Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

This blog will pay for itself.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Not all heroes wear capes.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

This fight is for everything.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / This Piece of Shit

This Piece of Shit

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I loathe Elon Musk:

Now, Musk’s Washington adventure is coming to an end, with the disillusioned billionaire announcing that he’s leaving government behind. “It sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least,” he told The Washington Post.

There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred the United States Agency for International Development. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.

Guy has a net worth of over 400 billion, enough to buy all 8 billion people on the planet a five dollar happy meal.

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Matt McIrvin

    10 of them, even!

    The image that’s going to stick with me is that in one of his whiny interviews about how unfair it was that everyone hated him, he said something like “you can always put it back! If it turns out we really need one of these cut programs, just put it back.”

    Which really shows how ignorant and callous this guy is. He was treating our mechanisms for keeping people alive like he treated the Twitter codebase. Just rip shit out left and right and if everything breaks, just put something back. No harm done, right?

  2. 2.

    gratuitous

    “It sure is an uphill battle.” So annoying when the victims fight back by holding you to the law. Musk wants to go back to a place where his word is law and no uppity underlings dare question his deathless wisdom.

  3. 3.

    Old Man Shadow

    Yes, the bullshit narrative the media will shamelessly pump is going to be “It’s so hard to reform ‘The Swamp'” and not the truth of “billionaire illegally and unconstitutionally destroys our government by the people, crippling America, starving millions, and condemning many more to disease, famine, and misery.”

    You would think it might be embarrassing to give him sloppy blowjobs in public, but the media will do it anyway.

  4. 4.

    Professor Bigfoot

    We could expect something other than outright fuckery from an Apartheid era soutpiel?

    “Eet ees to laugh.”

  5. 5.

    Old Man Shadow

    @gratuitous: He’d probably like to be a 19th century robber baron and hire the cops and the Pinkertons to gun down his opposition.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    Ebola for Elon.  I hope his wealth and companies flame out faster than a Starship.

    And he should not be getting ANY contracts for Starlink.

    I think we will ultimately regain control of the government—after how much damage? — and legislating against corruption and for reforming and expanding the Supreme Court has to be fast tracked.

    I wonder if Trump’s blatant criminality and disregard for the sacred US Constitution might make it easier to rid ourselves of the Electoral College?  You have not seen such a POTUS of and for the White People in over 100 years.  Slavery’s long distorting hand has to be disassembled.  (As fast as an Elon spacecraft, please, although it will take effort and patience.)

  8. 8.

    hells littlest angel

    He’s so much like Trump. For instance, when he dies it will be the first decent thing he’s ever done.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    My son’s master’s thesis a while back at a very well-known school of international relations had to do with “soft power” – precisely what USAID specialized in. The average right-wing ignoramus really has no clue how much bang for the buck this country used to get from that. But, like the Dead sing, “he’s gone, and nothing’s gonna bring him back.” This is a multi-generational fuckup.

  10. 10.

    CHETAN MURTHY

    The bastard cut pepfar. He cut pepfar.  As bad as w was, w created pepfar, and this bastard cut it.

  11. 11.

    trollhattan

    IDK if Harvard should feel proud of getting all Trump’s wrath but it does comprise a kind of accomplishment. Now as a citizen of the United States I get to ask what the actual fuck are you doing using my government’s resources to try and fix some unknowable source of butthurt, you tiny, tiny man.

    “The White House convened officials from nearly a dozen agencies on Wednesday to brainstorm additional punitive measures… The administration official said that forthcoming actions are expected from the State, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice departments, among others, and could happen as early as next month.”

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    I will say this much… i am grateful to Elon…

     

    For allegedly bringing humiliation and pain to Stephen Miller (bowww-chicka-bowww-bowww.)

  13. 13.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Gin & Tonic: Add in turning away international students; making even tourists afraid to come here; using diplomatic missions to promote white nationalism rather than human rights- this country will not recover its already spotty reputation even in two generations. So much permanent damage in only 4 months.

  14. 14.

    Splitting Image

    Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.

    I’m sure that all of the “Genocide Joe” creeps will get right on that. Soonish.

  15. 15.

    CHETAN MURTHY

    @Gin & Tonic: a number of years ago general Mark Milley said that if we cut these programs, we would have to buy him a f*** ton more bullets. The man knew what he was talking about.  He understood the value of soft power.

  16. 16.

    The Red Pen

    In an interview recently Musk literally said, “I haven’t killed anyone.”

    Yes you have, Elon. Yes you have.

  17. 17.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    There are few people I have wished to be beaten to death by a mob, and Elon Musk is one of them.  between his poor little rich boi attitude, him taking delight in abusing the people forced to work for him,  cheating at computers games, and his constant nerd posing he really is just loathsomely.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    This piece of shit is a drug addict.

    Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.

  19. 19.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Matt McIrvin:

    If it turns out we really need one of these cut programs, just put it back.”

    Sure, Elon. Just like they were able to return your penis to its former glory after the botched implant surgery.

    300,000 children dead, and for what?

    Fuck every single Trump voter. Here’s hoping they get to thoroughly experience what they voted for, up close and very personal.

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    @Suzanne: ​
    Thing about being a self-absorbed rich bastard you can afford to surround yourself with yes men and sycophants, eliminating anybody who might question your decisions or behaviors.

    May those tendencies reward him with a premature fate. The three dozen children can death-battle over the tablescraps.

  22. 22.

    Scout211

    So do we have confirmation that the Elon drug story was leaked by Katie Miller’s husband?

    Just asking questions. . .

  23. 23.

    AWOL

    @Chief Oshkosh: Nah. Fuck the 90M who wouldn’t vote for a woman of color. To have no convictions or live in a state of delusion is worse. You can also fuck all Trump voters in the rectum with a gold-plated model of Elon Musk’s first, but they’d get off on that.

  24. 24.

    JoyceH

    So many clueless MAGA seem to think that “if we don’t feed them, someone else will.”  And often that’s true. We stop feeding them and then warlords start feeding them. Save  their lives and then give them guns. Instant army.

  26. 26.

    Old Man Shadow

    @Elizabelle: I’m sorry.

    It is easy for me to fall into cynicism because it seems like the wicked are prospering and justice is absent.

    But I will try harder to balance my words and illustrate hope too.

  27. 27.

    Old Man Shadow

    And I suppose in this case, we grieve the losses. We grieve what was. We grieve the state of things. But death is not always the end of the story.

    Death is a part of the cycle. The tyrant will die or be overthrown. The fields, burned to ash, will be ploughed. A new village will be built where the old one was. The exiles will return. Rebirth can and will happen.

    We won’t be able to save those who passed, but we can rebuild however long and slowly it takes and save future children, rescue the perishing, lift up the poor.

    We can rise out of the ashes and renewal and hope can be reborn.

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    NBC has a close-up of Elon from the press conference that looks like he has a black eye. Hmmmm.  It’s irresponsible not to speculate, right? Who would be mad enough at Elon to punch him in the eye?

     

    ETA: Never mind. He’s going with the story that it was X.

    Musk said the mark on his face is a black eye from his 5-year-old son punching him in the face. Asked by a reporter about the mark, Musk said he was playing around with his young son and challenged him.

    “I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face.’ And he did,” Musk told reporters.

    Trump chimed in, “X could do it!”

    “I didn’t really feel much at the time,” Musk said. “But I guess it bruises up.”

  29. 29.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I want worse. I want him to survive that mob, and wake up as I woke up last month, unable to move, unable to speak, with a tube down my throat and my arms tied to my bed, in a world of confusion and pain.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211:

    I guess it was overdetermined Elmo would name one of the spawn, X. Sorry for myself on learning that tidbit.

  32. 32.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: Well THAT sounds perfectly terrifying in the most literal sense of the word.

    I’m glad you’re here with us now, mate, that you survived and are carrying on.

  33. 33.

    Lyrebird

    @trollhattan:Now as a citizen of the United States I get to ask what the actual fuck are you doing using my government’s resources to try and fix some unknowable source of butthurt, you tiny, tiny man.

    You are not wrong!

    I am entertaining delusions that maybe there are a few people in the White House with a shred of a conscience or concern about the country.  I am sure there are some at DoJ still.  I have this foolish hope that some of them are the ones saying, “yessssss masterrrr, go after Harrrrrvarrrd… yesss!  it will be glorious, big league, you will show them…” given that I’m hard pressed to think of another university in this country that is better positioned to fight back.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    They are predators, at every level and in every agency.

    I tried to comment in the WaPost on a story about RFK Jr that “his cousin Caroline Kennedy warned us that he is a predator.”

    And. WaPost software would not allow the comment.  We cannot be shrill.  Especially when saying something that Caroline herself went on record with, and was possibly reported at the time.

    The midterms cannot come soon enough, but it is a real problem to have to give a criminal two full years without correction (especially since the Republicans are supine before Trump.  Probably 98% of them.)

  38. 38.

    Gary K

    400 billion, enough to buy all 8 billion people on the planet a five dollar happy meal

    …for ten straight days.

  40. 40.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Lyrebird: I love the way they keep confessing their illegal and unconstitutional motives in a way that judges can’t miss (and that end up being cited in their decisions).

  45. 45.

    prostratedragon

    @Suzanne:

    Sherrilyn Ifill on this point and the USAID atrocity:

    This is who put USAID “in a wood chipper,” slashed jobs across the govt to leave our health services, our national parks, our education system, Social Security & Medicaid in shambles.

    Oh, and he and his minions have all your private data.

    They let this man ravage our govt & make decisions that resulted in suffering worldwide, & loss of jobs, livelihood & security at home.

    The irresponsibility & negligence ….. DO NOT LET SPEAKER JOHNSON NEAR A MIC OR CAMERA W/O DEMANDING HE ACCOUNT FOR THIS.
    Gift link
    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/us/elon-musk-drugs-children-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LE8.IEwE.41P22hn-hJ_k&smid=bs-share

    archive.ph link to nyt

  47. 47.

    Suzanne

    @prostratedragon: FFOTUS let this man — who is under the influence of drugs so strong that he’d be guilty of DUI if he were behind the wheel — at our personal data, our government agencies, at people’s lives.

    Jesus wept.

  48. 48.

    Marc

    @Steve LaBonne: using diplomatic missions to promote white nationalism rather than human rights- this country will not recover its already spotty reputation even in two generations. So much permanent damage in only 4 months.

    As opposed to using human rights as a stick to promote capitalism or some other agenda. I’m sorry, there are reasons our reputation has been spotty.  Maybe we should start by accepting that.

  49. 49.

    Boris Rasputin (The Evil Twin)

    The only way this “government” makes sense is it really started as a Kremlin drinking game. “Hey, let’s come up with a list of the most moronic, incompetent people we can imagine running things in America!’ Then Putin got the list, added Elon the Unspeakable to it, and sent it to Trump.

    Has anyone else had this thought?  If so, please seek help.

  50. 50.

    JoyceH

    @Suzanne: And what drugs is Trump on? Inquiring minds want to know. He just fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery. Because he’s got nothing better to do, everything else in the nation is going so well.

  52. 52.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Marc: I said it was spotty and for good reason. That doesn’t mean it’s not getting a LOT worse.

  54. 54.

    Marc

    @Steve LaBonne: I was emphasizing that point.  Our foreign policy has always been somewhat transactional, now that’s in plain sight.  China has also been diligent about picking up the soft power we’ve shed along the way. I suspect when the dust settles, they’ll be the ones seen as feeding the world’s poor, and we’ll be a second rate former world power.

  55. 55.

    JoyceH

    Just saw a clip of Steven Miller on Nicole Wallace – Holy shit, what’s HE on?

  57. 57.

    oldgold

    Was even one legitimate member of the press called on to ask a question? The questions were softballs wrapped in candy kisses – cringe worthy.

  58. 58.

    prostratedragon

    Josh Marshall 🧵:

    The flood of encomiums and morality tales about Elon’s turn in Washington cldn’t be more predictable, vapid & sickening. If you want a story, get me the story about the crisis comms team directing this. He ran anti-constitutional blitzkrieg thru the federal government, did massive harm, violated …

     

     

    @JoyceH:  Paving the way for the all-important task of removing the Obama’s portraits, no doubt.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    Tax the rich, and deport this South African apartheid-loving Nazi sack of shit!

  61. 61.

    patrick II

    That quote reminds me of Trump in his first term “Nobody knew that Healthcare could be so complicated”.
    Healthcare​​

  63. 63.

    different-church-lady

    Four billion dollars cannot sate kleptocrat as long as anyone else has even one.

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