The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues

[Monty]

And he no doubt means your kids and grandkids work there right alongside you now. Screw any remaining child labor laws.

[crowmanyclouds]

I’m just curious what exactly is being manufactured at what retail price if starting salaries are $80,000 and rising to as much as $200,000?
Luxury shirtwaists?

[kenobi_65]

$3500 iPhones, of course.

[Buck_Godot]

@Monty

“You know, this is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here.”

Lutnick called his proposed model the “future” of American manufacturing and said it would create job opportunities with salaries starting around $80,000 and rising to as much as $200,000.

Ya know, I think this actually sounds entirely plausible and the way things are going maybe even likely under Trump.

Of course Lutnik failed to mention that this is after a complete colapse of the US dollar and hyper inflation so that the dollar/Euro exchange rate is now 500 to 1. Making to the $80,000 a year wages by US workers are competitive to Bangladeshi sweat shops. You are going to be working there the rest of your l life as will your kids and grand kids, in fact all at the same time starting at age 6. You’ll need their wages to pay your family’s share of the the rent on your shipping container.

The man’s a visionary.

[crowmanyclouds]

@Buck_Godot

You’ll need their wages to pay your family’s share of the the rent on your shipping container.

Ohhhh we used to dream of livin’ in a shipping container! Woulda’ been a palace to us. We used to live in an old hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to us.

[Monty]

@Buck_Godot

Of course Lutnik failed to mention that this is after a complete colapse of the US dollar and hyper inflation so that the dollar/Euro exchange rate is now 500 to 1.

I’ve already posted on the SDMB that the felon’s going to turn the US dollar into the Zimdollar, or at least give the ZimD a run for its money.

Do you rememer when people in high office managed to have polite discourse? Given that the leader of the most incompetent administration in our history is a vulgarain, I’m guessing this counts as a politic statement.

Kristi Noem fired a tasteless dig at migrants after a lawsuit they brought was rendered moot because most of them had already been deported.

“Suck it,” the Department of Homeland Security secretary wrote from her official X account, sharing a screengrab of a “notice of voluntary dismissal” of the lawsuit dated Thursday.

The lawsuit had been filed on March 1 by 10 immigration detainees whom the Trump administration intended to send to Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay, home to one of the world’s most notorious detention facilities.

The deal artist says he’s not interested in making deals. So, what the hey, let’s tank the economy some more.

President Donald Trump’s moves Friday to reignite his global trade war laid bare the administration’s bubbling frustration with resistance from both corporations and foreign countries unwilling to rapidly bow to U.S. demands.

After weeks of touting post-Liberation Day efforts to calm uneasy markets, Trump vowed to target the European Union with new 50 percent tariffs, declaring that he was no longer interested in reaching a trade deal following days of sluggish negotiations.

“It’s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m not looking for a deal. We’ve set the deal — it’s at 50 percent.”

Got news for you, felon. Your book was written by a ghostwriter. You already tried presidenting with a ghostpresident, Musk. But now you can’t even pretend that’s happening. You do not know how to make a deal. You do not know how to negotiate. You know nothing about trade. You know nothing about diplomacy. You know nothing about business. You know nothing.

The big beautiful bullshit has another whammy for you.

As the One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes its way to the Senate, one piece of the proposed bill is still stirring heated debate among parents and caregivers.

This part of the proposal aims to grant every newborn in the United States a $1,000 government-funded savings account — framed as an investment in the future of America’s children.

How can that be bad? Here’s how. (Same link)

Supporters claim the initiative, backed by prominent conservative lawmakers, would promote financial independence and reduce long-term reliance on government aid. But economic experts and policy analysts are sounding the alarm, warning that the bill could deepen inequality, strain federal resources and divert attention from more effective ways to help lower-income children.

“As a parent I just have to laugh,” said Rebecca Schroeder from Florida. “This is not what we want or need, nor what we asked for. We need real policy that makes having children affordable and equitable, not this overly patriotic political move. It feels icky to me.”

And here’s another whammy. (Same link)

Under the new bill, children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 1, 2029, would receive the $1,000 deposit in an account, which would be invested in financial markets. Parents and loved ones can contribute to these accounts as well. Once the children are grown, they could withdraw the money to use for education, the down payment on a home, or capital to start a business.

Here’s my take on that. What investment? The felon’s tanking the markets. They’ll be lucky if there’s even one mill (mill, not million) left in the account next year, let alone when they’re ready to go to university (but see story posted above about higher education) or buy a house.

The DisHonorable I’ve Never Met a Conspiracy Theory I Didn’t Believe is still at it.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doubling down on his bonkers theory that measles jabs contain aborted fetuses.

Speaking to NBC News’ Tom Llamas on Thursday night, President Donald Trump‘s secretary of health and human services stood by his debunked claim just days after sparking alarm for linking a deadly measles outbreak to vaccine hesitancy fueled by what he bizarrely called “aborted fetus debris.”

His remarks come as the U.S. faces its largest measles outbreak in around 25 years, and two young girls have died.

I wonder how jealous of this Jenny McCarthy is. I also wonder how quickly he’s going to pass her death count.

You thought he was done selling off the country? Hahahaha! He’s not even done selling off citizenship!

President Trump on Friday teased a pending announcement about a new pathway to citizenship in the U.S., telling reporters it’s too soon to give out more information.

The president was pressed on the administration’s decision to revoke Harvard University’s certification to admit foreign students. When a reporter noted that many top CEOs are foreign-born, Trump replied, “I’m fine with that.”

“We’re actually going to be doing something in the near future that’s going to make it possible for people to come into this country and come in and, you know, have a road toward citizenship, and I think it will be very exciting, but it’s too soon to speak of,” he said from the Oval Office, where he was signing executive orders related to nuclear energy.

Why didn’t he say “in two weeks”? My money’s on he forgot the words.

So much winning! For the law firm, that is.

Another of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting a Big Law firm has been struck down after a US District Judge on Friday said the action against Jenner & Block was unconstitutional.

The entire order, which revoked the security clearances of the firm’s attorneys and required a review of its government contracts, was invalidated by the judge’s ruling, representing a major win for Jenner & Block.

“The order raises constitutional eyebrows many times over. It punishes and seeks to silence speech ‘at the very center of the First Amendment,’” US District Judge John Bates, of the District Court of DC wrote in his ruling, adding that Trump’s order did so “via the most ‘egregious form of content discrimination — viewpoint discrimination,’” and “in an unacceptable attempt to ‘insulate the Government’s laws from judicial inquiry.’”

Speaking of unconstitutional,

A federal judge has blasted the Trump administration’s attempts to stop Harvard from enrolling international students as a “blatant violation of the Constitution.”

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration Friday and agreed with the university that Harvard had shown that the move would do “immediate and irreparable injury” to the institution.

In its lawsuit filed earlier Friday in federal court in Boston, the Ivy League university said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”

“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” Harvard said in its suit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”

But Harvard has some free online courses for the administration to get up to speed.

Course description

“We the People” are the opening words of the U.S. Constitution, yet the original document did not give citizens much say in the election of their officials. Though some of those issues have been addressed, substantial barriers—gerrymandering, voter registration, and voter ID laws—still restrain the power of the vote. Why? How can a country, founded more than 200 years ago on the ideals of liberty, equality, and individualism, still struggle to empower all of its citizens equally?

This course explores the origins of U.S. political culture, how that culture informed the Constitution, and how that framework continues to influence the country’s politics and policies. We will examine the Constitution’s provisions for limited government, the division of power between the federal and state governments, and the forces that have made federalism a source of political conflict and change.

We will address how the Constitution not only established the structure of the U.S. government but guarantees personal freedoms and civil rights. These rights have been challenged and expanded in significant Supreme Court cases, which will help to illustrate how historically disadvantaged groups have struggled to realize the 14th Amendment’s promise of equality.

WTF? How did I miss this in the big beautiful bullshit?

When President Donald Trump‘s “one big, beautiful bill” passed through the House this week, Republican lawmakers slipped in a provision to limit the power of the courts.

The move was revealed as the Trump administration has clashed repeatedly with the legal system since the president took office on January 20. Trump and his top officials have attacked court rulings and those who issue them as “activist judges.”

Buried deep in the text of the more than 1,000-page bill is a measure that would restrict the federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt if they violate court orders.

“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued,” reads Section 70302 of the so-called One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

“This is part of a continuing effort to neuter the courts,” said Cornell professor Joseph Margulies. “It is a move to consolidate monarchical power so that there is no longer any effective restraint posed by the judiciary.”

Fuck democracy and separation of powers, huh?

The dummy-in-chief rambles on about trophy wives to the graduationg class at West Point.

Frequently turning the focus on himself, he reprised some of his campaign rally one-liners, including the claim that he has faced more investigations than mobster Al Capone.

At one point the crowd listened as Trump, known for his off-message digressions, referred to “trophy wives" and yachts during an anecdote about the late real estate developer William Levitt, a billionaire friend who Trump said lost momentum.

Feel free to watch this inanity on any video service you use. The fool’s wandering around, lost on stage before he begins his nonsense.

@Monty

More stories later. I’m off to church, where I’m going to be prayig like H…I mean, where I’m going to be praying.

I should have prayed harder.

[Wheelz]

@Monty

Feel free to watch this inanity on any video service you use.

No thank you.
They played about 20 seconds of his prattling on the local news, and I couldn’t even make it through that without hitting the mute button.

[Monty]

Damn, you have great aim! I hit the entire screen.

[aurora_maire]

@From Monty's link

At one point the crowd listened as Trump, known for his off-message digressions, referred to “trophy wives" and yachts during an anecdote about the late real estate developer William Levitt, a billionaire friend who Trump said lost momentum.

That’s the story he told at the Boy Scouts event back in season one. I guess he pulls that one out for speeches to young people. It’s pretty pathetic that that weirdness is the only kind of story he has. I’ll assume he doesn’t have a single normal story about his youth or his kids.

[Monty]

His? I’m wondering what paternity tests would indicate in that weirdness called his family.

[scudsucker]

I’m wondering what psychological tests would indicate in that weirdness called his paternity.

I cannot imagine a worse father figure. Imagine having to look at that, and call it “Dad”.

[Monty]

While we’re imagining, let’s join Garry Trudeau in a one.

Today’s strip also has very accurate summation of “offenses” which got real people sent to El Salvador’s gulag. The summation is accurate until you get to the last offense.

[Pardel-Lux]

@scudsucker

I cannot imagine a worse father figure.

It’s a close call, but I can: his father. See how he turned out.

[scudsucker]

God help Barron, then.

Tiffany et al hopefully got the majority of their genes from their mothers.

[eschereal]

@Coriolanus

Travel.State.Gov CSI

I suspect if you look at the consular pages of most of the world, that country in white does not have whatever corresponds to “Level 1”.

At some point in the near future, I could imagine “that country in white” being divided into colored-coded regions, so that we can know what parts of it are MAGA-safe – which would eventually be used by rational people as well as MAGAts to plan their in-country travels.

But, what leaped out at me is that Haiti is marked “do not go there”, whilst, venturing to its west, the hoover-shaped country is marked “exercise caution” rather than the “stay out” that it has enjoyed for decades, and I am not sure when that changed.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Monty

that the move would do “immediate and irreparable injury” to the institution.

That’s the point.

[dasmoocher]

@Monty

And he no doubt means your kids and grandkids work there right alongside you now. Screw any remaining child labor laws.

Child labor? Well, I guess that is some of what they want. I suspect another is to replace Social Security retirement benefits with a new plan called Drop Dead on the Job. If you have to work until you drop dead on the job one day, you won’t need Social Security and you get to work alongside your adult grandchildren in the factories.

@Monty

Here’s my take on that. What investment? The felon’s tanking the markets.

I’ll bet that this children’s “investment fund” is really just a way for his Wall Street supporters to play with “free” government money and make commissions off of it.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

@crowmanyclouds

We used to live in an old hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin,

At least you had a hole!

[BippityBoppityBoo]

And a tarp!

[OttoDaFe]

@Monty

… The felon’s tanking the markets. …

If I thought the Orange Peril had the strategic (or even tactical) sense that Og gave mayonnaise, I’d suspect him of pulling a reverse pump and dump — using on-again-off-again tariffs to depress the markets to a clearance-sale level so his buds can stock up, then announcing he’s “won” the trade battle and is rescinding the tariffs, at which point the markets recover and said buds make a tidy profit. He’d also take credit for The Greatest Market Recovery in the History of the Universe™.

But I doubt he has any such sense, so what we’re seeing is just his usual chaos.

ETA: A character in one of Heinlein’s books (I forget which) had a cat called Random Numbers. The cat got the name because where most cats have a brain, this one just had a tank of random numbers: he’d tear off in one direction until he bumped into something, and the impact scrambled the random numbers so he’d go tearing off in another direction entirely. I sense a similarity in the current infestation of the White House.