🟠 DC’s newest “attraction:” menacing Trump banner hanging from the US Department of Agriculture HQ—alongside a Lincoln banner. Shades of Kim Jong Eun. [📷: Eric Garcia/The Independent]

There was a dull shyster from Queens who ripped us off by any means. Rapacious, salacious, ungracious, sebaceous, his life nothing less than obscene.

The King thought that he held dominion because he was told by his minions that his red-hatted idiots— those poor mental midgets— would grovel before his opinions.

🔵 Will Trump ever stop d*cking around with tariffs and making threats to trading partners? A 50% tariff on EU products starting in just one week is designed to roil markets. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...

🔴 Re: taking back Harvard grants and barring enrollment of international students, Trump’s administration shows its: 🔵 anti-intellectualism 🔵 xenophobia 🔵 isolationism 🔵 commitment to retribution 🔵 disregard for educational freedom 🔵 exclusion of top-notch students. I hope Harvard fights and wins.

🔴 This corruption infuriates me. I was a federal employee for 30 years and we were required to take annual ethics training including refreshers on The Hatch Act. My agency was strict on enforcement of ethics codes. This administration completely undermines the credibility of all career feds.

🔵 Church and State: Good news as The Supreme Court rendered a split decision on the use of public funds for a religious charter school. SCOTUS thus left in place a decision in Oklahoma to deny the use of funds for that purpose. www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/p...

🔵 Lately I’ve been capturing images of what life in DC is like before democracy meets its demise. I want to remember.

What has our country turned into? Trump has single-handedly coarsened our national discourse. The following post makes me ponder, what qualifies as a “shithole country “?

Happy b’day, “Pet Sounds” — released by The Beach Boys today in 1966 and a groundbreaking influence in music. 🎂 “I bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life,” Paul McCartney once said. “I figure no one is educated musically until they’ve heard this album.” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”

🇺🇦 I just love this guy. I’m on tenterhooks waiting to see how obstructive the Russian “negotiating team” will be, and how little Rubio will contribute.

On the lighter side, here’s an item from a recent police blotter for Federal Way, WA.

Veterans know about trust - how trust is given and how trust is earned. Our nation continues to face a crisis of trust - and all of us can and must take action to change that.

Obama turned down a *book* to comply with ethics rules surrounding gifts. Trump is accepting a jet. That’s the difference.

Can you believe the pain and hardship, suffering and starvation of our white Afrikaners in South Africa .. No food, no life .. they have to flee this devastation as refugees to the USA 🤔

I’m all for science and worked for a science agency for decades, but I don’t see the point of exploring or inhabiting Mars when we’re laying waste to the earth. How about addressing climate change and preserving ecosystems?

🔴 How is anything resembling this being normalized? “An ally of… Trump called for the execution of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a threat the Democratic lawmaker says he’s taking seriously.” Roger Stone is barely a human being. www.kjzz.org/politics/202...

Trump’s deputies

white house down the street the world's nastiest neighbor Capital living @haikuplatypus.bsky.social

Balancing the hard times with the moments of grace riding the slack tide @haikuplatypus.bsky.social

🟠 It’s such a “victory” to impose impossibly high tariffs on a major trading partner and then negotiate reductions in those tariffs. So much winning! www.cnn.com/2025/05/12/b...

❌ Reincarnation? ⚫️ Hitler died April 1945. 🟠 Trump born June 1946.

🔴⚪️🔵 Refresher

How are the masked ICE agents arresting people off the streets different from these guys I've filmed? Proud Boys, Blood Tribe, Patriot Front, Boogalo Boyz?

🟠 I wish the US would welcome more refugees but for now only Afrikaners are being fast-tracked. Big surprise. www.npr.org/2025/05/09/n...

❌ WTF: AG Bondi and DOJ have determined that, “it would be ‘legally permissible’ for the donation of the aircraft to be conditioned on transferring [Qatar’s] ownership to Trump's presidential library before the end of his term…” The gift is a clear violation of The Emoluments Clause.

Drunken scratchings of a booze-fueled haiku poet streams of spring rainfall @haikuplatypus.bsky.social

🟠 Oh, goody… www.axios.com/local/washin...

🔴⚪️🔵 This NYT profile describes a DC attorney at the top of the profession who had singular integrity throughout his career. It’s so refreshing to read about someone like this. :: Gift Article www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/u...

🇺🇦 I can’t wait to see what excuses Putin has for ignoring this call for a ceasefire. Even Trump is getting tired of Russia’s delays and shenanigans. apnews.com/article/russ...

❌ This atrocious raid happened in Worcester, where I grew up. It hits home for me to see this, especially since there was recently an ICE raid at a school two blocks from my home in Washington, DC. The Gestapo tactics are frightening and just beginning.

🟠 I believe that Pirro is best known for drinking box wine on air. Nothing against box wine.

🟣 This is what can happen if even one key Republican Senator does the right thing and says “no” to Trump.

⚪️🔵 Living in DC is wonderful—if you look up and ignore what’s happening on the ground.

Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator,” 1940

☀️ Here’s a little sunshine from DC. (Randy Clarke IG)

⚪️ Finally, some good news out of this saga in North Carolina. An end to an incredible waste of time, money, and faith in the electoral system. Congratulations, Allison Riggs! www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

🇬🇱 🇩🇰 How far will Trump push his quest to take over part of a NATO member country? If Greenland is of such strategic importance, couldn’t the US bolster Denmark’s capacity to counter real or perceived threats, rather than taking the island over? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

⚪️ 133 old men will in secret select a leader for a church that harbors pedophiles, promotes superstition, misogyny, and anti-LGBTQ+ views, and hoards immense wealth in a world rife with poverty and hunger. So: How about that red cape? www.catholicnewsagency.com/amp/news/263...

🔴 Trump said he wants the name of the Persian Gulf to change to the Arabian Gulf. Just in time for his junket to Saudi Arabia next week to make deals to enrich his family. Now, on Google Maps:

⚪️ Facing reality, the administration acknowledges Putin’s overreach in negotiating an end to the war. Perhaps the US should step away from participating in much less brokering a settlement. Oh, and send more munitions and equipment to Ukraine post haste. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

Please distribute to federal employees whom you know.

🔴⚪️🔴 Mr. Carney Goes to Washington Welcome!

❌ A view of one face of hell, an incentive to keep on with the struggle.

⚪️ Marc Elias is a true champion in the push to protect American democracy. I’m looking forward to watching this segment. @marcelias.bsky.social

🔴 Bookbinder: “Unbelievable. That’s the first word that came to mind when I saw Trump’s announcement last week that he will host a dinner for the 220 top holders of the $TRUMP meme coin, complete with a private reception and White House tour for the top 25 investors…” www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

❌ Trump’s “skinny” 2026 budget calls for a 54% cut in EPA funding, and the elimination of the office in which I used to work. My former colleagues ably protect the public from the impacts of climate change, acid rain, and ozone depletion. America and the globe will suffer from this reversal.

🟢 WSJ Exclusive: “Trump to Propose Slashing $163 Billion in Government Programs in Budget Blueprint” White House will transmit preliminary “skinny” budget to Congress on Friday. apple.news/AdYgdah06QEC...

🔴⚪️🔴 I’m so glad that Mr Carney will remain the PM. He will ably lead Canada, keep Trump in check, and rise on the world stage. When the PM comes to DC, there’ll be a lot of us American fans here to roll out the red carpet. Not all Washingtonians are MAGAts. Congratulations, Mr PM and Canada!

🇺🇸 May Day: Protesters carried a huge replica of The Constitution on a route through the streets of Washington, D.C. [📷: M Koller]