Living the dream...
Only 1,366 days to go...
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” ~TE Lawrence
I was dreaming last night when a explosion went off and I was being suffocated by the debris. I was startled and awakened. Wonder what that dream meant?
As I was lying awake in the dark of night, it occurred to me, what does Donald Trump dream about at night?
Does he dream, that he’s playing poker with the world economy with Peter Navarro, Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessant as they discuss how they can disrupt the supply chains, create more inflation, wreck havoc with small businesses and farmers’ lives and then crash the stock market again?
Or is he laughing with Vladimir Putin and JD Vance and Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio figuring out how to destroy Ukraine and eliminate NATO?
Or is he scheming with Stephen Miller and Nayib Bukele and Tom Homan to figure out how much crueler they can be to the people they don’t want in America?
Or is he flirting with Pam Bondi discussing what other media companies, law firms, universities and private citizens the DOJ can threaten and investigate?
Or does he dream about his grandchildren breathing polluted air, drinking dirty water, unnecessarily contracting infectious diseases or eating unsafe food?
Or is he is dreaming about eating his cheeseburgers, writing posts on his Truth Social account, or playing golf with lobbyists and foreign influence peddlers on his golf courses at the tax payer expense?
Wait a minute — those can’t be dreams, because that’s what he is doing when he’s awake.
As I lay there, I began to wonder, what do sociopaths dream.
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
~Edward R. Murrow
Must Read Article:
What the Democratic Infighting Reveals
What all this Democratic infighting has ultimately revealed is that the party has entered its “post” era. Democrats are post-Biden, post-Harris, post-Obama. Some would like to believe that the party is alternatively post-Sanders or post-Carville. But another way to look at it is that Democrats have entered a “pre” era. The lack of clear direction may not instill much confidence among Democratic voters, but open-endedness could be an opportunity for the party. The next leader may soon step up. But for that leader to rise, everyone needs to get out of one another’s way.
Quote of the day:
“Misfortunes happen: a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, a foreign crisis. Political leaders are judged by how adroitly or incompetently they handle the unexpected. Luckily, the Trump administration hasn’t yet had such misfortunes. Its only misfortune — and therefore everyone else’s — is itself.”
~ Bret Stephens
What I’m reading today…
Trump’s Approval Rating Has Been Falling Steadily, Polling Average Shows
Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos
Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. The theme that unites Trump’s inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.
In his first term, not only did his advisers and Cabinet officials put guardrails around his crazier tendencies, but they also provided his first administration a degree of stability and focus. Now, it’s mayhem….Bottom line: No one is in charge. Trump is holding court but has the attention span of a fruit fly. This is causing chaos across the federal government, as rival sycophants compete for his limited attention. All this ineptitude in just the last few weeks reveals that the Trump regime is coming apart. Incompetence is everywhere. The regime can’t keep military secrets. It can’t maintain financial stability. It can’t protect children from measles. It cannot protect America.
While we need to continue to resist Trump’s authoritarianism, we also need to highlight his utter inability to govern America.
Trump's chaos is everywhere. Sound familiar?
President Trump's penchant for chaos — overload the media, public and government with disorienting action and controversial figures — is mass-producing ... chaos, everywhere. As Trump's 2.0 administration approaches its first 100 days, his less leaky, less back-stabby White House is starting to look more like the first-term one, with a surge in infighting and embarrassing public revelations.
"The president thrives in chaos, and that is part of his leadership style." ~Marc Short
Then there was a market rout and a dollar plunge, thanks to President Trump’s unseemly and unhinged attacks on Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman. Powell’s sin was to have the audacity to describe the probable effects of the president’s tariffs: namely, that they’ll cause prices to go up and growth to slow down. This sent Trump into a rage, complete with White House threats to examine whether Powell can be fired — a potential assault on central bank independence worthy of the worst economic days of Argentina… An adult team of economic advisers would have dissuaded the president from repeatedly announcing and then pausing tariffs, if only to preserve the president’s political credibility, avoid business uncertainty and forestall the predictable revolt of the markets. And they would have been particularly keen to avoid an all-out trade war with Beijing, since China’s capacity both to absorb and impose economic pain vastly exceeds Washington’s. But not this team. Whether from cowardice or hubris, they prefer to risk global economic chaos than the displeasure of their boss.
As President Trump’s assault on America’s civic institutions approaches its 100th day, the question is whether those charged with maintaining the integrity of Congress, the law, the courts, the media, academia and the civil service recognize the seriousness of the threat they face. With the exception of Harvard, three law firms and a small set of federal judges, their track record does not inspire confidence.
Trump’s Plan to Sell Out Ukraine to Russia
Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would make peace between Ukraine and Russia in a day. Three months later, he’s behind schedule, and his plan now is to end the fighting quickly by selling out Ukraine and its people to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The proposal that Trump, Vice President J. D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are pushing is not a framework for peace, but a rich and bloody reward to Moscow for three years of aggression and war crimes.
Give Up Your Arm, and Call It Peace
Saying that Zelenskyy is unwilling to negotiate peace because he refuses to give up Crimea…. Imagine demanding Trump to cede Florida to an enemy who bombed Washington, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and every major city in America, tortured civilians, and laughed in your face while doing it.
Trump Raised $239 Million for Inauguration, More Than Doubling His Own Record
The three largest contributions came from a poultry producer, Pilgrim’s, which donated $5 million; a crypto company, Ripple Inc., which donated just under that; and Warren Stephens, a Republican donor who gave $4 million on the same day, Dec. 2, that Mr. Trump named him as his pick to be ambassador to Britain.
Inaugurations, even with several days of elaborate dinners and other events, have never cost anything near roughly a quarter-billion dollars, and the amount raised by the committee will resurface questions about where any leftover funds might go.
How a “No-Scalps Policy” Is Shaping Trump’s Consequence-Free Second Term
Call it Trump’s law of political antigravity. In his second term, negative news reports are motivating Trump to double down rather than moderate. This dynamic had its most prominent display yet when Trump hosted El Salvador’s strongman president, Nayib Bukele, in the Oval Office on Monday. For weeks the media has reported on the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whom the administration admitted to having mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. The Supreme Court ruled last week that the administration needed to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. Trump, with Bukele at his side, mocked a CNN reporter who asked if he was planning to comply with that order. Microphones later captured Trump telling Bukele he needed to build five more prisons so that El Salvador could lock up American citizens convicted of violent crimes.
3 ways Trump's immigration crackdown could hit U.S. citizens
U.S. citizens have been mistakenly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before, including cases this month in Arizona and Florida.
"People are realizing that this is going to impact all communities and that if one citizen can be picked up, then any of us can be picked up and put into proceedings, or labeled a terrorist, or removed to a foreign prison."
As controversies pile up, Trump allies increasingly turn on one another
The infighting and backstabbing that plagued President Donald Trump’s first term have returned as a threat to his second, with deepening fissures over trade, national security and questions of personal loyalty.
The latest turmoil threatens to engulf the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed out top advisers and faces fresh controversy over sharing sensitive information about airstrikes in Yemen outside of classified channels. A former Pentagon spokesperson who was ousted last week wrote in Politico that Trump should fire Hegseth for presiding over a “full-blown meltdown.”
Trump’s Faith Adviser Says Women Should ‘Submit’ to Men in Bonkers Rant
President Donald Trump in February signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office, pledging to “bring religion back” to the United States and “protect Christians.”
He appointed White, his longtime spiritual adviser, to lead the initiative. The two first connected in 2002, when Trump called her after watching one of her televised sermons.
White’s appointment was met with backlash from some of Trump’s Christian MAGA supporters, who took to social media to blast White as a “heretic” for preaching the “prosperity theology,” which teaches that God rewards the truly faithful with material wealth and personal success.
Senate Republican Toadies Won’t Quit Hegseth
Donald Trump is responsible for nominating the single most disastrous, obviously unfit secretary of defense in history, Pete Hegseth. His myriad faults—from a widely discussed drinking problem to lack of executive management to affinity for White Christian nationalism to serial adultery to disparagement of women in the military—were widely discussed during the confirmation process. Hegseth denied, evaded, or brushed aside concerns, any one of which would surely have sunk a nominee facing a minimally responsible Senate….A select group up for re-election in 2026 who have served in the military and constantly tout their own expertise (Cotton, Ernst, Sullivan, Young, Marshall, and Graham) have lost whatever shred of credibility they ever had by sticking with a catastrophically horrible Pentagon chief, who endangers us all with his incompetence.
North Dakota’s GOP governor vetoes library restrictions, school voucher program
North Dakota’s Republican governor on Wednesday vetoed bills to further restrict sexual content in libraries and to create a private school voucher program, rejecting two measures that have seen widespread support by GOP governors in other states.
From help to harm: How the government is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance
A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board reported an unusual spike in potentially sensitive data flowing out of the agency’s network in early March 2025 when staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency, which goes by DOGE, were granted access to the agency’s databases. On April 7, the Department of Homeland Security gained access to Internal Revenue Service tax data.
US Intelligence Contradicts Trump Claims Linking Gang to Venezuelan Government to Speed Deportations
A new U.S. intelligence assessment found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government, contradicting statements that Trump administration officials have made to justify their invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan migrants, according to U.S. officials.
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.
When Mr. Musk purchased X in 2022, he promised to create a free speech haven and named himself a “free speech absolutist.” The New York Times found three users on X who feuded with Mr. Musk in December only to see their reach on the social platform practically vanish overnight. The accounts are the starkest signs yet that Mr. Musk or others at the company have the power to punish critics and that they may be willing to use it, startling free speech advocates who hoped that the billionaire would be their champion.
As Musk pulls back, here are 5 things he got done
He tanked his company
He became unpopular
He cut some government spending, but we don’t really know how much.
He became the country’s biggest political donor.
He scooped up a ton of personal data.
Through his executive order creating DOGE, Trump granted Musk’s group access to “all unclassified agency records” — a category that includes sensitive information on virtually everyone in America. A recent Times investigation found that Musk’s team has tried to access databases that track more than 300 separate pieces of data, including not just Social Security numbers but immigration status, gambling income, student loan balances and even professional job references. We don’t know precisely what data the DOGE team has about you, but it could be quite a lot.
What It Means to Tell the Truth About America
And it occurred to me, listening to Flanagan, that this was the exact sort of story that Trump and many of his allies would like to excise from museums, classrooms, and every other realm of American life.
Donald Trump’s ambitions are clear: To transform our nation from a democracy into an authoritarian state… In assaulting the private sector and civil society, Trump and his crew are following in the footsteps of other contemporary authoritarian leaders, such as Hungary’s Victor Orban and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who have focused on destroying (or at least coopting) civil society institutions in their countries.
By renouncing U.S. leadership, the Trump administration appears to be marking the end of American primacy and benevolent hegemony… in the absence of the American superpower, a chaotic jungle may emerge. Of course, it is possible that the Trump administration could use raw power to undermine global stability and enable the United States, China, Russia, and others to carve out their own spheres of influence. In such a world, wars might be more frequent, and previous close allies of the United States, whether in Europe or Asia, could be vulnerable to outright coercion. Yet it is not preordained that this kind of breakdown will occur. The old order may well be disappearing, but whether that leads to chaos and conflict also depends on the many other countries that have until now upheld the institutions on which it has rested.
Private security guards charged after woman was dragged out of chaotic Idaho town hall meeting
“Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech.”
Rubio unveils a massive overhaul of the State Department that would cut staff and bureaus
Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff in the U.S. by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide as part of the Trump administration’s “America First” mandate.
Trump Admin Names Breitbart Reporter as Top Navy Spokesperson
Trump Tried to Derail Our Work. We Banded Together and Moved Forward.
We created United by Nature, an initiative to provide evidence-based, nonpartisan insights into the changing state of nature across the country. The effort will include the first independent assessment, to be released in July 2026, of how nature in the United States is doing and how it supports our health, security, culture and economy.
When knowledge is threatened, don’t just mourn it. Build around it. Not with rage but with the kind of resolve that moves through spreadsheets and shared documents, late nights and collective purpose. Because science is only as resilient as the people who refuse to let it die.
Author Says Naval Academy Canceled His Lecture over Removed Book Reference
Holiday said it was important to address the issue in his speech.
"As an author, I believe deeply in the power of books. As a bookstore owner in Texas, I have spoken up about book banning many times already. More important was the topic of my address: the virtue of wisdom.”
Tesla’s Remarkably Bad Quarter Is Even Worse Than It Looks
Tesla reported first-quarter earnings for 2025, and they were abysmal: Profits dropped 71 percent from the same time last year. Musk sounded bitter on the call with investors that followed, blaming the company’s misfortune on protesters who have raged at Tesla dealerships around the world over his role running DOGE and his ardent support of far-right politicians. “The protests that you’ll see out there, they’re very organized. They’re paid for,” he said, without evidence.
What I am listening to…
What I’m watching…
