The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[Mr.Greenjeans]

@romansperson

I think the ‘asking nicely’ part here would be the most difficult thing.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like if he served as President without being an asshole.

[Great_Antibob]

He’s just basically doing what Putin did. Putin reportedly stole one of Patriot owner Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl rings (basically asked for it and never gave it back).

Of course, since Trump is much dumber than Putin, he believes possession of the prize means he actually earned what it represents rather than a meaningless bauble that explicitly represents his kleptomania

[enipla]

@Great_Antibob

e believes possession of the prize means he actually earned what it represents rather than a meaningless bauble that explicitly represents his kleptomania

I wouldn’t let that asshole into a Walmart.

[Smapti]

Judge blocks Trump's elections order in lawsuit by vote-by-mail states Oregon...

[Sherrerd]

@bobot

This could be the entire reason he had Maduro kidnapped.

I’ve had that thought. By kidnapping Maduro he signaled to Machado “you’d better keep me happy, because you know what I’m capable of.” And he’d easily convince himself that if she sent over the medal and associated paperwork, that would mean that HE won the Nobel.

We know from meetings with the oil companies this week that the whole “we’ll take their oil” rationale was shaky. (It will be very costly; the dropping price of oil makes it less profitable; green energy is getting cheaper by the day.)

So while the masses believe “he did it for the oil,” the reality is “he did it for the Prize.” (Maybe.)

In re the FDA removing limits from their recommendations for alcohol consumption:

@Monty

ISTR that was the main method of coping with life in the USSR for many people. Draw your own conclusions about the connection.

@dougrb

The old guidelines were 2 drinks/day. Who’s going to pick up a dead bear on that?

Both are excellent points!

[Smapti]

Meanwhile, let’s check in on how “America is going to run Venezwayler” is going;

TravelGov

[Monty]

@Smapti

https://x.com/TravelGov/status/2010088968067371243

But, but, how are they going to run the country if all the Americans leave? Let me guess. They’ll start deporting people from the United States to Venezuela.

Speaking of leaveing a locale, I have some new favorite performers.

A year into his second term, President Donald Trump is continuing his aggressive takeover of the newly named Trump-Kennedy Center for the Arts.

Beyond adding his own name to the storied performance institution, formerly known as the Kennedy Center and named after 35th President John F. Kennedy, Trump also installed Richard Grenell, his onetime envoy for special missions, as president of the center. Trump had previously complained about “woke” programming and “drag shows” performed there.

The changes have been met with resistance by some in the art world, who have decried the president’s rapid changes and withheld their own performances as a form of protest. Here’s a look at the musicians and creatives who have canceled shows at the Trump-Kennedy Center.

And here’s a list from that article.

• Issa Rae
• Kristy Lee
• Wayne Tucker
• Brentano Quartet with Hsin-Yun Huang
• Magpie
• Doug Varone and Dancers
• Maria João Pires with Marc-André Hamelin
• Comedy show “Asian AF”
• Touring production of “Hamilton”
• Chuck Redd
• The Cookers
• Stephen Schwartz
• Rhiannon Giddens
• Balún

The war on Truth continues at what was once a respectable institution.

The National Portrait Gallery removed a swath of text that mentioned President Donald Trump’s two impeachments and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as it swapped out a prominent photo of him this week.

Trump and the White House posted on social media Friday and Saturday to highlight the updated portrait in the “America’s Presidents” exhibition, which now features a framed black-and-white photo by White House photographer Daniel Torok. It shows Trump staring intensely, with his fists on the Resolute Desk — an image the president first shared on his Truth Social account last year.

It replaced a photo by Washington Post photojournalist Matt McClain, which showed Trump with his hands folded in front of him, and was accompanied by a longer caption recounting Trump’s first term and his reelection. “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials,” it read in part.

Of course it was done amateurishly.

The placard has been replaced with one whose caption is so short that the outline of the old sign was visible on the wall beneath it, simply noting Trump’s years in office.

Secretary of Labor is screwing around with a subordinate.

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer is facing an internal investigation after a complaint alleged she has been “abusing her position” by pursuing a relationship with a subordinate and drinking on the job.

According to a report from The New York Post, a complaint filed last week with the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General alleged that Chavez-DeRemer hosted a subordinate at her Washington D.C. apartment three times and twice in her hotel room while traveling.

She has also been accused of drinking during the day, keeping a stash of champagne, Bourbon and Kahlua in her office, and committing travel fraud by requesting her staffers concoct official trips to destinations where she can spend time with family or friends.

Nice touch adding the fraud in there. Why not? Her boss is a convicted fraud.

And the peace president master of diplomacy strikes again!

President Donald Trump laid into Republican Senator Susan Collins in an expletive-laden phone call after she voted against one of his top priorities.

The president reportedly made a “profanity-laced” call to the vulnerable Republican senator on Thursday, sources told The Hill. Collins was one of five GOP senators to join Democrats in advancing a resolution on the War Powers Act from committee to the floor, which passed in a 52-47 vote earlier in the day.

“He was very mad about the vote,” the source told The Hill. “Very mad. Very hot.”

&

The source told The Hill that the president “basically read her the riot act,” in a phone call that came “out of the blue.” Collins’ office confirmed to The Hill that the call took place, but did not include any additional details on what the president said.

Cruella de Vile’s damage control is backfiring big time. (The bolding is mine.)

White House insiders are privately panicking that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump officials are digging ICE into an inescapable hole.

Anonymous White House insiders whined to Politico that Noem and the administration’s smear campaign against Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother shot in her car on Wednesday by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, only serves to stoke American distrust in ICE, federal law enforcement, and the government.

Venezuela is one of those “Mexican countries”, right? Let’s attack the main one!

WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump said the United States will soon begin targeting drug cartels by land and suggested the operations could take place in Mexico.

“We are going to now start hitting land with regard to the cartels,” Trump said in a Jan. 8 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very, very sad to watch and see what’s happening to their country.”

I’m wondering what he plans to charge President Sheinbaum with? Let me guess. Fraud. He seems to want everyone charged with that.

[wguy123]

@Monty

President Donald Trump laid into Republican Senator Susan Collins

I bet her brow is so furrowed right about now!

[DesertDog]

@Monty quoting WP

“Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials,” it read in part.

He was not acquitted. The Senate simply declined to try him, to the point of not looking at the evidence provided in the impeachments.

[Monty]

Of couse he wasn’t acquitted. The assertion he was is just part of the war on Truth.

[DesertDog]

Is the multi-universe hypothesis real? 'Cause if it is I want out of this one.

[crowmanyclouds]

Every day I get happier that I have multiple medications, and multiple medical conditions that left unmedicated, will kill me.

[DesertDog]

I hear yuh. I’m old, I hurt, and right now I’m considering, that the best way for me to go out is get shot by and ICE asshole and become another brick in the wall.

At least it would mean something.

[Cervaise]

Leadership in the Episcopal Church is saying the same thing to their clergy.

Claire Nevin-Field (@clairenf.bsky.social)

[Monty]

Fodor’s has a new page for your upcoming international travel. (The bolding is mine.)

What should you do if there’s a military strike while you’re traveling abroad?

The military strikes in Venezuela and subsequent provocative comments from the U.S .administration have left many wondering whether further military action in the Americas is forthcoming. While the threat of future strikes outside Venezuela is unlikely, given that the United States maintains diplomatic relations with the remaining countries in the Americas and has more diplomatic channels to address relations.

But what should travelers do if they’re planning to travel to Greenland, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Cuba, or any other country where the President has either hinted or threatened military action? If a military strike ultimately comes to pass while they’re in the country, how should American travelers plan to respond?

I’m going to post this in MPSIMS shortly, but I have a comment about it which fits here. I just got this information in my E-mail although it was dated last month. My alma mater is in the inaugural class of Black-Serving Institutions!

The University of California, Davis, is in the inaugural class of California universities and colleges designated as Black-Serving Institutions, or BSIs, under a state initiative recognizing those that “excel at providing academic resources to Black and African American students.”

The program awarded the designation last week to UC Davis and 30 other institutions including UC Berkeley; three California State University, or CSU, campuses; 25 California community colleges; and one private university.

Yes, it’s a given a California public university is woke. But now we know exactly how woke it is. I, for one, am very proud to be associated with such an organization.

Now let’s see when Rip van Simple and his simpletons freak out about the designation.

[Monty]

@Cervaise

Leadership in the Episcopal Church is saying the same thing to their clergy.

You’ll forgive me if I sense a disturbance in the orange force regarding the Episcopal Church. That disaster at Saint John’s is really the start of it. Not only is that church, although it’s called “The Church of the Presidents”, private property, it’s an Episcopal congregation.

Any criticism of the orange skidmark tends to get an unhinged reaction. (Has he ever been “hinged”?) I see no reason why this won’t trigger yet another like response.

[Smapti]

Mad King Donald decrees himself “Acting President of Venezuela” via tweet.

[JKellyMap]

Wow. Powerful.

[aurora_maire]

Stand with shooting people in the face.

[Monty]

Good Lord. We really are in the Mirror Universe from Star Trek.