We respond…
He’s obviously never been inside Cook County jail.
Or for that matter any larger metropolitan jail complex in the United States.
But he made that statement in a single concluding sentence without even a cite — or any other suggestion of empirical evidence.
The man is a useless doddering fool.
Again — because his daughter is shilling for (and apparently, from time to time, hosting) this goofy hard right “supposed law” podcast, John Hinderaker offers us ever-more dishonest analysis of an interview Tangerine 2.0 did this morning on network television…
In his post, and his daughter’s podcast, he tries to make the case that the $1.8 billion slush fund — to benefit violent and convicted criminals… is no different than civil settlements the DoJ has paid out under prior administrations to victims of governmental race and gender discrimination.
Preposterous.
To start, neither Bush nor Clinton nor Obama directly benefitted from the arms-length settling race and gender discrimination suits. In contrast, Trump would here be directly paying HIS violent “shock troops” — which stormed the Capitol on J6, at his urging. Essentially his campaign workers, who also happen to now be convicted felons (ones he pardoned).
Second, in Bivens-type actions, it is usually FBI or DHS or ICE agents that are beating and shooting law-abiding residents. Those are the prior settled cases he claims are the same as his slush payouts.
Ridiculous.
Finally, it is reasonably likely that some Trump political operative(s) will be collecting various kick-backs, from every potential payout before any cash is turned over to the supposed settling J6 violent felon(s), for beating DC cops.
But through it all, John would tell us that this is just standard procedure — when blue forces are in control of DC. Anyone with a working brain knows that is a lie.
The good news here is that this corrupt nonsense idea is already DOA.
Here endeth the sermon.
This will all be rather droll.
The Fitton shills filed their purported federal suit over a year too late, it seems — in addition to having apparently never lived or owned property or paid taxes in Evanston — during the relevant time period.
We will keep you apprised; trust that. One of many of my prior backgrounders is here.
Onward — now mid-air, to Eugene (finally!) — after various weather delays in the central mountains. Early water start in the morning, in tie dyed tees! Woot!
नमस्ते
John Hinderaker devotes his precious blog space this afternoon to this completely lawless notion, that Tangerine 2.0 would put out a $250 bill reportedly with his face on it.
As a topper, the sitting United States Secretary of Treasury (Scott Bessent), made a mock up of the lawless reserve note — using Trump‘s mug shot from his 32 felony counts.
Charming.
This is how these idiots spend our taxpayer dollars and time, all the while that in Iran are troops are in harms way and throughout the Middle East. Everyone is less safe. Including Israel. Trump has put that nation deeply at risk.
He is doing essentially nothing to solve the war of choice he caused. And nothing about the economic pain he has inflicted on his fellow Americans.
And these guys, John included, think that they should take Friday afternoons to crack jokes about erszats currency, which specifically prohibited by a Civil War era statue. He needs an act of Congress to even consider this.
And John thinks of it as all a great troll while Rome burns.
To these jamokes, trolling matters more than governing. Yikes.
What a sad putz.
I won’t quote any of it, but yesterday, DHS and ICE lawyers filed some nonsense — to stave off the inevitable, in USDC Judge Xinis’ courtroom in Maryland.
This 28 pager claims that an administrative law judge friendly to Tangerine 2.0, who rewrote a 2019 final order of NON-removability, into a 2026 order of purported “immediate” removal — only after Abrego had won his freedom — controls, over both USDC Judge Crenshaw in Nashville and Judge Xinis’ contrary orders. [And by implication,the prior US Supreme Court order of last summer.]
That is. . . simply silly.
But the government takes 28 pages to argue about how many lawyers might stand on the head of a pin — trying to avoid producing the documents that prove Todd Blanche himself was acting with improper (racist) motives, in trying to keep Abrego Garcia locked up, and/or deported to Sudan, or Liberia — after kidnapping him to an El Salvador torture prison.
This unhinged idiocy will fail. Trust that. Abrego will be able to prove his case of boxcar damages — from these documents. Trust that, as well.
Onward — to more mountain fun with my 92 year old mom.
नमस्ते
We now see a drone strike by Iran — on a civilian Kuwaiti airport… has killed tourists / passengers this morning.
For anyone paying attention, all of this was absolutely predictable.
This is the quagmire we all would’ve known would occur if you put a malignant moron in charge of prosecuting a war of choice in the Middle East.
Welcome to the now likely endless… quagmire. This is from the NYT reporting this morning:
…Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Wednesday that he had had “tactical disagreements” with President Trump, after the president confirmed that he had used expletives in a Monday call with Netanyahu. Trump had described the tense call, owing to his frustration over Israel’s fighting in Lebanon, in an interview with the New York Post earlier on Wednesday.
Hours later, Mr. Netanyahu declined to comment on the content of the conversation in an interview with CNBC, but said the two leaders had a habit of resolving their differences. “We can disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action,” he said…•
This is simply… insanity. And it all lies at the feet of the Republican Party in the Senate and in the US House.
They could’ve long ago put a hard stop to this — and they chose to be complicit.
Most of the GOP bellyached — in 2016, about a deal that Barack Obama had set in his second term related to Iran. Now the supposed “new” deal — one that Trump can’t even get closed, is orders of magnitude worse than anything Barack Obama ever even proposed.
Yet and still — these pantywaists in the Congress continue to let him run wild.
That’s insanity.
Off now, for more high mountain fun. Grin…
Two and a half years ago — in Spring ’24, he pointed out that the parabolic upswings in Bitcoin spot prices… were over.
He was clearly right — after it reached $126,000 in October 2025 — he plainly said, “look out below”.
Very few of the bigger Bitcoin bulls listened to him.
After tonight, I think they will.
Bitcoin is trading below $65,600 tonight — and down to $64,600 on the afternoon of June 3 — threatening the February 2026 “Ice Age” lows.
Onward… from 10,200 feet — in elevation, tonight.
The June skies — up in this thin air: majestic. Simply majestic.
नमस्ते
Yes, John — on and off over the last four decades, retail gasoline prices at the pump have risen — and occasionally fallen. Under both GOP, and Democratic leadership.
But Trump is the first president ever, Hinderaker — to choose a war in a remote corner of the world that anyone with the working forebrain would have known… would both kill close 4,000 and maim over 10,000 Iranians in a few weeks, while directly causing a shock leap / increase in retail gasoline prices.
Not due to peace-time policies.
And then, to not even achieve the functional end of whatever nukes program the Iranians had… as a result of the undeclared war-making?!
That is Trump’s unique and special “talent”, John. And you own it.
Out.
The rumblings continue — widely, across the globe — now into a third elapsed year. If you are in the high risk communities, do get both vaccine doses ASAP.
Here’s more on that, from the erstwhile Robert Herriman, a microbiologist, and editor in chief of the Outbreak News Today website on Substack:
…There have been 22 Mpox cases reported in Western Australia so far in 2026, compared with 27 cases for the whole year 2025 and 23 cases in 2024.
Nineteen cases were acquired-locally, and three were acquired-overseas. Two of the cases notified this year were cisgender women, a first in WA. Another two notifications were in heterosexual men.
Dr Paul Armstrong, Director Communicable Disease Control said the Department was working closely with affected individuals and contacts to help prevent further spread of the virus.
“Mpox is a viral infection that typically causes mild illness, including fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes or fatigue, followed by a skin rash or lesions,” Dr Armstrong said….
Now you know — and with that, I’m mostly off-grid — until this coming Friday night, minimum. Smile.
नमस्ते
All he says — about what people elected Trump 2.0 to “do” — is true. But it is woefully… incomplete. Hinderaker, Mirengoff and the lot of the Powerline / Ringside boys, and the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers… and the J6-ers and especially Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem — they ALL ALSO elected him to run a KKK-like shadow government.
Yes, they ALSO elected him to demonize brown people, and non-x-tians, and people who love people of their own gender… and to pretend that a vanishingly rare gender dysphoria condition is in fact a national epidemic created (they say!) by lying medical professionals. Paul and John particularly have written countless racist, misogynistic posts — in defense of Trump’s deplorable, lawless “policies”. And his endlessly-vast… corruption.
So it is a lil’ rich, that only now — as Trump gets ready to jump off his Adderall-deprived cliff — at almost 80 years of age — that Paul observes he has killed all attempts at a legitimate GOP re-branding / updated set of “values”. That is to say… do spare us with/from your fainting couch routine, man:
…The bottom line, in my opinion, is that Trump so far has blown the golden opportunities he had when he took office in January of last year. He blew the opportunity to bring inflation under control by imposing aggressive tariffs. He blew the opportunity to entrench the GOP as the party for “you” (i.e. “us”) — not “they/them” — through a series of egotistical and self-serving moves that make Republicans look like the party for “him.”
And he may blow the opportunity to prove himself a worthy protector of our national security [Ed. Note: Ahem, Paul, he already HAS!] by reaching a deal with Iran that leaves it free, in practice, to develop nuclear weapons….
Yes Paul — Trump has killed your hard right legacy — to the extent it ever had a chance in America’s New Millennium.
But you are responsible for all the dying of smallpox and mpox and ebola and HIV and flu — all due to your support of the opposite of science.
You are responsible for children kidnapped and held as adults — for weeks on end, away from their parents.
You are responsible… in sum, for the excess deaths — in Israel and Iran — and and yes, Ukraine.
You and Hinderaker… you well-knew you were voting for this. All of… this. Trump was clear from the go — that this is where he was going — and that this: this narcissistic, childishly whiny moron of a sociopath… was who he was — and is.
You own every bit of this Debacle.
You need to beg forgiveness — from us all, of good will — Republican or Democrat.
Out.
Powerline Lies... 