Over the past days, our nation, the world even, has been swept through the raging tides of a thief. It was not enough to give tax breaks to the rich, it was not enough to devastate the safety net of the poor, it was now to be the middle class upon the chopping block. And, fools that they were, they rooted him on as he decimated their retirement, made their groceries more expensive, and created a tax on every product they would purchase.
Perhaps I’m “too strong in my opinion”? Perhaps I’m “being unfair to a great patriotic American who only wants to secure a great future for our nation”? Ok, let me ask you who, like me, have invested all that you can into your 401k: How easily can you move your money around? Can you do it within a week? A couple of days? How quickly does your 401k manager react to emergency move requests? How much would you lose in transaction fees? While every middle class American who has their money locked into investments had little choice but to take it up the ass from this particular ass clown’s fuckery with the world economy, his friends and colleague’s pulled some mad money out of their lobbyist bribe fund and made a fortune.
I look forward to the moment the damned fools that voted for this man look deep into their mirror and realize that while he tanked their 401k’s (interestingly every damn republican administration has and twice now on this one), everyone with an ability to move large amounts of money around raped huge rewards.
Well, shit. Nevermind.
Boy, I am sure tired of all this winning.
Hugs Everyone. Good Luck. -randy
Oh, and btw, Liz – not buying it. You ain’t gonna do a damn thing.
April 12, 1935 60,000 students across the U.S. took part in the first nationwide student strike. The protest was against fascism and participation in any war. Posters from the anti-war movement of the 1930’s One of the events that day
April 12, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. and his fellow ministers Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy, along with 60 others were arrested on Good Friday in Birmingham, Alabama, for marching downtown. They had been denied a parade permit, and were violating a court order banning them from all protest activities. Public Safety Commissioner Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor had sought the injunction to put an end to a series of sit-ins, kneel-ins, boycotts and other nonviolent actions designed to challenge the local and state segregation laws. Fred Lee Shuttlesworth (left), Ralph David Abernathy (center), and Martin Luther King Jr. (right) march on Good Friday on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham. The Birmingham campaign of 1963 Arrest in Birmingham
April 12, 1971 Protest at Fessenheim The first European demonstration against nuclear power brought together 1300 peacefully to oppose construction of a nuclear power plant at Fessenheim, on the Rhine in the Alsace region of France. The four 900 megawatt reactors have been in operation since 1977.
Elon Musk got into a little tiffy-tiff with Peter Navarro, and I have to say, I like seeing these guys destroy each other.
You can’t choose a side between Elon and Navarro. You can only hope both lose. It’s like trying to choose a side during the war between Iraq and Iran (the US picked Iraq), or when the Dallas Cowboys play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or when the Atlanta Braves plays of the two baseball teams in Florida, or a fight between the insurance emu or Flo from Progressive, or Ice T in Carshield commercials vs gutter filter commercials, or a contest between Nickelback and the Kars4Kids song, or a battle between ketchup on hotdogs and Domino’s Pizza.
Side note: I just Googled to make sure it is Ice T in those stupid Carshield commercials, and just because I’m trying to be accurate and informative to serve you, I’m going to get thousand of Carshield ads in all my shit now. You’re welcome.
If you see two fucknuts in MAGA caps in a slap fight, you don’t choose a side, and for the love of god, you don’t break it up. You should get some popcorn and encourage each fighter. “Kick him in the nuts! Yeah, that’s how you do it. Hey, other guy. Are you going to let him get away with kicking you in the nuts like that?”
In case you don’t remember, Peter Navarro is a lying sack of turds. He was the director of the National Trade Council in the first Trump administration (sic), then director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. Now, in Trump 2.0 (sic), he’s senior counselor for Trade and Manufacturing. He’s also the first official from Trump’s White House (sic) to serve time in prison for trying to steal the 2020 election. Now, there are at least two felons in the White House.
This week, Navarro “guaranteed” the Trump tariff war will not bring a recession, just like he guaranteed there wouldn’t be a pandemic from COVID-19. Instead of investing in stocks, I’d rather place wagers on Peter Navarro being wrong about things.
But what’s going on between him and Elon?
Last Saturday, a poster on Twitter/X defended Navarro’s intellect as a voice on trade. This is like when a MAGAt tries to tell us that Trump knows what he’s doing. Navarro is a big part of Trump’s trade policies. Musk replied that Navarro’s Harvard Ph.D. suggested he had more ego than brains and that he “ain’t built shit.”
Musk has criticized Trump’s tariff war, and the two-day stock market crash, before coming back and crashing again, cost Elon at least $18 billion in Tesla stock. It’s kinda difficult to tell someone the tariffs are working when that someone just lost $18 billion because of the tariffs.
Then, Elon addressed an Italian political party (think of Nazis with risotto) by video and said, “Both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America.” That goes against Trump’s stance (for now), whose trade policy is wildly going in the opposite direction.
Navarro, who has been defending Trump’s tariffs, has said Trump’s tariffs will bring in over $600 billion in new annual revenue. That can’t be true at all because Trump is calling on other nations to negotiate, so these tariffs will eventually be reduced, either by negotiations or Trump chickening out because his balls dropped off again. If that is Trump’s intention (not his balls dropping off but reducing the tariffs), then we won’t be getting new revenue every year of $600 billion. But, if we do get $600 billion revenue from these Trump tariffs, it will be from American consumers. Navarro should be capable of understanding this because he has a PhD in economics from Harvard.
Navarro has written a dozen books which most economists call bullshit. Despite Navarro’s PhD from Harvard in economics, he believes a trade war with higher tariffs will allow us to cut more taxes. I don’t have a PhD in economics from Harvard, but I still know that tariffs are taxes on American consumers. Duh.
Navarro and Musk don’t agree on trade. So, after an insult from Elon, Navarro sent one back, saying Elon wasn’t a car manufacturer, just an assembler of parts. Uh oh.
Elon responded to the video (which we don’t need to watch), saying, “Navarro is truly a moron.” He also said Navarro is “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
And then Elon tweeted about 20 more times to defend himself and his shitty cars.
Elon is right about this. Peter Navarro is a moron who is dumber than a sack of bricks, but Elon is a moron, too. Elon is a lying Nazi-supporting moron.
But Elon got the better of this since he told Navarro to consult with economist Ron Vara. Who? Ron Vara is an economist Navarro has quoted in several of his stupid books. The only thing wrong with that is Ron Vara doesn’t exist. It’s an anagram of “Navarro.” Peter Navarro has to quote a fictional economist because he can’t find a real economist who shares his dumbasseconomic beliefs, probably because they’re fucking insane. Navarro is that one guy in the office who’ll advise that today’s lunch should be from Blimpies (I just finished 30 Rock).
Even Elon’s brother, Kimbal, said, “Who would have thought that Trump was actually the most high tax American President in generations?” He also said, “Through his tariff strategy, Trump has implemented a structural, permanent tax on the American consumer.”
This is like Rob Gronkowski knowing FTX cryptocurrency wasn’t real money before Tom Brady lost $30 million in it.
White House spokesgoon Karoline Leavitt was asked about the sparring between Elon and Navarro, and she explained it with, “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”
Oh, yeah. Leavitt is also a moron.
Maybe Trump is getting all of his trade advice from Gronk.
By the way, this is what inspired this cartoon.
Creative note: I have five ideas in my folder to choose from for the next few days. I felt this would be the best for today. This cartoon was so quick to draw that the files of it that I sent to my clients may be the smallest I’ve ever sent. The files with crowd scenes and lots of Easter eggs are huge.
Music note: I listened to Queens of the Stone Age.
Dictionary lookups from Wall Street, Main Street, and politics
‘Courage’
Lookups for courage were in the top ten on Monday morning, possibly because the word featured heavily in reporting on the “Hands Off” protests held across the country over the weekend.
Several thousand people turned out on an unusually warm April Saturday for a series of rallies across Hampton Roads to protest the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency moves to cut federal spending and roll back protections for minority groups. … “(My fellow service members) didn’t wait for someone else to solve the problem, we ran towards the fire … and now my friends, brothers and sisters in arms, and families who stood with us through it all, it is once again time to act,” Montiero said. “Not with weapons but with courage, not in the field of combat but in the public square.” —Gavin Stone, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia), 6 Apr. 2025
The size of the protests was bolstered by strong turnout in more conservative rural areas. Cheryl Campbell, who helped organize a gathering of about 300 in La Grande, said it’s easier to stay silent when the majority of those around you disagree with you. “It takes more courage to speak up here,” Campbell told the crowd on Saturday, “where many of our neighbors voted for Trump.” —The East Oregonian (Pendleton, Oregon), 6 Apr. 2025
Courage refers to mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. The word entered Middle English from the Anglo-French curage, which in turn comes from quer or coer, meaning “heart.”
(snip: see all the words! Those include: Kafkaesque, facilitate, bear market, and …)
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Thalweg’
Thalweg refers to the middle of the chief navigable channel of a waterway (such as a river) which constitutes the boundary line between states. (snip-more about thalweg on the page. Happy Saturday!)
This is some good news at a time when it is in such short supply. At a time when the religious fundamentalist have taken over the republican party in the US forcing the country in to the regressive past, other countries are moving progressively into the future. Hugs
with an emphasis on both physical and mental health for sexually diverse individuals.
Just days after marriage equality became the law in Thailand, the country’s national health ministry added hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to the free health services available to Thai citizens.
On Monday, Thailand’s Public Health Ministry allocated 145.63 million baht to the National Health Security Office for HRT, the Bangkok Post reported. The targeted funds will cover the HRT needs of 200,000 transgender Thais, the ministry estimated.
Deputy government spokesperson Anukool Pruksanusak said the allocation was in direct support of the government’s policy on marriage equality, with an emphasis on both physical and mental health for sexually diverse individuals.
He cited growing acceptance of diverse gender identities and transgender individuals’ reliance on hormone therapy to align their physical appearance with their gender identity for the allocation.
Self-funding for HRT prevented some trans individuals from gaining access to proper care, Pruksanusak said, leading to health risks if they resorted to purchasing and using hormones without medical supervision.
While the new marriage equality law replaces the terms “husband” and “wife” with inclusive, gender-neutral language, resistance to recognizing the full rights of transgender Thai citizens remains in Thailand.
Trans people face “numerous” barriers concerning health, education, work, freedom of movement and non-discrimination, according to Human Rights Watch.
Discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation has been illegal in Thailand since 2015, but transgender Thais have no legal avenue to change their gender on official documents.
That resulted last week in many marriages between transgender women and cisgender men that were officially documented as same-sex unions between men.
Transgender woman Nina Chetniphat Chuadkhunthod married her boyfriend of 22 years last Thursday with personal documents that still identify her as male. Thailand’s Parliament rejected a proposed gender recognition bill last February.
“We should use marriage equality as an opportunity to open another door for gender recognition,” said local trans rights advocate Hua Boonyapisomparn.
Nada Chaiyajit, a lecturer at Mae Fah Luang University’s law school, told Reuters, “We have come far in changing the law and there is some way to go for more inclusion.”
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