Attribution: AMERICA IN A DUMPSTER by Randall Enos, Easton,
57 thoughts on “Project 2025: Planned Obsolescence”
a companion piece to the above also from Enos
[For 68 years Randall Enos has done cartoons and illustrations for TV, movies, books, comic strips, magazines, newspapers, posters and the like. Clients have included NBC, The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Playboy, Time, Rolling Stone and many more.]
MAN AT THE GRAVE OF A FRIEND
published 9 months ago (Oct 5, 2024 to be exact) and spot on as to what’s happening now
On Sunday’s edition of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” co-hosts Eugene Daniels and Jonathan Capehart laughed at the predicament Donald Trump has put himself in as his tariff deadline looms on Tuesday and the 200 deals he claimed he had in the bag are nowhere to be found.
Host Capehart began, “Some in the administration claimed they would make 90 deals in 90 days. Now, with only three days before the pause is set to expire, not only has the administration not come close to reaching its 90 deal target, not a single trade agreement has been finalized.”
“Trump said that he would not extend the pause, and instead said tomorrow his administration would start sending out letters informing countries that their tariff rates will be what? Raised?” he added.
After sharing a clip of the president now saying he will be sending out letters to trading partners, host Capehart continued, “Trump’s springtime,so-called Liberation Day announcement of these tariffs sent the world economy into a nosedive, causing stocks to tumble into erasing as much as $5 trillion in value from the S&P 500. The markets have since rebounded, but that whiplash was when the term ‘TACO’ was born, standing for ‘Trump always chickens out,’ and we’ll see what happens when the tariff pause expires at midnight on what could be Taco Tuesday.”
“No, there are going to be tariffs, the tariffs, the tariffs are going to be, the tariffs,” the president began uncertainly. “I think we’ll have most countries done by July 9, yeah. Either a letter or a deal.”
The stable genius is so far gone he can’t make a sentence that makes sense anymore.
Sensing the confusion, his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, jumped in to add: “But they go into effect on August 1. Tariffs go into effect August 1, but the president is setting the rates and the deals right now.”
He always has a handler now. Can’t let the senile old man wander too far away.
[…]
The new date of 1 August offers countries a further three-week reprieve but also plunges importers into an extended period of uncertainty because of the lack of clarity around the tariffs.
Stock markets slipped in Asia on Monday amid the confusion. Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.3%, while South Korean stocks fell 0.7%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1%.
European stocks were mixed. In the UK, the blue chip FTSE 100 index slipped 0.3%, with Shell and BP the biggest fallers on the back of weaker oil prices. The German Dax index rose by 0.3%, while in France the Cac 40 was broadly flat. The Stoxx Europe 600, which tracks the biggest companies on the continent, was also flat.
Industrial metals dropped, with copper down by 0.6% to $9,808 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminium fell by 1.1% to $2,561 a tonne on the exchange, where all major metals were trading lower on Monday morning.
In an update on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said the US would begin delivering “TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals” from noon ET on Monday.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” he added in a separate post, referring to the developing nations bloc that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
After a summit in Brazil on Sunday, Brics leaders had issued a joint statement raising “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff” measures, which they said risked hurting the global economy.
On Monday, the Chinese government said it opposed tariffs being used as a tool to coerce others. Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said the use of tariffs served no one.
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told CNN’s earlier on Sunday that several big announcements of trade agreements could come in the next days, noting that the EU had made good progress in its talks.
He said Trump would also send out letters to 100 smaller countries with whom the US does not have much trade, notifying them that they would face higher tariff rates first set on 2 April and then suspended until 9 July.
“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly,” Bessent told CNN.
Since taking office, Trump has set off a global trade war that has roiled financial markets and sent policymakers scrambling to guard their economies, including through deals with the US and other countries.
Bessent said on Friday that negotiations were focused on 15 to 18 agreements with important partners. So far, Trump has signed deals with only two of the 60 countries he threatened with tariffs in April – the UK and Vietnam.
Indonesia, with which the EU hopes to sign a trade deal by the end of the summer, will sign a deal to import at least 1m tonnes of US wheat annually for the next five years, the country’s flour mills association told AFP on Monday, as Jakarta lays the groundwork to avoid the worst of Trump’s tariffs.
His tariff wiggle wiggle will be fun to watch
Sounds like the penguins will need to hire an interpreter to translate the “letter” from the great orange dictator. I don’t remember if the birds have retaliatory tariffs.
published 9 months ago (Oct 5, 2024 to be exact) and spot on as to what’s happening now
I mean, they told us what they were gonna do. They even put it in a big book with a name.
So when Trumpers say “I had no idea”, that’s no excuse
If the man’s skull had a latch and hinge he’d take his brain out and play with it.
So I’ve settled on a modification of my Mardi Gras era moniker – sort of traveling hopefully, only not believing things will get better anytime soon.
I know you are a McDonald’s aficionado , Mr. C
Well, I decided to treat myself the other day and have a nice little McDonald’s breakfast so I ordered a classic McMuffin and while it was nice it was also very little, they have shrunken the McMuffin, it should be called a McSlider.
That’s what I get for eating out I guess 🫤
Trump had a big, beautiful idea … Make it possible for undocumented to work on the farms. Nothing like discovering something that has been around for almost a century in one form or another. It ended due to greed and exploitation of workers.
The Bracero Program was a series of agreements between the United States and Mexico, initiated in 1942, that allowed millions of Mexican workers to come to the U.S. on temporary agricultural work contracts. It was primarily a response to labor shortages in the U.S. during and after World War II. The program officially ended in 1964.
Here’s a more detailed look:
Purpose:
The program aimed to address labor shortages in U.S. agriculture due to World War II and its aftermath.
Duration:
The program lasted from 1942 to 1964.
Migrant workers:
Millions of Mexican workers, primarily men, were contracted to work in the U.S. on short-term contracts.
Contractual terms:
The agreements included provisions for transportation, wages, housing, and repatriation back to Mexico.
Impact:
The Bracero Program became the largest U.S. contract labor program, influencing migration patterns and leaving a lasting impact on both U.S. agriculture and Mexican communities.
Controversies: Despite the guarantees, the program was plagued by issues of exploitation, discrimination, and violations of worker rights.
Legacy:
The program’s legacy includes ongoing labor disputes, the rise of the United Farm Workers, and the continued reliance on migrant labor from Mexico.
End of the program:
The Bracero Program was terminated in 1964 due to pressure from unions, advancements in agricultural mechanization, and growing public awareness of the program’s shortcomings and worker exploitation.
Abbott should be out* for this. He’s been a disaster since Day 1.
* unless he can find someone else to blame; no idea how he survived the Big Freeze or Uvalde.
I am listening to Ron Bennington show (remember him? Didn’t think so) and they are using AI to evaluate stand-up comedy: the rate of improvement of AI technology is terrifying
two months ago, these generative technologies were laughably bad, now they are indiscernible from humans
we are about a year away from existing only to consume AI generated content and I’m not being hyperbolic
once the robots can make themselves, that’s ball game
now they are indiscernible from humans
AI indiscernibility not likely to change much for the maggers. They traditionally aren’t discerning types, imho.
Top MAGA voices stunned by Trump administration debunking Epstein theories
“The memo said nobody else involved in the Epstein case will be charged and that the administration would not release any material in its possession detailing child sexual abuse or information on Epstein’s victims.”
Ivy, I spoke with my BIL over the weekend. He’s a McKenzie fugitive who fled to the Wizards game franchise, then to Amazon, then to set up his own company that raised website profiles in Google searches, and for the last 20 years he made really good money through his company – and I mean REALLY good money. Well, those happy days are being squeezed out by Google AI, among other AIs associated with the top browsers (led by Edge) that are doing the same thing as his company. He said that after a few hangers on get swept up by the Googles and Edges he’ll have lots of time on his hands. WaPo has an article today that touches on the effects of AI in the cybersphere, but it’s an imperfect analogy that I can’t say is a direct explanation of what’s happening to him. However, it does make for interesting reading to the relatively uninformed, shuch as myself.
“Ninety percent of people in immigrant detention facilities are in private facilities, and we have seen companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group already profit from the president’s immigration agenda. There’s the potential reactivation of a detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas; we’ve seen the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas reopen; the reopening of Delaney Hall, owned by GEO Group in Newark. What’s also really important to note is that these companies own transportation subsidiaries to transport people across the country, and those will be expanded as well.”
“Anything having to do with detention that you do in a hurry is generally not a good idea. That’s been my experience.”
KEEP FEMA
After deadly floods in Texas, the president said we’ll “talk about FEMA later.”
No — we’ll talk about it now.
Sen. Ted Cruz said that he had spoken with President Donald Trump who had promised him that “anything Texas needs, the answer is yes.”
The senator added that the search and rescue operations, which are involving people from the local, state and national level, will continue.
Ted Cruz scolded a reporter who asked if there was a need for better weather warnings, after critics raised concerns that the Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service had left it understaffed. “This is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks,” the Texas senator responded.
Elon Musk gave his take Monday on the report that Donald Trump’s administration does not plan to release the Epstein client list.
“What’s the time?” Musk wrote on X along with a photo that read ‘The official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter. “Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again …”
But perhaps the most mysterious financial entanglement between Wexner and Epstein is scattered across thousands of pages of S.E.C. filings and other records identified by criminologist and ABC News contributor Tom Volscho and reviewed by financial investigative journalist and ABC News contributor Boyd.
…nearly a dozen trusts — with names like Health and Science Interests, Arts Interests and Community Interests — connected to Wexner that listed Epstein as trustee and received large gifts of stock in Wexner’s company, The Limited. These trusts may help explain how Epstein’s wealth grew so quickly.
…a potential pattern appears to emerge, one in which Epstein liquidates large amount of stock on behalf of these trusts and then, shortly after, makes large purchases for himself, including homes, planes, even a private island.
Wexner claims to have cut ties with Epstein after learning about the missing money in 2007 amid the first federal investigation into Epstein’s sexual crimes.
As part of the plea deal, Epstein also got a break on his 18-month jail sentence. While most offenders sentenced to more than 12 months usually do their time in a prison, Epstein was allowed to serve his time at the Palm Beach County Stockade, which is less dangerous and restrictive than prison or the county jail. Again, the judge wondered why.
“The taxpayers of Palm Beach County are going to pay 18 months to house this guy instead of DOC (Department of Corrections)?” Pucillo asked.
The judge also wanted an assurance that the victims were aware of the terms of the plea bargain and had agreed to them.
“I have spoken to several myself and I have spoken to counsel, through counsel as to the other victim, and I believe, yes,” Belohlavek said.
But Spencer Kuvin, then attorney for three of Epstein’s victims, including the youngest — 14 years old — said he was not told about the plea conference or conditions of the plea bargain, including one that Epstein’s attorney Jack Goldberger and Belohlavek would divulge to the judge only during a private bench conference.
After pleading guilty, Epstein was taken directly from the courtroom to the jail where the special treatment continued. Epstein’s cell was not locked, he had liberal access to the attorney meeting room, where a new television was installed, and he was transferred to a private wing of the stockade after he agreed to pay for the deputies to guard him.
Epstein was also allowed out of the stockade for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week on work-release after agreeing to pay off-duty deputies to guard him at his office…
When he was released from the stockade after 13 months, Epstein immediately began serving one year of house arrest at his 11,441-square-foot waterfront home in Palm Beach.
During the first nine months of his house arrest, Epstein made 14 trips to New York to meet with his attorneys and five trips to the Caribbean on business — always flying on his private jet, according to his daily logs required as part of his house arrest. He owns a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, dubbed “orgy island” by locals…
Epstein ‘client list’ doesn’t exist, feds say, despite Musk’s claim that Trump is on it
Jeffrey Epstein had no “client list”, according to a new memo from the Department of Justice and FBI, a month after Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump of being on it.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the memo reads. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The new memo is clear that no new evidence has been found related to the Epstein case, and no further investigations will be launched into other individuals. Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking offenses.
*********************
*Huh, so Epstein had no clients, Ghislaine Maxwell is in jail for 20 years for sex trafficking no one, Epstein’s island had no visitors, Epstein wasn’t funded by Leslie Wexner, and Epstein wasn’t allowed to fly freely while on house arrest? OK, then.
*So, the list was on AG Pam Bondi’s desk a few months ago, sham binders were given to influencers with heavily redacted info, and now there is no list. Huh. OK, then.
Before the new Epstein documents were released to the public on Thursday, a small selection of prominent conservative social media influencers appeared outside the White House to receive binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Part I.”
While the binders were marked “declassified” and referred to Trump’s new administration as “the most transparent,” it is unclear whether the files inside were ever classified.
“I hate to say it, but the American people can’t trust the validity of the Epstein files released today,” Loomer wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It was released in an unprofessional manner with paid, partisan social media influencers to curate their binders for us. I can’t trust anything in the binder. Neither should you.”
“It was a photo opp,” she added in a later post. “Influencers posed for pictures with cheap binders given to them by @PamBondi who still doesn’t want to explain why she never held Epstein accountable even though she was the Attorney General of Florida the entire time he was raping young girls in Florida.”
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer tore into Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and claimed she was “always lying” about their release.
The conspiracy theorist, who generally aligns with the hardcore “America First” wing of President Donald Trump’s coalition, also speculated about the timing of the memo’s release.
“Who releases a statement about the Epstein files on the Sunday night of 4th of July weekend?” she asked her followers. “Someone who doesn’t want you paying attention.”
Loomer also addressed previous accusations that she was “jealous” about being snubbed by Bondi for the event where “Phase 1” Epstein binders were handed out to MAGA influencers.
Bondi was mocked after she invited right-wing influencers to the White House in February, where they were given binders that contained no new bombshells about the case. The binders contained information that had been circulating in the public domain for years.
“People said I was “jealous” I wasn’t invited to the Binder Gate scandal,” Loomer said. “Now everyone else is calling for her to resign. The only people who are jealous are the people who cannot keep up with me and my insight.”
“This is the final straw,” Musk posted in response to a user on X who said the administration’s pledges to release the Epstein files were “a farce.
“Next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed,’” complained Alex Jones.
*Jeez, I’ve agreed with Fluffy Carlson, Representative Space Lasers, Loony Loomer, and now A-hat Jones in the last seven days.
I don’t care about Epstein conspiracies but I’m interested to see where the feuding takes the maggers.
Just sailed through the FEMA Bermuda Triangle.
Conspiracy, cynicism, and “my cousin’s barber’s cousin” all swirling like storm debris.
My new green screen response to the “abolish FEMA” crowd
Call this a govment! Why, just look at it and see what it’s like. Here’s the law a-standing ready to take a man’s son away from him — a man’s own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety and all the expense of raising. Yes, just as that man has got that son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin’ for him and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him. And they call that govment!
– Pap’s rant in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Note: Just received my copy of Ron Chernow’s latest weighty tome, Mark Twain
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was spotted visiting the Parthenon in Greece while deadly floods tore through his state, according to a new Daily Beast report.
When Texas was suffering under a deadly freeze in February 2021 that left millions without power, Cruz skipped town with his family to Cancún.
This time, he was in Athens with his wife, Heidi, on Saturday, as more than 20 girls went missing in the rising flood waters of the Guadalupe River.
He was with his family and a lone security guard. As he walked past us, I simply said ’20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?'” the eyewitness told the Beast. “He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide.”
Cruz posted about “weather conditions” on X just before 9 a.m. on July 4. It was several hours after the worst floods hit the area and the damage had already been done.
Cruz continued posting on X about the disaster, saying, “Heidi and I continue to lift up in prayer the families of the victims,” The San Antonio Current wrote Monday.
*After he held a hackathon for our personal data, defunded critical agencies, fired federal workers, said empathy was a weakness and then cried about his friggin’ car company, there is no way this ketamine-tweaking billionaire is going to start a viable third party.
Myself as a personal family survivor of a Trump-administration mass casualty calamity, I can testify they do nothing to heal either people or systems; in fact, they make it worse.
Muskovite named his version of the nazi party the americanX party. Real slick.
I have finally accepted that mangomoron must have hired a Transperson for sex, and possibly fell in “love”. Then learned the person was Trans. Often in situations like this the male kids the Transperson. Sfb can’t do that and did not have anyone handy to do it. So he is on a rant to damage and destroy us. That and we are a tiny minority with nothing to fight back with.
there is no way this ketamine-tweaking billionaire is going to start a viable third party.
i’d settle for a viable second party 🥁
Honestly, Dems are taking their viability for granted, one cycle away from not having it
The Trump Administration should be left to run itself aground. Then others, hopefully humanists, can pick up the pieces.
From your lips, Ivy…
…won’t hold my breath for humanist rule, as amazing as that sounds! 😊
Yeah, the death rattle of the old guard Dems is still echoing from their outrage over the mayoral primary in NYC, and the lingering stench of the DNC’s handling of David Hogg. Aside from Bernie Sanders, almost nobody over 40 is up to the task. We need to move left; we need to over-correct just to get us close to having the benefits of other industrialized countries. The middle of the road is only good for getting run over.
Kamala’s platform, especially her DNC speech was center-right more than it was left
the assertion Dems need to tack right to win back the middle seems fallacious to me, since they did tack right and then didn’t win
so i agree BiD
Nothing like good writing
Elon Musk Enters Full Chaos Mode as Trump Feud Escalates
…and people voted for this why??
people play devil’s advocate on those voters’ behalf as if they are rational actors
Immigration lawyers are strenuously advising prospective wealthy foreigners that the program is illegal and that they shouldn’t apply for it.
“Any effort to give wealthy people a visa ahead of people who have been waiting in line is bound to lead to legal challenges, attorneys say. Doug Rand, senior adviser to the former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Joe Biden, said that no administration has changed visa eligibility criteria since the 1990 law that formed today’s green card and temporary visa categories.”
“There’s no lawful basis to do this, and if they do it anyway, they’re going to get sued, and they’re almost certainly going to lose,” Rand told The Post.
Even right-wing former Trump administration attorneys think this is a dubious prospect. George Fishman, who previously served as deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security and now works for the anti-immigrant extremist group Center for Immigration Studies, said the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled Congress has the constitutional authority to set immigration criteria, not the White House.
Go Elon❗️You’re on your way to outer space.
Boiled ‘em. Smashed ‘em. Broiled ‘em.
If these potatoes survive this, they deserve voting rights.
I’ve heard of kitchen scissors, but never a kitchen hammer…and the pot rack got a cameo.
Are we taxing the world or not?
90 trade deals in 90 days… until we don’t.
Deadline’s Thursday—unless it’s August.
Meanwhile I’m refinancing to buy coffee.
The UFC confirmed to The Athletic on Friday that plans are underway to host a slate of fights on the White House grounds in Washington D.C., next year, with an expected summer date not specified.
Andrew Tate Eyes UFC Debut at Donald Trump’s Proposed Historic White House Event: ‘Call Me, Dana White!’
UFC President Dana White, a longtime Trump ally, has yet to respond to Tate’s callout. White’s past camaraderie with Tate, including a warm greeting at UFC 313, suggests the door isn’t entirely closed.
Tate’s social media notoriety could possibly boost pay-per-view sales, but his legal troubles, including ongoing human trafficking and rape charges in Romania and the UK, may complicate any deal.
*Think Taco Don can’t besmirch the US any more than he has already?
I bought coffee beans as soon as he started mumbling about tariffs. They will last until the midterms. I’m not a coffee snob, it will taste fine.
i planted tea bushes so i can have caffeine after the apocalypse 🧠
oh and I am adding tobacco to next year’s crop list, I hear the flowers smell amazing
YouTube ghosted this one.
Why? Because I defended FEMA.
No conspiracy theories. No bunkers. Just said maybe don’t kill off disaster response during a flood.
yeah, probably not a great thing that we are dependent on the overlords’ communication channels
I guess irony is dead, Mr. C but we have an agency like FEMA because so many regions of this country are so vulnerable to natural disasters and will only become increasingly more so considering climate trends
literally an entire genre of American music about it called the “blues”
Also, i can’t say anything happening in Texas is a result of lax regulation but i can tell you they are building housing in flood plains around here, because it’s a quick buck and the builder won’t be around for it
point being we should be regulating for these issues, not gutting regulations that save lives
I wondered where that went, Craig, I was looking for it.
we know something about Trump: He will change his mind in the face of disaster (particularly personal to him), when confronted by bad poll numbers, and by flattery
have any among us the humility to flatter that person??
He does respond to it though
that absolute mensch Zelenskyy does what he has to btw🫡
JD resents the hell out of him for it 😆
Try spelling it F3MA in captions, and pronouncing it femur or something. The algorithm can be tricked.
Cruz came back ‘as fast as humanly possible’ from Greece vacation after floods hit Texas, his office says
Cruz loves taking his vacation dollars (provided by you) outside of this country
the United States isn’t good enough for Ted Cruz
go to the Gulf Coast like a normal person Ted
Is Ghislane Maxwell going to get released from prison? If there’s no client list, who did she traffic minors to?
…federal prosecutors said in 2020 that security footage from outside Epstein’s jail cell, where he had first tried suicide, was not saved and no longer exists.
*But now there’s footage?
Maxwell said Epstein made tapes of the pedo tRUMP, so if they were digital (or digitized), maybe Elon and his DOGE hackers accessed them.
It seems instead of making it go away, they made him even more suspect.
i’ll call something a distraction: the epstein stuff is a distraction: not necessarily deliberately by any party, but likely nothing of benefit to anyone will come of it, and there are plenty of other impactful trumpco shenanigans to monitor (at which you all, and especially BiD, have been doing a wonderful job, sincerely 🫡 )
let the kooks sort this one out
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a companion piece to the above also from Enos
[For 68 years Randall Enos has done cartoons and illustrations for TV, movies, books, comic strips, magazines, newspapers, posters and the like. Clients have included NBC, The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Playboy, Time, Rolling Stone and many more.]
MAN AT THE GRAVE OF A FRIEND
published 9 months ago (Oct 5, 2024 to be exact) and spot on as to what’s happening now
meanwhile in other news, will he or won’t he:
https://www.rawstory.com/taco-trump-trade-deadline/
“No, there are going to be tariffs, the tariffs, the tariffs are going to be, the tariffs,” the president began uncertainly. “I think we’ll have most countries done by July 9, yeah. Either a letter or a deal.”
The stable genius is so far gone he can’t make a sentence that makes sense anymore.
Sensing the confusion, his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, jumped in to add: “But they go into effect on August 1. Tariffs go into effect August 1, but the president is setting the rates and the deals right now.”
He always has a handler now. Can’t let the senile old man wander too far away.
BB, yeah a real mixed-up mixed message. this from the guardian today
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-and-us-commerce-secretary-say-tariffs-are-delayed-until-1-august-sparking-confusion/
His tariff wiggle wiggle will be fun to watch
Sounds like the penguins will need to hire an interpreter to translate the “letter” from the great orange dictator. I don’t remember if the birds have retaliatory tariffs.
I mean, they told us what they were gonna do. They even put it in a big book with a name.
So when Trumpers say “I had no idea”, that’s no excuse
If the man’s skull had a latch and hinge he’d take his brain out and play with it.
So I’ve settled on a modification of my Mardi Gras era moniker – sort of traveling hopefully, only not believing things will get better anytime soon.
I know you are a McDonald’s aficionado , Mr. C
Well, I decided to treat myself the other day and have a nice little McDonald’s breakfast so I ordered a classic McMuffin and while it was nice it was also very little, they have shrunken the McMuffin, it should be called a McSlider.
That’s what I get for eating out I guess 🫤
Trump had a big, beautiful idea … Make it possible for undocumented to work on the farms. Nothing like discovering something that has been around for almost a century in one form or another. It ended due to greed and exploitation of workers.
Abbott should be out* for this. He’s been a disaster since Day 1.
* unless he can find someone else to blame; no idea how he survived the Big Freeze or Uvalde.
I am listening to Ron Bennington show (remember him? Didn’t think so) and they are using AI to evaluate stand-up comedy: the rate of improvement of AI technology is terrifying
two months ago, these generative technologies were laughably bad, now they are indiscernible from humans
we are about a year away from existing only to consume AI generated content and I’m not being hyperbolic
once the robots can make themselves, that’s ball game
AI indiscernibility not likely to change much for the maggers. They traditionally aren’t discerning types, imho.
“The memo said nobody else involved in the Epstein case will be charged and that the administration would not release any material in its possession detailing child sexual abuse or information on Epstein’s victims.”
https://www.axios.com/2025/07/07/jeffrey-epstein-trump-maga-patel-bongino?
today’s meme…
meme #2…
Still the only remedy for what ails us
Ivy, I spoke with my BIL over the weekend. He’s a McKenzie fugitive who fled to the Wizards game franchise, then to Amazon, then to set up his own company that raised website profiles in Google searches, and for the last 20 years he made really good money through his company – and I mean REALLY good money. Well, those happy days are being squeezed out by Google AI, among other AIs associated with the top browsers (led by Edge) that are doing the same thing as his company. He said that after a few hangers on get swept up by the Googles and Edges he’ll have lots of time on his hands. WaPo has an article today that touches on the effects of AI in the cybersphere, but it’s an imperfect analogy that I can’t say is a direct explanation of what’s happening to him. However, it does make for interesting reading to the relatively uninformed, shuch as myself.
“Ninety percent of people in immigrant detention facilities are in private facilities, and we have seen companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group already profit from the president’s immigration agenda. There’s the potential reactivation of a detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas; we’ve seen the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas reopen; the reopening of Delaney Hall, owned by GEO Group in Newark. What’s also really important to note is that these companies own transportation subsidiaries to transport people across the country, and those will be expanded as well.”
“Anything having to do with detention that you do in a hurry is generally not a good idea. That’s been my experience.”
KEEP FEMA
After deadly floods in Texas, the president said we’ll “talk about FEMA later.”
No — we’ll talk about it now.
https://www.newsweek.com/texas-flash-floods-deaths-missing-storms-live-updates-2095388
Sen. Ted Cruz said that he had spoken with President Donald Trump who had promised him that “anything Texas needs, the answer is yes.”
The senator added that the search and rescue operations, which are involving people from the local, state and national level, will continue.
Ted Cruz scolded a reporter who asked if there was a need for better weather warnings, after critics raised concerns that the Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service had left it understaffed. “This is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks,” the Texas senator responded.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2025/07/elon-musk-responds-to-epstein-news-after-claiming-trump-was-on-the-list.html
Elon Musk gave his take Monday on the report that Donald Trump’s administration does not plan to release the Epstein client list.
“What’s the time?” Musk wrote on X along with a photo that read ‘The official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter. “Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again …”
***
https://abcnews.go.com/US/billionaire-businessman-leslie-wexner-refuses-reveal-full-scope/story?id=68461262
But perhaps the most mysterious financial entanglement between Wexner and Epstein is scattered across thousands of pages of S.E.C. filings and other records identified by criminologist and ABC News contributor Tom Volscho and reviewed by financial investigative journalist and ABC News contributor Boyd.
…nearly a dozen trusts — with names like Health and Science Interests, Arts Interests and Community Interests — connected to Wexner that listed Epstein as trustee and received large gifts of stock in Wexner’s company, The Limited. These trusts may help explain how Epstein’s wealth grew so quickly.
…a potential pattern appears to emerge, one in which Epstein liquidates large amount of stock on behalf of these trusts and then, shortly after, makes large purchases for himself, including homes, planes, even a private island.
Wexner claims to have cut ties with Epstein after learning about the missing money in 2007 amid the first federal investigation into Epstein’s sexual crimes.
***
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2019/08/10/epstein-had-sweetheart-deal-on-house-arrest/4475850007/
As part of the plea deal, Epstein also got a break on his 18-month jail sentence. While most offenders sentenced to more than 12 months usually do their time in a prison, Epstein was allowed to serve his time at the Palm Beach County Stockade, which is less dangerous and restrictive than prison or the county jail. Again, the judge wondered why.
“The taxpayers of Palm Beach County are going to pay 18 months to house this guy instead of DOC (Department of Corrections)?” Pucillo asked.
The judge also wanted an assurance that the victims were aware of the terms of the plea bargain and had agreed to them.
“I have spoken to several myself and I have spoken to counsel, through counsel as to the other victim, and I believe, yes,” Belohlavek said.
But Spencer Kuvin, then attorney for three of Epstein’s victims, including the youngest — 14 years old — said he was not told about the plea conference or conditions of the plea bargain, including one that Epstein’s attorney Jack Goldberger and Belohlavek would divulge to the judge only during a private bench conference.
After pleading guilty, Epstein was taken directly from the courtroom to the jail where the special treatment continued. Epstein’s cell was not locked, he had liberal access to the attorney meeting room, where a new television was installed, and he was transferred to a private wing of the stockade after he agreed to pay for the deputies to guard him.
Epstein was also allowed out of the stockade for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week on work-release after agreeing to pay off-duty deputies to guard him at his office…
When he was released from the stockade after 13 months, Epstein immediately began serving one year of house arrest at his 11,441-square-foot waterfront home in Palm Beach.
During the first nine months of his house arrest, Epstein made 14 trips to New York to meet with his attorneys and five trips to the Caribbean on business — always flying on his private jet, according to his daily logs required as part of his house arrest. He owns a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, dubbed “orgy island” by locals…
***
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-musk-epstein-client-list-b2783931.html
Epstein ‘client list’ doesn’t exist, feds say, despite Musk’s claim that Trump is on it
Jeffrey Epstein had no “client list”, according to a new memo from the Department of Justice and FBI, a month after Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump of being on it.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the memo reads. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The new memo is clear that no new evidence has been found related to the Epstein case, and no further investigations will be launched into other individuals. Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking offenses.
*********************
*Huh, so Epstein had no clients, Ghislaine Maxwell is in jail for 20 years for sex trafficking no one, Epstein’s island had no visitors, Epstein wasn’t funded by Leslie Wexner, and Epstein wasn’t allowed to fly freely while on house arrest? OK, then.
*So, the list was on AG Pam Bondi’s desk a few months ago, sham binders were given to influencers with heavily redacted info, and now there is no list. Huh. OK, then.
https://www.newsweek.com/laura-loomer-americans-cant-trust-epstein-files-released-trumps-doj-2037542
Before the new Epstein documents were released to the public on Thursday, a small selection of prominent conservative social media influencers appeared outside the White House to receive binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Part I.”
While the binders were marked “declassified” and referred to Trump’s new administration as “the most transparent,” it is unclear whether the files inside were ever classified.
“I hate to say it, but the American people can’t trust the validity of the Epstein files released today,” Loomer wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It was released in an unprofessional manner with paid, partisan social media influencers to curate their binders for us. I can’t trust anything in the binder. Neither should you.”
“It was a photo opp,” she added in a later post. “Influencers posed for pictures with cheap binders given to them by @PamBondi who still doesn’t want to explain why she never held Epstein accountable even though she was the Attorney General of Florida the entire time he was raping young girls in Florida.”
***
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/epstein-files-laura-loomer-pam-bondi-b2784126.html
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer tore into Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and claimed she was “always lying” about their release.
The conspiracy theorist, who generally aligns with the hardcore “America First” wing of President Donald Trump’s coalition, also speculated about the timing of the memo’s release.
“Who releases a statement about the Epstein files on the Sunday night of 4th of July weekend?” she asked her followers. “Someone who doesn’t want you paying attention.”
Loomer also addressed previous accusations that she was “jealous” about being snubbed by Bondi for the event where “Phase 1” Epstein binders were handed out to MAGA influencers.
Bondi was mocked after she invited right-wing influencers to the White House in February, where they were given binders that contained no new bombshells about the case. The binders contained information that had been circulating in the public domain for years.
“People said I was “jealous” I wasn’t invited to the Binder Gate scandal,” Loomer said. “Now everyone else is calling for her to resign. The only people who are jealous are the people who cannot keep up with me and my insight.”
“This is the final straw,” Musk posted in response to a user on X who said the administration’s pledges to release the Epstein files were “a farce.
Promise, Elon?
“Next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed,’” complained Alex Jones.
*Jeez, I’ve agreed with Fluffy Carlson, Representative Space Lasers, Loony Loomer, and now A-hat Jones in the last seven days.
I don’t care about Epstein conspiracies but I’m interested to see where the feuding takes the maggers.
Just sailed through the FEMA Bermuda Triangle.
Conspiracy, cynicism, and “my cousin’s barber’s cousin” all swirling like storm debris.
My new green screen response to the “abolish FEMA” crowd
– Pap’s rant in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Note: Just received my copy of Ron Chernow’s latest weighty tome, Mark Twain
https://www.rawstory.com/ted-cruz-2672869719/
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was spotted visiting the Parthenon in Greece while deadly floods tore through his state, according to a new Daily Beast report.
When Texas was suffering under a deadly freeze in February 2021 that left millions without power, Cruz skipped town with his family to Cancún.
This time, he was in Athens with his wife, Heidi, on Saturday, as more than 20 girls went missing in the rising flood waters of the Guadalupe River.
He was with his family and a lone security guard. As he walked past us, I simply said ’20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?'” the eyewitness told the Beast. “He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide.”
Cruz posted about “weather conditions” on X just before 9 a.m. on July 4. It was several hours after the worst floods hit the area and the damage had already been done.
Cruz continued posting on X about the disaster, saying, “Heidi and I continue to lift up in prayer the families of the victims,” The San Antonio Current wrote Monday.
*Meanwhile, Taco Don was cheating at golf.
*After he held a hackathon for our personal data, defunded critical agencies, fired federal workers, said empathy was a weakness and then cried about his friggin’ car company, there is no way this ketamine-tweaking billionaire is going to start a viable third party.
Myself as a personal family survivor of a Trump-administration mass casualty calamity, I can testify they do nothing to heal either people or systems; in fact, they make it worse.
Muskovite named his version of the nazi party the americanX party. Real slick.
I have finally accepted that mangomoron must have hired a Transperson for sex, and possibly fell in “love”. Then learned the person was Trans. Often in situations like this the male kids the Transperson. Sfb can’t do that and did not have anyone handy to do it. So he is on a rant to damage and destroy us. That and we are a tiny minority with nothing to fight back with.
i’d settle for a viable second party 🥁
Honestly, Dems are taking their viability for granted, one cycle away from not having it
The Trump Administration should be left to run itself aground. Then others, hopefully humanists, can pick up the pieces.
From your lips, Ivy…
…won’t hold my breath for humanist rule, as amazing as that sounds! 😊
Yeah, the death rattle of the old guard Dems is still echoing from their outrage over the mayoral primary in NYC, and the lingering stench of the DNC’s handling of David Hogg. Aside from Bernie Sanders, almost nobody over 40 is up to the task. We need to move left; we need to over-correct just to get us close to having the benefits of other industrialized countries. The middle of the road is only good for getting run over.
Kamala’s platform, especially her DNC speech was center-right more than it was left
the assertion Dems need to tack right to win back the middle seems fallacious to me, since they did tack right and then didn’t win
so i agree BiD
Nothing like good writing
…and people voted for this why??
people play devil’s advocate on those voters’ behalf as if they are rational actors
they (project202trumpco) told us who they were
if MAGA are secret Marxists, it makes sense
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-gold-card-2672854440/
Immigration lawyers are strenuously advising prospective wealthy foreigners that the program is illegal and that they shouldn’t apply for it.
“Any effort to give wealthy people a visa ahead of people who have been waiting in line is bound to lead to legal challenges, attorneys say. Doug Rand, senior adviser to the former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Joe Biden, said that no administration has changed visa eligibility criteria since the 1990 law that formed today’s green card and temporary visa categories.”
“There’s no lawful basis to do this, and if they do it anyway, they’re going to get sued, and they’re almost certainly going to lose,” Rand told The Post.
Even right-wing former Trump administration attorneys think this is a dubious prospect. George Fishman, who previously served as deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security and now works for the anti-immigrant extremist group Center for Immigration Studies, said the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled Congress has the constitutional authority to set immigration criteria, not the White House.
Go Elon❗️You’re on your way to outer space.
Boiled ‘em. Smashed ‘em. Broiled ‘em.
If these potatoes survive this, they deserve voting rights.
I’ve heard of kitchen scissors, but never a kitchen hammer…and the pot rack got a cameo.
Are we taxing the world or not?
90 trade deals in 90 days… until we don’t.
Deadline’s Thursday—unless it’s August.
Meanwhile I’m refinancing to buy coffee.
New Plain Thoughts: Tariff Chaos, Coffee Crisis
https://www.reuters.com/sports/report-ufc-confirms-plans-event-white-house-2026-2025-07-04/
The UFC confirmed to The Athletic on Friday that plans are underway to host a slate of fights on the White House grounds in Washington D.C., next year, with an expected summer date not specified.
***
https://athlonsports.com/mma/ufc-andrew-tate-dana-white-donald-trump-white-house-250-event
Andrew Tate Eyes UFC Debut at Donald Trump’s Proposed Historic White House Event: ‘Call Me, Dana White!’
UFC President Dana White, a longtime Trump ally, has yet to respond to Tate’s callout. White’s past camaraderie with Tate, including a warm greeting at UFC 313, suggests the door isn’t entirely closed.
Tate’s social media notoriety could possibly boost pay-per-view sales, but his legal troubles, including ongoing human trafficking and rape charges in Romania and the UK, may complicate any deal.
*Think Taco Don can’t besmirch the US any more than he has already?
https://athlonsports.com/mma/ufc-andrew-tate-dana-white-donald-trump-white-house-250-event
I bought coffee beans as soon as he started mumbling about tariffs. They will last until the midterms. I’m not a coffee snob, it will taste fine.
i planted tea bushes so i can have caffeine after the apocalypse 🧠
oh and I am adding tobacco to next year’s crop list, I hear the flowers smell amazing
YouTube ghosted this one.
Why? Because I defended FEMA.
No conspiracy theories. No bunkers. Just said maybe don’t kill off disaster response during a flood.
yeah, probably not a great thing that we are dependent on the overlords’ communication channels
I guess irony is dead, Mr. C but we have an agency like FEMA because so many regions of this country are so vulnerable to natural disasters and will only become increasingly more so considering climate trends
literally an entire genre of American music about it called the “blues”
Also, i can’t say anything happening in Texas is a result of lax regulation but i can tell you they are building housing in flood plains around here, because it’s a quick buck and the builder won’t be around for it
point being we should be regulating for these issues, not gutting regulations that save lives
I wondered where that went, Craig, I was looking for it.
we know something about Trump: He will change his mind in the face of disaster (particularly personal to him), when confronted by bad poll numbers, and by flattery
have any among us the humility to flatter that person??
He does respond to it though
that absolute mensch Zelenskyy does what he has to btw🫡
JD resents the hell out of him for it 😆
Try spelling it F3MA in captions, and pronouncing it femur or something. The algorithm can be tricked.
Cruz loves taking his vacation dollars (provided by you) outside of this country
the United States isn’t good enough for Ted Cruz
go to the Gulf Coast like a normal person Ted
Is Ghislane Maxwell going to get released from prison? If there’s no client list, who did she traffic minors to?
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jan/26/instagram-posts/no-jaw-dropping-video-from-jeffrey-epsteins-prison/
…federal prosecutors said in 2020 that security footage from outside Epstein’s jail cell, where he had first tried suicide, was not saved and no longer exists.
*But now there’s footage?
Maxwell said Epstein made tapes of the pedo tRUMP, so if they were digital (or digitized), maybe Elon and his DOGE hackers accessed them.
It seems instead of making it go away, they made him even more suspect.
i’ll call something a distraction: the epstein stuff is a distraction: not necessarily deliberately by any party, but likely nothing of benefit to anyone will come of it, and there are plenty of other impactful trumpco shenanigans to monitor (at which you all, and especially BiD, have been doing a wonderful job, sincerely 🫡 )
let the kooks sort this one out
NEW THREAD