How Low Can You Go

Attribution: MAGA Mad About Trump Tariffs by Rick McKee, CagleCartoons.com

[Cagle Cartoons: Rick McKee is the staff cartoonist at The Augusta Chronicle. In 2006, McKee was named Time Magazines Person of the Year. Along with everybody else.]

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

61 thoughts on “How Low Can You Go”


  1. Americans turned out in all 50 states to protest President Trump’s policies, and the stock market meltdown continued on Monday as Trump’s tariff regime created panic among investors.

  2. Trump administration fires senior Navy female officer at NATO. She appeared on a ‘woke’ list

    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee, was fired over the weekend by the Trump administration, U.S. officials said Monday.

    Although no reason was given, officials said it was apparently tied to comments she has made that supported diversity in the force. more …

  3. worthy of watching also on Colbert last night: EXTENDED – Sen. Cory Booker On America’s “Moral Moment”

    https://youtu.be/WODiYBR_184?si=HvQi-adoyJELA36z
    Watch Stephen Colbert’s full extended conversation with Senator Cory Booker, who talks about his record-setting speech on the Senate floor, how Americans are pushing back against President Trump’s disastrous second-term agenda, and why the country is ready for a new generation of leadership in Washington.

  4. jamie, the trump taliban strikes again. seems they’re hell bent on disappearing women both the living and the dead.

    Harriet Tubman webpage targeted amid Trump-led anti-DEI efforts | Trump administration | The Guardian

    The National Park Service has removed a quote and an image of US abolitionist Harriet Tubman from a webpage about the Underground Railroad network that helped enslaved people escape captivity – and instead, the page now emphasizes what it describes as “Black/White Cooperation” as Donald Trump’s presidential administration continues its effort to sanitize the country’s history.

    Previously, the page in question led with a quote from Tubman, who was the most renowned Underground Railroad operative, along with a prominent image of her. However, the revised page no longer includes these elements, and several references to enslaved people and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which Tubman as well as the Underground Railroad defied have also been removed.

    [continues]

  5. Ivy, on the deportations case there is a glimmer of hope tho’ since the supremes did say they must get due process:
    https://www.vox.com/scotus/407511/supreme-court-trump-jgg-deportations-el-salvador

    Though the Court’s decision in Trump v. J.G.G. is a win for Trump, it is not a total victory. The Court does not express an opinion on whether the Alien Enemies Act actually permits Trump to deport anyone. It also rules that, before anyone is deported under this law, that person must be given “notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal.”

  6. With the markets showing some base, the futures, I wonder what sfb will say and do today to tank everything again.

    Someone out in the interworld opined that the man sent to hell is dead, which is why the administration refuses to bring him back.

  7. late
    The idea of active book banning by the government is horrific. Freedom of speech includes freedom of words in writing. No library should bow down to this destruction of ideas and history.

  10. glimmer of hope

    I’ll accept the glimmers, Pat, but why is John Roberts on speed dial from the White House?

  13. “We’d all like fewer grammatical errors, but I fear the best we can hope for is less of them…”

  16. Calling folks “Panicans” because they are losing their life savings, SS & other social safety nets are threatened, and facing rising prices because of his tariff game is cruel and delusional. Cruelusional! Let’s make up a word for SFB, too. He’s telling folks to pay no attention to reality. Cruelusional!

    Ivy was right when she said to watch out for price gouging on top of tariffs.

    BB – That was my second guess about why Garcia isn’t being returned to the states, last night. First was testing the waters of doing illegal things and not listening to the courts/nothing seems to happen to them except they get told “no,” again & they continue to ignore it; second reason is that he’s dead.

  18. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/technology/artificial-intelligence/musk-s-doge-using-ai-to-snoop-on-u-s-federal-workers-sources-say/ar-AA1CxgSL

    Trump administration officials have told some U.S. government employees that Elon Musk’s DOGE team of technologists is using artificial intelligence to surveil at least one federal agency’s communications for hostility to President Donald Trump and his agenda, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

    While much of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency remains shrouded in secrecy, the surveillance would mark an extraordinary use of technology to identify expressions of perceived disloyalty in a workforce already upended by widespread firings and severe cost cutting. 

    The DOGE team is also using the Signal app to communicate, according to one other person with direct knowledge of the matter, potentially violating federal record-keeping rules because messages can be set to disappear after a period of time.

    And they have “heavily” deployed Musk’s Grok AI chatbot – an aspiring ChatGPT rival – as part of their work slashing the federal government, said that person. Reuters could not establish exactly how Grok was being used.

    The use of AI and Signal reinforces concerns among cybersecurity experts and government ethicists that DOGE is operating with limited transparency and that billionaire Musk or the Trump administration could use information gathered with AI to further their own interests, or to go after political targets.

    Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said DOGE’s use of privacy-focused Signal adds to growing concerns over data security practices after top Trump administration officials came under fire last month for the mistaken inclusion of a journalist in a group chat about high-level planning for military operations in Yemen.

    “If they’re using Signal and not backing up every message to federal files, then they are acting unlawfully,” she said. <—-

  19. From Katherine Rampell @ WaPo.

    Elsewhere, trade adviser Peter Navarro endorsed the permanency part, adding that Trump wants the revenue from perpetual tariffs to pay for his plutocratic income-tax cuts. Navarro told Fox News the tariffs would generate “$6 trillion to $7 trillion over the 10-year period,” citing widely debunked figures that he appears to have pulled from thin air.

    Ten years to correct 6 days of damage. Brilliant!!!

  20. Call your Rep: 292-224-3121

    Vote NO in the SAVE ACT which will make it harder for folks to vote; not only married women with a last name different from their ID/license, but military deployed overseas would have to fly home to vote; it sounds like you’ll have to have a passport to vote, too, which will impact rural and elderly folks (which is the MAGAt base…until they got screwed over).

    Vote NO to getting rid of the overdraft fee cap. The banks have enough money.

    Vote NO on making Federal Judges’ rulings only cover their local jurisdiction. Huh? Keep Federal Judges rulings federal.

  22. To me, the downfall of Rome and many similar empires can be attributed to the fact that humans just suck at making laws. The laws they create just never seem to hit the mark and so the laws get more and more intricate and convoluted making Lawyers the main players in the game of Rich men subverting the laws by using the laws to achieve their nefarious goals.
    Or something like that.

  23. It sounds like sfb is going to hold a military parade for his b-day. Four miles long. The absolute hypocrisy is beyond anything I can stomach. Since he is a de facto dictator I wonder what he will wear to watch ‘his” troops go by.

  25. There’s your waste & fraud. A military parade for SFB.

    I hope The Simpsons has made another accurate prediction: 4/12/25

    When are the talks with Iran about nukes? Adolf threatened them if it didn’t go well. They may do the deed, or Putin may have it done and make it look like it was Iran. It will be much different than Butler, wherever it happens, because it won’t be WWE-style, it’ll be real.

  27. he wants to look like the strongmen he admires so freedom loving Americans have to ruin that fucking parade peacefully

  28. Well, protests may not be a thing in June, if Adolf gets his way. April 19th is the next protest march, and it may be the last.

    April 20th isn’t just Easter, 4-20, and H/tler’s birthday.

    https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/04/what-to-do-if-the-insurrection-act-is-invoked/

    With the Insurrection Act looming, now is the time to learn how it might unfold and the strategic ways to respond — including the power of ridicule.

    One of Trump’s presidential actions calls for the Secretary of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a joint report by April 20. The report will offer “any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”

  31. “the downfall of Rome”

    never fell, just faded away and morphed into other states

    i suppose you could argue it ended with Justinian but whatever, this is the United States and the people’s power has been usurped by profiteers and putinists

  32. H.R. 1526, also known as the NORRA of 2025, is a bill that aims to limit U.S. district courts’ ability to issue broad injunctive relief that applies to nonparties in legal cases. It was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 24, 2025, and reported by the House Committee on the Judiciary on March 25, 2025. -ai

    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/congressional-bill-limit-court-power-through-injunctions-bad-transparent-effort

    H.R. 1526, a bill by Rep. Darrell Issa to prevent courts from issuing nationwide injunctions

    Senator Josh Hawley recently introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both bills would prohibit district courts from handing down injunctive relief orders that apply to parties that are not involved in the case. 

    EFF opposes both bills. We see this legislation for what it is: a transparent attempt to limit courts’ ability to act as an effective check on the Trump administration’s recent flood of illegal orders and actions – some of which EFF itself is challenging. Congress should firmly oppose any effort to prevent the judicial branch from fulfilling its constitutional duty.

    CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY!

    They want to take away federal jurisdiction from federal judges, so their orange leader can go to SCOTUS, which is corrupted by folks who lied under oath to Congress.

  33. I said “downfall of Rome” as just a device to pin the time and place to illustrate my notion that the decline of a power comes from the evolution of whatever “The Laws” become as they get more and more complex.

  34. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-allows-trump-terminate-16000-probationary-federal/story?id=120599910

    Supreme Court allows Trump to terminate 16,000 probationary federal workers
    A federal judge last month ordered the administration to reinstate the affected employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior and the Department of Treasury.

    The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the judge’s order, arguing the plaintiffs lacked standing and had “hijacked the employment relationship between the federal government and its workforce.”

    In a brief, unsigned order, the court said the nine labor unions and nonprofit groups that had challenged the firings lacked standing in the matter. The groups’ “allegations [of harm] are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing,” the order read. 

    Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated that they would have denied Trump’s request.

  35. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/04/08/gop_sen_thom_tillis_to_us_trade_rep_whose_throat_do_i_get_to_choke_if_youre_wrong_about_these_tariffs.html

    GOP Sen. Thom Tillis To US Trade Rep: “Whose Throat Do I Get To Choke” If You’re Wrong About Tariffs?

    *Adolf is full-steam ahead with tariffs. They either are or are not just a negotiating tool, depending on which way they wind is blowing, if he’s tired, if he’s hangry…

    Congress has allowed him to ruin the economy. It’s gone. It will get worse, but the sonuvabitch drove us into the ditch on purpose.

    Impeach him! Remove him from office! Never let him golf, again. Give him a fake phone and let him drool and post until the grim reaper comes to collect him.

  36. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-us-china-trade-war-tariffs-live-updates-2056775

    China Misses Tariffs Deadline, Will Face 104 Percent Duty From Tomorrow

    China has missed Tuesday’s deadline to remove its retaliatory tariffs on the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today that China was “making a mistake” by responding with its own steep tariffs. The U.S. will now impose an additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods, bringing its total levy on Chinese imports to 104 percent, starting Wednesday.

    *China plays the long game. They will not cave. There’s stuff we can not make here. Manufacturing is not coming back to prior size, and what does will be highly automated and require fewer workers…but hey, keep forcing women to have babies.

    Xi and Putin are laughing.

  37. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-crypto-bros-tariff-reaction-2056779

    Donald Trump is Losing the Crypto Bros Over Tariff Turmoil

    Many prominent voices in the crypto space were adamant that this particular asset class would be spared the effects of the new import taxes, given that blockchain-based transactions involve no borders or customs authorities, and argued that the case for crypto had been strengthened, not weakened, by the global economy entering a new era of mercantilism and trade barriers.

    “There are no tariffs on Bitcoin,” Michael Saylor, whose company MicroStrategy owns an estimated $33 billion worth of the cryptocurrency, posted on April 3.

    However, just a day later Bitcoin joined the global market rout, dropping to $74,500 on Friday morning, its lowest level since November and well below the all-time high of $109,114.88 achieved on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

    *It’s nothing! It’s a Ponzi scheme. It’s a game of chicken, and if you cash in at the right time, you might make actual dollars. Still, I’m glad the crypto turds are unhappy with SFB.

  38. https://www.newsweek.com/delete-doge-act-what-know-2056876

    A Democratic representative has introduced a bill that seeks to defund Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency.

    Representative Sara Jacobs of California introduced the Delete DOGE Act on Thursday.
    A spokesperson for Jacobs told Newsweek, “We’re working to build support for the bill across the aisle, especially as Elon Musk targets programs like SNAP, Social Security, and veterans services.”

    The legislation would prohibit federal funds from being used for DOGE’s work, rescind unobligated funds currently available to DOGE and restrict any future expenditures or transfers of federal funds for DOGE-related projects or personnel.

    *Where was this in January? Too little, too late.

  39. sure seems like the American republic has fallen, getting driven right over that brink

    thanks trumpers

  40. For a second day in a row the market tried to rally and then dumbass opened his mouth, drove it down again.

  41. Dodo’s doing doodoo on purpose. Christians, wakeup, Jesus can’t come until his infernal nemesis is gone.*

    *do your part

  42. https://fortune.com/2025/04/07/trump-trade-guru-peter-navarro-says-vietnams-zero-tariff-offer-means-nothing/

    • White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro said in an interview that Vietnam’s offer for 0% tariffs on U.S. imports “means nothing.” He added that getting rid of tariffs on the U.S. is just a start and shifted the emphasis to nontariff trade barriers and other issues that would require major internal shifts in target countries.

    *Huh? Vietnam offered to lower tariffs to zero & that’s not good enough? WTAF!?! SFB wants to own the world & the world has about had it with him and “Ron Varo.”

  43. Jesus was already here and he told you what to do. Hint: It wasn’t cutting SNAP for the hungry or Social Security for the elderly.

    Listening to Jamieson Greer lie his Mormon ass off. Mittens needs to have a word with him to remind him that you aren’t lying to men, you’re lying to God.

  44. https://newrepublic.com/post/193751/donald-trump-press-secretary-deport-us-citizens

    Press Secretary Says Trump Wasn’t Joking About Deporting U.S. Citizens

    During a press briefing, Leavitt was asked to explain Trump’s disturbingly enthusiastic response to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s wildly illegal proposition for the U.S. government to relocate individuals incarcerated in the federal prison system, including American citizens, to the Central American country.

    The reporter wanted to know how the government could legally remove U.S. citizens, and how many would potentially be subject to removal. The short answer is: it can’t, so none. But, Leavitt didn’t say that.

    So, the president has discussed this idea quite a few times publicly, he’s also discussed it privately,” she said, making sure to say that Trump had only discussed “potentially” deporting U.S. citizens.

    “These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly. These are violent, repeat offenders in American streets,” Leavitt said. 
    “The president has said if it’s legal, if there’s a legal pathway to do that, he’s not sure, we are not sure if there is, it’s an idea that he has simply floated and has discussed uh, very publicly, in the effort of transparency,” Leavitt said. 

    But Trump didn’t simply float the idea; it was offered by a foreign leader—who has already struck a $6 million deal to take alleged Venezuelan gang members that the Trump administration removed under the Alien Enemies Act.

    Leavitt also took the opportunity to present her own alternative interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling Monday on removals under the AEA. 
    The court’s decision would allow the Trump administration to proceed with deportations under the AEA, but crucially, the ruling upheld the detainees’ right to due process, contrary to the Trump administration’s rampage against legal protections for people it wants to deport. 

    The justices said that detainees were entitled to receive notice of their removal within a reasonable time frame, and must be provided with an opportunity to challenge their removal. But when a reporter asked about it, Leavitt rejected the ruling.

    “That’s not quite true,” Leavitt said. “They said that they are entitled to a habeas petition, and we are going to continue to comply with the law.”

    *Deport is just a nice way of saying sending you to a prison work camp in another country…JUST LIKE N@ZIS DID!

  45. Maybe Elon will get really stressed, take a lot of K, and be so ticked off at SFB that he admits they cheated, and Harris actually won. Happy Thoughts!

  46. WH press secretary’s quote on Elon-Navarro insult fest — “Boys will be Boys” — confirms that yes, children are running our government.

  47. No need for anyone to make a trade deal with the US. Job losses and higher costs and lower retirement savings and loss of civil rights and diminished standing in the world and loss of benefits and the big entitlement that we paid in to (Social Security) being threatened = extremely low consumer confidence.

    You don’t get consumers doing a trade deal with the US. Not under tRUMPsky nor any MAGAt/Heritage POTUS who may replace him.

    Walk away.

  48. “Boys will be boys,” is also used as an excuse for any man-child from responsibility for bad or illegal behavior.

  51. https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5342369/ap-white-house-court-ruling-oval-office-gulf-of-mexico-america

    A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump White House to let Associated Press journalists return to the Oval Office and other spaces immediately to cover news events, ruling it was unlawful to block the news service in a dispute over its choice of words.

    Even so, an AP reporter and photographer were turned back from joining a reporting pool on a presidential motorcade early Tuesday evening, almost two hours after the decision came down.

    The AP had angered the White House because it refused to call the Gulf of Mexico by President Trump’s preferred name for it: the Gulf of America.

    *Orange Adolf is the pettiest, little sh/t.

  52. A year to the day since the excitement of the eclipse in Texas and beyond. We were in a much better place. Now it’s hell, here, there and everywhere else.

  55. https://www.newsweek.com/mike-johnson-challenged-debate-hakeem-jeffries-2057129

    Hakeem Jeffries Challenges Mike Johnson to a Debate
    “Over the weekend, the Senate passed a Budget Resolution that would cut Medicaid, food assistance and veterans benefits in order to provide a $7 trillion tax break that would primarily benefit wealthy billionaires like Elon Musk,” Jeffries, a Democrat, wrote in a letter first obtained by CNN that has been shared on social media.

    Jeffries requested the debate, formally known as a colloquy, be held on Wednesday.

    “I look forward to a one-on-one debate with you on the House floor to fully and transparently explain and defend our differing budget values to the American people,” Jeffries wrote.

  57. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5238048-rubio-security-altercation-brussels/

    A senior shift supervisor was arrested March 31 at Brussels’s Hotel Amigo, where Rubio was staying, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.
    The bodyguard, who was not named by the Examiner, was acting “erratically” and became irritated when the hotel’s staff would not open its bar after business hours. After trying to convince the member of Rubio’s security detail to go to his room, the bodyguard got physically aggressive and law enforcement was called to the scene. The agent got into an altercation with police officers and was arrested…

  58. State Department officials knew that eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development, the nation’s premier aid agency, would inevitably cost lives. But when a devastating earthquake struck central Myanmar late last month and took down buildings as far away as Bangkok, officials scrambled to provide even a modicum of help — only to discover that the network of positioned aid, and the people and aircraft to distribute it, had been dismantled.

    Having dismantled a system that had responded to major calamities before, they settled on sending a survey team of three employees to examine the wreckage and make recommendations. All three were terminated from their jobs even while they stood amid the ruins in the ancient city of Mandalay, Myanmar, trying to revive an American capability that the Department of Government Efficiency — really no department at all — had crippled.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unapologetic about the paltry American response when he talked to reporters on Friday: “There are a lot of other rich countries, they should also pitch in and help,” he said. “We’re going to continue to do our part, but it’s going to be balanced with all of the other interests we have as a country.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/us/politics/trump-tariffs-global-trade-war.html

  59. https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/03/31/big-banks-predict-catastrophic-warming-with-profit-potential-00259938

    Big Banks Quietly Prepare for Catastrophic WarmingMorgan Stanley, JPMorgan and an international banking group have quietly concluded that climate change will likely exceed the Paris Agreement’s 2 degree C goal and are examining how to maintain profits

    The big banks’ acknowledgment that the world is likely to fail at preventing warming of more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels is spelled out in obscure reports for clients, investors and trade association members. Most were published after the reelection of President Donald Trump, who is seeking to repeal federal policies that support clean energy while turbocharging the production of oil, gas and coal — the main sources of global warming.

  60. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/china-jd-vance-peasants-tariffs-b2729776.html

    China hits back at JD Vance after he calls workers there ‘peasants’ amid tariff standoff

    The vice president said the U.S. was “incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make.” He added: “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

    A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, Lin Jian, fired back at a Tuesday press conference that it was “surprising and sad to hear the vice president say such ignorant and impolite words.”
    He also noted that “China’s position on Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations has been made very clear.”

    China has taken a defiant stance as the Trump administration issued its most recent threat of a further 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing backs down from its retaliatory tariffs on imports from the U.S. The additional tariff would make the total U.S. levy on Chinese goods 104 percent.

    The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in response that the U.S. was guilty of “blackmail,” and vowed that China would “fight to the end.”

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