Know Your Class War: The Trump US Treasury Casino

 

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman tells @ErinBurnett why he thinks Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is a "giant rug pull scam." pic.twitter.com/WsVry8xNvS

— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) March 8, 2025

I really don't have anything to add. Trump is turning a part of the United States' actual wealth into a casino where we are putting down real money for chips other folks are gambling. 

Trump notoriously bankrupted casinos. Some people think this was a kind of money laundering and I am not saying this is wrong, and when I look at this ill-begotten notion?

Why did people vote for a tax fraud, a business fraud, a con artist and cheat? 

The entire Trump presidency is a kind of Nigerian prince scam. He isn't who he represents himself as and people dump money into him hoping someday, he pays off.  I will literally never stop being mad so many people are this absolutely obviously janky person's marks.  

Celebrating Everything "We" Stand For!

 

Right before his (indoor, possibly cursed) swearing in (as opposed to his cussing out, which is every day around here), Trump has launched a meme coin because "it's time to celebrate everything we stand for" which feels about right, depending on your value of what Trump stands for. He might not do anything about your grocery bill--he's VERY likely to make your fuel bills higher, but he definitely, with a raised fist no less, will fight to do this.

This always feels to me like the sort of obvious buck-raking activity that should counter the sort of wide-eyed Trumpstans who say things like, "He refused his presidential salary; look at all he gave up!" The office of the presidency shouldn't be a gold mine!

But this also leans into the notion of Trump's popularity is a sunk-cost situation: forget about hats and flags and "emotional investment". This is a political figure who has made his political persona also about a financial investment. 

TWGB: The Russia, Russia, Russia Thing Still is Not a Hoax

 

So apparently, some fake and dumb shit is circulating on the internet that is sourced from Russia. This is no surprise after three elections with Trump, but for the newly TWGB-stooled folks, it has to do with creating election-related insecurity. Some of it has to do with Haitians--wow! Really? Following on the gross and racist lies that came from the Trump campaign recirculating white supremacist bullshit via Vance from actual white supremacists? Except in swing state Georgia, not sort of red Ohio? And the Russians pulled some shit about swing state Pennsylvania, too. 

They are being "tactical". As in, bloody obvious. 

The problem isn't whether Trump is "colluding".  It really hasn't been, although hit dogs holler. It's been "Why is Trump the guy Russia favors?" because they sure the hell don't want a strong leader for us. They would want a basically supine eager-beaver. And this is, sadly, what Trump is. Just a lil' puppy having excitement pee running down his leg to be acknowledged by someone he thinks has the kind of "real power" he wants. And this pretty much is what Neckbeard Chamberlain would be giving us as well. 

Disqualified and Murder-Minded

 

Trump on Liz Cheney: "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face." pic.twitter.com/Mtx1fbLtwE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 1, 2024

This is not a decent human being; this is a murder-minded felon. He's out on bail and in a decent world, these threats against a person who was a public servant doing her Constitutional duty as she saw fit would get him scooped up at once for violating his conditions. 

There is not one public servant who has gone up against Trump, I will bet, who hasn't had some kind of death threat--because that violence is the point of Trumpism--not just "cruelty" but actual threats of violence.  She understood the assignment. I don't love her politics, but she served justice as she saw fit.  And Trump isn't mad about the call out being wrong--it's because he was caught dead to rights. He is an insurrectionist with no business in the highest office in the land. 

This scoundrel cannot prevail.  

A Story for the Audience of One

 

WATCH: Vance explains that in the immediate aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, PA, he loaded all his guns and stood watch at his front door, ready to defend himself and familypic.twitter.com/08iVRkDz7A

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) October 31, 2024

JD Vance was not yet picked as Trump's running mate. Trump within moments of the shots fired was on his feet pumping his fist. No one would have thought that Trump was dead. No reasonable person would have inferred from a single nutter shooting at a political figure that, therefore, all political figures were endangered.  

I would not have even assumed all Republicans.

From this, it really seems to me that Vance is just too emotional to be considered for higher office. He relates himself as operating on adrenaline and immediately thinking he would need to resort to violence without seeking more information, which would have been forthcoming within a short duration. Do we really want someone who immediately segues into a knee-jerk hypervigilance to be in charge of anything? 

TWGB: It's the Great Bumpkin, Charlie Brown!

 

Trump apparently can't stop touching his nose and mouth and has fucked up his make-up, but clearly he is being some kind of nightmare squash for Halloween. It's a nice touch that his campaign decided he should be wearing a reflective work vest in case he goes wandering off.

So, yes, the actual response of his campaign to the furor of Puerto Rico being called a floating garbage island and his lately referring to the whole country as a garbage can is to play dress-up as a sanitation worker and literally be seen in a garbage truck labelled "Trump/Vance". 

I’m sorry, everyone else saw him straight up miss the door handle and nearly fall over, right? pic.twitter.com/Au2mmulLcD

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 30, 2024

In addition to looking absurd and infirm, this working-class drag stuff really has to stop. I mean, we just recently watched him trying to serve McDonald's while smelling like a flame-boiled Whopper, and this, too, stinks. (Of course, they are trying to make it about the thing Biden never did say, because they want to be martyrs thrown to lions except, we all know who bites.) 

Portrait of a MAGA Patriot

 

Someone's angry MAGA mee-maw became profanely enraged when advised that she can't come in to vote with her Trump shirt so she goes ahead and votes in her foundational garment. 

Hallelujah. Be a suffragette, Ms. MAGA. Don't let them mothers tell you how to be.  Vote for that serial sexual abuser, you dusty old sister-shafter. 

Anyway, Trump's lil mini-me JD Vance rolled his eyes so hard his eyeliner flaked and responded:

"What a patriot."

A lot of people took this to mean he supported being abusive to poll workers, and wow! That truly seems to be the MAGA vibe. 

TWGB: This Polished Coprolite

 

So, Monday I found myself thinking about Trump wanting and accepting Purple Hearts even though his probably fake bone spurs prevented him from actually serving our country when young when Trump stood in front of a backdrop of ruin and disaster and human tragedy--and accepted a french fry pin for doing a dopey photo op in a swing state from someone who for some reason decided that the way to handle Trump is to go the "Dear Leader" juche approach. Trump, while there, having disrupted relief efforts, defended his lies about FEMA that already resulted in the arrest of a man who threatened violence. 

It's really, really hard to imagine a shittier human being--but just watch! He gets shittier!

He since went on to say, in all sincerity to a person asking about what he would do regarding education that he would end the gender re-assignment surgeries that absolutely are not happening in schools. You can't get Tylenol in a public school without a permission slip. Teachers are buying crayons and construction paper out of pocket. And this deeply disturbed person thinks hours-long surgeries are being given out for free to minors? With no parental consent? And he said it all to demonize schools, teachers, trans kids. To spread hate as fertilizer for his own benefit.

It's beneath contempt to think that anyone takes this seriously. It's "children who identify as cats use litter boxes at school" level stupid. Anyone with a modicum of critical thought would understand why you don't say something that weird and wrong out loud where thinking people could hear--

Giuliani and the Boomerang

 

The Bullshit Artist formerly Known as "America's Mayor", who lied about the 2020 election and had to admit that he didn't have any proof whatsoever that the election was stolen, has been ordered to start turning his various valuable personal belongings into receivership to satisfy a judgment against him for defaming two election workers who were endangered by his lies and had actually not done anything wrong. 

Some people believe in karma. I don't know if I do--but I do believe if you throw shit around, don't be surprised if a stiff wind blows it right back in your face. You shouldn't be surprised if what you put out there comes back to you.

This man used to have a good reputation (I don't know to what degree he earned it, but he did). Then he decided to use up everything he was for Trump. And now he can lose everything he had. 

There's an example in there.

TWGB: Back to the Scene of Every Crime

 

Donald Trump calls this "a day of love" and said no one died. pic.twitter.com/hEYF7aw2OM

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) October 17, 2024

Trump pretends there were no guns and maybe no one died or maybe only one person did.  And he wants to pretend they all did come out--the people he calls "we" and sometimes "hostages", for reasons that had nothing to do with his campaign quite openly promoting "Stop the Steal" and having campaign events after the election was over. He helped the disaster that followed because it was a little violence party held in his honor. And he did feel honored. Never try and tell me he didn't. 

He even has his current running mate saying he thinks Trump might have won in 2020. I want someone to ask Vance very pointedly which of the dumb things he believes in: is it the Italian servers? The Chinese thermostats? The German servers Gina Haspel nearly died to defend? Is it the bamboo ballots shipped in from China--or the ballots shipped in from North Korea? Is it the Dawn of the Dead voting by so many deceased people that no one could check it, or was it the supposed hordes of immigrants with some kind of very authentic fake ID? What incredibly stupid conspiracy theory of all the incredibly stupid conspiracy theories that flew about in 2020 does JD Vance want to swear to ascribe to? And what is his proof? 

If he wants to lie so pathologically out of any one of his two pathologically lying faces, I need notes. 

This Man Wants People to Be Killed

 

Trump: "You cannot get into a hospital, by the way. Because the migrants have all the beds. You cannot get into a hospital. You cannot get your kids into a school because there are migrants there that don't even speak the language ... they're getting precedent over your children" pic.twitter.com/GamVQqtC66

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2024

Trump is calling migrant people murderers, rapists, deadbeats, everything but a child of God. He's going harder than he has before on his ethnic cleansing plan. He's associating people of color with low IQ and cultural incompatibility, and insists every one of them is a danger and a failure of a permissive immigration system. 

They--taxpayers and members of the communities they live in, are hogging up your services, he implies. I don't know about you, but I don't go to the hospital unless I need it. Health care in this country isn't free. I assume anyone taking up a hospital bed is actually sick and not looking for some luxury treatment--that is stupid. I believe all children should have access to education, and I truly argue that this can't get your kid into a school thing is actually mindbogglingly stupid. 

Of course you can. Maybe public schools are strained, but they exist, and they take your kid. And migrants are paying taxes, so let's do something about funding public schools better.

Trump doesn't know anything about that real-life situation because he never lived a life where his kids went to public school. When Obama talked about this man never changing a diaper--he is expressing something about the out-of- touch unreality Trump has ALWAYS lived in. Has he bought a loaf of bread in a store? Does this idiot really think people who don't speak English are dangerous? 

This man is talking about revoking birthright citizenship and rounding up all kinds of people to get deported. Even people determined to be here legally before. This is no joke to me--my husband of 22 years is the son of two green-card holders. He was born here. But for political reasons? I mean--he's married to me.

Ae we back to the late 19th century or early 20th asking ourselves who is White enough to be here? What about Italians? What about the Irish? What about Slavs? What about the Jews Trump thinks are the bad kind who have lost their minds and don't support him? 

What Real Strength Looks Like

 

This moment from @BarackObama 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UbKo7g0sif

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 11, 2024

Former President Barack Obama gave a hell of a speech campaigning in Pennsylvania for Harris/Walz and Senator Bob Casey today. and there were some things that really struck me. For one thing, he did address that Trump's pretend wonderful economy was the one that Obama and Biden rescued from the collapse in 2008. 

 How would we say it? Oh, right. Trump didn't build that. He didn't build the wall, he didn't end "American Carnage" and his fumbling foreign policy he gave to "read 25 whole books" son-in-law Jared Kushner obviously didn't hold. And he certainly can't be considered some economic stable genius when he gave us double digit unemployment and deliberately made the stock market about himself. 

This man Tweeted to manipulate the market. I swear I am not making this up. That's crazypants, but it's some shit he did. He has also used his "bully pulpit" to try and antagonize corporations--especially media corporations, that have disagreed with him. 

You know, like his beef with CBS over his weird paranoic ideas about the 60 Minutes interview with VP Harris.. 

But more than Trump's basic and obvious incompetence, which his followers refuse to see, is his entire lack of character, which should be obvious to them, and they dismiss. In my mind, part of the dismissal of Trump's badness comes from the phrase "Orange Man Bad." It's dismissive of everything. You hate Trump because he wears bronzer and is a jerk, therefore, I don't care whether um--

He really is actually bad?  Because that is just stupid. It should matter to you whether the guy is basically competent (increasingly questionable every day) or has ever given a good goddamn for anyone but himself. Where, literally, WHERE! do you see him doing this? Where is his much-vaunted competence? Where is his supposed heaven-sent genius rescuing anyone's ass? 

Trump Fans and the Book of Marks

 

So, word on the street is, Truth Social is basically Facebook for fools and you can roast all the pigeons you want there all day every day. 

Gizmodo submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FTC for consumer complaints about Truth Social filed in the past two years. The complaints to the federal agency include some stories from people who’ve been banned from the site (unjustly, they claim) and others who say they got signed up for mailing lists they never wanted to be on in the first place. But the complaints about scams are the most shocking, if only because there are such large sums of money involved. And we’re publishing a sample of the full, unedited complaints below.

 

One person who says they lost $170,000 explained they were initially scammed on a different site but met someone on Truth Social who claimed they could help get their money back. That turned out to be a scam as well. But more often, the victims are first contacted on Truth Social before being told to take the conversation somewhere else, like WhatsApp. Truth Social seems to be a target-rich environment for people who are easy to con.

Tina Peters and the TrumpWorld View

 

Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters was sentenced today to nine years in prison for trying to hack voting machines in order to "prove" voter fraud, and I think what the judge had to say in her case really said a lot about TrumpWorld:

“You are no hero,” state District Court Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters. “You’re a charlatan who used and is still using your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again.”

“Your lies are well documented, and these convictions are serious. I’m convinced you’d do it all over again if you could,” Barrett told the 68-year-old former Mesa County clerk, who was accused of using another person’s security badge to allow someone else to gain access to her county’s election system.

 She's a hero in her own mind. Just like Mike Lindell, who has gone broke, is a hero in his own mind. Like Rudy Giuliani, broke (allegedly) and disbarred, must believe. The Big Lies of TrumpWorld, and what they would do to "prove" them, give them mission: a sense of purpose, but also--attention. 

The VP Debate was Kind of Demure, Very Mindful

 

Moderator: Just to clarify, Springfield’s Haitian migrants have legal status

Vance: The rules were you guys weren't going to fact check pic.twitter.com/zo5W3i9HIt

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 2, 2024

That right there? Was the most contentious the VP debate practically became. Because JD Vance stewed that he got called on the one very Big Lie thing he contributed to, because he can't understand why it is terribly wrong, bad and hurtful, and why he really did need to be checked on that very particular thing. Because he can't accept that the death threats and the bomb threats and the disruption of a whole town's active life can be marked down to his propaganda. 

Is he naïve? Does he not get that there are real-world consequences that follow from such lies, and that people with a conscience would avoid them? 

This debate didn't clue me anymore in on who Vance is, but he does remind me, oleaginously, of those old margarine commercials--it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. 

TWGB: Would You Buy a Watch from this Man?

 

So, obviously this thing where Trump is selling watches is a part of the "Trump campaign as business plan" ethos that the media doesn't quite know what to do with. It's at least as good as the NFT racket. It's better than the Trump DC Hotel racket, that Trump even found a new way to lose money at. 

We might not be able to really talk about things like the $10 million that flowed to Trump (allegedly) from Egypt in 2016, probably, or even fully investigate his business interests in China. But we could definitely ask why he's got the Mrs. out here pounding her book (which he hasn't read), her jewelry line, and fucking Chreestmas ornaments as a kind of Trump "lifestyle brand". 

Is this what serious people do? Like, if people can't afford bacon and eggs, is this really how you demonstrate solidarity with them? 

So, here's the thing--back in 2017, Trump trotted out a lawyer and like a pallet of blank paper in file folders to pretend he divested from his businesses, and LOL, no he did not do that. But dipstick MAGA  brainwashed cult members will tell you all about what he gave up to be president. That's right MAGA--he never did spend most of his time between Trump Tower, Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago. He wasn't still CEO of Trump Org when he was directing the payment of hush money from the White House. He didn't direct funds to his various properties from the US government whenever possible. 

Taxation Without Representation and Mad King Don

 

REPORTER: I've spoken with some economists about your tariff proposals and they say they don't see how it won't make items cost more--

TRUMP: I don't need Congress, but they'll approve it. I'll have the right to impose them myself if they don't. pic.twitter.com/YuRHvzCkE3

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 23, 2024

Mad King Don is pretty sure this would constitute an official act and he would get away with it. Sure, it raises prices (he knows it would "punish" John Deere if he put a heavy tariff on their products, so he understands the mechanism when he wants to).

But keep in mind that this is the same person who says that the stock market is up because people are anticipating he will win, when his own stock, $DJT is plummeting, and even its CEO, Devin Nunes, is selling. Something seems pretty sketchy with that reasoning. 

The Trump solution is here, though-- never fear: because something something crypto, something something also a commemorative coin. And the hem of his garment, which possibly cures scrofula. 

Have you even ever met someone with scrofula? You don't know!

JD Vance Creates Stories

 

I know this might get lost in the swirl of yet another Republican-ish white male gun-owner possibly trying to take a pop at Donald Trump (thoughts and prayers) but this is really rather serious: Trump's running mate admitted he sometimes creates stories (lies) because he wants people to see the truth (also different lies). To be more exact:

In a stunning admission, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, said he was willing “to create stories” on the campaign trail while defending his spreading false, racist rumors of pets being abducted and eaten in a town in his home state of Ohio.

Vance’s remarks came during an appearance on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, where he said he felt the need “to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people”.

And what suffering was that? Because the "suffering" was supposedly happening before the acid thrown on cars and the Proud Boys marching through town and the Klan fliers posted hither and yon. The college campuses going virtual and the suspected arson. 

He can call that the "hecklers' veto" and pretend that people who threaten violence or do vandalism aren't going to do the real thing. We know in El Paso and Buffalo and Squirrel Hill sometimes bad things happen to real people because the real people and the real bad people do exist. 

That isn't "stories". 

Little Jimmy and the Operation: A Trump Fable

 

Trump: Can you imagine you're a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school and your son comes back with a brutal operation. pic.twitter.com/ChmwpavFAH

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 7, 2024

The school nurse can't even give out aspirin*, and now kids are supposed to be getting "a brutal operation" in school? What "brutal operation"? Are they handing out appendectomies? Emergency tracheotomies? Is there a full surgical theater in your son's or daughter's school you need to worry about? (Are they more likely to be slapping on tourniquets in the case of an actual bloody emergency--all too probable.)

Long story short--Little Jimmy is not going to get his Liitler Jimmy whacked off while at school. Teachers are paying for glue sticks and dry erase markers out of pocket and supposedly school districts are doing bottom surgery on your precious wee manlet? You would think Trump of all people would be skeptical about the promise of free vaginas being handed out. And it's not escaping me that he is afraid for little Jimmy, not little Agatha getting a double mastectomy. 

This is not happening. This is on the "furry kids using a litter box at school" level of not happening. It's simply nucking futz. It's on the same level of not-happening as the supposed latest term-post-birth abortion. He's now said it more than once, and maybe that means it's going to be a part of stump speeches, now. And it speaks to other fears parents might have: their boys aren't transgender--but just a bit queer. Maybe they are autistic, artistic, kind, sensitive, don't do sports, respect women, aren't about to grow up and ride a Lingam-1500 male-insecurity wagon with truck nuts and a Trump flag to their he-man signifying maleness job. Maybe they just have to also compete with girls who are smart as fuck and might be better at them in things. 

TWGB: It's a Holy Perfect Angel You Guys!

 

This is mind-blowing: An American flag tangled into the shape of an angel before the #Trump rally yesterday. pic.twitter.com/81btUcr8Lp

— America Strong (@itsthereelthing) August 31, 2024

I don't know if you were ready to believe in God yet, but did you see the perfect holy angel Trump was talking about? Because OMG, the guy who was saying he was just being martyred like Jesus when he was starting to sell Trump Bibles has now been rescued by Jesus so he can save the country you guys, Merry Eargrazemas to you!  

Because how the hell can you ever say "Merry Christmas" again without acknowledging who has made it all possible by being made a little bit dead--but then totally saved to unfuck this apparently fucked-up country? You know who--the guy who was more indicted than Jesus, Abraham Lincoln and Al Capone--not to mention Hannibal Lector! You might not have believed in Jesus before you guys, but since he saved Trump. you kind of have to, right? 

I'm an agnostic and this sort of thing offends the heck out of me, so I don't even know how it sits with my actually Christian brethren. He believes in God to the extent he can see God on his side. God exists to magnify Trump--not the other way around. .Donald Trump is to faith what Lara Trump is to music. 

This is the credibly accused serial adulterer and harasser/rapist of women. And he's trying to tell you divine intervention saved him from anything.