Skeets of the Day

 

Operation Epic Epstein Fury: Don't know nuttin', and more lunacy --

Q: You message has moved from 'the war is coming to an end' to 'we're gonna be bombing Iran to the stone ages.' So which is it? TRUMP: Can't tell you. I don't know

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 6, 2026 at 2:19 PM

 

The 25th Amendment exists for a reason.

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— Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 8:27 AM

 

I predicted someone like Trump many years ago, in THE DEAD ZONE. So now I'm saying this--in the next 12-16 months, we're going to find out if the two machines for the removal of a man unable to fulfill his duties actually work. They are impeachment and the 25th amendment. He is deeply unwell .

— Stephen King (@stephenking.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 6:20 AM

 

* SENIOR IRANIAN SOURCE TO REUTERS: IF U.S. ATTACKS IRAN'S POWER PLANTS THE ENTIRE REGION AND SAUDI ARABIA WILL FALL INTO COMPLETE DARKNESS @reuters.com

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 9:23 AM

 

We will see tonight whether our military leaders will honor their oaths or whether they are just the tools of a madman.

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 9:12 AM

The Malignant Fascist's best friend in Europe (after Putin, of course) getting boost from Vance -- 

Is Vance's support of Orban, Russia's most important asset in Europe, really in America's national interest?

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— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 6:44 AM

The MF displaying his megalomania and delusions of world leadership -- 

Trump: "I'm going to Venezuela. I'm gonna run for president."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 6, 2026 at 2:27 PM

Our broken, complying media, New York effing Times edition -- 

Trump's explicit threat of genocide against a nation of 90 million people is being treated by the New York Times as just another story on a Tuesday morning.

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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 9:23 AM

Stogy Dem leaders: get behind Platner instead of Mills in Maine Senate race --

New ME U.S. Senate poll (Maine People’s Resource Center) 🔵Graham Platner: 61% 🔵 Janet Mills: 28% In a head to head match-up: 🔵 Graham Platner: 48% 🔴 Susan Collins: 39% 🔴 Susan Collins: 45% 🔵 Janet Mills: 42% static.notus.org/0b/9f/97515a...

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— Andy O'Brien (@aobrien2024.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 8:22 AM

UK to anti-Semitic jerk "Ye": stay out. Jolly good! --

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West should “absolutely not” perform at London’s Wireless Festival, the British government has said.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) April 7, 2026 at 9:29 AM

Real estate news from The Onion -- 

Real Estate: Guess You Should’ve Made Your Coffee At Home

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— The Onion (@theonion.com) April 6, 2026 at 7:00 PM

QOTD: "Ignorance Is Strength"

 

Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman writes in his Substack column about the drastic cuts in the budgets for science programs by the moronic Malignant Fascist and his MAGA enablers. In a perceptive observation among many in his column, Dr. Krugman nails why Republicans have an issue with science. An excerpt from a good read:

"Why are there almost no Republican scientists? It’s not a mystery. GOP political orthodoxy includes positions that are at odds with the scientific consensus on multiple issues, ranging from the validity of the theory of evolution, to the reality of climate change, to the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In each case the scientific consensus is solidly grounded in evidence. But even before the rise of MAGA the U.S. right was increasingly hostile to evidence-based policymaking — especially, of course, where the evidence is unfavorable to fossil fuel interests or quack medicine, both financial mainstays of right-wing politics.

So scientists don’t support Republicans, and the feeling is mutual. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t like science or scientists. It doesn’t like having its preconceived views challenged by appeals to evidence. It knows that very few scientists are on its side electorally. In general, it sees scientific research as a threat to its grasp on political power.

Add in MAGA’s combination of rabid anti-intellectualism and allergy to any hint of criticism, and one has the makings of a drastic anti-science turn in policy. “Ignorance is strength” might was well be an official MAGA motto."  (our emphasis)

The crazed anti-intellectualism of the likes of, for example, failed politician Sarah "Winky" Palin and her later counterpart the profoundly ignorant MF have led us to the point where we're losing the competition with countries that are investing strongly in science, medicine and engineering, and who will overtake us in the near future if this course is not reversed. 

Colbert on Iran, Space Toilet and More

 

Last night, Stephen Colbert looked at the crazed and dangerous Malignant Fascist's threats to wipe out Iran's infrastructure during a White House Easter event with the Easter Bunny and with music playing in the background -- with Colbert playing a red recorder prodigiously to emphasize the insanity of it -- and addressed the space capsule's toilet problem as only he could. A hoot as always.

QOTD: Failure of Presidential Intelligence

 

Shane Harris, writing in The Atlantic, analyzes the real intelligence failure leading up to the reckless and ignorant Malignant Fascist's war on Iran. Excerpt:

"Trump’s 'excursion,' as he calls the biggest U.S. military operation of his second term, has unleashed a parade of horribles. Iran now controls the strait, where it plans to charge vessels a toll and can govern global flows of oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and chemicals that are crucial for manufacturing. A regime that Trump claims to have replaced still remains in the hands of hard-liners, whose repression of the Iranian people will be strengthened for having survived a decapitation strike by the world’s only superpower. And neighboring countries in the Gulf, whose livelihoods depend on exporting energy and creating safe places for people to visit, live, and work, will amass new weapons and reconsider their strategic partnerships with the United States. [snip]

Trump not only has misstated intelligence about Iran’s military potential. He has expressed surprise at the regime’s response to American and Israeli bombing, particularly Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the heavy drone and missile attacks it has launched on its neighbors in the Persian Gulf. But the president’s advisers had told him this was likely to happen. They knew that restricting a shipping artery would give Iran a chokehold on the world’s economy. It’s such a no-brainer maneuver that the Pentagon has built it into its war planning. When Trump’s military advisers apprised him of this possibility, he appeared to have shrugged them off. Iran would probably capitulate before trying to close the strait, he said, and in any event, he thought the military could handle it, The Wall Street Journal reported. (our emphasis)

All of this is to say that the MF owns this global disaster (along with Israel's right-winger leader Netanyahu), and while he will try to find scapegoats like Whiskey Pete Hegseth and pass the buck for his blunder, he was the one giving this crime the "green light".  Remember that. 

(photo: the Very Stable Genius, Commander Bone Spurs)

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

Russian war crimes, part infinity. The MF is taking notes --

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

The MF kills research programs, and China gains. Winning!  -- 

“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

We think we know the answer --

Working hard, or hardly working? 📸 MaprangWaaan

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— Cats with Jobs ⚒️ (@catworkers.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 4:09 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

 

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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

 

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(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

 

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(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.)