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If You’re Feeling Overwhelmed, This Might Help

From Jocelyn Sze at Huffpost:

I’m A Psychologist Who Specializes In Narcissists. Here’s What We Need To Do To Stop Trump.

“The same patterns that destabilize families destabilize democracies.”

 

The Trump administration is planning a June 14 military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — and the president’s 79th birthday. When your sense of self-exaltation requires tanks, flyovers and up to $45 million for a birthday party, we’re no longer in the realm of cake and candles — we’re squarely in Criterion 1 of narcissistic personality disorder: “a grandiose sense of self-importance.”

To be clear, I can’t diagnose the president or any public figure without personal examination. But research shows that those in positions of power, especially in politics, are more likely to exhibit traits of grandiose narcissism. When narcissistic control seeps into leadership, it distorts truth, erodes trust and destabilizes institutions. The more we understand these dynamics, the better we can protect both the public and the health of our democracy.

As a clinical psychologist who works with trauma and narcissistic abuse, I see echoes of this dynamic every day in my therapy office. The same patterns that destabilize families destabilize democracies: along with the magnetic vision of the grandiose narcissist come denial, attack, reversal of blame and emotional chaos.

I think of one of my patients when she discovered her brother was terrorizing their elderly mother with violent threats and financial abuse. When she named the harm, he flipped the script — denying everything and accusing her of being unstable, all while fiercely protecting his “golden boy” image. Under family pressure to stay quiet, she spiraled into rumination. But armed with awareness and support, she stood firm. Like a broken record, she calmly named the harm until her boundary held. It came at a cost, but her brother was eventually removed from their mother’s home.

This same pattern shows up, magnified, on the political stage. Narcissistic control in government thrives on flipping the script and silencing watchdogs.

Authoritarian leaders, like narcissistic family members, rely on well-worn tactics to manufacture a psychological state of volatile uncertainty — where outcomes aren’t just unknown, but constantly shifting and unpredictable. This overwhelms the brain’s ability to anticipate and prepare, keeping people mentally off-balance and easier to control. The good news: Awareness works like a vaccine, gradually building psychological immunity against further harm.

For another patient, “moving the goalposts” was the favored tactic of her ex-boyfriend to generate such volatility. He would make a demand (under the guise of “improving her”) and then change the expectation once it was met. In government, this looks like constantly reversing policies or public positions so that citizens, the media and allies remain unmoored.

“The White House has no idea what it’s doing on tariffs and keeps flip-flopping… Why even do an exemption if you’re going to reverse it soon?” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) posted on X on April 13, referring to more than 50 flip-flops on tariff policies since Trump’s inauguration.

Many dismiss these reversals as mere incompetence or poor strategy — and it’s true that narcissism is associated with more impulsive, error-prone decision-making. But anyone familiar with narcissistic abuse understands the deeper maneuver: Whether consciously or not, narcissists hold power by keeping others in a state of psychological whiplash. And it works.

At its core, emotional control is the narcissist’s primary goal: to protect a fragile sense of self-importance and entitlement by maintaining the grand illusion that supports it — without empathy for others. While it’s important to note that narcissistic pathology by no means equates to abuse, there are more aggressive versions that use confusion, despair and emotional bonds like loyalty to control how others think and feel, secure a constant flow of admiration or reactivity, shield themselves from shame and keep others attached — even against their best interests.

Of the dizzying array of tactics, perhaps the most effective is crisis manufacturing. The constant emergencies aren’t flukes — they’re by design. They keep everyone in survival mode, distracting from deeper issues and ensuring the narcissist stays at the center of attention and control. For my patients who have survived narcissistic abuse, it might be an explosive tantrum, a threat to seek full custody or a frantic late-night call about a (fabricated) mugging. On the national stage, it takes the form of rhetorical escalations, legal threats or emergency declarations designed to dominate the news cycle and overwhelm opposition.

The nervous system can only take so much. Fight (rage), flight (escape planning), freeze (paralysis), fawn (capitulation) and flop (hopelessness) are natural survival responses — but they also keep us stuck. Healing — in therapy and in democracy — begins by recognizing when we’re trapped in these states and learning how to return to grounded, organized action.

In my work, I help people identify and unwind these patterns. They begin to understand they’re not just anxious or distracted for no reason — they’re reacting to prolonged psychological coercion. The same is true for societies under narcissistic leadership. This isn’t just politics. It’s millions of nervous systems in fight-or-flight mode.

One of my patients responds to her mother’s barrage of abusive texts — a stream of accusations, victim posturing, theatrical crises and financial demands — by reaching for her flashcards. Each card is labeled with a tactic she’s learned to spot: Deny, Attack, Play the Victim, Perform the Hero, Create Crisis. Instead of being wrung out like a towel — her body drained of clarity by her mother’s volatility — she names each tactic as it arises. Naming gives her distance. It helps her stay calm, grounded and in control of her response. The unpredictable becomes predictable. That’s what psychological immunity looks like in real life.

I’ve watched many patients wrestle their way out of the fog of narcissistic control. It doesn’t happen all at once. It begins with grieving what cannot be changed and focusing, with fierce clarity, on what remains within reach. It means reclaiming attention, setting boundaries and refusing to give your power to someone who thrives on your reactivity.

I’m also watching how this dynamic plays out in institutions. When law firms, universities or political bodies bend to powerful figures instead of upholding shared values, it mirrors what happens in abusive households: Everyone walks on eggshells. In such environments, self-protection becomes the priority, and choices are made not from alignment with values but from fear.

But recovery begins when people stop playing along or exhausting energy in cycles of infighting. Instead of spending precious bandwidth on disbelief or outrage, the goal is to name the tactic, call out the harm, cultivate trusted support and let go of what is beyond your control. Persistent engagement in shock, bargaining or rumination often reflects the mind’s attempt to delay the grief associated with profound loss — private and emotional for my patients, social and institutional for our country.

When Dorothy pulled back the curtain and revealed the Wizard as an insecure man with a microphone and a smoke machine, she shattered the illusion that had kept an entire city captive. In therapy, that moment of recognition is just as powerful. Once someone sees the manipulation for what it is, the spell begins to break.

From a trauma psychologist’s perspective, what can a nation do once the curtain is pulled back?

First: Stop enabling. Reactive efforts to clean up the damage often backfire, shielding narcissists from accountability and allowing them to retain influence. On a political level, this means pausing to strategize before rushing in to fix the narcissist’s mess. Strategic restraint — like that practiced by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has been criticized for not “swinging at every pitch” — is not weakness. It’s discipline.

One technique I teach is called “gray rocking”: refusing to feed the narcissist’s need for drama, attention or emotional reactivity. Gray rocking means becoming sturdy and repetitive — not reactive or maximalist — a boring target for someone addicted to power. Reacting with hyperbole or hysteria only emboldens narcissists. Deny them the fuel they seek. This is hard work. But it’s how an abuser loses power.

Then: Set boundaries. In therapy, that might mean saying no repeatedly, like a broken record, and building the support system to stay safe. On a national scale, it means working together to reestablish constitutional guardrails such as due process, checks and balances, and freedom of speech. By using loopholes — like invoking 18th century wartime laws — to expand his power, Trump has exposed the weak spots in American democracy. As our founding documents remind us: “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.” The Constitution is not just a legal structure — it’s psychological scaffolding against narcissistic control.

Build resilience. Narcissistic abuse isn’t just dangerous and dysregulating — it feeds on the very distress and isolation it creates to sustain itself. To interrupt the cycle, we need practices that restore regulation and reinforce community power. Collective care and self-care are not luxuries — they are revolutionary acts in times of oppression. Rest is not retreat; it’s how we recover the clarity and cohesion needed to mobilize and rebuild. Join hands. There is strength in numbers and safety in solidarity.

And above all, keep faith in the long game. While narcissistic dynamics rely on urgency and alarm, deep change comes from staying calm, clear and connected. In defending against narcissistic control, the answer is never to mimic harmful tactics — it is to recognize them, grieve their damage, stop enabling them and break out of reactivity. Boundaries, civic mobilization and long-haul strategy are how we begin to heal the democratic spirit. In both therapy and democracy, healing begins the moment we stop reacting and start remembering who we are.

Dr. Jocelyn Sze is a clinical psychologist who specializes in evidence-based treatment of PTSD and anxiety. She is an assistant clinical professor at University of California, Berkeley. She serves on the board of Bay Area Trauma Recovery Clinical Services, a nonprofit advancing trauma-focused training, research, and treatment, as well as the McCune Foundation, which supports grassroots organizations that empower and mobilize historically excluded populations. The expressed views are solely those of the author and do not represent those of her affiliations.

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Fuck This Bullshit!

For the past year or so we’ve had a guy come out once a month to trim the hedges, weed the flower beds, and mow the front and side yards . He usually brings a team of two additional guys and between the three of them they bang it all out in about a half hour.  (It would take me that long just to mow the front yard.) He charges a very reasonable $60 for the service, and I tip them 20%.

We usually discontinue service for the winter, since the lawn goes dormant, but once things started warming up in March and everything was growing again, I started the service back up. For the first mow of the season, he had his usual crew with him. The second time I noticed it was just him and I asked what happened to his workers. He said, “They just don’t show up.”  This week it was the same. I asked him again what happened. He just shrugged. “It’s ICE, isn’t it? It’s all so stupid!” He nodded and said, “Yes.”

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Daughterfucking Madness, Friday Edition

Little Donny Fuckface knows more about being a greedy, corrupt sleazebag than all the other greedy, corrupt sleazebags put together.

just look what he’s been up to lately: Qatar gave Donny his very own $400 million vulgar flying bordello — in return for favors. Bone Saw Arabia gave him a bag of burgers — in return for favors. Syria promised he could build a gaudy tower in Damascus — in return for favors. Serbia, too, is getting in on the golden tower game — can you guess why?

and last night, 220 winners of the Who Can Give Donny The Most Money Contest got to have dinner with Dear Leader.

Mr. Trump and his business partners organized the dinner to promote sales of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency, a memecoin launched just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. A memecoin is a type of digital currency tied to an online joke or mascot; it typically has no function beyond speculation. But Mr. Trump’s coins have become a vehicle for investors, including many foreigners, to funnel money to his family.

it’s fucking stunning how shameless this grift is. when you buy one of Donny’s ‘memecoins,’ you’re not buying anything tangible. it has no value. it’s not even an investment. no one expects its price to increase.

Its price peaked at $75 in January before plummeting to less than $8 in April – it was trading at around $12.50 at the time of writing.

it’s simply a way to funnel money straight into Donny’s pockets — and here’s the beauty part: it’s anonymous. no one knows who these ‘investors’ are. they could be CEOs looking to curry favor. they could be foreign countries seeking tariff breaks. we have no fucking clue.

“Its only function is to make money for the Trump family crypto empire,” CNN business journalist Allison Morrow said of the meme coin.

“We don’t know their identities. And that’s partly because crypto is anonymous by design. You can’t quite track crypto wallets all the way back to the individual or to the entity that gave the money,” she continued.

cranking the greed dial way past eleven, Donny held a Who Can Give Me The Most Money Contest to reward ‘investors’ who bought the most memecoins.

last night, the top 220 shovelers-of-cash-into-Donny’s-pocket got to have dinner at his Virginia golf motel — and today, the top 25 shovelers will get a personal tour of the White House.

here’s what we know about what went on last night: fuck-all.

you want to know who attended Donny’s corruptionpalooza? fuck you, that’s their names.

you want to know what countries they came from? fuck you, that’s where they live.

you want to know how much Donny personally profited off of each attendee? fuck you, that’s how much.

here’s the only thing we do know: that Donny is a Very Special Boy Who Gets To Be Corrupt, because reasons

reporter: ‘on the president’s dinner tonight, will the White House commit to making a list of the attendees public so people can see who’s paying for that kind of access to the president?’

Karoline Leavitt: “the president is attending it in his personal time.”

oh, his personal time. Donny’s off the clock — so everyone wondering exactly what kind of corruption is being perpetrated right under our noses can go fuck themselves, am I understanding this correctly?

I have a question. between golfing and watching himself on TV and jamming burgers down his gullet and babysitting Elon’s kid, the Crown Prince Snotwiper, when is Donny actually on the clock?

it is that one hour a day around 3pm when the laziest fuck on the planet finally waddles into the Oval Office to sign some executive order about how everyone at Harvard has to wear their underpants on their head? is that when Donny’s officially presidenting, and can’t be openly soliciting bribes?

let’s recap where we are: the Supreme Court says that when Dear Leader is presidening, he’s a Very Special Boy Who Can Break All The Laws, because immunity, and Karoline Lie-vitt says that when Donny isn’t presidenting, he’s still a Very Special Boy Who Can Break All The Laws — because it’s his personal time.

isn’t that special?

oh look! CNN stopped sniffing up Joe Biden’s pantleg long enough to actually commit a journalism. they tracked down White House Energy Vampire Colin Robinson Kevin Hassett and asked him pointed questions about all this corrupt fuckery.

CNN: ‘Trump is gonna host hundreds of people who have purchased millions in his memecoin at the White House. today, you heard the press secretary Karoline Leavitt say that he’s doing this on his personal time at his private club — but tomorrow, the top 25 people who spent the most money on his memecoin are eligible for a private tour of the White House. are you comfortable with this dinner and these tours, which are likely to go to wealthy foreigners?”

Hassett: “everything the president done has been carefully scrutinized by White House counsel and they’ve given him the guidance that that’s okay, and that’s enough for me.”

oh, the White House Counsel — the guy Donny hand-picked from his own team of ace parking garage lawyers to be a yes-man and rubber-stamp everything Donny wants to do — said it’s okay. well, that changes everything. I feel so much better about all this corruption, now that Colin Robinson Kevin Hassett has explained that.

it’s all so shameless. everyone in the White House knows exactly what’s going on, and they’re all lying about it right to our faces.

Donny and his overgrown failsons are openly corrupt, and they don’t give a crusty fuck who knows it. one of Cokey McSniffles’ advisors actually said this in so many words.

Arthur Schwartz, an adviser to Don Jr., downplayed his influence in the White House but declined to respond in greater detail when asked whether his activities create ethical problems. “Write your ridiculous story. Literally no one cares,” Schwartz said via text. “We don’t actually give a fuck.”

because, seriously, who’s going to stop them? certianly, none of the spineless shitweasels in the Republican party.

and now, here’s your daily dose of batshit — and before we get into it, I want to caution you that listening to this clip of President Pudding Cup may actually make you stupider.

so, please take that into consideration. ready?

“they will fight the drug companies. the drug companies are very worried that they’re gonna fight, and that’s okay. if they fight, we’ll just say, ‘that’s ok, we’re not gonna let you sell any more cars into the United States or we’re not gonna let you sell any more wine or liquor or alcohol’ or something that’s actually way more important to them than the drugs.”

yeah, that’ll show those drug companies. no more car or liquor sales for you.

I wonder if one of the worthless scribblers might like to take some time from their months-long obsession with figuring out exactly how old Joe Biden is, and check out the current occupant of the White House.

Donny’s brain has dripped out of his ears to the point where no one can even decipher what he’s yammering about. doesn’t that sound like something worth investigating?

I thought so.

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You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

I’ve spent the day pulling out what remains of my hair attempting to change some basic coding built-in to the template this blog uses. (That’s why, if you happened to peek in at various times it looked wonky.)

I do not know CSS.  I was relatively proficient in HTML twenty years ago, but I haven’t had much use of it since then.

All I wanted to do was to automatically have the blog posts appear in bold type, without having to use the deprecated <b> and </b> commands every. damn. time and maybe change the color of the font as well.

So like any  deprecated nerd, I went to the font of all wisdom, Google. That led me to several YouTube videos that explained how to do it. Unfortunately, even when following the instructions to the letter, I wasn’t getting what I wanted. The titles would go bold and colored when you clicked on them and opened the individual pages, but it wasn’t working on the main page. They remained stubbornly black and not bold.

I finally grabbed the CSS Style sheet off the blog and started pouring through the code. From what I learned from the videos I needed to find anything that said entry-title. Slowly but surely I went through and added the additional code—one entry at a time—to the Additional CSS pane in the editor until I got the desired results. This may ultimately have some unintended results, but we’ll have to wait and see. All in all I’m satisfied with the results now, however.

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Just When You Think It Can’t Get Any Worse

From Jeff Tiedrich:

he’s such a fucking embarrassment

Mad King Donny ambushes South Africa’s President Ramaphosa

at this point, you have to wonder why any world leader would agree to an Oval Office meeting with Little Donny Fuckface. there’s just no way of knowing what you’re in for.

at best, you’ll merely sit there — like Macron — with a fake smile plastered on your face as the Boy King of America plays his impotent little dominance games. you then get to go home without having created an international incident.

at worst, you’ll walk straight into an ambush, as happened to Zelenskyy.

yesterday, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, had a sit-down with Donny — and Donny zelenskied the shit out of him.

“what would happen if you put the black president of South Africa in a room with a demented white supremacist” is a question no one asked — but yesterday we got the answer: it was a distressing-to-watch five-alarm shit-show.

just look at what a ginormous asshole Donny is. he can’t even introduce Ramaphosa without gratuitously insulting him.

“it’s a great honor to be with the president of South Africa, President Ramaphosa, and he is a man who is certainly in some circles really respected, in other circles a little bit less respected.”

gee, thanks for that, shithead.

things took an immediate turn for the worse. Donny had a huge TV rolled in, started yammering about the completely imaginary issue of “white genocide” in South Africa — and then the situation went from bad to fucking surreal.

That was followed by what Trump claimed was video showing over a thousand “burial sites” in South Africa, with aerial footage of a long procession of vehicles moving in one lane of traffic between rows of white crosses. Trump lied that each cross marked the grave of a white farmer or murdered family member.

a mystified President Ramaphosa had no clue what he was looking at

 

Ramaphosa: “I’d like to know where that is, because this, I’ve never seen it.”

Donny: “it’s in South Africa.”

oh, well that narrows it down. thanks for clarifying that, dumb-ass.

here’s what Ramaphosa was looking at. it wasn’t a graveyard. it wasn’t a “thousand burial sites,” as Donny claimed — and it had nothing to do with “white genocide.” it was one protest of the non-race-related murder of two farmers, who were killed during a botched robbery.

It was a protest in response to the murder of a farm couple, Glen and Vida Rafferty, who were killed during a botched robbery of their farm in 2020. Nothing I can find suggests that they were targeted for being white; the robbers broke into their home to get at the safe, couldn’t open it, and waited for them to return home. After ambushing and shooting them, the murderers stole their car and some home items. Horrible, but not anything at all close to what Trump said about the video.

Donny then pulled out visual aids. he held up photos that he claimed were of murdered white South African farmers. spoiler alert: they weren’t.

“Look, here’s burial sites all over the place,” said Trump. “These are all white farmers that are being buried.”

But the image is a screen grab from a February YouTube video of Red Cross workers responding after women were raped and burned alive during a mass jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma, according to its caption.

for fuck’s sake, the incident Donny is claiming proves “white genocide” didn’t even happen in South Africa. but I guess if you’re a racist, all African countries are interchangeable.

so, where did this misleading material originate? from the darkest fever swamps of the internet, where conspiracies run wild, that’s where. someone downloaded this vile shit, printed it out, and handed it off to Donny — who gobbled it right down because it confirms his ‘white people are the real victims’ worldview. and we know who that someone is, because Donny comes right out and name-checks him.

“Elon is from South Africa. I don’t want to get Elon involved. that’s all I have to do — get him in another thing. this is what Elon wanted.”

Donny gives away the whole game: this is what Elon wanted. the Space Nazi is a busy guy, so he’s outsourcing his racism to Donny, who’s more than happy to take it and run with it.

it’s so fucking embarrassing. in my lifetime, we’ve gone from Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy — who famously read seven entire newspapers every single day — to Donny, a low-wattage illiterate who gets his information from drug-addled conspiracy cranks.

bear in mind, all of this is happening on live TV, in front of a room full of reporters. Donny is hectoring the leader of a country that’s supposed to be our ally, and demanding he account for a bunch of made-up racist shit.

what the fuck has happened to America?

thank God there was at least one sane voice in the room. here’s South African billionaire Johann Peter Rupert to correct Donny, and explain that South Africa has a crime problem, not a race war problem.

“we have too many deaths, but it’s across the board. it’s not only white farmers. it’s across the board.”

of course, no Oval Office Shitacular would be complete without the ritual dressing-down of a reporter.

NBC’s Peter Alexander had the temerity to ask Dear Leader about that vulgar flying bordello — which Qatar had delivered to the US that very day — and Donny was all dude, I’m trying to do a racism here, why the fuck are you bringing up my blatant corruption?

“what are you talking about? you know, what are you talking about? you know, you oughta get out of here. what does this have to do with the Qatar jet? they’re giving the United States Air Force a jet, OK? and it’s a great thing. we’re talking about a lot of other things. just NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. you know, you’re a terrible reporter. number one, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough. but for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing.they also gave $5.1 trillion investment in addition to the jet.”

wait, wait — let’s pause the Boy King’s infantile tantrum for a second just to note that no, he fucking didn’t get five trillion from anyone — or six trillion, or nine trillion, or any of the ever-changing numbers Donny’s been mouth-farting all this week. it’s a big ball of never happened.

ok, back to Crazy Donny’s meltdown.

“You oughta go back to your studio at NBC, because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they oughta be investigated. They are so terrible, the way you run that network. And you’re a disgrace. No more questions from you!”

the Mad King is so upset that no one will let him enjoy his golden jet that even when he turns back to Ramaphosa, he won’t stop whining about it.

“we need an Air Force One, it’s being built. two of them being built. and Boeing’s a little bit late, unfortunately. so why did they give us a plane, to the United States Air Force? that’s what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead.”

an exasperated Ramaphosa finally has had enough, and says —

“I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”

and Donny, of course, is too dimwitted and self-absorbed to realize he’s being mocked.

“I wish you did. I’d take it. if your country offered the US Air Force a plane, I would take it.”

it’s just so fucking embarrassing.

world leaders, stay out of the Oval Office. no good can come of it.

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Wednesday Madness

From Jeff Tiedrich:

‘because fuck you, that’s why,’ helpfully explains ICE Barbie

how does this ninny not know what habeas corpus is?

Kristi Noem — concentration-camp-selfie enthusiast and darling of the puppy-perforating set — was Capitol Hill yesterday, to do some performative jack-assery about why the Department of Homeland Security needs its budget set sky-high for 2026.

airfare and wardrobe for weekly prison-guard-cosplay photo-ops down in El Salvador doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan had a question for Noem: ‘what is habeas corpus?’

let’s gaze in awe as Kristi takes careful aim and shoots the Constitution square in the face.

“habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.”

bzzzzzt! sorry, no — not even close.

Senator Hassen, would you like correct our confused cosplayer?

“habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. if not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”

oh, huh. then it doesn’t mean that Dear Leader can eighty-six whoever he wants? oopsies!

how the fuck could Noem get that wrong? there are three possible explanations for why Kristi answered as she did — none of them good.

the first is that Kristi has no idea what habeas is, and just blurted out the first thing that popped into her vacant skull.

the second is that Kristi actually believes the answer she gave — because morons gonna moron.

the third — and scariest — possibility is that Noem knows full well what habeas corpus is, but deliberately gave a wrong answer — because fuck you, that’s why. how dare you question Kristi the All-Powerful? do you want to live out the rest of your days in a Salvadoran slave-labor gulag? no? then shut the fuck up.

Little Donny Fuckface was also on Capitol Hill yesterday, to rally support for his ‘big beautiful bill’ that chainsaws social programs to the bone, in order to finance another round of massive tax cuts for our oligarch overlords.

a reporter had a pretty decent question for Donny: “you campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. how can you justify cutting food assistance in this bill?”

Preznit Fuckbrain’s answer was one for the ages.

“the cut is gonna give everybody much more food.”

huh?

I know I’ve been saying this for years, but it’s never stopped being true: the first reporter to stand up and ask “what the fuck is wrong with you” should get a lifetime Pulitzer.

Donny goes on tell a bunch of lies about how the price of food is already down because of of his amazing job of presidenting the shit out of the economy. (spoiler alert: no it isn’t, and no has hasn’t.)

Donny doesn’t have an answer to why are you cutting aid to the poor, because coming up with one would require an attention span — and Donny’s mind has already drifted off to thinking about how the Saudis gave me my own mobile McDonald’s. that was so cool, why can’t Mike Johnson do that when I come to the House. mmmm, burgers.

n place of an actual answer, Donny starts making mouth-noises about how everyone’s going to have so much food, you’re going to get tired of all the food.

or course, the real answer to “why are Republicans cutting food assistance to the people who need it most,” is because fuck you, that’s why.

if The Poors didn’t want their social safety net taken away from them, then they should have given Dear Leader a vulgar flying bordello, like Qatar’s royal family did. that’s the kind of shit that opens doors. for fuck’s sake, Poors, show some initiative. don’t you know how the game is played in Donny Convict’s Washington?

no wonder you lazy slugs are all hungry.

“in March, you boasted about revoking student visas, saying, and I’m quoting, ‘we do it every day. every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,’ unquote. let’s look at one of those ‘lunatics,’ Mr. Secretary. Ms. Öztürk. her crime was co-authoring an op-ed in her college paper critical of Tufts University’s response to the war in Gaza. your own department found zero links to terrorism, no antisemitic statements, but you still yanked her visa and shipped her off to detention in Louisiana. and the list goes on and on.

“the federal judge in the case of Mohsen Madawi, who was the Columbia student who was ambushed by federal agents at his citizenship appointment, said, and I quote, this is the judge, ‘legal residents not charged with crimes or misconduct are being arrested and threatened with deportation for stating their views on the political issues of the day. our nation has seen times like this before, especially during the Red Scare and Palmer Raids.’

“like the McCarthy-era witch hunts of the 1950s, your campaign of fear and repression is eating away at foundational values for democracy. back then, it took one voice—Attorney Joseph Welch—to cut through the hysteria with the simple question that marked the beginning of the end of that shameful era: ‘Senator McCarthy, have you no sense of decency?’

”I would ask you the same, Secretary Rubio. you have shown through your words and actions what the answer is. I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State.”

now, let’s allow Marco Rubio to show everyone what a ginormous asshole he is. here’s his response to Senator Van Hollen’s tongue-lashing.

“your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job.”

what an arrogant prick. go fuck yourself, Liddle Marco.

lastly, here’s your daily dose of What the Actual Fuck.

Nancy Mace has become the Lauren Boebert of Marjorie Taylor Greenes. Nance is mad as hell, and she’s brought her own visual aids.

some context: Nancy’s stunt was to ostensibly raise awareness of revenge-porn, which Mace claims to be a victim of — and make no mistake, revenge porn is a serious issue, and the people who disseminate it are scumbags who need to face consequences.

but set that aside for a moment. how starved for attention does one have to be, to be constantly drawing attention to one’s own body?

look, Nancy — nude photos have no place in a House committee room. unless, of course, the photos are of Hunter Biden’s freakishly-oversized trouser hog.

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Tuesday Madness

Once more from Mr. Tiedrich:

it’s time to leave Joe Biden the fuck alone

Republicans are being shitweasels again

in the wake of Joe Biden’s heartbreaking announcement that he’s been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, Republicans are reacting as they always do — by being horrible. each and every one of them is cordially invited to fuck all the way off.

let’s start with this vile shitgoblin

I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that it— wasn’t— y’know, the public wasn’t notified a long time ago. ’cause to get to stage nine, that’s a long time. I just had my physical. you saw that. you saw the results of that particular test. I think that test is standard to uh, pretty much anybody. getting a physical. good physical. we had the doctors at the White House and over at Walter Reed which is a fantastic hospital do it, I did a very complete physical, including cognitive tests, I’m proud do announce I aced it.”

I have a question: how long has Sundowning Grandpa Fuckface had stage nine dementia? because there’s no such thing as ‘stage nine’ cancer.

the stages only go up to four. Donny would know that if he ever bothered to listen to anyone for more than two seconds before losing interest and making it all about himself.

listen to this preening fuckwad drone on for the thousandth time about ‘acing’ his cognitive test. we get it, Donny. you were able to point to a drawing of a camel. good for you. help yourself to a lollypop on your way out of the doctor’s office.

who the fuck is Donny to accuse any other person of lying about their health?

we have never seen one legitimate, detailed medical report on Donny. what we get are bullet-point summaries written by day-drinking quacks who fart out ludicrous claims like Donny will live to be 200 years old.

the press never questions any of this laughable shit.

we’re told that Donny’s ear got blown to pieces by a would-be assassin’s bullet and then magically grew back within days — with no scarring — and reporters just nod their heads and write it all down.

we’re told that Donny is 6 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs 224 pounds.

yeah, right.

would any of the worthless scribblers of the corporate-controlled media like to maybe write a book on how Donny’s brain went fuckity-bye a long, long time ago? now, that would be a page-turner. you could probably do a whole chapter on how Donny got outwitted by a fucking box.

it’s a box. it has a lid that flips up — and Preznit Shitforbrains is completely flummoxed by it. Donny has to hand the thing it off to some flunky who does the job in two literal seconds.

for those of you keeping score at home, it’s —

Donny: 0
fucking box: 1

imagine for one hot second that it was Joe Biden up there, befuddled by cardboard. Fox News would be playing it on an endless loop.

Couchfuck McGee can fuck all the way off.

“whether the right time to have this conversation is now or some time in the future, we really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job.”

this sectional sexpest is gaslighting us at warp factor nine. say what you want about Joe Biden’s health — he fucking crushed it as president. he was more than capable — he practically worked miracles.

Joe inherited an economy that had been ravaged due to Donny’s mismanagement of the covid pandemic — and by the end of his term, we had prosperity and record low unemployment. America’s economic recovery from covid was stronger — and happened faster — than any other country on the planet.

now look at what’s happened since Biden left office. in just four months, Donny and Couchfuck have taken that robust economy and turned America into a third-world hellhole that can’t pay its bills, can’t feed its people, and can no longer predict when a fucking tornado might hit.

A forecasting office in Jackson, Ky., which was directly in the line of Friday night’s tornadoes, is one of four no longer with enough staff to operate at all times.

JD and Donny are trying to hoodwink the public into believing the exact opposite of reality — that they’re the one’s who rescued America from Biden’s incompetence. up is down. black is white.

it’s flagrant horse shit. do you think any of our worthless scribs might want to write a book about that?

Oklahoma Rep Markwayne Mullin can fuck all the way off.

“it’s interesting the timing of them releasing the cancer, right? It seems like since the Hur tapes were released, they’re like, ‘hey wait, it might be a good time to distract the American people and talk about his cancer.’”

we’re being gaslighted again.

Markwayne Mullin wants us to believe that Joe Biden was sitting on his cancer diagnosis — and not doing anything about it — so he could use it as a political distraction if the need ever arose. that makes no fucking sense.

Robert Hur, in case you don’t recall, is the Republican stooge who was apppointed by that ineffectual cum-sock Merrick Garland to investigate the classified docs Biden found in his garage. Hur cleared Biden of any culpability in that incident — but on his way out the door, he turned in a hit-piece of a report that painted Biden as “an elderly man with a poor memory” who couldn’t remember when his son Beau died.

as I wrote at the time,

Hur made the whole thing up. yesterday morning, just before the hearing started, the Washington Post published the transcript of Hur’s five-hour-long interview with Biden — and oh, look: here’s Biden’s actual answer to the question:

“What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30.”

here’s a thing Robert Hur actually said to Joe Biden during his interview: “you appear to have a photographic understanding and recall.”

no, Biden isn’t using his cancer diagnosis as a distraction from the Hur tapes. Donny is using the Hur tapes as a distraction from him fucking America’s economy straight into the ground.

now, here’s some shitbucket who thinks Jill Biden should go to jail. he can fuck all the way off.

Leo Terrell isn’t just some neo-Nazi adjacent rando on the internet. he’s Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of What Used To Be Known As Justice.

oh great, another Sewer Clown flunky who casually suggests that his political opponents should be thrown in jail. what could go wrong?

know who has been the one decent Republican through all of this? Meghan McCain.

fuck every other Republican for making me agree with Meghan McCain.

Joe Biden is going through some serious shit right now. let’s leave him alone and focus on what’s right in front of us: a bunch of democracy-hating authoritarians led by an insane megalomaniac are destroying our government right before our very eyes, so they can replace it with the Forever Rule of Mad King Donny.

‘should Joe Biden have withdrawn from the race sooner’ and ‘should Joe Biden have managed his health better’ are topics worth exploring some day — but today is not that day. we don’t have the luxury of having those conversations right now — not when there’s so much fuckery afoot.

the conversation we need to be having right now is how do we fight fascism?

let’s fucking go.

and let’s give the final word to the Onion, because this headline perfectly encapsulates all the insanity going on right now.

 

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It’s Walmart Again, Boys

Walmart Brands (It’s Not Just The Big Blue Store)

Sam’s Choice

Sam’s Choice is a widely recognized retail brand, owned by Walmart, founded in 1991 and named after the founder of Walmart, Sam Walton. The innovative two-tiered core corporate grocery branding strategy offers customers both premium quality products such as Sam’s Choice, as well as discount-priced staples under the Great Value brand.

Great Value

Great Value is the brand owned by Walmart, which was created in 1993, but products were made as early as 1992. It is part of Walmart’s grocery branding strategy, acting as the second tier or national brand equivalent (NBE). With Great Value, customers receive quality products at an affordable price.

Equate

Equate is a leading brand of products stocked by Walmart, offering a broad range of health, beauty, and general consumer goods. Their range of products includes everything from shaving cream and skin lotion to over-the-counter medications and pregnancy tests, providing customers with a one stop shop for all their needs.

Mainstays

Mainstays is a brand owned by Walmart that offers a variety of home goods, from bedding to kitchen utensils and ready-to-assemble furniture. This brand is part of the larger Better Homes & Gardens brand that features further home decor, furniture, and other items

Ol’ Roy

Ol’ Roy is Walmart’s store brand of dog food, created in 1983 and named after Sam Walton’s dog. It has become the number-one selling brand of dog food in the United States. It is comparable to Nestlé’s Purina.

Special Kitty

Special Kitty is the store brand from Walmart that cat owners trust for their pet’s needs. With a variety of cat food formulas and other cat care items, such as litter and treats, Special Kitty provides great value and quality to help keep cats happy and healthy.

Parent’s Choice

Parent’s Choice is Walmart’s store brand that offers a variety of items, such as diapers, formula, and accessories. This brand has undergone a recent relaunch of its design and packaging in 2010. Parent’s Choice products are produced by Wyeth which is owned by Pfizer. With high-quality and affordable options, Parent’s Choice provides parents with the necessary items for taking care of their children.

Play Day

Play Day, the brand owned by Walmart, is a wide-ranging collection of budget-priced children’s toys. Launching between mid-2014 and early-2015, it replaced Kid Connection as the go-to store for parents looking for quality yet affordable toys for their kids.

Pen+Gear

Pen+Gear is a store brand owned by Walmart that focuses on school and office supplies. They provide everything from pens and paper to paper shredders and binders, and their product range replaced the Casemate brand in 2016. Whatever your workspace or classroom needs, Pen+Gear has you covered.

Better Homes and Gardens

Better Homes and Gardens is the product line owned by Walmart, which is inspired from their popular magazine. It has a wide range of products such as furniture, kitchen products, bedding, curtains and window blinds, decor, and other home products. It also forms the premium tier to the Mainstay home brand.

Hometrends

Hometrends is a brand owned by Walmart specializing in providing customers with small furniture, tableware, and various home decor accessories like rugs and faux plants. Unfortunately, the brand has been discontinued in the US market.

Mainstays Kids

Mainstays Kids is a brand owned by Walmart that specializes in offering furniture sets for kids and teens. Their products are designed to be comfortable, stylish, and durable, allowing them to be enjoyed for years.

Your Zone

Your Zone is a brand owned by Walmart, offering a home product line that caters to teenagers and college students. Known for its appealing and stylish designs, Your Zone provides a variety of affordable items such as bedding sets, storage solutions, furniture, décor and more

Adventure Force

Adventure Force is a brand owned by Walmart that offers an exciting selection of outdoor toys, perfect for summertime fun. From water arms to water blaster guns, Adventure Force has everything you need to make the most of your outdoor adventures.

Allswell

Allswell is a pioneering brand owned by Walmart, offering luxury bedding and mattresses to customers direct to consumer. Their products combine innovative technology with the highest quality materials to provide superior comfort, support, and affordability.

AutoDrive

AutoDrive is an automobile care and accessories brand owned by Walmart that provides solutions for all your needs on the road. They have a wide variety of car care products, auto detailing products, interior accessories and some low price exterior accessories such as license plate frames to make your car look its best. Whether you are looking to take preventative maintenance measures or enhance the aesthetic appeal of your vehicle, AutoDrive can help you achieve your desired results.

Best Occasions

Best Occasions is a brand owned by Walmart that offers a wide selection of party decorations and accessories, such as candles and hats. With high quality products at an affordable price, Best Occasions is the perfect choice for all your party needs.

Bike Shop

Bike Shop is a brand established by Walmart and specialized in bicycle tires, tubes, and accessories. They offer high quality products, great prices, and reliable customer service to meet the needs of those looking for quality bike-related items.

Clear American

Clear American is a brand owned by Walmart, specializing in carbonated and flavored water. It was formerly known as Sam’s Choice Clear American. With its selection of bubbly beverages and thirst-quenching flavors, Clear American is the perfect choice for anyone looking for a tasty and refreshing treat.

Co Squared

Co Squared is an innovative cosmetics brand owned by Walmart that is sold exclusively direct-to-consumer.

ColorPlace

ColorPlace is a brand owned by Walmart that specializes in providing high-quality paint and painting tools. The paint itself is produced by PPG, a well-known leader in the industry. ColorPlace has a long history of producing excellent products for both residential and commercial needs, making it an ideal choice for any kind of painting project.

Douglas

Douglas is a brand owned by Walmart that offers budget priced tires. Among its models are the Xtra-Trac and Touring, which are made in a Goodyear plant.

Earth Spirit

Earth Spirit provides comfortable, trendy shoes. Their shoes are made with quality materials and are backed by the power of Walmart.

EverStart

EverStart is the Walmart owned brand for automotive and lawn mower batteries, boasting quality and durable battery-related accessories such as jumper cables. Manufactured by Johnson Controls Inc., with primary production based in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Expert Grill

“Expert Grill” is a brand owned by Walmart, offering an extensive range of grills, charcoal and grilling accessories to help you create delicious outdoor meals.

Fire Side Gourmet

Fire Side Gourmet is a brand that is owned by Walmart and specializes in pre-cooked burgers and steaks. Previously, these products were under the Sam’s Choice label but now they have been rebranded as Fire Side Gourmet.

Gold’s Gym

Gold’s Gym is a brand owned by Walmart, which specializes in athletic and exercise equipment such as weights. The name of the brand is derived from and licensed by the chain of fitness centers founded in 1965 by Joe Gold. Gold’s Gym has become an iconic symbol associated with strength and health over the years, and its products strive to help individuals achieve their own fitness goals.

Hart

Hart, the brand owned by Walmart, offers a wide variety of power tools and outdoor power equipment that are designed to help you complete projects quickly and easily.

Holiday Time

Holiday Time is the perfect brand for all of your Christmas needs. Owned by Walmart, Holiday Time offers a wide range of Christmas items from Christmas trees to decorations and special wrapping paper, so you’ll be sure to find the perfect way to decorate for the holiday season.

Home Bake Value

Home Bake Value, owned by Walmart, is a brand that focuses on providing bread products of the highest quality. Its primary focus is on crafting products that contain the optimum balance of nutrients and taste, enabling customers to enjoy the experience of homemade baking without the hassle. Whether it be their signature, freshly-made loaves, baguettes, rolls, or any other tasty treats, Home Bake Value is the perfect choice for anyone looking for delicious, affordable bakery goods.

Hyper Tough

Hyper Tough is a Walmart-owned brand that offers a wide range of hand tools, hardware and storage, as well as some power tools, although the power tool lineup is gradually being replaced by Hart.

Kid Connection

Kid Connection, owned by Walmart, is a brand that is primarily used for children’s toys. However, it also includes children’s clothing and shoes to meet the needs of the entire family. With quality products from trusted brands, Kids Connection has become a go-to destination for parents and children alike.

Marketside

Marketside is a brand owned by Walmart and specializes in fresh foods, such as salads, soups, breads, and sandwiches, which can be found in various Walmart’s deli, produce, and bakery departments. With Marketside, you can enjoy the convenience and quality of grocery items available at Walmart at an unbeatable value.

Mash-Up Coffee

Mash-Up Coffee, owned by Walmart, is the go-to provider for luxury coffee beans. Their products are made with the highest quality beans and are expertly crafted to provide a unique flavor that will tantalize your taste buds. So if you’re looking for an amazing cup of coffee, Mash-Up Coffee is the perfect choice.

Motile

Motile, the brand owned by Walmart, has a wide variety of products ranging from laptops to miscellaneous tech and tech accessories.

Oak Leaf

Oak Leaf is a brand owned by Walmart, which produces and bottles low-cost wines for approximately $3 per bottle. With its affordable price, Oak Leaf has become a popular choice for those looking for an enjoyable bottle of wine without breaking the bank.

Onn

Onn is a brand owned by Walmart that offers a variety of consumer electronics, computer accessories, audio/visual accessories, and phone/tablet accessories.

Our Finest/Notre Excellence

Our Finest/Notre Excellence is a brand of upscale chip, cookie, frozen dinner and more products that are owned by Walmart and exclusively sold in Canada. It’s comparable to World Table and all the products produced under this brand are made in Canada just for Walmart Canada customers.

Overpowered

Overpowered, owned by Walmart, is a brand offering pre-built gaming desktops and laptops. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, Overpowered has something for all levels of gamers.

Ozark Trail

Ozark Trail is a brand owned by Walmart, specializing in outdoor equipment and footwear. Its origins are deeply rooted in the Ozark mountain region in northwest Arkansas where the Walmart Home Office is located. Thus, Ozark Trail provides consumers with reliable, quality products made with the knowledge of the region ingrained in their making.

Price First/Prix Budget

Price First/Prix Budget, owned by Walmart, is the brand for all your entry-level everyday needs. It provides products similar to those from Walmart’s Great Value line, but at an even lower price point.

Protege

Protege is a Walmart-owned brand offering luggage and travel accessories for a great value. Featuring a range of products including carry ons, wheeled luggage, and a variety of other items, Protege provides travelers with top-notch luggage and travel accessories, all at an affordable price.

ReliOn

ReliOn, owned by Walmart, is a well-known brand that specializes in diabetes care products. Their range of products include blood glucose and blood pressure monitors, medical thermometers, portable humidifiers and replacement filters for both ReliOn and name brand humidifiers.

Spark Imagine

Spark Imagine is the perfect choice for parents looking for simple, high-quality children’s toys. Owned by Walmart with comparable features to Melissa and Doug, you can be sure that Spark Imagine toys will bring hours of fun and delight.

SuperTech

Walmart owns the SuperTech brand for motor oil, which is suitable for both gasoline and diesel engines. Additionally, the SuperTech brand is used on various other consumable car products, like oil filters, windshield wiper fluid, and transmission fluid.

Tasty

Walmart, in partnership with BuzzFeed, launched Tasty, a brand of kitchen tools. Furthermore, they introduced shoppable recipes connected to the Tasty cooking videos on BuzzFeed, allowing customers to easily purchase the ingredients seen in the videos.

The Office

Walmart owns the Office brand, which provides office supplies and stationery.

Uniquely J

Jet.com, a rapidly expanding e-commerce enterprise owned by Walmart, has debuted its “meticulously assembled” Uniquely J selection, which consists of 50 items including coffee, cleaning supplies, laundry products, pantry items, paper goods, and food storage products.

Walmart Family Mobile

Walmart Family Mobile is the only prepaid mobile phone service available from Walmart, and it utilizes the T-Mobile cellular network.

World Table

Walmart’s exclusive World Table brand offers higher-end versions of items such as salsa, pizza, chips, cookies, etc., compared to Great Value.

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A Serious Question

Something is off. Something is in the air. Something just ain’t right.

I’ve asked several people (both online and in person) if life seems more than just a bit off lately. I don’t specially mean the dystopian worldwide political hellscape that’s permeating every aspect of our lives, but just life in general. I look around and think, “This isn’t the way this is supposed to be. It’s all wrong.” It’s like an old episode of The Twilight Zone where the protagonist is the only one who knows something ‘s wrong, or in more contemporary terms, it feels like The Matrix is continually glitching. Frankly at this point I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the proverbial flying saucer appears and lands on the White House lawn. I mean it’s about the only thing that hasn’t happened.

But at the same time, I don’t have an overreaching feeling of dread for the future (unless I spend too much time doomscrolling), but rather—and even when I do go doomscrolling—a feeling that everything’s still going to be all right. And it’s not years away…it’s right around the corner. Something is going to happen to put an end to this madness and wake us from this horrible nightmare.

Listen…Felon45 does not have nearly the power or influence he and his handlers would have us believe. Now that he’s tanked the economy he’s losing his own followers. Look at how many times he’s been swatted down by the courts since he took office. And despite his wet dream of disbanding the courts or upending Habeas Corpus, it’s not going to happen. He’s a sad, weak, dementia-ridden old man who’s obviously suffered at least one stroke, increasingly can’t get his words out, and still somehow dreams of being the next Hitler—but is in actuality just a couple Big Macs away from ridding the planet of his presence completely. And in any case he is not the source of this overall—”offness” I’m feeling. He is merely a symptom.

But what about you guys? What are you sensing?

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Every Morning

The moment I get out of the shower, Raffi is there, tail wagging because the first thing we do is go get coffee (or in his case, a pup cup). BUT HE’S NOT SPOILED!

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