Mumford & Sons with Chris Stapleton - Here

Wildlife Gone Viral

 

Jack White - Dollar Bill

Death Cab for Cutie - Stone Over Water

Shania Twain - Dirty Rosie

Meanwhile Back at the Office . . .

Survived the Celebrations

Happy Fourth!

 

Trace Adkins - American Made

Remembering Those That Fought Before Us

Nothing to See Here!

On the Hunt for the Saboteurs!

Pool Shenanigans

Whiskeyleaks Pete is on the Case!

Trump is On the Case!

Niall Horan - Monochromatic

Saboteurs on the Loose in DC!

Yoda Did It!

Update From the Reflecting Pool

Tarp Drama

Mystery of the Algae

Supreme Disappointment

The Supreme Court, as per usual, has saved the biggest cases for last, with a big stack  remaining—too many of which are about whether President Donald Trump can continue dismantling democracy.

I won't bother to talk about the immigration cases.  It's quite certain that the conservative cabal will let convicted felon Donald Trump do whatever he wants to brown and black people-- cause of course, there's no more racism, right?

We’ve got Trump v. Cook, about whether Trump was allowed to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board based on ginned-up mortgage fraud allegations from the egregiously bad Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.   Trump said he fired Cook “for cause” based on these unproven, uncharged allegations and that his decision can’t possibly be challenged.  Following oral argument, it looks like Cook has the votes to stop Trump from firing her. But even if she wins, it comes at a huge cost—literally; she’s spent more than $1 million fighting this.

Here’s where things get a bit squirrelly. While simultaneously signaling that they’ll block Trump from removing people from the Fed, the court is also still sitting on Trump v. Slaughter, where he removed Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission.  Sure, there’s a direct precedent that is nearly 100 years old, Humphrey’s Executor, which says that the president can’t fire an FTC commissioner without cause. But this is not a court that’s interested in following their own cases.

The Supreme Court conservatives have been playing a little shadow docket game here, letting Trump fire whoever he wants without directly saying they’re overruling Humphrey’s, but it’s looking pretty likely that they will rule in favor of Trump here.  So we’re looking at the court possibly carving out a special exception to bar Trump from firing Fed board members—because conservatives love their 401(k)s and don’t love financial chaos—but to let him fire anyone else from any other agency as he pleases.

Does this make sense? Nope. Will the conservative majority care? Nope.

The most critical remaining case is Trump v. Barbara, the birthright citizenship case where Trump showed up to vaguely glower at the judges during oral argument and has been openly threatening the justices, demanding that they rule in his favor.  From oral argument, it doesn’t look like he has the votes, but mostly it’s just shameful that the case even exists—a product wholly of Trump’s xenophobic malice propped up by MAGA law professors who somehow “discovered” that the 14th Amendment doesn’t say what it says.  If and when Trump loses this one, he’s going to lose his mind worse than he did when his idiotic tariffs got shut down.

And finally, it wouldn’t be a Supreme Court term without an anti-trans case that looks to succeed—enshrining even more of Trump’s bigotry into law.  Earlier this term, the court ruled that Colorado’s conversion therapy ban was likely unconstitutional, leaving LGBTQ+ children at the mercy of Christian “therapists” who “help” them by forcing them to be straight. It also upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care—but only for trans kids.  This time around, it’s about banning trans kids from participating in sports. West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox are combined cases challenging state bans on trans athletes. And from oral argument, it looks bad. 

While we don’t know the outcomes yet, we do know one thing for sure: Whenever Trump and his ilk win, the rest of us lose. 

 

Taylor Swift - I Knew It, I Knew You

Seeing Green

Pool's Ready!

The Art of the Mis-Deal

So what about Trump's so-called deal with Iran?

 First of all, it's not a deal.  It's an MOU/framework that will guide negotiations over the next 60 days.  What does the MOU call for?

1. A 60-day ceasefire (we already had peace before Trump started the war).

2. The re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz (we already had that)

3. The end of the naval blockade (we already had that)

4. Iran agrees that it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons (something they already agreed to under the previous deal)

5.  The U.S. agrees not to impose any new sanctions on Iran until a final deal is reached

6. The U.S. will waive oil sanctions ​on Iran for a specified period, allowing Tehran to sell oil and receive revenue

7. The U.S. ⁠agrees to release $25 billion of Iran’s frozen assets

8. The U.S. will prepare a reconstruction and development plan for Iran

9. Iran will have access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund (as confirmed by JD Vance)  

10. Iran would be allowed to charge maritime service fees on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz (instead of tolls). 

11. Iran can dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium on Iranian soil (instead of being seized by the U.S.)

12. Iran’s ​nuclear program, uranium enrichment activities and mechanisms  ​for handling its stockpile of highly enriched uranium will be negotiated within 60 days ​and addressed in a final agreement (so, kicking the can down the road on that one). 

So basically-- 1, 2, 3 & 4 we already had (no new gain for either side);  5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 are a net plus for Iran;  and 12 is TBD (no progress yet).  Sounds like a resounding win for Iran-- way to go, Orange man!

 

Putting on a Good Face for the World Cup

Happy Fucking 80th to the Orange Man

Musk's Starbase is Fracturing a Small Texas Town

The arrival of SpaceX has brought good business to Eddie Reyes and his family. Since the establishment of Starbase, Elon Musk's company town in south Texas, his charter boat business has picked up ‌as space fans flock to the area for a glimpse of launches. Reyes' nephew works at SpaceX as a welder, driving a Tesla Cybertruck.  But the same rockets Reyes sees lifting his family's fortunes are also shaking his mother's home. Shockwaves from launches are cracking the ceiling, ‌loosening window seals and sinking the foundation. She's among dozens of residents now suing Musk's company for damage.

While SpaceX's rapid expansion is bringing jobs, visitors and global attention, it is also fueling lawsuits, environmental concerns and a growing divide among the 1.4 million residents of the Rio Grande Valley. "This company is literally shaking the earth," said Tino Villarreal, city commissioner of Brownsville, a city of 185,000 people that borders Starbase. "By the amount of workforce it wants to produce, by the actual wavelengths that are shaking our soil."

Some local Rio Grande Valley residents initially welcomed SpaceX. Maria Pointer lived in the region for ​almost two decades when she sold her home to SpaceX in 2020 after meeting ​with Musk. "We were excited," she said. "I really felt, at the time, that we deserved the moon as the gas station to wherever all the Elons of the world wanted to go in interstellar space."  Over time, Pointer has become less optimistic, saying the town has become less friendly. In April, she went to Starfactory to film an interview with an Italian news crew, beneath a huge "X" near the entrance to the building, where her kitchen once stood. A security guard approached and instructed them to leave. "It was very military," she said.

Other residents of neighboring towns – Laguna ​Vista, Port Isabel and South Padre Island – claim the Starship launches are damaging their homes, according to a class-action ‌lawsuit filed in April against SpaceX.  One plaintiff, who declined to speak on the record at her attorney's direction, showed Reuters her Port Isabel home. Cabinets sit unevenly, doors no longer close, and chipboard covers warped flooring she said was damaged by mold after a ​shower pipe burst following a rocket launch. She estimates foundation repairs at about $100,000, more than half the home's value.  "They're wanting to get to Mars," she said. "But what about us that are here? I'm here now. And nobody is thinking about us."

 

Keeping it Real

Ariana Grande - Hate That I Made You Love Me

A Cup Overflowing With Hate and Greed

The World Cup opened today with an estimated 5 million international visitors descending upon Mexico for the kickoff of the 39-day international sports event.  The United States’ neighbor to the south is struggling with its own social issues as protesters take to the streets to shine a light on their government’s shortcomings.   But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s welcoming of foreign fans and other cultures stands in contrast to the way the U.S. is approaching upcoming games. 

While the World Cup presents a message of international unity through the love of fútbol, the Trump administration’s changes to immigration policy and isolationist posturing send a starkly different message.  Numerous reports of human rights abuses and alleged racial profiling at the hands of federal agents have surfaced over the past 17 months. The Trump administration doubled down on its anti-immigrant agenda by slamming the door on immigrants seeking refuge—unless they happen to be white South Africans.  The number of visas doled out was drastically cut, while nonwhite refugees were turned away from the U.S.

And now Trump’s racist rhetoric is being reflected on the world stage.  Amid his ongoing war on Iran, the White House barred Iranian soccer players from practicing and preparing for their upcoming games in the United States. Instead, the team had to land in the Mexican border city of Tijuana to wait out their match in Los Angeles. And while the players will be permitted to enter the U.S. a day before they take to the green, members of their support staff were turned away.  Criticism ratcheted up after a Somali referee was denied entry upon landing in the U.S.   To make the situation extra tense, the U.S. has reportedly flouted FIFA regulations that require 8% of tickets to be allocated to visiting countries so they can sell seats to their supporters. Iran’s ticket allocation was revoked by the U.S., leaving fans high and dry.

“I view the 2026 World Cup as a massive paradox,” professor Jules Boykoff, author of “Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing and the FIFA Greed Machine,” told NPR.  “On one hand, it has more teams than ever participating,” Boykoff said. “On the other hand, because of the policies of the Trump administration, it looks more like a World Cup of exclusion than inclusion.”

 

Shakira & Burna Boy - Dai Dai

Angélique Kidjo & Quavo - Bando

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

Trump Pushes White Nationalist Fantasy in Front of Embarrassed King Charles

King Charles of the U.K. sat awkwardly yesterday as convicted felon Donald Trump delivered a racist, blood-and-soil speech to “welcome” him to the White House.  In a bizarre and deeply uncomfortable moment during the visit of King Charles III, Donald Trump delivered a rambling, race-tinged tribute that sounded more like 19th-century white supremacist rhetoric than a modern presidential address.  In the first few minutes of his remarks (which surely must have been written in part by white nationalist Stephen Miller), Trump unleashed the following: 

Long before Americans had a nation or a constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts: moral courage, and it came from a small but mighty kingdom from across the sea. For nearly two centuries before the revolution, this land was settled and forged by men, women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and Great Britain’s distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride, and that’s what it is: glory, destiny, and pride.

The American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance. Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true.

In recent years, we’ve often heard it said that America is merely an idea, but the cause of freedom did not simply appear as an intellectual invention of 1776. The American founding was the culmination of hundreds of years of thought, struggle, sweat, blood, and sacrifice on both sides of the Atlantic.

Let me first say that "moral courage" in the United States didn't come solely from a "small but mighty kingdom from across the sea."  It also came from America's indigenous peoples, African slaves and Mexican immigrants, whose descendants are an integral part of the American culture.  In his ignorant mind, Trump was arguing that "America" was the result of “hundreds of years of thought, struggle, sweat, blood and sacrifice on both sides of the Atlantic” –  implying that America’s greatness comes from white European bloodlines.

 

His attempt to shoehorn in a paraphrase of Churchill at the end fell completely flat and came off as awkward and forced in context. Trump, who often comically claims he’s the “least racist person” in the room, is nonetheless standing beside the King of England, pushing a vision of American identity rooted in racial and ethnic purity rather than the ideals of liberty, equality, and democracy that actually define this country.

 

It was embarrassing, ahistorical, and revealing.  Trump isn’t celebrating America’s founding values. He’s pushing a white nationalist fantasy that has no place in 2026.

 

Keystone Kash and His FBI Not Sure Who Shot Who at the Hilton

Three days after the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Keystone Kash's FBI is still unsure who shot a Secret Service officer during the assassination attempt outside the Hilton ballroom. The Secret Service officer was wearing a bulletproof vest, but sources say investigators haven’t found the fragment that pierced it — and can’t definitively say whether it came from the suspect.  Bottom line: investigators are still unable to say for certain whether the armed attacker shot the officer or how he was injured.

Law enforcement agents on the scene Saturday initially believed Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect who breached the dinner’s final checkpoint, fired his shotgun and struck the officer with buckshot from his weapon.  A check of Allen’s shotgun showed that he discharged one shell but did not reload, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Monday. 

In its review, a Secret Service team estimated that Allen was running nine miles an hour and then stumbled somehow and fell a few yards past the checkpoint. That raises the question among law enforcement professionals of how a person moving that fast could have stopped, turned around, and fired his weapon at an officer behind him.

At a Monday news conference, Blanche said Allen had been charged with discharging a firearm during a crime of violence because the FBI determined he fired a single shell from the shotgun he was carrying.  But he said authorities were not prepared to say whether that was the shot that hit the Secret Service agent’s body armor.

Blanche said investigators also determined that the agent who was shot fired five rounds at Allen, none of which hit the suspect. He said they could not be sure those were the only rounds fired by law enforcement officers.  But this contradicts the Secret Service, who said its investigators collected the firearms of all Secret Service officers and agents on the scene and found no evidence that anyone else fired their weapons, a law enforcement official said.

Hopefully, the FBI will get its act together before tomorrow's hearing. 

 

Hypocrisy of the The Slovenian Sphynx

Melania Trump's criticism of Jimmy Kimmel has been met with calls of hypocrisy – and social media users have the receipts that show it.  In a post on social media, the first lady tried to criticized Kimmel’s “hateful and violent rhetoric”, labeling him a “coward” and called for the TV network to “take a stand.”

Last week, late-night TV host made a joke about the first lady, suggesting she had “a glow like an expectant widow”.  On his Monday night show, Kimmel explained the joke was in relation to Melania and Donald Trump’s age difference (56 and 79, respectively), and was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”  As if anybody with half a brain needed an explanation of the obvious!

It didn’t take long for people to point out that the rhetoric coming from none other than her own husband is pretty violent itself. 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the office . . .

Trump's Monster

 

Madonna - I Feel So Free

As If You Needed Another Reason to Avoid Tesla

When Tom LoSavio bought hisTesla Model S in 2017, he thought he was buying a car that would one day drive itself.  LoSavio paid more than $100,000 for the luxury sedan, including $8,000 for lifetime access to its most advanced driver-assistance features. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said that the hardware in the company’s cars would eventually allow all of its cars to drive themselves.  “My wife and I talked about what a great thing it would be if we could just get in a car and have it drive us places,” LoSavio told The Wall Street Journal.

In the nine years since, LoSavio said it has become clear that Tesla took him for a ride. He is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that alleges that Tesla charged customers thousands of dollars in pricey upgrades for a product that didn’t, and still doesn’t, exist.  LoSavio alleges that Musk and Tesla have made repeated claims that were false about the self-driving capabilities of these vehicles and misled consumers who paid extra because they believed the company’s marketing. His lawsuit is one of several ongoing efforts by Tesla owners looking to hold the company accountable for overpromising and under-delivering on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) product.

Tesla is facing mounting legal issues in Netherland and Australia, over charges that the company misled customers about the cars’ capabilities. The matter calls into question Musk’s decade-long marketing pitch that Tesla’s autonomous vehicles were just around the corner. That promise kept Tesla’s stock near all-time highs—and with a market cap that exceeds most other automakers combined—even as its share of the electric-vehicle market has eroded.

The lawsuits and European campaign represent just thousands of Tesla customers. Wall Street analysts, however, estimate that there are millions of Teslas on the road with the outdated hardware no longer capable of running the most sophisticated version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.  LoSavio won class-action status for his lawsuit in September. The class represents approximately 3,000 people in California, a figure that excludes the many Tesla owners who have signed arbitration agreements with the company that prevent them from suing. 

Tesla started including early versions of its self-driving tech in its vehicles in 2014. By 2015, Musk was publicly claiming that Tesla vehicles could drive themselves entirely within two years. Then in 2016, Tesla announced that all new cars built from then on had the hardware required for full self-driving. Musk told the press that a Tesla would drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City by the end of 2017.

But it was all bullshit.  Eventually Tesla’s plans required a more sophisticated computer and cameras than were installed in LoSavio’s car. In 2020 and 2021, it started offering customers upgrades to the third edition of its computer and camera set. Some customers like LoSavio, who paid upfront for lifetime access, got complimentary upgrades from Tesla. Others who wanted to use the FSD/self-driving technology but paid monthly could pay $1,000 for the upgrade.

Then in 2023, Tesla upgraded its hardware for the fourth time and started selling new cars with its latest chip. That meant that customers like LoSavio, who got updated to the third-edition computer a few years prior, once again had outdated equipment. The company hasn’t made any moves since January 2025, when Musk told investors that the company would have to do yet another computer upgrade for customers who bought the lifetime FSD (Full Self-Driving) package.

 

Earth Day Revisited

Keystone Kash Paranoid About Being Fired

On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log into an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.”  News of his emotional outburst ricocheted through the bureau, prompting chatter among officials and, in some corners of the building, expressions of relief. The White House fielded calls from the bureau and from members of Congress asking who was now in charge of the FBI.  It turned out that the answer was Patel-- he had not been fired. The access problem, two people familiar with the matter said, appears to have been a technical error, and it was quickly resolved. “It was all ultimately bullshit,” according to one FBI official who spoke with the Atlantic.

But Patel, according to multiple current officials, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. And he has good reasons to think so—