(click on images to enlarge)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)
(Dave Granlund, politicalcartoons.com)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(John Cole, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
(Dale Cummings, caglecartoons.com, Canada)
(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com)
(Kevin Necessary, kevinnecessary.substack.com)
(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Joe Heller, hellertoon.com)
(Ivan Ehlers, ivanehlers.com)
Operation Epic Epstein Fury Files: worsening Iran fiasco, China winning, Navy broke--
Trump's Iran fiasco worsening: *Officials leaking Trump hasn't destroyed Iran military *Allies running from admission he's not concerned with people's finances *GOP Senators breaking *Polls cratering On the pod @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social nails all these dynamics: newrepublic.com/article/2104...
— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) May 14, 2026 at 7:37 AM
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*IRAN ALLOWING CHINESE SHIPS TO PASS STRAIT SINCE LAST NIGHT *IRAN'S SEMI-OFFICIAL FARS NEWS CITES INFORMED SOURCE
— George Pearkes (@peark.es) May 14, 2026 at 6:26 AM
US Navy could run out of money by July, top officer warns - https://www.defensenews.com/news/your-navy/2026/05/13/us-navy-could-run-out-of-money-by-july-top-officer-warns/
— Defense News (@defensenews-poster.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 4:38 PM
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Are taxpayers about to be hit with Trump grift for billions? --
Of all Trump’s kleptocracy schemes, the most shameless may be his legal claims against the same executive branch he oversees. Now, a settlement is in the works for his $10B lawsuit against the IRS. The result would drop any IRS audits of Trump, his family, or his businesses. trib.al/W2mDNtC
— The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) May 14, 2026 at 10:39 AM
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Bibi "Bomb Bomb" Netanyahu thanks CBS' awful Bari Weiss for bowing to his demands --
"Israel to Bari Weiss: 'Thank You'" The CBS News editor-in-chief let Netanyahu choose who would interview him. Plus, the pro-Israel pressure campaign against the New York Times’s Nick Kristof falls flat. This week's Ragebait media column from Zeteo:
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 6:01 PM
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The clueless Malignant Fascist doesn't think about Americans' financial woes (or Beltway media either) --
INBOX: “Today @ofthebraveusa.bsky.social Home of the Brave launched a brand-new $200K billboard campaign bringing the following message to eight cities across the country: Trump is focused on his ballroom. Not your gas prices. Not your grocery prices. Not your healthcare. Not you."
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) May 14, 2026 at 8:33 AM
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Trump saying he doesn’t care about Americans isn’t a gaffe to the beltway press because they don’t give a shit either.
— Sam Youngman (@samyoungman.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 9:22 AM
In the same press gaggle, Trump said he doubled the size of his ballroom and he doesn’t care about Americans’ financial situations. I am begging the media — act like Obama or Biden did this shit and cover it the way you would have then.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Things that go "BOOM" in Russia. Keep hitting them hard, Ukraine! --
π₯NEW: A huge Russian oil refinery in Perm has fully halted operations after a Ukrainian drone strike, Reuters reports. It’s the latest in Ukraine’s deep strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. Lukoil’s Permnefteorgsintez — Russia’s 7th-largest refinery — processed 12.6 million tons of crude in 2024.
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 5:57 PM
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Zuck's "pervert glasses" say so much about him and the tech bro culture --
BAN THE PERVERT GLASSES
— Katie Martin (@katie0martin.ft.com) May 13, 2026 at 9:44 AM
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The gift that keeps on giving --
After Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One in China, he is presented with his very own 13-year-old Asian girl to take back home with him as a welcoming gift. #DonaldTrump #China
— Paulley Ticks (@tomadelsbach.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 4:52 PM
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Nobel laureate Paul Krugman writes in his Substack on the craven and weakened Malignant Fascist's junket to China, and how it shows his humiliation:
"One of Donald Trump’s signature claims is that Joe Biden made America a 'laughing stock', and that he has made us great again and respected around the world.
Yet this is the opposite of the truth. As a result of Trump’s petulant, self-destructive policies, much of the world now holds him and America as a whole in contempt. As the New York Times reported just before Trump’s visit to Beijing, the Chinese now talk routinely about 'American decline,' and describe Trump as 'an accelerator of American decay.'
To be clear, China has many significant problems of its own. It faces a demographic crisis: Its working age population has been shrinking for more than a decade. Its economy is deeply unbalanced, relying on unsustainable trade surpluses and unproductive investment to make up for inadequate consumer spending. Its economic growth is slowing. It suffers from high youth unemployment. Discontent is rising, held in check by autocratic, police-state measures.
But despite China’s domestic troubles, in geopolitical terms China is on the ascendant. Trump’s visit to Beijing is a field trip by a failing, flailing would-be autocrat pleading with a real strongman, who leads a much more serious country, to bail him out of the mess he’s made." (our emphasis)
Please read his entire piece for an understanding of what the MF has done to put China in the ascendancy, as we decline on his watch.
The megalomaniacal and lawless Malignant Fascist's $1 billion golden ballroom public funding request is in serious trouble in the House, The Hill reports:
"House Republicans are split over the White House’s proposal to allocate $1 billion in security funding for a new White House ballroom and other Secret Service priorities.
GOP lawmakers are looking to include the money in a second reconciliation package focused on funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operations.
But some moderates have raised concerns that ballroom security should instead be financed through private donations — as President Trump has vowed the ballroom itself will be — arguing the expenditure would be difficult to justify to voters and could undercut Republicans’ broader economic message at a time when inflation, grocery prices and gas costs are through the roof.Adding the ballroom security funding to the package, which Republicans aim to pass using a process that would require only GOP votes, could also complicate and potentially delay its path forward. Trump has said he wants the legislation on his desk by June 1, and the House is scheduled to be out of town the last week of May, leaving Republicans with a little more than a week to finalize and pass the measure." (our emphasis)
As retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) commented, "I can tell you it's not playing well on Main Street." Not when families are struggling with high food and gas prices as a result of the MF's war in Iran and his vindictive tariffs, among other blunders.
Also in the Senate, NBC News reports that the billion dollar price tag, when voters are angry about affordability, has some MAGAt Senators nervous, and Dems pushing to eliminate it:
"After they got a private briefing Tuesday, Senate Republicans remained torn over whether to spend $1 billion in taxpayer funds on President Donald Trump’s ballroom project. [snip]
Some GOP senators emerged from the meeting unconvinced or at least wanting more information before they decide.
'I still got some more questions, and they’re going to send us more information,' said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., usually a reliable vote for Trump. 'I’m undecided.'
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he still has 'a lot' of questions for the White House about the spending plan. 'One of the biggest concerns on our side is adding to the deficit,' he said."
The Dems, referring to their counterparts as "Ballroom Republicans," and looking forward to a vote that would show their voters who they really care about, are in a good position as the mid-terms approach. They've asked the Senate parliamentarian to rule on the ballroom provision's inclusion in the Homeland Security bill. Expect the ballroom-obsessed MF to fight it out. Stay tuned.
The irreplaceable Stephen Colbert got into the delusional Malignant Fascist's junket to meet the man who replaced him as world leader, China's Xi, bringing along the usual tech bro fascists (Musk, Tim "Apple" and more), "Hormuz Nuz You Can Uz", as well as the Pentagon renaming the Iran war as "Operation Sledgehammer" to avoid accountability to the War Powers Act. He also covered the economy in "the poop chute," and finished up addressing the new "fad" of ballmaxxing. We're in the last week of Late Night, so we're going heavy on Stephen these next days.
"... The Times highlighted a recent report from a Beijing think tank affiliated with Renmin University, which sardonically thanked the American president for having done so much to weaken his own country.
"The report called Trump an 'accelerator of American political decay,' with the U.S. sliding toward polarization, institutional dysfunction and even 'Latin American-style instability.'
"And consider the evidence: The Republican arrives in China not just as an erratic figure doing lasting harm to the United States’ global stature, but as a weakened leader at home. It is not lost on officials in Beijing that Trump is an unpopular president, struggling to deal with domestic economic tumult, a failed tariff agenda and an unnecessary war that hasn’t gone according to plan, and whose political party is likely to suffer significant losses in the fall.
"It’s not exactly a position of strength..." -- Steve Benen, MaddowBlog, on why the Chinese (and other rival nations) are quite happy that the easily manipulated moron Malignant Fascist is President. The election of the MF twice has often been described as national suicide, and the Chinese and others are only too happy to watch and smile.
(click on images to enlarge)
(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)
(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com)
(Pedro Molina, Tribune Content Agency)
(Drew Sheneman, Tribune Content Agency)
(Nick Anderson, The Contrarian)
(David Rowe, Financial Review, Australia)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Lalo Alcaraz, LA Weekly)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Matt Davies, Newsday)
(Avi Steinberg, The New Yorker)
Operation Epic Epstein Fury / a "decimated" lie --
“Decimated,” according to Trump and Hegseth. Iran still has 70% of the missiles it had before the war. Plus 90% of its launch sites along the Strait of Hormuz and underground missile launch & storage facilities nationwide. And 70% of its mobile launchers. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/u...
— Kurt Andersen (@kurtandersen.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 6:35 PM
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The Epstein survivors hearing yesterday --
The Epstein investigation is proof we have a two-tier justice system: one for the wealthy & well-connected and one for survivors. Oversight Democrats took our investigation to Palm Beach where many of the horrific crimes—and failures of justice—took place. We will not stop pursuing accountability.
— Rep. Summer Lee (@repsummerlee.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
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Ghislaine Maxwell must never receive a pardon or clemency. Today, at a hearing with Epstein survivors, I made clear that Maxwell has shown no remorse and taken no accountability for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse network.
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@congressmanraja.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 1:50 PM
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Can we do something to make the Chinese keep him and his corrupt crime family? --
"There's Elon in the back there. You can see Eric Trump. There's Jensen Huang."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 13, 2026 at 8:18 AM
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This is simply bonkers. The White House is in active discussions with DOJ about settling Trump's lawsuit against the IRS in his favor, *precisely because* a judge might soon throw it out. WH apparently wants DOJ to agree to "settle" the lawsuit *before* that happens. Utter insanity.
— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 11:35 AM
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“.. while a company linked to him and the US president’s family explores a deal with a Chinese chipmaker that American lawmakers have warned is connected to the ruling Communist Party.” @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/8fc4...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 12:58 PM
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It's a battery, Secretary Bugwit --
BURGUM: When the sun goes down, solar produces zero electricity HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of -- it's a battery
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 13, 2026 at 11:05 AM
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Another dangerous incompetent in Trump's kakistocracy --
"Gorka is a mediocrity who holds a job for which he is not qualified. The poor quality of this putative strategy is a reminder of what happens when unserious people are asked to undertake a serious job." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
— Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 11:07 AM
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A tale of two Presidents --
Biden’s exit economy vs. Trump’s economy today. Jobs: Biden higher Unemployment: Biden lower Inflation: Biden lower GDP growth: Biden higher Gas prices: Biden lower Cocaine use: Don Jr. higher
— BPV (@pvpower.energy) May 13, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Desiccated prune Rep. Virginia Foxx (MAGA-NC) humiliates 10-year-old --
virgnia foxx is one of those low key members who has been abjectly horrible her entire time in office. a total degenerate.
— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) May 12, 2026 at 10:29 PM
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Toxic Trump Tower scrapped. Sad! --
Plans to build Australia’s first Trump Tower have been scrapped just three months after it was announced, with the local developer saying the Trump brand has become “toxic.” “Let’s just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly unpopular in Australia.”
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 10:59 AM
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A couple of weeks ago, we featured the title track of Paul McCartney's new album "The Boys of Dungeon Lane," a nostalgic work that looks back on the days of his youth in Liverpool that helped form his sensibilities. "Home To Us" from that album is a duet with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr. The song clearly has a Beatlesque quality to it, and more specifically McCartney's style. Enjoy.
We occasionally want to take a look at how the Malignant Fascist and his enabling band of misfits, cowards, and loons (a.k.a., the Republican Party/ cult) are faring. We picked these graphics because they laid out the problem they're facing as they look forward to November.
From YouGov/The Economist today (click to enlarge):
"Using YouGov’s data, The Economist has projected Mr Trump’s approval rating state by state. As you might expect, approval of Mr Trump is lowest in states that tend to vote for Democrats and highest in those that tend to vote for Republicans. Mr Trump’s voters still overwhelmingly approve of his performance as president. But the projection also shows how dissatisfaction with Mr Trump is widespread even in states that voted for him in 2024. The numbers will make anxious reading for Republicans facing competitive races in this year’s midterm elections."
Here's what the latest eye-popping generic ballot numbers look like:
New - Generic Ballot poll π΅ Democrats 55% (+15) π΄ Republicans 40% π΅ Biggest lead for Democrats π€ Trump approval: -20 Atlasintel #A - RV - 5/7
— Political polls (@politicalpolls.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 8:02 AM
The deteriorating generic ballot numbers, combined with polling on voter enthusiasm (here and here), may be indicating that the anti-MF / MAGAt Republican wave may be more than the MAGAt Republican Jim Crow jiggering with gerrymandering mostly in the old Confederacy can overcome. In keeping with his care-less attitude toward the average Americans' finances (see post below), the MF continues to pursue his sabotaging of the economy and America's national security, to hell with the prospects of his party/ cult in November. Politico looks at one demographic:
The Supreme Court may argue, in gutting the Voting Rights Act, that they’re creating race-neutral districts. But the practical reality of what this means is staring political leaders and, more to the point, Black voters in the face: white Republicans fracturing African-American districts to unseat mostly Black Democrats so they can elect more white Republicans.
I’ll stick to the raw politics and let others make the self-evident moral case for Black electoral power in a country with our history.
In their rush to grab an extra seat or two, Southern Republicans should consider what may happen to their 2024 gains with Black voters.
Do you think GOP nominees will get 21 percent of Black men, as Trump is estimated to have received in 2024, in future elections when you’re handing Democrats perhaps the easiest racial messaging they’ve had in the post-Civil Rights era? In case you needed a primer, that would be: You can’t trust Republicans, they only want to silence your voice. [snip]
The images of white Republican legislators wearing MAGA flags to vote, Black lawmakers being jostled by white police officers and the only four African Americans to represent Louisiana in Congress since Reconstruction sitting together pleading for Black districts speak louder than any words. And that was just last week. The ads write themselves.
Which raises the second obvious case for caution. Given Trump’s unpopularity, the price at the pump and the precedent of most every modern midterm, this was already shaping up to be a forbidding election year for Republicans. To pick at the rawest of American wounds as the country marks 250 years would only turbocharge Democratic enthusiasm and turnout.
As if liberals weren’t already eager to vote. Just consider the side-by-side turnout trends in primaries to date this year, which continued this week in Indiana and Ohio...
All of which is to say to keep your focus on winning so big in November -- through message, organizing, turnout -- that (as with the defeat of the MF's boy in Hungary) Democratic control of the House and, increasingly likely, the Senate will be a reality that can't be overturned or denied, no matter the MF's authoritarian urges.
For once, the deranged and narcissistic Malignant Fascist blurted out the truth in an exchange with a reporter yesterday about the impact his (and Bibi's) war on Iran has on American families:
Reporter: "When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal?"
Trump: "Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."
With gas prices soaring along with food and consumer goods, with millions having to drop their health care insurance after the MF sabotaged the Affordable Care Act, with his punishing tariffs, with all of the attacks on the middle class by the MF and the Epstein class, it's really not surprising that he has that attitude, but surprising that he'd say it out loud. Of course, he and his corrupt family are insulated even more after they've raked in roughly $4 billion since his second term began.
And the canard, fed to the MF by Bibi, that Iran was about to have a nuclear weapon? That was a lie, made even more absurd after the MF claimed he had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program last summer after days of bombing.
You can count on this comment by the MF being part of Dem candidates' mid-term campaign advertising.
“I kept my identity protected as Jane Doe. I woke up one day with my name mentioned over 500 times!” Roza said, her hand clutching her face as she held back tears.
“While the rich and powerful remain protected by redactions, my name was exposed to the world. Now reporters from across the globe contact me, I cannot live without looking over my shoulder! I can only imagine the long-term impact this mistake will have on my life.” -- Roza, from her testimony in Florida today. The Trumpist DOJ deliberately un-redacted her name so as to intimidate her and suppress her testimony.
Roza was trafficked by a sleazy pedophile by the name of Jean Luc-Brunel, who ran a "model" agency and who later committee suicide. Brunel ran in the same circles as Jeffrey Epstein and his "model" agency friends, who supplied him, and his friends, with teenage girls to exploit.
(photo: House Oversight Committee)
(click on images to enlarge)
(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Jeff Koterba, caglecartoons.com)
(Peter Kuper, politicalcartoons.com)
(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)
(Sean Delonas, caglecartoons.com)
(Milt Priggee, caglecartoons.com)
(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Marian Kamensky, caglecartoons.com, Austria)
(Dave Granlund, politicalcartoons.com)
(Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby, @mannequinonthemoon, Canada)
Operation Epic Epstein Fury Files: quagmire time, Iran's upper hand --
Iran has Trump over an (oil) barrel. Quagmire. U.S. and Iran Are Locked in a Stalemate That’s Neither Peace Nor War www.wsj.com/articles/u-s...
— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 6:44 AM
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The Iranian regime has had the upper hand since the moment Trump took the bait his predecessors had all resisted, and attacked Iran. This is the outcome *everyone* who has thought about this scenario over the past two decades has foreseen.
— James Fallows (@jfallows.bsky.social) May 11, 2026 at 9:08 PM
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A crime boss' consciousness of guilt --
Trump: "We have a man who is doing a great job. I knew it! Because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He kept me out of jail."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 11, 2026 at 7:52 PM
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"I was convicted of 34 felonies and faced 92 additional counts, but Todd Blanche, god bless him, kept me out of prison."
— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 8:13 AM
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It's the economy, stupid / it's stupid's economy --
A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds that 77% – including a majority of Republicans – say that Trump's policies have increased the cost of living in their own community. https://cnn.it/4dDBpgs
— CNN (@cnn.com) May 12, 2026 at 7:00 AM
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And the people cried out: "We demand a golden ballroom"
— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 9:16 AM
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The Malignant Fascist's attack on health insurance... --
one in five. about 3 million people www.notus.org/healthcare/a...
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com) May 12, 2026 at 8:21 AM
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And the lunatic heading up Health and Human Services --
What teenagers are getting sperm counts? They’re so fucking weird.
— Al Swearengen (@al-swearengen.bsky.social) May 11, 2026 at 3:15 PM
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'This is killing our children': Panic as food industry uses MAHA to weaken rules
— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) May 12, 2026 at 7:30 AM
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China has the MF's number, and it's a low one --
"A Beijing report said Trump's tariffs, anti-immigrant policies and attacks on allies and the US political establishment strengthened China. "It called Trump an accelerator of US decay toward dysfunction and 'Latin American-style instability.' " www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/b...
— John Harwood (@johnjharwood.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 7:29 AM
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Good news: South African fascist white supremacist losing AI race --
“.. OpenAI is Coke, Anthropic is Pepsi and Grok is RC Cola. .. I never really saw people drinking it.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 6:57 AM
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The MF's "Reflecting Pond" scandal: no bid contract, cost overruns. Who'd have guessed? --
“Trump initially said that his handpicked contractor would charge $1.8 million[…] But federal records showed that the actual cost was ‘more than seven times that’.” https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/price-tag-on-reflecting-pool-repairs-jumps-way-above-trumps-promised-budget/
— The Lincoln Project (@lincolnproject.us) May 11, 2026 at 3:15 PM
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Looking for hidden loot clues --
Every presidential photo now feels like a side quest where Americans zoom in looking for hidden loot clues.
— ππ¦ππππ πΎπ¦π£π (@sundaedivine.lol) May 12, 2026 at 8:31 AM
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The consumer price index, which measures inflation for consumer products, sharply rose in April due largely to the ignorant and unfit Malignant Fascist's war on Iran, with gas prices leading the way. From the Associated Press:
"U.S. consumer prices climbed sharply again last month as the 10-week war with Iran pushed energy prices higher.
The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 3.8% from April 2025, according to data released Tuesday. On a month-to-month basis, April prices rose 0.6% from March as gasoline prices rose 5.4% during the month; the month-over-month gain was down from 0.9% increase from February to March.
Labor Department figures showed that gasoline prices are up more than 28% compared with a year ago. However, the AAA motor club listed the average regular gallon of gasoline above $4.50 on Tuesday, about 44% more than it cost last year at this time.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called consumer core prices rose 0.4% last month from March and 2.8% from April 2025, relatively modest readings that suggest the energy price burst has yet to spill over more broadly into other prices." (our emphasis)
Note the last caveat: energy prices haven't rolled over into other prices...yet. When they do, and they will, the MF will have a major problem on his small hands just months before the mid-term elections.
"It's the economy, stupid and it's stupid's economy."
