We will put the Pride flag right back at Stonewall

Trump lost the Bad Bunny culture war he started. And he’s being buried by the Epstein files, while the GOP is revolting against him on tariffs and court losses against perceived enemies pile up.

Furor is building over the Trump administration’s outrageous, quiet seizure of the Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan in recent days. Employees of the Stonewall Inn, the symbolic birthplace of the queer rights movement and the site of the 1969 riots, noticed the large flag gone from its pole as they looked out at the park across the street.

The national monument was designated in the tiny park at Sheridan Square by President Obama in 2016. The Trump Interior Department confirmed it followed through on a Trump directive to remove any flags that were not American flags from national parks—though the directive allows “limited exceptions.” You better believe the “exceptions” are sure to include Confederate flags and other racist MAGA iconography—but obviously don’t include the Pride flag.

Outrage exploded yesterday as media began covering the story and protesters converged on the site. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Senator Chuck Schumer, and members of Congress spoke out, vowing to fight the administration. Manhattan Borough President Brad Holyman-Sigal, who is gay, will be joined by other local political leaders and many activists on Thursday at 4 pm, when they will defiantly hoist a new flag up the pole.

That will obviously create a clash with the feds, and we could see the flag removed and replaced over and over. I’m actually fine with that, but you know that with this administration, someone could eventually be hurt or killed in the process.

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Longtime gay activist and journalist Andy Humm suggested that the community move to reverse the national monument designation, getting Congress to vote on it. That way the federal government doesn’t own the park, and it returns to the city. As I’ve said many times on my SiriusXM program, we’re in an inverse world now. It’s upside down.

For more than half a century, we lived in an America in which the federal government protected civil rights from abuses in the states, particularly the racism and attacks on voting rights in the South. But under Trump’s fascist regime, it’s now the federal government that is the enemy, with the states that support civil rights fighting back.

So maybe Andy Humm’s is the way to go. At any rate, we will put that flag back, and the City of New York should festoon the entire area in flags and paint the damned streets every color of the rainbow. Like much else these days, this vile attack will backfire on Trump.

Judge Box of Wine loses in court again

That’s what happened yesterday when the former Fox host turned U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro tried to get an indictment on “seditious conspiracy” against the Democratic politicians, all veterans of the military or the intelligence services—including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan—who made a video telling members of the military they don’t have to follow unlawful orders.

The old expression, “you can indict a ham sandwich,” clearly doesn’t apply when it’s Judge Box of Wine—so named for her, um, intoxicating Fox News performances—and a fascist government going after their perceived enemies who served this country and are doing their patriotic duty.

Much of the media weighed in on how rare it is for a grand jury not to indict, as prosecutors only present their case and their case alone to get an indictment. As The New York Times noted:

It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump’s — authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies.

But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution.

One of the six, Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, a former U.S. Army officer, had the best response to Trump’s latest dismal failure: “If these fuckers think that they’re going to intimidate and threaten and bully me in the silence, and they’re going to go after political opponents and get us to back down, they have got another thing coming. The tide is turning.”

The Epstein saga completely engulfs Trump

The tide is turning indeed. The Epstein files have exploded rather than having receded. Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has now been caught lying, brought before Congress under oath to admit he went to Epstein Island for lunch—when he’d previously claimed he cut off ties with Epstein years earlier—and had financial involvements with the convicted child rapist. Several others among Trump’s officials, including the Secretary of the Navy—another billionaire crony—have been ensnared.

And we now learn that Trump told the Palm Beach police chief—speaking to the FBI in 2019—that he knew of Epstein molesting children, having called the police chief shortly after the investigation of Epstein began, back in 2006. Trump said “everyone” knew Epstein was a pedophile.

“Thank goodness you’re stopping him,” Trump said, according to the document. “Everyone has known he’s been doing this.”

And Trump called Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner who was engaging in the sex trafficking with him and was convicted, “evil.”

Does that sound like Trump being a good citizen and letting the police know about a sex offender? (Is that even possible from Trump?) Or does it more so sound like Trump trying to get out ahead of the story shortly after Epstein got caught and distance himself?

And why has Trump been saying for years now that he didn’t know anything about Epstein and his crimes? And why did he say he didn’t know anything about Ghislaine Maxwell and say in 2019, “I wish her well,” after having called her “evil” over a decade before? And why did she now get moved to a cushy country club prison as she’s pushing for clemency or a pardon, after speaking with Trump’s former lawyer and current deputy attorney general Todd Blanche who visited her months ago?

The answers all seem to be clear.

It was just a fascism-themed nightmare, Grandpa

Trump and MAGA just continue to flail. As they did with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Democrats, using a discharge petition, are getting a vote on reining in Trump’s tariffs to the House floor today. It may or may not pass, but just getting it to a vote is a show of Trump’s and Mike Johnson’s weakness.

And what an embarrassing moment it was two nights ago when Trump, in the middle of the night, wrote a crazy screed vowing to block the opening of a bridge between Canada and Michigan? Trump claimed it was paid for partially with U.S. dollars and didn’t use U.S. steel. And then he made more threats against Canada.

It then turned out he’d earlier had a phone call with a billionaire who built and operates the competing Ambassador Bridge, who filled Trump up with all kinds of lies, and who has for years been trying to stop construction of the new bridge, the Gordie Howe Bridge—which Trump hailed in his first term. The members of the Epstein class are all helping each other out—when they’re not screwing each other over.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had to call Trump and explain to Grandpa that his middle-of-the-night tantrum was just a sundowning nightmare, completely false. What a humiliation—he’d been conned by another dishonest oligarch wannabe apparently. Canada completely paid for the bridge, Carney told him, used steel bought in the U.S., used American workers, and has given Michigan half ownership of the bridge. In other words, the U.S. got a great deal.

Once again Trump was completely deflated.

A culture war fiasco

And that’s what happened after he launched his war against Bad Bunny and the NFL halftime show at the Super Bowl this past Sunday. Expecting an overt message about ICE—as Bad Bunny offered at the Grammy Awards, where he won big—millions around the world instead watched a show that was a celebration of Puerto Rican history and culture. It was still political, pointing to the American exploitation of the island in its past and promoting independence and diversity, but it wa subtle, and was in the end about love triumphing over hate.

Trump was left only with complaining that the performance was in Spanish—which he claimed “nobody” could understand, even though the U.S. is the country with the second-highest number of Spanish speakers after Mexico—and that the dancing was “disgusting” for children. Yes, Trump, in the middle of the Epstein sex pedo scandal, after Stormy Daniels, Access Hollywood, and E. Jean Carroll, is actually lecturing us on morality and setting a bad example for children.

You can’t make it.

And now he’s got Republicans in the House calling for the FCC to launch an investigation of the NFL because of Bad Bunny’s supposedly obscene lyrics, saying the performance was “illegal.” Meanwhile, this was the most-watched Super Bowl ever. And the Turning Point USA “alternative” halftime show was a complete failure and laughingstock, with Kid Rock lip syncing but now claiming that, no, he recorded it live and they just couldn’t match his lips up with the sound when they aired it. Huh?

This Super Bowl faux outcry crashed and burned for MAGA and the GOP, as they came out looking like nothing but the racists they are. As we’ve seen, when Trump’s assaults break out into pop culture—as they did with the attempt to silence Jimmy Kimmel—Trump and MAGA always lose. And that’s happening now again, with the Grammys, the Super Bowl, and even the Olympics, as Trump attacks athletes who are engaging in free speech. They’re on a downward spiral. Let’s keep it going—and let’s return that Pride flag!