Just a few minutes ago convicted felon President Trump posted “I look forward to meeting the new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. I very much want to work with him, but cannot understand one simple TRUTH — Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things? We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us! The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence,” so you know this chore for Carney is going to go just spectacularly.

Canada supplied 25 percent of the US’s lumber and 19.3 percent of its oil in 2023. It’s beyond fucking suicidal to say we don’t need either of them and to cut off the imports.

Thanks to the legwork by National Zero reader Macbeth on Monday the worst fears over the absence of a prominent regular member of the community on this site have been confirmed with an extremely high degree of confidence: TexasVulcan passed away April 25 from a heart attack at the age of unknown, but by my estimate he was over 65. I know not his name, his appearance, or anything else about him other than that he was a Jewish Star Trek fan from the Houston area.

Such is the nature of a community where the vast majority of us are anonymous digital avatars rather than the more typically true representations of ourselves more common to Facebook, Twitter, and other circles. It’s that often zealously-guarded anonymity that gives Disqus users the license to voice their opinions more boldly and acerbically than folks whose real name and photo are attached to their posts, to argue harder and meaner against a hateful culture that encourages violent reprisal.

And yeah, that’s how I’ll assuage the nagging guilt about not being able to say more about TexasVulcan and his life, which was no doubt so much more than the funny shit he would post on this site. His presence and thoughtful, intelligent contributions to this community will be missed dearly. He cared deeply about the future of democracy in this once (and hopefully again in the future) great nation and may his soul rest warmly and confidently in the knowledge that he has friends continuing to speak up and heckle the absolute shit out of a fascist reich all day every day.

Valhalla is yours, Tex 🖖🏻.

Acting US Attorney for DC Ed Martin, the MAGA extremist piece of shit whose nomination is in serious trouble, on Tuesday submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee another list of previously-undisclosed far right media appearances, including on Infowars, CBS’s Scott MacFarlane reports.

Breitbart warns that “Sen Thom Tillis (R-NC) is withholding support for President Donald Trump’s nominee for US Attorney for DC, a move that could result in MAGA villain Judge James Boasberg choosing who would fill the role – potentially even former Special Counsel Jack Smith,” lol.

The naturalized US citizen parents of a 31 year-old Argentinian green card holder now currently rotting in a private prison company facility contracted by ICE in Georgia tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “of course” they would not have voted for convicted felon President Trump if they knew what was going to happen to their son, who was locked up over a 2020 misdemeanor rap on a count of “infliction of injury” for which he’s already served a three year probation sentence.

North Carolinians Martin Verdi and Debora Rey told the AJC they bought into the Orange God Emperor’s rhetoric about Venezuelans, specifically the piece of shit who murdered Laken Riley.

“During the campaign he gave the example of many criminals from Venezuela who had come in, because many criminals from Venezuela had even killed people,” said Verdi, adding that “has nothing to with cases like” those of his his son, Agustin Gentile, who was detained in February after landing in California from a trip abroad. CBP confiscated his green card and Argentine passport.

The couple said “of course” they wouldn’t have voted for Trump had they understood that his hateful campaign was going to affect their family. “This was a massive deception what he did. Because the other side had shown us how indulgent they were (with immigration),” Rey said as her son survives on cup o’ noodles and is forced to sleep on a floor in a facility where the lights are kept on 24 hours a day, while their 6 and 8 year-old grandchildren have no idea when he’s coming home.

“They ask, ‘Where is my daddy?’ And we can’t tell them, ‘Daddy is in jail,'” Verdi said. “We had to lie to them because we don’t want to hurt them,” Rey, who voted to Make America Great Again, added.

Elon Musk says Mars could be 'life insurance' for humanity! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/BwFPIl3idr

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) May 6, 2025

Look up “Martian regolith” to understand what’s in store for the “colonists” who would volunteer for Ketamine Brain’s project of establishing a foothold on the Red Planet. It won’t be pretty.

Germany’s center-right leader Friedrich Merz suffered a brutal setback in his bid to become chancellor of Europe’s largest economy on Tuesday, winning 310 of the needed 316 votes in the 630-seat Bundestag and creating massive uncertainty as to what’s next, the BBC reports.

The Bundestag will have another 14 days to choose either Merz or another candidate as chancellor with more than half its members. Further turbulence could be a boon for the extremist Fourth Reich AfD, who responded to Merz’s shitshow by calling for a fresh round of elections.

“The company is operating in an uncertain macro-economic environment with significant volatility, including changes in global trade policy and US tariffs. Although tariffs did not affect Mattel’s first quarter financial results, the company is taking mitigating actions designed to fully offset the potential incremental cost impact of tariffs on future performance. These include: Accelerating diversification of its supply chain and further reducing reliance on China-sourced product, optimizing product sourcing and product mix, and, where necessary, taking pricing action in its US business. The company also intends to rebalance promotional activity to drive cost efficiencies while maintaining sufficient support and is accelerating cost savings actions and increasing the 2025 savings target under the Optimizing for Profitable Growth program from $60 million to $80 million.”

“Given the volatile macro-economic environment and evolving US tariff landscape, it is difficult to predict consumer spending and Mattel’s US sales in the remainder of the year and holiday season.”

“The company is therefore pausing full-year 2025 guidance until Mattel has sufficient visibility. The company is maintaining its $600 million share repurchase target for 2025, in line with the company’s capital allocation priorities. Our plans and performance, including the success of our mitigating actions, are subject to market volatility, additional tariffs and regulatory actions impacting our business, unexpected disruptions to our supply chain, and other macro-economic uncertainties and business risks,” says toy manufacturer Mattel, owner of the Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, and a shit ton of other popular brands, in their Monday Q1 2025 earnings statement to investors.

White nationalist alcoholic Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used Signal to tell aides to inform foreign governments about an ongoing military operation and discussed in detail a lot of sensitive but unclassified details of his personal travel arrangements and media appearances, the Wall Street Journal reports on another one of those storylines that still won’t just die already.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Italian native Franciscan Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is seen by Fox News as a leading candidate to succeed Pope Francis after this week’s conclave. Fox News does not name any of sources to assert Pizzballa’s status as “one of the top candidates,” so sounds like they just want everyone else to take their word for it. Pizzaballa did offer himself to Hamas in exchange for all of the children kidnapped from southern Israel during the October 7th attack, so he seems like a decent enough guy. Keep in mind that all popes change their names upon ascendancy.

Drug-addicted billionaire Elon Musk enlisted the FBI to investigate whether a “sniper” had somehow shot a SpaceX rocket that exploded on launch in 2016, Futurism reports on an FOIA request return.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp just personally said fuck you to John Thune and Steve Daines and will not be challenging Dem Senator Jon Ossoff next year, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports on a very big deal for Dems’ hopes of retaking the Senate or at least getting to 50/50 next year.

Of all the dumbest most untrue things a Republican has said on live television, this statement from Congressman David Joyce about understanding “shared sacrifice” as his means of saying all this shit about kids needed to do with fewer toys because of Trump’s moronic trade war is up there. Like was this fucker in a coma between March 2020 and about July 2021? How many assholes simply refused to just wear goddamned mask in public to reduce the chance that they would spread COVID, forget about getting vaccinated for it. Jesus freaking Christ who the hell honestly believes that, lol.

That he’s making that shit up to explain away the shitshow that is months or even weeks away as retail stores start getting hit with shortages and dramatic price increases on Chinese exports, all of this self-inflicted by the illustrious leader of his party just makes it that much beet.

“I have ordered an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps. USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice. We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission,” says BOP Director William K Marshall in a statement via CBS’s Scott MacFarlane.

Yeah, still nothing about closing down the museum and immediately getting to work on “restoring this powerful symbol or law, order, and justice” back to being a functional penal facility. Sounds more like just pushing paper around until the fat fuck forgets that he ever posted that stupid bullshit.

“Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again,” says White House minion Kush Desai in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter about convicted felon President Trump’s ridiculous movie tariff idea.

Meaning not dead yet, but dying and probably too many details to work through to actually end up following through and doubling the price to rent Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on Amazon Prime.

Some folks might be of the mind that it’s crude and vulgar to constantly allude to masturbation and male-on-male sexual intercourse to describe the public statements made in support of President Trump by the members of his party. When objecting in good faith of being sincerely offended they don’t actually deny that the impulse to do so is wrong, they simply wish that there was a gentler way of doing it. The ones that disagree for bad faith purposes – as in his fans – will try to ascribe it to a latent homosexuality on the part of his detractors who would engage in such vulgarities.

Yet in the real world it doesn’t need to be that complicated. When a grown man goes on national television says something like “This is what the Democrats – They lose their mind because of Trump Derangement Syndrome and why President Trump has been so effective. Alcatraz means something right? And so when you have a Law and Order president, you have two tracks here,” and then going on about how great of an idea this is when it’s not, it’s just fucking stupid and pointless, he just sounds like he wants to be facialed by Trump. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. End of story.

“President Trump wants to step up efforts to protect Republican control of the House in hopes of avoiding an impeachment debate and congressional investigations if Democrats seize the chamber, according to GOP sources. ‘It is super important to the White House, and really the whole White House is very focused on it,’ said a source familiar with strategy talks about protecting the majority.”

“President Donald Trump and GOP leaders are beginning to plot their midterm push to hang on to power amid a shaky political environment, courting candidates in critical battleground House and Senate races while leaning hard on an issue that could animate the MAGA faithful: impeachment”

That the previous two paragraphs say more or less the exact same thing is exactly why they were pasted in here: The first is the lede to a story The Hill printed on April 30th, 2018 while the second was from a CNN story seven years, 0 months, and five days later. That the GOP’s strategy is the same from the better part of a decade ago and not only did it not work but Trump was impeached twice the next Congress is not mentioned in the CNN article that quotes NRCC chair Richard Hudson as boasting that “President Trump’s gonna be crucial for us in keeping the House.”

“Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a historic opportunity for illegal aliens to receive both financial and travel assistance to facilitate travel back to their home country through the CBP Home App. Any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport will also receive a stipend of $1,000 dollars, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app. Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the US and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Even with the cost of the stipend, it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent. Currently the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121.”

“The first use of travel assistance has already proven successful. An illegal alien that the Biden Administration allowed into our country recently utilized the program to receive a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras. Additional tickets have already been booked for this week and the following week,” says the Department of Homeland Security in a Monday press release and Jesus Christ, lol at all the careful explaining about how it’s actually cheaper for taxpayers this way.

Also, at no point does the release mention how DHS would prevent Chicago-area Honduran-American US citizens from simply lying about their status to get a free flight to their ancestral homeland and $1,000 spending money before booking another flight home a week or two later.

Even if they were going to be diligent about that, this still is a pretty good summary of the situation of where the Trump Regime is at and how far they are from the horseshit they sold to their cult about US Marines going door-to-door and dragging families out of their homes to be thrown on buses bound for mass internment camps: Free flights and a $1,000 stipend. Congrats, Trump fans.

Staten Island Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis needed a lot of breath and a lot of words to express her alternative theory on why convicted felon President Trump was unable to answer clearly on the question of whether he knows he has a duty to uphold the constitution. She could just instead say that the question from Kristen Welker was a fake news “gotcha” question and then also attack CNN’s John Berman for asking her about it when there are so many more important matters out there, like ending Critical Race Theory and protecting gas stoves from the forces of woke.

“Access to Alcatraz Island is via commercial ferry service. For ticket reservation call (415) 981-ROCK [415.981.7625] or go to www.alcatrazcitycruises.com. Once on the island you can stay as long as you wish up to the last ferry, which changes seasonally. Alcatraz is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. Be aware that Alcatraz often sells out in advance. In summer and around holidays tickets can sell out a month or more in advance. Tickets go on sale 90 days in advance,” says the US National Park Service’s “Plan Your Visit” page on its website for Alcatraz, the notorious former maximum security prison in San Francisco Bay that held inmates until Attorney General Robert F Kennedy ordered it closed in 1963 and has since been converted into a museum.

The fact that the website is still functioning and the island itself appears to still be open for visitors as of Monday seems in tension with the directives of the presidential administration in which Robert F Kennedy Jr serves. For example, the BBC’s article headlined “Trump orders reopening of notorious Alcatraz prison,” characterizes the president’s Sunday Truth Social post expressing his intent to convert the island back to a federal prison as having had immediate effect. As such Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum should have at the very least already taken the website down and begun the paperwork necessary to transfer legal ownership of the island from the National Park Service back to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons to allow them to begin the preliminary assessments on what work is required to bring the facility back online after 62 years of disuse.

That evidently no such actions have yet occurred could indicate that the president was not actually serious or, more likely, that if he had been serious he’s instead getting distracted by something else and will within days forget that he had ever expressed any such intent to reopen Alcatraz.