POKING AROUND ON DAY 148

It’s day 148 of TACO’s failed coup. There are 504 days to the mid terms. We are winning.

Among Democrats - "Do you support Democrats like Sanders and AOC who call for a more aggressive stance towards Trump, or moderate Democrats who are willing to compromise with Trump issues important to their base?" AOC/Bernie: 70% Moderate Dems: 30%. Source: Harvard-Harris / June 12, 2025

The next No Kings protest is set for July 17. Numbers are coming in and it looks like Saturday was closer to 11 million participants than 6 million. Let’s make it 15 million and overthrow the coup!

The man who died after a “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been identified as a fashion designer and former contestant on “Project Runway.” 39-year-old Arthur Folasa Ah Loo was killed by a stray bullet when shots were fired at the protest by a man who is believed to have had an AR-15 and another man believed to be part of a peacekeeping team. Police say Ah Loo died at the hospital. The volunteer told police that he had seen 24-year-old Arturo Roberto Gamboa acting suspiciously before he pulled out an AR-15. Two volunteers told Gamboa to drop the weapon, but he allegedly refused and began running toward the crowd. Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said he is unsure why the man had a rifle, but he has been charged with murder, and they are accusing him of creating the situation that led to Ah Loo’s death. Ah Loo dedicated his life to celebrating artists who are from the Pacific Islands. He has a wife and two children, according to the GoFundMe page that was started by his family. That fund has raised over $205,000 as of Monday afternoon. Why oh why is it *always* the good ones?

American shoppers slowed spending in May, as retail sales fell 0.9% last month, the Commerce Department announced this morning. April data was also revised lower; retail sales fell by 0.1% in the month, versus the 0.1% gain the government first estimated. Thank you TACO, for this shit sandwich! Can I have some more?

An overnight Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed 15 people and injured 156, local officials said Tuesday, with the main barrage demolishing a nine-story Kyiv apartment building in the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year.Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X, calling the Kyiv assault "one of the most horrific attacks" and "pure terrorism." At least 14 people were killed as explosions echoed across Kyiv for almost nine hours, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said, destroying dozens of apartments. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 139 people were injured in Kyiv. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko announced that Wednesday would be an official day of mourning. A U.S. citizen died in the attack after suffering shrapnel wounds, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters. Fuck the pro-Putin traitors in Maladministration II!

And unfortunately the Israeli Defence Forces are still the Israeli War Crimes Forces: Dozens of Palestinians were killed as they sought food in Gaza on Tuesday, according to local health officials, in what appeared to be the deadliest single incident so far since a U.S. and Israeli- backed organization replaced established aid groups in the shattered enclave. Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, told NBC News that Palestinians were attacked by Israeli forces as they waited to collect aid near Al Tahlia in the area of Khan Younis on Tuesday. The IDF said in a statement that a gathering had been identified near an "aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area." It said the IDF was aware of "reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd’s approach" and said the details were under review. "The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals," it added. How fucking nice of you fucking war criminal Nazi fucking scumbags. (I really really hate coming to this conclusion)

Cookie is on day three of crossing the Rainbow Bridge. She really doesn’t want to go, but I told her all her old friends are waiting for her. There will be Cookie photos till it happens.

After returning early (before he could fuck up further) from the G7 meeting where he publicly shit himself and demonstrated that yes, he really is a Putin stooge, TACO said this morning that the Ayatollah Kamenei is “not a target at this time.” He also said “We control the skies over Iran,” which puretty much joins us at the hip with the fuckwitted Nitwityahoo. The big decision for TACO may be whether to use B-2 bombers to drop the the 30,000 pound GBU-57 MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) bunker-busting bombs on the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran that is buried in a mountain. He posted on Lies Anti-Social that “Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA!” (If you’re talking about repeatedly screwing the pooch and always taking the wrong lesson from every fuckup, yes, that’s a true statement.)

The Big Bad Bill is continuing to hurtle toward either a defeat for Maladministration II if it fails or a defeat of Maladministration II if it passes. The Senate’s version the BBB goes further to reduce Medicaid spending than the House-passed bill does, according to GOP aides familiar with the legislation. GOP aides say it will go further to tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements and to restrict states from using health care provider taxes to draw down more federal Medicaid funding. “It’s still f’d up,” a GOP aide said about the Senate’s Medicaid legislation, which does nothing to alleviate the concerns of several Senate Republicans who raised objections to the Medicaid language in the House-passed bill. At least four Republican senators have publicly raised concerns that Medicaid spending cuts passed by the House could hurt their constituents: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). Senate GOP leaders can afford to lose only three votes and still pass the party-line bill.

A broad range of GOP senators, including Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Rick Scott (Fla.), had called for more deficit reduction in the bill, which is expected to spend roughly $150 billion on border security and immigration enforcement and increase defense spending by another $150 billion. What none of them want to talk about is that passage of this version of the BBB will automatically result in even greater cuts to Medicare than the abomination passed by the Confederate traitors in the House does. Their victory now will announce their defeat next year.

And after coming up with that fakakte, the Senators compounded the mistake in the tax portion of the Big Bad Bill by locking in existing federal tax brackets, boosting the standard deduction and maintaining the termination of personal exemptions - without sunsets. They also set a lower increase for the child tax credit, raising it to $2,200 per child as opposed to the House’s $2,500.

Their version creates new deductions for taxes on tips, overtime pay and car loan interest but doesn’t make them fully deductible. Tips are deductible up to $25,000 through 2028. Overtime pay is deductible up to $12,500, or $25,000 for joint filers, through 2028. Auto loan interest is deductible up to $10,000, also through 2028. And they reestablished the SALT deduction cap at $10,000. After intense debate the Gop House voted to raise it to $40,000. The reversion has incensed members of the House SALT Caucus who have threatened to vote against the measure absent the deal. The result? There is no GOP majority for any version of the Big Bad Bill. It’s another failure in Trump’s lifetime list of failing at everything.

It turns out Maladministration II has already fucked up the VA even more than expected. Doctors and other medical professionals working for Veterans Affairs can now refuse to treat Democrats and unmarried veterans. VA hospital bylaws previously barred medical staff from discriminating against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter,” The Guardian reported in their expose of this. Now, in response to President Donald Trump’s January executive order on “gender ideology,” the restrictions on “national origin,” “politics,” and “marital status” have been removed from the list, allowing medical staff to deny treatment based on their personal politics. Similarly, the bylaws on staffing decisions no longer prohibit discriminating against candidates on the basis of national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a union, or affiliation with a “lawful political party.” With more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics, the VA is the largest integrated hospital system in the U.S. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually. The new rules apply to a wide range of professionals, including psychologists, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, podiatrists, social workers, and speech therapists. It wasn’t immediately clear how the VA made the leap to denying patient care and firing doctors over their political affiliations. Under the new rules, doctors could question veterans about whether they had attended Trump rallies or protests, experts warned. VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz did not deny that doctors can refuse to treat patients based on their beliefs or that hospitals could fire physicians based on their marital status or political affiliation. “All eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law,” he said in a statement, calling the rule changes a mere “formality.” I think the operative word in that salad is “eligible.” These scum want to have only “real ‘Murrikins” qualified as “eligible” to receive their benefits. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly adamantly denied The Guardian’s reporting, telling Aaron Glanz, the reporter who wrote it, “Aaron, this is a totally FALSE story that The Guardian should retract immediately. Fearmongering with our Veterans to try to score clicks for your failing ‘news outlet’ is pathetic and shameful.” The VA responded on X, writing, “This story is disinformation. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law.” Again, the definition of “eligible” is what is in play here, and since every word spoken by every Trumpfuck is a lie, including “and” and “the,” the more they protest the more you know they’ve been caught once again. Since each hospital has its own rules, I’m probably safe for the forseeable future since I’ll be leaving LA (good rules) for the Portland VA (also good rules). Sure wouldn’t want to go to a VA facility in any red state though.

I think we’re going to be seeing more and more good news in these reports. There’s a bunch today:

U.S. District Court Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, ruled on Monday that targeting research funded by the NIH based on certain topics was unlawful and arbitrary. He directed Maladministration II to immediately make the funds available to grant recipients again. In February, the NIH issued directives terminating grants relating to LGBTQ issues; gender identity; and diversity, equity and inclusion. In response, several organizations including the American Public Health Association (APHA), the American Civil Liberties Union, Ibis Reproductive Health and others sued to reverse the directives. “The ideologically motivated directives to terminate grants alleged to constitute DEI, ‘gender ideology,’ or other forbidden topics were, in fact, arbitrary and capricious, and have now been ruled unlawful,” said Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a plaintiff in the case. “We’re certainly very pleased with the judge’s decision, and actually the way he portrayed it as, you know, discrimination. I think that’s pure and simple, that the administration was trying to undermine the health and well-being of these populations,” Georges Benjamin, executive director of the APHA, said. Maladministration II to appeal to halt Young’s ruling. This brings HHS Secretary The Wrong RFK Got Shot’s legal victory record to 100% losses.

This will obviously be of no importance to anyone but me, but it is good news for those who like seeing corporate mo-fos reined and we can all get a chuckle too. With all the bad news around Warner Brothers Discovery ever since the company was stitched together in hopes that Tiffany (HBO) and Papa John’s Pizza (Discovery Networks) could actually fit in the same space (nope), there has been annual derision here about how CEO David Zaslav continues to get $50+ million a year in pay and stock options while tanking the company. Word came out last month that this time it would be $52 million in the same month it was revealed WBD had lost 60% of its value since the merger, news that resulted in the stockholders voting in a non-binding resolution to cut Zaslav down 20 pegs or so. It was thought that regardless of reality, he would still power through, but - holy shit! - sometimes reality does get a fighting chance. There is a certain “Mmmmmm” now passing through the stratosphere properties here at this news: shareholder outrage actually matters! Zaz’s pay will be “significantly” reduced, “including lowering his annual cash compensation opportunity and reorienting the total pay mix toward long-term incentives,” per an S.E.C. filing. Meaning his cash bonus opportunity will drop from $22 million to $6 million. And if the coming split of the company means he can actually engineer a turnaround for all shareholders, the new deal will reward him very handsomely. But in that case - which is pretty fuckin’ remote - he’d actually deserve it. (I can’t wait till I’ve been in Hood River long enough to actually lose interest with the B.S. in this town.)

Yesterday, a federal jury in Colorado found that MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, defamed a former employee Eric Coomer, the former security and product strategy director at Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. The jury found that two of Lindell’s statements, including calling Coomer a traitor, were defamatory. It ordered Lindell and his online media platform, formerly known as Frankspeech, to pay Coomer $2.3 million in damages, far less than the $62.7 million Coomer had asked for to help send a message to discourage attacks on election workers. “This is hurting democracy. This is misinformation. It’s not been vetted and it needs to stop,” Charles Cain, one of Coomer’s attorneys, told jurors in closing arguments Friday. Being a particularly stupid MAGAt, like most crackheads are, Lindell said he would appeal the financial award, saying Coomer’s lawyers did not prove Coomer had been harmed. He also said he would continue to speak out about election security, including criticizing the makers of election equipment like Dominion. Go right ahead you dumbfuck. You’re already a broke-ass idiot who lost all your money, so go lose the rest of your future earnings.

And there’s more:

Comedian Dave Smith, a libertarian and frequent guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, is now apologizing for his support of the president due to his recent handling of the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. “He should be impeached and removed for this one,” said Smith, referring to his endorsement as a “bad calculation,” in remarks that stunned the hosts of the “Breaking Points” program on Monday. He continued, “All of his supporters should turn on him, it’s the absolute betrayal of everything he ran and campaigned on and everything that he stood for.” Better late than never, Dave. Welcome aboard.

Let’s end with something really nice: proof that as fucked up as we are, we’re not so bad that animals abandon us. Archaeologists in Norway recently discovered the 1,000-year-old grave of an elite Viking woman who was buried with a small dog at her feet. “The pet appears to have been placed with real care,” says Anja Roth Niemi, an archaeologist with the Arctic University Museum of Norway who helped excavate the site. “There are stories of prominent people doing everything in their power when their dog became ill. So even back then, people had deep bonds with their animals.” I’ll take what indications there are that we aren’t hopeless where I find them.

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