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Jack Ohman’s You Betcha!


Wow, those military parades can’t even keep a totalitarian awake.
Jun 16

President Trump’s Shitstaffel Chief Stephen Miller, who is currently getting a busy signal from his wife, the New Musk GF Du Jour, has had a busy week rounding up school children, four year olds, and people who pick crops to feed his emaciated Goebbels face.

He had Trump send U.S. Marines, the California National Guard, and any loose Boy Scout troop to patrol the streets of Los Angeles, to no real effect, since what was, in fact, going on was 4,000,000 people getting ready to go to a Dodgers game, brunch, or Disneyland.

This cartoon features a device called “transmogrification”, which means that you make a human into some other weird, surprising object. I think. As I have previously noted here, I am always looking for a little phrase that I can turn into a drawing. They’re not puns, per se, they’re word play. So I kept thinking about the phrase, “Stephen Miller’s biggest fan,” which, of course ultimately called for me converting Trump into an actual fan, which was surprisingly easy to do. Sometimes, this doesn’t work, at all. This worked fine, as Trump’s mouth is open all the time when he’s not pouting. Throw in a whirling blade, build the face around it, and there you go.

I am remiss in not featuring Miller more. I drew him a few times during Trump 1.0, but mostly haven’t done that much about him. I can see this needs to be done much more going forward. It’s my patriotic duty.

I can only imagine the chitchat between Miller and his equally odious wife when he found out she was going to join Musk and his 12 other wives in California.

X-wife, if you will.

Anyway, let’s move on, shall we?

I couldn’t resist doing this, even being part of the Resistance. I have always called The Home Depot “The Home Despot”, and even genius buddy Joel Pett, my colleague late of the Lexington Herald Leader (don’t get him started, either) said he calls it the same thing.

When I set out to do a storefront, I always have to take some care that it at least vaguely resembles the actual business. I drew Walmart the other day, for example, and carefully reproduced the Walmart logo. In this case, I noted that Home Depots usually have that orange lattice on the top of the building. Not exclusively, but usually. When I draw lattice (most frequently on NASA rocket launch gantries, I am usually kind of winging it. I suppose if you carefully examined the lattice, you would probably note that it isn’t technically correct, but I also know it’s unlikely you will give it that level of scrutiny, and thank God.

Then there’s the tank.

I almost never look at tank photos anymore, and just draw a tank the way I want it to look. I suppose that now I have brought this up, I also may have to do that, just to amuse myself. I remember looking at older cartoonists work in 1980, and noting that they would draw television cameras from 1950, with multiple interchangeable lenses sticking out. I would sigh, and draw them correctly, because I am so hip and with it.

I drew a camera a few years ago, and I got a note from a cameraman saying, hey buddy, you might want to check out the way cameras look now, which I did. Wow, were they off. I assume this means that there’s now a new generation of cartoonists looking at my cameras and shaking their heads about how out of it I am.

I’m 64, after all. You can’t keep up with everything. I used to listen to American Top 40 in 1976 and knew every single on the Billboard chart, and whether it was rising or falling. “Oh, Bungle in the Jungle has dropped to Number 24”.

Let’s resume the countdown. NUMBER THREE!

Normally, I don’t like to do cartoons like this, which are simply paens to someone. I’m not above it, but I was delighted to see and hear Gov. Gavin Newsom’s speech the other day where he acted like he wasn’t exactly setting the table for his political future. He sounded like a guy who actually was passionate and sincere about the direct threat of authoritarianism facing this country, California, and him.

Look, I know Newsom is, in fact, a politician likely lining up for 2028, if we have an election, which I do not assume at this point. But he showed a lot of courage and character, and I give him props for doing so.

When doing these types of cartoons, the subject is usually dead or leaving office. There is a fine line between interesting and cornball, so I kept thinking “beacon”. That’s when I saw Gav as a lighthouse. I also really enjoyed drawing this as:

  1. I enjoy drawing water.
  2. I enjoy drawing dark skies.
  3. I enjoy drawing blue and yellow drawings.
  4. I enjoy drawing Newsom.

Newsom is beyond good-looking, honestly. I’ve talked to him many times in person, and I find myself looking at him as an objet d’art—how did they do that? He looks better in person; he almost has an AI appearance to him. Obama: same. JFK: same. Reagan: same. When we have to tackle the good-looking politicians, male or female, it’s something of a challenge. Prior to television, it was perfectly normal to elect politicians who weren’t handsome or pretty. Radio faces, and all. Now most electeds look like weekend weathermen or saleswomen at Nordstrom.

Next?

This was kinda fun.

I’ve never drawn the iconic JFK birthday song by Marilyn Monroe, who was dressed in “skin and beads, and I didn’t see the beads,” according to historian and Kennedy guy Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.. Finally I got my chance here.

I had originally labelled Marilyn Monster as “FASCISM,” which would have fit better. Labeling is tough, people, and the only space I had was where you see it, although in closer examination I could have put it on the tail. I then decided to say “AUTHORITARIANISM,” which was still a bit more accurate than fascism, although I am very open to your counterarguments.

POLLHow best to describe the Trump Administration?Full-on fascistAuthoritarianIncompetent with a hint o’ fascism

The Audacity of Ignorance


MSNBC host Chris Hayes couldn’t contain his laughter on air Friday while reading a fundraising email from President Donald Trump. The email asked for donations for his Saturday military parade, which, as it turns out, most Americans aren’t that eager to fund.

“Donald Trump is holding a North Korean-style military parade, Soviet-style military parade through the nation’s capital, something that we just don’t do as a country,” said Hayes. “The last one we did was after the first Persian Gulf War, which was celebrating the end of the war.

more

He continued, “We don’t have that here. It just so happens to fall on his 79th birthday. He’s even fundraising from it, if you could believe it — well, you can, of course — sending out this email with the subject line, quote, ‘Please help me before my military parade!’”

Hayes broke into laughter reading that last line aloud, as a screenshot of the email was displayed onscreen. He quickly composed himself and continued his coverage on the impending Washington, D.C., event.

“I’m sorry, that’s a funny sentence,” said Hayes. “‘My military parade.’”

Trump has never served in the armed forces and reportedly avoided the Vietnam War draft with a diagnosis of bone spurs in his feet. The daughter of the doctor who provided the diagnosis later said he had done so as a favor to his landlord — Trump’s father, Fred Trump.

The parade and surrounding festivities are meant to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, though the event notably also falls on Trump’s 79th birthday.

A Portrait of Pettiness


Gene Weingarten

Jun 10, 2025

Poll: “Unafraid and Unashamed” | Ethics Alarms

Hello. From a Washington Post story by Maura Judkis, we get a new account of what appears to be the real reason why Donald Trump is hellbent on replacing Kim Sajet, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. It turns out that eight years ago she didn’t like, and rejected as too political and “no good”, the cloying portrait of Trump created by the evangelical conservative, knockoff schlockmeister and ardent Trump enthusiast Julian Raven. The art is pictured above. Its title is “Unafraid and Unashamed.”

Let us be fair and give this some artistically critical thought. Please consider the portrait in a dignified, professional manner. Step back a bit. Sit on well-padded couch we have provided in this online museum, for restful contemplative assessment. If needed, puke into the bucket we have provided as well.

In rejecting the art, Ms. Sajet pointed out to Raven that it was both overly politically advocative and essentially every bit as sophisticated as a velvet Elvis or crying clowns or those dogs playing Texas Hold ‘Em — if not as expertly rendered.

As we approach the revolting spectacle of Trump spending wads of taxpayer money to ostentatiously celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary and, um, his own birthday, with a multi-million dollar shithole-country-style military parade featuring unscalable fences and hundreds of magnetometers, it would be prudent to discuss this issue.

Actually, no. All you have to do is look at some other similar ass-sucking works from the past by ardent political enthusiasts. Here’s one of Hitler, by Hubert Lanzinger, from 1932:

Promoting Patriotism and National Unity: Germany | WWII Artifact Gallery | PBS LearningMedia

Here’s another of Mussolini, by Gerardo Dottori, circa 1933:

You get the idea.

—

Speaking of appalling things, I was on a walk with Lexi the other day when she suddenly alerted and started her hound dog roo-ing at something she saw that was approaching us.

Dogs are suspicious of things that do not seem to conform to the way things are supposed to be. People wearing hats, or delivery people carrying big boxes, for example. My previous dog, Murphy, got freaked out if she saw people kissing.

This thing was even more outrageous to Lexi, though. And I agreed.

It was a guy on a one-wheel Segway, roaring down the street at maybe 25 miles an hour, which in itself is disturbing. But what really got to Lexi, and to me, is that he was simultaneously pushing a stroller with a baby in it.

Opinion: Many of have forgotten the altering, removal and possibly banning of historical information regarding WWII. The folks who lived it, those who studied it and those who teach it recognize the value of that information but this is lost on short sighted individuals whose objective is to create a society like FFLOTUS wants. MA

Movie Reminders


Looking at the Movie “Iron Man” today and was reminded of the past year of the Gaza “conflict?”. Much of the action that occurs in the Middle east shows natives being rounded up and killed, sent packing or enslaved. Meanwhile the political classes (asses)  discuss and guess as to what should be done. And in America the new “Sheriff” has begun to dismantle the government agencies because either they can or because they don’t understand how Government works. The policy of “nuevo Trump 2.0 is to get even at all costs with the overt and tacit approval of the GOP. It is unfortunate that the DEMs are so weak as to present a meager objection even though they do not have control of Congress. All political change starts with small voices that build with facts as the foundation. This political weakness appears to voters as the weakness that it is. If the status quo is to shift, then the political winds need to shift also. It is bad enough that the public is apathetic, complacent or just doesn’t care but  the public servants need to take  the heat and do their jobs with as much honesty as they can muster or just because it is what they were elected to do.

I could quote numerous warnings from the past and near past about the rise of populists and the results thereof but until the public at large learns to or start to learn what information history has shown we will continue down the road to a “kingship” for an extremely incompetent leader and his suck up minions!

Administration: whitening America? not enough WHITEWASH!


Administration: whitening America? not enough WHITEWASH!

If we are paying attention, we will understand that Resident T—P is an angry small man with a grifters personality who thinks Government can be run like a business. However, a business always hires the best available people for open positions. The Resident hires on the basis of wealth and notoriety (or lip size?) and fealty. It is our (voters) duty to vote smarter and not along party lines. If your representatives are in the T—P camp, go independent or another party. Incidentally: How do you Bankrupt3 casinos?

Turns Out, Trump’s Qatar Private Jet Wasn’t Even a Gift


The New Republic

Opinion

Edith Olmsted

Tue, May 20, 2025 at 9:15 AM CDT2 min read

There’s no such thing as a free plane.

Donald Trump’s administration specifically sought out the luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar’s government to replace Air Force One, despite the president’s insistence that the plane was a gift, sources informed CNN.

A senior White House official told CNN that Trump tasked Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East (and shady crypto partner), with tracking down a replacement for Air Force One, after Trump learned that Boeing would not have new jets ready for another two years. Witkoff ended up leading initial conversations with the Qatari government, according to the White House official.

Boeing provided the Pentagon with a list of other clients who might be able to help with America’s search for a new plane, three sources told CNN. One of those sources said that Qatar was included on that list of clients and that the U.S. reached out about purchasing the luxury plane from the Qatari Defense Ministry, which indicated it was willing to sell. There were also discussions about leasing the plane, said another source.

Legal negotiations over the plane’s transfer are still ongoing, and it’s unclear how the plane went from being a potential purchase to a $400 million gift. Trump and his administration have repeatedly stressed that the plane will be free of charge, a gift of goodwill from a foreign government—sparking major backlash on both sides of the aisle over concerns of foreign corruption.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the potential transfer a “donation to our country” on Monday, but the plane is much more of a personal gift to Trump himself than to the people of the United States, whose tax-paying dollars could end up funding the costly rebuild for the president’s supposedly free gift.

Trump reportedly toured a Qatari plane with aides in February and began lamenting how luxurious the plane was compared to his own transportation options. Last week, Trump whined that the current Air Force One is a “much less impressive” plane than the lavish ones dictators use.

CNN’s reporting upends a recent claim from Senator Markwayne Mullin—which was then repeated by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—that negotiations to receive a plane from Qatar began under Joe Biden’s administration.

Giving Trump $400m Boeing jet was his team’s idea not Qatar’s, report claims

Joe Sommerlad

Tue, May 20, 2025 at 8:39 AM CDT

President Donald Trump’s administration originally approached Qatar about the possibility of acquiring one of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets, according to a report.

The new claim reported in CNN contradicts Trump’s insistence that the controversial plane lined up to replace Air Force One was simply offered as a “gift.”

The $400m aircraft that the Qatari royal family intends to present to the United States, described as a “flying palace” due to its luxurious interior, has inspired a number of ethics complaints at home that cast a long shadow over the president’s visit to the Middle East last week.

Now administration sources cited by CNN claim it was the U.S. that first sought out the plane, rather than Qatar coming forward to offer it as a friendly gesture.

The network’s sources claim that, shortly after Trump returned to the White House in January, the Pentagon contacted Boeing for an update on the two new jets it is building as replacements for the current presidential plane.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, as he departs the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha on May 15 2025 (Win McNamee/Getty)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, as he departs the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha on May 15 2025 (Win McNamee/Getty)

It was told that their construction would take another two years to complete, prompting a frustrated Trump to task his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff with drawing up a list of potential alternatives already in service.

Boeing reportedly supplied Department of Defense officials with the names of its clients around the world. “Qatar was one of the clients,” one of the sources said, adding that the Pentagon then approached Doha, with introductions from Witkoff, offering to buy the plane. Qatar responded by indicating it would be willing to sell, it is claimed.

Another source, however, suggested those discussions were originally about leasing the Boeing, not buying it outright.

The account stands at odds with Trump’s own version of events after the president insisted throughout his trip to the Gulf that the plane was a present from one of America’s key regional allies, describing it as “A GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE” on Truth Social and saying that only a “stupid person” would have refused it.

His position was reiterated by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday. She described the jet as a “donation to our country,” saying that Qatar’s royal family “has offered to donate this plane to the United States Air Force, where that donation will be accepted according to all legal and ethical obligations.”

A White House official has since told The Independent that CNN’s reporting is accurate.

Trump griped about the age of the current presidential plane repeatedly last week, boarding it at Abu Dhabi International Airport on Friday with the resentful words: “I leave now and get into a 42-year-old Boeing. The new ones are coming, new ones are coming.”

Amid a furor in Congress over the jet potentially violating the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause, Trump’s own Department of Justice lawyers moved quickly to rule that accepting it would break no laws.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House lawyer David Warrington said the donation of the aircraft would be “legally permissible,” given that its ownership would be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation before the end of his term.

But Columbia Law School Professor Richard Briffault questioned that assessment when he told NPR that if Trump retains ownership of the plane after leaving office, in spite of his claim that it will ultimately be given to the Department of Defense, “then it’s not really a gift to the United States at all” and instead amounts to a “pretty textbook case of a violation of the emoluments clause.”

A Boeing 747 bearing the color scheme of planes used by the Qatari royal family seen at San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas, earlier this month (Brandon Lingle/The San Antonio Express-News/AP)

A Boeing 747 bearing the color scheme of planes used by the Qatari royal family seen at San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas, earlier this month (Brandon Lingle/The San Antonio Express-News/AP)

Professor Briffault further warned that accepting any present leaves the recipient beholden to the gift-giver, an argument also made by Trump nemesis Hillary Clinton, saying that gestures like Qatar’s are “designed to create good feelings for the recipient and to get some kind of reciprocity.”

Another cause of concern is the eye-watering cost of retrofitting the jet to make it an acceptable substitute for the presidential plane.

Experts warn that it would take several years and require billions of dollars in further investment from the American taxpayer to ensure it meets the necessary security standards.

It would require secure communications, electromagnetic shielding, and in-flight refueling capabilities, to name just three necessary upgrades.

‘A huge scandal’: Internal doc exposes Trump hunt for Social Security fraud as a sham


Story by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams • 23h • 3 min read

© provided by AlterNet

An internal Trump administration document reportedly shows that anti-fraud checks recently installed at the Social Security agency have found just two cases of potentially improper benefit claims out of more than 110,000—a rate of 0.0018%.

The documents, first reported Thursday by Nextgov/FCW, further undercut President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s narrative that Social Security is brimming with fraud. Musk falsely claimed in March that “40% of the calls into Social Security were fraudulent.”

The anti-fraud checks for Social Security have been applied only to benefit claims made over the phone. According to the internal document, “No significant fraud has been detected from the flagged cases.” Earlier this year, amid widespread outrage, the Social Security Administration (SSA) walked back a proposal to scrap many of its phone-based benefit claim services.

Nextgov/FCW noted Thursday that the Trump administration’s deployment of the anti-fraud tools beginning last month “did cause delays, as SSA changed its phone procedures to add the checks on the backend.”

“The lags stem from the three-day hold placed on telephone claims in order to run the anti-fraud [checks], a move that ‘delays payments and benefits to customers, despite an extremely low risk of fraud,'” Nextgov/FCW reported, citing the internal document.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement that “the Trump-Musk Social Security takeover has only meant more chaos and confusion for Americans.”

“Every one of DOGE’s so-called ‘mistakes’ is a backdoor cut to people’s benefits,” said Warren. “There’s nothing efficient about making it harder for people to access the checks they’ve earned and are owed.”

On social media, Warren called the revelations in the internal administration document “a HUGE scandal.”

It’s long been clear that Social Security fraud is minuscule, with an inspector general report published last year estimating that just 0.84% of Social Security benefits paid out between 2015 and 2022 were dispensed improperly—and even those improper payments were not necessarily fraudulent.

The new reporting out Thursday bolstered warnings that the Trump administration’s hunt for fraud is a mere pretext for slashing Social Security benefits and weakening the program.

“Turns out there ISN’T rampant Social Security fraud, but Elon’s witch hunt, driven by his insane conspiracy theories, IS keeping seniors from getting their benefits as quickly as they should be,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) wrote on social media. “THIS is Republican governing: hunting for nonexistent fraud while breaking Social Security.”

Frank Bisignano, the newly confirmed SSA administrator, has close ties to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and has defended the president’s false claim that tens of millions of “dead” people are receiving Social Security benefits.

CNN reported earlier this week that as SSA combs “through its databases to check whether beneficiaries are alive or dead” at Trump and Musk’s behest, agency staffers are “seeing more people coming in to be resurrected” after being falsely deemed deceased.

“I’ve been saying it all along,” former SSA chief Martin O’Malley wrote Thursday. “Elon Musk is the biggest fraud, not Social Security.”

FDR’s grandson issues new warning about Trump’s targeting of Social Security


James Roosevelt Jr., Henry Scott Wallace And June Hopkins, Common Dreams

April 06, 2025 | 08:38AM ET

Thank you, Senator Cory Booker. In your record-breaking Senate talk-a-thon, you sounded the alarm about President Donald Trump’s increasingly blatant threats to Social Security, and the devastating impacts for ordinary people who count on it.

Ninety years ago, our three grandfathers created Social Security. It’s the most popular, efficient and effective government program ever, ensuring financial security for 73 million Americans today. Now, appallingly, America’s workers and seniors must get ready to fight like hell.

The first draft of Social Security was written by a small committee including Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace and top FDR advisor and Federal Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins, chaired by legendary Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. FDR had insisted that Social Security be funded by a system of payroll taxes, with both worker and employer contributing. He expressed great confidence that this would give workers an unquestionable “legal, moral and political right” to collect benefits.

Save Social Security. Don’t “outsource” it. Don’t tolerate this “reverse Robin Hood”—taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

President Dwight Eisenhower got it. There may be “a tiny splinter group” of politicians who want to mess with Social Security, he wrote, but “their number is negligible and they are stupid.”

Now comes Trump and Musk. They’ve fired 7,000 Social Security Administration staffer, citing a “bloated” workforce (actually severely overstretched at 50-year lows), made it harder to access their benefits, and closed most of the regional and field offices, guaranteeing chaos. Musk has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” (it’s NOT), and shared a post calling Social Security recipients “the parasite class.” Trump has lied that Social Security benefits are being collected by illegal immigrants (they actually strengthen Social Security by paying payroll taxes while being barred from collecting benefits) and by tens of millions of people over 120 years old (nobody in the worldis over 120 years old, and in fact, only 89,000 people over age 99 receive Social Security benefits). Musk says fraud in “entitlement spending … is the big one to eliminate“.

Now, after whipping up anger at imaginary Social Security abuses, Trump is proposing to end all federal taxes on people earning less than $150,000—the largest category of taxes for people in that bracket being the payroll taxes that sustain Social Security— which, when combined with the current payroll tax cap of $176,000, would leave Social Security with virtually no revenues. Trump previously promised to completely end payroll taxes.

Could their intentions be any clearer? Trump campaigned on a promise that Social Security “will not be touched, it will only be strengthened” (and Musk has recently promised that benefits will be increased, unbelievably, without congressional action and without worsening the government spending he enjoys slashing with his chainsaw).

Today, the CEO earning $10 million a year hits that limit and stops paying payroll taxes after the first week of the year, while his janitor keeps paying the 6.2% payroll tax for the next 51 weeks. It’s an outrage against all working people.

But remember how a previous President, George W. Bush, wanted to “strengthen” Social Security? By privatizing it. Trump’s acting Social Security Commissioner now prefers to frame it as “outsourcing.”

The Washington Post reports that with seniors “beside themselves” with uncertainty stoked by all the cutbacks, “many current and former [Social Security] officials” fear that the ultimate goal is privatization. And they’ve got plenty of company among Democrats in Congress. (Trump’s Treasury Secretary recently suggested that the goal was to privatize everything government does.) And Trump’s likeliest argument is that the only way to prevent benefit cuts driven by the system’s looming solvency crisis, and strengthen retirement security, is to put Social Security’s money in Wall Street (rich financiers would surely love the extra $3 trillion in investments).

The fact is that there is absolutely no way for Musk and Trump to reach their goal of eliminating $2 trillion in federal spending without either 1) raising revenues or 2) decimating the largest federal spending program in America: Social Security (Medicare and Medicaid are not far behind).

What could avert such stupidity? Revenues. Make the wealthy pay their fair share. One no-brainer example: eliminate the current $176,000 cap on payroll taxes. Today, the CEO earning $10 million a year hits that limit and stops paying payroll taxes after the first week of the year, while his janitor keeps paying the 6.2% payroll tax for the next 51 weeks. It’s an outrage against all working people.

What related outrages should we expect? Start with Trump’s promised $5 trillion of tax cuts for billionaires (like Trump and Musk). That’s the justification for all of Trump’s cuts to programs that help ordinary people, from veterans to children to health care to preventing terrorism. And don’t imagine for a second that the privatization of Social Security can be blocked in Congress, as it was under President George W. Bush. Trump’s reign of boundary-pushing executive orders has made a supine Congress irrelevant and the Constitution a technicality.

Save Social Security. Don’t “outsource” it. Don’t tolerate this “reverse Robin Hood”—taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Don’t count on “guardrails” like Congress or the courts. It will take a movement of ordinary Americans shouting to protect FDR’s greatest legacy of financial security for working people.

America is The Backbone of Democracy


Apparently Not!

All of the touted greatness of the United States and the assistance given to other countries has started to pale. Our former world dominance is being relegated to this country being seen as potentially near mediocre actor on the world stage. All of the  bad actors are looking at the current “leader” as a purchasable commodity who if offered the right largesse will ease their situations with the U.S. in the way of sanctions or restrictions. As shown in his first term DJT is out for DJT and it will always be so. His Cabinet members, his Whitehouse staff all play to his ego and his greed so they can insert their agendas onto the American public.

These are the same actions performed during the 30 or so years prior to WWII. There are too many folks who don’t think it can happen here while it’s happening here! DRT is seeking a “Kingship” with absolute authority, that aspiration was imbued by same folks who pushed the “moral Majority, attacked and killed abortion rights”. These are the people who think Medicaid should get less funding (do you hear that Seniors with medical needs and disabilities?) It is not wrong to pursue waste and fraud but usually after a complete investigation as to where misdeeds occur. Forcing needy folks whose disabilities and age preclude any ability to work is ridiculous and wrong. At the bottom of all of this is funding the massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

The elected members of Congress who are kissing the “Arse” of FFLOTUS are people elected by the people to represent them in government but have failed and will continue to fail as long as they are in office. Terms are limited at the ballot box not by the people running for office.

The statements made on the campaign trail along with the empty promises are borne out by the negative rhetoric about Americans and allies against the sucking up to middle eastern strongmen who have swayed his views with pomp and circumstance long with lavish gifts. All of this aside, the promises made by the people we elected are next to useless while the promises made by a inveterate self-serving liar is as Anti American as you can get without actually stating that fact!

Apparently, we are not as sharp politically as we should be, we have more rested on our laurels aka Asses while the government is in the hands of an idiot on steroids!

The Grift That Keeps on Grifting


Trump just can’t resist bribes

Robert ReichMay 12
 My opinion: There was a chance to avoid this corrupt administration but too many people went for the: egress” and now find them selves outside! MA.
 

Friends,

Trump is overplaying his hand.

Not just by usurping the powers of Congress and ignoring Supreme Court rulings. Not just abducting people who are legally in the United States but have put their name to opinion pieces Trump doesn’t like and trucking them off to “detention” facilities. Not just using the Justice Department for personal vengeance. Not just unilaterally deciding how much tariff tax American consumers will have to pay on almost everything they buy.

Polls show all these are tanking Trump’s popularity.

But one thing almost all Americans are firmly against — even many loyal Trumpers — us bribery. And Trump is taking bigger and bigger bribes.

Yesterday it was reported that he’s accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane worth at least $400 million from the Qatari royal family, for use during his presidency and for his personal use afterward.

Trump just can’t resist. He’s been salivating over the plane for months. It’s bigger and newer than Air Force One — and so opulently configured that it’s known as “a flying palace.” (No report on whether it contains a golden toilet.)

Apparently he’s been talking about the plane for months. In February, he toured it while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport.

He’s tried to redecorate the White House into a palace but that’s not nearly as satisfying as flying around the world in one, especially once he’s left the White House (assuming he will).

Attorney General Pam Bondi said it’s perfectly legal for him to accept such a bribe, er, gift.

Hello?

The U.S. Constitution clearly forbids officers of the United States from taking gifts from foreign governments. It’s called the “emoluments clause.” (See Article I, Section 9.)

Anyone viewing Bondi as a neutral judge of what’s legal and what’s not when it comes to Trump can’t be trusted to be a neutral judge of Bondi. Recall that she represented Trump in a criminal proceeding. Presumably he appointed her attorney general because he knew she’d do and say anything he wanted.

Oh, and she used to lobby for Qatar.

So, what does Qatar get in return for the $400 million plane? What’s the quid for the quo?

This week Trump takes the first overseas trip of his second presidency. He’ll land in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, followed by a visit to Qatar, and then to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E).

That’s a big boost for Qatar right there.

Trump also just did what Qatar has been wanting done for years — announcing that the Persian Gulf (as it’s been known since at least 550 B.C.) will henceforth be known as the Arabian Gulf.

Trump’s company has just announced a new golf resort in Qatar, reportedly partnering with a company owned by the royal family.

Qatar is also pushing the Trump regime to lift sanctions on Syria.

The payback could be any number of things. The only certainty is that you and I and other Americans won’t necessarily benefit.

This week’s trip to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. is as much a personal business trip for Trump and his family businesses as a diplomatic trip.

Eric Trump, who officially runs the family business, has just announced plans for a Trump-branded hotel and tower in Dubai, part of the U.A.E.

The Trump family’s developments in the Middle East depend on a Saudi-based real estate company with close ties to the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia has a long list of pressing matters before the United States, including requests to buy F-35 fighter jets and gain access to nuclear power technology.

Trump’s family crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, announced that its so-called “stablecoin” — with Trump’s likeness all over it — will be used by the U.A.E. to make a $2 billion business deal with Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world. The deal will generate hundreds of millions of dollars more for the Trump family.

I had assumed that Trump’s undoing would be his unquenchable thirst for power. It may yet be, but I’m beginning to think his insatiable greed will do him in. America’s Grifter-in-Chief knows no bounds.