The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues

To me, that’s funny. When I was younger I toyed with the idea of being a truck driver, and the thing I liked the best is, I wouldn’t have to talk to people! I never even liked CBs.

In reality, it’s often the other way. Since they get paid (or used to, can’t for sure say about everyone today) by the mile, truck drivers would fudge their log books so they could run long hours and the log showed the requisite number of off (sleep) hours. Speed, both meanings, was a factor in miles run.

Now a lot of companies run electronic logs, which means cheating is harder. Of course the MAGATruckers hate “big brother” watching them. They also hate emission regulations, the decline of high fat greasy foods, and having to stop for pee breaks. (if you don’t know how they manage, you don’t want to!)

And it’s not just immigrant drivers. About 600K Mexican trucks cross the US border every month, and it’s a good bet a lot of those drivers would be affected by this.

Crisis of truth averted. Wouldn’t want to upset King Trump.

And another American oligarch narrowly avoids having his yacht(s) and jet aircraft seized.

Phew.

For example this administration (represented by Baghdad Barbie) honesty and transparency are “political” and “hostile”.

Jesus F-ing Christ, I don’t know what to do.

More deliveries today. We’re in pharmaceuticals, and some of our materials are supposed to be exempt from the tariffs. Multiple lots in the same delivery of the same thing are being assigned different HS codes by customs. Which is resulting in One- them being given incorrect HS codes, and two- some lots getting tariffs and some not. It’s utter incompetence.

And I don’t even know whom to call.

Maybe …

Click on the heading that reads:

Pharmaceuticals, Health & Chemicals Center Directory

That may not be the end of the journey, but it might be a reasonable place to start.

Good luck.

Oh. This is cute:

This goes well with:

Dismissing the experts working on the assessment is the latest in a barrage of moves by the Trump administration to end or reduce research into climate as it pursues a “drill, baby, drill” agenda to prioritize the fossil fuel industry.

Federal websites have been purged of information related to the climate and extreme weather and agencies reduced in size, prompting warnings Americans’ are being made less safe amid the reality of the climate crisis.

The global climate isn’t changing, there’s no risk ahead, and minorities don’t exist. Check.

But at least we’ll be mining more coal!!

My favorite part is Blondie Baghdad Bob makes it sound like Trump tweeted and soon after someone snapped Sanders up. Trump tweeted, then someone snapped up Sanders the next day. In the 5th round. 5th round out of 7.

I’m going with Bullshit Barbie.

It’s part of the problem, yes, but the main culprit is that truck driving is a crummy occupation. It used to be a pretty good job allowing someone with little in the way of a formal education to provide their families with a decent, middle class lifestyle. I think MAGAmericans would be perfectly happy to take trucking jobs if they actually paid decent wages. This is a problem the industry created for itself.

And it’s even worse in a lot of the depositions I proofread for freelance court reporters. Weasels, weasels everywhere, bloviating, dodging the question, rambling off on their preferred tangent, asking endlessly for clarification of straightforward questions, “I don’t remember”-ing things they damned well should, and likely do.

I just saw a clip of a recent Trump interview in which he said China was “going to eat the cost of the tariffs” or something similar.

How does that work? If there is a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, does that mean China is going to pay US companies 45% of the goods’ cost to take them off their hands? China can’t offer any discount of more than 100% of the item’s cost, right?

Trump wants it to be true, therefore it is true.

Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But since China has no obligation to play along with his delusions it won’t.

The clusteriest cluster in the history of clustering clusters on!

The felon cannot stop being petty.

How did I miss this one? Evidently the clusterer and his flacks have been deleting immigration records.

I’m hoping–nah, it’s probably just a pipe dream–the reason the judge wants that flack to appear in person is so she can jail Watson for contempt of court.

Hey, what’s happening in the Department of Deranged, I mean Defense?

Ensure the safety and operability of our vessels and equipement? Take care of our service members and their families? Get real.

Here’s a fun one. Let’s cancel a program your boss put in place, but lie about it really being Biden’s program.

But all is going to be fine with Pete. Donnie says so.

WTF does I had a talk with him but I had a talk with him supposed to mean?

In the “I run the world” delusion news:

How many times does it need to be said before it sinks in? *Trump has never, not even once, in his life joked. Yes, he’s made a statement then laughed about it. He’s made a statement and then said he was joking. He’s mocked and insulted others and laughed about that. Not one of those things is a joke. He’s serious!

The only possible reason he mentioned the cardinal is because he realizes he cannot become Pope. If there were a loophole for him, he would go for it.

A magamasturbatory frenzy for the masses!

It’s a video so be warned.

And to nobody’s surprise, it’s all a lie the deported mothers of US citizen children chose to have their children deported with them.

And the felon’s response to his flacks deporting US citizens? “Nothing’s perfect.”

If I had written even 1% of what this clown has done in this administration alone for a civics paper way back in middle school or high school, I would’ve been awarded an F and then sent to psychologist or psychiatrist to find out what was wrong with me.

What an embarrassing idiot. War fighting? What is he, nine years old?

Discussed in another recent thread (or maybe this one, earlier), but AIUI, “warfighter” is apparently an actual, if relatively recent, term which is commonly used in the military community to describe military members who are in combat roles and combat areas (as opposed to support roles and those who are stationed outside of combat areas), though not without some controversy over its use.

It still sounds juvenile and slightly malevolent. Like a nine year old, as @GuanoLad said.

How does that work? If there is a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, does that mean China is going to pay US companies 45% of the goods’ cost to take them off their hands?

China doesn’t pay anything. US companies that import products from China pay 145% more than they did before the tariffs. A pair of shoes that cost $100 to import from China now cost $245.

That’s how this works.

The term warfighter might be commonly accepted as a catch-all term for people in uniform. Well accepted in defense circles from what I’ve heard and read over the last several weeks. Under normal circumstances I could accept that it was being used in a neutral sense. It’s military jargon. But Hegseth was clearly using this in a “rah rah” the one and only purpose of a military is to crush your perceived enemies sense. Yes, the thinking of an emotionally stunted 9-year-old.

When I saw this tweet, or wherever this was posted at, it reminded me of reporting that came out over the last couple of weeks about the Trump regime declaring 170 MI of the Mexican border as a “military base.” This of course makes it legal for military personnel to arrest and detain non-combatants. American citizens, immigrants legal or otherwise. Prediction? I think we’re going to see Trump deploy military assets against a civilian population, probably sooner than later. The groundwork is already being laid.

Cites for the border situation.

DOD website
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4166835/at-southern-border-defense-secretary-visits-newly-created-national-defense-area/

Second, the establishment of a National Defense Area increases the military’s role at the southern border, effectively bypassing longstanding legal restrictions put in place by the Posse Comitatus Act. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal military forces from being used in a law enforcement capacity, such as searching, seizing, detaining, and arresting people entering the country. The Posse Comitatus Act does not apply to National Guard members under state control. Today, there are approximately 10,000 active-duty soldiers operating at the border alongside members of the National Guard. By statute, Congress has granted the military broad authority to protect federal property. Now, federal military forces at the southern border will be empowered to arrest, detain, search, and seize anyone—migrant or otherwise—that attempts to cross into the new National Defense Area.

If I’m reading these articles correctly this is bypassing both standard Congressional approval for establishing new military land. And of course it’s also skirting posse comitatus.