It’s a rainy Saturday, so I thought I would sit down and ramble for a while. I’ll start off with Donnie’s state of mind over the past couple of days. After getting handed a disastrous legal loss by his own hand-picked Supreme Court barring the “clown administration” from using an 18^th century wartime law to deport a group of Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison, claiming they belonged to a very dangerous gang, which in many cases has been shown to not be true, the ‘Orange Nuisance’ went berserk and launched one of his Truth Social rants. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! Followed by, “a bad and dangerous day in America.” The kicker, though, was having to follow those pesky due-process procedures, which are just too time-consuming when you have to go through a “long, protracted, and expensive legal process” to deport migrants. Supreme Court 1, Trump 0. He wasn’t finished, however. Somehow his anger spread and he spent the night rage posting about Taylor Swift, saying “she’s no longer hot.”  For some reason, he posted on his Truth Social, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?” Now, mind you, this is not coming from a hormone-driven sixteen-year-old male, but a 79-year-old President of the United States, who demonstrates the maturity of a ten-year-old male. In a HuffPost article this morning, Haley Sheehan, a family and marriage therapist, says, “In therapy, we call this ‘protective puffing’ – when someone feels insecure, rejected, or powerless, they try to regain control by devaluing the other person.” I love that Taylor Swift makes ‘Big Boy’ so insecure and powerless that he feels he needs to shout out a “Protective Puff.” Another therapist in that article, Samantha Rhoads, says, “Though ethically troubling, Trump frequently relies on ‘rage bait,’ which are provocative behaviors designed to incite and monopolize attention. As a therapist, I often encounter children described as ‘disruptive’ when, in truth, they’re seeking connection and attention, even through negative means. The key difference… is that Trump, unlike a child, is a fully developed adult, well aware of the social norms he deliberately violates.” Excellent analysis by these two therapists. The ‘Man-Child’ still wasn’t finished, though, as he must be going through a childish phase, lashing out at musical celebrities. This time it was Bruce Springsteen, whom he had been sparring with for several days after the ‘Boss’ started off his European tour on Wednesday ripping tRump with this, “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” Friday morning on Air Force One on the way back from his Middle East ‘Trump Family” business trip, he had a response to Bruce, “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden.” This was followed up by, (and this like ‘the pot calling the kettle black’), “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” In his typical fashion, he must include some sort of threat and a reminder that he doesn’t care for ‘Crooked Joe Biden.’ So, there you have the Friday trifecta. But wait, there’s more.

I’ll call this one “The Walmart Threat.” On Thursday, I saw on the ‘6:00 O’Clock Evening News’ that Walmart would start raising prices later this month due to the high cost of the tariffs. Knowing that Walmart is a favorite amongst MAGA shits, and an increase in prices at the Superstore would be felt by the tRump humping morons, the King of Bullshit took to Truth Social this morning and gave his best ‘Soprano’s Warning.’ “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China, they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers! ” OOOOh, that oughta make’em quiver in their boots. I think Donnie’s starting to get worried that even the “Own the Libs” Brigade are starting to figure out that he’s just a fart in the wind and hasn’t done anything to make their life better. I will defer to JoJo from Jerz for her apt description of these acolytes (WARNING: unlike me, JoJo has a potty mouth, so be forewarned). “So let’s talk about how you’re the shidiot, simping for a dictator like he’s gonna personally show up at your trailer park with a golden ticket to the “Everything Is Great Now” factory. Spoiler alert, Sparky: your shitty little life ain’t magically getting better under a dictatorship. In fact, it’s about to get a whole lot fucking worse. But sure, keep polishing those boots with your tongue and pretending you’re the “chosen one”, cuz that’s sure as shit gonna work out any day now.” “Newsflash, Dipshit McFreedomFarts: dictators don’t give a single flying fuck about you. They’re not here to help you. They’re here to help themselves, their rich buddies, and anyone who can keep them in power while you’re stuck eating expired canned beans and wondering why the electricity got shut off.” Yep, Ziggyman couldn’t have said it better myself.

You thought we were done with Donnie’s hemorrhoidal few days? No sireee. That Big Beautiful Bill that he’s been promoting for its massive cuts and tax breaks was blocked by Conservatives in a stunning setback yesterday. Someone’s gonna get spanked for this. Unfortunately, it got blocked by five Conservative’s who voted with the Dem’s, but for opposite reasons. The budget cuts, in their opinion, didn’t go deep enough and want further cuts to Medicaid. Let the negotiations begin!

I’m sorry I rambled for so long, but consider yourself lucky that I didn’t keep going. There is a whole lot more to ramble about, and this is only mid-afternoon Saturday. I’m sure that between now and Monday morning there will be a tirade or two with accompanying child-like ‘protective puffing’ Truth Social posts. Anyhoo, have a great rest of your weekend. Ziggyman

Happy Hump Day! Mid-week and nothing earth-shattering except your normal Trump family corruption.  I spoke about the “palace in the sky” in my Monday post, where Don is accepting a Boeing 747 from Qatar in exchange for something unknown. You can bet your sweet bippy that at some point in time, Qatar will be wanting a favor from the person who wants to be King and the quid pro quo bribe will be honored . While I was busy writing on Monday, the regime was busy starting a three-day Middle East tour under the guise of a push for peace and to secure some business dealings for the U.S. The Trump family, however, has extensive ties to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, and the Trump sons, Junior and Eric, have been spending much time recently trying to drum up business for the family business, including a hotel in Dubai, high-end residential towers in Saudi Arabia, and Mar-A-Lago 2.0 in Qatar. So, on this “peace mission,” I will conclude that the true purpose is to meld official business with the personal family business. That’s not all, however. The latest project is to add cryptocurrency to the family portfolio via the American Bitcoin, a crypto firm that the boys put together, so that you can help finance this new venture for the family if you desire. This follows the $TRUMP meme coin I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, where you could buy the coin and get a chance to attend dinner with Don to the “most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world.”  Of course, if you had purchased the coin shortly before the inauguration, you are probably not a happy camper. The price of the meme coin is now down to less than a fifth of its all-time high, and the majority of its buyers have seen their purchases lose value. The New York Times reports this morning that “At least $2 billion has flowed to Trump companies in just the last month. The ventures include real estate, cryptocurrency, and a private club slated to open in Washington with a $500,000 membership fee.” In the meantime,  The Medicaid portions of Don and the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” would lead to 10.3 million people losing coverage under the health safety net program and 7.6 million people going uninsured, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But hey! Who cares about the poor, disabled, and children? Don gets a new “palace in the sky,” 25 $TRUMP meme coin holders get to have an intimate experience with the President, and the family business just keeps raking in the dollars.

I’ve been reading a series of mystery novels by Dana Stabenow set against the Alaskan wilderness centered around a Native Alaskan ex-DA investigator, Kate Shugak. I’m reading the series in order and am now on the seventh book in the series titled Breakup, written in 1997. So what does this have to do with what I typically write about? Well, clear back in 1997 Don evidently wasn’t thought of highly by Ms. Stobenow as she writes, “They trailed after her all the way to Logan International Airport, she in a Yellow Cab and they in the Bentley, driven by Carlotta’s husband, Alfonso (a Bentley because Mrs. Baker said that Rolls-Royces were getting positively common when bourgeois entrepreneurs like Donald Trump drove around in one).” If Don was a reader, I bet this passage would really piss him off. Anyhoo, Dana Stabenow. Check her out.

It’s hard to believe, but several polls this week have Trump’s approval rating trending up, but still in the negative. The good news is that he is reported to have seen a 33% decline in net approval rating among people who consume the least news during the past three months, dropping from +12 to -21, as well as a 14-point decrease from +3 to -11 among people who say they pay attention to the news “most of the time.” If this is correct, then these disengaged folks are now the least likely to support tRump in the future unless he does some things to make their life better. I have read several articles recently talking about these disengaged folks who voted for him in 2024, but are now having “buyer’s remorse.” The Dem’s better get up to speed and start taking advantage of this data.

Wow! Chief Justice John Roberts, the wussy who gave DJT a pass on being prosecuted for his 44 felonies and any in the future, in a speech at Georgetown, said that the rule of law is endangered and warned against “trashing judges.” Guess what he laid the blame on? Not Trump and his sycophants, who have publicly attacked judges who rule against many of the illegalities of Trumpism. No. It’s the fault of schools. “We’re developing a situation where a whole group of young people is growing up having no real sense about how our system of justice works.” He says that schools are not providing adequate civics education. What I say to Chief Justice Roberts is that some of the recent decisions by the judiciary are the cause of judges being trashed. In the words of Justice Louis Brandeis, “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”

Well, looking through the window, I see a sun break, so I need to go load up the wheelbarrow with some firewood for tonight. It’s been chilly in the evening and a nice fire in the woodstove keeps the missus and me cozy while we watch the Celtics battle the Knicks. Have a great evening. Stay warm and cozy.

Good afternoon! We are back from the beach and I’m/ ready to ramble a little bit after watching CNBC throughout the day. The stock market was up big time following the so-called deal that was made between the United States and China over the weekend. What we have with the latest “big deal” is Trump’s typical modus operandi. Create a chaotic situation. Get people worked up and then come in with a “major breakthrough.” No details. They’ll come later. The press and media will give him the headlines he wants as he and his bro’s sit back and watch the stock market make a big move up while they collect their capital gains. In this case, China and the U.S. have been playing their tit for tat tariff game as Trump announces a 145 per cent tariff on goods from China and they in turn reciprocate with a 125 per cent tariff on U.S. goods. As a result, small businesses stop purchasing their goods from China; ships stop bringing containers of goods, because companies have stopped buying; the media reports dock yards are bare of ships and store shelves will be bare just like pandemic times; and Americans start stockpiling toilet paper and any dolls left on the “Toy” shelves. Trump claims China is beating the door down to meet with us and he is getting exhausted answering the phone calls to please meet. China says he’s full of bull pucky, “We haven’t called and haven’t talked to anyone from the U.S. team.” Finally, we hear there will be a “big meeting” in Switzerland to negotiate the tariffs and we will have to wait in breathless anticipation for the big meeting where we will see the “Art of the Deal” in action. Then yesterday we get the big announcement: “The US and China agree to slash tariffs for 90 days as trade talks continue.” That’s enough, though, to send the markets in an upward frenzy today just like the plan. In the meantime, Under the agreement, the United States would reduce the tariff on Chinese imports to 30 percent from its current 145 percent, while China would lower its import duty on American goods to 10 percent from 125 percent. For all his bluster about not lowering tariffs without major concessions from China, the “stable genius’ once again has backed down. There have been no commitments from China and no guarantee that this 90-day truce will lead to a lasting agreement. Our tariff rate with China before Trump’s tariff war began was 3 percent. After the masterful negotiations over the weekend it is now 10 percent plus the original 3 percent – 13 percent. Remember, the tariff war with China is not cancelled, it’s just postponed for 90 days – so let the confusion and uncertainty continue  while the administration moves on and creates the next chaos.

What would be a Monday without a little Trump corruption? This would be the President of the United States basically collecting a bribe from a foreign nation. In this case, a foreign nation that Trump once said was “a funder of terror at a very high level.” That nation would be Qatar and the bribe would be a 400 million dollar “palace in the sky” Boeing 747 to replace the current Air Force One, which he would personally keep at the end of his presidency. From my understanding of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause prohibiting individuals holding office from accepting valuables from foreign officials or nations, this “grift” is a no-brainer. NOT ALLOWED! Don doesn’t agree with me, however, and says only someone “stupid” would turn down an offer like this. Guess what! Even the far-right influencer Laura Loomer is critical of this bribery attempt and says “I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits.” Can you imagine what we would be hearing from the GOP if Biden had accepted something like this? What’s equally troubling is that this isn’t being done behind closed doors, but corruption right out in the open with a smirk of “whatcha gonna do about it, stupid.”

One last thought for the day. ICE currently has about 21,000 agents across the U.S. and Trump wants to add an additional 20,000 to that number. From several videos I have seen there seems to be a strong resemblance of many of these agents to the January 6^th insurrectionists. How many of those insurrectionists are now ICE agents getting their ‘jollies’ pulling people off the street and shoving little girls faces into the ground while her mother is being arrested? I will also say that before long, as this action becomes commonplace for viewing on FOX and other outlets, we will have masked men posing as ICE agents pulling women off the streets and putting them into a black Suburban without any thought that this might be an abduction. Trump’s ‘Pizza Gate,’ I guess.

That’s enough for today. I need to go make plans for my stock purchases in 90 days. I’ll watch the market start falling and then when that next “big meeting” is just around the corner, I will stock up. Have a great evening and stay safe and sane.

Yes siree, a day to get out that blender and crank out some margaritas to go with a big bowl of tortilla chips and salsa while reading what Ziggyman is rambling about. Well, I’m going to begin this ‘Ramble’ with a little story to illustrate the ripple effect of the massive cuts being made by the tRump administration. I got a call from my good friend Eduardo this morning telling me he had an example of what the cuts from RFK Jr. are doing to rural medical clinics. My friend moved to a small city in Arizona on the border of Mexico last year partially to get away from the wet and chilly climate of the Oregon coast which was having a negative effect on several health conditions he has. Like many small cities throughout the country, his city does not have a medical clinic, so he has to travel a distance for medical care. He had been to the medical clinic a week ago for his regularly scheduled blood draw, but as of this morning he had not heard back from the clinic with the results, which was odd, so he called the clinic. What he found out when he called was that the two doctors in the clinic just up and retired without informing the patients. The receptionist he talked with seemed sad and didn’t transmit her normal cheerfulness, telling my friend that there are now only two nurse practitioners left in the clinic and it is a result of the cuts to the funding the clinic receives from the federal government. My friend is not a low-income person on Medicaid, but he will now have to find a new primary care provider and travel much further for his health care. As I researched this after talking to him today, I can see that we have a crisis looming for rural healthcare in this country as a result of the turmoil being created in Washington D.C. That’s because many rural communities rely on federal funding to keep the doors of hospitals and clinics open. The Republican-backed congressional budget resolution has proposed $880 billion in health service cuts over 10 years, including Medicaid.  Nationally, about 47% of children in rural areas use Medicaid. In an earlier Mountain Man Musings post, I talked about the number of Oregonians on Medicaid in rural Oregon counties like Malheur, Baker, Coos, and Jefferson running from 36% of the county residents to almost 50%. As of August 2024, 1,427,016 Oregon adults and children, 23% of the population were receiving Medicaid. If the proposals to make drastic cuts to Medicaid, federal funding to rural hospitals and clinics, and other health services is put into effect, then we are going to have a whole lot of people in deep doo-doo. Unfortunately, everyone is going to start experiencing the negative results of what is being done by DOGE and this administration in more ways than one in the very near future. As reality sets in and this BS continues with healthcare, the economy, the unconstitutional and immoral executive orders, the threats to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, we will all be affected in one way or another. Some are just experiencing it sooner than later.

But, hey! There are signs that things are a-changin’. Texas MAGA’s had a very bad day in many of the May 3rd local elections in Texas from school boards to city council races. MAGA-backed candidates got absolutely trounced across the state. The Tarrant County GOP went 0-for-11 in the county’s three largest cities: Fort Worth, Arlington, and Mansfield. The results of this election in Texas show what long-term organizing and coalition-building can do when people start getting fed up. Maybe the polls are more accurate than I believed and things are going to start turning.

It’s good to know that foreign movies are a National Security threat. In the latest tariff news, tRump has received solid research from his Hollywood Ambassadors, Jon Voigt, Sylvester Stallone, and Mel Gibson, that other countries are offering incentives to our movie filmmakers and studios to leave our country and produce their propaganda in foreign countries. So the Stable Genius jumped off the toilet and yelled at an aide to grab a sharpie and executive order notebook so he could write “Therefore, I am authorizing the Dept of Commerce, and the US Trade Rep, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” This from the guy who doesn’t know whether or not he has to uphold the Constitution of the United States, but will check with his brilliant lawyers. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Time to go watch the Celtics vs. Knicks, so y’all have a fine evening. Ziggyman

I can’t believe it’s May already. It seems like the Christmas holidays were just yesterday and Inauguration Day was a year ago. Oh well, time flies when you’re having fun. Are we havin’ fun yet? Speaking of Christmas, this week DJT commented on the tariff situation by saying he doesn’t think that beautiful baby girl’s need 30 dolls, but can get by with 2 this year and maybe they would cost a few bucks more. So there you go, don’t be a “Panican” and worry about his beautiful economic plan. “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!)” he wrote on his Truth Social.

While you’re thinking about buying those 2 dolls you might think about poor Elmo and Big Bird as Don signed an executive order on Thursday night ending public funding of NPR and PBS to stop what he calls “biased and partisan news coverage.” The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS” to the extent allowed by law. The CPB funds public radio and television stations in local markets, as well as fifteen percent of PBS and one percent of NPR. tRump also attempted to remove three of the CPB’s five board members in order for the board to lack a quorum and freeze its activities. In a statement, CPB says, “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity, and its board members are not government officers. Because CPB is not a federal agency subject to the President’s authority, but rather a private corporation, we have filed a lawsuit to block these firings.” Interestingly, the CPB chief executive now suing Trump, Patricia de Stacy Harrison, is a former co-chairperson of the Republican National Committee and State Department official under President George W. Bush. Anyhoo, let’s send some hugs to Elmo and Big Bird (not “Big Balls” at DOGE) and start a “Save Sesame Street” campaign.

Meanwhile, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas and tRump’s mouthpiece during Trump 1.0, is experiencing Karma as she begs for disaster relief after the recent tornadoes in Arkansas. “As long as I am your governor, the meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington DC will be stopped cold at the Mississippi River,” she wrote in a post on X in January 2023. Well, sweetie, you don’t have to worry about that big ol’ government meddling because they have denied your request for federal disaster aid and to just manage it yourself. Arkansas voted for Trump 2:1 knowing that he and the GOP ran on a platform of drastically cutting federal funding including FEMA. Do ya remember Trump joking do his supporters during his campaign, “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote.” He got their vote, so he is following through and showing that he doesn’t give a s**t about them now. As they say, elections have consequence and you get what you vote for.

While he is probably out swinging his 5 iron on the links this weekend, he is getting ripped from Catholics across the world for the moronic AI generated meme of himself as the Pope. Here’s a sampling of the responses. “There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President,” the New York State Catholic Conference posted on X; “disrespectful”; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, “It wasn’t good”; Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman and a devout Catholic wrote that the post “affirms how unserious and incapable he is. At 78 he remains a 10yo child, emotionally scarred and broken while desperate to prove he could be somebody. His problem: he can’t grow up to prove it.”; and the winning rip goes to Anthony Scaramucci, who is also Catholic and tRump’s Communications Director for about 10 days during 1.0, “The dope of dopes not a pope.”

Congratulations to Sovereignty for winning the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I hear he and his jockey won’t be visiting the White House this year

Well, I could keep rambling because there’s been a lot of material over the past few days, but I just can’t waste this beautiful day. Have a great day and stay sane out there. And be safe, also. Oh, and don’t go tell that beautiful little 5 year old girl that she’s only getting 2 dolls this Christmas. Ziggyman

Here we are my friends. 100 days into this regime and are ya feelin’ it? You know, all tingly and bubbly from all the great things the dumbass has achieved so far. But, oh wait. You say that war between Ukraine and Russia is still going on? I thought he was going to get an end to it on January 21^st, the first 24 hours of his second presidency. Hmmm. And how about your trips to the grocery store. Whatcha doin’ with all that extra money in your pockets from the prices going down like he said they would? He keeps saying the price of groceries and gas is down, but reality is the price of food items increased 0.49 percent from February and retail gas is basically the same since January. Today, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy decreased at a 0.3% annualized rate for the first three months of this year. This is the first decline in three years. As can be expected from dumbass, it’s all Biden’s fault. “Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’” he wrote Wednesday in a post on social media. “This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!” And then a few hours later in the cabinet meeting when discussing the Commerce report he reiterated the BS, “That’s Biden, that’s not Trump.” And just to show that he has Biden Derangement Syndrome he is already blaming Biden for the next quarter’s downturn, which we know will probably be even worse than today’s report. “And you could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden because it doesn’t just happen on a daily or an hourly basis,” he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House today. But, hey, we should all just sit on our thumbs and BE PATIENT while he collects the tariff dollars from the penguins on McDonald Island near Australia. I wonder how negotiations are going with the Canadians and Greenlanders, our soon-to-be newest States? Probably not too well since Mark Carney was elected Prime Minister of Canada on Monday and basically gave a eulogy rather than a celebration speech. “Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The system of open global trade anchored by the United States – a system that Canada has relied on since the second world war, a system that while not perfect has helped deliver prosperity for a country for decades – is over,” he said. Elbows Up, Canada!! JoJo from Jerz summed it up perfectly in her post this morning. “Congrats, Canada—you were too busy being a functioning country to waste a single breath on Trump’s tantrums. While he flailed like a jaundiced landfill troll with the charm of a clogged toilet, you just kept being gloriously unbothered. Cheers to you for proving sanity and decency are still possible north of the dumpster fire.” I like that JoJo gal. As I mentioned back in January, I cancelled my Time magazine subscription after they had shit-for-brains as the Person of the Year, so I couldn’t read the interview they did with him last week. I have, however, read excerpts from various websites and like always – if his lips are movin’, he’s lyin’. Several of the sites said that he made 32 falsehoods, lies, bullshit, or whatever you want to call it, during that interview. Meanwhile, DOGE just keeps on working really hard to save us taxpayers our hard earned dollars. Oh, Wait! Breaking News!!! Now new estimates suggest that the way Musk has gone about his cost-cutting moves might actually cost more than what he claims to have saved taxpayers. This cocky group of youngsters fired workers en masse, and then had to rehire them; accidentally got rid of programs that had to be brought back into place; and, created a system where productivity and revenue is lost. Not to mention the legal fees the government is incurring to defend the many lawsuits contesting DOGE’s authority. The Trump administration motto should be “Ready, Fire, Aim,” not Make America Great Again.

If I have to cancel my Amazon Prime because of that coward Jeff Bezos, I will be pissed. One phone call from Donnie and Bezos cowers in the corner promising that he won’t disclose the tariff costs for Amazon products. What a fearful and timid little man.

Well, on this 101st day I am going to go out to my pickup to try to get the mouse piss smell out of it from those pesky vermin. Kinda like the first 100 days of Trump 2.0, if we could only get relief from that smell of asparagus piss when you get up in the middle of the night to relieve oneself. Stay sane and have a wonderful evening!

Happy Friday! It’s the end of the week, the sun is out with bright blue skies, and the stock market had a good week. What else could you ask for? Well, I’ll let you answer that one.

Don and Mel are on their way to Italy for Pope Francis’ funeral as I write this. I just wonder how that’s going to go after he walks into the church in front of the world leaders in attendance, most of whom he has trash talked over the past 100 days, and then finds out that he will be seated in the third row looking at the back of the heads of the Argentinian president, Catholic royals, and other Catholic non-royals. My bet is that he is going to raise a big stink to get seated up front, as he doesn’t play second fiddle to no one. Hee, Hee. When Joe Biden attended Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and was seated in row 14, Trump mocked him saying that if he was still president, he would have been seated much closer to the front. If Pope Francis were in charge of making the seating arrangements for his funeral, my guess is Don would be placed in the back row and homeless and impoverished people would be seated in the front rows.

I sure am glad that I’m just an old retired guy and not a U.S. pork producer. China just raised the effective tariff rate on pork shipments to 172%. On top of that, China has cancelled 12,000 metric tons of pork from U.S. pork producers. Last year, China was the U.S.’s third-biggest market for pork, importing some 475,000 metric tons valued at more than $1.1 billion. While this trade war is going on, China has been strengthening relations with other European countries to make trade agreements that will leave U.S. producers in the dust. We are so lucky to have this stable genius working his butt off to Make America Great Again.

And, once again, we are left with confusion about these tariff talks. Trump claims that Chinese President Xi called him to try to make a trade deal and that talks are underway. China says not true. “At present, there are absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the U.S.,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong told reporters Thursday. I think that Don has met his match in The Art of the Deal and he is getting very nervous as he’s getting his ass kicked.

Meanwhile, the FBI has begun to carry out it’s mission to go after folks who don’t bow to this regime. Today it was a judge in Wisconsin. She was arrested on two felony counts for allegedly obstructing justice by helping a migrant avoid arrest by ICE. You or I could be next.

Finally for today. Ron Desantis has found a solution for the labor shortage Florida finds itself in after the immigration crackdowns. Change the child-labor laws to allow teenagers to work more. If passed, it will let 16- and 17-year-olds work for more than eight hours on school nights and end a 30-hour weekly work limit for teens while school is in session. It eliminates all restrictions on the number of hours that teens can work. “What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time?” DeSantis said during an immigration roundtable event last month. “Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when, you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts?” This is being done under the guise of giving teens life experiences. I say, BS. This is being done for employers benefit because of the loss of employees who have been deported or quit working because they don’t want to risk getting swept up by ICE. We gonna Make America Great Again.

With that,  I will head downstairs to turn on the television and watch the Bucks vs. the Pacers. Have a great evening! Ziggyman

April 23, 2025

What a beautiful day! I had to come in and rest awhile after working in the yard cleaning up the winter mess of leaves, branches, and fir needles. Other than my back aching, it feels good to soak up that Vitamin D and look at the results of my work. Anyhoo, enough of that.

As I’m looking at the forest around me, I have to think about this summer and wildfire season. Donnie would be proud of me for the work I did today. His solution for wildfire prevention is people getting out and raking up needles on the forest floor. I did about 20 wheelbarrows yesterday and today. Seriously though, DOGE and the Trump administration have cut 10 percent of the US Forest Service workers with more firings likely coming; frozen hiring, preventing the agency from fully staffing positions critical to wildfire preparedness; and frozen grants that would reduce wildfire risk. Most notably, thus far about 700 red card-carrying employees have been terminated from the Forest Service. No, the red card is not a MAGA affiliation, but a designation as trained and certified to fight wildfires when they arrive at the incident. Those workers hold other full-time jobs in the agency but have been trained to aid firefighting crews and to assist with prescribed burns, which reduce flammable vegetation to prevent bigger fires. These prescribed burns can only occur if there’s a certain number of staff available to contain them and non-firefighting employees without a red card cannot perform such tasks. The cuts by this administration have resulted in the cancellation of some training programs to gain additional firefighters and prescribed burns. All of this being done at a time that the number of wildfires have increased annually. Hey, at least I’m doing my part by raking that forest floor.

Meanwhile, I guess Trump is now on his 5^th IRS Commissioner in less than 100 days and tens of thousands IRS workers are being fired by DOGE as turmoil at that agency is exploding. The Treasury Department is predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts compared to 2024 amounting to more than $500 billion in lost revenue. This is a result of a combination of factors: taxpayers not filing returns as they think the IRS staffing cuts decrease their chance of being caught; taxpayers claiming ineligible deductions and credits; and cuts to IRS staffing making it easier for wealthy taxpayers to evade paying what they owe. This is government efficiency at it’s finest. DOGE is doing a splendid job.

Hey, if any of you own $TRUMP, Trump’s meme coin, I want to let you know you have a chance to attend a gala dinner next month with Donald at his golf course outside Washington D.C. This will be a black-tie optional event, but there are some fine print terms and conditions that you should probably consider. 1) Don might not be able to attend the dinner, 2) it could be canceled for any reason, 3) all costs incurred by attending the dinner will be at your own expense. But don’t worry. If the dinner has to be cancelled and you were chosen to attend you will receive a “limited edition TRUMP NFT,” a sort of digital trading card that would be Trump memorabilia (think of those baseball cards you collected as a kid). People must be pretty excited about this as the coin jumped to about $14 this afternoon, up 54% over yesterday. Though I hope you didn’t buy it just before Inauguration Day at $75 per coin. Donald J. Trump the Greatest Grifter Ever.

Time to move on. Have a great evening. Ziggyman

We had a nice Easter dinner with the daughter and Son-in-Law and family (and, of course, Granddog, Charlie) yesterday. It was a civil gathering, with politics kept to our selves. Our president might have considered doing the same on this Holy day instead of posting his Easter message and then going into unhinged political rants over the next nine hours. Easter morning he posted on Truth Social, “Melania and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter! Whether you are heading out to Church or, watching Service from home, may this day be full of Peace and Joy for all who celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. HE IS RISEN!!” A message that is presidential and something we would have seen from previous leaders. This is Donald Trump, however, and he can’t just leave it at this, but skips church on Easter, heads out to one of his golf courses and goes on a six hour deranged series of posts, starting off with “Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country.” He can’t just stop at the ‘Radical Left Lunatics’, but has to follow up with “Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!” And, of course, what would a Trump post be without reminding folks that he doesn’t care for Joe Biden, “our WORST and most Incompetent President” “Sleepy Joe Biden purposefully allowed millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, through an Open Borders Policy that will go down in history as the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America,” “He was, by far, our WORST and most Incompetent President, a man who had absolutely no idea what he was doing.” He also had to let us know, in all caps, that our business leaders are just rookies compared to his highly successful business ventures, “The businessmen who criticize tariffs are bad at business, but really bad at politics. They don’t understand or realize that I am the greatest friend that American capitalism has ever had!” I’m sure Karoline Leavitt, his gold cross wearing WH Press Secretary, and all of his Christian supporters thought his hate spewing messages were not a problem on this holiday meant to promote love and the teachings of Jesus Christ who encouraged people to love and accept one another as he sacrificed himself for the greater good of humanity. But, the Christians and Evangelicals shouted “Halleluiah” and applauded as he wrote “We are, together, going to make America bigger, better, stronger, wealthier, healthier, and more religious, than it has ever been before!!! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!” All I can say is WOW! This is an Easter to remember. Did any of you make it to the White House Easter Egg Roll?

After persevering months of illness and making it through Holy Week, Pope Francis passed away early Monday after celebrating Easter. The Pope met with Vice President JD Vance for a few minutes earlier on Easter morning, which is causing social media to go bonkers with comments that Vance killed the Pope. Pope Francis was an advocate for the rights of LGBTQ people, Palestinians, and a critic of the MAGA agenda. He largely disagreed with and was sharply critical of the Trump administration stance on immigration.  However, Vance defended the administration’s actions on immigration policy and said that family separation policies are justified. So last week he breaks the NCAA trophy that Ohio State received after winning the Football championship and then this week he spends 5 minutes with the Pope and a few hours later … While leaders throughout the world expressed their sadness and wrote nice tributes to the Pope, the White House writes a 5 word message, “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis.” Wow, such an eloquent message, but I guess it’s better than Marjorie Taylor Green writing on X, “Today there were major shifts in global leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God.” Green has been very vocal that Catholic bishops are “destroying” the country and that the Catholic Church as a whole is “controlled by Satan.”  Just par for the course for MTG to celebrate the Pope’s death. Again, this is an Easter to remember.

Today: Dow down 972 points (2.48%); NASDAQ down 416 points (2.55%); the dollar hits a 3 year low. Have a drink or two before you check out your retirement accounts. Inflation and recession here we come! Thank you Donnie, you stable genius and world’s greatest businessman. You’re doing a great job, sir. Your cognitive abilities just bring tears to my eyes.

Well, my watch tells me it’s time to stand, so I will just do that and bid you adieu for today. Have a great one! Ziggyman

I’m back. It’s been five days since I last rambled, so I hope you weren’t worried that I had been snatched off the street by masked state agents and sent to El Salvador for making critical statements about the current state of affairs in this country. I just had to take a break and decompress from the daily chaos, gaslighting, and destruction being thrown at us. I’ve read dystopian fiction, but always considered it just that – fiction. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that what I was reading would happen in America. Yeah, I know. What a sucker. How about you? Did you ever think that it could happen here? I always thought that our government had checks and balances that would ‘kick in’ if we were in a situation like this that we are currently experiencing. A president who has no intention of following the Constitution. A president who thinks he is an untouchable king or dictator. A president who tells the El Salvadorian dictator that he wants to send “homegrowns” to his gulag, so “you’ll need to build more prisons.” A president who is intentionally cratering our economy because he believes “trade is bad.” A president who wants the FCC to kick a broadcasting corporation off the airwaves for doing an interview that he didn’t like. A president who is dismantling government and the services they provide for many of the people who voted for him. I thought Trump 1.0 was bad, but right now it feels like we’ve gone from an irritable leaky faucet to a ship that is sinking. And, unfortunately, those checks and balances that I thought were in place haven’t kicked in. Congress hasn’t done squat to contain the lawlessness, and from the MAGA side of the aisle all I see is clapping and encouragement to ‘keep it up, bro.’ Some members of the judiciary leg of the 3 legged- stool have tried, but have basically been given the finger and mocked with “what are ya gonna do about it?” And, right now there aren’t any adults in the room to hold him back like General Mattis, General Milley, and John Kelly did during 1.0. He had four years since then to prepare and now has surrounded himself with sycophants, who will only bow and kiss his arse. I guess the only good news I have seen over my five day recess was the approvability numbers from even more conservative pollsters showing a growing number of people not happy with the job he is doing. As the hole in our ship gets bigger each day, the leaders of China and Russia are sitting back giving a rah, rah, and laughing as they watch the U.S. implode from the erratic behavior of our leaders. I’m not exactly sure who we would list as our allies today. If I’m not mistaken, Canada, the European Union, the UK, and Mexico all see us as I’ve said in the past – that dog that just crapped on your carpet. While we have pulled aid to third world countries, cut funding to NATO and the UN, started a global trade war, and sent farm crop workers out of the country creating immense problems in our agriculture industry, China has seen this as an opportunity to become a leader in the world order. Chinese President Xi has been making the rounds in Europe and Asia to create some economic partnerships that our president has decided to scrap. So, here we are today. Enough of this doom and gloom. The sun is out. I think I’ll take a little walky poo so I can be as healthy as Don. Have a great evening. Ziggyman