Recently, djt has asserted that the American people signed up for the chaos and harsh policies of his administration and what and how MAGA elites are doing what they are doing. Maybe he is aware of some public resistance to his agenda and style. In an April 29, 2025 speech responding to concerns about economic instability caused by tariffs, djt said “Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on.” And, in an interview with ABC News, he said “They did sign up for it... I said that we've been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before.”
So, djt says voters explicitly wanted and accept his trade policy, and that constitutes a collective endorsement of mindless tariffs, with attendant economic chaos and price increases. Here, djt cynically conflate his electoral victory with unconditional policy mandates. As expected, djt did not mention that he was re-elected by a plurality of voters, not an outright majority. (OT: But I still want rock solid proof the 2024 election was not rigged -- until then, he remains an illegitimate thug to me)
Q: Did you sign up for this?
(I didn’t)
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CNBC reports that djt threatened Jeff Bezos if he carried out Amazon’s plan to show price increases that djt’s tariffs would cause to items sold on Amazon: “Trump complained to Bezos before Amazon said it scrapped idea to display tariff cost -- The White House slammed Amazon for reportedly planning to display the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs next to the total price of products on its site. “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Amazon later clarified that the plan to show tariff surcharges was ‘never approved’ and is ‘not going to happen.’”
So there we have it folks, Amazon is helping djt hide the cost of his stupid tariffs from us. Why? Our ignorance makes it much easier for him and MAGA elites to deny what the costs are. Consumers, as usual, will remain disinformed and in the dark as much as djt and MAGA elites can keep us that way.
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As expected, yesterday djt signed an EO, Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media, directing CPB to stop funding for NPR and PBS to the extent legally possible. I knew it was gonna happen before the 2024 election. How did I know? Because I knew that Project 2025 said NPR and PBS needed to be defunded. There was no clairvoyance, sixth sense or brilliant intellect involved. Just knowing what the freaking corrupt, authoritarian MAGA elite plan said the thugs wanted to do was involved. Now they did it.
At the EO signing, he accused NPR and PBS of producing biased coverage and “left-wing propaganda.” The EO includes these irrational, false statements: “Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens.” On social media, djt criticized the two primary public broadcasting networks, posting in all caps: “REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT 'MONSTERS' THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”
As usual, djt and his elite MAGA thugs are deeply insulting, deeply corrupt flat-out authoritarian liars.
This is the kind of news media that djt and MAGA elites tell us is credible.
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In a truly unexpected show of consistency by MAGA, The Arkansas Times reports that djt rejected elite MAGA thug and extremist governor Sarah Sanders’ plea for federal aid after storms damaged significant parts of the state. She says that Arkansas is in ‘dire need of federal assistance’. The article notes that djt refused to provide assistance. So there we have it. The fine people of Arkansas including their governor, overwhelmingly voted to put djt and his MAGA anti-government, anti-public interest ideology in power. 64% voted for djt and 34% for Harris. djt’s administration refused to declare a disaster, so no federal assistance will be sent. In their rejection, the MAGA elites said the damage wasn’t anything state and local folks couldn’t handle.
Now Arkansas and its people are now getting the fine service that the properly reigned-in and MAGAfied federal government and, filling in the gaps, infinitely better free markets, will provide, i.e., little to nothing. Dire needs will go direly unmet in the name of cutting waste, fraud, abuse and government. Arkansas’ people and governor enthusiastically asked for MAGA, and now they get what they voted for. It’s time for the people of Arkansas to be pulling themselves up by their bootstraps!
But who knows. Maybe gov. Sanders can do a transactional deal that satisfies djt long enough for him to release our tax dollars in return for for whatever he gets from his deal.
djt & Sanders
Eeew, that is just nasty!
Q: If there is a major disaster in a red state like Florida, e.g., a seriously damaging hurricane, and a major disaster in a blue state like California, e.g., a seriously damaging wildfire, is djt equally likely to turn down appeals form federal aid from both, or is a red state more likely to get relief?
The answer to that is not clear to me. I had assumed that red states would be preferential treatment and blue states would get shafted. Maybe that is not right.
