Trump's alter ego

Musk and Trump are both toddlers in adult bodies.

Elon Musk bizarrely changed his name on X today to “Kekius Maximus” and changed his profile photo to an alt-right, white nationalist meme that combines the Maximus character from Gladiator with the groyper Pepe the Frog. Kekius comes from the name of a fringe cryptocurrency. It is unknown whether Musk has an ownership stake in that particular coin, but he has promoted others in the past that he does own - including DOGE.

Meanwhile, Musk addressed allegations that the “Adrian Dittmann” account that constantly praises him, which he reposts and promotes often, is really him: “Suppose for a moment that Adrian Dittmann IS my sock puppet account I use to flatter my main. Isn’t the Left always telling people to love themselves? Or am I just not loving myself in their narrow, conscripted, ‘right’ way? Hypocrisy at it’s finest.”

This is [what] happens when a bad human also becomes a ketamine addict.

Former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer posted a poll on X which asked if Republicans agreed with Musk on the H-1B visas or if they agreed with Steve Bannon on it. He got over 92,000 votes, with 67% siding with Bannon over Musk.

[...]

White nationalist leader Nick Fuentes: “Today X appears to have un-verified 5 more prominent critics of the H-1B program. Their checkmarks were taken, subs were refunded, and character limit reduced. This is now overt political censorship. This comes after the Project Groyper brand account and all of its affiliates were suspended last week.” Sad!

  Meidas Touch

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Every couple of weeks, a new grift

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Happy final day of 2024

A very disappointing (to say the least) year.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The good old days

When disaster was only global computer failure.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

If Trump has a demise in politics, it will come at the hand of his "loyal" base.  I always think of it along the lines of this passage from a James Lee Burke novel:

I was guilty of that age old presumption that the origins of social evil can be traced to villainous individuals. That we just need to identify them, lock them in cages, or even march them to the executioner's wall and this time, yes, this time, we'll catch a fresh breeze in our sails and set ourselves on a true course.

But [politician] Bobby Earl is out there by consent. He has his thumb on a dark pulse, and like all confidence men, he knows that his audience wishes to be conned. He learned long ago to listen. He knows that if he listens carefully, they'll tell him what they need to hear. It's a contract of mutual deceit by which they open up their flack vests and take it right through the breastbone. If it weren't he, it would be someone like him. Misanthropic, beguiling, educated. Someone who, as an ex-president's wife once said, allows the rest of us to feel comfortable with our prejudices.

I think the end, for Bobby Earl, will come in the fashion that it does for all his kind. Unlike the members of the pool and that great army of villainous buffoons trying to sneak through life on side streets, Bobby Earl wants power so badly, that at some point in their lives, they make a conscious choice to embrace evil. It's not a gradual seduction. They do it without reservation, and that's when they leave the rest of us. You know it when it happens, too. No amount of cosmetic surgery can mask the psychological deformity in their eye. Then, unbeknownst to themselves, they set about erecting their own scaffold. Their most loyal adherents become their executioners, just as Mussolini's people hanged him upside down in a filling station, and Robespierre's followers trundled him over their heads to the guillotine. Then the audience moves on and seeks a new magician.

     A Stained White Radiance – James Lee Burke

Key to Trump's ascension: "Someone who [...] allows the rest of us to feel comfortable with our prejudices."

 

 

Testing the limits in Arkansas

[O]n Christmas Eve, a federal judge struck down a law that put booksellers and librarians at risk of imprisonment if they provided minors with “harmful” material. That includes themes about race and being LGBTQ. The Judge wrote that the law tried to deputize “librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship” and that if their decision were made in the shadow of “fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest.”

Holly Dickson, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, called the law “an attempt to ‘thought police,’” and said the Judge’s decision was a “victory over totalitarianism” and “a testament to the courage of librarians, booksellers and readers who refused to bow to intimidation.” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “Schools and libraries shouldn’t put obscene material in front of our kids.”

It’s likely we will see an appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals from the state as early as this week.

  Joyce Vance

The Republican Party is half MAGA

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

E Jean Carroll still winning

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The obscenity

While people go homeless and hungry.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

H1B visas - and Elon Musk - are dividing Trump supporters

There is still a lot of bad blood and hard feelings between many people in the MAGA movement who have never fought with each other before over anything. Some very tough things were said that simply can’t be undone or shrugged off by some. And most of the resentment and mistrust that lingers on is directed at Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

I heard a new name today from one of them: Vivek Ramaswampy.

Elon and Vivek are newish passengers on the Trump Train, but right now they seem to be driving it while Trump plays golf and hosts parties at Mar-a-Lago. They made the argument that we should dramatically increase the number of H-1B visas to foreign workers in the tech industry because there weren’t enough smart, hardworking Americans to take those jobs.

When Trump finally chimed in on Day 3, he said that he has many people working at his properties on H1B visas and said they are great employees: “I always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we had them. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”

Except he forcefully denounced the H-1B program in 2016. Said it was a “scam.” And his Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said they would never increase the H-1B numbers. But Miller and OG MAGA didn’t realize that Trump made this deal with Musk months ago. Now they are finding out.

[...]

MAGA reaction was mixed. Some were begrudging realists, saying that Trump is siding with Musk because of the amount of money Musk put in to help him with the election so he owes Musk. Others correctly pointed out that Trump has H-1B visas mixed up with H-2B visas for temporary workers, which is what his employees came into the country on while they were working for him.

[...]

Musk is trying to justify increasing the number of these visas by claiming they are all super geniuses and indispensable to the American economy, while mass deporting everyone else, and Trump is saying they are cleaning rooms and cutting grass at his resorts. Musk and Vivek were specifically talking about tech engineers though, not foreign workers in any other fields or vocations.

[...]

Musk claimed that the reason why “critical people” like himself are in this country running successful businesses in the first place is because of H-1B visas. Except Musk was never here on an H-1B, and he violated the student visa he was here on when he promptly dropped out of school and started working without an H-1B.

[...]

He then made the following post late Friday night that poured gasoline on the fire and made things much worse with this little missive to MAGA: “Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

Trump issued his statement to the Post agreeing with Musk several hours later. Awkward.

[...]

But this Musk post calling his MAGA critics racist is the one that really set them off: “These contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” They went absolutely nuts on that one, outraged that Musk would say that there are racist people in MAGA. Shocking!

So Musk then came back and tried to clarify, but only made it worse: “The ‘contemptible fools’ I’m referring to are those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists. They will absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed.”

[...]

Steve Bannon dedicated his entire show for 3 straight days hammering Musk with one guest after another: “You’re calling the MAGA movement racist? How dare you. Now you want to play the racism card? You think we’re going to tolerate that? We’re not. And I don’t care how big a check you wrote … You can’t stop us—we’re relentless, and we’re never going to quit. We’re a 1000 times tougher than you, and if you don’t get that, keep it up.”

[...]

This went on for hours and hours, day after day.

[...]

Former Trump speechwriter and Revolver News reporter Darren Beattie on Bannon’s show: “Companies profit from H1B workers, who are effectively indentured servants hoping for green cards, while taxpayers foot the bill. This privatized profit, socialized cost model isn’t a natural market system. Even economically, H1B is a scam. H1B, which shifts its costs onto taxpayers, should be on the DOGE chopping block—not something for DOGE to promote.”

[...]

White nationalist groyper leader Nick Fuentes, who had dinner with Trump at MAL two years ago: “Elon told Trump’s base to ‘go fuck themselves in the face’ for opposing cheap foreign labor, and MAGA influencers are trying to spin that into a win. It’s disgusting and you should never forget this episode.”

  Meidas Touch

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 08:43 am:

Mike Johnson's days are numbered

rump threw Mike Johnson under the bus just days before the Speaker’s election on January 3. He said that Kevin McCarthy’s decision to extend the debt ceiling rather than shut down the government earlier this year “will go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years,” and Johnson continued to do exactly the same thing as McCarthy. Twice.

Trump then demanded that Johnson reconvene Congress to attempt raise the debt ceiling now while Biden is in office since he wants to be able to blame Biden and Democrats for exploding the deficit when he passes massive tax cuts for the wealthy while dramatically increasing government spending.

This is, of course, an impossibility so it will not happen.

So the only thing his rage post tonight will accomplish is to give Johnson critics and opponents in the House the ammo they need to vote him out. Trump’s post tonight will be read on the floor of the House by one of the challengers to Johnson. The lesson to be learned by Johnson and every other Republican is that no matter how much you kiss Trump’s ass, the second you are no longer useful to him he will stab you in the back.

Which they all should know already.

  Meidas Touch

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ron Filipkowski's AI image

I wonder if whoever created that image intentionally asked AI to give Elon two left feet.

This is the complete image embedded in the article. 

One of Musk's two left feet has its own leg, and Musk appears to actually have THREE left feet. AI is still good for a laugh. I hope we can keep laughing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The good news

And Donald Trump will claim credit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

RIP Jimmy: 10/1/1924 - 12/29/2024

Jimmy Carter won a Nobel Prize.  And the flags will be at half mast on Trump's inauguration day.  Sad!

UPDATE 12/30/2024:

Here are [some of] the most surprising Jimmy Carter quotes you may not have heard before – and probably won’t get mentioned in most of his obituaries.

Let's start with 2015. When the now-late president said, “I think the American superpower goal should be to be the champion of peace,” only to later follow it with the assertion that “we are the most warlike country on earth.” Carter also pointed out that the US had been at peace for only 16 of its then 242 years as a nation, four of which were on his watch.

Regarding the invasion of Iraq, already in 2004, Carter told The Independent newspaper in the UK “there was no reason for us to become involved in Iraq recently. That was a war based on lies and misinterpretations from London and from Washington.”

In 2006, he doubled down on that statement, calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down, and saying that he and Vice President Dick Cheney quote, “deliberately misled the American people about the danger in Iraq."...

  Mehdi Hasan

Trump sent his condolences to Carter’s family in a Truth Social post Sunday, writing: “Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History.” He added: “Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter Family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers.”

  Daily Beast

Trump did not write that.

Jimmy Carter also turned the thermostats down to 68 in the winter and wore sweaters.

The longer Biden is there, the more disgusted I become

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

JFC

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

MAGA unhappy with Musk

Do they think Trump has any concern for conflicts?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11:00 am:

Bullies are such snowflakes.

UPDATE 11:44 am:

Third time's a charm?

A handful of conservative critics of Elon Musk are alleging censorship and claiming they were stripped of their verification badges on X after challenging his views on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.

[...]

Trump's conspiracy-minded ally Laura Loomer, New York Young Republican Club president Gavin Wax and InfoWars host Owen Shroyer all said their verification badges disappeared after they criticized Musk's support for H1B visas, railed against Indian culture and attacked Ramaswamy, Musk's DOGE co-chair.

[...]

The H-1B issue and an X post by Musk ally Vivek Ramaswamy about America's culture of "mediocrity" have sparked an online MAGA civil war over immigration and race. Some supporters of President-elect Trump are now turning on Musk and the tech bros Trump has tapped for key administration roles.

[...]

Musk has a history of punishing news organizations and journalists he doesn't like, ostensibly for policy violations.

He threatened to reassign NPR's account handle last year and marked some links to the site as "unsafe" when users click through.

Musk also removed the verification badge of The New York Times in 2023.

X also suspended independent journalist Ken Klippenstein's account after he shared Sen. JD Vance's vetting document from the alleged Iranian hack of Trump's campaign.

  Axios

UPDATE 12/28/2024:

And not just Musk...

It's starting to seem like these guys don't know how to read the room.

UPDATE 12/28/2024:

UPDATE 12/29/2024:  I don't know.  I'm beginning to think that Trump and MAGA never actually understood each other.

Hard to argue with the January 6 QAnon Shaman's proposals

MAGA

Disinformation is their stock-in-trade

But Trump isn't presdient yet. This is under Biden. What gives?

The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China.

"The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps," it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC's staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown.

[...]

A measure to extend funding for the center was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.

[...]

[Elon Musk] accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."

[...]

In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.

The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.

  France24

How many Americans will see that information?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This

Biden vetoes the JUDGES act

[T]he Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act of 2024—a bill passed by bipartisan majorities of both chambers of Congress [-] would have created 63 new permanent judgeships (and three new temporary judgeships) in federal district courts across 13 different states, all of which have been found to have insufficient staffing to meet their current caseloads.

To avoid giving a huge boon to the next President, the bill staggered the new judgeships over the next decade. 11 would’ve come into effect on January 21, 2025; and then subsequent batches every two years on January 21. But President Biden vetoed it anyway.

[...]

President Biden’s veto, which may succeed only in kicking this bill into the next Congress, sends the absolutely wrong message about court reform, i.e., that it is only worth doing when it also produces a short-term partisan political advantage.

  Steve Vladeck

Biden said it "hastily" creates new judgeships without addressing key questions about whether new judges were needed and how they would be allocated nationally.

[...]

Hundreds of judges appointed by presidents of both parties took the rare step of publicly advocating for the bill.

[...]

If the bill had been enacted, Trump would have been able to fill 22 permanent and three temporary judgeships over four years in office, on top of the 100-plus judicial appointments he is already expected to make.

  Reuters

I guess, 22 being more than 11, Joe disapproved?

He said the bill would also have created new judgeships in states where senators haven't filled existing judicial vacancies and that those efforts "suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now.

[...]

The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure unanimously in August. But the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after Republican Donald Trump was reelected to a second term as president in November, adding the veneer of political gamesmanship to the process.

  

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fast tracking fascism

Gonna be a huge spectacle.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Supergrifters

Christmas grifts from the Trump family.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 04:01 pm:  And a great Xmas sentiment to follow up the offer to pray:

Merry Christmas.  Go to hell.

And this asshole doesn't even know it's "in Jesus' name."  Jesus! These Christian grifters.

Fake Christians.

A modern Xmas song

Hmmmm

Could this maybe be the problem instead of the solution?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Christmas

Well, THEY believe he's serious anyway

On Monday Trump said ownership and control of the huge island was an "absolute necessity" for the US.

  BBC

Jesus Christ!

"For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."

No, the United State of America doesn't. Trump does.

Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, is home to a large US space facility and is strategically important for the US, lying on the shortest route from North America to Europe. It has major mineral reserves.

So, you rent.

Until now Denmark has been very slow to expand its military capacity in Greenland, they say, but if the country is not able to protect waters around the territory against encroachments by China and Russia then US demands for greater control are likely to grow.

[...]

Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede responded to Trump's comments, saying "we are not for sale".

[...]

Trump's original suggestion in 2019 that the US acquire Greenland, which is the world's largest island, led to a similarly sharp rebuke from leaders there.

At the time Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen described the idea as "absurd", leading Trump to cancel a state trip to the country.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

All Hail Caesar

I wondered where it had been these last four years.

No, wait.  Trump isn't president yet.  It came back on Biden's watch???

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Night Before Christmas

Whatever happened to "Never Forget"?

I used to think "you won't let us" every time I saw someone writing or saying "Never Forget" about the attacks on 9/11.  I guess I was wrong.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

WTAF, CNN?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Truth

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's actually starting to be funny

I don't see his face on that.  Maybe it's on the back.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Commutations

I suspect he would not have done this had he not pardoned his son.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/24/2024:

That's the old Christmas spirit!

The decision was explicitly designed to stifle the death-penalty-loving Trump—who oversaw a modern record 13 federal executions during his first term—before he returns to office.

[...]

On Tuesday, Trump followed up his original post with a promise to pursue capital punishment once he’s back in power.”

“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” Trump wrote. “We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!”

  The Daily Beast

Irony exists. January 6, 2020. Anyone remember?

Biden emphasized, in announcing his decision, that he condemns the murderers and grieves for those who suffered losses.

“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice-president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he said.

Except for three people. WTF?

The Gaetz report

Trump and Clarence Thomas in unison:  Is that all???

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who briefly stood to become President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid numerous women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office, according to a final draft of a comprehensive investigative report obtained by CBS News.

[...]

Among the report's most lurid findings were the allegations of sex- and drug-fueled parties and travel, including a 2018 trip to the Bahamas where witnesses say he took ecstasy and had sex with four women.

"From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use," noted the report, which lists payments totaling more than $90,000 to 12 different women.

The committee said it also received testimony that at a 2017 party, Gaetz twice had sex with "Victim A," who was 17 years old at the time and had just completed her junior year in high school.

"Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex," the committee wrote. "Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age."

[...]

The committee said it did not find sufficient evidence Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute because although he transported women across state lines for the purpose of sex, those women were all 18 or older at the time.

[...]

The report found "substantial evidence" Gaetz engaged in rampant illicit drug use. The committee said it obtained text messages he sent where he referred to drugs as "party favors," "rolls" or "vitamins." It also said he created a fake email from his Capitol Hill office "for the purpose of purchasing marijuana." The report noted that Gaetz had denied using illicit drugs in his written answers to the committee.

In addition to sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, the report also accused Gaetz of accepting gifts of luxury travel in excess of permissible limits with the 2018 trip to the Bahamas. And, it said he arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the State Department that she was one of his constituents.

[...]

The House Ethics Committee had initially voted to keep the report under wraps, but reversed course in a secret vote earlier this month. Two Republican members of the committee were among those who voted for its release, according to two sources familiar with the vote. The committee has 10 members, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

  CBS News

Begging the question: Why did he wait until now?