The degree of economic illiteracy on display last Wednesday in the Rose Garden is on par with watching NASA being taken over and run by fanatical flat-earth astrologers. It was not just his usual BS, but BS on Steroids …
- Trump: “We are going to be so wealthy“
- Stock Market: “Nah, that’s Bullshit“, and renders judgement by proceeding to crash.
For the record, here are the very worst two-day stock market crashes in the U.S. by percentage loss: 1. 1929 (the Great Depression); 2. 1987 (Black Monday); 3. 2008 (the Great Recession); 4. Trump special, Thur+Fri this past week.
In other words he is now doing to the economy what he did to Stormy Daniels, or to put that another way, the new insight into it all is that the term “America First” was clearly part of a hit list.
The “thinking” behind the tariffs is utter nonsense …
Are you still struggling to grasp the raw stupidity of it all?
OK, try this – I’m currently running a 100% trade deficit with a local coffee outlet. Should my partner raise a 100% tariff against them to force coffee making back into our kitchen?
You quip, “But that’s stupid ….“, yea, now you are getting it.
So yes, he’s a fucking lunatic, but if you are reading this then I suspect that this is not news and that you already knew this a long long time ago.
He has started a global trade war that will not enrich anybody but will instead impoverish rather large numbers of people. It is basically the largest tax hike in US history, one that is on par with drilling holes in a boat to let the water out.
If you are wondering how deeply stupid and incompetent it all is, then here you go, wonder no more …
- The Penguins must be utterly devastated.
But hey, he means it …
This next bit illustrates his lack of any grasp upon reality – He made it very clear that his Canadian tariffs are about “penalizing Canada” and used fake allegations of drug trafficking to justify it …
Side Note: What is of course true is that we do have a huge drug problem, but not because of Canada, Mexico or Democrats, but because we have no universal healthcare, no social safety nets, massive wealth inequity, no living minimum wage, and all that is now about to get a lot worse.
Meanwhile some in the MAGA camp are rolling with “This is not what I voted for“.
Er … no, this is exactly what you voted for. He told you he would do this at every single stop on the campaign trail, and you voted for it despite all the subject matter experts trying to explain to you just how deeply stupid it all was …
- And yes, they literally did clap like a bunch of seals at every pit stop on his campaign trail for all of this.
- To put it another way, we are now entering the FO stage of FAFO.
Oh and least you are wondering why, then here you go, this is what is going on. It is a classic Mafia style power grab …
- This is what he has done throughout his life — insult, abuse, and threaten people until they give in to extortion out of sheer exhaustion.
- The false assumption is that the US is the centre of the world. In reality, many other nations will cease to trade with the US and work around this by trading with other nations.
So have the Penguins backed down yet?
Hell no.
Has any other crazy stuff happened during the past week?
As always, you need not even ask, “utter lunacy blended with raw stupidity” is BAU for Trump.
He has Lost Fox Viewers
Even Fox News viewers are starting to get it …
- But yea … about that 17% and 7% … Where the F do they live?
Multiple layers of Lunacy and utter incompetence
Just perfect as a comeback …
The orange speaker behind the podium was also manufactured in Russia
The Human rights violations continue …
- The fuck they can’t. All they have to do is tell El Salvador to release him and arrange his transport back. The judge needs to get creative on what he or she will do if they don’t comply with haste. Maybe holding Tom Homan in contempt and jailing him until he complies might be a good place to start.
The very blatant grifting and corruption continues …
- They really know how to put the gravy on the icing for the whole world to see.
- As a stark contrast to the 3 that the US sent and then fired, China sent over 200.
Least you wonder why, it is all because the tax reductions for the 1% have been bought and paid for …
Bullshit Barbie Updates
Deflect, Deny, and Attack, is how she operates.
She can’t handle legitimate questions …
- Her regular appearances bring very strong Baghdad Bob vibes. (Link here for those unfamiliar with that reference from just over 20 years ago)
Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel ran for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 1, 2025.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court elections are officially nonpartisan, but Crawford is very much the Dem candidate and Schimel is the former Republican attorney general. It’s a big deal because when Crawford won the liberal 4-3 majority was maintained.
Everything he did in the Wisconsin race was illegal …
- Robert Reich: “Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race is now the most expensive court race in U.S. history — largely due to donations from out-of-state billionaires. As Justice Louis Brandeis said, we can have great wealth in the hands of a few, or we can have democracy, but we can’t have both“
- A Judge lying like this is really not a great play when running for election as a (*checks notes*) Judge. Meanwhile back in reality a far large portion of the population identify as “Christian” (Via Pew it is currently 63%)
- What he is actually telling you is that he is part of the 25% of the population that want to dictate how the other 75% live – now that’s a very fascist stance.
- What is inevitable is that it will be thanks to his kind of intolerant Christianity that will lead to far less Christianity in the future.
And Karma comes calling …
Joe Heller sums it up beautifully like this …
Oh and one last thought on this …
Christian Nationalists
As always, the fanatically religious and jumping in to ensure that only they can dominate society.
- “I’M BEING OPPRESSED!” screams the Senator from the stage of what I’m going to go ahead and assume is the stage of a publicly owned venue, completely devoid of fear of retribution by literally anybody.
- It’s a deeply odd stance to take when it is people like him who strive to oppress anybody and everybody who does hold the exact same beliefs he holds.
Lucas Gage thinks he was figured out why people hate Mondays: “If you switch the letters ‘mon’ and ‘day’ around, you get ‘day’ and ‘mon’ which is daemon, aka demon, which means Jews. And everyone hates the Jews.“
- This guy is pioneering new undiscovered depths of the rabbit hole he has fallen into.
Outraged that Satanists attempted to hold a black mass at the Kansas state capitol last week, Christian nationalist broadcaster Doug Billings is now running for governor, vowing to create a state militia to prevent anything like that from happening again.
- The “satanists”, who don’t actually believe in a literal Satan, but instead use religious imagery to protest Christian fanatics imposing themselves on everybody, always manage to troll and trigger the fanatics every time.
- If they did an actual black mass that invoked Satan then Stephen Miller would appear with a bang and a puff of sulphurous smoke, so I get why they would wish to avoid this reveal.
- For a bit of context, Billings is a Christian nationalist broadcaster who is closely aligned with former national security adviser/right-wing conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn and who spoke at several of ReAwaken America events in recent years, along with a cavalcade of COVID-19, election, and QAnon conspiracy theorists.
The Family Research Council claims that Elon Musk’s work at DOGE “is deeply consistent with biblical values.“
- … in the sense that it will turn vast swathes of the population into indentured slaves of the billionaire oligarchs.
- This published that claim on April 1st … which is indeed a wholly appropriate date for them to do that.
Christian nationalist pseudo-historian Tim Barton tries to make the case that Trump’s tariff policy is supported by Jesus.
- The argument, of course, relies on a) misrepresenting the Bible and b) misunderstanding how tariffs work
- It sounds rather like a confession. What exactly did he do that caused him to live with such fear?
- Thankfully nobody gets dragged off to some dungeon in El Salvador without any due process these days … right?
Tim is of course referring to GOP Jesus …
- Side Note: the above is over 6 years old and has indeed aged rather well.
The False Profit$
MAGA cultist Shane Vaughn brags that he prophesied years ago that President Donald Trump would stay in office beyond the two terms allowed by the Constitution.
- Unfortunately for Vaughn, Right Wing Watch has got the actual receipts. They posted the video that he’s now citing as proof and it does not say what Vaughn claims it does. Vaughn was saying in 2021 that despite losing the election, Trump was already serving his second term in office by virtue of his control over the Republican Party and that, if reelected in 2024, he’ll end up having been president for 12 years.
- This is basically fake Prophet 101: Simply make stuff up because the target marks will never go and check.
- Incoming … “We really won and it was stolen” claim … in three, two, one …
Weirdest of the Weird
- He appears to believe that “American Values” are racism, bigotry, incompetence, stupidity, intolerance, and fascism.
- For a bit of context Rep Gill of Texas 26th District has previously shared claims about migrants eating household pets, supports the idea of Trump developing the Gaza Strip, last month submitted a bill to put Trump’s face on the $100 note, and even introduced articles of impeachment against a judge for ruling against the Trump administration – in essence he is an incarnation of “MAGA stupidity”.
Imagine how easy your life must be when this is what you complain about. …
- It’s wild the sort of problems that people will invent to complain about when they do not have to worry about their rights being systemically removed.
Glenn Beck claims that President Donald Trump is “the guy I’ve always wanted in office,”
- Now that really is a deeply blatant rewriting of his own history. It was the 2016 election cycle where Beck spent every program calling Trump a psychopath, a narcissist, and a “the biggest flaming ass that you could possibly imagine.“.
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.
Dave Whamond with “Happy Liberation Day” …
This … seriously now, we need lots more of this …
The do-nothing democrats should be terrified about what is coming …
- “YouTube Star” isn’t really a terribly accurate description. If you are not familiar with her former contributions on Twitter or here, then be excited because she is the real deal – here is a link to her Bluesky account, check it out and you will see what I mean.
There are also a few who do still push against the current admin, for example Pritzker (who stands as a contrast to Gavin Newsom)…
Cory Booker’s long speech
His marathon speech did indeed make waves, and it was all solid robust substance, he was not simply reading the phone directory …
- Side Note: The above quote is slightly wrong, he actually said Disneyfication not “Disney vacation”.
- 25+ hours of solid substance without a teleprompter.
- It was also the longest senate speech in US history beating the previous record who was a guy who did it to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and so deserves to be forgotten. (Hint: If you are currently in line to piss on Strom Thurmond’s grave, then stay in line)
One more quote from him …
- “if gov officials are using a commercial chat app, talking about attack times, the weapons they are using, the targets, and invite a reporter to the chat, there has to be accountability. Am I being crazy?” To an audience ovation.
Some Democrats really are now stepping up the the plate – Corey Booker, AOC, Al Green, Pete Buttigeig, Jasmine Crockett, and Bernie.
- Walz and AOC both going on tours about “Hey this shit is fucked and they’re fucking it more” gives many a little hope. The nice thing about much of the party being feckless is those that have a spine show so much more easily.
- Booker’s open, unfettered apology for misreading what was going on (or refusing to see it) is what is really selling many on his stand. – Quote: “I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I’ve been inadequate to the moment. I’ve confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say ‘we will do better.’“
Finally
Bonus Item – This week’s small reasons for modest optimism
What is fast becoming a welcomed bonus item is Robert Reich’s weekly list of. Here is this week’s …
- Wisconsin Supreme Court vote
- Other races
- Nationwide, an ever-stronger rejection of Trump
- Town halls are terrible for Republicans
- Democrats are fired up (finally)
- Tesla continues to plummet
- Paul Weiss and Skadden are paying a price for selling out to Trump
- Trump’s tariffs cause utter chaos
- Trump has lost his Senate majority (at least on tariffs against Canada, which may be a harbinger of more Senate votes against him)
- Trump’s abductions
- Trump’s attack on Social Security is beginning to harm beneficiaries
Here is his full substack posting that covers each of the above in more detail.
Bonus Item 2: Hell Yes!
Very little media coverage.
So this happened …
