"It takes one to know one, on the weight question. And the president, of course, himself, is not in good shape. So, he ought to respond to that from me."

"I would say also that his personal attacks on me are just evidence of a guy who’s still living in fifth grade. He’s the kind of bully that throws invectives at people, because he knows that what he’s saying is actually commentary on himself."

Said the rotund Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker, quoted in "Pritzker responds to Trump’s weight comments: 'It takes one to know one'" (The Hill).

This forces me to look up what Trump said, which would otherwise have been erased from my brain (if it was ever there). Let's see... here:  "We will solve Chicago within one week — maybe less.... Chicago's a disaster and the governor of Illinois should say, 'President, will you do us the honor of cleaning up our city? We need help.' They need help. They need help... We may wait -- we may or we may not. We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do.... I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians. The bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker. He ought to spend more time in the gym actually, the guy is a disaster."

Maureen Dowd's sister got her car stolen in Washington D.C.

"Two polite officers who responded to our call said they could do little, amid a rash of brazen car thefts by teenagers. One officer said that, even if they saw the perp driving in her car, they could not chase him, because of laws passed by the D.C. Council.... The next morning, though, an officer... banged on her door. Her car was found in a park, running, nearly out of gas. When she collected it, after paying a $215 towing charge, she found an odoriferous collection: half-eaten pizza, grape soda cans, fast-food wrappers, a used condom and a couple of debit cards.... [T]he police said to throw [the cards] away... Then... she got over $1,800 worth of speed-camera tickets that the car thieves had racked up going 70 in 25-mile-per-hour zones, and some for running red lights.... She had to go down to headquarters on Friday to get the police report so she could appeal the tickets...."

Writes Maureen Dowd, in "Criminal Fights Crime" (NYT).

The final line is: "Even if Trump is being diabolical, Democrats should not pretend everything is fine here. Because it’s not."

I like to think the Democrats need to offer solutions, not just admit that there are problems. Of course, it's awful to deny that the problems are really that bad or to say that we deserve the problems or that side effects of solving the problems are worse than the problems. But assuming Democrats admit there is a terrible problem — and Dowd is only denying that "everything is fine" — they seem to want to focus on how bad Trump's solutions are.

"D.C. mayor meets police takeover with reluctant compliance" according to the teaser on the front page of The Washington Post.

At the article, the headline is "D.C. Mayor Bowser sticks with cautious approach amid Trump’s takeover/Bowser continued with the cautious approach she has taken over the past several months and said there is little D.C. could do to prevent Trump’s unprecedented actions."

Why isn't Bowser getting impassioned and denouncing Trump? Why the restraint? What is the long game?

"We will never forget the names of precious American souls like Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and many others who were savagely killed by illegal alien crime."

"Last June, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was brutally assaulted and murdered by two illegal aliens in her home state of Texas. To memorialize her young life and love of nature and animals, I proudly renamed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Texas to the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. May this be Jocelyn’s little piece of Heaven on Earth."

From "National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2025," a proclamation by President Trump (at whitehouse.gov).

"We cannot get myopic or get focused based upon a knee-jerk reaction to something that is very titillating or very out there in the public right now."

Said Todd Chamberlain, the police chief in Aurora, Colorado, quoted in "How the False Story of a Gang 'Takeover' in Colorado Reached Trump/The claim that Aurora, Colo., has been overrun by gun-toting migrants stemmed from the city’s fight with a landlord. Now it is central to one of former President Donald J. Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign promises" (NYT).

That's a free-access link, because there are more details to absorb than I can summarize here. The quotes around "takeover" are a clue.

I thought it was rich that the police chief was taking a stand against getting focused.

"The FBI crime statistics Biden is pushing are fake. They’re fake just like everything else in this administration."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "Trump’s sledgehammer message to Philadelphia is light on facts, heavy on fear/The former president used his first rally in the city of brotherly love to tie violent crime with illegal immigration, despite the evidence against this."

Why does Trump say the FBI is getting it wrong? I found this from last April in the Washington Examiner: "Bad data from the FBI mislead about crime."

"'He’s convicted, so now he’s in our community,' said Rahim Buford, 53, who also has a felony conviction on his record."

"Mr. Buford believes that neither Democrats nor Republicans have done enough to address significant parts of America’s criminal justice system that are broken, including wrongful convictions, racial disparities and a rate of imprisonment that far outstrips that of other industrialized nations.... For Dawn Harrington, who served time on Rikers Island in New York and now directs an organization called Free Hearts for families affected by incarceration in Tennessee, watching the news coverage of Mr. Trump’s criminal conviction last week was upsetting. She heard liberals rejoice that he was now a 'convicted felon,' a term she and others have tried to persuade people not to use.... After the Trump verdict, she also heard President Biden defend the justice system as a 'cornerstone of America' that has endured for 'nearly 250 years' — back to a time, Ms. Harrington noted, when slavery was legal. The rhetoric, she thought, was 'quite frankly dehumanizing to the base that we organize with,' she said...."

From "People With Criminal Records React to Trump Verdict: ‘Now You Understand’/The New York jury’s decision stirred conflicting emotions, including surprise at the responses of many on the left" (NYT).

She heard liberals rejoice.... "liberals" is not the right word for people like this. 

"I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me..."

"... because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. I’m being indicted for you, the American people. I’m being indicted for you, the Black population. I am being indicted for a lot of different groups by sick people, these are sick sick people.... Some of the greatest evils in our nation's history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others to deny them their freedom and to deny them their rights. I think that's why the Black people are so much on my side now because they see what's happening to me happens to them.... My mug shot — we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know, they do shirts and they sell them for $19 apiece. It’s pretty amazing — millions by the way."

Said Donald Trump, yesterday in South Carolina, as he received the "Champion of Black America" award from the Black Conservative Federation. He was quoted in "Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system/In a speech to a group of Black conservatives, he also said Black Americans "embraced" his mug shot more than anyone else" (NBC News).

The tone of voice may affect how you interpret that:

Trump at the Black Conservative Federation Gala: I got indicted and lot of people said that’s why the black people like me… pic.twitter.com/QENwQvvyLI

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 24, 2024

Trump: I’m being indicted for the Black population pic.twitter.com/8abSxWdCcZ

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 24, 2024

He also called Joe Biden a racist: "Joe Biden really has proven to be a very nasty and vicious racist. He's been a racist. Whether you like it or don't like it. I happen not to like it. Joe Biden really has proven to be a very nasty and vicious racist. He's been a racist. Whether you like it or don't like it. I happen not to like it.... Biden spent years palling around with notorious segregationist you know that." I don't know what that refers to — some Senator who got elected and therefore received the conventional collegiality of the Senate? If that's all it is, the missing name is Strom Thurmond. Other than that "palling around" reference, I'm just seeing the repeated blunt assertion that Joe Biden has been a racist. Adding "nasty and vicious" or "very nasty and vicious" explains nothing.

And here's some edgy racial humor. I think it's a reversal of the old (and stupid) observation that black people are hard to see in the dark: White people are hard to see in the light....

Trump: These lights are so bright in my eyes I can't see people... I can only see the Black ones. I can't see any white ones. That's how far I've come. That's a long way isn't it? pic.twitter.com/CBBJWJRxnH

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 24, 2024

ADDED: At the same event, Trump does a pretty funny imitation of Biden:

"The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday…"

"... amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter, throwing the future of the high-stakes inquiry into serious doubt. The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations after the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said. Mr. Pomerantz confirmed in a brief interview that he had resigned, but declined to elaborate. Mr. Dunne declined to comment."

The NYT reports.

"We hope they die" chanted the protesters blocking the entrance to the emergency room for 2 deputies shot in an ambush.

I'm reading "2 California deputies shot in apparent ambush in patrol car" (WaPo):

The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy... were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro rail station [in Compton, California] and were able to radio for help, the sheriff said.... “The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation,” the department stated. ...

Protesters gathered outside the emergency room at the hospital where the injured deputies were being treated. “To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling “We hope they die” referring to 2 LA Sheriff’s ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL,” the sheriff’s department tweeted. “People’s lives are at stake when ambulances can’t get through.”

A radio reporter who was near the protest scene was taken into custody, KABC-TV reported. The sheriff’s department later tweeted that the reporter interfered with the arrest of a male protester....

The response from our President:

Animals that must be hit hard! https://t.co/zrOd9ZUl8o

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

Is the shooter a child? He/she looks shorter than the top of the car.

"Anarchy has recently beset some of our states and cities. My administration will not allow federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones."

Wrote President Trump in a memo quoted in "Trump Moves to Cut Federal Funding From Democratic Cities/The president directed officials to identify 'anarchist jurisdictions' and move to withhold funds as he tries to build his campaign around the unrest that has accompanied racial justice protests" (NYT).

[The mem0] gives Mr. Barr 14 days to identify “anarchist jurisdictions” where officials have “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures,” although it does not specify particular cities.

[Russell T. Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget,] has 30 days to direct “heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of federal grants,” according to the memo.

Among the factors that Mr. Barr is to consider in determining such jurisdictions are “whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction,” whether a jurisdiction has pulled back law enforcement after being prevented access to a certain area and “whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments.”...

Many onlookers are expressing shock, but conditional federal funding is a mainstay of federal legislation. When the conditions are not met, you don't get the money. I don't think it's good federalism, but there's so much of it and it's been going on for a long, long time!

I was just watching this new Biden ad — discussed in the previous post — and it flaunts the very same idea — withholding federal funds from cities that don't meet conditions that have been imposed. Here, I'll go right to the relevant spot:



I'll transcribe it for you: "Reforming policing in this country means creating a national standard on use of force and conditioning federal funds for police departments on adoption of that standard."

That is, Biden is relying on the same idea that Trump is using. Money isn't simply given to the cities for their police departments. Standards are imposed and they are enforced by a threat to withhold the money.

"We will NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets. My team just got off the phone with Governor Evers who agreed to accept federal assistance (Portland should do the same!)"

"TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!”

Trump tweeted this morning, the Washington Examiner reports.

It's at least a day late, but I'm glad Evers is standing up.

"President Trump and the Republican Party placed the powers of the federal government in service to Trump’s reelection on Tuesday..."

"... staging pardoning and naturalization ceremonies as part of the GOP’s official nominating convention and using the White House Rose Garden for a speech by the first lady.... The format bucked traditional norms of diplomacy and launched a House investigation into whether Pompeo violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that separates government functions from political ones — and a line that Trump and many of his aides have appeared to delight in blurring. Pompeo's address, delivered with the night skyline of Jerusalem behind him, celebrated Trump's relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to 'this very city of God, Jerusalem.'... The president made an unadvertised appearance less than 15 minutes into Tuesday night's broadcast, where he signed a pardon for Jon Ponder, a convicted criminal who turned his life around with help from a former FBI agent. The two men, both scheduled as speakers Tuesday, appeared alongside Trump at the White House.... Trump has largely bypassed the traditional pardon system, in which convicted people appeal to the Justice Department.... Trump made a second unadvertised appearance Tuesday, to preside over a naturalization ceremony for five immigrants, which also featured acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf. Speaking at the White House, Trump praised the three women and two men from all corners of the globe for their perseverance. 'You followed the rules, and you obeyed the laws. You learned your history, embraced our values and proved yourselves to be men and women of the highest integrity,' Trump said. Trump has always put gauze over the specifics of his wife’s immigration story...."

From "Trump uses powers of government in service of reelection, with pardoning and naturalization ceremonies" (WaPo).

"White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Tuesday night that Gov. Tony Evers turned down an offer of federal help from President Donald Trump to help quell the outbreak of violence in Kenosha."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

"We have a National Guard standing by that if the general for the National Guard needs additional help, we're there to do it," Meadows said. "But today, that request was denied by the governor."

The Democratic governor deployed the National Guard to Kenosha on Monday and doubled the size of the deployment to 250 on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Evers did speak with both Meadows and Trump but Meadows was offering help from the Department of Homeland Security, not the National Guard, according to the Evers administration. Evers declined because more Guard members were already been sent there....

“Everyone should be able to exercise their fundamental right — whether a protester or member of the press — peacefully and safely,” [Evers] said in a statement. “We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue. We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction.”

Also at the Journal Sentinel this morning:

Kenosha Police said early Wednesday morning that two people had been shot and killed and a third injured during protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake.... The shooting came on the third night of violent protests that have torn through Kenosha after a police officer shot Blake from behind at close range while he was getting in a vehicle. Since then, buildings have been burned, windows smashed out and stores looted.

ADDED: I’d like to see descriptions of what the National Guard were doing in Kenosha last night. There were 250? Why wasn't that effective? Today, I see:

In a letter Wednesday, Kenosha County Board Chairman John O’Day and Vice Chairwoman Monica Yuhas specifically requested 1,500 National Guard members with police powers to be sent to Kenosha County. The members wrote on behalf of the county board, stating that the “county is in a state of emergency” and the extra law enforcement is needed to “preserve and save” the region.

“Our county is under attack,” the board wrote in the letter. “Our businesses are under attack. Our homes are under attack. Our local law enforcement agencies need additional support to help bring civility back to our community.”

"Objection! Mr. President, Susan B. Anthony must decline your offer of a pardon."

"Anthony wrote in her diary in 1873 that her trial for voting was 'The greatest outrage History ever witnessed.' She was not allowed to speak as a witness in her own defense, because she was a woman. At the conclusion of arguments, Judge Hunt dismissed the jury and pronounced her guilty. She was outraged to be denied a trial by jury. She proclaimed, 'I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.' To pay would have been to validate the proceedings. To pardon Susan B. Anthony does the same."

From "Susan B. Anthony Museum Rejects President Trump's Pardon Of The Suffragist" (NPR). The headline says the "museum" rejected the pardon, but to be technical, it's the executive director, Deborah L. Hughes.

Is accepting a pardon for an unjust conviction like paying a fine that is the sentence for an unjust conviction?

To answer yes — as the museum's director does — you must be thinking that the conviction was never anything real. It's simply a nullity, so you don't pay the fine and you don't want a pardon. Either fine-paying or pardon-accepting gives substance to the thing that you consider nothing.

To answer no is easier, but that doesn't mean it is more desirable. All you need to say is that the fine is a burden but the pardon is the relief from a burden or the fine expresses the idea that you were wrong but the pardon expresses some other idea, perhaps that you were completely in the right but also possibly that you did commit a crime but we forgive or we like you so much anyway that we want to do something beneficent for you.

Has Trump reacted to the pardon-rejection yet? What should he say? He could say that the executive director of the museum is entitled her opinion, but he thinks Susan B. Anthony would appreciate the gesture? But I think he should say that he agrees with the museum that Susan B. Anthony doesn't need a pardon because she was a great woman, dedicated to a great cause, and her greatness dwarfs the petty conviction that was imposed on her, but he wanted to do the little part that he could and to correct the record books and remove the blot, and that he cheerfully accepts the rejection of the pardon.

Trump was asked if his sending federal agents into cities run by Democrats is "just a political stunt... to divert attention from your failures on coronavirus."

At his coronavirus press conference yesterday. From the transcript:

Yeah. The cities, unfortunately, that are in trouble are all run by Democrats. You have radical left Democrats running cities like Chicago, and so many others that we just had a news conference. And unfortunately that’s the way it is. I mean, that’s the facts. When you look at Chicago and you look at the job, Mayor Lightfoot sent me a letter yesterday and I think in their own way, they want us to go in. There’ll be a time when they’re going to want us to go in full blast. But right now, we’re sending extra people to help. We’re arresting a lot of people that have been very bad. As far as the coronavirus, as you say, I think we’ve done some amazing things. And I think you’ll probably see that if you compare our statistics to other countries. And if you look at death rates, et cetera, you’re going to see. And especially into the future with what’s happening, you’re going to see some very, very impressive numbers for the United States.

And a bit later, responding to a similar question:

I see #gestapo is trending on Twitter. Example:

Why isn’t this a bigger story? Trump is using Portland as his Reichstag Fire. #Portland #Gestapo #FascistTrump https://t.co/mo4ZNiLpbp

— Sybill Trelawney (@SybilT2) July 17, 2020

From the above-linked WaPo article:

“I was terrified,” [Mark] Pettibone told The Washington Post. “It seemed like it was out of a horror/sci-fi, like a Philip K. Dick novel. It was like being preyed upon.”

Pettibone said he still does not know who arrested him or whether what happened to him legally qualifies as an arrest. The federal officers who snatched him off the street as he was walking home from a peaceful protest did not tell him why he had been detained or provide him any record of an arrest, he told The Post. As far as he knows, he has not been charged with any crimes....

"I mean, a guy like Sleepy Joe Biden was in there for 43 years, and he says, I think we should do this."

"I saw today, he took his mask off for the first time in a while, I haven't seen his face for a long time. And he said, I think we should do this, or I think we should do that. And actually then he started speaking through the mask again. He feels comfortable with the mask on I think, and -- even though there was nobody anywhere near him, which is interesting, but he made a statement about what he should do. I said, he's been there for 43 years, he was vice president for 8 years, he didn't do a thing. His crime bill was a disaster.... Well, you see... that speech was written, he didn't say that, he repeated the words. That's all. That speech was written for him because he doesn't speak like that. But here's the thing, he did a crime bill that was a disaster. What he did with Clarence Thomas was a disaster, it was a disaster the way he treated Clarence Thomas..... Now, he's not the same Biden. He's about half, maybe less, but the fact is that he doesn't -- he doesn't say that... he's surrounded by -- the Democrats have bad policy, in many ways they're bad politicians, because their policy -- open borders, take away everybody's guns. You know, they want to take your guns away, except now more people have bought guns in the last three, four days than they have in a long time, because when they look out on the streets.... That's right. And the Democrats want to take their guns away."

Said Trump, attacking Biden today on "Fox and Friends."

Here's the audio and complete transcript.

"If you can’t keep a Fox News correspondent from getting attacked directly across from your house, how can you protect my family? How are you going to protect the country? How hard are you trying?"

Said Tucker Carlson, quoted in "Tucker Carlson of Fox News Accuses Trump of Being Too Lenient on Protests/In a sign of partisan divide, his monologue came as Anderson Cooper of CNN criticized Mr. Trump for calling protesters 'thugs'" (NYT).

More Tucker: "[I]f you don’t protect them — or, worse, if you seem like you can’t be bothered to protect them — then you’re done. It’s over. People will not forgive weakness." That was after Trump's little speech yesterday about dominating the streets and sending in the military even if state and local government don't want it.

Over on CNN, Anderson Cooper said: "The president seems to think dominating black people, dominating peaceful protesters, is law and order. He calls them ‘thugs.’ Who is the thug here? Hiding in a bunker, hiding behind a suit. Who is the thug?"

President Trump gave a strong interview on "Face the Nation."

Here's the video and transcript. I'll just highlight the way he handled the challenges about race. The interviewer, Margaret Brennan, tries 3 times to get him to speak in terms of whether he is "sensitive," and he never takes that bait. His strategy is to respond to questions by immediately forefronting something he has accomplished:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Talking about the- the kneeling position you've taken and the controversy around it. Do you think that the players who did kneel had a point? I mean did you- are you sensitive at all to players like Colin Kaepernick, who- who point out that the majority of victims of police violence are black?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, you know, I'm the one that had passed judicial reform. And if you look at what I did, criminal judicial reform, and what I've done- President Obama tried. They all tried. Everybody wanted to do it. And I got it done and I've been, you know, really- a lot of people in the NFL have been calling and thanking me for it.... They have been calling and thanking, you know, that people have been trying to get that taken care of and it's now signed into law and affects tremendous numbers of people, and very good people. I think that when you want to protest I think that's great. But I don't think you do it at the sake of our flag, at the sake of our national anthem. Absolutely.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you are- do I understand you saying there though, that you still are sensitive though? I mean you- you understand the motivation for the protest ...  though you don't like the form of it.