They passed the big bad beautiful bill then shut the government down

 Kind of makes no sense but Trump says it's no big deal.  The Epstein Files also no big deal.  An illegal migrant picking your lettuce now that's a big deal!

How does attrition affect the job numbers?

 Economics not being my strong suit.  It is not an uncommon business practice that when someone leaves, passes on or retires the company doesn't replace them.  Many companies probably won't even officially acknowledge they've adopted a policy of attrition but the remaining workers are bound to notice over time.  Everybody else has to work harder of course and in some cases you're left with a skeleton crew.  I feel like at work in our department we're skeletal or close to it.  So rather than rambling further I would submit that Trump instead of firing some top labor stats person should make a sincere effort to understand the numbers better if they are poor.  The question: how common is the business policy of attrition and how significantly does it affect the jobs report?

Trump wants to ban drug advertising on TV

I see it as a free speech issue but Trump being Trump wants to protect us.  I see a little Bobby influence here.  RFK Jr. the nation's doctor.  Actually these Big Pharma produced TV ads are so well made you want the drug even if you don't have the ailment.  Guy or gal climbing a mountain at sunrise or kayaking.  Rare side effects may include swallowing your tongue or sticking your head in the oven.  I don't think Trump will ever get to the cost-of-living in his second term.  Too much on his plate.  Maybe he's saving it for his third term.

And Happy Tremfya to you.

Back to business as usual

The shitshow must go on.

D.C. police apparently not obeying their ICE overlords so Trump may declare another emergency.   Rubio and Bibi meet in Israel to discuss possible annexation of the West Bank.  Bibi bombing high-rises in Gaza City for no apparent reason.  If the Supremes don't approve of Trump's tariff policy he may have to pay the money back.  Good times.

I haven't checked my updates but is Rosie O'Donnell still a threat to Humanity?

I suppose I have to talk about it

 I had wanted things to become less contentious around here but it's inescapable.  RFK Jr. being grilled by the Senate.  From the clips I watched seemed mainly about covid and the covid vaccines.  They really built a religion around these covid vaccines so many people were predicting there would be an orchestrated coordinated attack against RFK Jr. by the elites right about now.  In fact there's a leaked memo from Bio about this.  The rest of us have moved on however but some people are still taking the shots.  I'm not sure when full immunity is supposed to kick in maybe after the 17th booster?  I'm thinking there would be at least a public clamoring for a better product on the market by now.  This is not about the public health it's about the $$$$$$.  I didn't want to go down this road again.  Not a fanboy of RFK Jr. but a large swath of the public has lost faith in ThE SciEnCe.  You know it's really weird the Left used to criticize Big Pharma.  Guess times have changed:)

Judges don't set trade policy

 Federal Appeals Court says many of Trump's tariffs are illegal.  Seems to me trade policy is of no concern to the Judiciary.  I don't personally agree with most of Trump's tariffs but seems to me he has the right to do it.  That power is rightfully and solely invested in the Executive Branch.  The President should have the right to do some things.  Seems to me.  What does it seem to you?

I don't give a rat's ass

About Taylor Swift or Cracker Barrel.  Open mic time.  Why does Trump want to go to war against Venezuela?

Trump promises to flood the zone in NYC with ICE

 Just what we need more drama and social unrest courtesy of Hardass Homan and it's gonna get hot too.  It's amazing that they got rid of all the criminal aliens already.  The worst of the worst all gone.  Geeez that was quick!  Now they can focus on the regular aliens.  Mexicans with string trimmers, taco stands, fence installers, gardeners and landscapers, hotel and restaurant workers, construction sites.  Who knows where they'll be sent to.  Some Aleutian island?  BTW what's a Cuban person gonna do in Africa?  Wondering who does the Homan Estate?

Chronic moral insufficiency

 Homan bankrupting small farmers in CA through the ongoing ICE raids.  The majority of the field workforce gone in many cases.  The migrant farm workers have either been arrested or are afraid to report to work.  Skilled laborers.  Fruit rotting on the vines.  You I'll be paying more for produce in the near future.  Agriculture Sec'y promises automation and putting Medicaid workers to work in the fields or something like that it's confusing.  As ICE is obviously afraid to go after the criminal aliens we might soon be left with some sort of imbalance.  After Homan's work is finally done they might be the only ones left after all the hard-working law-abiding ones have been deported.  Hannity and Charlie Kirk will be able to afford a bag of cherries.  You won't. 

Welcome to Trump's dystopia.

Mass deportations, mass amnesty or mass amnesia?

 So I can't make heads or tails out of this now.  Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk says the push is on for Trump to pull a Reagan and grant amnesty to 25 million illegal aliens or whatever the number is.  Pressure from the business community.  Trump is working on the legislation now or else it's somewhere in the big beautiful bill.  The calculus is it would help the midterms which don't bode well for Republicans.  In MAGAville even such talk is considered A Bad Thing.  Meanwhile Homan continues to bother the livestock in CA.  Maybe Homan's real purpose is to create a shitshow thus the need for amnesty.  Is Trump at heart an ideologue or a pragmatist?  Will he betray MAGA?  All I know is that in 10, 15 years we won't remember a damn thing.

The DOGE cuts make no sense in light of the big beautiful bill just signed into law

 It's like all those federal workers lost their jobs for nothing.  No rhyme or reason.  It's a philosophical contradiction and politically incoherent.  It'd be like a household with a strict budget scrimping and saving and cutting barely able to pay the mortgage and property tax but then decides to subscribe to cable or satellite TV and add five new credit cards.  I know there are actually households like that.  Big difference is we don't have a government printing press.

Trumpism is not conservatism.  It's just a bunch of mad fantasies.  The weird Right is already selling Alligator Alcatraz merch.  Ron DeSantis is the creepy flavor of the month.  Hello big blue wave come next year.  Cults always fail in the end.

The Home Depot - how Tom Homan gets more done

 Trump now says we have to use lots of common sense about the illegals.  The migrant farm workers and those in the hospitality and leisure industries are essential workers hard to replace they're telling him.  Will we see a change in direction, of tone? So Trump is still lagging behind Biden's deportation numbers this is not a sports contest.  Homan and crew should be helping them pick the vegetables and ask them how their day is going not loading them into paddy wagons.  Homan laying down the law at a press briefing.  There's no grayscale with him just be a hardass.  Watched some NYC ICE footage last night on the news.  The always masked ICE agents lack simple basic professionalism and seem to have an apelike intelligence.  Dr. Phil has sure taken a hard turn to the Right but he's from Texas.  As they used to say in the Old West f#@k you and the horse you rode in on.

Are we EVER gonna get to the cost-of-living?

Are Trump and Musk still hot for each other?

 Musk has expressed misgivings, deleted some tweets and says he may have gone too far.  Trump says he might be open to a reconciliation.  Defense Sec'y Hegseth says the US has contingency plans to occupy Greenland if necessary.   Israel attacked Tehran targeting their nuclear facilities and chain of command.  ICE agents are chasing farm laborers through strawberry fields and going into meat production plants.  Big military parade tomorrow.   Trump's birthday.  DHS Sec'y Kristi Noem doesn't like to be interrupted.  What's up with Dr. Phil?

Hey big spender

 Musk calls Trump's bloated budget bill "a disgusting abomination. "  Musk vs. Trump.  Never thought I'd be rooting for Musk.  Meanwhile Sec'y Hegesth orders Harvey Milk's name be removed from some old Navy ship.  That's Trump in a nut cares more about some gay Milk than milk in the actual grocery store or butter or eggs or coffee or bread.  Maybe he can issue an executive order against Smokey the Bear one of these days.  Trump navigating this strict rightward course onward towards the midterm shoals.  Still far away but you can kinda spot them.  The Crazy Captain.

Pass the popcorn.

Why Dems pick up the midterms

 Still aways away but closer than you think.  Dems currently in disarray and panic mode but they really don't have to do much if President Trump continues on his present course.  Every time I go to the grocery store it hurts.  Bought a few things today and it came to just under $100.  Didn't even buy cat food.  Trump is focused on other things though.  He changed the name of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  He's fighting Harvard.  Changing geographical names.  A bloated budget bill with ai deregulation.  Tariffing the world.  Building more ICE centers and a laundry list of other things.  Cultural tangential stuff with no real impact on the average American.  No trans soldiers.  Scale back the Jackie Robinson walks through history.  Just let Trump be Trump.  MAGA becomes a historical footnote.  Maybe a future category on Jeopardy. 

Conservatives got everything they ever dreamed of but didn't know what to do with it.  No focus or narrow pragmatic workable agenda just Righties gone wild.  The freakoff should end around the midterms.  Patience.  They'll blame the immigrants in the end;)

On a dryer note Trump's big beautiful bill for the rich

 They'd be getting the bulk of the proposed tax cuts according to the CBO.  The bill would also explode the deficit and national debt.  Proposed millions or billions to build ICE infrastructure read detention facilities for illegals.  Also making it harder for folks to access Medicaid and food stamps thereby amounting to cuts without technically calling them cuts.  More Republican opposition in the Senate where the bill may not pass or stall.  Musk is against the bill saying it would undermine the whole work of DOGE.  He's not wrong.  Democrats have no power at the moment and can't seem to get back on track.  Still hard for me to process that a cognitively impaired old guy with cancer was in the WH for 4 years.  Budget bills are usually boring topics but merits some discussion.  So that's it for today.

If this is conservatism then I have tits

 Got off the Trump train awhile back ever since Gulf of America.  Many of you are still on it happily blowing the whistle.  A new OTA channel came on my TV the other night - Newsmax 2.  Must be important.  Watched a little bit and my impression is I don't think Newsmax fully understands the idea that people have the right to protest proposed Medicaid cuts.  A few channels over I have OAN.  It's usually at this time I'll watch the infomercial for Omega XL or the Emeril Lagasse air fryer.  Don't know why almost the whole conservative movement has hitched their wagon to Trump.  Sure there are some lone critics and holdouts here and there like Glenn Greenwald and Candace Owens but for the most part it's this massive nonstop collective right-wing orgasm.  A real freakoff.

I'm not against the idea of a Golden Dome but how do you fire tens of thousands of federal workers shutter entire agencies and then say we need a multi-billion dollar Golden Dome to maybe even include our neighbor up North? The tariffs are confusing and need to end but Trump wants businesses to just shut up and absorb the extra costs without passing them along to the consumer.  Executive orders don't strike me as having the quality of durable law, comes totally out of his whimsy and not the Congress but he feels this is the way to govern and on and on it goes.

Geeeeeez......

Word on the street

 Is President Trump will soon officially recognize a Palestinian State.  Angling for a Nobel Peace Prize to show Obama.  Meeting with the Saudis, the new Syrian president putting Netanyahu on the back burner for now.  Helped free the last American hostage without his help.  Rumor has it he has cut off direct contact with Bibi.  As part of the nuclear energy agreement with the Saudis he has dropped the Biden era stipulation that they recognize the State of Israel.  Also got a major investment deal going.  More than major.

Down through the decades with each succeeding president the Middle East has taken up way too much of our foreign policy time.  If he does officially recognize the State of Palestine I'll give him more than a few points for this.  Would be a good legacy if he controls the other zaniness.  So far Trump is an assortment. 

2 dolls instead of 30

 Trump has announced 100% tariffs on all foreign-made movies.  It's hard to figure out why certain things bug the man.  Said in an interview with NBC News he's not sure if he believes in due process or not.  Does he not know how to bone up for interviews?  MTG no longer a fan.  You kind of want to forget he's president.  He's like a kind of depressing backdrop as you go about your life.  Won't seek another term.  On a brighter note they told me at work the bird flu is over.

The media made me do it

 Yes the left-wing media doesn't like Trump.   Never did.  This was really obvious during the campaign.  My daily newsfeeds were saturated with anti-Trump stuff.  If the media could have gone with Trump ate somebody's dog they would have gone with Trump ate somebody's dog.  Having said that Trump has tracked a nuttier course than I would have expected but conservatives are still blaming the msm.  Trump lost me after Gulf of America and Greenland.  The media didn't make him almost trigger a worldwide recession.  Not speedily correcting deportation mistakes.  Squelching free speech on campus etc. etc.  To paraphrase Flip Wilson's Geraldine the media made me do it.  Not good enough.  Doesn't wash anymore.