Tooth Fairy 😱✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱

State of Crazy:  Over the weekend, the 0range guy shared a social media post that included a claim that Joe Biden had been executed in 2020 and replaced by a robotic clone. That’s not normal, nor is it normal that on Thursday of last week Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller shared a post with images and biographies of the three judges from the US Court of International Trade who ruled last week that Trump lacked the authority to impose global tariffs. On Friday, a US Appeals court temporarily stayed that ruling while it considers the Trump administration’s appeal, so tariffs are back on for now, but the pictures of the three judges continue to float around the internet, a warning to judges that they rule against Trump at their own peril. It’s not just the judges who are at risk; Trump has expanded the subjects of his attacks to include his onetime court sherpa Leonard Leo.  Currently the co-chairman of the conservative Federalist Society, in 2016 when he was the organization’s vice president, he created the list of conservative judges that Trump waved during the election to convince skeptics that he really was a conservative and opposed to abortion.  During his first administration Trump followed Leo’s list to a tee when making judicial appointments. Leo is responsible for Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett making it onto the Supreme Court and the subsequent overturning of Roe v Wade.  However, now that some of those judges that Leo got Trump to appoint aren’t consistently ruling in his favor, Trump is bigly angry. He’s lashed out at Leo calling him a “real sleazebag” and “bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America.” Trump says that going forward he’ll pick his own judges absent any advice from Leo or anyone else at the Federalist Society. Reports are that some conservative judges who were considering retiring are putting their plans on hold, fearful of who their replacements could be.  Does anyone know if 🤡 Ronald McDonald is a Trumper, or if he believes that Biden was replaced by a clone? Because if so, he could be our next Supreme Court Justice if Florida’s Aileen Cannon or Kid Rock doesn’t get first dibs.  

More Retribution: On the best of days Stephen Miller is an immigrant hating troll, but his hateful ways may be further fueled right now by some personal angst. His wife Katie, the mother of his three very young children, who’d been serving as DOGE’s mouthpiece, is following the former DOGE king Elon Musk out of government and joining his empire.  Katie, who like Musk was only temporarily employed by the federal government may be following Musk lured by a private sector paycheck, but the internet as well as some reputable media outlets have implied that her decision might be romance driven though there’s no evidence that she shares Musk’s reported affinity for ketamine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms, the drugs that the NY Times reports he was often high on before and probably during his days running DOGE. Musk who previously talked about his ketamine usage and disclosed related bladder problems to associates, denies and/or avoided answering questions about much of what was in the NY Times report, but his usage would go far to explaining his often bizarre behavior, like his buzzsaw appearance at CPAC, his glazed over eyes while building utensil pyramids when he was dining with Trump at a Mar a Lago soiree, and his habit of making Nazi salutes. Well maybe not the salutes, those might have been from the heart.  Ironically, Musk’s snide comments about Trump’s affinity for tariffs, as well as his shade about Trump’s “big, beautiful, bill” further exploding the deficit were probably made during moments of clarity.  Those criticisms may explain why Trump is pulling the nomination of Jared Isaacman as the head of NASA.  Though Isaacman’s nomination had been championed by Musk it had won the support of a bipartisan group of Senators who’d been impressed by his credentials.  His confirmation vote had been expected to take place this week. Initial reports were that Trump had decided to pull the nomination because he’d just discovered that Isaacman had a history of making political contributions to Democrats.  However, Trump also has a history of making contributions across party lines, as does a number of people in his administration including Secretaries Bessent, Lutnick, and RFK, as well as Musk and according to the NY Times, Isaacman disclosed his campaign donations early in his selection process while also handing over a large chunk of change to Trump’s inaugural committee.  There maybe more to this story or Trump may be punishing Musk for speaking out and also failing to supplement his earlier $250 million plus campaign contribution with the additional $100 million he’d been dangling.                 

Viral Musings:  Don’t feel bad if you can’t figure out whether you are or are not supposed to or allowed to get a COVID booster this fall.  After nepo RFK who had earlier advised the country not to listen to his medical opinions because he’s not an expert, said that shots would be limited to older folks and those with serious health issues but not pregnant women because pregnancy is so easy, the CDC’s website stuck with their previous, science driven advice.  Then further complicating the picture, the FDA’s new Commissioner Marty Makary repeated RFK’s position but qualified it by adding that people should seek the advice of their doctors.  To further complicate the COVID shot picture, the FDA approved Moderna’s new COVID vaccine, mNexspike which involves delivery of a lower but more effective dose, but placed restrictions on its use that its existing shot marketed under the name Spikevax does not currently face.  It’s still not clear if updated COVID shots for newer strains will be available for delivery to arms in the fall or whether those updated shots will be required to undergo unnecessary “testing” to meet the demands of RFK and his vax skeptical crowd.  Such testing would make the shots unavailable when they are most needed but that’s the point.  In other news, RFK’s recent MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) report included citations to non-existent studies in part because it appears to have been written using AI and in part because absent real studies, RFK needed to invent some.  Not satisfied with making up studies and conclusions he likes out of thin air, RFK is considering banning government scientists from publishing their real study results in reputable medical journals.  As to that flawed MAHA report, Press Secretary Leavitt who former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb has nicknamed Creepy Karoline, said that they were due to formatting errors.  Because we all know that formatting errors are responsible for invented scientific citations.  Right?  

Mean and Dumb:  In a competitive field, Iowa Senator Jodi Ernst gets last week’s UGH award.  During a townhall meeting she responded to a constituent’s cry “People will die” if they lose their Medicaid by saying that “Well, we are all going to die.”  Then instead of backing off or softening her comment she posted a sarcastic video that was so callous that I initially thought it was an AI spoof. It wasn’t. She said: “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth, so I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ." Her statement, like her earlier support for Pete Hegseth’s Defense Secretary nomination, is her way of demonstrating the requisite Trump loyalty needed to fend off being primaried from the right in 2026 when she’s up for reelection.  As depressing as that is, it’s even sadder that she feels comfortable that though her comments probably will be used as campaign fodder by her Democratic opponent in the general election she’ll still win reelection.  Ernst beat out several other candidates for the UGH award, including Secretary Bessent who continues to insist tariffs are good which may be his way of saying don’t worry about Trump threatening to increase them on China again, Speaker Johnson who understates and dismisses the number of people who will lose their Medicaid, and grinning economic advisor Kevin Hassett who sort of said that many trade deals have been agreed to though they haven’t.       

Fog: The war between Ukraine and Russia, the one that Trump was going to end on Day One, got uglier this weekend when Ukraine responded to Russia’s brutal missile and drone attacks by taking out 40 Russian nuclear capable warplanes that were housed deep within Russia.  The two sides are meeting for “peace” talks again today in Istanbul.  Though no nuclear planes were taken out in Gaza, that war continues as well with Hamas rejecting the newest ceasefire/hostage swap proposed by the US and approved by Israel.  Meantime Israel and the US’s efforts to provide food to Gazans isn’t going well either.  Here at home, in Boulder Colorado a terrorist screaming Free Palestine tossed an explosive device at a group of people marching peacefully in support of the remaining Israeli hostages. The explosive device injured eight people.  Early this morning the FBI upgraded their charges against the flamethrower to include murder so it’s possible thought not confirmed that one or more of the injured died overnight.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow