After acquiring social media platform Twitter last year for $44 billion in the world’s largest impulse buy, Elon Musk exhibited the kind of business sense admired by Trump-loving Republicans as he announced Friday the company was only worth $20 billion.

In a company email obtained by the New York Times, Musk told employees the massive layoffs he implemented when he took over the company was needed to stave off bankruptcy.  “Twitter is being reshaped rapidly,” Musk said, calling the company a “reverse startup.”  Musk also introduced a new employee stock program in the ominously named X Corporation, the business entity Musk set up to buy Twitter, reportedly using money borrowed from Saudi interests and others.

We can’t read the letters, but it probably doesn’t say “Everyone is happy and having lots of fun partying here out on the street tonight” on the chyron. It also looks like the guys in front locking arms are cops or soldiers trying to block the crowd from getting inside. They going to be able to keep that up all night? Is that “Bibi’s” house they’re protecting from the crowd?

In related news that we can actually read, every college and university in Israel is on indefinite strike starting Monday, the consul general in New York City resigned, the White House said they’re deeply concerned over the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – who’s going to address members of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, despite being out of a job.

Israeli dictator Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over his opposition to Netanyahu’s insanely evil plan to subvert the country’s judiciary, Sky News reports.

Remember, despite all the “tough talk” against Putin here, that RonAnon was one of the eight Republican members of Congress that spent the fucking 4th of July in Moscow in 2018, so it’s a small wonder he adds the “but just let it go” at the end of this segment of the interview.

Without pontificating that if residents had just opened the windows like they do in Finland to let the breeze through, or if they would have nuked it, there wouldn’t have been so much damage (as his predecessor would have), President Joe Biden on Sunday declared four counties in Mississippi major disaster areas after tornadoes ripped through them and areas of Alabama, killing 26.

Because the order didn’t mandate political favors, fealty or worship, Biden’s declaration will open up the region to millions of dollars in federal aid to residents, organizations and local government agencies to assist the thousands of people and businesses impacted by the storms as well as providing FEMA coordination among various agencies.  Republicans will likely approve disaster aid to Mississippi, an ill-prepared Republican-dominated state, without much hemming and hawing about deficits and waste and drag queens story times, their pattern when natural disasters impact traditionally-Democratic states, when they make demands on cutting unrelated programs like food assistance to children to agree to help Americans in need.

Republican Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales – whose district includes Uvalde and earlier this month was censured by the state party over his support for the meager bipartisan gun control bill passed in the aftermath of the massacre, a censure that makes it possible for the party itself to support a primary challenger – seems to be trying to get back in MAGA’s good graces with this answer to a question from CBS’s Margaret Brennan about the Orange Tyrant’s violent rhetoric…

And this “both-sides” shit just ain’t going to cut it with the cult. Gonzales had to go full “We’re right, they’re wrong, everything is justified, the Democrats are way more violent and bloodthirsty, they’re going to murder your children,” if he wants to survive a primary in this day and age. This might as well serve as his political epitaph. He chose “Go home,” when he could have gone MAGA.

Because, damn this interview with Chuck Todd was counterproductive, to say the least. They should already have suspected it given that Tacopina spoke with Stormy Daniels and did media hits for her, in one of which he called the investigation “fair game” back in 2018. This ought to take it further…

Isn’t the mixing of personal and business funds already the subject of serious investigations by both the New York Attorney General and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg? Isn’t the Trump Organization’s CFO already sitting in a cell at Rikers Island for that kind of fuckery? Why in God’s name would Trump’s lawyer be saying this kind of shit to Chuck Todd on a Sunday morning?

Sunday’s interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper went about as well as could be expected for House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer following Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s refusal to comply with requests for information from Comer and Jordan, ending with Comer punting to Jordan on if Bragg should be subpoenaed – and Tapper visibly getting under Comer’s skin when he pointed out that Jordan fucked off on the House January 6th Select Committee’s subpoena last Congress.

Los Angeles firefighters on Saturday were forced to cut a hole through the floor of a house in Northridge after the owner said he had not heard from the plumber who had entered the crawlspace three hours earlier to make some repairs. Turned out the plumber was just sleeping, Fox 11 reports.

“LAFD crews, including those specially trained and equipped in Urban Search and Rescue arrived quickly to ventilate and monitor the enclosed environment, and soon visibly noted a small portion of the still unresponsive worker’s body at a distance,” said LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey.

“Firefighters cutting the second of two holes in the home’s floor with chainsaws to gain best access, and to assist in his efficient removal, awakened the sleeping worker, who soon thereafter crawled from the crawlspace uninjured.” EMTs checked on the plumber and determined he was sleepy.

Much like the Ron DeSantis pudding horror, sometimes headlines cannot do justice to a story.  In this case, one-time presidential candidate, Friend of Donald, and occasional entertainer Kanye West/Ye/Louis Vuitton Don/Yezzy/Yezzus has decided he’s no longer anti-Semitic because he watched Jonah Hill’s performance in the movie 21 Jump Street.

“Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump street made me like Jewish people again[,]” he posted on his only public Instagram photo.  “No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people[.] No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew[.] Thank you Jonah Hill I love you”

Of course, Ye could just be positioning himself as a more moderate candidate to swoop in and steal the GOP nomination as the less anti-Semitic candidate in the 2024 field.

https://t.co/8r47C0rdPy pic.twitter.com/dTmZpnEe9K

— Alvin Bragg (@ManhattanDA) March 25, 2023

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been released from the inpatient rehabilitation facility treating him following his suffering a concussion and a broken rib from a fall at a Washington, DC hotel more than two weeks ago, NBC News reports.

His office says the 81-year-old Kentuckian will work from home for the near term as his shell continues to heal.  “I want to sincerely thank everyone for all the kind wishes [and lettuce],” McConnell said in a statement. “I’m happy to say I finished inpatient physical therapy earlier today and I’m glad to be home.”

Might as well just go ahead and put up this batshittery now so we don’t need to break it up into clips like pedophile Ted Nugent calling Volodymyr Zelensky a “homosexual weirdo.”

If you were dumb and sad enough a person to only get your political news from Trump fundraising emails you might be forgiven for thinking that Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros was a prosecutor. Fully half – 28 – of the 56 fundraising emails sent over the last few weeks include the word “Soros” in them. Subject lines like “Soros’ witch hunt already BACKFIRED,” “The Soros prosecutor is NOT giving up,” “Soros will HATE to hear this,” have appeared on the notifications of probably tens of millions of Trump fans who subscribe to his non-stop horseshit fundraising emails just in the last few days. Trump’s actual rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis? Once.

“Smiling George Soros as a glowing galactic viking space warrior with a huge cyber sword leading an army into battle” via Midjourney AI

And that was just in an email recapping Trump’s Truth Social posts. One of which this week called his not-yet-official opponent in the 2024 GOP primary “Ron DeSoros.” Then there was the “SOROS BACKED ANIMAL” insanity from Thursday, among over a dozen posts this month mentioning Soros.

At least 23 people are dead, four missing, and dozens injured after a supercell outbreak of tornadoes tore through northeastern Mississippi on Friday night, the Associated Press reports.

A number of allies of heels-wearing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are starting to doubt his ability to take down fat former president Trump in the 2024 primary, with one worrying he’ll “get scarred up” by the Orange God Emperor according to a conventional wisdom-y report in NBC News.

“The brakes are pumped,” said a source close to plutocratic MAGAdonor Dick Uihlein, who was reportedly excited to back Ronnie Meatballs. “The polling really made different people pause.”

“DeSantis is doing a book tour. He’s barnstorming the country, and his polls are going down. Meanwhile, Trump’s potentially under indictment, and Trump’s going up. It’s just not a good look for DeSantis,” a GOP strategist told NBC. The strategist then said people are looking at Tim Scott, lol.

• If/When indicted, Donald Trump will make arrangements to surrender himself to be booked and have a photo taken, and he will arrive as scheduled. I am confident of that fact because he will not risk having his hair being cattywampus for the mug shot, and he knows two things:  they will not allow him to wear a baseball cap, and it will definitely be made public.  He will arrive bigly coifed, in a blue suit, red tie and American flag pin.  
• Trump is holding a rally in Waco for the same reason Ronald Reagan launched his “state’s rights” message in a 1980 speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where civil rights protestors were killed in the 1960s:  because the dog whistle isn’t loud enough for them.
• Seriously, GOP, he admitted to committing a crime.  Isn’t it the perfect opportunity to rid your Party of him? Santos, I mean.  (Jeez, there are so many that could apply to.)
• Trump’s (sixth) A-Team of lawyers is getting blown out of the water by MSNBC anchors and other pundits, not to mention in court proceedings. If your lead litagator isn’t prepared for questions on air from Ari Meilber–who admittedly is no slouch as a lawyer, but he’s no Jack Smith–he’s going to get shredded in federal court.  None of the scores of legal theories Trump’s lawyers are hitting with either the public or the courts.

After a three-day strike that shut down the Los Angeles Unified School District and sent more than 400,000 home in the middle of last week, the school district and the union have come to an agreement that will result in a pay increase for education support staff who complained they weren’t making enough to afford to live in the region.

The district shut down schools Tuesday through Thursday after the teachers’ unions stated that their members would not cross the picket line of support staff who are part of Service Employees International Union Local 99.  The New York Times reports the school workers were looking for a 30% pay raise to make up for the skyrocketing cost of living in Southern California.

Asked if he and his legal team would appeal a federal judge’s ruling that Mark Meadows and others must appear before Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury, Donald Trump said courts are stacked against them because they actually make their rulings based on the law:

Well, usually, when I hear this I say, why do we even bother appealing because first of all, ahhh, the courts are such that we don’t do too well in them in terms of rulings, er, seems to be, ah, very much on the other side.  Second of all, let them say what they want to say.  We did nothing wrong at all.  Mark Meadows did nothing wrong.  Uh, I did nothing wrong and I’m President of the United States.  I made beautiful statements.

Two New Orleans high school students presented “An Impossible Proof Of Pythagoras” to the American Mathematics Society’s Spring Southeastern Meeting in Atlanta last week, providing a mathematical proof of one of the most well-known geometric equations, the Guardian reports.

Mathematicians had long allowed that the Pythagorean Theorem (a²+b²=c²) for determining the lengths of the sides of a triangle was true even though no mathematical proof has been identified that did not rely on (ironically) circular logic.  The belief was so pervasive in mathematics that the authoritative collection of the various attempts to prove the theory states “there are no trigonometric proofs because all the fundamental formulae of trigonometry are themselves based upon the truth of the Pythagorean theorem.”

However, Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson of St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans discovered a reportedly valid proof of the equation that does not rely on the theorem itself.  The girls were encouraged to submit their paper to an academic journal for peer review while they plan their college educations.