POKING AROUND ON DAY 107

Donnie Two Dolls

This is Day 107 of the attempted coup. There are 546 days to the midterms.

It’s official: you won’t be able to afford as many dolls as in the past. Toy maker Mattel’s first quarter financial report, released yesterday, foreshadowed price hikes to come. In a meeting with investors, the company reported net sales of $827 million for the period, up 2% year-over-year, but (like nearly every other company in the U.S.) pulled its full-year 2025 guidance “given the volatile macro-economic environment and evolving U.S. tariff situation.” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz also said prices for some products are expected to rise. Shifting the supply chain away from China is one of Mattel’s top priorities. The U.S. represents about half of Mattel’s global toy sales, and the company imports about 20% of its goods sold in the U.S. from China. Mattel told Reuters it would reduce imports into the U.S. from China to below 15% by 2026.

From the Department of The Bullshit Continues: Maladministration II is once again turning up the heat on colleges and universities – this time as it threatens to cut off federal student loan funds to schools whose former students aren’t paying back what they owe. The Education Department said it will begin enforcing a long-dormant rule that could block schools from receiving new federal student loan money if too many of their graduates are in default. The move could put many institutions at risk of losing a key pipeline for tuition dollars. The WSJ report said: “The government has long had the power to restrict federal student aid if too many students don’t pay it back—a check intended to make sure the government isn’t on the hook for degrees that don’t pay off for graduates. Losing eligibility for federal aid is a potentially devastating blow to a school’s ability to attract students.” The new warning comes as nearly 10 million borrowers are either in default or on the verge of it following the end of the pandemic-era pause on loan payments. Nearly one in four borrowers could be at least nine months behind on payments within a few months – a sudden “shock” to borrowers nationwide following years of leniency under the Biden administration.

From the Department of Mocking Them Is Fun: Hakeem Jeffries mocked Republicans for being "stuck" with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a candidate after Gov. Brian Kemp decided not to run for Georgia Senate in 2026. "Why does Donald Trump make such ridiculous statements, like he's unsure as to whether he has a responsibility to follow the Constitution?" Jeffries asked at a Monday news conference. "Why is the Republican Party stuck with Marjorie Taylor Greene as their candidate for the United States Senate seat in Georgia? It's because Donald Trump and House Republicans are on the run. They are crashing the economy in real time and driving us toward a recession... Democrats are running toward our constituents, and House Republicans are running away from them. So when you have Republicans in barely 100 days on the run, on the economy, on healthcare, and on Social Security, ridiculous statements are made or they're left with scratching the bottom of the barrel as it relates to candidates for U.S. Senate seats... They are on the run, and Democrats are going to keep the pressure on."

From the Department of This Decision Is Actually surprising: On Monday the DOJ said a lawsuit against the FDA seeking to sharply restrict the abortion pill mifepristone should be dismissed, continuing the position of the Biden administration. In a court filing, Maladministration II argued Idaho, Missouri and Kansas have no ties to Amarillo, Texas, where the lawsuit was filed. The states are free to file in their own districts, the DOJ said. “Aside from this litigation, the States do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas. The states cannot keep alive a lawsuit in which the original plaintiffs were held to lack standing, those plaintiffs have now voluntarily dismissed their claims, and the States’ own claims have no connection to this District.” The states did not file their own lawsuit but instead were granted the ability to intervene in a lawsuit first filed in 2022 by a group of anti-abortion physicians and medical associations. Last year, the Supreme Court dismissed that lawsuit, saying that private parties had no legal basis to challenge access to mifepristone. The justices found the conservative doctors in the lawsuit did not show they had personally been harmed by the government’s actions regulating mifepristone. Monday’s filing marks the first time Maladministration II has been asked to weigh in on the case.

From the Department of The Corruption Continues: Even Democrats who once supported regulatory legislation for "stablecoins" are backing off now that the Trump family is a major player in the crypto market, according to a new report in the NYT. “Stablecoins” are "a type of cryptocurrency that maintains a price of $1"; Crypto traders like stablecoins because they don't "swing in value the way other digital currencies do, making them convenient for many types of business transactions." (Like drug dealing and arms trading) A bill backed by the crypto industry called the GENIUS Act would be "one of the first formal acts by lawmakers to create a regulatory system that could help the industry grow in the United States." World Liberty Financial recently secured a deal with an Emirati venture fund backed by the government of Abu Dhabi to take $2 billion in deposits. The business venture would effectively funnel money "into a business led by the U.S. president’s family."Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that the legislation "will make it easier for the president and his family to line their own pockets. This is corruption and no senator should support it.”Senators were also concerned about the potential for fraud and money laundering. Senate Republicans need at least seven Democrats on board to move the legislation. On Monday, both Sen. Warren and Sen. Jeff Merkley separately moved to ask the Office of Government Ethics "to investigate the Trump family’s growing cryptocurrency business deals, calling them 'a startling degree of foreign influence and the potential for a quid pro quo that could endanger national security." I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one, Senators. Later this morning, several House Democrats walked out of a hearing on cryptocurrency legislation Tuesday, after Rep. Maxine Waters objected over concerns about Donnie’s recent ventures in the digital asset industry.

From the Department of SECDRUNK Is At It Again: Alleged Secretary of Defense Pete Kegstand is seeking a drastic cut to the number of high-ranking military officials. According to CNN, a new memo issued by SECDRUNK directs the department to cut 20 percent of four-star generals and admirals, and "also directs the Pentagon to cut the number of general officers in the National Guard by 20%, and to cut the total number of general and flag officers across the military by 10%. There are currently about 900 general and flag officers — those with the rank of one star or higher — across the military." Kegstand describes the move as a “critical” step to “removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions.” This comes after Donnie Two Dolls spent months talking about firing generals, after being constantly frustrated in his first term by senior military officials he had promoted to top administration positions, only for them to push back on many of his more controversial and illegal policy orders. Kegstand has long wanted to wage war on military leadership as well, explaining in a podcast last year that “I would say over a third [of generals] are actively complicit" in politicizing the military. And then you have a lot of grumblers who are sort of going along, trying to resist the nonsense as much as they can, but they’re not fundamentally changing it.”Author Don Winslow wrote X: "This is a TARGETED PROGRAM to remove GENERALS and ADMIRALS and other MILITARY OFFICERS that do not align politically with Donald Trump. This way if they ever declare martial law or invoke the military to break the law there will be little to no resistance from non-Trumpers." Writer Marlow Stern said: "Firing a bunch of 4-star generals to pay for Trump’s military parade." Podcaster Fred Wellman said: "You don't suppose that maybe we have more generals and headquarters today because warfare is more complex than it was in 1944 maybe? I know that would mean logic and analysis and you haven't got time for that with all of these videos and pushups you have to do."

Ifrom the Department of This Is Ominous: Attorney General Pam Blondie has launched an assault on the freedom of the press. Late last month, Bondi quietly issued a memo rescinding vital protections for journalists that had prevented the government from forcing reporters to reveal their sources or surrender their notes during leak investigations. Blondie’s memo, released late on a Friday afternoon, rescinded policies that had limited when and how Justice Department attorneys could pursue records or testimony from journalists, including in cases involving the unauthorized disclosure of government secrets to the press. The implications are chilling and immediate. The InJustice Department will now allow federal investigators to pursue communications from media outlets in government leak investigations, marking a complete reversal of Biden-era - and previous administrations’ - policies that protected journalists from becoming targets of government intimidation. Blondie’s justification? The InJustice Department “will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people.” Not disclosures that threaten national security, but those that “undermine President Trump’s policies.” Since when did exposing wrongdoing by our government become a crime against “the American people”? When Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, the Nixon administration tried to block their publication. The Supreme Court ruling in New York Times Co. v. United States upholding the press’s right to publish has been called one of the “modern pillars” of First Amendment rights with respect to freedom of the press. History shows that when presidents attack whistleblowers and the press, they’re usually trying to hide their own misdeeds. And it sure feels like that’s exactly what Bondi and Trump are now up to. What we’re witnessing is step one in the dictator’s playbook: silence those who tell the truth about your regime. The most alarming part is that Blondie reportedly wants to do next. According to sources close to the Justice Department, she has argued that leakers and reporters who provide information that she doesn’t like could be prosecuted for treason.

From the Department Of Miseducation: Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to Harvard on Monday telling the university it will no longer be eligible for new research grants from the government as it and Maladministration II battle on multiple fronts. The school will no longer be eligible for new grants until it can “demonstrate responsible management,” a senior Education Department official said on a call with reporters. “Public confidence in higher education as a sector is at an all time low, and that’s really because of all the essential terrible behavior at institutions like Harvard,” the official said. McMahon lists four aspects Harvard will have to correct in order to be able to apply for new grants: problems with antisemitism; alleged race-based discrimination happening at the Harvard Law Review; the “abandonment of rigor and academic excellence”: and a lack of “viewpoint diversity” on campus. The official said, “The bottom line of the letter is the Trump administration won’t stand by as taxpayer dollars are used to support policies that tolerate antisemitism or that support racist policies.” This comes from the people who managed to stand those words on their head in order to effect policies that are theopposite to what they claim to want to defend.

From the Department of The Trumpscum Are Not Political Prisoners: Donnie Two Dolls escalated his defense of former Mesa County, Colorado, Clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted last year in a scheme to undermine the 2020 election, calling her a “political prisoner” and demanding her immediate release. Posting Lies Anti-Social, he lashed out at Democratic Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who he accused of ignoring “Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State,” while targeting Peters, an election denier whom Trump described as “a 69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud. Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020. The same Democrat Party that flies to El Salvador to try to free an MS-13 Terrorist, is cruelly imprisoning, perhaps for life, a grandmother whose brave and heroic son gave his life for America.” Peters was convicted in August on seven criminal charges related to a security breach that occurred in the spring of 2021. Prosecutors said she allowed unauthorized access to voting equipment to prove false claims of election fraud – part of a broader MAGAfied movement to challenge the 2020 election loss. Donnie concluded: “Colorado must end this unjust incarceration of an innocent American. I am hereby directing the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to help secure the release of this 'hostage' being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons. FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!” Last year, Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison. Donnie reveals what he’s really about every time he goes here.

From the Department of Go AOC!: On Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ruled out a bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee – but not before taking a thinly-veiled swipe at her party’s continued preference for seniority. “It’s actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary, so I believe I’ll be staying put at Energy and Commerce,” the New York progressive lawmaker told reporter.

From the Department of The War On Science Continues: On Monday, Donnie Two Dolls issued an executive order placing new limitations on a form of biological research Maladministration II says caused the Covid-19 pandemic - a lab leak in China. The U.S. will halt funding in certain countries for so-called "gain-of-function" experiments -- aimed at enhancing the properties of pathogens. "There's no laboratory that's immune from leaks -- and this is going to prevent inadvertent leaks from happening in the future and endangering humanity," HHS Secretary RFK Jr. wrote on X. “Any nation that engages in this research endangers their own population, as well as the world, as we saw during the COVID pandemic," added Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health. Donnie has long championed the theory that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a result of gain-of-function research -- an alternative to the theory that the virus spilled over naturally from wild animals to humans at a seafood market in the same city. The Covid.gov website, which previously focused on promoting vaccine and testing information, is now devoted to highlighting arguments that favor the lab leak. The order also seeks to end funding for other types of life sciences research in countries deemed to lack sufficient oversight, significantly broadening the types of foreign research that could be targeted.

It further calls for the development of a strategy to "govern, limit, and track dangerous gain-of-function research across the United States that occurs without federal funding" -- though the extent of the government's control over non-federal research is unclear, and the order also calls for new legislation to fill any gaps.

From the Department of The Draft Dodger’s War Game Will Happen: Donnie Two Dolls went on Lies Anti-Social Monday night to double down on his plans to celebrate the end of World War I and World War II in the United States by designating specific "Victory Days" for each conflict. He doubled down on the idea Monday, but warned there wouldn’t be any time off to celebrate: "We won two World Wars, but we never took credit for it — Everyone else does! All over the World, the Allies are celebrating the Victory we had in World War II. The only Country that doesn’t celebrate is the United States of America, and the Victory was only accomplished because of us. Without the United States, the War would have been won by other Countries, and what a different World it would be. Therefore, I am hereby declaring a National Holiday in celebration of the Victories of World War I, where the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, and World War II, where the Victory date was May 8, 1945. We will not be closing the Country for these two very important Holidays, November 11 and May 8, World War I and World War II, because we already have too many Holidays in America — There are not enough days left in the year. We were Workers then, and we are Workers now! Documentation to follow." (This, from the man who spent 1/3 of Maladministration I on his golf courses and is set to beat that in Maladministration II)

From the Department of SECDRUNK’s Scandal Is Worse Now: On Monday, the Signalgate scandal got even worse when Joseph Cox and Micah Lee of 404 Media reported that a hacker was able to breach the TeleMessage app administration officials have been using in about 15–20 minutes. TeleMessage is a clone of Signal that has the additional ability to archive messages. The hacker retrieved messages, usernames and passwords, and data related to Customs and Border Protection and banking institutions. The hacker did not retrieve all it was possible to see, but could have done so, making the point that the system is not secure. Yesterday afternoon, the company that owns TeleMessage announced it was suspending service.

From the Department of Why am I Not Surprised: CNBC reported this morning that the U.S. farming sector is on the brink of crisis as Donnie Two Dolls’ trade war wrecks America's ability to ship crops abroad. "What began as a rapid drop in U.S. imports as shippers cut orders from manufacturing partners around the world has now extended into a nationwide export slump, with the U.S. agricultural sector and top farm products including soybeans, corn and beef taking the hardest hit. The latest trade data shows that a slide in U.S. exports to the world, and China in particular, that began in January now extends to most U.S. ports, according to trade tracker Vizion, which analyzed U.S. export container bookings for the five-week period before President Donald Trump’s tariffs began and the five weeks after the tariffs took effect." The numbers, per the report, are some of the worst that have been seen since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains in 2020. “We haven’t seen anything like this since the disruptions of summer 2020,” Vizion's CEO Kyle Henderson told CNBC. “That means goods expected to arrive in the next six to eight weeks simply won’t. With tariffs driving costs higher, small businesses are pausing orders. Products that once moved reliably are now twice as expensive, forcing importers into tough decisions.” Even before these numbers, the report noted, the agricultural industry "has been warning of a 'crisis' and ports data is showing more evidence of lack of ability to move product out to global markets." Some of the worst hit areas are Pacific Northwest ports like Portland and Tacoma, which specialize in shipping U.S. crops to Asia; the Port of Portland has already seen a 51 percent drop in exports. It’s not just limited to agricultural exports. Ford reported a 65 percent drop in first-quarter profits Monday, citing a near-term drag on auto sales from new vehicle launches, as it withdrew its forecast amid tariff uncertainty. The car maker estimated a full-year net hit of about $1.5 billion in adjusted operating earnings. Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis joined other automakers in suspending their annual financial guidance because of uncertainty over US tariffs. I hope the idiots at the UAW - who are as short-sighted as is traditional among US union leaders - take note of what their support for the auto tariffs is getting them: the industry expects to shed 20% of the assemblyline workforce as a result of the tariffs.

From the Department of I don’t Think this Is The Way To Conduct Foreign Relations, Donnie: Donnie Two Dolls set the stage for his Oval Office meeting with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney this morning with a bombastic social media post stating, "We don’t need ANYTHING they have...They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us!" He then repeated this sentiment to Carney's face minutes later, which raised eyebrows across social media. He also proclaimed to Carney that Canada would be the 51st U.S. state, saying” “As a real estate developer, when you get rid of that artificial line, when you look at that beautiful formation together, I said, ‘that’s the way it was meant to be.’” Carney then told Donnie to his face that Canada will never be America’s 51st state and is not for sale under any conditions, which prompted Donnie to reply “I say never say never. I’ve had many, many things that were not doable and they ended up being doable. Canada loves us and we love Canada. That’s I think the number one thing that’s important. But we’ll see. Over time, we’ll see what happens.” MSNBC commentator Barry McCaffrey expressed his dismay writing on X: "Trump dealing with PM Carney is an embarrassing and sad situation. Trump ego. Narcissism. Ignorance. Insulting. PM Carney dignified. Intelligent restrained."

From the Department of This Is Flagrantly Illegal: Forbes reported this morning that documents filed with British regulators show Donnie Two Dolls maintains control over his business empire. He has long insisted he has little to do with Trump Organization operations while in the White House, but the document, titled “Notice of Individual Person With Significant Control,” identifies him as an individual with influence over Golf Recreation Scotland Limited, through which he controls the Trump Turnberry golf course. "A more detailed section of the filing, labeled 'nature of control,' specifies that 'the person has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over the activities of a trust,'" the publication reported. "The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds Golf Recreation Scotland Limited,” Forbes concluded, “By stating that Trump has control over the trust, his business appears to admit that Trump maintains a grip on his entire empire."

And the good news is this:

From the ever-busy Department of Of Course This Will Happen: Donnie Two Dolls has run into a problem in court: federal judges have lost patience and trust with the InJustice Department attorneys defending his policies. The long string of cases in which DOJ attorneys under Pam Blondie have either been caught lying to judges, or Maladministration II has simply misrepresented judges' own rulings or tried to ignore them outright, are starting to work against them. It's eliminating a key advantage most administrations get in federal court. A Politico repot says, "Judges and juries alike tend to trust DOJ lawyers out of the gate — even ones they have never met before — by virtue of their positions and their obligation to uphold the Constitution and advance the public interest. Many federal judges were once Justice Department lawyers themselves. All day every day, in federal courthouses across the country, the Justice Department benefits from a general presumption of good faith when a DOJ lawyer walks into a courtroom because people assume that they are both honest and well-intentioned. That may be changing."

In recent months, a number of judges have grown visibly frustrated and distrusting. They "have been unusually sharp — at times directly questioning the honesty of the government’s lawyers and the accuracy of their factual claims — and taken together, they suggest that the administration’s officials are squandering the department’s credibility just when they need it most." This even makes its way up to the Supreme Court itself, a body with a majority of six Republican appointee. Back in 2019, when the court struck down Maladministration I’s plan to use the Census to interrogate people about citizenship, claiming it was just an attempt to enforce anti-discrimination law, Chief Justice Roberts wrote: “We are presented ... with an explanation for agency action that is incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency’s priorities and decisionmaking process,” calling out the DOJ's dishonesty. This morning in New York, in a brutal decision, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein began by giving DOJ lawyers a history lesson. "This nation was founded on the 'self-evident' truths 'that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, [and] that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Our Constitution embodies these truths, in a limited government of enumerated powers, in its system of checks and balances separating the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and in its guarantee that neither citizen nor alien be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Yet, in March 2025, more than 200 aliens were removed from this country to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (“CECOT'), with faint hope of process or return. The sweep for removal is ongoing, extending to the litigants in this case and others, thwarted only by order of this and other federal courts."

From the Department of The Intelligence Agencies Are Still Intelligent: Donnie Two Dolls’ rationale for abruptly deporting migrants to an El Salvador mega prison has been knocked down by U.S. intelligence agencies. The CIA and NSA both determined that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his acolytes do not direct the activities of the Tren de Aragua gang, which was the White House’s justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act. “While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA’s movement to and operations in the United States.” The intelligence agencies determined Tren de Aragua is an adversary of the Venezuelan government and is “too disorganized” to carry out orders from Caracas. The small size of TDA’s cells, its focus on low skill criminal activities and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling,” according to the NYT. Let’s see how Cult Girl Tulsi Gabbard responds to this.

Cookie and Robyn

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