Dear Everybody:
The big news today is two stories that may not strike you as major, what with the Iran war and the Canadian trade war and the crashing economy and all, but I see these as flashing danger signs:
First, Trump has cut down all the weeping willows around the Kennedy Center.
–As with all of his destruction, he told no one he was going to do this and got no permissions from anybody. We just woke up this morning to find them all cut down.
–The iconic weeping willows were planted as a symbol of a nation in mourning for JFK’s death.
–Adam Parkhomenko: “The iconic weeping willow trees outside the Kennedy Center have been cut down by Trump.’”
–Linota Hoffman: “That’s to give the bulldozers access for the demolition. Maybe later today. Not that anyone needs to know ahead of time.” (And with their recent ruling, the Supreme Court has basically given him carte blanche to do this to any federal building or monument. Remember, he has already threatened to tear down the Kennedy Center, saying it’s decrepit and will have to be torn down.)
–The Kennedy Center is claiming this is fake news and that most of the trees were cut down in October of 2025 and Trump had nothing to do with it, but as proof they’re quoting the statement of Trump’s Kennedy Center spokesperson, who has already lied about pretty much everything regarding the center.
–A Kennedy Center spokesperson says the trees were removed because they posed a safety hazard and/or they were planted in shallow beds which means they have a short life and/or they were damaged in a big storm and had to be cut down. (I think the fact that they have several explanations for the removal is suspicious. Plus, keep in mind that Trump’s spokesman for the Kennedy Center has also said that the center is falling down (not true) and refuses to say what happened to all the art work inside (which is also missing.)
–The head of Trump’s board said that he and Trump “haven’t specifically talked about the weeping willows or the replacement.” (Which is a weasely non-denial denial, if I’ve ever heard one.)
–The Washington Post reported that several trees had been removed in 2025, but that they had put in new trees along the same terrace. But all these reports say “some of the trees,” not all of them. And it seems unlikely that no one would have noticed the trees were missing till today.
–Dolores: “It’s like anything that honors anyone except himself is demolished.”
–But I think this is even more ominous than that. We had a case in Colorado where the mother and fighter were battling over custody of their two children and the father kidnapped the kids, drove them to the police station, and murdered them in the ultimate, “If I can’t have them, no one else can” action. It’s psychotic behavior. I think Trump is furious that the American people wouldn’t let him have his name on the Kennedy Center, and he wants to punish the entire country for it.
–Trump also removed a giant modernist sculpture called “Blue.” No one has any idea what he’s done with it.
–rejectness: “Someone seriously needs to stop this man before there’s nothing left.”
Second, JD Vance gave an interview that showed he’s just as batshit crazy as his boss:
–Vance: “I just think you’ve got to kind of try to have an attitude of, the end times may be coming. In fact, they ARE coming. It’s just a question of whether they’re coming thousands of years down the road or a few months down the road, and we’ve got a lot of work to do right now…what I’m trying to focus on is doing as much of God’s work as possible right now. And if that leads to the end times, okay.”
–99% John Gray: “Belief in the End Times should be an immediate disqualifier for public office.”
–Tea Pain: “The most terrifying thing ever said by an elected official. this is what happens when people that don’t read the Constitution also don’t read the Bible.”
–Vance claimed that he is focused on the end times because he’s a Catholic, but the rapture/Armageddon/end times is not a Catholic thing. It’s also not a mainstream Protestant thing. It’s exclusively an evangelical thing, and they are obsessed with it. It comes exclusively from the Book of the Revelation of St. John, which is thought to be a symbolic diatribe about the overthrow of the Roman Empire, but the evangelicals take it literally and believe the Antichrist (the Beast) will be a real person, that his followers will wear 666 on their foreheads, and they will all be raptured magically up to heaven, leaving everyone else to a fiery and hideous death as God gets his revenge on all non-believers. Vance is always trying to claim he’s a Catholic, but he’s clearly really an evangelical.
–The evangelical obsession with the End Times is why they are so determined to defeat Muslims in the Middle East–because the Jews have to get control of Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple because the rest of the prophecies can come true. The End Times are also wildly violent, with mountains crumbling and people falling into lakes of fire, which many evangelicals have taken to mean worldwide nuclear war (which is why everyone gets so nervous when Trump starts talking about nukes and Vance starts talking about the end times.)
–All this is necessary to bring about the return of Christ (riding a white horse and wielding a sword) and the establishment of a new reign by Christ on earth. As you can imagine, mainstream religion does not believe any part of this.
–Catholic American Socialist: “MAGA is an end times suicide cult at this point.”
–Katie Halper; “Show this clip to anyone who says Iran is run by religious lunatics.”
–JerryRigEverything: “If you wanna go meet Jesus, great. But leave the rest of us out of it.”
–Jeet Heer: “Has there ever been a Catholic convert who has absorbed less of Catholicism than JD Vance?”
–Robert E. Kelly: “I went to Catholic school for a decade, and we never talked about the end times. Vance also seems to dislike the papacy, never talks about the Church’s social mission, and comfortably mixes right-wing politics with religion (no ‘render unto Caesar…’) He sure sounds like an American evangelical.”
–Vance: “I think that there are, like, things about the world that make me feel like I’d be not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us.”
And if the Antichrist and the End Times aren’t crazy enough for you, Vance said in the same interview:
–Vance: “Like, I don’t have a file that says, ‘Oh, this wasn’t a UFO, it was actually a demon. And my attitude is, if they are real, isn’t it as likely they’re angels or demons as they are extraterrestrials?”
–Vance: “And there are things that some of the AI companies–you see happenings where you feel like there is some really, really weird spiritual dark energy–AI companies are kinda Satanic.”
–Redheadlady: “JD is certainly certifiable. And to think he’ll be President when Donald J gets hauled out.”
–Miranda: It is beyond disturbing for anyone in a position of power to have this kind of deranged extremist mindset.”
–When Vance was asked about that AI picture of Trump dressed as Jesus with healing light coming out of his hands, he said, “So it’s like, did Donald Trump mean to post a meme of himself as God? No. I mean, he did not mean to mock or mimic God. That’s just not who he is.” (Oh, really?)
I said these two stories were flashing danger signs. That’s because they show that the people leading this country are not just insane, but dangerous in their insanity. Just like in the movie DR STRANGELOVE, and we all know how that turned out.
And Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is equally crazy (and in charge of all the bombs):
–Remember that meeting last year when Hegseth called all the officers into one room and then lectured them about following orders, etc? Well, according to sources inside the Pentagon, he’s planning to do that again.
–(Note: 1) I’m not sure how well that would go over with them now after the Iran debacle and the USS Abraham Lincoln disaster and all our support bases in the Middle East having been blown up. 2) Didn’t Trump blow up all the Iranian leaders when they were gathered together in one room? That was a secret meeting which US intelligence somehow found out about, but here they would be broadcasting it to everybody.)
–The Pentagon has been secretly employing right-wing influencers and podcasters at the Pentagon to spread pro-Hegseth and pro-Trump propaganda. They are being paid for with taxpayer dollars.
–Four of them have been outed–Kurt Schlicter, Cynical Publius, Rob Mannas, and Data Republican, but there are thought to be many more.
–Meanwhile, Hegseth is spending his time online, body-shaming teenaged Canadian cadets. Hegseth posted a picture of two of the female cadets, one of whom is overweight, with the caption, “This is real.”
–The civilian Army Cadet League of Canada: “Directing derogatory commentary toward youth who are actively working to better themselves and serve their communities is unacceptable.”
–Former GOP Rep Adam Kinzinger: “Literally they’re kids. This is a cadet program and our ass hat of a SecDef is making fun of children.”
–Canadian PM Mark Carney said, “This is beneath the office of the Secretary of Defense.” –David Eby, the premier of British Columbia: “It tells you everything you need to know about the amateur-hour, distracted, bizarre leadership that Americans are being subjected to.”
In AI news:
–Trump has decided to go all in on data centers, an issue which 80% of Americans of all parties are against and only 20% are in favor of. Trump: “The only reason that communities should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”
–This morning Trump posted: “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
–Daniel Gilmore: “It’s so cool that he keeps trying to tank Republican chances like this.”
–Rick Wilson: “Data Center Donald.”
–Meidas Touch: “Trump’s political instincts look worse by the day. Once again, he’s going all-in on data centers, siding with his billionaire buddies over communities getting crushed by higher power bills, water demands, and massive developments. He keeps finding the 80-20 issues and planting himself firmly on the 20 side.”
–JD Vance is right behind him. Vance: “I don’t think data centers are that controversial.”
–The Japanese company, Softbank, gave $50 million dollars to Trump’s library a few months ago, and now the Trump administration has announced a deal allowing them to build a data center on federal land.
–Bill Gates has suddenly gotten really worried about AI: “AI will be one of the most turbulent times in American history…I am in a state of shock that I’m sort of the first one saying, ‘This is crazy. This is insane. I’m just deafened by the silence.”
–He asked tech and political leaders to create new policies to protect workers and to tax companies based on their use of it because he’s afraid society will totally turn on it. (He’s definitely right about that.)
–And down in South America, whither Peter Thiel has fled, a crowd of angry Argentinians gathered outside Peter Thiel’s house in Buenos Aires, chanting, “Out, Peter, out!”
In Epstein news:
–GOP Rep Thomas Massie read the names of several alleged Epstein co-conspirators on the floor of the House. This means that’s part of the Congressional Record. Massie said he had seen enough evidence in the files to convict the men on the list.
–The names are: Jes Staley, Leon Black, Les Wexner, David Copperfield, Lapo Elkean. Tom Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, Frederic Fekhai, Eduardo Teobrani–Fabbr, Jean-Luc Brunel, Daniel Siad, Ramsey Elkholy, Prince Andrew, and Lesley Groff.
–Some of these names, like Leon Black, Les Wexner, and Prince Andrew, were already publicly known. Others weren’t.
–Two of the people he named–Jean-Luc Brunel and Daniel Siad–are dead, both killed in prison while awaiting trial and both on the verge of making a deal with the prosecution that involved their telling what they knew.
–Massie: “On the House floor tonight, I read the names of several Epstein co-conspirators who should be investigated and prosecuted. I also began collecting 218 signatures for the discharge petition to force a vote on Epstein Files Transparency Act II.”
–Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he is considering dismissing the House and leaving them out of session till after the midterms, interestingly right before Massie’s discharge petition comes up for a vote.
–Massie didn’t name Trump or any of the people in Trump’s administration, but at least it’s a start.
–Massie said he hoped his move would “shame the DOJ into releasing the names of more co-conspirators.” (Fat chance!)
–Massie noted dryly that everyone who has spoken publicly about being involved with Epstein has denied any wrongdoing.
In Trump dementia/madness news:
–I told you Trump wouldn’t be able to stand Dolly Parton’s getting so much positive attention.
–Trump posted a picture of himself with Dolly Parton on Truth Social. In the picture, they are walking together at the White House, and Dolly, all dressed in pink, has her hand confidingly on his arm. The only problem–there are NO PHOTOS of Trump and Dolly taken during her lifetime because she never met him at the White House. So the photo’s clearly AI.
–IceEmpress66: “Trump doesn’t give a fuck about Dolly, he just could not stand how much attention she was getting. So he HAD to inject himself.”
–2GDS’S: “I think Dolly would have been furious if she had seen that. We are furious for her.”
–Stephen Whitty: “You can now add grave robber to his resume, right after abuser, liar, and bigot.”
–Patrick S. Tomlinson: “When you need to fake a photo with Dolly Parton but hide hundreds of photos with Jeffrey Epstein.”
In other news:
–A new budget has to be approved by September 30th or the government shuts down again, just in time for the midterms.
–The Kalshi betting site has banned George Santos for life for insider trading. He bet on his own activities and then put out false information on social media to ensure that he would win.
–A federal judge has pushed a case trying to revoke nationwide approval of mifepristone until after the midterm elections. It is a case that would make the drug become unavailable in all states. (Note: I didn’t know whether to put this news here or in the good news section. On the one hand, it’s good that it hasn’t gone forward; on the other hand, it could be saving the GOP’s bacon by not having it be an issue in the midterms.)
In good news:
–The newly deported Milo Yannipoulos has completely turned on Trump after being arrested, detained, and knocked around: “If I had any clue that anything remotely like this was even possible, i would never have gotten involved in supporting Trump in the first place, and I’m very ashamed that I did.” (Better late than never, and it’s one more voice speaking out against Trump!)
–The FDA has approved freeze-dried plasma for use in the United States. Regular plasma has to be frozen and kept refrigerated and only lasts a short time, which makes it problematic for situations involving ambulances, disaster zones, and battlefields. The new freeze-dried plasma can be stored at room temperature.
–A high school principal in Nepal is getting hailed as a hero in the recent Nepali-Chinese floods for saving 900 students by having them scramble up a muddy path to safety. He evacuated the school mere minutes before the floods hit when information was still sketchy. He also had the presence of mind to call the school bus drivers, who would have gotten the warning and tried to come evacuate the kids, not to come. They would otherwise have been swept away when they arrived, along with the school. The principal said, “I decided I shouldn’t delay any more. Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day’s classes.”
Best meme of the day: “The enemies of humanity are not in Iran. They are in the Epstein files.”
Best comment of the day, from Mike Sacks: “Dolly Parton never bought a fucking yacht for $800 million dollars or flew into space. She bought books for kids.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
