Dear Everybody:
The big news this morning is that Trump is on a rampage on Truth Social:
–Trump: “THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE! President DJT.”
–robincuil: “Aw fuck. He woke up.”
–Trump posted this same exact rant twice in the space of a few minutes.
–Then he went after journalist Kristen Welker. He spent all day yesterday going after Maggie Haberman, and today it’s Kristen Welker. Trump: “Kristen Welker, the Unpopular ‘Hostess’ of Meet the Fake Press, just stated that Donald Trump has ‘mixed results’ on Endorsements, when the recent WINS of Darlin Graham and Mike Mazzei, sand at 100% for the US Senate and 98% for the US House recently and over the long term. How can anyone be allowed to say this?”
–Because he DOES have mixed results in his endorsements. Fox News’s headline two days ago was “Trump Keeps Winning Republican Primaries. His losses may be more revealing.”
–And two weeks ago: “President Donald Trump suffered his most concentrated series of endorsement defeats of the 2026 primary cycle on Tuesday, when three Republican candidates he supported lost races in Florida and Wyoming.”
–Trump: ‘Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment. I hope Brendan Carr takes this Threat to Our Country very seriously.”
–John Kelly: “Of course they’re fake, sir! SHHHH. There there. Everybody loves you.. That’s right. The polls are all rigged by the communists and the illegals–that’s right. SHHHH.” “Okay, he’s asleep.”
–Saturday Trump posted an AI video of goose-human hybrids guarding “Lake America” with guns. Dozens of geese sporting Trump-like hairdos (but wait, I thought the Canadians were the geese and we were the eagles) march in formation as the theme song to “Hawaii 5-0” plays (huh?) The geese are carrying machine guns, which they fire into the air at the end of the video.
–Canadian political staffer Michael Gerald Gibbs: “The United States has just threatened our country Canada with an armed attack and invasion. If the Americans don’t impeach and remove their President and Vice President immediately, the entire world should meet to discuss collective actions to deter them.”
–Former GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger: “This dude is losing his mind. Can’t win a war, but obsesses in AI like the unhinged boomer he is.”
–Dean Blundell: “It’s how the crazy old pedophile rapist Trump dominates news cycles on a weekend. He does this from a gilded toilet behind fences and a wall of secret security because he’s a pussy. Americans would burn down the White House if he tried to ‘invade’ Canada.”
–Jennifer Erin Valent: “If this country cannot come to a consensus that our president is insane, that raises a whole host of concerns regarding our society’s ability to discern anything at all, ever. Few things are as obvious as the fact that Trump has lost what was left of his disordered mind.”
–Trump also posted a video of a lake with the sign, Lake Ontario, then Trump comes on carrying a sign that says, Welcome to Lake Ontario, kicks over the first sign and then goes into his bizarre YMCA dance.
In They Want to Kill Us All news:
–RFK, Jr.: “We’re closing down the hospices, we’ve been closing down thousands of hospices…”
–RFK, Jr. complained that people don’t die fast enough in hospice. They’re supposed to die within three months, but they don’t, and so he considers that fraud. I know a number of people who were on hospice care for six months, then off, then back on because it’s impossible to predict the progress of terminal diseases.
–Aaron Rupar: “RFK, jr. complains that people in hospice aren’t dying quick enough and therefore cost too much money.”
–vomitgoblin: I don’t know how anyone can listen to these people talk so casually about people dying and not think they’re some of the most evil assholes on the planet. Truly just no empathy whatsoever, anyone not in their immediate circle is trash to be thrown away.”
–Macwench: “My husband was in the hospice because he was supposed to be dead in a couple months. Because of the care he got, he actually lived a year and a half longer we wouldn’t have had together. RFK can go screw himself.”
–Steve Isaacson: “You need to look no further than Jimmy Carter, who received hospice care for over a year before passing away. RFK, Jr. is completely unqualified for the position he has, and is an embarrassment to his family and the country.”
–PattiBK: “It is Eugenics! What would you do if you wanted poor, disabled, and elderly people to die faster? Maybe cut their health insurance? Stop helping parents keep their disabled child at home and just warehouse them instead? We have a sociopathic president surrounded by others just like him.”
–Pink Salad: “Who’s gonna tell him that hospice care is cheaper than hospitalization? Cutting hospice will lead to more hospital stays, not fewer, because it will be the only way dying people can get pain meds.”
–Thomas Rivers: “He’s a soulless monster!”
In Trans news:
–Trump is ramping up trans hatred in advance of the midterms, hoping to fire up his base. He is claiming that “boys go to school in the morning and come home in the afternoon as girls.”
–Secretary of Defense Hegseth: “No more trannies, just training.”
–In good news, Trump demanded the private medical files of trans children treated at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. Patients and parents sued, and the judge killed the order. The ruling is permanent.
–RFK, Jr. compared gender-affirming care for minors to “letting kids drink and drive.”
–The Volatile Mermaid: “The teachers who can barely afford to buy school supplies for their students are performing free medical procedures on them.”
In economic news:
–GDP growth is down to 1.5%.
–Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent implemented a plan to double the pace at which it buys back its own long-term bonds.
–Financial Times: “Bossing the bond market around never works. Scott Bessent’s running battle with the bond market is starting to look like his boss’s war on Iran–started by his own hand with a tangled set of objectives, an underestimated opponent, and an implausible path to victory.”
–When Trump was asked about the bond market, he said, “The ultimate intervention is our military, and if we have to use it, we will.”
–Felix: “He got confused and thought they were discussing plans to win the midterm elections.” (Whatever he got it confused with, it inspires confidence, doesn’t it?)
–NPR: “The bond market is signaling trouble ahead. This is why you should pay attention.”
–Public Notice: “Look at the last 3 GOP presidents. One oversaw a double-dip recession with a savings and loan scandal that looted the Treasury. That was Bush I. Another oversaw the near meltdown of the whole capitalist system. That was Bush II. Then the next presided over a pandemic-driven collapse. That was Trump I.”
–Michael Tomasky: “Are voters finally realizing GOP presidents are disasters?”
–Andrew Lawrence: “Seriously, why isn’t ‘every Republican president destroys the economy’ the most ubiquitous phrase in American politics?”
In ICE news:
–Even though they’re not dominating the news like they did, ICE continues to do disgusting and illegal things every day, like taking two women who were hurt in a serious car accident into custody–while they’re being treated in the hospital. They dragged them away while they were being treated and still wearing hospital gowns.
–A service member’s father was taken by ICE while he was deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln for over nine months fighting the war in Iran. The father has a legal work permit.
–The wife of an Army sergeant and mother of a 6-year-old was deported last Monday.
–According to ICE agents, Stephen Miller calls multiple times a week telling DHS to arrest more people. “We need to get our numbers up. We need more people.”
–Most loathsome comment of the day (and biggest lie), from Homeland Security Head Tom Homan: “We don’t arrest people based on the color of their skin. I’m actually an equal opportunity deporter.”
–JD Vance defended the ICE agent who killed the guy in Maine: “When I look at the case what I see is a country that’s trying to enforce its laws.”
–ron Filipkowski: “People in Maine are overwhelmingly outraged by that shooting. Susan Collins hasn’t even tried to defend it.”
In Tate Brothers news:
–The Tate brothers condemned jail conditions as they awaited possible extradition on rape, kidnapping, and pornography charges, claiming the food is inedible–“it’s death by scurvy”–that the cell is too small and they have to put up with roommates and no privacy.
–The Tate brothers admitted in a court filing that all their cars, yacht, etc. were either rented or lent to them for promotion. They admitted this because it was proof, they said, that they were too poor to be a flight risk. (They also argued they should be free to defend themselves from charges in Romania, even though they fled Romania with the help of the Trump administration.)
–muellershewrote: “The Tates’ wealth image is falling apart.”
–They claimed they are just playing characters, like Sacha Baron Cohen. Their lawyer said they have been unfairly cast as monsters for the internet “characters” they play.
–They also said their multiple passports were cardboard props and that “No one can seriously suggest that Tristan adopted a covert identity with the purpose of evading international law enforcement, under the name of a famous fictional supervillain.”
–Prosecutors said their filing “drips falsehood from every page.”
–Admitting they aren’t really rich and that the whole thing was a trick, though, could hurt them with their fans because their whole gig is teaching men how to get rich.
–movewithmj: “Defending Andrew Tate is the loudest way to announce that your sex life requires internet access.”
In Cracks in the Dam:
–Bill Madden: “Treasury officials are quitting in droves rather than risk prison. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already suffered a ‘dramatic exodus’ At least four of the seven top officials left after clashing with the White House over demands to stretch–or violate–the law. Seven of 16 Senate-confirmed officials have quit or been pushed out. Bessent has burned through at least three chiefs of staff.” They are reportedly leaving because of the slush fund for January 6ers, the killing of audits for Trump and his family, and the turning over of documents on immigrants to ICE. The turnover exceeds that under any other treasury secretary this century.
–Mark Mazur: “They’re asking them to do stuff that is well beyond the norm, and for some things that may or may not be legal. A lot of these people expect to have a career after this administration, and being disbarred would be a bad thing for them.”
–Karoline Leavitt quit, saying she needed to spend more time with her husband and family (coincidentally right after Trump left her behind on Air Force One while he took Natalie Harp with him in the catering container.)
–Trump’s White House Counsel, David Warrington, is stepping down, too.
In When Will They Learn to Do Their Research? news:
–Earlier this week, it was the video with Churchill saying you can’t reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth, which turned out to be from DARKEST HOUR and Churchill was talking about Hitler, so they had to take it down.
–Today they posted a photo of an American eagle standing over a Canadian goose, about to kill it (as a sign of the Canadian trade war) and once again, they should have done their research before posting it, because in the video, the Canadian goose stands its ground and wins and the eagle flies off, defeated.
–You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIjaxrQBkPk
–(Note: I could have told you that was likely to happen. I have been chased by geese, and man, are they mean!)
In They’re All Crazy news:
–RFK, Jr.: “Wifi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier so all these toxins that are in your body can now go into your brain.”
–JD Vance is convinced there’s a mysterious plot under way to thwart his prospective 2028 run.
–White House spokesperson Olivia Wales: “President Trump has assembled the most talented Cabinet in American history to implement his common sense America First Agenda.”
In Ukraine news:
–The Trump administration is now leaking that the visit of CIA head John Ratcliffe to Moscow was to attempt to start peace talks on Ukraine again rather than to warn Russia not to attack NATO countries. At the same time, there are signs that Putin is preparing for a major new offensive.
–Ukrainian drones attacked 3 more Ozon warehouses. They’re a rival of Wildberries, which is the Russian equivalent of Amazon. Wildberries warehouses and logistics centers have already been hit, and now they’re starting in on Ozon.
–Ukraine has also expanded its retail campaign to include other warehouses beyond Wildberries and Ozon.
–Ukrainian drones struck Kamensky Combine, a defense industry plant which makes solid rocket fuel.
–They also struck Lukoil’s Permnos refinery, the seventh largest in Russia.
–Ukraine continues to target shipping in the Black Sea.
–The gasoline crisis is getting critical. At this point, there’s almost no gas except for diesel, and that’s limited to military vehicles.
–Russia is now so short of people that they are recruiting foreign employees from India. (Indians, beware: They have done this before with other countries, and when the workers get them, they seize their passports and put them into the army to be sent to the front lines.)
–Russia’s gold reserves have fallen to their lowest level in six years.
–Ukraine drones downed a Russian spy craft.
–A Ukrainian strike destroyed a Pantsir air-defense system that was guarding an Islander missile launch site.
–The car of the first deputy head of Olenivka prison in the Donetsk region, Dmytro Neelov, was blown up in Donetsk tonight. His condition is unknown. Neelov is involved in the torture, beatings, and humiliation of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians.
–Retired FSB (KGB) Major General Igor Lapten was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head.
–Putin is now comparing the war against Ukraine to a food chain, with orcas tearing apart polar bears. He said children should be taught this to understand “the world we live in.”
In other news:
–Trump announced the creation of a US Space Academy. Trump: “So you think of West Point, and you think of Annapolis, and you think of the Air Force Academy, and you think of the Coast Guard Academy’s great–they’re all great. But we’re going to have now a Space Force.”
–Trump and Elon Musk/DOGE cut a USAID program called SERVIR, a program that produced detailed and advanced flood forecasting with “days lead time that allows people to prepare for floods.” The program also specifically monitored the “potentially dangerous glacial lakes of Nepal.”
In good news:
–A federal judge ruled Trump’s suppression of visa and green card issue of the FY20226 Diversity Visas was illegal and ordered it reinstated.
–A federal judge ruled the Trump administration violated the First Amendment when it used security-related justifications to revoke the legal status of students who expressed ideas it did not like.”
And, apropos of nothing, you’ve got to see this amazing puppet who draws pictures under the guidance of Raphael Gromy: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSiTz4hEjsc/?hl=en
Best comment of the day, from Dem Senator Jon Ossoff: “The power of the President is nothing compared to the power of the people.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
