On today's FAFO

June 24, 2025

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.

The Tanchurian Candidate thought he’d stride into the saloon at NATO, gun still warm from his victory at the shootout at the Israel/Iran corral and the theme from “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly” playing. Very “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us”, you know? He thought he had it. Peace in the Middle East. But he didn’t. The “CEASEFIRE!” he crowed about existed only in his mind, and now he faces the scornful eyes of the world’s leaders and he finally publicly cracked. After he posted about the ceasefire, Iran dropped bombs, Israel dropped bombs, and he dropped an f-bomb, telling reporters on the South Lawn that “Israel dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never before. The biggest load that we’ve seen, I’m not happy with Israel. You know, when I say ‘okay, now you have twelve hours’, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them [Iran] so I’m not happy with them… We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they *don’t know what the fuck they’re doing*. You understand that?”

Then he stomped off to Marine One, off to the The Hague for the NATO shindig. This came after an all-night posting session, where he attacked some female legislators (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Jasmine Crockett), crowed about the ceasefire, etc. But this? He was genuinely furious, and I’m sure the fact that his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize was withdrawn didn’t help. But it’s a measure of his wrath that he publicly said “fuck”. I say “fuck” all the time. I imagine a lot of you do. But we are not public figures, certainly not world leaders who are held to a higher behavioral standard than others, especially when speaking to the press.

I don’t know, kittens. None of these wargames make any sense. We warn Iran that we’re going to attack their nuclear facilities and Iran moves it all out of the way, but we bomb those sites anyway and rearrange some sand. And Iran still has the capacity to build a nuke. Note that we haven’t attacked North Korea and they have nukes and they’re a threat, just as they tell us Iran is.

Then Iran bombs our military base in Qatar, but Iran warns Qatar who warns us ahead of time so we can get our personnel out of the way and so that we can intercept every single missile. The UK, US and China warn their citizens in the area to shelter in place yesterday. And then the Tanchurian candidate starts crowing about a ceasefire. It’s his usual MO: Create a problem, “fix” the problem, do a victory lap. But, as usual, it was a premature ceasefire. Don’t worry, Tanchurian. It happens to all guys. Wait an hour and try again.

So... why did we make such a big deal about bombing Iran and doing it under the cover of night? We didn’t disarm them. And we know we didn’t disarm them. Iran bombed Qatar just to save face, and warned us that they were going to do it, so it wasn’t a true retaliation. Just something they had to do to save face, because they were careful not to cause any casualties or escalate things. They’re never gonna dance again. Guilty feet have got no rhythm.

Senators are saying there was no “imminent threat” based on the briefings they received. False flag? I just report the evidence, kittens. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fires signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” –Dwight Eisenhower, 1953

Meanwhile, we have spent anywhere from $100 million to $280 million (I’ve heard both figures) to… what? Distract from the Epstein files? The Billionaire Bullshit Bill? The Tanchurian candidate now owes close to $512 million to New York state in his inflating property values fraud case (remember that?)? Tariffs, anyone? Threatening and arresting judges and ignoring court orders? Installing a theocracy and following the Project 2025 playbook line by line?

Could it be as simple as his beloved Market Manipulation Theatre? As always with him, the answer lies in finding out who is profiting from all of this. Stock futures rose upon the ceasefire announcement. Maybe he just saw the way the Israel strikes were playing in the media and wanted a piece of the action to feel like a Big Boy and Triple SecDef put down the bottle long enough to agree to spend millions of dollars to do so. But this doesn’t feel right, and now people are starting to point it out. And now there’s muttering about “sleeper cells” here in the United States. Will that be an excuse to completely dissolve our civil rights? SCOTUS ruled, 6-3, that the current administration could continue to remove “illegals” to third countries that they have no connection with, with no due process. And there they stay, forever, presumably, with no way home. It’s not about repatriation. It’s about punishment for being brown. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Or is it as simple as that the Tanchurian Candidate wanted to stay front and center on the world’s stage, because, to him, any attention is good attention? That he’s so shallow he’ll manufacture a war and put lives at risk because no one came to his birthday party and his policies are monstrously unpopular and even members of his base are turning on him? Well, he is, and he would, and he is.

But not all is going well in Tanchurianland. The Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that the provision slipped into the Billionaire Bullshit Bill that would allow the administration to basically ignore any court injunctions did not pass the Byrd rule and thus is out. I wrote about the Byrd rule a while ago; basically, anything that isn’t budget-related in a bill passed using budget reconciliation can’t be included. And I’ll give Senate Majority Leader John Thune credit for choosing her. However, the Senate is said to be voting on that bill tomorrow, and the House on Friday if they don’t make any changes. Let your Congresscritters know how you feel about it.

That’s all I have for you today, kittens.