I'm Just Saying.

The Profession of Faith Was Optional Donald Trump began his presidential campaign unable or unwilling to say what religion he practiced. Asked directly, he answered, “I don’t know.” A few days later, he identified himself as Presbyterian. Then came the Bible questions. Trump called the Bible his favorite book, but when asked to name one or two favorite verses, he produced the theological equivalent of Sarah Palin’s “all of them.” He refused to name even one, insisting that his relationship with the Bible was too personal to discuss. Asked whether he preferred the Old Testament or the New Testament, he answered, “probably equal.” A little more than a month before the Bible interview, Trump had been asked whether he had ever sought God’s forgiveness. His answer was equally revealing: “I’m not sure I have.” He explained that when he did something wrong, he simply tried to make it right himself. “I don’t bring God into that picture,” he said. These...

Those who supported Donald Trump during his first administration can offer all the familiar excuses: party loyalty, conservatism, judges, taxes, abortion, etcetera, etcetera, blah blah blah, whatever else they prefer to cite. But January 6, 2021, was the dividing line. And January 6 did not begin on January 6. It began on election night, when Trump declared victory while millions of legally cast votes had yet to be counted. He announced that he wanted the voting stopped and said he would take the matter to the Supreme Court. The following morning, he made his demand even plainer: “STOP THE COUNT!” Halting the count at that moment would have left Trump ahead in several states where the remaining ballots were expected to favor Joe Biden. Perhaps, in Trump’s pea brain, Bush v. Gore had established that the Supreme Court could simply stop an election whenever the Republican happened to be ahead. It had not. The Court stopped a disputed recount in one state. But nuance has never b...

Why do members of Patriot Front hide their faces? Because they are cowards. I would call them pussies, but that would unfairly suggest they have ever been near one without a restraining order, a podcast microphone, or a twelve-part manosphere theory about why women, accountability, and direct sunlight are all part of the same conspiracy. You cannot claim to belong to a white supremacist movement, claim your race is superior, claim your intellect is superior, and then be too afraid to show your face in public. If you truly believe you are standing for something noble, powerful, or righteous, why hide behind masks? Why conceal your identity? Why march like some discount militia cosplay troupe and then scurry back into anonymity? If you are supposedly the superior race with the superior intellect, why are you marching around dressed like Lamont Cranston in a Cub Scout uniform mommy just ironed? Oh wait, are the masks an admission that even you know the pointy hoods are a brand...

After the Supreme Court reaffirmed birthright citizenship, Stephen Miller went on Jesse Watters’ show and tried to explain why that was supposedly wrong. His argument, if we are being generous enough to call it that, was this: “Look, Jesse, I can step tomorrow onto the deck of a 747. It does not mean that I am the pilot of that plane and I'm qualified to fly it. Just physically being on U.S. soil does not make you a citizen or qualified to carry on or capable of executing the inheritance of this country.” What in the non-sequitur fuck is he talking about? Does he think birthright citizenship comes with a pilot’s license? And that was only the opening salvo. Miller then spent nearly six minutes flooding the zone, spewing spittle, spite, and speculation. He talked about “deep knife wounds” to the republic, pregnancy-scam fantasies, “Third World nations” that allegedly never invented the wheel, babies growing up to vote for mayors and governors, welfare checks supposedl...

It was quietly announced in late May that Tulsi Gabbard would be stepping down as Director of National Intelligence . Almost immediately, Bill Pulte was named as Trump’s choice to take over in an acting capacity. That should have been its own scandal. When the position of DNI was created, the law said the person nominated for the job “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Pulte had almost none. But Trump does not care about that, because Trump’s singular qualification for any position is blind fealty to Trump. Not experience. Not judgment. Not competence. Not even a passing acquaintance with the job description. Loyalty. And because Republicans control the Senate, and Trump still holds most Republican senators by the short hairs, he had little reason to fear serious resistance. If he tells them a man with no intelligence background belongs atop the American intelligence community, most of them will nod, swallow hard, and pretend the law is more of a decorative su...