Trump's Second Term

[The Great Zaganza]

STD is what Trump claims was his personal Vietnam.

 

[bruto]

Hyperbole distracts from your remark. While there have been rumours Trump uses too much Adderall (an amphetamine), I can't recall any suggestion he has syphilis.

He's so great and unique he is able to accomplish feats of idiotic excess that others need drugs and disease to equal.

 

[Blue Mountain]

I was under the weather for a couple of days and had some catching-up to do.

As of the close of the day on June 14, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -818.

13 June 2025
-1: Trump says ... something ... about farmers and labourers [306]
-1: Trump lies about illegal immigration to the US under Biden (true number 11 million; many stopped; many repeats) [307]
-1: Headline: RFK Jr. sent Congress ‘medical disinformation’ to defend COVID vaccine schedule change (NPR)
-1: US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll tells Fox News that a soldier who is also an astronaut is currently on the moon.
-1: Iran launches missiles at Israel, which Trump had said 8 months before they wouldn’t do if he was president [308]

References

306. Trump: “We can’t take farmers and take their people and send them back because they don’t have what they are supposed to have… You are supposed to throw them out? You know what happens? They end up hiring the criminals that have come in, murderers.”

307. Trump: “The Biden Administration and Governor Newscum flooded America with 21 Million Illegal Aliens, destroying Schools, Hospitals and Communities, and consuming untold Billions of Dollars in Free Welfare. All of them have to go home, as do countless other Illegals and Criminals, who will turn us into a bankrupt Third World Nation. America was invaded and occupied. I am reversing the Invasion. It’s called Remigration. Our courageous ICE Officers, who are daily being subjected to doxxing and murder threats, are HEROES. We will always have their back as they carry out this noble mission. America will be for Americans again!”

308. Trump on Oct 1, 2024, saying that we are on the brink of WWIII and a “global catastrophe” because Iran just launched missiles at Israel, which never would’ve happened if he was president.


12 June 2025
-2: Trump tells two lies in one go about California L.A. protests and sending water to help with wildfires
-2: US Senator for California Alex Padilla is manhandled and handcuffed for asking a question at Kristi Noem’s press conference
-1: Kristi Noem later says Padilla didn’t identify himself, when it’s clear that he did
-1: At the same press conference, Noem says the troops are in L.A. to “liberate the city from socialists”
-1: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent labels a question about tax cuts vs child hunger “dishonest”
-1: Trump: “I was number one on tiktok in its history. Can you believe that?” (Untrue)
-1: Headline: Starvation alert as children fill Kenya refugee ward after US aid cuts (BBC)
-1: Trump totally missed the Cold War, 1947-1991 [305]

References

302. WYDEN: The Joint Committee on Taxation found out that millionaires will get tax breaks of a quarter million dollars. Are you with those high earners or do you think it’s more important that 2 million hungry kids have enough to eat?
BESSENT: I think you’re playing a game of semantics.
W: Why don’t you just answer the question?
B: Why don’t you ask an honest question?

303. Trump: “If I didn’t bring the military in, Los Angeles would be burning down right now. Burning just like those damn houses burned down because he didn’t have the water he should have had. They have so much water. We had to send in the military to free up the water.”

304. “We are not going away,” Noem declared. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

305. Trump: “Russia fought with us in WWII and everybody hates them. And Germany and Japan, they’re fine — some day somebody will explain that...Everybody hates Russia and they love Germany and Japan...It’s a strange world.”


11 June 2025
-1: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass notes Trump said the National Guard had quelled violence, but hey hadn’t been sent in yet [298]
-1: US Attorney-General Pam Bondi doesn’t understand free speech [299]
-1: Pete Hegseth insults the militaries of other countries with an ill-timed joke [300]
-1: Trump: “I’m very proud to have helped Los Angeles survive.” (Yeah, survive a week of largely *peaceful* protests)
-1: Tulsi Gabbard claims without evidence anti-ICE protestors are paid [301]
-1: Headline: Pentagon launches review of US-UK-Australia Aukus security alliance, throwing the deal in doubt (The Guardian)
-1: Headline: Mike Johnson Says Gavin Newsom Should be “Tarred and Feathered” (The New Republic)
-1: ACIP appointee James Pagano is an ER physician with no discernible expertise in vaccines (Daily Kos)
-1: ACIP appointee Martin Kulldorff was fired by Harvard for insanity about COVID-19, comparing masking action to the Taliban
-1: ACIP appointee Michael A. Ross’ primary focus appears to be running various companies that make money from healthcare
-1: ACIP appointee Vicky Pebsworth has been a board member of the notorious anti-vaccine group NVIC
-1: ACIP appointee Joseph Hibbeln has expertise in Omega-3 fatty acids, but doesn’t appear to have expertise in vaccines
-1: ACIP appointee Retsef Levi has no education or training in any field related to epidemiology or immunology
-1: ACIP appointee Robert Malone has promoted unproven and alternative treatments for measles and COVID-19
-1: ACIP appointee Cody Meissner is a doctor who equated masking mandates to child abuse

References

298. Karen Bass: “On Saturday night, the president tweeted that ‘because of the great work of the National Guard, the protests & the violence was curtailed.’ The National Guard wasn’t even here. They didn’t even arrive until the next day. That’s why it’s very hard to not see this as a stunt or test case”

299. Pam Bondi: “After the October 7 anniversary, they added new drinks to the menu. One was ‘Sweet Sinwar’ in honor, of tribute to the leader of Hamas ... You can’t do that. And so we’ve sued them and we’re gonna stop this from happening. And anywhere in the country, if you do this, we’re coming after you”

300. HEGSETH: We wore a patch on our shoulder that said ISAF -- International Security Assistance Force. And you know what the joke was? That is stood for ‘I saw Americans fighting.’
COONS: Let’s just make clear for the record that our military partners in Afghanistan included many who served and died

301. Gabbard: “They don’t care about the American people, they don’t even care about the people they are claiming to protest for. So many are paid protesters. This is being orchestrated obviously in many ways.”

 

[The Great Zaganza]

thanks for keeping up the effort

 

[P.J. Denyer]

STD is what Trump claims was his personal Vietnam.

Was he already hanging around with Epstein then? What was the average age of the combatants? Less than Nu-Nu-Nu-Nineteen?

 

[Blue Mountain]

Seen on Bluesky:

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are being torn apart.Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

- Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

It's frightfully close to what we're seeing in the USA today.

Jan Kirsch, M.D., M.P.H. (@drjanicekirsch.bsky.social)

THEY RATTED HER OUT. SHE WAS ILLEGAL Yesterday was her birthday. She was born on 12 June 1929, in Frankfurt Germany. She died in the Holocaust sometime in February or March 1945, while imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

bsky.app

 

[zooterkin]

Marines arrest a civilian. Illegally, according to some commentators.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-marines-carry-out-first-known-detention-civilian-los-angeles-video-shows-2025-06-13/

 

[johnny karate]

Perhaps someone should draw to this rotten-banana-brain dickhead's attention today that he is, indeed, the US president today? So these wars are all happening on his watch?

One of my favorite posts from Election Day:

You should have hope with Trump... that no more healthy male Ukranians will need to die in a futile war come January. Putin will save face with a Trump deal. Kamala will just extend the war machine efforts.
Putinwill not make a deal with her.

 

[Andy_Ross]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1933616573807239546

 

[a_unique_person]

He has that ability to be sound like he knows what he is doing and is in complete control even when he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Really?
I don't have to repeat something at least three times when I know what I'm talking about.
Repetition is a clear sign of cluelessness

 

[Mojo]

He has that ability to be sound like he knows what he is doing and is in complete control even when he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.

Then why doesn't he?

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Happy Obama Day, peeps!

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Marines arrest a civilian. Illegally, according to some commentators.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-marines-carry-out-first-known-detention-civilian-los-angeles-video-shows-2025-06-13/

Hmm. They detained him only until they could hand him over to police. He had no complaints about their behaviour. The real story here seems to be the stupidity that they detained the man on the grounds he appeared to present a threat to the federal building he works in while he was attempting to get to work there.

It sounds like they pounced because he stepped over a tape barrier. In a sane world they would have been directing employees on how to enter the building.

 

[Aridas]

Really?
I don't have to repeat something at least three times when I know what I'm talking about.
Repetition is a clear sign of cluelessness

Or knowing the audience. Enough repetition makes lies more believable by preying upon psychological factors. With that said, repetition doesn't do anything to hide falsehood and stupidity. For example, no matter how many times Trump's tariff lies are repeated, how stupid they are isn't hidden. They just worm their way into the American psyche, especially that of the ignorant and those who selectively turn off their critical thinking when it comes to Republican propaganda.

 

[Planigale]

Sen. Alex Padilla Tells MSNBC FBI ‘Escorted’ Him To Trump DHS Presser They Claim He Crashed

Alex Padilla said he was "escorted" to Kristi Noem’s press conference by FBI agents, where he was manhandled by agents claiming they didn't know who he was.

www.mediaite.com

Read the article to get Senator Padilla's side of the story.

Presumably the US capitol police will be investigating this assault on a US senator? In future I hope they will ensure he has sufficient personal protection to ensure he is safe from the secret service trying to prevent him from expressing his right to free speech.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Any members attending a 'No Kings' protest today, I wish you a great, fun, but most of all safe day. Go stick it to Taco Bellend!

 

[Planigale]

Hmm. They detained him only until they could hand him over to police. He had no complaints about their behaviour. The real story here seems to be the stupidity that they detained the man on the grounds he appeared to present a threat to the federal building he works in while he was attempting to get to work there.

It sounds like they pounced because he stepped over a tape barrier. In a sane world they would have been directing employees on how to enter the building.

They can only detain if he is a threat. If he is not a threat, and had a right to enter the building then the detention was illegal. Crossing a tape barrier is not a threat, it may be grounds for asking someone nicely to go back, or asking to see their id etc. if they say they have a right to enter.

 

[dirtywick]

Trump's humiliation is complete – his strongman image is in tatters

As public displays of disrespect towards an ally go, there are few cases to match it

inews.co.uk

scathing but accurate critique of trumps presidency to date.

But if Israel’s strikes are a humiliation for anyone, it is Donald Trump, who had made clear both privately and publicly that he did not want Israel – one of America’s closest allies in the world – to launch the attack. The US had been due to hold talks with Iran on Sunday, a process now undermined, potentially fatally, by the actions of Israel.

Israel’s relationship with the United States is essential to its survival. Military and financial aid from the US to Israel is worth around $4bn (£3bn) a year in “normal” times, but since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, the US stepped up its financial and military support to between $12-18bn (£8.9bn-£13.3bn), around a quarter to a third of Israel’s defence spending. Israel relied on direct military and intelligence assistance from the US (and UK) to successfully intercept Iran’s last missile salvo in its direction.


In other words, Israel is reliant on the US being on its side. And despite that, its government felt confident that it could publicly and spectacularly disregard the wishes of Trump, undermine his negotiations, and get away with it. As public displays of disrespect towards an ally go, there are few cases to match it.

goes on to talk about his failures in russia and international trade as well. closes with

Trump has approached diplomacy as if it was reality TV deal-making as if a tough show for the cameras will do most of the work and the details will sort themselves – disregarding the slow, agonisingly detailed diplomacy that typically delivers real results.

The consequence is an America that is flailing, insulting its allies for no purpose, and flattering its enemies for nothing in return. Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to publicly show up Trump is the most blatant humiliation inflicted on Trump to date, but it is an inevitable consequence of the President’s own empty bluster. The man truly believes himself to be the world’s greatest negotiator and has come back with nothing. That must be quite the blow to the ego.

 

[shemp]

This doesn't sound the least bit ominous.

ICE says Club World Cup attendees should carry proof of legal status, sparking concerns

The international soccer tournament kicks off in Florida. Non-American citizens attending have been told to carry proof of their legal status.

www.msnbc.com

ICE says Club World Cup attendees should carry proof of legal status, sparking concerns​

The international soccer tournament kicks off in Florida. Non-American citizens attending have been told to carry proof of their legal status.

The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown is casting a pall over the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament kicking off in Florida this weekend.

The Club World Cup is an international tournament that features some of the world’s top professional soccer clubs. The United States is hosting it this year, with the first game scheduled for Saturday in Miami Gardens.

On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection tweeted that it will be “suited and booted and ready to provide security for the first round of games.” It later deleted the tweet without explanation. And ICE told NBC News 6 in Miami that all non-American citizens will need to carry proof of their legal status.

When asked to clarify that comment, an ICE spokesperson told The Miami Herald in a statement: “As is customary for an event of this magnitude with national security implications, ICE will be working alongside our Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice partners to help ensure the safety and security of the event.”

As the Herald noted, CBP’s presence at major sporting events is not uncommon. For instance, the agency promoted its participation during the Super Bowl in New Orleans earlier this year.

But the remark from ICE about proving legal status and the now-deleted CBP tweet against the backdrop of Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown have raised concerns among some soccer fans.