There
is little doubt that my ancestors - Jacob and Conrad Brumbaugh, knowing what the rest of us
know of Trump, would regard him as a traitor unworthy of any Independence celebration."Cadet Bone Spurs has developed a taste for flaunting our unparalleled military, and there’s no one at the Pentagon to curb this new appetite for global violence — certainly not the aggro Pete Hegseth… When Trump was a celebrity developer, people laughed at his megalomania in plastering his name everywhere. He grabbed buildings by the crotch. But now that he is president, it’s not funny. It’s foul.
Now, in his frenzied quest for ubiquity, he will deface U.S. currency. The Treasury Department announced on Thursday that Trump would become the first sitting president to have his signature on paper money.
He continues his amoral, pseudo-macho posturing — just with a bigger stage and the biggest weapons." - Marueen Dowd, NY Times
Let us acknowledge the past is important to reference for
perspective as well as to sustain a grounding in reality for current events.
This is why history is so important: not to memorize and regurgitate a bunch of
disconnected dates, but to ascertain and grasp how power is won and lost and
especially - in our case- how democracies can emerge and then perish.
Now, nearly one third into his 2nd and undeserved term, we can
see what a vile, amoral and demented beast Trump is. Like a mad chimp in a
zoo's ape house, Trump has been on an 16-month ego bender hurling his feces at
everything in D.C. Tearing down the East Wing of the People's House (not his),
fouling every wall, every nook with his gold bling, and now also proclaiming he
wants a Nazi-style Arc de Trump, as well as re-doing the WW II Memorial, after
already plastering his feral face on the Justice Dept.
In light of the latter, many sentient Americans - those not trapped in the
bubble of fake news spewed out by FOX - know full well our Republic is in
dire, manifest peril. This ought not be "rocket science" but it is
for a large swath of the public - namely the MAGA cult- daily fed lies by
"Trump TV" and its assorted Trump surrogates across the media
spectrum. Surrogates and sycophants who refuse to do their duty and remove this sociopathic felon under the 25th amendment. A felon who exhibits the most dangerous personality disorder, that of the malignant narcissist.
The Malignant Narcissist in author John Eddy's view (Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths)is the most dangerous type of high conflict personality precisely because the condition is "untreatable". This is the case for Trump, who is also seriously demented, as he tries to conflate our 250th celebration with himself:
Trump FURIOUS As ‘Freedom 250’ Event COLLAPSES BECAUSE OF HIM!! | The Kyle Kulinski Show
This is in the from of his bogus 'Freedom 250' event which has merely been exposed as a celebration of himself. But the mega-narcissism has been his undoing as numerous original acts have bailed. Let's bear in mind this is good given Trump is a malignant narcissist, the worst kind. As John Eddy notes (p. 14):
"The Malignant Narcissist can be particularly powerful, confident and aggressive. They can look charismatic while promoting grandiose plans. They are ruthless, heartless and lack a conscience. They are also paranoid and sadistic, say the experts, and are more driven than most narcissists or sociopaths to destroy their targets of blame."
He then (p. 15) goes on to cite Erich Fromm's diagnosis of Hitler and his warning: "This narcissism is malignant because it is not restrained in its growth like a malignant cancer."
This is exactly like Trump, given each new power display or grab - whether extortion of money from universities and legal firms, national guard occupations of blue cities, etc. is followed by more displays, e.g. extra-judicial slayings of boatloads of civilians off the coast of Venezuela, unprovoked attack on Iran etc.- given he's never satisfied. His lust for power and retribution is insatiable and includes destroying our very democracy, i.e.
Trump Didn’t Merely Borrow Strongman Tactics: He Imported an Entire Doctrine Built to Kill Democracies.
The U.S. is just now realizing the extent of the 2024 election misfire, after Trump recklessly launched his war on Iran with little forethought, merely to appease his gargantuan ego. Worse, he doesn't even care about the pain inflicted on Americans by his folly, telling us to simply suck it up.
The extent of Trump's egomaniacal assaults was perhaps best encapsulated in a January NY Times article (Trump Takes America’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level ) which noted:
"Mr. Trump takes it upon himself to reinterpret
a constitutional amendment and to eviscerate
agencies and departments created by Congress. He dictates to private
institutions how to run their affairs. He sends troops
into American streets and wages an
unauthorized war against nonmilitary boats in the Caribbean. He openly
uses law enforcement for what his own chief of staff calls “score
settling” against his
enemies, he dispenses
pardons to favored allies and he equates
criticism to sedition punishable by death."
This is a flat-out, psychotic traitor whose fanciful planned 4th celebrations of his own Id (errr...identity) are so inextricably tied into the 250th Independence holiday, that for me any kind of July 4th celebration is a non-starter. Given the magnitude of civil destruction in tandem with the distortion and deletion of U.S. history, I do not intend to participate in a bastardized, MAGA-fied 250th anniversary celebration conflating Dotard and America.
Posing as a dingbat contrarian on Real Time Friday night - Bill Maher complained to his Dem Panel that "polls show only 18% of Dems are proud to be celebrating the nation's 250th." And so asking former Obama National Security aide Susan Rice and Sen. Chris Murphy:
"Don't you think Dems would do better to just suck it up and forget Trump for July 4th? Because now you look like you don't really love the country and think Trump is more important"?
No, Bill, we think the nation is too important to devolve into a MAGA love fest for a traitor, featuring a cage match and drag race. And to enlist any fraction of our attention. Also, bear in mind that prepping for his 80th birthday, Trump had already funneled millions meant for a bipartisan celebration of
America to a partisan celebration of his wretched, senile self and personality
cult. So he's already grifted away the financial basis and meaning of any authentic celebration of our national history.
So pardon me if I am not proud of what this fiend and his minions have done, and won't be until they are all gone. For me ANY celebration under Trump would be showing total disrespect to Jacob and Conrad - who gave their blood in the Revolution for what we've now just given away. Simple enough?
As Timothy Snyder (Professor at Munk School of Global Policy, Univ. of Toronto) put it Saturday on Velshi:
"Trump with his planned cage fights to celebrate the 4th, and putting his image everywhere, is trying to create the impression that he is unstoppable. And this is what the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation means: glorification of him as the leader. That this is the best you can expect for this national holiday which he's identified with himself. It's up to us to be like our predecessors, the first rebels, in 1776, to show this is not what the 250th anniversary means."
In line with that thinking I don't intend to watch a single firework in the sky or on TV. I plan to have my nose buried in a book, most likely Bandy X. Lee's 'The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump'. Oh, and maybe be listening to some (still relevant) folk music from the 60s - think of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan. With the horrific re-election of Donald Trump by misled, gullible dimwits, this nation has much to commiserate - not celebrate. We had the chance to put this infernal criminal away and celebrate the first woman President in line with a genuinely meaningful 250th - but blew it. Now we reap the deformed, defiled results of a misbegotten choice. So be it.
See Also:
by Thom Hartmann | June 2, 2026 - 5:32am | permalink— from The Hartmann Report
Donald Trump looked at America’s 250th birthday and neurotically concluded that he’s the main attraction.
A celebration intended to honor the founding of the United States is rapidly being repackaged as a celebration of Trump himself: his movement, his grievances, his white supremacy, his misogyny, and his power.
Every new announcement, from the MAGA rallies to the vanity projects to the carefully choreographed spectacles on the National Mall and White House lawn, reinforces the same message: this is no longer about America turning 250. It’s about Trump making sure America spends its 250th birthday talking about Trump and the power of white men.
And if that sounds familiar, it should. Washington has seen this kind of political pageantry before.
And:
Brane Space: What Would My Revolutionary War Ancestors Think Of Our Nation's Present Predicament?
And:
by Robert Reich | June 1, 2026 - 5:17am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
Trump often confuses himself with America, and America with himself.
Not surprisingly, his plan for celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary is looking more and more like a celebration of Trump.
Trump’s face will be engraved on a $250 bill. It will be etched onto both sides of a celebratory gold coin. It’s already on passports issued this year. His signature is on dollar bills. He’s emblazoning his name on every edifice possible. If you still fail to get the point, his visage will soon be draped over federal buildings.
There’s also a 250th anniversary summer concert series on the National Mall. It was to have started June 25 with country music star Martina McBride. But McBride announced Thursday she wouldn’t perform, because, as she explained, although she had been “assured this was a nonpartisan event,” that assurance “turned out to be misleading.”
» article continues...
And:
Trump Lawyer Calls For 25th Amendment Over PSYCHOTIC MELTDOWN
And:
German chancellor's America warning: "Don't send your kids there"
Excerpt:
The warning came from Chancellor Friedrich Merz — a man who has spent decades believing in the American idea. A man who understands the indispensable role America played in preserving freedom in Europe. A man who knows what American power once represented to the world: stability, confidence, aspiration, seriousness, decency and order.
Now, he looks across the Atlantic Ocean, and sees something else entirely.
He sees rot.
He sees a country unraveling under the weight of corruption, vulgarity, fanaticism and madness. He sees a republic consumed by spectacle and poisoned by lies.
And:
What Would My Revolutionary War Ancestors Think Of Our Nation's Present Predicament?
And:
by Robert Becker | June 7, 2026 - 5:05am | permalink
The harder the task, the higher the skill
To find duh king’s “perfect” poison pill,
To pulverize what no tyrant stands,
With gilded, fascistic arm bands.
First up, ambush the legal state,
Sabotage our election mandate;
Corrupt lost races as rigged fraud,
Then decimate fair voting rights law.
Next treat governance as the enemy,
The defining MAGA legacy –
Cripple the state with crude DOGE clubs,
Swell toxic tariffs into global floods.
» article continues...
