The wheels may not be coming off the Trump administration just yet, but it’s sure starting to feel wobbly. J.D. Vance’s visit to Greenland last week was a joke. That’s not right. Vance was the joke.
But let’s not obscure what there is to care about. Inflation has hit cruelty futures. Cruelty was the point seven years ago. Now it’s become sadism, argues John Stoehr:
First, consider that US Attorney Pam Bondi has suggested strongly that there will be no investigation of the nation’s highest-ranking national security officials inviting a journalist to a discussion of highly classified military operations on an unsecured messaging platform.
Then consider that a longtime employee of the US Department of Homeland Security “inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January,” according to a report by NBC News.
Days later, the employee was placed on leave pending an investigation, the officials said. She was asked to take a polygraph test and surrender her personal cellphone, which she declined. She was then notified that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said, which could keep her from working in the homeland security space again.
This is a pretty clear picture of unequal treatment before the law. As my senator, Chris Murphy, told MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle, on the subject of Signalgate, but not on the DHS employee who’s being investigated: “There has to be criminal investigations as well here. If the criminal code doesn’t apply to powerful people, if it only applies to people without power, then we don’t have rule of law in this country.”
Takeaway: we don’t have rule of law in this country.
Kristi Noem’s “Frau Schmerz” performance in El Salvador got the attention she wanted. She’s running TV ads now warning non-citizens who stick a toe inside U.S. borders “we will hunt you down” if you commit “crimes against the American people.” Evidence suggests that those could be anything from entering illegally, asking for asylum, or speaking your mind.
Stoehr adds:
Andrew Sullivan had the righteous man’s reply: “These wannabe fascists publicly delight and revel in their acts of domination in a manner that even despotic regimes avoid. For the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, to posture in front of a third-world gulag, with a $50,000 Rolex on her wrist, in order to scare any brown person with a tattoo in the US, is an exercise in authoritarian pornography. It is fascistic in its essence.”
Trump may be losing it, but we’re still at risk of losing the country. So remember this. Challenge Trump strongly (you know he admires strongly) and he backs down.
Not gonna pretend like I know anything about Carney’s politics because I don’t, but I watched his speech yesterday and he essentially told Trump to fuck off and now Trump’s speaking about him with a modicum of respect. I feel like there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
I know. April Fool’s Day isn’t until this coming Tuesday. But then again, in the grand scheme of things, does that really matter? What is reality, anyway? Besides, this piece is about film, which is scant more than a (to quote Orson Welles) “ribbon of dreams” to begin with. So with that in mind, I’ve curated my top 10 narrative films wherein the characters and/or the movie audience are fooled, conned, surprised, or shockingly betrayed. Alphabetically…
Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick’s beautifully photographed, leisurely paced adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s rags-to-riches-to-rags tale about a roguish Irishman (Ryan O’Neal) who grifts his way into the English aristocracy is akin to watching 18th-century paintings sumptuously spring to life (funnily enough, its detractors tend to liken it to “oil paintings” as well, but for entirely different reasons). The cast includes Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Leonard Rossiter and Leon Vitali.
This magnificent 1975 film has improved with age, like a fine wine; successive viewings prove the stories about Kubrick’s obsession with the minutest of details were not exaggerated-every frame is steeped in verisimilitude. Michael Hordern’s delightfully droll voice over work as The Narrator rescues the proceedings from sliding into staidness. The most elegant “long con” in cinema…from both a narrative and visual standpoint.
Carny–This oddball affair (Freaks meets Toby Tyler in Nightmare Alley) is set in the seedy milieu of a traveling carnival. Robbie Robertson and Gary Busey star as longtime pals and carnies who take a teenage runaway (Jodie Foster) under their wing and give her a crash course in the art of the con (i.e. hustling customers out of their hard-earned cash).
The story is elevated above its inherent sleaze factor by the excellent performances. Busey’s work here is a reminder that at one time, he was one of the most promising young actors around (up until the unfortunate motorcycle mishap). Director/co-writer Robert Kaylor also showed promise, but has an enigmatic resume; a film in 1970, one in 1971, Carny in 1980, a nondescript Chad Lowe vehicle in 1989, then…he’s off the radar.
Certified Copy – Just as you’re lulled into thinking this is going to be one of those brainy, talky, yet pleasantly diverting romantic romps where you and your date can amuse yourselves by placing bets on “will they or won’t they-that is, if they can both shut up long enough to get down to business before the credits roll” propositions, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami throws you a curve ball.
Then again, maybe this film isn’t so much about “thinking”, as it is about “perceiving”. Because if a “film” is merely (if I may quote Mr. Welles again) “a ribbon of dreams”-then Certified Copy, like any true work of art, is simply what you perceive it to be-nothing more, nothing less. Even if it leaves you scratching your head, you get to revel in the luminosity of Juliette Binoche’s amazing performance; there’s pure poetry in every glance, every gesture. (Full Review)
The Master– As Inspector Clouseau once ruminated, “Well you know, there are leaders…and there are followers.” At its most rudimentary level, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is a two-character study about a leader and a follower (and metaphorically, all leaders and followers).
It’s also a story about a complex surrogate father-son relationship (a recurring theme in the director’s oeuvre). And yes, there are some who feel the film is a thinly disguised take down of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
I find it a thought-provoking and original examination of why human beings in general are so prone to kowtow to a burning bush, or be conned by an emperor with no clothes; a film that begs repeated viewings. One thing’s for sure-Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix deliver two fearless lead performances. Like all of Anderson’s films, it’s audacious, sometimes baffling, but never dull. (Full Review)
Nightmare Alley– “How can a guy get so low?” Even within the dark recesses of film noir, this cynical 1947 entry is about as “low” as you can get. Directed by Edmund Goulding and adapted from William Lindsay Gresham’s novel by Jules Furthman, the film was a career gamble for star Tyrone Power, who really sinks his teeth into the role of carny-barker-turned “mentalist” Stanton Carlisle.
Utilizing his innate charm and good looks, the ambitious Carlise ingratiates himself with a veteran carnival mind-reader (Joan Blondell). Once he finagles a few tricks of the trade from her, he woos a hot young sideshow performer (Coleen Gray) and talks her into partnering up to develop their own mentalist act.
The newlyweds find success on the nightclub circuit, but the ever-scheming Carlisle soon sees an opportunity to play a long con with a potentially big payoff. To pull this off, he seeks the assistance of a local shrink (Helen Walker). While not immune to Carlisle’s charms, she is not going to be an easy pushover like the other women in his life. Big trouble ahead…and a race back to the bottom. Full of surprising twists and turns.
Paper Moon – Two years after The Last Picture Show, director Peter Bogdanovich had the audacity to shoot yet another B&W film-which was going against the grain by the early 70s. This outing, however, was not a bleak drama. Granted, it is set during the Great Depression, but has a much lighter tone, thanks to precocious 9 year-old Tatum O’Neal, who steals every scene she shares with her dad Ryan (which is to say, nearly every scene in the film).
The O’Neals portray an inveterate con artist/Bible salesman and a recently orphaned girl he is transporting to Missouri (for a fee). Along the way, the pair discover they are a perfect tag team for bilking people out of their cookie jar money. Entertaining road movie, with the built-in advantage of a natural acting chemistry between the two leads.
Also with Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman, P.J. Johnson, and Noble Willngham. DP László Kovács (my 2007 tribute) is in his element; he was no stranger to road movies (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces). Screenwriter Alvin Sargent adapted from Joe David Brown’s novel, “Addie Pray”. (Bogdanovich passed away in 2022; I wrote this tribute .)
The Servant – Joseph Losey’s brooding and decadent class-struggle allegory features the great Dirk Bogarde in a note-perfect performance as the “manservant” hired by a snobby playboy (James Fox) to help him settle into his upscale London digs. It soon becomes apparent that this butler has a little more on the agenda than just polishing silverware and dusting the mantle. Sara Miles is also memorable in one of her earliest film roles.
Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe’s striking chiaroscuro composition and clever use of convex mirrors (which appear to “trap” the images of the principal characters) sustains a stifling, claustrophobic mood throughout. If you’re an aficionado of the 60’s British folk scene, keep your eyes peeled for a rare (and unbilled) screen appearance by guitarist Davey Graham, featured in a scene where Fox walks into a coffeehouse. Harold Pinter’s screenplay was adapted from the novel by Robin Maugham.
Siesta – Music video director Mary Lambert’s 1987 feature film debut is a mystery, wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. Ellen Barkin stars as an amnesiac who wakes up on a runway in Spain, dazed, bloodied and bruised. She spends the rest of the film putting the jagged pieces together, trying to figure out who she is and how she got herself into this discombobulating predicament (don’t let your attention wane!).
Reviews were mixed when the film came out, but I think it’s high on atmosphere and beautifully photographed by Bryan Loftus, who was the DP for another one of my favorite 80s sleepers, The Company of Wolves. Great soundtrack by Marcus Miller, and a fine supporting cast including Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, and Isabella Rossellini. The script is by Patricia Louisianna Knop, who would later produce and occasionally write for her (now ex) husband Zalman King’s Red Shoe Diaries cable series that aired in the ‘90s.
The Sting – George Roy Hill’s caper dramedy is pretty fluffy, but a lot of fun. Paul Newman and Robert Redford reunited with their Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid director in this 1973 star vehicle to play a pair of 1930s-era con men who set up the ultimate “sting” on a vicious mobster (Robert Shaw) who was responsible for the untimely demise of one their mutual pals. The beauty of screenwriter David S. Ward’s clever construction is in how he conspiratorially draws the audience in to feel like are in on the elaborate joke…but then manages to prank us too…when we’re least expecting it!
The Usual Suspects –What separates Bryan Singer’s tightly-directed sophomore effort from the pack of otherwise interchangeable Tarantino knockoffs that flourished throughout the 90s is a great cast (Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palmenteri, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollack and Stephen Baldwin), smart screenplay (co-written by Singer and Christopher McQuarrie) and a real doozey of a twist ending.
The story unfolds via flashback, narrated by a soft-spoken, physically hobbled milquetoast named “Verbal” (Spacey), who is explaining to a federal agent (Palmenteri) how he ended up the sole survivor of a mass casualty shootout aboard a docked ship. Verbal’s tale is riveting; a byzantine web of double and triple crosses that always seems to thread back to an elusive and ruthless criminal puppet master named Keyser Soze. The movie has gained a rabid cult following, and “Who is Keyser Soze?” has become a meme.
In Bobby Jr’s HHS, only conspiracy nuts survive. The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official has been pushed out, according to people familiar with the matter.
Dr. Peter Marks, who played a key role in the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to develop Covid-19 vaccines, stepped down Friday. He submitted his resignation after a Health and Human Services official earlier in the day gave him the choice to resign or be fired, people familiar with the matter said.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote in a resignation letter referring to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The letter was addressed to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner. His resignation takes effect April 5, the letter said.
“If Peter Marks does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy,” an HHS official said.
God I get sick of this doublespeak crapola from these people.
This is a big loss:
Marks, who has been with the FDA since 2012, has led its division responsible for overseeing vaccines, biotech drugs and blood products since 2016. Part of the division’s role is making sure vaccines work and are safe.
During the pandemic, he was a member of the team that streamlined regulations and pooled government funding to speed development of Covid-19 vaccines.
He had wanted to stay in his position, though his support of immunizations conflicted with Kennedy’s skepticism, people familiar said.
Marks, who has been with the FDA since 2012, has led its division responsible for overseeing vaccines, biotech drugs and blood products since 2016. Part of the division’s role is making sure vaccines work and are safe.
During the pandemic, he was a member of the team that streamlined regulations and pooled government funding to speed development of Covid-19 vaccines.
Those vaccines were a scientific triumph and they saved millions of lives.
But the steroid addled weirdo, Bobby Jr, doesn’t like them so let’s hire another braindead weirdo to “investigate” something that’s been debunked for years. That’s what he did:
A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current and former federal health officials.
The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the analysis, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Geier and his father, Mark Geier, have published papers claiming vaccines increase the risk of autism, a theory that has been studied for decades and scientifically debunked.
David Geier was disciplined by Maryland regulators more than a decade ago for practicing medicine without a license. He is listed as a data analyst in the HHS employee directory.
IF YOU HAD ANY DOUBT THAT THE Trump administration and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are going after vaccines, a confidential internal document should put those questions to rest.
A March 25 memo from the National Institutes of Health provides officials at the agency with instructions on how to terminate certain grants. An appendix in the document lists several types of studies that would be subject to termination, and includes “vaccine hesitancy” among the “examples for research activities that NIH no longer supports.”
“It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment,” the document states, as a suggestion of language officials should use when terminating the grants. “NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life.”
They simply don’t believe in epidemiology. They think there is no benefit to having a population fully vaccinated to create herd immunity. They think it’s just a “personal” choice, condemning vulnerable populations to exposure and untold suffering for children and others who are at the mercy of these morons. We had measles eradicated not all that long ago in this country. Then Bobby and his fellow woo-woos and wingnuts persuaded a whole lot of people that vaccines are more dangerous than deadly illnesses and here we are. It’s only going to get worse.
A cutting-edge technology expected to foster new medical breakthroughs in treatments for cancers and infectious disease is being treated “like a four-letter word” inside the Trump administration, causing panic among scientists who fear Trump-appointed health officials, driven by misinformation and conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine, will cut critical research in the field.
Scientists and public health experts interviewed by the Guardian are sounding the alarm over a recent move by the National Institutes of Health to collect information about funding for research into mRNA technology.
Some fear it is the first step in a move to cut or defund grants that involve the technology, which was an essential component in the rapid creation of vaccines against Covid-19, a major accomplishment of the first Trump term in fighting the pandemic.
Messenger RNA technology, which in the case of Covid-19 teaches the body to fight infection by introducing immune cells to the coronavirus’s characteristic spike proteins, is being tested for use against diseases ranging from bird flu and dengue, to pancreatic cancer and melanoma.
The word is that the NIH is targeting mRNA research specifically and people are being told not to bother applying for research grants. And like everything else, they are all operating in a climate of fear afraid to say anything for fear of reprisals.
“So far, any attempt at reasoning with people has fallen on deaf ears. Everything is being run by the department [Department of Health and Human Services] or the White House,” the person said. KFF Health News separately reported that all grants involving mRNA research were to be reported to Memoli, for referral to the office of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and the White House.
Adding to concerns is the administration’s February decision to review a nearly $600m contract between HHS and Moderna, which was set to fund research into potential mRNA vaccines against five flu subtypes, including H5N1 or bird flu.
The person said: “mRNA has become the new four letter word. I mean, it’s crazy. It goes beyond just anti-vax,” referring to the anti-vaccine movement in the US. “It’s about anything associated with the Covid response, which has been weaponized by extreme people in the administration,” the person added…
Most experts agree that it relates to the politicization of the pandemic and misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines. “Prior to the pandemic, even anti-vaccine groups were not focused on mRNA vaccines,” said Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, an expert in vaccine law and professor at the University of California College of Law in San Francisco.
And, of course, the leader of this braindead movement is Bobby Jr who was hostile to the COVID 19 vaccine saying in back in 2020 “because the current risks of serious adverse events or deaths outweigh the benefits”.
Studies later showed that claim was inaccurate. A study by the Commonwealth Fund found that Covid-19 vaccines saved 3.2 million American lives and prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations through November 2022.
The vaccine gave me my life back. For anyone over a certain age the COVID was a form of house arrest forcing us to give up any semblance of a normal life because we could very easily die if we got it. (We weren’t the only ones, of course, but the statistics for people over 50 were pretty terrifying in the early days.) But once we got the vaccines and the boosters, we got to live again. And when we eventually got the virus, as most of us did, most of us never had to go to the hospital. Even the long COVID sufferers had an easier time of it if they were vaccinated.
Now they are finding that the mRNA vaccines are on the verge of offering a monumental breakthrough for cancer. Even pancreatic cancer which is so hard to treat. And these people want to take it all away because that loon Kennedy and the brainwashed right wingers who “do their own research” believe lies.
If they succeed in strangling this life-saving research I think we have to consider it a crime against humanity.
Following up on the post below, I just wanted to flag a comment by the new MAGA extremist FCC chair Brendan Carr, discussing his new investigation into the ABC-Disney merger over their DEI policies. This is what he said:
“There are some concerning indications that they may have been discriminating against employees based upon their race, their gender and other protected characteristics all in the name of promoting DEI.”
He’s done the same to Comcast.
I think that’s a very good concise explanation of the blackmail that’s going on in corporate America. The people who have spent decades defending the prerogatives of the private sector to discriminate against anyone they choose are now threatening private corporations with government actions if they don’t agree to get rid of alleged “anti-discrimination” practices against white men. And they are using the 1964 Civil Rights Act to do it. It’s diabolical.
The Naval Academy didn’t know they were supposed to follow Trump’s edicts to erase all recognition of people of color or women in Kindergarten to 1th grade, perhaps assuming that students going into the elite officer corps were capable of critical thinking. They have since been schooled by Pete Hegseth:
This week, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy decisions, Mr. Hegseth’s office became aware that the nation’s military service academies did not believe that President Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order to end “radical indoctrination” in kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms applied to them, as they are colleges. The defense secretary’s office informed the Naval Academy that Mr. Hegseth’s intent was for the order to apply to the academies, and that the secretary expected compliance.
[…]
The academy’s library in Annapolis, Md., houses roughly 590,000 print books, 322 databases, and more than 5,000 print journals and magazines, Commander Hawkins said…
Thus far, the review of Nimitz Library’s holdings has identified 900 books that may run afoul of the defense secretary’s verbal order. According to a second defense official, they include “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.,” “Einstein on Race and Racism,” and a biography on Jackie Robinson.
They did reinstate Jackie Robinson’s Pentagon web page after a huge outcry but I’m going to guess that the biography might be a bridge too far. After all, Jackie Robinson is someone whose life story is in direct conflict with the MAGA narrative. Deal Leader and his minions have decreed that there has never been a problem with race or sexism in America. They want people to believe that it is and always was an equal playing field. If it happens that straight, white males have run everything from the beginning it’s just because they are so superior. That’s what they call meritocracy.
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.
The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.
Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.
God help us:
In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months, then their way is the right way, and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.
DOGE would also need to develop tests to ensure the new system’s outputs match the previous one. It would be difficult to resolve all of the possible edge cases over the course of several years, let alone months, adds the SSA technologist.
“This is an environment that is held together with bail wire and duct tape,” the former senior SSA technologist working in the office of the chief information officer tells WIRED. “The leaders need to understand that they’re dealing with a house of cards or Jenga. If they start pulling pieces out, which they’ve already stated they’re doing, things can break.”
Obviously, this is a necessary modernization which they’ve been talking about for some time. But it requires taking their time and being very careful about doing it because 75 million people are dependent on the system to work without interruption. Keep in mind that most people’s Medicare premiums are deducted from their Social Security. If this explodes, as it likely will, senior citizens are not only in dangers of not getting their checks, the Medicare system is in danger of blowing up right along with it.
But I’m sure BigBalls and his grubby little friends know what they’re doing with COBAL and will make sure nothing bad happens right? They’re all geniuses.
As Scott Lemieux wrote:
Enjoying your hard-earned retirement? Thinking of retiring in the near future? Elon would like to take take what is likely most of your disposable income to the Dunning-Kruger casino
Top White House and administration officials have been promising businesses, consumers and fellow Republicans more “certainty” on trade in the coming days, eager to calm skittish markets and avoid the stock market plunge that accompanied the White House’s initial tariff roll-outs.
But they have one problem: Donald J. Trump.
Just days out from Trump’s April 2 announcement of global tariffs, which he has hailed as “Liberation Day,” even those closest to the president — from Vice President JD Vance to his chief of staff Susie Wiles and his own Cabinet officials — have privately indicated that they’re unsure exactly what the boss will do, according to three people who have spoken with them…
“No one knows what the fuck is going on,” said one White House ally close to Trump’s inner circle, granted anonymity to speak freely. “What are they going to tariff? Who are they gonna tariff and at what rates? Like, the very basic questions haven’t been answered yet.”
When are people going to admit that he’s losing it? (To the extent that he ever had it, that is.) He probably isn’t remembering what he said from one day to the next and isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do. He is hanging on by his fingernails.
His team is concerned because he’s not paying any attention to economic warning signs that are all around us. But it’s also “because the president continues to throw curveballs at businesses — and even his own team.” What does that say?
Case in point: Wednesday’s decision to slap the auto industry with 25 percent tariffs. While expected in some fashion in the near future, the announcement came together so last minute that the White House wasn’t fully prepared and had to delay afternoon programming as they sought to finalize the plan, according to two people familiar with the roll-out.
The White House also didn’t brief industry stakeholders in the U.S. or abroad beforehand — though a White House official argued that if they were “smart” they would have known it was coming, since Trump himself issued a public warning.
Then he’s saying that he might not do it after all, but who knows?
“I may give a lot of countries breaks,” Trump said. “We might be even nicer than that.”
On Wednesday, he reiterated that potential reprieve, predicting to reporters that people will be “pleasantly surprised” by the “somewhat conservative” tariffs.
Look at how people try to find excuses for this erratic behavior:
“I think it would be a mistake to think next week all of a sudden we’re going to get a bunch of clarity,” said Tom Graff, chief investment officer at financial advisory firm Facet. “I’m sure they’re trying to reset with financial markets and build some certainty, but I don’t think the president is going to have a personality transplant.”
“I think he wants to keep his options open,” Graff added.
Bullshit. There’s no point to any of it. I won’t even quote what the White House sycophants are saying. You can only imagine.
Tell me this isn’t a man struggling with dementia:
Part of the uncertainty stems from the president seeming to undermine his own team at times. After Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in recent weeks that only about 10 or 15 countries — or the “dirty 15,” as Bessent put it — would face reciprocal tariffs, Trump said Wednesday that actually every country will be hit with a tariff…
Indeed, Trump has continued to shift the scope, targets and timeline of his tariffs at a whiplash-inducing pace. The duties he promised, pre-inauguration, to levy on Canada and Mexico his first day in office shifted to Feb. 1, then Feb. 4, then March 4, before being largely rolled back until April 2. There is little clarity about what parts of those tariffs — which could hit more than $1 trillion worth of trade — will go into effect next week.
The size of the so-called reciprocal tariffs, which the administration says it’s calculating for individual trading partners based on their treatment of U.S. imports, could also shift. Administration officials have indicated to foreign diplomats that those duties are meant to be a starting point for negotiations with other countries, meaning American companies may not know what if any tariffs will stick.
Trump also threatened to impose tariffs April 2 on various critical industries, including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, copper and lumber, before indicating in recent days that those tariffs are likely to be delayed.
The “planning” is in total chaos. Any country that wants to avoid these inane tariffs has no idea if they’re coming or what they might be although Lutnick has said he’d try to give them a “heads up” if he can.
Apparently, the team is divided and each side is trying to influence the addled president although that probably won’t make any difference. Bessent, Wiles and Vance have all tried to get him to narrow the tariffs and make a final decision (despite surprising Wall St with their public support for whatever Trump does) but he doesn’t listen.
And then there are the true blues:
On the other hand, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Navarro are said to be encouraging Trump’s long-standing tariff fixation.
The divisions have caused tensions. While Navarro is a genuine tariff believer, Lutnick — who has a close relationship with Trump and enjoys influence that others in the Cabinet do not, as of yet — is widely seen as supporting whatever Trump wants to ingratiate himself with the president, a dynamic that has infuriated others in the administration.
“He goes into the Oval and tells the president whatever he wants to hear,” said the first White House ally, who called Lutnick a “fucking nightmare” and argued he does so without consideration of the economic consequences.
Republicans are worried:
“If tariffs did have an inflationary impact — or an impact on interest rates that caused inflation and the economy moved toward a recession — that would be a very bad thing in my judgement,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told POLITICO, though he acknowledged a skilled rollout could work. “It would turn the Trump presidency from a four year term into a two year term, because we’d lose in the midterms.”
Ya think? The stubborn old man doesn’t hear any of that because he’s ignorant, has always believed his own hype and is losing his grip all at the same time:
The problem Trump’s own advisers and Hill Republicans face is that the president doesn’t share their alarm. He’s long believed that other countries are cheating America and that tariffs will usher in a new period of economic growth — economists’ warnings be damned. While many Hill Republicans have sought to justify his tariff obsession by chalking it up to a negotiating tactic, the reality is Trump really believes in the protectionist policies pushed by aides like Navarro, the longtime trade adviser whom Republicans almost universally distrust. The president also believes that his tariffs are popular with voters.
That’s because he’s not all there. They know it too, they just won’t admit it. He’s in his own world:
“The president isn’t looking at it like they are,” said one of the people close to Trump’s inner circle of the president’s advisers.“For [him], if the economy tanks, then fine, the economy tanks — because the president truly believes that it will rebound and the countries will give in because they can’t withstand the pressure from the U.S.”
As for political blowback, this person continued: “No. 1, the president is not running for reelection — so where this may have been a political concern in his first term, it’s not a political concern now. … And No. 2, we’re probably gonna lose the House in the midterms.”
Yes, eventually the economy will rebound. It always does in the long run. But as J.K. Galbraith famously said, “in the long run we’ll all be dead.”
I love this:
It’s unclear how candid Trump’s advisers have been to the president about their fears. One White House ally on the outside close to Trump’s team said even his most senior advisers abhor telling Trump what he doesn’t want to hear — but another argued that the president simply isn’t internalizing the warnings.
“I don’t think it’s like no one wants to tell Trump the bad, the hard news,” said one of the outside allies mentioned above. “I think people have tried to have a conversation with him, and he’s dead set on it. He’s a true believer.”
That’s because he’s not all there. It’s obvious in a million different ways. And they are all now in protective mode, far beyond anything we saw with Biden who was just showing normal elderly decline, nothing like this.
They say that people’s character traits often become more pronounced when dementia sets in. They can also become more stubborn, largely because they find themselves often confused and disoriented so they exert whatever power they have over others to reassure themselves that they’re still in control. And yes, in Trump’s case, he’s completely in old man YOLO mode, doing whatever he wants determined to prove that he’s always been right about everything. I hesitate to think what he’s going to do if and when reality blows up in his face.
When is the media going to start looking at this seriously?
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again
— “The Mary Ellen Carter,” by Stan Rogers, 1979
Friends ask me how I am, and my stock reply is now “Managing my stress.” My mother, 93, tells me she and her friends are all wondering whether their Social Security checks will arrive in April. But then that’s just what a “fraudster” would say, according to Donald Trump’s billionaire Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, speaking from whatever planet that bastard lives on. My mother and her friends know all about his comments.
A friends laments that too many in the progressive sphere seem to think clicktivism is enough. Another looks at the descent of the U.S. into will-to-power lawlessness and says there’s nothing you can do. But that’s not true.
Read this carefully:
Not gonna pretend like I know anything about Carney’s politics because I don’t, but I watched his speech yesterday and he essentially told Trump to fuck off and now Trump’s speaking about him with a modicum of respect. I feel like there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
There is a lesson in there: Stand up to Trump and he backs down. He has a loud bark and a glass jaw.
In case you need reminding what Carney did:
Carney: “The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over.” pic.twitter.com/LKYkpO8JD0
So attend those protests, the big and the small. Contact your representatives, even the MAGA ones. Write letters to the editor. Make phone calls for Susan Crawford in Wisconsin (the election is Tuesday). Even if the checks keep coming, I promise you that those reliably voting seniors on Social Security won’t forget the Trump-inspired stress and worry they feel over whether they will be able to pay their bills or, you know, eat.
The smiling, lying bastards only win if you give up first.
The good citizens of Gotham City elected the Joker as mayor. He appointed his friends to high positions in government. Batman is MIA. Things have gone about as you’d expect.
You’ve noticed? So has Michael Tomasky. Some headlines:
Trump-as-Joker would fire the police too, but why bother with AG Pam Bondi (as Harley Quinn) deciding which Trump enemies to prosecute and which Trump crimes to ignore? (All of them.) Besides, he needs police as enforcers. There’s little chance that Senator John Thune and Representative Mike Johnson will launch CapitolHill investigations into anything Trump.
“That’s a lot of mayhem, and it barely scratches the surface,” Tomasky explains:
Across human history, fascism has been imposed upon democracy mostly in one of two ways. First, by brute force—a military coup, that sort of thing. Second, a bit more stealthily, and legally—through legislation, executive decrees, and court decisions that hand more power to the leader.
Donald Trump is inventing a new way. Call it chaos fascism. Destroy the institutions of democracy until they’re so disfigured or dysfunctional that a majority no longer cares about them.
But they’ll care about this. Musk-Trump is degrading the Social Security system while propagandizing against it “with absurd and false claims about 140-year-olds cashing checks.” DOGE claims after being embarrassed by that that it can replace SSA’s archaic-but-functional COBOL software that DOGE coders don’t understand with Java in a matter of months. Experts say years. DOGE says trust A.I.
Then wreck the agency so that its service becomes crap. Let public anger at it build. And in time, they can just dismantle it and privatize the greatest social insurance system ever devised by this government and put people’s financial fate in the hands of rich cronies. If that’s not chaos fascism, I don’t know what is.
For now it is left to the courts to attempt to put the brakes on Joker’s plans for mayhem. He’s already defying them, but hasn’t yet seen his SCOTUS buddies rule on his most blatant actions. For now, the country is whistling past the constituional crisis. Defying SCOTUS could backfire, Politico suggests, but may get something Republicans can regret at their leisure:
Trump is likely to get some of what he wants from the Supreme Court when all is said and done — maybe even a lot of it. But it is always useful to remember that when a president manages to devise new and more powerful tools for himself — whether legal or political in nature — he leaves them for his successors too. And there is no telling what will happen and how those tools will be used over the long haul.
That assumes there is a long haul.
With Batman MIA and the courts with no army, stopping the Joker’s chaos fascism may take Americans in the streets by the millions. Saturday, April 5 is your big chance!
Two river otters, Louie and Ophelia, weaseled their way out of their Wisconsin zoo enclosure last week during a winter storm, appearing on security camera footage cavorting across the snow, as the search continued Tuesday.
The NEW Zoo & Adventure Park said the two North American river otters escaped through a small hole that they enlarged in a buried fence, and their flight was quickly noticed by zookeepers on their morning rounds.
But Louie and Ophelia don’t appear to have gone far, their tracks showed them exploring nearby bodies of water and returning to the zoo’s perimeter now and again, the zoo said in a news release.
Footage released by the zoo shows an otter leaving the stoop of a building and launching itself into a belly slide on the snow, its forepaws snapping to its side, nose leading the way and back legs thrusting for an extra boost.
It’s the undeniable “bounce, bounce, sliiiiide” of the otter, the zoo said in a Facebook post, and creates one of the more recognizable mammal tracks.
Louie and Ophelia are expected to stay close because otters are territorial creatures, the zoo said, adding their species are native to the area and capable of surviving, with the local ponds and streams offering food and shelter.
Lol. Now they’re getting help. It’s a conspiracy!
“Raccoons have, unfortunately, impeded some of our efforts, even setting off one trap not
