Trump's White House Makeover

 

Kacey Musgraves - Loneliest Girl

The Legacy of John Roberts

More of Trump's Corrupt Stock Trading

Last week, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released a filing showing thousands of individual stock purchases by convicted felon Donald Trump during the first quarter of 2026, prompting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to sound the alarm on social media, especially about Nvidia.

“Trump brought the NVIDIA CEO on his trip to China to lobby [President] Xi Jinping to buy advanced AI chips, even though it would create a U.S. national security threat,” Warren wrote Friday on social media. “It turns out Trump also bought millions in NVIDIA’s stock.”

In reaction, Eric Trump quoted Warren’s post and claimed that every single asset of his father’s is wrapped up in a blind trust, and called the suggestion that “any member of the Trump family” buys or sells individual stocks “a lie and blatantly false” before asking Warren, “Please be better than this...”

Eric Trump could do better himself by not lying, however.   “Trump’s assets aren’t in a blind trust, and he bought and sold individual Nvidia stock in 15 separate transactions totaling millions of dollars. That’s what Trump’s financial disclosure - which has his signature - says. See for yourself,” said Virginia congressman Don Beyer on social media.  Beyer then linked to a disclosure form that confirms Donald Trump purchased up to $1 million in Nvidia stock this year — mere days before the company was granted permission to sell advanced computer chips to China.

The 113-page document shows Donald Trump engaged in 2,345 purchases of mostly individual stocks this year and in 1,296 sales of the same. He signed the document on May 8, 2026, one week before he arrived in China, accompanied by Huang.

“The president purchasing Nvidia shares a week before his own Commerce Department allows them to sell one of our most valuable assets to our main geopolitical opponent is unfathomably more corrupt than anything on Hilary Clinton’s email server,” wrote one X user.

Trump claimed during his first term that there were no conflicts of interest regarding his finances because his assets were kept in a blind trust, only for then-head of the ethics agency, Walter Shaub, to state it was “not even halfway blind” — and resign in July 2017.

Trump has made a fortune since entering politics, with Forbes reporting in March that the president has a $6.5 billion net worth, is “leveraging his presidency for profit” and has added $1.4 billion to his coffers since his 2024 reelection.

 

Elon Musk is Mad Mythological Creatures Aren't White

Director Christopher Nolan is coming under fire from conservatives after the trailer debuted for his upcoming film, “The Odyssey,” based on the classic mythological poem by Homer. Nolan’s apparent crime in the eyes of the right-wing is the decision to cast Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o (who is Black) as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page (who is transgender) as Achilles.

Elon Musk, who also happens to be the most high-profile political donor to the Republican Party, is leading the hate brigade via his social media account. Musk  was on a tear amplifying bigoted posts about the movie while he accompanied President Donald Trump on a trip to China onboard Air Force One.

For instance, Musk amplified a post by conservative pundit Matt Walsh, who whined, “Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman.” In response, Musk wrote “true.”

Musk labeled another post that went after Page’s gender with a crude sexist joke about women purportedly not being able to open jars as a “banger.”  The right-wing network Newsmax is also a part of the hate campaign. Conservative host Rob Finnerty complained on his program about Nyong’o’s casting, insisting that Helen of Troy “was definitely white.”

Of course, Helen of Troy wasn’t “definitely” anything because she did not exist. The entire epic poem is a myth involving Greek gods, the Cyclops, sirens, the underworld, and other things that are not real. Conservatives have a habit of getting upset about diversity in fiction, particularly decisions to swap the race or gender of made-up characters.

The right was also up in arms when Black actress Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel in Disney’s live action “The Little Mermaid.”  Like Helen of Troy, mermaids are not real either.  But at the highest levels of conservative punditry and activism, diversity must be stamped out. The richest man in the world and right-wing television hosts agree that mythology is the domain of only straight, white people.

 

Keith Urban & Michael McDonald - We Go Back

Thursday, Everyone

 

Japanese Wolf Robots on the Prowl

"Super Monster Wolf" in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture

A Japanese company making ferocious-looking robot wolves is being swamped by orders after record numbers of fatal bear attacks on humans last year.  "Monster Wolf" is an animatoronic scarecrow with flashing red eyes that howls and growls menacingly to scare away wild animals.

Ohta Seiki, the Hokkaido-based firm that makes the devices, has already received around 50 orders this year, more than the usual volume for an entire year.  "We make them by hand. We cannot make them fast enough now. We are asking our customers to wait two to three months," company president Yuji Ohta told AFP.  "Awareness of bear safety and measures against wildlife damage (on farm products) improved. There was also a growing recognition that our product is effective in dealing with bears," Ohta said.

Orders come mostly from farmers, operators of golf courses and people working outside in rural areas such as in construction.  Bears killed 13 people across Japan in 2025-2026, more than twice the previous high.  More than 50,000 bear sightings were recorded nationwide, more than double the previous record set two years before.  The animals were seen entering homes, roaming near schools and rampaging through supermarkets and hot spring resorts on an almost daily basis.

The number of bears captured and then culled nearly tripled from a year earlier to 14,601, also marking an all-time high.  Last month, some northern regions also reported more than four times as many sightings as last year as the animals emerge from hibernation, local media said.

"Monster Wolf" features artificial fur draped over an assembled pipe frame, attached to speakers, topped with a menacing, open-mouthed face.  For prices starting from around $4,000 or higher, the system comes with a battery, solar panels, sensors, speakers and other apparatus.  It broadcasts more than 50 kinds of recorded sounds, including human voices and electronic noises, audible up to one kilometer away.  The device turns its head from side to side, flashes red LED eyes, while its tail is equipped with blue LEDs.

Ohta introduced the product in 2016 to prevent damage to agricultural products by deer, boars and bears, and it was initially derided as a gimmick.  The company is now upgrading the device by putting it on wheels to chase animals or patrol specific paths.  Ohta also plans to develop a hand-held version for hikers, anglers and schoolchildren, while also exploring artificial intelligence cameras for future models.   "We wanted to apply our manufacturing to do our part to deal with bears," he said.

 

Another Trump Blockade

 

Meanwhile, Back at the Office

 

Trump's America

 

The Trump Phone is Looking Like a Big Scam

The T1 Phone (a gold cell phone bearing President Donald Trump’s name) feels about as real as Bigfoot these days. It’s been close to a year since the flashy announcement that the Trump family was going to manufacture the very best, most American, most gold-plated phone ever. But there’s no phone in sight, and it’s increasingly looking like there never will be.

But if it never arrives, what happens to the $59 million that Trump Mobile raked in thanks to 590,000 suckers plopping down $100 each as a deposit?  By now, you should know how this works. Those folks are likely out of luck. Why would you ever give money to the Trump family on spec? They are just going to run away with it. 

After kicking the can down the road for months, Trump Mobile appears to have stealth-added some terms and conditions in April, intended to address the whole pre-order deposit problem. And if the Wayback Machine is accurate, these seem not to be updated terms but rather terms that may have never existed before April 6.

If you’re one of the people who gave away your $100, these terms will not engender confidence that you will ever get your gilded monstrosity of a phone. First, a pre-order deposit “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase.” You should also know that the “deposit does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms.” However, that statement is just a few lines down from a banner urging people to “LOCK IN YOUR T1 PHONE PROMOTIONAL PRICING NOW,” with a link to the order page. 

The deposit also isn’t for a specific phone but for whatever phone Trump Mobile finally releases, if any: “Device specifications, features, software, hardware components, storage capacities, bundled accessories, colors, and configurations are subject to change prior to final sale. Images, prototypes, beta demonstrations, and marketing renderings are illustrative only and may not reflect final production units.”

They had to get that in there, given that the illustrations of the nonexistent phone keep changing. At first, the phone was going to be “All-American,” all the time. However, the mock-up image appeared to be Samsung’s Galaxy 25 Ultra in a case. Notably, Samsung’s phones are not made in America. But the company has walked back that whole part anyway.   If Trump Mobile cancels the phone, they say they will issue a full refund. Of course, if Trump Mobile never cancels the phone and instead pretends that it is a going concern, that route to a refund is seemingly closed off.

Oh, and here’s another fun little thing. Other terms of service on Trump Mobile explain that disputes are subject to arbitration and courts in Palm Beach County, Florida,  which have exclusive jurisdiction over enforcing arbitration decisions.  But the terms and conditions no longer have an arbitration provision, so your only relief would be to file a lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida.   An entire lawsuit to get your $100 back, and it can be filed only in the county where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate lives?  Good luck on that.

 

The Rolling Stones - In the Stars

Desperate Times for Trump and His Iran War

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that “Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” claiming that the U.S. “achieved the objective of that operation”—even though Iran was still blockading the Strait of Hormuz and firing missiles at ships that tried to traverse it.

 The next day (as gas prices soared to fresh highs thanks to oil shortages caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz) the Trump administration somehow got Axios to uncritically report that the U.S. and Iran were close to a “one-page” peace deal to end the conflict.  It was a clear effort to try to lower oil prices to give Trump breathing room to figure out how to get out of the mess he created-- the higher gas prices climb, the more backlash he and the GOP get.  “The U.S. expects Iranian responses on several key points in the next 48 hours. Nothing has been agreed yet, but the sources said this was the closest the parties had been to an agreement since the war began,” Axios’ Barak Ravid (foolishly) reported.

Gullible commodities traders once again fell for the news, with oil prices dropping considerably after the Axios report came out.   Not surprisingly, the Axios reporting fell apart within minutes, after Iran said that the “agreement” Ravid reported was “more a list of American wishes than a reality,” with oil prices rising when investors realized they had again been had.

It’s the same cycle that’s played out multiple times over the last 10 weeks, with Ravid reporting that the war is either over or close to an end, only for that to proven to be false minutes later.  “Axios is a tool for White House market manipulation. The Islamic Republic is fully prepared for a potential major attack before Trump’s trip to China,” Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor with ties to the Iranian regime, wrote Wednesday in a post on X.

At the end of the day, Trump still has no idea how to end the war.  Iran clearly has an upper hand in negotiations with its ability to close the Strait of Hormuz. In fact, any “peace deal” could leave Iran better off than it was before Trump launched this stupid and costly war, as they could have a new revenue stream by charging tolls for boats to traverse the strait.

That outcome would be a political disaster, as Trump would not only have strengthened Iran, but would have permanently increased gas prices as a toll on oil would cause prices to be higher than they were when Hormuz passage was free.  “It will take a long time for ship owners and insurance companies to become comfortable with this unusual model, and freight rates and insurance premiums will remain elevated,” Artem Abramov, the head of oil and gas at Rystad Energy, told CBS News. “They’re adding to the cost of oil, and all these costs are being transferred to consumers.” 

 

Supreme Denial

 

Cinco de Mayo Mash-up

 

Meanwhile back at the Office . . .

 

Trump Says We're the Hottest Country on the Planet?

 

Dontcha Know It

 

The Strokes - Going Shopping