Wow, actions have consequences, who knew, what a shocker it is to discover that when Tariffs kick in those targeted will respond in kind. In other words, within days of launching a tariff war, he had an “Oh Shit!” moment and promptly threw up the white flag and surrendered, then decided to abandon that and do it anyway, then withdraw a bit and delayed … who the hell can actually keep up with the utter confusion?
It appears to work like this.
One day he’s telling us that tariffs are amazing because they will bring lots of new jobs to the US and raise so much money we won’t have to pay income tax, then the next day he’s telling us we aren’t doing them because people were nice to him on the phone, but that they will be coming back next month.
Least you wonder what the hell is going on, then here is how it actually plays out …
- Announce tariffs and watch stocks tank
- The rich step in and buy at greatly reduced prices
- Tariffs postponed, and stocks recover
- Rinse and repeat for the rich to increase wealth.
Phrase of the week: It has been correctly described as a “fucktacular shit-show“. Below is how The Economist illustrates it with the tag line “The president and reality are drifting apart” …
My primary complaint regarding their tag line is that for him “Reality” has been an undiscovered country for quite some time now.
To all the MAGAs rage-posting about external nations responding with their own tariffs … “How dare they?“, what can we all say except, “What did you actually think would happen?”. This is on you, this is what you were warned about and told again and again would happen, it is exactly what you voted for.
Hey farmers who voted for this, are you having Fun yet?
80% of the fertiliser used by US farmers comes from Canada, so you still have a few weeks to stock up.
On Fri a reporter asked Trudeau, “The foreign affairs minister called all of this a psychodrama – how do you characterize it?” He pauses for a few seconds then responds, “Thursday.”
Via Clay Bennett, here is some live action from the Trade War …
If you have ever wondered how trump bankrupted everything he touches, including a casino, well now you are getting a lesson on that in real-time.
It is also a reminder to the 89 million Americans who stayed home because they thought Harris and Trump were both equally awful – have you worked out yet that you were totally wrong about that?
What we are all rapidly discovering is that Trump’s promised Golden Age is actually a Golden Shower.
OK, so has any other crazy stuff happened during the past week?
As always you need not even ask, as I keep pointing out week after week, utter lunacy blended with raw stupidity is BAU for Trump, so let’s do a quick catchup on some of the other “Genius Ideas“.
Multiple layers of Lunacy and utter incompetence
So here is how the government efficiency has been working – you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today. wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home.
It’s total chaos.
WASH POST: “‘You feel betrayed, let down and like you don’t matter’ said Best, summing up her feelings and those of veterans across the country who are now wondering how they’ll support themselves and their families.” www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/…
- 65% of veterans voted for Trump. I’m curious if those that got laid off has a similar percentage. I have sympathy for those who didn’t vote for this, but I have none for those who did this to themselves. To them – “Yes, the leopard ate your face, too.“
Supposedly TransGender mice was a thing this past week – The understanding they have of the things they are obliterating and the justifications for doing so are deeply bizarre – claims of TransGender mice!!! … FFS, this is stupidity and ignorance on steroids …
- What we now appear to be all learning is that Idiocracy was wildly optimistic.
So weird how everything Trump is doing seems to benefit the rich and powerful (and corrupt) www.icij.org/inside-icij/...
Also, we got a threat of no more Social Security in April …
And what is happening to education is not legal, it is criminal conduct …
As for “healthcare”, all you need is to just take Cod Liver Oil … right? …
… and with RFK Jnr in charge this total BS is now happening …
- No doubt they will be asked to keep doing the research again and again until they come back with an answer that RFK Jnr likes.
Just to be clear, it is not just about the above, there is much much more. What we now have is the most blatantly corrupt administration ever seen. As a quick reminder here are a few notable highlights …
- The Trump crypto coin scam – maybe the biggest corruption story of them all.
- Trump changed the rules to allow his MAGA loyalists to get paid by foreign governments to lobby him in secret.
- The Eric Adams quid pro quo – where Trump allows him to engage in bribery as long as Adams pledges loyalty to Trump. Essentially, the end of the rule of law.
- Elon Musk starts cancelling his competitors’ government contracts and illegally just takes the contracts for himself.
- Trump starts selling meetings with him to CEOs with business – The price? $5 million.
It’s almost as if the guy elected to be POTUS was a convicted felon and fraudster whose only goal was to enrich himself.
History is not going to be kind to him or any of those that enabled it all.
SOTU
OK, so let’s cover this from the past week.
A coma-inducing 98 minutes of a stream-of-pure-BS.
And this is the “resistance” we got …
- Every single one of them should have seen that as their cue to get kicked out one at a time all night long.
If you are wondering why the Democrats were so muted at the SOTU last Wednesday …
- So what is the plan?—raise small-dollar donations off their simply not being Trump for two years (while being very careful not to upset the big-dollar donors) and then hope they can eeek out a win in an election they will only pray is still free and fair.
- I mean seriously now, why can’t the whole caucus get on the same page?!?! You’ve had 19 people in pink, 10 people walking out, 10 people who didn’t show, 1 guy yelling, assorted people with ping pong paddles, 1 chick with a white board, wtf? Everyone should have stood with Rep Al Green.
- Congrats to them for totally misreading the mood of their base.
- Rep. Maxwell Frost said it perfectly on MSNBC: “We have to stop being the minority and start being the opposition.”
At least Rep Al Green did the right thing …
- People will remember that Al Green stood up and got himself thrown out. Nobody will remember those silly little signs.
When asked by the press afterwards Houston congressman Al Green explains, and so by being thrown out, he gets into the news cycle with his message – this is how you do it …
Some other reactions to SOTU …
… and for completeness, Andy here nails it even when many elected officials don’t fully grasp what their job actually is…
- Thankfully people like AOC, Jasmine, and a few others do get it.
As for what actually happens in 2028, who knows if we will even have a fair election then. If we do, then the Dem nominee will most probably be the governor that does the best job standing up to this shit – so far Pritzker and Walz are the front runners for that. Newsom thinks it’ll be him even though he’s doing a podcast with Charlie Kirk for some bizarre reason.
Why is is all like this?
While the left is moderate left, the right is very very extreme right, so much so that they are off the chart … literally …
Trump Cult is recruiting
“Re-education” is ready to roll …
The False Profit$
- OK, so who wants to tell him?
- The insanity of “morals” that allow you to back Trump but not to say the word “ass”.
- What Tim Sheets calls “miracles”, we all correctly label as plagues and famine.
- What is perhaps a minor miracle is that anybody actually takes him seriously.
George Pearsons brags that Kenneth Copeland “literally prophesied” that Donald Trump would become president.
- Fun Fact: Copeland and Pearsons literally prophesied that Ted Cruz would become president.
- Fake Prophet 101: Claim that you predicted it after it happens, the marks will never check to see if that is actually true.
Weirdest of the Weird
- MAGA lives in a state of perpetual alternative facts
Here is this week’s offering from Joel Webbon the guy with the church that is so tiny that you need a tunnelling electron microscope to be able to see it. He asserts that “America was founded by predominantly white European peoples, and has been a majority white nation since its founding” but now “if you’re a white American, your government has been weaponized against you for a very long time.“
- Side Note: Here is another “fun” quote from Joel during the past week to illustrate that he really is the Christian Taliban – “In a nutshell, in general, I don’t want to see women in the public sphere.“
- Oh, and this past week we also got this gem: He offers a prayer for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy like this: “Lord, I pray, in your kindness, if it would be your will that you would save Zelenskyy and that he would repent of his sin. If not, Lord, please kill him, in the name of Jesus.“
- For those wondering, yes, he is basically a religious shock jock who strives to say outrageous stuff on YouTube every week to get clicks. It is all about $$$.
Michele Bachmann says that Regent University is creating a PhD program to teach students a “proper understanding of Israel and put them in the State Department, the Pentagon, in the military academies.“
- Apparently Education is not something they now do at Regent University.
Paula White recounted this past week about Trump taking her to a fancy French restaurant when they first met even though she was dressed “as inappropriate as could be.” White marveled that Trump never said a word or suggested she change because he is so gracious.
- Er no Paula, dressing “inappropriately” is not him being gracious, it’s the reason you got the job.
Joshua Haymes says that birth control is demonic: “Seems like Satan would be really pro-birth control.“
- We are rapidly getting to the point where every sperm is a person and has rights.
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.
Finally
As noted earlier on above, Gillian won that bet …
- I’m now guessing that the Catholic GOP people will be keeping quiet about transubstantiation.
There has also been a purge of all references to “Gay”, and that includes the Enola Gay …
- We are in the stupidest timeline
Well gosh, why would the Trump admin strive to do this? (You really really do not need to be a rocket scientist to join up the dots here)
- Side note: Looking at the “success” SpaceX is having, it is also now becoming clear that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be an actual rocket scientist.
Bonus Item – There is Hope
Here is Robert Reich’s latest weekly list of – 10 more reasons for modest optimism – and this latest list includes these …
- The courts are stepping up their fight against the regime.
- Musk and Trump Republicans are seen to be targeting Social Security.
- DOGE’s credibility is shot.
- Republicans lawmakers are forcing Trump to reduce Musk’s power.
- Republicans are hiding from their constituents.
- The economy is taking a nosedive.
- The stock market’s slide has forced Trump to back down on his tariffs.
- Trump and Republicans are accepting a continuation of Biden’s spending levels.
- Europe is coming together.
- Democrats are finally showing some spine.
Here is his full substack posting that covers each of the above in more detail and explains why there really is now some optimism in play.