Skeets of the Day

 

Operation Epic Epstein Fury: war crimes threatened by sick man,  more --

“.. No other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/u...

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 3:41 PM

Disgraceful! The US/Israel just bombed Sharif University in Tehran. This is not only Iran's best university, but also a top 100 global university in the field of Civil Engineering. It has also been a center of student opposition to the Iranian gov And Trump just bombed it...

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— Trita Parsi (@tparsi.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 11:48 PM

 

“As former uniformed military lawyers who advised targeting operations, we know the presidents’ words run counter to decades of legal training of military personnel and risk placing our warfighters on a path of no return," write Margaret Donovan and Rachel VanLandingham

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— Just Security (@justsecurity.org) April 6, 2026 at 8:52 AM

 

“His increasingly extreme actions, impossible to miss, cannot be glossed over. Something is terribly wrong with him. It is deadly dangerous…He must be removed from power.” www.americaamerica.news/p/donald-tru...

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— Steven Beschloss (@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social) April 6, 2026 at 8:43 AM

 

Erratic. Can’t finish sentences. Often confused. Illogical train of thought. Word finding difficulties. Developing and worsening gradually over time. The President is exhibiting all the signs of dementia.

— Dr. Vin Gupta (@vinguptamd.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 5:39 PM

 The rules the Malignant Fascist goes by and expects everyone to follow --

 

The two rules of serving Trump: (1) Trump's underlings must always elevate his personal interests above all else (2) At some point they will inevitably fall short of honoring (1) Trump's "personalist" rule is actually failing badly for him: newrepublic.com/article/2086...

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) April 6, 2026 at 8:15 AM

The MF's draconian cuts to research will come back to bite us and reward China -- 

“without a reversal, the cuts to science could shrink the U.S. economy by nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. That could leave the U.S. lagging behind China, which is investing heavily in research.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/b...

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— John Sipher (@johnsipher.bsky.social) April 6, 2026 at 8:58 AM

Our timid corporate media getting ready for White House Correspondents Dinner. So brave! -- 

Forget about the attire. No one with an ounce of self respect should show up.

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— James Fallows (@jfallows.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 9:54 PM

Russian war crimes in Ukraine, part infinity. The MF's taking a cue from them -- 

  

Russia killed this mom and her little girl in Odesa today. Reportedly, the dad is in hospital, doctors are fighting for his life. Deepest condolences. May the Russian bastards who kill Ukrainians burn in hell.

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— Anton Gerashchenko (@antongerashchenko.bsky.social) April 6, 2026 at 5:36 AM

Gotta hand it to Iranian AI geeks -- 

Iran hits back on social media.

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— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 10:00 PM

 

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon

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It seems that every day the demented and lawless Malignant Fascist looks for a way to mess something up, if only to "flood the zone" with events to distract from his obvious role in the Epstein-Trump files, which his corrupt mouthpieces are attempting to bury. He certainly has the right staff to be assured that something will get screwed up on any given day, if he doesn't do it all by himself.

Please consider supporting Tom's work by going here. 

A Note To Hackwhackers Readers

 

FYI folks:

During the next 3 weeks, half of the Hackwhackers staff will be away, and the other half will be hosting family and performing other Springtime activities.  Consequently, some regular features (e.g., "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly," "Across the Universe," multiple daily cartoons) will also be "away," and the volume of posts will be somewhat less than usual.  For some that will be more a blessing than a curse, but nonetheless, we hope you can keep it together until we're fully back the week of April 27.

"Thank you for your attention to this matter."

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Protoplanetary Disc

 

(click on image to enlarge)

From NASA/ ESA, April 3, 2026: This shining disc in the middle of a dark, empty background is a protoplanetary disc named Oph 163131, and it’s one of two featured for this month's ESA/Webb Picture of the Month. Also catalogued as 2MASS J16313124-2426281, it is located about 480 light-years away in our galaxy, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Its close location, almost edge-on inclination of 85 degrees (where 90 would be perfectly edge-on) and its considerable size of 66 billion kilometres across — several times wider than our Solar System — make it an excellent target for studying these kinds of planet-forming discs.

At the centre of Oph 163131 is a newly formed star that’s still wrapped in a thick disc of gas and dust. Eventually the new star will disperse all the dust with its ferocious radiation, but before that happens there’s a chance for the dust to clump together and grow into pebbles, planetesimals and eventually planets — hence, a protoplanetary disc. Whether planets appear, and what kind of planets they are, depends on how larger and smaller dust grains migrate in the disc. An edge-on view like this shows us if dust grains are settling into a layer of large dust grains at the core of the disc. Such a layer is critical for dust grains to further grow and begin forming planets, and the thicker it is, the better.

This image of Oph 163131 combines near- and mid-infrared data from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments with visible light captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and radio waves from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Where Hubble and Webb each image tiny dust grains only micrometres across, ALMA sees larger dust grains that are about a milimetre in size, which are concentrated in the central plane of the disc. Combined with the very slightly off-edge perspective, this creates a particularly clear picture of the structure of Oph 163131. 

Small dust grains floating above and below the disc scatter light from the star and reflect it at us, creating the purple arcs above and below the centre; these are most clearly seen by Hubble and Webb’s NIRCam. The disc of dust itself, here shown in yellow, is made of the larger dust grains visible to ALMA. It distinctly shows two rings separated by a gap — potentially a region where a planet is already forming and clearing up dust in the disc. The red, green and blue glow around the disc that extends far into the background appears most brightly in the mid-infrared images from MIRI, combined with the distinctive diffraction spikes from Webb at the longer wavelength observations.

Taken together, the observations describe a disc where the large dust grains that create an environment where planets can form have been concentrated into the centre, and might even have created a clump of gas that is well on its way to becoming a new planet. We get a unique view of this very interesting protoplanetary disc out of the bargain, too!

[Image Description: A protoplanetary disc around a newly-formed star. The disc itself appears to be made of two flat, purple lobes that meet in the centre. Yellow rings are visible in the midplane. The whole disc glows brightly, shining bands of green, blue and red light into space around it. Several stars are visible nearby as white dots. Distant galaxies also appear as large, dark orange spirals and other shapes, fading into the black background.]

Credit:  ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, ESA/Hubble, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), M. Villenave

 

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)

(Nick Anderson, Raw Story)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(Drew Sheneman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Marian Kamensky, caglecartoons.com)

(Chris Britt, Creators.com)

(Michael de Adder, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Morten Morland, The Times, UK)

(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com)

(Mort Gerberg, @mortgerberg)

California Governor Primary A Worry For Dems

On June 2, California voters will go to the polls to select candidates for Governor, but in this blue state, there are worries about how the "top two" candidates primary ( i.e. a jungle primary) might result in giving voters two MAGAt Republicans to choose from. The problem on the Dem side is a proliferation of candidates who are fragmenting the Dem vote, versus only 2 Republicans in the race. Three Dem candidates are polling in the single digits and their percentages have been dropping in the last three months: progressive star  Rep. Katie Porter, former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, and former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Perennial billionaire candidate Tom Steyer is running behind Rep. Eric Swalwell -- a major nemesis of the demented Malignant Fascist -- who is leading all candidates, but with only 27% support from Dems. As of March, a massive 25% of all voters were undecided, according to the Emerson College poll.

The California Dem party has been discretely suggesting that the lower tier candidates leave the race, so that the top Dem candidates can vie for their votes. With the monumental egos apparently needed for politics, it's questionable whether the single digit (and dropping) candidates will heed the message and save California's governor position for the Dem Party. Time to set egos aside and get real.

(screenshot: KABC)

QOTD: Trump Will Exploit War For Political Gain

 

Distinguished historian Timothy D. Snyder writes in his Substack about the scenarios and prospect of the deranged and lawless Malignant Fascist staging another coup attempt, as he did on January 6, but on a grander scale involving the military and other institutions of the Government.  An excerpt, but the entire piece is necessary reading:

"We are seven months away from the most consequential midterm election in the history of the United States. Meanwhile, we are fighting a war. These are the structural conditions for a coup attempt in which a president tries to nullify elections and take permanent power as a dictator. If we see this, we can stop it, overcome the movement that brought us to this point, and make a turn towards something better.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Pete Hegseth are stuck in the logic of escalation, according to which the feeling of defeat today can be reversed by doing the first thing that comes to mind tomorrow. Trump is surrounded by people who are making money from the war; each day of war strengthens a warmongering lobby with personal access to the president. As the war lengthens, the chance that it will be exploited for a coup attempt increases. [snip]

It is up to us to put two and two together: Trump will seek to exploit the war (or the next one) to alter the elections. We bear responsibility for what comes next.

The eventuality can seem frightening, but Trump’s position is weak. The gambit of turning a foreign war into a domestic dictatorship is complicated and difficult. Its success depends on us. If the possibility of such a coup is not anticipated and the variants of the gambit are not called out as they emerge, he can succeed. He has attempted a coup (or, technically, a self-coup) once, in January 2021 -- there is no reason to think that he will not try to do so again." (our emphasis)

Dr. Snyder then proceeds to lay out the scenarios that the MF could follow in trying to subvert the Constitution and claim dictatorial powers.  It's chilling and realistic, but it succeeds only if we don't anticipate it, call it out and resist.

Happy Easter From President DONALD J. TRUMP

 

From the Christian nationalists' favorite Jesus-like President on Easter Sunday:

 

Nothing like the promise of war crimes to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (allegedly!).

BONUS:  The Malignant Fascist had important things to attend to on Easter.

The Joke's On Us

 

The Malignant Fascist and his kakistocracy have long been comedic punchlines.  It was no different in last night's "Weekend Update" on SNL, where more of the stupid madness was on display.  So much material, so little time.  But ultimately, the joke's on us for allowing malevolent morons to hold power in this country.

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Rick McKee, caglecartoons.com)

(Peter Kuper, @kuperart)

(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com)

(Milt Priggee, caglecartoons.com)

(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Bart van Leeuwen, Oedipoes.com)

(Tom Janssen, caglecartoons.com, Netherlands)

(Nikola Listes, caglecartoons.com, Croatia)

(Dave Granlund, politicalcartoons.com)

(Malcolm McGookin, caglecartoons.com, Canada; context here)

(Kevin Necessary, kevinnecessary.substack.com)

(Ivan Ehlers, The New Yorker)

QOTD -- Trump's Twisted Psychology

 

"... The picture [Trump] paints is one in which everyone — individual people, countries, the world as a whole — is an eternal spectator in a constant state of awe, slack-jawed in amazement at either events as they unfold or, more often, the greatness of Trump and his accomplishments. Everything he does is something no one has ever seen before, and our purpose is to stand back and behold him in his glory.

"This is the perspective of a man whose brain has been poisoned by his life-long pursuit of fame and admiration. He exists only if he’s being watched, and his decisions are good only so far as they are seen. This is why Trump is the purest expression of this cursed moment in cultural history: He is every fame-lusting Real Housewife, every hungry influencer trying to boost their middling follower count, every looksmaxxing douchebro, taken to a terrifying extreme..."  -- Paul Waldman, in his "The Cross Section" Substack, on the Malignant Fascist's twisted psychology, and the one phrase that explains it.  (It's there in the first paragraph above.)

Skeets Of The Day

 

Operation Epic Epstein Fury: Iran's air defense surprise --

🚨 🚨 ABC News confirms that Iran used advanced, passive infrared detection to shoot down the American F-15E fighter jet. Passive infrared detection does not emit radar signals. As a result, it cannot be detected or jammed by American electronic warfare systems. That leaves our aircraft vulnerable.

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 6:08 PM

 

The problem isn’t that two aircraft were shot down. The problem is that we aren’t psychologically or politically prepared to suffer any losses, because this entire war has been sold as a video game set on “easy” and not as a cause worth sacrifice.

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) April 4, 2026 at 12:14 AM

Whiskey Pete Hegseth needs to go and quickly -- 

NEW: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process.

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— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) April 2, 2026 at 8:52 PM

Hegseth is a menace to our national security www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

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— John Harwood (@johnjharwood.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 5:46 PM

 

Hegseth must go. There are many, many reasons why. In this column, I offer a few of the top ones. thedailybeast.com//these-are-all-the-reasons-pete-hegseth-needs-to-be-fired-right-now/

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— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 8:08 PM

 

When this is all over, and it will be over one day, I want Pete Hegseth to go to prison for the rest of his miserable fucking life.

— JoJoFromJerz (@jojofromjerz.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 11:20 AM

 

NEW: The conservative archbishop who leads Catholics serving in the U.S. military says the war against Iran is impermissible under Catholic teaching. Asked to respond to Pete Hegseth's claims that God is guiding the military effort, Archbishop Broglio said the war is not “sponsored by the Lord.”

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— Christopher Hale (@christopherjhale.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 10:51 AM

 

The demented Malignant Fascist's priorities -- 

same old GOP

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— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:38 PM

 

Many last year dismissed Trump’s idea to turn Alcatraz back into a federal prison. But his new budget plan includes $152 million to do just that. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/n...

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— Heather Knight (@heatherknightsf.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:14 PM

 

Trump's 2027 budget proposal includes $82 million in cuts to USDA's Rural Business Service. This program supports economic development, boosts farms, and creates job opportunities in rural communities.

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— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 10:48 AM

 

He probably just wants to make sure that future Presidents — of all political parties — are comfortable. 🤡 @politico.com www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 8:04 PM

The Trump Crime Family's over the top corruption, part infinity -- 

NC5 NASHVILLE: “A drone maker backed by Trump's two oldest sons is trying to sell to Gulf countries while they are under attack by Iran and dependent on the U.S. military led by their father.” 🤔 www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/iran...

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 11:35 PM

The Malignant Fascist considering dumping two more Cabinet officers, "Nutlick," and Sexytime Lori -- 

 

Breaking news: After ousting two of his highest-profile Cabinet members, President Trump is considering making more changes to his administration’s top leadership, according to advisers, accelerating the once-slow pace of his second-term staff departures.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) April 3, 2026 at 8:01 PM

Those Epstein-Trump files and the acting Attorney General -- 

I’m not sure Todd Blanche can run the DoJ when most of his time is spent making sure Ghislaine Maxwell doesn’t release more of her Epstein files to the WSJ.

— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) April 3, 2026 at 7:41 PM

Speaking of those files.....  -- 

BREAKING: first photo of the US F-15 fighter jet that was shot down in Iran, has been released. #DonaldTrump #EpsteinFiles

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— Paulley Ticks (@tomadelsbach.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 1:56 PM

 

 

Trump Tries To Close Door On Epstein-Trump Files Case

 

With the Malignant Fascist's reassignment of former Attorney General Pam Bondi literally to the trash bin, it's occurring to some that the timing of the ouster prior to Bondi's subpoenaed deposition under oath before the House Oversight Committee has the strong stink of a fix to it.  Acting AG and former Malignant Fascist mouthpiece Todd Blanche is already wishcasting past the Epstein-Trump files.  But the House hearing first:

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) suggested Thursday that President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi to prevent her from testifying in the House probe related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“She was about to be deposed in the Epstein case,” Moulton said in an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Jansing. “That’s why Trump got rid of her 12 days before that was supposed to happen.” 

Trump announced earlier Thursday on Truth Social that Bondi would transition to a new job in the private sector. He thanked the former top prosecutor for doing a “tremendous job” in the role during her tenure.

Trump added that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, also one of his former personal lawyers, would lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the interim. (our emphasis)

Democrats, and a few Republicans, seem determined to make sure Bondi appears as scheduled, despite the collusion of pedo protectors Blanche and MAGAt Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (MAGA-KY):

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, including five Republicans, voted to subpoena Bondi in March to force her to testify on the Trump administration’s handling of the files.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top democrat on the panel, said Thursday that she is still “legally obligated” to appear for her April 14 deposition date.

“Oversight Democrats have been leading serious investigations into Bondi and Secretary Kristi Noem,” he wrote in a statement on Thursday. “If they think we are moving on because they were fired, they are gravely mistaken.” [snip]

Moulton also slammed Blanche for his involvement with the Epstein case. In July, the now-acting attorney general spearheaded talks with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence. She was later quietly moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.

“He’s put in place someone who did a sweetheart deal for him with regards to Epstein,” Moulton told Jansing. “The guy who went down and interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell and got her out of a maximum security prison, got her all sorts of favors that criminals like her are not afforded, all because she’s willing to do favors for the president of the United States and help cover up his biggest political liability.”  (our emphasis)

Here's pedo protector Comer's spokesrat (our emphasis):

“Since Pam Bondi is no longer Attorney General, Chairman Comer will speak with Republican members and the Department of Justice about the status of the deposition subpoena and confer on next steps,” a committee spokesperson said in a statement.

Acting as the Trump Crime Family lawyer that he is, Blanche is trying his damnedest to put the Epstein-Trump files in the rear view mirror:

... The comments came during an interview late Thursday with Fox News’s Jesse Watters, who asked Blanche if he would agree that the files were “not handled well.”

Blanche went on to defend fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying her removal by President Trump had nothing to do with the investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But Blanche also appeared to suggest the Department of Justice (DOJ) should now be able to turn the page on the saga.

“Look, the Epstein files has been a saga that’s lasted for the entire for the past year, and what happened when the president signed the transparency act is the Department of Justice has now released all the files with respect to the Epstein saga and the attorney general. Bondi and I appeared in front of Congress voluntarily a couple weeks ago to answer any questions they had,” he said, adding the lawmakers may also come view the unredacted files at the DOJ’s offices.

“And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward.”  (our emphasis)

The coverup crimes will continue until further notice.  Good luck with that, Todd.

No, the more furious and obvious the effort to coverup the Epstein-Trump files and the crimes they reveal, the more the American public will demand their unredacted (except for victims' names) release. Electing a Democratic House and Senate in November will move that goal closer.

(Gif:  "She's hot!" Just like our country.)

In The Trash Where She Belongs

 

Within hours after disgraced MAGAt zealot AG Pam "Blondie" Bondi was canned by her cult leader / boss the Malignant Fascist for not being quite corrupt enough, her official portrait appeared in a trash can at the Justice Department:

Clearly respected and missed by the career DOJ staff after her 14 month reign of terror and weaponization. 

(photo: anonymous DOJ employee via MSN)

Designed To Overwhelm

 

Architect Michael Wyetzner walks us through the fascinating history of shopping mall design from the early European models to the first modern mall to the present.  He explains how malls are designed to overwhelm shoppers through psychological tricks like the "Gruen transfer."  He takes a closer look at the biggest mall in the world, the Mall of America in Minnesota, and at malls that are incorporated into casinos and even airports. And you thought the shopping mall was on its way out!