Lobenthal.com

At Common Dreams, Corbin Trent is gobsmacked by the brazen complicity of the media in hawking the insane actions of untreated alcoholic and war crimes enthusiast Pete Hegseth, and drug-abusing psychotic Donald J. Trump.

Instead we had David Plouffe and his team of corporate deadbeats. They were the “A team,” according to David Axelrod, whose advice nearly wrecked Obama’s first term.

Yes American servicemen will obey illegal orders.

War criminals Trump and Hegseth are now making our troops subject to legal prosecution.

“The preservation protections we have fought so hard to secure for our neighborhoods are under threat like never before,” declares Andew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation.

“The Real Estate industry and government leaders [emphasis mine] are teaming up as never before to undo preservation protections and deregulate development, using specious arguments about equity and affordability as their justification when in fact these policies would have the exact opposite effect.”

(so brilliantly dramatized in James Graham’s Ink).

Sell-out hack Tony Dokoupil assures CBS viewers (of whom there will be fewer and fewer) that “elites” and “academics” (i.e. people who know what they’re talking about) are now going to sidelined on favor of the opinions and biases of said viewers (who will become ever more ignorant and irrational to the degree that they consume CBS “News.”)

Jack Smith’s calm, courteous yet firm responses to the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee with the fleering and the sneering and the fake outrage from Trump deputies Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Corey Lewandowski. Kristi Noam when questioned in similar circumstance.

In American history has there been anything more absurd than Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting?

One would think the thing to do for those corporate TV interviewers who platform him would be to bring up how he himself votes, but that would defeat the purpose of the interview, wouldn’t it?

on the Supreme Court has succeeded in largely taking down American democracy.

In Mother Jones–I need to renew my subscription–Pema Levy and Ari Berman describe how.

And shame on Obama, Biden, and the Democrats for letting it happen.

Steven Haff writes:

“Thank you for posting the information you know about Jonathan Watts. I was a ballet pianist at the San Francisco Ballet School in the early/middle 80’s when Jonathan was a instructor there. I have not real contacts with anyone there anymore and periodically I would search online for some current information about him. Yours is the first new information I have read about him in years.

“I found him to be such an inspirational man. I feel it has been a blessing in my life to have met and worked with him. I loved the way he approached the work of training and his relationships with the students and us, the members of the staff. He was exacting, demanding, with an inspiring combination of technical knowledge, rhythmic sensitivity, and artistic sensibility. I never recall him being anything but inspiration and light in touch with students. I found him to be an wonderful example of the attitude it takes to succeed, keep the work going, have faith in yourself, and look for something inside which prompts your own expression. He helped change my attitude about what music should do for dance. I owe him a great debt for this. I have through the years worked with a number of wonderful, inspiring dance instructors, but not all were accessible outside of class. Jonathan was always open hearted and demonstrated a willingness to be available in mind and spirit.

“I left San Francisco, and went to the Houston Ballet in 1987 but I had a summer Joffrey session, in 96, where Jonathan was the director at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Again it was such a pleasure to work with him.

“I remember having a dinner alone with him in San Francisco but unsure when that was, though I think it was after I had left for Houston. I told him how I felt about his teaching, how his professionalism had meant so much to me, as a gesture of thanks.

“I am so sorry to hear of his passing. To me, a great man, one I was hoping to reconnect with again.“

You might want to refer back to the 1989 miniseries “The Nightmare Years,” to compare the way Trump does it to the way that the Third Reich did. Spoiler alert: not much difference.

The fawning obsequiousness of the “press” as they tripped over the tails while being dismissed by Trump from his meeting today with Zelensky does not, however, allow one to feel too much sympathy for them.

Instead, Trump’s contempt and their groveling both demonstrate the appalling moment at which America has arrived.