Week of Trump Losses, Trump Rage, Trump Abuses
Gerry Gets Mandered, Trump Gets Loathed, Iran Gets Stuck, AI Gets Resisted, Trump Runs for new Messiah

    I confess. This does remind me of this week in the Trump administration

    More wisdom from our usual suspects:

  • Author and educator and sometime humorist (Like sort of this time) Amanda Nelson has some fun with Donald Trump’s losses for the week:
    [Note: She does have an ever so pleasant laugh while gloating]

  • Right Wing Watch brings us Indiana’s Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith, who has been pushing Republicans to gerrymander a victory in the face of voters going more and more Democratic.

    But as voters in Virginia respond with a gerrymander in return, he sees it as Democrats ‘being led by the minions and the voices of darkness’:

  • Any sensible pro-democracy person sees gerrymandering as evil.

    So are gun fights. But, when one side brings guns to the OK Corral, should the other side disarm?

    The sequence is telling:

    • Democrats push legislation that will outlaw gerrymandering.
    • Republicans kill it, protecting the practice.
    • Trump orders Republican legislators across the country to redraw districts to close out Democratic voters.
    • So Democrats bring a cannon to the gunfight and get voters in blue states to approve their own gerrymanders.
    • Virginia voters join the battle and the nationwide Republican redistricting plot backfires spectacularly.
    • Republicans, and Trump, scream about how unfair it is.

    Jimmy Carter’s remarks about war echo here.
    War is sometimes a necessary evil.
    But it is always evil.

    Gerrymanders are unfair, not to Republican officeholders who started this war, but to voters who deserve better.
    Those who cast ballots should expect that their votes will count. The fact that fair voting suffers is the evil.

    At The Moderate Voice, editor Joe Gandelman brings reactions to the Virginia results.

    This bit of media hypocrisy caught my eye about halfway down:

  • At The Onion, Trump demands an end to election interference, charging that voters are trying to affect the midterms.

    Meanwhile, the Onion covers a new split in the Republican Party, as fractures emerge between the two wings: Republicans who are pro-pedophilia and Republicans who are extremely pro-pedophilia:

  • Brian Beutler makes the case that MAGA…

    …is eating itself down to the bone.

    Committed Trump fans still surely support Trump, but millions have softened from strong to weak support. And for every new respondent who only “somewhat approves,” a former “somewhat approver” crosses the fifty-yard line to become a “somewhat disapprover.” And the shift propagates all the way through the spectrum. When you tally it all up, Trump’s strong approval has fallen, and strong disapproval climbed, in basically equal measure.
     
    The erosion has been steady enough to ignore as background noise. But the logic of it all suggests MAGA isn’t just shrinking. It’s devouring itself.
     
    And it couldn’ta happened to a nicer bunch of folks.

    Separately, Brian joins Matt Yglesias (Great combination) in podcast. They are entertaining, but they also have a point to make.

    Trump, with goofy tariffs and a bad war, is responsible for the economy being worse than it would otherwise have been.
    But he is also the victim of social media and cellphone technology that make things seem much worse than they are:

    Donald Trump has, in fact, damaged the economy. He’s juiced inflation and weakened the labor market and created deep uncertainty. But the public seems to think things are worse now than at any time since the Great Depression. And that is empirically not true.

    Brian and Matt have ideas on how Democrats can use the Things seem worse than they are phenomenon, and then keep it from happening to them after they win.
    Sadly, that solution comes only with a subscription.
    I’m satisfied with 50 minutes of entertainment.

  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has more numbers, and Trump approval drops yet again. Yet again.
    Drops for Trump himself. Drops for Trump on almost every issue.

    And it isn’t just Trump.

  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has a comment or two on the Trumper view of women, beginning with a what’s wrong with this picture picture:

    Priceless post from the official White House social media

    [image or embed]

    — Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.com) April 22, 2026 at 9:10 AM

  • In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson examines evidence supporting accounts of a President so emotionally unstable, so lacking in impulse control, that his staff resorts to gimmicks to keep him from exploding in rage.

    The same analysis is now available in audio format.

  • Hackwhackers contemplates Trump as Trump contemplates awarding himself the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery against Iran.

    The Medal of Honor is reserved for those serving in the military for acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty in action against an enemy force.

  • Tommy Christopher first reminds us of Trump’s demand to news media:

    Amid a frenetic social media weekend, Trump posted a bitter demand that outlets like CNN give him credit for the war in Iran, writing “Why don’t they just say, at the right time, JOB WELL DONE, MR. PRESIDENT, and start to gain back their credibility???”

    Jake Tapper joins Stephen Colbert in responding. One part of Colbert’s straight man interaction reminds me of Pat Paulsen a generation or two ago with Picky, picky, picky…

    CNN’S JAKE TAPPER: President Trump is literally threatening to blow up the entire country yesterday. Iran, not ours.
     
    STEPHEN COLBERT: …Now you’re nitpicking.

    Tommy brings us the segment and transcript
    (One brief bother: Skip a random ad after 4 seconds).

  • News Corpse brings us Trump press sec Karoline Leavitt, impatient with mainstream press for their skepticism over Trump’s announcements that peace is just around the corner with Iran, as that corner keeps moving, and Trump is perpetually on the brink of a deal.

    From Karoline Leavitt:

    President Trump has proven before he does not bluff. When he makes a promise, he follows through on it. And I’m not sure why after 10 years of covering this president, the American media still cannot understand when President Trump says he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it.

    News Corpse is impatient with her impatience, recounting details, including this:

    Okay, so maybe there are a few exceptions…

  • Infidel753 cautiously considers reports from a not always reliable source on internal conflicts between militant groups controlling Iran.

    On the fracturing within the regime:

    It would also explain the apparent confusion in the regime’s approach to negotiations with the US. Finally, it would account for why Israel and the US have held off resuming large-scale military attacks. It would be wisest to wait until a clearer picture of the situation emerges, to assess how a new wave of attacks targeting specific leaders can best be designed to push the regime into total collapse at last.

    What does lend some worth to what might otherwise be rank speculation is that it comes through Infidel, who has a history of careful and informed observation of international events.

  • Julian Sanchez puts pencil to paper on yet another media fail. This time a DoorDash lady visits the White House proclaiming tax savings that press folks breathlessly repeat.

    Turns out that a simple back‑of‑the‑envelope calculation proves the claim is mathematically impossible.

    What I do find striking is how many mainstream news outlets mindlessly regurgitated a figure that ten seconds reflection should have told any half-conscious person—let alone a reporter writing about tax policy—could not possibly be accurate.
     
    Here’s Fox Business in an article headlined “‘DoorDash Grandma’ praises Trump tax break after 11K savings amid husband’s cancer fight”…

    One might expect a bit of sloppiness from Fox, but CBS joins in celebrating the savings‑that‑never‑happened.

  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit reacts as we all should as the Trump administration moves to deport Afghan refugees who had to flee Afghanistan after defying the Taliban by risking their lives to help our troops.

    They took risks for us, but they aren’t white:

    American Backstabbing: Never Work with U.S. Forces

  • Journalist Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel covers the latest, possibly weirdest, filings by Trump’s DOJ, charging a preeminent civil rights organization for investigating racist, hard‑right groups, most famously the Klan:

    The primary thrust of the legal theory is that the Southern Poverty Law Center deceived donors who could not have suspected they were conducting undercover investigations of violent right wing extremist groups:

    The headline claim, that the SPLC misrepresented what they were doing to donors, is batshit insane. With one exception (in which a well-paid informant took a bunch of documents), there’s no misconduct even hinted. SPLC just paid informants doing incredibly dangerous work for that work. Blanche is claiming that this was a misrepresentation to donors — who supported SPLC precisely because their work was so well sourced.

    Another part is that, by investigating through infiltration, the SPLC was financing those it was investigating.

    Interestingly, this is a standard they are unwilling to apply in another notable case:

    Adopting the logic used here, Blanche should be prosecuting Leon Black and Les Wexner because their funds supported sex trafficking.
     
    Of course, he’s not. Where it serves him to use expansive claims of funding to protect racists, he does so. Where it serves him to read financial support narrowly to protect Trump’s sex trafficker network, he does so.

  • PZ Myers reviews the nervous approach of Texas college administrators that are even banning 2,000 a year‑old classic by Plato from being taught in philosophy class.

    This means weird conservative administrators with no relevant experience are meddling in the content of courses…courses they would not be qualified to teach, but hey, they’ve got rubber stamps and spreadsheets, that’s all the power they need. They’re now discovering the consequences.

    And this Texas related aside:

  • In Scotties Playtime, another culture war turn as voters are accepting trans rights, at least according to polling sponsored by a pro‑rights group.

  • driftglass is skeptical about the current Democratic strategy of appealing to white rural voters who hate them.

  • In Rural Missouri, Jess Piper passes a closed shopping mall on her way to St. Joseph to speak on AI data centers. It strikes her as emblematic of how rural areas are now being exploited.

    About those data centers:

    I am angry and I’ll tell you why: I am sick of rural resources being sucked out of rural America with not so much as a thank you. We are being looted. Robbed in broad daylight. Old-school pillage and plunder.
     
    I feel like my front door is being kicked in while I am forced to watch and play nice as the corporate thieves take my possessions out one by one, winking as they pass by.
     
    This all feels familiar.

  • In Canadian satire, The Beaverton points to Google as Google points to the inevitability of AI by begging people to please, please consider using it:

    Google, of course, isn’t the only one:

    Google’s closest competitor Meta is also extremely confident in the future of their AI technology and the benefits it will bring users, which is why they now ask ‘do you want to use AI to do this’ for every post on facebook and insta, followed by 8 ‘please?’ pop-ups after users click no.

  • Are there reasonable uses for AI?

    From CalicoJack in The Psy of Life:

    I am autistic, yet I’ve lived a “successful” life as long as you close one eye and tilt your head just right. I have three degrees. I’ve had two careers. I’m married and have a daughter. I have friends, even good friends. I’m not wanted in any country in the world that I know of. I’ve figured out solutions for most of my shortcomings in dealing with the world.

    Jack explains how AI, when used well, can help autistic people work through social anxiety and break free from involuntary social isolation.

    Using AI avoids one common error:

    Human beings tend to blame shortcomings on the person making the mistakes rather than on the situation they are in. If I spill my coffee, it must be because I’m a clumsy oaf and not because of some unpredictable physics phenomenon.

  • From The Borowitz Report, Kash Patel develops a clever strategy for looking sober. He schedules a joint appearance with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil puts the spotlight back here on Missouri, as our US Senator Josh Hawley says we should just let Jesus take charge of our economy.

    And, who better to tell us what Jesus thinks on economic matters than Josh Hawley?

    Hawley said that the nation must focus on raising up men who are equipped to lead their families in accordance with the Bible.

    Along with a helpful second opinion:

  • Dave Dubya has some thoughts on Trump v Pope.

    Dave quotes chapter and verse and the inevitable conflict:

    Trump virtually sees the Pope as a woke leftist commie hippie, a threat to his imperial rule, and enemy of the people.
     
    Wasn’t Jesus similarly deemed by the authoritarians in charge back in his time?

  • Dave Columbo has advice for JD Vance on his Pope attack:

  • I was off as Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson engaged in a bit of April 1 satire (I hope)…

    …with Trump planning the opening of his new Ballroom at the White House:

    President Donald Trump announced that he expects the new White House ballroom to be completed by Easter of 2028, just in time for the president to take the lead role in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
     
    “What better way for the world to see the new ballroom at the White House than to see me playing Jesus. Who else could play Jesus better than me? It will be a beautiful production, with Melania as Mary Mag-da-lane. Don’t you think she’ll make a beautiful Mary Magdalania? MAGA-da-lania. I like that. Make Jesus Great Again.”

  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce reacts to what he is not hearing from Christians about Trump.

    Bruce gets specific:

    I was an Evangelical for 50 years. I listened to preachers excoriate President Bill Clinton over a stained blue dress. Despicable? You bet. And at the time, I eviscerated Clinton from the pulpit, as I would have Trump today if I were still a pastor. If Evangelical pastors can’t see Trump in the same light they viewed Clinton, they have lost their moral authority. They have sold their souls for a bowl of soup.

  • It’s been ten years, and North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz really misses Prince.

    Prince was different, in many ways better:

    While it’s been a beautiful thing seeing Bruce Springsteen, U2, Florence and the Machine, The Strokes, and so many others making art and launching tours to confront corrupt power, oppose violent bigotry, and call Americans to a higher level, Prince would have hit different. He always did.
     
    I had the good fortune of seeing Prince close to a dozen times. These were, for me, spiritual experiences in the truest sense of the word: joy, liberation, unity, love, euphoria. It was baptism in blistering guitar, heavenly choirs of strangers, holy ground as a dance floor.
     
    As he sang, Strangely beautiful, beautiful strange.

  • SilverAppleQueen goes poetic, remembering, and missing, from her youth a small cabin at a lake surrounded by woods.

  • Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes finds more spooky exploration on his journey through British‑Crossword‑Land.

  • Dave Barry delves into a California True Crime story, and the detective work that solved it:

    A bear attack turns out to be a fraud:

    So the investigators got a search warrant, and in one of the suspects’ homes they found what is known, in the world of professional crime detection, as a “clue”:

    The clue:

    A lesson learned:

    This story should serve as a reminder to all of us, but especially anyone contemplating breaking the law, of one of life’s most important moral lessons: Get rid of the bear suit you moron Crime does not pay.

  • From earlier this month (How could I have missed it?) @whiskeywhistle98 considers the possibilities:

  • Nan’s Notebook considers the newest breakthrough in long-distance car travel that I’m gonna spend the whole rest of the day not thinking about.

  • In Georgia baseball, The Savanna Bananas dazzle the batter before the first pitch:

Burr Deming

4 responses to “Week of Trump Losses, Trump Rage, Trump Abuses
Gerry Gets Mandered, Trump Gets Loathed, Iran Gets Stuck, AI Gets Resisted, Trump Runs for new Messiah”

  1. Infidel753 Avatar
    Infidel753

    Thanks as always for including me.

  2. Alison Redford Avatar
    Alison Redford

    Thank you for linking Scottie’s, Burr, and for your compilation of the week!

  3. silverapplequeen Avatar
    silverapplequeen

    Thanks for linking my poem about Schoodic Lake. Those were the best times ever.

    There were railroad tracks around the lake, maybe a mile from our cabin & we used to walk through the woods to the tracks & then walk along the tracks. There were houses there ~ they had to be 80 to 100 years old ~ this was in the 1960, remember. They faced the tracks. My father said that it was likely that they were owned by the railroad & rented to people who worked for them ~ the train would stop & let the tenants out. He said when he was a boy & he took the train all the time, this kind of thing was normal. I used to think about being someone who waited for the train outside her house to pick her up for work & then got off the train at night. I’ve heard this from other people. My best GF said her mother lived in Holland, NY, which is in Wyoming County, south of Erie County, where I live & she used to wave the train down to get to work in the morning. This was during the Second World War.

    At night, I would hear the train coming from far away & it was loud when it was a mile away & then it would disappear into the night. I’ve always loved the sound of trains. I used to pretend I was tied to the tracks & a mysterious hero saved me at the last minute. LOL

  4. driftglass Avatar
    driftglass

    I am honored to be in such august company.