Lunch

Busy with some stuff this afternoon, so light blogging.

Checks Out

I don't know if she is this stupid or just believes her audience is, but generally I think we do have a problem with people having no clue about things like "what is the population of the United States" or "how many miles is New York from Los Angeles."

I don't expect most people to know these things with any precision, but at least they should know the answer to the latter is closer to 3000 than 300,000, for example.

Some Good News

For a change.

A federal judge in Vermont ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green-card holder and student at Columbia University who was detained by the Trump administration on 14 April.

Mahdawi walked out of immigration detention on Wednesday afternoon, greeting supporters and thanking them for their support.

A bad day for Columbia trustees.

Rest In Piss

In the good old days, Salon, which established its niche being "liberal" because it published *defenses of Bill Clinton*, was desperate not to be marginalized as a  "liberal" publication, so it published unhinged racist stuff from David Horowitz. 

Crazy Davey participated in the forums a bit, and was even more unhinged (likely drunk) there.

Salon would respond to reader complaints with the usual nonsense about publishing a broad range of ideas.

Trumpcession

Negative (-.3%) first quarter growth.

Morning

Humpday

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Everything Is Horrible

A daily rollercoaster ride from "it's worse than you thought" to "ok a judge slapped it down" to "ok they are mostly ignoring the judge" to "maybe they're obeying the judge" to "oh shit they did a new worse than you thought thing."

I am not the protagonist of this story, but especially with Elon's inclusion in season 2, it is hard not to think it is being written just to torment me.

I Thought There Were 200

We are saved!

America's Worst Humans

ICE agents.

Lunch

Eat

And What Would That Explanation Be

I suppose that in the age of Trump they do lack some high octane Frank Luntz bullshit, but of course Politico pretends not to understand that.

Behind closed doors, some Republicans are irked that their leaders are not doing enough explaining: One Republican with direct knowledge of the matter told POLITICO “there’s frustration for not laying out the rationale behind Medicaid cuts.”

"Fuck you, the rich want more money and they want you to die impoverished, you leeches" does need a bit of a glow up.

Can't Make A Dumb Joke Anymore

FIVE MINUTES LATER

White House says Amazon's decision to desplay tariff-based price increases on products is a "a hostile and political act by Amazon," who they accuse of working with "a Chinese propaganda arm."

[image or embed]

— Nikki McCann Ramírez (@nikkimcr.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM

ONE HOUR LATER

Amazon statement: “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) April 29, 2025

Oh, Canada

At least other countries benefit from Trump's election.

Shortly after 22:00 EDT (03:00 BST), Canada's public broadcaster CBC News projected that Mark Carney's Liberal Party was on its way to win enough seats in the House of Commons to form a government.

The conservative candidate lost his seat, which is funny.

Morning

Again

Monday Night

Rock on

You Take It On Faith, You Take It To The Heart

 

And Who Is That

I'm not sure if Trump really thinks his name is on the ballot in Canada or if he's helpfully informing Canadians that a vote for Poilievre is actually a vote to be governed by Trump.

Seems Bad

I suppose that after Covid, it's hard to convince people that 900 is scary.

There are nearly 900 measles cases in the US. Here's what you need to know