The current second Trump administration: a compendium of horrors

Masterclass in “owning the libs”!

Remember during his first term when the right media would excitedly mention he was finally becoming presidential? Then, he’d go back to his normal idiotic ways and they’d again get all excited when he again did something almost presidential. When was the last time you heard that? I think they’ve finally learned there is nothing presidential about Trump.

Who’s putting these images together, presumably not him?

I’m assuming that the image ones are reposts (re-Truths, I guess) of what he sees with himself tagged, and were originally made and posted by his MAGA faithful.

I’ve been wondering that myself. We know it ain’t DJT, nor is it any of his close underlings like Miller or Scavino.

Undoubtedly a taxpayer-funded lackey or three working in Mom’s basement.

ETA: Ninja’d by kenobi, who’s probably right.

I emailed my senators again today. Please, let them know that we are aware that there is a cazy traitorous (among his other crimes) person (I cannot call him a man, that would be an offense to all men) in the oval office.

Home on the Range No More: Trump Wants Bison Gone

The Trump administration is evicting bison herds from federal grasslands in Montana, siding with ranchers and Republican leaders over environmentalists and tribal leaders.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/us/politics/trump-buffalos-montana.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gFA.ZQYs.8nPZ9bFLiWE0&smid=url-share

The conflict centers on 900 bison owned by the group, which was allowed by multiple administrations, including President Trump’s first, to graze on federal lands, much to the consternation of politically conservative ranchers who wanted the land for cattle.

This winter, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management reversed course and canceled the bison grazing permits. Citing the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, the agency said the federal grasslands where the animals grazed should go to livestock being raised for food, not bison largely enjoying their right to roam. The agency deemed the bison to be wildlife, not production livestock.

Conservation groups condemned the decision, as did Native American tribes, who say the anti-bison effort threatens their own herds as they try to revive bison populations that were hunted to near extinction by 19th-century settlers.

It’s late and I just saw this. I am speechless and offended.

Somebody flattered him and offered him an envelope of cash and a Solid Gold Cowboy Hat.

That’s all it takes.

The reasons given by Trumpers for preventing American Prairie from building its Connecticut-sized Bison ranch are poor. But I’m wondering if there is a better AKA liberal argument for their position.

Ideally, people would stop eating beef. This would be a tremendous blow against global warming.

But in a world where that won’t happen, limiting the amount of land used to raise cattle is a big help.

From what I gather, these Montana ranches are more productive per acre than ranches in more arid areas of the United States. Good. And they are almost certainly more productive per acre than those in second/third world countries, notably most of Latin America. The lower the output and productivity of American agriculture, including animal agriculture, the more Amazon rain forest is cut down to be replaced with low yield per acre agriculture than is usually worse for climate than what we do in the U.S. Plus just cutting down the amazon is bad for warming.

This isn’t the beginning and end of the discussion. I have questions.

Are these bison slaughtered for food? If so, what is the yield per acre compared to Montana cattle ranches (or Montana grazing in public lands)?

If American Prairie replaced cattle production with bison production with similar yield per acre, taking a Connecticut sized piece of land to product bison is a small net climate minus due to cattle methane production being a bit less than for bison on a per pound of animal basis. But if these bison are mostly just left to die of natural causes, we are big-time transferring cattle production from Montana to Brazil, and that’s quite bad. And Trump then is accidentally doing something good. So does anyone know what is going on here? Are people going to eat all these bison?

IIRC, I predicted last year that contributions were not going to be enough to pay for the ballroom. And today, from the New York Times, voilà:

G.O.P. Proposes $1 Billion in Immigration Bill for Trump’s Ballroom Project

That’s because Trump wants this built as fast as humanly possible before he is stopped by the courts or a possible Democratic-controlled Congress. And the way to do that is to shovel money at it (and also sidestep any review processes, permits, inspections, environmental concerns, safety, etc.). So take any estimates you have heard regarding the ballroom and multiply by 3 or 4…at a minimum.

Your reasoning is utterly pointless.

This is the bottom line.

My bold.

To sum up: Woke tree huggers and brown people want the bison in. Republican ranchers (likely donors) want the bison out. The end.

So the ballroom that was going to cost, I think, starting at $300M then $400M, all from donations, is now up to $1B and guess who is going to pay for it?

I’m sure MAGA is cheering over this latest news!

Maybe they think that when it’s finished, trump is going to do like Andrew Jackson and invite them all in to partake of a giant wheel of cheese that he will install in the ballroom for their snacking pleasure. /s

In 1835, New York dairyman Thomas Meacham gifted President Andrew Jackson a 1,400-pound cheddar cheese wheel, which was stored in the White House entrance hall for two years. On Washington’s birthday in 1837, Jackson hosted a public party where visitors consumed the entire cheese in two hours, leaving a lasting odor and stains on the floor. [A.I. source]

The part about the lasting odor rings true.

Seriously? So, theoretically, if anti-bison brown skinned/Latino cattle ranchers were shown to outnumber “brown people who want the bison in,” you’d reconsider?

Or how about we decide if it is a horror based on the climate merits, rather than the identity of the people making the arguments?

I may have a different public lands/ranching Trump administration horror than we can agree is a horror. From Pro-Publica:

Weathy Ranchers Profit from Public Lands

We may disagree on where the grazing should be allowed or what species should graze. But I’ll bet we agree that Trump’s plan to increase cattle grazing subsidies will be a terrible use of public funds.

But that’s why we conquered the West: to transfer resources from the indigenous people to big business. See also: looting of the commonweal. It’s a bedrock Republican principle: public resources are there to be used, not just held in trust for the public. After all, you’ve gone your entire life without passenger pigeons: who needed them? Bison are just a larger and more bovine version.

(I am personally on the “more bison” side)

Just because the bison people say they are holding land in trust for public benefit doesn’t make it true. If you pull out from agriculture a Connecticut sized piece of Montana for the world’s biggest bison zoo, you just pushed a Connecticut sized piece of public resource to be used for agriculture somewhere else, most likely, nowadays, the amazon.

So Trump is not the only one following bedrock Republican principles. It’s just less direct on the supposed other side.

I probably agree with most of the others here on what constitutes a Trump horror 95 percent of the time. Hopefully that’s good enough for internet work.

Oh, agreed.

On the other hand, why should private businesses get free use of public resources? Isn’t that SOCIALISM?

Enclosing the commons has been a profitable practice in the UK since the 13th century, and was never called socialism.

Kash (or as he prefers “Ka$h”) Patel has been giving out personalized bottles of bourbon. This kind of thing would have been a scandal in the days of old except that it has never happened before. So what is the FBI to do when finding out this drunk Director is giving out booze like it is candy, probably violating several ethics rules at once? Investigate the source of the leak of course: