DEBUNKING DAY UPDATES
It’s Part of Who I Am and What I Modestly Try to Do with These Updates!
-We know most of us with consciences are having tough times these days thanks to the ogres now running our government – and we will get to one of the truly darkest things they have done to date later that is genuinely terrifying and will need courage and defiance to beat – but we also need to know that the fights can be won. And events of the last few hours are indicating that the head ogres, even as they try to exert whatever brute force they think they have, are truly not as forceful as they want us to believe they are …
-Let us start with the titular head of the government, Functional Vice President Donald Trump. Faced with unemployment numbers that are likely to begin to plunge next month when the full weight of the civil service firing orgy is tabulated, consumer prices that remain high (damn eggs), and a STUPIDSTUPID trade war featuring STUPIDSTUPID tariffs, Trump decided to do what he always does and worked to blow smoke up America’s asses with attempted bamboozlement. With markets teetering and businesses warning him about his STUPIDSTUPID tariffs, Trump went on Maria Bartiromo’s show and in his airplane after another weekend of golfing to assure everyone that he is not STUPIDSTUPID about tariffs, and in fact once the “billions and billions” of tariff dollars pour into America, “You will have so much money you won’t know what to do with it!”
-Actual quote, twice during the day!
-So one would have that Dear Leader’s proclamation would have soothed the stock market (which is not the economy but is a barometer Trump loves using when he can coast on previous administrations’ achievements to do it) … but, shockingly, they did not. The Dow Jones sunk nearly 900 points on Monday and, as of this writing, another 450 points this morning – because the rest of the country still thinks Trump’s STUPIDSTUPID tariffs are, in fact, STUPIDSTUPID and are continuing to make this economy rapidly disassemble before our eyes.
-Oh, but don’t you think for a second that the reality of a free-falling economy will deter Trump and his Putz Parade! As they all continue to insist that any “short-term pain” (that few of them will experience) will ultimately reap the aforementioned “too much money,” THIS JUST IN: Trump announced EVEN MORE STUPIDSTUPID tariffs on Canada, focusing on building materials in retaliation for Canadian tariffs on energy to the Northeastern U.S.. Apparently not having American booze on Canadian shelves and decimating red states in the process is not enough for Trump, because Only He Knows Best (and HE IS NOT STUPIDSTUPID STOP SAYING TRUMP IS STUPIDSTUPID YOU’RE STUPIDSTUPID!!!!).
-And the only thing about Trump’s STUPIDSTUPID tariffs hurting MAGAts more than anyone economically that is good is that, amazingly, it means even worse news for the Actual President, Apartheid Boy himself, Elon Musk.
-Despite his rancid band of incel coders wreaking havoc in the Gubmint, E’s world is actually teetering. Recall that on Sunday we talked about how the latest SpaceX rocket blowed up good – real good! – sending debris across the Eastern seaboard and disrupting air travel in the process. It was the latest in a series of rockets blowing up good – real good! – in the last few months. On top of that, his Starlink satellite internet access company is also reeling from massive losses of contracts around the world, both because of E’s almost-Trump-like embrace of Vladimir Putin’s plans in Ukraine as the realization that a quasi-utility service that can be cut off on the whim of the owner is probably not a good service to use for a country or military force or anything, to be honest.
-Then yesterday, the site formerly known as Twitter and now known as X was the apparent target of a successful hacking attack, taking it offline and making it hella unreliable on one of the busiest times of the year – the opening of the NFL free agency period. Agents, players, teams, journalists, and broadcast partners all reported so many disruptions and outages that many fled to rivals Bluesky and Threads – all the more important because the NFL, a mega-mover in various media worlds, has been telling teams not to use any other micro-blogging platform other than X, allowing all those clicks and income drivers to stay in E’s pockets. If that is endangered, the already-rickety X is in even more trouble.
-FUN SIDE NOTE: the mysterious online outfit Anonymous claimed an ‘affiliate’ organization called The Dark Storm Team – whose known ties include hackers based in Palestine and Russia – have taken credit for the disruption. E, however, went on Fox Bid-Ness to claim without any evidence (naturally) that it was Ukraine that did it!
-He is also continuing to get ripped to shreds nationally over his government “efficiency” committee (IT IS STIL NOT A DEPARTMENT) and the internal battles last week’s New York Times article exposed, with people in Congress and in the Trump Putz Parade Cabinet unhappy about his chops (even if, as we will see later, they may not do squat-diddley about it).
-That brings us to E’s main squeeze, Tesla Motors, which is free-falling faster and steeper than any rocket E manages to hurl upward into space. The brand is imploding worldwide. Protests in front of Tesla showrooms are breaking out everywhere. At least one Tesla store in France was burned to the ground. The Tesla showroom in Manhattan closed because of so many protests. Cybertrucks are so hated people are willing to pay good money in eggs to throw at them and then duck to make sure the things don’t blow up when the shells hit them – much less the graffiti. And thanks to all of that AND the stock market, the value of Tesla alone plummeted by over $17 BILLION just this week.
-It led E to retreat to Fox and look even more haggard than usual. In front of fellow alleged drug abuser Larry Kudlow last night, poor E nearly started to cry about all the money he lost and all the hatred he was getting, and it continued with Fox and Friends this morning, all pouty and reportedly worried that all the bad stuff may make poor E actually need to go out and work for a living instead of racking in all the big bucks and undeserved accolades – and yes, despite his wealth, experts say his empire is showing signs of, well, blowing up as good – real good – as Teslas often do.
-BUT WAIT – who is that hunchdragging his kept-together-by-bad-suits-and-resentment carcass to the horizon to try and save his boss? Why, DIPWAD DONNIE TRUMP, of course! In a social media post yesterday, Dear Leader first proclaimed that it is hereby UNLEGAL and INLAWFUL to boycott E’s bid-ness-ez because of how awesomewonderful E is, but that to stop the bleeding of Tesla, Trump will … today … BUY A TESLA FOR HIMSELF! Whether he gets a truck or not remains to be seen, and sure if he does it totally contradicts every attack Trump has been making about electric vehicles since like forever, and does it mean all new TrumpGovernment vehidles are gonna need to be Teslas – and would that even be enough to stop what may very well have now become a series of toxic companies manned by a man whose very name is quickly becoming synonymous with “toxic?”
-We can only wait and see how sad Apartheid Boy gets …
-Taking a far more serious turn, however, over the weekend ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, claiming his permanent residency green card was somehow invalid. Khalil was one of the leaders of protests last summer over Israel’s attacks on Palestine, and was named by some Israeli groups in the United States as someone that perhaps should be deported for his organization of those protests. The rationale for the arrest, according to both the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who claimed he personally signed the order for Khalil’s arrest), was that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas,” though there is no evidence of this and none proffered by DHS or Rubio.
-It is still not clear where Khalil is at this moment. Attorneys for Khalil and his wife (who is eight months pregnant) attempted to visit him in a facility in New Jersey, only to be told Khalil was transferred to a facility in Louisiana. As of this writing, it does not appear anyone has been able to contact Khalil despite a court order which temporarily stops any attempt to deport Khalil or take him anywhere else.
-Further, the arrest comes on the heels of the Trump administration announcing over $400 million in federal grants originally designated for Columbia have been cancelled or suspended, claiming that protests on that campus last year that damaged property made it too dangerous for Israeli and Jewish students to attend classes last spring – and while Khalil not only was not part of any of that damage, his role in trying to negotiate between protestors and administrators in ending the protests (and nationality) made him a target. Indeed, just before the arrest he had asked the university for help protecting himself from such an arrest.
-Protests and countersuits are being filed amid a statement posted on Trump’s social media site (likely written by Trump’s anti-immigration ghoul Stephen Miller) not only boasting of the arrest, but promising it was “the first” of many more to come. Clearly frustrated by the low number of arrests by Tom Homan, looking to intimidate universities nationally, and needing a ‘win’ to claim for the MAGA hordes storming town halls about inflation, this arrest is one that takes a page out of the Augusto Pinochet playbook and attempts to place it next to Project 2025. We need to stay together, find Khalil, and stop any further attempts to pull shit like this …
-On to the Federal budget, where a government shutdown is again nigh unless Congress passes a continuing resolution to do so – and House Speaker and MAGAt-herder Mike Johnson is trying to use it to essentially self-geld Congress to enshrine Musk and Trump’s mow-the-Government-down strategy. Instead of a “clean” resolution which is often only 1-2 pages long, the House has filed a 99-page bill that would try to enshrine the worst of the Musk cuts, lay the groundwork for the full-out attacks on the social safety net that has been the dream of Republicans since the 1930s, and zeroes out monies for the city of Washington, DC (because if you’re gonna be dicks, go all the way with the dickishness).
-Even somehow worse, to try to get all the votes they need to pass this thing in the House (they can literally only lose one vote to pass it, remember), the White House is telling the MAGA hordes who actually want even more cuts than listed in the bill that it’s OK, don’t worry, any extra spending Apartheid Boy and Dear Leader decrees is extra will just be lopped off without having to worry about that silly Congressional power of the purse – essentially working to swap that power for further centralization of power in the White House.
-The razor-thin House margin will be tight, but if it passes amidst the Hell Trump continues to unleash on the economy, then the resolution goes to the Senate, where a Democratic filibuster means eight Senators would have to pass this thing or risk a full government shutdown – something Minority Leader Schumer has always been unwilling to broach, but since this CR has had zero Democratic input (obviously) and Senators normally find any attempt to take away power from them as a line neither party would cross, it may come down to what they do on Friday night between a full-out shutdown or full-out capitulation.
-Can Democrats actually play country hardball given signs that Trump and Musk are teetering? Even 427-year-old James Carville has reportedly told them to tell Republicans to pass this on their own with ZERO votes, so CALL YOUR CONGRESSCRITTERS, because if we’re gonna do some hardship, then let Trump and Musk see how weird they sound to non-MAGAts trying to pin all of this on Joe Biden or Barack Obama …
-We need more good news than Sad Elon, and there IS some for our final note before the historical newsy updates. One of Trump’s most favorite leaders from his first regime, the odious former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over his abuses as President of that country stemming from his “war on drugs.” Those abuses included mass arrests, state-warranted killings of alleged druglords, and even stories of said suspects being thrown from helicopters – all under the orders of the Trump-esque Dutarte, who is reportedly on his way to The Hague for trial. The trial has yet to start, but it is a reminder that sometimes there are comeuppances and justice, and some stories do have happy endings …
-MAKE THOSE CALLS – after the rest of the update!
-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1811, striking textile workers in Nottingham, England, destroyed machines that caused their loss of workers, marking the beginning of the Luddite movement. In 1942, Douglas MacArthur assumed command of American military forces in the Southwest Pacific. In 1957, Charles Van Doren lost on the game show TWENTY-ONE (and would ultimately be found to have been the beneficiary of fixed games). In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. In 1990, Lithuania became the first Baltic state to declare independence from the Soviet Union. In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan led to the failure of Fukushima nuclear power plant near Honshu. In 2020, the World Health Organization officially labelled COVID-19 a pandemic – the same day Tom Hanks announced he had tested positive for the virus and the NBA announced a suspension of its season, effective immediately.
-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: RIGOLETTO (1851), the NHL Championship (1917), a President buried in Arlington National Cemetery (William Howard Taft, 1930), A RAISIN IN THE SUN (1959), DÉJÀ VU (1970), COPS (1989).
-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Shemp Howard, Lawrence Welk, Mercer Ellington, Vincente Carroll, Ralph Abernathy, Sam Donaldson, Flaco Jimenez, Dock Ellis, Bobby McFerrin, Jerry Zucker, Douglas Adams, Jimmy Iovine, Nina Hagen, Cheryl Lynn, Alex Kingston, Lisa Loeb, Terrence Howard, Johnny Knoxville, Bobby Abreu, Becky Hammon, Elton Brand, Thora Birch, Anton Yelchin, Anthony Davis, and Jodie Comer.
-REST IN PEACE/POWER: Alexander Fleming, Oscar Mayer, Erle Stanley Gardner, Philo Farnsworth, Dino Bravo, Vince Edwards, Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Betty Hutton, Merlin Olson, Hal Blaine, Bud Grant, and John Jakes.
-FEED THE WORMS: Rupert Murdoch and Antonin Scalia entered Earth on this date. Slobodan Milosevic bought it on this date.
-Jesse Jackson Jr. was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.
-TODAY’S MUSICAL INTERLUDE: Introduced to the world on this date in 1961!