Our Fascist Idiocracy: May 16, 2025

"86 47" means "Toss the 47th president out of office"
“86 47” means “Toss the 47th president out of office”

Handing Trump the 2016 election on a gold-plated platter wasn’t enough to save former FBI director James Comey from being investigated by Trump’s secret police over an Insta post. The offending post was a photo of sea shells arranged to spell, “86 47,” which means toss the 47th president out of office. Fascist idiocrats claimed Comey’s post called for the assassination of Trump. Comey removed the post right away.

Speaking of idiots, our wannabe autocrat felt he had to explain groceries to a Middle Eastern leader: “We have a term ‘groceries.’ It’s an old term, but it means basically what you’re buying, food, it’s a pretty accurate term, but it’s an old-fashioned sound, but groceries are down.”

Fascism is allergic to voting, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the DOJ Voting Section Has Just Three Lawyers Left, Watchdog Estimates, says Democracy Docket. The section had 30 lawyers assigned to enforce voting laws before the Trump insane clown posse hit town.

And when the wannabe autocrats don’t like the way voters vote, they finagle a re-do: Republican legislators approve ballot item that would again ban most abortions in Missouri.

Our Fascist Idiocracy: May 15, 2025

Left to right: The worst and best presidents of the United States

The USDA hangs a giant banners depicting America’s best and worst presidents on the facade of its neoclassical headquarters in Washington.

What First Amendment? A Business Insider story with the headline, “Don Jr. is the new Hunter Biden,” has so enraged Don Jr.’s daddy that he has ordered his lackeys to attack the European conglomerate that owns Politico and Business Insider, because it is a “German Influence Operation.” Whatver that is.

Newsweek: Qatar’s Gift to Trump Is Unsold Plane It’s Been Trying to Dump for Years.

A president from the erstwhile party of free enterprises tells an American CEO where not to expand his business, and members of his allegedly pro-capitalism party fall in line and remain mute: Trump to Apple: Don’t expand iPhone production in India.

Sen. Josh “Running Man” Hawley, MAGA-Mo, is so afraid of voters on Medicaid that he’s swallowed his fear of Trump long enough to speak out against the boss’s “big beautiful” cuts to healthcare funding for those in need.

It’s not just the pundits. Science Tells Us the U.S. Is Heading toward a Dictatorship

REM Releases Remix of Its First Hit Song As a Fundraiser for Radio Free Europe

Cover art for “Radio Free Europe 2025” EP

One of the most innovative reactions to the Trump/Musk chainsaw approach to destroying the U.S. government has come from rock ‘n roll superstars, REM. The group’s members, Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry, have commissioned a remix of their 1981 college radio hit, “Radio Free Europe,” and released it with all proceeds going to support Radio Free Europe.
Musk/Trump axed funding for key federally supported broadcasting outlets in March. On March 9, Trump ordered the U.S. Agency for Global Media, USAGM, to “eliminate all activities that are not required by law,” according to NPR.

The network also reported that “The termination notices for grants for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency’s acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination.”

In a its statement on its official website, REM said, “We are thrilled to announce the release of Radio Free Europe 2025, a five-track benefit EP featuring two never-before-released tracks: a 2025 remix by longtime collaborator Jacknife Lee and original producer Mitch Easter’s 1981 remix ‘Radio Free Dub.’”

“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said in a statement today shared with NPR. “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker. We’ve benefitted from strong bipartisan support throughout RFE/RL’s storied history. Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”

Order

Click here to pre-order/stream Radio Free Europe 2025 now and watch the Dispatch video for the Jacknife Lee remix.

Donate

Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

White House Wired for Happy Trump News

Pensito Illustration

If you’ve read, heard or watched the political or business news lately, you’ve probably noticed something — it’s mostly bad. Like, really bad.

But fear not! There is good news out there about the Trump administration and its historic accomplishments in its first 100 days, and you can find it on the White House Wire.

If you noticed the WHWire looks a bit like the Drudge Report, you’d be right. Matt Drudge noticed and trolled the White House on his site with: “Developing: Trump launching his own Drudge Report using taxpayer dollars!”

The content on WHWire runs the gamut from fawningly sucking up to the president to downright fabrications. Here are some headlines:

KENNY CODY: Pete Hegseth’s accomplishments in first 100 days are historically transformative” published on HumanEvents.com

JD Vance: What President Trump achieved in his first 100 days” An op-ed in where else but Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post.

The beginning of Trump’s ‘golden age’ is here and putting ‘more money’ in your pocket, labor secretary says” on FOX Business

And because sometimes the supply of happy Trump news runs a little thin, the White House posts its own take on current events, with “JOBS BOOM: More Americans Working for Higher Pay,” a press release that quotes Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying: “This is the second month in a row where the jobs report has beat expectations. Wages are continuing to rise and labor force participation is increasing. This is exactly what we want to see. More Americans working for higher wages. More winning is on the way!”

So, if the bad old news gets you down, hop on over to the White House Wire, where the news is always positive, the people are all white and the women are all blondes.