A Very Ugly Truth

 

Despite the dark horizon envisioned Sunday evening, there was a momentary market rally on Monday based on, of all things, fake news, possibly furthered in part by a single optimistic Tweet that there would be a pause on the tariff scheme. Despite the various iterations from Trump that yes, the tariffs were going to happen anyway, there was a wonderful rally Tuesday, based on I don't even know what. Wishful thinking? 

People still seem stuck on the idea that the tariff thing is a bargaining position, not a structural reorganization based on, as near as I can tell, a near-total misunderstanding about how everything to do with the economy actually works. 

But at some dark, terrible point, you have to stare into the tan Shinola'd visage of the aging dumbfuck pictured above who did that to his hair and went out in public, as he has done for decades, and realize the simple truth. 

He's really very stupid. He's not taking some deal, even though all manner of countries have been trying to get hold of him. (70? All of them?) He's already got the deal he wants.

They are literally kissing his ass, he says. And I have told you about his relationship with ass-kissing.  It's his life support system.  He has every eye on him. People are telling him he's wrecking everything--and like a toddler wreaking havoc, he's loving it.  And he gets to prove something--he was right, and all the smarty-pants people who said otherwise will find out.

Pobody's Nerfect!

 

Salazar: Remember, they're just starting in the job… Let's see how they do the next two years. And then we can judge them. But not because of one mistake that they put a reporter. Maybe they made a mistake and they put that. I mean, listen, those who do not have any sins, they… pic.twitter.com/aZrldiTswL

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 25, 2025

I think there's nothing more off-putting for me than the idea that you can actually brush off a national security breach with "But they're new!"   Like, this is an argument for if the waitress gives you a burger with pickles and you definitely said, "Hold the pickles," but it is not an argument for cabinet-level officials who have an insecure chat on their personal phones (because those work phones shouldn't even have Signal on them) and have others on the line who have no business accessing that information.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard literally evaded questions today in a way that implied she was not familiar with classification as a process or policy regarding secure comms. You'd think, wouldn't you, that sort of thing would be part of the basic job requirements, wouldn't you? Cabinet positions aren't entry-level--some competency is required. 

Playing a Weak Hand of Trump Cards

 

Trump has been saying that Ukraine "doesn't have any cards" but I've noticed that Trump kept publicly sweetening the deal (no NATO for Ukraine? cede territory?) just to get Putin to this point--a phone call, as if suspecting Putin is the actual harder person to bring to the table and hoping he could do it with an "all carrot, no stick" approach. 

People sometimes ask what Lincoln or Reagan would have made of the peculiar character who leads their party. Today I'm thinking of Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "Talk softly and carry a large stick." Trump might talk loudly, but who knows what "big stick" he would ever use on the one man he never criticizes? 

 He got his phone call, though--after being made to wait and being cut up by Putin amongst his real homies. His 30-day ceasefire was pretty much rejected, as Putin heaped thoroughly unacceptable conditions into the mix. Trump seems unfazed that he has been disrespected, again. 

Trump, the irascible, the petty, the critic of or his critics--he doesn't feel any need at all to respond to Putin? What gives? 

Congratulations to the Viral Community

 

I know I've never had a really good word to say about Covid-19, HIV, Ebola, any of the avian flus, but I have got to hand it to them--somehow their guy Bobby wound up getting confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. I mean, measles, mumps, and rubella? We thought you were down and out, but it looks like you're tipping champagne bottles tonight because we've got us a Wakefield truther. 

Who knows? Maybe smallpox or polio can come on in for a bow, because conspiracy theories and barely informed opinions have just won the consent of the GOP Senate--except for Mitch McConnell, who knows first-hand what polio is about.  But couldn't seem to convey that reality to his GOP brethren and, um cistern (is that what we call Murkowski and Collins? I forget).

I think it's great if people eat more healthfully.  I, unlike RFK Jr, can admit to not having eaten fast food for a very long while. My version of the Mediterranean diet includes a little salumi, though. My oil of choice comes from the olive pit. Good luck on weaning Americans off canola and high-fructose corn syrup (there is a lobby against you). 

But here's my very important problem with RFK, Jr. He's a dumbass who just implied Trump was sent by God. Because Trump had the courage and intelligence to put RFK Jr. in charge of something to do with health. And you know, hearing that, I could almost believe Bobby was born in a manger. 

And raised outdoors his whole life like an ignorant animal. 

What is Intelligence, Anyway?

 

 

Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed for Director of National Intelligence and sworn in and we're just going to see about that, aren't we? 

Does it sound like I have issues with this? Well, yeah. I was a little surprised that Sen. McConnell was the only Republican who voted against her, but it seems that the Senate GOP have decided that they aren't picking these fights with Trump and are just going to let him have what he wants. I do not think they are being honest with themselves about what he wants or what the results will be of giving it to him. 

The position of DNI was created in response to intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. The point of the office was to coordinate our various intelligence agencies and correlate the information into more cohesive overviews. But intelligence is only as useful as the people looking at the products. 

And I simply don't have faith in Tulsi Gabbard's judgment. 

You Are What You Eat

 

You know, I would have bet anything that being Donald Trump's vice president, if nothing else, would involve eating a lot of shit. After all, he did try to get the last guy lynched. That said, I realized that JD Vance was just the guy for the job. Try to spin Trump's oddball pronouncements into something normal. Be willing to do anything for love of Trump. It's not that I like JD Vance--far from it.  

It's just that he has a very particular set of skills. 

So when Elon Musk has a racist manboy resign over making some very racist social media posts, we can see JD Vance fix his purty mouth to do that thing he does:

He "obviously disagrees" with the idea that marrying outside of your race is abhorrent and anti-Indian hate should be normalized--I assume? So says the JD Vance bio. But this is a kid, and his social media activity is "ruining a kid's life?" 

A 25-year-old posted that last year, player. 

We're Gonna Nuke a Hurricane This Time, Aren't We?

 

So, last night I posted, then pulled, a blogpost about Rep. Andy Ogles' proposed Amendment to have Trump serve a second term.

That man's brains are going to be banana pudding with no vanilla wafers by then, but ok. https://t.co/XzTnGe2lts

— Vixen Strangely (@VixenStrangely) January 24, 2025

I was expanding a little on the idea that Trump is very old, actually, and manifestly not as competent as he was even during his incompetent first term. So, what the hell would be left to re-elect?  When I got up the next morning, I realized how ill-conceived that idea might be. Trumpism is juche. It is revolutionary and divorced from typical Republicanism and seeks independence from reliance on other nations by just like, taking whatever it is they have we rely on. You know, capitalist juche. No allies, just a little bit of taking hints from Russia and China. And constant propaganda. 

It wouldn't matter if Trump's mentis was compost.  The GOP has gotten used to ignoring that Trump is, in fact an idiot. Only a really bad fuck up might save us. 

The problem is--how bad? And tonight, the GOP confirmed Pete Hegseth, a white knuckle black out drunk and possible rapist and spousal abuser, with nowhere near the experience he ought to have, for Secretary of Defense. 

Because what could go wrong? What have we got to lose? 

Not Looking Back in Anger

 

The Biden Administration wasn't perfect, but it was professional. You want the most benign, bloodless take I can make on it--there you go. We'll be asking ourselves for a long time what else could have been done:

Did they do all they could to prevent Trump 2.0 and bring him to any kind of justice? Did they try hard enough to whip inflation--or at least, leave a bigger impression that's what they were doing? Did they do enough for Ukraine? Could they have done less for Israel and prevent the worst of the suffering in Gaza?

Here's what I do know; hindsight is 20/20. The Biden Administration, like Biden himself, weren't perfect and weren't able to do everything they wanted to do. Biden himself would say, "Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative." You can pick apart what might have been different, in terms of policy, in terms of politics, that might have given us a second Democratic term. You can ask if Biden should have, oh, right about after the midterms, said that he wanted to concentrate on seeing out his term and promoting a new candidate to lead his party. 

Oedipally Wrecked

 

Charlie Kirk presumably has a biological father who molded him and his big head into whatever you would call him now, and I believe he is honestly straight married and isn't, in fact, closeted in any way. Also, he would play the mouth harp if the droopy-eyed SOB, lit from below as if telling a scary campfire story, in an angle reminiscent of his Georgia mug shot, depicted above, told him it was necessary to soothe an old man's slumbers.

(Get your mind out of the gutter--that's from the Bible, it is! )

There are big men, manly men, men who have never shed a tear in their lives, who want this apparition of bad-assedness in office, not because he is good at anything, but because of images like this. His followers can tell one another he wants vengeance and is a Bad Spanking Daddy because the "Russia Russia Russia thing" was his villain origin story, and they want him to be right. 

Like little kids who love their Daddies, they can't see he didn't need an origin story, he's just kind of generally dumb and bad. He wants to punish people for noticing what he did and "disrespecting him". 

In short, they want a motherfucker, and here he is. And this photo is looking pretty damn motherfuckerly. 

For All They Care

 

You know, there was a little part of me that thought I'd write a little bit about the Jack Smith 1/6 report, but honestly--no. People who care already have a good idea what it's all about (and can even tell you about missing pieces FWIW) and people who don't care--don't care. I've developed a kind of "you can lead a horse to water" sense of these revelations, and I don't think I could find a better example of why than today's Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. 

Hegseth came into the hearing with a cloud of controversies hanging over his nomination. But after he was questioned for more than four hours, Republicans came away feeling optimistic that Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army combat veteran, would be confirmed to lead the Pentagon.

“He comported himself extremely well and made a strong argument for why he ought to be the next secretary of defense,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., adding he will “work quickly” to get Hegseth confirmed.

I would like to know what Senator Thune thought the "strong argument" was, because I'm not sure the hearing actually demonstrated that he was in any way particularly well-qualified or that he had some unique qualities that overrode his various personal controversies. But if what we have is a not-especially well-qualified serial adulterer and accused rapist who bankrupted a couple of NGO's being selected by a not-especially well-qualified serial adulterer and accused rapist who bankrupted several companies, well, you might as well talk about the weather as judge him on any set of serious criteria. 

Sure, "advise and consent" is part of a US senator's job. Sure, you could try and say that having an unfit person running the DOD is a national security problem. But you see that sign in the picture up above--where the word "military" is misspelled? 

Never Getting Over It

 

At first, I was just not going to get over 1/6/2021, but now that I think of it, I'm not getting over how in only four years, anyone convinced themselves that the disinformation-fueled violence was not just "not a Trump problem", but for some people it was even "good, actually...", so much so that if Trump pardons 1/6 rioters, some will shrug as if Trump having that power makes it right, and insurrectionist boobs like Marjorie Taylor Greene can even suggest a holiday for that event. 

Something very bad got uncorked that day, and we aren't even down to the dregs of it, I'm afraid. 

Moses Mike and the Parting of the Red "C"

 

You know, Mike Johnson winning on the first ballot was something so not pre-determined (tho' Matt Gaetz from behind his awkward nose-contouring predicted it) that when it looked like he failed, some folks ran with the story, but he relied on a higher power, I think:

Trump. 

There was an undetermined "C" (the undecided caucus) that didn't want him, but he's Trump's guy. They "stashed the tellers" so the couple of holdouts that needed to be switched had time to be before gavel-bang.

Were they promised anything?

Nancy Mace in a Brace

 

Rep. Mancy Mace of South Carolina apparently experienced the "Handshake from Hell" at the hands of a foster care advocate who was (checks notes) concerned about trans children. The man was arrested, and our fearless Potty Protector is now seen wearing a brace. Some people who were present at the alleged arm-spraining fracas claim they observed nothing unusual about the vigorous handshake. Other observers suggest Mace might avoid injuries by eating something containing calcium (like food). 

(Me. I am a concerned bystander who thinks ravioli and chicken cutlets might make at least some of her problems less so.)

Am I claiming bullshit on her claims of assault? No, I was not there and there is no video that I know of, so I am only saying, based on eyewitness testimony, it might not have happened. And she may very well have received death threats, last month, too. And of course her house was once grafitti'd by antifa:

Hey remember that time that Nancy Mace claimed "Antifa" graffitied her home & then people pointed out the graffiti was all in *HER* handwriting....and then she just never mentioned it again?

Seems like there's a pattern to ol' Nance's behavior. https://t.co/HpuaPByReT pic.twitter.com/J4CDGh8ZCq

— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) December 11, 2024

TWGB: The Farce of Law

 

Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked for the dismissal of the election interference case against Trump (without prejudice) and has dropped the challenge to Judge Cannon's dismissal of the classified documents (espionage) case--with respects to Trump, not with respects to his accomplices. 

People are pointing fingers. I see a lot of shit being shoveled Merrick Garland's way. I remember the disappointment folks had with Robert Mueller when Barr terminated his investigation and called for the report, which never did exonerate Trump, except in the eyes of TrumpWorld--and people who hadn't been paying attention. Look--I am not a lawyer, and I don't know what all goes into grand juries, planning a case, and dealing with the sheer firewall of money and privilege that comes with a guy being a former president. like Trump's lawyers were able to throw a lot of chaff up in the sights and gum up the works pretty nicely--no matter what the evidence was. 

There was a pretty damn serious PR game going on, too. And it looks to me like the clear news aspects of what Trump had done, and what those around him had done, got lost.

It seems like a lot to reckon with in a short time. I defer to the expertise of people who are experts about these things, and don't confuse my disappointment with a valid criticism--it truly is not my place to judge that part. I know my limits. 

On the other hand, the political aspect of this farce and who to blame for it all is something I feel competent to judge:

I blame Republicans. The Republican party is without honor. Since the Bush years, I have never gotten a fix on which part of them was dishonesty and which part ignorance, and I have long since stopped caring as both attributes are disqualifying. 

Nancy Mace is not Okay

 

This picture is a screencap from Rep. Mace's own Twitter-feed (I'm still not calling it "X") and this is s few days in to her manic posting about bathrooms and there being a transwoman in Congress now, and this is not okay. I think (I hope) she Photoshopped this, because this is the cap I took from her own feed. What the hell is going on with these angles? 

This is pro-ana ideation, and I am worried about this woman. I get that attention whores and bullies try to do DARVO and present themselves as victims, and Rep. Mace's grown woman response to whether she is bullying soon to be Rep. McBride is very much to claim she is the victim here because she was a former victim of rape and assault. But she also is telling us she lost 30 pounds because of a traumatic event that triggered her PTSD, and I am not going to front that I know what's up with all that. 

She has claimed that she was threatened as a rape victim by even being asked why as a rape victim she supported Trump and other rapist candidates and political figures. And received threats, because I guess that is a thing. 

How Can a Man Seem Less R@pe-y?

 

Four men chosen by President-elect Donald Trump for top positions have been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct. https://t.co/9tcKslmkxy

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 20, 2024

You know this is an old joke--it was used by Rodney Dangerfield in "Back to School": "How do you seem slimmer?  Hang out with fat people!"

Well, how does Trump, of the problematic penis, seem less like an adjudicated rapist who needs to give E. Jean Carroll her money and whose hush money trial sentencing has been set back in light of his election win, seem less like a problematic human? Surround himself with rapey people, I guess. Normalize the shit out of predation. 

The would-be protector is actually an obvious predator. It really does seem like there are more pictures of Trunp with Jeffrey Epstein than there are with his kids, but as an added bonus, there are pics of Trump with Epstein and his kids. 

Nancy Mace and Her Personal Space

 

Nancy Mace would like to not share a bathroom with Sarah McBride, who is the first transgender member of Congress. I truly don't know how much time pick-me pygmy Mace spends in the bathroom at work, but because there are stalls in public bathrooms, McBride would never see Mace's ladybusiness in a shared bathroom and Mace would never satisfy her probable curiosity about trans bodies. 

I would prefer not to share public bathrooms with those weird people who, in a bathroom with several empty stalls, have to sit in the stall RIGHT NEXT to mine. I don't want to share a bathroom with those bitches who can't sit their ass down and pee on the seat. I hate those heifers who assume automatic flush is going to zhush all their mess away--and it does not when you are that messy! Hit the button, nasty!

TrumpWorld Kakistocracy 2: Trolling?

 

In a timeline where Fox News personality Pete Hegseth could be SecDef, sure, why not float former Democratic Rep. Tulsi "Russia's Girlfriend" Gabbard for DNI and now-former GOP Rep. Matt "Hookers'n'blow" Gaetz to be Attorney General.

Senator John Fetterman suggests that the choice of Gaetz as "god-tier kind of trolling" on Trump's part, and while this is not wrong, I regretfully have to confess that I think just because it's trolling doesn't mean that he can't get in. I mean, my first thought was "stalking horse". That's the art of the deal, right? You throw out a name like Matt Gaetz, and then when he's cast aside, literally every other choice seems more sane. 

But that's assuming Trump is playing by regular rules, and I don't. I think the idea that he's considering wild stuff like adjourning congress and recess-appointing people is not really out of the question if he really does see Trump 2.0 as his revenge tour. 

Is He Trying to Sabotage Himself?

 

Trump: We will build a missile defense shield.. We’ll put Herschel Walker in charge of that little sucker pic.twitter.com/ZN0yHTGf2M

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 4, 2024

We clearly don't have any need for the equivalent of the Iron Dome here in the continental US, but even if we did, would we want someone just walking around with CTE and a dollar store sheriff badge in charge of it? Because that would be the dumbest thing since putting roadkill-eater and brainworm-haver Bobby Kennedy in charge of anything at all to do with health--given that he has no education on the subject but "his own research" and a ton of basically shit opinions.  He'll ban fluoride, vaccines and abortion--and then, I think we might see some real fuckery. 

Look, I don't know what desperate and weird thoughts animate these kinds of celebrity stunt-casting proposals, but just like his odd McDonald's photo-op and his garbage truck bizarreness, these are things flailing campaigns might do. 

TWGB: I Deserve a Break Today

 

Have you ever disassociated so hard you imagined that your parasocial enemy was suddenly some fat senior citizen cosplaying a service job because he wanted desperately to snow people into thinking he wasn't an elitist silver-spoon buttercup but could totally ball behind the french fry thing at a fast food restaurant because he had poor people job FOMO? and ...

What the whole entire fuck?