WTF-Beta

This is beyond the pale. It's easy to say but it's true.

I might take jon's recommendation as well, and thank you so much wtg and Andy.

@wtg said:

More ethically questionable activity:

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, a flurry totaling tens of millions of dollars and involving major companies that have dealings with his administration.

The transactions, spelled out in more than 100 pages of documents filed Thursday with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, list purchases and sales in broad ranges, making it hard to calculate an exact value. But the volume of trading — more than 40 per day over a three-month period — stands out as much as the potential dollar value.

“This is an insane amount of trades,” said Matthew Tuttle, chief executive officer of Tuttle Capital Management, in an interview, adding that it looks more like something done by “a hedge fund with massive algo trades” that buys and shorts securities than a personal account.

In the first quarter, the president bought at least $1 million each in companies including Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, Boeing and Costco Wholesale, according to the documents. Other trades involved eBay, Abbott Laboratories, Uber Technologies, AT&T and discount store Dollar Tree.

The disclosure reignites conflict-of-interest concerns that have shadowed Trump’s terms in the White House. Critics have regularly accused him of mixing his official duties with his business interests. Unlike his predecessors, Trump didn’t divest or move his assets into a blind trust with an independent overseer. His sprawling business empire is managed by two of his sons and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy.

At the same time, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner helps manage billions in investments for Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates while simultaneously serving as a “volunteer” envoy for the president on issues affecting the war in Iran and the Middle East in general.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/05/18/markets/trump-3700-trades-wall-street/

Jared Kushner, aka Satan's representative on earth.

@wtg said:

It just keeps getting better.

The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded the just-announced settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns to include a pledge that the IRS will no longer pursue any claims it may have against Trump, his family members and his companies over unpaid taxes.

The nine-page settlement agreement DOJ released Monday, setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged weaponization of law enforcement, did not mention any resolution of disputes over Trump’s tax returns, which he has repeatedly claimed were under protracted audits by the IRS.

However, a one-page document posted on the DOJ website early Tuesday includes a sweeping release under which the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses.

The waiver specifically encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was Monday.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed the addendum, dated Tuesday. It does not bear the signature of any representative of the IRS or any current Trump lawyers. Metadata attached to the document indicates it was prepared or scanned at 7:50 a.m.
Tuesday.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/19/trump-irs-settlement-tax-returns-00927911

Wow.

We can't have people not be divided or the people might start thinking about things that matter.

This reminds me of a line from a Mississippi Delta Blues song (a lot of the lines recur in different songs as well as, clearly, other musicological elements).

My personal favorite rendition of this line is by Skip James from his Today! album.

"You can't find no heaven I know; I don't care where you go."

His bending of the note at-- "...know..." is nothing short of original and exquisite.

:40- :56

In the context of weather, Mother Nature is everywhere, and relentless.

Our hurricane season starts June 1, and there's already been tornadoes in the state.

I'm trying to be philosophical about it. There's nothing you can do about it. You certainly can't ever escape it, even in the most beautiful places.

Put them together, of course, and that's hysterical!

I used to say, "No," bluntly, often (hard to image me being blunt, I know ; ).

@CHAS said:

This cat probably has an Amazon account and its own credit card.

I want a cat! I just have to find the right one.

They don't call it a swamp for nothing.

@andyd I'll take a good decade over a good one and a bad one. My medical power of attorney is complicated AF. I'm going to make sure it's know that I want DNR and no life support. I've had an interesting life. I have no plans to spend years suffering if there's no real point.

As far loss, lifelong friends, since I was 3, since I was in high school, since I was in college, have become estranged over the decades. There's one I'd like to find but haven't had any luck in years.

I have no family except a brother who is a narcissist from hell and has decided for the second time that we will be estranged since there's nothing I have that he can get from me.

I have a cousin who doesn't understand me. I'll put that diplomatically.

I have an aunt in her '80's whom I think the world of, and she's invited me to Seattle, but in will be a year or more before I'll be moved, settled, healed, and in a new rhythm managing my new responsibilities.

The grim reaper cut down almost my entire family without giving me much of a break. Such is life.

Well, we all know what our greatest poet said-- 'Better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all.'

Strangely, I want to be on my own. It's a new adventure.

this is to be believed.

This approach is the only solution, imo.

Housing first is the consensus of homelessness experts in the US (where the federal, state, and county governments are hopelessly corrupt in how they pay vast amounts of money to themselves and like minded people; Trump flipped this logic upside down, and made homelessness a criminal offense, at a time when more and more people in every age group, in every state, are becoming homeless for economic reasons.

Well, it looks like 90° F every day.

We had some rain yesterday, we're supposed to have some today, and again tomorrow.

This is good news because the State's draught is exceptionally bad.

The irony reeks.

I saw that @big_al! I'm not a fan of blue green and it's too bad because unheated blue green sapphires are a bargain. I trust this is a rare color for diamonds, but what a vault I could put together of jewels, gemstones, and watches if I had $17 million! Thanks for thinking of me.

What a nice view.

A black snake came in my backdoor. I found him in my bathroom. He attacked the plastic clothes hanger I used to get him out. Of course, there's no way I'm going to let a snake live in my home, but I trap and put every animal outside for their own good. Mosquitoes are an exception because you can't control them. The best you can hope for is to kill them or barring that that they bite, get it over with, and leave you alone. I wouldn't have mosquitoes if it wasn't a choice between leaving doors open and roasting to death.

Should the executive be suing the IRS in the first place?

I finally thought of something good to say about Trump.

He sets the high bar for grifting in the US.

Yes.