Preliminary primary results

Yesterday was primary day in several states and the results were a mixed bag from a progressive perspective.

In California the final results are not yet in and are likely to be not known for a while. The very worst possible outcome, that the two Republicans would make it to the top and then compete in the general election was avoided. The very best outcome, that both of them would be eliminated from the top two, also did not come to pass, since it looks like Republican Steve Hilton will make the cut, likely to face the Democratic establishment candidate Xavier Becerra although Tom Steyer, whom I voted for despite being an (ugh!) millionaire, might still squeeze out one those two, though it seems unlikely.

In the Los Angeles mayoral race, incumbent Karen Bass fended off a challenge from a progressive in Nithya Raman and will likely face a Republican reality TV character and Trump supporter Spencer Pratt, although there is still a chance that Raman might edge out Pratt.

Both those results, along with some others, are being interpreted as wins for the Democratic Party establishment.
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Trump and the Kennedy Center fiasco

Trump may have a lot of money, though for him and his greedy family it is never enough and they keep using the government to enrich themselves, but he is the textbook example of a parvenu, defined as “one that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it.” People who have what used to be called ‘old money’ grew up with a sense that it was gauche to talk about it and especially not flamboyantly flaunt it. It was a given that everyone knew you were wealthy and you were expected to demonstrate it discreetly in understated ways, by being philanthropic, cultured, and patronizing the arts, so that the ugly origins of your wealth was obscured. Trump is the opposite, using every opportunity to tell people how rich he is, and even exaggerating so it is no surprise that old money people despise him.

While his father made a lot of money in the construction business and gave Trump a start on his his own ventures, they were from the outer boroughs of New York City, and Trump was always aware that he was not of the Manhattan elite and felt that they looked down on him. You can see this in the way that he bristles at what he perceives as even the mildest slight, and rages and insults anyone whom he thinks does not respect him. That is not how old money behaves. They feel superior to others and thus can afford to be condescending towards those they consider their social inferiors, mostly ignoring them.

But Trump craves to be accepted by the old money elites and as part of that push he moved his construction business to Manhattan and put his name in gaudy gold lettering on a building there, no doubt seeing that as his entree to the old money elites. But those snobby elites tend to look down even further at those who try too hard to join their ranks and so Trump ended up consorting with other parvenus like the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
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Stephen Colbert in Only in Monroe

Before Stephen Colbert started his 11-year run on The Late Show, he guest-hosted a public access local TV program in Monroe, MI called Only in Monroe. On his last show on CBS on Thursday of last week, he hinted that he might go back to Monroe.

“Tonight is our final broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater,” he said, prompting boos from the audience.

“No, no, we were lucky enough to be here for the last 11 years, all right? Can’t take this for granted,” he added. “Though technically our first show in July of 2015 was from a public access station in Monroe, Michigan, for an audience of 12 people. Show business being what it is these days, that’s probably where you’ll see me next.” and guest-hosted again.

And sure enough, the very next day, there he was back in Monroe.

I started watching the one-hour program just to see what it was like, thinking I would get bored and switch off after a few minutes but I was gripped and watched until the end. It was hilarious. There was something extremely appealing about this extremely low-budget show and we are reminded how Colbert can extract humor from the mundane, probably because he got his start in performing in improv that requires one to be funny while unprepared or backed by an army of writers and support staff.

Initially CBS tried to suppress the airing of the show on YouTube (corporate behemoths being the humorless profiteers they are) but then backed off after an outcry.

Judges fight Trump corruption

That Trump is a brazen grifter goes without saying. He has also used the justice department as his own personal law firm, using them to attack his enemies and reward his friends. But he may have outdone himself with his latest attempt to get money from the government to fund his grifts.

What happened was that Trump sued the government for $10 billion, charging that his rights had been violated when a private contractor leaked his tax returns back in 2019 and 2020. The idea of a president suing his own government was ridiculous enough and would likely have been thrown out. But he had appointed his own former personal lawyer Todd Blanche as attorney general and before the case went to trial, the ‘two sides’ (which are actually just one side) announced that a settlement had been reached in which the government would create a slush fund of $1.776 billion (how patriotic!) to compensate those people who had been charged in the January 6th insurrection and then pardoned by Trump. We do not know whether this was the original plan or a fall back position after the outrage that emerged at the thought of such blatant chicanery by Trump to enrich himself. If this was allowed to stand, then there was no end to how much a president could get out of the government to do with as he wished simply by suing and settling.

But this was too much for some judges and they have called for an investigation into what they see as the abuse of the judicial system.
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Fall of a Scottish power couple

Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell were at one time Scotland’s premier power couple. Sturgeon became the leader of the Scottish National Party and the First Minister in 2014. Peter Murrell served as the chief executive officer of the SNP from 2001 until 2023. But all that came crumbling down. She surprisingly resigned in 2023, claiming ‘occupational burnout’, while he also resigned his position after being criticized for misleading the party.

But things got worse. Murrell was charged with embezzlement in 2024 for using SNP money to purchase various luxury items and last week admitted to stealing over £400,000 from party over a 12-year period and now faces a lengthy prison sentence.

[T]he lengthy indictment, which included a 119-page list of all the items he bought using the SNP’s money, disclosed that for much of that time he was pilfering the SNP’s accounts to acquire a remarkable series of luxury goods, while earning £107,000 as party chief executive.

The indictment noted that in addition to the £124,000 motorhome, which he left parked in his mother’s driveway in Fife, and the Jaguar I-Pace, he bought gardening equipment for the home he shared with Sturgeon, a £1,300 Miele coffee machine for their home, a telescope, a Sony PlayStation, Fortnum & Mason hampers and several Montblanc fountain pens.

The charge said he submitted false invoices, used the party’s credit cards, falsified the party’s accounts and in some cases claimed they were legitimate expenses to cover up his embezzlement. Several times he used credit cards taken out in the names of SNP staff who worked for him.
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Very funny Jimmy Kimmel clip

He was on a tear with his opening monologue. The AI-generated clip he showed at the beginning was scaringly good in how realistic it was. Not the content of course, which was hilarious, but how the video seemed so seamlessly genuine.

Kimmel seems to be really getting under the skin of Trump and his cult members in right wing media.

The Iran war has become a catastrophe for the US and Israel

Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker interviewed Danny Citrinowicz, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and an expert on the Middle East, for his assessment of the current wars in the Middle East. Citrinowicz was brutal. He says that there is no way for Trump to avoid humiliating failure over the Iran war, that Benjamin Netanyahu is also in a bind, and that it is the Iranians, especially the hardliners, who are emerging from this war stronger than before, despite all the damage from the bombing.

We have to remember what happened on February 28th—that Israel and the United States launched this campaign to topple the regime. In fact, they ended up strengthening it. Opening the strait is not an achievement, since its closing was a by-product of the war itself. The Iranians are going to get some money, and sanctions relief may come after the deal is signed, too. If they don’t get money from this, they won’t do it. So, in that regard, what we’re facing right now is a war that may have been a tactical success for the U.S., but is a strategic failure.

But I think Trump is fed up with the current situation, and I think that he’s also afraid of escalation. He could escalate tomorrow, but I think he’s afraid of having boots on the ground. And I think he might be starting to understand that even escalation won’t change the strategic situation, because the Iranians are not going to capitulate. A blockade won’t do it; hitting energy facilities won’t do it; nothing will. And they’re ready to retaliate. So Trump didn’t have any other options besides this deal.
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Saying no to patriotism

July 4th of this year marks the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence and I am bracing myself for an overwhelming effusion of patriotic fervor. Given that Trump loves to wrap himself up in the flag (all while he and his family and cronies are looting the country), we can be sure that event will be even more disgustingly over the top than if someone sane was president.

As an immigrant to the US, I was struck by how so many Americans talk about patriotism and view it as an unalloyed good. Some immigrants become hyper-patriotic, perhaps to show that they really do belong here.

It is not that the concept of patriotismwas foreign to us in Sri Lanka. But it was not as pervasive. I recall that at a time of economic hardship, people were urged in the name of patriotism to grow more food and learn to live with less. As part of this movement to create patriotic feelings, movie theaters started playing the national anthem at the start. I remember feeling the pressure to stand up for it even though such gestures seemed merely performative. I now regret having done so.

I later abandoned the idea of patriotism altogether when I saw how the government used it to promote agendas that served its own interests and not those of the people at large. I now despise the entire concept of patriotism (and have written so many times in the past). I totally agree with Leo Tolstoy who wrote the following:
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The Democratic Party establishment has to be overthrown

After a party loses an election, it usually benefits from having an analysis of the reasons for its failure and laying out a path for the future. Of course, whether that path makes any sense depends on whether the reasons given for the failure are based on reality. After delaying and waffling for the longest time, the Democratic Party finally released its so-called ‘autopsy‘ and it was so bad that even the party chairman has tried to distance himself from it.

Richard Eskow gives a scathing review of the report.

After an extended pressure campaign, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin finally agreed to release the DNC’s “autopsy report” on the 2024 election. It’s the first document I’ve ever read that would have been better if it had been written by AI. Martin himself said the report “does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards.” That’s for damn sure. As we’ll see, however, that doesn’t let Martin off the hook.

I downloaded the document before reviewing my news feed, where I quickly learned that many like-minded people began exactly as I did: by searching for the word “Gaza.” Result? “Not found.” I then tried “Palestine.” Result? “Not found.” How about “Israel”? “Not found.”

These omissions are particularly striking since one activist group was told by report author Paul Rivera that DNC data showed that the administration’s support for the Gaza genocide was, “in their words, a ‘net-negative’ in the 2024 election.” 
…

Other words that can’t be found in the autopsy include “war,” “military,” “defense” (in the military sense), “peace,” “Medicare,” and “Social Security.” The report fails to address either the US’ runaway military spending or the ongoing attempts to undermine the country’s social contract.
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