... he grows worse from having power: he becomes and is of necessity more jealous, more faithless, more unjust, more friendless, more impious, than he was at first; he is the purveyor and cherisher of every sort of vice, and the consequence is that he is supremely miserable, and that he makes everybody else as miserable as himself. ...
-- Plato, Republic IX
Ah, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat:
But what about the welders, Marco?
And even today's Greeks know that Western law is far more Roman than it is Greek.
Marco is what the Athenians would have called a spermologos:
Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met Paul. And some said, "What would this babbler say?"
-- Acts 17:18
The MAGA boobeoisie is taking Marco seriously, which is even funnier than Marco himself, but he's still trending way behind International Lesbian Day.
... "Many people are surprised to learn that the most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was not an Enlightenment philosopher or political theorist. The most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was Plutarch," Rubio said. "Athens gave us democracy. Plato and Aristotle gave us Western philosophy. Our ideas of law, of virtue, of citizenship and republic and government were shaped in the Greek city-states." ...
Because Republicans in Congress, contrary to popular opinion, aren't all stupid, you dopes.
Fox’s Laura Ingraham Alleges ‘Many Republicans Secretly Want Trump To Lose’ Congress
... “One of the most incredible statistics is the Trump administration, in one year, has grown personal incomes more than Biden in four,” Ingraham stated, alluding to Census Bureau data released this week.
“That is correct,” Kudlow replied.
“Why aren’t Republicans screaming this from the rooftops?!” Ingraham exclaimed.
Kudlow replied by saying people in trade professions such as “pipefitters, electricians, welders, carpenters [are] making close to $200,000 a year.” Ingraham responded by saying that now is the “best time ever for men without college degrees.” ...
First of all, Ingraham says personal income, which is not the median household income data released this week.
Real personal income grew by 7.4% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2024 compared with only 2.1% from 2024 to 2025.
She means real median household income, which grew by only 1.9% in the four years 2020-2024 but by 2.6% in the one 2024-2025.
But one can forgive the American people for not being overly excited about that 2.6% increase because it is still part of a picture since the 1980s showing structural long term weakness, while the 2025 increase of 2.6% pales in comparison to Trump I performance in 2019 at 7.2%.
He campaigned on a return to that and has not delivered it so far.
Meanwhile Kudlow's claim about trade incomes approaching $200k is just crazy.
Top pay in the skilled trades is for the building trades, and their average national mean wage is nowhere near $100k let alone $200k. It's north of only $65k.
And the mean is lower for the other trades.
For installers, maintenance workers, mechanics, and repairers it's $58k. For welders, fabricators, and assemblers it's $47k.
The building trades represent only 4.1% of the workforce.
Altogether the trades represent just under 14% of the workforce.
The votes of these 21 million matter a lot, but even assuming Kudlow's fanciful incomes, Republicans aren't going to win with them alone.
Republicans don't have a problem communicating a message.
They have a problem seeing reality.
Here's the reality.
The median sales price of an existing single family home in August 2026 was $434,800.
Using the old formula of affordability which said you can afford a home which is 2.6 times your annual salary, you'd need a job paying $167,231 to afford that one.
Or 3.5 welding jobs.
Like Marco Rubio said, you need more welders.
The Reagan tax revolution made America ripe for globalization, but you can't explain that to a mouthbreather.
The goal wasn't globalization.
After all the dotcom malinvestment, the entry of China into the WTO opened a door to a ready, welcome, and fateful solution which became globalization, funded by oodles of low marginal ordinary income tax rates.
We need more philosophers, and fewer Rubios.
Russia tells Rubio U.S. citizens should leave Kyiv ahead of strikes on Ukrainian capital
... Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “officially informed” Washington that Russia would be launching “systematic and consistent strikes” against Ukrainian military facilities and what Moscow called “decision-making centers,” in a call with Rubio on Monday, according to the Russian government. ... Rubio told journalists on Friday that U.S.-led efforts to negotiate a peace deal had ended, explaining that previous talks “were not fruitful.” ...
The Wall Street Journal, here:
... The strait has been a particular source of frustration. Before the U.S. went to war, Trump told his team that Iran’s government would likely capitulate before closing the strait, and that even if Tehran tried, the U.S. military could handle it, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Some of the president’s advisers were caught off guard that tanker traffic would grind to a halt so quickly after the bombing began, according to a person in contact with the White House.
Trump has since marveled at the ease with which the strait was closed. A guy with a drone can shut it down, Trump has said to people, expressing belated irritation that the key waterway was so vulnerable. He has publicly oscillated between demanding support from allies to help open it and insisting that the U.S. doesn’t need or want military assistance. ...
White House concerns about security threats have been heightened, aides said.
In recent weeks, for example, Trump and his team have noticed an increase in security. On a cloudless night in April at Mar-a-Lago, every umbrella was up on the patio in an unusual arrangement, guests said. Club members were told that there was an effort to limit drone visibility, a Mar-a-Lago member said.
Rubio told others about standing outside his home at the military compound where he lives and watching a suspicious drone, administration officials said. Secret Service protection teams have expanded to carry weapons White House officials had never seen before. ...
Drudge version:
Rubio's parents were subject to the jurisdiction of Cuba, and therefore so was he, making none of them citizens.
Same was true of Native Americans, none of whom were made citizens by the 14th Amendment. They were subject to The Nations, which the federal government recognized by treaties as nations within the American nation. Native Americans received citizenship by law passed in 1924.
14th Amendment:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens ...
It is high time that "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" be treated seriously and not superfluously.
Pam Bondi forced to admit Trump's Maduro claim is a complete fiction
... Cartel de los Soles is actually a slang term invented by Venezuelan media in the 1990s to describe officials who take drug money as bribes.
The revised indictment against Maduro now concedes that point against the now deposed dictator.
The old indictment refers to the Cartel de los Soles 32 times and claims Maduro is the leader of the organization. The revised document now only claims Maduro upheld the patronage system along with his predecessor and mentor, President Hugo Chávez. ...
Marco Rubio continued referring to Cartel de los Soles as an actual organization during a Sunday interview on NBC's show Meet the Press.
'We will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs toward the United States that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations, including the Cartel de los Soles,' Rubio claimed.
'Of course, their leader, the leader of that cartel, is now in U.S. custody and facing US justice in the Southern District of New York. And that's Nicolas Maduro.' ...
Maybe AXIOS released the plan in the first place to sabotage the whole thing, to which I say Hurrah!
Ukraine peace plan in chaos after Marco Rubio 'told senators Russia had authored proposal'
Marco Rubio was forced on the defensive last night after a bipartisan group of senators claimed he told them the US's peace plan for Ukraine was authored by Russia.
The US Secretary of State denied their account, with a spokesman calling it "blatantly false", but the dispute threatens to derail President Trump's push for a peace deal to be achieved this week.
Rubio took the extraordinary step of suggesting online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source for the information.
The widely leaked 28-point US-backed peace plan was, according to the White House, the result of a month of work between Rubio and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff along with input from what it said was both Ukrainians and Russians.
The plan accepts many Russian demands that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory.
Trump says he wants Ukraine to accept the plan by late next week.
"This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form," said Republican Mike Rounds from South Dakota, speaking at a security conference in Canada. "They want to utilize it as a starting point."
Rounds said "it looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with." ...
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said the senators' account was "blatantly false." ...
More:
Trump is not allowed to stop spending money which was lawfully appropriated by the Congress for specific purposes, or to spend it on other things, but that's exactly what he's doing anyway.
He's illegally taxing every American with his tariffs under a phony emergency power granted him by our servile Congress.
He's not allowed to shake down and detain citizens on the pretext that they may be illegally present, but that's exactly what he's done. He's made a mockery of citizenship.
He's not allowed to search without a warrant, but he's doing it anyway. You let him do it every time you fly, so what's the big deal if now he's invading homes and businesses without warrants in search of illegal aliens? You don't care.
He uses his bully pulpit literally to bully people, to suppress their speech. He threatens investigations of his opponents, and makes good on them with actual probes and charges. Some in Congress admit they are afraid of him.
No one made him the judge, jury, and executioner, but that's who he thinks he is. He is in fact murdering non-combatants pure and simple every day, and Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio are his accomplices, as is the U.S. military, to its everlasting shame.
Trump is the greatest . . . violator of civil rights and the rule of law since Lincoln.
He's made an ass of the law.
He's flooded the zone with illegality, impropriety, personal corruption, crime, and ugliness.
And Congress just lets him. The courts just let him. The people just let him.
They all just shrug. They're the French, and he's their Napoleon.
