Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Let’s Catch Up On The “BBB”

Is he always this confident? Or does he have no clue whatsoever how to govern? This looks problematic. Maybe Stephen Miller should give them his “pep talk.” He could start with MTG: And why not check on Lindell while we’re here? No, “It’s only words” is not a good defense to libel. Because libel is “only words.” But everything Lindell said and what he was going to say in court was never going to happen. The court was never going to allow information irrelevant to the claims, or the defense, to get before the jury. 
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I Wondered When We’d Get To

...non-brown people.* Bo French is:
Chairman Tarrant County GOP. The largest red county in America. Father. Entrepreneur. CEO. Investor. Making Tarrant County inhospitable to democrats.
And to non-white people in general.

He seems like a nice guy. You know…almost human.
Or maybe too human. Because, really, only humans are so disgustingly inhumane.

*Yes, they are all U.S. citizens. This is just GOP essence of Stephen Miller. Joni Ernst is indefensible as a public servant; but this is the real cancer in the body politic.
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Dear College Students:

Leavitt: That’s what I was talking about. There were formatting errors. Those errors were updated by the proper policy components. So, exactly what I said took place
Don’t try this at home; or in the classroom.

It won’t work.
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It Probably…

 …cost Elmo Tesla. But it doesn’t matter that DOGE cost government money, rather than saving it:

The "Morning Joe" host predicted that Musk's cuts would fall far short of the $2 trillion in savings promised by Musk, and he gloated at new reporting that shows DOGE fell far short of those lofty goals — and had actually added another layer of bureaucracy to the federal government.

"I've got to tell you, really, it is, it's actually a scene out of a comedy, except, of course, the consequences are very real, very real, they're very significant," Scarborough said. "But again, this is what happens when you go into a government organization thinking you can wield a chainsaw and change things in two, three, four weeks.

"Again, not a great deal of cost savings. In fact, many people believe the consequences of the cuts will end up costing more than the proposed cuts themselves, the ones that are actually real. But in this case, who would believe it? DOGE creates a new layer of bureaucracy."

"These are all things that we all predicted before," Scarborough added. "When Donald Trump, you know, reportedly turns and says, was this all just BS, the saving of a trillion? Yes it was. Yes, it was BS. We told everybody it was BS."

Many of the cuts imposed by DOGE were undone by the courts, and the legal challenges cost taxpayers millions, and thousands of workers endured pain and uncertainty while those lawsuits played out, and MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann said the saga would likely play a major role in next year's elections.

"I think when the whole thing is said and done, it's going to net-net out," Heilemann said. "Not only that, the savings have been have been minuscule. In fact, they're not, they're not going to be savings. They're not going to end up having cost the taxpayer a ton of money, having gone through this exercise. But the most interesting thing is the thing you said about Donald Trump. Because all that, all I'm focused on now is what happens between now and next November. There is no doubt that Elon Musk and DOGE are going to be at the center of the Democratic attempts to retake the House."

"Are Elon Musk and Donald Trump going to stay together, or are we seeing the signs of an increasingly growing split? That question, was he always just full of BS?" Heilemann added. "That's the first stage of not just the separation, but a divorce, I think, between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and when these two turn on each other, God knows what's going to happen to the politics for the Republican Party."
DOGE is still there:
Picture this: You’re a researcher who has spent years developing a grant proposal, gone through layers of expert review, and received National Science Foundation (NSF) approval. Then some kid barely out of college — whose main qualification appears to be founding a company that puts ads on the blockchain — logs into a Zoom meeting, pays more attention to his fingernails than the discussion, and kills your grant with an uninterested thumbs down.

Welcome to science under DOGE.
Elmo has left the building. That ignorant kid is still there.

Hell, Elmo is still there:
DOGE is still turning thumbs down on things it doesn’t understand (what, you thought shutting down nuclear security was a one off?). Elmo has contacts in the government (and contracts with them, for Starlink and Spacex). His face is gone, his access remains. Repeat any gossip you want about Trump and Musk’s “relationship.” The fact is, Trump has no interest in governance and Elmo is the rats in the government walls, the better to fatten his pockets. Hell, he’s got the FTC investigating companies that won’t advertise on Twitter (something an ordinary FTC wouldn’t touch with a club). He’s got the State Department pressuring countries to buy Starlink. He may yet run Tesla into the ground, but his reputation as a tech mogul genius remains as impervious to facts as Trump’s reputation as a brilliant businessman and politician. 

The Morning Joe crew is clueless. This is a brave new world of government corruption, and you don’t need to be seen to remain a player. You can thank technology for that, but this remains America, which runs on one motto: “Money Talks.”
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Monday, June 02, 2025

Did We Do This To Ourselves?

Or are these people just a bunch of idiots? I hope his lawyers got paid in advance.

Remember what I said about what a hell the Administration must be with Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff?
Stephen Miller summoned 50 senior ICE officials from around the country for a bonkers emergency meeting about deportation numbers, according to a new report from the conservative Washington Examiner. One official after the meeting: “They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals. That’s what is horrible about things right now. It’s a fearful environment. Everybody in leadership is afraid. There’s no morale. Everybody is demoralized.”

… “Miller came in there and eviscerated everyone. ‘You guys aren’t doing a good job. You’re horrible leaders.’ He just ripped into everybody. He had nothing positive to say about anybody, shot morale down. Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?'”

… One official stood up and told Miller that DHS and the WH said they were only supposed to be focused on migrants who had criminal records: “Miller said, ‘What do you mean you’re only going after criminals?’ Miller got into a little bit of a pissing contest. ‘That’s what Tom Homan says every time he’s on TV: ‘We’re going after criminals,'” the ICE official told Miller.”

… Apparently what they say to the public is not the same as what they are saying internally to senior ICE officials.
Now I think when Miller dies, Satan is going to move out of hell. Oh, and I found out what Lindell blamed on Satan. Probably not what you think:
Outside the courthouse, Lindell was asked who masterminded the alleged theft of the 2020 election from Trump: “Who’s behind it all? Satan. This is a nation that’s turn its back on God.” He then claimed that he is being railroaded because the state of Colorado deleted all the evidence that he needed to prove his innocence. Things are going well.

He’s a former cocaine addict, you know. 

Maybe we did do it to ourselves:

I am not a lawyer so I don’t know what it would take to use the 25th amendment, but as a psychologist, I could put together one heck of a report of factual evidence that would indicate this person does not have the mental clarity to have a job where he wasn’t closely supervised.

Not even vaguely how the 25th works. 

The 25th allows the President to declare himself unable to do his job; or the VP and a majority of the Cabinet Secretaries tell the President Pro Tem of the Senate, and the Speaker, that the President can’t do the job. If the President tells them he can do the job, and the VP and the majority of the Cabinet beg to differ, the matter goes to Congress. Have you seen the Congress conduct an impeachment inquiry? Or trial? And this would be the whole Congress, at once. Not half, and then half.

I mean, it ain’t gonna be a court of law.

Not that I doubt that Trump “does not have the mental clarity to have a job where he wasn’t closely supervised.”

Speaking of “closely supervised”:

I'm writing a piece abt AI. But I don't actually use AI at all. Not really for any ideological reason when it comes to basic search type stuff. I just haven't. So i tried asking a few questions to ChatGPT and I asked for suggestions of books on a topic. out of 8 at least 1, the first one I ...

2/ checked because the title seemed weird to me turns out not to exist. This is a pretty basic AI thing obviously. So I was seeing how quickly I could get to one. And that was pretty quick.
Which means AI is already as sentient as the average college student. But it’s hardly going to be taking over the world anytime soon.
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🤦‍♂️

The man convicted on 34 felony counts and found liable for civil fraud in his business dealings going back years is the man re-establishing our allegiance to justice? What fundamental allegiance to the concept of justice and our system of justice do we owe? Is ours a government of laws? Or of a man? But Stephen Miller told him that’s what the Constitution says, so the courts can fuck right off. If they don’t, the blame is on them.
"If the Courts somehow rule against us on Tariffs, which is not expected, that would allow other Countries to hold our Nation hostage with their anti-American Tariffs that they would use against us," Trump wrote in a social media post. "This would mean the Economic ruination of the United States of America!"
All Trump understands is that nothing is ever his fault. Ever. And like the hypothetical man without fear who stumbles needlessly into danger, the man who can’t be responsible for his actions needlessly creates danger for others which he’ll never accept he caused.

And we’ve made that man POTUS. Again. Same song, second verse; a little bit louder, a little bit worse. Do we expect the world to go back to normal like everything was before, after we’ve done this twice? And this time with malice to the world economy? A world rapidly making arrangements to work around us. Do we understand that? Are we aware of the consequences of our concerns for Joe Biden’s age and the price of eggs, and the fact we wouldn’t dare elect a woman POTUS? Are we aware we may have royally fucked ourselves for a generation?


Sometimes I blame Trump. Sometimes I just think “we, the people” are just too stupid to be a democracy.  I mean, I thought Brexit was stupid. Now I’m beginning to see America said: “Hold my beer.”🍺 Except we don’t even accept that we did that.

Makes Trump almost our avatar, doesn’t it?
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Fear Of A Brown (or Just Non-Authoritarian) America 🇺🇸

Stephen “Who let these brown people into my country?” Miller.
The Washington Examiner (the conservative news outlet) reports that Stephen Miller screamed at ICE officials: "What do you mean you're going after criminals? Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?" Kinda blows up the narrative that they care about public safety.
Stephen “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” Miller.
I wondered how long it would take to reconsider a law firm that made such concessions so quickly. If we didn’t have so much trade, we wouldn’t have a trade deficit. Hey! Presto! 🪄
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“Life’s A Bitch, And Then You Die”

 The GOP platform, 2026.

And what are the Democrats doing about it?

Obama can do it, but mean wins against anyone but another Obama. Just like no one but Trump is going to lead MAGA.

Although I’m not sure calling a bully a “bully,” or a xenophobic racist a racist xenophobe, is “being mean.”

Chuck Schumer was on MSNBC this morning, full of righteous indignation over the attack on marchers in Boulder, and the rise of violent antisemitism in America, and rightly so. Don’t see why that same indignation can’t be directed at TACO Trump. 🌮
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Living In Interesting Times

 Senate Republicans might force a serious fight over Trump’s “big, beautiful bill, which could mean it never passes, because the House passed their version by only one vote.

But would the Senate (and the House) show as much resolve if this happened?

Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters that “the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at.” During a recent congressional hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem incorrectly defined habeas corpus as “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their rights.”
("Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller”? What a hell that White House must be.)

One problem:
The suspension clause can only be invoked by Congress, not the president, despite what the Trump administration has said. It also specifically limits the circumstances under which habeas can be suspended, rather than revoking habeas corpus in its entirety, because the founders wanted to ensure that judicial review of detention cases could still continue even in a true emergency. The reality is that the Trump administration is likely hoping that “no one actually pays close attention to the text,” Vladeck said, “because it’s not just that we’re not actually being invaded by anyone right now, it’s that even the suspension clause does not authorize suspensions by the president, ever.”
Miller, of course, thinks his white country is being invaded by brown people. I honestly think he has plans in place to deport the blacks next, but he’s gotta somewhere.

So, usurping Congressional authority to fuck with the courts and claim monarchical power? Grounds for impeachment and removal, or nah?

I really hope we don’t have to get an answer to that question.
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Trump Is Exploring The Depths Of His Ignorance

And deep inside Russia is deep.
"SBU drones are targeting aircraft that bomb Ukrainian cities every night. At this point, more than 40 aircraft have reportedly been hit."

Video footage filmed by a Ukrainian reconnaissance aircraft and shared by the official appeared to show Russia’s Belaya airfield, located in south-eastern Siberia some 5,500km east of the frontline, in flames.
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Sunday, June 01, 2025

Having Been…

... a pastor and a family law practitioner and a college teacher and an employee and alive for 70 years, I didn’t have to write a book to not be shocked. 

Thinking is hard. Ignorance is easy. Like a teacher I had once said, people are like electricity: they will always follow the path of least resistance.

Does no one remember how one minute that war in Europe was none of our fucking business because the Founding Fathers had the wisdom to not make us have a standing army or get involved in foreign affairs? And the next day we were in it to win it. As Churchill said, you can trust Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.

Usually more succinctly put as: “Even a blind hog finds an acorn.” Or, my favorite: “God looks out for drunkards and fools.” On what evidence, I have no idea.

Path of least resistance. Stubbornly ignorant. Sure. Every time. We’ve always wanted to pursue happiness. And always told ourselves it would be easy. All we really need is a better mousetrap.
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Mike Lindell Is The Client From Hell

Or the bed person possible to sue for defamation.
“The biggest thing I plan to say on the stand is that I didn’t know who this guy [Eric Coomer] was — so why are you picking on MyPillow and Mike Lindell? What did I ever do to him? I didn’t even know who the guy was!” Lindell says, adding that he wants to go on the offensive and explain how much Coomer’s defamation lawsuit against Newsmax and the right-wing network’s subsequent settlement hurt his company.
The Donald Trump “I don’t even know this guy!” defense. Works every time! Said nobody, ever.

But he won’t stop talking.
Those numbers don’t lie, and I plan to show them in court, and show what he did to MyPillow, or my lawyers might do it … Eric Coomer’s settlement with Newsmax has cost MyPillow in sales over $20 million dollars because Newsmax will never have me on to talk about MyPillow products anymore! … I’m going in there [to testify] to help save our country, and help get rid of these electronic voting machines. I got vocal cord surgery a month ago. In 2016, I had my first surgery, and I couldn’t talk for 45 days straight. … But I’m not gonna stop talking.”
Dominion is begging Lindell to take the stand. He asked for this; literally, on Tucker Carlson’s show in 2021. He has no idea what this lawsuit is about:
“I will never stop until we go back to paper ballots,” he insists. “I’m gonna be there every day. … I believe it’s one of the most important cases in history. … I’ll be there every minute of every day until the last minute of the trial! … I’m going to list every single [expert I’ve talked to] on the stand.”
Do I have to explain trials don’t work that way? Even on TeeVee?
George Conway, a former fixture of the conservative legal elite who emerged as a strident MAGA critic during Trump’s first term, doesn’t think it’s such a good idea for Lindell to testify: “If there were an insanity defense to defamation, sure, I’d put him on the stand,” he says. “But apart from that, I probably wouldn’t want him anywhere near the courtroom.”
What George said.
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International Sign Of Distress

The Eagle has landed on its head. Too much gilding.
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“The Moon Will Turn Blood Red!”

"And the skies will burn and the ground will become like marshmallows! Women will wail and rend their garments! Strong men, BIG Strong Men who never Cry will have Tears in their eyes, as their children gnash their teeth and clutch their three Dolls in their Arms! And everywhere will be heard weeping and lamentation as the stars go out one by one and the seas turn into BLOOD and Everybody blames Joe Biden!

“All because the judges worship the false God of Leegill Nollij and won’t recognize that TRUMP ALONE can save Us All!!!

“The Word of the Lard (Butt).”

Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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Later That Same Day….

That is all he knows, and all you need to know.

And no, it’s not evidence; not even in the loosest sense of the word. But what he means is: poor people are getting money/help, and they don’t deserve it. Because they’re poor.
Time considered as a helix of semi-precious stones. Or a river. Or something that allows this sentence to make sense. When you’ve lost Margaret Brennan… But when are Democrats gonna do the thing I said they should do?
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And “Groceries” Is A Beautiful Word No One Uses Anymore

A) What does he think the DMV is?*

B) Has he ever been there?

*Bonus point: Elmo lives in Texas now. There is no “DMV” in Texas. Never has been. The Department of Public Safety issues DL’s (and does it pretty efficiently these days). County Tax Assessor-Collectors issue license plates for cars, and take new car registration. Even in Texas, most of this is done on-line now. (Once upon a time I went annually to a county office to pay registration and license fees for my car. Now I do it through an app. I even had to go to DPS to renew my DL and get a federally verified one. They had an office set up just to print out my birth certificate for that purpose, so I could get the temporary DL that day. Time was when that would have taken months. Honestly, what the hell is Elmo talking about?)
That’s how Trump explains it  I don’t want to think Comer is this stupid, but he’s not leaving me any choice. "Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. And btw, I got mine, fuck you all.” ETTD.
Brennan: He said it last Sunday on this program.

Bessent: He said that's the cbo scoring.

Brennan: No, he said that sounds right.
When all the lies start running into each other.
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Slicing The Baloney

But it still has two sides:
In the clip [OMB Director Russell Vought] can be heard stating, "“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma.”

"Is that your goal as OMB director?" Bash asked.

"Look, I love how you jerry, jerry-picked (sic)the quote on trauma," he parried. "What I was referring to there was the bureaucracy. We do believe there is weaponized bureaucracy. We do believe that there are people who have been part of administrations that are fundamentally woke and weaponized against the American people."

"I have great people at OMB. There are great people at the FAA. There are great people a the NIH who are doing hard work and important public service activities and I think it's important to provide the full context of what people like me have said in the past," he pushed back. "But we're not going to be pushed, receive push-back, from the notion that we're going to dramatically change the deep woke and weaponized administrative state. "
Yeah, leopards eating faces, “good” immigrants v “bad.”  This takes me back to an old and racist joke from my childhood, when the favored football team would be losing, and it was because “their n—-ers are beatin’ up on our black boys.” The joke was at least self-aware. 

Vought is not. He’s all but claiming the “Deep State” lives, even as he declares “his” bureaucrats aren’t as bad as “those” bureaucrats, and therefor defended from his calumny.

It’s not as shameful as racism, but the ignorance makes racism and Vought’s attitude kissing cousins.
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😷 ☠️

Yes, apparently so:
"Mercy Culture Preparatory, which is a private school in my district, also happens to be where I send my kids to school, he said they are the least vaccinated school in the state of Texas," [Tex. State Rep. Nate Schatzline (R-☠️)] observed. "Now, I was incredibly concerned for a couple different reasons. I was concerned that, number one, we're just finding out about this. Because the second concern is, why haven't we celebrated this sooner?"

"Look, I am so excited to say that Mercy Culture Prep is celebrating medical freedom where we honor the wishes of moms and dads over any type of health official like Rachel Levine or so-called public health expert like Bud Kennedy."
Bud Kennedy is the reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who first noted Mercy(less) Prep was not requiring vaccinations. 

In rational times, we’d shut down that school and quarantine everyone involved. Of course, I’m old enough to remember victims of polio (adults, in my younger days), and the first oral polio vaccine. My parents had lived through the childhood diseases, seen friends die from them. They made sure I got every vaccine available. RFK, Jr. is a shill peddling quack remedies* because the family money isn’t enough. Best I can tell, Schatzline is just an idiot.

Who thinks the measles epidemic in West Texas is far enough away from Fort Worth as to be in another country. Or he really is just that stupid.

As Molly Ivins often said, it’s a representative government.
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Saturday, May 31, 2025

Stephen Miller, LL.D.*

"Not people who have any right to be here.” Gives away the game, doesn’t it? Those whom Stephen Miller declares “illegal aliens” (not a legal term of art) are not persons, as in:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
And:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
And the courts decide what the law is. Not the POTUS. Not an advisor to the POTUS. They decide the law starting, in this case, with the plain language of the law. “No person” does not leave room for “illegal aliens are NOT people.” It certainly leaves no room for: “I don’t like what the courts say, so I have the authority to say’Fuck the courts.’” Although I will say you are pushing hard for an impeachment if you get Trump to take that line. Impeachment AND removal, especially if you make it grounds for who the voters choose in 2026.

I don’t see anything here that says you’d wait until after the midterms to trot out this Constitutional crisis you are hankering for.
Yes, they do. Until the appellate court says they don’t, or the Supreme Court says they don’t. That’s the way a federal court system works in this country; and has since Congress established it. Funny thing, but we don’t have laws for persons in only one party of the country, and wholly different laws for persons in another part of the country. Or state by state, for that matter. See Section I of the 14th Amendment, above, for further information. Trump has never worked hard a day in his life.✅

Trump wouldn’t know what “right” was if it walked up and kicked him in the nuts. ✅

Trump is a scammer and a grifter, and has been all his life. ✅

Trump is getting rich off being POTUS, and is openly running a pay for play Presidency. Put enough money in his hand, he’ll give you back something that costs him nothing, but that he’d never give away for free. ✅

Trump is a criminal, in accordance with the laws if the state of New York. And he is getting away with everything. ✅

If illegal aliens were getting rich, they’d be hiring better lawyers, and getting their citizenship, like Elon Musk did before he was The Richest Man In The World.

Every accusation is a confession.

Except for the ones that are completely insane:


*The “D” is for “deranged.”
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Of Pictures And A Thousand Words


 🐁 ? Even the mice are confused. 😵‍💫 

If they quit trying to change mice 🐁 gender we’ll have less need for HIV vaccines for mice. Or something. 🐁🐁
I still don’t understand what those law firms thought they were doing.
Contempt findings can’t come soon enough.
Biden really should have had the foresight to protect the constitution from the voters. And I’m pretty sure the Roberts Court actively expanded unaccountable executive power all by its 6-3 self.
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The Tooth Fairy 🧚 Could Not Be Reached For Comment

Condescending evangelism is never a good look. 

But it’s surprising how often you run into it.

I have to say, “I sincerely apologize that all you snowflakes got your delicate fee-fees hurt by what I said, but you better get right with God before you go to hell,” is not the strategy I expected.
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Friday, May 30, 2025

Sen. Ernst Says: “Good Night, Kiddees”

Posted by at 2 comments:

🌮

So, it’s Harvard’s fault SpaceX rockets keep rapidly disassembling off-schedule?

He thinks it’s a bank loan, doesn’t he? Well, the former is impossible, and the latter is certainly possible, so… Elmo gets his legal advice from TACO.🌮  I would start the comparisons with what Hitler did to Europe. Or Covid did to the world. Or… I just like watching Stephen Miller make an ass of himself.
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🤖

2/ RFK is a clown and it's a meaty news story to see what possible studies he cld be citing to support his claims. I keep reading seriously publications arguing that AI cld rreach escape velocity 'general intelligence' sometime in the next year. But that seems just really improbable.

JMM’s entire take on AI sounds like people trying to still defend Elmo by saying he’s still good “at many things.”

—Nobody wants his Cybertruck 

—Legacy car makers are eating his lunch.

—StarLink is alive only because Musk used the government to strong arm foreign countries.

—The Boring Company is all but tits up.

—Tesla will not likely survive the failure to make an autonomous taxi.

—Elmo still thinks he’ll build autonomous humanoid robots to build his cars. And AI will achieve “general intelligence” by Xmas. Or at least eventually do all the things marketers of AI say it will.  Eventually. Maybe. Someday. By and by.

By which time it will figure out not to make up references, no matter what it’s told? Which actually would exceed the abilities of the average student.

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Look!👀 Over There!

Yesterday. Today.

Coincidence? No; cover.
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Chatter At The National High School Lunch Table

 Did you hear what Trump said? 

"[Leonard] Leo is somebody who's very close to those justices and we're already seeing signs, right, that the three Trump appointees are not so firmly in Trump's camp as some would have expected," the legal expert told the panel.

"And to have that kind of unhinged attack calling Leonard Leo a sleazebag, the word the president used, I mean, it's almost incomprehensible," he added before recalling, "The last time I saw Leonard Leo was last fall at the Federalist Society conference, and he was not schmoozing with other, you know, wealthy lawyers who were there or other conservative legal activists who were there. He was sitting in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel that I know you all are very familiar with, chatting with a Catholic priest and a Catholic nun, okay, so the guy is not a sleazebag."

"There are people that will have disagreements and criticisms, will say he's anti-majoritarian, those are all things that I think one can debate as reasonable criticism," he pointed out. "But to call him a sleazebag is just sort of bizarre lashing out at someone because you didn't get your way and I don't think that's going to sit well with his friends on the Supreme Court."
🙀

Trump is usually a genius about wielding loyalties to his benefit.

But "real 'sleazebag'" Leonard Leo has spent a great deal of $$, um, influencing the people Trump needs.

Anyway, I've been noting import of far right involvement in tariff cases for weeks. So Imma mark this as a win.
A lot!
Also, if you're wondering, that Leo screed is 510 words long.

The Old Man had a lot to say...
Because the real problem is what he said about people.
Donald Trump is gonna have some real cognitive dissonance when he remembers that Aileen Cannon is a Leonard Leo gal.
Ya know, those 510 words included this:
The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power — The Presidency would never be the same! This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America. Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America.

But that’s just Trump being Trump, right? I’m sure the Supremes will care less about Trump’s theory of Presidential power than they will about his gossip (well, with the probable exception of Alito and Thomas). 

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Thursday, May 29, 2025

Funny The Administration Never Talks About This

>> @MeidasTouch : Can you give us a sense of what is going on today at the ports across California?

@CAGovernor Newsom: The ports in LA saw 17 cancellations of vessels…10 cancellations already that we’re projecting in June. This has already had an impact. Shortages and supply constraints are inevitable if this continues. It’s self-inflicted by the Trump Administration. We cannot overstate the impacts of the damage.
There’s a reason more people live in New York. For one thing, you never hear of “New York Man.” That’s only with the concurrence of Congress. Which is precisely what the Court of International Trade ruled.

Somebody’s got to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya! So you are gonna go to Congress, or nah? Outreach to the two most populous areas of the country! Navarro makes you realize how much worse Trump could be. When you never thought that was possible. See? 

Have you noticed Trump is very silent about the Court of International Trade ruling?
Is that why?
Posted by at 2 comments:

“The Presidency Would..Be The Same!”

 Somebody’s really gonna have to sit this guy down…

Backroom 'hustlers' must not be allowed to destroy our Nation!" wrote Trump. "The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power — The Presidency would never be the same! This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America. Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America."

"Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, money that will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," he added. "It would be the harshest financial ruling ever leveled on us as a Sovereign Nation. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
…and take him through Article I and Article II, maybe with pictures and crayons.
Trump. "The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs.... If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power — The Presidency would never be the same!"
Actually, the Presidency would be the same. The same as it has been since 1789. And the “trillions of dollars”?
Ignoring the plane from Qatar, Benen pointed out that Trump appears to love the figure "$5.1 trillion." He uses it a lot.

"He referenced it a week ago when unveiling the 'Make America Healthy Again' report, which came two days after he pushed the same line during a visit to Capitol Hill, which came one day after he repeated the talking point at the White House," wrote Benen, noting that last week Trump even suggested the sum could even be “$7 trillion."

...

A Washington Post fact-check said that Trump has recently begun claiming successes and foreign investments secured by President Joe Biden as his own. Trump's fuzzy math includes Biden investments as well as those Trump had previously secured before the trip. Still, Trump maintained that "in about two hours," he secured $5.1 trillion.

"The sum of the deals is under $1 trillion," the report said.

The New York Times report did its own calculations, saying, "The value of the agreements appeared to total about $283 billion.”
But he does love the sound of “trillions of dollars.”
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👀🌮👀☠️🤡

The audacity of seeing what is right in front of your eyes.👀 
So you are working on a plan B right now?" one correspondent asked.

"Plan A encompasses all strategic options," he insisted. "We are not naive about rogue justices in the judiciary and Democrats filing lawsuits. This has got to stop, by the way. This weaponization of the judiciary."

A second reporter's question vexed the White House adviser.

"How much of that is because every time you get a court decision you don't like, you and your colleagues come out here and rail against rogue judges?" the reporter wondered.

"See, who is this guy?" Navarro demanded to know.

The reporter identified himself as Andrew Feinberg of The Independent.

"Okay, so that is such a biased question," Navarro huffed. "That is not a journalist question. That was like an op-ed, sir. So I don't even respond to that."
When plain truth is too ideological.

Meanwhile: Well, until the court lifts the stay. Which could be fairly soon. And then it can’t go to the Supremes until there’s a final decision. And their year ends July 4. Which means they wouldn’t hear an appeal until late this year at the earliest. But more likely, next year.  And then rule…? 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

It could happen.
Posted by at 1 comment:

Every Accusation Is A Confession

How does government work, again? Election results suspend the rule of law. For Republicans, only. The suit in Judge Chutkan’s court is looming large. The point, that there is no substance, goes right over her head.
NOTUS: A NOTUS investigation found that the MAHA commission report cites studies that appear to not exist. Does the WH have confidence that the info coming from HHS can be trusted?

LEAVITT: Yes. I understand there were some formatting issues, but it does not negate the substance of the report.

NOTUS: Did they use AI?

LEAVITT: I can't speak to that
The NOTUS report found the study was rife with false sources, and several researchers contacted by NOTUS denied authorship of the “sources” listed.
"It’s not clear that anyone wrote the study cited in the MAHA report."

Wow. If these were freshman, caught using ChatGPT that made up bogus studies, they'd get flunked or worse.
Posted by at 2 comments:

Elmo Has A Sad 😞

 Eric Lipton, NYT:

The question always was how long would the Musk Trump show last. We now have the answer.

A Disillusioned Musk, Distanced From Trump, Says He’s Exiting Washington https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-doge.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Just as the statutory 150 day deadline for “temporary appointments” looms, and as Judge Tanya Chutkan is ruling on a challenge to the authority of DOGE and Musk for violating the appointments clause, a violation which could render void everything DOGE did.  (The Administration argument is that Musk was only temporarily appointed, so there is no Constitutional violation.)

But nothing to see here, says NYT, because Mr. Musk went to Washington, and didn’t even get his filibuster grandstand. 😞 

Posted by at 1 comment:

Fear Of A Brown Planet: Trump 2.0 Version

So the new goal is to make American cities white again? 
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Yeah, About That…

The administration’s power to impose universal tariffs, the court argued, is specified in a different law: the 1974 Trade Act,” the outlet wrote.

This act allows Trump to impose a 15% tariff for 150 days. “It also allows unlimited levies (tariffs) on specific trading partners whose trade policy the administration judges to be ‘unjustifiable’ or to ‘[burden] or restrict’ American firms,” they said.

Trump is only able to impose this tariff after an investigation, a public notice, and a comment period. These restrictions were put in place after President Richard Nixon used an earlier version of the bill.

“It is to these alternative powers that Mr. Trump can now be expected to turn,” the Economist wrote. “A universal tariff of 10% applied under the Trade Act would give the administration about five months to have the ruling overturned on appeal.”

This, however, is not realistic because the act would require an investigation into every trading partner that hasn’t come to the table with a trade deal. Thus, the disputes will likely find their way to the Supreme Court.
It doesn’t appear Trump is quite there yet. I really don’t think we can expect any more coherence than this, for awhile. Somebody tag Jake Tapper….
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Wednesday, May 28, 2025

How It’s Going

On Wednesday evening, a panel of judges at the US Court of International Trade took aim at Trump's trade agenda, blocking global tariffs imposed citing emergency powers on the grounds that they are illegal. The decision can be appealed by the Trump administration in federal court.

Nvidia beat expectations on revenue but fell short on adjusted earnings per share (EPS) due to the impact of the US government's ban on the sale of its H20 chips to China. The company also warned that it expects to miss out on $8 billion in sales in the next quarter due to the restriction.

Despite the chip giant's complications in China, Nvidia shares jumped in after-hours trading.

In the company's earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang criticized US chip curbs, saying they have spurred innovation among rivals in China and weaken America's position. "China's AI moves on with or without US chips," Huang said. "The question is whether one of the world's largest AI markets will run on American platforms."

Overall, however, Nvidia's performance on Wednesday boosted hopes on Wall Street that Big Tech can weather President Trump's far-reaching trade policy.

So, like Axios, let’s “zoom in”:

Zoom in: "The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 ("IEEPA") delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world," the three-judge panel wrote.

"The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder."

Tariffs imposed under a different legal authority called Section 232 — including on imports of autos, steel and aluminum — are unaffected by the ruling.
But the interesting bit is, the court swept away the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary injunction and went straight to a final ruling:
The court skipped over the plaintiffs' motions for an injunction and went directly to issuing a judgment, saying IEEPA did not authorize any of the "Worldwide, Retaliatory or Trafficking" orders.

"The challenged Tariff Orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined," the court wrote.
Let me put that in context: No, the Court of Trade jumped straight to: “Who do you think you’re fucking with?” That’s what the court meant by going straight to summary judgment.

Of course, the fallout it doesn’t stop there:
What to watch: With tariffed goods arriving at U.S. ports every day, the confusion over what's in force and what to charge could throw imports into chaos.

Markets, and businesses, will likely be paying rapt attention in coming days to how the administration responds and whether higher courts intervene.

"(It) gives foreign governments - once compelled to negotiate new terms of the trade agreements the Trump administration broke - significant new leverage in ongoing trade talks," said Scott Lincicome, vice president of the Cato Institute's Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, in a statement.
Bright readers will recall that the Supremes suggested the proper review of Trump’s tariffs would start in the Court of International Trade. So now that process has begun. I don’t think Trump does well on appeal, but who knows? The next question is whether or not the appeals court stays the judgement on appeal. That will be an indicator of what the immediate future holds.

My guess is: no stay. On the trade front? TACO battling it out with ETTD, with utter chaos waiting to tag in.
May you live in interesting times.
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I Have Questions…

 


Meanwhile, in a government agency across town 
The Department of Health and Human Services has notified Moderna that it is canceling a nearly $600 million contract with the company to develop, test, and license vaccines for flu subtypes that could trigger future pandemics, including the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus.

Though the possibility of the cancellation had been anticipated — the new leadership at HHS told the company in February that it was reviewing the contract, signed with the Biden administration — the move is being seen as a significant blow to the country’s capacity to respond to pandemic influenza.

Questions like: “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???”

Posted by at 1 comment:

“Judges Need To Follow The Law”

Constituent: President Trump and his cabinet in addition to being totally unqualified and inept are breaking laws by ignoring federal judge's orders. The checks and balances of our government includes congress’ responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable. My question for you is when are you going to do the responsibility you are elected for by holding the executive branch accountable up to and including impeachment?

Rep. Hinson: Judges need to follow the law. I don't think this country needs another impeachment charade.
Judges should follow the law, not officeholders? And BTW, Congress impeaches a President, not the courts. Seems like this person should have been tried for his alleged crimes allegedly committed in America.  So, that’s going well. It’s only ideology if you don’t agree with it. We have a First Amendment for things like this.
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