Happy Friday! Betcha didn’t think you’d make it through this week. Congratulations!! We made it and can hopefully have a relaxing weekend to get us ready for the next week. As I sit here writing, I’m listening to Oscar Peterson, one of the greatest pianists of all time with Ray Brown on bass. It is much more pleasing than the clip I saw on television of the PINO talking to the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers at the White House blabbering like only he can do. Can you make any sense of what he is saying? “When you ran out of healthy arms, you ran out of really healthy, you had great arms, but they ran out, it’s called sports, it’s called baseball in particular, and pitchers I guess you could say in really particular.” And the MAGA’s accused Biden of having mental decline? Well, it looks like even the MAGA’s are starting to see the picture as the polls are showing almost weekly disapproval ratings and these include polls of right-leaning pollsters. The disapproval is largely a result of the economy, something that was going to show improvement from Day One. Remember? Eggs and gas prices would start coming down immediately. Remember? On Monday he had this to say, and just like his baseball babble, I have no idea WTF he is talking about, “I said, we’re gonna try to get groceries down. Right? An old fashioned down but a beautiful term. Eggs.” Here’s another of his profound ‘old fashioned’ statements: “An old fashioned term that we use — groceries. I used it on the campaign. It’s such an old fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It says a bag with different things in it.” Good God, you just can’t make this shtuff up. As I watched some interviews in the Oval Office this week I suddenly realized that he has brought in Saddam Hussein’s interior decorator to do the makeover. Gold everywhere. Dictator chic.

Just a short one today as I have to get ready to head out to a wine club pickup party. Have an enjoyable evening. Ziggyman

Wow!! Ziggyman should go out and buy a lottery ticket. I made a prediction on the blog Monday that by the end of the week there would be a retreat from the tariffs announced on “Liberation Day.” This was what I wrote, Trump is a narcissist and seeing his favorability numbers plunge from even MAGA’s; CEO’s starting to talk about what the tariffs are really doing for their bottom line; and GOP congress members talking about taking more control over tariffs, my prediction is that by the end of this week Trump will make some sort of announcement that countries have made agreements so he can decrease the amount of tariffs first established. It will be framed in terms of a big win for the USA and a result of the greatest move ever by a president after years of being screwed by all these countries. We’ll see. Today, Trump went on Truth Social and wrote, “…based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.” There have been multiple statements by White House officials over the past week that the president would not change his tariff policy and back down from the big and necessary reciprocal tariffs he imposed because he is tired of being screwed for too long by all of these other countries. I kept hearing from his team that “this president is a master negotiator and you will all see the ‘Art of the Deal’ in action.” Over the weekend, while your 401(K) was being flushed down the toilet and the president was golfing, he wrote, “WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy.” This was followed by “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.” On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Bessent said, “We’re going to hold the course.” Did I call it or not? All of this tough talk sounds great until reality gives you a gut punch and you suddenly know that you are f***ed because you have no idea what you are doing and nobody loves you no more. After needlessly causing all of this turmoil that was going to cause high inflation and lead us into a recession, the master made the right call today by chickening out. He gets to save face because he increased the tariff on China again, raising it to 125%. After being the arsonist he got to be the good guy and become the fireman. Now, if I was a conspiracy theorist I would say that all of this was a calculated move to put more money in the pockets of his buddies. The game goes something like this: 1) Make a big announcement about “Liberation Day” and tariffs being imposed on every country under the sun, including those inhabited only by penguins, 2) Show a ‘data driven’ chart of the tariffs being imposed with much higher numbers than everyone expected, 3) Watch the stock market drop like a rock, 4) Let things go crazy for a few days so you’ve got everyone’s attention, 5) Give the code to all your buddies so they know when it is time to buy back into the market, 6) Minutes after the market opens on ‘Game Day’ write “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” (the code), 7) Give your buddies time to buy as stocks continue to cave. About an hour before the market closes write on Truth Social that you are putting a pause for 90 days on the tariffs, 8) Sit back and watch the market shoot up like a SpaceX rocket, your buddies sell the stocks they bought at a bargain for huge profits, and you begin getting praise from all over the world for being the wonderful fireman you are to put out this blaze (which you as the arsonist created.) 9) The End.

There you have today’s story, my friends. It is a crazy, crazy world we live in. But hey, we now get to see what the next distraction will be to cause our bowels to go into an uproar. My prediction is that as the dust settles from the tariff and stock market chaos, the next chapter will be an assault on the judiciary like we have never seen before. And the Supreme Court and GOP congress members will be willing partners. We’ll see.

Time to run. I’ve gotta get down to the Shop N’ Go to get my lottery ticket and 6-pack of brew before the Blazer game comes on. Have a great evening!

Happy Monday and Happy Birthday to John Prine. RIP. Hope you had a great weekend doing whatever felt good – golfing, marching, golfing, protesting, golfing. You get what I’m talking about here. If not, here goes. While many folks in the United States of America were protesting the actions of DOGE, Elon Musk, and President Trump with a “HANDS OFF” protest march throughout the US, and four American soldiers were brought home in body bags, and folks 401-K’s were being flushed down the toilet after a Thursday and Friday $11 Trillion dump, our leader and commander spent his weekend with Saudi’s golfing and negotiating on the Saudi-backed professional golf league, LIV. Meanwhile, his minion Kakistocrats were hitting the airwaves with interviews gaslighting how wonderful these tariffs were going to be and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” The message being, ‘Be happy you low life proletariat, the bourgeoisie and our great savior, negotiator, and stable genius is working for you to Make America Great Again, so stop your whining.’ We were at the beach, but even the small town of Yachats had a march on Saturday. The missus and I thought we were going to hit it, but got our time mixed up and got there just as it was winding down. Me thinks that there is momentum building and we are going to see this continue to build that will bring back visions of the Vietnam War protests. Unfortunately, I don’t see a contemporary Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young musical group that will provide us with a relevant song for the occasion. Michael (you know who), there’s a challenge for you. How about a contemporary Four Dead in Ohio? Today, your idol John Prine would have been 78 years old. Go for it, you troubadour.

Anyhoo, back to business. One strategy the Dems might consider regarding this tariff nonsense, is to let Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Nutlick, er Lutnick, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins continue to provide the tariff narrative and Dems just sit back and smile as that trio tries to convince Americans that DJT has this situation “totally under control, so don’t worry.” All three were laughable on Sunday. From Billionaire Bessent to Kristin Welker on Meet the Press when she pointed out people fearing their retirement savings were disappearing, “I think that’s a false narrative. Americans who want to retire right now, Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’s happening.” Do ya think this guy is clueless. Please, let him keep spewing that shit on TV. Jake Tapper asked Rollins about putting a tariff on an island that has zero human inhabitants but, does have a bunch of penguins. Her response, “I mean, come on. Whatever. Listen, the people that are leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest people I have ever worked with. I did not come up with the formulas. I’m the ag secretary. I studied agriculture at Texas A&M.” She’s a real whiz kid. If you will recall, her answer last month  to the egg price situation was for people to start raising chickens in their backyards. And finally, Secretary Nutlick, I mean Lutnick. Remember, he is the one who two weeks ago said that if his 94 year old mother-in-law didn’t get her social security check on time, she wouldn’t be worried. This is the MIL who lives with her daughter and billionaire husband in a multi-million dollar house. Yesterday, his most quotable answer to a question about bringing factory jobs back to America was, “well, remember, the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America.” Holy shit. You see the problem here? Just like DJT, I doubt these three cabinet members grocery shop for themselves, interact with anyone who has a net worth less than $1 billion, or doesn’t have a bidet to clean their ass. Clueless. Clueless. Clueless. The clowns are clueless.

I do think, however, the cracks are getting wider and deeper in MAGA world. From my perspective, the majority of the members of the MAGA cult are those who have little education, live paycheck to paycheck, and many who rely on Medicaid and other federal government assistance. At the other end of the spectrum are the very rich who have lots of money in the stock market and industry. Both are starting to get pissed as prices continue to go up and the stock market crashes. How about the CEO’s who paid $1 million to sit in the front row at the inauguration only to see the value of their company drop faster than a rat up a drainpipe. Trump is a narcissist and seeing his favorability numbers plunge from even MAGA’s; CEO’s starting to talk about what the tariffs are really doing for their bottom line; and GOP congress members talking about taking more control over tariffs, my prediction is that by the end of this week Trump will make some sort of announcement that countries have made agreements so he can decrease the amount of tariffs first established. It will be framed in terms of a big win for the USA and a result of the greatest move ever by a president after years of being screwed by all these countries. We’ll see.

Time to get ready for the NCAA men’s basketball game, so over and out for today. Have a great evening. Ziggyman

I wasn’t going to write today after sitting in front of the telly with CNBC on all morning, watching the stock market drop, drop, drop, and then drop some more. But hey, I’m a big boy so I’ll pull my pants back up and ramble for a few. No, Donnie, I’m not feelin’ the ‘liberated’ vibe and any way you try to spin it, you thinking you are a stable genius causes me to shite my trousers from my excessive laughter regarding your idiotic tariff stunt. I read a little bit ago that it appears the formula used to decide the tariff for each country was possibly developed by an artificial intelligence chatbox called Grok, which was developed by Elon Musk’s X formerly known as Twitter. I have read interviews and seen interviews with economists who have been asked if they have ever seen the formula that the White House presented for making the tariff calculations. Not a single economist had ever seen that formula before. Even right-wing leaning economic think tank folks are shaking their heads calling it “malpractice,” “embarrassing,” “shocking.” David Beckworth, an economist with the Mercatus Center, a right-leaning think tank said, “This has to be one of the biggest unforced economic policy errors in US history.” I guess the reason I laughed so hard to cause a poo-poo was on the list of entities affected by the new tariffs are Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an Australian territory in the Antarctic that is not inhabited by humans and had zero trade with the United States last year. Oh, they do have a population of penguins. however. Remember that word kakistocracy (government by the shittiest) that I mention about every other week? This is one more example.

On a positive note. How about that 25 hour filibuster speech by Cory Booker, breaking the record set by that racist Strom Thurmond 68 years ago? Wow, 25 hours with no food or bathroom breaks. He said he didn’t eat any food for the three days before the speech and didn’t drink anything for 24 hours before. I only provide you with that important knowledge, because it seemed like every interview with him after the event, he was asked, “how did you go that long without eating or taking a pee break?” The speech took aim at Thump and Musk over policies that he said show a “complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution and the needs of the American people.” The Dems may have found the next party leader

While the markets were getting hammered today what do you suppose the Donald was doing? He got on Air Force One and headed out to Miami, Florida so he could watch some golf this afternoon at the LIV golf tournament and then attend a dinner at the golf course and then on to Mar-a-Lago for another weekend of golf on our dime. My retirement is going to s**t, but I still have to pay for his recreation every weekend. Sheesh.

Anyhoo, it’s getting time to watch the Blazers game and wash my sorrows down with a double martini or two. Have a great evening and remember what Maya Angelou said regarding this storm. – It will eventually run out of rain.

Happy Fool’s Day! I was going to start with a big, big, really big “Breaking News” announcement for April Fool’s Day, but after seeing people being snatched off the streets by masked Gestapo agents and people mistakenly sent to the prison in Salvador, I thought it best to forgo joking around about a certain thin-skinned subject. Besides, no joke can top the s**t show going on right now. Instead, I will start with a quote from Maya Angelou, “Every storm runs out of rain.” Yoo Hoo!! Tomorrow is “liberation” day, so maybe the ‘rains’ will stop. That was a joke. Our problem right now is that Mr. Thump, the stable genius, is in over his head with the tariff war and we will be paying for it for years to come. Prices are not going to come down; our allies are already making plans to leave us in the dust; and, countries are forging new relationships with the United States not being included. The days of economic and military partnerships are over for us. In a little over two months this president has destroyed what other administrations have built upon for decades. We have gone from the top to close to the bottom in respect globally. The Signal chat by our national security experts certainly didn’t help matters either, as VP Vance texted his true feelings about Europe, “I just hate bailing out Europe again,” which prompted a response from Hegseth, “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.” The next thing I see happening in this retaliatory tariff war will be Japan, Canada, China, and the European nations getting together and deciding to screw the U.S. by selling the U.S. Treasury Bonds they hold and start buying Eurobonds. Oh, you want to start a trade war with your tariff nonsense? Cool. We think we’ll just start pulling money out of your economy and we’ll see what happens, tough guy. And there you have it. A weaker dollar will result in further stock market hits, higher interest rates resulting in higher mortgage rates, an economy going to s**t causing layoffs, and so on. But, we have very smart people, very smart, top of the class people, almost as smart as Elon’s crew, so don’t worry. It’s all under control and before you know it we’ll be swimmin’ in greenbacks.

The Trail Blazer game comes on soon, so just a quick recap of today’s chaos: 1)The DOJ admits that a man ICE took into custody and deported to the prison in El Salvador was an oopsie and done mistakenly. They claim there is nothing they can do about it now. 2) We’ll know soon if MuskRat was able to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court judgeship as the polls start closing in the next hour. 3) RFK Jr. stepped up his purge of Health and Human Services employees today as a number of leaders, scientists, and workers in the CDC learned they were fired. People within the CDC and other knowledgable folks worry that the ability to respond to future health emergencies has been eroded. 4) Newsmax, the far-right, conservative news channel became a publicly traded company yesterday and has soared 2,200% in the first two days of trading. It had an initial public offering yesterday of $10 per share and closed today at $232. Yikes! 5) And finally, DJT just wants Tiger Woods and his ex-daughter-in-law Vanessa Trump to be happy. Isn’t that sweet?

Don’t be fooled and have a great evening! Ziggyman

We came to the beach house yesterday and on the way down I turned on MSNBC on Sirius XM in the car. Whatever program I was listening to jumped back and forth between JD Vance in Greenland and Trump in the oval office. My, oh my. Now I know why Trump kicked out reporters from news outlets that asked him tough questions and has filled the White House press pool with MAGA’s pretending to be reporters. The softball questions and admiration for tRump dripping from these “reporters” made me want to stop the car and puke. This morning I found a piece on the internet that quoted several of these questions that I heard yesterday, and OMG, no wonder I wanted to puke. Here’s how the questioning started: “You and your team apprehended a top three leader in a violent gang MS-13 yesterday just thirty minutes outside of Washington D.C. What has made you and your team so effective in finding, locating, apprehending, and deporting these violent illegal migrants?” tRump’s response: “I love this guy!! I wish more people would ask questions like that. Thank you, that’s very nice.”  Now remember, the reason the administration is using to deport hundreds of Venezuelans is that they are members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. Interestingly, Reuters has reported that Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, says that gang was wiped out in 2023 and is no longer in existence and none of the deportees is a member of that gang, saying “I believe with absolute responsibility that not a single one appears on the organizational chart of the now-extinct Tren de Aragua organization, not a single one.” “”It is a lie, a massive lie, and we have the means to prove it.” Cabello added, “Now if the United States refuses to recognize this reality, that’s their prerogative.” You might want to grab a bucket for the next tough question from this drooling “reporter”, “Mr. President I wanted to say first of all happy Woman’s Month, you do so much for women, first of all by keeping men out of women’s sports and you’ve platformed so many great women like your Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. You also have Karoline Leavitt doing a great job as Press Secretary. Now, Alina will be joining as well. Since Democrats seem to struggle with this question, I wanted to ask you: What is a woman and why is it important that we understand the difference between men and women?” The “p***y grabber” thanked this MAGA “reporter” for an easy question and started spewing some BS that only the mental genius can articulate. Controlling the press pool and media is one of the steps in the autocratic playbook and this “show” yesterday was just pathetic. I wonder how much these “reporters” are getting paid to rehearse questions prepared by the WH and then perform on stage?

Like I said, the program jumped from that oval office “show” to JD Vance speaking in Greenland at the Pituffic Space Base after he and his wife had been publicly humiliated by Greenlanders. The U.S. Consulate tried to get Usha Vance a meet-and-greet at a Nuuk, Greenland souvenir shop. The shop initially agreed to host the visit, but then “after careful consideration” rescinded the invitation. The Consulate then tried to get a Nuuk family to invite Usha into their home, but not a single family would have her into their home. Listening to JD berate Denmark because it was not doing enough for Greenland, I thought to myself, this isn’t going to go over big in Copenhagen. JD was obviously acting as DJT’s puppy dog as he continually talked about Greenland becoming an annexation of the United States. All of the rhetoric from Trump about taking over Greenland, Canada, Panama reminds me of Putin and his attempted takeover of Ukraine. I see where the Foreign Minister of Denmark made a statement today letting Trump know he wasn’t happy with JD’s performance and they “do not appreciate the tone” of JD’s remarks yesterday. It seems we are pissing off one of our allies on a daily basis. No wonder we are seen throughout the world as that dog that crapped on your carpet.

As I’m writing this, I got a notification that there has been another plane crash. This one in Minnesota with a small plane crashing into a home. No other details are available at this time, so we’ll just have to wait and see if this was a DOGE created incident due to the “efficiency” firing of FAA employees in Minnesota.

I talked about the blatant hypocrisy from the GOP and this administration last week in one of my posts. While I was listening to the MSNBC program on the way down here another example of this hypocrisy was illustrated. It seems that in late January a Department of Homeland Security longtime staffer accidentally sent an unclassified communication to a conservative media journalist about an upcoming ICE operation. This career official was put on administrative leave immediately and told that her security clearance was being revoked. Now, I would say that there seems to be a double standard here when a number of the kakistocractics include a journalist on a group chat with classified information related to a military operation and they are still sitting comfortably around the bar table whoopin’ it up without any consequences for their recklessness. Sheesh!

Well, that’s enough for today. The “Destruction of the American Government” project by the 47^th will keep on rolling so I’ll have fresh stuff to ramble about over the next couple of days. Enjoy the rest of this beautiful weekend and keep smilin’. Ziggyman

Back on March 14th I wrote about some MAGA voters suddenly having “buyer’s remorse” as they are beginning to feel the effects of this administration’s policy decisions. Decisions that were both forecasted and, for the most part, politically supported by those who are now suffering the consequences. The theme of that post was that elections have consequences. Just like Trump supporters have been telling non-MAGA’s to “cry harder” or “get over it,” I won’t be shedding big ol’ crocodile tears when I see these people who voted for DJT come on TV and express their shock at losing their government job, their farm, their homebuilding business, their Social Security check, the medical clinics and hospitals in their rural town, their groceries getting more expensive, and so on. I saw a couple on the national news a couple of days ago complaining that funds they were supposed to get from a grant for upgrades to their farming business equipment and for which they had already expended money were not only being cut, but they don’t know if they will be reimbursed for the money they put out. Farmers ask, “Does anyone even care?” Well, quite frankly, when you voted for a man who said he was going to have the largest deportation mission in history, said he was going to put an unelected bro in charge of cutting programs that benefit you (think farm subsidies), and would be deregulating agricultural protections that will benefit the corporate big’s over the small family farmers, I just can’t give you much sympathy. So, cry harder and get over it. The agriculture business is similar to the homebuilding industry in that a large percentage of that labor force is undocumented. Remember when Trump was campaigning and said he was going to “deport them all,” I think I saw you and Ma sitting in the front row with your red “Let’s Go Brandon” t-shirt sportin’ your MAGA cap and cheering at every word your savior spewed. I think I also have heard you support stopping aid from the United States to women and children in Africa, or to giving support to anyone anywhere besides America. I guess the jokes on you Sherlock. When the Nazi decided to cut USAID funds, the ripple effect kicked you in the butt, didn’t it? I’m still not dropping those crocodile tears on my desk as I write this and, you know what you hypocrite? I don’t like the idea of a handout to you in the way of subsidies for things like the weather, tarrifs, and trade wars causing you economic instability. When policies worked in your favor you thought this is great and cheered for the guy who continually made disparaging remarks about anyone who wasn’t a billionaire and member of Mar-a-Lago. You thought what you’ve been getting for years was sacred and untouchable. It sounds like you’re getting just what you voted for. Here’s a hanky.

After that cluster f**k with the Signal group chat and the editor of the Atlantic being included in the chat mistakenly, I am going to extend the feelings I expressed above to a group, and some of you will think I am terrible for this. Believe me, I don’t want any member of our armed services to be killed or harmed during their service to our country. What could have happened, however, as a result of the incompetence, arrogance, and recklessness if China or Russia had intercepted this chat and warned the Houthi’s, allowing them to be prepared for the attack with their counter weapons, would have been the loss of lives of American pilots and military personnel. These sons, daughters, husbands, and wives would have lost their life because the President of the United States put together a cabinet of the most inexperienced and incompetent clowns whose only merit is being loyal to their master. Where I’m going with this is that, again, the voters who voted for Trump knew or should have known from what he was saying on the campaign trail, that experience, competence, and having a brain, did not matter. He was going to have a cabinet of loyalists, revengers, or billionaires. Yet, many family members of our armed forces didn’t care about that. It is a colossal joke having Pete Hegseth as the secretary of defense. It is a colossal joke having Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. It is a colossal joke having Kristi Noem, secretary of Homeland Security. It is a colossal joke having Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services. I could continue, but you get the point. From an administration that says there will be no DEI practices allowed, only a system of meritocracy, this is a colossal joke. I will feel sorry for the parents or family if any of our soldiers lose their life as a result of the reckless actions of the kakistocracy, but again, you get what you voted for.

Another day, more to think about — voter suppression, 25% auto tariffs, GOP getting nervous about an unhinged president, and more Social Security talk, but it’s time to go do a Pete Hegseth and pour myself a drinky poo. Have a great evening and put your car in the garage before the golf balls following from the sky put some dimples in your ride. This thunderstorm warning is as good as a snowpalooza warning. Ziggyman

OMG! I first wrote about DJT putting together a ‘Kakistocracy’ (government by the shittiest) in Mountain Man Musings on November 21, 2024 and expanded on that several times in subsequent postings as he added either inexperienced or incompetent people to Cabinet positions of his administration. Today, I rest my case, your Honor. What we just witnessed was a “Frat Boy Circle Jerk,’ but with a few Sorority Sisters included in this absolute display of incompetence by the top members of this administration. By now you probably know what I’m referring to, but If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here goes. Last week the “smartest, most experienced, competent” people DJT put together to lead this country got on a group chat to discuss secret military plans to attack the Houthi armed group in Yemen. There were two problems with this chat. 1) it was done on an unclassified public app called Signal, which is not approved by the US government for sharing sensitive information, and 2) the editor of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in the chat in which he received very sensitive information and details about the attack plans. Yesterday, Mr. Goldberg published an account of this screw up in an article in the Atlantic magazine. This chat included vice-president, JD Vance, secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, amongst about 10 other members of these collective stupid, smooth-brained circus clowns. Of course, the Donald didn’t know anything about this when a reporter asked him about his team’s group chat related to a top secret military operation and then immediately avoided the real question by basically saying, “Big deal. The mission was very successful, so don’t ask me anymore stupid questions.”  This group chat is being called the biggest F-up in national security history by a number of folks ranging from current politicians to former administration officials to former members of the intelligence community. It makes me wonder how many similar incidents of this sort have occurred in the past two months without us knowing about it. I have seen video clips since yesterday afternoon showing many of these clowns talking about the seriousness of handling classified information and that mishandling classified information is a serious crime that should result in prison time. If you will recall, Hillary Clinton got crucified for using a private email server and was constantly bombarded with “Lock her up!” during the Trump rallies. You can bet that Putin and Xi are just salivating seeing this incompetence from what was once the most respected intelligence community in the world. I’m guessing that our enemies globally are now ramping up their abilities to hack into our “leaders” cell phones and computers, knowing that security is not on the top of their minds. The standard battle cry for these inept and arrogant clowns has been “It’s all Bident’s fault.” I’ve already heard one MAGA minion blame this on Biden, saying that all of these officials received their cell phones from the last administration with the Signal app on it, which was refuted by a former Biden team member. While Putin and Xi are salivating, our allies whom we share intelligence info back and forth, are saying “WTF is with these stupid American intelligence ‘experts’?” I have read several interviews with former American intelligence agents who say that we are going to be seen as untrustworthy and are probably already not receiving intelligence that we normally would be given by ally intelligence services. I have also seen video clips of Defense secretary Hegseth screaming at reporters in Hawaii when questioned about the incident , lying that he was not texting about war plans when the White House had already confirmed  the chat was authentic and then deflecting the questioning to blaming Goldberg as “deceitful,” and “peddling hoaxes,” while his veins were popping out of his forehead. His security guys could see that he was making a fool of himself and wisely pulled him away from the reporters. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was probably drunk. It’s time to move from kakistocracy and idiocracy to talk about hypocrisy.

The Republican Party is mostly made up of Big League hypocrites. They will stand in front of you and claim to have these high moral standards and beliefs but then demonstrate behaviors that don’t connect to those standards in any way, shape, or form. Over the next few days my entertainment is going to be watching these sanctimonious clowns spin this show of incompetence by the people they confirmed for the leadership positions Trump wanted them in. There will be some who blow it off as ‘no big deal’. Others will express some light-weight concern and call for an investigation to get the specific details, but in the end will just say “consider this an educational moment and we need to do better the next time.” I don’t believe a single Republican will stand up and say “Lock Them Up!!” Remember, these are the same idiots who initially decried the actions of the January 6^th insurrectionists and talked big about being the party of law and order. When their leader pardoned these fine “warriors and patriots,” the Republicans retreated to the back of the room waiting for an opportune time to blame Biden, ‘the libs,’ or anyone not from MAGA land. I think I have their thinking pretty well figured out. If you hit a Capitol police officer with a baseball bat because you don’t like the results of an election, you’re a “patriot.” If you hit a particular branded car with a baseball bat because you don’t like what the owner of that car company is doing to the country, then you’re a “terrorist.”

One more thing before I go out for a walk. This weekend I saw how screwed up things are in this country when it is being run by billionaire oligarchs who just don’t get it. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who is a billionaire, said those who complain about missing a monthly Social Security check are mostly fraudsters. He went on to say, “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelilng and complaining.” Wow, Howard. You’re absolutely correct she wouldn’t call and complain. She lives with you and your wife, and if she does receive a SS check, it would be like a crumb in the bottom of the cookie jar. Now, Ma and Pa MAGA S**t for Brains would probably not agree with you as they wait for that monthly entitlement check so they can run to the gas station to fill up their 1998 Ford Focus and then to the Shop and Go for their nightly six pack of Hamm’s. What an arrogant privileged dick.

Okay, gotta head out for a walk on this beautiful spring day. Today was all about kakistocracy, idiocracy, and hypocrisy. I thinks that tomorrow I should focus on meritocracy. I wonder when I will run out of ……ocracies to write about? Have yourself a great evening.

Happy Friday! I should be taking a nap after getting up early the past 2 mornings to take the missus to her cataract surgery #2 and the post op this morning. Everything is good, other than the pouring down rain. The traffic this morning going up the mountain was steady car after car. Spring Break and great snow on the mountain for skiers and snowboarders. Police from several different agencies had a traffic mission going on between Sandy and Gresham with cars pulled over every ¼ mile. I’m glad to see it at the beginning of the Break, as there are so many idiots heading up the mountain speeding, cutting in and out of traffic, and road raging. Several of the cop cars were unmarked everyday looking vehicles, but with lots of hidden blue lights.  Yahoo!

I’ve read several interesting articles the past couple of days focused on the constitutional crisis that is upon us or may be right around the corner as our president tries to parlay his presidential role to one of a dictator. The most disturbing  warning I took away from my reading was from an article titled “Is American Democracy Doomed?” by Brian Klaas, a political scientist and professor at University College London. https://substack.com/home/post/p-158444265 In the article he cites the “Polity IV” index, which measures levels of democracy and authoritarianism in every country. The disturbing thing is that the index has re-classified the United States as a non-democracy. The official notice reads: “The USA is no longer considered a democracy and lies at the cusp of autocracy.” Dr. Klaas also refers to an article by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way where they argue that “democracy is in greater peril today than at any time in modern US history”; that “the country’s vaunted constitutional checks are failing”; and “US democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration.” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump We are experiencing daily these threats to democracy as DJT and his lackeys are gathering up immigrants, college students, college professors, and, yes, alleged Venezuelan gang members and either deporting them or sending them to a hellish prison in El Salvador; ignoring the rulings of federal judges; calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against the illegalities committed by this administration; intimidating and trying to silence selected media; threatening to prosecute his critics;  and putting strictly loyalists and unelected directors (Elon) into key positions in order to push forward his agenda. I’m an old guy, but throughout my life I have read and seen in the news similar actions taken by authoritarian governments and thought, “Thank God I live in America.” My, how times change.

Above, I wrote ‘alleged Venezuelan gang members’ who have been deported and sent to an El Salvador prison. I write alleged because, so far, there has been no due process for those arrested and sent to the prison, which is exactly the reason Judge Boasberg put a temporary order in place to hold these prisoners. They were already in custody by ICE, so they were not a threat to citizens of the US while in custody. We are now learning that there is weak to nonexistent evidence that some of these “terrorists” are in fact members of the Tren de Aragua gang. One of the deportees was a Venezuelan professional soccer player who had fled Venezuela after protesting against dictator Nicola Madura and was living peacefully in the U.S. until he was snatched up by ICE and deported to El Salvador. Why was he seen as a member of that gang? Because he had a tattoo of a crown sitting atop a soccer ball, which ICE alleges is proof of gang membership. In reality the tattoo was inspired by the Real Madrid soccer team, which is also circular in shape and features a crown. There are many more examples of this common theme of the misinterpretation of tattoos as the “evidence” that these are gang members leading to deportation. The irony of this is that many of these people came to the United States to flee from the Tren de Aragua gang only to be accused of being members of that gang. You just have to wonder how much education and training these ICE agents and their superiors have to be making these life-changing, misinterpretive decisions some of these deportees have experienced.

In the last couple of posts I wrote about the pissing match going on between the judge and administration related to the plane flights to El Salvador in violation of the judge’s order and the hearings subsequent to that order. In a hearing this morning, Judge Boagsberg, the judge who temporarily blocked the deportations to El Salvador, said government lawyers had been “intermperate and disrespectful” in court filings and told the Deputy Assistant Attorney General that he could not recall ever having heard government lawyers address him in the way the government had in its filings. Oh boy, it would appear to me that Judge B is really pissed. Once again, keep your eyes on this one.

Have a great weekend and get ready for that 76 degree weather next week. The Blazers are going for four in a row tonight. Go Blazers!! Ziggyman

Controlled “facts” and misinformation are the principal tools of autocratic authority.

Happy “Hump Day.” Well, we’ve made it to the middle of the week and, other than continued chaos, we haven’t had to jump into bomb shelters yet. You will be surprised by me on this one, but I’ll give Elon a “high five” for having one of his SpaceX shuttle capsules bring the two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, safely home after being stranded at the International Space Station for over 10 months. Naturally, politics has to be involved as Trump repeatedly blamed Biden for leaving them marooned and Elon claiming that Biden turned down a chance to rescue them last September after SpaceX launched a capsule to rescue them. After the capsule docked at the space station last fall, NASA opted to stall their return. Musk says that because he donated to Trump’s campaign, and if his capsule made the rescue, it would have made Trump “look good” and that Biden “didn’t want the publicity” so close to the election. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he expedited the astronauts return after making a personal appeal to Musk. However, from what I have read, the mission to return the two astronauts has been in the planning stages since last summer, and the timeline for their return has been in line with that plan. The good news is that they are back safely. And this was not a strictly humanitarian mission by Musk’s SpaceX company, as the U.S. government has a contract with him and the costs for this mission are estimated to be over $150 million. NASA stopped their space shuttle program in 2011 and since then have used a contract system to shuttle our astronauts to the International Space Station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been the primary space shuttle, but other private companies are now building ships to get in on the action, such as Boeing’s Starliner program and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. But, as long as Elon and Don remain bro’s, SpaceX will not have to worry about competition, and as far as “conflict of interest” concerns, this administration doesn’t believe there is such a thing as “conflict of interest.”

It’s becoming a daily occurrence in the courtroom. Trump signs an executive order that is nonsensical, it gets challenged in court, the judge rules in plaintiff’s favor and a temporary ban is put in place. Over the past few weeks I have written about at least five cases where we have seen this scenario played out. Here we go again. Yesterday a federal judge temporarily blocked the military from enforcing Trump’s executive order barring transgenders from military service. I wrote about this ridiculous order last week and am not at all surprised at this most recent ruling. The one that is going to be most fascinating, however, is what the consequences might be for the Trump administrations ‘flipping of the bird’ to Chief Judge James Boasberg related to their disregard of his order to return the alleged gangsters being deported to El Salvador. This one is really starting to heat up. Today he granted them another 24 hours to get their deportation flight details together, allowing me time to get my Orville Redenbacher ready for a good poppin’.

And for our “Karma of the Day,” the award goes to Republican Minnesota State Senator Justin Eichorn, who hours after introducing a bill, along with 4 other dimwits,  to add “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (“TDS”) to the state’s statutory definition of mental illness, was arrested in a sting operation for attempting to solicit sex from someone he thought was a teenage girl. “TDS” is a MAGA-world insult, meaning “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.” This isn’t the first Trumpster getting arrested for ‘having a thing’ for teenage girls. Last week ex-Trump spiritual adviser, Pastor Robert Morris was indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Morris could face up to 20 years for each of the five charges if convicted. And, we still haven’t seen the Epstein files, so who knows how many more “God fearing Christians” are lurking out there. Oops, I guess they aren’t God fearing.

Keep smilin’ out there. I see where PDX might hit 76 degrees next Tuesday, so no complainin’. Go Blazers!! Let’s make it 3 in a row. Ziggyman