In a dance class when I was about 9 (c. 1970!), we cute pudgy li'l humans did a number to Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" (below is his orchestra, not the 1970 humans):
May I mention capybaras, the world's biggest rodent (some of whom are currently the subject of NIMBY-ish fight among some residents of an affluent Buenos Ares suburb)?
Dahlia Lithwick, in Slate (2/18): I Just Figured Out What Elon Musk’s DOGE Really Is: It’s a protection racket should have been obvious all along.
"Late last month, during a press conference by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Leavitt tried to explain which services might come back online and how. Instead, she inadvertently revealed that what’s really been going on with these budget cuts is the widespread institutionalization of the sort of organized-crime approach that Trump has brought to every aspect of his professional, political, and presidential life.
Leavitt tried to soothe these vital institutions and programs with the promise that anyone who was worried about their own parochial interests should just pick up a phone and call the incoming head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, to ask for special favors and exemptions. As Leavitt described it, she had been in contact with Vought that very morning, “and he told me to tell all of you that the line to his office is open for other federal government agencies across the board, and if they feel that programs are necessary and in line with the president’s agenda, then the Office of Management and Budget will review those policies.”"
Regarding Assmouth supporters maybe admitting that his actions are evil, the author said to ask them for one good thing which has happened. Unfortunately, since they live in a bubble filled with their fellow cultists’ beef farts, they will cry out, “DOGE has already saved a trillion dollars! I saw it on Xitter just yesterday! Sure maybe some people can’t go to the park, but that kind of savings is totally worth it! We’ll have a balanced budget in no time!!”
HuffPost: Vice President JD Vance accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “bad mouthing” Trump, and warned pointing out the president's errors was an “atrocious” way to deal with the U.S.
Trump has blown up America's relationship with Zelenskyy in recent days, indulging Russian propaganda by falsely suggesting Ukraine started the war in 2022. It led to Ukraine's president to suggest earlier Wednesday that Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.”
Trump, in turn, escalated tensions by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections.”
According to Vance, Zelenskyy has to watch his tone when talking about the thin-skinned president, who seems happy to dish out criticism but not take the mildest critique. Vance told the Daily Mail in an interview, “The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president's mind by bad mouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration.”
For years, the person whom I -- averse to killing even most bugs -- most wanted to beat to a bloody pulp was djt.
Recently, husk supplanted him.
But the king of smarmy lies, whose seething rage is always apparent beneath his ostensibly bland surface, will always be at the top of that list. I pity his children; in theory, they'll be able to afford the therapy that they already desperately need, tho I wouldn't rule out jdv's disinheriting them once they're 18 -- or kicking them out of the house during teenhood, should they displease him (under the guise of "tough love").
Fine, call them evil. I've been doing that myself for quite a while. Just because their acts are evil does not mean that they're purposeless.
They want to replace a nation of middle-class citizens with a vast sea of desperate and despairing poverty. They will never have the power they believe their vast wealth entitles them to if anyone can afford to tell them no. They will not be Lords until we are Serfs.
Haven't we screamed and cried that their long, long drive to turn the United States into a third world shithole makes no objective sense, if their goal is to make money? It doesn't, of course it doesn't, and of course they understand that. But they will happily give up some of their wealth to crush the rest of us, because they want power. And they fucking well know that there's no way to spend what they already have, anyway.
and how is a nation of impoverished people going to help any business? What is wrong with these people. I was thinking about this today, Musk doesn't need the money he just likes collecting it to see how high he can go.
Musk is a narcissist with delusions of godhood. He doesn't care much about more money, but he likes the power that money can buy. Unfortunately, he’s quite rational in that aspect. Once your wealth is counted in billions, power is the only thing left it can buy.
I wrote elsewhere that if a brown or Black man had fathered 13 kids with several different women, didn't stick around to raise most of them, routinely abused drugs, lied routinely (in order to stir up trouble / to cause chaos / to feel the dopamine zing of "Bc I can--fuck you"), hoarded to an unheard of degree (wealth, in this case), and was obsessed with a travel fantasy that can never came to pass -- with such a man, we'd say that he needs help, we'd maybe try to get some for him, maybe mock him, pity him, give him a wide berth.
We wouldn't lionize him, call him a genius, and let him have control over one of the largest and most powerful govts in the world, causing suffering and death in the process.
Wealth-hoarding is hoarding, period. Every billionaire is a sick fkkk, hoarding money by endorsing systems that let them do so (= deregulation; regressive tax code) As you noted, becoming a trill. has been primarily a game to elno, a challenge, an opp. to be the 1st to do something. However, now that he has seen how easy it was to buy an election, he's addicted to the power, and he's going to interfere in as many nations' elections as he can.
I sincerely hope that he experiences a fatal OD -- soon. I feel completely OK hoping for this outcome -- he has chosen to be a cancer on the world over doing even a *little* good for others.
Once upon a time I was in Syria when Bashar ‘destroyer of entire towns’ Assad was the dictator. Everything was named for him. There were banners with his face on them everywhere. Trump is emanating a whole lotta Deja vu for me.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has already spent $10.7 million of taxpayer money to play golf since retaking the White House last month, an expense that appears to have escaped the attention of his “Department of Government Efficiency” waste, fraud and abuse hunters. The golf-related expenses — which are likely to recur most weekends while Trump is in office — have somehow flown below the radar of Elon Musk and his “high-IQ” team, as Trump calls them, of programmers. A search of posts by DOGE on Musk’s social media website once known as Twitter found zero mentions of the word “golf.”
DOGE can't text me if they don't have my cell #, which I never give to anyone. If I'm traveling and might need it, then I forward the land line to the cell phone. Also the cell is almost always turned off when I'm at home. So good luck with that, DOGE.
But if you bought the phone, then your provider has a record of your cell no. and your name. I'm not trying to be a downer, and I apologize if this mssg is downer-ish; I'm underscoring that virtually everyone has left some kind of connectivity trail, no matter how hard we've tried not to.
(Ex.: I have a dumb phone, which I use only for emergencies -- but the provider has my name + address + dr. lic. no. And when I moved 5 yrs ago and didn't yet have a new landline, my utilities provider required a contact no., so I had to give them my cell no.)
I don't give this cell phone # to anyone. I activate it with a pre-paid card I pay cash for at Walmart. $10 lasts me 3-4 months. One reason why I won't use gmail is that they now require a cell phone number to verify your identity with a code, and fuck that shit. GoFundMe does the same thing.
All hail Tabs! It’s your hed gif info: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/twirling-twirling-towards-elephantinity
And meme chat:
https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/8f6afcc1-f2e8-46b3-8e7f-199b5a548354?utm_source=share
Dancey Heffalump babbeh is in fact God & wants ur treatz plzkthx. Hokay bye lozers lol! *dancey* *dancey* *dancey*
In a dance class when I was about 9 (c. 1970!), we cute pudgy li'l humans did a number to Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" (below is his orchestra, not the 1970 humans):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIMTMb4iJ1I
Squee. What a cutie!
Busy baby Pachyderms
Love to run and twist
They spin and turn
Like pudgy worms
A sight not to be missed
They do a sassy cha cha
And what I do suppose is
They love to run
And have their fun
And swing their massive noses
Good one!
Menoture's a poet and the world don't know it, can't tell a sheep from a goa-it.
Bravo, my friend! You definitely have a nose for prose.
Wait! ...What?
Hehe
Can't go wrong with baby elephants.
Just don't send them down to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River.
Babby gonna STAMPEDE YOU!!!
(hee hee, no Babby isn't)
Dear Martini, Queen Goddess of the Tabs!!
You always bring the Tabs we want and need. Thank you!!!!!!!!
Baby elephant is the most beautiful baby. (Don't tell my cat I said that)
Babby elephant!!! Spin, spin, spin!
OMG, look at them wee babby ears!
Can they be litter trained? Asking for a friend.
Who would want to scoop THAT litterbox?
Donald John Trump will not bring you adorable elephants gadding about. Martini Glambassador will.
I read a thing this past week about heffalumps. It said that heffalumps look at humans the way humans look at puppies.
With a side eye and a constant checking to make sure we didn't pee on the rug?
Aww!
Babby heffalump! Whee!
...and now "Baby Elephant Walk" is playing in my head, and probably yours, too, now and you're welcome.
.
.
...and if it's not, f*ck it, here ya go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yl0cjXDNO0
Damn you! Now I have to deal with that earworm.
As we continue this week in our theme of Pachydermata.
Tapirs are waiting in the wings! (But not really, because I didn’t know that term until I looked it up)
May I mention capybaras, the world's biggest rodent (some of whom are currently the subject of NIMBY-ish fight among some residents of an affluent Buenos Ares suburb)?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/16/buenos-aires-argentina-capybaras
And the seems-to-be-smiling quokka?
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=quokka&atb=v339-1&iax=images&ia=images
!!!
https://substack.com/@tehbaddr/note/c-39919481
Kirby is so full of joy as she twirls!
An elephant with the zoomies!
Stand back...
Just for funsies, here's what was thought an appropriate moral lesson about evil c. 1800.
Enjoy, kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl8InE-m6xU
Where can I find a list of all the special elections coming up?
I think I now have revived enough to donate to said campaigns without also winding up donating to some PAC too.
It is bad when I have to agree with Steve Bannon, and this is the second time in regard to the same subject. Sheesh.
This timeline is absolutely absurd.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forest-service-fires-3400-workers-park-service-cuts-1000-2025-02-14/
Can't wait to see next months unemployment numbers.
WAIT!! Who will rake the forests??
Dahlia Lithwick, in Slate (2/18): I Just Figured Out What Elon Musk’s DOGE Really Is: It’s a protection racket should have been obvious all along.
"Late last month, during a press conference by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Leavitt tried to explain which services might come back online and how. Instead, she inadvertently revealed that what’s really been going on with these budget cuts is the widespread institutionalization of the sort of organized-crime approach that Trump has brought to every aspect of his professional, political, and presidential life.
Leavitt tried to soothe these vital institutions and programs with the promise that anyone who was worried about their own parochial interests should just pick up a phone and call the incoming head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, to ask for special favors and exemptions. As Leavitt described it, she had been in contact with Vought that very morning, “and he told me to tell all of you that the line to his office is open for other federal government agencies across the board, and if they feel that programs are necessary and in line with the president’s agenda, then the Office of Management and Budget will review those policies.”"
"Nice federal Department you have there. 'd be a shame if something happened to it."
Death watch Day 2.
It is still alive. It’s odious, disgusting presence oozing into every part of our existence. We are still hoping for some natural fatal intervention.
Maybe by tomorrow.
Wish us luck.
Regarding Assmouth supporters maybe admitting that his actions are evil, the author said to ask them for one good thing which has happened. Unfortunately, since they live in a bubble filled with their fellow cultists’ beef farts, they will cry out, “DOGE has already saved a trillion dollars! I saw it on Xitter just yesterday! Sure maybe some people can’t go to the park, but that kind of savings is totally worth it! We’ll have a balanced budget in no time!!”
HuffPost: Vice President JD Vance accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “bad mouthing” Trump, and warned pointing out the president's errors was an “atrocious” way to deal with the U.S.
Trump has blown up America's relationship with Zelenskyy in recent days, indulging Russian propaganda by falsely suggesting Ukraine started the war in 2022. It led to Ukraine's president to suggest earlier Wednesday that Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.”
Trump, in turn, escalated tensions by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections.”
According to Vance, Zelenskyy has to watch his tone when talking about the thin-skinned president, who seems happy to dish out criticism but not take the mildest critique. Vance told the Daily Mail in an interview, “The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president's mind by bad mouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration.”
Like there's a non-atrocious way to deal with this administration.
Yep. President Zelenskyy is DONE with Trump.
For years, the person whom I -- averse to killing even most bugs -- most wanted to beat to a bloody pulp was djt.
Recently, husk supplanted him.
But the king of smarmy lies, whose seething rage is always apparent beneath his ostensibly bland surface, will always be at the top of that list. I pity his children; in theory, they'll be able to afford the therapy that they already desperately need, tho I wouldn't rule out jdv's disinheriting them once they're 18 -- or kicking them out of the house during teenhood, should they displease him (under the guise of "tough love").
Fine, call them evil. I've been doing that myself for quite a while. Just because their acts are evil does not mean that they're purposeless.
They want to replace a nation of middle-class citizens with a vast sea of desperate and despairing poverty. They will never have the power they believe their vast wealth entitles them to if anyone can afford to tell them no. They will not be Lords until we are Serfs.
Haven't we screamed and cried that their long, long drive to turn the United States into a third world shithole makes no objective sense, if their goal is to make money? It doesn't, of course it doesn't, and of course they understand that. But they will happily give up some of their wealth to crush the rest of us, because they want power. And they fucking well know that there's no way to spend what they already have, anyway.
and how is a nation of impoverished people going to help any business? What is wrong with these people. I was thinking about this today, Musk doesn't need the money he just likes collecting it to see how high he can go.
Musk is a narcissist with delusions of godhood. He doesn't care much about more money, but he likes the power that money can buy. Unfortunately, he’s quite rational in that aspect. Once your wealth is counted in billions, power is the only thing left it can buy.
I wrote elsewhere that if a brown or Black man had fathered 13 kids with several different women, didn't stick around to raise most of them, routinely abused drugs, lied routinely (in order to stir up trouble / to cause chaos / to feel the dopamine zing of "Bc I can--fuck you"), hoarded to an unheard of degree (wealth, in this case), and was obsessed with a travel fantasy that can never came to pass -- with such a man, we'd say that he needs help, we'd maybe try to get some for him, maybe mock him, pity him, give him a wide berth.
We wouldn't lionize him, call him a genius, and let him have control over one of the largest and most powerful govts in the world, causing suffering and death in the process.
Wealth-hoarding is hoarding, period. Every billionaire is a sick fkkk, hoarding money by endorsing systems that let them do so (= deregulation; regressive tax code) As you noted, becoming a trill. has been primarily a game to elno, a challenge, an opp. to be the 1st to do something. However, now that he has seen how easy it was to buy an election, he's addicted to the power, and he's going to interfere in as many nations' elections as he can.
I sincerely hope that he experiences a fatal OD -- soon. I feel completely OK hoping for this outcome -- he has chosen to be a cancer on the world over doing even a *little* good for others.
"DOGE wants access to the thing that allows the government to text everybody at the same time."
Oh great, Now we're going to have the American equivalent of North Korean radio (one channel, no volume knob).
just shut your phone off
The other nifty thing about North Korean home radios is that they have no on/off switch. Really!
Has anyone heard about Orange creating a position called Pardon Czar? Apologies for link to Gateway Pundit.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/report-trump-advisers-consider-alice-marie-johnson-whose/
Once upon a time I was in Syria when Bashar ‘destroyer of entire towns’ Assad was the dictator. Everything was named for him. There were banners with his face on them everywhere. Trump is emanating a whole lotta Deja vu for me.
And where is Assad now?
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has already spent $10.7 million of taxpayer money to play golf since retaking the White House last month, an expense that appears to have escaped the attention of his “Department of Government Efficiency” waste, fraud and abuse hunters. The golf-related expenses — which are likely to recur most weekends while Trump is in office — have somehow flown below the radar of Elon Musk and his “high-IQ” team, as Trump calls them, of programmers. A search of posts by DOGE on Musk’s social media website once known as Twitter found zero mentions of the word “golf.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-golf-doge_n_67b50fbfe4b0319f377e6c6a
I'm sure they will consider it a way for our dear leader to unwind after a long day/week/month of destroying the US.
Well, there was that thing about the paper straws that he did without Musk's help. Exhausting, like you wouldn't believe.
DOGE can't text me if they don't have my cell #, which I never give to anyone. If I'm traveling and might need it, then I forward the land line to the cell phone. Also the cell is almost always turned off when I'm at home. So good luck with that, DOGE.
But if you bought the phone, then your provider has a record of your cell no. and your name. I'm not trying to be a downer, and I apologize if this mssg is downer-ish; I'm underscoring that virtually everyone has left some kind of connectivity trail, no matter how hard we've tried not to.
(Ex.: I have a dumb phone, which I use only for emergencies -- but the provider has my name + address + dr. lic. no. And when I moved 5 yrs ago and didn't yet have a new landline, my utilities provider required a contact no., so I had to give them my cell no.)
I don't give this cell phone # to anyone. I activate it with a pre-paid card I pay cash for at Walmart. $10 lasts me 3-4 months. One reason why I won't use gmail is that they now require a cell phone number to verify your identity with a code, and fuck that shit. GoFundMe does the same thing.
trump knob would probably be the state's trash mound