On Second Thought

Felon Admits Tariffs Will Be Paid by Us

By Michael Woyton

The manbaby in the White House is furious that Walmart said the world’s largest retailer may pass along any tariffs to its customers.

On Thursday, Walmart CRO John David Rainey said in an interview that the company had never seen a time when prices have increased so high so quickly.

He then explained that he was concerned that people shopping at Walmart might start seeing higher prices in May and in June.

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

That set off President Donald J. Felon, who posted on social media that the company “should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain.”

The grifter-in-chief said, “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING.”

So I’m a little confused.

Is the mayor of Mar-a-Lago finally admitting that tariffs will be paid by the customer buying goods shipped to America?

Or has he forgotten his own lie that tariffs will be borne by the China and the other countries where much of what we want and need come from?

No one in his or her right mind ever believed that retailers or manufacturers would let the tariffs eat into their profits.

Are you finally admitting you lied, Donnie?

— — — — —

Chairman Mao would be proud of the grifter-in-chief.

The adjudicated rapist’s official White House photo is now glowering from a 50-foot banner hung on the façade of the Department of Agriculture.

Hanging also on the building is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, WUSA 9 reported.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins is spinning the addition of the president’s face as a “rebirth” of the department.

Former Republican strategist and now vocal opponent of the current Oval Office occupant Tim Miller said on social media that it was “deeply creepy.”

I agree, and will add that this is something dictators do. Oh … wait …

But thank you someone-on-the-internet for altering the image (below) by adding three other panels.

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps.

Arrested Milwaukee Judge Says She’s Immune from Prosecution

By Michael Woyton

A Milwaukee County judge, who was arrested after being accused of helping an undocumented immigrant get away from ICE, filed a motion Wednesday to have her case dismissed.

Judge Hannah Dugan, who was indicted by a federal grand jury for obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest, is citing judicial immunity and overreach by federal prosecutors, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

To bolster her argument to have the case dismissed, Dugan is using the felon-in-chief’s SCOTUS-granted immunity.

“The problems with this prosecution are legion, but most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts,” her motion read. “Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset. See Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593, 630 (2024).”

The SCOTUS 6-3 decision ruled that the president was immune from prosecution for official acts.

Dugan was arrested a week after ICE agents chased Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant appearing before the judge on state misdemeanor battery charges, in a hallway near Dugan’s courtroom, the Washington Post said.

Not only did FBI Director Kash Patel announce her arrest on social media and posted a photo of her being led away in handcuffs, but Attorney General Pam Bondi accused the judge of “protecting a criminal defendant over victims of crime.”

Dugan is suspended from the bench while her case proceeds, but the New York Times said a sign on the courthouse door still invites lawyers to arrange meetings by Zoom if defendants feel unsafe having to physically appear in court.

— — — — —

The largest retailer in the U.S. and the world is concerned about rising prices.

Appearing Thursday on CNBC, Walmart CFO John David Rainey said the company has never seen a period where prices have gone up as high as quickly.

He said that he was concerned that customers will start seeing higher prices this month and in June, according to Time.

Attention GOPmaga members of Congress as you plot to cut Medicaid while giving billionaires a large tax cut: How will you justify your vote on the budget to your constituents who will be paying more soon or doing without?

— — — — —

Save the date! June 14 is a nationwide day of defiance: No Kings.

It’s also Flag Day and the day the authoritarian-in-chief is throwing himself a multimillion-dollar military parade that we will be paying for.

For more information about the protests, go here.

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth via YouTube

SMDH Today: Bluesky Edition

By Michael Woyton

Things that made me, well, shake my damn head.

It’s amazing that he’s still alive, isn’t it?

— — — — —

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

— — — — —

The felon-in-chief knows they can’t vote, right? Or is that next?

— — — — —

I’m beginning to think Bobby Jr. is not right in the head. And it, too, is amazing he’s still alive.

— — — — —

How’s that total immunity thing working out for you, John?

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art by Michael Woyton

$400M Jet Given to US, But You Can’t Use It

By Michael Woyton

Where to start, where to start …

Don’t be fooled by analysis — mainstream media or social media — that accepting a $400 million 747 from Qatar is anything but a bribe.

Especially don’t be fooled by White House ~~Paid Liar~~ Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said that it is ridiculous to suggest that President Donald J. Felon would do anything for his own benefit.

And likewise don’t be fooled by Attorney General Pam “Trump University Is A-OK” Bondi saying the “gift” is just dandy. She was, after all, a registered foreign agent lobbyist in 2019 for the Embassy of the State of Qatar.

Plus, I hope I don’t have to tell you to not be fooled by the adjudicated rapist himself, who said the Department of Defense is getting the plane as “very public and transparent transaction” and it’s “FREE OF CHARGE” (his caps). If the DOD is being given the plane, then why did the grifter-in-chief say that the flying palace will be given to his as-yet unbuilt presidential library so he can have unlimited use of the aircraft after leaving office?

It’s pretty ludicrous that Eric Lipton of the New York Times had the nerve to write that “Corruption requires explict quid pro quo” and that it isn’t corrupt to “take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift — a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.”

I agree that accuracy and fairness matter. But I also think that appearance matters.

Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust when he became president in order avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

The current occupant of the Oval Office believes anything goes if it’s done in public.

I shudder to think what is happening out of the public spotlight.

Unfortunately, the most encouraging thing to come out of the $400 million jet gift is his admitting he will leave office.

— — — — —

What Klobuchar said.

— — — — —

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from NBC News.

Felon’s UK Trade Deal Overshadowed by Chicago Pope

By Michael Woyton

As he is wont to do, on Wednesday, President Donald J. Felon hyped a “major” trade deal with an amazing country, making it sound as if all the Ts were crossed and the Is dotted.

Then the “deal” was announced.

It was between the United States and the United Kingdom, but it was “more of a concept of a deal,” according to an analysis from CNN.

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

“If a trade deal is, like, Michelangelo’s David, this is more like a block of marble,” Allison Morrow wrote. “Or really it’s like a receipt from the marble guy that says we’ve placed an order for a block of marble.”

Ouch.

Basically, the deal was that the U.S. tax on British imports would go from 10 percent, which was announced April 2, all the way to … 10 percent. Talk about The Art of the Deal.

There are carve-outs, CNN said, on really expensive British cars, like Bentleys, Land Rovers, Rolls-Royces and Jaguars, and British plane parts can now come to the U.S. tariff-free.

Also, the tax on steel and aluminum is gone, there will be a tariff-free exports on beef and other agricultural products.

That’s it so far, with both countries offering limited details on the “deal,” BBC reports, adding it’s all still being worked out.

“But anyone hoping the White House will either significantly roll back its tariffs — or win major concessions abroad — seems bound for disappointment,” BBC’s Natalie Sherman said.

So maybe it’s better that the underwhelming overhyped trade “deal” was sidelined by a little bit of news Thursday morning when white smoke appeared above the Sistine Chapel.

Speaking of Michelangelo, BTW.

The Conclave — no, not the Ralph Fiennes movie — chose The New Pope — no, not the HBO series starring Jude Law and John Malkovich — Thursday morning Eastern Daylight Time.

And it’s an American from Chicago, Cardinal Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, USA Today reported.

While it’s too early to know what policies, if any, the new Bishop of Rome will carry over from the late Francis, we do know that Prevost has posted on the site formerly known as Twitter criticisms of the felon-in-chief and his V.P. Shady Vance.

“In three posts, then-Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago, was critical of Vance’s take on religion, shared an article critiquing Vance’s statements on deportation of migrants and retweeted criticism of Trump and President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele’s response to the deportation of El Salvadorian national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland,” USA Today reported.

Prevost also posted that Vance was wrong about Jesus asking people “to rank our love for others,” which was in response to Vance citing medieval-era Catholic teaching in order to justify the new immigration policy of the second Trump administration.

I think the proper response here is to say, “Ha ha,” as if I were of Nelson from The Simpsons.

— — — — —

I’m sure Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is pedal to the metal getting to Washington, D.C., now that she has been nominated to be the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

I wrote about Pirro during the first administration of the mayor of Mar-a-Lago in 2017 after she was accused of driving 199 mph in a 65 mph zone near the New York-Pennsylvania state line.

She was previously an assistant district attorney for Westchester County in New York, the first woman to be elected a Westchester County Court judge, as well as being elected three times as district attorney in Westchester.

Pirro also ran and lost against Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate.

The last one to leave Fox News for the adjudicated rapist’s administration should please turn out the lights.

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from CNN.

West Point Prof Resigns, Says Academy Has Been Undermined

By Michael Woyton

A professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point has resigned citing policies issued by President Donald J. Felon.

Graham Parsons, a philosophy professor at the academy for 13 years, wrote about his reasons in a New York Times opinion column Thursday.

He said he assumed that the leaders of West Point “would set an example for the cadets by raising their voice in defense of the values and mission of the institution.”

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

Instead, Parsons wrote, “I have seen an eagerness to reassure the Trump administration that the academy is in its pocket.” (The link is free for everyone.)

He said he was pressured around the time of the inauguration in January to withdraw an article he’d written regarding the military’s obligation “to be politically neutral that had been accepted for publication at the national security blog Lawfare.”

Parsons was told that the administrators “did not find fault with the article,” but said they were worried that the incoming president might think it was provocative.

“Reluctantly, I complied,” he wrote.

An executive order followed, with a memo with more restrictions also coming from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Combined they prohibited any educational institution, including West Point, from promoting or providing instruction on “certain ‘un-American’ theories, including ‘gender ideology’ and the idea that ‘America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.’ “

Parsons’ conclusion was simple: “These were brazen demands to indoctrinate, not educate.”

Since the EO and memo were issued, he said there was a “sweeping assault on the school’s curriculum and the faculty members’ research.”

Reviews of syllabuses were ordered by department heads and then changes were demanded, Parsons said.

Two history courses — one of gender history and another on race and ethnicity — were scrapped. A Black history project was disbanded and the sociology major was dissolved.

Professors were forced to remove James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, among other women and men of color, from their courses.

Parsons ends his essay by saying this is a threat to America’s constitutional order.

“The health of our democratic system depends on the military being politically neutral,” he wrote.

“West Point is abandoning its neutrality and jeopardizing a critical component of the very constitutional order that the military exists to protect.”

Read the complete essay in the New York Times through this link.

— — — — —

Hey, Roberts, you did this and you can fix it.

Take away his immunity before it’s too late.

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps.

Wyoming Rep. Thinks San Diego Is on Gulf of Mexico

By Michael Woyton

Welcome to the United States of Stupid.

Rep. Harriet Hageman, who was elected to Congress by the people in Wyoming just because she isn’t Liz Cheney, needs to crack open a geography book.

During a House rules committee meeting Tuesday, Hageman, last seen in these pages being yelled at by constituents, spoke in favor of President Donald J. Felon’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

Her justification for making the change was, “For over 40 years, the country of Mexico has been dumping raw sewage into the area near San Diego, California,” according to Mass Live.

~~George Santos~~ Hageman further said that it was an “environmental catastrophe” that Mexico refuses to address.

The problem for the congresswoman is that neither San Diego nor the state of California is on the Gulf of Mexico.

Her testimony — laughable as it is — will likely not effect the passage of The Gulf of America Act which aims to codify the grifter-in-chief’s executive order.

Looks like Sen. Tommy Tuberville has some stiff competition for stupidest elected official on Capitol Hill. Remember: He said the government’s three branches were “the House, the Senate, and the executive.”

— — — — —

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times doesn’t think the adjudicated rapist in the Oval Office knows what he wants from all the trade negotiations.

— — — — —

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art by Michael Woyton

60 Minutes Holds Felon’s Feet to Fire for Attacking Law Firms

By Michael Woyton

Kudos to CBS News and its flagship 60 Minutes program for continuing to report on President Donald J. Felon.

In spite of the fact that the adjudicated rapist has sued CBS for $20 billion because he didn’t like an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Sunday’s lede story “labeled Trump a threat to the legal system, election system and the rule of law itself,” according to reporting from Fox News.

Scott Pelley opened the program by saying, “It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice.”

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

One person who did appear on camera was Marc Elias. He was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign general counsel and was a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie, before leaving to found Democracy Docket, a voting rights and election litigation website.

For background, on March 6, the mayor of Mar-a-Lago signed an executive order calling Perkins Coie “dishonest and dangerous,” in part for representing Hillary Clinton and working with “activist donors including George Soros.”

The order also suspended active security clearances held by employees at Perkins Coie and basically prevented any federal agency from hiring anyone employed by the firm.

Other law firms that have bowed down to the golfer-in-chief’s threats have agreed to provide millions of dollars worth of legal advice to the administration.

In an email from Democracy Docket Monday, Elias wrote about appearing on 60 Minutes.

He said, several weeks ago, a producer of the program contacted him to say they were working on a story about the president targeting law firms.

While he was initially unsure about agreeing to appear on camera, he “quickly learned that few other lawyers — particularly partners at large law firms — were willing to speak on television. The same fear that had prevented Big Law firms from standing up to Trump was now making their partners unwilling to speak out publicly.”

Elias eventually agreed to be interviewed and promised himself he would not pull any punches.

He had no idea if or when his interview would air until the program began at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“As the minutes ticked by, it became clear that 60 Minutes had pulled no punches,” Elias wrote. “Through interviews with me and others, Pelley painted a damning picture of a president out for retribution and a legal industry too cowardly to stand up to him.”

Also on the program were Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration, San Francisco attorney John Keker and lawyer Brenna Frey, who left Skadden, Arps to protest its capitulation to the president’s demands.

Ayer called the president’s executive order “a direct attack on the whole functioning of our judicial system.”

Keker, who has been recruiting law firm to oppose the grifter-in-chief’s demands, compared what the president is trying to do with what is happening in China and Russia.

“These are legal systems that look like legal systems, but in fact are controlled by a dictatorship,” he said during the program.

Interestingly — to me — at no point during the story as broadcast did Pelley offer any one speaking in favor of the president’s actions.

There’s no way to know if this will be a trend on the part of 60 Minutes or CBS News.

There is, after all, the likelihood that Paramount’s board will settle with the cry-baby-in-chief over his lawsuit against 60 Minutes for the Harris interview.

Paramount wants to merge with Skydance Media, and the companies need the FCC on their side. $28 billion is at stake, money talks.

But at least we got a no-holds barred look at another way the felon-in-chief is trying to consolidate more power and in his goal to become a dictator.

— — — — —

That was The Philadelphia Inquirer’s placement of the story that the president said on television he didn’t know if he has to uphold the Constitution.

In the New York Times Monday, its story was on page A13, but there was a teeny tiny mention at the bottom of page A1 where the article could be located. Shame on them.

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from CBS via YouTube.

Felon-in-Chief Thinks Constitution Not Worth Paper It’s Written On

By Michael Woyton

How much more proof does anyone need?

On Sunday, the felon who was elected president of the United States said on a nationally broadcast news program that he didn’t know if everyone — citizens and non-citizens — deserves due process.

Also, when asked if as president he has to uphold the Constitution, he replied, “I don’t know.”

Holy shit.

The adjudicated rapist stood there on Jan. 20 with his right hand raised — his other hand was not on the Bible that Melania was holding (that could be his out) — and solemnly swore to “faithfully execute” the office of president and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

A little more than 100 days later, we have proof he didn’t mean a word of it.

Did he come into his second administration fully aware that he didn’t give a shit about this country or its people — he was, after all, running to stay of prison — or has he come to the “I don’t know” part of upholding the Constitution because so many judges, including some of those who he appointed, are ruling against him?

He so wants to be a dictator like his pal Putin, and the Constitution is a pesky little document that is in his way.

The rest of the Meet the Press interview was just as offensive.

He was asked when the economy becomes his responsibility, and he replied that the good parts are his doing and the bad parts are because of Joe Biden. Remember, he said he took no responsibility for the deaths from Covid.

He said his $45 million-plus ~~Kim Jong-un~~ military birthday parade is costing “peanuts compared to the value of doing it.” Meanwhile, President Musk is cutting Meals on Wheels and research into cancer.

He said he will not rule out military force to take over Greenland and that invading Canada “could happen.”

This vile person who lied his way back into office has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the world.

When are GOPmagas going to come to their senses and say enough is enough?

He has to be removed from office.

— — — — —

Wait until the tariffs really hit the rural areas.

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from PBS via YouTube.

Are Tornado, Hurricane Forecasts Gone with the Wind?

By Michael Woyton

If anyone still thinks the administration of President Donald J. Felon is actually looking out for the American people — even those of you who live in red-leaning states — look no further than what it will mean as a result of cuts to the National Weather Service.

A combination of layoffs, already existing vacancies and early retirements have left the weather forecasting agency “in tatters,” according to reporting from CNN.

This information is coming just before what might very well be a destructive hurricane season which starts June 1.

Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:

Thirty of the NWS’s 122 weather forecast offices no longer have a meteorologist-in-charge. That position is usually filled by the most experienced official on site.

CNN came up with a map showing the areas without a meteorologist-in-charge, and those locations include New York City/Long Island/Connecticut; Tampa, Florida; Houston, Texas, and nearly the entire state of Kentucky.

The Goodland, Kansas, NWS forecast office is said to be no longer operating around the clock. The state averages around 81 tornadoes each year, the National Weather Service said, with some years seeing more than 100 twisters.

I think we can all agree that tornadoes don’t necessarily care if there’s someone in an NWS office to put out a watch, warning or alert.

And apparently neither does the grifter-in-chief.

He has also denied emergency funds for natural disasters for Arkansas (tornadoes), West Virginia (flooding), Washington state (windstorm) and North Carolina (extended hurricane relief).

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “I Had $3K in my Stolen Handbag” Noem, as well as the president himself, is threatening to shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and a spokesperson has said the government is focusing on “truly catastrophic disasters” or “wide-scale attacks on the homeland,” the Minnesota Reformer said.

Now in the United States of Fascism, we are on our own to find out about possible, life- and property-threatening natural disasters, and we can no longer rely on the federal government to help us — even a little — in the aftermath.

This is what people voted for; this is what you got.

Getting rid of and eventually privatizing the National Weather Service and its parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was always part of Project 2025.

But all we heard from the liar-in-chief during the campaign was that he didn’t know anything about Project 2025 or anything in it.

And don’t think you can just look at your phone and get the weather forecast. Where do you think that information comes from?

— — — — —

For someone who hates the media, the mayor of Mar-a-Lago loves to be interviewed.

I firmly believe that he would shrivel up and die if the legitimate press didn’t show up for the administration’s daily stenography sessions or any of those pathetic Oval Office pressers.

If you haven’t heard his answer to ABC News’s Terry Moran and his question about what the Declaration of Independence — a copy of which is hanging on the wall of the Oval — means, please start the video below at 3:22-ish.

It really rivals the golfer-in-chief’s answer to why James Monroe’s portrait is on the wall. He said, “I think the Monroe Doctrine is pretty important. That was his claim to fame.”

— — — — —

Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.

Lead art: Screen grab from ABC News via YouTube