May 27, 2025 - Pensito

Finally, A Good Commencement Address

May 27, 2025 Buck Banks

“Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power. First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists. For nothing. Then send masked agents to abduct a college student, a writer of her college paper who wrote an editorial supporting Palestinian rights, and send her to a prison in Louisiana and charge her with nothing. Then, move to destroy law firms that stand up for the rights of others. … With that done, power can rewrite history. With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes. And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. ‘Diversity’ is now described as ‘illegal.’ ‘Equity’ is to be shunned. ‘Inclusion’ is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends ….”

— Scott Pelley, in a commencement address at Wake Forest.

Our Fascist Idiocracy: May 27, 2025

May 27, 2025May 28, 2025 Jon Ponder

Justice deleted. Trump’s white supremacist Department of Justice is dropping negotiations for court-approved settlements in the murders in 2020 by police officers of both Breonna Taylor in St. Louis and George Floyd in Minneapolis. A spokseperson for the department called the consent decrees “unjustified.”

Taylor was shot by officers in her bed, and Floyd was murdered by an officer who suffocated him on a sidewalk with his knee. The two cases led to Black Lives Matter protests nationwide. To underscore the white supremacist message it means to send, the DOJ announced its decision just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, on May 25, 2020.

As suggested in its Project 2025 manifesto, the Trump regime intends to instigate a new wave of protests this summer so that it can impose martial law on the country which could lead to delaying or canceling the midterm elections next year.

Joder y descubrirlo. MAGA rapper and Cuban immigrant Márquez Duany, better known as El Funky, has less than 30 days to leave the U.S. or face deportation and likely imprisonment in Cuba, where his music helped fuel the largest anti-government protests in Cuba in decades. “If I could vote, I would have voted for Trump,” he said recently. “He’s the strongest president when it comes to Cuba.”

Gonna need a bigger Sharpie. The Climate Change Denier-in-Chief has hollowed out the federal government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just in time for the 2025 hurricane season. NOAA’s weather forecasting and hazard-warning branch – critically understaffed ahead of the hurricane season, several scientists told the BBC. Six to 10 hurricanes are predicted for the Atlantic and Caribbean region from June to November this year.

Trump’s deplorable speech on trophy wives. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) weighed in on Trump’s deranged commencement address at West Point on May 24.
“I don’t think that those who have gone through West Point expected to have their commander-in-chief address them and start talking about trophy wives or start talking [about] how he has so many investigations,” Crockett said. “It is time for Republicans to start calling him out and start questioning his mental acuity, and whether or not he is equipped to serve mentally. We know when it comes down to his criminality, he is not qualified to serve, but this is just absolutely deplorable.”

Curb His Enthusiasm
Winning the swindling ...

May 27, 2025 Buck Banks

That Trump meme coin surely is an amazing wonder!
It’s lightning in a bottle — all light, no thunder.
There’s absolutely nothing stealth
About how Trump’s enriching himself,
He’s just enthusiastically embracing the Politics of Plunder.

Day: May 27, 2025

Finally, A Good Commencement Address

— Scott Pelley, in a commencement address at Wake Forest.

Our Fascist Idiocracy: May 27, 2025

Curb His Enthusiasm
Winning the swindling ...

Winning the swindling ...

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”

— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.

“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”

— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”

— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.

Numerati

1,000

10%

“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.

71%

A new Fox News Poll finds 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the Iran War, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. Sixty percent say U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while just 37% say it was right.

$9.5 billion

“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.

470

Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.

— Scott Pelley, in a commencement address at Wake Forest.

— President Trump’s typically uplifting Memorial Day message, delivered on Truth Social.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”

— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.

“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”

— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”

— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.

Numerati

1,000

10%

“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.

71%

$9.5 billion

“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.

470

Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.