This Trump administration is really something,
Ignoringing the rule of law, grifting off everything.
So, on this auspicious Presidents Day,
I just wanted to take a moment to say,
Remember back when we had a president and not a mad king?
Pensito Illustration His appointees are usually good at one thing: Trump pleasin’.
But agencies like FEMA require capable leaders, it stands to reason.
We don’t need some bloke
Who covers his ignorance with a joke,
Like FEMA head David Richardson, who doesn’t know it’s hurricane season.
“What I have said very publicly is that Democrats need to play possum. This whole thing is collapsing. …. I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days is in the midst of a massive collapse and particularly a collapse in public opinion. …. It’s going to be easy pickings here in six weeks. Just lay back.”
— James Carville told Mediaite that the Trump administration would “collapse” within 30 days and advised Democrats to sit back and let it happen.
A new Economist/YouGov Poll finds President Trump’s approval rating and personal popularity falling over the past two weeks. This week’s poll finds Americans are less likely to approve of Trump (46%) than to disapprove (48%), and less likely to view him favorably (46%) than unfavorably (52%).
Trump and Musk think federal employees are shirking,
But we think their approach is disconcerting.
Don’t you think it’s funny
That they think we’re saving money
By paying 40,000 people for eight months of not working?
“President-elect Donald Trump is preparing nearly 100 executive orders for when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20,” the Washington Post reports. “Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), appearing on Fox News, said Trump relayed plans to take action on immigration and energy, among other issues, during a meeting with Republican senators in Washington on Wednesday night.”
Pensito Illustration
By resigning as FBI director prior to the end of his 10-year tenure, Christopher Wray has thwarted Donald Trump’s plans to install the odious Kash Patel as FBI chief.
New York Times: “By stepping down now, as the conservative writer Erick Erickson observed, Wray has created a ‘legal obstacle to Trump trying to bypass the Senate confirmation process.’”
“Here’s why. According to the Vacancies Reform Act, if a vacancy occurs in a Senate-confirmed position, the president can temporarily replace that appointee (such as the F.B.I. director) only with a person who has already received Senate confirmation or with a person who’s served in a senior capacity in the agency (at the GS-15 pay scale) for at least 90 days in the year before the resignation.”
“Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s chosen successor at the F.B.I., meets neither of these criteria. He’s not in a Senate-confirmed position, and he’s not been a senior federal employee in the Department of Justice in the last year. That means he can’t walk into the job on Day 1.”
“Within the party Ronald Reagan once led so capably, it is increasingly fashionable to suggest that the sort of global leadership he modeled is no longer America’s place. … But let’s be absolutely clear: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline.”
About Donald Trump’s War on Iran, there’s something amiss,
The administration’s explanations and objectives defy analysis.
And on the topic of American casualties,
Trump commented, most callously:
“There will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”
“?If you’re worried about the world spinning out of control, if you’re worried about a military draft, if you’re worried about, God forbid, a world war, the best way to prevent it is to vote for Donald Trump.”
The latest NBC News poll shows that 22% of registered voters nationally said they have a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence in the Supreme Court. Another 40% said they had “some” confidence, while 38% said they had “very little” or “no” confidence.
A new NBC News poll finds majority of registered voters, 57%, said they believe the risks of AI outweigh its benefits, compared with 34% who said the opposite. What’s more, a plurality of voters view AI negatively and don’t believe either Democrats or Republicans are doing a good job handling policy related to the rapidly advancing technology. Just 26% of voters say they have positive feelings about AI, compared with 46% who hold negative views.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds 53% of voters oppose the U.S. military action against Iran, while 40% support it. Sixty-two percent of voters think the Trump administration has not provided a clear explanation of the reasons behind the United States’ military action against Iran, while 35 percent think the Trump administration has provided a clear explanation.
“The Pentagon burned through $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of its military assault on Iran, a figure that underscores the deepening alarm among some on Capitol Hill over the speed at which U.S. forces have eaten into the scarce supply of America’s most advanced weaponry,” the Washington Post reports.
Nate Silver: “According to the AAA, average retail gas prices in the U.S. are now $3.45 per gallon, up about 50 cents from a week ago. However, the problems are likely to worsen significantly as supply chains are disrupted. Traders at Polymarket anticipate that the most likely range for gas prices to land by the end of March is between $4.50 and $5.00. And although there’s a wide range of uncertainty, there’s a 41 percent chance they exceed $5.00 by the end of the month.”