Quotables
Mamdami & Lander on Late Night...AOC hands Trump his ass.
NY Mayoral candidates Mamdani and Lander on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Zohran Mamdani’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was a defining moment in the final stretch of the NYC mayoral race. Sharing the stage with fellow progressive Brad Lander, the two seemed to have each other’s backs.
When Colbert asked whether Israel has the right to exist, Mamdani replied, “Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist and a responsibility also to uphold international law.”
“Look, no mayor is going to be responsible for what happens in the Middle East,” Mr. Lander chimed in. “But there is something quite remarkable about a Jewish New Yorker and a Muslim New Yorker coming together to say, ‘Here’s how we protect all New Yorkers.’” — NY Times
Bruce Springsteen
“We’re living through a terrible moment in history, where Congress has neutered itself and the boundaries that once curtailed this type of leadership have disintegrated.” — Sunday Times
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
AOC claps back at Donald Trump after he attacked her this morning: “Mr. President, don't take your anger out on me - I'm just a silly girl. Take it out on whoever convinced you to betray the American people and our Constitution by illegally bombing Iran and dragging us into war. It only took you 5 months to break almost every promise you made. Also, I'm a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully.” — X
Rep. Jim Himes (CT)
“Anybody who says they have any idea whatsoever about whether these raids did anything other than create a big boom and a lot of dust has no idea what they’re talking about.” — CNN
Diplomacy vs. Sabotage
History also suggests that diplomacy has usually been more effective than sabotage or military attacks in providing assurances that a country does not pursue atomic weapons. More than 15 years ago, the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Natanz using a sophisticated cyber weapon caused about a fifth of the country’s 5,000 or so centrifuges to blow up.
However, the Iranians not only rebuilt but also installed more sophisticated equipment. Before Israel’s attack this month, they had roughly 19,000 centrifuges in operation.
It was only when the Obama administration struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that the United States got a fuller picture of its capabilities, thanks to the work of inspectors. And those inspections were choked off — and many security cameras disabled — after Mr. Trump declared the nuclear accord a “disaster” and withdrew from it. — NY Times
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
First, the United States bombed known nuclear facilities. If the Iranians had a secret, undeclared facility—e.g., for uranium enrichment—this attack did not touch it. Second, this attack appears to have been an attack on the Iranian facilities for the enrichment of uranium, and not on Iran’s existing stockpiles of enriched uranium. If enriched uranium were located at Fordow or Isfahan, the trucks seen at these facilities before strikes on them could easily have removed that material—moving materials is a generally easier task than moving delicate machinery. — Bulletin (6/24)
Acting as if he’s the honest broker who hadn’t just bombed Iran…
🧠 A MALIGNANT MIND UNRAVELING IN REAL TIME
While the World Edges Toward War, Trump Fixates on Insults, Ego, and Imaginary IQ Battles
In the midst of an escalating global crisis, Trump took to Truth Social to unleash a rambling, insult-laden post targeting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other political opponents—revealing once again that even with the world on the brink of war, his primary concern remains the fragile state of his own ego.
So I put on my Psychology 101 cap and took a closer look at Trump’s mindset based on this latest stream-of-consciousness rant—and what emerges isn’t leadership under pressure, but a textbook case of narcissistic collapse and emotional regression.
Case Study: Male, 79. Calls Himself “President.”
What we witness here is not a statesman addressing crisis, but a man in full psychological freefall. This statement is less a political communication than a clinical symptom—an unfiltered broadcast from a disordered mind struggling to defend itself against reality.
The defense mechanisms are textbook: projection, displacement, denial. Confronted with the specter of global war and his own spiraling failures, Mr. Trump lashes out at women of color—figures who, in his damaged psyche, represent both political threat and symbolic humiliation. His fixation on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Jasmine Crockett reveals a deep fear of feminine and nonwhite authority, wrapped in the language of schoolyard taunts and racial resentment.
The boast about “acing” a cognitive test—a rudimentary screen for dementia, not a measure of intellect—is perhaps the most revealing tell. This is the language of a man terrified by the slow creep of cognitive decline, clinging to trivia as proof of competence. His need to trumpet such a meaningless victory exposes, rather than masks, his mental erosion.
The compulsive name-calling, obsession with IQ, and grotesque overstatement of personal success all point to a psyche trapped in narcissistic collapse. What we’re seeing is late-stage decompensation: the fragile ego unraveling under pressure, unable to tolerate criticism, incapable of self-regulation, and utterly detached from external reality.
At a time when diplomacy, restraint, and rational leadership are urgently needed, the Commander in Chief presents instead the emotional profile of an angry, frightened child—lashing out at imagined enemies while the real world burns just beyond the walls of his fantasy.
History will not remember this as leadership. It will remember it as pathology.
To borrow from Freud’s famous quip about cigars: with Donald, there’s no hidden meaning—sometimes a dick is just a dick.
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It’s gotten so vast…many aren’t sure what to do.