June 16, 2025

What happens when you let the gremlin get wet. By Hal M. Brown

 

It did’t literally rain on Trump’s parade, but it still sucked. In fact, for him the entire day sucked. Between the protests and the news coverage of the Minnesota shooting, not only did the non-Fox and other far right media not give it, I mean HIM, uninterupted coverage all day, but for many people, even his supporters, it was just boring.

If you are one of the six people in the country who doesn’t know the plot of the hit movie Gremlins, this is from Wikipedia. Those who know the plot about what happens when a gremlin gets wet can skip this quote.

Struggling inventor Randall Peltzer visits a Chinatown antique store to find a Christmas present for his son, Billy. In it, Randall uncovers a small and furry creature called a mogwai (Cantonese魔怪, 'devil'). The owner, Mr. Wing, refuses to sell it to Randall, but his grandson secretly does, warning Randall to remember three important rules concerning the mogwai – do not expose the creature to light, especially sunlight, which will kill it; do not let it come in contact with water; and above all, never let it eat after midnight.

In Randall's hometown of Kingston Falls, Billy works at the local bank, but fears that his dog Barney will be put down by widowed miser Ruby Deagle. His father returns and offers him the mogwai, now named "Gizmo", as a pet, and informs him of the rules. Gizmo is friendly and docile, but when Billy's friend, Pete Fountaine, accidentally spills water on Gizmo, five more mogwai spawn from him – a more mischievous sort led by the aggressive Stripe, named after the white mohawk-like tuft of fur on his head. Billy shows one of the mogwai to his former elementary school science teacher, Roy Hanson, spawning another mogwai, whom the latter experiments on. Back at home, Stripe and his fellow mogwai trick Billy into feeding them after midnight by severing the power cord on his bedside clock. They form cocoons, as does Hanson's mogwai, which soon hatch, emerging as destructive and reptilian imp-like monsters called "gremlins". Hanson is murdered by his gremlin, while those at the Peltzer house torture Gizmo and assault Billy's mother, Lynn.

Trump’s parade day birthday extravaganza was a big bust, and not the kind that prompts him to grab women.

He and Melania couldn’t even manage to effect a glimmer of a smile. They were pictured in the media looking like they’d been sucking lemons as they realized that what, at least Donald, hoped would be a bunker busting parade was bombing like the Broadway play, the aptly named Frankentein, which after 29 previews, closed after one night. Put this fiasco of a farce on this list of Broadway plays that closed after one perfomance on the Great White Way. This was supposed to be a the show of shows for Trump’s great white America… instead it not only was boring but so poorly managed that numerous people gave up on waiting in long lines in the heat and went home.

Even Trump’s speech, such as it was, was a dud. The only thing it had going for it for anyone who decided to watch in person or on TV was that it was mercifully short. I figured Trump was so bored he didn’t bother embellishing it by going off script and just wanted to get home.

It didn’t take long for Trump to realize that his parade had been rained on. Like the aggressive gremlin Stripe, he unleashed his malevolent self with what is probably the first formal presidential order given by a social media post. (Clicking below will enlarge the image, not go to Truth Social):

The post screamed “I’ll show you muthaforkers not to rain on my parade.”

Here’s a HUFFOST artilce about what he did: 'Openly Admitting': Critics Rip Trump For 'Dehumanizing' Sunday Night Announcement.

Trump desperately wants to be like the tough guy shown below. He has the power to inflict great pain on those he considers his enemies.

He’s really this guy:

(Click the above images will go to the YouTubes of the songs.)

Putting aside whether Trump will directly help Israel attack Iran, which would be an act of war, with this TRUTH he has declared war on half of America.

He will go down in history not only as the president who made himself dictator, destroyed democracy, but as the vengeance and retribution president.

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June 15, 2025

Even Febreze, with its HPβCD, wouldn't take out the stink of what Trump's psychopathic Gestapo are doing.

 .

I was watching Ali Velshi this morning and he was showing videos of, and describing, some of the more horrifying ICE arrests. He noted that Trump’s administration had ordered ICE to triple the number of arrests. He talked, for the umpteenth time, about what he and others have said “that for Trump and his minions the cruelty is the point.”

Then he went to a commercial for Febreze.

This is what Wikipedia tells us abut how Febreze works:

The active ingredient in several Febreze products is hydroxypropyl beta-cyclodextrin (HPβCD). The molecule traps and binds volatilized hydrocarbons within its structural ring, retaining malodorous molecules, which reduces their volatility and thus the perception of their scent..The active ingredient is produced from corn cobs.

In LA, deputy sheriffs have become members of the Trump psychopathic Gestapo and they are doing their own spraying. They are attacking peaceful protesters with tear gas. Needless to say, not only does this hurt, but it can inflict serious harm.

Tear gas, also known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (from Latin lacrima 'tear'), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In addition, it can cause severe eye and respiratory pain, skin irritation, bleeding, and blindness. Common lachrymators both currently and formerly used as tear gas include pepper spray (OC gas), PAVA spray (nonivamide), CS gasCR gasCN gas (phenacyl chloride), bromoacetonexylyl bromidechloropicrin (PS gas) and Mace (a branded mixture). From Wikipedia

Do they care? I doubt it. The cruelty is the point. 

Addendum:

In more innocent times, aka, Trump’s first term, the baby balloon was effectively used to mock Trump. Now we have a president who wants to come across like this:

Now the baby balloon is wielding an assault rifle:

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June 14, 2025

Trump has already torn holes in the Constitution, today his tanks will rip holes in Constitution Avenue. By Hal M. Brown Trump's big beautiful birthday bash on, of all places Constitution Avenues, will be covered on all networks. It should be broadcast split screen with all the No Kings demonstrations.

 

It’s difficult not to feel a bit of cynicism when you realize that this particular president is holding his $40 million birthday parade on Constitution Avenue. (I recommend reading this on Substack where I often include updates.)

Trump said that he hadn’t heard about any planned protests, but “warned that 'any' protesters at military parade will be 'met with heavy force’.” (Reference)

Trump got what he wanted. Every TV station will be covering his big beautiful parade.

The question I have is whether they will broadcast it with a split screen showing the protests around the nation. They should, Whats more important, a parade of prodigious proportions or thousands of protests across the nation involving hundreds of thousands of people protesting what the parade represents. 

Whoever came up with the theme of the protests couldn't have thought of anything better to call them. Two simple declarative words: No Kings. The suffix “in America” goes without saying.

There are too many ironies to point out regarding this parade to cover all of them. Suffice to say that the ostensible excuse, the raison d’être, for the parade is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army which during the Revolutionary War fought to free us from the rule of a king. In World War II they fought to save much of the world from Nazi domination.

If tragedy strikes at one or more demonstrations as is feared by many (see illustration I used for this Substack) what will happen to the television coverage of Trump’s parade is that this will no longer be a split screen. The news will have to break away to cover whatever act, or acts, of violence occur. The more horrific it is the less of the parade will be covered. In fact, if Trump wants to put on a show in Los Angeles this will be in competition with the self-glorifying extravaganza he wants everyone to watch.

Ultimately Trump may get what he has always wanted even though few eyes would have been on his parade. Unless it could be absolutely proved that whatever violence occurred was due to a member of a far right group who posed as a protester he’d have ample justification to declare martial law.

Even if it could be proved that there were deliberate acts to justify Trump’s calling the 99% of peaceful protests an insurrection Trump, being Trump, could simply claim that was fake news. 









On a personal note, Ann and I will be going to the protest in Clackamas. This is the easiest to get to from where we live in a Portland, Oregon suburb. The way people will congregate there won’t represent a threat to anyone since it is along both sides of a busy thoroughfare, 

We have friends who are going to the protest in downtown Portland. This will be where a large crowd will be packed together. You can see a photo of the most recent protest here,

This is the protest we are going to.

We fear that groups like the Proud Boys which have an affinity for Portland may turn up there to cause trouble. In 2019 they clashed with members Antifa at a "The End of Domestic Terrorism" rally. This happened again in 2021. 

Addendum: Trump must be enjoying watching coverage of the tanks preparing for his parade. If he’s watching MSNBC he might not like the image on the bottom.

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From my friend Sabrina Haake, Trump's long-festering dream finally gets its wake up call on RawStory+(subscription).

Here’s the part about No Kings Day protests and his parade:

We’ll see about that. Republicans in Congress may have lost their voices and their balls, but the American people haven’t. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. defeated the Trump/Hegseths of their time by wielding nonviolent resistance as a strategic weapon. We will do the same.

On Saturday, June 14, millions of Americans will protest Trump on No Kings Day, as Trump enjoys his $45 million ego-fest military parade in DC. The protests will continue, and they will grow. As Justice Louis Brandeis said about civic engagement, “In a democracy, the most important office … is not the presidency, and it’s certainly not governor. The most important office is … citizen.”

June 13, 2025

Here's a backstory about dear Kristi's DHS and her spokeswoman which you may have missed. By Hal M. Brown You may not know who Tricia McLaughlin is. Read this and you will.


I saw this on Rawstory, a website my readers know often gives me an idea for a Substack.

DHS official flips out over question on meme tied to white nationalist account

Excerpt:

The Department of Homeland Security was caught using a meme created by an antisemitic white nationalist activist to promote their mass deportation efforts, journalist Zaid Jilani reported for The American Saga — and when confronted over it, a senior DHS official was completely unapologetic.

This is emerging on the same day that Trump's DHS faces a firestorm of controversy for having Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) tackled and handcuffed when he tried to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about the administration's military occupation of Los Angeles during a news conference.

"On Wednesday, the DHS Twitter account posted an image of an Uncle Sam figure alongside the text 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,'" wrote Jilani.

"'Mrrobertwp' aka Mr. Robert is a white nationalist Twitter account," wrote Jilani. "He accuses Members of Congress of being 'Jew owned' and he’s a big fan of anti-black racial slurs, defending their use. He believes that Trump is the 'Great White Hope,' and one of his favorite slogans is 'Wake Up White Man,' which he posted repeatedly." Mr. Robert gloated about being able to get the cabinet department overseeing immigration and border security to post his meme, writing, “It's far reaching fellas. We really hit it out of the park with this one.”

This is the Substack which the RawStory article linked to:

Why is the Department of Homeland Security Cribbing from a White Nationalist?

Conservatives have long argued that their calls for immigration restriction are race-neutral. Someone in the administration is making this hard to believe.

I know many of my readers boycott X so they miss things posted there. For example the X poster, Robert Reichlin-Melnick , who identified the origin of that meme as coming from an account known as “mrrobertwp.”posted the following:

This tweet led to 89 replies (not a lot for X), but included these:

You can see that he brought out some of the haters as well:

Who, inquiring minds may want to know, is the lovely lady who said the following:

"These assertions are fundamentally unserious and reflect the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism. These reporters should get off social media and start focusing on the very real victims of illegal alien crime. Every American citizen should support federal law enforcement in their just effort to deport criminal illegal alien invaders from our country. During the Biden Administration our borders were opened to an invasion by the very worst from around the world. Now President Trump and Secretary Noem are reversing the destruction of our nation and sending these thugs back."

She’s just another pretty face of the Trump dictatorship:

Here' she is on YouTube:

It is painful to listen to her but I suggest that you gird your loins and resist your gag reflex and click here.

Some may think this woman is physically attractive. I think she proves that beauty is only skin deep.

Update: I just saw this on BlueSky:

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