POKING AROUND ON THE EIGHTH SATURDAY

Today is day 45 of Maladministration II. There are 18 days until Wisconsin’s state supreme court election. There are 235 days until off-year elections. There are 598 days to the mid terms. Yesterday, Good Time Charlie Shumer sold us down the river.

Early voting for Wisconsin’s state supreme court election starts next week, as both major parties ramp up their spending and organizing. According to WisPolitics, $59 million has already been spent on the race between Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel and Democratic Party-backed Susan Crawford — smashing the record set in the 2023 court race, with far more Republican funding this year. Schimel and Crawford faced off last Wednesday in a televised debate, where the liberal candidate, echoing Democrats and their “People vs. Musk” message, said that the DOGE chairman had “basically taken over Brad Schimel’s campaign.” Musk, who had not spent money in previous state court races, had become the biggest single donor on Schimel’s behalf, running ads for him through Building America’s Future and sending direct mail to Trump voters through America PAC. “I have support from all over the country — and it is because Elon Schimel is trying to buy this race, and people are very upset about that,” Crawford said, after the Republican shot back that her campaign was also funded by mega-donors outside Wisconsin. Schimel, who had aligned himself with Trump and previously defended the state’s 1849 abortion ban, said that he would hold Trump “accountable” if the president had a case before the court; on the abortion law, he did “not believe that it reflects the will of the people of Wisconsin today.” Schimel will campaign with Donald Trump, Jr. on Monday in the conservative Milwaukee suburbs. Crawford will kick off an early voting tour the next day in Madison.

From the Department of Krasnov is Seriously Bonkers: Friday, Krasnov went over to Main Justice to celebrate his takeover and destruction of that agency. He got really wound up and cut loose with the amnnouncement that MSNBC and CNN “illegally” went after “Judge” Loosey Cannon when she canceled the documents theft case against Krasnov. The first part, in which he defended Cannon and said the other judges are too scared of the media to rule in favor of his “perfect cases” ended with: “And, honestly, they're, very simply, they're afraid of bad publicity. They don't want bad publicity, and it's, uh, truly interference, in my opinion, and it should be illegal, and it probably is illegal in some form. Uh, there's no difference than speaking to a judge, or shouting to a judge, or doing whatever you have to do in a courthouse.” Then he aid this about MSNBC and CNN: “They're not legitimate people there. They're horrible people. They're scum, and you have to know that and you're going to have these, these cases where you can't allow yourselves to be deflected. You just can't let it happen. You have so many, you have such a higher calling. And I believe that CNN and MSDNC who literally write 97. 6 percent bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they're really corrupt and they're illegal. What they do is illegal. It makes no difference how big a victory I had. I can have the biggest victory in history. It makes no difference what kind of a failure the other side has. These people are gonna go after me.” The MSM is finding out that trying to appease Trump doesn’t work. CNN got rid of Trump critic Jim Acosta. MSNBC got rid of its progressive voices for the most part, including Joy Reid. Yet, here was Trump at the DOJ telling staff that criticism of him was illegal. This is pure unadulterated authoritarianism. (But you knew that)

From the Department of That Wasn’t All He Did On Friday: Yesterday, Krasnov signed an executive order to eliminate seven federal agencies, including ones that focus on media, libraries, museums and ending homelessness. He directed the government entities “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” insisting they “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel.” It ordered the heads of each entity submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget confirming full compliance within seven days. He targeted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company of Voice of America’s (VOA), as well as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, which is a think tank, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in every state. He also dismantled the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which aims to prevent and end homelessness in the U.S., the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which focuses on preventing, minimizing, and resolving work stoppages and labor disputes, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which aims to expand economic opportunity for underserved communities, and the Minority Business Development Agency, which promotes growth of minority-owned businesses. So much winning! Are you tired of all the winning yet?

From the Department of Elmo Delenda Est!: South African Space Nazi Elmo threw a tantrum after DOGE was dealt a series of legal setbacks, immediately calling for the impeachment of federal judges. “Without judicial reform, which means at least the absolute worst judges get impeached, we don’t have real democracy in America,” he said on X. The reaction came after federal agencies were ordered on Thursday to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of federal workers with probationary status who had been laid off by DOGE as part of its sweeping government cost-cutting efforts, dealing a blow to Elmo as he seeks to eventually reduce the deficit by $1 trillion.

From the Department of Elmo Really Is A Damn Nazi: On Wednesday night, Elmo reposted a tweet suggesting that Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong were not responsible for murdering millions of people.The post amplified to his 219.6 million followers blamed “public sector workers” for the atrocities carried out in the name of some of the most barbarous tyrants in modern history. The MAGA billionaire shared a post on his X platform by an account with the username @TheAlice Smith that read: “Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did.” He’s just as much a fucking Nazi as his Nazi grandparents who were detained in Canada during World War II for their pro-Nazi activities were.

From the Department of You Knew This Was Coming: On Thursday, US Postmaster General Louis DeNoJoy signed an agreement with DOGE, welcoming the agency’s infiltration of the US Postal Service. In a letter sent to Congress, DeNoJoy explained that DOGE will “assist” USPS “in identifying and achieving further efficiencies” within the operation. DeJoy praised DOGE by saying, the “team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems they can help us with. It has long been known that the Postal Service has a broken business model that was not financially sustainable without critically necessary and fundamental core change.” Under DeJoy’s leadership, USPS has already been slashing jobs since 2021. In the past four years, it has cut 30,000 jobs, and plans to make another drastic round of layoffs, cutting 10,000 more employees over the next month. Last month, DeJoy announced plans to step down from his role, as Trump announced he would make sweeping changes to USPS. He mused about firing the board and allowing the Commerce Department to seize control. “We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money. And we’re thinking about doing that,” Krasnov told reporters in the Oval Office at the time. Doing so would be a step towards privatizing the postal service, something he has previously talked about. But, despite the call for massive changes, USPS is the federal agency Americans view most favorably, second only to the National Parks Service. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 72% had a favorable view of the postal service.

From the Department of Damn The Unsupreme Court And The Scum Who Sit There: The Supreme Court announced last Monday that it will hear a challenge to bans on “conversion therapy,” the controversial practice of treating gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction as a condition that can be reversed. One day later, Texas Rep. Keith Self ended a hearing after twice referring to Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, as “Mr. McBride.” In both cases, conservatives are challenging the medical consensus on gay and trans identity — in the first case, on free speech grounds. Chiles v. Salazar, brought by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, argues that Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law violates the First Amendment rights of a Christian therapist, Kasey Chiles, because “she believes clients can accept the bodies that God has given them and find peace.” LGBT rights groups condemned the lawsuit and the court for taking the case, arguing that the case concerns what treatments are permitted, not what therapists can say. But conservatives are hopeful that five justices will challenge the consensus behind conversion therapy bans that passed with bipartisan support, across most of the country, with the backing of medical and psychiatric groups. But critics are now questioning whether transgender identity is real at all. In last year’s oral arguments over Tennessee’s youth gender medicine ban, Justice Samuel Alito questioned whether gender identity was really an “immutable characteristic.” On Wednesday, after a “Detransitioner Awareness Day” conference on the Hill, activist Chloe Cole, who reverted to her gender at birth after transitioning as a teen, told Semafor that reversing conversion therapy bans “would allow for these children and these young men and women who are coming in as patients to be given another chance, to be given another option.” In the House, Self’s refusal to call McBride a woman followed Illinois Rep. Mary Miller calling her “the gentleman from Delaware” on the floor. “I thought, here we go again,” McBride told Semafor on Tuesday, shortly after the hearing. At a Thursday press conference at the House Democratic retreat, McBride told reporters that “the Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues,” and with her in particular. But Self cited the president’s executive order defining two biological, unchangeable genders for his statement, and Republicans have grown bolder about refusing to accept transgender people’s stated gender. “It’s astonishing to me how cruel the anti-trans movement is right now,” said Brianna Wu, a trans woman and Democratic activist who has been critical of the larger movement. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

From the Department of Buyer’s Remorse: In a focus group in Michigan this past week, 10 of 13 participants from this battleground, auto-industry state bordering Canada said what they're seeing isn't what they thought they were voting for — and they're worried Trump's approach may hurt their pocketbooks. "Erratic," "frightening," "disruptive" and "dictator" were among the words they used to describe their concerns.

From the Department of Make it Impossible for These Motherfuckers to Step Outside Their Lairs: J.D. Vance’s attendance Thursday night at a show held by Washington, D.C.‘s Kennedy Center wasn’t appreciated by many in the audience—and they made it known. The vice president and Second Lady Usha Vance arrived 25 minutes late; he was booed for around 30 seconds straight. As more people noticed him in his private box seat, the boos got even louder. Good.. This past week, a Republican town hall meeting erupted in a furious showdown after Rep. Chuck Edwards’ (R-NC) Asheville constituents grilled him over President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and Ukraine dealings — before the chaos spilled into the streets with protesters chanting: “Deport Musk!” Become. Ungovernable.

From the Department of HCR Is Always Right: Regarding President Trade Wars Are Easy To Win’s threat to put a 200% tariff on European wines and liquors, Heather Cox Richardson reminds us once again that Every Damn Idea This Senile Old Fuck Has Is Wrong Wrong Wrong! Money quote: “In fact, journalist Dave Infante, who covers drinking in America at Fingers, noted that while it seems counterintuitive, such a tariff would “crush the US wine industry. Booze gets to market on distributors’ trucks,” he posted. “These fleets need volume to run efficiently. Subtract EU wine from the equation & it no longer pencils out. Any gains from less competition would likely be paid back out in margin loss.” Yeah, I know, that takes more than half a braincell - which is all Krasnov has left - to understand that simple idea.

From the Department of You’re Surprised These Motherfuckers Can’t Pass A Security Background Check?: The White House has quietly directed the FBI to halt the background check process for dozens of Krasnov's top staffers, and has transferred the process to the Pentagon. The directive came last month after agents tasked with completing the background investigations had conducted interviews with a handful of top White House aides, a standard part of the background check process. White House officials took the unusual step of ordering a stop to the background check investigations after they deemed the process too intrusive, sources said. The procedure typically involves extensive interviews as well as a review of financial records, foreign contacts, past employment, and any potential security risks. Maladministration II decided to transfer the background check process for White House personnel to the Department of Defense for them to complete the checks. FBI Director Kash Patel told ABC News in a statement, "The FBI is relentlessly focused on our mission to rebuild trust, restore law and order and let good agents be good agents -- and we have full confidence DOD can address any needs in the clearance process." The background check process was halted just days before Patel was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 20, the sources said.

From the Department of Give The Assholes No Rest: Dem Rep. Jamie Raskin is inviting all US citizens to file “formal demands for access to their personal data obtained by the Department of Government Efficiency.” If you mail in the form, Raskin says, DOGE has been ordered by the courts to respond. This is a great way to hold them accountable, and hopefully bog them down with requests.

In related news, it turns out that this term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) that the cultists who follow America’s No. 1 traitor have slobbered on us, is actually a miraculous life-saving, democracy-saving condition inherent among good and decent people who want their environment, rights, benefits, children, and country protected from billionaires and felons who are drooling to line their pockets with our hard-earned cash. Because people who have the audacity to care are prone to this condition, its side effects are pain, nausea and sleeplessness. This is only going to get worse, as the America-attackers, anti-vaxxers, drunks, and billionaire in the Trump regime, who are trying to steal our money, and pollute our air, water and the truth go about their treason.

From the Department of Good Advice From Steve Schmidt: I personally have been no fan of Kirsten Gillebrand since she knifed Al Franken because she thought he was in her way to becoming president (an event that will never happen, Thank God). That she’s been named chair of the DSCC for 2026 is Bad News. Here’s Steve’s advice for your political donations for the next 18 months: “No donor should give Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand a dime to waste, or a dollar to burn for 2026. They are helpless, hapless and useless. What they are is a version of a Tesla charging station that functions to power Trump, MAGA and Musk. All the screaming in the world won’t change that for Kirsten Gillibrand, Wall Street’s go-to girl and Chuck Schumer’s hand-picked lackey.” Give to individual candidates and to state parties you trust, but the national Democrats are in need of a “damned good whacking” till they wake the fuck up. Put the DSCC and DNC emails in the “Block Senders” in your email.

Former Fox News contributor Leo Terrell, who was appointed to lead President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in January, retweeted a post earlier this week by Patrick Casey, former executive director of now-defunct white supremacist group Identity Evropa. In a post on X Wednesday, Casey responded to a video of Trump asserting that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, is “not Jewish anymore.” “>Trump has the ability to revoke someone’s Jew card,“ Casey replied. Terrell, who is African American, reposted the remark on Wednesday without comment. Trump’s unsavory statement about Schumer came during a meeting with the prime minister of Ireland on Wednesday. “Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said. “He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.” Terrell, who is not Jewish, announced soon after his appointment that he would be investigating universities that ”allow antisemitic behavior to take place.”

From the Department of He Will Never Have A Good Idea: Trump’s failed operation to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay has already burned through at least $16 million, The Wall Street Journal reports. That figure does not include the wildly expensive flights—it costs more than $20,000 to transport a single migrant to the base on military planes. Trump’s scheme to house up to 30,000 migrants in a tent city on the base collapsed before it could begin. Only about 300 migrants have passed through the base since the president announced the operation, and none are detained there now. Despite claims that only undocumented migrants with criminal backgrounds would be sent to Gitmo, a significant number of those detained hadn’t committed crimes, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawmakers and defense officials who toured the facilities said the tents Trump wanted to hold migrants in weren’t up to government standards, lacking air conditioning, and reeking of mold. The operation was reportedly also mired by the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security disagreeing on their responsibilities. Guantanamo Bay, which lies on the coast of Cuba, is best known for holding terror suspects, with 15 still imprisoned at the camp.

Here’s the good news today:

From the Department of I Love Canadian Humor: Team fall guy Secretary of State Marco Rubio got humiliated in Canada at the summit of G7 countries—which includes leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. They really rolled out the “red carpet” for him. When Rubio deplaned in Quebec, officials had placed a tiny red carpet at the base of the stairs. It looked like an old doormat, and it led right into a puddle. One social media observer quipped that Canada “decided to give him only 25% of the carpet.”

In closing, today is a postcards for protest day. To take part, send a postcard to the White House, explaining why you oppose Trump, or touch on any policy that is close to your heart. Organizers are asking folks to post photos of their notes on social media.

Adam Serwer gets it right again with his Friday post on BlueSky:

American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of offending the GOP base, and Democrats are afraid of offending the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of offending the Democratic base.

Cary 2012-2019 - always missed

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