Tar Wars

With Elon riding on top.

As a ‘92 U-D law grad, who wrote a case note for the review that I recall nothing about, it’s clear they’re having more fun than we did.

It’ll be announced right after the rollout of his healthcare plan.

Speaker Sam Rayburn’s famous quote, “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one,” has been going through my head. This circus of malevolent morons has so many jackasses, but not a single carpenter.

*must love Corgis?

From that place in Illinois. Near Urbana.

We are all living in a Trump Casino now.

My theory that Trump’s tariffs are a way to extract money from businesses and industries for waivers still holds, but it’s also a way to pay off insiders who can take advantage of the stock market turmoil the on again/off again tariffs cause. Who’s getting tipped off? Qui bono? Follow the money.

1. I put my left foot in.
2. I took my left foot out.
3. I put my left foot in, and I shook it all about.
4. I did the hokie-pokie and I turned myself around.
5. That’s what it’s all about!

Next week I’ll tell you about my right foot!

I sent an email to hr@opm.gov -

Hello!

1. I put my left foot in.
2. I took my left foot out.
3. I put my left foot in, and I shook it all about.
4. I did the hokie pokie, and I turned myself around.
5. Because that’s what it’s all about!

Next week, I’ll tell you about my right foot!

Use this template from the Trump White House, circa 2021 - “[Federal employee name] worked from early in the morning until late in the evening. He made many calls and had many meetings."

Use this template from the Trump White House, circa 2021 - “[Federal employee name] worked from early in the morning until late in the evening. He made many calls and had many meetings."

The judge who entered a preliminary injunction against Trump’s anti-DEI executive order, finding it likely violates the 1st and 5th Amdmnts, is forcing the administration to spell out what it finds so offensive about DEI - to say the quiet part out loud.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

“Dear Mr. Martin: I write to inform you that someone has apparently broken into your supply closet, stole some of your stationery, and is sending idiotic letters like the one I have attached. American taxpayers pay for your letterhead. Please take steps to secure yours. Best, Rep. Garcia”

Watching CNBC while treadmilling this morning. One of the talking heads criticized the way federal employees were terminated in recent weeks, urging for a more “humane” process. If the corporate jock-sniffers on CNBC think your downsizing practices are inhumane, you’ve really gone over the edge.

I’m glad will chair the Kennedy Center board. It’ll give him something to do while Elon runs the rest of the government.

“They [are] careless people, [Donald and Elon] - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” - with apologies to Fitzgerald.

The attack on USAID is sad, easy theatrics to show “action.” The domestic constituency is small and the direct beneficiaries (now victims) of the cutoff are brown people far, far away. The damage, both immediate and strategic, is real. Our adversaries are cheering along with the MAGA faithful.

Trump’s tariffs are not about raising revenue or balancing the US trade deficit. They’re tools to generate bribes from businesses, and whole industries, that are subject to them. Congress ceded authority to impose or waive tariffs to the Pres, and SCOTUS has granted Trump immunity to run his grift.

If the data I’ve seen about birthrates is correct, won’t this push funding to neighborhoods with lots of immigrants?

That quote has been running through my head for the past two weeks.

Did you mean Inspector Clouseau?

Tariffs are just leverage for bribes.

Aren’t leftovers just “meal prep” without all the glamor?

Yeah, but we’d get universal healthcare.

Living in another country. If you’re poor, you’re an “immigrant.” If you’re rich, you’re an “expat.”

Modern drugs, particularly statins, and a system that protects incumbents, are a problem. Leaders who in earlier times would have been felled by cardiac disease live on and on, ambition unabated, and secure that name recognition and the cost of mounting a challenge will protect them.

The political system needs to adjust to the impact modern drugs - particularly statins - have had on life expectancy. In earlier times most of these geriatric leaders would have been felled by heart attacks or disease decades ago. Now they live on and on, fueled by the ambition that got them started

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