I’m telling you now, get ready.
Trump ‘disappointed,’ vows to ‘fix’ Kennedy Center after first tour
The enshittification of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will now commence in earnest.
Munda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Are you surprised? Elon Reeves Musk pushes the falsehood, Hitler didn’t kill millions. Sure, and guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Same sort of empty sophistry. Musk says, “Their public sector workers did.” Right, and armies didn’t kill people during the war, it was the soldiers. Next, Musk will be telling us that he didn’t do anything, he was just following orders. Oh, that’s right, he already said that.
Are you surprised? ‘No pain, no gain’: GOP tells Americans to suck it up as economy worsens Emily Singer has a sweet wrap of how the GOTP are trying to tell their constituents that the pain is good for them.
Take Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Please.
“No pain, no gain. That’s what we used to tell our football players. There’s gonna be some pain with tariffs. But tariffs got us back as a strongest economy in the world when President Trump was in the first time. He knows what he’s doing. Democrats get out of the way. Shut up,” Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said on Fox Business.
Yes, because a football game and working to keep you and your family from starving and safe from bad weather is exactly the same.
Senator Tuberville also gets a A in lying, saying that Trump’s tariffs got us back to the strongest economy in the world. But he is GOTP. Lying is as easy as breathing.
Are you surprised? American consumer sentiment plunges on trade war fears Americans continue to grow worried over President Donald Trump’s escalating and haphazard trade war, according to the University of Michigan’s latest consumer survey released Friday. Consumer sentiment fell 11% this month to a reading of 57.9, a preliminary reading showed, down from last month’s reading of 64.7 and reaching its lowest level since November 2022. That’s a sharp retreat from December, after the US presidential election, when sentiment rose to its highest level in months.
Most of us saw this coming but there was a large segment of the sheeple who were eager to fuck around and find out. Now, here we are.
Are you surprised? “Trump Shutters ‘Voice of America'” Trump has closed down the Voice of America, the government-run radio service that has brought news to 420 million listeners around the world since 1942, during World War II.
Who benefits by closing the VOA?
Russia. China. North Korea. Iran. And every other authoritarian regime.
Yes, and those are Trump’s buddies.
Gosh, who could have predicted that shit?
Are you surprised? Black Medal of Honor recipient removed from US Department of Defense website Page honoring Charles C Rogers for his Vietnam war service is now defunct with letters ‘DEI’ added to website address.
So, this man, who actually served his country (unlike Donald Trump and Elon Reeve Musk) and was wounded in combat and was honored for his service, has been dismissed. That’s a slap in the face to every veteran who risked their life and spent time in the trenches to defend the Constitution of the United States.
But then, that is the Trusk Regime in a nutshell. Unsurprising in their inability to understand truth and principles. Dedicated to only furthering their own wealth, no matter how much they must lie, like that jackal, Tommy Tuberville, no matter how much the laws, history, and heritage of this nation, of this world, must be twisted and ignored. Trump claims to respect our military and veterans, but with his actions, he demonstrate otherwise.
I, for one, am not surprised.
Sunda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Rose early, read some stuff. I finished reading a novel, The River We Remember. Then it was to the ‘puter. Normal bidness was planned but I was thinking slow (no coffee yet, you see), and I had a Slate article up already. I delved into it.
Luke Winkie wrote the article, I Wanted One Day of Peace on the Internet. So I swapped my feeds for a dose of what it’s like to live in the certainty of MAGA land.
I go into MAGA land to see what they’re reporting every other day. Luke Winkie is stronger than moi. I get in there and become enraged about the PINO Trusk lies and fawning. Can’t take it at all. Luke Winkie did, though, and wrote about well about why I couldn’t stay in MAGA land.
And while existing inside of MAGA land may be a reprieve from thTrade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardeste horror of existing outside of it, this is not a sane place to be either. The constant reaffirmations of loyalty must grow tiresome, even for the most committed of Trump accessories. We’ve become desensitized to the ritual by now, but slobbering over an elected official—of any stripe—is, and always will be, unbecoming. With my patience for the groveling wearing thin, I yearned for my ancestral home of belligerent progressives. I do not consider myself a person at risk of being red-pilled, and no surprise, but the propaganda did not work on me.
Second came a NYTimes article, Trade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardest. Ah, yes, I wanted to see that. FAFO, all that.
China has targeted corn farmers and carmakers. Canada has put tariffs on poultry plants and air-conditioning manufacturers, while Europe will hit American steel mills and slaughter houses.
Mr. Trump has argued that tariffs will help boost American jobs. But economists say that retaliatory tariffs can cancel out that effect.
Robert Maxim, a fellow at the Brookings Metro, a Washington think tank that has done similar analysis, said that other countries had particularly targeted Trump-supporting regions and places where “Trump would like to fashion himself as revitalizing the U.S.” That includes smaller manufacturing communities in states like Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, as well as southern states like Kentucky and Georgia, he said.
The message foreign countries are trying to send, he said, is, “You think you can bully us, well, we can hurt you too. And by the way, we know where it really matters.”
But, you know, will MAGA land ever learn about this? I’m doubtful. Go into MAGA land and see how rosy it often looks.
Besides, I doubt the veracity of any organization led by a known, documented liar. In example, the CPI report released the other day said that inflation cooled in February. But this is PINO Trusk’s Department of Labor. DOGE has been in there. I think if PINO Trusk or his minions see a report with information that will render PINO Trusk and his economy less that awesome, they’ll just change the numbers.
This all leads up to the depressing aspect of PINO Trusk and their approach. They polarize. Divide to conquer. Foment distrust of each other and of the press, and now, the Federal government. It unites them in MAGA land because it keeps looking like the future’s so bright, they gotta wear shades. But for those of us outside of MAGA land, the future is getting dark.
Frieda’s Theme Music
Winter is perched in Ashlandia and its surroundings for another day. Yesterday, we sequenced through snow, sleet, rain, sunshine, repeat. Today seems like a duplicate effort. Snow is falling, the temperature is crowding 38 F with a questionable chance the air temp will light up 48 F. This is Frieda, March 14, 2025.
I read with serious dismay that the US Postal Service struck a deal to let DOGE ‘improve’ services.
That’s great news, innit? Yes, that’s snark.
I don’t find it great news at all. All that I’ve seen of DOGE so far is cutting headcount without having knowledge about what they’re doing. This has fed chaos in many areas of government. Facing outrage and backlash to the chaos, GOTP politicians have stopped holding townhalls and avoid meeting their constituents. Meanwhile, many agencies which had DOGE cuts had to hire people back, either because vital positions had been cut, or courts ruled that what DOGE did was illegal. Coupled with PINO Trusk’s tariffs, economic war, and imperial military interests, the stock market is rushing down, talk of a Trumpcession is heating up, and corporations are putting plans on hold and laying off/terminating employees due to ‘economic uncertainy and instabilitly’. Good times! So much winning!
Anyway, I’m not optimistic about what will happen to the mail system with DOGE’s ‘help’. The length of time needed for mail to be delivered has already increased. So have stamp prices. Post offices and satellite offices have been closed. We all drive further to wait longer to get postal business done. Our mail takes laborious, convoluted routes. Doesn’t go from A to B no even A to C. No, it now goes A to K and then back to H, up to P, back to D, and then, finally, B, it’s destination. Dog knows what DOGE will do to it.
Another series of uplifted dreams washed through my sleep. I awoke feeling rested, vigorous, and almost joyful. Weirdly, The Neurons inserted a 1986 song called “Mad About You” by Belinda Carlisle into the morning mental music stream. I have nothing against the song; I know it from the car radio. Driving in my car, doing errands, commuting to work, etc. It’s a bouncy tune with easily heard and appreciated lyrics, simple for a sing along, Maybe you know it and will sing along.
Coffee has established its presence in my system. I’m ready to get out into the snow and wind — didn’t mention the wind before, did I, but, yes, there is wind — and get down to bidness. Have the best day possible for yourself and yours. Here’s the music. Cheers
Thirstda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
41 days into the Trusk Regime, and Trump floats the idea of militarily taking over Greenland. As in, invading them. You know, as Russia did with Ukraine and several others.
Welcome to the New Dark Ages
A bullshit right-wing site claims that Greenlanders ‘want’ to be part of the United States. An actual poll, with supporting information, reports that 85% of polled Greenlanders have no interest in it.
And what of the United States and its people? Do they want to attack nation, as the United States did back at the turn of the century? Have they already forgotten Dubya’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan?
Most U.S. voters probably have. Because, you know, it’s hard. Hard to keep up with the Superbowl, the NBA playoffs, March Madness, the Oscars, and the stock market, along with political news, you know, when you’re sick, worried about bird flu, RSV, COVID-19, measles, and a ration of misinformation and garbage spewing from the government. Especially when money is tight and newspaper owners slant the news to kowtow to the Trusk Regime.
Not surprisingly, because this is Donald Trump, MAGA, and the GOTP discussing the idea, some Americans support the idea.
Half in US say Greenland takeover a bad idea: Survey
More than half of U.S. voters in a new survey don’t support the U.S. taking over Greenland, a prospect President-elect Trump has entertained publicly in recent weeks.
In the Suffolk University/USA Today survey, 53 percent of likely voters say they oppose the idea — including 86 percent of self-described liberals, 61 percent of moderates and 25 percent of conservatives.
Of course, I’m pretty much a fool, discussing polls and voters under the Trusk Regime. As if polls and voters matter. As if the law has a place in it. Only thing that matters in the Trusk States of America is what Trusk wants. Donald J. is the figurehead, and the GOTP answers to his whims.
Just a pause, you know, a sidebar to the activity, invading Greenland would probably take a chunk of money. Moving troops in there, etc. You know, like we’re doing along the southern U.S. border, where we now have 9,000 military members stationed there. Maybe it’s just me, but you’d think that while the Trusk Regime and the Grand Ol’ Trump Party are working to cut money to reduce the deficit, you know, probably by cutting Medicaid, they would be leery of spending money on a new military boondoogle.
But that’s probably just me. Truth is, if Donald J. wants to go after Greenland, the GOTP will quickly feed the propaganda machine about what a great idea it is and indulge him. Meanwhile, a third of the nation probably will be oblivious to it happening.
It’s the American Way in the New Dark Ages under the Trusk Regime. Because, In DOGE They Trust.
Hey Democrats, wake the f—k up
“Hey Democrats, wake the f—k up” is the title of Drew Magery’s column. He explodes with rage about what’s happening in the United States and the Democrat’s tepid response. The fury that he spreads across the page totally captures my own. He writes for me.
Here are his first two paragraphs.
The sky is falling. The United States federal government is being illegally dissolved before your very eyes. The workers you rely on to ensure that you don’t eat ground beef tainted with paint chips are being laid off en masse. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided your office last week and asked for your papers, even though you were born in Fremont. A fire tornado is due to touch down in your backyard next Tuesday. Your parents are terrified to board an airplane. Your gay nephew is terrified to go to school. Your 401(k) is in the toilet. MEASLES. Measles have returned and want to eat your baby. Every day you look at the news, and you’re told that the president would like to bring back cockfighting. You and I need reassurance. You and I need to know that someone out there is trying to put an end to all this madness. Instead, we get this.
I hate you, Democrats. I hate you so, so much. Yes, I hate Trump and Elon and all of the s—t-for-brains voters out there who were like DURRR THESE FELLAS ARE JUST WHAT WE NEED TO CLEAN UP WASHINGTON DURRR. But I reserve a special place in my black heart for you, Democrats. You are the representational equivalent of being put on hold by customer service. All you do is let me down. It’s like being a Browns fan if every time the Browns lost, a Tesla ran over my dog. You guys make voting feel pointless.
Read the whole damn thing. It’s more fuel on the fires of outrage about what’s going on now and how poorly the Democratic Party is responding.
They need to wake the fuck up.
Twosda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
I read an interesing piece about The Trumpcession by Jay Kuo at The Status Kuo.
It’s not even been two months since 47 took office, and already there is talk of the dreaded R word.
In a matter of weeks, the U.S. has gone from having the most robust economy in the G7—with low unemployment, tamed inflation, falling interest rates and steady growth in wages and GDP—to being on the brink of a big economic downturn.
Jay Kuo puts up several reasons what might cause a Trumpcession.
Trump’s own big mouth
Not just his words but his deeds
Terrorizing workers
Undoing Biden’s signature accomplishments
Yes, those four points are absolutely so Trumpian. PINO Trump often lies and makes rash claims. Things are never his fault when they go awry but he’s fast to jump in to get credit. He hates former President Joe Biden because President Biden thoroughly trashed Trump at the polls and was credited with a strong economy and saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump, on the other hand, was soundly and continuously thumped for doing a poor job of those things by all but those who had their lips firmly glued to his sagging, oversized ass.
But those things aren’t what really struck me. Instead, it was how he’s responded again and again when talking about the economy. He keeps saying ‘we’. He never specifies who ‘we’ is. Never says Americans. Never says the United States.
It’s just a royal ‘we’.
Examples:
“There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big,” Trump said Sunday on the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big,” Trump said Sunday on the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“All I know is this: We’re gonna take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and we’re gonna become so rich you’re not gonna know where to spend all that money, I’m telling you, you just watch! We’re gonna have jobs, we’re gonna have factories, it’s gonna be great.”
He used the same sort of marketing language when he touted Trump Steaks, Trump Air, Trump University, and other enterprises he pursued. But what is key is that use of ‘we’. Methinks he’s not referring to the nation but to himself and his billionaire friends, including Putin of Russia.
That’s who PINO Trump refers to; not you and me, or his MAGA supporters, or the United States in general.
Just him and his friends and backers. That’s the ‘we’ who are gonna take in hundreds of billions of tariffs and become so rich.
That’s why he’s so indifferent to inflation. Sure, he used it as a club to bludgeon voters into deciding President Biden wasn’t doing enough over inflation. But PINO Trump’s end game was to gain votes. Now that he won, h doensn’t need votes, and those people no longer matter.
Nor do their worries over inflation and the economy.
Twosda’s Theme Music
Sunshine richly soaks Ashlandia’s end of the valley where I5 climbs into the mountain pass between Oregon and California. But this Twosda finds it a chill morning. 42 F, the sun is pulling us out of the mid-thirties trough where we spent the night. Like yesterday, our high will eye the 60s; I saw us at 64 yesterday at my place.
This is Twosda, March 11, 2025. Although spring is closing on us, a winter warning has been issued for tomorrow. That’s wholly in keeping with expectations. Before reading of that warning yesterday, I applauded the spring but then reminded myself that winter likes to make one last, dramatic March appearance in our area.
The Neurons are treating me with “Only You Know and I Know” in the morning mental music stream. Dave Mason penned the song, but Delaney & Bonnie had more of a hit with it in the U.S. I had the Dave Mason original in mind this morning. Comes solely out of thinking about PINO Trusk and his sneering as he ‘makes dramatic announcements’. That’s how the mainstream media often portrays him. ‘Trump Makes Dramatic Announcement About New Tariffs on Canada’. I’ve seen the first iteration and the rest of this song and dance is tiresome. But you and I know how much of his grandstanding is done to keep his base’s attention; he loves it when they thrill over his words, swoon over his actions, orgasm and gasp over his power and prophecies. Never mind that many of his words are lies, his actions are bullshit, and his power is right out of the dictator handbook.
But you and I know. Those of us with some smattering of understanding about history and politics know. Smattering to me is that you learned about these things in junior high or high school, but also that you understood and remember it. PINO Trusk’s base often does not.
Anyway, I enjoy this video of Dave Mason and his group performing a rockin’ rendition of the song. Hope you do as well.
Coffee is purring away in my innards, restoring some of my faith in my existence. Hope you have a royally awesome day. Here we go. Cheers
Sunda’s Wandering Political Thoughts
Mellow and quiet are the best descriptions for Ashlandia today. Turning attention to politics for a bit, I found a few sites with ideas that merit being shared with others.
Lithub presents, What Is Donald Trump Doing? Three Theories for the Madness.
- Theory 1: Trump is a Russian Asset. This theory isn’t new, but let’s be real: If someone had laid out Trump’s actions over the past several years and presented them without names attached, the conclusion that he’s working to advance Russian interests wouldn’t sound like a wild conspiracy.
- Theory 2: Trump is Trying to Foment Global Chaos. For a man who ran a campaign on the promise of putting “America First,” Trump sure seems intent on making the world and America a far more unstable place.
- Theory 3: He’s Just Worse at Presidenting Than Last Time. As shocking as this might sound, it’s possible that Trump’s presidential skillset second term is shaping up to be even less stellar than his first.
‘Less stellar’ made me chuckle. I think the author, Aron Solomon, is being generous.
Over on The Democracy Labs, they’ve provided us with a very useful map. The Trusk Regime is wielding DOGE to curtail leases on thousands of government buildings. This can well mean that people will need to go further and wait longer to reach the Federal office which can assist them. You know, places such as the VA office, FEMA, Social Security, IRS, Medicare, Medicaid, NOAA…
Driving longer distances isn’t good for people or the environment: it came mean longer trips in motor vehicles. If you’re in a gas or diesel powered vehicle, you’ll spew more emissions into the air. And you’ll pay for more vehicle fuel. If you’re worried about inflation, buying more gass can translate into more demand and higher prices.
Driving further and waiting longer will also mean that if you’re a person being paid by the hour or working the gig enonomy, it may well cost you more in your wages. Then there’s the age and handicap issue: traveling longer distance and waiting longer can often be emotionally wearing and physically tiring.
This essentially demonstrates how little the Trusk Regime cares about people.
What this map does is show us what’s being closed where, and importantly, what member of Congress to contact about it. You know what to do with your phones and keyboards, right? That’s right: raise your voice.
Finally, Jill Dennison shares a story of the sublime. Don’t Say That Word!!! covers the growing list that the Trusk Regime forbids to be used in official documents.
What follows is a list of words that are either forbidden or ‘discouraged’ in federal government communications, both formal and informal, under the current regime. Take a look for yourself … even words like ‘women’, ‘racism’, and ‘pollution‘ are taboo! And of course ‘Gulf of Mexico’ cannot ever be used in federal communications! An article in the New York Times provides more information, but do take a glance through this list … it will raise your hackles!
And that’s always something that I need: something else that the Trusk Regime is doing that raises my hackles.
WTF, America
In another bit of WTF, America, some new DOGE bullshit springs into the spotlight.
Military to Remove ‘Enola Gay’ Photos for Violating DEI Rules
Images of “Enola Gay,” the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan are among those targeted by the U.S. military in an initiative to eliminate content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
They are among a number of photos unrelated to DEI that have been mistakenly flagged, including those from an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California, seemingly because an engineer in the image had the last name “Gay.”
I mean, how, how, how amazingly ignorant is the Trusk Regime? How stupid is DOGE?
Beyond the fundamental stupidity of making a decision based on a single word, they are demonstrating amazing ignorance about our heritage. Our history.
Does that history matter to them? No, apparently not.
And that really brings the Trusk Regime’s crock of shit about ‘gay’, DEI, woke into an electron microscope level of insights. Our history is being denied based on some shallow, closed minds? They’ll deny the role of an aircraft in our history because of a single word, literally one of the most critical moments in modern human history, the one and only damn time when one nation used atomic or nuclear weapons on another nation? What are they going to do, rewrite the textbooks so that Colonel Paul Tibbets and his crew flew an unnamed aircraft on that historic mission? How much of a disservice is it to not just the crew that flew that machine but the enemy killed on the ground?
That’s just the damn bottom of the barrel, though. The Trusk Regime and the GOTP is trying to deny the role of anyone who does not fit their narrow, bigoted views. Gay, trans, lesbian military members who fought for the United States are being washed out of history by this pathetic group, most of whom never served in a military capacity.
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But those who deliberately wipe it out are bent on creating a new circle of ignorance.
But, I mean, come on. Seriously. What did we expect of ol’ Bone Spurs Trump? His grip on history and logic is pathetically weak.
He who cited the use of aircraft and airfields in the American Revolutionary War.
He who referred to Senator McCain, a navy aviator who was captured and held as a prisoner of war, as a loser.
He who warns of the threats of cancer from windmills, a claim without any merit.
He who used a marker to try to change the projected course of a hurricane.
He who had his staff saying that he suggested nuking a hurricane.
He who was documented to lie over 30,000 times in his first administration.
A man who still lies as much as he breathes.
That individual is a fucking idiot.
And you know what that makes his supporters and enablers.
Michael Seidel, writer 