The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues

Not enough bourbon in my house. And to be clear, there is a LOT of bourbon in my house.

Might as well drop all the pretence and give the Soviet State of the Union in Russian.

I can’t take that much horseshit unfiltered. I’ll watch the Rachel Maddow recap.

You are obviously not drinking enough. My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

Meanwhile, in other news: Federal workers ordered back to the office return to find no desks, no wifi, no lights: (CNN link)

In one Department of Health and Human Services office, there was no Wi-Fi or full electricity in the first hours when people returned last week.

Department of Education employees at an office in Dallas returned to ethernet cords in piles around the floor, random wires sticking out of walls, and motion-sensor lights that weren’t working correctly, leading to dark workspaces. One employee tripped over a pile of cords on her first day back, resulting in a large gash on her foot. She’s submitted a workers’ compensation complaint.

And a Department of Defense employee who returned to in-office work and handles sensitive information was stuck in a conference room with people on different teams, forcing them to leave the room to make calls. The employee was eventually moved to an office — but one without Wi-Fi, so they had to use their phone’s spotty hot spot.

“The only thing a return to the office has given me is an hour of traffic while driving and a loss in efficiency,” said the worker, who requested anonymity for fear of job reprisals.

Some employees had no office to return to at all – leases had been cancelled or scheduled to cancel within months.

well, from the top of my head, Sweden’s last war was in 1816ish against Norway and Peru’s in 1941ish against Ecuador.
UK had a small affair with Argentina in 1982 too.

Falklands just missed the 30-40 year cut our clear historian VP is. I was thinking the Republic of Ireland might be the most neutral (not in NATO and I’ve no idea how much GDP they pay for their nominal army). Or maybe Madagascar, yet that sounds a bit French. Looked it up - yeah they peacefully became independent in 1960 and it generally doesn’t work that way (ETA: Esp. considering they have considerable tasty resources, like vanilla and I’m pretty sure have good chocolate)

ETA2: ROI GDP spending

As of 2022, the Republic of Ireland’s military expenditure was 0.2% of its GDP, making it the lowest defense spender among EU nations.

They do have the UK to back them (somewhat ironically)

If this administration really wants to go far enough down the road with “protest” crackdowns, this, to me, is when shit starts to get real.

ETA: I see a cake by name. Just a little off by 4 months.

That’s a slice of cake— your signup anniversary!

It’s official, those who have been canned by felon47’s boyfriend-in-chief, the party line from the White House is Go Fuck Off.](Trump adviser says veterans fired by DOGE are perhaps 'not fit to have a job' right now) (It’s an AOL link; the title is mine.)

WASHINGTON — White House adviser Alina Habba said Tuesday that military veterans affected by the DOGE-led layoffs of federal workers may not be “fit to have a job at this moment.”

Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Habba was asked about fired workers whom Democrats have invited to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night. Habba defended the cuts and said she had no sympathy for the thousands of people who have lost their jobs.

“I really don’t feel sorry for them,” Habba said. “They should get back to work for the American people, like President Trump and this administration.”

And the veterans in that group of cannees? You’d better sit down before you read this part.

A reporter then noted that some military veterans have been part of that group.

“That’s something the president has always cared about — anybody in blue, anybody that serves this country. But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means,” she added. “We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work. And we can’t, you know, I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, ‘Sorry, you know, they’re not going to come to work.’ It’s just not acceptable.”

Fuckers.

Because, Work is what benefits me, it is not ‘work’ if it benefits someone else or hinders me.

So much for “Elon isn’t in charge of anything we pinky swear”;

Trump is establishing his credibility as a strong-arm tyrant. While I’m no expert at reading people, several of SCOTUS were almost gleefully grinning from time to time while the joint chiefs of staff (the military guys) next to them looked like they were considering asking for a last cigarette before the firing squad at dawn (till the very end when they looked cordial).

I hope the pastor won’t mind if I quote his whole short poem:

FIRST THEY CAME
By Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

This stuff he’s doing might seem unusual now, yet to devils-advocate it, he (via Musk) told them to return to the office, explain why they should have a job and any non-compliance will absolutely hold up in court.

Figuratively, they’ve already come for the Constitution. If more than half of Trump’s actions and executive orders stand up in SCOTUS and he’s never or barely admonished, it will not be the end of Trump’s destructive nature and goal to be a permanently in office tyrant (till the reaper reaps)

I’ve come to the conclusion that he no longer wants to remain in office for life. He just wants to be there until he’s done punishing the country for kicking him out of the office once.

Remember, he’s not much younger than Biden. I think he will be president for life, and also out by 2028.

Les Malouines :wink: You Americans really like renaming places :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

PS: it is said with humor.

These days, accepted practice is to call a place by the name the people who live there use.

Hence the Gulf of America and the oceans of Liberty and Freedom!

Hence the Gulf of Mexico is really called “Glub glub.”

Yup, that’s why those Germans living in Deustchland love the French calling them les Allemands /s