Josh

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter

P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.

[Josh @jdyells]

I am so tired of people saying animals shouldn’t eat people food. People shouldn’t eat people food STFU.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Behold! A $100,000-dollar American missile, launched by a 20 million-dollar plane that flies at a cost of $6000 dollars/hour to kill people who live on less than $3 a day in Iran.
Meanwhile in America, Republican lawmakers believe that a $6.20 daily SNAP benefit providing food to a needy person is wasteful spending, so A BIG BEAUTIFUL ACT of legislation was passed to remedy that in order to bolster the economy of the greatest nation in the world. ~Jacob Lassiter

[Josh @jdyells]

When people have humility, leadership does not have to be hierarchical

[Josh @jdyells]

Leadership is a fundamental human need

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

"I’ve been watching an absolutely heroic amount of pearl-clutching lately from people who insist that J.D. Vance would somehow be “worse” than Trump once Trump’s inevitable political and biological expiration arrives.

Let’s get something straight: it has never been about Trump, not for one second.

Trump is just the mascot. The real story is the people who finally saw themselves in him and felt validated by what they saw.

I actually believe most of them will drift away when the cult collapses, like embarrassed fans of a one-hit wonder. Many of them will swear they were never really into him at all. The MAGA amnesia is going to be epic.

I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016 and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic, morally vacant, and psychologically mangled he is.

I don’t wonder anymore.

I think he won for that exact reason.

He wasn’t a candidate. He was a mirror.

If you were a racist, you found your guy.
If you were a misogynist, you found your guy.
If money was your only religion, you found your guy.
If your heart was armored shut, you found your guy.
If you mocked disabled people, you found your guy.
If you hated intelligent people, you found your guy.
If you were a rapist, you found your guy.
If you enjoyed golden showers with Russian sex workers, you found your guy.
If you’d done absolutely nothing to confront your emotional wreckage, you found your guy.
If you were a serial cheater, you found your guy.
If you were a perpetual bankrupt, you found your guy.
If you stiffed honest workers, you found your guy.
If you were a conman, you found your guy.
If you mocked people’s appearances, you found your guy.
If you longed for a toxic Daddy, you found your guy.
If you were dissociated and disembodied, you found your guy.
If you were unconscionable in every economic dealing, you found your guy.
If you lied as naturally as breathing, you found your guy.
If you’d never eaten a green vegetable, you found your guy.
If you were a white supremacist, you found your guy.
If your ego contained a hole so large not even the presidency could fill it, you found your guy.
If you were a sociopath who cared not one molecule about other humans, you found your guy.

If he had only two of these traits, he never would have won. He won because he had hundreds of them, and millions of people recognized themselves in at least one.

This has never been about Trump. It has always been about the people who finally had their worst instincts validated.

Trump didn’t create the cruelty, he licensed it. He handed out permission slips for hate.

He is merely a symptom of a far deeper disease: collective toxicity.

If there is one sentence that explains Trump’s power, it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”

That’s the part that should chill the spine.

Who knew that tens of millions of Americans were thinking such unconscionable things about their fellow citizens? Who knew how many white men felt so threatened by women and challenged by minorities that they were ready to torch democracy to feel big again? Who knew that after decades of apparent progress on race and gender, so many people were living in seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to legitimize their worst selves and convert their bitterness into political power?

Perhaps we were living in a fool’s paradise.

We aren’t anymore."

— Michael Jochum
Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art,
Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

[Josh @jdyells]

Boy this is gonna be a trip to see in a documentary one day

[adam @AdameMedia]

BREAKING: 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 Pam Bondi starts talking about stock market gains during her testimony on her COVER UP of child trafficking.

This is fucking dystopian man.

Lock this demon up in a deep dark hole with Kash and Lutnick.https://t.co/EZtGsXd4qv

[Andrew Justin @COSportsNut]

People out here worried about how American athletes represent America but not worried about how the President represents America

Make it make sense

[Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton]

So let’s stop the games.

If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s have it—in public.

You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on.

We will be there.

[Kalle📸 @KalleSorbo]

Impeach him Monday. Amend the constitution and call for a snap presidential election in November. No one involved in this cover up should touch public office again and many many should be sent to prison. The moral fabric of our nation is at stake.

[REPUBLICANS AGAINST MAGA @michaelt5656]

It’s sadly eye opening.

[𝓔𝓶 ♡ @emkenobi]

The President of the United States just said that he’s a dictator yet I have not seen a single member of Congress say they are drafting articles of impeachment.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

All it needs to end this madness is four Republican Senators.

[Matthew Kupfer @Matthew_Kupfer]

In a past life, I was a reporter in Putin's Russia.

During that time, a leading Russian opposition journalist told me he feared interactions with law enforcement because a police officer could easily plant drugs on him to fabricate a criminal case.

A few years later, a totally apolitical acquaintance was arrested for participating in an unsanctioned protest. Only he hadn't been protesting; he had been sitting on a park bench. Four police officers grabbed him — one holding each arm, one holding each leg — and carried him away. After two days in jail, he was convicted of the same charges as many other protesters: blocking traffic and chanting anti-government slogans. He was lucky to get off with a fine.

These are two "small" examples of life in a police state. Notably, neither involves lethal force.

And that wasn't Russia at its worst. Since then, the Kremlin has de facto outlawed dissent.

So if you think it's desirable for Americans to be "terrified" of law enforcement, if you believe lethal force is a justified response to any disobedience (legal precedent states otherwise), you don't know what you're asking for.

[Josh @jdyells]

Nobody is coming to save us.

[Josh @jdyells]

We’re all traumatized as fuck and it keeps on coming.

[Josh @jdyells]

What in the actual fuck is going on right now. The collective psychosis is so nuts to witness.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Megyn Kelly: “I don't give a sh*t about Trump getting handsy with somebody 20 years ago...I want someone who will keep boys out of my daughter's sports, which he has”

[Clemson Sports @ClemsonSports]

Based on the fact that Cade Klubnik took every snap today, you've got to believe Clemson is 100% going into the portal for a QB.

If not, that's quite the indictment on the program at QB.

What do you think?

[fred farnsworth @sd_celtic_fan]

@WallStreetApes

[FDJT @OmniLocational]

@SprinterPress This is a Christian by the way.