Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project:

You’re not allowed to be surprised when Trump told you the things he would do to hurt you, and yes MAGA you will be the ones who get hurt the most. I promise you. Rich people don’t give a shit.

MAGA - you are NOT allowed to be SURPRISED.

Donald Trump announced Sunday that he has instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt the production of pennies, citing the high cost of producing one cent.

The government is set to save $179 million this year. While that might sound like a significant amount, in the grand scheme of the U.S. federal budget—projected at approximately $6 trillion for fiscal year 2025—it barely registers. To put it into perspective, $179 million amounts to just 0.00298% of the total budget.

With the potential phase-out of the penny, how will prices be affected? Economist William Dickens from Northeastern suggests that prices might actually drop in some cases.

“The item that once cost $2.99 might then cost $2.95,” Dickens says.

Ok. What’s the price of milk?. I don’t have a PHD in economics, but I can guarantee that business will round up to $3.00.

If we’re serious about saving money, here’s a thought: eliminate direct fossil fuel subsidies, which total approximately $20 billion per year. Let’s not pretend oil companies are struggling—they’re raking in record profits while still receiving government handouts.

Maybe instead of minor budget tweaks, we should start cutting waste where it actually matters.

No translation needed, but for those wondering, it translates to: “Trump pushes his way closer to recession.”

Its humiliating to be an American these days.

Donald Trump ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to open up a federally controlled flow of water in northern California that was completely unnecessary and unusable by anyone in southern California.
[…] That water is vitally important for farms and cities later in the summer.

It’s going to be a tough summer in California - and you can thank the ineptitude and stupidity of the Trump administration for it.

From the Wallstreet Journal’s Editorial Board:

If the North American leaders need to cheer about a minor deal so they all claim victory, that’s better for everyone. The need is especially important for Mr. Trump given how much he has boasted that his tariffs are a fool-proof diplomatic weapon against friend or foe. Mr. Trump can’t afford to look like the guy who lost. Ms. Sheinbaum in particular seems to recognize this, and so far she’s playing her Trump cards with skill.

None of this means the tariffs are some genius power play, as the Trump media chorus is boasting. The 25% border tax could return in a month if Mr. Trump is in the wrong mood, or if he doesn’t like something the foreign leaders have said or done. It also isn’t clear what Mr. Trump really wants his tariffs to achieve. Are they about reducing the flow of fentanyl, or is his real goal to rewrite the North American trade deal he signed in his first term? If it’s the latter, there’s more political volatility ahead.

In other words, Trump got nothing new for all his insane retoric and folded like a cheap deck of cards. It’s going to be fun watching Trump’s sycophants twist themselves into pretzels trying to claim this as a victory for the administration.

Trump administration made big moves to realign federal law enforcement in this country — purging top leaders at the FBI and multiple federal prosecutors at the DOJ.

John Fugelsang sums brilliantly sums up the current situation:

They care about their authority symbols, and they’re proving it right now. This is Joker taking over, firing commissioner Gordon and letting all the crooks out because Gotham was tired of woke Batman.

Dell is the latest tech company to announce it’s ending its hybrid and remote work policy. Victoria Song reporting for Verge:

“What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction. A thirty second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days,” Dell writes.

Intersting to see how Dell will explain this stance to its remote work solutions customers who are given the official sales pitch noting that remote work offers:

benefits such as flexibility, reduced commute times, and cost savings for employees, while employers can access a broader talent pool, reduce overhead costs, and increase productivity.

Hypocrisy much?

Open Culture on an intersting video of Nirvana before they were Nirvana:

Here’s a strange home video of Nirvana when they were unknown, playing inside a Radio Shack in the band’s hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. The video was recorded on the evening of January 24, 1988, after the store had closed. In those days the group went by the name of Ted Ed Fred.

Only the day before, the band had recorded its first demo tape at a studio in Seattle. Guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain asked his new friend Eric Harter, who managed the Radio Shack, to videotape the band playing “Paper Cuts,” one of 10 songs from the demo. Along with Cobain, the video features Nirvana co-founder Krist Novoselic on bass and Dale Crover of the Melvins on drums.

They did get better.

Google announcement on X:

We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.

For geographic features in the U.S., this is when Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated. When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America.

Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.

How this will lower the price of groceries I have no idea.

A 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s epic master piece Seven Samurai is now available for streaming. You can watch it on:

• Max has what appears to be the 4K version, thought not stated that anywhere. However the image is crisp and there are no dust or scratches visible.
• Apple TV has the movie with the 4K icon
• Amazon prime video has it also - no mention of it being the 4k version - however it is linked from Criterion

If your haven’t seen Seven Saurai - it significantly influenced Hollywood cinema, specifically the Western film genre, most notably with the Hollywood remake “The Magnificent Seven” by adapting the core themes of honor, duty, and protecting the vulnerable to an American setting. You should add it to your watch list.

From Roger Bert’s review:

Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. The critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission–an idea which gave birth to its direct Hollywood remake, “The Magnificent Seven,” as well as “The Guns of Navarone,” “The Dirty Dozen” and countless later war, heist and caper movies. Since Kurosawa’s samurai adventure “Yojimbo” (1960) was remade as “A Fistful of Dollars” and essentially created the spaghetti Western, and since this movie and Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress” inspired George Lucas’ “Star Wars” series, it could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years, just as a fallout from his primary purpose.

Here’s the trailer:

Oliver Darcy posting on the Status Substack:

The anchor, I’m told, signaled to associates in private conversations over the weekend that he intends to depart the network after its chief executive, Mark Thompson, booted him from the morning programming lineup — a move that conspicuously coincided with Donald Trump’s return to power.

CNN brass, as we first reported earlier this month, decided to strip Acosta of his 10am show, which he has anchored to great ratings success over the last 11 months, at times even seeing higher viewership than programs in the channel’s prime time bloc.

Acosta was instead offered the less-than-desirable option of anchoring a show from midnight until 2am ET.

CNN pitched the gig to Acosta as anchoring during prime time on the West Coast and said he could move to Los Angeles to host the program. But the reality is the program would have aired at a time in which cable news viewership is at its lowest levels.

Acosta’s morning ratings were high. The only reason for CNN forcing him to midnight was to appease Donal Trump. CNN executives showing their absolute lack of journalistic integrity.

Tom Warren, writing for The Verge:

Earlier this month you could search for “Google” on Bing and get a page that looked a lot like Google, complete with a special search bar, an image resembling a Google Doodle, and even some small text under the search bar just like Google search.

The misleading UI no longer appears on the Google search result of Bing this week, just days after it was originally discovered by posters on Reddit.

Steve Jobs summed up Microsoft’s culture and DNA perfectly in 1995:

They just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste and and what that means is I don’t mean that in a small way. I mean that in a big way in the sense thaty don’t think of original ideas and they don’t bring much culture into their products.

Couldn’t have said it better.

Brian Tallerico, for RogerEbert.com:

David Lynch saw my dreams. As a teenager growing up in suburban America in the ’80s, “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” hit like a bolt of lightning. Not only did they capture something about the sinister, surreal underbelly of life under the picket fences, but they said something directly to anyone who thought they could be an artist: You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing.

Lynch was one of those creative voices who found his own octave, doing for film what people like David Bowie or Prince did for music, shattering expectations of what a piece of art could be. Even when his work missed the mark, which was rare, Lynch was never anything less than a singular artist, a creator who never once succumbed to the desire to please that derails so much potential in his industry. When people point to Lynch works like “Mulholland Dr.” or “The Straight Story” or even those of us who love “Lost Highway,” it’s not just that specific film that speaks to them — it’s the sense that the potential of the form is limitless as long as people like Lynch are involved. The entire art form was shifted by him and is now lessened by his absence. We owe it to him to burst through the doors he opened. […]

Lynch’s fifth film, 1990’s “Wild at Heart” would be one of his most divisive — it’s often pointed to as Lynch at his most excessive — but it was what he did on television that same year that rocked the entertainment world: “Twin Peaks.” I could write a book about what “Twin Peaks” meant to a 15-year-old entertainment junkie. To summarize, it exploded the potential of the form. People who watch “Twin Peaks” over three decades later need to understand the TV landscape on which it landed. I’m not saying there wasn’t quality TV in the ’80s, but there was less risk-taking than in the 2020s, and watching the saga of Laura Palmer next to formulaic dramas or laugh-track-heavy sitcoms felt like a true shock to the system. For more on “Twin Peaks” and why it mattered, check this out.

Jane Mayer, reporting for The New Yorker:

Hegseth has admitted to excess drinking in the past, but he has vowed that, if confirmed to lead the Pentagon, “there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it.” In December, he said that he was “a different man than I was years ago,” describing his life as “a redemption story.” But even as he has attempted to reassure senators, additional reports continue to raise questions about when, and whether, he has reformed. As recently as the spring of 2023, according to an account shared last week with The New Yorker, Hegseth ordered three gin-and-tonics at a weekday breakfast meeting with an acquaintance in Manhattan. “It was an extremely strange experience,” his companion that morning told me. “We met at Fox News in New York for breakfast, and he suggested we go across the street to a bar. It was, like, ten in the morning. Then he ordered two gin-and-tonics at the same time for himself. To be polite, I ordered one, too. But it was so strong I couldn’t drink it, so I ordered coffee. Then he had a third gin-and-tonic. I don’t know how he could pass a security clearance. But they’re trying to create a culture where whistle-blowers are uncomfortable coming forward.”

No. Donald Trump and the Republicans are lowering the standards.

Finland’s amazing success in combating homelessness:

Finland’s success is not a matter of luck or the outcome of “quick fixes.” Rather, it is the result of a sustained, well-resourced national strategy, driven by a “Housing First” approach, which provides people experiencing homelessness with immediate, independent, permanent housing, rather than temporary accommodation (OECD, 2020). A key pillar of this effort has been to combine emergency assistance with the supply of rentals to host previously homeless people, either by converting some existing shelters into residential buildings with independent apartments (Kaakinen, 2019) or by building new flats by a government agency (ARA, 2021). Building flats is key: otherwise, especially if housing supply is particularly rigid, the funding of rentals can risk driving up rents (OECD, 2021a), thus reducing the “bang for the buck” of public spending.

Too often it is required to have money first, which requires a job. But you can’t go to work from a showerless breakfastless crumpled stinky street corner. Having a home first enables is a prerequisite to employment. Something we here in the US need could do well to learn.

Danielle Kurtzleben reporting on GOP tax cuts and the middle class:

To help ensure their bill met the budget limits Republicans had set for themselves, lawmakers set many individual income tax changes to sunset after 2025 (however, they made cuts to corporate tax rates permanent).

For example, the bill changes tax rates across income brackets, increases the standard deduction and increases the child tax credit — but only until the end of 2025.

As a result, the Tax Policy Center predicts that in 2027, the average tax cut would amount to $160, or just a 0.2 percent income bump.

This would mean a tiny tax bump for many lower- and middle-class households — the average $50,000 to $75,000 — earning household would have a tax bill that is $30 higher than today. The average household earning more than $1 million would get a cut of more than $23,000.

Put another way, in 2018, households earning $1 million or more — or, 0.4 percent of all tax filers — would be getting 16.5 percent of the total benefit from the bill.

In 2027, households earning $1 million or more — estimated to be 0.6 percent of all filers — would be getting 81.8 percent of the total benefit, even though their average tax break would be about $46,000 smaller in 2027 than in 2018.

Yep. Thats right, if you make less then $75,000 your income loose $30 dollars or higher than today. Whats is even perverse is that those make over $1 million or more would see their income go up – by as much as $46,000.

FAFO.

Standing before a global map, Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Donald Trump’s proposal to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Golf of America exposing Trump as the international clown that he is.

Obviously, the Gulf of Mexico’s name is recognized by the United Nations, by a United Nations agency - but why don’t we call it (United States) América Mexicana? Sounds nice doesn’t it?

Don Moynihan writing on his substack:

The blame largely lies with Republican political leaders. Mitch McConnell punted on ending the career of a guy he detests. Kevin McCarthy decided to resurrect Trump out of pure self-interest. John Roberts and other Republicans on the Supreme Court extended a measure of retroactive legitimacy for Trump’s actions leading up to Jan. 6.

McConnell laid the blame for Jan. 6 squarely at the feet of Trump. In private, he said things like: “If this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is” and indicated he expected bipartisan support for a vote to convict Trump.

Donald Trump never faced any consequences for January 6th wasn’t incompetence. It was inconvenience. Everyone in Congress knew what happened on that day - no one was willing to confront the the truth and the fallout.

Let us not forgot all of government officials who sided with the insurrectionists.

Tim Craig reporting for The Washington Post:

Fifty percent of voters from families with an income of less than $50,000 a year cast their ballots for Trump, according to the data, compared with 48 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris. Four years ago, President Joe Biden carried those voters by 11 percentage points; Hillary Clinton won them by 12 points in 2016 and former president Barack Obama by 22 points in 2012.

Now, low-income Americans who voted for Trump say they are counting on him to keep their benefits intact even while his Cabinet picks and Republican lawmakers call on him to reduce federal spending.

I am trying to empathize with these Trump voters. I really am. But when you hear delusional wishful ignorant rationalization like this it makes it very difficult.

Steve Tillia, 59, receives $1,600 a month in Social Security disability payments and $300 in food stamps to support himself and his son. Tillia, who said he is unable to work after suffering from mini strokes, still drives around New Castle with a Trump flag anchored on the bumper of his SUV.

Tillia said he’s confident that Trump and GOP leaders will reduce spending by “cutting the fat” out of government — and not slashing benefits.

“It’s not cutting government programs, it’s cutting the amount of people needed to run a program,” he said. “They are cutting staff, which could actually increase the amount of the programs that we get.”

[…]

But as Kathy Davis sat in the “smokers patio” at the Riverside Apartments, she said she is as confident as ever that Trump’s presidency will benefit her.

Davis, a retired artist, subsists on a monthly $1,300 Social Security payment and $75 in food stamps. She rents her studio apartment for $385 per month. Asked whether she worries that Trump’s agenda could hurt the poor, Davis said the incoming president is “too smart for that.”

“You can’t wipe out half of the population” of New Castle, Davis said. “We are old and tired and just want to be taken care of, and Trump has too much common sense, so I don’t think he is going to do anything to hurt us.”

The administration these people voted in, along with the plutocrats that are now basically running the government (Elon Musk, Viveck Ramaswami and his billionaire cabinate) have vowed to cut $2.5 trillion in government spending. This isn’t going to happen unless you cut Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and housing assistance. I mean Trump actually said “I don’t care about you. I just want your vote” at one of his rallies.

You did this to yourselves. Your vote has consequences. So does your ignorance. They will get exactly what they voted for. I really don’t have any empathy left for these people.

You all f*cked around and now you are going to find out.