Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) attempts to keep the peace between Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) and Elon Musk (Mike Myers) during a meeting at the Oval Office
Trump’s demands are the same as Putin’s.
NBC: “Trump reportedly won’t restore military aid or intelligence sharing with Ukraine — even if Kyiv and Washington strike a deal on mineral resources. He wants Zelensky to cede territory to Russia, take steps toward holding elections, and step down.”
Trump: Putin is “doing what he has to do” — Jimmy Kimmel: “Even Putin must be thinking ‘Hey, rein it in a bit, you’re being too obvious'”
“Zelenskyy flew to Washington, but he walked into the Kremlin.” — Rep. Jake Auchincloss (CNN)
“We are learning how to live without America. This is Europe’s war now” — Former Urkainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (CNN)
DOGE aide a Russian op linked to pro-Kremlin sites..
NEW: I helped Brian Krebs trace the background of one of Elon Musk's top loyalists, Branden Spikes, head of IT at X, who spent 2 mo at DOGE. Spikes and his ex-wife were involved with Russian diaspora websites and groups linked to pro-Kremlin KSORS players, Russian state media while he was at SpaceX.
The extraordinary allegation that the 78-year-old property developer and reality TV host is secretly a Russian operative has raised its ugly head – again.
Former KGB agent Alnur Mussayev, 71, has posted to Facebook reasserting his allegation the then 40-year-old businessman was recruited as a Kremlin “sleeper” agent in 1987.
“Based on my experience of operational work at the KGB-KNB, I can say for sure that Trump belongs to the category of perfectly recruited people,” he writes.
“I have no doubt that Russia has a compromise on the President of the United States, that for many years the Kremlin promoted Trump to the position of President of the main world power.”
As a former KGB officer and intelligence chief of Kazakhstan, Mussayev is now the third spy to have made the claim.
[…]
Last month, for the first time ever, the White House sided with Russia in the United Nations. It voted to oppose a European resolution condemning Moscow’s actions and reasserting Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. In its own resolution, the US failed to recognise Russia as the aggressor when calling for an end to the war.
Controversial Special Government Employee Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has ordered deep cuts to USAID foreign assistance programs. This includes specialist projects helping protect and restore Ukraine’s civilian electrical power grid.
Mr Trump’s Attorney-General, Pam Bondi, has already closed down the specialist KleptoCapture unit tasked with enforcing sanctions against Mr Putin’s circle of oligarch supporters.
She’s disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force – a program aimed at protecting the integrity of US elections.
And she’s reinterpreted the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act – making it easier for foreign lobbyists to avoid disclosing their backers.
Unconfirmed reports suggest Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s staff are in secret talks over the future of the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Europe and Russia. Mysteriously destroyed in the opening weeks of the Ukraine invasion, Moscow is said to be seeking US financial and diplomatic backing for its reactivation.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s White House has directed the State and Treasury Departments to review all sanctions targeting Russian oligarchs and state-controlled businesses. It wants an option paper on how to lift these as part of a broader diplomatic “reset” with Russia.
“For decades, Washington has had an urge to ‘reset’ relations with Moscow,” argues Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) analyst Elena Davlikanova.
“But every time the reset button has been pressed, it has delivered the same predictable result — Russia has seen Western goodwill as weakness and exploited it.”
This is no accident, she adds.
“Part of the fault lies with the US school of Russian studies, which has long been shaped by myths spun by the KGB, leaving generations of policymakers with a romantic view of their adversary,” Davlikanova writes.
“Eastern European scholars who understand Russia are dismissed as paranoid Cassandras, leading to a vicious cycle of repeatedly falling into the same trap.”
Translation: Egg prices will come down in 100 years.
Trump: “There could be a little disruption. Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100 year perspective. We go by quarters. And you can’t go by that.”
“Trump Claims “Rigged Election” During FIFA World Cup Announcement”
“President takes bizarre detour into election grievances during what was supposed to be a soccer ceremony”
“When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
“Unlike Trump’s previous statements about election fraud, which typically alleged rigging against him in the 2020 election, his comments during this FIFA ceremony specifically stated that election rigging resulted in him becoming president—suggesting manipulation in his favor rather than against him.”
‘The life you’ve chosen’: Attorney rips J.D. Vance for whining over ‘scary’ protesters
“Today, while walking my 3-year-old daughter, a group of ‘Slava Ukraini’ protesters followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly anxious and scared,” Vance revealed. “It was a mostly respectful conversation, but if you’re chasing a 3-year-old as part of a political protest, you’re a sh-t person.”
Stop carrying her around like human shield. It’s weird and sad that Elon does it with his son. (How long before the kid is too big and gets swapped out for another kid?) Just because Elon does it, doesn’t mean you should, you eyelinered snowflake. Was he walking around with her before Elon rubbed off on him? Nope.
“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One” (Trump, 2024).
Under Biden in January I paid $2.69 for a dozen eggs. Same brand, same store yesterday: $5.99
Ah, but he admitted he didn’t actually win. He said, “they rigged the election and then I became President.”
He doesn’t need to bring down prices, because he didn’t win. Also, that’s not how accelerationism works. Everything has to go to crap so there will be no government safety net nor any community support, since everyone except the 1% will be in the same, sinking boat.
“Trump and Musk’s Plan to Destroy Social Security Started Tuesday Night”
“It starts with cutting staff at the Social Security Administration. That will sow confusion. Then it builds from there.”
“We saw the formal announcement of it during Trump’s non–State of the Union address, and the DOGE announcement earlier in the week that 7,000 employees at Social Security are to be immediately laid off—with as many as halfof all Social Security employees (an additional 30,000 people)—soon to be on the chopping block.”
“Right now, people earning over $176,100 pay absolutely nothing into Social Security once that amount has been covered. To make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years, and even give a small raise to everybody on it, the simple fix is for the rich to just start paying Social Security income on all of their income, rather than only the first $176,100.
The entire solvency and health of Social Security could be cured permanently, in other words, if we simply did away with the “billionaire loophole” in the Social Security tax.”
“But the idea of having to pay a tax on all their income so that middle-class and low-income people can retire comfortably fills America’s billionaires with dread and disgust. So much so that not one single Republican publicly supports the idea.”
“How dare Americans have the temerity, they argue, to demand morbidly rich people help support the existence of an American middle class or help keep orphans and severely disabled people from being thrown out on the streets!”
“Which is why Musk and his teenage hackers are attacking the Social Security administration and its employees with such gusto.”
“…their evil plan is to make interacting with Social Security such a difficult and painful process—involving months to make an appointment and hours or even days just to get someone on the telephone—that retired Americans will get angry with the government and begin to listen to Republicans and Wall Street bankers who tell us they should run the system.”
“(This won’t be limited to Social Security, by the way; as you’re reading these words, Trump and Musk are planning to slash 80,000 employeesfrom the Veterans Administration, with a scheme to dump those who served in our military into our private, for-profit hospital and health insurance systems.)”
“The next step will be to roll out the Social Security version of Medicare Advantage, the privatized version of Medicare that George W. Bush created in 2003. That scam makes hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for giant insurance companies, who then kick some of that profit back to Republican politicians as campaign donations and luxury trips to international resorts.”
“With inflation up and consumer sentiment down, working Americans don’t have much to celebrate after President Donald Trump’s first six weeks in office. Billionaires, however, couldn’t be more pleased with their return on investment. After handing the federal government’s keys and walletto unqualified billionaire Elon Musk, Trump announced the creation of a “strategic” cryptocurrency reserve fund. On Friday, the president is hosting the who’s who of the crypto industry at a White House summit. The reserve would purchase crypto tokens with taxpayer dollars as a theoretical future source of emergency assets. In practice, it amounts to a massive giveaway to tech billionaires at Americans’ expense.”
“Most obviously, Trump’s crypto reserve is good for Trump, his family and his wealthy backers. But this move also endorses crypto as a safe investment for everyday Americans with the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. When the scheme inevitably goes belly up, the government will then have a vested interest in bailing out the industry.”
“Proposing to use taxpayer funds to buy crypto at the same time that Elon Musk and Republicans in Congress try to cut vital programs like Medicaid, disaster relief and food assistance confirms yet again that Trump’s loyalties are not with the voters who elected him, but the billionaire donors who funded him. This crypto reserve, if created, would lay the groundwork for the largest bailout in history — with taxpayers footing the bill.”
“Crypto is a grift in both theory and practice. Its backers promise high returns on a product that has no economic or real-world value.”
thanks, jack, lovely choice
Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) attempts to keep the peace between Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) and Elon Musk (Mike Myers) during a meeting at the Oval Office
SNL Weekend Update 3/ 8/ 25 Saturday Night Live March 8,2025
Attribution: Losing four years by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian
Beautiful choice Jack. Thank you.
Lively strings for almost Spring. Thanks jack
Thanks again for SNL cold open. I don’t understand why they don’t put a fat suit on the guy who plays Trump? But the joke writing for him is good.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss:
my late morning listening (i don’t watch the video):
What I’m watching this morning:
Trump’s demands are the same as Putin’s.
NBC: “Trump reportedly won’t restore military aid or intelligence sharing with Ukraine — even if Kyiv and Washington strike a deal on mineral resources. He wants Zelensky to cede territory to Russia, take steps toward holding elections, and step down.”
Trump: Putin is “doing what he has to do” — Jimmy Kimmel: “Even Putin must be thinking ‘Hey, rein it in a bit, you’re being too obvious'”
“Zelenskyy flew to Washington, but he walked into the Kremlin.” — Rep. Jake Auchincloss (CNN)
“We are learning how to live without America. This is Europe’s war now” — Former Urkainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (CNN)
thanks Jack!
today’s meme…
rec’d by Alistair Campbell, had me at “MI6”
DOGE aide a Russian op linked to pro-Kremlin sites..
Donald Trump rocked by truly wild rumour | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/09/trump-recession-economy-inflation/
Trump declines to rule out recession
Translation: Egg prices will come down in 100 years.
Trump: “There could be a little disruption. Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100 year perspective. We go by quarters. And you can’t go by that.”
https://lamag.com/news-and-politics/trump-claims-rigged-election-during-fifa-world-cup-announcement
“Trump Claims “Rigged Election” During FIFA World Cup Announcement”
“President takes bizarre detour into election grievances during what was supposed to be a soccer ceremony”
“When we made this, it was made during my term, my first term, and it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be President, and that’s too bad,” Trump said. “And what happened is they rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.”
“Unlike Trump’s previous statements about election fraud, which typically alleged rigging against him in the 2020 election, his comments during this FIFA ceremony specifically stated that election rigging resulted in him becoming president—suggesting manipulation in his favor rather than against him.”
https://www.rawstory.com/jd-vance-scary-protesters/
‘The life you’ve chosen’: Attorney rips J.D. Vance for whining over ‘scary’ protesters
“Today, while walking my 3-year-old daughter, a group of ‘Slava Ukraini’ protesters followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly anxious and scared,” Vance revealed. “It was a mostly respectful conversation, but if you’re chasing a 3-year-old as part of a political protest, you’re a sh-t person.”
Stop carrying her around like human shield. It’s weird and sad that Elon does it with his son. (How long before the kid is too big and gets swapped out for another kid?) Just because Elon does it, doesn’t mean you should, you eyelinered snowflake. Was he walking around with her before Elon rubbed off on him? Nope.
“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One” (Trump, 2024).
Under Biden in January I paid $2.69 for a dozen eggs. Same brand, same store yesterday: $5.99
Ah, but he admitted he didn’t actually win. He said, “they rigged the election and then I became President.”
He doesn’t need to bring down prices, because he didn’t win. Also, that’s not how accelerationism works. Everything has to go to crap so there will be no government safety net nor any community support, since everyone except the 1% will be in the same, sinking boat.
meme #2…
meme #3…
https://newrepublic.com/article/192404/trump-musk-destroy-social-security-started
“Trump and Musk’s Plan to Destroy Social Security Started Tuesday Night”
“It starts with cutting staff at the Social Security Administration. That will sow confusion. Then it builds from there.”
“We saw the formal announcement of it during Trump’s non–State of the Union address, and the DOGE announcement earlier in the week that 7,000 employees at Social Security are to be immediately laid off—with as many as halfof all Social Security employees (an additional 30,000 people)—soon to be on the chopping block.”
“Right now, people earning over $176,100 pay absolutely nothing into Social Security once that amount has been covered. To make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years, and even give a small raise to everybody on it, the simple fix is for the rich to just start paying Social Security income on all of their income, rather than only the first $176,100.
The entire solvency and health of Social Security could be cured permanently, in other words, if we simply did away with the “billionaire loophole” in the Social Security tax.”
“But the idea of having to pay a tax on all their income so that middle-class and low-income people can retire comfortably fills America’s billionaires with dread and disgust. So much so that not one single Republican publicly supports the idea.”
“How dare Americans have the temerity, they argue, to demand morbidly rich people help support the existence of an American middle class or help keep orphans and severely disabled people from being thrown out on the streets!”
“Which is why Musk and his teenage hackers are attacking the Social Security administration and its employees with such gusto.”
“…their evil plan is to make interacting with Social Security such a difficult and painful process—involving months to make an appointment and hours or even days just to get someone on the telephone—that retired Americans will get angry with the government and begin to listen to Republicans and Wall Street bankers who tell us they should run the system.”
“(This won’t be limited to Social Security, by the way; as you’re reading these words, Trump and Musk are planning to slash 80,000 employeesfrom the Veterans Administration, with a scheme to dump those who served in our military into our private, for-profit hospital and health insurance systems.)”
“The next step will be to roll out the Social Security version of Medicare Advantage, the privatized version of Medicare that George W. Bush created in 2003. That scam makes hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for giant insurance companies, who then kick some of that profit back to Republican politicians as campaign donations and luxury trips to international resorts.”
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-crypto-reserve-fund-tech-billionaires-rcna194791
“With inflation up and consumer sentiment down, working Americans don’t have much to celebrate after President Donald Trump’s first six weeks in office. Billionaires, however, couldn’t be more pleased with their return on investment. After handing the federal government’s keys and walletto unqualified billionaire Elon Musk, Trump announced the creation of a “strategic” cryptocurrency reserve fund. On Friday, the president is hosting the who’s who of the crypto industry at a White House summit. The reserve would purchase crypto tokens with taxpayer dollars as a theoretical future source of emergency assets. In practice, it amounts to a massive giveaway to tech billionaires at Americans’ expense.”
“Most obviously, Trump’s crypto reserve is good for Trump, his family and his wealthy backers. But this move also endorses crypto as a safe investment for everyday Americans with the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. When the scheme inevitably goes belly up, the government will then have a vested interest in bailing out the industry.”
“Proposing to use taxpayer funds to buy crypto at the same time that Elon Musk and Republicans in Congress try to cut vital programs like Medicaid, disaster relief and food assistance confirms yet again that Trump’s loyalties are not with the voters who elected him, but the billionaire donors who funded him. This crypto reserve, if created, would lay the groundwork for the largest bailout in history — with taxpayers footing the bill.”
“Crypto is a grift in both theory and practice. Its backers promise high returns on a product that has no economic or real-world value.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/doge-staffer-corcos-wife-ties-russian-oligarch-1235291673/
“NEW DOGE STAFFER HAS TIES TO A SANCTIONED RUSSIAN OLIGARCH
Sam Corcos, a new member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team, reportedly showed up at the IRS demanding detailed info about American taxpayers to hunt for fraud”
NEW THREAD