Those lips, those eyes!

 

Would you buy a car from this man?  Earlier this year when he was promoting Teslas on the White House lawn, the answer was overwhelmingly "NO!"  Maybe he'll have better luck with this Soviet-era POS, the Lada 1200.  Only 11,400 rubles, gets 26 versts to the gallon, ask about dealer financing.

To be fair, this one isn't the fault of Trump or his gang.  @GOP chose it for their post "The One Big Beautiful Bill will drive the return of the great American car."  Hilarity ensued.

Also available in red!

Shamed by the Buttermilk Sky Organization, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History says it is restoring Trump to the exhibit on impeached presidents.  (Maybe not, but we're taking a victory lap.)  The museum says it didn't intend for his omission to be permanent, they just didn't like the design of the placard.  Believe what you like, it's still a win.

Good news from academia, too:  The Harvard Crimson reports that according to university president Alan M. Garber, they will fight Trump in court rather than pay the demanded $500 million bribe.  Brown and Columbia, it's not too late.

The War Between the States 2.0:  Democratic legislators have vowed to flee Texas to prevent a quorum for the proposed gerrymandering of the Congressional map, and Greg Abbott has vowed to arrest them.  Governor J.B. Pritzker now promises to protect those who have reached Illinois.  If only the Squeaker hadn't sent them home the House could pass a Fugitive Democrat Act.  Then they'd have to get all the way to Canada.

Democrats in the Senate are employing a similar tactic.  Knowing how much the Republicans want to recess, they're slow-walking more of Trump's worthless nominees in return for releasing frozen funds for the NIH and foreign aid.  The Leader's response was a very presidential "GO TO HELL" which blew up the deal.  John Thune, the majority leader, is muttering about rule changes but that seems unlikely.  Nice work, Donnie.

How Karoline Leavitt got and holds the job of White House press secretary is no longer a mystery.  Grandpa spilled to Newsmax:  "She's become a star.  It's that face, it's that brain, it's those lips, the way they move, they move like -- she's a machine gun!  Is she in the room?  She's a star and she's great.  She's a great person actually.  But she's, I don't think anybody's ever had a better press secretary than Karoline, she's been amazing."  Rob Finnerty changed the subject before he got to the crucifix dangling in her cleavage.  Gold, of course.  Too bad she's 27, way past his "type."

Having pronounced this "the 'hottest' country in the world" Trump edged closer to imposing a cover charge for visitors.  Holders of B-1 and B-2 visas will soon have to post a $15,000 bond, allegedly to deter overstaying -- but only from certain (unspecified) countries.  Brazil?  India?  Who else is on the shit list this week, Marquito?

Do you believe in coincidence?  The Bondi Department is trying to find an excuse to indict Jack Smith for violating the Hatch Act.  Meanwhile the Netanyahu government voted to fire attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara, who is prosecuting him for corruption.  This man corrupt?  It's unpossible!

Trump is now the arbiter of HOT and NOT.  Despite cheating his way to yet another club championship he had time for this:

And not a single mention of Epstein.  His FCC puppet Carr was dispatched to Fox to explain that Stehen Colbert had to go because "Colbert and others went from being court jesters making fun of everybody to being court clerics," whatever that means.  Trump was just standing up to the Hollywood and New York Elites on behalf of the Plain People of MAGA.  "They don't get to decide anymore what works in this country from a media perspective...Trump ran directly at the legacy media and he smashed the facade that they get to decide..."  It would probably be more courageous without the cringing complicity of CNN, Bezos, Sulzberger, ABC, Paramount, etc., but sure.  As Colbert used to say, truth has a liberal bias.  (Also, I think Trump is confusing Taylor Swift's reception at the Superbowl with the jeering he and the First Escort got at the Kennedy Center.  But he's welcome for my attention to this matter.)

I may have to revise my estimate of Governor Kathy Hochul, who continues to hold Zohran Mamdani at arm's length.  At the funeral of Det. Didarul Islam she wore a headscarf and Ted Cruz went into hate overdrive.  "Why in TF is the Governor of New York wearing a fcking hijab?"  To Cruz this represented not respect but an assault on "the rights of women in New York" (women's rights being practically an obsession of his).  "I wore a headscarf to honor a fallen Muslim NYPD officer at his funeral," Hochul responded, calling it "what leaders and anyone with basic decency would do."  Fck Ted Cruz.

With all the resources at his disposal -- the announcement of nuclear subs to threaten Russia was a nice touch -- Trump should be better at distracting from the Epstein elephant in every room he enters.  It's not as if 80 to 90 percent of MAGA can't be diverted by jangling car keys, much less the idea of annihilation.  But he can't help but find his own level, recruiting convicted rapist (of a 16-year-old girl) Lawrence Taylor for his Council on Physical Fitness and musing about a pardon for not-yet-sentenced Mann Act violator Sean "Diddy" Combs.  Meanwhile, following two days of chats with assistant attorney general Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell was quietly transferred to a more comfortable ladies-only federal prison in Texas.  (The other inmates, white collar offenders and short-timers, are not happy about it, with one complaining that "human trafficking is a violent crime.")  He might as well be trying to annex Epstein's island as a fifty-first state.  George Santos, who is not a sex offender, doesn't seem to interest Trump, for whom everything is transactional.  Santos voted for everything MAGA, but what can the ex-congressman do for him now?