The situation in LA is only a test

Trump taking over California’s National Guard is testing the waters, finding out just how much his supporters will allow.

The LA law enforcement need to start arresting any ICE agent that enters any premises or residence without a warrant!! ICE does not have the jurisdiction to conduct illegal operations!! Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass should make that statement publicly!! And then every State Governor needs to echo the same!

Here's how much a 'Made in the USA' iPhone would cost

Defending its “reciprocal tariffs,” the White House said President Donald Trump believes the U.S. has the workforce and the resources to build iPhones in the U.S.

Analysts who follow the company say a U.S.-made iPhone is impossible at worst and highly expensive at best.

One analyst estimates that on labor costs alone, an iPhone made in the U.S. could cost 25% more than it does now.

Another analyst pegged the price of a U.S.-made iPhone at $3,500.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/11/heres-how-much-a-made-in-the-usa-iphone-would-cost.html

How did the Burger King knock up the Dairy Queen?

He forgot to wrap his whopper.

It's never too late to be what you want to be....

Unless you want to be younger. Then you’re screwed.

Shedeur Sanders finally gets the call

Going in the fifth round had to hurt his and his dad’s egos, but hey, it’s the Browns, where mediocrity thrives.

'Reconsider': Tom Cotton begs Trump for disaster relief -- after opposing it for Dem states

Cotton, who has opposed similar aid for blue states, joined the Arkansas delegation in writing a letter directly to Trump to support Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' request for funds.

On Friday, Sanders appealed the federal government's denial in a letter telling Trump that her state was in "dire need of federal assistance."

However, Trump's administration has refused to budge.

"Based on our review of all of the information available, it has been determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies. Accordingly, we have determined that supplemental federal assistance is not necessary," Arkansas Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Lacey Kanipe was told in the federal government's denial.

On Monday, Cotton and the Arkansas delegation implored Trump to change his mind.
"We write in support of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' request to reconsider the denial," the group said. "Given the cumulative impact and sheer magnitude of destruction from these severe weather events, federal assistance is vital to ensure that state and local communities have the capabilities needed to rebuild."

Cotton, however, has a history of voting against disaster relief for other states.

https://www.rawstory.com/tom-cotton-disaster/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ1uktleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFQbjQwVncyUEJLamVlR3FlAR46PuIgj5ayTyWDkMwBh3iUS9-VOl-j25halWiS2SYqEKgVpVQY4XUfbGRcnQ_aem_baXz2XSqOUdVOjXn2HSrnw

Hot Rod Lincoln - Charley Ryan (1st version)

Trump Plans $92 Million Military Parade--Honoring Himself

Donald Trump may finally get his long-desired military parade through the streets of Washington.

The Washington City Paper, citing an unnamed D.C. source, reports that the president has chosen June 14, 2025—the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, Flag Day, and coincidentally also his own 79th birthday—as the big day. If it goes ahead, the four-mile procession would go from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House.

Seven years ago, Trump made his desire for a grand military parade well known after he saw a French parade in 2017, telling people at the time, “We’re going to have to try and top it.” But the idea got a lot of pushback from military leaders as well the D.C. government, who estimated that it would cost the military $92 million and the district over $21 million in public safety costs.

Trump angrily abandoned the idea, accusing D.C. politicians of wanting “a number so ridiculously high that I canceled it. Never let someone hold you up!” At the time, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser shot down the idea on Twitter, saying she “finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad).”

This time, though, Trump has overhauled military leadership, firing four-star Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as leaders in the Navy and Air Force, including the top lawyers of those two branches and the Army. The legal firings presumably give Trump loyalists who would defend his parade if it is challenged in the courts.

https://newrepublic.com/post/193674/trump-military-parade-birthday?fbclid=IwY2xjawJh9OxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHisrD6gmNFK3d8PmAO37o8UocwaChSYbHRgo-pZp9K7QC9GbEuhGVbwctX-u_aem_rC7gA4LokyqJYtcy_SBcnQ

Small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 becomes first major U.S. stock measure to enter bear market

Small-cap stocks, which were once thought to be primary beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s policies, entered bear market territory on Thursday after a massive stock market rout that followed the administration’s sweeping and aggressive tariff rollout.

The Russell 2000 Index was down more than 5% on Thursday, bringing its losses from its November 25 record close to about 21%. On Wall Street, a 10% pullback is considered a correction, but a 20% decline is a bear market. The S&P 500
and Nasdaq Composite
are both in correction territory, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
is just below that mark.

“They’re getting hit because the economy is softening. That’s going to hurt profits,” Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist, told CNBC. “On the other side, they’re still paying high levels of interest payments on debt because they have more of this floating-rate debt.”

“They’re getting squeezed on both sides,” he said.

This is a sharp reversal from the gains seen in the trading days following November’s election, with small caps viewed as beneficiaries from deregulation, lower tax rates and even tariffs since the group has fewer multinationals than large cap stocks.

The Russell 2000 closed out that election week with an 8.6% advance, almost four percentage points higher than the 4.7% weekly gain of the S&P 500. Along with that, it became one of the hottest Trump trades. In fact, Tom Lee – managing partner and head of research at Fundstrat – said at that time that small caps could outperform by more than 100% over the next couple of years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/small-cap-benchmark-russell-2000-becomes-first-major-us-stock-measure-to-enter-bear-market.html

What Musk is trying to achieve with his unauthorized DOGE 'department'

(Copied from a Facebook post)

If you're a little confused about what Musk is trying to achieve with DOGE, here's the breakdown:
Elon Musk and Peter Thiel cofounded a company that became PayPal.
Other executives at PayPal went on to found or lead other huge tech companies including YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Affirm, and many VC firms.
This group became known as the PayPal mafia because they exerted an outsized influence on Silicon Valley.
Peter Thiel mentored a young JD Vance and helped him get set up in his first VC firm.
Peter Thiel and the PayPal mafia funded JD Vance's successful Senate run. Amazing because he had absolutely zero political experience.
Thiel and Musk all but forced Trump to choose JD Vance as VP in exchange for funding his presidential campaign.
The three of them, plus a lot of other tech billionaires subscribe to an ideology called the Dark Enlightenment espoused by this super weird, creepy dude: Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug.
Yarvin preaches that the media and academia represent "The Cathedral" that secretly controls power and must be dismantled.
He advocates for a corporate run, monarchy, led by a CEO-Dictator.
Says that Democracy is an "outdated software" and openly opposes it and that:
- Government agencies should be dismantled and The U.S. should be broken up into "patchworks" controlled by tech oligarchs.
- That the elite tech billionaires should rule because they have the intelligence to "fix" society
- That the "masses are asses" too dumb to govern themselves.
The strategy is to gut the government via R.A.G.E - Retire All Govt Employees to make government incapable of operating.
Then to replace government with private corporations.
To eliminate elections because they are "obsolete"
To use distraction and chaos to prevent public resistance.
Trump is their useful tool to be disposed of as soon as they can wrest control.
This is why Elon wears a black MAGA hat. They are not Trump supporters, they are "Dark MAGA"
This isn't a hypothetical. The plan is already in motion:
- Musk, Thiel, and their network are actively dismantling democratic institutions.
- JD Vance, the “MAGA heir,” is being positioned to help implement this transition.
- The public is too distracted to realize what’s happening.
- If successful, democracy in America will be permanently replaced by a corporate-run authoritarian state.
-----------------------------------
That's it. Now that you understand that you can see how everything that's happening fits within that lens.
Now the only question is what do we do about it?