Thursday, April 03, 2025

And His Eponymous Company Was Nailed For Massive And Pervasive Fraud

So, let him run country like a business. It’s going well. Seeing? Nothing to worry about….
Howard is the obtuse simpleton that Wall Street folks told me he was
What was your first clue?
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“This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see,"

 The best commentary on what Trump did yesterday; and, of course, it’s British. Also, of course, it’s behind a paywall, so this is as much as I’ve got. 

“This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see," Dunt argued. "It is stupid in every way: presentationally, intellectually, politically, methodologically, morally and of course economically. The word stupid doesn’t really suffice for the full level of idiocy we’ve now reached."

Dunt found himself particularly appalled by the chart that Trump showed that contained wildly inflated figures about the tariffs foreign nations slap on American products.

"It looked like something out of US daytime television – those garish cheaply produced shows where you can win a cash prize if you spin a wheel," he remarked. "You half expected a showgirl to appear behind the American flags, draped over a tariff quota rate. That’s what he is really: a cheap knock-off daytime TV presenter."

As if that weren't bad enough, Dunt continued, "The numbers on the chart were pure gibberish."

In fact, the numbers on the chart were so far from reality that Dunt struggled to come up with the words to adequately describe them.

"It’s hard to state just how nonsensical that actually is," he wrote. "You might as well divide the numbers of apples in your kitchen by the number of bagels and use it to calculate your mortgage rate. To criticise it on political or economic grounds is too generous. It operates below the level of rational thought."
And Congress is just hoping if they hide long enough, this will all go away.  
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R.U.R 🤖

Seeing a lot of people hammer Lutnick for his comments on American v European beef. 🥩 (You could look it up.)

Nobody seems to care about this one, though. Which is kind of revealing, in a disturbing way.
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Close, But Not A Cigar

Sen. Murphy’s analysis is sound: Trump wants control of lawyers, universities, government agencies, and businesses. He gains the latter through tariffs. Consider the position of Apple, whose iPhone is set to cost 50% more because it’s made in China.  What choice do they have but to appease Trump and seek a waiver, if only because shareholders will demand it?

But the solution, as the Senator alludes, lies in Congress. His argument that this is why the Constitution puts the economic power in the Congress is correct. Why Congress gave tariff authority to the President goes unaddressed. And the only solution now is…wait for the mud-terms. 

It’s not like we can recall all the idiots in the House who made Johnson the Speaker (he announced yesterday the Senate resolution Murphy alludes to is DOA in the House). GOP representatives are hiding from town halls, and that was before yesterday afternoon. So public opinion turning against Congress probably won’t have any impact sooner than November, 2026 does. 

Congress can undo this. Congress won’t. Not until 2027, at the earliest. That’s the only silver lining in this cloud. 

I mean, after all:
There is no general “economic emergency” that provides the statutory justification for global tariffs; if anything can be justified on national security grounds than everything can be justified on national security grounds; and if everything can be justified on national security grounds: Danger.

Trump’s authoritarian rule is not permanent. It can be dismantled in his term. But holy fuck, the cost….
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Wednesday, April 02, 2025

Newt’s An Historian, You Know

He also knows a lot about losing power. But Susan Collins never said Newt had learned his lesson. I hesitate to say the campaign ads write themselves, but if Newt’s for it, it’s a certain loser.
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😑

 


If you liked inflation under Biden, wait ‘til you get a load of Trump.

And the GOP is with him all the way!

Susan Collins trying to have it both ways here. But critical point, EVERY House GOP but one voted in the "CR" to further tie their own hands to prevent themselves from getting in Trump's way when he started Tariffgeddon
Dems gotta do more about this than Cory Booker’s filibuster. OTOH, they might just have to stay out of the way. (“Global governments”?) Except Americans found out during Covid they didn’t want to do shit jobs for shit pay (and wages in Taiwan and Korea were much cheaper). Houston hasn’t had reliable garbage service since Covid. I don’t know what those former workers are doing, but they aren’t driving garbage trucks, and nobody else is picking up the slack.

And now, your moment of clarity:
Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.

So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is.
Probably true. Jeebus, even “Idiocracy” wasn’t this bad. Although I’d pay good money to see Bessent on camera trying to explain it away. Or maybe just get him to explain how we’re “subsidizing Canada” to the tune of $300 billion a year.

UPDATE: it always gets worse, and truth is always harsher than fiction:
Comparing this to “Idiocracy” is an insult to the premise of that movie. This is in some uncharted realm beyond stupidity.

Oh, and, what the hell….  One of the places facing tariffs is a joint U.S./U.K. military base. No idea how the Council of Economic Advisers calculated that tariff.

Just think: you can tell your children when Trump made that rocket blow up like it was one of Elmo’s. 😵‍💫 (That cover is from 5 months ago.)
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History On Repeat Really Sucks

 Trump, historian:

Trump continued, "It took years and years to get out of that depression, far longer than even FDR — had that office right over there for a long period of time. The ramp system, it's rather intricate, was built because of him. And every time you walk up, you think of him. And he did a great job in many ways — but it lasted long beyond his terms, as you know. But it's not too late any longer, and we're going to start being smart, and we're going to start being very wealthy again."
The White House was gutted and rebuilt between 1948 and 1951.
I’ve seen movie sets (in movies of the period) showing FDR’s White House. It looks nothing like the interior of the modern White House.

I know: nerdy. But Trump is just a special kind of stupid. (My uninformed guess is the ramps are for ADA compliance. But they told Trump it was FDR, or he’d have them torn out.)

Meanwhile, tariffs!
It’s a Norwegian peninsula. So he effectively put lower tariffs on Baja California than on Mexico (actually he probably did that, too). Probably because he wants hamburger manufacture to return to America. Shhh!! 🤫 Nobody tell him!  Called it!!! Damned kids gotta be good for something, and keeping rich people’s robots working is good enough for ‘em! Very hard to say just what will happen. (But didn’t Trump just say it’s a tax we don’t have to pay? Sounded real simple then.)

Pre-industrial America when the “global economy” was slavery and then cotton (relying on slave labor) is maybe a NOT the go-to you’re looking for. So, we can retaliate (Trump), but they should know better? Where we are is imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands and islands of 20,000 population, and a 5% lower tariff in a Norwegian peninsula than on the country of Norway.  Which is like Norway imposing tariffs on America, but a lower tariff on Florida. In other words, we’re at the mercy of a bump brain who makes George III and Mad Ludwig of Bavaria look like King David and Solomon.

As Congress that thinks it’s just fine the national house is on fire.🔥 
And history on repeat really sucks. 
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Ladies And Gentlemen, The President of the United States

Not even close. The ballpark is 100 miles in the wrong direction. His credibility is in that ballpark, too. Tariffs are going to cure bird flu and bring the dead chickens back to life and flood the market with eggs in time for the celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection? There. That’s what it’s all about. See?
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Well, I Guess I Didn’t Miss It

Now if the Senate just does their job….

(Yes, there was more. But I’m tired of listening to Trump prate like an empty-headed fool in love with the sound of his own self-importance. I just want Congress to do its fucking job before Trump wrecks the economy for a generation.)

(Breaking my own rule:
As the late Gene Hackman put it (as Lex Luthor) in the first “Superman” movie: "It's amazing that brain can generate enough power to keep those legs moving.") So this is okay then? And Elon can go home and DOGE can put everything back where they found it and RFK, Jr. can yell “APRIL FOOL’S!” because this is how you fix the deficit? With moonbeams and fantasies?
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Liberation!

Is Stephen Miller going to deport to El Salvador if they come, because they are brown and terrorists?

P. S., I’ve been busy. Are we liberated yet?
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“It’s Money That Matters”

 


Except when it isn’t.
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Says The Guy Who Would Take A Chainsaw To The Chessboard

♟️ 
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“Extended Service”?

There are 46,000 Cybertrucks on the road, all of which are subject to recall because of bad glue…. And yet some are undergoing “extended service”? 

I’ve owned new cars and used cars, and the last time I had one in for “extended service,” the car in question was over a decade old.  I do remember when Detroit cars were basically shit because Detroit had no competition, and Americans bought whatever was available. Then Japanese cars came in that were reliable, and it took Detroit about a decade to catch up (those pre-Japanese car days are what Trump jingoistically longs to return to). But why are Elmo’s cars built like 1970’s era Detroit shit?

Maybe because his big rocket is a 1950’s era bottle rocket that explodes right after launch?
I know the Nazi thing is getting all the attention, but Tesla’s are basically computers on wheels. And as I understand it, they haven’t changed their battery technology, and the “self-driving” car that doesn’t (still) exist is based on cameras when everyone else as gone to LiDAR (my Volvo has a lane keeping feature meant to keep you from drifting. It works from a camera that sees the lane dividers. I bough it during Covid.).

Not cutting edge, IOW. In fact, it seems like Tesla is IBM when everyone else is buying the new MacIntosh.

If you’re old enough to remember IBM, and what Steve Jobs did to them…
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And This Is A Surprise…

The New York City-based firms have thus far conducted themselves cravenly and disgracefully.
...because?
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I Was Assured Trump Would Defy All Court Orders And Laws

So...? 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

(A full bill passed by both houses with a veto-proof margin, from news reports, is not necessary. The statute giving Trump “national emergency” power to impose tariffs also allows the Senate to rescind those tariffs on a simple majority vote for a resolution. In the Senate, just to underline the simplicity. Nothing more. Reports are some GOP senators don’t really want to vote for this; but they don’t really want to not vote for it. 😈)
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Tuesday, April 01, 2025

If, On The Other Hand….

 …you want to go through the looking glass:

Peter Thiel ally Curtis Yarvin recently accused the Trump administration of failing to understand that “regime change”, requires that “Every existing institution of science” be “fully cremated” & replaced w/ a “new scientific establishment.” Soon after, RFK Jr guts HHS & announces a new division 1/
That post is part of a 21 post thread laying out an argument that Thiel is behind all this:
The Rockbridge Transition Project will create a ‘government-in-waiting’ with the people & plans to staff the next Republican Administration. The goal is to be ready to govern effectively…from day one.“—Rockbridge Network 2021 Budget (Thiel & Mercer reportedly back Rockbridge.) 1/ #Project2025
Wheels within wheels, IOW. Gabbard and Vance are connected to Thiel, after all.

This is all starting to sound like the premise of a bad comic book/movie plot to take over the world. The problem is, reality is always so much more complicated than fiction; or imagination.

Damage will be done. Irreparable damage is much harder. Destroying the scientific community of HHS is not nearly the same thing as replacing it with a “new scientific establishment.” Whatever the hell that is. 

One thing about science is that, like math, it’s truly catholic, that is, universal. There really aren’t Protestant and Roman and Orthodox and Coptic versions. Not in the sense that you can set up a Lutheran scientific regime, and a Reformed one, and then fragment those into smaller and smaller pieces. Unless you want to make science in the near future as virtually useless as Christianity is today (solely as a basis of authority in society). Which, come to think of it, may be the point, after all. 🤨
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Copium, Wisconsin Edition

The real story of these three elections is that money doesn’t determine outcomes. No doubt it matters, but it isn’t determinative.

And Elmo is still no kingmaker. Cherry on the sundae.

Although some people will always insist otherwise, especially when they can invoke fantasy:
It’s a fair cop. King-making is HARD! Game over, man! Game over! That’s going to be the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, if they don’t lose, they can’t complain about it.

😈
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“There Is No Habitation For A Man To Live There…”

 “…and the king of that country is the fierce Greenland bear “

Three people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post that the White House took steps in recent weeks to attempt to determine the cost of Greenland becoming a U.S. territory. That includes how much the government would have to spend to provide services for its roughly 58,000 residents and how much it would cost to maintain should it be acquired, according to the report.

Additionally, the Trump administration is looking into any potential revenue that could be earned from the massive island's natural resources.

Under consideration is having the U.S. try to offer Greenlandic people a better deal than Denmark, which subsidizes services at about $600 million a year, according to the report.

“This is a lot higher than that,” one official familiar with the plans told the Post. “The point is, ‘We’ll pay you more than Denmark does.’”
Set aside Congressional approval of this nonsense (do we really need a larger, colder Puerto Rico? I mean, I assume we’re never giving Greenland two senators and a representative), I thought we were trying to cut spending? Is that only for Americans? Greenlanders we can give more too (and yes, Puerto Rico has entered the chat).💬 Let’s sell that one when Elon’s statutory 130 days has expired. Should make people not miss him, anyway.

And are we going to socialize the natural resources of Greenland to balance the federal costs? Or do we just make it the new banana republic and get a taste for Uncle Sam in taxes?

I really don’t think these guys are very bright at all.

“And there’ll be no temptation to tarry long there/With our ship bumpers full, we will homeward repair.” (“Farewell to Tarwaithe,” sung by Judy Collins) I think of that song, and consider that the people behind Project 2025 want to return America to the 1950’s, with a 19th century government. They won’t get what they want, but they’ll do a lot of damage trying.

But really, they aren’t very bright; at all.
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Waste, Fraud and Abuse

The same judicial trickery that enforced your offer to buy Twitter? Or the judicial trickery that blocked Tesler from paying you an unseemly bonus for riding the wave of a meme stock as you drive your public company into the ground? Sounds like you want some judicial trickery for yourself. That, too. And you know this takes more than tweets and interviews to make it happen, right?

No, you probably don’t. But the same government that’s providing you with contracts (even as Tesler contracts)*, is the government of laws being applied and upheld by “judicial trickery.”

Funny how it always works out that way. Bitter with the sweet, little boy.


*Yes, I saw what I did there.
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But At Least The Price Of Eggs?

Thousands of the best experts at FDA, NIH, and all across HHS are being terminated right now.

These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe.

These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so so so much more.

These are the people who make sure new devices that physicians and patients use are effective.

These are the people who keep workers safe on the job and help prevent devastating injuries for workers all around the country.

These are the people who track what drugs and medications are experiencing shortages so we can adapt.

These are the people who help tackle HIV and other infectious diseases, asthma, lead poisoning, and everything else that makes many Americans sick.

And now, thousands of them are gone.

There is no way this makes Americans healthier.

We will regret this.
One step forward, five steps back.
STAT News reports that about twenty-five percent of the entire HHS workforce is expected to be eliminated:

“As of last week, it was estimated that the FDA would take the biggest cut, losing roughly 3,500 employees, or about 19% its workforce, followed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was expected to lose … about 18% of its staff. The National Institutes of Health was projected to lose about 1,200 employees, or about 6% of its workers.”

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA Commissioner during President Donald Trump’s first administration, did not appear to directly address the firings, but chose the day they are happening to warn about the destruction of the ecosystem that works to create new drugs, which includes HHS agencies like the FDA and the NIH.

“Twenty-five years ago, it was common to hear complaints about a ‘drug lag’—the perception that Europeans routinely enjoyed medical advances years before their American counterparts. Through a generation of congressional actions, investments in expertise and hiring, and careful policymaking, we built the FDA into the most efficient, forward-leaning drug regulatory agency in the world—and established the U.S. as the global center of biopharmaceutical innovation. Today, the cumulative barrage on that drug-discovery enterprise, threatens to swiftly bring back those frustrating delays for American consumers, particularly affecting rare diseases and areas of significant unmet medical need.”
We will learn from this that not everything is about the price of eggs in presidential elections, right?

🙄
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“401K People”?

 Do they live in flyover country?

Harris Faulkner on how Trump should talk to "401k people" worried about tariffs hurting them: "Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry. We have to do 100% buy in over this bumpy period."
And we have to do this because the non-401K people need a really big tax cut? Is this the way to the tax cut? That 401K people won’t get?
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Why Nobody Calls Professors At Ivy League Schools “Coach”

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Go And Please The World….

Lots of people celebrating Cory Booker's filibuster -- for good reason! He's presenting issues that are being ignored.

But note that Booker (very characteristically) oozes Senatorial comity, repeatedly talking about what good friends he is with far right Senators.

Note, I'm not complaining he's doing that--Booker will be Booker.

I'm noting that it doesn't look like what the people celebrating the filibuster say they want.
Booker really should take a cane to the Republicans in the Senate. Probably Fetterman, too.

It would please a handful of people on the intertoobs and isn’t that what really matters?
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Morning Comes To Consciousness…

 Some House Republicans think getting Elmo out if the picture will save them in the midterms.

Yeah, I don’t think so:

Labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards believes that President Donald Trump is poised to make history with his global trade wars, but not the kind of history he will want to be remembered for.

Writing in Bloomberg, Edwards argued that the United States economy is "plodding toward a recession" and that "this will arguably be the only recession directly caused by White House policy."

While many recessions have a complex series of causes, Edwards believes that the one threatened now will be caused solely by the chaos being set off by Trump's trade wars.

"Tariffs... both the ones levied by the administration and those put on the U.S. by its trading partners in retaliation, are paralyzing business activity and rattling consumers," she contended. "Wall Street firms are rapidly reducing their estimates for how much gross domestic product will expand. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s widely-followed index of the economy in real time has turned negative. The Conference Board and the University of Michigan both report steep declines in consumer confidence."
And it’s going to last a lot longer than Elmo’s tenure:
Greg Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University and a former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, said that the tariff proposal being floated by the president indicated a deep-seated ignorance of how economies actually operate.

"“Trump doesn’t seem to understand basic international economics," he told the Post. "A lot of the arguments he makes, Adam Smith was refuting two and a half centuries ago in ‘Wealth of Nations'... I have not seen a more wrongheaded policy come out of a White House in decades.”

And Mankiw wasn't the only economist who made dire projections about the impact of the Trump tariffs.

The Post writes that Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s, projects that "the economy would almost immediately tumble into a recession that would last for more than a year, sending the jobless rate above 7 percent" should Trump go through with his tariffs plans.

And economists at investment bank Goldman Sachs have warned that "the risk from April 2 tariffs is greater than many market participants have previously assumed," while also raising the chances of recession in the United States to 35 percent in the coming year.
Reports are Trump is preparing 20% tariffs across the board. Which will pretty much wipe out any concerns about Elon and DOGE. Or probably just add on to the concerns. Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt puts on the armor of God every morning to face the army of evil the White House press corps.
Sure, well, before briefings, it's a little bit chaotic and overwhelming because there's so much news to consume, and so all morning long, my team and I are prepping," Leavitt said. "That team prayer before is just a moment to be silent and still and ask God for confidence and the ability to articulate my words, knowledge, prayer, protection, and it is a nice moment to reset."

"It's warfare out there," Brody opined. "You know, in Christian terms, people will call what's happening in our country today spiritual warfare. Do you see it in those terms, kind of good versus evil out there, in that context, how do you see that?"

"I certainly think, I certainly believe in spiritual warfare," Leavitt insisted. "And I think I saw it firsthand, especially throughout the campaign trail with President Trump, and I think there certainly were evil forces, and I think that the President was saved by the grace of God on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, and he's in this moment for a reason."
Christianity actually teaches humility, not warrior ethics. I can think of two saints (Leavitt is too Protestant to even accept the notion) who are associated with battle, both French: Joan of Arc, and St. Louis. She was burned alive, a fate Leavitt surely doesn’t anticipate; and Louis died in dysentery in the 8th Crusade. Ironically, Louis is credited with introducing the legal concept of innocent until proven guilty, something Leavitt’s decidedly unchristian boss would like to eliminate, except for himself.

Somehow I think Leavitt imagines her Christian martyrdom as simply overcoming the suffering of the slings and arrows of outrageously evil questions by… the hand selected journalists allowed to approach her throne.

Tough job, but somebody has to do it, huh?
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Monday, March 31, 2025

Good For A Laugh 😆

😹😹😹😹

Then again: Gov. Jesse Ventura. But Lindell is no Ventura, he’s just a joke. 😹
Not funny; but proof Elmo is as pathetic as Trump, and just as reflexive a liar. 🤥   Now come on! That IS funny.😆  How To Piss Off A Federal Judge 101. Some of you will have to lose a lot so a few of us can get tax breaks. Your sacrifice is appreciated.—The GOP. (And we’re not really remodeling the house. We’re kicking you out so we can have more room. Please get off the lawn.)
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We’re Barreling Toward Fascism And There’s Nothing We Can Do!

Wake up, sheeple! We’re done for, we’re done for!

Or, you know, not.
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Like I Said: Three Cheers To Steve Doocy

💯 No notes. 👌

I think we’re done here.
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Of “Tesler” And Things FUBAR

He thinks he would get Obama’s Nobel Prize, too. And points to Doocy for pointing out the utter absurdity of the premise. Seriously. 💯  "Old-fashioned”? What bubble does he live in? Although points for self-awareness. I don’t know him at all, but that’s an adjective I’d never apply to him. Implausible deniability.
Reporter: Have you had any updates on the us soldiers missing in Lithuania?

Trump: So three are no longer with us and one is unfortunately probably in the same category, but they haven't declared that yet. It was a very heavy truck, like a toy, but I mean really heavy. That lifted the heaviest equipment. And it would seem that the bank of a lake collapsed. You know, the weight is so big.
A) Why hasn’t the Pentagon released information on this?

B) “Like a toy”? Fits, actually; listening to him is like listening to a small child. Small vocabulary and very self-centered.
Is that why the stock is tanking and Wall Street expects first quarter sales numbers to be below expectations? Or is it because nobody knows what a “Tesler” is?
Reporter: Is DOGE going keep operating even without Elon Musk?

Trump: I can't tell you that. I will say this a lot of the people working with doge are the secretaries, the heads of the various agencies, and they've learned a lot. And they're dealing with the doge people. I think some of them may try to keep the doge people… At a certain point, I think it will end
The courts are working on that even as he speaks. Gonna be a lot sooner than he thinks.
Reporter: Elon Musk's special government tenure is coming to an end,.. Do you want to stay longer or is it time to going back to running his companies?

Trump: I think he's amazing but he has a big company to run. At some point he'll be going back.

Reporter: Do you want to keep him around?

Trump: I'll keep him as long as I could. He's very smart. He's done a good job. Doge, we found numbers that nobody can even believe
Twitter is certainly FUBAR. And yes, Musk is finding numbers that nobody can believe. And again, that does not mean what you think it means.

But still you keep saying it ... 😵‍💫
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Possibly Civil Assault…

...but de minimus,* nonetheless.
The questionable incident unfolded on Tuesday as Charles Downs, a reporter affiliated with right-wing firebrand Laura Loomer, shoved his camera phone into Crockett’s face. The Texas Democrat can be seen in the clip shared by Loomer and others in MAGA world appearing to stretch out her hand and cover the camera as she continues walking a chatting with a Republican senator before the clip abruptly ends.
The idea that it could be criminal is laughable. Just like Martin’s claim that “no one is above the law.” Except the Administration officials in the Houthi small group Signal chat, right, Ed? I think you meant “No Democrat is above the law.” I don’t think the courts will think any are beneath it, either. If you decide to waste the court’s time….


*Fancy legal jargon for “too little to bother with.” The Latin phrase is “de minimus non curat lex,” explained to me in law school as “the law does not concern itself with trifling matters.” Criminal assault usually requires a higher standard of injury than civil assault.
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Baghdad Bob Is Back In Town

And back in the House, Democrats take Darryl Issa to school:
Neguse: You believe there should be reining in of nationwide injunctions… During President Biden’s tenure, there were 14 nationwide injunctions, did you denounce any of them? Your team may need to go online and delete some of your social media posts. Are you familiar with Missouri V Biden?

Issa: I don’t recall

Neguse: This is your tweet in 2023 celebrating a district court nationwide injunction against The Biden Administration.
Well, they can make that law self-suspending when a Democrat’s in the White House, right?
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Elmo Says We Need More Babies

He also says the best way to raise ‘em is to throw money at ‘em.

I guess that’s okay when billionaires do it?  🤷🏻‍♂️ 
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Baked Like A Pie 🥧

Going back to the story of Forrest Fenn’s treasure, the documentary profiled 4 treasure hunters, on of whom were a father and two sons living in poverty in Wyoming. They wanted to buy their mother a decent house, and help their Downs sister. They became convinced the clues to the puzzle were in their backyard, and in fact that Fenn, an 80 year old man when he started this, had hiked up into the mountains and contrived to roll a boulder down to cover the chest.

They spent a year trying to shift that boulder, dig under it, get around it. Literally a year. Finally they blasted it loose. There was nothing under it.

They were also in contact with Fenn. When the treasure was found (in Yosemite, not where they were looking), and Fenn died shortly thereafter, they contacted the lawyer probating the estate, expecting that Fenn had left them something for all their troubles looking for his treasure.

The lawyer said a lot of people did this.

So it could be a lot of people expecting “DOGE” checks are in straitened circumstances, and imagine the rich will do something for them. 

Trump and Musk wouldn’t even take their phone calls. Fenn did; but that’s really all he did.

If the cruelty of the system isn’t the point, it sure is baked in regardless.

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🙀

Fear of fascism:
Mathias adds, "I fear now that many of us here in America still haven't registered the logical endpoint of such rhetoric, which both dehumanizes subgroups of human beings and presents them as an existential threat."
MY GOD!! We’ve certainly never seen anything like that in America before!

I’ll show myself out….
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The Self-Congratulation Is A Little Tiresome

Seeing a lot of self-congratulation from people abt Trump's third term INTENTIONAL DISTRACTION from all the things that can only be understood as the groundwork for permanent MAGAt rule.

What do you think the EO on elections is, if not a bid for permanent MAGAt rule?

Trump's super power is managing attention, both always retaining & it refocusing it from places where it should  be.

I remain mystified how this came up--don't rule out epic incompetence from Welker. But we're not talking the threats to democracy that are immediate, ones that can & must be fought.
The first reply to that post is: “Welker is awful.” Way to focus attention on what matters.

But it proves my point: what does “attention” matter? It’s hardly Trump’s “superpower.” He’s whining now (and not for the first time) that the Signals scandal is only the “fake news” trying to distract from the most successful 100 days in history (that’s what he’s paying attention to). Which is not exactly making it go away. If anything, it’s breaking Trump’s shield of invulnerability.

Attention is not a superpower, either. Trump may think his EO on elections is a new, MAGA VRA, but aside from a few broad federal requirements, voting even for federal elections is a state matter. Yes, I can see a few states, like Texas, which chafed under the federal oversight of the VRA, happily dancing to Trump’s tune. But the majority are going to challenge it in court; and win. The Roberts Court didn’t like the VRA. They’re going to like Trump’s effort at one-man legislation even less. (I know; Trump is going to defy court orders and the Supremes are going to set fire to the Constitution for him, and finally the Cassandras of the apocalypse will be vindicated. Feh.) And what good will my attention do? 

I’ve been writing my senators and federal representative about Social Security. Only one of them has responded, and it was a pretty empty thing. Still, if my drop is what could be a part of an ocean of public opinion, I may contribute to change. But paying attention right now? Prating on the internet, condemning Kristen Welker, writing blog posts to see who reads them? Is that really necessary? Don’t be ridiculous. My attention is neither a superpower nor a magical power, and it’s akin to Trump’s narcissism to even imagine that it is.

I just watched Netflix’s brief documentary on Forrest Fenn, the man who buried a chest full of gold and jewelry at the base of a tree in Yosemite and wrote a very bad poem leaving very obscure directions to it. After 10 years the chest was found, but the other people searching for it didn’t believe it, were convinced the “discovery” was a hoax meant to end the search (because people died in the search, looking in all the wrong places in all the worst ways. One poor man was arrested for breaking into Fenn’s house. He was trying desperately to provide for his family, and convinced the poem had led him there.). Their obsessions were carried out on the internet (of course); not because it has changed us, but because it has given us a more public forum for private gossip. It has made us think we are “paying attention.” But to what? Our own desire to be right? Our own desire to find the treasure? 

Trump is paying attention. He’s paying attention to polls, he’s paying attention to headlines, he’s paying attention to criticism. He’s not paying attention to the fires in South Carolina. He’s not paying attention to the spreading measles epidemic. He’s not paying attention to what the people he appointed are actually doing. He’s not even paying attention to how little information he’s receiving. Funnily enough, according to town halls across the country, the people actually are. And they don’t like what they’re seeing. And they aren’t just chattering with each other on social media.

Huh. Imagine that.


Attention springs and comprehensiveness and memory flow." W. Wordsworth Prelude Book 7.
O Lord, I haven’t read Willie since graduate school. That year I was a T.A., and we all had tiny offices in a suite in the English building. There was nothing better to do between classes so we hung out there all day, entertaining each other. It was the time of typewriters (computers were room sized things accessible only to Computer Science majors, and only such seniors could approach the VDT’s, as they were known). A friend and I started posting quotes from Willie typed on index cards. By “posting” I mean the physical act of attaching them to our office doors. (We could actually close the doors on our closets with students in conference. Nobody suspected improprieties would occur (you could have heard it anyway). It was a more innocent time.). Our favorite was: “O blank confusion!”

We were easily entertained. Did I mention it was a simpler time? In some ways technology has not been an improvement.

Ah…thanks for that memory.
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Sunday, March 30, 2025

Down The Rabbit Hole 🕳️

I gotta say, Biden sort of seemed to be in a bubble, thinking his accomplishments (which were considerable) would speak for him and carry him a long way to re-election. But the price of eggs and inflation were what people really knew, because Biden wasn’t the Great Communicator he should have been. In short, his accomplishments didn’t blow his horn for him.

But Presidents are in a bubble. It’s inevitable. And sometimes they wholly misunderstand the consequences of their policies. When LBJ finally figured it out, he just retired. But Trump? He’s a prisoner of his own narcissism. Or is it just contagious delusion?
I mean, jiminy, these people! Don’t raise them, just reproduce! It’s quantity that matters, I guess. One of the most secure locations on earth? Sure, why not? Livestream them as they open vault so we can see the combination! Wouldn’t that be cool? Does that include you? Because the courts have repeatedly found what you are doing is illegal. “I’m very stupid and government agencies I don’t understand should be abolished. Because I’m very stupid.” "Technology is magical and will solve all of our problems,” says the man with no understanding of education at all (hint: a personal tutor for every student is not the pedagogical solution he thinks it is.). Checks and balances will be the end of western civilization! And back to the fountainhead. They didn’t mean that as a compliment. And will you say the economy is rigged?
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It’s Time For Elmo…

...to learn something about civil, criminal, and even constitutional law.

To begin with, raising your middle finger to someone doesn’t even constitute civil assault. I’m pretty damned sure even if an overzealous police officer wanted to find a charge, the prosecutor would chew him out for wasting everyone’s time.

Meaning: if there is no crime (or tort), there is nothing to be done, whether these people are paid provocateurs or just mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore! (And how pitiful is it that Elmo thinks everything has to be transactional. I guess the “evil” people are the ones with the money to pass around. Self-awareness is clearly not his strong suit.)

And shouting at someone doesn’t really constitute violence, either. Not in situations like this, anyway. Nor is any of this anything close to a federal matter, so go cry to Pam Bondi.
It’s transactions all the way down.
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Trump Is Not FDR. This Is Not The 1940’s

 Please make it stop:

Re: Trump's third term info op. Can someone explain to me how that happened? Did Trump tape MTP and then forbid them to run it (after Putin told him not to be mad anymore)? How much included video?

Why report out interview of someone else calling you fake news?

Which brings me to the larger point.

If you're a journalist getting distracted by a hypothetical 3rd term RATHER THAN pointing to all the things happening today that presume a third term, you are being badly manipulated. Report on the urgent-now, not the hypothetical-in-3-years.
If you are a person getting distracted by a hypothetical 3rd term RATHER THAN pointing to all the things happening today that presume a unitary executive, you are being badly manipulated.

A third term is as plausible as fairies in the bottom of the garden. Already people are outraged by Trump’s antics and clear violations of law. Imagine the outrage if the GOP tries to put Trump back on the ballot, or uses Vance on the top of the ticket as a stalking horse. The Supreme Court would truly raise a crisis if they held that states could not control their ballots under either the 22nd or the 12th amendments. But the electorate would be outraged at Trump’s attempt to end run the 22nd, and likely take out their ire on the ticket and on the GOP.

And if they didn’t, they’d deserve what they get. You can’t, in the final analysis, save the people from the people. If we don’t want to follow the rule of law, we don’t want to keep the republic, either. But Trump hasn’t led us out of the Great Depression, and WWII is not forming in Europe. And Trump is certainly not FDR.  Nor is he really any good as a would be tyrant.
Trump left office when he realized his efforts to win under the 12th amendment had failed. He wasn’t dragged out of the White House by Marines, kicking and screaming. When his gang got bored and left the Capitol for Congress to get on with its business, Trump knew it was over and he followed his stolen government documents to Florida. He couldn’t even stay to see Biden inaugurated. Yes, he’s said ever since that he won, but that put him no closer to the White House, and he certainly didn’t run on that whine. He won’t leave willingly this time? Who’s going to let him stay?

Touch grass. I’m begging you.
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Right After Water Starts Running Uphill

I’d almost be for it if I knew Vance would say: “I changed my mind. Fetch me a Diet Coke.”
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Jimmy Carter Left A Note Saying “Good Luck With That”

(Democrats really need to run with “Morning in America” in ‘26 and ‘28.)
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Wisconsin Is Not The Only Bellwether

Newsweek:
Pollster John Couvillon said in a post on X: "This was a 'primal scream' kind of vote, driven by robust Democratic EV [early voting] turnout that I'm not seeing being offset by a strong GOP Election Day vote."
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“Nothin’ But Good Times Ahead!”

Trump is renowned for his ability to review and analyze vast amounts of data.

(They have no fucking idea what Trump is going to announce on Tuesday. The best they’ve got is Navarro saying: “Put your faith in Trump.” Navarro also says tariffs = tax cuts. I’m guessing he sold Trump that idea.)

JMM:
On the tariff front, this doesn’t get discussed much in the news. But the President has zero power to do tariffs. Entirely a Congress power. There is a law which allows the President to impose tariffs on an emergency basis. All of this is based on that law.

2/ Congress could remove that power tomorrow. Just saw a quote from Josh Hawley, this is all Trump. We don’t know what’s happening. This isn’t law pardons are war powers where the President has vast inherent power. This is just given him permission to do on an emergency basis.
The last President I remember promising the nation pain and suffering was Jimmy Carter.  But he was responding to the OPEC oil embargo, something he had no control over.  Trump is imposing tariffs, and the GOP Congress is letting him. Not hard to see where this ends.
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May You Live In Unprecedented Times

For this he is visited daily by senators and representatives bringing distant constituents. The Executive Mansion has become that famous “Treasury trough” described so well by an early congressional orator: “Such running, such jostling, such wriggling, such clambering over one another’s backs, such squealing, because the tub is so narrow and the company is so crowded.”

To sit behind is the presidential occupation, watching and feeding the animals. If this were an amusement only, it might be pardoned; but it must be seen in a more serious light. Some nations are governed by the sword—in other words, by central force commanding obedience. Our president governs by offices—in other words, by the appointing power, being a central force by which he coerces obedience to his personal will. Let a senator or representative hesitate in the support of his autocracy, or doubt if he merits a second term, and forthwith some distant consul or postmaster, appointed by his influence, begins to tremble. Can such tyranny, where the military spirit of our president finds a congenial field, be permitted to endure?

In adopting him as a candidate for reelection, we undertake to vindicate his presidency and adopt in all things the insulting, incapable, aide-de-campish dictatorship which he has inaugurated. Presenting his name, we vouch for his fitness, not only in original nature but in experience of civil life, in aptitude for civil duties, in knowledge of republican institutions, and elevation of purpose; and we must be ready to defend openly what he has openly done. Can Republicans honestly do this thing? Let it be said that he is not only the greatest nepotist among presidents but greater than all others together, and what Republican can reply? Let it be said that he is not only the greatest gift taker among presidents but the only one who repaid his patrons at the public expense, and what Republican can reply? Let it be said that he has openly violated the Constitution and international law in the prosecution of a wretched contrivance against the peace of San Domingo, and what Republican can reply? Let it be said that wielding the power of the great republic, he has insulted the black republic with a menace of war involving indignity to the African race, and what Republican can reply? Let it be said that he has set up presidential pretensions without number, constituting an undoubted Caesarism or personal government, and what Republican can reply? And let it be added, that unconscious of all this misrule, he quarrels without cause even with political supporters, and on such a scale as to become the greatest presidential quarreler of our history, quarreling more than all other presidents together, and what Republican can reply? It will not be enough to say that he was triumphant in war—as Scipio, the victor of Hannibal, reminded the Roman people that on this day he conquered at Zama. Others have been triumphant in war and failed in civil life—as Marlborough, whose heroic victories seemed unaccountable, in the frivolity, the ignorance, and the heartlessness of his pretended statesmanship. To Washington was awarded that rarest tribute, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Of our president it will be said willingly, “First in war,” but the candid historian will add, “first in nepotism, first in gift taking and repaying by official patronage, first in presidential pretensions, and first in quarrel with his countrymen.”

Anxiously, earnestly, the country asks for reform and stands tiptoe to greet the coming. But how expect reform from a president who needs it so much himself? Who shall reform the reformer? So also does the country ask for purity. But is it not vain to seek this boon from one whose presidential pretensions are so demoralizing? Who shall purify the purifier? The country asks for reform in the civil service. But how expect any such change from one who will not allow the presidential office to be secured against its worst temptation? The country desires an example for the youth of the land, where intelligence shall blend with character, and both be elevated by a constant sense of duty with unselfish devotion to the public weal. But how accord this place to a president who makes his great office a plaything and perquisite, while his highest industry is in quarreling? Since Sancho Panza at Barataria, no governor has provided so well for his relations at the expense of his country; and if any other has made cabinet appointments the return for personal favors, his name has dropped out of history. A man is known by his acts; so also by the company he keeps. And is not our president known by his intimacy with those who are bywords of distrust? But all these bywords look to another term for perpetuation of their power. Therefore, for the sake of reform and purity, which are a longing of the people, and also that the chief magistrate may be an example, we must seek a remedy.

See for one moment how pernicious must be the presidential example. First in place, his personal influence is far reaching beyond that of any other citizen. What he does others will do. What he fails to do, others will fail to do. His standard of conduct will be accepted at least by his political supporters. His measure of industry and his sense of duty will be the pattern for the country. If he appoints relations to office and repays gifts by official patronage, making his presidency a great “gift enterprise,” may not every officeholder do likewise, each in his sphere, so that nepotism and gift taking with official remuneration will be general, and gift enterprises be multiplied indefinitely in the public service? If he treats his trust as plaything and perquisite, why may not every officeholder do the same? If he disregards Constitution and law in the pursuit of personal objects, how can we expect a just subordination from others? If he sets up pretensions without number repugnant to republican institutions, must not the good cause suffer? If he is stubborn, obstinate, and perverse, are not stubbornness, obstinacy, and perversity commended for imitation? If he insults and wrongs associates in official trust, who is safe from the malignant influence having its propulsion from the Executive Mansion? Necessarily the public service takes its character from its elected chief, and the whole country reflects the president. His example is a law. But a bad example must be corrected as a bad law.

To the Republican Party, devoted to ideas and principles, I turn now with more than ordinary solicitude. Not willingly can I see it sacrificed. Not without earnest effort against the betrayal can I suffer its ideas and principles to be lost in the personal pretensions of one man. Both the old parties are in a crisis, with this difference between the two: the Democracy is dissolving, the Republican Party is being absorbed; the Democracy is falling apart, thus visibly losing its vital unity; the Republican Party is submitting to a personal influence, thus visibly losing its vital character. The Democracy is ceasing to exist, the Republican Party is losing its identity. Let the process be completed, and it will be no longer that Republican Party which I helped to found and have always served, but only a personal party, while instead of those ideas and principles which we have been so proud to uphold will be presidential pretensions, and instead of Republicanism there will be nothing but Grantism.

Political parties are losing their sway. Higher than party are country and the duty to save it from Caesar. The caucus is at last understood as a political engine moved by wire pullers, and it becomes more insupportable in proportion as directed to personal ends.

Much rather would I see the party to which I am dedicated under the image of a lifeboat not to be sunk by wind or wave. How often have I said this to cheer my comrades! I do not fear the Democratic Party. Nothing from them can harm our lifeboat. But I do fear a quarrelsome pilot, unused to the sea but pretentious in command, who occupies himself in loading aboard his own unserviceable relations and personal patrons, while he drives away the experienced seamen who know the craft and her voyage. Here is a peril which no lifeboat can stand.
Sen. Charles Sumner, 1872
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