Paid supporters

Trump needs to pay people to (appear to) support his parade.

They need paid actors for the parade. pic.twitter.com/ISff7wsLwC

— James Tate (@JamesTate121) June 11, 2025

Forget it, Jake -- it's Indiana

"In 49 states it's just basketball, but this is INDIANA!" 🗣️

Rick Carlisle-#FeverRising|#NowYouKnow|#YesCers |#WNBA|#NBAPlayoffs

pic.twitter.com/qP6qQEtkjN

— Krysta (@Krysta____) June 6, 2025

Vegetables? No, thanks.

Dogs' reactions to becoming a vegetarian.

pic.twitter.com/QePwoWTfot

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) June 4, 2025

Click here for an article at NBC News by Matt Lavietes entitled "Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of killing poor children by cutting foreign aid and says he's giving away his wealth," subtitled "Gates also announced that his Gates Foundation will cease operations in 2045, sooner than previously planned."

The takeaway sentence: “'The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,' he told the Financial Times." 

Can you believe your eyes?

These circles are not moving nor changing size or shape

pic.twitter.com/pVYkTfIPEm

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) May 9, 2025

Agility!

She may be old, but she did herself proud.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/0lEPRTT55N

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 30, 2025

Astonishing suggestion from a crazed cultist -- Trump for Pope!

 This is an actual tweet from Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator from South Carolina:

I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!

The first Pope-U.S. President combination has many upsides. Watching for white smoke ... Trump MMXXVIII!

Outstanding! Chris Murphy: 100 days of corruption

Here is Chris Murphy (D-CT) laying out some examples (he actually presented more -- 40 in total) of corrupt and/or criminal acts by Donald Trump during the first 100 disgraceful days of his administration:

I went to the Senate floor to tell a story about Trump’s first 100 days - a story of daily, norm shattering corruption. I laid out 40 different corrupt acts - each one alone could have taken down previous presidents.

1/ A 🧵 of my speech. People need to know this story.

I went to the Senate floor to tell a story about Trump’s first 100 days - a story of daily, norm shattering corruption.

I laid out 40 different corrupt acts - each one alone could have taken down previous presidents.

1/ A 🧵 of my speech. People need to know this story. pic.twitter.com/Btu4df6EiM

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

2/ The Trump crypto coin - the biggest scandal in the history of the American presidency.

2/ The Trump crypto coin - the biggest scandal in the history of the American presidency. pic.twitter.com/wbssaikI2u

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

3/ Trump ends enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, so that his staff can more easily get paid on the side by foreign governments and companies seeking to bribe the Trump Administration.

3/ Trump ends enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, so that his staff can more easily get paid on the side by foreign governments and companies seeking to bribe the Trump Administration. pic.twitter.com/kWteqFYdOo

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

4/ The most brazen abuse of prosecutorial power in a generation - the quid pro quo with Mayor Eric Adams.

4/ The most brazen abuse of prosecutorial power in a generation - the quid pro quo with Mayor Eric Adams. pic.twitter.com/C5vrNZDFyQ

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

5/ Trump’s new U.S. Attorney for Washington DC begins his campaign of harassment against Trump and Musk critics. DoJ is now just doing full time political enforcement for Trump.

5/ Trump’s new U.S. Attorney for Washington DC begins his campaign of harassment against Trump and Musk critics. DoJ is now just doing full time political enforcement for Trump. pic.twitter.com/7u3VBPgYHS

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

6/ Trump starts selling meetings with him to CEOs. For $5 million.

6/ Trump starts selling meetings with him to CEOs. For $5 million. pic.twitter.com/LxP85k5AF5

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

7/ Trump turns the White House into a Tesla showroom to make clear he will boost the profit of any CEO who collaborates with him.

7/ Trump turns the White House into a Tesla showroom to make clear he will boost the profit of any CEO who collaborates with him. pic.twitter.com/3RxrxE633a

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

8/ Now, Trump thinks he can get away with ANYTHING. He starts selling access to the White House for people who buy his crypto coin.

8/ Now, Trump thinks he can get away with ANYTHING. He starts selling access to the White House for people who buy his crypto coin. pic.twitter.com/HmrAvYjElr

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

9/ Trump launches a new private club in DC with a $500,000 buy in to allow corporations and oligarchs the chance to pay money to have access to Trump’s inner circle.

9/ Trump launches a new private club in DC with a $500,000 buy in to allow corporations and oligarchs the chance to pay money to have access to Trump’s inner circle. pic.twitter.com/fy8s43VOrU

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 30, 2025

10/ These are just a small handful of the dozens of mind blowingly corrupt acts in Trump’s first 100 days. And this corruption is a big part of the reason his approval ratings are cratering. The American people refuse to let him normalize this level of graft.

Hooray for Peter Navarro!

Click here for a Paul Krugman article on Substack entitled "Did Peter Navarro Save Democracy?" with the tag line "Economic failure has given us a chance to stop Trump's authoritarianism."

 Krugman says:

Just a few short weeks ago the prospects for American democracy looked bleak. Donald Trump was elected despite the events of January 6^th and his clear threats of retribution against those who had tried to hold him in check. The powerful and extremely wealthy lined up behind him on the inauguration dais and contributed vast sums to his inauguration party. Democrats were stunned, despondent and disorganized. The stock market was climbing. And many of us expected Trump, the ultimate nepo baby, to claim that the solid economy he inherited from Biden was his own handiwork.

Suddenly the march to authoritarian rule is looking much less unstoppable. Trump’s vindictive over-reach has quickly sparked widespread outrage within many institutions, including universities and the courts, and among regular Americans. Polls suggest that the public is making a hard turn against Trump’s tactics.

Moreover, the economy, which was arguably the decisive issue in November, has rapidly turned into a huge Trump liability. It’s actually incredible how fast public views of the economy have soured.

He uses a comparison to Germany in the '30s and says, "And spare me the fake outrage: We’re well past the point where you can say that MAGA/Nazi comparisons are illegitimate." He explains how a similar situation has enabled Viktor Orban to turn Hungary from a democracy to a dictatorship.

He concludes: 

It's much too soon to predict that U.S. democracy will survive. But Trump and his economic advisers, by screwing up so completely, have given us a chance. Thank you, Peter Navarro.

 

Trump's autogolpe

Click here for Paul Krugman's article on Substack, titled "Autogolpe: What’s really happening beneath the Musk/Trump chaos."

Krugman describes Trump's autogolpe, or self-coup; "golpe" is Spanish for "coup."

The supposed goal of DOGE was to save taxpayers huge sums by going after “waste, fraud and abuse.” I argued that this effort was doomed to failure as Musk and his cronies appeared completely ignorant about how and why the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

While everything I said was true, I would like to offer a mea culpa. What should have been clear to me even then, and is unmistakable now, is that everything Musk and Trump say about what they’re doing is false, including what they say about their motivations. The ignorance and chaos are real, but you should never lose sight of the underlying thrust of their actions.

For what’s happening in America right now is an attempted autogolpe.

Latin American readers are surely familiar with the term. An autogolpe is literally a “self-coup” — when a legitimately elected leader uses his position to seize total control, eliminating legal and constitutional restraints on his power. Are Musk and Trump trying to pull off an autogolpe here? Of course they are. And they are doing so with, as far as I can tell, the full support of every Republican in the House and the Senate.

 

Trump's disastrous first 100 days (compared to Roosevelt's)

Click here for an article in The New York Times by Naftali Bendavid entitled "Trump claims mantle of FDR’s first 100 days, but differences are stark," subtitled "Roosevelt’s opening act yielded major new laws, while Trump governs largely by executive order." (Roosevelt passed 16 major new laws; Trump passed four -- only one of which could be considered a major new law, "the Laken Riley Act, which allows the detention of undocumented immigrants accused of theft-related crimes." Biden passed 11.)

A key sentence: “We’re forging a new political majority that is shattering and replacing Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition, which dominated American politics for nearly 100 years,” he said.

Outrageous pay of CEOs

This is what a rigged economy looks like:

In the 1970s, CEOs made 27 times more than the average worker.

In the 1980s, CEOs made 48 times more than the average worker.

This decade, CEOs are making 354 times more than the average worker.

That has got to change. pic.twitter.com/svKwgDn9A6

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 26, 2025

Republicans disavowed Project 2025 -- they were lying.

Click here for an article by Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) with the tag line "A Project 2025 author recently said its implementation is going “way beyond my wildest dreams.”  He goes on to say, "Their governing document is now a reality."

He sets out eight points of Project 2025 that the Trump regime has accomplished or is well on the way. They're nearly halfway through, and they're working hard to implement the rest.

Canada-U.S. cross-border traffic plunging

State-by-state data suggests the decrease is larger in states where a larger % of border crossings are by Canadian residents. Probably a ~40% reduction in Canadians entering the US versus a negligible change the other way. We'll have more about this in the newsletter on Monday. pic.twitter.com/ITE4uox8FX

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 26, 2025

Satellites (from The Brain Maze)

Carl Sagan foresaw America slipping into Idiocracy (1995)

Right Now, most of the American can relate to this message from the 90's. pic.twitter.com/nZCHR4u50S

— Prof. Carl Sagan (@ProfCarlSagan) April 18, 2025

Mild-mannered lynx

when uncle lynx comes to visit pic.twitter.com/usJ25pUE29

— Punch Cat (@PunchingCat) April 19, 2025

Jon Stewart, April 14

This beautiful animal must be protected.

The critically endangered Amur Leopard
About 100 left in the wild

📹 itseriksen

pic.twitter.com/ZqxcjJXdnh

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 13, 2025

Adam Mockler on Bill Maher's dinner with Trump

I think Adam is right: Maher got conned.