Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Tongue Bather In Chief" went up Saturday:
I loved all three of the comics. I also want to recommend Marcia's "Yea for Britt Boril and Dana Nessel" from last night -- especially if you need some news that will cheer you up.
Critics winced at a wild moment in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump was fielding questions about his newly announced $5 million pathway to U.S. citizenship when he was handed a bundle of red caps emblazoned with the slogan, “Trump Was Right About Everything.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, appeared visibly uncomfortable behind Trump.
But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seemingly reveled in the spectacle, laughing and fawning over the president. At one point, Lutnick even told those in attendance, “Always say yes to the president.”
While speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday President Donald Trump announced that his administration will begin selling what he calls "gold cards" for $5 million, that would grant purchasers green card privileges and a route to citizenship.
"We're gonna be selling a gold card, you have a green card, this is a gold. We're gonna be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that's gonna give you green card privileges plus it's gonna be a route to citizenship," Trump said. "Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people."
"So much for ‘ give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ Give me your millionaires only. Unreal," one user wrote on X.
"Dumbass idea meant to enable Russian oligarchs and other terrible people to enter the United States without much issues," another user wrote.
Trump in December 2024, filed the lawsuit over a poll published ahead of the 2024 presidential election that predicted Vice President Kamala Harris had a slight lead in the race that Trump went on to win. Selzer’s poll, which was released three days before the election, had predicted that Harris had about a three-point lead in Iowa over then-candidate Trump, who went on to win the state by about 13 points.
Trump soon filed suit under an Iowa law against “consumer fraud” in which he accused Selzer and the Register of being in cahoots with “cohorts in the Democrat Party” who “hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.” The complaint accuses the defendants of committing “brazen election interference” through use of the allegedly “manipulated” poll to “deceive voters.”
President Donald Trump accidentally misspoke about a previous executive decision during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.
In a tangent about US trade agreements with Mexico and Canada, Trump expressed his disappointment about the US' poor choices in engaging with its neighbors, adding that Mexico took advantage of the US.
He said: "I mean, you know, who can blame them if they made these great deals with the United States, took advantage of United States manufacturing, on just about everything, every aspect you can imagine, they took advantage of. I look at some of these agreements, I'd read them at night and say, 'Who would ever sign a thing like this?"
"So the terrorist will go forward, yes, and we're going to make up the territory. All we want is reciprocal. We want reciprocity. We want to have the same. So if someone charges us, we charge them," he continued.
This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for today:
Politico journalist Jonathan Martin predicted that Americans might see President Donald Trump dump his cost-cutting bulldog Elon Musk as soon as “this summer or this fall” as he grows “tired” of the billionaire’s “antics” and “unpopularity.”
More than 200,000 Canadians have signed a parliamentary petition demanding that Elon Musk be stripped of his citizenship over his ties to Donald Trump's administration and its repeated threats against the country's sovereignty.
The petition, which has been endorsed by New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, argues that Musk's alignment with Trump makes him a member of a foreign government seeking to undermine "Canadian sovereignty" after Trump repeatedly joked about making the country the US' 51st state.
This past weekend, Musk, the richest person in the world, posted a message to millions of federal employees on X — the platform he bought for $44 billion and turned into a cesspool of lies, hate, and bigotry. His message, from his own account, was:
Shortly afterward, all federal employees — including some judges, court staff, and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction:
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
The deadline to reply was listed as today at 11:59 p.m.
Musk is drunk with power. His messages are illegal. He had no authority to send them and has no authority to fire or threaten to fire anyone.
A Department of Justice official, granted anonymity to avoid retribution, noted that the email was labeled as coming from an “external,” server, adding they “cannot legally respond to this” because they handle classified material.
Co-President Elon Musk mocked the hundreds of thousands of Americans he has put out of work in a post on X Tuesday, seeming to revel in the destruction of the American middle class that he has helped cause.
Elon Musk has the ear of one of the most powerful people in the world – President Donald Trump – making him one of the most powerful people in the world, too. He's been given unfettered access to adjust the federal government's budget and headcount.
When Mike Schwede first sat in a Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like it was a glimpse into the future. By 2016, he was the proud owner of a Tesla, revelling in the thumbs up he would get from other drivers as he whizzed along Europe’s highways in the electric vehicle.
“He was getting more and more weird,” said Schwede, an entrepreneur and digital strategist based in Switzerland. The final straw came when Musk made back-to-back fascist-style salutes during Trump’s inauguration in January. “I felt nothing but utter disgust,” said Schwede. “And I no longer enjoyed sitting in my Tesla.”
On Tuesday, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed sales of new Tesla cars almost halved in Europe last month. The figures left analysts scrambling to assess how big a factor customers turning their backs on the brand because of Musk’s foray into far-right politics may be.
On Tuesday, the stock closed down another 8% to $302.80 and is off 20% year to date. The latest drawdown comes as new data showed new Tesla vehicle registrations plummeting in Europe, down 45% year-on-year for January, even as overall sales growth of electric-battery vehicles on the continent climbed. Sales in China also recently came in trending down.
Some reports have suggested European buyers are revolting against Musk's active role in the Trump administration, which is effectively resetting longstanding European relations.
Investors may also simply be locking in the extraordinary gains of the past year or so: Even with the recent drop-off, the stock is still up 52% over the past 12 months.
About 10 years ago, Tom Blackburn became one of the first 100,000 people to buy a Tesla Model S. The purchase was part of a broader effort to adopt a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, which also included installing solar panels on his Virginia home.
Marylander Carla Harne, 41, has watched the tide turn against Tesla and Musk from the front seat of her sleek, fiery red Model 3. Harne’s interactions with others over her car had mostly been positive — until last year, when, hours after Trump was elected president of the United States, someone threw “probably a dozen” eggs at her car as she drove home from work.
“My windshield was just covered,” Harne said.
Andrew Loewinger of Northwest D.C. sold his Model S in November to protest Musk and his “abhorrent politics and actions.”
The relationship between President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk could soon sour if CNN's data expert Harry Enten's latest polls are taken seriously by the White House.
The federal agency investigating Tesla's self-driving technology has laid off about 4% of its workforce, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday.
The mass firings of probationary government workers roiling the federal government are likely illegal, a federal government oversight agency said on Monday.
On Sunday, Musk quoted a conservative user on X claiming that the United States Agency for International Development had given tens of millions of dollars to a list of “terrorist linked organizations.”
A group of private military contractors have pitched an army of private citizens to arrest immigrants and camps to detain them, according to a proposal provided to Donald Trump's administration and reviewed by Politico.
The founder and former CEO of the military contractor Blackwater pitched the White House a plan to deport nearly 500,000 undocumented immigrants per month before the 2026 midterm elections.
Their 26-page plan calls for using mass deportation hearings, military “processing camps,” a fleet of 100 private planes and a 10,000-strong private police to forcibly remove 12 million immigrants by November 2026.
Murray: “There is simply no way to realize the trillions in cuts they are calling for without kicking kids and families off Medicaid.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, at Senate Democrats’ weekly press conference, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke about ongoing government funding talks and Republicans’ budget resolution that will be considered on the House floor tonight, which gives billionaires—like President Trump and Elon Musk—a tax break at the expense of working families’ health care and so many other programs they count on.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“On Sunday, the leader of the Republican Party, Elon Musk, tweeted that he thought a government shutdown would be, quote: ‘great.’
“That’s one totally out-of-touch billionaire who needs a serious reality check. Elon may never depend on receiving benefits on time, but for everyone else, shutdowns are painful and costly.
“Democrats, however, do not want a shutdown. We are at the table, negotiating in good faith to fund the government.
“But Republicans are the majority—in the House and in the Senate. If they want our votes, they need to work with us. We are close on topline spending, but we need to know Republicans are willing to work with us to protect Congress’ power of the purse—and I welcome any and all ideas they may have on how we can work together to do just that.
“That is the absolute bare minimum—and it is frankly not asking a whole lot. Republicans should not be so eager to let Elon Musk cut off cancer research or clean energy jobs in their districts. They should not follow Elon towards a shutdown.
“Now, even though March 14th is just around the corner, Republicans aren’t really focused on funding the government—and that’s because their number one priority is passing more tax cuts for billionaires.
“Here in the Senate, last Friday, just before 5 AM, Republicans rammed through their pro-billionaire, anti-middle class budget blueprint.
“Possibly as soon as tonight in the House, Republicans are planning to do even worse. To pass their massive tax giveaways for billionaires, Republicans are going to defund Medicaid, slash veterans’ benefits, and force kids to go hungry.
“And I want to be clear: the congressional districts with the highest enrollment for Medicaid in my state are represented by Republicans.
“There is simply no way to realize the trillions in cuts they are calling for without kicking kids and families off Medicaid. They are cutting health care for the children they represent to cut taxes for billionaires.
“Hurting kids—making it so a child can’t see a doctor—to give Elon Musk a tax break he doesn’t need? If that’s the path Republicans want to go down, then I am going to make sure everyone knows it.
“To the American people, now’s the time to tune in to C-SPAN.
“Now is the time to give your Republican Congressman an earful.
“Now is the time to text your family group chat.
“Now is the time to do everything we possibly can to protect health care for our kids and families.
“Every American should understand their story and their voice will make a difference in this fight. Congress needs to hear you—so my advice is to get loud.
“I will be using my voice and my vote to make sure kids can see a doctor and to make sure kids don’t go hungry. I’ll be voting no to give billionaires more tax cuts while kicking kids off their health care.”
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