Yes indeed, the “Big Beautiful Bill” is exactly everything you expect to come from the hands of a financial fraudster. Here is it’s essence:
- Adds TRILLIONS more to the debt
- Cut Medicaid, and throw over 8 million Americans off their health care
- Raises taxes on the middle and working class
Why?
- All done to give massive tax cuts to billionaires and corporations
… and that is why the 1% supported him.
So where are things at the moment?
It has failed in committee.
It did not fail because it was too much, but because it is not cruel enough …
A handful of hard-right lawmakers unexpectedly joined Democrats in voting against the bill, insisting on steeper spending cuts to Medicaid and the Biden-era green energy tax breaks, among other changes.…
…The failed vote, 16-21, stalls House Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to have the package approved next week. But the Budget Committee plans to reconvene Sunday (May 18) to try again.
If eventually it gets enacted, this will be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history …
The hypermajority of the proposed Medicaid cuts cannot be credibly construed as even pretending to address fraud. There is just one word, and one word alone that sums up what is going on – greed.
The cost is that it will lead to preventable deaths by taking healthcare away from millions of people. Additionally, it will worsen food insecurity by taking food away from the hungry, particularly kids. It will also leave the United States on a significantly worse fiscal trajectory by adding trillions of dollars to structural deficits.
This is what you voted for MAGA – in other words you got played by a conman and felon.
Do people actually realise what is being being proposed?
Most don’t …
- This is the crucial revelation of authoritarian movements in the 21st C: you don’t have to hide what you’re doing. If you create an information ecosystem dysfunctional enough, mistrustful enough, fragmented enough, you can act in the open, confident that the truth will never be clearly conveyed.
- You know how it plays out, you just get something like this … “Republicans are trying to take Medicaid away from 14 million Americans AND firing wide swaths of National Security staff AND repealing food safety regulations AND shutting down medical research AND attacking universities”. The rebuttal, “Dude, you have Trump derangement syndrome.“
- Say this out loud: They’re kidnapping people off the street and sending them to El Salvador. Sounds crazy, right?
So what other crazy stuff has been going on this past week?
Let’s get into that now.
Vibes of North Korea
US government buildings now appear to be putting up giant banners of Donald Trump’s face, echoing authoritarian dictatorships.
- One big benefit here is that parents can now show their daughters what a rapist looks like.
New Game Show proposal
I do have to seriously wonder if this is satire.
WTAF! … is indeed the correct response to this latest ICE Barbie stunt …
- It’s tempting to make a quip about her getting to shoot a migrants dog if they loose, but the scary part is that if she gets to hear that. she might seriously consider it.
- Daily Beast article dated May 16 is here (paywalled).
We do however now appear to be here, (and I’m not making the following up) …
“Eat the Tariffs” message from Trump to Walmart
Walmart warned on Thursday that everything from bananas to children’s car seats could increase in price.
You know who then responded with the following on Saturday May 17 …
- Fascinating to observe that he now confirms that the economy was booming last year … under Biden.
- He also said over and over and over that China would pay the tariffs … and now here is the reckoning, the actual reality. Will Walmart actually sacrifice their profits to appease him? … hell no, their profit margin is 2%, he is demanding that they bankrupt themselves for him.
- Telling private companies what they can charge? Sounds a lot like communism. Right, MAGA?
Musk Corruption
The following should be a big deal, but because there are huge scandals every 5 seconds it’s barely a blip …
- Detailed ProPublica article on it can be found here – The Trump Administration Leaned on African Countries. The Goal: Get Business for Elon Musk.
ICE Profiting
Follow the money …
Blatant Corruption via Qatar – #SwampFarceOne
Jonathan Karl and Katherine Faulders @ ABC News: Trump administration poised to accept ‘palace in the sky’ as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources …
In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar — a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News.
If ICE suspect, on the basis of exactly no evidence, that you support Hamas, and all you actually did was object to the Palestinian genocide, then they can kidnap you without a warrant and throw you into detention … but … when the President is given a “gift” (bribe) of a 400 million dollar jet for his own personal use from a country that directly funds Hamas ($1.8 billion to be precise), then apparently that’s just fine, and so here we are now.
Dig and sniff, and yes, more corruption pops up. Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is approving Trump’s luxury jet gift from Qatar, previously worked as a foreign lobbyist for Qatar. She was paid $115,000 per month by them.
- $115,000 …. per month
- This is a very blatant conflict of interest. Did she ever list or declare any of these conflicts of interest? Hell no, and thankfully the Senate committee on the Judiciary have finally woken up to this.
Even the MAGA media stars can see it for what it is …
Meanwhile as a reminder, he really does have a tweet for everything …
- As a reminder, it was exactly zero.
OK, one last thought – “Air Force One” will need to be renamed “Air Force You owe us One”
Afrikaners welcome
- That’s a lot of words for “these ones are white”.
- As far as the white Afrikaners are concerned, there is no proof that they are being persecuted or murdered. They simply are being denied the privilege of being openly racist in a black majority country
- Meanwhile, the Afghans provided services to the US military in Afghanistan for which they were promised they could emigrate to the US for their protection, are loosing their TPS refugee status and are being murdered by the Taliban.
But hey, we very quickly got to find out why this specific group of immigrants are being welcomed …
- “Free Palestine” or “Feed Gaza” will get you deported, but blatant anti-Semitic posts will get you a free flight into the US by this administration
- Antisemitism does not mean criticizing Zionists (or Israelis) for engaging in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. Antisemitism means the hatred of Jews for being Jews or the Jewish religion and is fundamentally different. Someday people will finally understand this … but unfortunately today is not yet that day.
Elon Musk, Grok, and “White Genocide” claims
NBC reports that Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok brings up South African ‘white genocide’ claims in responses to unrelated questions
Somebody wondered if this was true, so they asked Grok and yes, Grok confirmed …
- At least Grok ratted him out
Meanwhile, Grok has now been pivoted to other crazy stuff …
They really should have known
This really is the year of “We f**king told you so” …
US Credit Downgrading
So this happened on Fri … “Moody’s downgrades US credit, citing rising debt“
Moody’s Ratings Service on Friday said it is downgrading the U.S.’s creditworthiness in response to an increase in government debt over the past decade and rising interest payments, in a blow to the Trump administration that could push up borrowing costs.
As you can perhaps imagine, the markets were not exactly thrilled …
You also know what comes next. It will be claims of “It is all Biden’s fault“, as the GOP ducks the reality that it is down to their ongoing fiscal incompetence and stupidity.
And of course there is always an old tweet of his for every crazy moment …
Meanwhile, it is worth understanding that this is now happening …
- His market manipulation has pissed off a lot of people.
- For the people who don’t understand what this means, let me clear it up – Money is leaving the US, not coming in, because of trumps tariffs.
Christian Nationalists
As always, the crazy right-wing religious fanatics within the MAGA cult are as always doing their thing. Here is more from the past week …
- Right-wing pastor Josh Buice, a vocal critic of churches addressing social justice concerns, has been deposed after admitting to trashing fellow pastors and church elders via anonymous social media accounts. (Once again … just like Republican Jesus would do)
- Pastor Rob McCoy claims that “in the Northwest Ordinance, you couldn’t become a state in the union unless you taught the Bible in schools.” (Oh come now, you know how this works. His claim is entirely false, or to use a technical term – a lie).
- Christian nationalist pastor Brooks Potteiger reveals that he’s been invited to the Pentagon to preach at the inaugural “Secretary’s Prayer Meeting,” which will be a monthly event. (For context, it is worth knowing that Pete Hegseth was a member of Potteiger’s church before becoming Secretary of Defense).
- Joshua Haymes wants to see some public executions: “The Bible is pro-public execution. America’s founding fathers were pro-public execution. Good common sense is in favor of public execution as a deterrent. So why are you against public execution?“
Joel Webbon get’s his own separate list this week …
- Joel Webbon urges Christian nationalists to relocate to red states where they can create “worship-centered, economically-linked, family-led, law-respecting communities that can survive the collapse and seed the next Christendom.” (Side Note: When he talks about “worship-entered“, he means his orange messiah and not Jesus)
- Also, Joel Webbon wants to make clear that he has enough hate in his heart for both Judaism and Islam: “I already hate Judaism and Islam with a fierce hatred.” (“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you hate everybody who has a different belief.” – MAGA Jesus)
- It’s always challenging what to flag up from Joel Webbon. This past week he also declares the only hope for making America great again is for 100 million immigrants to be deported. (You know he means all non-white people).
The False Profit$
- A $400 million donkey!!!
- “Jesus was pro-bribery” is a new one on me
- That whooshing just now was the sound that a very blatant ethics violation makes when it passes right over Hank’s head, but he is a scheming grifter who simply uses religion to enrich himself, so will not be too bothered.
Racist MAGA pastor Shane Vaughn says that whites are “the most marginalized people in America”: “We are the new minority … If you’re a white man, you get no rights, no privileges, no consideration in this nation any more.“
- Cuz they’ve been given to the South African white guys.
- Shane, the convicted felon, always gets so angry about the stuff he makes up.
- Reminder: Like Shane Vaughn, this guy Jim Bakker is a convicted felon who spent time in jail for fraud. The one big lesson both he and Shane learned is how to continue to defraud people without going to jail – the secret sauce is to use religion to do it. That makes their scam legal.
- As for his claim, that we are in the end-times and are about to have an encounter with Jesus in a few years, he is right about that … but not for us, just him, he is 85.
Weirdest of the Weird
GOP Rep. Randy Webber jokes that instead of giving undocumented immigrants $1,000 to “self-deport,” the U.S. should put them on a plane, “fly over their country, open the door, [and tell them] they can either have $1,000 or a parachute.“
- For him, this is a joke, but make no mistake, he would actually do it without the parachute and still think it was funny.
- They are so “pro-life” that they want to murder immigrants.
Steve Bannon declares that Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats “are demonic and they’re evil.“
- His claim that they “are demonic and they’re evil.” leads me to wonder if being “demonic and good” is a thing in his bizarre political theology where anybody and anything not extreme right like him is “demonic“.
Far-right pastor E.W. Jackson says that transgender people are “blasphemous” and “rebellious” for thinking that God put them in the wrong body: “The Devil was the first trans.“
- God’s and Devil’s don’t exist, but trans people do. Trans rights are human rights, and human rights are trans rights.
David Barton claims that “things are so good” under Trump that the media is creating “fake polls” to make it appear as if Americans disapprove of his actions.
- “Well established professional liar, David Barton, dismisses polls he does not like as fake” is the correct rendering of the above.
Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent cartoons. Here are a few samples. Each comes with a link to the cartoonist putting the cartoon out via BlueSky. If you are on Bluesky then you can use the link to follow them.
Mark Hamill flags up a great cartoon by @kaltoons.bsky.social …
8647
So this happened …
For those unfamiliar with 86, most sane people regard it as slang that generally means to get rid of, reject, or refuse service to someone or something. However, the cult followers of 47 are now pretending that this is a call to assassinate their beloved orange messiah. For example …
Besides Trump only a small number of his top brass have engaged in conduct warranting prosecution and incarceration. But that number is rapidly expanding, given the illegal slave trade he has initiated with El Salvador. And The Dogkiller is at the heart of that.
Just to be clear, it is not just her, the entire federal government was mobilized for SeashellGate. The “crises” was all hands on deck …
- When he uses SS in the above I guess he means the Gestapo
Fox News is pushing hard for James Comey to do hard time for Seashell Numerology …
- If any of you live at an address with 8647 in it, have a phone number ending in 8647, a credit card, bank account, or if your SSN ends in 8647… You’re going to straight to jail.
Meanwhile, when it was Biden, they had no problem with 86 and what it actually means…
For those that missed it – This also was a deeply weird moment
- The $10m US bounty on his head was lifted in December.
- His Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria until he severed ties in 2016. HTS is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US and UK.
Finally
New US transportation strategy … prayer …(and I’m not kidding) …
A stopped clock really is right twice a day …
- “Don’t take medical advice from me” said the guy in charge of public health. We are through the looking glass.
Last word …
