest newspaper, Jeff suddenly found himself laid off. So he greatly appreciates the support of fans to keep drawing. Jeff’s brilliant and moderate editorial cartoons are syndicated around the world and his original drawings have also flown aboard space shuttle Discovery. He’s given Ted talks and is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Prairie Cats, a swing and jump-blues band that has performed around the U.S. including the South by Southwest Music Festival. And he may be the most popular cartoonist with editors on all of Cagle.com.]
FBI dispatching agents to D.C. streets as Trump weighs calling National Guard
The Trump administration has temporarily assigned FBI agents to work overnight shifts to combat carjackings and other crimes.
The FBI has begun dispatching agents in overnight shifts to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime in Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the nation’s capital and considers calling up the National Guard.
A decision on calling up the Guard could come as soon as Monday, when Trump plans a news conference at the White House on crime in D.C., according to a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
[…]
In recent days, the administration has authorized up to 120 agents, largely from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, to work overnight shifts for at least one week alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital, according to the people familiar with those efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss specifics of a staffing plan that has not been made public.
The deployment of FBI agents to deal with local crime puts agents from the bureau’s counterintelligence, public corruption and other divisions with minimal training in traffic stops out on the streets in potentially dangerous encounters, diverting them from their typical jobs at the bureau. And it comes as Trump is publicly portraying the city as rampant with violent crime — even as the mayor refutes that characterization, pointing to police data showing a drop in violent crime.
Last week, Trump ordered federal law enforcement agents from several agencies to be deployed on city streets and called for more juveniles to be charged in the adult justice system.
Staffing assignments this weekend reveal for the first time how many new FBI resources the Trump administration could divert to local crime and the frustration it has caused within the bureau.
FBI agents generally do not have authority to make traffic stops, and the people said the agents’ roles could include supporting the other agencies during traffic stops.
The FBI also is dispatching agents from outside D.C., including Philadelphia, to help with the surge of federal law enforcement in the District, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.
Federal land is scattered across Washington, and local enforcement often works alongside federal law enforcement to patrol these and surrounding areas. But the U.S. Park Police and Secret Service — which have more experience patrolling streets — typically do this work, not the FBI.
The Secret Service and the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division have also been directed to launch special patrols in D.C., according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the operation.
[…]
Because D.C. is not a state, the federal government has unique authority to exert control over city affairs — even amid objections from the residents and locally elected government. The Home Rule Act of 1973 gave D.C. residents the ability to elect their own mayor and council members. A federal takeover of the D.C. police force would be an extraordinary assertion of power in a place where local leaders have few avenues to resist federal encroachment.
“Agents from the FBI Washington Field Office continue to participate in the increased federal law enforcement presence in D.C., which includes assisting our law enforcement partners,” the FBI said in a statement Sunday morning. [continues]
Up First by Brittney Melton
President Trump deployed federal agents across Washington, D.C., last night. He vowed to push out people who don’t have housing and take criminals off the streets and place them in jails. The president announced on social media that he would hold a press conference today at 10 a.m. ET to discuss ending crime in the nation’s capital. Violent crime in Washington hit a 30-year low last year, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
FBI agents and other federal law enforcement agents walk around the neighborhood near the Nationals Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Tyrone Turner/WAMU/for NPR
🎧 NPR’s Brian Mann was on the streets of D.C. last night and tells Up First that he saw dozens of agents, some wearing masks and one carrying a military-style rifle. At one point, there was a minor car accident, and several federal agents ran to the scene. Mann says the Metropolitan Police Department, the city’s police force, seemed to have the situation pretty much under control. Mann also visited a homeless camp where he talked to multiple people, including 39-year-old Greg Evans, who has struggled with addiction and health problems for years. Evans said he is afraid that Trump can do whatever he wants, but he refuses to live his whole life in fear.
Meme
I wonder if this Putin meeting ends up really happening? Even as performance art it’s looking like a fiasco in the making. Trump just wanted a headline on the day Putin ignored his latest deadline.
Would be nice if the ICC had Putin & Krasnov arrested. If the could invite BiBi to tea, they could get his sorry carcass, too.
Time for those DC churches to step up and shelter the homeless.
Time to bring a little thing about the demented, delusional, diseased, senile old stink living in an alternate world, everything is for viewing on the “small screen”. Reality of FBI agents unable to make a traffic stop without getting shot, or trying to corner a small gang of teens, does not matter. It is Efrem Zimbalist Jr. closing the giant door of his Ford. Stern looking white guy, staring at the camera.
The first go around of trying to take over D.C. did not end with good television for the mangomoron. That was a warm up. The good citizens of the District know the city better than any imported National Guard. Will it be 2547? Or will the cheeseburger go for the win? Will 2025 fail? Or, will it win and destroy these United States?
Yep, this can’t end well…
A Metro Transit Police officer participating in a “federal task force operation” early Sunday fired at someone in Northeast Washington, officials said. The highly unusual incident for the force that guards the city’s public transportation system arrives as President Donald Trump calls for a boosted law enforcement presence in the city to tackle crime.
Obviously this “takeover” isn’t about crime at all
Unfortunately, interest in Epstein finally seems to be dropping off as the deluded minions absorb the latest travesties and encroachment on the law.
Can’t say I’ve ever thought about Paul Krugman in the middle of the night
Jamie, it’s still hot in the maga echo chamber. Glenn Beck got a slew of callers last night screaming about “betrayal” — and for the first time I’m hearing them blame Trump, not just Bondi
Craig,
That’s good to hear as CNN is quoting polls. Guess they are getting tired of the story.
one of the raw files of MAGA callers i’m editing now for a video. Trump calling them “stupid” and their beliefs in a conspiracy a “hoax” is not sitting well..
I was woke up this at 6:30 this morning by roofers working about 30 feet from my bed. My usual wake up time is 9am, hey I’m retired. Spent the time straighting out my links. It has been a while since I cleaned them up. Ran across this one. Perfect for a monday morning
Jamie, it’s not the mainstream media they’re worried about. They’re trying to get right wing off the story, and it isn’t working. And shutting down Congress isn’t going to stop MAGA reps demanding release and Maxwell testimony when they come back . They are getting burned in their districts.
Seems to be a protest to protect Home Rule in DC, Craig, at 16th Street NW. I’d stay out of the park for awhile.
today’s meme…
Watching this press conference makes you notice that Democracies tend to be messy. Once dictators put away all the people they don’t like and scare the hell out of everyone else, it becomes neat and the trains run on time.
guess what fascists do when they run out of places to put people they don’t like
What a grotesque rogues’ gallery cluttering up my tv screen. It’s on mute, but still.
This is not America.
Would be nice if the ICC had Putin & Krasnov arrested
you realize the ICC is a farce, right?
I called a Putin a genius on here a long time ago, and I remember Pogo, among others, giving me a hard time about it…
If Putin gets a piece of the United States by invading Ukraine then yes he is a genius
we gotta get Trump out of office legally and quickly
I lived in DC when Reagan was president. There were homeless sleeping in the Metro exits, on grates and in Lafayette Park right across the street from the White House. It’s not new.
It’s not gonna be great for metropolitan economies for ICE to be engaging in gun battles with shadows
Jamie – there were places in D.C. where you did not stop for anything, keep on driving, no cops around anyway. I scared some visitors from headquarters more than once when I made a wrong turn and just kept on driving.
Sorry to say, the maggers are going to approve this. He’s turning the country into white trash rule which is what they want.
If ICE is busy removing the Cartel, how come there are no dead ICE officers. Look across the border, the cartel doesn’t play around.
Jack
Bronc
Yes, but I think that is true of just about any large city. The homeless probably wanted the safe part of the city as well.
The roofers next door are Mexican. Down here in little ole redneck Springfield Missouri.
Jack
trump’s response to exorbitant cost-of-living is unchecked inflation
only thing dumber than him are his voters!
Time for those DC churches to step up
What makes you think they aren’t?
Dealing with the chronic homeless is a community problem, that needs to be addressed by all levels of government, not just a few religious volunteers.
some of the more active churches I know of are in those in urban cities.
But the ones who are most experienced with the issue are also some of the ones least able to help. Then there are the suburban churches that come in, ignorant and cause clueless messes.
Jack
MAGA is not distracted…
From Glenn Beck’s phone lines to Joe Rogan’s mic — Trump supporters are still furious over the broken promise to release the Epstein files. And no, this story isn’t going away. 📂
He’s already given away Alaska?
Trump: “I’m gonna see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday.”
Our Chat Studio open at 3pm ET today if anything you’d like to talk about. Will be interviewing my former federal prosecutor cousin Carolyn about today’s ruling in the Epstein case.
The “ask for grand jury transcripts and materials” is nothing but a head fake. DOJ has its own files, and they don’t have to go to a judge to release them. Not sure what restrictions DOJ and FBI policies impose, but that doesn’t seem to mean shit under the Dumbas/Blondi regime – so long as Dumbass and his buddies have been purged from them., and I’m sure agents have worked overtime to get that done.
Pogo
I say the whole DC crime/homeless thing is too. It is a way to get the liberals to scream. Screaming liberals is music to the ears of the maga crowd. If the liberals scream loud enough then Maga will come back to the fold.
Jack
Most political talk about “the homeless/unhoused problem” Is political theater, both on the left and on the right. They both like having the issue around, and they never get serious about it, because, the homeless don’t vote.
The weird thing is, they both have parts of the solution if they would work together. This could be a bipartisan compromise that works.
But it ain’t happening, it is too good a political football.
Jack
Since the pedo file-in-chief, Orange Chickenshit Taco, is always confessing – and since he was talking about trading territories in this meeting with Putin – and since at today’s press conference that he was meeting Putin in Russia…is he giving Alaska back to Russia? (lol) It would serve Murkowsi right.
Pogo
Trump et al were in full poke the libs mode with outrageous claims of rampant transgenders, druggies, and crime. I could feel my hackles rising with the desire to mount the barricades the longer they spoke, but that is not the smart way to handle him. You just have to keep pointing out the falacies, exaggerations and lies.
Hey,
Murkowski comes from a long line of politicians.
She will come out on top.
BTW, Trump giving Alaska to Putin is a long way from Russia occupying Alaska. Given how heavily armed they are up there,I could see a free independent Alaska. Can we say Queen Lisa?
Jack
You just have to keep pointing out the falacies, exaggerations and lies.
Yeah but…
Make housing affordable, increase the minimum wage to a liveable wage, universal healthcare including mental healthcare, low-cost state college (pre-Reagan), affordable child care.
This EO of Adolf’s that says “mentally ill” will be civilly committed, including the homeless…who pays? Is “TDS” and “wokeness” considered mental illness? Are they just going to end up in a concentration camp and forced to work or undergo experiments?
An afternoon of John Prine
Bid
Only one of that list will help with the long term homeless, but offering mental health services won’t work if they aren’t used.
Jack
yes, they will build for-profit camps, BiD
Is “TDS” and “wokeness” considered mental illness? Are they just going to end up in a concentration camp and forced to work or undergo experiments?
I didn’t think it would be this quick.
As this quote proves rather than talk about a solution it much more fun to use it as a political football
Jack
The reason they trolled the courts for this ruling is to tell MAGA “unelected judges” are hiding the records. But even MAGAts aren’t that stupid.
An 18-year-old in Utah who was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old avoided jail after the laws governing sexual offenses were changed while his relative was president of the state Senate.
While the law did not apply retroactively and the 18-year-old was not charged with the new lower-level crime created by the bill, they nonetheless avoided further jail time and were not required to register as a sex offender after the bill was passed.
The mother of the 13-year-old told The Salt Lake Tribune: “I feel like a law is the law, regardless of who you are, but that wasn’t what was going on here. I feel like [the 18-year-old] just got special treatment…and nobody was going to say anything about it.”
*I wonder if tRUMPsky is successful at pushing all 14-year olds being tried as adults, if he’ll push for the age of majority to marry to be 14.
The idea that it took the Epstein files being withheld to make MAGAts doubt PedOTUS tRUMPsky’s truthfulness is absolutely wild.
A whole lotta cognitive dissonance going on in the MAGAverse.
*So many opportunities to solve a systemic issue of capitalism. Seeing homelessness as a moral failing, or that every unhoused person is mentally ill, is right-wing, Republican spin.
Mr. Bonkers had his usual idiotic presser where his addled brain was used to describe Washington, D.C. prior to sending the troops in. For added enjoyment he kept saying he was meeting puttie in russia. Not Alaska but russia. There is the possibility that mangomoron has already handed the state of Alaska to puttie, most likely he is so deep into dementia or Alzheimer’s that he has no idea where he is or what he is doing. Soon he will not know who he is and the magats will still think that is multi-dimensional board game playing.
would it be accurate to say the most crime committed in one day in washington DC was during the reign of Trump?
on top of whatever other crimes were committed in the city on that day, in re Jan 6 insurrection, wiki noted “The FBI has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts at the event.”
this and more interesting numbers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cases_of_the_January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes to formalize Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 United States presidential election.[1]
By the end of the year, 725 people had been charged with federal crimes.[2][3] That number rose to 1,000 by the second anniversary of the attack,[2] to 1,200 by the third anniversary (three-quarters of whom had by then been found guilty)[4][5] and to 1,500 before the fourth anniversary.[6] As of January 20, 2025, 1,575 people were charged in connection with the January 6 attack. The FBI has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts at the event.[7]
Upon Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, he pardoned all but 14 of about 1,270 convicted rioters. The remaining 14 people, though their convictions stood, were eligible for immediate release from prison, as he commuted their sentences to “time served.”[8][9] Following Trump’s pardons, the Justice Department moved to dismiss some cases awaiting trial or sentencing.
guess where most of the federalized police action will be. not the darkest blue areas for sure in this map found at https://bestneighborhood.org/race-in-washington-dc/
Majority Race by color Key
White: blue, Hispanic: orange, Black: green, Asian: red, Multiple/Other: brown
Well, I tried to participate in the chat room today and was partially successful right up until I entered digital purgatory between Hancock and Cumberland and then I couldn’t get back in.
Robert Gebelhoff: Trump probably has the legal power to do this (pulling from authority laid out in the Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave D.C. limited autonomy). So, let’s talk about whether he should be doing this. Is it justified, or just political theater?
Megan McArdle: Crime in D.C. is falling, but it is still outrageously high. That has enormous costs not just to victims, but to the people who have to take precautions against it, whether installing an alarm system, as we did last year, putting bars on their windows, or avoiding certain areas. It also takes a toll on the city’s economy, driving tourists away and encouraging suburbanites to get out of the city after dark. So, I’m very sympathetic to Trump’s desire to get things under control. That said, I am skeptical that deploying the National Guard is a solution, and the way Jeanine Pirro was talking about the problem — charge more teenagers as adults! Lock ’em up and throw away the key! — recaps the failed anti-crime politics of the 1990s… More at link.
lumber selection and quality absolutely fucking sucks right now thanks to Trump squeezing Canadian products out of the market
This doesn’t end well
American lumber- warped, cracked, and mostly pine 🇺🇸
impeach immediately ty
chipboard-based infrastructure, lol
see these trump idiots don’t understand what they don’t understand
The wood from fast-growth timber is not as good as hardwood from the old days, so says the mountain lumberman who’s helping us plan a new deck.
ill take it over pine
there are only so many old growth trees, and they’re cutting them down quick
how is that relevant to you though when decks are made out of pressure-treated pine?
Piet Oudolf (Dutch pronunciation: [pit ˈʌudɔl(ə)f]; born 27 October 1944) is a Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the “New Perennial” movement – his designs and plant compositions using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower color.
Some have suggested excluding undocumented immigrants from the census count, but this is not supported by the Constitution, which refers to the “actual enumeration” of “persons”. Slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person. The 14th Amendment altered this by replacin the wording to “the whole number of persons” in each state shall be counted.
Key points about who is counted in the census:
Every person residing in the United States: This is the core principle, encompassing all individuals physically present in the country on Census Day.
Citizens and non-citizens: The census does not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens.
Undocumented immigrants: Undocumented immigrants are also included in the census count.
Usual residence: People are counted at their usual place of residence, which is where they live and sleep most of the time.
Exceptions: Foreign citizens visiting the U.S. on vacation or short business trips are not counted, but foreign citizens who are working or studying on Visas are counted.
Failure to count everyone would take either a Constitutional Amendment or at the very least Congressional action which would probably face judicial challenges unless what they passed was an Amendment requiring ratification.
In this YouTube short from the full video Pogo says the DOJ’s grand jury push in the Maxwell case was a “head fake” — designed to get people chasing transcripts instead of the FBI evidence that’s still locked away.
The musics go round and around.
Pogo gets 400 viewers in 30 minutes!
Judge calls out phony DOJ bid for useless Epstein Grand Jury transcripts..
I hope that’s not my best angle…😳
how is that relevant to you though when decks are made out of pressure-treated pine?
He’s just telling us what to expect. We are moving closer to the fires.
Another small point on the census. Both Washington and Jefferson thought the first census (1790) was under counted. This was principally due to long distances, difficulty due to population dispersion and defined jurisdiction of nationalities.
Ever since, every effort has been made to accurately count everyone within the boundaries of all states.
Well,
lumber selection and quality absolutely fucking sucks right now thanks to Trump squeezing Canadian products out of the market
Yes. Based on my very recent experience, the way I see this, is that we are in the middle of a very long train. It definitely is harder and harder to find straight not split lumber of any dimension. But since “pine“ has been SPF in the big box stores for at least 20 years, this is just another step in the trip from old growth hardwood (and please God don’t go back to that, we have so fucking precious little of it now) to whatever the fuck it is we have now in Lowes, Home Depo, and even the smaller Mom and Pop lumber outlets, that go under the name of pine. I’m in the middle of a very small project that requires one by two lumber of a relatively small quantity. The Oakland Maryland Lowes had 10 pieces of “select” project grade 6 foot one by two, and each one of them had either a twist or a bend in it. I would’ve been happy to have used poplar instead, but the poplar looked like shit, too. Bottom line is that rather than buying the three pieces of project grade one by two that I needed for the project, I ended up having to buy five. Apply that to a fucking house under construction and you get an idea of Trump‘s handiwork in his squeezing the Canadian lumber industry out of our markets. I would recommend to him that he do an anatomically impossible act with himself.
You heard it here first, this afternoon, and maybe it’s coincidence and maybe not, but I just heard Alicia Mendez referred to this bullshit of seeking grand jury materials as a head fake. Now, where have we heard that before?
And she didn’t say it rolling down a West Virginia highway in cool sunglasses, neither.
I would recommend to him that he do an anatomically impossible act with himself.
Cranial-rectal inversion❓
Prescient and chilling especially now that we’re in it in real time.
Craig – Was there any any noise at 8pm? Apparently, that’s supposed to be a thing while DC is occupied.
Statue or cartoon :
Typical maggot male sitting on the terlet staring in rapt frowning concentration at the red MAGAt hat he holds in his hand as if it were a great red turd which has somehow found its way into his trembling fingers.
Waking up can be so traumatic.
You can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he slowly comes to realize what he’s about to do with his red magat hat.
NEW THREAD
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https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/11/politics/trump-putin-summit-alaska-details
in other news
Aug 11, 2025 #lastweektonight
John Oliver discusses the Trump administration’s promise to deport one million immigrants, what the follow through on that promise looks like in practice, what the actual rules are about masked police arresting civilians across the country, and some stuff about filmmaker Dean Cain. It’s ok, you can Google him, we don’t expect you to recognize the name.
well, Dodo’s DC purge may be another way to meet stephen miller’s 3000 a day goal, at least for today:
https://www.huffpost.com/
sturge & anon, relative to your discussion on batteries:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/10/elon-musk-tesla-applies-to-supply-electricity-to-households-in-great-britain
Attribution: Meeting in Alaska by Jeff Koterba, patreon.com/jeffreykoterba
[After 31 years as the cartoonist for Nebraska’s largest newspaper, Jeff suddenly found himself laid off. So he greatly appreciates the support of fans to keep drawing. Jeff’s brilliant and moderate editorial cartoons are syndicated around the world and his original drawings have also flown aboard space shuttle Discovery. He’s given Ted talks and is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Prairie Cats, a swing and jump-blues band that has performed around the U.S. including the South by Southwest Music Festival. And he may be the most popular cartoonist with editors on all of Cagle.com.]
Jamie, response to this comment?
The Dictator Tips playlist…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc updated last night at 11:47pm
Up First by Brittney Melton
Meme
I wonder if this Putin meeting ends up really happening? Even as performance art it’s looking like a fiasco in the making. Trump just wanted a headline on the day Putin ignored his latest deadline.
Would be nice if the ICC had Putin & Krasnov arrested. If the could invite BiBi to tea, they could get his sorry carcass, too.
Time for those DC churches to step up and shelter the homeless.
Time to bring a little thing about the demented, delusional, diseased, senile old stink living in an alternate world, everything is for viewing on the “small screen”. Reality of FBI agents unable to make a traffic stop without getting shot, or trying to corner a small gang of teens, does not matter. It is Efrem Zimbalist Jr. closing the giant door of his Ford. Stern looking white guy, staring at the camera.
The first go around of trying to take over D.C. did not end with good television for the mangomoron. That was a warm up. The good citizens of the District know the city better than any imported National Guard. Will it be 2547? Or will the cheeseburger go for the win? Will 2025 fail? Or, will it win and destroy these United States?
Yep, this can’t end well…
Obviously this “takeover” isn’t about crime at all
Unfortunately, interest in Epstein finally seems to be dropping off as the deluded minions absorb the latest travesties and encroachment on the law.
Can’t say I’ve ever thought about Paul Krugman in the middle of the night
Jamie, it’s still hot in the maga echo chamber. Glenn Beck got a slew of callers last night screaming about “betrayal” — and for the first time I’m hearing them blame Trump, not just Bondi
Craig,
That’s good to hear as CNN is quoting polls. Guess they are getting tired of the story.
one of the raw files of MAGA callers i’m editing now for a video. Trump calling them “stupid” and their beliefs in a conspiracy a “hoax” is not sitting well..
I was woke up this at 6:30 this morning by roofers working about 30 feet from my bed. My usual wake up time is 9am, hey I’m retired. Spent the time straighting out my links. It has been a while since I cleaned them up. Ran across this one. Perfect for a monday morning
Of course, they didn’t want to win. Now they can blame the courts for hiding records.
Judge rejects unsealing Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/11/jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-grand-jury.html
Jamie, it’s not the mainstream media they’re worried about. They’re trying to get right wing off the story, and it isn’t working. And shutting down Congress isn’t going to stop MAGA reps demanding release and Maxwell testimony when they come back . They are getting burned in their districts.
Seems to be a protest to protect Home Rule in DC, Craig, at 16th Street NW. I’d stay out of the park for awhile.
today’s meme…
Watching this press conference makes you notice that Democracies tend to be messy. Once dictators put away all the people they don’t like and scare the hell out of everyone else, it becomes neat and the trains run on time.
guess what fascists do when they run out of places to put people they don’t like
What a grotesque rogues’ gallery cluttering up my tv screen. It’s on mute, but still.
This is not America.
you realize the ICC is a farce, right?
I called a Putin a genius on here a long time ago, and I remember Pogo, among others, giving me a hard time about it…
If Putin gets a piece of the United States by invading Ukraine then yes he is a genius
we gotta get Trump out of office legally and quickly
I lived in DC when Reagan was president. There were homeless sleeping in the Metro exits, on grates and in Lafayette Park right across the street from the White House. It’s not new.
It’s not gonna be great for metropolitan economies for ICE to be engaging in gun battles with shadows
Jamie – there were places in D.C. where you did not stop for anything, keep on driving, no cops around anyway. I scared some visitors from headquarters more than once when I made a wrong turn and just kept on driving.
Sorry to say, the maggers are going to approve this. He’s turning the country into white trash rule which is what they want.
If ICE is busy removing the Cartel, how come there are no dead ICE officers. Look across the border, the cartel doesn’t play around.
Jack
Bronc
Yes, but I think that is true of just about any large city. The homeless probably wanted the safe part of the city as well.
The roofers next door are Mexican. Down here in little ole redneck Springfield Missouri.
Jack
trump’s response to exorbitant cost-of-living is unchecked inflation
only thing dumber than him are his voters!
What makes you think they aren’t?
Dealing with the chronic homeless is a community problem, that needs to be addressed by all levels of government, not just a few religious volunteers.
some of the more active churches I know of are in those in urban cities.
But the ones who are most experienced with the issue are also some of the ones least able to help. Then there are the suburban churches that come in, ignorant and cause clueless messes.
Jack
MAGA is not distracted…
From Glenn Beck’s phone lines to Joe Rogan’s mic — Trump supporters are still furious over the broken promise to release the Epstein files. And no, this story isn’t going away. 📂
He’s already given away Alaska?
Our Chat Studio open at 3pm ET today if anything you’d like to talk about. Will be interviewing my former federal prosecutor cousin Carolyn about today’s ruling in the Epstein case.
The “ask for grand jury transcripts and materials” is nothing but a head fake. DOJ has its own files, and they don’t have to go to a judge to release them. Not sure what restrictions DOJ and FBI policies impose, but that doesn’t seem to mean shit under the Dumbas/Blondi regime – so long as Dumbass and his buddies have been purged from them., and I’m sure agents have worked overtime to get that done.
Pogo
I say the whole DC crime/homeless thing is too. It is a way to get the liberals to scream. Screaming liberals is music to the ears of the maga crowd. If the liberals scream loud enough then Maga will come back to the fold.
Jack
Most political talk about “the homeless/unhoused problem” Is political theater, both on the left and on the right. They both like having the issue around, and they never get serious about it, because, the homeless don’t vote.
The weird thing is, they both have parts of the solution if they would work together. This could be a bipartisan compromise that works.
But it ain’t happening, it is too good a political football.
Jack
Since the pedo file-in-chief, Orange Chickenshit Taco, is always confessing – and since he was talking about trading territories in this meeting with Putin – and since at today’s press conference that he was meeting Putin in Russia…is he giving Alaska back to Russia? (lol) It would serve Murkowsi right.
Pogo
Trump et al were in full poke the libs mode with outrageous claims of rampant transgenders, druggies, and crime. I could feel my hackles rising with the desire to mount the barricades the longer they spoke, but that is not the smart way to handle him. You just have to keep pointing out the falacies, exaggerations and lies.
Hey,
Murkowski comes from a long line of politicians.
She will come out on top.
BTW, Trump giving Alaska to Putin is a long way from Russia occupying Alaska. Given how heavily armed they are up there,I could see a free independent Alaska. Can we say Queen Lisa?
Jack
Yeah but…
Make housing affordable, increase the minimum wage to a liveable wage, universal healthcare including mental healthcare, low-cost state college (pre-Reagan), affordable child care.
This EO of Adolf’s that says “mentally ill” will be civilly committed, including the homeless…who pays? Is “TDS” and “wokeness” considered mental illness? Are they just going to end up in a concentration camp and forced to work or undergo experiments?
An afternoon of John Prine
Bid
Only one of that list will help with the long term homeless, but offering mental health services won’t work if they aren’t used.
Jack
yes, they will build for-profit camps, BiD
I didn’t think it would be this quick.
As this quote proves rather than talk about a solution it much more fun to use it as a political football
Jack
The reason they trolled the courts for this ruling is to tell MAGA “unelected judges” are hiding the records. But even MAGAts aren’t that stupid.
just had to share…
https://www.newsweek.com/gop-senator-child-rape-law-utah-j-stuart-adams-2109138
An 18-year-old in Utah who was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old avoided jail after the laws governing sexual offenses were changed while his relative was president of the state Senate.
While the law did not apply retroactively and the 18-year-old was not charged with the new lower-level crime created by the bill, they nonetheless avoided further jail time and were not required to register as a sex offender after the bill was passed.
The mother of the 13-year-old told The Salt Lake Tribune: “I feel like a law is the law, regardless of who you are, but that wasn’t what was going on here. I feel like [the 18-year-old] just got special treatment…and nobody was going to say anything about it.”
*I wonder if tRUMPsky is successful at pushing all 14-year olds being tried as adults, if he’ll push for the age of majority to marry to be 14.
The idea that it took the Epstein files being withheld to make MAGAts doubt PedOTUS tRUMPsky’s truthfulness is absolutely wild.
A whole lotta cognitive dissonance going on in the MAGAverse.
*So many opportunities to solve a systemic issue of capitalism. Seeing homelessness as a moral failing, or that every unhoused person is mentally ill, is right-wing, Republican spin.
*Throwback to yesterday’s thread.
Mr. Bonkers had his usual idiotic presser where his addled brain was used to describe Washington, D.C. prior to sending the troops in. For added enjoyment he kept saying he was meeting puttie in russia. Not Alaska but russia. There is the possibility that mangomoron has already handed the state of Alaska to puttie, most likely he is so deep into dementia or Alzheimer’s that he has no idea where he is or what he is doing. Soon he will not know who he is and the magats will still think that is multi-dimensional board game playing.
would it be accurate to say the most crime committed in one day in washington DC was during the reign of Trump?
on top of whatever other crimes were committed in the city on that day, in re Jan 6 insurrection, wiki noted “The FBI has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts at the event.”
this and more interesting numbers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cases_of_the_January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack
guess where most of the federalized police action will be. not the darkest blue areas for sure in this map found at https://bestneighborhood.org/race-in-washington-dc/
Majority Race by color Key
White: blue, Hispanic: orange, Black: green, Asian: red, Multiple/Other: brown
racial-map-washington-dc
Well, I tried to participate in the chat room today and was partially successful right up until I entered digital purgatory between Hancock and Cumberland and then I couldn’t get back in.
WaPo discussion of Trump DC Takeover
Robert Gebelhoff: Trump probably has the legal power to do this (pulling from authority laid out in the Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave D.C. limited autonomy). So, let’s talk about whether he should be doing this. Is it justified, or just political theater?
Megan McArdle: Crime in D.C. is falling, but it is still outrageously high. That has enormous costs not just to victims, but to the people who have to take precautions against it, whether installing an alarm system, as we did last year, putting bars on their windows, or avoiding certain areas. It also takes a toll on the city’s economy, driving tourists away and encouraging suburbanites to get out of the city after dark. So, I’m very sympathetic to Trump’s desire to get things under control. That said, I am skeptical that deploying the National Guard is a solution, and the way Jeanine Pirro was talking about the problem — charge more teenagers as adults! Lock ’em up and throw away the key! — recaps the failed anti-crime politics of the 1990s… More at link.
lumber selection and quality absolutely fucking sucks right now thanks to Trump squeezing Canadian products out of the market
This doesn’t end well
American lumber- warped, cracked, and mostly pine 🇺🇸
impeach immediately ty
chipboard-based infrastructure, lol
see these trump idiots don’t understand what they don’t understand
The wood from fast-growth timber is not as good as hardwood from the old days, so says the mountain lumberman who’s helping us plan a new deck.
ill take it over pine
there are only so many old growth trees, and they’re cutting them down quick
how is that relevant to you though when decks are made out of pressure-treated pine?
Piet Oudolf (Dutch pronunciation: [pit ˈʌudɔl(ə)f]; born 27 October 1944) is a Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the “New Perennial” movement – his designs and plant compositions using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower color.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Oudolf
POGO in the chat house today! From the road…
Some have suggested excluding undocumented immigrants from the census count, but this is not supported by the Constitution, which refers to the “actual enumeration” of “persons”. Slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person. The 14th Amendment altered this by replacin the wording to “the whole number of persons” in each state shall be counted.
Key points about who is counted in the census:
Every person residing in the United States: This is the core principle, encompassing all individuals physically present in the country on Census Day.
Citizens and non-citizens: The census does not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens.
Undocumented immigrants: Undocumented immigrants are also included in the census count.
Usual residence: People are counted at their usual place of residence, which is where they live and sleep most of the time.
Exceptions: Foreign citizens visiting the U.S. on vacation or short business trips are not counted, but foreign citizens who are working or studying on Visas are counted.
Failure to count everyone would take either a Constitutional Amendment or at the very least Congressional action which would probably face judicial challenges unless what they passed was an Amendment requiring ratification.
In this YouTube short from the full video Pogo says the DOJ’s grand jury push in the Maxwell case was a “head fake” — designed to get people chasing transcripts instead of the FBI evidence that’s still locked away.
The musics go round and around.
Pogo gets 400 viewers in 30 minutes!
Judge calls out phony DOJ bid for useless Epstein Grand Jury transcripts..
I hope that’s not my best angle…😳
He’s just telling us what to expect. We are moving closer to the fires.
Another small point on the census. Both Washington and Jefferson thought the first census (1790) was under counted. This was principally due to long distances, difficulty due to population dispersion and defined jurisdiction of nationalities.
Ever since, every effort has been made to accurately count everyone within the boundaries of all states.
Well,
Yes. Based on my very recent experience, the way I see this, is that we are in the middle of a very long train. It definitely is harder and harder to find straight not split lumber of any dimension. But since “pine“ has been SPF in the big box stores for at least 20 years, this is just another step in the trip from old growth hardwood (and please God don’t go back to that, we have so fucking precious little of it now) to whatever the fuck it is we have now in Lowes, Home Depo, and even the smaller Mom and Pop lumber outlets, that go under the name of pine. I’m in the middle of a very small project that requires one by two lumber of a relatively small quantity. The Oakland Maryland Lowes had 10 pieces of “select” project grade 6 foot one by two, and each one of them had either a twist or a bend in it. I would’ve been happy to have used poplar instead, but the poplar looked like shit, too. Bottom line is that rather than buying the three pieces of project grade one by two that I needed for the project, I ended up having to buy five. Apply that to a fucking house under construction and you get an idea of Trump‘s handiwork in his squeezing the Canadian lumber industry out of our markets. I would recommend to him that he do an anatomically impossible act with himself.
You heard it here first, this afternoon, and maybe it’s coincidence and maybe not, but I just heard Alicia Mendez referred to this bullshit of seeking grand jury materials as a head fake. Now, where have we heard that before?
And she didn’t say it rolling down a West Virginia highway in cool sunglasses, neither.
Cranial-rectal inversion❓
Prescient and chilling especially now that we’re in it in real time.
https://www.hbomax.com/shows/years-and-years/9acf44ab-3a39-43a3-9dd3-32e0e73d6fe4
Craig – Was there any any noise at 8pm? Apparently, that’s supposed to be a thing while DC is occupied.
Statue or cartoon :
Typical maggot male sitting on the terlet staring in rapt frowning concentration at the red MAGAt hat he holds in his hand as if it were a great red turd which has somehow found its way into his trembling fingers.
Waking up can be so traumatic.
You can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he slowly comes to realize what he’s about to do with his red magat hat.
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