It’s Thursday…
Shitshow’s public schedule for…
Executive Time
Executive Time for Thursday. Before Puddle sat down for a bilateral meeting with the President of Brazil, he spent the morning on Lies Social posting an AI image of “Sleepy Joe Biden,” bragging that the DOW is inching toward 50,000 points, thanking supporters for gifting him a gold statue of himself because subtlety died years ago, and demanding his personal Attorney General charge House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with inciting violence. Just a completely normal Thursday morning in America’s ongoing group project from hell.
Speaking of being “BACK”…
Yesterday, Kevin “I’m an Asshat” Hassett was downright giddy while talking about Americans piling up credit card debt, once again reminding everyone why “smug bastard” remains the most accurate unofficial title in Washington. Nothing says ‘strong economy’ quite like people financing gas and food at 27 percent interest while rich guys on TV grin like they just solved world hunger. Turns out desperation spending gets rebranded as consumer confidence on cable TV.
Asshat: In fact, I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday, going through the credit card data and just as Secretary Bessent said, credit card spending is through the roof. They’re spending more on gasoline, but they’re spending more on everything else, too. And so, in terms of the jobs picture for the rest of the year, you know, it’s really hard to see having the unemployment rate go up. For example, it’s probably going to drop a little bit, but it’s already very close to full employment.
In Q4 of 2025, The New York Fed reported that household debt reached $18.8 Trillion.
Meanwhile, in the totally-not-a-cult portion of today’s programming…
As it turns out, the ‘real deal’ is mostly bronze wrapped in gold leaf. Which somehow makes the whole thing even more on brand.
The president failed to mention that his “real deal” 22-foot “golden” statue is merely wrapped in gold leaf and made primarily of bronze.
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 7, 2026
https://t.co/6mxxFXRJ1C
President Donald Trump has bragged about his “real deal” 22-foot “golden” statue that is, in fact, made primarily of bronze.
[snip]
The shiny livery was added to the bronze statue by the sculptor, who told the Daily Beast that it was the easiest mark-up of his life. “They loved the idea, of course. It’s like pitching ice water to a man dying of thirst. It was not a hard sell,” Alan Cottrill said.
[snip]
The total cost to the buyer, $PATRIOT, a meme coin with Trumpy overtones, was $450,000. Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, publicly distanced the family from the coin in February.
[snip]
The artist, from Zanesville, Ohio, said the statue, nicknamed ‘Don Colossus,’ was ready to go when Trump was inaugurated in January last year, but it has only now been erected at the Trump National Doral golf course.
USA Today reported earlier this year that the statue was supposed to tour the country before settling at the Doral site. However, this did not materialize, perhaps due to the legal wrangle over image rights that delayed the project.
“The crypto bros have been flaky as hell from the start,” Cottrill said, referencing the delay.
Daily Beast. 05/07/2026.
After thanking supporters for the gold-painted tribute to himself, Puddle returned to one of his other favorite hobbies: demanding criminal investigations into political opponents.
Yeah, about that “maximum warfare”…
Reminder: The phrase "maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time" came from a NYT story, quoting one person 'close to the President.' https://t.co/cocHgmi8p4 pic.twitter.com/shrNWb7KLO
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) April 27, 2026
NYT (08/02/2025):
The gerrymandering is deeply consequential at a time when a single House race can cost tens of millions of dollars. Republicans won control of the House in 2024 by only three seats, a margin the remapping in Texas alone would more than double.
One person close to the president, who insisted on anonymity to describe the White House’s political strategy candidly, summed it up succinctly: “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”
The redistricting push is only one element. Mr. Trump has targeted Democratic law firms with executive actions. He has threatened prosecutions of and ordered investigations into his political enemies, while the Justice Department has dropped lawsuits aimed at protecting voting rights. And his congressional allies are investigating ActBlue, the organization that processes an overwhelming share of online donations for Democrats.
NYT (08/02/2025).
The video Dupree replied to is a selectively clipped 10-second segment of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaking at a press conference following Virginia voters approving a new congressional map. I tracked down the full Reuters livestream on YouTube. After a reporter asks a question that isn’t audible on the stream.
Jeffries says: We are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere all the time. And we’re going to keep the pressure on Republicans in every single state in the union to ensure, at the end of the day, that there is a fair national map, because we believe that it’s the people who should decide who’s in the majority in the next Congress, not Donald Trump and MAGA extremists. Thank you all.
Quick Hits
Toddler in Charge’s chaos continues…
EXCLUSIVE: Trump's abrupt U-turn on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz came after Saudi Arabia suspended U.S. access to its bases and airspace. https://t.co/ugxw2ilzpD
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 7, 2026
President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials.
Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on social media Sunday afternoon, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort, the officials said.
A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the issue, the two U.S. officials said, forcing the president to pause Project Freedom in order to restore U.S. military access to the critical airspace.
Other close Gulf allies were also caught off guard; the president spoke with leaders in Qatar after the effort had already begun.
NBC News. 05/06/2026.
Just what 2026 needed new worries of a plague…
The U.S. is among the countries urgently tracking dozens of passengers who traveled on the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak. https://t.co/ZQYRjxaf17
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 7, 2026
The United States was among the countries on Thursday urgently tracking dozens of passengers who traveled on the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
The luxury cruise has fueled a growing international infectious disease response, after an outbreak believed to have started following a birdwatching expedition led to the deaths of three people. There have been five confirmed cases and three suspected infections, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
Another possible new case emerged Thursday, apparently involving a woman who was not a passenger on the ship.
Weeks after the first death on board, 29 living passengers left the ship without contact tracing in St. Helena, a tiny and remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement Thursday. The body of a Dutchman who died at sea was also left on the boat at this stage.
[snip]
One person who was on board the Hondius is at home in Arizona, another in Virginia, two are in Georgia and an unknown number are back in California, according to authorities in those states. None were reported to have symptoms of the rare virus, with officials saying the risk to the public remains low.
“This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic,” WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove said.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, with Emory University School of Medicine, said people do not need to panic.
“I would start by saying, for the general public, for the average person in the US, this is not a concern,” he said Thursday at an Infectious Disease Society of America briefing.
“I tell people that I was more concerned about getting my car or crossing the street and having an accident than getting hantavirus,” he continued.
NBC News. 05/07/2026.
Out-of-Touch rich man held an unschedule press briefing on the UFC event planned for his birthday…
Out-Of-Touch: I think a lot of people haven’t seen this yet. I’ll give you that, I think you’ll probably be able to do OK with it.
Justin Gaethje: Wow? The media is going to go crazy.
Out-Of-Touch: Not bad, right? Championship belt, Dana White was here last night. Did you know that? He was here last night? He loves this guy. He loves all of them. Here’s another one. This is another. They’re going all the way out all online. It’s all people invited; our country is invited to this, it’s free. And, you know, in the park, right across the street, they’re going to have, I guess, anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 people — free.
They’re going to set up eight big screens and they’re going to have the fight. And then out here, we’re going to have 4,000 seats right in front of the front door of the White House. The hardest ticket I’ve ever had, too.
The best live show on earth.
This will be the greatest show on earth. It’s at night, that’s all lighting and cover. And I think you get the idea. So, it’s going to be June 14th and it’s going to be great. And this is a little different for these political people. But these are real warriors. When we talk about warriors, these are warriors.
RollCall.com. 05/06/2026.
Fighters are not warriors they are athletes.
This is an Open Thread
