MS Paint-13 and our Dumbass President

 

TRUMP: He had MS-13 on his knuckles, tattooed!

MORAN: That was photoshopped

TRUMP: Terry, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. I picked you. But you're not being very nice. pic.twitter.com/NgCpEB8o1S

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2025

I was certain that Trump was cynically using visual propaganda in a way that took advantage of the utter dupes and dopes that are his people, but the above interview snippet sure does look like someone showed Trump the picture of the knuckle tattoos, helpfully Photoshopped so that he would understand the interpretation of them, and took it to be, uh, part of the picture.  

People around him are offering cynical visual propaganda to use, but he's such a Fox News pilled dopey old grandpa, he believes what he's being told to say.

We saw this just earlier in his Time Magazine interview as well:

"That's not what my people told me--they didn't say it was, they said it was--the nine to nothing was something entirely different."

Yeah. Sometimes his people don't tell him anything, and sometimes they completely lie to his big stupid face, apparently. 

Dictators Sure Do Love Their Propaganda

 

All the world is a stage, including social media (maybe especially there):

There was the pool furniture in the background. There were the tropical drinks, which looked to be margaritas garnished with cherries. And then there were the deported prisoner and the American senator, sitting and chatting.

That senator, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, accused El Salvador’s government on Friday of aiming to paint the picture of a leisurely respite for the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia by staging their meeting with drinks appearing to be alcohol, and angling to set the meeting by a hotel pool.

Van Hollen referred to the stagecraft with a term that had ricocheted around social media for much of the day: “Margaritagate.”

“Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is,” the Democratic senator said, calling the whole situation “a lesson” in “the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what’s going on.”

Dictators dare you to ignore the context and accept their frames. Are their images improbable or too good/convenient to be true?

Well: 

Proof of Life

 

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 18, 2025

At least we know he's alive--there was a part of me that wondered if the White House dug in because they were trying to cover up that they had gotten a man killed. But no, it's just that they want to be able to do anything they want to do to anyone without regard for their rights under the US Constitution. And being the sort of person I am, while this proof of life is a welcome sign that both the US government and El Salvador feel the need to respond to pressure--this is not yet a good sign, it's a photo op--

See, he's alive, but he is still held, it's because the US is paying for El Salvador to keep him, and the Trump Administration feels no shame about any of that. 

Yet.

I think it is important that we look at the opinion authored by Judge Harvie Wilkinson rejecting a request from the DOJ to pause an order that they facilitate Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador:

"The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order," Wilkinson, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote. "Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear."

The Homegrowns are Next

 

Trump to Bukele: "Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough." pic.twitter.com/o20thGNK9e

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025

Trump is serious, He wants to deport US citizens to an El Salvador hellhole. Don't kid yourself it will be for "good reasons".  Accept and believe the evidence of your eyes and ears: this man genuinely believes that people who criticize him or those who help him should be labelled criminals. The threat of being "disappeared" is how Trump means to manage dissent in this country.

But it's not just the first amendment that is in danger. It's the whole bill of rights. 

 He doesn't believe in due process or the Constitution, and neither does his attorney general. His White House is full of people who will simply lie regarding this one man--but they will also lie about anyone Trump deems an enemy of the people, because that is how the lies of weak people work. 

They don't suddenly develop a conscience somewhere down the line. The weakness corrodes every scruple, and soon the rule of law is gone.

This should be front page, five-alarm, screaming bloody murder news. It's time to call it fascism, and it's time to seriously talk about impeachment and removal. It's past time, even. But it might not be too late.

Juris Doctor Vance, Not So Young, Also Not Credible

 

While we can tell ourselves that part of Karoline Leavitt's juvenile dissembling attempts are sheer youth and immaturity, we know for sure that Vice-Signaling Junior President Vance "tells stories" with a purpose. So, when he condescendingly insults a reporter for not having read a court document--I don't even assume the JD Vance was simply mistaken and responding in a hurry when he got the basic details entirely wrong. 

JD Vance is a Yale Law grad and quite capable of seeing whether or not Kilmar Abrego Garcia was convicted of or merely accused of being a member of MS-13. It seems to me he counts on MAGA not reading, and only superficially noticing a lot of liberals telling Vance he's wrong (which he is) and assuming they are "triggered."

Young and Not Very Credible

 

Leavitt: Shame on you and shame on the media for trying to cover these individuals. This is a vicious gang. pic.twitter.com/KXqnpNxWCU

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2025

Karoline Leavitt responds to a reporter ABOUT an outrage--that the US government is sweeping up innocent individuals off the street and having them clapped into a hellhole, WITH outrage--HOW DARE YOU!

Easy! Because it's true and it's newsworthy. 

Much ado was made about Leavitt being the youngest press secretary for the White House, and I have to admit to rolling my eyes at that. It isn't an accomplishment when she was selected to be a cute shiny face to lie to people, and being too young, possibly immature, to understand what she needs to know or that "spinning" on behalf of a corrupt regime isn't merely a good paying job, but a moral excrescence. 

The journalists inquiring about due process aren't bleeding heart libs--they care about a thing called the rule of law. Leavitt's emotional misdirection has the benefit of seeming unaffected, because it may very well not be a sophisticated act from someone who should know better. She may be unaware that in small "l" small "d" liberal democracies, legal protections exist to protect the innocent. 

Of course, in TrumpWorld, it is a lot to imagine she would also care.  Her lack of credibility is just as bad as Spicer or Huckabee Sanders before her. 

The Human Backdrop/ UPDATED

 

Kristi Noem, who has approached her job as head of DHS with what one might call "theatrical flair", made a video in an El Salvador prison. Keeping in mind that we are sending people into conditions like those behind her without due process--for reasons which the Trump Administration now alleges is a state secret. 

MAGA probably see the use of the human backdrop behind Noem a bit differently than I do. There is a gulf between seeing people being dehumanized and seeing them as not human. Someone like Noem does not grasp that difference. I wish more people in this country did. 

I like to point out that these MAGA airheads are inept, but they are also, nonetheless, fairly horrific. 

UPDATE: Just as a small clarification, if you go to her video on Twitter, the app formerly known as X, you can see this backdrop is actually a green screen with a looped video. The optics of dehumanization are very deliberate. 

UPDATE: That's a nice bit of hardware our girl has on her wrist--allegedly a $60K Rollie. I don't know what she paid for it or even that she DID pay for it (or how), but I just want to personally say I wouldn't wear my very nicest watch to the prison tour, so I'm guessing she must have nicer ones at home. 

This is not Normal

 

How do you confront a man who has done a lot of damage in a very short period of time, and promises to get up in front of the American people and lie about everything? Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D., NM) chose to hold a simple sign: "This is not normal."  (It was snatched from her by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden.)

What the folks who attended or tuned into this speech beheld was a long rally speech--not really like a State of the Union speech at all. Trump called out the head of DOGE, Elon Musk (who isn't supposed to BE the head of DOGE, allegedly, for some sort of legal reason). He dwelled on the ideas of immigrant crime and trans people in sports for some reason. (Divisiveness. Feeding the bigotry beast.)

There will obviously need to be heroic fact-checking. This is a speech where Trump blamed Biden for the economy that he has actually contracted, threatening higher prices and a recession. Economists were not predicting a recession with Biden's policies--only with what Trump has been doing so far. 

But we aren't new to this game. Trump lies. Trump blames other people. Trump comes up with proposals that might just be a puppet show in a madhouse. We are in a trade war with our North American neighbors. Trump has openly sided with Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian war. 

This is, in fact, not normal. A ketamine-fueled megalomaniac with poor sleep habits is Peter-Panning his crazy ass through our government with his Lost Boys, looking to move fast and break stuff--not really understanding what he's breaking, just hoping to get the contracts to fix whatever it is. Daddy Ourbucks rose for a little applause during the speech. 

One could almost wonder why he didn't give speech himself. Shy? 

Trans de Agua

 

Pam Bondi calls Tren de Aragua "trans de agua" pic.twitter.com/2wLfuhKPHq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 20, 2025

February 20, 2025

So, a funny/not funny thing happened in Colorado, where conservatives made up a thing where Venezuelan gangs were taking up whole blocks of apartments. Which meant of course, if that were true, the first place ICE would have to raid would be those occupied dangerous gang apartment scary no-go zones, right?

Right?

Well, they did! And SOMEHOW, everyone and their mother found out about it, and the op was even delayed for a bit? (Even though ICE raids are basically, just like, Tuesday, even during the Biden Administration.) But then they did the thing, with hundreds of guys. Like, a whole multi-agency thing. 

Anyway, I guess everything was very disappointing for the Trump Administration, because maybe there weren't as many arrests as they hoped? So they sacked the experienced acting head of ICE. People figuring out there would be a stepped-up ICE presence out there was definitely the result of "leaks". And Kristi Noem is ready to get out the polygraph tests to sniff out the real problem in why deportation preparations have broken down, promising to get you and your little dog too if you were a DHS employee responsible for leaking. (I may have made that last bit up.)

The Shart of the Deal

 

So, while Elon Musk was in Germany entirely not beating these allegations of being a Nazi, the far-right dipshit he supported here in the States was alienating allies, first, by a really dismayingly confrontational call with Denmark over Greenland, and then by starting a completely unnecessary trade war with Colombia.

For Trump fans, this is one cool demolition derby. For people who give a shit, this is absolutely nutso. None of it is necessary. It's all unforced political and diplomatic errors.

We have a military presence on Greenland. We could get more access with honey than vinegar. We do not have to OWN it. (Don't get me started on the absurdity Trump is putting on with the "Canada/51st state" shit.)  Are we resettling some of our people up north? (Is this a meta-commentary on global warming?  We've had a great trade situation with Colombia, and they have worked with our DEA and immigration authorities historically very well! 

So what is the problem? Trump is! He needs to be a big macher. He needs to make things worse and then maybe pull them out and take credit for the crisis that was of his making.

See? The Shart of the Deal. He makes the mess and pats himself on the back for other people cleaning it up. 

Show Me Where on this Body of Christ the Gospel Hurt You

I don't know why Bishop Mariann Budde asking Trump to "Be Best" blew so many MAGA's little minds, but I think it has to do with the idea that while Christ might have told people that whatever you do to the least of these, you do to him--but like, what does that have to do with Christianity?  It gets read not as a plea to the better angels of Trump's nature, but a call out, because they understand he has no such better angels--

And that is exactly what they like about him. It doesn't just say something about him--but themselves. And if it made them feel bad or less than what their professed faith actively calls them to be in so many words, they would rather lash out at being made to feel bad, than actually reconsider the morality of brutalizing other people, doing actual harm to them.

Which sounds weak and insecure to me.

Just a thought. 

Trump on Any Day Ending in "Y"

 

Trump announces he wants to throw “everyone on the [January 6] committee” in jail. pic.twitter.com/33hEYGByu1

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) December 8, 2024

Trump "Met the Press" and in his interview with Kristen Welker, he said all kinds of incredibly fascinating things. He still only had "concepts of a plan" with respects to health care. He's going to deport the "Dreamers" and is looking into ending birthright citizenship (which is actually in the Constitution). He lied about how many murders have been committed by undocumented migrants. He admitted he "can't guarantee" his tariffs won't raise prices (because they will).  He's going to get rid of Christopher Wray as head of the FBI for no other reason than wanting his own attack-dog there. 

Oh yes, and he wants the 1/6 Committee in prison for noticing he defrauded people by lying about the 2020 election and directed a crowd of rioters at the Capitol to "Stop the Steal (AKA the lawful certification of the election)" and then the Committee really went wild and pointed it out. 

TrumpWorld is always a bit more mad that people point out wrongdoing then that they are guilty of it. Trump is allergic to accountability. It makes him break out in vendetta.

Stupid or Bad Faith?

 

Rampell: Do you know that there actually was bipartisan legislation intended to to increase our fentanyl detection technologies at the border. And trump killed it.

Jennings: You keep fighting these old battles. Donald Trump won.. Mexico has to do something.

Rampell: They have… pic.twitter.com/szaKgKSuGI

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 27, 2024

This is why I think cable news is basically worthless: someone like Scott Jennings (it could be so many other GOP mouthpieces, though) will argue something that is either based in sheer ignorance (possible) or they HAVE TO know better than, but this is the GOP line and their "job" is to defend it. The networks can argue that they are doing this for "balance"--but that's not what it is. They are airing out a position that is basically absurd with no penalty for either lying or being as dumb as a stump.

I used to go back and forth with myself about this kind of representation, especially at the top of the Bush years. Is it ignorance, is it lying, and what's worse?

And the answer is: what does it matter? If a position is completely detached from facts, it just is bad. Donald Trump winning an election doesn't change the facts of what is happening at the at the border with Mexico any more than George W. Bush winning affected whether invading Iraq over WMD's (dumb--or lying?) was a good idea. 

We Have Met the Stupid, and it is Us

 

I have talked about the stupidity of using polling as a "story" for news purposes before. People are measuring opinions, but you can't measure facts. If an opinion is just wrong as to the facts, what did you learn? People might not answer honestly. They might be just vibing and have never thought about your question before. It might be useful for a news organization to see what sorts of things the public needs to be more educated about--but is it news?

Look, the above chart is from two years ago, about when I wrote the post I linked to. Yougov.com found that people wildly misestimate the size of various groups. When you see that people are estimating 21% of the population is transgender, bathroom panic starts to make more sense, until you ask yourself if people responding to the question even really understand fractions. Do people really think one out of five people are trans? Do they think like one in four are Muslim, and that one in three are atheist? 

These numbers don't jibe with anything in people's actual lived experiences. What this poll shows is that people are innumerate. Their mental math is broken. They aren't converting their concept of how many people per are anything--they are just really bad contestants on "The Price is Right".  

Yes She Can

 

BREAKING: https://t.co/JQWy2gTfhs just dropped a new track titled "Yes She Can"—and yes, “She” is Kamala Harris.

This is the anthem America needs to hear right now. pic.twitter.com/8hX8fVEwLB

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) November 4, 2024

Maybe I just need to stay Kamala and carry Onala.  Maybe I just need to kick it like it's 2008. Maybe there's some sense out there, ready to throw water on the hate. I stay ready in crouch mode, but I want to believe we aren't too late. 

But this is all up to us not fate. I started voting from a place called hope. And the American Dream isn't done with any of us yet. 

And there are too many things we can never forget. 

Ready to turn the page, contain the rage, and never go back. 

We are not going back. 

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? 

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. 

A Serious Woman

 

Donald Trump tanked a bill to improve border security—just so he can win this election.

As I have shown throughout my career, I won’t back down from my plan to make our border more secure. pic.twitter.com/VemRMHqMLV

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 27, 2024

There are detractors to this ad. The younger folks did not have Schoolhouse Rock in their early life and it shows. An executive can propose, but it's up to Congress to dispose such acts. So unfortunately, despite what a White House official like the Vice-president might want, they don't get that without congress and the president also being on board. And Republicans--exist. And quite openly block border bills because it's kind of bad for Trump. They blocked a border bill for Trump because he doesn't have a whole hell of a lot else to run on besides his wall gimmick.

If you thought I was going to only say Trump was an unserious man because he is, well, no. The whole GOP is, now, because they are verified useless. 

The GOP and Cheap Grace

 

Johnson: Clay Higgins is a dear friend of mine and a colleague from Louisiana, and a very frank and outspoken person. He's also a very principled man. I didn’t even see it but he tweeted something today about Haitians.

Reporter: He told them to get out of the country by Jan 20th… pic.twitter.com/Y0oFz727WO

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 25, 2024

There's a formula here that the GOP employs again and again: the Tweet/statement/activity was terrible, but this is a good person (because I said so), and while I didn't see the Tweet/know all the details, I will forgive/absolve this person, even though I was not the person hurt by the activity.  Because it's the Christian thing to do. 

It's a lie. They aren't forgiving a "real" transgression (to them), and they don't care if the person is a good person--that person is "good enough for the political moment" and requires a permission slip. The permission slip has been pre-written, and we are only really just viewing what the in-group's tolerances are.

This type of cheap grace applies to Higgins, to Mark Robinson, to JD Vance, and entirely explains Trump. 

Instead of this statement vouching for Rep. Higgins, who is not noticeably repentant, I would throw it back to Speaker Johnson--why do have such a nasty racist for a good friend? 

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!