Light Entertainment From Jeff Tiedrich

You have to go there to read it all, and it’s worth it, but below are some snips that could make the coffee taste a tiny bit better!

Preznit Fuckwit gets the Scottish welcome he deserves by Jeff Tiedrich

he’s such an international embarrassment Read on Substack

oh wait! cheer up, Donny — I finally found a bunch of Scots who are overjoyed at your presence on their home turf! just look at these happy campers!

oh wait [taps earpiece]. I’m being informed now that these are not Scots. apparently this is a file photo from April 2023, of the flag-waving crowd that greeted President Joe Biden when he visited County Mayo, Ireland.

oops, sorry — my bad.

(Note from A: The Mexican flag house story is great, and is on the Substack page, along with lots more juicy stuff that isn’t simply depressing.)

W.E.B. DuBois & More, In Peace & Justice History for 7/28

(I should know better than to try to set up this post while I’m making supper. Thanks, WP, not; it’s much easier Any Other Time. 🤬)

July 28, 1868
Passed in the wake of the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process, equal protection of the law, and full citizenship to all males over 21, including former slaves,
went into effect.


Booklet on the 14th Amendment from the Damon Keith Collection of
African-American Legal History at Wayne State University Law School


More on the amendment and the context of post-Civil War Reconstruction 
July 28, 1917

Anti-Lynching Parade in New York City, 1917
W.E.B. DuBois and others organized a silent parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City against the lynching of negroes and segregationist Jim Crow laws. There had been nearly 3,000 documented cases of hangings and other mob violence against black Americans since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.
Read about W.E.B. DuBois
Strange Fruit, the song about lynching, and the film 
July 28, 1932

Bonus Marchers on the Capitol Steps
Federal troops, under command of General Douglas MacArthur, forcibly dispersed the so-called “Bonus Expeditionary Force,” or Bonus Army. They were World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand money they had been promised but weren’t scheduled to receive until 1945. Most of the marchers were unemployed veterans in desperate financial straits during the Great Depression.
More on the Bonus Army  (It’s WaPo; you can read it for free, but you have to sign in)
Film of the confrontation in Washington  (Watch on YouTube for free without sign in)
July 28, 1965

Pfc. John L. Lewis decorates his helmet with good luck tokens.
[Khe Sanh, February 1968.]” Life [Asia edition]. 18 Mar. 1968. cover
President Lyndon Johnson ordered 50,000 troops to Vietnam to join the 75,000 already there. By the end of the year 180,000 U.S. troops will have been sent to Vietnam; in 1966 the figure doubled. In addition to countless Vietnamese deaths, close to 1900 Americans were killed in 1965; the following year the number more than tripled.
Lyndon Johnson told the
nation
Have no fear of escalation


I am trying everyone to please
Though it isn’t really
war


We’re sending fifty thousand more


To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese

— part of Tom Paxton’s anti-Vietnam-war song, “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation”
Full lyrics of the song

President Johnson explained: “We intend to convince the communists that we cannot be defeated by force of arms or by superior power.””
July 28, 1982
San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the sale and possession of handguns. The law was struck down by state courts, which ruled the local law to be in violation of the California constitution which gives the state the sole power to regulate firearms.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjuly.htm#july28

FCC Chair Threatens “Consequences” For “The View,” And Basically Admits That Trump Got Colbert Canceled

July 24, 2025

FOX HOST BILL HEMMER: “Did President Trump have anything to do with the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show?”

BRENDAN CARR: “I think there are a lot of consequences that are flowing from President Trump deciding, ‘I won’t play by the rules of politicians in the past and let these legacy outfits dictate the narrative and terms of the debate.’ He is succeeding. Look at what is happening. NPR has been defunded, PBS has been defunded, Colbert is getting canceled. You’ve got anchors and news media personalities losing jobs downstream of President trump’s decision to stand up. He stood up for the American people. American people don’t trust the legacy gate keepers anymore.”

BILL HEMMER: “I asked a very direct question. I did not hear a yes or a no in your answer. I heard a maybe. Is The View now in the crosshairs of this administration?”

BRENDAN CARR: “Look, it’s entirely possible that there’s issues over there. I mean, again, stepping back, this broader dynamic, once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there’s a lot of consequences. I think the consequences of that aren’t quite finished.”

Trump, FCC want to reshape the media landscape starting with CBS

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-fcc-want-reshape-media-landscape-starting-with-cbs-2025-07-25/?taid=6883edff636c00000106647c&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Peace & Justice History For 7/27

July 27, 1919
A riot began in Chicago when police refused to arrest a white man who was responsible for the death of a young black man, Eugene Williams. The 29th Street Beach on Lake Michigan was used by both black and white Chicagoans. But the man had been throwing stones at the black boys swimming there before hitting Williams.

The Coroner’s report on the riot described the events as follows: “Five days of terrible hate and passion let loose, cost the people of Chicago 38 lives (15 white and 23 colored), wounded and maimed several hundred, destroyed property of untold value, filled thousands with fear, blemished the city and left in its wake fear and apprehension for the future . . . .”
The city’s booming economy, especially jobs in the stockyards, had drawn many blacks during the Great Migration from the South, more than doubling their population in just three years. Only one policeman died in the chaos, Patrolman John Simpson, 31, an African American working out of the Wabash Avenue Station.
 
Gangs and the 1919 Chicago Race Riot. 
July 27, 1953
After three years of bloody and frustrating war leading to stalemate, the United States, the People’s Republic of China and North Korea agreed to a truce, bringing the Korean War—and America’s first experiment with the Cold War concept of “limited war”—to an end (South Korean President Syngman Rhee opposed the truce and refused to sign). U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower had taken office six months earlier, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin had died that March.

Korean War Memorial photo: Heather Stanfield
The armistice signed this day ended hostilities and created the 4000-meter-wide (2.5 miles) demilitarized zone (DMZ), a buffer between North and South Korean forces, but was not a permanent peace treaty. It also set up a system for exchanging prisoners of war: 12,000 held by the North, 75,000 by South Korea, the U.S. and the U.N. allied forces.
There were four million military and civilian casualties, including 16,000 from countries which were part of the U.N.-allied forces; 415,000 South and 520,000 North Koreans died.

There were also an estimated 900,000 Chinese casualties. 36,516 died out of the nearly 1.8 million Americans who served in the conflict.
July 27, 1954
The democratically elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, after receiving 65% of the vote, was overthrown by CIA-paid and -trained mercenaries. There followed a series of military dictatorships that waged a genocidal war against the indigenous Mayan Indians and against political opponents into the ’90s. Nearly 200,000 citizens died over the nearly four decades of civil war.
“They have used the pretext of anti-communism. The truth is very different. The truth is to be found in the financial interests of the fruit company [United Fruit, which controlled more land than any other individual or group in the country. It also owned the railway, the electric utilities, telegraph, and the country’s only port at Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast.] and the other U.S. monopolies which have invested great amounts of money in Latin America and fear that the example of Guatemala would be followed by other Latin countries . . . I took over the presidency with great faith in the democratic system, in liberty and the possibility of achieving economic independence for Guatemala.”

Jacobo Arbenz
More about Arbenz 
The real coup story through official U.S. documents 
July 27, 1996

Trident sub being loaded
Known as the “Weep for Children Plowshares,” four women were arrested for pouring their own blood on weaponry at the Naval Submarine Base at Groton, Connecticut, on the morning of the launch of the last-built Ohio-class submarine, the U.S.S. Louisiana. The 18 such submarines carry about half of the U.S. nuclear deterrent – 24 Trident I & II missiles with a range of 7400 km (4600 miles), each with several warheads known as MIRVs (multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles).
Details of the action  

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjuly.htm#july27

Trump’s DEATH TRAP Leaks… and CHAOS ERUPTS

While We Watch Colbert and South Park, They Build A $1.2 B Desert Concentration Camp In Texas

https://beingliberal.substack.com/p/while-we-watch-colbert-and-south?r=3j50y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

While America’s distracted by the Steven Colbert Show drama and South Park revenge, Trump’s government just dropped over a billion dollars to build the largest detention center in U.S. history

Ghislaine Maxwell received limited immunity during meetings with deputy attorney general: Sources

https://abcnews.go.com/US/deputy-ag-blanche-set-meet-2nd-day-ghislaine/story?id=124064062

“She didn’t hold anything back,” Maxwell’s attorney said earlier.

July 25, 2025, 5:55 PM
Trump doesn’t rule out pardon for Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine MaxwellIt comes as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell – who’s serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking – for a second time.

Ghislaine Maxwell, who sources told ABC News initiated the meetings with the Department of Justice, answered questions for about nine hours over two days after being granted a limited form of immunity, the sources said.

The immunity allowed Maxwell to freely answer Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s questions without fear that her responses could later be used against her, the sources said.

The so-called proffer immunity is commonly granted to individuals prosecutors are seeking to make cooperators in a criminal case. Maxwell has already been tried, convicted and sentenced for sex trafficking underage girls.

PHOTO: Jeffrey Epstein,Ghislaine Maxwell
FILE – Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP

DOJ did not immediately respond to request for comment. A lawyer for Maxwell did not immediately respond.

The second meeting between Maxwell and Blanche lasted for about three hours.

Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, told ABC News afterward, “There have been no asks and no promises.”

Markus said Maxwell was asked about “maybe 100 different people” during her interview with the deputy attorney general. He said she answered every question.

“She didn’t hold anything back,” Markus said.

He declined to be specific about who Maxwell was asked about or whether she provided information about others who might have allegedly committed crimes against victims, as Blanche said he was seeking.

“We haven’t asked for anything. This is not a situation where we are asking for anything in return for testimony or anything like that,” Markus added on Friday. “Of course, everybody knows Ms. Maxwell would welcome any relief.”

Blanche didn’t speak to reporters upon his arrival at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. On social media, Blanche said he would reveal what he learned from Maxwell “at the appropriate time.”

PHOTO: Jeffrey Epstein,Ghislaine Maxwell
FILE – Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP

The first meeting between Maxwell and Blanche on Thursday lasted six hours.

Maxwell is currently appealing her 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein, the deceased financier and convicted sex offender.

“We don’t want to get into the substance of the questions,” Markus had said about Thursday’s meeting. “There were a lot of questions and we went all day and she answered every one of them. She never said ‘I’m not going to answer,’ never declined.”

It is almost unheard of for a convicted sex trafficker to meet with such a high-ranking Justice Department official, especially one who used to be the president’s top criminal defense attorney.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked President Donald Trump on Friday if clemency is on the table for Maxwell.

“I can’t talk about that now because, you know, it’s a very sensitive interview going on,” Trump responded. He went on to call Blanche a “great attorney” and said “I don’t know exactly what’s happening. But I certainly can’t talk about pardons.”

Trump was also pressed by ABC News’ Bruce if he can trust what Maxwell is telling the DOJ during these interviews.

“Well, he’s a professional lawyer. He’s been through things like this before,” Trump said, referring to Blanche.

After Trump’s comments on Friday about clemency, ABC News asked Maxwell’s attorney whether that gave her an incentive to tell Blanche what he wanted to hear.

“No,” Markus answered. “She wants to tell the truth.”

Markus said Maxwell’s legal team has not approached Trump about a pardon, but suggested it could happen in the future.

“We haven’t spoken to the president or anyone about a pardon just yet. And listen, the president this morning said he had the power to do so we hope he exercises that power in the right and just way,” he said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche look on as US President Donald Trump (not on frame) speaks during a news conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on June 27, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Annie Farmer, who testified against Maxwell at trial, questioned why Maxwell was granted a meeting with the deputy attorney general in the first place.

“It’s very disappointing that these things are happening behind closed doors without any input from the people that the government asked to come forward and speak against her in order to put her away,” Farmer said. “There were so many young girls and women that were harmed by her.”

Maxwell’s attorney said on Friday she’s been treated poorly for the last five years and is grateful to be able to meet with Blanche as she appeals her sex trafficking conviction and seeks to leave prison.

“If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her picture would be next to the definition,” Markus said. “She’s keeping her spirits up as best she can.”

Blanche’s meetings with Maxwell comes as the Justice Department has tried to quiet calls from Senate Republicans to release more information about Epstein and his interaction with high-profile figures.

And it comes as questions swirl about Trump’s connections to Epstein and reports that his name appeared in the Epstein files.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name was mentioned in the Epstein files multiple times, along with other high-profile people.

Trump has denied that account, and appearing in the files is not necessarily indicative of any wrongdoing.

“I want all the information out,” said Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.

“Just put everything out, make it as transparent as you can,” echoed Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The Justice Department said earlier this month that it planned to release no additional information despite an earlier commitment to do so.

 https://www.joemygod.com/2025/07/doj-gives-ghislaine-maxwell-limited-immunity/

Under Trump, Paramount’s Merger Deal Must Include a “Bias Monitor”

Under Trump, Paramount’s Merger Deal Must Include a “Bias Monitor”

Brendan Carr

Brendan Carr listens during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing to examine the Federal Communications Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP

Brendan Carr

Brendan Carr listens during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing to examine the Federal Communications Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

On Thursday, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, approved the $8 billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount, a deal that would allocate more than a billion dollars towards the latter company’s staggering debt.

But the agreement came with one major caveat: The media company must appoint a “bias monitor.”

According to reporting from The Wrap, an FCC “ombudsman” would work directly with New Paramount’s president, Jeff Shell, to review “any complaints of bias or other concerns” regarding CBS News, a subsidiary under Paramount.

Paramount also agreed to eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including scrapping all DEI messaging from its internal training programs and removing DEI objectives in its compensation plans.

This move comes after the company announced the cancellation of The Colbert Report only a few days after the eponymous host critiqued the network’s recent settlement with the president. Earlier this month, Paramount agreed to cough up $16 million to Trump after the president sued the network for allegedly unfairly editing an interview with Kamala Harris, an accusation that many legal experts have called “baseless.”

As my colleague, Inae Oh, has reported, Colbert’s cancellation marks a dark new chapter for our culture as a whole. Oh writes:

Though his second term has already produced a string of stunning capitulations by some of the most powerful forces in the country, one could argue that Trump’s attacks had yet to take down our actual culture. I’m talking about the literal content we consume—the television, art, movies, literature, music—no matter how much Trump complained. That it remained protected and free-willed, a rare area of control for a public that otherwise feels powerless to take action. Clearly, that was magical thinking. If this can happen to Colbert and a storied franchise, this can happen to anyone.

And when it comes to using his presidential power as a cudgel against the media that critiques him, Trump clearly shows no signs of stopping. This week alone, the president threw a tantrum over two TV shows that joked about him. On Wednesday, the White House issued a statement threatening the ladies of The View after host Joy Behar joked that Trump was jealous of former president Barack Obama’s “swag.”

A White House spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly, “Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

A White House spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly, “Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” who “should self-reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump’s historic popularity before her show is the next to be pulled off air.”

Behar’s joke was tame compared to the animated show, South Park‘s treatment of Trump, who was depicted naked in bed with Satan. In response, the White House claimed that the show hasn’t been relevant in “20 years” and said “no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”

How long will South Park, whose creators just signed a 50-episode deal with Paramount, last under Trump’s regime? Let’s hope the ombudsman finds the Trump jokes funny.

DOJ Gives Ghislaine Maxwell “Limited Immunity”

This is a hard story for me to cover and keep hearing about.  It is picking the scab of my healing over my childhood abuse.  I was also trafficked.  These were girls but I was used as if I was a girl because to these people if you are young enough it doesn’t matter, you either have three holes to use or only two holes to use.  I struggle to remember the many times I was told I was better than YYY girl or better than my hell spawn sibling, or that a boy was better than a girl we knew what to do and were more trainable … that one was when I was 6 years old.  

Sorry as I said this issue is hard for me to deal with.  I am not feeling well to begin with and this issue I am constantly dealing with has made my own abuse come to the front of my mind / memories.  I am again not sleeping and Ron has been constantly waking me from vocal violent nightmares.  I recently wrote a male survivor friend that while I always knew and dealt with my abuse I am still recovering memories of it that my mind has denied me from knowing to protect me.  Some of them are the most abusive or when I was given to others … the feelings of betrayal.  Those memories are mostly from when I was very young.   

The last thing I would ask is not that you feel sympathy for me.  I am now 62 years old and while I suffer the scars of my childhood I worry about the children of today.  Please keep your eyes and ears open.  If you hear a child cry, especially in a public place find out why.  If you see a child not wanting to go with an adult and the child is very upset / crying investigate.  I read an article how a little girl before puberty had been abducted and abused for several days was rescued because a store worker noticed how she pulled back when the abductor reached for her and how she held herself.  The store worker noticed how strained the little girl was with the man and how she reacted when the man touched her, then called the police.  

I know it is too late for me, but I wonder at the people who knew or suspected that tried to help on the margins like keeping library books for me when they knew I couldn’t take them home, or those that seen the bruises and welts yet never asked questions.  Would my life have been changed?   Hugs

July 26, 2025

ABC News reports:

Ghislaine Maxwell, who sources told ABC News initiated the meetings with the Department of Justice, answered questions for about nine hours over two days after being granted a limited form of immunity, the sources said.

The immunity allowed Maxwell to freely answer Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s questions without fear that her responses could later be used against her, the sources said.

The so-called proffer immunity is commonly granted to individuals prosecutors are seeking to make cooperators in a criminal case. Maxwell has already been tried, convicted and sentenced for sex trafficking underage girls.

Read the full article.

Folks do realize she’s going to implicate the Clintons and other Democrats and claim Trump is innocent right?

She’s going to lie and leave out huge parts of the truth. She’s in this for herself and will say whatever she has to say to get a pardon.