What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[The Minsky Moment]

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

I'm suing the law firm of Perkins Coie for their egregious and unlawful acts, in particular the conduct of a specific member of this firm, only to find out that the Judge assigned to this case is Beryl Howell, an Obama appointment, and a highly biased and unfair disaster. She ruled against me in the past, in a shocking display of sick judicial temperament, on a case that ended up working out very well for me, on appeal. Her ruling was so pathologically bad that it became the "talk of the town." I could have a 100% perfect case and she would angrily rule against me. It's called Trump Derangement Syndrome, and she's got a bad case of it. To put it nicely, Beryl Howell is an unmitigated train wreck.  NO JUSTICE!!!   (April 23, 2025)

1.  Trump is not "suing" Perkins Coie, he already sued them, in 2022, along with Mark Elias, and Michael Sussman, partners in the firm.
2.  The judge assigned was not Beryl Howell, a US district judge serving in D.C. Trump's lawsuit was brought in Florida, so that would not have been possible. It was assigned to Judge Middlebrooks, in the Southern District of Florida, who was not appointed by Obama.
3. Judge Middlebrooks dismissed the case with prejudice in 2022.
4. In 2023, Middlebrooks issued an order imposing sanctions on Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba.  The sanctions did only limited damage to Habba's career, however, as her client recently appointed her US Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
5. Judge Howell is currently hearing a case that Perkins Coie brought against Trump, not the other way around.

[Tamas]

So, actually, regarding the nuclear launch process, is there somebody in the chain of authorisation that is not (yet) a malicious and/or dumb Trump sycopanth like Vance?

[The Brain]

So, actually, regarding the nuclear launch process, is there somebody in the chain of authorisation that is not (yet) a malicious and/or dumb Trump sycopanth like Vance?

Why?

[Tamas]

So, actually, regarding the nuclear launch process, is there somebody in the chain of authorisation that is not (yet) a malicious and/or dumb Trump sycopanth like Vance?

Why?

Because he is a demented evil person who ina couple of years can easily work himself into a red-button pushing frenzy and I feel like people around him would rather burn the planet than risk contradicting him

[The Brain]

So, actually, regarding the nuclear launch process, is there somebody in the chain of authorisation that is not (yet) a malicious and/or dumb Trump sycopanth like Vance?

Why?

Because he is a demented evil person who ina couple of years can easily work himself into a red-button pushing frenzy and I feel like people around him would rather burn the planet than risk contradicting him

Back in the day there was talk about "launch codes". If those are actually a thing then we're safe.

[Valmy]

Back in the day there was talk about "launch codes". If those are actually a thing then we're safe.

Don't worry. We have very secure launch codes.

[grumbler]

So, actually, regarding the nuclear launch process, is there somebody in the chain of authorisation that is not (yet) a malicious and/or dumb Trump sycopanth like Vance?

The good news is that Vance is not in the nuclear release chain of command.

The bad news is that Pete Hegseth is.

The good news is that if there is one person on the planet with the capability to completely fuck up a nuclear launch order, that man is Pete Hegseth.

[viper37]

'Alito sounds nervous': Even notorious Trump enablers are sounding the alarm 

The unsigned order signaled a rare 7-2 split on a conservative court, directing the Trump administration "not to remove" migrants from the country using the Aliens Enemies Act "until further order of this Court."

But while Alito opposed the court's decision he was careful to tack onto the end of his dissent the words: "Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law."

According to Brennan, he probably felt he had to.

"Trump has been two-timing his conservative allies on the Supreme Court, promising to comply with their rulings (in theory) on immigration matters while openly, flagrantly, not obeying at least one of their rulings (here in the real world)," he writes. "... Alito sounds nervous. His judicial thinking almost always leads him to see things Trump's way. He wouldn't feel a need to tell Trump to follow the law unless he expects Trump not to follow the law."

Really?  They do?

[The Minsky Moment]

The good news is that if there is one person on the planet with the capability to completely fuck up a nuclear launch order, that man is Pete Hegseth.

Sir we have an order from POTUS for a nuclear strike on the headquarters of National Public Radio.
 -- Ok I have the codes right here
Sir that is the receipt from your lunch today
 -- No I'm sure those are the codes, just enter them
Sir, the system says it cannot process "fettucine alfredo" as a nuclear launch code
 -- Hold on, I think I know where the codes are.
 -- (picks up phone)
 -- "Hello, this is Secretary Hegseth - can you put Chef Caruso on the line.  Thanks - Chef, can you check your apron pockets, I think we did a little old switcheroo this morning . . . Oh, you don't see anything.  Check again, anything with TOP SECRET on it?  No?  OK
--- (redials)
--- "hey champ, how was school today?  Kickball at recess, sounds fun! Hey you wouldn't mind checking your backpack for one of dad's things  . . . Oh you found it!  Great!  Can you read off the letters.  OK "K"  "E"  "T".  Another "E"  and "L" Ok.  Is that a capital "O" next?   "N"  "E"  That's it?  OK, oh uh never mind.
--- (redials)
--- "Hello this is Secretary Hegseth on the line.  Yes I know.  Yes I know what line I'm calling.  Yes, I'm sure.  What do I want?  Well it's a little embarassing. . . Could you put Jeffrey Goldberg on the line . . .

[viper37]

Sarah Sanders begs her old boss Trump to reconsider after president rejects Arkansas' request for disaster relief funds

The plea for help marks a significant departure from statements Sanders made in 2023.

"As long as I am your governor, the meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington DC will be stopped cold at the Mississippi River," she wrote in a post on X in January 2023.

Still, the Biden administration swiftly allocated federal funds to support Arkansas when storms that same month killed five people.

During the gubernatorial race, Sanders campaigned for the "right to be free of socialism and tyranny."

Finally, Arkansa is free.

Before she asked Trump for a handout, Sanders backed Musk's cost-cutting efforts and said her state was doing the same.

"What @elonmusk is doing with DOGE is a game changer," Sanders said in a post on the billionaire's X platform at the end of February. "Arkansas did the same thing and uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in waste and inefficiencies and I know @DOGE is going to find even more."

[Valmy]

They found hundreds of millions of their 6.5 billion dollar state budget was fraud and waste...and then approved a budget increase?

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2025-04-17/arkansas-lawmakers-approve-182-5-million-state-budget-increase

Do any of these motherfuckers ever tell the truth about anything? Is it just all bullshit all the time?

[Tonitrus]

They found hundreds of millions of their 6.5 billion dollar state budget was fraud and waste...and then approved a budget increase?

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2025-04-17/arkansas-lawmakers-approve-182-5-million-state-budget-increase

Do any of these motherfuckers ever tell the truth about anything? Is it just all bullshit all the time?

The largest portion of the $182.5 million increase to the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is an additional $90 million for the state's Educational Freedom Account program.

Shuffling public funding to private religious schools has gotta happen somehow.

[Syt]

Besides, most times when politicians scream about fraud these days, what they really mean is that only is being spent on people they deem undeserving.

[Syt]

The party of small government, less intrusion of government in people's lives etc.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/23/nx-s1-5372695/autism-nih-rfk-medical-records

NIH autism study will pull from private medical records

The National Institutes of Health will begin collecting Americans' private health records as part of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s controversial plan to discover a cause and a cure for autism. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya told a panel of experts about the plan this week.

The NIH plans to gather information from a wide range of private sources, including pharmacy chains, hospitals and wearable devices with health sensors, like smartwatches.

"The idea of the platform is that the existing data resources are often fragmented and difficult to obtain. The NIH itself will often pay multiple times for the same data resource," Bhattacharya told the panel, according to The Guardian. "Even data resources that are within the federal government are difficult to obtain."

The NIH did not return a request for comment.

Kennedy has made autism research a central pillar of his role as America's official health advocate. He has made a number of conspiratorial, anti-science claims, including that childhood vaccinations could cause autism, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Earlier this month, he called autism an "epidemic" and vowed to find an "environmental toxin" responsible for the disorder by September.

"Overall autism is increasing in prevalence at an alarming rate," Kennedy told reporters at the time. "We're going to get back to it with an answer to the American people very, very quickly."

He further described autism as "a preventable disease."

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did report that autism prevalence in the United States has increased from 1 in 36 children five years ago, to 1 in 31 children in 2022, experts say this is largely due to more comprehensive screening across a broader population.

As for identifying a root cause of the disorder, some experts have also warned that there is likely no single factor determining an autism diagnosis.

"We may have hundreds, if not thousands, of different neurogenetic factors that in combination with complicated environmental interactions influence presentations of autism," Zachary Warren, a pediatric psychiatrist and autism researcher at Vanderbilt University, told NPR at the time of Kennedy's remarks.

Bhattacharya, the NIH director, also has a controversial background in the medical community, questioning early on the lethality of COVID-19 and being a vocal opponent to lockdown mandates.

This week, he reportedly backed away from the September deadline, telling reporters that a year is more likely.

"I would like to have a timeline within a year, where they start to put out the preliminary results or the results. We'll see. It's hard to predict how long scientists – you know, nature has its say in how long the results take," Bhattacharya said, according to CBS.

The NIH plan draws privacy concerns

Already, news of the autism study has triggered backlash from disability and privacy advocates.

New York State assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, a Democrat, wrote in a statement posted to X that the move was disrespectful to those with autism.

"This idea is dangerous, unethical, and a serious threat to privacy. People with autism deserve dignity and respect—not surveillance by their own government," he wrote. "I stand with advocates across the country in strongly opposing this proposal."

Sara Geoghegan, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the decision to gather private medical data in this way was a shocking departure from the norm and questioned how NIH planned to protect the information it gained.

"I am almost mind blown here," Geoghegan said.

"I do think that there can be permissible uses of data for medical research when they are properly scoped and when they have strong and robust safeguards in place to protect personal privacy and personal information. I am very concerned about this type of database that collects information from commercial sources," she said.

"The collection and processing of personal information, especially health-related information that can reveal health conditions in this way, is out of context and inappropriate," Geoghegan added.

Andrew Crawford, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology's Privacy and Data Project, expressed similar concerns.

"This just strikes me as another example of how the administration is really violating long-standing privacy norms," Crawford said.

"We've seen, for example with DOGE, this just seems like another example and another instance where elements of the federal government are going to be accessing and linking some of the most sensitive personal information out there for government purposes that aren't very clearly defined or kind of unknown," he continued, referencing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

There, staffers have been granted unprecedented access to Americans' sensitive personal data, including Social Security databases.

[Gups]

Trump's approval rating is in decline. 42% and likely lower now.

Maybe more of the GOP will find their spine.

Approval ratings this week are pretty bad for him. There's a +2 from Rasmussen but five others ranging form -6 to -19.