President Felon Beat His Own Record

By Michael Woyton

The hits keep rolling in for the golfer-in-chief.

A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll said, “Donald Trump has the lowest 100-day job approval rating of any president in the past 80 years, including broad fears of a recession.”

And that’s just the first paragraph of the ABC News article published Sunday.

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Of course, ABC “Bend the Knee” News said in the second paragraph that the president “still beats the Democrats in Congress in terms of trust to handle the nation’s main problems.” That is not explained, however, until more than 30 paragraphs later, and then it’s basically the Dems are 9 percentage points more out of touch with most people’s concerns than the wannabe king (69/60).

The poll found that 39 percent of respondents approve of the job Trump is doing, as opposed to 55 percent who disapprove.

That is an all-time low in 100-day job approvals dating back to 1945. The previous low was — wait for it — also Trump’s in 2017 when it was 42 percent.

Additionally, the poll shows that people overwhelmingly think the economy is worse since he took office the second time, prices for things that people want or need are going up and, at 72 percent, there is a likelihood of his policies causing a recession.

The numbers on other matters don’t really get any better for the felon-in-chief.

Majorities say he’s doing too much to reduce the size and role of the government, he’s acting beyond his authority as president and they doubt his administration is committed to protecting citizens’ rights and freedoms.

No doubt the whiny man child will be calling this fake news over and over.

You can read the entire article through this link. Enjoy.

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CARTOON OF THE DAY 🇺🇸 (From @MatttDavies)

The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-04-27T13:06:17.154Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from ABC News.

Springtime for Fascism

By Michael Woyton

Welcome to the United States of Fascism.

No longer are we on the doorstep of an authoritarian administration.

A dictatorial convicted felon has come in the door, sat himself down on the couch and assumed that he is the unquestioned ruler. Where’s the Diet Coke?

Thanks, John Roberts and the Supremes. 

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Is this really what you wanted, John Roberts: a country where anything you justices say can be ignored by the adjudicated rapist because it doesn’t comport with his — or Project 2025’s — vision of America?

When you decided back in July that presidents have absolute immunity for any official acts, did that include being able to pick and choose rulings with which to agree?

Well, this is what you allowed to happen.

We now have someone in the White House who believes he can, with the stroke of pen, take over universities and allow 20-something techies to run roughshod throughout the government firing people and shutting down services — even if those services were created by an act of Congress.

We now have someone in the White House who ordered the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the leading campaign money-raising platform for Democrats. Doesn’t that sound like something a dictator might do?

reporting on this has really got to get better about communicating the magnitude of the breach here. if you read the nyt article with minimal context, you would have no sense that this was watergate-level impeachable misconduct

Quinta Jurecic (@qjurecic.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T01:26:48.235Z

That same dictator wannabe is allowing members of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter anyone’s home without a search warrant to look for migrants. Is that something you wouldn’t mind if they happened to knock on your door?

ICE is also picking up and illegally sending U.S. citizens out of the country, including a 2-year-old girl who was snatched up along with her mother, who has legal custody. 

Note that I didn’t say “deported.” A U.S. citizen cannot be deported. If the U.S. insists on sending a citizen out of this country that is not legal. 

And now we have someone in the White House who just had a judge arrested.

On Friday, the FBI arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, accusing her of helping a man evade immigration authorities, the Associated Press said.

Hopefully, time with help clarify the real facts surrounding the judge’s actions — there is evidence that she sent the man into a public hallway where agents were stationed but they chose not to act, perhaps wanting to set up a more actionable situation.

But this administration, with sycophants like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, is sensationalizing the events, which only serve to put other judges on notice that they, too, might be arrested if they don’t play along.

And when for the love of all things holy did “due process” — something that is so important it appears in two separate Constitutional amendments — become optional? 

The convicted felon who has benefitted from due process his whole life wants to remove due process for everyone else.

God (@godpod.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T18:19:51.751Z

For chrissake, any elected official who has said that due process doesn’t apply to everyone, the next time you get arrested for DWI, wire fraud, child abuse, whatever, the first words out of your mouth to law enforcement damn well better be “I give up my right to due process.” And see how you like it.

It has been pointed out that it’s been a pretty bad week for President Donald J. Felon. The poor dear has had to back track on a number of things, like firing the Fed chair, some tariffs, helping Elon pack his bags, Harvard, women’s health study funding, not to mention judge after judge ruling against his executive orders.

The recent New York Times/Siena College poll shows the grifter-in-chief to be underwater on his job approval, immigration, the economy, trade, the war between Russia and Ukraine, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and more.

Trump is now underwater on his signature issue – immigration. While it may be a surprise to some, it turns out that fighting for due process, Kilmar’s release, and for a just immigration system is actually winning over the public. It always pays off to do the right thing.

Robert Garcia (@robertgarcia.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T20:13:24.569Z

A wild animal that is cornered doesn’t just give up, roll over and show its belly. It lashes out.

The golfer-in-chief is not above trying to make things worse to get the public to put up with more dictatorial hijinks.

We need to keep showing up and fighting back. We also need Democrats in Congress grow a spine and refuse to do anything to help with the MAGAGop agenda.

Say “No” to fascism.

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-Span.org

The Name That Will Not Be Spoken on Fox?

By Michael Woyton

What do Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld have in common?

Besides being apologists for the adjudicated rapist and grifter-in-chief.

A piece by Matt Gertz in Media Matters explains that the mega MAGA Fox headliners have stopped defending Pete “WhiskyLeaks” Hegseth, in the wake of media reports of chaos at the Department of Defense, five top aides leaving the department and reports that the SecDef shared info about airstrikes in Yemen on a commercial chat app.

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“Fox’s evening lineup of The Ingraham Angle, Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, and Gutfleld! have ignored Hegseth’s struggles this week (a passing remark from guest Jimmy Failla to host Laura Ingraham was the only mention of the story on any of those shows),” Media Matters reported. “The Five, the Fox panel show which features Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, Jeanine Pirro, and Dana Perino, also has not covered the subject.”

Thanks for catching up with the rest of us who have since his nomination thought Hegseth was completely unqualified to be defense secretary or even to run a single chair makeup salon.

Media Matters brings up two explanations for the Fox News silent treatment: 1) pretending the Signal story is over will help Hegseth until it all blows over or 2) they believe that his job performance is horrible and he is destined to fail so they won’t stick their necks out for the man who said he wouldn’t drink any more alcohol if he got the job.

Read the Media Matters article here.

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With the news Friday that George “I Never Met a Lie I Didn’t Tell” Santos was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, it seems appropriate to show you stories that my friend and former colleague Jacqueline Sweet produced on the serial fibber and disgraced congressman.

Enjoy.

Since it's the end of an era (RIP…for now) here is a super thread of all my major George Santos stories.1. The time he allegedly stole money from a GoFundMe he made for a disabled veteran's dog that then died:patch.com/new-york/oys…

Jacqueline Sweet (@jsweetli.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T17:38:12.426Z

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We could have had Al Gore as president. (Thanks, Sandra Day O’Connor)

Here he is calling out President Donald J. Felon.

Former VP Al Gore: “Hitler’s third Reich was uniquely evil, but there are important lessons… the first step in their descent into hell was the conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power… attacked the distinction between true & false…” http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol…

The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-04-24T12:20:07.361Z

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I can’t embed a link to it, but The Economist has quite the upcoming cover.

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Lead art by Michael Woyton

Who Thought People Would Care About the Economy

By Michael Woyton

We are 93 days into the second administration of the felon-in-chief — safe to say it seems longer, yes? — and it also seems that some Americans are beginning to see past the shiny gilt of the Oval Office.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the adjudicated rapist and crypto hawker is not as well liked as a 49.9 percent majority vote would indicate.

The president’s economic approval rating has fallen to 37 percent, Reuters reported, which is down from 42 percent “in the hours after his January 20 inauguration, when he promised to supercharge the economy and bring about a ‘Golden Age of America’.”

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Reuters pointed out that his approval rating is “well below than at any point in his first term, when it ranged from the mid-40’s to mid-50’s.”

A poll taken right after the inauguration said 55 percent of people wanted either inflation or the economy to be the president’s main focus during the first 100 days, while 23 percent said immigration.

The most recent poll, taken between April 16 and April 21, found that three-quarters of those who responded were worried a recession was coming, and 56 percent, which included one in four Republicans, “said Trump’s moves to shake up the economy are ‘too erratic’.”

Ya think?

Every day there are news stories about possible layoffs, new tariffs being implemented one day and then taken away the next, threats to illegally fire the head of the Federal Reserve and more.

The grifter in the White House has said he “couldn’t care less” about people having to pay more for goods because of the “beautiful tariffs” he keeps talking about, without ever admitting he has no idea how tariffs actually work.

When will Congress wake up to the fact that the man who bankrupted at least six of his businesses, including two casinos, may not be the best person to decide economic matters?

Hey, Treasury Secretary Bessent, you might want to consider how the first line of your obituary will read if you let the golfer-in-chief continue the way he’s going.

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Here’s a reminder that maybe, just maybe, Candidate Felon was lying about knowing nothing about Project 2025. 

There’s more through this link, including ways to protest.

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Does anyone think Elon stepping down will actually help his reputation?

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Tim “Cashing Those Russian Checks” Pool in the White House press room, fer chrissakes!

I don't understand why legitimate news orgs don't just grab their notebooks and leave the room

Michael Woyton (@woyton.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T17:58:55.112Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from Reuters.com of Reuters/Ipsos poll

Felon Stands Behind Hegseth, So He’s Doomed?

By Michael Woyton

If the Department of Defense were a commercial airplane, and the person piloting it were a former weekend talkshow host, and the plane were on fire with most of the crew having already bailed out, then that might describe what Pete “WhiskyLeaks” Hegseth is going through now.

Except that he is saying that everything’s hunky-dory while blaming the media and “anonymous” sources for his troubles, even though one of the sources wasn’t so anonymous by writing a signed opinion piece for Politico.

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At the White House rich-donor Easter egg hunt Monday, the embattled, incompetent possibly intoxicated defense secretary honored the spirit of the event by saying that the media is after him along with disgruntled former employees “and then they try and slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.” (Too late, Petey.)

At the WH Easter egg hunt, Hegseth this morning pathetically blames the media for what his own appointees disclosed about his latest scandals.

Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T14:00:50.254Z

Hegseth said the latest controversy — that he included his wife, brother and personal lawyer on a group chat about the bombings in Yemen — was “old news,” even though it broke on Sunday.

The “old news” followed even older news from March reported by Atlantic magazine that said senior administration officials, including the vice president and national security adviser, were all on an encrypted but unclassified commercial app talking about operational details for the missile strikes — while the editor-in-chief of the magazine was also on the group chat, the New York Times said.

The Times pointed out that Hegseth’s wife, a former Fox News producer, is not a DOD employee but has traveled with him and been included in sensitive meetings.

This screenshot is the smoking gun.The Defense Secretary—on Signal—live texting classified strike times to people without the proper clearance.Hegseth’s defense? Blame a “disgruntled employee” and bash the media. And the White House is still standing by him.1/2

Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) 2025-04-21T14:18:21.241Z

“Mr. Hegseth’s brother Phil and Tim Parlatore, who continues to serve as his personal lawyer, both have jobs in the Pentagon, but it is not clear why either would need to know about upcoming military strikes aimed at the Houthis in Yemen,” the Times reported.

President Donald J. Felon, through his spokes-liar Karoline Leavitt, said he is standing “strongly behind” Hegseth. 

Leavitt added that this is all because the whole of the Pentagon is working against Hegseth who is trying to implement monumental change. In other words: victimhood.

All of this means Hegseth has to go because he is a security risk. In fact, he should never have been nominated or approved, and that is on the corrupt president and the corrupt Republican Party.

With a history of alcohol abuse and accusations of rape, frankly, Hegseth’s nomination should never have gotten out of committee.

The grifter-in-chief picked him because he thought he looked the part — with his questionable tattoos — and was more than willing to suck up to him.

So in other words, Hegseth fit in with the rest of the cabinet and appointees.

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Nice to know what will be included in one’s obituary, huh, Shady Vance?

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Lead art: Screen grab from CNN

Have the Supremes Woken Up?

By Michael Woyton

We woke up Saturday to welcome news that the Supremes — at least some of them — have come to the conclusion maybe that the Mad King really doesn’t give a flying fig about court rulings and will continue to defy them. 

With only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel “What Kind of Flag Will My Wife Buy for This” Alito dissenting, the highest court in the land temporarily stopped another group of migrants from Venezuela who have been accused of being members of a gang from being deported using the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, per the New York Times.

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Could it be that social media “smartass-ness” coming from the official White House formerly Twitter account actually made the justices sit up and say, “Donnie’s not taking us seriously. Is it something we said, like ‘full immunity’?”

Good morning to everyone but especially the White House employee whose assholery apparently woke up SCOTUS

Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T13:39:04.342Z

And please remember that it was a tweet by Salvadoran dictator President Nayib Bukele and reposted White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, saying “Oopsie … Too late,” when news broke about the government ignoring a district judge’s order to turn around the original flights of immigrants in mid-March.

Is Chief Justice John Roberts now a member of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party who is saying, “I never though leopards would eat MY face”?

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Is this another “oopsie”? 

Now President Donald J. Felon’s White House is claiming it never meant to send a letter to Harvard University demanding the school discontinue diversity efforts, limit or completely ban student protests and install right-wing faculty, among other things.

Harvard stood up to the bully — and the bully blinked

shauna (@goldengateblond.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T01:26:41.388Z

On April 11, Harvard received the letter and immediately rejected the authoritarian demands for the adjudicated felon to take over running the institution.

Then on Friday it was reported by the New York Times that, shortly after Harvard’s public rebuke of the president, a top General Services Administration lawyer named Josh Gruenbaum called the university and said the letter was unauthorized and should not have been sent, according to The Wrap.

It gets more delicious because, while the White House told the Times it stands by the letter, one of its policy persons said in a statement that Harvard’s lawyers should have called the White House before going public about the letter’s demands. New phone, who dis?

OMG. It must be difficult for this administration to understand that people who are educated and can actually read might actually believe what they have been sent in writing, especially when it was signed by three federal officials and was on official letterhead!

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There is nothing I can add to this Mother Jones article about how little Robert F. Kennedy Jr. knows about autism.

He is a dangerous man who really should be impeached for the disinformation he continue to spew. Unfortunately, RFK Jr. is in a position to hurt — even kill — a lot of Americans.

🚨Here’s a list of just a few of the major pieces of misinformation Kennedy shared about autism🚨

Mother Jones (@motherjones.com) 2025-04-18T20:22:35.743Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps

‘We Are All Afraid, Okay?’: Senator

By Michael Woyton

It’s pretty head turning when an elected official in the federal government says something that many of us have been thinking lately.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who’s been in public service for decades, spoke Monday to a leadership summit in Anchorage and was asked by someone, “What do you have to say to people who are afraid or who represent people who are afraid?”

The senator took a beat and said, “We are all afraid, okay?”

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She continued, “It’s quite a statement. But, we are, we’re in a time and a place where, I don’t know, I certainly have not, I have not been here before. And I’ll tell you. I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.

“But that’s what you’ve asked me to do. And so I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability. And sometimes it will be viewed in a way that, well, that’s pretty confrontational.”

Murkowski said that she still has to figure out how she can do her best to help those who are also anxious and afraid.

Many of the questions the senator received at the event dealt with the uncertainty felt by many people who work in “the public sector, nonprofit services and social safety net programs since the start of the second Trump administration in January,” according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News.

Murkowski described it as “head spinning,” adding, “It seems that just when you’ve made a little bit of progress on one issue that had caused so much anxiety, there’s another one.”

She used the word “unlawful” in criticizing some of the administration’s policy measures and service cuts.

“It is as hard as anything I have been engaged in, in the 20-plus years I’ve been in the Senate,” she was quoted as saying.

Well, welcome to the club, senator.

Yes, it’s head spinning to pick up one’s phone in the morning and see what the convicted felon who’s living in the White House has said or done overnight.

Yes, it’s head spinning to log in to a 401(k) account and see that, yet again, a lifetime of savings has been plundered because the grifter-in-chief thumbed his nose at longtime, trusted trade partners, sending the markets into a tariff-induced uncertainty.

So he wiped out $10T of retirement savings (and counting) for $500M in tariff revenue? #trumpmath

Senator Casey Weinstein (@senatorweinstein.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T22:13:01.490Z

It’s more than head spinning to see that people with valid status to be in this country are being rounded up by masked, unidentified thugs and spirited away to another country being led by a dictator, leading even citizens to wonder if they go abroad, will they be allowed back in.

How is it not head spinning to read that a raspy-voiced, former heroin user, conspiracy theorist appointed to lead the United States Health and Human Services Department is pulling the plug on medical research into heart disease, obesity, HIV, to name a few? 

Just a reminder:Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lacks formal education or professional credentials in critical scientific fields such as biology, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, immunology, virology, epidemiology, genetics, pharmacology, or medicine.

SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@covid19disease.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T12:39:49.977Z

Hell, co-presidents Musk/Trump are taking funding away from Medicaid and National Institutes of Health research into developing cures and treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s and opioid abuse so they can give larger tax cuts to billionaires.

Now, Trump wants to follow in Richard Nixon’s shoes and weaponize the Internal Revenue Service in order to eliminate Harvard University’s tax exempt status because it would not bow down to him and let him ruin run the prestigious institution.

Honestly I'm glad they picked Harvard to try out this novel "we're mad" legal theory of revoking tax-exempt status, given its infinite resources, deep network of powerful alumni, and law school attended by 142 sitting federal judges.Good luck! 🫡

Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T21:17:38.785Z

And what could be more head spinning to us all — and I hope that includes the conservative members of the Supreme Court who gave an adjudicated rapist and con man immunity — than watching members of this administration filled with ass-kissing sycophants in the Department of Justice say to the judges that they will not follow rulings handed down by courts.

Before the election, I warned that there is no safe haven under authoritarianism.If they can ship Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a foreign prison—accused of no crime, with no trial—they can do it to anyone.Americans of conscience must stand against this now.

Hillary Rodham Clinton (@hillaryclinton.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T20:10:44.532Z

Yes, Sen. Murkowski, we are all afraid and rightfully so.

What are you going to do about it?

And how can we help?

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Idiots, thugs, liars and crooks are running America into the ground. 240 years of striving to be a better Union flushed down the MAGA toilet

Pat Bagley (@bagleycartoons.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T01:17:15.654Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from Anchorage Daily News YouTube page

I Don’t Hate Paying Taxes …

By Michael Woyton

Happy Tax Day to everyone who celebrates.

I’ve paid my fair share of taxes over the years and always have done so willingly. I wish we could say the same for churches and billionaires.

As of this writing, both the taxes owed and estimated have already been claimed by the IRS from respective bank accounts, making it less onerous than having to physically write a check and find a mailbox.

The pain is there, but it’s fleeting. 

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A check of presidential terms shows I have actually paid 51 percent of my taxes while members of the Democratic Party were sitting in the Oval Office.

I probably did my share of grumbling while paying “blue” taxes and “red” taxes, but I never really thought about how that hard-earned tax money would be spent until this year.

The words “I don’t wanna pay any more money to this administration than I have to” were uttered in my household more once, to be honest, over the past few weeks.

Think about what President Donald J. Felon has done in the first 85 days of his second administration.

Putting aside the massive downturn in my 401(k)s — “massive” being a completely relative number — Elon “Swasticar” Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has promised to reduce the 2026 federal government’s budget by $1 trillion by Sept. 30, which is the end of the current fiscal year, the New York Times reported.

On Thursday at a cabinet meeting, the king of electric ugly trucks said he now “anticipated the group would save about $150 billion, 85 percent less than its objective,” the Times said.

However, an analysis of Musk’s claims by the Times said there were a lot of inflated numbers caused by errors and guesses, including canceling a contract that didn’t even exist and the occasional mixup with “billion” and “million.” I mean, who doesn’t do that?

All of those erroneous savings come with a price, naturally.

Avi Asher-Shapiro of NPR said on March 1 his team had found that DOGE started with a budget of $750,000 but that quickly grew to about $40 million within the first month of the administration, with much of the money coming under the heading of technology modernization work or IT work.

“But we don’t know if that’s the beginning or the end of it,” Asher-Shapiro said. “We don’t know if it’s $40 million a month for the entirety of the initiative, which would be a staggering sum, or if it’s $40 million for the entire year.”

Some of the employees of DOGE are suckling at the governmental teat, while not being restricted from drawing salaries from other non-governmental organizations, as they slash and burn their way through Washington, D.C.

Wired reported that some DOGErs make between $120,000 annually to a maximum of $195,200 a year from U.S. taxpayers.

Don’t go fretting about the richest man in the world getting by on a government salary. Musk isn’t getting paid by the government, but he continues to receive contracts for services that have brought in more than $38 billion over the past 20 years. And, of course, he’s well-placed to whisper in his co-president’s ear that he be willing to sell more technology to the U.S. and increase his coffers.

Aside from Musk and DOGE, the adjudicated rapist continues to tear up the greens at his vacation properties, having spent more than 27 percent of his time in office golfing since the second inauguration.

As of March 29, taxpayers are estimated to have paid more than $26 million for the president’s golf outings, HuffPost said. The money includes costs to move his motorcade equipment and security personnel and to fly Air Force 1.

HuffPost said the $26 million figure is based on costs in 2017, so it’s almost certainly higher now.

Keep in mind that when the mayor of Mar-a-Lago returns to his country club he ends up making money on the deal, renting out rooms and golf carts. Plus, golfing gets him out of official duties such as honoring deceased soldiers being returned to Dover AFB. You can’t put a price tag on that!

Adding to the cost of this administration are salaries being paid to people such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem and Defense Secretary Pete “WhiskyLeaks” Hegseth.

I could go on naming other reprehensible members of the convicted felon’s cabinet and staff — I’m looking at you Stephen Miller — but my point is that I hate like hell to be contributing to the salaries of these sycophants.

Not only are they being paid for on-the-job training, but their salaries could very well be based on how much they suck up to the man in orange makeup.

I hope that someday it is revealed how much we are paying AG Pam Bondi and her so-called lawyers to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia locked up illegally in an El Salvador hell hole prison by obfuscating and lying to federal judges.

Please, Bondi, take a few bucks out of petty cash and buy a copy of the Constitution and read it. That would be money well spent.

So yeah, my taxes are paid for this year, and I hate more than I can describe that what I am contributing is helping to fund the administration of someone who should have been forced out of the race when he made fun of a disabled reporter.

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Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps

Justa Coupla Dictators Chatting

By Michael Woyton

I hope that Kim Jung-un wasn’t watching C-Span this morning or tomorrow morning or whatever time is in North Korea.

There was a real love fest going on Monday between wannabe dictator President Donald J. Felon and real-life self-proclaimed “coolest dictator” Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele.

During their Oval Office meeting a question came up from a reporter about the United States returning a Maryland man from an El Salvador prison.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia was illegally deported from the U.S. to El Salvador and the administration believes that the recent Supreme Court order does not compel them to do anything to bring him back.

The grifter-in-chief’s facilitators have admitted Abrego Garcia was deported in violation of a 2019 immigration court order barring deportation to that country, according to Politico.

During Monday’s White House meeting, AG Pam Bondi again called Abrego Garcia a member of MS-13, something he and his lawyer continue to deny, and said that it was up to El Salvador to decide whether to return the man.

That is not what the courts have been saying, even though the White House keeps saying the Supreme Court unambiguously ruled in its favor.

Bukele, basking in the warmth of the mayor of Mar-a-Lago — maybe that was just the glow of all the gold paint that has recently been applied in the Oval — emphatically said he would not release the man. 

Presidential advisor Temu Goebbels Stephen Miller said on Fox News Sunday that getting the Maryland man back to the U.S. would be an invasion of El Salvador’s sovereignty and would be considered a kidnapping.

Stephen Miller claims on Fox News that returning the Maryland father who was wrongly deported to El Salvador would constitute a "kidnapping" and "invasion of El Salvador's sovereignty.""He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador," Miller lies. "This was the right person sent to the right place."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-14T13:30:56.622Z

So we’ve sent Abrego Garcia — by mistake, admittedly — to a hell-hole prison and no one — NO ONE — can do anything about it?

This is a cruel game the rapist-in-chief is playing, and combined with the reports of people, including a Boston a lawyer who is a U.S citizen, getting emails telling them they must immediately self-deport, can only be described as a terrifying game.

The person occupying the Oval Office doesn’t care about anyone but himself. After all, he ran for a second term only to stay out of prison. Unfortunately, he is surrounded by people who only seem skilled in creating havoc and breaking laws.

— — — — —

File this under “Trump Now Even Hates Red States”:

After spending hours during the campaign saying that President Biden and FEMA weren’t sending any help to North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene, the 34 times convicted felon is denying the state matching disaster aid.

NORTH CAROLINA: “Trump has denied NC’s request to continue matching 100% spending on Hurricane Helene recovery… NC’s governor says he is ‘extremely disappointed’…” ncnewsline.com/2025/04/12/f…

The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T14:06:29.034Z

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Former member of the U.S. National Security Council Fiona Hill said this country is “definitely on a path toward full-on state repression.” 

Remember Fiona Hill? She’s now sounding the alarm again: “We’re definitely on a path toward full-on state repression. There’s no question about it. I’ve thought about this for an extraordinarily long time.” When Fiona speaks, we should all listen.

Victor Shi (@victorshi.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T17:10:48.286Z

So many women warned us, Hillary and Kamala included. 

When are we ever going to listen?

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-Span.org

Don’t Be Fooled by Tariff ‘Pause’

By Michael Woyton

If you’ve looked at your stock ticker or favorite stock app, no doubt you’ve noticed that people who buy stocks aren’t that happy about the “pause” on tariffs that President Donald J. Felon announced Wednesday.

That’s because, sorry about the all caps, THERE ARE STILL TARIFFS IN EFFECT.

So if you read or heard that the grifter-in-chief paused tariffs which corrected the market drop, you haven’t been given all the information.

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Yes, the adjudicated rapist blinked when he finally realized — or someone was able to get him to understand — that “stocks going down and bonds going up” was a terrible thing for him — not for the country or you and me.

Most likely someone said the magic words “Trump Recession” and that scared the orange makeup off of him.

In any case, the mayor of Mar-a-Lago paused the higher targeted tariffs for 90 days, but did not pause the 125 percent tariffs on China or the 10 percent across-the-board tariffs, according to NBC News.

NOTE: CNBC clarified Thursday morning that the actual tariffs on China are now 145 percent.

To put it another way, the current occupant of the Oval Office decided not to go through with the additional tariffs he trotted out on a big display the other day in the Rose Garden. You know, the one where he was putting an additional tariff on a couple of islands in the southern hemisphere that were only occupied by penguins.

That’s enough on the seesawing stock market for today. I don’t know what the Mad King will next say that will send Wall Street into a frenzy.

What I can say is that, yes, my 401(k)s did go back up yesterday, but it’s no where near where it was on Jan. 20. And if the Dow continues to drop today, it will probably go back down.

Congress could stop this madness if they wanted to.

If you have Republicans representing you in Congress, it’s worth giving them a call or sending them a message. Call the Democrats, too.

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Some Democrats in the Senate are going to look into whether all the market fluctuations led to some financial shenanigans. 

Sens. Adam Schiff, D-California, and Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, have accused the president of facilitating insider trading, according KEYE, a CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas.

The two senators wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics and White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles asking “whether President Donald Trump, his family, or other members of the administration engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions, informed by advance knowledge of non-public information regarding his changes to tariff policy, yesterday or at any time during this administration.”

Of note, Schiff and Gallego pointed out an 18 percent surge in the price of Tesla stock and the presidential social media posts such as “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”

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At the ASU+SGSV Summit Tuesday in San Diego, Education Secretary Linda McMahon lived up to the legacy of Betsy DeVos while speaking at one of the panel discussions on “AI in the Workforce.”

As can be heard in the clip below, which is cued up to the moment McMahon was speaking (about 2:06:00), she said, not once but twice, how great it will be that even the youngest school children will be able to take advantage of “A1” technology.

Perhaps McMahon should try using AI technology to find out that it stands for artificial intelligence and not the tasty steak sauce.

What’s better in classrooms than A1?

JJ in DC (@jjindc.bsky.social) 2025-04-10T02:00:47.168Z

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And in addition to slashing Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts for billionaires, the Mad King wants to put tariffs on prescription drugs.

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Lead art: Screen grab from CNBC