Dear Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, when struggling seniors call to complain about a Social Security check that didn't arrive, it doesn't mean they're criminals.

It means they're hungry

Four months later, the same problem persists. Lutnick announced that the president was preparing to waive taxes on Americans earning under $150,000 per year, only to walk that back soon after. He urged a national television audience to buy stock in Tesla, sparking an ethics controversy the White House struggled to defend.

Common sense might’ve suggested that Lutnick would start avoiding microphones for a while, but instead, as USA Today reported, he made matters vastly worse.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested this week that only “fraudsters” would complain about missing a Social Security check — but honest people like his mother would simply live with the fact that the government didn’t mail their monthly payment.

During an appearance on a conservative podcast, the billionaire said, “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xjc7mkotpenvhh6ffewkdpyn/post/3lkvt5iiopk2j
https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1903149118551363850

.....It was against this backdrop that the Trump administration also announced plans to slash the Social Security Administration’s workforce, while simultaneously forcing more Social Security beneficiaries to make in-person appearances at local offices that will have fewer employees.

Martin O’Malley, who served as the Social Security commissioner in the Biden administration, appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Friday night and said Trump administration officials had already taken 90% of the actions necessary to “crater” the agency. The former Democratic governor added that Americans “should be outraged.

The Washington Post published a much-discussed report the day after Christmas that highlighted the perspectives of several low-income voters who supported the Trump ticket in the 2024 elections. The article specifically referenced a middle-aged Pennsylvania woman who struggles to make ends meet despite receiving food stamps and Social Security benefits, who explained why she voted for the Republican ticket.

“[Trump] is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich,” the woman told the Post. “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.”

I wonder what her reaction was to Lutnick’s comments.

Donald Trump's administration has been in the news for its recent executive orders targeting law firms, including Perkins Coie LLP and Paul Weiss, that represented certain individuals and even groups who Trump sees as his political opponents, but now Elon Musk has added a new firm to the enemies list.

Over the weekend, Trump-pardoned conservative provocateur Dinesh D'Souza lobbed some accusations against Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

"Skadden Arps is the firm engaged in systematic lawfare against '2000 Mules' They have a army of 17 attorneys working pro-bono against me. I have 2 lawyers," according to D'Souza. "The Left's game is to ruin us through protracted, costly litigation."

D'Souza tagged Trump in the post, but it was Musk who weighed in.

"Skadden, this needs to stop now," Musk wrote. Some reports online suggest that Skadden has represented Musk in the past.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Disaster struck the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Monday after Elon Musk and his team of teenage aides became trapped inside a self-locking Cybertruck.

The DOGE crew found themselves imprisoned in the vehicle after pulling into the parking lot of the Education Department, which they had come to dismantle.

A frantically screaming Musk received no help from passing Ed. Dept. employees, who said they had just been terminated and were no longer available.

Witnesses said that Musk’s desperate pounding on the interior of the Cybertruck failed to free him but did send several pieces of metal trim flying off its exterior.

Davis Logsdon, a constitutional scholar at the University of Minnesota, called Musk’s imprisonment inside the vehicle a “positive development for American democracy,” adding, “The Cybertruck is our guardrail.”

President Donald Trump's purge of U.S. government staff could soon pay dividends — for other countries.

According to Politico, a group of countries in the European Union have hatched a plan to poach ousted researchers from the United States.

"Twelve governments said the European Union needs an 'attractivity boom' to bring over talent from abroad 'who might suffer from research interference and ill-motivated and brutal funding cuts,'" Politico quoted from a letter sent to the commission.

The letter doesn't say the U.S. by name, however. The only reference is the sentence: "The current international context reminds us that freedom of science can be put at risk anywhere and at any time.".....

Those staffing cuts came from the National Institutes of Health, Center for Disease Control, National Weather Service and other U.S. agencies that once employed top scientists and experts.

Politico listed the countries interested in such a program as France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania.

"It is urgent ... to organize ourselves to welcome talents who would like or need to leave the United States," said French Research Minister Philippe Baptiste in a statement to the site.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth raised onlookers' eyebrows on Saturday with an attack on a judge who recently ruled against the Trump administration in a court case about banning transgender troops.

A right-wing news source recently reported that, "U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes orders Pentagon to allow transgender troops, calls Trump ban ‘unabashedly demeaning.'"

Hegseth responded to that report on social media, writing, "Since 'Judge' Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids.".....

Legal scholar Norman Ornstein replied to French: "Give him a break, David. He was drunk when he posted this!"

......Former public defender Rob Poggenklass said, "Judge Reyes graduated with honors from Harvard Law, clerked for a judge on the Second Circuit, was named the Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Women’s Bar of DC, and was confirmed by a Senate vote margin twice as big as Justice Kavanaugh."
https://x.com/rpogge/status/1903581676241932537

Donald Trump’s fascination with and rhetoric about airplanes became an unexpected staple of his first term, which came to mind anew as the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the new F-47 fighter jet during an Oval Office event. The New York Times reported:

President Trump announced that Boeing has won the contract for the next-generation fighter, which he said would be called the F-47 — a number clearly chosen to memorialize his presidency. He described it as a very stealthy fighter, though it has been highly controversial, in part because many experts believe that by the time it is fielded, manned fighters will be outdated and outmaneuvered by autonomous and semi-autonomous aircraft.

Not surprisingly, Trump had quite a bit to say about the new plane, telling reporters, for example, that the F-47 is “virtually unseeable.” He also made curious comments about international customers, saying that many U.S. allies were interested in buying the aircraft, and that the United States would likely sell them “toned down” versions “because someday, maybe they’re not our allies.”

The Republican similarly took a moment to claim that the plane’s price is still a secret.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lkvkcfifgk2o
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1903109244523778073

But of particular interest was the choice of designations. Trump is the 47th U.S. president (as well as the 45th president), which helped explain why he said during, “The generals picked a title, and it’s a beautiful number.”

NBC News confirmed soon after that the F-47 is in fact, named after Trump, the 47th president.

As a part of the recent 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Disney shareholders voted overwhelmingly against a proposal to stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

The 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which can be watched in full on The Walt Disney Company website, allowed shareholders to cast their votes on several new proposals. Some of the proposals were regular reoccurrences for the shareholder meeting, such as electing the directors for the company. During the 2025 meeting, all current directors sought reelection and were approved with a 96% proxy vote.

Following the named proposals, the meeting also included a section for Shareholder Proposals. One of the three Shareholder Proposals asked for a vote to cease participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index.

The Corporate Equality Index (CEI) is described as a “national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees” on the HRC official website. The website includes a search tool where individuals can search for the name of a company and see its ranking on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being a top inclusivity score.

The Walt Disney Company most recently scored a perfect 100 on the index in 2025, which included scores of 50/50 for Inclusive Benefits and 20/20 for Corporate Social Responsibility, among other metrics.