If indeed stupidity and corruption really were Olympic sports, then you need no guesses to work out who gets the tacky fake gold medals. Without hesitation literally everybody on the planet will give you the right answer. Well OK, not all, perhaps not those Fox News viewers who are deeply indoctrinated into the cult, nor the sycophants who bow and worship their Lord and Saviour, the orange messiah.
We were getting, “He has a spine, he will stand firm“, and then when he blinks, we get “Ah, but that was the plan all along“.
The logo “Trust in Trump” was proposed … until somebody worked out what the initials of that spelt.
So why are we where we are, is he playing 4D chess?
Hell no, he is simply stupid. As one anonymous member of his staff explained …
“Some people seem to think Trump is playing chess, when most of the time the staff are just trying to stop him from eating the pieces“
The stupidity now in play is so utterly blatant and in your face that even idiots like Elon get it …
- Navarro made up an economist. Trump made him a top adviser. Now we’re all stuck in the consequences of fanfiction policy.
- Navarro should consult Ron Vara again for tips on handling Musk’s insults; after all, imaginary friends are great at damage control!
- Personally I do have one objection – “Moron” is way too kind of term for Navarro.
The key thing to grasp is that Trump and his staff really have no idea what they’re doing.
As many are now beginning to appreciate, we never had to doom scroll past midnight through posts about skyrocketing treasury yields, a collapsing bond market, and plunging stock futures when Joe Biden was president. The only reason they should have called him Sleepy Joe is because we were able to sleep at night.
He still claims China is paying …
- Nah, they will simply sell their goods elsewhere – his level of stupidity is unprecedented.
On Wednesday when he Blinked the market claps.
Why did he blink?
Basically because he and his advisers were too stupid to foresee that the bond market would go nuts, and also because the handful of those that hold all the wealth were feeling pain, so they pressed him and he delivered.
The 1% knew in advance that tariff relief was coming …
- What a “coincidence” – Trump says BUY NOW, so that the 1% can buy cheap and make $304 billion in just one day when he pauses the tariffs. Meanwhile, the average peasant lost most of their retirement funds, healthcare, and social security, while the rich get richer. Surprised? If you remember that he is a felon, then no.
- It all gives an entirely new meaning to the sign on his desk that reads, “The Buck Stops here”
Insider trading?
Hell yes, it is all one big insider trading scam now.
The evidence is there …
- The word “illegal” only matters if there is a law enforcing entity willing to impose consequences.
- The wealthy aren’t just making money off of this, they’re making money off of screwing over the regular people.
Both China and Russia are mocking him … officially …
There are even claims like this – Rep. Tracey Mann claims that he has heard from “countless” farmers in Kansas who are willing to “bear the brunt” of Trump’s tariff policy “for the good of the country”: “They are patriots thru and thru.“
- Starve for the Dear Leader. Eat bugs for Dear Leader. Boil bark and leaves so Dear Leader will know of your sacrifice and inspire Him to lead us to Victory.
- Meanwhile that number is “countless” because it is zero.
But wait, he blinked again on Sat…
- So basically we will now tariff China with exceptions for 99% of the stuff we import. It also tells China what leavers they can pull to inflict pain.
- That’s most probably also a cue for those stocks to also respond.
Least you still don’t get it, then here you go …
Has any other crazy stuff happened during the past week?
Oh come now, as always you need not even ask, “utter lunacy blended with raw stupidity and chaos” is all they have got.
Multiple layers of Lunacy and utter incompetence
OK, Trump’s wrecking the economy but at least we have RFK Jr in charge of public health …
Sotomayor warns in her dissent that the Trump regime is arguing they can grab anyone they want including citizens and send them to foreign Prisons …
- It literally is true…rule of law party my ass.
Even more debt and waste …
- One can only wonder whom he intends to start a war with to use as a distraction from all the Tariff incompetence … (Most probably Iran)
Who is now doing deals? Apparently that’s a secret …
- Ambassadors from the following countries all begging for trade deals from the White House: Wakanda – Gondor – Ruritania – Eastasia – Freedonia – Gilead – Land of Oz – Lower Slobbovia
- Mordor wasn’t hit by tariffs. Naturally.
As for why it is all like this, we have an insight into that …
- It’s wild that he is telling on himself like this.
- Also, the guy that sat behind the desk from 2016-2020 was an absolute moron.
Christian Nationalists
The nuttier right-wing religious fanatics within the MAGA cult are as always doing the nuttiest thing possible.
MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer warns Christians not to criticize Trump for putting Paula White in charge of the White House Faith Office, saying they must not “grumble against God” or “grumble against the person God has selected to lead them.“
- The divine right of Kings is apparently alive and well.
Christian nationalist MAGA cultist Tony Perkins tries to suggest that Wall Street is intentionally tanking the stock market to hurt Trump, only to have his conspiracy theory immediately dismantled by his guest: “I would tell you and our listeners out of hand that that isn’t what’s happening here.“
- Tony is a complete fucking moron. That’s a theory that has rather a lot of robust evidence.
- If the “prayers” were for the decimation of everyone’s retirement fund, institution of a theocratic dictatorship, and persecution of everyone who’s not MAGA. Then yes.
- WWJD – Who Would Jesus Deport?
- So which god was prompting him to pray from Trump, was it Loki the Norse god of tricks and pranks perhaps?
- As for bugging the White House, why would anybody need to do that, just join the Signal chat.
Paula White’s prayer warriors are denouncing judges who dare to stand in Trump’s way, calling for God to turn judges’ hearts or “remove” them.
- I was honestly surprised that they took a moment out from all their grifting to do a bit of Trump worship … until I realised that this was simply a way for them to preserve their opportunity to carry on grifting.
Am I biased? – Item 1
I know that Trump Christian Nationalists aren’t big on reading, but you don’t have to read *all* the Amendments to the Constitution–just the first one–to know that this flagrantly violates the Constitution …
- So how about all those parts of the Bible where Jesus and his posse went around harassing people who didn’t give him enough respect.
- However, nobody need worry because I’m pretty sure that just about every State employee has been yelling “Jesus Christ” on a pretty regular basis since January 20.
Am I biased? – Item 2 – A Homeschool Story
- Article Gift Link is here.
- This case leaves me wondering what safeguards are available to check on homeschooled children. Cults do a lot of homeschooling to basically disappear the child from the system. They want to hide abuse. This is just an awful awful case.
The False Profit$
- Now that most of the tariffs have been paused, he must be pretty pissed Trump is interfering with god’s plan, right?
Weirdest of the Weird
Rick Joyner cheers Trump on, claiming his policy will prevent a stock market crash.
- So how has that been working out then?
John Guandolo claims that the anti-Trump protests that took place all over the nation were “coordinated violent joint communist & jihadi operations.“
- It is also no doubt a cue for a claim that all those that protested were illegal aliens imported by Biden and should be deported.
- Side Note: John Guandolo is the guy who, when he worked for the FBI, was found to have been sleeping with those he was supposed to be investigating and thus totally scuppered an entire investigation, then just before he was about to be investigated and fired, he quit, and went off down a conspiracy rabbit hole where he makes lots of weird and utterly false assertions.
Seth Gruber spent half of his latest podcast claiming that Adolf Hitler was “a massive leftist” and that the Nazi Party was started and controlled by “known homosexuals,” predictably citing works by virulently anti-LGBTQ right-wing activists like Judith Reisman and Scott Lively as “evidence.”
- Ah yes, the Nazi party, famously (*checks notes*) “Left wing and gay.“. You really do need to be deeply stupid to buy into what Mr Gruber is selling – I guess he knows his target audience well.
Kari Lake declares that had President Donald Trump not won the 2024 election, the nation would be been plunged into “decades of despair.“
- “decades of despair.” … yea about that, what exactly does she think has been initiated right now?
Rep. Mary Miller says that “climate change is a sham“…
- Hey this is great news. Those experiencing billion dollar weather disasters can now just send the bill to her church because “God is Responsible“
- This is the inevitable outcome of what happens when you go to christian science class, not actual, real science class.
Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent cartoons. Here are a few samples. Each comes with a link to the cartoonist putting the cartoon out via BlueSky. If you are on Bluesky then you can use the link to follow them.
Media Sanewashing of Tyranny
It’s getting more difficult each day for Fox News to distract people from Trump tanking the economy, but they keep trying …
- The outlet that spent the last 30 years telling their audience not to care about carbon emissions, suddenly does.
They also try to hide what is actually happening …
Israel
Meanwhile this is what has been happening…
- They also buried the ambulances (mistakenly).
Autism Pseudoscience via RFK Jnr
Here is what this is about and what he is referring to.
RFK Jnr, a strong anti-vaccine advocate, has appointed vaccine skeptic David Geier who has a long history of claiming a link between Vaccines and Autism, to study what causes Autism. To be clear literally study after study has very robustly debunked the claim that vaccines cause autism, so this new study is not a study, but a rigged hit job.
Geier is not a scientist, nor is he a doctor. His only “qualification” is that he agrees with RFK Jnr.
This guy is a walking incarnation of bias and deeply flawed methodology. Via the recent Washington Post article that did a deep dive into him we learn …
The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the analysis, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Geier and his father, Mark Geier, have published papers claiming vaccines increase the risk of autism, a theory that has been studied for decades and scientifically debunked.
David Geier was disciplined by Maryland regulators more than a decade ago for practicing medicine without a license. He is listed as a data analyst in the HHS employee directory.
Public health and autism experts fear that choosing a researcher who has promoted false claims will produce a flawed study with far-reaching consequences. They fear it will undermine the importance of the lifesaving inoculations and further damage trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For more details on it all you can find my recent article here.
This … seriously now, we need lots more of this …
When unleashed, Walz is truly excellent …
- He really should have been top of the ticket.
Finally
Fox really is beyond parody these days …
The latest Barbie …
Brandon still does not understand tariffs …
- Side Note: Being removed from Brandon’s “Friends List” is not the walk of shame, but rather is a badge of honour.
There is a New Saint …
Bonus Item – Twelve small reasons for modest hope
What is fast becoming a welcomed bonus item is Robert Reich’s weekly list of. Here is this week’s list of 12 …
- Trump’s wild retreat on tariffs.
- Trump can’t win a trade war with China because he’s cut off other suppliers. Duh.
- Democrats see a surge of interest in running for office.
- Democrats are plotting a fresh round of town halls in GOP-held districts, to hammer Republicans
- Trump’s firing of Timothy Haugh at Laura Loomer’s urging causes widespread bipartisan concern.
- The Republican Party is splitting over tariffs
- Trump’s poll numbers continue to drop.
- The courts continue to hit back at Trump
- The Solicitor General’s Office loses much of its talent.
- The Republican’s budget will cause mayhem.
- Musk is disappearing.
- DOGE is sinking.
Here is his full substack posting that covers each of the above in more detail.