TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2025
Ever so slowly they turn? Is something (clinically) wrong with President Trump? Is it possible that some such state of affairs playing a role in our politics?
We think it's a blindingly obvious question, but we can't offer some such assessment. Then again, are some of the nation's lagging indicators slowly starting to turn?
In this morning's report, we cited Gail Collins. In her current Conversation at the New York Times, this is what she said:
When Trump announced that he thought the United States should take over Gaza and “own it,” that struck me [as] another deeply scary sign that our president is … just nuts. (Collins' punctuation)
To our ear, we wondered if we were hearing a change in the weather.
Later, such words as "insane" and "madness" were on display on last evening's Last Word, then again on today's Morning Joe. (For "utterly insane," click here.)
Have we started hearing such language more often? Here was James Carville, this very day, on Jim Acosta's new podcast, discussing President Trump:
CARVILLE (2/11/25): People come up right now. My sense is that, people are just like, "What’s going on? Can you explain this to me?"
ACOSTA: Yeah. Yeah.
CARVILLE: You know, "I'm confused. I never—" And the truth of it is, he’s mad.
ACOSTA: Yeah.
CARVILLE: And I— I don’t want to—
ACOSTA: He’s flailing—
CARVILLE: And it's internal stuff. I’ve heard that, you know, secondhand—people that have been to the White House. It’s more, "Okay, it’s nuttier than you even think."
ACOSTA: Yeah.
CARVILLE: Okay, it’s— Anything that you hear— This is secondhand information. Some of it is gossip. But pretty reliable people are coming out of there saying, “Man, you don't believe this!”
"This is secondhand information," Carville said. "Some of it is gossip."
Beyond that, we don't know what Carville meant, or didn't mean, by his choice of words. Also, we don't know what people have specifically said to Carville.
For ourselves, we aren't in a position to do anything but wonder about this possible state of affairs. Also, introducing such considerations into the discourse is a challenging proposition. We've always recommended sympathy—pity, even—for the loss of human potential
That said, to watch the tape, you can just click here. Ever so slowly they turn?
Regarding the possibility of (clinical or colloquial) "madness," it's a bit like changes in the New England weather. If you want the latest example, you don't have to wait around long.
In fairness, the conduct can sometimes be comically daft. Consider the change in the weather announced by Pete Hegseth. We'll let the BBC roll out the basics:
Hegseth orders Fort Liberty be renamed Fort Bragg
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered military base Fort Liberty, located in North Carolina, be reverted to Fort Bragg.
The order contravenes a measure backed in Congress that led to the renaming of the army base in 2023, which was part of a wider initiative to rename military installations commemorating figures linked to the Confederacy.
Hegseth said the base will now be named after a World War Two veteran, Pte Roland L Bragg, rather than its original namesake, Gen Braxton Bragg, a Confederate soldier who lost a number of battles in the American Civil War.
"That's right, Bragg is back," Hegseth said during the signing, in a video posted on his social media account.
And so on from there.
"Bragg is back," he comically said. Here's the basic lay of the land:
Back when he was still at Fox, Hegseth hated the name change. It was part of the screeching regime known as "woke."
Now he's changed the name back! Except he's agreed to change the official account of who the name refers to!
In other words:
The initial "wokeness" was correct. He wasn't willing to roll the initial decision all the way back.
Solomon never split the baby. Today, you're allowed to enjoy a mordant chuckle:
Comically, Hegseth has!
MUSK IS A NAZI.
ReplyDeleteWAKE UP.
ReplyDelete"To our ear, we wondered if we were hearing a change in the weather. "
Sounds like closing liberal trough also known as "USAID" is making them crazy.
Let's hope in a few months all these so-called "journalists" at the New York Times will have to get real jobs, becoming waitresses or janitors..
I hope Trump gives the NY Times tax breaks to trans kids.
Deleteanon 3:19 - you are part of the answer to TDH's question (which he's asked countless times over and over, and over and over) - is trump clinically deranged? and why don't the news media ask that question? (It's not clear what TDH thinks would be accomplished if the media did do that.) The US Presidency is said to be the most powerful office in the world. Very few are able to attain it. Competition to be elected to this post is fierce. Billions are spent to achieve this post (I tend to think the money could be more usefully spent on other needs). Trump managed to get elected to this pinnacle of statuses, twice, getting sufficient votes from people like you who have had every opportunity to see what TDH sees about Trump's possible clinical lunacy. If this is the case, the real question is about these voters; trump wanted to be president, and did what led to his achieving his goals. That would indicate he is not insane (though it does seem that the type of person he is, and far worse examples are out there, seem to gain power, often with devastating results, and do seem to be "insane." It seems that this type of person, who is willing to go beyond what inhibits most people in defying the normal barriers against being irrational, have an appeal to the masses). The real question (which TDH has asked) is why so many voted for the guy, if he is so demonstrable clinical a nut-case? You don't seem to me to be insane - perhaps very unpleasant - but not insane. And on top of that the "blues,' the liberals , seem to have run out of gas , getting all caught up with woke obsessions. Plus, the world keeps getting more and more complicated, I'm waiting for someone to write the right kind of book to describe it all. I doubt that person would be TDH, at this point.
DeleteInsane people can have goals, reasonable or not. Trump is easily manipulated, so he had backing from Putin in 2016 and again in 2020/2024, and now from Musk and other billionaires. That doesn't make him a man of the people but a puppet. An insane person can certainly be a puppet.
DeleteLiberals have not "run out of gas" (speaking as a liberal). We are regrouping and trying to figure out how best to defeat Trump & his helpers. To date, we have won 12 court decisions in the past 3 weeks, to Trump's 2. One person's "woke obsession" is another person's "civil rights" or "free speech" or "economic inequality" issue. We know Republicans don't support that stuff, but that doesn't make it wrong or bad.
TDH tried to write a book but it didn't work out very well. He is not going to be writing one now and wouldn't have anything to say that sane people would find interesting. Look at this bunk about The Iliad and Pity the Poor Immigrant and think about 200 pages of that stuff! The horror!
AC/ MA means he's tired of hearing about "the white working class" when he says liberals are getting all caught up with "woke" obsessions. Though I'd put that more on the corporate-owned media, rather than "liberals".
DeleteWill Saletan explains that Trump isn’t lying:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thebulwark.com/p/donald-trump-delusional-fox-news-interview-lies-gaza-tariffs-canada-usaid
It’s not convincing.
DeleteTrump is lying, and he does not care.
Musk and his disgusting cold sore and his disgusting flabby pale body have made an unholy alliance with Donald “I haven’t seen my tiny penis in a decade” Trump.
ReplyDeleteObserving cuck Republicans bow down in servility to these two infested losers, is nearly a laugh.
To be fair, they are sexual predators, to a certain degree, out of necessity. Even the hawk tuah girl said it’d be a “hard no”.
DeleteWhy does Trump demand so much flattery? It is to keep him from suspecting his own deficiencies. At some level, he has suspected that he isn't as wonderful as he believes. To protect against that suspicion, he has developed a grandiosity that repeats and magnifies even the most over-the-top flattery he demands from others.
ReplyDeleteIf you start with the fact that Trump may be wealthy but he has always been stupid, lacking in curiosity, ignorant, unobservant, lacking in impulse control and unable to plan for the future, and add to this that Trump has mid-stage dementia, he cannot have the self-awareness to limit his own actions or accept the attempted limitations of others. So of course he is walking around saying weird things.
The problem is not Trump but the others who surround him. He is being manipulated by Putin and others, but is entirely under the influence and control of Musk. Where Hannity and Ivanka were benign, the current cadre using Trump to achieve their own extremist agenda have no desire to benefit the people and only greed and self-interest as they pull Trump's strings and push his buttons. If this were happening to an elderly relative, those who care would get a judge to appoint a conservator. In our country, the people who are supposed to impose limits and look out for the welfare of our nation are not doing their jobs properly.
Trump is too far gone to correct his course. We need to be strengthening the checks and balances that limit an out-of-control president, while pressuring Congress to do its job and stop this train. I do not see building momentum for any sort of meaningful intervention that would detach Musk from Trump's back and put him in jail where he belongs.
This is the time to use the mechanisms of law to stop Trump's abuse. There are already bills of impeachment files in the House that others can support. If Congress and the courts fail to stop Trump, the remedy will be what always happens to tyrants. They won't miss the next time they shoot at him. That is obviously bad for Trump but it is also bad for our country because it circumvents the measures in place, the system, instead of using it to keep our nation functioning properly.
Someone who loved Trump would be trying to convince him to take a permanent golf vacation while they replace him with the VP (assuming he is not complicit in Trump's wrongdoing). Where is Ivanka? Where is Melania? Where are the men who have served him in the past and love him? (If no such people exist, that says a lot about Trump's inability to form relationships and lead others.)
Next, Trump will be renaming the moon "Americana" and insisting that other countries recognize our ownership of it and the soon-to-be-built moon condos. And why would that be any crazier than what he has already done?
"The problem is not Trump but the others who surround him."
DeleteSmall correction. 'The problem is Trump and the others who surround him.
anon 4:00, there you go giving him ideas. We can blame you when he reads this post of yours and puts renames it.
DeleteAnonymouse 4pm, Trump will name the moon New Palestine for its new residents.. They’ll be a Trump Hotel, of course. .
DeleteTrump would never give away that prime real estate on the moon. That's why he revived the space program. He would never name it after a people he despises after robbing them of their homeland. Your view of the world is so distorted Cecelia. @4 pm had a clever idea that you have totally bungled. Sometimes you would do a lot better to just keep your mouth shut.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:09pm, oh, you’re wrong. Not only will Trump name the moon after its new inhabitants, he’ll call the bar “Hideaway Hamas”.
DeleteThis is not at all funny to those who are losing their homes in Gaza. But you are unempathetic as always.
DeleteIt is no coincidence that Cecelia lacks empathy just like the politicians she supports, who are doing their best to do away with anything that might benefit people, from food stamps to foreign aid to schools that work to jobs and education for people with disabilities. Fuck you if you weren't born rich, seems to be the Republican mantra. And ha ha ha isn't it funny that some people have more problems than others.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:38pm, oh, you can attemp to dish it out, but you just can not take it. Not for two minutes. You take yourself too seriously and you’re militants. You’re predictably stomping your feet in five seconds.
DeleteYes, the anonymous commenters are so unable to take it that they keep coming back to post more comments, undeterred by your lame insults. You on the other hand Cecelia are as thin skinned as they come, whining about “you just don’t like me because of my political beliefs.” Such utter bullshit. You’re just unpleasant and a snowflake to boot.
DeleteCecelia is amused by the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian citizens that have been murdered in Israel’s genocide, half of whom were children.
DeleteNot only that, he doubles down when his inhumanity is pointed out.
Cecelia is your typical Republican wounded lost soul fragile snowflake, forever chasing a feeling of dominance over others, and forever stuck swimming in his own muck while blaming others.
Wahhhhh. You were so cavalier at issuing gleeful sarcasm and insults, but I knew that the INSTANT it was returned you would devolve into sanctimonious angry crybabies. Your sensibilities aren’t wounded, they’re inflamed because you’re tyrannical toddlers.
DeleteA posse of unfuckable nerds has infiltrated our government to steal our money because Trump let them.
Delete3:40,
DeleteThe Right are also tyrannical toddlers. It sometimes doesn't seem so, but that's because there is no way they can counter the truth about them being nothing but a shit pile of bigots, so there is no lashing back in those instances.
Anonymouse 5:03am, zzzzz…
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteAgree. It's so tiresome to have to read day after day that Republican voters are nothing but a shit pile of bigots.
Honestly, I don't think the person who posts that Republican voters are nothing but a shit pile of bigots would stop, even if we all copped to it.
If only the incessant tediousness of Republican bigotry would put Cecelia asleep, instead of putting a spring in his step.
DeleteFirst Somerby calls Trump nutty and then he pivots to something Hegseth did. Hegseth is not Trump. You don't get a transference of craziness by association, the way Somerby lazily declines to say, much less prove, that Hegseth too is crazy. And if Hegseth is not crazy, what is his excuse?
ReplyDeleteHegseth has some military background but no apparent emotional attachment to the old names of military bases. He is willing to follow the Republican line about renaming (and undoing what liberals have done), but he doesn't really care about the civil war or military tradition. It remains to be seen whether that is a good or bad thing. Perhaps he doesn't really care about anything except his own self-interest, appearance and narcissistic career progress. I think a lot of Republicans don't care about some of this symbolic stuff as long as they are benefitting financially. Others seem to only care because they are owning libs, and the person that fort is being named after is irrelevant as long as it pisses off the others. It isn't admirable, but it doesn't seem as pernicious as the true believers like Vought and Musk. Are there degrees of evil when everything the Republicans do these days is nasty and mean-spirited?
Maybe young people don't care if Grandma stops getting her social security check because of Musk's meddling, but they should. They are the ones who be picking up the slack for Grandma's rent and food, medical care, and other expenses. How many young families who are struggling to pay their own house payments, car payments, save for college tuition or repay college loans, or just take an occasional ski vacation, would be able to do these things if they have grandma to support too? Old people are expensive without govt help, since they may be not healthy enough to work or have extra health care needs.
ReplyDeleteGrandma and grandpa worked to contribute to the social security fund with every paycheck. That is money they earned and the income from it is their retirement investment, not a charity or gift from Trump/Musk, to be offered or retracted at will. Taking those funds amounts to stealing from the old because that money is THEIRS because they earned it and contributed it in their working lives.
If Republicans wish to dismantle social security, they will have to reimburse all of the funds being held in trust, including those paid in by currently young people still in the workforce. Social security is not a slush fund available to Republicans so that they can reduce their own income taxes. It is money owed, a debt that must be honored.
Trump never pays his debts and thinks he is very clever for evading them. He looks at taxes the same way. Will it be OK with Republicans when they have to assume the support and care of their own elderly. Do all Republicans support Trump's irresponsibility? Would business and industry be able to function if everyone (including consumers) were to default on everyting they owe? Can our economy function that way?
Cheating only works when a few dishonest people do it, not when everyone does it. The dishonest and criminals prosper at the expense of everyone else.
Delete“We’ve secretly replaced Grandma’s home cooked meal with cat food, let’s see if she notices.”
DeleteFOLGERS IS BACK, BABY!
Trump/Musk/Republicans want to stop foodstamps, WIC, school lunches too. If you can take food from pregnant women and babies, from poor kids and hungry adults, why not from old people? After all, none of these groups can fight back and they'll die soon and then we won't have to listen to their whimpers and ceaseless crying. Why should the USA be more like the third world? The richest nation on earth should have the richest billionaires, amirite?
DeleteMusk is a Nazi, and the feckless Republicans have rolled over.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Somerby spends his remaining days diddling away on insignificant nonsense.
Anonymouse 4:23pm, you write fifteen paragraphs of proofread Anonymouse, Inc blather for every Bob blog and call it activism.
DeleteYou can count the paragraphs? Impressive!
DeleteAnonymouse 8;06, Easy-peasy. Fifteen is default, as is the content.
DeleteSo, you don't actually count them. I take back my admiration. It sounds like you don't even read them.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:37pm, no one reads all of them.
DeleteYou do.
DeleteRhetoric works, if it didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:40pm, literally no one does, though we try.
DeleteIt doesn't matter whether they read it or not. It's not like they can counter the fact that Republican voters are bigots.
DeleteThe change back to "Fort Bragg" reminds me of the rampant stupidity in my old hometown back in the days of high school desegregation. Many white children were assigned to attend what had been known until that time as "Booker T. Washington High School."
ReplyDeleteAt the insistence of white parents, the school board changed the name of the school to the simpler and less precise "Washington High School."
Let's not over-react when dealing with the Right. Like the old adage goes, "Incels say the darndest things."
DeleteGovernment censorship is an important issue, worth fighting for. Here is Trump's latest attempt to impose his own plebian tastes on the nation, as an act of censorship by the President:
ReplyDelete"Why We Should Care About Trump’s Kennedy Center Coup
by William Kristol
In the Oval Office yesterday evening, Donald Trump was asked about his takeover of the Kennedy Center. He was unapologetic in defending his abrupt removal of much of the board, his personal assumption of the chairmanship, and his installation of his loyal apparatchik, Ric Grenell, as interim director.
“We took over the Kennedy Center,” Trump said, loud and proud. “It’s not going to be woke. There’s no more woke in this country.”
I’m aware that his Kennedy Center coup is not the most important of Trump’s offenses in his first three weeks in office. I’m also aware that a little mocking of excessive piety about culture, and a little puncturing of the reverence for those who make up the boards of institutions like the Kennedy Center, isn’t a bad thing.
Still, at the risk of donning the unfashionable mantle of an earnest liberal, I’ll say a word about what Trump has done and said here.
As The Washington Post points out, “the president’s authority to unilaterally reshape the board, install new staff and make himself board chairman is an open question for the public-private institution.” But the fact that the Kennedy Center has a somewhat complicated and ambiguous governance structure—and that no previous president, because of respect for legality or a sense of propriety, had tried this before—of course didn’t cause Trump to hesitate. “We took over the Kennedy Center,” he confidently proclaimed. Trump likes power. He wants power over everything he can plausibly claim power over. And he’ll take power everywhere he can get away with doing so.
The republic will survive this dubious but not terribly consequential claim of presidential power. Still, it’s one small increase in the temperature of the boiling water in which the frog of limited government and the rule of law is being boiled by the Trump administration.
And in justifying what he did, Trump didn’t really invoke presidential power. “We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things . . . I’m going to be chairman of it, and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke.”
The appeal was to personal power, to personal willfulness. The royal “We” didn’t like things the Kennedy Center was doing, so “we” took it over.
The grounds of Trump’s dislike of Kennedy Center productions is unclear. On Sunday, Trump acknowledged that he hadn’t actually been to the Kennedy Center in years, or maybe ever. He offered no actual instances of woke programming at the concert hall or the opera house of the theater. Trump did explain that the Center will not host “drag shows, or other anti-American propaganda.”
I’m somewhat dubious that the Kennedy Center is awash in drag shows. I’ve been there many times, and have never encountered one playing in one of the other venues. Among the 2,000 events put on each year, there are, reportedly, a few, which customers can of course choose to patronize or not, as they wish.
As for anti-American propaganda, I’m sure that not every play or opera that’s performed there is 100 percent on board with an unquestioned endorsement of the wealthy, capitalism, the nuclear family, or traditional religion.
Still, I suppose the republic would survive if the Kennedy Center is turned into a boring home for anodyne and edifying productions. There’d be no Measure for Measure, no Cosi fan tutte, no High Noon. But of course we could go see those kind-of-woke works of art elsewhere.
Or could we?
Not if Trump meant what he said in his simple and straightforward way: “There’s no more woke in this country.” [essay continues]
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-right-to-be-woke
Following in Hitler's footsteps. I suppose if Hitler were alive today he would say "woke" art instead of degenerate art.
DeleteDegenerate art (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, was removed from state-owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that such art was an "insult to German feeling", un-German, Freemasonic, Jewish, or Communist in nature. Those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions that included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art.
https://driftglass.blogspot.com/
Trump eliminated sodomy shows (Democrat high art) at the Kennedy Center.
DeleteCensorship good, free expression dead, right 7:30?
DeleteAnonymouse 7:30pm, And put a gay man in charge of the joint. Checkmate.
DeleteWhat does being gay have to do with anything?
DeleteAnonymouse 8:36pm, well tell you when you’re older.
DeleteThere are Republican gays. Remember Richard grenell? A reactionary to the core, loathed by Germany. The idea that gay = progressive is bunk.
DeleteDon't overthink it. On his wat out the door, Biden appointed a few of his loyals to the Kennedy Center board. Trump is merely indulging his vengeful nature.
DeleteThe latent homo/bi/trans so prevalent among Republicans is fueling their homo/bi/trans phobia, and general bitterness.
DeleteKennedy wrote of Hitler in his diary:
Delete"He had in him the stuff of which legends are made”
Strange take.
Not as strange as Trump and Musk’s fascism/Nazism.
Anonymouse 9:10pm, who said Grenell was a progressive? I pointed out that he’s gay,
DeleteMeh.
DeleteKarl Rove is gay.
But that's not why he was able to figure out Republican voters would crawl through a football field of broken glass to vote for a bigot. Rove was able to figure that out by paying attention, like the rest of us.
Anonymouse flyingmonkey, but Karl ain’t a leftist.
DeleteBut Karl did pay attention and figure it out. What's your excuse?
DeleteAnonymouse flying monkey 8:39am, you not only “figured it out”, you’re engaged in it every day. It’s ALL you’re cut out for and it’s why you’re here.
DeleteThere are none so blind as 9:17, who can not see.
DeleteUkraine is still going strong, and so is inflation and the genocide of Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteWho knew?
One of the many correct answers to the challenge, "Name three things no Republican voter cares about."
DeletePerhaps Trump is nutty like a fox?
ReplyDelete"President Donald Trump's dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is almost certainly illegal under the separation of powers — but, wrote former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in a lengthy post to Facebook, even beyond that, the timing of the move raises suspicions.
The bureau is the only federal agency solely tasked with policing financial misconduct against banks and other monetary institutions against small-time consumers.
And there might be a reason Trump doesn't want that kind of oversight, wrote Reich.
"Thousands of investors in Trump’s crypto scheme lost $2 billion in just weeks while the Trump Organization racked up $100 million in trading fees," wrote Reich. "Just so happens that the CFPB, which Trump is trying to kill, recently announced new regulations for the crypto industry."
Right around the time of Trump's inauguration, a series of Trump-themed crypto coins became available, which were snatched up by supporters and generated large amounts of value. After the hype faded, many of those same supporters raged that they were taken for a ride.
Reich is not the only one to suspect ulterior motives in the crippling of CFPB." [Rawstory]
Nutty as a fox?
DeleteAs squirrel poo.
Financial counselors who help distressed people live within a budget always start by telling them to give up their morning Starbucks, rately asking what it means or how important it is. One person’s waste is another person’s necessity. How can Musk know what is waste and what is not without a lot more work to learn what agencies do?
ReplyDeleteHis slashing is guided by an agenda, not the needs of the country.
Musk’s businesses are plummeting, he wants a cut of every government transaction.
DeleteHookers and Valtrex don’t pay for themselves.
Trump is in front of cameras for hours a day and the American people love what they see. So much so that they have given him control over the entire government of the United States and skyrocketing poll numbers. Boomers can grouse in their pudding all day but it won’t change a thing.
ReplyDeletePoll numbers have nothing to do with what the president is legally allowed to do under our Constitution.
Delete6:48,
DeleteLet's not upset Somerby.
I'm sure you meant longtime failed businessman, adjudicated rapist, and self-admitted sexual predator, Donald J. Trump, is in front of cameras for hours a day.
Trump disapproval +4, wrong direction +10.
DeleteSeems like convicted felons ain’t so populist when in office.
DOGE Press Conference!
ReplyDeleteTrump and Musk gave a presser defending DOGE today in Oval Office. I watched it so you didn’t have to. Key takeaways:
Neither Trump nor Musk said DOGE’s findings would ever be written up. Nothing in writing. Curious, for such explosive and important findings that they’re making.
When Musk was asked how people could know he was telling the truth about what he was finding, he simply didn’t answer.
Musk stated that lack of a ‘payment code’ keeps Treasury from being able to do proper account reconciliation. He said without the code, ‘you do not know why a payment is made.’
So Treasury, we are led to believe, is making hundreds of billions in payments without knowing why. It seems they simply shovel money out the door to whoever puts their hand out. (Good to know, huh?)
How can this be true, Musk asked rhetorically? “To minimize complaints” was his answer. Yes, the sniveling Treasury bureaucrats are so weak-kneed and corrupt that they simply pay out billions without knowing why. All so no one will make a complaint.
No auditor has ever caught this, no whistle blower ever blew their whistle, and it apparently went on all four years while Trump was previously president.
Totally believable. No scent of bullshit around any of it. “Close to a trillion dollars,” said Trump.
"WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Calling the South African tech titan “some kind of genius,” Donald J. Trump revealed on Tuesday that Elon Musk had discovered “a huge fraud” in the Oval Office.
Delete“Elon has been going through things,” Trump said. “He said that the fraud turned up in 2017, went away in 2021, but now it’s back again.”
“He said it’s unbelievable what a waste this gigantic fraud is,” Trump continued. “This should never be allowed to happen in this country.”
Trump said that the fraud “won’t be around much longer,” adding, “Elon’s got a plan to get rid of it right away.”
This sounds like a Borowitz report but it is real, some Republican actually did this:
Delete"Greenland could be renamed "Red, White and Blueland" if a GOP lawmaker gets his way and Donald Trump is able to absorb the Arctic island into the United States.
Trump has repeatedly stated his intention to take over the Danish territory for national security purposes despite Danish officials insisting the sparsely populated land is not for sale.
Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) put forth a bill Tuesday called the "Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025." According to the Post, the act "directs the secretary of the interior’s team to ensure federal paperwork gets updated to the new name and gives a six-month deadline to complete that task."
In a statement to The New York Post, Carter declared, “America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland." [Rawstory]
Your man on the scene, as CNN discusses DOGE findings of waste, fraud and abuse:
DeleteToobin: But it's just talk. There's no proof.
Sununu: Oh, sure, you want them to wait until there's a 10,000 page document.
Toobin: How about a one page document?
The purchase of Alaska from Russia was mocked as "Seward's folly." But, of course, it turned out to be a fantastic deal for the US.
DeleteHector, speaking of whistleblowers, see
DeleteI am a USAID whistleblower. I've got to admit, Musk is mostly right about agency's waste
It would be fair to say that USAID is a baby suffering in filthy bathwater that hasn’t been cleaned for decades.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/i-am-usaid-whistleblower-ive-got-admit-musk-mostly-right-about-agencys-waste
"Opinion" "Fox". Enough said.
DeleteBill Gates, who is a philanthropist, unlike Musk and Trump (unless you count stealing from a children's charity) has been out in the field
Deleteand is by all accounts careful with how he spends his money stated this:
"It's unbelievable what an asset that is," he said, referring to USAID's operations around the world. "I know all the development agencies of all the countries, and this is the best of them."
This is in stark contrast to Musk calling it a criminal enterprise. You can argue that we shouldn't spend money on aid to other countries, so called soft diplomacy. But that is not the argument you are making via a Fox news "whistleblower". Did I mention that Fox viewers have been judged, based on multiple surveys, to be the least well informed cable news viewers? So I will take Bill Gates's word for what USAID is, his having contributed a share of his wealth to projects side by side with them, over a Fox " whistleblower", a grandstanding blowhard like Musk, and an angry doddering old man.
DiC,
Deletethanks but not relevant to my central thesis regarding DOGE, which was strengthened by today's Oval Office performance:
Musk and Trump are so full of it it's coming out their ears. They haven't found anything.
That's why there's nothing in writing and one of their main talking points is nonsense about Treasury payment codes. All they can do is stand in front of the cameras and lie.
T
Trump will find millions of dollars in fraud the same day someone finds a Republican voter who isn't a bigot. Mark it on your calendar, the 10th of Never.
Delete11:31 exactly.
Delete"What this country needs is a leader to run it like a business", say MAGAs. As they watch Musk run a company (that would never have succeeded without taxpayer rebates) straight into the ground. The Tesla is tanking badly in Europe, GB, Australia, and with the liberals who once bought it in the US. It may fair well in MAGA world if they can jimmy out the battery, jack it up on big wheels and throw in an oversized V8. Otherwise shorting TSLA will be a good hedge against the upcoming stock market decline.
DeleteDickhead, they said Hitler's invasion of Poland was crazy, but your relatives said it was just Hitler Derangement Syndrome and they decided to stick around and see how it worked out.
DeleteAnd btw DiC, the last 'whistleblower' you guys got excited about ended up in jail for lying to the FBI.
DeleteHector, not just FBI Agent Boyle. Two other FBI agents were suspended for past misdeeds after they bolstered Boyle’s claim.
DeleteThis is just a motivated attempt to get rid of the concept of foreign aid. There is clearly not thought to the value of any of the individual programs in existence when Trump took office.
ReplyDelete"THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGAN terminating hundreds of the United States Agency for International Development’s contracts and awards on Tuesday, according to internal documents reviewed by The Bulwark and multiple people familiar with the process.
The exact number of awards and contracts terminated—and what functions they covered—was not known. But one of the people familiar with the process said it would impact “a variety of different countries and sectors” and involved not just future contracts but existing ones. The initial number of proposed terminations, the person said, was 800, though the final figure was whittled down after USAID leaders pleaded their case for maintaining certain functions and funding."
The recipients of this aid, by definition, do not have money to line Trump's pockets with. So why should he give them anything? They brought this on themselves.
DeleteThe move against USAID is a move to kowtow to China; it’s unpatriotic and it’s un American.
Deletein an exchange with reporters, Musk admitted making the false claim that the Trump administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.”
Delete“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected,” Musk said, nearly two weeks after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated the unsubstantiated allegation that many right-wingers ran with.
So this is how it works. Musk says something so stupid that it is picked up and spread by the White House. But what about doing something stupid? Apparently the same rule applies.
"Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected,” Musk said.
DeleteI have Musk's back if he ever stoops to saying something ridiculously incorrect, like "Republican voters aren't just a shit pile of bigots."
"The exact number of awards and contracts terminated—and what functions they covered—was not known. "
ReplyDeleteTransparency!
Trump and Musk hate Republican voters just as much as we do. That's worth a vote.
DeleteSo, rumor has it that a certain cosmic reveal of source code could occur later this week. The likely locus of dissemination is Goose Bay, Canada.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAs long as liberal retards keep whining and spewing hatred, I know everything goes perfectly well.
On the right track! Every day is like Christmas! Hallelujah!
”Disney Officially Drops DEI, Reverts Back To Sanity”
ReplyDelete“The 2024 election was a massive wake-up call to corporate America that the era of obsessive focus on progressive politics was officially over. That focus has manifested itself in recent years in Bud Light's disastrous decision to use Dylan Mulvaney to advertise beer, Target's release of absurdly excessive Pride Month merchandise for children, and, of course, Disney's incorporation of far-left messages into children's movies.
All of these choices proved to be extremely costly, financially and otherwise. Disney's share price is down roughly 40% from just a few years ago. All the while, the rest of the market soared. Target lost billions in revenue and now faces a shareholder lawsuit over its DEI initiatives. Bud Light's sales collapsed, forcing them to completely revamp their advertising. And public opinion of those respective brands has yet to recover.“
https://www.outkick.com/analysis/disney-officially-drops-dei-reverts-back-sanity
cecilia, maybe it's gone from one extreme to the other. Perhaps there should be less cruelty.
Deletelet's call it what it really is, Cecelia, anti-discrimination. are you ok with that/
DeleteAC/MA, the quickest way to the “extreme” is via blanket accusations and mass characterization. Keep that in mind.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:12am, it depends on the scenario. Frequently, that term is used as a pretext for nonsense.
DeleteThe Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yes, anti-discrimination is in full force there. It's the paradise of anti-discrimination.
DeleteAs a faithful American Democrat, I am moving to the Democratic Republic of the Congo!
And every faithful American Democrat is joining me there! Next week in Kinshasa!!
Cecelia, I agree, but really anti-discrimination is the essential meaning of the policy. Taken to excess with a lot of nonsense, agreed.
Delete"AC/MA, the quickest way to the “extreme” is via blanket accusations and mass characterization. Keep that in mind."
DeleteHoly party of bigotry (and not a thing else) calling Haitian immigrants pet eaters, Batman.
Let's just agree that immigrants outclass white men in the job market.
DeleteWhite men overwhelmingly voted for Trump, because he said he was going to do something about white men being totally outclassed by immigrants in the job market, all day every day.
DeleteOf course, Trump lied to voters about lowering prices, too.
And slaves outclass everybody.
DeleteAnonymouse flying monkey 8:52am, no, this is your life’s work. It’s dumb as dirt, unimaginative, and hackneyed, but it’s the best you can do for Mr. Soros and it keeps you flying monkeys off the streets.
Delete8:47, never "blanket" labeled. But it is true of some black, white and Hispanic males. It is undeniable. Just shows why DEI is still needed. You've come a long way, baby, but still have a ways to go.
Delete8:58,
DeleteWhat's your life's work, electing fascists?
Haitian immigrants ate my life's work.
DeleteAnonymice 9:11am, no…from jump… anonymices vehemently argued that black and brown men are misogynists and this why Comma La lost. You dismissed every other cause, every defense against blanket characterization,, until some freaking stats came out that showed the race closer than you had thought and then actually you crowed about it. You crowed though, it never occurred to you that had contested Bob the entire time that he was saying the race was close and also blamed men of color for her loss.
DeleteWhat else is new.
DeleteWe Haitian migrants are happy now: we are going home, to our beautiful island!
Thank you, President Trump! God bless you!
Anonymouse 9:26am, with the choices being your life’s work, your person, or their pets, your work was the most innocuous and bland.
Deletealot of them are, Cec. I never said all.
DeleteAs a retarded Democrat woman, I hate all men. I always have.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:37am, you made a blanket accusation against men of certain pigment levels and anonymices enjoy making blanket accusations against contrarians. That’s why you’re here. Now go cuss David out.
Delete9:45,
DeleteLakin Riley was, of course, killed by a man.
Republicans will do nothing about that, but use her death as a cudgel to beat immigrants.
DeleteRepublicans got nothing against immigrants, retarded Democrat woman. You, retarded Democrat woman, are too retarded to see the difference between immigrants and illegal border crossers.
America Now Officially Great Again
Delete"Yesterday, the Associated Press White House reporter was denied access to the Oval Office, because the AP continues to follow history and international convention by recognizing the international body of water on our southern coastline as the Gulf of Mexico."
"Everywhere I go, people come up to me with tears in their eyes, thanking me for the largest inflation rate in the history of the nation, and I'm just getting started."
DeleteDonald Trump, 2025
The key to Trump’s success, as we all know, was the demise of Joe Biden, whose failings physically and mentally were kept hidden from the American public for more than two years.
Delete
DeleteNo, I don't think so, 11:44 AM. Biden, Commala, that's just theater.
People see that their standard of living is going down, life becomes more pessimistic, more dangerous, and the government -- not just "Biden", the whole establishment elite -- is feeding them bullshit instead of doing something about it, or even just admitting it.
What they feel, naturally is 'fuck this government'.
The video of Musk standing w one of his many children in tow, as decoration, explaining government, while the old demented man watches on from his desk, is priceless.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful, truly beautiful presser, I highly recommend it.
ReplyDeleteHere's the transcript:
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-executive-orders-white-house-february-11-2025/
Enjoy.
The best part is when Trump calls Republican voters "losers".
DeleteHe's not always lying.