EH S4 E5: SPECIAL EDITION Witness to the Pendulum of History, Part deux
at the very least, the NAZI brownshirts, cruel scum that they were, did not cover their faces to hide their identity. american fascist thugs, however, don't have the balls to reveal their faces. or maybe, they don't think they will need to put this new position on their resume for future job opportunities.
Oy vey! ***** Five star rating
at one of our neighbors' yard, caught by our photographer
Henri-Cartier Breastman
.....perhaps god's way of telling us "show a little modesty"?
"cover those tushies, people!"
[Editorial Comment: EH would wish he'd mind his own fuckin' business]
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Vlad's Little Pet Helper: (video)
https://substack.com/@malloyrocks/note/c-200829213?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1toffv
*****
H-C B caught this sign in Acton at Concord & Main near HQ's
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 January 19, 2026 |
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| Ben Wiseman |
If you missed the previous newsletter, you can read it here.
Trump doesn’t have ideals. Just enemies.
 | By Frank Bruni |
We define most presidents by their biggest moments: the agonizing judgment calls, the signature legislation, speeches that shape public sentiment, treaties that reshape the world.
But it’s the little gestures that tell the truth of President Trump, like the middle finger that he raised to a heckler during his tour of a Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., last week.
That one flipped bird showed so many of Trump’s feathers.
For starters, it captured the consistent triumph of his pettiness and puerility over any bearing that fits the old definitions of “presidential.” Trump doesn’t even try for dignity. He has his tantrums in public, and his sycophants peddle those outbursts as authenticity or even boldness; in their telling, he has the confidence and honesty to eschew phony courtesies and be true to his emotions — no mask, no manners. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, responded to Trump’s Michigan meltdown by more or less praising it. He released a statement that said that a “lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
Unambiguous? For sure. Appropriate? Only if you believe in answering ugliness with more ugliness, bile with bile, and only if your conception of leadership is acting no better than anybody else but indulging your snits and staging your fits from a higher pedestal, with a louder megaphone. Only if you believe the antonym of — and antidote to — elitism is vulgarity. That’s what Trump and so many of his abettors seem to think. Or, rather, it’s how they rationalize behaving however they like.
The footage of what happened in Dearborn is crude, but apparently one of the men whom Trump passed while walking through the factory shouted “pedophile protector” at him. Trump reacted not only by gesturing obscenely but also by mouthing something at the man. You needn’t be much of a lip reader to make it out. It’s just two words. Two syllables. The first seems to begin with the letter F.
The F-bomb is Trump’s idea of muscular vocabulary. It’s part of the acronym that accompanied an image that the White House circulated after the recent capture of Nicolás Maduro. Trump, looking suspiciously young and slim, strides toward the camera; below his knees, it says, “FAFO.” If you’re unfamiliar with that threat, the first letter stands for a verb that rhymes with muck, the second is for “around,” and the final two are for “find out.” Add a missing “and” in the middle, and you have Trump’s message to the world — not a summons to freedom but a command to obey.
Trump’s middle finger is the exclamation point punctuating his inability to tolerate any dissent, receive any criticism, shrug off any insult. Coupled with that defensiveness is an insatiable need for affirmation and adulation. He complained so publicly and frequently about not being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize that its most recent recipient, María Corina Machado, presented him with hers during a visit to the White House on Thursday. There, there, Mr. President. Stop your sobbing. You can share mine!
Nobel officials saw that ridiculousness coming and felt compelled to speak up and clarify that Machado didn’t have the authority to pay the medal forward or split it in two. But that didn’t end Trump’s pouting, nor did it shame him into politely declining Machado’s munificence. He posed for a picture with her that commemorated her theatrical but meaningless transfer of the honor. How utterly mortifying. How quintessentially Trump.
I’ve read that he doesn’t actually type his splenetic social media posts, but if he did, it would clearly be with his middle finger only. He rants at and curses his opponents, even on the holidays. His 2023 Christmas musings included these tidings for the “SICK thugs” who accused him of wrongdoing: “MAY THEY ROT IN HELL.” He channeled the same generous spirit last month. “Merry Christmas to all, including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country,” he wrote. Grab some eggnog and a loved one. The president has holiday-season reflections for you.
Many of his predecessors at least performed a pantomime of concern for the Americans who hadn’t voted for them. Those presidents claimed to understand that they represented the whole of the country and owed everyone a measure of respect. They issued pleas for unity and spoke of common ground. Empty words, perhaps, but important nonetheless — they recognized an ideal.
Trump rejects it. “I hate my opponent,” he said in September at a memorial for Charlie Kirk. A month later, in response to the nationwide No Kings demonstrations, he posted an A.I.-generated video in which he wore a crown, piloted a fighter jet with the words “King Trump” emblazoned on it, flew over American cities and dumped rivers of feces on the protesters below. He’s a scatological spin on Marie Antoinette. Let them eat excrement.
And since the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, he has done nothing to acknowledge so many Americans’ horror over what happened, to persuade them that he’ll get to the truth of the matter, to calm the unrest. He has chided those critics for disobedience, cast them as enemies of the state and threatened to use ever more force to subdue them.
He can’t extend his right hand in fellowship. One of the fingers on it is otherwise occupied.
Bernie's view on Greenland mishegoss
https://substack.com/@ellenmitchell2/note/c-201985320?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1toffv
ELDER HOSTILE IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE A NEW BOOK IMPRINT NAMED
THE DÉNOUEMENT PRESS. the press will focus on whatever it wants. It will publish fiction, non fiction and everything else.
Our winter list is packed with books you will want your grandchildren to inherit leaving them with the task of disposal.
check us out in the coming days for great titles, such as:
Witness to the Pendulum of History from Both Ends: A Love Story
by Benjamin Netanyahu
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about an hour in to the biggest storm ever to hit the newsroom, it is stunningly beautiful viewed from a warm & cozy seat. birds below are seen at their local "market basket", buying white bread, milk, and birdseed in preparation for the storm. Squirrels are looking for their nuts. Rusty, one of our headquarters' dogs, makes sure everyone gets an equal & fair amount, according to their needs
do you want to know how the story ends?
stay with ELDER HOSTILE to find out the denouement
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