Prickly City by Scott Stantis for February 18, 2025

A repeat of yesterday’s quiz for magats—

How many magats knew that one of their heroes, Steve Bannon, ple guilty to embezzling money from We Build the Wall?

.

I assume it was NOT covered on Fox or any of the right wing media structure. I mean, why would it be?

Another example of the contempt Bannon and other Republican elites have for the Trump base is incredible.

And the magats don’t even know they are being played for suckers. Again.

Pathetic.

“Give me your ice cream”?This calls for the Dick Cheney dig from 2004:“Go f*** yourself!”

(A special place in my memory from the Robot Chicken where Cheney took Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor and went cackling nuts while repeating that line)

Makes me wonder if Mr. President will be having his minions Goosestepping any time soon…

Have tariffs or the threat of them got us $2 a gallon gas yet?

According to this analysis from The Economist don’t hold your breath…

… the two most important characters in the oil story are supply and demand, over which presidents wield little direct influence. And this time Mr Trump’s other big ideas may have indirect effects that hurt rather than help the American supermajors in the long run.

Big oil is not about to go a-drilling. With crude prices already soft, companies have no incentive to weaken them further by flooding the market. For them, cheaper oil means lower profits.

Of the executives at large American producers surveyed last month by the Dallas Federal Reserve, half said that their firms would cut capital spending this year and 14% expected it to remain unchanged from 2024. None forecast a significant increase. Chevron plans to spend a bit less globally than last year, and half as much as it averaged between 2013 and 2016. ExxonMobil will spend a bit more, but only because it is digesting a $60bn takeover in 2024 of Pioneer Natural Resources, a shale-fracking specialist.

This capital discipline has endeared the two firms to investors. They will not forsake it just because Mr Trump has declared open season for prospecting on federal land. Between 2017 and 2020 his government tried to auction off 25m acres, nearly twice as much as in the four previous years and 17 times the figure in the first three years of the Biden administration (those for which data are available). Oil firms bid on less than a quarter of the acreage on offer. Most will be no less discerning this time.

Three top google searches in Washington DC since Trump took office.

1. How to hide money

2. How to erase data

3. Lawyers

Yep. That’s how it works for the Far Right these days. Moderate Rights reading this? I don’t lump you with these people and feel sorry for you guys being linked to this Emperor wannabe.

Casper

I scream, you scream, we all scream to Vote Republican 2028.

Concerning today’s Danziger, Sun, M.L. and robby hood, on a scale of 1-10, how much y’all like dat shade of orange on trumpster fire? Do y’all secretly try to mix up your own lil’ batches in your momma’s basements?:

Concerning yesterday’s Heller, hey’ right-wing populists, y’all gittin’ your shots? Dem diseases are pickin’ y’all off, right and right:

Concerning yesterday’s McFadden, right-wing populists, how do you like dem eggs?:

Concerning today’s Molina, right-wing populists, with whom are you more attracted, trumpster fire or musky?:

The fact that Trumpites actually believe that inflation will go down if we impose tariffs and get rid of all the agricultural workers and construction day laborers is insane.

The 2/17/25 Bruce Plante at politicalcartoon dot com/cartoon/ perfectly describes the right-wing populists who post here.

Too much obeying in advance.

Elon would have licked it gone while Winslow held it claiming Winslow was efficent enough to eat it before it melted.

You only have to watch the musk-trump presser to know who is in charge. Musk, standing and in control of the room. First felon sitting and gloomy. Musk’s four year old was more in charge than tRump.

Just wait. friends. Yesterday Musk/Trump fired 25% of the scientists in Agriculture that study bird flu. Nothing like getting a head start on the next pandemic, is there?

Well, maybe the ice cream was needed to save the country.

I miss the America I knew

Ukrainians know their fate if putin gets his way. Death. They are not going to stop fighting. Ever. The first felon is not going to change that. Their war will end when somebody manages to poison putin.

Yes it was covered on Fox. Yes their coruot Republicans as their are corrupt Democrats. Their are plenty of a sucker’s on both sides of the aisle.

Is gas under $2/gal yet like Trump promised he would do before the election? This question has nothing to do with Biden and only with the actual words that Trump said when Trump made the promise. You know, the words that Trump said with his very own mouth when no one was forcing him to say those words? I’ve seen the video. News flash: Biden wasn’t holding a gun to Trumps head and forcing him to read from a script.

Or shouldn’t Trump be held to account for his very own words.

Trump is asking for Ukraine’s mineral wealth in return for helping them save their country from Putin.

During his first term tRump claimed NAFTA was the worst trade deal ever, so he made a trade deal. That trade deal is the one tRump says is unfair and wants to put tariffs on.

We all saw tRump in his first term negotiate the surrender of Iraq to the Taliban, leaving the Afghan Government out of the talks. He’s not changed. Ukraine peace talks have started and Ukraine is not in the negotiation. tRump has betrayed our allies. We have our very own ‘surrender monkey’.

Is there a ‘Haaa’ that’s out of sight or did someone just get shot down? We all know the J6’ers ‘bought’ their pardons by showing all the ‘Love’ on J6.