When President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News last month, anchor Bret Baier asked what should have been a softball question: “Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?”
Trump’s response was glaring.
“No, but he’s very capable,” the president said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I don’t think that it, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he’s doing a fantastic job. It’s too early, we’re just starting.”
Well! That’s quite a denial.
However, according to Mediaite, people around Trump weren’t surprised because he’s really grooming his number one son, Don Jr to run. Yes, you read that right.
Three high-level sources told Mediaite that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son and an omnipresent MAGA evangelist across the internet, is seriously considering a run for president in 2028.
“Don has been the most politically involved of all the Trump kids and has always kept the lanes open for a presidential run,” one White House insider and close friend of the Trump family said. “He is a valued voice for his father, and a real possibility to be a contender in 2028.”
Trump Jr. boasts his own loyal following, a successful show on Rumble, and a strong presence on social media with more than 14.6 million followers on X. He serves as a key advisor to his father – he was credited with advocating for Trump to choose Vance as his running mate – and hit the campaign trail aggressively in the run up to the 2024 election.
What else do you need? It certainly isn’t brains, character or experience, which means he’s totally qualified.
The insiders all said that he’s keeping a lid on this talk for now because he doesn’t want to start a battle with JD (another living nightmare) but that it’s almost a sure thing. I would guess the real reason they aren’t openly talking about it yet is because that would just emphasize Trump’s lame duck status and he’s got a lot of pay-back to get to before he’s finished.
Junior sent this characteristically classy response to Mediaite:
I accurately predicted that my buddy JD would be an instant power player in national GOP politics, so your theory is that I worked my ass off to help get him the VP nomination because I want to run for president in 2028? Are you fucking retarded? I’m actually glad you’re printing this bullshit though because at least now the rest of the press corps will see how shitty your “sources” are and how easily you’re played by them. Congrats, moron.
He’s running!
I’m going to make the early prediction that he’ll be about as successful as Ron Desantis in 2024. But I do relish the bloody battle between him and JD Vance.
Trump on Putin: "I think we're doing very well with Russia. But right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don't have the cards … in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with… pic.twitter.com/t1fU3pgzX0
Trump: "Despite the Russia Russia Russia hoax I've always had a good relationship with Putin. He wants to end the war. And I think he's gonna be more generous than he has to be."
(Russia continues to bomb Ukraine, so it doesn't seem like Putin really wants the war to end.) pic.twitter.com/gbt3yCDFWL
Just a bizarre scene in The White House as Trump says Putin is hitting Ukraine harder than before but also says Putin wants it to end pic.twitter.com/YCodXDee1W
“I actually think he’s (Putin) doing what anybody else would do. Probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended. And I think Ukraine wants to get it ended, but I don’t see. It’s crazy. They’re taking tremendous punishment. I don’t quite get it.”
That’s Donald Trump endorsing Putin’s massive bombardment and murder of Ukrainians, due to the withdrawal of American military support and intelligence. All in order to force the Ukrainians to surrender, give Putin their land and Trump whatever the hell he wants.
US Intelligence Ban Leads to Heavy Ukrainian Losses
The decision by the United States to suspend military intelligence sharing with Ukraine has contributed to significant battlefield losses, with Russian forces advancing along key frontlines.
Reports indicate that the halt in intelligence support has resulted in heavy casualties among Ukrainian troops and has impacted their ability to conduct defensive and offensive operations.
Impact on the Battlefield
According to a report by Time, citing five senior Western and Ukrainian officials and military officers, the loss of intelligence data has had severe consequences. “There are hundreds of dead Ukrainians because of this pause,” one officer in Kyiv stated anonymously.
That’s what we’re talking about and I honestly think he’s normalizing this to the point that America working hand in glove with Russia to help them invade their neighbor is now going to be an official American policy. This is what we do now.
I am sickened by this and the fact that the gaseous, orange incubus is simply getting away with it because the Republicans in the congressional majority, most of whom know very well what he’s doing, are so consumed by their own ambition or fear that they refuse to utter a word. In fact, they clap and bark like trained seals at everything this freak says.
I urge you to take the time to listen to that discussion between Chris Hayes and Josh Marshall about the “anti-constitutional” posture being assumed by the Trump administration.
They discuss a couple of important articles from the past week. Here is a gift link to the NY Times piece they mention about Trump telling the cabinet members they are in charge of cuts. Here’s that one quote (oh my God…)
[Transportation Secretary]Mr. Duffy said the young staff of Mr. Musk’s team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. What am I supposed to do? Mr. Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?
Mr. Musk told Mr. Duffy that his assertion was a “lie.” Mr. Duffy insisted it was not; he had heard it from them directly. Mr. Musk, asking who had been fired, said: Give me their names. Tell me their names.
Mr. Duffy said there were not any names, because he had stopped them from being fired. At another point, Mr. Musk insisted that people hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programs were working in control towers. Mr. Duffy pushed back and Mr. Musk did not add details, but said during the longer back and forth that Mr. Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had any issues to raise.
The exchange ended with Mr. Trump telling Mr. Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses,” he said.
Sure. We don’t need to fund anymore scientific research but the nuclear physicists can do something useful and become Air Traffic Controllers instead.
Here’s a gift link to the Washington Post article in which the Republican Senators give away their power to Elon Musk. But not to worry, Elon says all they have to do is give him a call if they have concerns about his cuts. I’m not sure why the taxpayers should pay their salaries anymore.
And here’s Josh Marshall’s scoop on the unbelievable new claim of executive power in which they say that the appointments clause in the constitution is unconstitutional:
O’Connell said that the White House’s line of reasoning could create an opening for the Trump administration to bypass the Senate and install commissioners and board members at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Federal Election Commission.
“That will be taking a lot of power away from the Senate power that is grounded in the Constitution and power that they have protected statutorily because they excluded these agencies from the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,” she told TPM.
It appears that the Senate Republicans would rather do anything than actually fight for their own prerogatives.They just can’t do it. So it will be up to the courts to decide whether “the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution” trumps “the Appointment Clause of the Constitution” which would mean that there is no constitution except Article II.
He doesn’t understand what Act Blue does, obviously, so he thinks he can stop these protests by going after it. The groups he mentions are not funded by George Soros or any other billionaire. (DSA lol) Act Blue is just a pass through organization for small donors.
[Tesla] CEO, billionaire oligarch Elon Musk, who had formerly cultivated the image of an altruistic innovator, is now the face of chaotic disruption in Washington and the most influential ally of President Trump. As a result, Tesla owners who disapprove of the MAGA regime are trading in. A redditor recently explained their decision to get rid of a Model 3: “Last week it hit me: The resale market and eventual trade-in value for this car could fall off a cliff at any time,” they wrote on r/RealTesla. “There’s no telling what lunatic antics Musk could further debase himself with. Our car could become completely unsellable as customers reject the brand at all levels.” Dealers they visited in Southern California reported that their lots were being flooded with unwanted Teslas, this owner added.
Just six weeks into Trump’s second term, with Musk attached to his hip, it is suddenly clear that Tesla could be in big trouble. Eco-conscious customers, critical to its bottom line, are boycotting the brand. Sales have plummeted across the board. Tesla’s latest product, the stainless steel-paneled Cybertruck, was a maligned flop, and Musk has yet to make good on fevered visions of breakthroughs in artificial intelligence tech for autonomous vehicles. Anti-Tesla sentiment is at an all-time high, whether expressed through rude bumper stickers and peaceful protest or vandalism and arson, in part because Musk has continually stoked tension with his far-right politics. He is amplifying white nationalists on X, his social platform, and, in an astounding display at an inauguration event in January, gave a raised-arm salute recognized by neo-Nazis as an unambiguous “Sieg Heil” gesture. (He has, of course, laughed off any criticism.)
The head of Tesla, who according to a poll last month is disliked by more than half of Americans, is also courting the rage of millions as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by threatening programs including Social Security and Medicare. In seeking a means to retaliate against the wealthiest man alive, their attention has been drawn to Tesla, in which Musk holds an approximately 13-percent stake that accounts for a substantial share of his fortune. His total net worth is down $121 billion from its peak in December, when the company had a market capitalization well in excess of $1 trillion — the gains of a post-election rally wiped out entirely, with the stock price tumbling 38 percent just since Trump’s inauguration. This downturn comes as warning signs of an imminent recession continue to multiply.
I’m seeing many fewer Teslas in my neighborhood than a year ago but there are plenty of other EVs. This is the beating heart of Tesla’s target audience.
The article goes on to point out that the sales have been flat for some time, that his “self-driving” promises have failed to deliver and that the Cybertruck is widely considered to be an unsafe, hideous piece of junk among other things. What with his rockets blowing up and his car company failing, maybe Musk ought to quite the government and pay a little more attention to his companies.
Musk gets a ton of money from government contracts and I think we can be sure that he won’t go broke any time soon. But with the destruction of Twitter as a mainstream social media platform, he’s busily destroying his brand among the very people who buy his product and if that’s not a sign that his entrepreneurial “genius” is overrated, I don’t know what is.
Also note that he’s even more toxic in Europe which has pretty much stopped buying his vehicles altogether. He’s considered a monster all over the world.
The NYT: As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents.
I can understand that they want to erase all references to straight, non-white people and women. Who needs ’em. But I can’t believe they eliminated the word victim. How will they describe themselves without it?
Update — policing science as well. This is from the National Cancer Institute
An “important safety recall” on my car arrived via U.S. Mail the other day. The notice arrived, it said, “in accordance with the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act” (NHTSA, passed in 1966). A wiring issue could cause “the unintentional deployment of the airbag(s).” Dealers will fix the defect at no cost.
It’s the newest car I’ve ever owned and my first recall. Your recall mileage may vary. Literally.
SEC. 113. (a) Every manufacturer of motor vehicles shall furnish notification of any defect in any motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment produced by such manufacturer which he determines, in good faith, relates to motor vehicle safety, to the purchaser (where known to the manufacturer) of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment, within a reasonable time after such manufacturer has discovered such defect.
(b) The notification required by subsection (a) shall be accomplished—
(1) by certified mail to the first purchaser (not including any dealer of such manufacturer) of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment containing such a defect, and to any subsequent purchaser to whom has been transferred any warranty on such motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment; and (2) by certified mail or other more expeditious means to the dealer or dealers of such manufacturer to whom such motor vehicle or equipment was delivered.
(c) The notification required by subsection (a) shall contain a clear description of such defect, an evaluation of the risk to traffic safety reasonably related to such defect, and a statement of the measures to be taken to repair such defect.
Yup, that’s pretty much what arrived in the mail (not from Tesla). But it got me thinking.
NHTSA is now administered by Donald Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He got into a little Cabinet Room dustup this week with Elon Musk, he of reusable self-parking rocket booster and “rapid unscheduled disassembly” fame. With his youthful but inexperienced DOGE saboteurs, Musk is bringing his cutting-edge, rapid unscheduled disassembly technology to bear on a government agency serving you. For example, the one required by law to set safety standards for motor vehicles and ensure I got the recall notice that was dropped into my mailbox by a union mail carrier.
The New York Times reported on the cabinet meeting here (gift link):
At least two secretaries aired their grievances about Musk and engaged in heated clashes with the billionaire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was particularly incensed. After Musk accused him of failing to slash his staff, Rubio accused Musk of not telling the truth and asked, sarcastically, if he wanted the State Department to rehire staff just to fire them again.
Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, accused Musk of trying to lay off air traffic controllers. Musk called that “a lie,” asking for their names. The exchange ended with Trump telling Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers because they need to be “geniuses.”
(See where our genius of a president is headed here.)
So one musk ask, who will be left to ensure that a rapid unintentional airbag deployment doesn’t punch me in the face, blacken my eyes, and injure my passengers, other motorists and pedestrians once Musk and DOGE are done with the rapid intentional firings of federal safety watchdogs?
Musk has given us multiple fireworks display now that have disrupted air traffic and airline passengers’ lives to avoid being killed by his cosmik debris. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took note.
Why have are our FAA resources, reduced as they are after Elon Musk took a DOGE-ian chainsaw to them recently, been forced to scramble to protect civilian and commercial aircraft from yet another “rapid, unscheduled disassembly“?
Why wasn’t the FAA given enough advance notice of the possible (and likely) threat from debris so that flights could be re-routed or delayed BEFORE the launch attempt?
Photographs and videos posted on the social media site X by users saying they were along the Florida coast showed the spacecraft breaking up. The falling debris disrupted flights at airports in Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, and as far away as Philadelphia International Airport.
In other words, most of the eastern U.S. affected — no big deal. But that’s likely an understatement; you know the cascade of effects must have been wider given how tightly planes are scheduled.
Luckily, I filed my taxes early and electronically, and my refund dropped into my checking account a week later. So IRS computers haven’t experienced “rapid unscheduled disassembly” just yet.
But Musk and his DOGEes have turned their gaze upon the Social Security Administration’s computers, the ones that ensure my monthly check (and yours) drops into my checking account without disruption (CNN):
Millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that the acting commissioner has acknowledged is being steered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The loss of experienced employees who manage Social Security’s fragile and interdependent web of computer systems will likely leave the agency vulnerable to technical outages and, potentially, interrupt the benefit payments that are sent to more than 73 million retirees, people with disabilities and others, Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner under the Biden administration, told CNN.
The former Maryland governor predicted a meltdown could occur within 90 days, though other employees and experts were unsure of the timing even as they agreed the risk exists.
“Everything they’re doing is driving this agency to system collapse,” O’Malley said of Social Security’s new management. “It will lead to interruptions in service, and that will ultimately cascade into more frequent system interruptions for the processing of claims, ultimately leading to system collapse and eventually the interruption of benefits.”
One wonders how long “leaders” on Capitol Hill will allow this uber-rich, seig-heiling sociopath to treat the United States of America and people like you as his personal playthings.
From the New York Times account of this week’s fractious White House meeting between Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s cabinet secretaries:
“The exchange ended with Mr. Trump telling Mr. Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be ‘geniuses,’ he said.”
We’re days away from a Trump Executive Order to water U.S. crops with Brawndo.
There is a highly effective vaccine that prevents measles but no specific antiviral to treat it. Kennedy has previously pushed the use of vitamin A, and in an interview with Fox News this week, he endorsed an unconventional treatment regimen for measles including a steroid, an antibiotic and cod liver oil, which is rich in vitamin A.
In the interview, which was posted in full on Fox Nation, Kennedy praised two West Texas doctors who he said were using this remedy on their patients and had seen “almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery.” He said these doctors had “treated most of the patients” in the current outbreak, which has now reached 159 reported cases.
One of the doctors Kennedy is apparently taking cues from has troubled history. He was disciplined by the Texas Medical Board in 2003 for “unusual use of risk-filled medications.”
Big Bear’s beloved bald eagle couple, Jackie and Shadow, have welcomed eaglets into the world! You can watch live as the proud parents keep a close eye on their babies.
The first eaglet arrived Monday night, popping out of its shell shortly before 11:30 p.m. The special moment was captured live during the 11 p.m. newscast of ABC7 Eyewitness News.
bonkers shit as Trump waves around a printout of one of his Truth Social posts meant to show how he purportedly gave water to California pic.twitter.com/9LTlyGhAIc
That’s incredibly dumb but then, what else is new?
Remember the big water release in California Trump bragged would soon be in Los Angeles and we would never have any fires again? You know, the one that almost flooded the flood plain and wasted billions of gallons of water for nothing? Well, it started out as a DOGE thing:
Representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency repeatedly pressured the head of a United States water management agency to open a major California pump system in late January, intending to release a huge amount of water south toward Los Angeles — even though the water would have never made it to the fire-scarred metropolis. […]
Representatives from Elon Musk’s then-nascent efficiency department repeatedly called senior officials at the Bureau of Reclamation — the federal agency that manages some of the country’s major rivers, reservoirs and dams in the American West — days before Trump ordered the Army Corps to open the dams.
DOGE agents, including Tyler Hassen, a former oil company CEO, told senior Reclamation officials they had an order from the president to turn on water pumps at the Jones Pumping Plant, three people with knowledge of the requests told CNN. The plant transfers water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into a canal system, delivering water to farmers and other water users in the Central Valley.
They weren’t allowed in for obvious reasons. Nobody knew who the hell they were, they had no security clearances and the whole thing was insane:
Hassen and Bryton Shang, another DOGE representative, flew to California in the last week of January. They were given a tour of the Jones Pumping Plant and were briefed on Reclamation’s operations. The White House and DOGE did not respond to CNN’s question on which agency paid for the flights.
But the men’s request to have a photo taken of them turning on the Jones pumps didn’t happen; Shang wasn’t an official government employee, he wasn’t allowed inside the pump facility’s control room, which is under strict cybersecurity protocols. Hassen had to travel back before the electricity was scheduled to be restored.
Instead, Hassen and Shang posed in front of a 3-dimensional map of the Central Valley in a public space inside the plant and posted their photos to DOGE’s X account, congratulating Reclamation for getting its pumps back up and running — part of the facility’s standard operating procedure.
“They didn’t get their photo op,” a person with knowledge of the matter told CNN. The entire episode felt like “what DOGE has been this entire time — this slapstick operation of 20-somethings they’re seeing as whiz kids but have zero knowledge.”
This is what we’re dealing with. Cos-playing, tech bro, masters of the universe, bully boys running around like they can make the sun revolve around the earth because they are just that smart.
A few days later Trump ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to do it wasting 2.2 billion gallons of water which could have irrigated 6,000 acres of almond trees for a year.
