Sunday, June 01, 2025

“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.

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?

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.

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.

😷 ☠️

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Friday, May 30, 2025

Sen. Ernst Says: “Good Night, Kiddees”

🌮

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.

🤖

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.

Look!👀 Over There!

Yesterday. Today.

Coincidence? No; cover.

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). 

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?

“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.”

👀🌮👀☠️🤡

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.

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.

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. 😞 

Fear Of A Brown Planet: Trump 2.0 Version

So the new goal is to make American cities white again? 

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….