- Paul Krugman and Guardian on how the parade was a flop, while No Kings Day was a hit;
- Photos from Trump’s military parade;
- Motivated reasoning and conspiracy theories about the Minnesota shootings, even though the facts are apparent enough (and implicate a right-wing, religious, shooter);
- Bigger picture: Trump takes aim at states’ rights — at least, blue states’ rights;
- And he wants VA doctors to refuse treatment to Democrats (!?);
- Is this building up to some kind of ethnic cleansing of Democrats?
- Adam Serwer’s “tyrant test”;
- And Fox News.
First, just to restate the situation.
Paul Krugman, 16 Jun 2025: Trump’s parade flopped. No Kings Day was a hit.
America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism — a system that (like Orban’s Hungary or Erdogan’s Turkey) is still democratic on paper but in which a ruling party no longer takes democracy’s rules seriously. As a result those in power
violate those rules so often and to such an extent … that the regime fails to meet conventional minimum standards for democracy.
Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold. America still has a chance of reclaiming itself from the grip of brazen corruption, mindless destruction, and contempt both for the rule of law and for our erstwhile allies. We don’t have to become a country bullied into submission.
But we’re teetering on the edge, and one of the most important ways we can step back from that edge is for ordinary Americans to engage in mass protests.
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Another view.
The Guardian, J Oliver Conroy in Washington, 15 Jun 2025: Trump coveted a military spectacle but his parade proved underwhelming: ‘Just kind of lame’
Subtitled “Trump’s army parade was neither the totalitarian North Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of Maga nationalism fans craved”
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And a few of my Facebook friends have reposted this item from a group called The Trumpland Diary:
I WATCHED THE ENTIRE MILITARY PARADE SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, with a long description and several photos, including one of a very disgruntled looking Trump.
Here’s that image.
And while I realize that Facebook posts from random unknown people aren’t worth much, I saw another today, several times, about how the US Army “phoned it in.” Not marching in step, and so on.
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Back to the shootings in Minnesota.
Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 16 Jun 2025: Conspiracy theories about Minnesota shooter aren’t just deflection. They’re dangerous, subtitled “False counter-narratives signal to other terrorists that MAGA has their back”
Since the tragic events in Minnesota on early Saturday morning that left two dead and two others in critical condition, state authorities have painted a clear picture of what Vance Boelter, 57, is accused of doing. They say Boelter murdered former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and also shot State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., called the shootings “a politically motivated assassination” targeting Democrats. Police recovered a list of around 70 potential targets, including politicians, community leaders and abortion providers. All the listed politicians were Democrats. According to the New York Times, Boelter’s roommate and longtime friend says the suspected shooter voted for Donald Trump. Boelter’s online activities show he is a right-wing Christian who opposes abortion and denies that LGBTQ identities are real. While we don’t yet have the text of the manifesto Boelter left behind, it’s fairly obvious what’s likely to be in it.
Motivate reasoning is taking every new fact as evidence, no matter how twisted, for one’s preconceived narrative.
Despite these facts, it didn’t take long for MAGA forces online to snap into action with a false counter-narrative: that Boelter is a left-winger and Republicans are the real victims. Trump’s traveling companion Laura Loomer falsely claimed Boelter “was friends with Walz” and was associated with the “No Kings” protests. “The organizers of NO KINGS and @GovTimWalz need to be detained by the FBI and interrogated,” she demanded. Dating “guru”-turned-MAGA influencer Mike Cernovich also blamed Walz, claiming the governor had Hortman — who was actually Walz’s friend — “executed” for voting one time with Republicans on a bill. “MORE DEMOCRAT TERR0RISM!” screamed Nick Sortor, a far right influencer with over a million followers on X. Glenn Beck, Breitbart and other far-right outlets went to work on Facebook, suggesting to their audiences that Walz was responsible for the shooting, even though he was on the list of Boelter’s targets. Charlie Kirk of Turning Points USA blamed the shooting of Democratic lawmakers and their family members on anyone who objects to rising fascism.
I think that subtitle is significant: “False counter-narratives signal to other terrorists that MAGA has their back”
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Other details.
PolitiFact, 15 Jun 2025: How conservative X accounts promoted wild theory implicating Gov. Tim Walz in lawmaker’s killing
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Whereas the facts seem plain. (Omitting photos from these pieces.)
AP News, 16 Jun 2025: Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative
And
NPR, 16 Jun 2025: The suspect in the shooting of 2 Minnesota lawmakers had a ‘hit list’ of 45 officials
Authorities in Minnesota said Monday that the man arrested in a Saturday attack that killed one state lawmaker and left another wounded had a “hit list” of 45 elected officials — all Democrats.
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Stepping out to the big picture.
Salon, Heather Digby Parton, 16 Jun 2025: Trump takes aim at states’ rights, and the Constitution, subtitled “”The once hallowed GOP concept is under threat by a would-be king”
Conservatives defend states’ rights when they want to excuse their own behavior, but deny such rights to blue states that Trump and MAGA want to control.
The current example is Trump’s redirection of ICE to target blue states: “In a Sunday night rant on Truth Social, he ordered ICE to step up its raids in cities and states that are run by his political enemies…” But I won’t quote Trump.
It’s not about law and order, or even immigration.
Trump is being very clear here about why he’s targeting these cities. It’s not because of immigration, although he’s using that as an excuse. After all, two of the three states with the largest populations of undocumented people are the red states of Texas and Florida. And in recent days, Trump has exempted the agriculture, hospitality, and meatpacking industries, which apparently aren’t part of the “Democratic Power Center.” (The construction and manufacturing sectors better get on the ball and start doing some serious bootlicking.) No, he sees this as a way to start a conflagration in these cities, giving him the excuse to supersede the power of elected state and local officials by sending in troops, whether it be federalizing state National Guards or sending in active duty Marines.
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And then there’s this, today.
JMG, 16 Jun 2025: New Order Lets VA Doctors Refuse To Treat Democrats
Quoting The Guardian, 16 Jun 2025: ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans, subtitled “Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’”
Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.
The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.
(Why are the “unmarried” a target? I’m guessing they think that’s code for “gay” because they don’t realize that gays can get married. Until the Supreme Court repeals that one too.)
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Adam Serwer is the author of The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America, a book in my TBR stack.
The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 16 Jun 2025: The Tyrant Test, subtitled “A leader who uses military force to suppress his political opposition ought to lose the right to govern.”
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So what is this all adding up to? Trump targets blue states and blue cities, he wants to deny healthcare to Democrats! Protesters against authoritarianism are often accused of over-reacting. It won’t be that bad. But maybe it will be. If Trump and MAGA wanted to literally disappear the left, the Democrats in blue cities, the scientists in elite universities, wouldn’t these be their first steps? It’s happened before.
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This is hilarious.
JMG, 16 Jun 2025: Fox Host: “No Kings” Protesters Were “Green-Haired, Soy-Fed, Bitter, Disgruntled, Vampire-Looking Leftists”
While this Fox host Tomi Lahren has her long blond hair carefully draped forward over her shoulders. As so many of them do. And anyone who does not conform to the current conservative standard, is weird, in one way or another. This is another measure of a cult.
