A remarkably clever and incisive parody

Fun fact

There seems to be an endless number of political signs trolling Trump.  I found this one on Imgur.

Addendum:   Because some readers disagree or don't know, I'll start adding on some brief examples of his pronouncements that either represent abysmal ignorance or intentional lying.  Wikipedia has a page devoted to Trump's "false or misleading statements" (over 30,000 of them during his first presidential term), but I'll try to confine the addenda to displays of ignorance rather than lies.

$5000 checks offered by a politician in 1935

What do we call this?  Coincidence?  Foreshadowing?

Relevant discussion re Sinclair Lewis' writing and modern politics, with a hat tip to an anonymous reader.

United States "Space Force" uniforms

Trump stated that the new uniforms were inspired by "Starship Troopers" uniforms.  But the film, based on the classic Robert A. Heinlein novel, can be viewed as a warning against fascism, militarism, and nationalism.  And the parallel to these uniforms is striking:

Images via Comic Sands.

Bravo to Mark Carney

I'll add some commentary later, but for now this will suffice:

This from the New York Times:

The morning after he pulled negotiators from trade talks in Washington and set off a new round of American tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney called the U.S. proposal “a bad deal” and said Canada was “at war” with the United States...

In a muscular [and bilingual], 22-minute speech that let Canadians — and Americans — know exactly where he stands, Mr. Carney said that Canada was under attack by President Trump’s punishing tariffs.

“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Mr. Carney said.

But unlike his electrifying speech at Davos that spoke of a rupture in the world order, Mr. Carney explicitly named the United States as an aggressor and a threat to Canada and the global economy.

“We’ve recognized from the start that America has changed,” he said in an address to Canadians on Saturday. “We recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.”Among other things, Mr. Carney said that American negotiators pushed to roll back Canada’s efforts to promote Canadian and French language content in online streaming services, subsidies for industries like publishing and film production and even mandatory labeling in French, an official language in Canada, as well as English on packaging...  [note that Carney's speech was bilingual, alternating between English and French]

As he did on Friday night, Mr. Carney suggested on Saturday that Canada would now double down on its strategy of disengaging from the U.S. economy, expanding trade with other countries and diversifying Canada’s economy.

“Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us and I promised: ‘That will never, ever happen,’” Mr. Carney said. “We are keeping that promise. Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America.”

There will be lots more analysis and commentary available tomorrow, and especially Monday when the financial markets start responding... 

This from the I Fucking Love Australia Facebook thread:

Twelve hours after telling his negotiators to come home, Mark Carney stood up in Ottawa and did something no one in Washington saw coming, because none of the bastards own a library card.

He quoted a sixty-year-old slogan. Seven polite little words: "We are masters in our own home."  Sounds like a tea towel, right? Mate, that phrase is dynamite with a bilingual fuse. It's the battle cry Quebec used in 1962, right before it seized the fucking power stations. And the bloke who just aimed it at Washington owns the grid half of America's northern border runs on, two-thirds of America's imported crude, the uranium, and the fertiliser.

Trump thinks he's in a trade war. He's actually standing in a house where the other bloke holds every lever, and on Saturday the other bloke smiled and mentioned it. In two languages. With the pulse of a man ordering a flat white.

The full breakdown is live: the hidden threat in the speech nobody clocked, the energy numbers that should terrify the White House, the Doug Ford playbook that started it all, and the question Canberra's too gutless to answer.

King Carney doesn't forecast the weather anymore. He makes it.

And this from the same source slightly earlier:

At two minutes to midnight, Mark Carney looked at the most powerful man on Earth, checked his watch, and told his negotiators to get on the plane. Fuck this wanker, we're going home.

And half the world's press still thinks he stormed out. He didn't storm anywhere, mate. The bloke ran two central banks through two catastrophes, and he's just done the coldest piece of arithmetic in modern trade history: the midterms are TEN WEEKS away, Trump's approval is circling the drain, and every deal signed with that man is worth the paper, the frame, and fuck-all else. Ask CUSMA. He tariffed his own trophy deal over BOURBON SHELF PLACEMENT.

So Carney walked, matched him dollar for bloody dollar, and left the demolition to American voters. Why sign anything with a bloke whose signature depreciates faster than a secondhand jet ski?

The full evisceration is live now: the Depression-era law he dug out of the shed, the whiskey ultimatum you won't believe is real, and why an empty calendar is the most aggressive document in world politics right now.

King Carney reads the clock. And the clock says November.

I wasn't going to post this one on the blog because I thought it was too crude, but tonight I'm mad as hell.

Screed

 “To the people of the United States of America: you realize that you are being seen by the rest of the world as no better than Russia, no better than China? You’ve threatened Canada, threatened Greenland, invaded Venezuela, and starved Cuba. You’ve caused untold pain around the world. The Strait of Hormuz and the blocking of oil supplies has brought countries to their knees. Now your president is saying that he’s going to make the Strait of Hormuz American territory? Have you people lost touch with reality? While he sits in that chair, the American people are responsible. Go a little further and have a look at the way you are allowing him to treat your sailors: The disrespect he showed the bodies of your servicemen that came back. The way American citizens are being treated on the street. You are allowing it. The people of Iran rose up, and thousands of them were killed. You sit back and watch this man prey on the rest of the world. Disgraceful.”

Not my words, but I agree with them.  Attributed to a "Martin Bella" somewhere on "social media."

I'll add the etymology of "screed" so we can learn something today:

From Middle English screde [and other forms], a variant of shrede (“fragment, scrap; strip of cloth; strip cut off from a larger piece; band or thread woven into fabric; element, streak”) (whence shred (noun)), from Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“a piece cut off; paring, shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a cut, crack”), from *skraudaną (“to cut up, shred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). The English word is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd.  Doublet of escrow, scroll and shred.

Used in this post as "A speech or piece of writing which contains angry and extended criticism. " 

Gilding bronze statues in Washington

I might comment later.  Got chores to do first.  

link to be added -

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-unveils-bright-gold-sculptures-washington-dc-overhaul-arts-of-war-12252480

This would be a MAJOR escalation in the war

When you see the words Bab al Mandab Strait in mainstream news sources, pay close attention.  This is the southern exit from the Red Sea and a major route for Saudi Arabia to export its oil.  If the Houthis effectively close it, expect the price of Brent and WTI to reach new highs quickly.

The world economy better pray that the U.S. generals can convince Trump not to escalate the bombing of Iran to civilian sites.

Homogeneity, exclusion, and inequity in the Civil Rights Division

11 stars on this eagle

"President Donald Trump has posted what appears to be a doctored image of a large, golden eagle attached to the White House's Truman Balcony on social media—the latest in a series of altered or AI-generated images the president has shared in recent months...

According to CNN, the image has details in its metadata that indicate it was created with Google AI.

The outlet also noted that the image did not appear to be real because of differences between the railings in the picture and the real-life Truman Balcony.

The shield in the image also has 11 stars, whereas the traditional version has 13 to reflect the 13 states at the time the United States was founded."

The original digital artist may have used 11 stars to represent the 11 states in the Confederacy.

A reflecting pool cocktail

There are a seemingly endless number of memes on the reflecting pool disaster.  Readers are welcome to provide links to their favorites in the Comments.  I thought this one posted by Sarah Dahlinger on Facebook was nicely done.

I've seen a lot of brilliantly made craft cocktails dedicated to the Reflecting Pool this past weekend, and I thought, something was missing. Something wasn't right. 

They didn't quite capture the level of class and sophistication that our Reflecting Pool currently has, so here's my version. 

To start, line your glass with a blue fruit roll up. Then you're going to need:

2 oz rum

4 oz juice that is kinda yellow (pineapple, mango, orange, lemonade, whatever you like)

1 oz blue curacao (you can adjust for color)

Garnish with lime zest

The yellow and blue liquids make a lovely shade of algae and the rum eventually melts the blue fruit roll up, which is, IMHO, the best part. 

Italian word for the day: coglione

Here is the definition, from the Wikipedia entry on Italian profanity:

Lots of interesting material at that link.

When the endgame is defeat - updated

Excerpts from an article in The Atlantic last week:

... Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions...

In 30 days, moreover, the new Iranian strait regime may already be firmly in place. As the Institute for the Study of War reports, Iran has been using the cease-fire period to “normalize” its control over the strait by “compelling oil-importing countries” to establish transit agreements with Tehran and charging fees on vessels from nations without such deals. According to Iranian officials, the new strait regime will give Iran’s strategic partners, such as Russia and China, priority and allow nations friendly to Iran, such as India and Pakistan, to negotiate their own transit agreements. Vessels associated with nations that Iran regards as an adversary will be denied access to the strait entirely...

Several nations, including South Korea, Turkey, and Iraq, are reportedly already negotiating at least temporary transit agreements.. Those nations currently allied with the United States and friendly to Israel will feel pressure to distance themselves and make their peace with Iran. The international sanctions against Iran will collapse, and even more money will pour into the country’s accounts as its newly central role in the global economy becomes normalized. By the end of 30 days, most of the world will have a stake in the new arrangement and will oppose any resumption of hostilities, even in the unlikely event that Trump wanted to go back to war.

Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system. A major strategic setback for the United States need not affect Wall Street. The president may also hope that he can change the subject by launching another military operation, this time against the government in Cuba. And the news media have indeed begun writing more about Cuba than about the unfolding disaster in Iran.

Will Israel go gentle into this good night? That is the wild card that may disrupt the financial markets’ dreams of a new stability in the Gulf. A stronger, richer, more influential Iran will mean new life for Hamas and Hezbollah. It will mean the end of the Abraham Accords, as the Gulf States will have to make their own peace with Tehran so that their economies can survive. Trump says that Netanyahu “will do whatever I want him to do.” But can Israel stand by while Iran replaces the United States as the arbiter of power in the region?

Netanyahu is clearly the wild card, in every sense of the word, because the current memorandum of understanding that I have seen indicates that one of the conditions for opening the Strait is that Israel cease its attacks on Lebanon.

Addendum:  This morning I saw Trump's latest pronoucement re the "deal" he's offering...

Strait opened with no tolls plus magical "destruction" of "Nuclear Dust" by methods that have not yet been invented.  So, let me plug that reply into the Magic 8 Ball and ask what Iran's reply will be...

Well, the Magic 8 Ball skipped its 20 standard answers and instead replied "no fucking way, Jose."

So, what's the next step?  Hostilities resumed (the U.S. has been bombing Iranian missile sites during the cease-fire), or kicking the can down the road ("resume negotiations")???  If someone could check Trump's management of his investments before the market closes this afternoon, that might give the answer...

News re the Strait of Hormuz

From Facebook, so it might not be true...

But what is true is that I listed to an Al Jazeera interview with a fellow from Tehran who mentioned that closure of the Strait of Hormuz was not a new idea.  Apparently Iran has had this strategic maneuver on their list of options for over twenty years.  They have never exercised the capacity to do this because it was decided that doing so would be tantamount to declaring war on their Gulf neighbors.  But once the U.S. and Israel initiated the war, they had justification for the maneuver.  I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut that the old-time senior Pentagon generals who were dismissed by Trump must have been aware of this possibility.  It would have come up in any serious war gaming strategies conducted over the past several decades.

Addendum:  An excellent op-ed of the diplomatic consequences of the war makes note of the fact that closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a "commonplace doomsday scenario" used in non-military settings:

"Fatih Birol, the chief executive of the International Energy Agency, recently disclosed that in job interviews at the IEA, after asking candidates why they are applying for a job at the IEA, the second is: “What would you do if the strait of Hormuz was closed?” It was a commonplace doomsday scenario, yet the US had to improvise a response."

Why was it not considered (or why was it ignored) for this war???

p.s. - yes I know Andy Borowitz is a humor columnist...

Fortress Washington, drone-proofed and with friendly snipers

Holly Baxter of The Independent reported today that in the midst of all the chaos—including his war on Iran and rising fuel and food prices—Trump called a sudden, urgent press conference today as Blanche was testifying. But what was on his mind was not Iran, or prices, or his corrupt agreement with the Department of Justice. He wanted to talk about his ballroom.

Trump’s comments in that press conference have invited commentary suggesting he is turning the White House into a fortress. Describing the ballroom, he said: “Between the drone-proofing, the missile-proofing, we have ah, and the drone capacity upstairs, we can have all sorts of military—I hate to use the word snipers—but we have great sniper capacity. It’s built for our snipers, not enemy’s snipers, our snipers. And because of the height we get a very clear view of everything all over Washington.”

Via Letters from an American, May 19.  This is the report in The Independent.  I know some readers think this is normal behavior, not mental illness, but really... WTF?

The antithesis of "diplomacy"

If anyone sees a way to a "negotiated settlement" based on this rant, please let me know.  This is a rant by a mentally ill man facing defeat and unable to accept such.  My only hope is that his hand-picked military brass who replaced the seasoned veterans can find a way to sweet-talk him out of putting more U.S. troops at risk.

Addendum:  Live coverage from Al Jazeera English at 1300 CDT (~10 pm in Qatar) indicates that Iran and the IRGC are expecting a resumption of active hostilities targeting Iranian government and military facilities very soon.  Lots of coverage there also of the Ebola outbreak in Africa; much less attention to that in Western news media.

Update:  A couple hours later Trump posted this message on Truth Social, indicating a postponement of aggressive action, which he describes as being in response to pleas from Gulf leaders (not because his military is advising him against it).

So perhaps less risk fot hot war (unless Netanyahu opts to intervene), but no obvious way forward to resolution, which means increasing pressure on world oil prices.

Addendum May 27:

After another week of negotiations, during which "great progress" was made, Trump proceeded to post this antithesis of negotiating:

Details regarding the "Trump phone"

Lots of outrage expressed in various media stating that Trump sold phones to his supporters, failed to deliver them, and pocketed the $ without refunds.  The details are more complex, as summarized in the cartoon above and expressed by Heather Cox Richardson below:

As Judd Legum of Popular Information explains, on June 16, 2025, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric announced the launch of a new, gold plated, Trump smartphone, “proudly designed and built in the United States.” It would be available in August 2025 for $499. Its website urged customers to “pre-order” the phone by depositing $100 toward it. Don Jr. said the phone would be “American hardware, built in America, without the potential of…[a] backdoor into the hardware that some of our adversaries have installed in there.”

And yet a disclaimer on the website said the Trumps and the Trump Organization were involved only in the branding of the phone; they had nothing to do with the design, development, manufacture, distribution, or sales of the item. As Legum notes, the idea of a superior U.S.-made phone was always a fantasy, and within two weeks the phone’s description changed from “MADE IN THE USA” to “designed with American values in mind.”

The phone never shipped, and on April 6, Trump Mobile updated its terms to say the $100 deposit was not actually a deposit for a pre-order, but rather “a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale.” It went on to say the deposit “does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms” and that “[e]stimated ship dates, launch timelines, or anticipated production schedule are non-binding estimates only.”

A new phone has recently gotten clearance from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Trump Mobile executives say they are waiting for approval from T-Mobile, the company whose network Trump Mobile wants to use. Legum points out that T-Mobile relies on the federal government for approval for business activities, creating an enormous conflict of interest.

Majestic irony indeed

For background reading on the meeting of King Charles with Trump.

The art of the deal...

LIHOP and MIHOP return from obscurity

Raise your hand if you are old enough to remember the heyday of these terms:

LIHOP ("Let it happen on purpose") – suggests that key individuals within the government had at least some foreknowledge of the attacks and deliberately ignored it or actively weakened United States' defenses to ensure the hijacked flights were not intercepted. Similar allegations were made about Pearl Harbor.

MIHOP ("Make/Made it happen on purpose") – that key individuals within the government planned the attacks and collaborated with, or framed, al-Qaeda in carrying them out. There is a range of opinions about how this might have been achieved. 

Those were the leading contenders in the conspiracy theories surrounding the events of 9/11.  Now the terms return in discussions of the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting.  I've heard various suggestions that the event was staged, and have read strong denials. 

Update:  This post originally contained a claim from a Facebook post claiming that the shooter's father had notified authorities and that the shooter was on a watch list.  Both those assertions appear to have been fabricated, so I've deleted that part of the post.  Will retain the above for general reference purposes.