WTF Was That?

White House posts cryptic videos, deletes one, fueling speculation online

• White House posted two unexplained videos; one was later deleted.
• The short clips sparked hacking and teaser speculation online.

Two mysterious videos posted to the White House’s official X and Instagram accounts on Wednesday night generated buzz online, with the purpose of the short, vertically shot clips unclear. One video was later deleted.

The first video, posted around 9:15 p.m. EST, appeared to be filmed on a smartphone, with the camera pointed at someone’s feet. In the four-second-long video, a female voice can be heard asking, “It’s launching soon, right?”

A line of text on the screen says “sound on.” The video was later removed from the White House’s accounts on X and Instagram roughly 90 minutes after it was posted.

The second short video, posted at 10 p.m. EST, showed a black, staticky screen with a phone notification sound playing. An American flag was visible in one frame. The post included emojis of a smartphone and sound.

There was no indication of the context of the posts, which racked up millions of views, with many online commenters theorizing the accounts could have been hacked or that an official was cryptically teasing something.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

It was not immediately clear whether the videos were posted intentionally. The posts follow earlier instances of the Trump administration White House social media accounts sharing meme-style content.

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Erika

When the leader - and the in-group - say it's all great, it can override our built-in defenses.

We'll See ...

... but we won't be seeing that turkey.

I watched the Melania Trump film so you don’t have to

It’s not a documentary so much as the most boring piece of political propaganda ever made.

Poor ticket sales for Melania dud suggests public really doesn’t care

With the release of “Melania,” a film so devoid of substance that it feels wrong to call it a documentary, we might need to come up with a new word for shameless. Because shameless doesn’t seem harsh enough to describe the grotesqueness of releasing this cinematic farce at the end of one of the most brutal months in recent American history.

“Melania” is a film so devoid of substance that it feels wrong to call it a documentary.

To be fair, when the release date was set, no one knew that the nation would be reeling from the fatal shootings of two Minnesota residents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Or how ICE agents would be terrorizing communities in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. Or how heartbreaking images of Liam Ramos, a 5-year-old Minneapolis boy snatched out of his driveway with his father, would blanket social media.

But that is the climate that greets “Melania,” a movie determined to inform audiences that first lady Melania Trump cares about nothing so much as the welfare of our children and the freedoms we hold dear as Americans. “No matter where we come from, we are bound by the same humanity,” she says in one of many platitude-filled voiceovers that are slathered across “Melania” like sugary icing on a cake baked with sugar, flour, eggs and heaping amounts of hypocrisy. “I will always use my influence and power to help those in need,” she insists in another.

Across some 104 minutes, the first lady delivers these blatantly scripted and meaningless narrations with all the conviction of someone who just woke up from a two-hour nap and can’t remember what day it is.

The details about this project raised a cascade of red flags well before it opened in multiplexes Friday. Amazon spent $40 million to acquire this behind-the-scenes study of Melania during the 20 days leading up to the 2025 inauguration, a move The New York Times recently characterized as a blatant attempt to curry favor with President Donald Trump. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is even among the wealthy tech titans seen attending a pre-inauguration candlelight dinner hosted by Melania Trump. “Our donors were truly the driving force behind our campaign,” she narrates.

It is one of the few honest things she says in the whole film.

Whatever one may have expected from a cinematic study of Melania Trump, nothing could prepare audiences for how shallow this dive into Trump World really is.

“Melania” is directed by Brett Ratner, best known for the decades-old “Rush Hour” franchise that President Trump recently pushed to reboot. In more recent years, Ratner has been accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women (he denies the allegations) and his name surfaced in some of the Epstein files. Because apparently this vapid docu-endeavor didn’t already feel unsettling enough. (Also mentioned in the most recent release of Epstein files? Melania Trump.)

It appears that Ratner thought that just following Melania Trump around would provide a wealth of compelling cinematic material. Mission extremely not accomplished. Whatever one may have expected from a cinematic study of Melania Trump — Is she the power behind the throne? What is her relationship with her husband actually like? — nothing could prepare audiences for how shallow this dive into Trump World really is. I am not even talking about all the things it does in poor taste, including turning footage from Jimmy Carter’s funeral into a sequence about the death of Melania Trump’s mother a year prior. The film is poorly shot and edited, with Ratner repeatedly relying on the same imagery. The number of close-ups of Trump’s stilettos (sometimes heels, sometimes boots — she’s got range!) could break a cinematic record for the most unnecessary shots of a woman’s feet. (Yes, I am very familiar with Quentin Tarantino’s work.)

Whatever the truth of Melania the woman, “Melania” the work is incredibly boring.

Whatever the truth of Melania the woman, “Melania” the work is incredibly boring. Over and over again, viewers must watch Mrs. Trump get into and out of cars, walk long distances inside various buildings, and attend meetings where she and her coterie of stylists and designers discuss such weighty issues as her inaugural ensemble or the new decor for the White House.

The details are more than even the first lady’s most ardent fans could possibly care to know. To the many Americans struggling economically, watching Melania Trump reveal the golden-egg-shaped caviar she plans to serve at her pre-inaugural dinner will read as a truly Marie Antoinette moment. This thing is basically “Let Them Eat Cake: The Movie.”

But because this depiction is, above all, an exercise in brand management, there is footage of Melania doing Serious First Lady Work, such as talking about her Be Best initiative with Brigitte Macron, the first lady of France, or meeting with an Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas and is desperate to bring home her still-captive husband. (Title cards at the end that tout Melania Trump’s various accomplishments say that she helped get the man released after Trump took office.)

Even in interactions designed to make her seem kind, Trump seems stilted and uncomfortable. Ultimately, she remains a well-coiffed cypher. At no point do we get new insight into who she is because throughout the work, she glosses over her experiences without providing concrete or illuminating details. A film that’s supposed to allow her to reflect on her life is like watching someone try to write a book report about a book she didn’t read.

This thing is basically “Let Them Eat Cake: The Movie.”

Melania’s interactions with her husband, too, convey little that hasn’t already been observed. There is minimal warmth between them, and President Trump is equally mindless in his responses to questions. “There’s nobody like her,” he says when Ratner, off camera, asks the president to talk about his wife. “She’s really difficult. But there’s nobody like her.” The most relatable moment is when the president asks his wife if she watched the congressional certification of his votes and she says no, visibly disinterested. As her husband goes on about how well he did, it’s clear she’s become a master at pretending to care what he says.

Melania is much less convincing at pretending to be a normal person. In one scene that takes place within a car, Ratner asks who her favorite musical artist is. She says Michael Jackson and mentions that she loves “Billie Jean.” That is a song about a man accusing a woman of lying about having sex with her, recorded by an artist accused of abusing children. Ratner then puts the song on and joins Melania to sing the lines, “People always tell me, be careful what you do/Don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts.”

One wonders: Do these people have any self-awareness, like at all? Perhaps the infamous Melania jacket from her husband’s first term said it best: I really don’t care, do u?

Today's Rich

Today's Belle

Those cities were never in danger, except in the manipulative brain of Donald Trump, and the totally propaganda-addled brains of the MAGA rubes who love to fantasize about the greatness of their cult hero.

Today's Adam

Old news repackaged as new discovery.

1. Take something ordinary and already known
2. Mix up the timelines to make it sound suspicious
3. Pretend it was hidden all along
4. Put it on blast to media outlets you know won't fact check it
5. Sit back and let the outrage do the rest

The Peace POTUS

News Flash: Trump lies. A lot.

Propaganda 200

A new one: Jeremy Andrew Davis

You Lack Pattern Recognition

An Ad

The trick is to not reveal your own self-loathing while getting your audience to recognize theirs, and to give them the opportunity to turn it outward in order to project it onto whatever group or individual you've chosen as your next target.

When people are frustrated because they've been busting their butts and never seem to get ahead, they'll be looking for something or someone to blame it on.

If you have a good bunch of power, and if you're at least partly responsible for causing those problems, you damned sure better have something up your sleeve besides a sweaty armpit. You can't give the rubes any chance to figure out that you're the one been fuckin' 'em with their pants on this whole time.

What's New, MAGA?

Nothing. Not one fuckin' thing.

Because they never come up with anything new. It's always cycled and recycled.

I remember rumors from back in the 70s and 80s about immigrant populations - back then it was almost exclusively SE Asian - prowling the suburbs looking for white people's family pets to serve up as the latest delicacy to all the unwitting Americans.

It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now, and JD Vance keeps showing us he's exactly the kind of asshole who's willing to do anything to find a wedge "issue" so he can use it to pit one American against the other.

One thing I'd like to see:

Let's stop spending time debunking this bullshit, and concentrate on calling out the racist assholes who put it out.

Vance pushes false accusations of Haitians eating pets

GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) on Monday amplified a false claim that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, despite the city’s police department denying any such incidents.

In a post on the social platform X, Vance published a video of him at a July Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, reading a letter from Springfield city manager Bryan Heck detailing the city’s challenges in keeping up with housing for a growing Haitian immigrant population.

Vance added a reference to a now-debunked social media post.

“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote.

Those reports are largely based on social media postings that were picked up by national figures including Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk over the weekend.

But Heck, whose letter Vance read in the committee room, said false allegations against immigrants were distracting from the real issues faced by Springfield.

“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” Heck told The Hill in an email.

“Yes this clearly takes away from the letter’s point that we are struggling with housing, resources for our schools, and an overwhelmed healthcare system.”

The Springfield Police Division told the Springfield News-Sun on Monday that it has received no reports about anyone stealing or eating pets.

At an Aug. 27 Springfield City Commission meeting, local resident Anthony Harris alleged, among other things, that Haitian immigrants were slaughtering park ducks for food. Video of his speech has been widely shared on social media.

“Senator Vance has received a high volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield: his tweet is based on what he is hearing from them. The city has faced an influx of 15,000-20,000 Haitian migrants over the past four years, stressing public resources and leading to housing shortages, all thanks to Kamala Harris’s policy of extending temporary protected status designations,” a Vance spokesperson said.

“Many residents have contacted Senator Vance to share their concerns over crime and traffic accidents, and to express that they no longer feel safe in their own homes. Unlike the liberal media, JD takes his constituents’ concerns seriously.”

According to a frequently asked questions page managed by the Springfield police, between 12,000 and 15,000 Haitians live in the midwestern city legally, under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. Heck’s letter estimated that population to be between 15,000 and 20,000.

“This is the same old anti-Black playbook that we’ve seen for hundreds of years in Ohio being rolled out to divide and create hate, especially around election times,” said Erik Crew, staff attorney at the Haitian Bridge Alliance and a Cincinnati native with Springfield roots.

“White supremacist and antidemocratic movements have always used the claim that so-called Black savages are coming to destroy, especially when political power is up for grabs. This is no different. This time they are saying it is Haitians, and this time it is being used to try to score political points around immigration as well.”

In June, the Biden administration expanded the TPS designation for Haiti, allowing an estimated 309,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation.

“The fact is Haitian immigrants have been coming to Springfield seeking to come and contribute to U.S. democracy and the economy, and Springfield and Ohio will benefit from that like U.S. communities have benefited in the past from Black immigrants contributions,” Crew said.

“The fact is the rumors about Haitians in Springfield and pets have already been debunked, but we won’t stop hearing them because certain people will want to keep spreading them as the election nears.”

The accusations were widely picked up on right-wing social media on both personal and official channels.

The House Judiciary Committee Republicans X account on Monday posted an AI image of former President Trump hugging a duck and a cat — animals at the center of the social media allegations — with the caption “protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio!”

Vance has recent experience in cat-related controversies since becoming the GOP vice presidential nominee.

He has been widely criticized for unearthed old comments and postings criticizing “cat ladies” and childless people, though he has since tried to downplay those remarks as remarks as sarcasm.

Here It Is

... the gist of it anyway.

This is for everybody who loves to bitch about how "the Dems just don't know how to message, and blah blah blah.

Always remember we're fighting on three fronts - the GOP, and the Wingnut Media Cartel, and a gang of hostile foreign governments slipping in under the back of the tent.

Today's Democracy Thing

The video is mostly about Stupid Republican Tricks, and the beginning of what I hope could be an awakening to the fact that all this MAGA shit is childish, and while we should never have to take this ridiculous nonsense seriously, we have to take it seriously.

What stands out for me in stark relief is something Marc Elias says about how this shit has been going on for almost an entire generation.

Trump started in 2010 or 2011 with the birth certificate bullshit. For 12 or 15 years, we've been getting splattered nonstop with lies and slander and what should be the most obvious gaslighting hogwash imaginable.

But millions of us are convinced it's all true, so there are folks who were 8 years old - when a lot of people are just becoming vaguely aware of politics - and they've spent the last 12 or 15 years being exposed to the fire hose every day. Now they're out of the nest, and "doing their own research", and holy fuck, it's pretty goddamned scary thinking how many of them might be well enough indoctrinated to stay home, or go 3rd party, or vote for Donald fucking Trump.

Today's DIP

Deceptive

Image

Persuasion

Today's Debunkment

Milo Rossi walks us thru the frightening world of Moral Neutrality that is the internet.

Ever hear of The Bosnian Pyramids? No? Good - they don't exist. But a YouTube video pimping the idea to gullible rubes has been viewed 30,000,000 times.

30 Million

Starting at about 12:00

It can be relatively easy for a charismatic shit-talker to convince you of something that's utter bullshit, because he can speak in terms of the absolute.

Scientists are trained never to go too far beyond the 95% certainty threshold, because the next round of discovery could totally vacate their entire thesis.

So a huckster can give us that supreme confidence most of us need so we can feel comfortable in our presumptions, while a reasonable person has to leave room for doubt - which makes us feel less than fully secure.

Keep It Sane

Don't be fooled.

Putin's an asshole, but he's not a mad man and he's not stupid.

Слава Україні

Свобода знаходить шлях

SOTU Update

Katie Britt didn't just fuck up the performance - seems odd that a party so totally committed to performative bullshit would flop like that - anyway, she did what dog-ass Republican fascist-wannabes do practically all day every day: she flat-out lied by spinning a yarn that had no relation to the truth.

Katie Britt’s false linkage of a sex-trafficking case to Joe Biden

“We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it with 94 executive actions in his first 100 days. When I took office, I took a different approach. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That’s where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped. The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoe box of a room, and they sent men through that door over and over again for hours and hours on end. We wouldn’t be okay with this happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.”

— Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-Ala.), in the Republican response to the State of the Union address, March 7

If you were watching Britt’s speech on Thursday night, you likely would have thought she was talking about a recent victim of sex trafficking who was abused in the United States and suffered because of President Biden’s policies.

If you did, you would have been wrong. Sean Ross, Britt’s communications director, confirmed that she was talking about Karla Jacinto Romero — who has testified before Congress about being forced to work in Mexican brothels from 2004 to 2008. (A viral TikTok by journalist Jonathan Katz first revealed that Britt was speaking about Romero.) In a phone conversation and a statement, Ross disputed that Britt’s language was misleading.

We disagree. Let’s take a look.

The Facts

Britt’s account of Romero’s experience was a centerpiece of her rebuttal to Biden’s address. The way Britt sets up the story, there is no indication that she is talking about a woman who was working in brothels in Mexico during the George W. Bush administration. This is how the passage unfolds.

• She first blames Biden for the surge of migrants at the border.
• Then she says she visited the border shortly after she took office. That would be 2023.
• At length, she details the story of an unnamed victim that she says she met on her trip. The implication is that the woman recently crossed the border — because of “sex trafficking by the cartels.”
• She strongly suggests that her abuse took place in the United States: “We wouldn’t be okay with this happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it.”
• She ends by reinforcing that such alleged trafficking is Biden’s fault: “President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.”

But Biden has nothing to do with Romero’s story. As she testified nine years ago, her mother threw her out of her house at age 12 and she “fell prey to a professional pimp.” She says she then spent the next four years in brothels before a regular client helped her escape when she was 16 years old. There is no indication in her story that drug cartels were involved, though Britt said that in the State of the Union response and has made a similar claim on at least one other occasion. Romero was never trafficked to the United States; instead, she says many men who paid to have sex with her were “foreigners visiting my city looking to have sexual interactions with minors like me.”

In a YouTube video, Britt features images of her hugging Romero during her 2023 trip to the border. “If we as leaders of the greatest nation in the world are not fighting to protect the most vulnerable, we are not doing our job,” she said in the video. The implication again is that this happened on Biden’s watch.

When Donald Trump was president, he regularly decried human trafficking that he claimed was happening at the border, including that “thousands of young girls and women” were being smuggled across the border for prostitution. In 2019, we investigated that claim and found no evidence to support it. Most human trafficking prosecutions generally involve legal border crossings, visa fraud and travel into the United States on airplanes. Victim organizations say there are relatively few cases that involve forced kidnapping across the border. This might be one reason Britt regularly cites a case that happened long ago and did not involve crossing the border.

Ross, Britt’s spokesman, said that Romero’s story was indicative of trafficking that is now happening at the border and that should be clear from Britt’s framing in the speech.

He said the reference to a “Third World country” was generic and was not intended to refer to Mexico, which he said is not a Third World country. Third World is a dated Cold War-era term previously used to refer to poor or developing countries. Global South, indicating low income and high poverty, is a more common expression today. Mexico is considered part of the Global South, though it is also a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In a written statement, Ross said:

“The story Senator Britt told was 100% correct. And there are more innocent victims of that kind of disgusting, brutal trafficking by the cartels than ever before right now. The Biden administration’s policies — the policies in this country that the President falsely claims are humane — have empowered the cartels and acted as a magnet to a historic level of migrants making the dangerous journey to our border. Along that journey, children, women, and men are being subjected to gut-wrenching, heartbreaking horrors in our own backyard. And here at home, the Biden administration’s policies are leading to more and more suffering, including Americans being poisoned by fentanyl and being murdered. These human costs are real, and it’s past time for some on the left to stop pretending otherwise.”

The Pinocchio Test

In a high-profile speech like this, a politician should not mislead voters with emotionally charged language. Romero’s story is tragic and may be evocative of other Mexican girls trapped in the sex trade in that country. But she was not trafficked across the border — and her story has nothing to do with Biden. Britt’s failure to make that clear earns her Four Pinocchios.

Four Pinocchios

On Guns And Politics

One of the mainstays of Daddy State politics is playing the Opposites Game - a slight variation on 'Every accusation is a confession'.

It's very useful to make sure your audience is distracted and fooled so they don't see the impossible contradiction inherent in the propaganda.

Case in point: Guns.

"We need our guns in case it becomes necessary to fight an oppressive government!"

What if the oppressive government is actually made up of the people who are telling you to fight? What if they're co-opting you into fighting on behalf of the oppressive government they intend to install once you've killed enough of your neighbors to impose their will on all of us?

Just a thought.

Signs

The actual violence is not, as yet, endemic. But given time and the corrosive effect of falsely motivating people to take extreme action when they don't feel justice has been served - makes for some very bad juju.

This Redden guy had no justification for what he did in the courtroom. My guess is he's just that kind of asshole, and that's the kind of asshole thing he does.

But take this incident and overlay it on what's going on in MAGA world. Every day, they're fed a heapin' helpin' of paranoia and victimization. They're told the system is totally rigged against them, and the courts - along with the rest of the government - are out to get 'em. So they need to rise up and "fight like hell - or you won't have a country..." 

I'm not talking about some random dickhead who apparently loses his shit and beats people up, just cuz.

And I'm not talking about people who have a legit beef with a system that fucks them over practically every day, and who show up and legit protest, willing to look for some of that good trouble that John Lewis talked about - and follow the rules of Civil Disobedience.

(Yes, there are rules for how you go about breaking the rules)

I'm talking about a double-digit cohort of dickheads who have legit concerns about getting fucked over, but have volunteered to get hoodwinked and bamboozled into thinking they're being victimized by women, or brown people, or Jews, or or or. They're mostly otherwise good decent folks who're "just going with the flow", but in many cases they're pretty hateful people deliberately misunderstanding that the ones telling them they're being played for fools are the the ones who're playing them for fools. 

So I may have gone off the path a little, but I think it's important to note the potential for violence against the institutions of democratic self-governance, especially in light of the death threats judges and politicians have been getting.

We are being radicalized, and that always makes for some very painful history.

Man leaps over bench to attack Nevada judge during sentencing, video shows

A sentencing hearing in Las Vegas turned chaotic Wednesday morning when a judge suddenly tried to scramble out of her chair as a defendant hurled himself over the bench, arms outstretched to attack her, courtroom video shows.

Deobra Redden, 30, was in court for a sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty in November to attempted battery with substantial bodily harm, according to court records.

Video from the hearing shows Judge Mary Kay Holthus suddenly look up as others in the courtroom began to yell. Redden can then be seen leaping over the bench and pulling Holthus to the ground as flags on either side of her chair fall to the floor. Two people can be seen pulling Redden away from the judge as someone yells “get off her,” according to the video, which has been viewed more than 30 million times on social media.

Holthus and a courtroom marshal were both injured in the attack, said Mary Ann Price, a spokesperson for Eighth Judicial District Court. The judge is being monitored for her injuries and the marshal was taken to a hospital, where Price said he is in stable condition.

“We commend the heroic acts of her staff, law enforcement, and all others who subdued the defendant,” Price added.

Just before the attack, an attorney for Redden asked for a sentence of probation, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Holthus can be heard in the video denying the request, telling the attorney: “I appreciate that, but I think it’s time that he gets a taste of something else because I just can’t with that history.” Redden had previously served time in prison for attempted theft and domestic battery, Nevada state records show.

Redden was taken into custody Wednesday on charges of battery and battery of a protected person, according to online jail records. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said it is investigating a battery incident, which occurred around 11 a.m. at the Regional Justice Center. Police did not name anyone involved in the incident.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the scene in the courtroom was “unbelievable.”

“I’m sure he will be facing consequences for his actions,” Wolfson said in a statement to the paper.

Holthus, who became a judge for the Eighth Judicial District Court in 2019, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She previously served more than two decades as a prosecutor for the Clark County district attorney’s office.

Weapons are barred in the courtroom, where people are instructed to “sit quietly when court is in session,” according to the Eighth Judicial District Court’s website.

Price said the court is committed to providing a safe and secure environment.

“We are reviewing all our protocols and will do whatever is necessary to protect the judiciary, the public and our employees,” she said.

Programmable Bags Of Meat

Sorry not sorry, but how the fuck does a Trump MAGAt rate a Dead Head t-shirt - and pretzel yourself to where you can believe you're justified in it? (about 2:45)

But I'm not going to say "make it make sense." Because it's not supposed to make sense.

The people pulling the strings on this shit go out of their way to make it not make sense. They have to keep the rubes off balance and dependent on whatever The Daddy State tells them at any time on any day, in order to keep them compliant.