Week of Trump Folds
Tariff P‑p‑p‑pause, Market C‑c‑c‑collapse, Immigrant Arrests

As a kid long long ago, I was taught to write out a straight line list with commas between all items, even when it concludes with and.

As in:
My loved one asked me to move the car, clean out the garage, and move the car back in.

As opposed to:
My loved one asked me to move the car, clean out the garage and move the car back in.

That final comma, just before that and is called an Oxford Comma.
Singer and sometime comedian Elle Cordova adopts the persona:

Having done our school work, we move to our education with our usual sources of cyber‑insight.

• Two sentences, and one additional word, express how Trump manages to surprise even Max’s Dad!

• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil goes back half a century to a parody of patriotic lament by Albert Brooks, preaching about how great America once was. It connects to today’s news, as our hapless Donald Trump yearns for William McKinley and happy days of tariffs past.

• Dave Dubya has an idea of how tariffs and tariff rollbacks fit the plan.

  He is not the only one with suspicions.

  Key proposed probe (quoting the Time report):
  Senator Adam Schiff on Wednesday called on Congress to investigate whether President Donald Trump engaged in insider trading or market manipulation when he abruptly paused a sweeping set of tariffs, a move that sent stock prices skyrocketing

  Economist Robert Reich is more explicit:

  Key trades:
  The reversal prompted the S&P 500 stock index to climb over 7 percent in just minutes.

  Traders with inside information about what Trump was about to do — some of them, presumably, Trump family members and cronies — just made a fortune.

• With Signalgate, fantasy numbers on real tariffs, economic collapse, and false arrests -> it’s a bewildering level of incompetence.

  It is also a reminder that useful idiots can be true idiots.

  CalicoJack in The Psy of Life provides a useful guide on how to tell those providing disturbing distractions from those behind the scenes doing very real damage.

• driftglass shows images from the future as tariffs eventually transition from fevered dream to horrible result

• Dave Columbo looks at tariffs and figures out who Trump really hates:

• In satire (maybe…) to our north, The Beaverton reports as Canada waits patiently for the US economy to implode enough to make America Canada’s 11^th province.

• The Propaganda Professor carries us through another week of dumb moves, mostly involving tariffs (and Trumpers’ reactions) just before Trump waffled, to everyone’s tentative relief.

  Key quisling enthusiasm:
  …though he still has zero understanding of what a tariff is or how it works … Not to worry, he has plenty of media cheerleaders who know… well, not much more. But they’re sure somehow that he’s doing the right thing.

  Key words of support (from MAGA commentator Benny Johnson):
  …losing money costs you absolutely nothing.

• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara also opposes Trump tariffs, whether they come as tariffs proposed, tariffs threatened, or tariffs carried out. Seems they violate the anti‑regulatory principles of libertarianism.

  Key infringement:
  It is immoral. It violates the inalienable individual rights of Americans to freely trade with other people. Economic freedom is fundamental to Americanism.

• Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has his own wonderful take on the whole tariff fiasco.

  Trump either “paused” the tariffs because he’s the greatest genius since Wile E. Coyote, or he “paused” the tariffs because we’re not worthy to follow his genius. open.substack.com/pub/jameswig…

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  — James Wigderson (@jwigderson.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 12:26 AM

• Jason Linkins in dialogue online about Republican office holders going along with economic destruction:

  there's been a lot of talk about death threats keeping GOP lawmakers in line but after a weekend of everyone in the streets against this administration I'm afraid I'm not particularly moved by those assertions

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  — Jason Linkins (@dceiver.bsky.social) April 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM

  political courage is actually hard to manifest but that didn't stop a shit ton of people from putting their necks out this weekend

  — Jason Linkins (@dceiver.bsky.social) April 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM

  any republican congressman who is whining about death threats should give AOC a call

  — twotenths.bsky.social (@twotenths.bsky.social) April 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM

  for real!!

  — Jason Linkins (@dceiver.bsky.social) April 6, 2025 at 7:06 PM

• Infidel753 explains how Trump is responding to pressure by caving, pausing tariffs to stop the chaos as chaos continues anyway.

  Key pressure point:
  Trump has repeatedly backed down when he faced enough resistance of whatever kind — now even on the tariffs about which he seemed so bull-headedly determined. He’s an airhead, a lightweight, a balloon full of hot gas that can be blown from place to place by whatever winds grow strong enough. We must be the strong wind.

• Vixen Strangely suggests the on‑and‑off‑and‑on‑and‑off TrumpTariffTax is not, as purported, a negotiating tactic. In fact, he already has achieved his only real goal.

  Key win:
  He’s already got the deal he wants.

  They are literally kissing his ass, he says. And I have told you about his relationship with ass-kissing. It’s his life support system. He [has] every eye on him. People are telling him he’s wrecking everything–and like a toddler wreaking havoc, he’s loving it. And he gets to prove something–he was right, and all the smarty-pants people who said otherwise will find out.

• News Corpse brings us the Pres Sec with an amazing defense of the TrumpTariffTax: don’t you worry about a thing.

  Leavitt: "Trust in President Trump. Look at what he did in his first term. Companies would be best served doing business right here in the United States."

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  — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 10, 2025 at 2:42 PM

• Hackwhackers covers the coin flip on‑and‑off‑and‑partly‑off TrumpTaxTariffs (T³?) and how the uncertainty destabilizes more than today’s financial markets.

  Also in Hackwhackers, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem once more plays dress up, this time posing with a tactical weapon unwittingly (of course) pointed at the head of an unsuspecting law enforcement officer unlucky enough to stand next to her.

  

• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger briefly, with clarity, explains for whom due process rights apply.

• In Scotties Playtime, the ability of ICE to arrest random migrants without due process and imprison them remotely poses an immediate danger to pretty much everyone. It involves the universal right to claim innocence.

  Key expansive concern:
  What is to stop them from snatching a US citizen they want gone? Think of the police being able to be judge, jury, and if they decide to be the executioner.

  Key assurance (quoting border czar Tom Homan):
  I’ve talked to the highest level at ICE and they’ve reassured me several times: Everyone that was removed under the Alien Enemies Act was a gang member and a terrorist

  Key source of distrust:
  But we know that is not true.

• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit finds other periods in history during which people could be arrested and held without due process based on anonymous denunciations and sees a slope down which we are already slipping.

• From The Borowitz Report, Trump’s Attorney General fires a Justice department employee after finding a copy of the Constitution on his desk.

• The late civil rights hero, Pauli Murray, played a major role in America’s tortured struggle toward freedom. She helped lay the intellectual foundation for ending segregation and discrimination.

  In Happiness Between Tails da-AL points to the Trump effort to erase the landmark designation from her childhood home.

  Can’t have DEI attitudes poison our blood or something.

• In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson marks the 135^th anniversary of what Americans at the time thought was the final defeat of white supremacy in the US.

  Uh huh.

  Key defeated ideology:
  Southern politicians had led their poorer neighbors to war to advance the idea that some people were better than others and had the right—and the duty—to rule. The Founders of the United States had made a terrible mistake when they declared, “All men are created equal,” southern leaders said. In place of that “fundamentally wrong” idea, they proposed “the great truth” that white men were a “superior race.” And within that superior race, some men were better than others.

  The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

• As the Trump folks try to slash the NASA budget in half, Frances Langum remembers 55 years ago this week as the date Apollo 13 was launched:

• To be fair, Trump’s Attorney General did warn that even the slightest dent, knick, or scratch on Muskmobiles would henceforth be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!
  That’s what you might call an explicit heads up.

  The Onion carries the story as a man who bumped a Tesla while parallel parking has been sentenced to death.

• With so much of the country going Trumpesque, Oregon has ousted Republicans across the board and elected Democratic supermajorities. (Yay‑y‑y‑y)

  So Republicans there have been soul searching. They have started with a new state chair, Jerry Cummings, who wants a new direction: Less involvement with divisive cultural issues, more party‑building basics.

  PZ Myers sees a red flag in that Jerry is a pastor but, hey, nobody’s perfect. A new direction would be healthy. Sadly, Professor Myers doesn’t think they can do it. Republicans are devoted to extremes.

  So Republicans do some digging into Pastor Cummings’ background. And they find, Oh, NO, NO, No, No, no, no …

• Julian Sanchez and Brian Beutler speculate in online dialogue on what might be motivating Trumpers in high positions:

  And the behavior of a whole lot of political and institutional actors over the past few months is making it very clear that, in fact, no, that cannot be how they're thinking at all.

  — Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 5:51 PM

  Or, I suppose, they are so deluded they somehow imagine they'll be remembered well. I guess I buy that for the True Believers, but I don't know how the reluctant capitulators manage to tell themselves that tale.

  — Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM

  I think a lot of them have Alito brain. They think they’re on the cusp of permanent victory, where they no longer have to suffer any libs, ever again, and will eat all the shit they have to in the hope of cinching it. www.reuters.com/world/us/sup…

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  — Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 7:13 PM

  Right, I can see how a Christian nationalist would have a delusional notion of what “the verdict of history” is going to look like. I’m thinking more of the folks who clearly sort of know better but seem unfazed by the thought they’ll go down in history as cowards.

  — Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 7:19 PM

  And, finally, on Trump’s new Economic Council director:

  You don’t think someone like Kevin Hassett is positively tumescent at the thought of irreversibly cutting taxes and slashing Medicaid, and willing to humiliate himself for a few more months or a couple years to reach the elusive, uh, climax?

  — Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM

  He might even think he’ll be remembered well by the victors who write history.

  — Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM

• I don’t much care for MAGAs taking some small comment way‑y‑y‑y out of context to make their dis‑info‑point.

  AND I hate when some spokesperson from my side manages to get on television to completely bungle what should be an easy counterpoint.

  One small example:
  I reach for the remote when I hear it’s pretextual when it’s a pretext would do.

  So which is worse?
  Blatant dishonesty from some sneering conservative?
  or
  Blatant airheadedness from someone on my side?

  AND

  What about when those roles are reversed?

  Tommy Christopher brings us video and transcript of Trump press spox performing a combo.

  Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick makes a dumb point (because he kind of has to) talking about pulling sweatshop manufacturing from China and assigning dreary tasks to robot technology here.

  He uses his hypothetical to demonstrate how programming, designing, and other robot development jobs will result here in the US.

  Not a particularly intelligent point, since robotic manufacturing has never actually resulted in many more jobs, but making a dumb point is what he pretty much has to do.

  Folks on my side slice and dice his comment to make it sound like he wants to force American workers into sweatshops.
  (Grr-r-r-r)

  So White House Press Sec Karoline Leavitt is confronted about the comment.
  Does the administration really want Americans doing sweatshop type stuff?

  The obvious answer is to point out the dishonest way his point is contorted to mean something different.
  But NOooo….

  Instead, Leavitt defends getting manufacturing back and leaves the out-of-context intact.
  So she thinks sweatshops are a GOOD thing?

  It’s their unforced error, so maybe I shouldn’t be irritated.
  But I am.

  Tommy provides a brief video and a short transcript.

• Iron Knee at Political Irony tempts us to perform an I‑told‑ya or two as Trump voters find themselves suffering:

  But he cautions against gloating:
  Unfortunately, this stupidity didn’t just harm people who voted for Donald Trump, it screws everyone: people who voted against him, and even people in countries around the world.

• A prominent columnist complains about being hated, mocked and scorned for her conservative values.

  David Robertson, at The Moderate Voice, takes a look at the traditional values held by some conservatives throughout history and makes an obvious point. Her objection to that ridicule pretty much depends on which traditions she values

  Key observation:
  If your so-called “traditional values” benefit your own ethnic group while harming others, then you are one the baddies even if you don’t realize it. After all, the expression “traditional values” isn’t a synonym for godly values or good values.

  Key uncomfortable possibility:
  Sure, your particular values may be mocked, but the values of Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists are also mocked. If people are mocking your values, then perhaps the problem is with your values, not with them.

• tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors provides the links as Trump points to Gaza as prime real estate. He proposes ethnic cleansing of the area.

  Can we guess who he thinks should be stepping in, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip?

• You don’t have to be religious to agree that all humans have inalienable rights.

  In the Christian universe, Jesus reinforces in a variety of ways that we are all endowed with intrinsic worth.

  Right Wing Watch brings us pastor William Wolfe to disagree, explaining that REAL Christians want to see mass deportations.

  Key judgment (on so-called “Christians” like me)
  They’re astroturf. They’re left-leaning. They’re using ‘evangelical’ in a way that is not really historically accurate. But I’m telling you, I think Southern Baptists and Christians want to see this happen.

  My oft expressed view:

  The temptation comes with any religion: lapsing from a search for spiritual truth to tribalism.

  Many of us seem to prefer Christianity without those pesky "teachings" from that bothersome Jesus character

  After all, what the hell does that guy know about Christianity?

  Besides
  Us v them is more fun

  — burrland01.bsky.social (@burrland01.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 7:31 AM

• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz says Trump is the chosen one, and adds that it’s a national tragedy.

  Key failure:
  “This is God’s doing.” he said very matter-of-factly. “Trump has been chosen by God.”

  Well, he was half right anyway.

• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce helpfully advises prospective Christians to NEVER let your kids attend evangelical churches alone.

  Seems to me he could have targeted his severe critique more expansively at even more worship centers of my faith.

  Shamelessly stealing this from Bruce:

  

• @whiskeywhistle98 is adamant about her non-support

• If you ever get irritated watching a few drivers delay emergency vehicles by stubbornly staying in their way, you’ll be interested as clickbait satirist Reductress goes to Minnesota to report on a new and very polite way of notifying motorists to move aside.

• Georgia baseball team The Savanna Bananas are extraordinary, but not everyone can pass a difficult quiz:

• SilverAppleQueen has cats. Soon there will be an addition. For the first time in decades she will house a female feline.