Stolen from social media: A Thought On The Library of Congress

 

Egg On His Face, He's A Big Disgrace!

 For months, we had to endure the whining about the price of eggs, among other things. Then for weeks, we had to contend with the false claims that the Orange Felon lowered the price of eggs. Well, The Orange Felon's great eggscapade isn't all that it cracked up to be. Egg prices are going back up and the Orange Felon has no one to blame but himself:

First it was the avian flu outbreak, and now it is tariffs that are causing egg prices to rise. 

Vital Farms Inc, which bills itself as the top U.S. brand of pasture-raised eggs, said Thursday that while it was relatively insulated from the tariffs announced by the Trump administration, it won’t be totally immune. 

The tariffs will raise costs by increasing prices of various commodities, including steel, and could also affect the purchasing behavior of its customers, the company said. 

“We’ve announced to our retailer partners a modest, low-double-digit percentage-price increase for our shell-egg products that will go into effect this month,” Chief Executive Russell Diez-Canseco said, according to a FactSet transcript of the company’s earnings call with analysts.

In other words, The Orange Felon just FAFOed himself! He lost a talking point and it's all his own damn fault! It is to laugh! The yolk's on him!

Headlines: Trade War Ends...it's a ninety day delay for Chinese tariffs...that's a cease fire, not an end

 There are all kinds of stories running around the various media about how the tariffs with China have been reduced, how Trump blinked, how the trade war has ended. Trump did blink but it is a trade war that he started and it is inevitable that he will lose it. But once again he has proven to be a mad dog inconsistent non-leader. Did he make China wince? Not a moment. They have just been quietly waiting in Beijing for Trump to implode. 

The only people hurt here are the small businesses in the US, the ones that Trump says he is trying to help, as they get whipsawed back and forth not knowing what their costs are going to be, can they resource their products to other nations or internally, and can they sell their products at increased prices.

But this isn't an end to the trade war...this is just a cease fire.

Trump: Executive Order to lower prescription drug prices just after: Trump Executive Order putting tarriffs on imported drugs.

 Okay? Does this make any sense to you? It will be very difficult to lower prescription drug prices no matter what the markup might currently be...if drug costs are artificially increased by random tariffs. Why doesn't anyone in the White House understand this? and why isn't there any push back from the GOP members of Congress? Donold Trump is clearly walking out the dementia plank...

Habeus Corpus

 Last week I was contemplating a post asking why lawyers aren't filing more writs of habeus corpus to find out the details around arrests and deportations of migrants who seem to have 'gotten' lost in the system.

Reading my mind, apparently the Trump cabal is thinking of suspending habeus corpus.

It is unlikely that the courts would let that stand but since the rest of the GOP won't back the courts, it's as good as done if Trump decides to go ahead with it.

Where is the line in the sand for the Republican Party??

Why Donold Trump Couldn't Have Been Elected Pope!

 Because then the rhetorical question, Is The Pope Catholic?, would have become null and void and the English speaking world would have come to an abrupter halt.

Breaking News: Trump Fires Librarian of Congress...why is the president boss of the Librarian of Congress?

Well certainly the incumbent had to go because: A: black person B: female person C: appointed by Obama D: nut case influencers labeled her WOKE.

But seriously, why DOES the president have the authority to appoint the LOC? It is after all the Library of Congress, shouldn't they have oversight of their own institution? Yes, there is a bill afoot to change control to Congress, and I imagine that means it will be steeped in political turmoil not unlike electing the Speaker of the House if the change is made.

Trump obviously did this to roil the diet Coke since she only had one more year in her ten year term. He could have easily just waited until next year and assumed the position for himself, ala the Kennedy Center. LOL!

Donold: The Buck Stops Here! but, they can't take a joke, I didn't know anything about it.

 As social media continues to blow up over the AI generated photo of Donold Trump as the pope...now the official White House stance is? 

"They can't take a joke," Trump told reporters, referring to the media. "The Catholic's loved it."

Well considering what I have been seeing on the webs, that's easy to call bullshit on.

But then it gets really interesting:

"I had nothing to do with it. Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope and they put it out on the internet. That's not me that did it, I have no idea where it came from, maybe it was AI, but I know nothing about it, I just saw it last evening," Trump told reporters on May 5 from the Oval Office.

Well, the first place that it appeared was on Donald Trump's personal account on Truth Social and then was shared/reposted by the official White House account. So he had nothing to do with it? It is there under his name...the buck stops here slogan didn't die with Harry Truman...trust me on that!

Oh, the irony: GOP pols and MAGAts continue to decry the supposed ignorance around Biden's decline while we all watch the same thing from Trump every single day

 Did the White House staff and the media ignore or cover up Joe Biden's mental and physical decline that last year or so in office? It would appear so.

And although he's not in office anymore, the GOP power brokers and influencers are still bitching about it...just as we watch the incumbent president get more unstable and more addled every time he's seen in public. So, goose vs. gander??

Interviewer: don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? Trump: I don’t know

 Presidential Oath of Office:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

So Trump is fit to sit in the Oval Office? 

End of story.

The First Inmate At A Refurbished and Expanded Alacatraz? Donald J Trump

 In another absurd and deflecting bit of news, Trump is urging his Dept. of Justice and Dept. of Homeland Security to expand and reopen Alcatraz, a moribund tourist trap that has been closed as a prison for over 60 years. Yeah, that's a useful expenditure of federal dollars.

The Full Text of the Declaration of Independence...provided on a need to know basis:

 If my memory serves, during the first Trump term, the NY Times printed the text of the Declaration of Independence in the paper on the Fourth of July and the right went nuts because they thought it was aimed at Trump. They didn't know what it was. And now Trump, in an interview with the media is showing off the copy that he has in the Oval Office and obviously has no idea what it is. WTF? Well actually some of these grievances could be applied to Trump 2.0. So here it is:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

Who Was The Bigger Grinch?

 

Trump Grinch courtesy of Jamie Holly

The other day, the Rancid Kumquat had a Grinch moment when he was questioned about his ill-advised tariffs and how it might affect Christmas. In response, Kumquat launched the earliest attack in the War on Christmas:

He was taking questions at the end of one of his marathon cabinet meetings when he finally allowed that, yes, his tariff policies and the trade war he has set off with China may soon result in some emptier-than-usual shelves in stores. Specifically, toy stores.

“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Mr. Trump said. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”

It should be noted that Dementia Don wasn't the first Grinch we've seen, nor even the biggest Grinch.  We must not forget when, in 2013, Scott Walker sent out his infamous Black Friday fundraising email telling parents to give him their money instead of 'wasting" it on their kids Christmas presents:

 Instead of venturing into the cold this Black Friday, stay in and give your children a gift that will keep on giving.

This year, we are celebrating the Holiday Season with a Black Friday special that is better than any deal found in stores. Donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker get reelected and save your children from a future of double-digit tax increases and billion dollar budget deficits.

Instead of electronics or toys that will undoubtedly be outdated, broken, or lost by the next Holiday Season, help give your children the gift of a Wisconsin that we can all be proud of. Governor Walker is helping Wisconsin move forward to a future where your children and grandchildren can experience...

Both incidents are egregious and calloused.  However, I have to give the Grinch costume to Walker since his attack was more direct and was all about benefitting himself whereas Grandpa Grabby was just cold indifference. 

A Dichotomy: A Seemingly Dour LBJ vs. The Thin Skinned Retribution of Donold

 Stolen from the internet and I don't care if it is accurate, it makes a point!

GOP legislators target 'loophole' for appointees on expired terms

 This headline is directly from the lead story on the front page of today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel print edition (sorry this is a behind a paywall). And it is something that I wrote about a long while back at Blogging Blue. 

"A handful of Republican lawmakers are proposing to change state law to keep appointees from staying in their jobs beyond the expiration of their terms, a move that comes four years after GOP legislative leaders spent at least $255,000 of taxpayer money to defend the practice.

Currently, state law defines a vacancy in public office as occurring when someone dies, moves, resigns or goes through a formal removal process. Two iterations of the Wisconsin Supreme Court — one controlled by conservatives, one by liberals — have upheld two situations involving appointees staying in their jobs beyond the expiration of their terms based on the definition of "vacancy" in state law. Under Bradley's (Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin) proposed bill, a vacancy in public office is created if the office is filled by appointment for a fixed term and the incumbent’s term expires. "

 I will agree that a gubernatorial appointee should leave their position when their term has elapsed unless reappointed by the incumbent governor. That should be simple enough and commonsense.

But I would like to offer an addendum. The governor has to make a new appointment within 30 days of the vacancy if not before the term expires and the legislature must approve or disapprove the candidate within 30 days after the new appointment is made. Don't allow another loophole to exist that would allow a governor or legislature to leave an appointed position open for political theater. There is a reason these positions exist and the residents of Wisconsin deserve to have them all filled in a reasonable amount of time.