It's Still the Economy, Stupid.

      

Say Goodbye to Big John? Not So Fast.

 

     John Cornyn seems to have aged a decade just in the last month.

     In the 11th hour of the Texas Senate Republican primary, Trump threw his support behind Cornyn's primary opponent, the rabidly insane and spectacularly corrupt Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General. It wasn't as if Cornyn wasn't given ample warning. People must have been whispering in his ear these past several weeks that Trump would do this. And yet, Cornyn was still caught unawares, like a dog thinking it's going for a nice car ride only to find out they're being taken to the vet.

      In a way, one almost has to feel sorry for Cornyn. He was a dull but loyal foot soldier for Trump since his first stolen term going back to when he was the majority whip. He voted for Trump's insane demands nearly every time. He's spent three terms in the US Senate without having a single major piece of legislation with his name on it. John Cornyn was the very delineation of the typical spineless Republican who's utterly incapable of upsetting or bucking party leadership and that especially applies where Trump is concerned.

     But, as stupid as he is, Trump is still able to read poll numbers. Proving the inevitable fallibility of pollsters, and Trump's willingness to accept the approval ratings of others not named Donald Trump, most if not all the polls leading to tonight's GOP primary election showed Paxton leading Cornyn.

     Then a funny thing happened on the way to the polls: Cornyn beat Paxton tonight by 1.2%, thereby advancing to the runoff election since neither hit the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff. Trump threw Cornyn to the wolves simply because Paxton was seemingly ahead and, as we all know, Trump hates being associated with "losers" and doesn't want that loser ambience to rub off on him.

     That's not to say Cornyn is a lock to win the runoff election on May 26th. After all, his margin of victory tonight was just over one percent. But it certainly puts a ding in the MSM's mantra that Trump continues to exert a stranglehold on the GOP. Like Alabama voters, Texas voters are stubbornly independent and don't like being told what to do and for whom to vote.

     John Cornyn may be an empty suit but he's still popular with Republican Texas voters. But in terms of popularity, here are some numbers that are making Texas Republicans shit boulder-sized cold bricks:

 

     Cornyn, at this point in time, had received 907,000+ votes tonight. Not bad, right? But look at how well the top two Democrats did earlier this year in the Democratic primary:

     

     The Democratic nominee, James Talarico, easily avoided a runoff election by securing 52.4% of the vote. He got over 300,000 more votes than Cornyn or Paxton. Even Jasmine Crockett, finishing a relatively distant second place, got 1,068,387 votes, still far more than either Republican. Does that mean Talarico is a shoe-in? Not necessarily. Voter turnout is historically lower for primary elections than in general elections. But the numbers don't lie.

     Democratic voter engagement in the Democratic primary was considerably higher than on the Republican side tonight. Much higher.

     Ladies and germs, Texas is in play for the first time in decades.

Another Scalp for Trump?

 

     The primary results from KY-4 are in and Ed Gallrein beat Thomas Massie by about 10 points or just over 10,000 votes. The lazy, reactionary mainstream media, of course, is quick to assume this proves Trump's ongoing dominance over Republican voters, especially after five targeted Republicans in Indiana lost their primaries and Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his Senate primary in Louisiana.

     In fact, far from strongman Trump still exerting a stranglehold over the GOP, other indications show it's actually slipping and that it's just a coincidence that the politicians Trump is targeting in his ongoing jihad over disloyal Republicans are just a coincidence. Don't forget, the New York Times recently released the results of a poll that showed Trump's favorability rating is at an alltime low of 38%. That seems to show that if Trump could run for a third term this November, he'd lose to a flour sack with Barack Obama's or even Kamala Harris' face scrawled on it.

     It could be that the voters in these states and districts were simply sick and tired of these politicians and want a change. Maybe the reason why Bill Cassidy came in last in a three Republican primary is simply because the voters didn't want him in the Senate anymore. Does anyone seriously think that if Trump had endorsed him that he would've automatically won his primary?

     So Gallrein won tonight and in decisive fashion. Trump cynically endorsed him because he was the major Republican front runner opposing Massie in KY-4. But one must factor in that this was the most expensive House primary race in history, with $25.6 million being spent, mostly from outside groups that couldn't forgive Massie for his polemics against Trump and Israel.

     Massie is virtually the only Republican in Congress who's been unceasing in his criticism of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza. Massie was also the Republican who partnered with Ro Khanna in drafting the discharge petition that led to Congress forcing the DoJ to release the Epstein files in their entirety (at least, it was supposed to).

     Trump saw him as a threat because Massie was ready to move heaven and earth to release those files that mentions Trump over 1,000,000 times, Trump knows he's a filthy pedophile who loves to fuck little girls and he was outraged that Massie would want to call him out on that.

     Massie, of course, could still run as an Independent like Lieberman or as a write-in like Lisa Murkowski after both senators lost their primaries.

     But Trump's supposed death grip on the GOP is only absolute in the Supreme Court that could've been  assembled by Hitler himself. He's still running into serious headwinds in the House and Senate regarding his proposed trillion and a half dollar defense budget or his ballroom that will also cost about a trillion and a half. He;s also getting some flak from Republicans who have been criticizing him and Hegseth over his losing war with Iran.

     So, yeah, it looks as Gallrein will represent that inbred district in KY-4 (Democrat Melissa Strange, in her primary, got barely over half the votes that Gallrein got). But just because a bleacher bum screams the loudest during a game, it doesn't mean he actually changes the game's outcome.

Virtually Godly

Trump: pic.twitter.com/G2n0P14m7G

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 17, 2026

     If one still needs any further evidence of the rank hypocrisy, stupidity and gullibility that cripples this nation, then look no further than any "Christian" evangelical government shindig. There was one earlier today on the National Mall, the Rededicate250 spectacle that promised to restore "God’s presence in our national life throughout 250 years of American history."

Diplomacy With MSG

 (By Cyril Blubberpuss, Conservative-American)

We're back. As much as we all loved our time in Beijing, which my friend President Donald Trump insisted on calling "peeking" (A word that makes him giggle. It reminds him of the days when he owned the Junior Miss America pageant), it's still good to be back on US soil. They rolled out the red carpet for our president at the airport, even though he was greeted by low-level dignitaries, including a figurehead vice president. President Xi Jinping apparently couldn't make it on account of the president's belief that he was out getting McDonald's takeout for him.

     I was with the American delegation as a special ambassador (basically, getting President Trump's McDonald's takeout orders from McDonald's. There are at least 1032 franchises in China, 103 in Beijing alone, which sealed the deal and convinced the president that a trip to China was worth it). There were several faux pas at first, such as when the president asked why he was "surrounded by so many Japanese people" and "where are the Confederate flags?"

     Part of the pageantry that the president loves was reviewing Chinese troops in perfect formation (Jinping told Trump, "This will be your future if you keep dicking us around with Taiwan"). The president was impressed with the troops, telling his Chinese counterpart, "They all look alike to me. How did you clone them so perfectly?"

     But eventually, we got down to brass tacks and sat at big tables facing each other like competing Last Suppers. Weighty issues were discussed, such as the trade tariffs that had hit China so hard until the liberal activist justices on the Supreme Court put the kibosh on that. The president suggested he'd relax the now-illegal higher tariffs on China as long as they agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets ("I'll even throw in Air Force One, which is a ghetto with wings. I have a spare one I got from the ragheads.").

     It was a productive round of talks during our three days there, and there was much smiling and laughing, especially on the Chinese side. They apparently think our charming president is very amusing and there were many private little comments made between the Chinese president and his aides, which caused more laughter. Maybe I was wrong, since I don't speak Chinese but I thought I heard during these asides the phrase "25th amendment" being uttered.

 

     After some strenuous persuasion, I talked the president into letting me bring my kid brother, Cecil, with us, who was hastily named Special Envoy of Chinese Prepubescent Junior High Male Wrestling, immediately signaled a desire upon landing that he wanted to review every junior high-level male wrestling team in Beijing, which the nervous Chinese officials initially didn't want to grant. In fact, as we made our way throughout Beijing, I thought I saw more than one poster with Cecil's face on them, mostly at Chinese police stations. It almost made me cry, knowing that my younger sibling was so renowned in Communist China.

    As Cecil marched past the skinny little boys in their wrestling shorts, keeping his watchful gaze below their waists, he was accompanied by a protective detail of several armed Chinese soldiers. I'm sure they, as I, appreciated my kid brother's fervent, ongoing devotion to pre-teen male athletics.

     Meanwhile, back at the negotiating table, when I wasn't shuffling between McDonald's franchises and the president's mouth, other important issues were raised, such as our position on Taiwan. Our official stance is not to acknowledge their independence, although we're obligated to defend them in case they're attacked. Xi Jinping warned the president that there would be "conflicts" if we interfered with their imperialist ambitions toward that country and he brought home his point by making a mushroom cloud with his hands. President Trump nodded and agreed to consider lowering the tariff on Chinese fungal products.

     It's a high honor to be able to divulge these details of our important mission in China since CBS didn't get a journalism visa from China and had to report on the summit from 1000 miles away in Taipei before being barred from broadcasting Chinese talking points in Tony's room.

The Fat(ted) Calf

      He literally had to phone it in.

      A gold-plated statue of Trump was unveiled at his Doral golf club in Miami. He's currently, as usual, at his Mar a Lago golf club in Palm Beach, not too far from Miami. Yet, when they unveiled the monstrosity, Trump couldn't be bothered to attend.and instead literally phoned it in. He sounded tired and disinterested, quickly veering offtopic to say that Iran wasn't doing very well (despite them holding their own against us and Israel).

     It's unclear who paid for this gaudy statue but it was dedicated by one of Trump's pet pastors. The pose more than suggests it was the moment Trump pumped his fist at Butler, Pennsylvania after getting "shot" in his left ear by Thomas Crooks. It was the infamous, "Fight, fight, fight!" moment, when the Secret Service inexplicably let him preen for the cameras instead of hustling him out of there.

     What, no red paint to simulate blood from his right ear to his big mouth? And what the fuck is with the blue sash? Is that his diaper unraveling?

 

     And why were so many religious "leaders" there clapping like seals? Have they forgotten that in the Bible's 73 books, at least four of them warn us about worshiping graven, golden idols. Golden calf, anyone? That's in Exodus 32:4  and 5.

     Even Saddam didn't pull this shit.

     As if comparing himself to a king or even Jesus himself isn't enough of a blasphemy, now we have a demented autocrat putting up gold statues in his own honor. And it shouldn't alarm those of us in the reality-based community that these evangelical nut jobs overlook this shit and yet, it alarms me and it should you.

     Beyond pretense and photo ops (like in front of St. John's in 2020), Trump has never displayed the slightest inclination to religion or any spirituality. I think I stand on pretty solid ground when I say Trump has never once read the Bible in his sociopathic life. Note that he never put his hand on the Bible during his own swearing in ceremony January last year, as if he feared it would burst into flames.

     It's not enough to say that they pretend to adore Trump just because he gives them whatever they want. Their adoration seems pretty fucking sincere. To them, there is no red line that Trump can cross. Here's a guy who had five kids with three different women, was married three times, cheated on every single one of them, was credibly accused of rape and sexual assault by 26 women, was judged to have raped one of them and was mentioned in the Epstein files over 1,000,000 times.

     He is a monster who has violated every one of Jesus' teachings in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the Sermon on the Mount. He has done everything in his power to make the lives of people all over the world as miserable as possible. He has killed countless people all over the world in violation of the Ten Commandments (and violating the other nine) and every year without fail has made a mockery of the National Prayer Breakfast by whining with his grievances.

     What is there to worship about him? I don't know and never will but if their unyielding fealty to Trump isn't an indictment on modern day American Christianity, then it ought to be.

24 Hours in the Life of President Pennywise

      Trump's public appearances over the last two days is like watching Stephen King's Pemnywise slip into dementia in real time. He's just a pathetic clown at this point. Anyone with one firing neuron can see that. Trump famously called his microscopic attention span "weaving" but most normal people don't seamlessly "weave" from one subject to an unrelated subject and to do so for over an hour at a time. And the least the American people deserve is a leader who can stay on one subject for more than a few seconds before careening into something else like a drunk driver on a crowded road.

     But maybe we do deserve this asshole. After all, 77,000,000+ morons voted for him, thereby making his theft of the 2024 election more plausible. Donald Trump is the very delineation of the old phrase, "Be careful what you wish for because..."

     Let's start with the Small Business summit.

     Small Business Week is a barely-covered event but that nonetheless shows the government's support for the small businesses that are the backbone of the American economy. It started in 1963 during the Kennedy administration and it offers the most prominent small business leaders to meet with the president to talk about issues that mean the most the most to them such as tax incentives and so forth.

      Yesterday was the Small Business Summit. Trump showed up nearly an hour late. The story was that there was a shooting at the Capitol yesterday in which a gunman shot at Secret Service agents and was himself shot before being taken into custody. So Trump limbers into the East Room where 130 small business leaders were seated awaiting his pearls of wisdom. Instead, they got the usual grievance session.

     He told them he won in 2020. He bragged that he passed the MoCA, claiming it's an intelligence test when it's actually to test for dementia. He said he doubted anyone in te room would've passed it. He claimed we were winning the Iran war. He droned on for 67 minutes while hardly addressing America's small businesses (except for when he said tariffs were going to get higher, despite the Supreme Court saying he couldn't do that).

     Then Kelly Loeffler, failed Senator and a woman worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is, laughably, the head of the SBA, stood up and began verbally fellating Trump. Unfortunately for her, Trump probably didn't hear a word of what she said because Trump was swaying and falling asleep on his feet.

     The MSM, true to form, fell down on the job. The headlines prove it. PBS: "Trump participates in small business summit at White House." Washington Examiner: "Trump attends small business summit at White House." News Nation Now: "Trump touts economic agenda at White House small business summit." Deseret: "Trump honors Utah company, others at Small Business Summit."

     You get the idea. He didnlt do any of those things. He barely paid small business any lip service. And in none of these articles was there even the slightest mention of Trump weaving from one subject to another. In other words, more sane-washing.

 

     Then there was yesterday's debacle in the Oval Office.

     Seemingly as a thumb in the eye to everyone whose skin crawls at the sight of Trump getting within arm's reach of children, Trump surrounded himself with pre-teen kids during a ceremony highlighting the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, something also created during the Kennedy years.

      Donald Trump cogently and coherently talking about physical fitness would be like Jeffrey Epstein preaching the virtues of teen abstinence. While a girl yawned behind him, Trump vented his grievances, yet again, over losing the 2020 election, claiming he won, the unrest in the Congo, Iranian women getting shot in the head and transgender mutilization.

     In short, things you wouldn't, couldn't and shouldn't typically discuss with kids.

     Outside on the White House lawn, Trump joined the children at a makeshift putting green, grabbed a club and tried and failed, several times to sink a putt.

     Please, someone stop the world, make it stop spinning. I want to get off. 

Crooks and Liars

 

     No, I'm not referencing the famous liberal blog. This is about the liars, criminals and crooks that work in the Trump DOJ and the DHS. And at least one DOJ lawyer may lose their law license for their latest stunt. Per Politico:

     "Justice Department attorney Kevin Bolan profusely apologized to Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose for the press release posted last week by the Department of Homeland Security, which Bolan acknowledged 'simply was not true.'

     Bolan said that he didn’t tell the judge about the foreign arrest warrant because Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials instructed him not to. The officials, Bolan said, were concerned that law enforcement in the Dominican Republic, where the warrant was issued, had not signed off on sharing that information."

      One of the things with which Judge DuBose, a Biden appointee, took exception was an inflammatory and blatantly false headline on DHS's website that read, “Activist Biden Judge Releases Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder”. Until yesterday's hearing in Rhode Island, the headline was still up. After Bolan's admission and the judge's admonition, DHS swiftly altered the headline with a speed and industry that would do Winston Smith proud.

     The new headline, under the original April 30th URL now reads, "ICE Boston arrests 5 foreign fugitives wanted for murder in a month", without any mention of Judge DuBose.

     So, you have the DoJ once again admitting to a federal judge that it blatantly lied to a federal judge, in a federal court, and throwing themselves upon the mercy of the judge. But it may not work. Judge DuBose is now weighing whether to hit Bolan and the entire DoJ for contempt for lying in her courtroom, particularly for libeling her and claiming she released an immigrant knowing he was wanted for murder.

     Bolan essentially admitted he deliberately failed to do his job at the behest of someone much higher up in the food chain than him. Whether it was Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem prior to their firings, or Trump himself, it's becoming increasingly clear to federal judges across the country that this government is not willing to deal with the judiciary in good faith and will even slander and libel judges who don't toe Trump's immigration line.

Reject the Evidence Of Your Own Eyes and Ears

NYT: “You’ve been talking on your show about whether Trump is the Antichrist”

Tucker Carlson: “I have not said that”

NYT: *plays clip of him saying that* pic.twitter.com/L0sUQnfhpb

— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) May 2, 2026

      Tucker Carlson really is a skeevy piece of shit. I think we all knew that back before he got a cushy gig on Fox, back when Jon Stewart single-handedly heckled him off the air. Today, Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times interviewed Carlson  It was a wide-ranging interview about his career and so forth. Then Garcia-Navarro asked him about recent comments he'd made on his podcast about Donald Trump being the anti Christ.

     "On the day after Easter, you noted he did not put his hand on the Bible during his swearing-in ceremony as president ..."

     "Correct."

      "And I'm quoting, 'Maybe he didn't put his hand on the Bible because he affirmatively rejects what's inside that book. And then on a recent show, you went further, saying, 'Here's a leader who is mocking the gods of his ancestors, mocking the god of gods, and exalting himself above them. Could this be the antichrist?'"

     "I don't know where those words come from, but they never left my lips."

     At this point, Garcia-Navarro would've been justified pulling a Warner Wolf by snapping her fingers and saying, "Roll the tape." 

     Which was what the NY Times did on its Twitter feed.

     And this strikes at the heart of the right wing mind, or what passes for it- a sneering contempt for our intellects, our judgment, our ability to distinguish falsehoods from truth, our very perceptions. Carlson knew he was being videotaped on his own podcast, he knew that a place like the NY Times could call it up on a moment's notice. He knew he'd be caught in a shameless lie but he didn't care.

     And he didn't care because right wingers are utterly incapable of feeling shame, they don't care if their lies are exposed to the withering, disinfecting light of day. The narrative is everything, the lie is everything. It's like clinging to a leaky life raft.

     And perhaps he knew that Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire had just laid off half its staff and that his little media empire would be next if he incurred Trump's wrath for calling him the anti Christ. 

The Manchurian Candidate Strikes Again

      Years ago, I wrote an article about my high school eighth period Social Studies teacher, Edwin Lemkin. Mr. Lemkin was that rare educator who exerts a powerful influence on one long after the classes end. As I'm now older than Mr. Lemkin was when I had him for a teacher, it still amazes me to this day at how prescient he was, how good of an instructor he was way back in the 70s.

      To this day, I still recall little pearls of wisdom uttered by Mr. Lemkin as he perambulated throughout the classroom like a modern-day Socrates as I sat in my second row chair, one row from the door (Yes, I still remember the seating arrangements of every class I''d attended in senior year).

     And one thing Mr. Lemkin said that always stuck with me was when he said the Soviet Union's worst nightmare was a unified Germany. The unification of Germany was still about 14 years off but Lemkin's assertion was that the Soviets were so terrified of Nazi Germany that they had no wish to see a reprise of the Third Reich or any modern-day analog.

     Well, half a century later, the Soviet Union is no more. Germany is unified and there's no more East and West Germany. Checkpoint Charlie is a distant memory, the wall fell and geopolitics has changed dramatically since Jimmy Carter's presidency. But memories, even second-hand memories, persist.

      And that brings us to the present day.

      Putin may or may not be spooked by a unified Germany but we all know one thing that does: A unified NATO. NATO, as we all know, or should, was created in the first years after WWII to prevent Europe from getting invaded by a dictator like Hitler. Or Putin.

     Vladimir Putin has made little secret of his intention to invade western Europe and rebuild the Old Soviet Union. He's already invaded Ukraine, Europe's largest nation, twice and had stolen Crimea 12 years ago. This is why Putin is so militant and belligerent about Ukraine joining NATO. If Ukraine became a NATO nation, then the current hostilities between them and Russia would automatically trigger Article 5, which means all the other member nations would have to take up arms against a nuclear state. This is the exact reason why NATO is slow-walking Ukraine's membership. They're twiddling their thumbs waiting for Putin to leave and he just isn't going to do that. Ever. Win, lose or draw.

     And that brings us to our man-baby "president's" latest threat: To remove American troops from Germany.

     Just announcing that we were looking into ways to go about doing that sent Germany into a state of panic. We've had a steady presence in Germany since the first days after the second world war. My own father was stationed in West Germany in the early-mid 60s. As with our troop presence in South Korea, having an American military presence in Germany is a deterrent that all but guarantees Russia wouldn't encroach.

      But Trump's threat to pull our troops from Germany alarmed not only Germany but even the Pentagon. Trump had threatened to pull American troops out of South Korea during his slap fight with Kim Jong Un about 9 years ago (although it's difficult if not outright impossible to see how removing US troops from South Korea was supposed to act as a check on the North Korean dictator).

     It may surprise one to learn that we have 40 military installations in German at present (two are scheduled to be decommissioned) and that at one point we had 220. Reducing troop presence in Germany is not a new thing for Trump. In June 2020, he started making some noises about doing so (obviously with an eye toward pleasing Putin).

     As of 2025, our troop strength in Germany was 34,547, more than all the other European nations combined (30,474). Removing over 34,000 troops from Germany would be tantamount to rolling out the red carpet for Putin. 

     So why is Trump threatening to do this? Well, his stated reason was that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the US has been "humiliated" at the negotiating table by Iran (which we were, an inevitable outcome when you send to the negotiating table a fake hillbilly and two real estate developers). We all know Trump is famously thin-skinned about even tepid criticism from our allies. But there's something else afoot. Per Politico, emphasis mine:

     "Trump’s initial post came hours after he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long sought to reduce the number of NATO troops in Europe. And it occurred as Germany’s Chief of Defence, Gen. Carsten Breuer, wrapped up a day of meetings with U.S. officials in Washington to discuss Berlin’s new defense strategy."

     Of course he's sought to reduce NATO troops in Europe. That's because NATO is doing its job as a bulwark against Russian aggression. This is why Trump's been bad-mouthing NATO for a decade, why he's been threatening to pull out of the alliance.

      And every time he does, Putin smiles. Trump is the only world "leader", for want of a better word, who has the power to destroy the NATO alliance. If we leave and take our funding with us, it'll effectively be the end of NATO and Trump knows it. Trump is Putin's perfectly-placed stooge who can single-handedly open up all of western Europe to Putin and his global ambitions. 

     And don't think for a minute Putin will show the slightest amount of gratitude. This is the guy who put bounties on the heads of our troops in Afghanistan and shared information with Iran about our men and women in the Middle East.