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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Peace and rumors of peace [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-29
We begin today with Camaron Stevenson writing for the “Below the Beltway” Substack on the tacky shoe salesman’s lyin’-ass claims of ending half a dozen wars.
While in the midst of a messaging war with the public over releasing the Epstein Files, President Donald Trump on Monday attempted to shift public discourse by falsely claiming to have prevented six wars since taking office in January. “If I weren't around, you'd have right now six major wars going on,” Trump said. “We've done a lot. It's an honor to do it. It's not hard for me to do it. And I use — not in all cases — but I use a combination of knowing them a little bit, or in some cases, knowing them a lot.” Of the conflicts Trump pointed to, three are still active wars, two were ceasefires that the countries involved said the US had nothing to do with, and one was made up by the president entirely. The president boasted of his self-proclaimed peacekeeping abilities amidst a scattershot of social media posts that appear to be attempts to divert attention away from the Trump administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files.
I’ve been looking at some of the national headlines of the current conflict between Thailand and Cambodia and all I see is stenography, more or less.
And yes, Trump has claimed that he prevented a war between Serbia and Kosovo.
José Olivares of the Guardian covers Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislane Maxwell’s appeal of her criminal convictions to the U.S. Supreme Court
Maxwell’s submission to the supreme court comes days after she met justice department officials, as discussions began to see whether she would turn into a US government cooperator. Observers have suggested Maxwell may be able to expose new information about Epstein’s sex trafficking and the wealthy individuals who may have also been involved. It is not clear if Maxwell will become a US government cooperator and what she may receive in return. Maxwell’s supreme court filing argues that Epstein’s 2007 plea deal with federal prosecutors in Florida should have barred her prosecution. The controversial 2007 plea agreement between Epstein and the justice department said that if Epstein followed the terms of the plea agreement, the US government would not charge “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein”, including “but not limited to” four co-conspirators. Maxwell is not one of the four co-conspirators named in the agreement, but her attorneys say she did not need to be named to receive the protection from that deal. [...] The justice department, for its part, previously argued that the Florida plea deal did not extend to other federal districts, including the southern district of New York, where Maxwell was eventually tried and sentenced. Most federal cases in the US are settled through plea agreements.
Max Burns of MSNBC looks at the scope of Trump’s executive order that legalizes forced incarceration of the homeless and mentally ill.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order legalizing forced institutionalization for people who are unhoused or mentally ill, and granting federal agencies sweeping new powers to violate those citizens’ medical privacy rights. If it goes into effect, Trump’s new policy will mark a historic expansion of federal police power into services largely carried out by nonprofits and local governments. [...] The White House knows cash-strapped cities and states don’t have the money or the medical staff to rebuild the network of state asylums shuttered by President Ronald Reagan nearly 50 years ago. Trump’s executive order makes no provision for that problem because it isn’t really concerned with addressing homelessness or drug addiction. Rather, it’s a back door for the feds to collect an unprecedented amount of sensitive health data under the guise of helping those in need. The American people shouldn’t fall for it. You don’t need to read far into Trump’s order before it becomes clear that its true purpose is advancing his extreme anti-immigration agenda. One provision grants Bondi the power to demand local nonprofits provide her with the sensitive health data on the people they serve in order to receive any grant money, something the National Alliance to End Homelessness condemned on Friday as a “fundamental violation of the right to privacy.” Bondi can also demand nonprofits share that health data with law enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mara Gay of The New York Times outlines some of what white progressive need to do to make inroads into Black communities, particularly among the older crowd.
Zohran Mamdani was wooing Black pastors at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s Harlem headquarters recently when he mentioned he had been there before, at a Christmas Day event to help people in need. The pastors, surprised, decided to check up on Mr. Mamdani’s claim. “We had to go look at the tape,” Mr. Sharpton said. “There’s Zohran, serving meals. We didn’t know who he was.” [...] Progressives have a shot at shaping the direction of a party whose leaders have failed to mount a successful opposition to Donald Trump. Before they can offer Democrats a path forward nationally, though, they will have to make significant headway with Americans at the very heart of the Democratic coalition: Black voters. Especially older ones. [...] The first step is to look beyond the tired assumption that Black voters are reflexively socially conservative. Some are. But a closer look suggests that the coveted support of many Black voters is often less driven by ideology than by an alchemy of other factors: trusted relationships, sometimes built over many years; the ability to deliver tangible policy items; and politicians who are unapologetic in their embrace of Black people. Perpetually and strangely overlooked is the fact that older Black Americans grew up during Jim Crow and its aftermath, a searing set of life experiences that may lead to a certain cautiousness about politics and politicians.
From what I can tell, Mr. Mamdani is not acting as if he’s entitled to the Black vote. Which is a good thing and a welcome thing.
Of course, Mamdani (as Barack Obama was, to an extent, in his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign) might be having some luck with regard to his opponents in the mayor’s race.
Paul Krugman takes a needed break from a lot of political and economic drama to talk about...Atlanta.
OK, Atlanta. As the Journal says, metropolitan Atlanta has experienced rapid population growth ever since the introduction of air conditioning. Why? In general, every metropolitan area has some kind of core competence that powers its economy — finance in New York, technology in the Bay Area, and so on. Figuring out what Atlanta does for a living is a bit tricky: What do Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, and Delta have in common? But my guess is that it’s largely about logistics, with Hartsfield-Jackson Airport — the world’s busiest — playing a key role. But Atlanta’s growth has been slowing recently, and last year, for the first time since these data started being collected, net domestic migration went negative. It’s a small decline, but startling for a city that was for decades a magnet for Americans leaving both small towns and coastal cities. Why is Atlanta’s boom petering out? The Journal, and many other discussions, focus on two problems: Affordability and traffic. Both problems are clearly visible in the data. And I’d argue that they’re closely related. What we’re seeing in Atlanta, I’d suggest, are the limits of sprawl.
Madison Czopek of Politifact goes beyond the lawsuit filed by the Macrons against Candace Owens and looks at the reasons why women of power and influence are often falsely accused of being born a man.
French President Emmanuel Macron and the first lady filed the lawsuit more than a year after Owens initially made headlines for promoting the false claim that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux. (Trogneux is Brigitte’s older brother .) The lawsuit alleges that, since March 2024, Owens repeatedly used the false statement "to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money," while disregarding "all credible evidence disproving her claim." The legal complaint said that after the Macrons requested a retraction, Owens retaliated by releasing an eight-part podcast series, "Becoming Brigitte." [...] Gender-focused conspiracy theories have proliferated in recent years alongside increasing anti-transgender rhetoric and support for restrictive policies on trans people, experts said. The term " transvestigating " describes when conspiracy theorists begin questioning a person’s gender and accusing them of being transgender, Penney said, and it’s become a common attack. GLAAD, a nonprofit advocacy group that works to counter discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in the media, describes the practice as an "example of anti-LGBTQ online hate and disinformation."
I can’t help but remember that the first time I ever heard a rumor like this was about disco diva Donna Summer back before I was a teenager.
Finally today, Nectar Gan of CNN writes about...well, as we were saying in a mini-comment thread in yesterday APR, “it” is not a Catholic Church thing, a fundie thing, a MAGA thing, an Abrahamic/monotheistic thing, or even a “charismatic guru” thing.
China’s famed Shaolin Temple announced on Sunday that its abbot is under investigation for suspected embezzlement and “improper relationships” with women, reviving decade-old allegations against the controversial, high-profile monk. Shi Yongxin, known as “CEO monk” for his entrepreneurial endeavors that transformed the Buddhist monastery into a commercial empire, is suspected of criminal offenses including embezzlement and misappropriation of project funds and temple assets, the temple’s authority said in a statement. [...] His focus on promoting the Shaolin brand and turning it to multimillion-dollar business has attracted fierce criticism, especially from some followers who saw excessive commercialization as corrupting the spiritual integrity of the religious institution. He staged Shaolin kung fu performances around the world, licensed the temple’s name out to cartoons, movies and video games, and established a business empire that includes publishing, traditional Chinese medicine, tourist development and real estate.
“It” could be a number of things contained in that CNN story.
Everyone have the best possible day that you can!
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